Shameless Plug #1

Posted on May 5, 2007 by Varg

romy kaye

I know tonight is one of the most robust music nights of the year but, if anyone happens to find themselves in the 300 block of Decatur tonight around 9 o’clock, duck into Club 300 and be dazzled by a group of Tulane medical students performing as Dr. Funk and featuring Romy Kaye, the fiance of yours truly, performing several songs.

Varg will be there with his tab open so mention you saw this post and I’ll, uh, buy you an Abita.

While we are on the subject of Romy, she just finished a little video for the city with her accompanist Craig Cortello of the Metairie Cortellos. It’s a classic jazz vocalist number and can be seen here.

here’s some other info on her and her various ventures…

www.romykaye.com
www.myspace.com/romykayemusic
http://www.myspace.com/ldventerprises

7 thoughts on “Shameless Plug #1”

TM says:

May 5, 2007 at 11:18 am

OMG, I love it!! It’s now in my favorites. Hugs to Romy.
Marco says:

May 6, 2007 at 7:15 am

Romy’s got a gutsy voice.
liprap says:

May 6, 2007 at 4:34 pm

Mazel tov to ya both!
BizMusician says:

May 6, 2007 at 9:27 pm

Thanks for the plug, LV. Getting good feedback on the video.

Craig (Nephew of Don Cortello, of the Metairie Cortellos)
jeffrey says:

May 7, 2007 at 8:36 am

I’m so sorry. I fully intended to be there. Was at a 5th of May party at a friend’s place in the Quarter all day. Could have walked right over… had I still been able to walk.
RoRo says:

May 8, 2007 at 8:34 am

Thanks for the plug baby…
I loves ya!
XXOO,
Ro
Maitri says:

May 9, 2007 at 9:29 pm

Had your feed worked in my feedreader before May 5th, I would have made every attempt to attend Romy’s show. However, I was also at the Ween concert that night and it would have been a huge toss-up.

Romy, your voice rocks, girl. Let me know about future shows and I will be there!

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.