It’s pedicure season! Not that I don’t keep my toes looking pretty all year long, but summer time leaves no time for slacking…at all! I just got done taking care of my toes at the nail shop and it made me wish I didn’t have two left hands when it came to painting them myself!

Summer time also means I have start doing my outdoor exercise activities earlier in the morning (ugh). That means hiking and climbing the sand dunes must be done eaaaaaarrrrrrrly. And by early I mean at 8 or 9am. Hey that’s early for artists ok! Don’t judge
We just recorded most of the background vocals for the new song. Super juiced about it. I think u guys are going to flip when u hear it! Can’t wait to share! Working on lyrics and melody for another new song. The concept is really dope. Just gotta put it all together. Taking my time. The right inspiration will come.

I still need to post a few more pics from the sessions with Andre. Will do soon.

Have a great weekend and remember don’t walk around in sandals if your toe game is not on point! Go get that pedi! (you too fellas! lol)

Cheers,
Felice

For the past few months, I’ve been giving my voice a lot of vocal rest (doc’s orders and fortunately now my vocal chords are back in business! ), but in the meantime, I’ve been writing up a storm. Demo’d out a few of the songs last night. Very excited about how they are coming out. I still have a lot of work ahead, but I’m more motivated than ever. This week, me and the LaZae band are going to be writing with Andre “Dirty” Theriot from Native Tongues, an amazing guitar player who’s flying out from Atlanta. We start tonight…can’t wait!

Me watching Paul McCartney perform at Coachella. What an amazing experience!

I was really inspired a couple of weeks ago after seeing a bunch of great bands perform at Coachella! Paul McCartney was the best performance by far! Incredible. That’s definitely the closest I’ll ever get to experiencing the Beatles first-hand. M.I.A was also a great show as well as The Killers, Leonard Cohen, Joss Stone and DJ AM w/Travis Barker. Plus, I discovered a whole bunch of new artists as well. Another non-musical highlight of the show was the food! I was impressed by all of the healthy choices. Anybody who knows me, knows how much of a health nut I am lol. Worst part of the show - the heat! Man I thought I could deal with any heat after living in Vegas, but this was ridiculous, especially since we had to stand out in it all day! But the discomfort was worth the whole weekend. Looking forward to going (and perhaps eventually performing ) next year and years to come.

Me & my Puerto Rican friends and fam!

Also this month I had a great day of food and culture with my friends and fam. It all started one day when I woke up and realized that I have a good size Puerto Rican circle of friends and fam all living in the LA vicinity sooooo I knew there was only one thing to do - throw a Boricua party! We indulged our taste buds with PR food and drink like there was no tomorrow! ¡Muy sabroso! And then salsa danced the night away. My non-PR friends came and pretended to be Boricua for a day too (shout outs to my girl Jackie who changed her name to Rosa in honor of PR day lol).

That’s all for now folks. I’ll post some pics from the studio later this week.

xoxo,

f

**To see pictures from my trip click here.

Going to the inauguration of the first African American president meant a lot to me and my family.  Being of mixed ethnic decent, this is the first time I have been able to identify with a United States president.  For my father, being an African American man who was born in the segregated south, this was a day he hardly imagined would happen in his lifetime.  Aside from race, I am also deeply inspired by our new president’s message of hope for our nation.  For the first time I am excited about politics in a way I have never felt before.  I am so thankful to have been a part of this glorious day in history.  The feeling of unity and camaraderie amongst those who attended was amazing.  I have never felt so close to my fellow American. 

January 19, 2009 –

Me and my dad got through lines that wrapped around the building to pick up our purple tickets.  I quickly twittered how I felt about the whole experience saying “feeling like Willy Wonka with my golden ticket to the inauguration (except it’s purple lol)!!!!” and The Huffington Post later quoted me.  Click here to check it out.

January 20, 2009 –

Fortunately, I was born to a family of stealth ninjas because that is the only way I can explain how we made it into the purple section of the inauguration.  We waited in line for 4 hours in what was more like human corral areas than lines.  The large mass of humanity waiting to get in was incredible!!!  I must say that I have never been so physically close to strangers in my life.  The beautiful thing about the whole situation was that even though people were frustrated about waiting for so long, everyone was generally in good spirits.  People were just so happy and hopeful!

Luckily, my dad was paying close attention at all times to where we needed to be to get in.  As soon as he got word that we were in the wrong section, he had us hurry to get to the right place.  If we had hesitated to move, we probably would not have made it in.  In the end, we found our way to the purple gate before they stopped letting purple ticket holders in. It definitely was NOT an easy feat to achieve, but we persevered. The main problem was that the actual location where they let us in, was not clearly marked. They also didn’t let us know that they intentionally weren’t letting purple ticket holders in early because they didn’t want us loitering so close around the vicinity of where President Obama was going to be located during the inauguration for security reasons (as I found out from my uncle who was texting me news updates as we stood in line).

Overall, I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world, even the hardships of getting in. It is a story I will be telling my children and grandchildren one day who will be born into a world where having a person of color as president is truly possible.  So all of the confusion and struggle to get in was worth it. We witnessed history.

I just downloaded a blogging app for my iPhone! Super juiced about it. I’m hoping this will cure my horrible habit of not blogging on a regular basis. Oh yeah and happy new year everyone!! I’m so excited about this year. I’m always excited about the new year, but this year looks like there will be a bunch of amazing things happening. For one, we have a new, particularly monumental president! (I am honored and blessed enough to be going to the inauguration. There will be a seperate blog for that trip!) I’m also very excited about my solo project. We’re doing another show on February 6th. (9pm at El Cid in LA…please come out!). This will be our first show playing with not only me and Jon Ilaw on guitar, but now also Bucket Baker on percussion and Siggy Sjursen on bass! We rehearsed for the first time all together tonight and it was ridiculous…these guys are amazing! I’m so happy to be working with such great musicians.

Well that’s all for tonight folks. My next blog will be straight from DC as history goes down!
xoxo,
Felice

How on earth did I let the whole summer and almost fall roll by without blogging!?!  That’s nuts.  I had a bunch of changes going on.  A move to a new apartment that took up much of August until the beginning of September.  It’s so hard to find a place in LA!  But I finally found a quaint little apartment and I’m all settled in now.  I had my birthday in September (woooohooooo!!) which doubled as a housewarming. 

Let’s see….my songwriting slowed down a bit on account of all the changes and moving around, but I have been keeping up with writing in general (i.e. poetry, thoughts, fiction, whatever) on a regular basis.  Gotta keep exercising the muscle!  Just started getting back into the swing of things so new songs are a-comin’.  The past several months I’ve been really focusing on recording and rehearsing.  My guitar player, Jon Ilaw (shout out to Jon! haha), have been putting together a nice little acoustic set as we get ready to put together a full band.  As a matter of fact, we have our first show coming up.  It’s nothing too big, just a 30 minute acoustic set this upcoming Tuesday.  I’m very excited!  Can’t wait to show everybody what we’ve been up to. 

Here’s the details about the show:

Date:      Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Time:      7:30pm-8:30pm

Location: El Cid (4212 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA)

Well that’s all for now folks…well I’m sure there’s more, in fact I know there is more, but it’s just about past my bed time! 

Promise not to disappear for so long!!!!