This is Not Attractive

THESE ARE MY ANSWERS to the most INTERESTING INTERVIEW I have had so far. WHAT WOULD YOURS BE? How did you meet your best friend?  I was about twelve and part of a group of girlfriends. One day a new girl came to school and I suggested we invite her into our group. However, another girl in the group objected. She wanted to leave the new girl out for the simple reason that she was new. I refused to let this happen and believing in the power of my own authority I said: “If she is not allowed in then I don't want to be part of this group either.” Unfortunately, that meant I was kicked out. I became best friends with the new girl but we both were bullied by the group as a result. It was not a good experience but I am still friends with her about thirty years later. What’s your favorite cheesy pick-up line? Have you ever used it for real? Has anybody ever told you that you have the most gorgeous hair? I have used it on a total stranger with gorgeous red hair sitting...

And now 5 years later, here I am again. STILL ALIVE. Just. I am about to publish my first book. I am about to publish my 11th? 12th? album. I actually don't remember the number anymore. I know, it sounds wanky. The reality is... I actually have stopped counting. Because it doesn't really matter does it? I mean... a long time ago, or maybe not so long ago I used to write music in the hope that I would be famous someday. I have now given up that idea. Not only I have realized that this world is not a meritocracy but I also realized that it's absolute madness to put your self-worth into someone else's hands. Why should some stranger's opinion be more valuable to me than my own? That is madness! The trouble is, my own opinion of myself, for many years, depended on other people's approval. That is why it was so important to 'succeed' - that is - win as many people's approval as possible. All I really wanted was a good pat on the shoulder, a millio...

So ten days or so have passed since the beginning of this trip to shape my upcoming Fringe Show "Front Line" with Director Yana Landowne and it’s all a blur. It feels like I arrived in NYC a month ago, and I have to check my calendar to remember all that has happened. I don’t think my brain can process information as fast as the pace required in this city that never sleeps. So now I am in the airport, waiting to board my plane back to Edinburgh and It all feels very very weird. I have a ton of photos and videos that have been shot, and will try to do my best to follow my journey. DAY 2 So on the second day at Yana’s we rehearse for three hours and immediately afterwards we leave to go to a restaurant where we drink Prosecco and eat oysters (my first time ever!). It is very classy and tasty and hip but doesn’t cost a bomb because it’s happy hour… After a healthy dose of fish Yana has to take a phone call and while she talks we walk to one of her director frien...

This trip has been long in the making. It all started two years ago, in a street near my home in Edinburgh during the 2014 Fringe. While waiting in a cue to see a clown show I struck a conversation with a very colourful lady who struck me as very different from the crowd. She had a broad smile and a open energy about her as well as a congenial dress sense.  I wouldn't have made much of it if it weren't for the fact that I kept bumping into her at shows and finally at my house, as it turned out she had made friends with my then troubador musician flatmate Danny Mullins.  It was friendship at first sight, and very soon I found myself skyping Yana, who turned out was part of a NY art collective as well as a NY director and lovely person extraordinnaire. Soon I also learned that we shared similar asthetics as well as ethics and artistic vision. It didnt take long to figure we wanted to work together, but it did take a while to figure out doing what.  Back...

Well, there you go. They do say when you never expect it... But I never thought that would be me. All year round I spend the majority of my time in this wonderful city, Edinburgh, looking for some signs of intelligent male life forms that will also be pleasing to the eye but me being very very picky well... I often miserably fail . However when Fringe time comes the city population triplicates and of all these people most of them are artists trying to 'make it" at the Fringe. Chances are there would be one that fits the bill. Trouble is this year there was. Believe it or not I did find my perfect fit on the very first day of the fringe. The guy was almost too wonderful to be true: smart, funny, interested in the same things, sociable, into me and attractive too! Impossible ! Well we hit it off immediately and went on to have a great few days together. We got on like a house on fire and well, before I knew it found myself on fire for him myself.... BUT. There is a b...

Have a look at my music video "The Ballad of Queen Victoria"! I have until tomorrow to convince Paloma Faith from Launching People UK to help us shoot this video in the coolest of ways and with a professional team, so if you like the project please support me !!  It only takes a couple of minutes to do so and Ill be your best friend forever ... swear ! Basically you ll need to click on the support button until it goes grey ( this might mean twice or more) otherwise your vote won't count... I know, it's dumb and annoying but it's the way they ve set it up.... this are the step by step instructions in case you get lost... THANK YOUUUUUUUUU!!!!! 1) first you click on this https://apps.facebook.com/launching-people-uk/project/the-ballad-of-queen-victoria 2) then you need to click on SUPPORT ME 3) then you need to click on CONNECT to FACEBOOK 4) then you need to click OK on "launching people uk will receive the following info…" (...

Taking courage in both hands... this is what we say in Italy. The meaning is rather obvious is it not? Sometimes you gotta wait til you feel high and strong to be able to make a difficult decision. You know that later you will have your weak moments but if you do it when you feel on top of the world you are operating from the vantage point of having all the resources to deal with the upcoming difficulties. You sort of feel like you 'll be ok, and that gives you the strength to go with the right path for you even though it is scary. So I did it. I waited til I felt on top of the world, after a gig. And it seemed easier. Later I still had to pay the consequences and felt like crap for a while but at least I wasn't in Limbo anymore and deep inside I knew I had done the right thing. A few days have now passed and I have had my moments of insecurity and tears. I have felt like nothing ever changes and that I am always falling into the same patterns. But then I picked myself up:...

Memory. Identity. A story. Are you your story ? If so, what happens when you forget it ? What if you ever do ? Are you gone or is it  still you ? Memory is so crucial because it helps us define who we are. And yet we are more than a sequence of past events. We still live in the present when our memory is gone.  Love. What happens to love when we cannot remember who we loved yesterday ? and if love is gone too, how much it is just memory, past association to pleasure and attachment to dreams of  future pleasure ? Could we still love without a memory ?  So much of our lives is dependant on memory. Losing it is worse than losing a limb. But for whom is it worse ? Those who lose it or those who watch us lose it ? If you cannot remember what you have forgotten it is certainly confusing but not as bad as watching someone forget they ever knew you. That is like erasing years of loving care with one swipe and it must hurt like nothing else. I always find it mind boggling how...

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Like a piece of paper by the side of road, tossed in the wind. Like Xmas in September and the summer holidays in the depth of winter. Waiting for a time when it will all be all right. Except it won't. There's always something, always an obstacle. Patience, I am told. But life doesn't wait for anyone. Another day is gone and I could be dead, I could be walking in a different direction, I could be feeling happy. Anything could happen. What I don't want is this feeling of waiting, of being stuck in limbo, of hoping the emptiness will give way to something alive soon, but a voice tells me to let it go: you don't want to spend today sleeping only to wake up when it really is too late and find that all is left is a bitter cry for all that you left waiting for too long. I am sick of tomorrow. What about today ? Are you too busy to live ? You seem too busy to love. You are too busy, always too busy. Should I make an appointment now, but be re...

rain on the horizon. dripping down like tears over unknown hopes. Incubating days of sorrow and joy . Leaving a trace that can hardly be found. When all is covered in a tick mantle of grey the branches salute the sky unheard.Their prayers reach up and meet the blank stares of tourists watching for interesting events to take them away from the blandness. Fallen into a long tunnel of expectations I wonder searching for the way out. nothing personal, I am told. all is fiction. So I search through the lines trying to decipher the hidden references to facts known to me but the dust seeps through my fingers and falls at my feet forming patterns I fail to recognize. The poet is depressed, standing on the top of the hill looking down. He can only see me through a curtained veil. The light is dim and he can just make out the shape but I am shifting, ready to move on. The shadow is fleeting, just like the hours and you gotta catch them when you see them. the gypsy travels on in some faraway land...

Unfinished business. That smug way of behaving really gets on my nerves. I know I haven't really ever voiced my anger and so it goes unsaid every time. It builds and builds but I don't care enough to really air it, because it would require so much effort and unless I see him it's out of my mind. But every time I do it is a subtle annoying presence between us. I just resent the way he presents himself as a wise guy with the right answer to things, while in reality he doesn't have a fucking clue. Today he made up a poem on the spot and it was about how we all wear masks and why do we do that. At the end of the poem I suggested it might be fear. The response was fierce: well, that s certainly NOT the answer. mmm. interesting I thought. What a passionate response to a simple remark. As soon as he said those words I  felt intense heat come into my chest. I wanted to answer : how could you possibly talk about masks, assuming everyone is wearing one and hiding parts of themsel...

This morning I feel sad. Woke up from a disturbing dream. I felt left out , while everyone else around me was getting involved with family, evenings out, a busy life. I was angry in my dream because it was easier to experience that emotion rather than anger. I know Venus is in retrograde, my friend told me so yesterday. Apparently it means that these are threacherous times when it comes to romantic entanglements. There are two more weeks of it to come. So the advice is, stay away from lust fuelled beginnings of new relationships and also beware of the tendency to idolize past lovers. Tick, tick. I feel confused. A lot going on and yet it's all a bit messy. I know the solution is to just hang in there and let things pan out the way they will. I guess my naive self just wanted instant solutions, big explosions in the sky, a new mind blowing beginning. But this is the child speaking inside of me. I guess the adult knows better. Today I want to close the door on being there just ...

Holding someone, because they need it, because you can see their soul longing for that love they deserve and haven't been given enough of. Holding this person and feeling their life force surge like a warm wave engulfing everything in a light that's healing. Connection is what truly heals and why only have it with one or two human beings when there are billions out there who need love and cannot find it ? The power of touch is underestimated, and so essential to our well being. It does not need to be sexual though it can be. We also have stripped sexuality down to its bare bones and left nothing of the immense spiritual power it possesses. We make love without looking at each other and then we wonder why we feel so empty. Sexual energy and spiritual energy need not be separate. The life force resides within our body and the spiritual is the body. The body is sacred and if it is treated as such it becomes the perfect vehicle for spiritual connection with the world. There is no...

I dreamed of you last night. A version of you I created in my mind. Your hair was the same, your face was the same, your lips were the same, your eyes were the same. You talked the same way, but I don't know if you kissed the same way. I don't know if the sweetness of those lips are just a figment of my imagination or if they are real. I know that in my dream you were like a force of nature, irresistible and fluid. Like water relentlessly pulling away at the shore. The smile you had stamped on your face and the spark in those eyes held me captive and immobile. Just like when I met you and unbeknown to you I stared at you thinking : I could kiss that mouth. I wonder what it'd be like to bite those lips gently with my teeth. I wonder what it'd be like to feel the wetness of his kiss mingled with the bittersweet smell of his breath. I wondered what you'd look like when you'd feel my desire awaken. So I filled in the gaps and imagined it all. And now I smile to myse...

Skin. Smooth. Prickly. Rough. The edge of a table. A hand clicking glass against glass. Whisky. You are my hero. Red cushions. Frosted glass. The smell of old books. There's a draft by the windows and the bedside lamp doesn't work. The words, they flow like a river in the northern countries. Cliches. passions.Tthe wish for warmth and comfort. If only it were so simple. A straight line. From up the mountain down the slope and onto the finish line. Don't look at the rock over there! Pay attention goddamit ! And the smile is stamped on his face. Hair like wild tall grass blown away by the wind. Trembling. Seed. Fragile and yet pushing hard upwards. Silence. Expectancy. Excitement. Fantasy. Wishing for a dream to tantalize the senses. Wait. Watch. See. Learn. A movement of eyes on canvas. A thousand days lost in unforgettable mist. Eternal present. The presence of sound. Forgotten memories. Distorted sleep. And many more unknown tomorrows to discover. Patience. Slow. Whispering...

Coincidences. Watching the sky change colors just out of sight. How did I get here , after years of sighs and tears and now there s a vague sense of hope, a smile forming on my lips, hours spent talking about nothing in particular and everything. An opening. Listening. To that voice that once got squelched and hid somewhere under endless strata of 'shoulds' and 'ought to" . I am tired of wasting that precious time I have been given. It really won't come back ever again so why pretend that's an illusion ? The mountain looms in the forefront of my vision but the little man advances step by step, going forward with his pack on the shoulders. When he gets to the top he might take something out of it and watch it intently. Did I really need this up here ? Was it worth it carrying it all the way up ? Dreaming of solutions resting in the future is like floating on artificially salted water. It's not the real thing is it ? And I don't want to live through ot...

Today I have , after months of procrastination, composed my first looping track. It has been a while in the making. After berating myself for a few days about the fact that despite having bought the very expensive equipment equivalent to 1 month's rent a few weeks ago I hadnt really used it properly since the first few enthusiastic and exhausting days of setting up , and so I finally set down to work. This was precipitated mainly by two factors: 1) my drumkit teacher telling me I was making very good progress and me feeling elated as a consequence of having my own judgement in this matter confirmed 2) reading a book called " The artist's way" which told me to get over the fear / the block of the critical self and just do it. I therefore planned to get stoned first (just a little) and have a little drop of limoncello too, and then get on with it. Of course this was after spending a couple hours technically setting up the system to handle a highly creative though tech...

I am very proud to announce that as of September 2013 a new band has been formed: the temporary name of Elyssa Vulpes and The Sweet Bitter Enemies has been assigned to this array of disparate personalities. As of now we have Paul Gonzales, a Spanish drummer with a past as a metal fan,  Josh Del Tramonto, an Australian guitarist turned bass player and Simon Szymek, Polish violinist direct from the University of Edinburgh Music School.  We have big plans to take Edinburgh and Glasgow by storm and then expand to touring the UK and Europe.  Watch out for brand new tunes in Italian and English and songs as mellow as can be as well as fast and furious ironic numbers. Follow us and help us build a bigger audience to give us enough time and money to put all this down in a long awaited album ! We have too many songs, so it might have to be a double ! Thank you for your continuing support, it s what makes us keep going!