Kay Hanley

Last night we had a lovely party to celebrate the 9th anniversary of the birth of our best gal, Zoe Mabel. Her birthday isn’t actually until next week but this was the last chance to get all of her homies together before she leaves for Cape Cod for the summer. She is such a good kid, I have to *squink squink* my eyeballs in amazement sometimes.

 they all look like teenagers now.  go easy on me, please.

The night before, USA returned from 2 weeks on the road with Rob Dickinson.  For the first week that he was away I held down the fort like a champ but after several Celtics games and pool parties where everyone converged on the home of the rockers, my well oiled machine quickly began coming off the rails.  Here’s a roundup of the 2 weeks that USA was away and all the hooligans that forced me to rock out while the laundry and dishes piled up.

 bill likes to tickle. carol is supportive. stacy gets cozy in front of the tv.

jamie & joey seem nice enough but that kaylyn has always been a troublemaker.

  carol & courtney reprazent tha LMV

At one point during game 5 of the Celtics/Lakers series, my neighbor Ami (a lakers fan) snuck away from the game action in the living room briefly enough to a) not be missed and b) do this to my son.

 this is so wrong. put a yankees cap on him while you’re at it.

Not for nothing, but Carol took this picture and several others.  Thanks a lot, MILFA, I see how it is now.  When I found the pictures on my camera I jumped up and down, threw a fit and proclaimed righteous indignation to all those involved (including ami’s wife and kid) but between me and you, I thought it was pretty funny.  Look at poor Henry with his Rondo shirt underneath the Kobe one, knowing that he was doing something he shouldn’t.  Also, as a lifelong Boston sports fan, I had to respect the cojones.  Don’t tell Ami that though, because he and Jackie owe us dinner because the stupid LAKERS LOST.  HAHA!!!  The more guilt I pour on, the more impressive the dinner will be, is how I figure it.

Other things that have happened over the last few weeks:

The members of one of the bands I’m in went down to Nashville for a week to shoot scenes for a movie.  I think I signed some sort of confidentiality agreement, so I can’t reveal what the movie was or any details, but I think it’s fair to post some pix.  

 me standing in for the star

  stacy and schmidley with some girl.

 One of my closest girlfriends, Melissa Eltringham, moved to Nashville last year.  I cannot express how happy I was to see her and catch up.  When she showed up at my hotel to pick me up for dinner, Hillary Clinton was on CNN giving what we thought was going to be a concession speech (’twas not to be).  We spent the first 15 minutes of our long awaited reunion glued to the TV watching an historic moment in American politics.  How fitting.  It’s a gift to have women like her in my life.  

  love ya, melisse. whoreanous mani/pedi and all…

Henry graduated from pre-school so naturally he and his friends wanted to celebrate at McDonald’s.  He and the guys are all big kindergarteners now.  Gah!  How did that happen?

hank, ryan, aidan & caleb moving up in style.

 On deck:  a whole lot of nothing, I hope.  And then I have to learn the new Miley record for our dates this month.  More to come….

xok 

USA Mike has been in the studio producing an album for the lovely Lauren for the past week and a half so I have cut back my work schedule to take on some serious mommy duty.  Honestly, I don’t know how stay-at-home moms do this job 7 days a week.  It’s really exhausting.  The nice part, aside from spending rare daytime hours with the kiddos, is that I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and entertaining at home.                 

Jack had a few weeks off from the Jonas Brothers tour so he and Ashlee, one of my favorite ladies from the Miley tour, came over last Friday for dinner.  It was great to catch up with them and get all of the latest news of their lives.  Ash is putting in some major time with her drum lessons and Jack is about to embark on a hugely ambitious year with the JoBros.  Henry and Z are always over the moon to hang out with cool people that they met on tour.

jack, ashlee & z 

ash & z with the lushis-mobile                 

 Over the weekend, we had our somewhat regular Sunday pool party bbq.  During the summer months (when we aren’t in boston) we try to get as many people as possible over to our house on the weekends to swim, eat and drink.  The last variable of that equation usually has me feeling like shit on Monday morning, but it’s always worth it.

luke, kate & henry 

luke & isabel 

 omg, it’s milo & jackson!!!

Last week, I went to the 40th birthday party of one of my best girlfriends, Kaylyn Thornal.   At some point during our 15 year friendship, I became a soccer mom and she became a hot lesbian director.  It’s as if that song “Ebony & Ivory” was written just for us, but instead of a song about blacks and whites, it’s breeders and dykes.  I’m not sure who’s Stevie Wonder and who’s Paul McCartney in this relationship but I love her a lot and she, me.

mish, kaylyn, fan & kristen 

me & my besties.

Michael & I just bought a painting  by the artist Tim Bavington.  As always, the brilliant Naomi was the person who introduced this beautiful piece of art into our lives but I have to be honest:  I am terrified now that I have this thing in my house.   If Henry throws one of his Indiana Jones daggers in the wrong direction, we will be screwed to the tune of a new car and then I will be forced to administer a near fatal beating to my own flesh and blood.  Trust me when I say that I can think of a dozen similar scenarios between my children and this painting that might reasonably result in me resorting to some kind of violence, and that’s kind of scary.  Hey, beauty is truth. Sometimes brutally so.  Check out our awesome new painting!

naomi & the bavington   

 For those of you who have asked for my opinion on the Miley Cyrus maelstrom, here is my answer.  

 i don’t care. nor should you.

Solidarity,

Kay 

Due to the nature of my work, I have acquaintances from all over the world and from all sorts of backgrounds.  Some of the people that I know start out as Cleo fans or posters on my message board and then somehow they just become part of my life.   A few weeks back, one of the KH message board peeps sent me an email saying that he and his wife were coming to LA from Chicago to hang out, so despite having never met in person, we made plans to have lunch.  It’s funny how in this day and age, when we do so much of our communicating over the web, that you can meet someone for the first time and connect as if you already know each other because you DO know each other from sharing similar virtual interests, sometimes for years.  It’s a strange kind of vetting process, isn’t it?

Adi and Shayna showed up at 11:45am.  I showed them around our house and then brought them out back to check out our recording studio and introduce them to USA Mike, who never leaves the damn place, and then we strolled over to Mexicali on Ventura for some people watching and grub. It was a gorgeous afternoon even by LA standards so we chose a table outside and caught up on what has been happening with all of us; their years in Israel before they were a couple, my cockamamie schemes, real estate in Los Angeles, blah, blah.  Because Adi and Shayna are newlyweds, the conversation about how they met and got married came up quickly.

• • adi:   “it was kind of a saga.”
  • me:   “the best stories always are.”
  • shayna:   “does she know?”
  • adi:  “no.”
  • me: “what are you talking about?”
  • shayna:   “i was shot in the chest during a terrorist attack in israel.”
  • me:   “……….” 

 Hands down, they are the all time winners of the “how we met” contest with their star-crossed, globe-trotting, death-defying tale of love ignored, found, lost and then found again.   The tale also reminds me that even one life lost to violence and war diminishes all of our lives.   The innocent woman blown up by a god driven terrorist in Kabul, Jerusalem, Karachi, New York, Mosul, Yemen, London or Mogadishu is surely someone’s daughter, sister or mother, but she may also be your future wife and mother to the children you hope to have someday.

 That was the the most fascinating lunch conversation I’ve ever had guys, and I thank you for sharing the story with me.

  shayna & adi     

After I parted ways with my fabulous lunch companions I had to get back to the house and take care of a bunch of stuff and then get ready for sound check at the Henry Fonda Theatre.  Michelle had been asked by our friend David Gray at Island Records to put together groups of backup singers for an Aussie superstar by the name of Delta Goodrem who was performing industry showcases in NY and LA.  Since I am totally a profesh backup singer now, Mish roped me into generously offered me a job on her LA team.   It was actually a lot of fun.  The other singers, Nadia and Brandon (stacy lynes, i’ll give you one guess where you know brandon from) are ridiculously good, as is Michelle, so I’m sure nobody noticed when I stopped singing at a critical moment at the end of the very spare piano/vocal song because I started choking.  Literally AND figuratively.   Sorry about that, Delta.  At least we know it will never happen again. 

 On that note, I’m deciding that being a professional backup singer kind of sucks.  I’ve only ever done the backup gig with Miley and I LOVE that job so I assumed that you get always treated a certain way.  Even though Delta was super pro and respectful, I had this weird “faceless employee” feeling all night that made me think that the backup singer career has the potential to be a little dehumanizing.   No matter, even at its crappiest, any career where you get to sing or play music all the time beats punching a clock.  

we will not work under these conditions!!  unless you pay us. 

 xok  

When I was a kid, Easter Sunday meant 3 things:

1) Very rare Hanley family clothes shopping trip for new patent leather shoes and frilly dress combo

2) 2 hour Mass

3) Spring had sprung

Nowadays, Easter is a harbinger of Summer in Los Angeles because Spring is pretty much a thing of the past by late March. I don’t go to Mass anymore because nobody makes me. But come to think of it, I did wear patent leather shoes today. I didn’t even do that on purpose!!! Most of my friends are Jewish or Protestants of some kind, so at this time of year we all do a mishmash of holiday celebrations that are meant to acknowledge our cultural backgrounds. We eat a ton of food, drink a ton of wine and the kids and dogs are stoked. Yay.

I have no idea where I was going with all that. Let’s get to the fun of my non-denominational Easter weekend!

On Friday I had a sort-of-but-not-really business lunch at Alcove in Los Feliz with my dear friend Chad. I wish I could have lunch with him every day because he is just the bee’s knees. If I wasn’t a married woman and Chad didn’t think girls were yucky, we would be like totally whatever, y’know?

sigh…

Friday night was a typical StuCid yuppie fest with the Soccers, a few other neighbors, all the kiddos and many, many bottles of wine. Do people still say yuppie, btw? Now that I kind of am one I would like to be able to finally claim this pejorative as my own. Girl cannot live on liberal elitist alone, y’know.

My friend Mario runs this website that he’s been trying to get off the ground the entire time I’ve known him. I don’t get all show-offy with him about my blog getting upwards of several hundred hits a week because I don’t want to shit on his happiness or diminish his accomplishments. Or maybe that’s hits per month. Whatever. The point is, he’s got his little “thing” and I support him entirely because that’s the kind of person I am. Last night was Mario’s 30th birthday so Fan, Kristen, Kaylyn and I slapped on some lip gloss and went to his birthday party. For some reason, The Pussycat Dolls got lost on their way to the street walking whore convention and ended up shaking it for us at le petite soirée. They were so nice to humor him by being good sports and not acknowledging their blunder. Klassy.

{vidavee id=”6534″ w=”320″ }

fan & mario

marc, you know i adore you but the summer ‘08
collection is not that fierce. it’s just alright for me, dawg.
your new bf is super cute though.

ted and k-squeeze

hooligans

hey z, look at me!!!

If you know me, you know that I am a big fan of the gay people. But for some reason I cannot get with the tranny lip synchers. Why do the gay boys like that crap so much? And here’s an even better question: Why is Andy Milonakis still showing up at stuff and acting like a moron? I remember cracking a smile once when I thought he was 12 and he was singing “the superbowl is gay” but a lot of time has passed since that smile crossed my lips lo those many years ago. That passing time has not been filled with laughter. Here’s Andy wacky-ing it up in front of Kiki & Herb who were performing Total Eclipse Of The Heart. Of course they were.

oh andy, will the fun never start?

We had a really fun night. And then I went home and slept like a rock. A somewhat inebriated, gussied up rock. Thanks for the always excellent party, M. Yer the best.

I’ll try and post my pix from Gil & Nina Junger’s Easter egg hunt tomorrow. Sleepy.

xok

That’s right asshole, keep on walking. If you wanna keep your teeth in your head tonight, you better respect and recognize. When you see us walking towards you down Ventura Blvd in Studio City you’d be wise to cross the street and keep your eyes down low, son. We got babysitters and/or permission slips from our baby daddies and we are NOT FUCKING AROUND. Check out my bitches: Moms I’d Like To Form A Streetgang With. We’re so crazy, we don’t even care if our acronyms match perfectly or not. Yeah, fucko, we’re talking to you.

ooooh! new zealand sauvignon blanc!!

Ok, I’m mostly better aside from a few lingering aches and pains. Man, having pneumonia totally sucked.

I am back in Los Angeles with my cherished family & friends. I also went back to work this week, which meant going to lots of meetings, drinking 100 cups of coffee and eating the excellent fresh food that Los Angeles is famous for. Wait, is LA famous for that? LA is famous for a lot of things including being the #1 place on Earth where people go to meetings, %27 of which seem to be attended by me and Michelle.

I was layed up for the Grammys so I never made it out, but some of my favorite people were in town for the occasion. At the top of the list? My longtime attorney Elliot Groffman and his wife Hillary. To illustrate just how deep the connection is, their children named the family dog Cleo in 1995. In any event, they managed to do the impossible, which was to snag a coveted lunch reservation at Mozza. Michael and I got to be their dates and we were treated to incredible food combined with the loveliest company we could ever ask for.

the groffmans always get a table.

I have only had rare occasion to mention this until now, but I have an unbelievably cool group of friends in LA. Last weekend, when I was feeling better, Greg & Amiira Behrendt hosted a pizza party playdate to welcome me home. The pizza party playdate is like a normal playdate except for it’s at night, all the dads come and there’s wine. It felt great to catch up with everyone and watch the kids run around.

hometown throwdown

nina & ivy

wee princesses

my boyfriend jackson petty!

On an entirely different subject: Facebook, Facebook. Why have you become the bain of my existence? Why have you turned even my most moderate and intelligent acquaintences into vampiric, popularity seeking, invitation whoring spam machines? I don’t want a virtual drink. I don’t want to write on a fun wall. I don’t have time to play scrabble with you, although that one sounds at least a little bit fun. I definitely don’t want a hug, a kiss, a poofight, to confirm that I’m hot, an orgasm, join the Oregon Trail (6 requests!), good karma or a superpoke. And since I turn down the majority of friend requests from people that I don’t know, these are presumably from my actual friends although I haven’t gone through the 100 or so pending requests to confirm this.

The reason I bring it up is because there is one delightful side of Facebook. Sometimes you really do reconnect with people you might not otherwise. Case in point: The exceptional Melissa, whom I know through my friend Nina, is an American living in Paris. She contacted me through Facebook and now I know that she too, has a blog. It’s called Guaranteed Personality, which makes me like it automatically, but clever title aside, it is a top-quality read. Funny, sarcastic, smart, insightful. Check out my new favorite smarty pants, Mademoiselle Cuckoo.

xok

I don’t know about you, but for me, Youtube is purely a tool for finding videos of the songs that I loved as a wee one, back when my cruel parents wouldn’t let us watch TV. I usually hear the song in Target or something and then make a mental note to find it later which of course, I remember to do a month later. This was one of my all time favs, but I had never seen the vid until today. Probably a good thing because the sight of the singer thumping away on that EVIL bass made my eyes bleed. Only time will tell whether my ears will forget what I have seen.

Wow. Only 4 days left on the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best Of Both Worlds tour. Has it really been 4 months? 15 tour buses, 16 semis, 121 band, dancers and crew, most of which I now know by name. I feel so lucky to have been a part of it and to have made so many excellent new friends.

anywhere, usa

chicago

corey & ashlee

the ladies love jack

the zoemabel dream teaparty

my dream teaparty

me, elizabeth & mike on long island

the newest dire warning from pyro.

a very cyrus soundcheck

vashon is always pro

red sox fans are dedicated

We are having our tour wrap party tonight after the show here in Orlando so I suppose I should motivate and get to the mall. I have no clean clothes left. How appropriate. To be continued….

xok

We played a show in Lafayette, LA. tonight but I woke up with the flu this morning so the charm of this bustling metropolis was a bit lost on me. Previous to this bummer, we got to spend a few minutes in Austin.

I love Austin, Texas. The food, the music scene, the bazillion bats that fly out from under the Congress St. Bridge. I have had some good times in Austin, not the least of which was Cleo’s triumphant SXSW appearance in 1994 which led to our record deal and subsequent worldwide underachiever-ness. I wouldn’t trade a moment. Except for a couple of moments but mostly I wouldn’t trade a second.

I have a bunches of rad friends in Austin so I crammed as much action packed pal time as I possibly could. First up: Tex-Mex and karaoke with the kids from Cruiserweight! Stella, Ernie, Dave, Yogi and his fiancee Nicole took Stacy & me to a place called Trudy’s and it was pretty awesome, as Tex-Mex usually is. Especially when served with a Mexican martini. Yum.

muy bueno

dave showed up!

stella covers cleo.

i got chills!! they’re multiplyin’….

The next day, I was able to wrastle up a last minute lunch date with my sexy friend, Lynette. She and I met 20 years ago when our respective bands used to play together and later when we performed in Boston Rock Opera. Lynette is going through a yucky divorce, yet she is still one of the funniest, most upbeat people I know.

some things never change.

We rolled into New Orleans last night and I couldn’t go out because I seriously have the flu. I spent my night wracked with chills, not sure if I was going to be able to get up. I want my mommy.

xok

We are less than 2 weeks away from the end of the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus Best Of Both Worlds Tour. It seems unreal that just a few months ago I was wondering how on earth I would acclimate to such an unfamiliar working environment. I couldn’t imagine leaving my husband, my children, my friends, my work. At this point, the tour has become such a huge part of my life that I can’t imagine ever having done anything else. With that said, I can”t wait to go back to all the stuff I left in Los Angeles

Speaking of LA, I got to go back there for the 48 hours preceding our 3 night run in Vegas. Michael, Z and I went to the premier of the Hannah Montana 3D movie extravaganza, which I am in. Zoe likes to remind me that this was her second red carpet event* and only my first. I think that means we need to move back to Boston.

cute.

I got an awesome shot of Miley’s manager Jason. He seemed pretty happy about the way things were going.

well done, mate.

I ran into Miley’s big sis Brandi along with little sis Noah and Grammy, all of whom have been on the road with us at various times. Brandi performs with us whenever Billy Ray joins us onstage for “Ready, Set, Don’t Go”. That Cyrus family is quite lovely.

yay! we’re in a movie!

While I was home, I also got to hang out with my handsome boyfriend, Jackson Petty. His mother, Michelle, tried to distract me from the cuteness by talking about the music business, the future of our company, blah blah blah…. I’m sorry - I was NOT having it.

jack & dan

i am delicious

Actually, I WAS having it the day before when we took our new Art Is War artist, Countre Black, to meet and have lunch with David Gray from Island/Def Jam. Not for nothing, this occasion also marked my first decent meal in months. Thanks David!

so civilized

A few sidenotes:

My friend Jonny Mead & I scored our first #1 record (on the Latin Hot 100) with a song we wrote for a Latin group called RBD. The song is called Extrana Sensacion, although it wasn’t called that when we wrote it. Yay for us!

Mike Schmid posted a bit on his blog about my fainting spell in Vegas and it caused an uproar amongst my loved ones as well as complete strangers. I had no idea how many of my friends were reading his blog - way to go Schmid! On that subject, I can assure you that I am fine. I had not eaten dinner, my blood sugar dropped and I fainted. It will never happen again, promise. My only complaint is that nobody took any photos. Surely Candice and Mike knew how totally blogworthy those would have been. Meh.

Currently in Glendale, AZ. For the second time in both 3 months and my entire life.

xok

* scroll down to the picture of ed begley jr. with his daughter hayden and her friend zoemay (!)

After the Newark show on Saturday night, the band hopped on the bus and headed to NY to check into the Mansfield. We were hoping to get there fast because it was Michael’s 40th birthday and I booked a 9:30 table at Tailor in SoHo for the occasion. As it turned out, we had exactly 15 minutes to check in to the hotel and get dressed for dinner. Gaahhhh!!!!! Stacy, his wife Jade, Jamie, Candice and I managed to pull it together and arrive pretty much on time. The restaurant was incredible and all 15 of us had a blast toasting to the anniversary of the birth of my favorite guy.

jade, candice, justine, jamie and me.

Our friend Mark Quigley took some shots:

the birthday boy gets his wish

jamie, me and candice

casey and quigley courtesy of the fung wah

Here’s a question: Why are Quigs’ pictures so much better than mine? Is it because he uses Flickr and I export directly from my iPhoto? I suck. Grrr…

the gang

yum!

Food was great, the company was even better. Now USA Mike gets to go back to LA for the west coast leg of his birthday party tour at Hungry Cat. I’m jealous, but still so grateful that we were able to assemble such a fantastic crew in NY. Make sure you take loads of pix next weekend, LA people!

The next day, Michael went back to Nana’s in Jersey to pack up the kids and head back to LA. My bandmates and I had to go play another show in Newark. The highlight was our trip back from the show because a) we got to leave Newark forever and b) we had a high speed police escort, complete with 3 squad cars and flashing sirens, that blasted our 2 Miley vans back to the Lincoln tunnel. Sweet!

Candice and I made a deal with our new favorite hair guy, Scott Dowers and his lovely wife Angel. We gave him one of our rooms for 2 nights over New Years while he & Angel cut, colored, curled and made us up for our various festivities. I don’t know what I’ll do when I have to go back home and use normal people for these kinds of things. I love them.

They had done our hair and makeup for the show, so when we got back to Mid-town, we were pretty much ready to go. I had plans with my friend Mario to meet up that night so Candice, Jason and I grabbed some dinner and headed to Mario’s hotel room. It was just supposed to be a chill night with a few cocktails and laughs but as soon as we got to his room he had a change of heart. Okay! Let’s go watch the trangendered entertainer Candace Kayne at a packed and insanely loud gay bar! Truth be told, Candace is as fabulous as they come so it was a good time.

mario & candace sittin’ in a tree…

Mario had to be up early the next morning so we highjacked his friend Mike to see if we could find some fun stuff to do in NY. We succeeded, of course. One of the strangest things I encountered was this bizzare painting at an Irish pub, which would not have required more than a glance before the Miley tour. Billy Ray Cyrus is prominently featured.

why??

I woke up on New Year’s Eve morning not feeling so hot, but after a massive infusion of coffee, advil and a gallon of water I was on the comeback trail. Angel and Scott came to my and Candice’s cozy room for glam squad duty.

scott does his thing

angel does hers…

Miley and the band went and performed on Dick Clark’s NYE thing in Times Square so the rest of us took advantage of the night off. I don’t understand how I ended up with practically no pictures from our crazy evening but sadly, it’s true. We had a great time ringing in the New Year and I hope you did too. Here’s to 2008..

xok