Mary Van Notes

Friday, Oct 17, 7-9PM, $5
at Amnesia, 853 Valencia St
with Uni and the Ding! String Trio
and Foxtails Brigade

Saturday, Oct 18, 8PM, $10
The Barry Sobel Show
at Club Deluxe, 1511 Haight St

We both suffer from unrequited love.  

I’m a proponent of the idea of letting art speak for itself.  But there were some things I wanted to share, so to reconcile I opted not to post any thoughts on the youtube video itself, and instead post them here.

A week after the November election, I found out that someone in my immediate family voted yes on 8.  I was disappointed and upset.  I thought to myself, “Wow… If I can’t even relate to my own flesh and blood, who can I relate to?”  This feeling of disconnection was something I had felt for a long time.  For awhile I didn’t think I had any friends, anyone to relate to.  My foray into art and performance was always an outlet for expression, a way to connect to the world at a time when I felt disconnected. 

My idea for the video came about as way to deal with the news after the November election.  I wanted to show how I felt.  It was a big idea that may not have come to fruition if it weren’t for me seeing the Project Direct contest.  It became an excuse to get the video made.  I told my roommate about this idea I had and I said, “I want to make a video about how I don’t relate to people.  And I don’t have anyone to ask to help me with it… since I don’t relate to people!” 

One of the happiest things to come out of making this video was that people did help me.  I felt blessed.   And slightly stupid.  Here I was thinking I didn’t have friends, when I do.  I have great friends!  Ones that hang out with me all day cutting and taping paper together! 

This video was truly healing for me.  I started the video feeling disconnected, but I finished the video feeling blessed.  To my friends and fans, thank you!

You can watch “papercuts” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9w4aZh9BzfY

p.s.

The video was also a comment on the popular-quirky, DIY style of videos today that use paper and hand-made sets.  I love those kinds of videos (like vids by The Receptionist) but I noticed that those videos always have humans interacting with paper.  They were always magical and fun.  But if you were truly in a world made of paper and you were human…. wouldn’t that suck hairy stinky nuts?  Like big time?  For reals…

The night before last I was thinking of something I could eat the next day.  I wanted to make something I hadn’t made in a while.  Surprisingly I was getting tired of making my Italian grandmother’s recipe for beef roast, so I decided to make what my Portuguese grandmother taught me how to make: kale soup with linguica.  I wrote down what ingredients I needed to get at the store the next day in my notebook–yellow onion, garlic, kale.  The day after Christmas I called my Portuguese grandma.  She was fine, complaining like she would usually do, “When you’re my age you’ll know what it’s like.  The younger generation doesn’t know how to treat their elders.”  We exchanged I love you’s.  And when I hung up the phone I thought, she is who she is.  This is the same woman who told me I was killing my mother, the same woman who would laugh infectiously causing an entire room to erupt in giggles, the same woman who would call my dad a gigalo, the same woman who would have a “jigger of whiskey,” the same woman who would teach her grandkids how to swear in Portuguese.  I loved every adorable, blunt and feisty inch of her.

I’ve been reading David Sedaris’ latest book When You Are Engulfed In Flames.  Wanting to procrastinate as much as I can, I’ll wake up in the morning and stay in bed reading it prolonging the time before I need to sit down in front of my computer and look at what the publisher sent back to me in a myriad of colors, having to answer questions like whether “vale tudo” has rules or not.  Yesterday morning I read the essay about how David bought a skeleton for his partner, Hugh.  Hugh wanted the skeleton in their bedroom.  So everyday David was constantly reminded of death.  The 300 year old bones would say to him, “You are going to be die.  You are going to die.  You are going to die.”  

Death truly entered my psyche last year when my Italian grandmother died.  I sat by her body for hours before the mortician picked her up.  For weeks I could only remember the look of her mouth gaping open and turning blue, instead of her holding my hand in church and whispering, “I’m so lucky!”

I was sitting down to breakfast when I got the phone call from my brother, ”Grandma died.” 

What? 

Wait, what? 

No matter how many times he repeated it I couldn’t believe it. 

I had just spoken with her. 

I was about to drive up to see her.  

She was totally fine.   

Even though sitting in front of my Italian grandmother’s body was so hard, at least I could see that she was gone.  My Portuguese grandmother is being cremated, which I was surprised by, since open casket viewings are so, I don’t know, Catholic.  And she was the most devout Catholic I’d ever known.  She was like that though, surprising you.  You never knew what might come out of her mouth.  And here she was, surprising us again by leaving this world.  And on the anniversary of her husband’s death, no less.  If I believed in heaven, I would picture my grandma with my grandpa laughing about the way she left us, “I really showed them.  And on the toilet too!” 

Unfortunately I don’t believe in heaven.  So all I could do yesterday was make that kale soup I was planning on making, have a glass of red wine, and feel alone–the way my grandma said she felt.  But at least the soup came out well.  It’s probably the best batch of kale soup I’ve ever made.  I’m sure grandma would be proud.

Kale Soup

1 Tb. olive oil or canola oil

8 large garlic cloves, crushed or minced

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 Linguica sausages, sliced

4 cups chopped raw kale

4 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth

2 potatoes chopped to small bite size pieces

2 15-ounce cans beans undrained (kidney, black or cannellini)

4 plum tomatoes chopped

2 tsps. dried Italion seasoning ( or 1 tsp each of dried thyme and rosemary)

salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, heat olive oil.  Add garlic, onion and linguica; saute until soft and linguica browned.  Add kale and saute, stirring, until wilted.  Add 2 cups of broth, 2 cups of beans, all of the tomato, herbs, salt and pepper.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Add potatoes and rest of broth.  Simmer 15 minutes.  Ladle into bowls (optional: sprinkle with chopped parsley).

my addition to recipe:  If using bouillon cubes, make 2 cups broth.  Add to big pot when stated.  Start another 2 cups of water boiling for the potatoes, add half of bouillon cube.  When potatoes are soft, add to big pot.

I’m going on an indie music and comedy tour called Belles and Whistles with musicians Uni and Her Ukelele and Foxtails Brigade.  We’ll be hitting Portland, Seattle, Reno, Sacramento and San Francisco. 
Dates and shows are listed here: http://www.myspace.com/bellesandwhistlestour

SEATTLE Feb 4, Wed 8PM at the JewelBox Theater

PORTLAND Feb 5, Thurs 8PM at The Crown Room

Please tell your friends in these cities to come see us.
See you on the road,
Mary

Please call 323-856-0036 for reservations for 5 Funny Females on Feb. 26th .

A digital short I made was picked as a finalist in an IFC short film
contest.  My short film and/or interview will be featured in a short vignette
that will air on IFC. Check out IFC at the following times to see my
film on air:

Date – Time
2/16/2009 – 09:30:00AM
2/18/2009 – 12:50:00PM
2/19/2009 – 04:10:00PM
2/20/2009 – 03:40:00AM
2/21/2009 – 04:25:00PM

I think these times are all Eastern…

Also, be sure to check back to http://www.ifc.com/medialab/littlebigplanet/ to see my film in its entirety on ifc.com, and for more information about this contest, including the grand prize winner!

Thanks!

<3 Mary

p.s. This is the vignette they aired on IFC:

I’m happy to announce my short film “Papercuts” was chosen as the winner in the Sony
Little Big Planet Play, Create and Share Short Film Contest.

As the contest winner, my film ”Papercuts” will play on IFC during the
following times:

03/11/2009 09:09:12AM EST
03/12/2009 07:55:00PM EST
03/13/2009 11:25:00PM EST
03/14/2009 07:55:00AM EST

You can watch my film and the others on IFC.com: http://www.ifc.com/media-lab/littlebigplanet/winners.php