Hi! I wanted to apologize for the long stretch of radio silence. Looks like it will be a little while before I can get back to posting as I’d like. A little career fun is adding to the chaos and I’m working around the clock. I promise to get back to posting once the dust settles.
xoxoxo
Something every busy working woman needs. A place to put your phone when you pee….
So here’s the deal. As The Rock and Roll Mom, I figure that I should blog about music. The trouble is, I’m not a music critic. I can’t do it, hate the thought of it. Its pretty much in complete opposition to who I am as a manager where my base instinct is to serve and protect. So while I won’t be critical, I will let you know what I can’t stop listening to right now. I’ll also give you a glimpse into what our Family A&R Woman (aka Shorty #1) is also into this summer.
LORDE – Lord, I f%^&ing LOVE Lorde. She’s 16, she’s from New Zealand and she is kicking some ass. I love ROYALS, J loves ROYALS, my boss loves ROYALS, Shorty #1 loves ROYALS. I love Royals so much I kinda want to marry it.
DAFT PUNK – Unless you live under a rock, you’ve heard GET LUCKY. Its the hit of the summer and there’s a reason for that. Its really catchy and fun. I’ve been a Daft Punk fan for years thanks in part to their great Spike Jonze music videos – but they have seriously maintained relevancy on the pop music scene with Random Access Memories and to be honest (nerd alert) I think that the marketing plan for this album’s release should be a case study on how it should be done. From launching Get Lucky at Coachella to the full-streaming of the album a week prior to release, its SMART! PS – Pharrell Williams is kinda awesome too. Shorty #1 says “I like the Robot who sings on this song.”
JAKE BUGG – Some might think he’s Baby Bob Dylan, but I like to think he’s taking a bit of a risk and is making some fun music that sounds a little bit like music people made in the 60s. Lightning Bolt is great! Shorty #1 rolls down the windows when this song comes on in the car.
ALT J – My J (no way affiliated with Alt J) discovered this band and turned me on to them. I like that they are also taking risks and are making pretty eclectic music that’s being embraced by mainstream radio. Yay for Alt J. Oh yeah and BREEZEBLOCKS is bad ass!
WAKE OWL – Ok they are local, one of my colleagues is the manager, another colleague produced their first album so maybe I’m a little biased. BUT WILD COUNTRY is beautiful. So go buy* it. Right now. What are you waiting for? Go now.
* – I still buy music. Its a self-preservation tactic I suppose.
ELVIS COSTELLO & THE ROOTS – this record comes out Sept 17, but I’ve had a sneak peak here and there. The first single from Wise Up Ghost is called WALK US UPTOWN. This is a whole new side of Elvis Costello and it is super groovy, so mark your calendar!
And there you have it – some of my new favorite things to listen to this summer. I hope you don’t mind my completely narcissistic viewpoint on what’s on the playlist at our house these days.
Only slightly detoured en route to Paris
I just got back from a week on the road. Not so bad when the road is a whirlwind trip to Paris! It had a bit of a rocky start as the French Air Traffic Controllers decided to strike while I was en route. Good news however, as I did finally make it with only a slight detour via Brussels (very charming – made a mental note to return!)
I love Paris. Who doesn’t? Its EXACTLY as you would expect. Charming little streets and bustling boulevards. Shopping, eating, culture, pain au chocolat – what’s not to aimer?
So here’s where I (very narcissistically) share my favorite places in Paris. Hope you don’t mind?
I have been lucky enough to travel to Paris a handful of times, always on business. So my experiences there are more related to eating, fast shopping and sleeping.
SLEEP
Located in the 8th, around the corner from the legendary George V, The Hotel de Sers is a great little boutique property. The rooms are petit (as are all in Paris) but I was lucky enough to have one facing the inner courtyard which offered a little peace in Central Paris. The bed was comfy and the bath shower combo functioned well (save for the lack of a shower door which meant for some sopping up). The decor was edgy but not annoying although we did take pity on the sole goldfish swimming in each flower vase in the lobby.
Just off Av George V, the hotel was a very quick walk to the shopping on the Champs Élysées to the left and the Seine/ Eiffel Tower to the right.
The restaurant was good and accommodating of my weird food issues and the hotel staff in general were fantastic. Especially the Concierge staff who happily made reservations and tracked us down to help with deliveries.
EAT
A trip into the Marais is not complete without a falafel and this is arguably the best I’ve ever had. A friend brought me here and shared the tip of dining in rather than waiting in the long line at the take-out window. The falafel costs a few euros more when dining in – but its worth it.
Like burritos found in The Mission in San Francisco – there is nothing different about these falafels save for the freshest of ingredients. Delicious roasted eggplant and crispy cabbage perfectly accent the delicately fried falafels. Yum! Plus at €8.00, its a pretty cheap meal.
On our last visit to Le Stella we discovered that its much better in the colder months when the raw seafood bar is set up in place of the sidewalk patio. The selection of oysters and chilled prawns, langoustins and lobster was incredible.
Le Stella is located in the 16th on Av Victor-Hugo and seems to be a local for the neighborhood. We were charmed by families enjoying Sunday dinner with the kids fast asleep at the table.
Our recent summer visit lead us to a delicious and fresh gazpacho and some beautifully grilled sole. Oh yeah and the Sancerre was amazing!
Au Pied de Cochon & La Poule Au Pot
In the music business, late night eating is the way it goes so its always good to have a couple of late/ all night places in your back pocket. Both Au Pied Au Cochon and La Poule Au Pot are located in Les Halles and are reasonably good options in a city with surprisingly few late night dining options. Both offer tuxedoed waiters serving delicious country bread, cheese and other typical French fare. Au Pied Au Cochon was definitely the better of the two although they were out of the house specialty last time we were there… thank God!
Bread cart, cheese cart, dessert cart. Foodie heaven. Enough said.
SHOP
Shopping in Paris is amazing. I have had such little free time while there to actually properly shop (ouch, my diamond shoes are pinching). But I have dabbled.
Pharmacie
Located everywhere – just look for the green cross. Any Pharmacie you come across is full of treasures. French skincare lines are amazing. Even the inexpensive drugstore brands rival what you’ll find in the department stores. Embryolisse is the best! Its a favorite of make-up artists on both sides of the pond and very inexpensive even when paying in euros. I use their Crème Anti-Àge 1èr Rides (anti-aging cream) and it is amazing. I also really like the Avene sunscreen line. Its easy on the skin and smells great.
With its incredible domed Belle Epoque ceiling, this forerunner of the department store carries anything and everything including! Its like a shopping cathedral! The Longchamp boutique here has stanchions to manage the throngs of tourists picking up their trademark shoppers in every shade (I have two and I LOVE them).
The beautiful flagship at 22 Rue du Faubourg St Honoré is the original boutique opened by Jeanne Lanvin in 1889 (when Coco Chanel was a mere 6 years old!) Mme Lanvin started her life in couture as a milliner and made dresses for her daughter. As demand grew, Lanvin became one of the premiere fashion houses in Paris. A luxury brand for sure, but definitely worth a visit to see Lanvin and the other fashion houses along the Rue du Faubourg St Honoré.
Paris is an incredible place. The first time you see the Eiffel Tower all lit up at night, sparkling like diamonds will take your breath away. I can’t wait to go back. À la prochaine!
![photo[3]](https://therockandrollmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/photo3.jpg)
This is Shorty #1. She is a Fashionista in Training. As a baby I always liked to dress her like a mini-hipster. Skinny jeans, converse, t-shirts and hoodies. She rocked the look very well and happily. Until one day, she found a dress in her closet and put it on. From that day forward she dressed herself, “Mom, I need to wear something beeeeeyooteeeful.” My little hipster became a true girlie-girl!
Who was I to intervene? I like that Shorty #1 is self-styled. Who cares if her version of matching is to wear all stripes (striped dress, striped leggings, striped socks, striped hat). The fact that the stripes are all varying non-matching colours doesn’t bother her in the least.
Now shopping for her is tricky. I can’t buy any pants at all – she won’t wear them. She has a couple pairs of leggings she’ll wear to gymnastics or when riding her bike – but they are always accessorized with a skirt over top. The dresses need to have a very specific look – as a rule they should twirl well. Its summer camp season now and she wouldn’t be caught dead in shorts and a t-shirt, not a chance. Always a dress or skirt and if its the latter the top better be interesting – sparkly or something!
Speaking of accessories, they are not lost on her. She loves hair bands – ESPECIALLY bows. Can’t get enough of them. Every morning we play the hairstyle game: “Mom, I need a pony. No a braid. No two braids. No, wait – a braid AND a pony.” Sure! Why not??
Lately, she’s taken to giving me fashion advice:
#1: “You’re wearing that?”
Me: “Sure, why not?”
#1: “You would look better in a dress.”
She and I went shopping recently to check out the annual Holt Renfrew sale. (She brought her rolling backpack full of Barbies just in case we needed them.) In the shoe department we disagreed slightly on what I should try on. I found these:
She didn’t really like them very much. So she went and found me these Miu Mius:
![photo[1]](https://therockandrollmom.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/photo11.jpg)
Disclaimer: In no way did I coach Miss Thing in taking these photos. Her facial expressions are entirely her own. As is her styling – Note: satin bow, poplin dress and pull-y backpack full of Barbies.
I’m cool with Shorty #1 expressing her creativity this way. How can I not be? She’s kicking my ass with fashion sense!
If you’re a regular at The Rock and Roll Mom, you know I have to travel a fair bit on business. So I’ve seen my fair share of travel drama. Its inevitable really. Rarely does any amount of travel go by completely without a hitch when flying is concerned, especially when you throw in a connection or two to make things interesting. If you’ve been reading my blog you’ll also know that I’m not a carry-on only sort of girl so throw in a piece of luggage or two and you’ve got the potential for a perfect storm!
With the Shorties, my goal is to always be gone for the least amount of time possible. This often means taking some pretty crazy travel options to be able to get home as soon as I can. I’m most proud of my New York for the day trips. With the help of Cathay Pacific, I can leave Vancouver at 10pm, land at New York JFK at 6am. Take a car into the city, have a quick shower and then hit the ground running with a day full of meetings, press or even a TV taping (luckily the late night shows usually tape around 4-6pm). Then I head back to JFK around 8pm to fly back to Vancouver on the red-eye arriving at 2am. I can sleep in my own bed for a few hours before the kids wake-up. Genius! I love it!
But you know, life isn’t always so simple. Throw in a delay or two and the best laid plans go out the window. I had one particularly harrowing adventure as I was heading to NYC for a major, 2 day press hit for a news magazine show for one of our clients. This time I was routed through Toronto. Some nasty weather in Vancouver delayed our departure and I missed the connection to NYC. I had a very early start the next morning in NYC with an interview scheduled to take place in my hotel suite. Luckily I was rebooked on a flight leaving Toronto at 6am. No problem! My bag went missing at this point so I was sent off to the hotel with a “Comfort Kit” consisting of a size XL men’s t-shirt, some shaving cream and men’s deodorant around 2am. After a couple of hours of sleep (if you can call it that) I packed on back to the check-in counter, smelling like a dude in yesterday’s stinking, sweaty airplane clothes. Luckily my bag was there and rechecked and I was off.
Arriving in NYC at 7am I headed into the city with the rest of the rush hour traffic. I raced up to my room to shower off the eau de Dude and rinse out my sweaty bra in the sink. Just as I put down the curling iron the camera crew arrived to set up. I wrung out my laundry from the sink (I always travel with laundry detergent for moments such as this) and much to my horror realized this hotel room did not have a closet, just a wide open rack to hang clothes. I found a little perch in the corner of the room to lay my old bra to dry behind the suitcase. At this point, the crew had effectively taken over my suite – cameramen, producer, lighting and audio guys, publicists – and horror of horrors the esteemed journalist who would conduct the interview had moved a chair to that exact corner of this vast 2 room suite and was now resting his feet next to my dripping bra. Lovely!
Another time, I was pregnant with Shorty #2. We were doing a shoot for a TV commercial in Buenos Aires. It was January so in the dead of the Argentine summer. I was routed from Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to Santiago, Chile and then finally Santiago to Buenos Aires. After landing in Buenos Aires I had that horrible sinking feeling that can only come when you are the last person standing at a an empty baggage carousel, watching the same remnants of packing tape and yarn go round and round, ever hopeful that by some miracle your bag will appear from nowhere. It was not be, I was 5 months pregnant and I had an early meeting with ad agency the next morning! The next flight from Toronto wasn’t arriving for at least another 24 hours! Luckily, shopping malls in Buenos Aires are open at 8pm on a Sunday night!!! The lovely production assistant took pity on me and brought me to the nearest mall where I managed to scrounge together a wardrobe for the next couple days. I almost kissed the bellman who arrived the following evening with my bag in hand.
Sprinting through airports to make connections, facing full security patdowns (like can I have a cigarette afterwards kind of patdowns), neverending waits for delayed flights, lost (and found) luggage. All par for the course when you travel. On my last trip as I stared down an air-traffic control strike that started while I was en route, I just kept thinking “Oh well, maybe there’s a blog post in all this…” Looks like there was.
Dear Random Lady I Met at a Party,
Thank you for taking the time to assess my ability to manage my work life and parenthood. I appreciate your unsolicited opinion on whether I am able to sufficiently care for my kids while working, in your assessment, 17 hour days. It was incredible to hear your views on the time I spend telecommuting as you seem to be an expert in the field. I particularly enjoyed your statement that I wasn’t really there for my kids if I was working remotely.
Our 90 second conversation where you initially confused me with someone else was clearly sufficient time for you to accurately determine the health of my relationship with my kids and my husband. It was also plenty of time for you to fully comprehend both my professional and parenting styles.
Since you have such a prescient viewpoint of how I live my life, you may enjoy reading my blogs to see if your evaluations are correct. Might I suggest What Do You Do or you may see something more in tune with your own proclivities for mothering in I am, I am, I am Supermom. I personally would like to recommend Profoundly Profane. Then you’ll learn the incredible restraint and composure I enacted at said party when I didn’t tell you to mind your own f$&!ing business.
Love,
The Rock and Roll Mom
I f@#%ing LOVE to swear. Always have. I mean it, I f@#%ing LOVE it.
As a rather tightly wound, type-a personality with a penchant for absorbing and experiencing stress – swearing gives me a chance to blow off a little steam. Who’s kidding who – swearing is f@#%ing cathartic!
Trouble is, with the arrival of the Shorties we have had to curtail the swearing around the house. F@#%! Seriously, having kids only creates MORE opportunity to swear. Examples:
1. You just spilled yogurt into the gear shift of my car. S#*&!
2. All bundled up to leave the house and someone poops. B@lls!
3. The SuperMom at school drop off lays the guilt trip about you missing the next field trip because you have to work. B+^$#!!!
See? So many opportunities when a good F-bomb would help ease the pain, but NO. Our little dears are still in the throes of language acquisition and what if they (GOD FORBID) dropped a little F@#% you to the preschool teacher – all those years of good parenting and behaviour modelling goes straight out the window.
The real trouble is when I get home from being on the road. The music business isn’t exactly… dainty… EVERYONE swears… A LOT! I have to get all my swearing out on the plane. I have to be so cautious not to let one slip when I’m back in the family fold and when I do I have to start rhyming to cover up. TRUCK, LUCK, SHUCKS. HIT, BIT, WIT. ITCH, SNITCH, WITCH. TRAP, FLAP, CHAP.
In our house we have some emphatic substitutes. They aren’t very creative but they work. For instance a long drawn out EFFFFFFFF can ease the pain.
A friend once sent me the best book ever “Depraved and Insulting English” by Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea. Its full of swears that no one knows. So I can swear away when the kids are around and they don’t bat an eye! Words like:
Gundygut /GUN dee gut/ n – an offensive, mannerless eater. As in “YOU GUNDYGUT”
Shilpit /SHILL pit/ adj – Feable, puny or sickly. Weak, good for nothing, watered down. As in “THAT’S SHILPIT”
Or when stretched for a quick retort, one can always pick-up the quote made famous by Will Ferrell in the movie Elf – “SON OF A NUTCRACKER.”
The truth is, finding a satisfying way to let the swears fly just takes is a little f@#%ing creativity.
Grammy Awards DIY Hair & Make-Up
It’s Grammy week and that usually means a significant amount of frenzied chaos around the office as anyone with an artist playing a role in the show is in a manic state of preparation. With nominations announced only mere weeks ahead of the show and invitations to present and perform following after, its always a bit of a mad dash to coordinate with military precision all the required to’ing and fro’ing that comes with Awards show territory.
The Grammys are a complicated manoeuvre. When an artist is thrust under a microscope for their 30 second – 3 minute appearance, on stage where every last detail from what they say to how they look is scrutinized by the media and any douchebag with a Twitter account, there are a lot of details to take into account – wardrobe, hair and make-up, arrival strategy, performance plans, etc etc. There’s a lot that happens to prep for the big day.
Now, what happens on the ground is a whole different thing. I’ve been to the Grammys twice. It was pretty amazing to see it all work. I’m a nerd that’s done this management thing for a long time, so I found the whole production process and logistical side of the event really interesting. Yes, roll your eyes – I am a total nerd. Although, my twelve year old self was pretty excited about the whole thing and kept asking my thirty-something self if Duran Duran still came to these things.
Ok – now here’s where I shatter some images, so apologies in advance. I think some people probably expect backstage at the Grammys to be a little Bacchanalian or something – champagne flowing, hookers and blowing. But yeah, not so much… at least not all out where anyone can see it. Hell – one time I was there, there were even Muppets backstage – Muppets I tell you. That’s not the sex, drugs and rock and roll we all expect! But it is interesting. Was that Miley Cyrus eating a cupcake in a Herve Leger Bandage Dress? (Lucky little thing – if that were me you would see the cupcake popping through the fabric!) Was that J.Lo’s legendary butt walking past my eye level as I sat in the green room? (Yep – and it was magnificent – good for her!) Was that a size 40 Justin Bieber in a size 44 jacket or was that a waiter? Was that Florence (as in + The Machine) peeing in the stall next me? (Yep and PS – for the record, I DID NOT fan girl her while we washed our hands side by side. PPS – If you’re reading this Flo – I DO ❤ you.)
An LA King’s Throne
Speaking of which, on one of my Grammy tours of duty I was 6 months pregnant with Shorty #2 (See previous blog post The Glow of Pregnancy to get an idea of how interesting that would have made that day at the office). The artist I was with was set to perform on the telecast, so we were scheduled to be at the Staples Centre early the morning of the show for rehearsals and be there all day. The Staples Centre is an arena – and a very big one at that. I should’ve worn roller skates or something to get around (yep – you are welcome for that visual!) The talent wranglers (bless their cotton socks) took pity on me and helped me find all the hidden secret bathrooms. I swear people were worried that I would go into labor in the green room!
After rehearsals, we ran to a nearby hotel to quickly change and doll up for the show. I always love this part the best, hanging with the girls and our bestie the make-up artist, primping and preening. My feet were so swollen and sore from getting around the arena I didn’t know how I would get into shoes, let alone those platform heels. That was when I met my best pregnancy friend – MATERNITY SPANX. Those things saved me! It was unreal. If you’re pregnant, go buy them, like now! Plus they helped hide all the cookies I stole from craft services all day.
So as I tune into the show tonight, I think of my best Grammy memory. We made it a bit of a tradition for our little Grammy team to hightail it before the show ended, ahead of the stadium traffic and hit the In-N-Out Burger on Sunset. A pile of animal style cheeseburgers, fries and strawberry shakes were a great way to end a great day (and give us a base for great night – after parties!). Now pass me another pair of Spanx!
the rock and roll mom on the move 