16 Feb
Remember how I wrote about going home to Virginia for Christmas? Well, I left out a little something we now refer to as “The Disco Christmas Sleepover of 2009,” wherein my best friends and I drank too much and decided to do a dance video. (more…)
15 Feb
artist. interior designer. architect in the making. mama of three.
1. What’s your name and the names and ages of your children?
Corrie L. Machado, mother of Zolan, 12 (I’ll officially have a teenager in March!) Lydia, 7, and Gabi, 6.
2. What is your main creative outlet?
Creating LaLa Architecture and sketching various subjects. LaLa Architecture is my term for designs you create while in architect school. Instructors give crazy creative assignments that would almost never happen in the real world, but they are fun and challenging nonetheless.
3. What inspired you to try this creative outlet?
When I was, I think 9, I received a Crayola Interior Designer Drafting Kit for Christmas. I loved the process I learned through the kit of drawing an isometric (a pictorial drawing with 30 degree angles). I had no idea I was drawing an isometric, but loved the result when I finished. It made me imagine spaces that I could create in real life.
4. What are your current goals (professional or personal) with this creative outlet?
Graduate (honors) with a Masters in Architecture.
Become a registered architect in the state of Virginia.
Own my own architectural/interior design firm!
Personal: spend more time with my three babies.
5. Who are the artists you most admire?
Mary Stevenson Cassatt and John Lennon. Learning too much about architecture at the moment to say what architect I most admire. This week I might say Gerrit Rietveld and next week Michael Graves. Who knows where I’ll end up?
6. How has parenthood affected your work as an artist?
Parenthood has elevated my interest of the arts in general and provided me with tons of inspiration. My three children are all very artistic, and their creativity makes me want to create and share with them what little I know.
7. What or who inspires you?
Color, Music, Shapes, Texture.
8. What band or songs are you currently loving?
Arctic Monkeys and I really like Mia Riddle at the moment. I find her honesty about relationships refreshing and easy to relate to. Oh and Ruckus Roboticus. My children spontaneously start cleaning when I play them!
9. What’s your favorite way to de-stress?
Home alone with my husband and wine! I love him (and wine)…can’t help it.
13 Feb
I went to Them Crooked Vultures on February 11th at The Tabernacle here in Atlanta. For those of you who don’t know, this band is made up of Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones.
How excited was I to see this band play? Imagine your kid on Christmas morning and then throw in the anticipation of a birthday, a trip to Disney World, ice cream for breakfast, and a free-for-all shopping spree at Toys R Us.  In full disclosure, I thought the band’s debut album was good, not the best thing I’ve ever heard. It’s nothing new or different, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But these are guys from Led Zeppelin, Queens of the Stone Age, and Nirvana, so live they have to be pretty damn good, right? (more…)
12 Feb
Maureen Cox married Ringo Starr on February 11, 1965. They had three children: Zak, Jason and Lee. Cox and Starr divorced but remained close friends. She later remarried and had a daughter named Augusta. After her death in 1994, Paul McCartney wrote the song “Little Willow” for Maureen and her children.
“No one’s out to break your heart. It only seems that way.” – Paul McCartney
Here’s McCartney singing “Little Willow.”
11 Feb
Mates of State formed back in 1997 before the whole marriage/baby carriage thing. And while many bands go defunct post parenthood, this duo took to the road with baby in tow. They now have six CDs, two daughters, a motherload of tours, and a blog that describes the life of a band on the (diaper) run.
Check out the video for “Get Better” by Mates of State.
2010 Tourdates
February 17 Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
February 18 Portland, ME @ Portland City Music Hall
February 19 Northhampton, MA @ Iron Horse Music Hall
February 20 Hamden, CT @ The Space
February 21 Brooklyn, NY @ The Bell House
10 Feb
The International Violence Against Women Act was recently re-introduced in the House and Senate on February 4 , and while this is in no way a political site, gender-based violence is a personal issue for me and it definitely affects mothers worldwide. My experience in this area is not a story I’m ready to share with the world (or the dozen of you who read my blog…) For now, let me just say that I witnessed domestic abuse as a kid, the victim was my mother, and the abuser was NOT my father.
Violence against women is not always the couple fighting in the apartment next to you who had too many jager shots kind of thing. (Btw, that’s not ok, either. Call the cops on their drunk asses before someone gets hurt.) In some parts of the world, violence towards women and girls is so common that unthinkable acts like aborting a child based solely on gender (female infanticide) is still a common occurrence, and “honor killings” still take place, such as the recent story of  Medine Memi, a 16 year old Turkish girl who was reportedly buried alive by her own father and uncle for having too many male friends (source: Bust Magazine).
(more…)
