Bushwick New Year’s Resolutions for 2016
Here we are with the first month of the New Year almost complete. I love making New Year’s resolutions and also like hearing what other people aspire to each January 1. I checked in with Bushwick artists and volunteers to see what their 2016 resolutions are, and whether or not they’ve been sticking to them.
I’ll start us off.
Kerry Garvin
“This year my plan is, as always, to read or listen to more books than I read last year. I think that means tackling about 60 books. This year I will also finally complete East of Eden. I have started this book many times and never finished because I love it so much and don’t want it to end. My interest in Young Adult and children’s books continue and my goal is to read classics, like Anne of Green Gables that I skipped in childhood. In addition, I would like to reread some of my childhood favorites like Summer of the Monkeys and Danny the Champion of the World to make sure they are still good. I also want to go to more live shows than I did last year. To kick off a year of good shows, tonight I’m going to see Talib Kweli.”
— Kerry Garvin, Bushwick volunteer
Wes Weddell
“I often find the first of the year to be a reflective time, a symbolic (if arbitrary) page-turning, but I rarely make specific resolutions. That said, I’m looking forward to a year of reading, writing, singing, and playing – I’m consistently a happier fellow when engaged in any (And preferably all) of these four activities. And maybe I’ll find out what having a new album means in the year 2016.”
Sidenote: Wes has a fantastic new album, Nobody’s Flag that consists entirely of Bushwick songs (and features a ton of cameos from other Bushwick artists, including artwork design by Bushwick volunteer, Travis Young.)
Tekla Waterfield
“My New Year’s resolutions are to KEEP KICKING ASS!”
Sidenote: Rightly so, because Tekla ended the year by releasing her first solo album. Titled This Nightlife Is Wearing On Me, it’s currently on rotation on KBCS. She also made a music video for the album’s first single Dream Chaser.
Aaron Shay
“I don’t really do resolutions, but my goals for this year are to finish a full-length record and to plan a route through the USA to take my one man show, Apocalypse Songs on the road in 2017. I think that will keep me plenty busy!”
RL Heyer
“I am recording an album this year with a new band, Your Sweet Action, consisting of myself on lead vocal and guitars, Kathy Moore on guitar/vocal, Norman Baker on bass/vocal, Scott Goodwin on drums/vocal, Jacques Willis on vibraphone/percussion/synth, and Joe Doria on organ/keys. I will be starting a crowd-fund campaign in late March to fund the recording, pressing, mixing, mastering, promotion, and musicians. Also, Cracker Factory released our fourth album in 2015 and we are releasing videos for each of the songs contained therein. The first two are already out. They are Heaven For Free (directed by Bushwick’s own Nate Bogopolsky) and Stronger Than Glue (featuring Steve Scalfati).”
— RL Heyer
Geoff Larson
“My goal this year is to promote as many Bushwick artists as possible. I want to help artists achieve their goals, and I want to make The Bushwick Book Club Seattle a Seattle institution. The Arts are powerful… and I’m ready change the way people see songwriting and music.”
— Geoff Larson
Levi Fuller
“…to figure out how to keep reading books (and writing songs) in my first year of being a parent.”
Mike Votava
“One of the things I’m committed to doing this year is carving out at least 60 minutes of every day to play music — no matter what. Some nights I have to stay up really late, but that’s ok. The joy music brings me cancels out the extra grumpiness acquired from the lack of sleep. Which means my grumpiness levels consistently read normal on the Moody McGee scale (normal for me at least, they’re probably much higher than that of an average person).
“I’m hard at work putting together an album of Mike Votava Bushwick songs. Recording it myself. It is fun. The challenging part is I have so many stupid songs to choose from. Which one’s will make the cut? Maybe none of them. Who knows.
And I hope to play more shows with my favorite mustache rock band We Wrote the Book on Connectors and avoid getting anyone pregnant.”
Debbie Miller
“Write more music and go back on tour! I released my new album, LIVE In An Empty Sea yesterday. It was recorded in front of an audience at Empty Sea Studios in Seattle in March 2015, and funded successfully through Kickstarter.”
Simon Kornelis
“My resolutions musically are as follows: release my new “Steak House” EP, take a guitar lesson from Del Rey (my newly discovered neighbor!) and buy a really cool amp. The EP should be done in the Spring. On March 26, I am playing a feature show at Naked City Brewery in Greenwood. This show is part of a monthly showcase where a singer plays and chats about their music.”
— Simon Kornelis
Carrie Seidl
“My reading resolution for 2016 is to use the reading challenge from the secret online girl gang I belong to as a motivation to step outside of my reading comfort zone. I need to expand beyond celeb bios, cheesy mysteries, grumpy old man mysteries and science/nature books. Maybe it’s time to read a little history?”
— Carrie Seidl, Bushwick volunteer
Sidenote: I too am participating in the secret online girl gang reading challenge. I’d tell you more, but I bet you can guess what the first rule of secret online girl gang is…
Cass Cross
“Every year for the past three years my resolution is to read more, which means I keep having to read more and more and more. The good thing is that this year I have a baby and that opens up an additional genre of book. My favorite so far is a book called Gallup! The best part of the book is when it says, ‘Can you swim like a turtle? Glippety-gloap-gloap!'”
— Cass Cross, Bushwick volunteer
Sidenote: My favorite book in this series is Waddle. The best line is, “Can you hop like a frog? Flip-Flop-Floop!”
Do you have music or reading related resolution this year? We would love to know about them. Share it with us in the comments below.
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