Pouncing on the New Year

I am writing this from the future. It is already a new year for me, a shiny, brand new year. I have made sure it is not poisonous, it is safe for you to take a bite out of 2011.

***

Isn't it strange that numbers are so important to us? The New Year rolls around and we feel a sense of defeat or triumph. We curse the old year and we reach for the promise of renewal that tomorrow offers.

Tomorrow is a new day, a new year. It is important. It will be epic. This will be THE YEAR. We turn our faces into the bright, shining hope that the numbers on the calendar are a spell that can evoke and bring forth a new life - maybe a little like the life we already have only shinier, happier, thinner, less smokey, more creative...

This year, I will be a better me. This year...

It's silly, I tell myself. But I feel it. Feel the depression of the autumn sloughing off me, the dried snakeskin of last year is ready to fall away. I crouch, tensing muscles in anticipation, flicking a long tail of excitement as I wait for the clock to tell me it is time to pounce!

This year. This year I will be more. A bigger, brighter, incan-fucking-descent, unstoppable, irrepressible, undeniable force.


Just like last year.

***

I love New Year's Eve. It doesn't even matter what I do. I can be out at a party, I can be home alone. New Year's, for me, is a wrapping up time. I lived last year. I did things. I feel a sense of accomplishment. And I am ready for the next year.

2010 was amazing for me, it brought me so many things, life altering, universe bending things. I worked really hard and got a lot done, met some of the best people of my life, and learned how to be happy.

Here's a very short tour of "Fantastically Wonderous Things Kim did in 2010."

Finished my very first solo album which was fully funded by YOU. Thank you!!!! It is so good. Produced by Sean Slade (Radiohead, Dresden Dolls,) engineered by Benny Grotto (Boston's Producer of the Year,) made musically delicious by a small selection of wonderful musicians. I worked with a dream team, and we made a really dreamy album

Got amazing artists involved in the album project. Each song has an illustration by a different artist. And the cover of my album was done by the amazing, Travis Louie:

Met and fell in friend love/deep collaboration frenzy with Molly Crabapple:



Made art for a sculpture show:

Moved to New York City:

Modeled:

Played in Australia, Canada, Germany, and back and forth across the US several times.

Here's a live video of an intimate show at Cindy Wonderful's FAB LAB in Berlin:

Got drunk in New Orleans (also played 6 shows, shot an upcoming music video, and registered to clean pelicans:)

Made amazing videos with BriAnna Olson:








Made amazing music videos with Jim Batt (more to come!) :








Met Peaches at one of my shows in Berlin. She said I was intense. Best compliment ever.


Got an assistant!!! Shannon, you make my life better.


Hugged a trumpet player:

Launched a make up line with Sweet Libertine!

And last, but certainly not least: I fell in love. The best ever love. With the best ever person. Ever. And we love you, too.

The Impossible Girl - FULL ALBUM LAUNCH!

Yes!!!!!!! YESYESYES!!!

I have an album. It is launched. It is up and ready and out and you can get it!!! 


If you pre-ordered my album your package is on it's way - check your email for your download code and more information. 

***

Because you are lovely I am offering this discount code of 35% off the CD, which means the CD is only $10 through Dec. 18th (full price is $15)
You are free to use this code yourself or share it with whomever you like.

35% off CD Discount Code: impossible

Check out the things here:  Kim's Store

***

I've been working on this for so long that I forgot to be excited about it. Until I got my CDs in the mail and then all my excitement was renewed. Digital releases be damned! As long as we have physical bodies we will be interested in, and excited by, the physical world. Even if the CD is just a medium that holds the digital information, it is still a real object. It has texture and weight. Light reflects off its surfaces. The brain is stimulated by the body, and the body loves to have and hold, to see and smell, and feel. And there is a lot of feeling wrapped up in these little CDs. A lot.

Speaking of digital releases - the album is a free download today - December 15th - until midnight! And I was being a bit dramatic about damning the digital releases, because actually there is a lot of neat stuff in the digital release - like art for each track - that the physical product does not provide. Anyway - we live in a world where we get both!


Now go, little Impossible ones, and tell the world: on facebook, twitter, blogs, myspace, anything. Link to my music on bandcamp, link to my fancy videos, spread the music so it can grow and I can keep making music for you.

I have a bunch of new merch too!

New posters. (Two designs that combine into one! )

                         

Fancy, glittery Impossible Girl make-up by Sweet Libertine.

Two eyeshadows and one glitter.

****

A note on the chapter releases and the downloads:

All of the songs from the chapters are also included in the full album, PLUS six more songs. So you can delete the chapters if you like. Don't worry about losing any songs - you will have them all and more.

***

And have you seen this amazingly creepy new music video of mine?

Directed by Jim Batt

'Stalker' music video by Jim Batt

Please leave comments on the youtube page and share everywhere you can think of: facebook, twitter, blogs...

Directed by the incredibly talented (and imminently patient) Jim Batt.
This video was shot in one day in the middle of winter in Melbourne, Australia. The spunk (that's Australian for total babe) I'm stalking is Mojo Juju, an amazing musician and performer here in the land down under.

The house belongs to Frankie Valentine, Mojo's partner.

My dress was found at a vintage shop and the rest of the costume was provided by Rose Chong Costumes in Melbourne.

That little nightgown was FREEZING cold. I also had no idea how see through it was until I saw the footage.

Big thanks to: Mojo Juju, Frankie Valentine, Jim Batt, Anthony Cleave, Rose Chong's, Tim Tam's, Murray Lorden, and whiskey.

**

And one other thing: MY ALBUM COMES OUT DECEMBER 15TH!!!!!!!!!!

Hearing My Song on the Radio

Today I tuned in to BBC6 Music online to listen while a fan in Florida got to call in and request any song he wanted. What he requested was my song, "Rainbows and Unicorns," and what happened inside me was amazing.

I listened to several songs before mine came on, radio friendly songs by famous artists, wondering how my song would sound next to these slick productions.

The show's host, Chris Hawkins, announced that they would be talking to listeners all around the world to get special Christmas requests. Chris said that one of these calls would be to Tampa, Florida - this is where Kyle, the young man requesting my song, lives. Seems the call to him was eagerly anticipated. They liked especially when Kyle said, "Awesome." And Kyle was Awesome. He was casually articulate and interesting. And he had chosen my song as his gift to BBC6 Music.

And then Rainbows and Unicorns started, and held it's own next to all those famous songs. There was my little song, not so little anymore, out in the world, all on it's own, doing it's thing, and being rather lovely.



I was anxious and proud and honored and shy and amazed and happy most of all.

Thank you, Kyle!

**


And then I watched the final edit of my music video by Jim Batt. "Stalker" video launches tomorrow: Monday, December 13th. Watch out world, this video is really wonderful!

In Between Everything

Here I am in the midst of a performance reverie. Peaches was at this show in Berlin, she said I was intense. Intense is exactly what I want to be - along with everything else.

Here is something I've been thinking about:

Art happens in the space in between the viewer and the piece. The listener hears the space between the notes. The reader lives between the words. There is an undefinable, intangible, amazingly profound thing that happens. And we cannot see it, hear, touch it, taste it, or smell it. It happens beyond the senses, or maybe between them.

We work so hard to create these amazing works of art, symphonies and cathedrals and giant paintings, great novels, we work our whole lives to express something, to create something, that can only happen in the space in between. The artwork is not the art. Art is the incredibly personal relationship that cannot be expressed or defined.

We have art teachers, art critics, art industries. We can say a painting, a song, a book is technically good or bad; we can have subjective opinions, we can say, "Awesome!" or "Suck!" ; we can point at the thing and say yes, or no, but we cannot ever point at the art. Because art is the gap.

So why? Why bother? Why work so hard, use so many words, so much paint, learn how to play barre chords, when it isn't the art that is the art?

Because what we make provides a structure, and structure defines space, and in the space the art happens. In a properly defined space, art can be perceived, however ephemerally, however fleeting, or intangible, or rarely. We build a a beautiful thing and the art comes to it.

We try to capture art, but it cannot be captured. If the thing that lives in the gap is not allowed to move freely it will wither and die very quickly. You see it all the time, an artist has some form of success, and repeats this over and over again, thinking to capture the inexplicable thing that happened the first time, only to find that the repetition has driven the art out of the thing completely.

This isn't to say that repetition is always bad. Sometimes it is repetition that leads to the most amazing of artistic experiences. Repetition can be a form of discipline which can lead to a magnificent structure. What is bad is the stagnation and denial of movement. Trying to stay still in the moment that is already gone.

The experience of art, music, literature, is so fulfilling that we don't want to be without it ever. Moments of pure feeling, that don't necessarily have an emotion attached but can be any and all at once. It is a feeling of true understanding and belonging. What you understand or belong to cannot be explained. Open your mouth to say why and what you think/feel/know and the art, the gap, the bright, living thing in between everything, slips away.

And then we are empty. And we try to fill the space with something that resembles the thing that once filled that space. We try our own repetition. Like addicts we will do anything to fill the hole that art left.

But just as art is the gap, art is also the void. I am learning to live with the emptiness, not to give in to it, not to submit to a depression or a fear. And when I can be empty, without trying to stuff myself full of anything and everything, that is when my best work begins.


**


More photos from the Berlin show. (Photos by Jim Batt.)

And by the way, Peaches is intense.

Sparkly Things and The Terror of Sleep

I am about to have my very own makeup line! Sweet Libertine and I have concocted a new line of colors - two eyeshadows and one glitter. To launch on December, 15th with my album!

Go here for the Sweet Libertine official announcement:   www.sweetlibertine.com

***

I've been working hard with Molly Crabapple and Jim Batt on our animated music video for The Organ Donor's March - that song will be released on my album on December 15th. The video will come...later.

***

I have so many cool merch things coming up. Interesting, odd, amazing, lovely. Yum!

***

As the date approaches - December 15th - I get more and more anxious. Today is a good day so I write a blog. But man! The stress! I woke up in the midst of a full blown panic attack - sat bolt upright, unable to breathe, feeling like my insides were trying to be my outsides, as if my whole body was trying to purge itself from itself. When I do sleep I have nightmares. One nightmare featured sleep itself trying to kill me. Sleep was like a jealous lover, angry that I wasn't paying enough attention to it and beating me because of this.

Today though, I woke feeling rested, got a good email first thing, then set some fancy meetings regarding my release. Then I thought about my upcoming Australia plans, my animated music video, my album, my family, my friends, and felt like I actually have a really great life. When I sleep, things go much better.

Time for a nap?

Nope. Workworkworkworkworkworkwork.....

Love!

K

Quite Possibly Impossible

T-shirt HERE

The Impossible Girl is being...... difficult.

Today the manufacturing plant called to say there is a problem with the master audio disc I supplied them. I should tell you, I was not very nice to them. This is their fault. They should have checked the files weeks ago, when they said they were checking the files.

Every day there is a problem. Things that should be simple, easy, rote, are difficult, awkward, late, broken, corrupted.

I've put out several CDs with my band. I know how this is done. The manufacturing plant makes tens of thousands of albums every year. My mastering engineer is one of the very best. It isn't like we all just woke up and decided to make a CD. We are professionals performing the crafts we have been perfecting for years.

This isn't a crisis, this doesn't change the release date of December, 15th. It's just very stressful to get phone calls every day with new problems.

But maybe this is part of the story of The Impossible Girl. My own journey to her wasn't easy, so why should her journey to me be any easier?

Travis Louie, who drew the amazing cover art, told me he started the painting three times. I've watched him work, he's amazing, everything he does looks perfect. I can't imagine anything he does being not good enough. And he told me how strange it was to have to start this piece over and over.

The first song of the album, Impossible Girl #1, is an incantation, the sound which calls her forth into the world. I implore you to sing it with me. In your head, in your room, in your local coffee shop, at work, at home, at a glance. Sing it loud! Play it loud! Share it loud!




Pre-order the CD here:

Next album will be called, The Easy Girl....

Important News - New Release Date

In the fashion of many beautiful and difficult women, The Impossible Girl is late. Not terribly late, but late enough that I am pushing back my release date to December 15th. Sometimes art takes longer than you expect. Actually, it almost always does. But also, sometimes, it exceeds your expectations. And taking the time to make it great pays off.

 

And, well, The Impossible Girl will not be rushed.

 

As you can see above, the art by Travis Louie is amazing; the design by Jim Batt is wonderful.

 

She looks great. She sounds amazing. She's totally impossible. We wouldn't have her any other way.

 

The new release date, and the date you can expect to have your CD packages by is December 15th. In time for that holiday. And better for the wait. Believe me. It is beautiful!

 

Order the album here. You can also order additional discounted copies for friends, family, attractive strangers, strange attractors, stage actors, staid acts, stacks and stacks of them - the album that is:    ORDER HERE

 

Thank you. So much. For being with me on this journey.

 

Humbly, and with great gratitude,

Kim Boekbinder
The Impossible Girl

www.kimboekbinder.com
www.theimpossiblegirl.com
www.twitter.com/kimboekbinder

Chapter Three

Photo and design by Jim Batt www.jimbatt.com

Track #2 is probably not safe for work.

Here we are again, release day! Chapter Three of The Impossible Girl is up and out and ready for download.

Rainbows and Unicorns by Melissa Dowell: www.melissadowell.com

Lick My Love Pump by Ryan St. Germain www.ryanstgermain.wordpress.com

Impossible Girl #3 by Rita Burkholder (a.k.a. Helen Keller's Ukulele)

helenkellersukulele.bandcamp.com

He Said by Justin DeVine (he's too cool for a website.)

Impossible Girls Collide

On September 14th I checked into a rented room in Brooklyn, NY. The room was in a warehouse complex of studios, filled with artists from around the world working in different mediums who were all staying for varying lengths of time. On the desk I found an informative sheet that listed everyone who was staying and what they were working on. The first thing that caught my eye was: theimpossibleplace.blogspot.com - "Hey," I thought to myself, "I'm impossible, that sounds like a place for me." So I checked it out. And that is where I found The Impossible Girl. The (other) Impossible Girl is a 36 part melodrama about a fashion designer and her rockstar boyfriend. Which has deliciously painted art and has just been published into a book.

The Impossible Girl (that isn't Kim Boekbinder)

My brain did this really neat thing then that felt like collapsing and expanding all at the same time. As though suddenly everything made sense and stopped making sense at once. As it comes together it falls apart. KABOOM!

Ok, look: "The Impossible Girl" is a good name, I'm totally willing to share it with other creators. Of course other people will think of these things, and have, and will again. But there are two Impossible Girls, one is a book, one is an album, and they are both being launched at the same time. And their respective creators - from different places in the world - all ended up staying in the same house in Brooklyn at the same time. 

Of all the gin joints in all the world in all of the universes and all of the time lines....you had to walk into mine. 

There are differences of course. But damn. And SHAZAM!

I started to write an email to the creators of the story but then I felt really strange; like I was a fictional character writing to my authors. Suddenly unsure of how to proceed I abandoned the missive and just went for a lie down while my brain did laps around the universe.

A few days later I met one of my authors on the rooftop garden. Nikki, the writer, was delighted and took me down to meet her partner, Chris, the painter. We walked into their studio where he was engrossed in painting a large canvas.  Nikki announced, "Hey, I've brought The Impossible Girl."

Chris turned slowly from his work, said, "Yeah...right..." Then looked at me startled as I handed him the postcard with my album art that states clearly who I am. And he looked a little bit like his brain was doing what my brain had been doing when I first discovered his art.

Then we drank vodka. And they came to my NY show and I went to their book launch/art show closing party and we all marveled at the world and talked and had a lovely time. They're off to Mexico next and I'm off to Berlin. And I may never see them again. But we're linked in our imaginations. We both dreamt up the same girl.

And she is me. And not me.

She is The Impossible Girl.

**

And The Impossible Girl has RAD t-shirts!

In pink or green ink on black organic cotton, for girls and boys and everyone else too!

Buy them HERE

My first music video with Jim Batt

 Vimeo: Watch full screen HD!

Or Youtube: Watch full screen HD!

In July I flew to Melbourne, Australia to work on music videos with the wonderfully talented Jim Batt. This is the first of five videos we shot in July. We're also working on an animation for "The Organ Donor's March" with Molly Crabapple.

Collaborating with Jim has been a wonderful experience and I am incredibly happy with our first public outing, "Impossible Girl #2." I'm looking forward to the continued collaboration and new art expeditions.

There are no computer effects in this video, all the magic happened as it was shot. Nature conspired with us that day and made some extra swirly things happen. The wonderful matador jacket came from Rose Chong's Costumes in Melbourne.

It is always helpful and wonderful to have comments on the video pages. So leave your thoughts on youtube or vimeo if you please. And, as always, sharing is caring.

Love,

K

The Impossible Girl - Chapter Two

Chapter Two is out today with wonderful art for each song and a music video by David Westway!

Downloads of Chapter Two come with high quality copies of all this amazing art. And there are t-shirts!

Stalker

Art: Tim Smith - www.uniqueink.net

This art is also available as a T-Shirt - order on Bandcamp

(Video for "Stalker" by Jim Batt will premiere on October 6th)

Impossible Girl #2

Art: Kate Rannells www.katerannells.com

(The song is inspired by Kate!)

(Video for "Impossible Girl #2" by Jim Batt will premiere on September 22nd)

More and More

Art: Mary Larsen www.marylarsenart.com

(Video for "More and More" by Bri Olson coming soon!)

Sex, Drugs, & Nuclear Physics

Art: Jim Avignon www.jimavignon.com

Video for "Sex, Drugs, & Nuclear Physics" by David Westway:

Chapter Three releases on October 15th.

Full Album releases on November 15th.

And here is the full photo taken by Lauren Goldberg of Fairytale Vegas

Pants are Heavy

Chapter Two of The Impossible Girl will be out on September 15th! Rejoicing!

**

While checking my bag at the airport I was asked to remove something so it would be under 50 pounds (sequins + gear = big bag.) I took out an item of clothing which bumped me down just below the line.

"Pants are heavy!" I blurted, with far more volume and enthusiasm than the situation warranted.

Awkward silence surrounded me.

But pants. They're heavy.

My First Music Video

Open/Avocado, directed by Brianna Olson, is so fancy! Watch it full screen!

Loopy and layered and wonderful.

Also on youtube. Share, comment, like...you know how it goes!




p.s. I hear if you watch through old style red/green 3D glasses it looks extra nifty. Haven't tried yet because I don't have any!

In the Woods, in the Bath, with a Bottle of Whiskey.

Outtake from music video for "Impossible Girl #3" by Jim Batt

Videos are on their way. Being edited. Being made extra amazing. I'm so excited. Just watched a rough cut of the video for "Open/Avocado" by Bri Olson and I LOVE it! Can't wait to share it. I was worried I would hate it because I'm in it and I haven't been feeling so great about me lately. But I still love it. Any director who can make me enjoy 3 minutes of my own face is very talented indeed.

Actually I have been depressed for the past week. No reason.

Nothing is wrong.

But that's the problem with depression. Nothing.

And on top of the depression I felt a guilt (or if there was a feeling it would have been guilt) because actually my life is really amazing right now. And I didn't think I had the right to feel bad. So mostly I just stopped listening to myself. I took a walk. I dug a hole and pushed the nothing into it. Felt the coolness of the ground seep up into me. Washed my hands in the ocean. Wrote "Impossible Girl" in the sand and watched the waves swallow her whole, take her out to sea where her heart flies. Sometimes you just have to get your hands dirty.

Today I feel better. Been getting things done. Playing with a two year old - mostly teaching her how to swear and run with scissors. (We finally got in trouble for jumping on the furniture.)

Don't you wish your big sister was a rock star? Yes, yes you do.

The songs are still going strong. 12,000 plays now. Has slowed down after last week's flurry of famous author mentions, but there seems to be a slow burn. Even if you aren't a famous author it means a lot to me, and really does help, when you mention my music on the internet. Twitter, facebook, myspace, blogs. All of it helps. As does using your mouth to tell people. I like that one too.

http://bit.ly/TIGch1  - copy and paste that to share.

And one last thing: Your homework assignment for the day/week/year/life

Take a moment to think about the person or people closest to you. Someone you might take for granted. Think about something they do really well. Maybe it's the way they cook, or sing, or make art, or smell, or look, or snoozle, or wrangle ocelots, or travel through time....could be anything.

And now tell them.

Today: pay someone a compliment. Because we take people for granted. All of us. And even if we know how great someone is, we often forget to tell them. Because we think their greatness is so self evident that to mention it would be redundant.

I think you're great. I do. I really like the way you read my blog.

Love,

K

Molly Crabapple Strikes Again

I just got this beautiful Molly Crabapple poster of 'The Impossible Girl' paper doll printed and it is SO GORGEOUS!

Holy hell is that woman talented!

You can order this poster (includes download of Chapter One of my album.) here: http://music.kimboekbinder.com

I also added signed postcards to the album download page - if you already pre-ordered my album for $10 or more you will be getting a signed postcard already - so no need to order one!

I will be adding more merchandise as I go, packages, t-shirts, stickers, and more. Here we go!

**

Day four and my album has been listened to over 8,000 times. I am very pleased with this and now just need to figure out how to keep it going strong. Every mention helps! So blog, tweet, repost. Bandcamp gives you lovely 'Share' options - you can post a little player to almost any site on the web. 

It feels so ^*&@&^#^!!! good to finally have songs I am proud of out in the world. The recordings are fantastic. Producer, Sean Slade, and engineer, Benny Grotto, did such a good job at giving my songs the right amount of production.

Hurray!

**

And...San Francisco show this Friday, August 20th at The Independent (such a great venue!) with The New Orleans Bingo! Show (such a great band!) I play at 9pm. 

Get Tickets