food_geek’s Ladder: The Steps to Heaven are built on Good Pots

food_geek spoke.

She said, “Let there be food.” And there was food.

She said, “Let there be cooking.” And there was cooking.

She said, “Let there be a blog”. And there was a blog.

And it was good.

And so we begin. At the beginning. Genesis, Book I, if you will. Like all Good Books, we begin with nothing. Or at least we can pretend that we do. Let all of your previous negative experiences with food be wiped away. You have been absolved of your cooking disasters. Your fears of trying something new are gone. You are left with nothing but the desire to try.

Can I get a “Hallelujah!”?

When I say we begin with nothing, I am assuming that we are, in fact, starting with nothing. No tools. No food in the house. No experience. This is obviously not true. Most people own at least a knife of some sort. Hopefully people have some food in the house, even if it ’s just an old bottle of ketchup. And just about everyone has some cooking experience, be it good or bad.

As I was thinking of writing this blog, I went through my own kitchen and its groaning array of miscellaneous crap that I have accumulated there. The thing about being a chef is that everyone thinks you want some gadget or another. So for every birthday and Christmas for 5 years I received some sort of kitchen … thingy. I now have 5 cheese knives, all with handles that displays some cute thing related to cheese … fruit, swiss cheese, a mouse. And really, a normal knife works fine. It really doesn ‘t cut cheese any worse than a “cheese knife”. All that to say, if I had to start over, I would buy the following items for my kitchen. I ‘ll break them down into three categories: Tools, Gadgets and Appliances.

Tools

A knife. On this particular item, I would spend a lot. That ’s me. But a knife is something that you will use pretty much every day. I would buy a chef ’s knife, either 6″, 8″, or 9″ for the size queen. There is no brand that I would recommend, but I would suggest that you ask to hold several different makes and models because the right one should feel balanced in your hand. Not too heavy. Heavy does not necessarily equate to high quality. A good knife will run you about $100-$150. A lot? Perhaps. But, properly cared for, a chef ’s knife will last you your entire life.

So, if you have a knife, now you need …

A Cutting Board. Depending on your dietary choices, I would suggest several. One wooden board for cutting vegetables and any cooked meat. One (plastic) for raw meat. Another (also plastic) for raw fish. The plastic ones can go in the dishwasher. The wooden one should be washed by hand so it won ‘t dry out and crack.

A Cast Iron Pan. I cannot live without this. I have a cast iron pan because many normal frying pans are so thin that they get too hot and burn what I am trying to cook. I also have a regular stainless frying pan, which I only use for vegetables, because they don ‘t need as much heat.

A Roasting Pan. I have two kinds. The thin, black, speckled, light-weight one that everyone has and a “Le Creuset”. The Creuset is great because it has a cast iron bottom which means it can go from stove top, direct heat, to the oven.

A General, Everyday Set of Pots. Not too thin or lightweight, but you really don ‘t need to break the bank. If it has a bit of heft to it, it ‘ll be fine.

A Stock Pot. It won ‘t be part of an everyday set that you ‘ll buy at Walmart. It ’s taller and a bit thinner.

A Non-Stick Pan: No, it ’s NOT so you don ‘t have to use butter or oil. I like non-sticks for all things eggs.

Mixing bowls. Mine are aluminum. Not because they are better, but because they were a gift (see above). I have a set of 7, which I find quite useful.

The Small Stuff:
Tongs (a must!)
Rubber Spatula
Wooden Spoon
Sieve
Whisk
Flippers (one metal, one plastic - for the non-stick pan)
Vegetable peeler

Gadgets

Rasp (it ’s a small hand-held grater for zesting citrus or grating nutmeg)
Grater - for cheese and other grate-o-licious things
Ricer - ONE of the secrets to the best mashed potatoes on the planet …
Pepper grinder - pre-ground pepper is an anathema
Mortar and Pestle - a big clunky one that doesn ‘t crack in two the first time you try to crush coriander seeds with a bit of enthusiasm

Appliances

Blender or a Hand-held blender - for soups and/or sauces
Mini-chopper - like a small food processor with about a 1 cup capacity. I do use this at home regularly to make vinaigrettes.
Pasta roller - for the more adventurous.

There are a few other small items which are perhaps obvious … sheet pans, 9×9 square pans, cooling racks, casserole dishes of various sizes, including a 9×13 glass casserole in which I make lasagna.

I ‘ll end off saying that you don ‘t HAVE to have these things. And it ’s also not an exhaustive list. But these are my top choices.

So if you had to choose, what kitchen tool, gadget or appliance is a stepping stone to your heaven?

Written by food_geek

food_geek was once a successful finance professional. Tired of money, nice things, equity, and the possibility of retirement she decided to pursue a career in the food industry at age 35. She is now a sous chef at a small restaurant in a tiny Quebec village where she works the fry station. She looks forward to being promoted to Manager, Drive-Thru. food_geek has been cooking professionally for 30 months.

The Once and Future Lego Queen - Coretta Scott King

Anyone who has ever tried to play “Montgomery Bus Boycott” at home probably realizes how hard it is to make Martin Luther King out of Legos. First of all, it’s difficult to find black minifigures unless you buy the NBA 3-packs which feels, if you think about it, either deeply insulting to black people or to white basketball players. Secondly, the hair. Put a black minifigure in a suit with accompanying hair and it will look like a second string Eddie Murphy character from “Coming to America”. In fact, Legos are so poorly representative of ethnic diversity right now that the posted versions of Martin Luther King Jr. on Flickr look identical to the posted versions of Will Smith as Agent J in “Men in Black”; right down to the suit. It’s hard to tell, from a distance, if he has a dream or a neutralizer.

As hard as it is to get good Martin out of little plastic blocks, it’s even more complicated to get a good Coretta Scott King. Legos are notoriously bad at replicating women in minifigures as well. For most of her husband’s non-plastic life, you would find her right behind him, supporting him. In reality, Mrs. King had the singular distinction of being witness to every single “Lego Block” that went into building the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s. Each piece of this fight for justice went through her hands at one point or another. If anyone were looking for deeper insights into what King believed and how he followed the arrow of justice, looking through her eyes is our greatest opportunity.

Mrs. King was reluctant to take up the role as leader of the civil rights movement after her husband’s death. In fact, she went to Josephine Baker, asking her to act as leader of this community. When she declined, Coretta Scott King became the soul and heart of American Civil liberties. She fought to ensure that even though Martin Luther King was gone, his dream would be visible, relevant, alive. She made sure that he had a voice even when surrounded by people without her unique insights into his mind. She made it clear to the world that the battle for civil liberties and freedom did not end at the color of people’s skin. Just as Frederick Douglass found that he couldn’t be free as long as anybody remained in chains, fighting for Irish Home Rule and the women’s suffrage, Coretta Scott King explained that the Civil Rights movement was there for the poor, for women, for LGBT people, for everyone.

In 1968, during a Solidarity Day Speech, she called for women to “unite and form a solid block of women power to fight the three great evils of racism, poverty and war.” She opposed Apartheid when the word was unknown to most people. In her fight for equality for gay people everywhere she spoke out to say “Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group.”

She indelibly linked the fight for gay rights to the Civil Rights battle in one of her most famous speeches of all, calling out that, “I still hear people say that I should not be talking about the rights of lesbian and gay people…But I hasten to remind them that Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ I appeal to everyone who believes in Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream, to make room at the table of brotherhood and sisterhood for lesbian and gay people.” She was completely unequivocal and absolutely clear. In 2003, she invited the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force to be a part of the 40th anniversary of the March on Washington. She crossed bridges to support a group she wasn’t a part of - to honor the dream. She fought for the equality guaranteed to all of us when she fought for equal marriage, calling an amendment preventing marriage equality “a form of gay bashing that would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriage.” She took the hardest road she could and she handled it without falling.

On Martin Luther King Day, this year, I want to honor the woman that he honored when he said “without whose love, sacrifices, and loyalty neither life nor work would bring fulfillment…” There is still a long way to go, but to the woman who got every single building block right, the woman who understood every word he said better than most of us, the woman too beautiful to be constructed out of Legos - to you I want to say thank you.

Jim Marcus is a singer/songwriter, director, photographer, writer, performance artist and social activist. And really, that list doesn’t even touch the surface of all the things he’s done or is doing.

A founding member of the seminal Industrial band Die Warzau, Jim Marcus has worked with artists in all genres, from Bjork to Revenge, Steel Pulse, Pansy Division, Machines of Loving Grace, George Clinton, KMFDM, Gravity Kills, Pigface, Little Louis, and more. Die Warzau’s latest release, Vinyl88. Not the Best of DW, will melt your face and is available wherever you buy or steal your music.

NEW YEAR - NEW QUEER (Start by tackling your closet!)

As I lay on my bed yesterday, idly flicking my holiday fat roll and wondering how the heck fudge is made, my wandering gaze landed on the chaotic mess in the corner of the room, otherwise known as my closet. Somehow over the course of the last few hectic months, it has come to resemble a large pipe bomb explosion.

Suddenly, my scattered mental state became clear to me: how can I organize my life when I can’t even organize my closet? It took me five hours and a whole lot of cursing but I managed to not only get through it but also compile a list of Ten Helpful (hopefully) Tips for Organizing Your Closet (and Your Life).

1. Get yer ass in there and do it. I don’t care if you have to put on a Hazmat suit and protective head gear - just do it.

2. Start with the under naughties. Here’s an idea - let’s all say, “NO” to granny panties in 2009, OK? Ask yourself, “If I get in an accident today, do I want the paramedics to see me in these?” If the answer is no, get rid of them. Buy some new panties, bras, sports bras, boxers, etc. New year - new naughties.

3. Whoever said, “One size fits all” lied. I found a leopard print skirt that I bought years ago, still hanging there in the back of the closet, just mocking me. It was too small when I bought it and it’s too small now. I’m never going to lose that last 30 pounds of “water weight” necessary to make that damned skirt fit. On the other hand, if you’re a size 4 and you just know you’ll eventually fit into those size 2 pants again, then, by all means, hold onto them. And when they do fit again, come over to my place so I can kick your sized 2 ass. If it doesn’t fit - get rid of it.

4. No one needs 64 t-shirts with slogans like, “The John Tesh Jesus Refresh Weekend”, “I’m Not Gay but Your Girlfriend Is” or the dreaded, “Visualize Whirled Peas”. They’re not just gay - they’re Ace of Base gay. This might sound wacky but try to pare it back to a comfortable 30 or so. That way, you’ll make room for all the ridiculous slogan t-shirts you’ll get gag-gifted with this year.

5. We all have certain items in our closet that we have absolutely no idea how they got there. In my case, I was probably stinking drunk when I thought the turquoise fringed leather vest was a good idea. In your case, maybe you were impulse shopping or ya know, stoned. My girlfriend has really bad taste in clothing. She has a bright pink, ruffled shirt eerily reminiscent of Seinfeld’s puffy shirt. She looks like a pirate in drag when she wears it. I’m going to sneak into her closet, steal it and give it to the unkempt homeless man on my street who already looks like a pirate. Moral of the story: if it’s ugly - get rid of it.

6. As my friend Sharon (name changed to protect the innocent…her real name is Cyndi) said when I asked why she still had the Working Girl blazer (complete with shoulder pads) in her closet, “It might come back in style!” GAH! It would take a miracle but yes, it might come back in style. Do you really want to wear it again? It looked awful the first time around; rest assured it will look awful the next time around. That is, unless you think “linebacker” is a good look for you. There’s a reason a particular look went out of style and just like your youth - it ain’t coming back. Ever. Get rid of it.

7. I don’t know about you but I have pants in my closet that have been in there so long, dust bunnies made a nest in the crotch. Much like the jeans I can’t bear to get rid of because I was wearing them the day I met Maxwell Caulfield, I got lucky the last time I was wearing those dust bunny pants. That should tell you just how long they’ve been in there. Sometimes we hold onto an item of clothing, long after its use is over, not because we’ll ever wear it again but because we don’t want to let go of the memory associated with it. It’s time to pass along those items to someone who will actually wear them (not just sniff the leg and dream about Maxwell) and make room in the closet for some new memories. Rule of thumb: if you haven’t worn it in 2 years - get rid of it.

8. If you were wearing the same thing in every profile pic in 2008, it’s time to change things up a bit. Pair the shirt with different trousers or replace it altogether with a similar shirt in a different color. Or hey - go nuts and create something completely new and fresh. If every time I see you it looks like you’re wearing the ‘You Uniform’ - it’s time to rethink the Go-To Outfit.

9. It may seem at this point I’m recommending you get rid of everything in your closet and if you’re my friend Sharon, aka Cyndi - I am. But most of us, after clearing out the clutter, will find a lot of things truly worth holding on to. And let’s be honest, who has the money for a new wardrobe these days? So, if something is in good shape, fits well or has way too much sentimental value (a plaid shirt belonging to your Auntie Genevieve, the school teacher, never married but who visited her “friend” who lived 50 miles away every other weekend and who you recently found out is most likely the first lesbian on your mother’s side of the family) - keep it.

10. Don’t throw away the stuff you’re getting rid of. Well, OK, granny panties go in the trash…ewww. Donate your good items to Goodwill, get a receipt and write it off on your taxes. Hey, poor people need your crap now just as much as any other time of the year.

Bottom line, if it doesn’t make your socks roll up and down, if you don’t look at it and think of one reason why it would make you feel good to wear it, then let it go. I found that something as simple as cleaning out my closet made me feel lighter, more organized and ready to tackle the new year. Now if I could only figure out how the heck fudge is made and why it’s so damned addicting, I’d be doing great.

Written by Lane West

Lane West is currently awaiting eviction from her ghetto apartment in Los Angeles where she resides with an exasperated girlfriend, a geriatric beagle and a ridiculously large hat collection. Although she has no degree in fashion, per se, she is an opinionated Leo and therefore, an authority on most anything.

Indigo Girl Gone Solo: Amy Ray and the Art of Letting Go

“My wife and I missed your show last night,” says a nondescript man. He’s first in line to greet Indigo Girl, Amy Ray at a Chicago Border’s in-store signing. “Our son got sick.”

Another man, not a day under sixty, carefully unloads a stack of Ray-related memorabilia, including a vinyl copy of her newest solo album. He folds his hands behind his back, and smiles as she signs each one.

In search of a landline on which to conduct our interview, I ask a friend’s boss if I can borrow a cubicle. “I can’t believe Amy Ray is gonna call here,” my friend’s boss, straight and suburban, squeals, “She’s like a real celebrity!”

Clearly, members of the mainstream can pick Ray out of a lineup; even sing a few bars of one of her songs, or at least one written by the other Indigo Girl, Emily Saliers - hers tend to get more radio play. But Ray is the Indigo Girl gone solo, the one hauling her own gear, staging a packed punk-tinged show at Chicago’s small concert venue, The Metro, pushing the envelope of queer visibility by showing the world (or at least those who are savvy enough to pay attention) another side of a forty-four year old lesbian singer/songwriter, the side that fucking rocks.

When Ray calls from outside Chapel Hill, she’s just taken a turn driving her tour van, byproduct of a stripped down tour. She’s headed out the other side of a Midwest stint that began with a broken down van and a missed Iowa gig. Back in Madison Wisconsin, she offered to make dinner for any audience member who could lend her a truck. “I make a killer sweet potato enchilada,” she said. Now she seems in good spirits, anticipating a break followed by a West Coast run, “Birmingham, Tallahassee, maybe a Mississippi show,” she says, “then out through Texas, the Southwest and up to the West Coast.” January 15th through February 7th if you’re wondering.

Not wanting to try Ray’s patience, I skip the lame background questions: “How did you come up with the name ‘Indigo Girls,’” (a serendipitous pass through the dictionary) and “Have you and Emily ever had sex?” (Absolutely not). Instead, I plunge right in.

Queerky: Didn’t It Feel Kinder is your third solo album. After making your career as half of a duo, what surprised you most about suddenly being a solo artist?

Amy Ray: When I started I thought [solo work] was just gonna be something I did a couple of times to experiment, get a few things out of my system. Then I realized it was as important to me as what I do with Indigo Girls. That was a surprise for me.

Q: Tell me about your writing process.

AR: I have a lyric journal, and when I’m in writing mode, which is probably about seventy-five percent of the year, I write maybe four or five days a week anywhere from two to five hours a day. I don’t censure myself at all; it doesn’t have to be quality, its just getting my ideas out. Then I comb through for nuggets of songs and I tape myself playing and singing along to different parts. The first part of the process when I read back through, I’m a little surprised at what comes out sometimes, but I step back from it and try to be really objective, so it doesn’t scare me like it used to. (laughs)

Q: As a writer I tend to reveal without editing and then be surprised by how vulnerable I’ve made myself. Can you relate to that experience at all?

AR: Well, when I sing live, it becomes a more vulnerable experience. But I just have to let go and be in the moment. I can’t be responsible for what my vulnerability is at that point.

Q: How has your relationship to songwriting as a discipline changed over your career? Did you always write every day?

AR: Right now on tour I’m not doing that. We just finished an Indigo Girls record so I’m not writing as much as I typically do. I’m just sort of on break to let things in. But no, I didn’t start out writing like that at all. I was really undisciplined. I believed in this idea that if the muse hits you, you write. I didn’t edit enough and I didn’t really work hard enough. Probably eight years ago, when I started making solo records, I started reading a lot about writing and talking to different songwriters and I realized I needed to create a routine around it and I did.

Q: Did that change your work?

AR: Melodically I still struggle sometimes, but I noticed that my songs got better, the images got a little tighter, I got more prolific. I feel like anytime you work on something as a discipline it improves. There’s no doubt about it.

Q: In terms of discipline, it seems like your vocal range has developed in recent years as well. Was that something you consciously cultivated?

AR: Earlier on, I just took my voice as the natural quality of what it was and didn’t work on it. I definitely didn’t take good care of it. I drank and smoked a lot and that’s not good for your voice. That stopped about twelve years ago. Probably five or six years ago, I started working with this DVD for heavy metal singers called “The Zen of Screaming.” I was listening to vocalists like Brandi Carlisle and Jeff Buckley who had a certain way they would break into their head voice. I started working on that, doing specific things around building my range. I talk to other vocalists and call this vocal teacher and ask her questions. It’s kind of nerdy; I definitely work on it a lot because I want to be able to go between screaming a punk rock song with melody within the screaming, to singing in a very strong but vulnerable kind of head voice. I want to be able to do both things because I’m writing songs that, to me, have both voices in them, and if I can’t do that it’s frustrating to me.

Q: You talk about how using your head voice goes along with the progression of your songwriting and all the work you do with gender.

AR: Yeah, when I wrote She’s Got to Be, I wrote it in that higher range cause I was trying to reflect a sort of quote unquote feminine part of myself by singing in that register.

Q: Speaking of gender, I have a theory that most lesbians-femmes included– have a secret male alter ego. If you were a man (and I’m not saying you aren’t) how do you imagine you’d look? What would your name be?

AR: Oh…what would my name be? Well, people call me Amos, so that’s probably my alter-ego name. I’d probably look about the same to be honest.

Q: Did you see how quickly you came up with that?

AR: Yeah I think because I’m so male-identified in so many ways it’s not a hard one for me (laughs).

Q: We’ve talked a bit about what it’s like to put your songs out and sort of let go of them. You seem really at peace with the whole process. Some performers, Kurt Cobain and Ani Difranco both come to mind, famously object to fans misinterpreting their songs. You use metaphor and history and personal experience to write really multidimensional songs, so I’m guessing you get a lot of fans flattening your meaning, maybe going for the obvious interpretation. What are your feelings about that?

AR: I think when Ani comments on that or when Kurt did, I think they had such frenetic fans who had a propriety relationship to their lyrics [which] probably made them feel like they shouldn’t have to be accountable for this or that. I don’t have that same intense experience. I really believe in letting the song go. I’m fully aware that people are going to have their own meanings for it. Obviously, it would upset me if people thought I was saying something inflammatory or negative or mean when I didn’t mean that, but as far as interpretations of metaphors, or taking the song and making their own meaning, or even reading into my life in a way that’s not accurate, it doesn’t matter to me actually. I don’t think about myself to that extent, you know what I mean?

Q: That probably makes it a lot easier for you.

AR: Yeah, I’ll sit and read a Louise Erdrich book, and in my mind I’m coming up with all these ways that it connects to her real life, and I’m sure none of them are true. I used to do that all the time with Bernie Taupin’s lyrics with Elton John. I just thought I had him figured out lyrically. It’s just what people do.

Q: What’s more likely to make you cry, books, movies or songs?

AR: Hmmm. Songs.

Q: And now we come to the meat of the interview, some very serious questions coming up. The L Word, positive cultural step forward or exploitative poorly-written drivel?

AR: (laughs)

Q: Or maybe both.

AR: (Still laughing) I might have to take the fifth on that. I think it’s both.

Q: Starbucks drink of choice?

AR: Soy Chai.

Q: Favorite season?

AR: Spring.

Q: Favorite time of day?

AR: Twilight.

Q: Name four activities you cannot live without. By activities I mean, like working out-

AR: Working out…being in the woods… I can’t live without… eating junk food and I can live without sex… for a while but not for more than a couple of years.

Q: Ok, well should I count that one or not?

AR: Um, let’s count that one.

Q: How many animals do you own right now?

AR: I have… five dogs and seven cats.

Q: How many is too many?

AR: I could probably fit one more dog and one more cat and then I’m at my limit.

Q: What’s your favorite breed of dog (although I’m assuming you go more for the rescues and the mutts)?

AR: Yeah, mutts are my favorite breed. I like around a forty-five to fifty pound dog.

Q: Could you have a relationship with someone with opposing political views?

AR: Not a love relationship, no.

Q: Speaking of politics, a lot of queer people describe having a circumscribed period of pure joy when Obama was elected, followed by deep disappointment, almost an estrangement, after Prop 8 passed. What was your experience?

AR: I was so overwhelmed that Obama won with such an incredible majority that for me, it didn’t dim that much, because I expect that this marriage thing is gonna be pretty slow moving. Even Obama can’t stand up and say he’s for gay marriage. The marriage issue is important to me as a human rights issue but there are so many other queer community issues that are important to me. I didn’t have high expectations, is a simple way to put it, so it didn’t blow my mind, but I think it’s important that people are speaking out about it. I think that’s great.

Q: I have a potentially dicey question for you. In mainstream culture, references to Indigo Girls, more often than not, appear as jokes. Like, Glamour magazine might write, “you’ve just been dumped, and you’re at home listening to Indigo Girls and eating a pint of Ben and Jerry’s,” or I know I’ve read belittling references in Maxim for example. Why do you think Indigo Girls end up a cultural punch line?

AR: Yeah, people say “I’m a closet Indigo Girls fan.” It’s as if women are only allowed this very narrow access to music and success, and when they do have it there’s still a sense of embarrassment about recognizing it or validating it. It’s about sexism, and sort of a derogatory idea of what it means when women express themselves. When you add homophobia on top of it, and then a band that’s been together twenty something years; when you have such an attachment to such specifics, you’re gay, you’re a woman, you don’t have an image like Madonna, you put all that together, and you have a very easy target. There’s a certain almost derogatory iconic status that comes along with that. In some ways you have to expect that if you’re gonna be outspoken and so politicized, so iconically who you are, you’re gonna get cultural references that aren’t always positive, and humor that’s the lowest common denominator. Sometimes it’s clever. Sometimes it’s subversive and even flattering in its cultural way. The only thing that bothers me about it sometimes is the reflection it has on society: It means we haven’t moved that far. The gatekeepers are still the patriarchy. They still think of rock or folk or country as sort of a man’s game as far as who can lay claim to some kind of intellectual free rights. It doesn’t ruin my day or anything. It just kind of is what it is.

Q: Again, you seem to have a really healthy attitude about things that are out of your control.

AR. I used to have a much worse temper and it didn’t do me much good.

Q: One more question for you. I think kids have really specific ideas about their adult lives. Like, I always thought I’d grow up to be blond. What sort of vision did you have for your life when you were say ten? How is the life you live the same or different?

AR: When I was ten I pretty much thought I was a guy, so that was shocking when it didn’t happen. But you know I’ve been able to come full circle on that. I really wanted to be a musician so I sort of pictured myself living in a rural area and playing music and that’s what I do. I got really lucky.
Except that she didn’t. No way is Ray’s success luck-based. Sure, Indigo Girls gained visibility in the Tracy Chapman-fueled half second during which folk music was marginally cool, but Ray’s continual presence on the music scene, her growth as an artist, the evolution of her songs and voice, none are accidental. Her success is a direct consequence of her ability to both channel her will-power and sustain an objective distance. In discussing the breadth of her singing range Ray says humbly, “I’m totally not there yet,” meaning she hasn’t fully attained the vocal goals she’s set for herself. However, Ray is striking in that while she has her sights set on further landmarks on her path toward self-actualization, she’s adept at harnessing her ambition, has perfected the art of letting go; she’s already farther along then most will ever be.

For tour dates, videos, sound clips and photos (including one of Amy in a prom dress) please visit her website at http://www.amy-ray.com/.

Written by Sarah Terez Rosenblum

A freelance writer with an MFA in Creative Writing, Sarah Terez Rosenblum is at work on her first novel. When not writing, she supports herself as a Starbucks barista, figure model, Spinning instructor and college teacher. Inevitably one day she will find herself naked at Starbucks or trying to brew espresso using astationary bicycle. She’s kind of looking forward to it actually.