Hey, y’all!
This month has been a YEAR already, huh? I look forward to October all year, tell myself this is going to be the year I go All Out for Spooky Season™️, and then all of a sudden, over half of the month is gone and I’ve resigned myself to fishing my Miss Argentina cosplay out of the back of the closet AGAIN. I guess there’s some solace in it being semi-topical again, at least.
🎮What’re We Playing?
Balatro has taken over our household—well, more than it usually has since my first love affair with it on Switch. As soon as it showed up on Apple Arcade, all bets were off (or on, as it were). There are nights now where we’re basically both in our home casino, Evan on his Mac, and me on my iPad, breaking the dreamy lull of the 7/8 music loop with an “Ooohh! Fibonacci Joker!” or “Crap, got The Hook again” met by a knowing grunt from the other party. I’d say it’ll tide us over until our next trip to Vegas, but poker in Vegas isn’t this fun—there’s no 5 of a Kinds or ways to request your deck be all Hearts and Spades to make flushes easier. Feels like the kind of thing that would probably get you kicked out and your picture up on a pit boss’s wall.
📺What’re We Watching?
Hispanic Heritage Month just ended, and I’m still thinking about Fabiola Mendez’s Tiny Desk performance. Puerto Rican-born (just like me! Yay!), she took up our national instrument, the cuatro, at age 6 and made it her primary instrument when she went to study at Berklee. The Academy™️ being one of the most powerful forms of cultural canonization, it gave me a huge swell of pride to learn that this instrument of the Puerto Rican countryside plucked along the same hallowed halls that once echoed the electric wails of fusion and blues from the likes of Steve Vai and John Mayer. Of course, NPR’s Tiny Desk being another vector of popular music canonization, there was no way I was getting through this performance without crying and cheering for my countrywoman as I was instantly transported to my childhood holidays: The pasteles, the arroz con gandules I’d always pick around, the smell of the grass we’d put in shoeboxes and leave under the Christmas tree for the Three Kings’ camels—it’s all there in that 15-minute journey.
🌈What’re We Doing?
If you’re in Orange County, NY or somewhere in the Carolinas, you’ll hopefully get to hear me sell you stuff over the radio soon! Reading books into a microphone at home in fuzzy slippers is a vibe, but I much prefer getting into a booth and getting that immediate feedback from producers and clients while also playing with my colleagues face-to-face.
“Look What I Made Me Do,” our collaboration with downupright for their MANIC EPISODE!! album, is OUT NOW on streaming platforms! Every time they give us a call, I know I’m in for another fun musical and lyrical puzzle to solve, and this time it was around the subject of self-sabotaging behavior—something I’m very familiar with. The verse I wrote for it is extra special to me since I managed to cram not one, but two family mottos in the lyrics (“Never a dull moment” and “It’s an adventure!”). And, of course, no Crimson Echoes track would be complete without Evan doing his thing on guitar, giving me an end solo featuring my favorite version of his guitar tone in a MINUTE.
Because when you’re in your late 30s, the only way to hang out with your friends is to be on each other’s podcasts, I’ll be co-hosting the Break the Business podcast on Thursday this week with one of my bestest and oldest friends, Ryan Kairalla! Ryan is an entertainment attorney and content creator in his own right with a mission to demystify the inner workings of the entertainment industry and put the power in creators’ hands. We’re also probably going to talk pop culture and other assorted geekery because we can’t help ourselves. Hope to see you there!
Thanks for reading the Rock Doc Grimoire! If you’d like to pay the energy forward, consider these places, and consider getting your early voting on if it’s available in your neck of the woods!
…And no matter what you do, always be sure to ROCK ON.
—Elisa
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