On the Road- Kristin Sweetland

A hazy dazy 4 o' July in the holler... more photos

July 4, 2005
Gid Brown Hollow, VA

All is well in the little cabin in the holler. A hot and lazy Fouth of July with the buzzing bees and the blowing breezes and the gurgling swamp monsters in the nearby pond. No communal fireworks display tonight in this neck 'o the nowhere woods! So we had to go buy our own like true rednecks and set 'em off ourselves in the back forty... Mmmm pretty sparkles. !(*)!

In Jeffersonton, VA... more Virginia self-portraits here!

June 26, 2005
Cranberry, PA

Tooo sleepy to write.... Motel 6 smells like wet doggies. Forgot how much I love television... xo nighty-night

At the Crown Fountain in Millenium Park, Chicago... more photos

June 25, 2005
Chicago, IL

I've been having such an amazing weekend in Chicago. This city is happening! Besides the over-the-top torturous traffic congestion (which in the 101 degree armpit-of-the-universe heat is reasonably unbearable) I've been having such fun exploring the city. Had a fabulous "Women With Guitars" show at the Abbey Pub on Friday night and met some truly fine and talented ladies. On the other side of the club the Easy Star All-Stars were playing and kickin' it up big time! I never even thought I liked Reggae but these guys certainly changed my mind. For their second set they played the entirety of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" à la exceptional reggae. It didn't even remotely suck. I loved it. Other highlights of the weekend were Neiman Marcus hat shopping and the Taste of Chicago- the city's anuual outdoor food festival. I ate some superfine crab cakes and seafood gumbo... yum. And drank some truly heinous Budweiser-made beer -Don't try that at home. Will be heading off Virginia-bound in the morning... yayyy remote mountain nothingness and no traffic! Gotta make it cross the whole blasted Ohio turnpike first tho. But I know there will be Cracker Barrel hashbrown casserole somewhere on the way and that will make it all eternally worthwhile....

101 Degrees in the traffic jam... more photos

June 16, 2005
London, ON

Home sweet home... So glad to be here for some resting and eating and cleaning before I yet again hit the road. And thank the universe, our recent painfully stifling Southwestern Ontario heat wave has finally broketh! My brain is once again officially functioning and that is very helpful to the cause of getting work done. I've just posted a whole slough of Europe photos from my ongoing self-portrait series... check them out here! I'm around Ontario for the next week and a bit and then off to Chicago for some Women with Guitars action. Then down the the Virginia holler... Gonna lock myself in a cabin in the middle of the beautiful nowheres for a while and work hard on finishing some new-album writing. Yeehaw! New album! It's getting closer to existing every single day... I'll keep you updated... xoxo K

At the Hotel de Sejour, Paris

May 20, 2005
Paris

Adieu Paris. I have had the very best adventure ever. Spent my last night here enjoying the sweet sounds of Lotus (you gotta say it with a French accent..."Lotou!") at my favourite bar I found in all of Paris- Le Connétable. The first night I found this place I was wandering about the Marais after going to "La Nuit des Musees" at the French archives -They lit up all the museum exhibits with coloured lights, black lights and other various Rave-y madness and let all the Saturday night streetgoers wander through... with live DJs and all! I got to see Napoeon's hat- Anyways, Le Connétable is a true real-thing beamed out of the 1920's artsy philosophising speakeasy joint that sucked me in like a giant horseshoe shaped magnet in the sky. It's the kind of place where the seriously talented cute boys (all Johnny Depp-like in "Chocolat") rock out on the ragtime guitar in a stairwell 'till the crack of bleedin' dawn in the drippy drippy carved out stone cave bar basement like we're all gonna die tomorrow or somethin! There was even bad wine, French intellectual conversation and the whole nine yardage, man. I think I might just have to move here.

But I am indeed really looking forward to my bed... and my dog... and not having to speak French if I don't want to...

With the moon and Ste-Chapelle cathedral... more photos

May 17, 2005
Paris

Tonight- oh!!!!! I got to go see Jean-Paul Poletti & La Choeur de Sartène sing their nouveau-Gregorian majestic chanty resplendentness in the unparalleled glory of Ste-Chapelle cathedral. I wept in awe. I LOVE Paris.

Paris Candlelight... more from my Europe self-portrait series here

May 14, 2005
Paris

I am the happiest girl in the world- well, now that I'm here. My supposed high-speed 4 hour train ride from Amsterdam to Paris ended up taking 8 hours due to a railway strike in Belgium. They held our train for 2 hours in Antwerp and then we were additionally late cause they couldn't find the conductor! But alas, I made it and it was worth every single torturous stranded minute. I found the most fabulous restaurant on La Rue Francs des Bourgeois close to my hotel in the Marais and I am addicted! It's called Le Potager du Marais, all organic gourmet Vegetarian food and wine. I had a to die for organic Bordeaux . Can't wait to go back... Tomorrow I must go museum-ing like a good little tourist, the Cluny Museum of the Middle Ages being at the top of my list. Mmmm gorgeous Unicorn tapestries. Other than that it's follow-my-intuition adventuring... we'll see what happens. Adieu for now! La K

A birthday Sake toast in Amsterdam... more photos

May 10, 2005
Amsterdam

Happy Birthday to me. After a serious overnight flight of no sleep whatsoever and a subsequent day of zombie-like wandering in a delicious daze I am celebrating my birthday in true fine style. So incredibly happy to be here. It's like a dream. A dream with really good clothes shopping and super-fine beer and lots of bicycles. Lots and lots of bicycles. I walked and walked and walked all day... there was also some eating of chocolate strawberries on canal bridges and sipping of extremely good champagne. I also made a very important trip to one of my goal destinations- the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. Library of all things mystical and fascinating and glorificus and ancient. I had the best day ever. Can't wait till tomorrow.

yay. xo Lady K- one year older...

In Toronto at the Mod Club... more self-portraits here!

April 29, 2005
Toronto, ON

Alas, I made it all the way across the country in time to see Patty Griffin play tonight in Toronto. Sweet! It was a long country man... let me tell ya. So glad to be back in the arms of the homeland. Here for a week of unpacking, cleaning and re-packing... Then it's off to gaie Paris for me!

updates soon! xo

April 25, 2005
Sault Ste Marie, ON

It's the last night of sleazy motels for me on this trip, baby. My motel blanket even says "Motel" printed in black ink all across it. Gotta love that. Oh, Ontario-you are so long and take FOREVER to drive through. This was day 2 of the Ontario-haul, all cold and drippy with threats of snow and such. Had to pull over last night in Motel Nowhere due to serious freezing rain. NOTHING good to eat up here for days. Icky white bread and nasty fried soggy potato products prevail. Dreaming of clouds of brown rice sushi lifting me up to the firmament forever... But oh, the beauty. This is true and glorious wilderness country and I am so blessed to be travelling through. It's off to Sudbury to see Darlene tomorrow. Hooray!

love, K

April 24, 2005
Winnipeg, MB

Have been hangin' in the Peg for a couple days with my good pal Trevor Mills. Thank the gods for Winnipeg- a grand oasis of glorious folks (and such great musicians!) smack dab in the middle of the long Canadian nowhere-ness... A haven for the girl that's been driving and driving for days... about to go truly and officially insane. Heading into the Ontario northlands for many days of driving yet.... dreaming of my soft bed at the end of the rainbow.

More from my cross-Canada self-portait series here!

April 23, 2005
Saskatoon, SK

Sweet prairie skies have been bathing me in sunshine all day. Blue blueness with golden fields and orange dusty winds... Wandered forever up desolate train tracks taking photos and soaking in the warm-ness. Think I even got a sunburn. Got some wicked new clothes in Edmonton (always the Great Font of clothes shopping it seems.) And had so much fun prancing around prairie-land in my new wares. Have been having Way fun with the self-portrait series. Yay for productive artistic compulsions! They oft bear such fine and delicious fruit. (see above.)

Hence I press onward across this great land... xo

Adieu Ocean

April 16th, 2005
Victoria, BC

Goodbye beautiful Island. It's been an incredible winter. But onward ho -back into the world I go- on my merry way.

xo
me

In the back of Ruby the Van
The self-portrait mania continues... more photos here!

April 5th, 2005
Victoria, BC

Back from a supremely fun weekend in Vancouver. Played a show with my good pal Sam Masich and his trio FFM at Sam's Tai Chi studio in Kitsilano. Besides being a brilliant songwriter and great performer Sam is also one of North America's premier Tai Chi Masters! I love playing gigs in all kinds of strange places but I must say, a Tai Chi studio was a new one for me. I also spent a good amount of time kickin' it up at Vancouver's Kino Cafe -a Flamenco bar on Cambie St. I LOVE the Kino Cafe. Not only do they have seriously yummy Sangria there's also live Flamenco nightly with great players and oh-so beauitful dancers (with make-you-drool gorgeous outfits on.) Hmmmm... perhaps I'll have to go to Spain next winter... Until then, I'm just going to seriously enjoy my last wek in Victoria and all the adventures soon to come. I'll be heading back across Canada and then to Europe for a bit of a birthday extravaganza. T'will be sad to leave this sacred place (I've gotten attached) but Alas- the wide world calls once more.

Will update soon.

xo
your faithful
me