Bio Press News Dates Ordering Lyrics Management Scrapbook Links Home

SEXPOSÉ: The Gentle Readers 2001 Diary Archives

• May 2001 Edition
• October 2001 Edition
• November/Holidays 2001 Edition

(1996 Archives | 1997 Archives | 1998 Archives | 1999 Archives | 2000 Archives)

Gentle Readers: Right now we are on a brief hiatus, to write new songs, learn some 70's covers, and now, to wait for Linda to get back from three weeks on the road with Michelle Malone. We will be playing again in June: it will be a Susi French Connection month. As you may know, SFC is our alter-ego, our classic pop song cover band. We team up with Becky Shaw and Mary Rutt (background singers we call the 'baguettes'), and other special guests twice a year. These shows will be June 14 and 15, both in Decatur, GA, which is not where any of us currently live but still seems to be "where we're from" because we have our P.O. Box there. Thanks to our friends at Daemon Records for checking that box, since they are at the post office every day. They mail things and pick them up, like busy worker ants while the lazy grasshopper Gentle Readers consistently engage in Tom Foolery. Some of this Tom Foolery, however, does include writing new material. In 2001 we will record an EP of the cover songs as the Susi French Connection, and we will start on a new GR album, tentatively titled "You Ruined Hanukkah." We always think of the album title first, for some reason.

Linda Bolley: Linda, as previously mentioned, will be on the road playing drums for Michelle Malone during the month of May. I think you can check MichelleMalone.com for dates and details. Linda has never played with Michelle nor rehearsed, but she'll be fine. Anyway, she gets to play around out West for a month and generally it's just a really great thing that she's going. Linda has also been playing in a crazy all-girl 80's cover band called Group Sex (she notes that she did not think of the name), and people love them. Susan Tanner, the lead singer, is the most rock and roll person I think I have ever met.

Greg Partridge: It has just occurred to me, as I type this, that I haven't seen Greg for a month and I have no idea what he's been doing. I feel like a schmuck - Greg is the greatest guy, and I miss seeing him. I heard he was in New York last weekend visiting family. Susan said he went to the Luna Lounge. Oh geez - this is pathetic. How about a bit of generic background material - Greg graduated from North Druid Hills High School, right here in Atlanta. He is 27 years old (please God - let that be right), and he is a recording engineer at APC Studios. Turn-ons include polyester, shag, computer talk and a good meal.

Brandon Bush - (www.brandonbush.com): I encourage you to check out Brandon's site for the latest on his activities. My silly cliffnotes synopsis is useless here.

Susan Fitzsimmons - I hope Susan will not mind if I tell you that after 13 years with the same company, Susan's position was eliminated. She was a Senior Business Analyst (which seems like a position you might not want to get rid of), and from what I understand, her job was to be a liaison between business units and technology groups - like a translator, making sure that the requirements of a project were properly scoped and detailed so the techies could build systems to serve them. Susan has decided that although she is not romantically involved at this moment, her ideal job is one of a domestic nature - perhaps such as a wife. She is an excellent cook and is quite handy with all sorts of domestic implements, be it a kitchen appliance or a power tool. After she tilled up her yard and replanted grass, Susan started stripping and painting her house. Upon finishing this, she is tiling a friend's kitchen countertops. Since she's had some free time, Susan has been compiling and learning the next group of Susi French Connection songs, and has been taking care of more Gentle Readers business.

Lee Cuthbert - This would be me. In January, a friend and I opened a vintage furniture store here in Atlanta, specifically Buckhead, called City Issue. It's been a lot of work and a lot of fun and things are going well. This would explain the lack of news for six months... I am moving this Sunday and I haven't really started packing (today is Tuesday). I have been writing some songs - in fact, after I squandered the day yesterday, I wrote one called "Monday's Gone." Sad but true. Anything to keep from packing. My best friend from 6th grade, the real Susi French, told me yesterday that she put her house on the market. She's moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan - she got into grad school there, studying Public Health. I love her dearly and only feel a teensy bit guilty that we refused to play most of the songs she wanted to hear at the next (and probably her last for a while) Susi French Connection show. Susi and I ran a marathon together last year, and though I haven't been running much lately, I'm looking forward to a few good runs with her this summer before she takes off. It's the only chance we have to catch up, it seems.

And that is that. We are generally well. I will get better about this news thing - my life will soon be more settled, and you should see a general increase in Gentle Readers output.

This time with feeling,
Lee

Back to the Top

The first is a story Greg, our bass player related last Wednesday at practice: A guy says, 'I've played music for over 20 years, and nobody has ever called me a professional. Yet you suck one ____ and you're a fag.'

This afternoon I read my business partner's new Travel & Leisure magazine, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I learned a lot about other places in the world, which I am beginning to figure out is probably a good idea. One of the stories consisted of small interviews with some leading international women hoteliers. "Men," said interior designer Kit Kemp, "are the new women."

On the Friday morning after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, I got up and turned on CNN. They run little snippets of news updates across the bottom of the screen, and for four days it had been updates from the White House, requests for blood, statistics on the missing, etc. And then on this day I get up and running across the bottom, as if it is a legitimate news item, is "RED WHITE AND BLUE IS NEW BLACK FOR FALL FASHION." Talk about too horrible to comprehend.

Perhaps the reason I latched onto these little tidbits is because they signify some sort of alteration in the status quo, though the CNN thing is just too weird. I think the newswriters there think every one of us is a sheep. Men are the new women is the one I really love. I mean what isn't turned upside down? A safe place to live one minute and now who knows. Freedom of speech and a right to privacy but watch everyone carefully. This happened because we weren't watching carefully enough. It's a tough time to speak with an accent in this country. I'm troubled by all the changes going on, and yet some things don't ever change and I don't feel pacified knowing this. Have sex with another man once and you're a fag. Play music for 20 years, blah blah blah.

Except maybe Linda, our drummer, who has returned from her summer tour with Michelle Malone. She may occasionally be referred to as a professional. We hope she'll stay with us for a while before heading back out with whoever. Just to show we could, we had our photo taken without her this summer. Now that we all got our ya-ya's out, we're moving forward. Look for the Susi French Connection EP in November (CD release party for this will be December 20 at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, GA) as well as a Gentle Readers EP by Christmas maybe, and a new album next spring. New dates are being added regularly now, and for the time being it's sort of like getting back into gear yet starting from a very different spot. We're optimistic. Hope you are as well.

Fosse Fosse Fosse -
Lee, Linda, Susan, Greg and Brandon

Back to the Top

In other news, Linda has announced she will be doing a bunch of Michelle Malone dates in January and into 2002. I'm sure Michelle has a schedule on her Web site so you can keep track. I don't know if we'll just take that time off or if we'll recruit someone to fill in while she's out. We may just fire up a drum machine - how hard can it be? I suspect Linda doesn't do much back there - moves her arms around and looks pretty. Everyone knows the chick drummer is hot property. Dangerous, animal-like, brutish. These are the traits the female drummer projects, and Linda has mastered this. We wanted Linda in the band to bring these elements to the Gentle Readers. We'll try to find someone else who also has a large presence and who moves the sticks convincingly.

I had a dream last night that Susan decided she would play drums, and she was like a genius drummer. She just sat down and rocked so hard. Maybe that's why I'm riffing on this 'how hard can it be' theme today. I saw Susan just pick it right up. I may also be feeling this way because Susan fixed Thanksgiving dinner, and while I was over at her house yesterday I saw a copy of her astrological chart on the table. It said she was a natural at physical activities and an intense competitor. I know this to be true - she's always trying to get more level out of the monitor speakers or get the light technician to move all spots to center stage. She does leg kicks and spins designed to keep me edging over further to the edge of the stage. But mostly, Susan excels at sports. Pool, bowling, baseball, tennis. Swear to God - she's just really effortlessly good. So I'm certain this drumming thing was an extension of that. And yes, she can also cook.

In reality, Brandon, our keyboard player is also a drummer. He was the Gentle Readers drummer back in 1997 and then he got really busy for a while. His brother Kristian Bush is 1/2 of Billy Pilgrim, so Brandon has always played drums and keyboards with them. Not that he wouldn't if his brother weren't in the band. In fact, let me get in a plug here for the latest Billy Pilgrim release "In the Time Machine." It's a major record - great songs, great sound. A strong U2 influence, perhaps. Anyway, Brandon can't play drums for us because then we'd have to find another keyboard player. Since Brandon joined us full-time, we've really become dependent on his contributions. Especially with this 70's thing - the first show we did as a four piece with no keys, but now we just give him the songs to learn and say 'tell us when you're ready." I do almost nothing now - truly. Susan gives CD's of what we need to learn to Brandon, Greg and Linda, and we just sit back and let them go. It's best this way. I hate learning cover songs. Too hard - easier just to write your own. Brandon continues to provide details on his musical work and on his treatment for hepatitis on his own site, brandonbush.com.

Greg has decided that since he really doesn't know any of these songs we keep suggesting, he's only going to vote for the really horrible sort of comedic ones. This is skewing our list - we all vote democratically, but I'm beginning to believe in a return to our former Stalinist-style regime (where Susan and I with input from Linda (minimal) picked whatever the hell we wanted). Our goal originally was to play all the old 60's and 70's songs we've loved but didn't feel were right for a Gentle Readers set. The first show was tasteful - "Wouldn't it be Nice" by the Beach Boys, "It's too Late" by Carol King (and admittedly "Heaven's Just a Sin Away by the Kendalls and "Spiders and Snakes" by Jim Stafford). Then we started slipping in some REALLY questionable selections - like "Having my Baby." Oh well - one man's trash is another's treasure. And what do I know anyway - "Sugar Sugar" by the Archies is my all-time favorite song. Anyway, Greg really wants us to do "Convoy" at the next show. It's got a lot of words - all that breaker breaker stuff - and a chorus that Susan has decided was performed by the Veggie Tales singers. Bizarre. Personally, I'd rather sing "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" in nothing but a pair of thong underpants (fyi: I'd have to go buy some) than do Convoy. But I'm a team player.

Things are good with me. I've decided to stop and smell the roses in life - no more running around like a crazy person. Long term, when I feel good and relaxed, I plan to write a romance novel about a mermaid ("her lips sank a thousand ships...") and a musical (to be called "Rock Oprah," with segments on "fat/thin," "Steadman, my Steadman," and "Halcyon Days: Dr. Phil.") Or something like that.

DO NOT STAY HOME. COME OUT AND SEE SOME ROCK MUSIC! Remember, Life Begins in a Bar.

xo
Lee

Back to the Top

Join Our Mailing List