I don't make a habit of reading people's blogs that are along the lines of diaries. I really don't have that much interest in most people's innermost thoughts or what they daydream about their boy or girl friend. I've got enough of my own shit to deal with, thank you very much. Now, there's a but, as I'm sure you heard in the first sentence, I will read the diary/blog/journal of someone who has a track record of writing, recording, making observations on life, that are interesting, or if they are performers/artists whose work is of such a nature that you might as well have read their diary.

Some clarification on that last point; I'm not a fan of people who think that singing or writing about their lives and the trauma's they've experienced is art or even entertainment. That sort of stuff belongs confined between the four walls of an office and in your therapist's files. What I do like, and am highly appreciative of, are those people who manage to take their life experiences and either use them as examples to make a point, or relate them in such a manner that they become an expression of something that transcends the personal.

The painter Frida Kahlo created a series of self portraits that depicted the various traumas and calamities that befell her during her lifetime. While the subject matter was highly personal, such was her skill as an artist she was able to create works that spoke universal truths about being a woman, an artist, and disabled. They were so powerful and honest that an observer could appreciate the emotions she was depicting without having to undergo any of the experiences the painter herself had been through.

Knowing the type of music I'm interested in, a young friend of mine suggested that I might want to check out the work of Kimya Dawson whose work he described as quirky and really intelligent. After watching the video he had sent me a link too, I was intrigued enough to follow up and check out her web presence (the link above) and was delighted by her mix of emotional honesty, twisted humour, and what seemed to be an all around perceptive nature.

Listening to what I take to be her most recent release Hidden Vagenda, available through KREC Records, not only confirmed the opinion I had formed from reading and perusing her web site, but revealed an artist (a term I don't use lightly) of passion and intelligence. Ms. Dawson is not only able to look at the world around her and use her music to relate her reactions with wit and honest indignity, but has the wonderful ability to take the personal and make it universal. In all honesty, (and I'm not familiar with her personal life with the exception of knowing she has a young child and a partner), when listening to her music it's impossible to know whether or not she's relating something that happened directly to her, or is merely telling a story.