Feelin' High

Last week when the weather was warm, Dylan and I ventured to high rock. The view was amazing, as always, and the breeze was soothing. After a couple of minutes, a lot of people had gathered, so we decided to hike around the woods for awhile. It was so nice to be able to go outside in something other than a big puffy coat! While the weather might have gone in complete reverse, giving us a snow storm this week, I can still feel Spring on its way! Here are some pictures from the day for you all to enjoy:

Good Hank!

Our good friend, the only and only, Henry Jones is offering his services up to Americorp for the next few months. While I'm super happy for him, I think I speak for everyone when I say that he will really be missed. To show him off, we (The Static Trees), Tuck Son, and Right As Rain played a show for him at the Jones' household.

Right As Rain switching it up a bit.

Getting their harmony on.

As you can tell, I didn't get any pictures of The Static Trees in action. The good thing is, Mike recorded us so you can check out some of our songs from the evening here.

City Days

Dylan and I got the chance to spend some time in New York City last week. We had booked a show at Googie's Lounge about a month back and we scored some tickets to AAU's graduate fashion show during Fashion Week. It was a lot of fun jam packed into a couple of days, leaving me tired but very happy. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take any pictures during our show at Googie's, but I covered pretty much everything else. Enjoy!

Fashion Week was held at Lincoln Center again, so it was pretty much the same setup as last time. The only difference was the attire of the guests...just about everyone had on some sort of a jacket, whether it be fur, trench, motorcycle, or something completely off the wall.

The show was fantastic. Lots of deep, rich colors with intricate sewing details. Stephanie Gelot's collection was our personal favorite, but you can check out all of the collections yourself here.

We took some time to visit MoMA while we were in the area. I had always wanted to go, but never had the spare time so I was happy to finally get the chance (not to mention, it was freezing so getting out of the cold was nice).

By Ai Weiwei from the series Study of Perspective.

By Jackson Pollock.

By Andy Warhol.

By Picasso.

By Frantisek Kupka.

On the way home, there was a terrific sunset. The wind was blowing rather hard, but I took my shot at a photo.

Chris Benz

I came across this gem of a man a little while back and have been following him closely since. His creations are sturdy pieces that are saturated with colors and an overall fun vibe. I am a huge fan of color, so obviously we are a match made in heaven.

He grew up in Seattle, and at a young age found interest in his grandmother's vintage clothing and accessories. When he was 17, he decided to enroll in Parson's (New School For Design) where he would be accepted and go on to win the "Emerging Designer" Award given by the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America). While still in school, he interned with Marc Jacobs where he learned a lot of skills, from developing a collection to a business plan. After finishing college, he also worked at J. Crew for awhile as "Designer of Dresses" until fully devoting his attention to his own line in 2007.

"The Chris Benz girl...projects the collection's sense of imperfection: the elegant tomboy with a feminine touch....she is playfully impudent and always precise." If this seems like you, or you are at least intrigued, here are some looks from his previous collections:

Spring/Summer 2008

Resort 2011

Resort 2009

Resort 2008

Fall/Winter 2009

Fall/Winter 2009

To see his whole collection archive, go to his home webpage, www.chris-benz.com

Busy, Busy.

The Static Trees have been fortunate enough to finish a cd and book a good amount of shows for the month of January, so I've been putting most of my time and energy into the music. I've got some photos to showcase the past couple of weeks...

Although we had a lot of the songs finished, we still had a lot of writing to do. We wrote words to two songs the day we recorded them!

Even though we were pretty much stuck together in a room for 12 hours at a time, we decided to keep it fun and dress up when we could.

We hadn't ever put drums on a record before so we were excited to experiment with some beats.

Last Saturday, we played a show at The Reader's Cafe in Hanover, PA. We had a lot of fun, as we always do there. The crowd was friendly so we tried out some new songs. Overall, the night was a great success.

Tuck Son and Good Hank opened for us. They did a two set performance using Mike's energetic songs and Henry 's new guitar. Their performance was a success, especially considering the fact that Henry had never played the songs before!

We also have a performance out there on the web from us a few weeks back at For The Love of Music Cafe. The owner, Brady, showcases a different type of music each month and we were lucky enough to be picked for the folk show. Here is a link to see us perform, "Jesus," the first song off of our new album, Electric Grass.

By The Way

http://laylawest.tumblr.com/

I've been keeping a blog of my outfits...something to make me get a little more creative with my outfits when I get up in the morning, I suppose. Feel free to look around, although I've just started it so there isn't too much yet.

Music City Did Us Good.

I started this post probably about four different times throughout this past week...and I'm going to finish it for good tonight. Nashville was amazing. It was a lot smaller than I pictured, but it was filled with amazing music and good ol' southern hospitality.

This was in the lounge of our hotel the first night of our stay. While we were eating, a dance group of 40+ year olds came in and began twirling and spinning around the dance floor. They were so in to it! It was a crazy experience.

Our favorite band that we saw...Tom Buller and Just Plain Trouble. They were a quirky group of people who really knew their instruments inside and out. There were two guitarists, a bass player, fiddle player, drummer, and a lap steel guitarist...and almost all of them got their own solo each song. They played a lot of old country music..which is my favorite kind of country and joked around with the crowd. I would recommend to anyone going to Nashville that they catch this band at Layla's Bluegrass Inn...which is one of their usual venues. You won't be let down.

Some of the interesting things we found while shopping around.

This was on a really neat pedestrian bridge that allowed for you to see the skyline of Nashville...which is what is showcased in the picture below.

We were lucky enough to visit Third Man Records while we were in town. The place was super small, but jam packed with amazing finds. If you love Jack White or any of his numerous bands and projects, this is a place for you.

The Greenhornes newest record, ****, which we picked up at Third Man. (No, i'm not scared of curse words, the title is actually pronounced four stars.)

All of our goods from Third Man.

Judi and I both picked up some cowboy boots while we were there...it just felt right. She opted for a badass pair of black boots complete with steel toes and chains, while I fell in love with these red ones at first sight.

Our hotel had some really interesting artwork hung throughout. I decided to showcase my favorite ones.

It moved! There were three other of these.

Last, but not least, this was placed in the hotel lobby. I'm not exactly sure why it was there, but I liked it a lot nonetheless. It's a dress made completely out of pink crayons. Awesome, right?