Short month, long winter

February is the shortest month and yet it can easily feel like the longest, with the early-setting sun and bitter cold standing between me and spring – and my birthday, on March 1st. (Start planning now!)

At least this February, I have the sweet face of Harry Styles looking over my shoulder as I type, as his 21st birthday (can I buy you a drink, handsome?!) on February 2 makes him my calendar boy of the month.

Yes, my possibly inappropriate 1D fangirl obsession continues, but I was able to make it work with a recent story posted on AXS.com, when respected indie troubadour Martin Sexton covered a 1D song for his daughter, after she found out that Harry was following him on Twitter.

Other recent stories for that site include:

Courtney Barnett’s new single/video and upcoming album. Very excited for this as I loved her album and the show I caught last year, at the Black Cat. She was also very gracious afterwards, meeting fans and signing albums. Here I am with the cool lady. 

Sufjan Stevens’ new album and upcoming tour.

Rapper/singer Lizzo gets coveted spot opening for Sleater-Kinney’s tour.

I’ve had a few other items posted recently, so here are some other links for your pleasure:

Jukebox the Ghost and Twin Forks giving away free music and touring together.

A review of The Black Cadillacs, and Knox Hamilton (a new favorite band) at Jammin Java.

A review of (charming Southern boy) Christian Lopez, also at Jammin Java.

To recap, here are places you can find me and links to a whole lotta love:

AXS.com

Examiner.com – National Music news

Examiner.com – DC Concert Photography (reviews, previews and slideshows)

 Whatcha Gonna Play – the set list site

Thanks for dropping by and please come back soon. It won’t all be listicles (a horrible trend in journalism, with an ugly word to match!).

Jammin Java Mid-Atlantic Band Battle – a view from the judges table

Arteless won the night with a funky set.

I was asked again to judge at Jammin Java’s Mid-Atlantic Band Battle on Tuesday night, which is always a good time and great chance to catch up with local music. Spent this morning finishing an article and photo gallery about it for my DC Concert Photography column at examiner.com. And then the damn Content Management System went all crazy, wiped out the article (luckily, I still have the first draft) and refused to properly publish the slideshow, so it will not be appearing in search engines. (On the downside of being a freelancer, I have no in-house IT department.)

But for you stalwart souls who visit this site, you can view the slideshow here.

I’ll be back at the judges table tonight and will attempt another article/gallery tomorrow, so please check back in.