Happy Black Friday

....well here in Philadelphia Thanksgiving is officially over.

Another Turkey Day bites the dust.

However, it is the official start of Black Friday.

As I'm typing this, it is precisely 3:45 AM, which means that, today, as utterly absurd as it seems, the Macy's Department store opens in just 15 minutes.

Just for kicks, I'd love to show up there at 4 AM just so I can witness first-hand what kind of shopaholic-wackos are in THAT much of a hurry to purchase the latest style of sheer black Playtex Pantyhose for an outstandingly discounted price before the rest of the day's crowds begin to stampede into the shoe department like a pack of merchandise-hungry wolverines.

Hmm. Should I?

Nah.

I reckon I'll retire to bed instead and gladly avoid the massively massive Black Friday masses.

Black Friday. Eeeek!

Quite honestly, the mere name of this post-Thanksgiving-day circus makes me quite uneasy.

Such a disturbing, eerie term for a day that marks the start of what's meant to be a joyous holiday season.

Black Friday brings to mind doom, gloom, death, a tortured caterwaul, a devastating, tragic, disastrous, apocalyptic occurrance.

Yikes. My head will be buried under the covers in T Minus 5 seconds.

5

4

3

2

1

.....

("I am woman, hear me roar

I'm numbers too big to ignore

And I know too much to go back and pretend
Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
No one's ever gonna keep me down again
Oh yes I am wise
But it's wisdom born of pain
Yes, I've paid the price
But look how much I gained
If I have to, I can do anything
I am strong
I am invincible
I am woman")

music biz

You better try
Before you get old
Before you're nearly 23
And can't appeal to the tweens.
Yes you better try
Before you get too old
Before you're 29
...an old lady in their little eyes.
And it weighs on your mind:
"What will become of me in time?"
As years seem to fly...
So you better try
Before you get too old
Before you're 45
And they say you're way past your prime.

Cause when you're 45

With normal human facial lines

They prove your years of wisdom

But mask your inner fire.
So before it gets to late,
I'm telling you to try
There's a wholesome 15 year old girl-next-door
Who is waiting next in line!
Though she aint got what it takes,
Not a talented bone in her pure, skinny teenage frame
She's got young skin for now
And a hip one-syllable name.

Which is why she better try

Before it gets too late

Before her fans turn on her

For getting pregnant by mistake....

Ciao mi chiamo Gina Sicilia

I'm pretty sure that most people who hear my last name have absolutely no idea how to spell it.

And I'm not gonna deny it. It's a tough one, for sure.

I've seen some very insane variations of my last name: Ssciillia, Sicellia, Secellia, Cecillia, Saclia, Sicilicilicilia and so on and so forth. ;)

Whenever I'm on the phone and have to spell my name for somebody on the other end, well, I wont even go into it because I've done it soo many times that I'm pretty much waaay too used to it by now.

But if you wanna learn how to spell it and pronounce it, just think "Sicilian Pizza", without the "n" at the end, so it's: Sicilia!

And there you have it!

xo

Gina Ssciillia

Abortion

Here I am at Fat Rabbit Studios

Working on CD number three, or maybe five.

Yes here I am working at the studio tonight

Workin' on my new baby, will her eyes be green like mine?

The walls are a deep sensual red

The floor's a sweet cherry wood

Instruments are lined up like shiny homes

It's a musical neighborhood

The piano is old from decades ago

It stands against the wall

When it's played it cries so beautifully

It stands so proud and tall

The engineer is mixing

The producer is listening

They are top-notch musical surgeons,

You see, they are both the very same person

I'm at Fat Rabbit Studios in Jersey, U.SA

To record my 3rd musical baby

This cozy studio is where I came today

No way I'll ever abort this baby

Pink Paper

I love the feeling of singing a song on stage and knowing that I wrote it just for me, and that sometimes there's a history behind it...a true personal story. For example, when it's nostalgic, or was written while sitting in middle school math class, or on my bedroom floor as a very shy teenager surrounded by a mess of notebooks and lose pieces of pink paper filled with scribbled-out lines or words.

Throughout my songwriting history, my lyrics have been written on a multitude of different colored and styled pieces of paper:

Blue, yellow, and green post-it notes. These are easiest to lose and are mostly used for very simple lyric ideas which, a lot of the time, turn into full-fledged musical compositions. Tragically, a greater number of these post-it ideas aren't as fortunate in life, and remain where they started: Stuck to some other unfortunate piece of scrunched and scribbly paper, and imprisoned for all eternity in the dark, chilly confines of my bottom-left desk drawer, never again to see the light of day.

These days my technological method of writing lyrics has changed with the times, as I'm writing some of my lyrics on my laptop. I've written on a paper plate, a restaurant paper table covering, on back of supermarket receipts, a napkin, and even an airplane vomit bag. But aside from all that I prefer to stick to the old-fashioned approach to writing. The tried, true, and timeless method: Taking a notebook, turning to the next clear page, and just writing and scribbling and circling and making arrows and underlining and doodling and scratching out with a simple pen.

Sometimes my songs are winners, sometimes they're losers, and sometimes they're confused little wannabes lacking that inherent X Factor.

However, as long as they're my own words, that's all that matters to me, be they written on baby blue, fluorescent green, sunshiny yellow, girly violet, plain ol' white or Barbie Doll pink paper.

xo

G