spotlight on songstory: courtenay hameister

The always hilarious Courtenay Hameister will be appearing at SongStory, coming up this Wednesday. Here's a sneak peek at what she'll be reading. The essay is called "My Sister's Husky Too," and in this excerpted moment, the author is performing with a band on New Year's Eve...

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We were playing in the gym at The Kennedy School – a 1915 elementary school that had been turned into a hotel. The gym was decked out with tables and a bar, and if you didn’t know any better you’d think you’d accidentally walked into a prom where all the students were alcoholics and had to repeat their senior year 15 times.

I was glad we’d agreed to play New Year’s Eve, as it gave me something to do. I’ve never dated much because as a rule, I hate people, so my New Year’s Eves are generally not the grown-up proms they are for some. My favorite New Year’s EVER was playing dirty scrabble with five drunken word nerds who almost came to fisticuffs over whether the word “poon” was acceptable. (Side note: it IS.)

Additionally, I’d been dumped a few months prior by a really attractive, sweet sociopath and the breakup had lead me to eat some things. So as I was putting on my holiday bustier before the show, I noticed that the fancy silver hook-and-eye closures were straining a little harder than they used to do their job. It didn’t help that the other backup singer was a size two, and we often dressed alike. Her bustier made her look like Kiera Knightley in Pride and Prejudice. Mine made me look like an 18th century barmaid trying to smuggle a passel of puppies home to her kids.

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Courtenay will be reading with Kevin Sampsell, Lidia Yuknavitch, Brad Rosen, Vanessa Veselka and me on March 7th at Someday Lounge as part of the March Music Moderne music festival.

Facebook event is here. And info on the other great events that are part of March Music Moderne is here.

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Courtenay Hameister is at home on stage, on radio and on the page. She’s the dynamic head writer / host of LiveWire Radio, the self-spoken “only person with boobs” on the Cort and Fatboy show, and the writer/director of the short film Stella’s Flight. Stella's Flight will be premiering at the Hollywood Theater on March 8th. Facebook event page for that is here.