Kathy 2026, Cocktails, Cruising, Music

Lincoln Park Supper Club on Star of the Seas

I gathered a few clips from our fabulous evening at the “Lincoln Park Supper Club” on Star of the Seas in order to experience the highlights as one piece.

The 6-course meal is paired with a cocktail for each course (no, I did not finish them all – tasting only – lol!) and the music was paired with the theme of 1930s Chicago. On its sister ship, Icon of the Seas, the supper club has a New York theme and is called the “Empire Supper Club.” The upcoming Legend of the Seas has a Hollywood theme and is called “Hollywoodland.” And, yes, we’re booked on that ship!

It was all so fabulous in its own right but I felt especially close to my dad who loved Jazz and music and fine dining. Yes, I’m definitely his daughter. In fact, when I met him for the first time as an adult, we were sitting in his living room and he stood up to turn on his music player and said, “If you’re any daughter of mine, you’ll love this.” It was Jazz, of course. And I loved it! Yes, dad would be proud!

Kathy 2026, California Girl, cover songs

“Surfer Girl” #remix #nostalgia #newportbeach #california

Really feeling the emotional tugs from the past on my heart this week so I had to do my version of the Beach Boys “Surfer Girl.” The video is from Newport Beach and a couple of nostalgic “then” and “now” photos. The older I get the more I miss the past – what a cliche – lol!

Mixed in headphones/recommended for listening.

Kathy 2026

“If You Go Away” #remix #SoCal #highschool #nostalgia

I’ve been in a real nostalgic mood lately. But I do that when I’ve been living in Florida for too long. I’m also missing those that I knew from way back when. There’s something about people who knew you *back when* once you get to a certain age.

And what better way to warm of for FAWM (February Album Writing Month) – less than a month away.

So this is a remix of the song I sang in my high school spring concert. Dedicated to Mr. Vaughn, my music director who chose me for the Acapella Choir, the Concert Choir, and for my first public solo when I sang “If You Go Away.” Later I discovered he had ties to Karen and Richard Carpenter and, somehow, made me feel even more honored.

Also dedicated to my friend Carol (the tall one in the pic) who shared so many adventures together.

This is wildly different from how I sang it in high school but to think of the great production tools I now have at my fingertips is pretty cool. I think Mr. Vaughn would be proud.

Kathy 2026

It’s a New Year and a New Month

It’s a new year and a new month and I always think of Elvis in January since his birth date was 1/8/1935. We were an Elvis family with me in the lead, although my mother didn’t mind hiding behind me in her swooning (she was born the same year as Elvis). I wrote this song after she died (August 16, 2023) – the same “day” that Elvis died.

This story is fictional but the photos are real. I miss those days more and more.

Photos:

Swimsuit beauties – my mother and her friends on Balboa Island, California. My novel “Letters on Balboa Island” is loosely based on those adventures.

My mother’s kids – my sister, brother, and me.

Kathy 2026, Cruising, Music, The Journey

My Wish List for 2026 #cruising #restless #travel #music #writing

We found ourselves hanging out at Port Canaveral again today. We love watching the cruise ships. That’s how we found ourselves cruising on Utopia of the Seas last summer. That was a 3-day test cruise for Royal Caribbean (did not expect to like this cruise line) – we thought we’d be 1 and done. Instead, it instigated a 7-day cruise on Star of the Seas, my 25th cruise.

And once onboard Star of the Seas, not only did we have a blast with the nightlife – a Jazz Supper Club, Disco Night, 80s night, a romantic dinner at Chops Grille, and an evening at Lou’s Jazz Club, but we went on a sunset catamaran sail out of St. Thomas. Simply fabulous! So then we booked the brand new not yet sailing Legend of the Seas.

I’m been feeling so restless since then. I’m dying to get back out to sea. We have plans for a March cruise on Sun Princess and are double-booked next December on the newest Royal Caribbean ship, Legend of the Seas from Fort Lauderdale, but also Discovery Princess from L.A. We can’t be in both places at the same time so we’ll see which cruise wins.

Sounds fabulous right? But in the meantime, how do I stay landlocked in my house? I realized watching “Gone With the Wynns” on youtube and their latest boating lifestyle, that I really need to hit the road. Live in an RV, live on a boat. I need to be more mobile. Land or sea, it doesn’t matter. I just can’t stay home like this. I never really could. Isn’t it time for the next leg of “The Journey“? I may continue that story this year.

So to tide me over, I put together this video paired with 3 of my favorite songs I wrote in 2025. You might have heard them before. 😀

Kathy 2025

Best of 2025 – Happy New Year

Here it is the last day of 2025 and I decided I should put together a collection of clips from my favorite songs I wrote in 2025.

Liner notes for each song are in the description on YouTube.

Thank you all for stopping by to read, listen, like, and comment!

Happy New Year!

Kathy SBS

A Songwriter’s Lament #songwriting #badsongclub

Excerpt from this week’s Bad Song Club:

More than once, I’ve heard a songwriter mid-session dismiss a lyrical or melodic idea outright because it bore too strong a resemblance to something they’d written previously. I don’t know why this is, but, more than practitioners of any other art form as far as I’m aware, songwriters act like it’s our cosmic destiny to constantly reinvent the wheel.

Tell me why Monet got 250 chances to paint waterlilies, and ceramicists can make a hundred clay bowls, but every song idea has to emerge from whole cloth or else it’s “derivative” or “unoriginal.”

Other mediums seem to inherently understand the value of refining an idea over time, also known as iterative practice. For one thing, most ideas are multi-faceted and require more than one examination in order to be fully understood. For another, feelings change over time; the song you wrote in anger a year ago might hit different now that your rage has cooled. Maybe you came up with a great melody/chord progression for one song, but it never really gained traction in your repertoire for whatever reason. Should that brilliance be doomed to languish in obscurity simply because it was already promised to another song? Heck no.

I couldn’t agree more. We’re so hard on ourselves. On our music. Thinking it’s all crap. Especially if we don’t have people praising it as often as we’d like. But sometimes it’s good to re-listen to a song you’ve written, produced, recorded and appreciate what’s good about it. And with the FAWM community, I get to revisit all the lovely comments I got. Here’s one I’m especially proud of.