Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Natalia Comes to America by Melissa Lowell America’s Most Captivating Couples 2008, Natalia & Melissa. Fiercely emotional rocker Melissa Ferrick has been a celebrated singer-songwriter since bursting onto the music scene in 1991. She came out early in her career and helped pave the way for the current wave of successful out artists. Natalia Zuckerman is a highly acclaimed soulful folk artist, who has recently released her third album. As constantly touring solo musicians, this pair faces many challenges keeping their relationship grounded. Yet, they always come home to each other, to the place that is “us.” Last year, we introduced our first ever Captivating Couple of the Year, Daniela Sea (The L Word) and B (aka Bitch). Still going strong, these out icons asked to start yet another tradition with GO for 2007. Passing the torch, they have interviewed this year’s featured couple: musicians Melissa Ferrick and Natalia Zukerman. Here, we present excerpts from these friends’ candid conversation. B: Hey gays! Ok, so will you tell us how you met? Natalia: A few years back I went to see friends of mine play at the Bottom Line in New York. Melissa: She was late, first of all. Natalia: Anyway, I walked in and I had never seen Melissa before. I didn’t even know she was on the bill. I was just trying to navigate the space and I asked these people to move over a little bit and there was a little hustle and bustle and Melissa from the stage turns to where I was sitting and goes, “Shut the fuck up!” Melissa: The girl that I shut up, six years later, is my girlfriend. Daniela: So officially that was how you met? Natalia: We met officially at Folk Alliance. Melissa: I went to see Rachael Sage and there was this girl sitting with a guitar on her lap. I know it’s really retarded—but it was totally love at first sight. I was just like, “Oh my God. Who is that?” And then she played and I was like “Oh my God, and she’s amazing.” Then I went up and introduced myself. Natalia: No you didn’t. [laughs] Everybody else had left and Melissa came up to me. And I said, “Hey I’m Natalia,” and she didn’t say her name. Someone said “Do you know that’s Melissa Ferrick?” And I was like, “No, I didn’t know that—and what an asshole for not introducing herself.” Like, am I just supposed to know who she was? Melissa: I don’t assume that people know who I am. But I get really nervous when I’m around people. Especially if I think they’re cute. Natalia: The fact that she was so nervous put me at ease. I went the opposite way. I was like “What’s up, dude?” Melissa: So I ended up getting her email address from a friend of ours and I emailed her, and then somehow I gave you my phone number. B: And so then you had developed a kind of phone relationship? Natalia: Yeah, we started talking about playing together. Then we realized that a couple of weeks had gone by where we were talking every single day for four hours a day. Melissa: We did that for like four months before we had our first date. B: No way! So you took it slow? Melissa: Yeah, I mean as slow as you can take it as a lesbian, you know. B: How is it, both of you being on the road so much? That’s something I’m really interested in. Daniela: We have to deal with this all the time. Natalia: It sucks and it’s wonderful. We get to really miss each other and every time we get back it’s like this honeymoon phase, but it’s having a long-distance relationship all the time, even though we live in the same house. Melissa: It’s not going to change. I’m gonna continue to tour and I’m gonna continue to be gone, so the question is, “Who do I want to play cards with when I’m 80?” Am I willing to be this person’s best friend and partner and go to any lengths to really expose myself? We’re almost at two years now—and I think that that’s right when this kind of stuff starts to happen. Daniela: What about your creative processes—have they changed since you met each other? Natalia: We’re both very, very, very, very private about our processes. I can’t even write when she’s in the house. I have a hard time. B: No kidding. Natalia: I notice that it happens for both of us that as soon as the other one’s away, songs come out. I think that’s part of finding our rhythm at home together. She’d be writing or playing and I’d be painting or something like that. We had a little art factory going on last winter. Daniela: But you don’t necessarily wanna be like, “Ok, what should I do with this next bridge?” Melissa: Oh my god, no… But when we do get to work together it’s great. I know you guys did that Shortbus thing. Daniela: We play together sometimes, too. B: And Daniela, before she started doing The L Word , would come on tour with me, which was super fun. Melissa: That’s when I first met you guys, at Columbus Pride or whatever it was. Daniela: No. Before Columbus Pride we stayed at your house in P-Town when we were first falling in love. B: Remember how you were talking about how we were always cooking beans? Melissa: And rice. You guys were fucking heating up rice and putting it on your stomachs and shit. B: No, that was the salt! Melissa: Oh, salt, right. B: That’s an ancient witchy trick that Daniela taught me. You heat up salt for menstrual cramps and you put it on your stomach. Melissa: [sarcastically] Yeah, cause that works. Natalia: God, Melissa. I’m the hippie. Melissa: Yeah, Natalia is a total hippie, it’s so great. B: Oh, I love you already. Melissa has a new album called In The Eyes of Strangers . You can catch her at Southpaw in Brooklyn on February 16th. Natalia is planning to release a new record in the fall and she’ll be playing at Mo Pitkins on March 15th. ISBN 13: 9780613020411. Natalia has dreamed all her life of skating in America--and now her dream has come true! She's moving in with Tori Carsen's family and joining Silver Blades. But as soon as Natalia arrives, her dream turns into a nightmare. The girls in Silver Blades don't want to be her friends. She can't work with her new coach. And she's horribly homesick. Natalia wants to return to Russia--now! So she comes up with a secret plan to run away. There's just one problem. Natalia needs Tori's help--and getting it is not going to be easy! "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. (No Available Copies) If you know the book but cannot find it on AbeBooks, we can automatically search for it on your behalf as new inventory is added. If it is added to AbeBooks by one of our member booksellers, we will notify you! Former YMCA camper giving back, one state and one camp at a time. DUNSTABLE — As Chris Strub darts between activities at the Greater Lowell YMCA’s Camp Massapoag, kids yell out his name, hoping to beat him at whatever game they’re playing. Strub spent Friday playing with campers in day 85 of a 100-day mission. In that amount of time, Strub is traveling to all 50 states and volunteering at different camps and organizations. With the home stretch in sight, Strub is exhausted, but said he doesn’t regret one moment of his journey. “I’m doing this out of the love and passion of my own heart,” Strub said after playing a game with campers at the volleyball net. Even with bloodshot eyes that show how tired he is 41 states into the trip, Strub is pushing through to help as many organizations as possible. Strub came up with the idea after traveling the country last year and then working with a group called Pay Away the Layaway. He said he was inspired to find a way to tour America again, but this time giving back at each stop. He is driving for the whole trip, with the exception of his flights to Alaska and Hawaii. Strub said he planned the mission with the hope of gaining a sponsor, but that never happened. “When you have a dream that you believe in and you believe in what you’re doing, it’s easy to keep going,” he said. Strub went to the YMCA when he grew up in Huntington Station, N.Y., and was a counselor there as a teenager. “At the end of the day, all these kids care about is that someone showed up and wanted to pay attention to them,” he said. “They care that someone is there to give them a high-five and shoot them with the water gun and hang out for a little bit and listen to their problems and talk to them.” It’s clear that the campers love his company, as they shout for him to play from across the camp. DJ McCoy, 10, said he and his friends had a lot of fun playing games with Strub. “We got him out a bunch of times,” McCoy, of Littleton, said with a smile. For the YMCA, having Strub come to visit was something out of the ordinary. “I think what he’s doing is outstanding,” said Ray Adams, the Y’s chief executive officer. The journey has come with its struggles, Strub said. He slept in his car 13 nights and said he always has a tough time saying goodbye when his visits come to a close. Before arriving at Camp Massapoag Friday morning, Strub stayed at the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center. “It may be the most comfortable pillows the whole trip,” he said. After his day at camp, Strub was headed to Rhode Island, just nine states away from the finish line. He said he’s not sure what’s in store for him after, except for getting some extra sleep and celebrating his 30th birthday on Aug. 23. “It’s really tough building your own dream and going out and doing it,” Strub said. Once back at home in Greenville, S.C., Strub will be looking for a job. “I believe that one person can make a difference,” he said. And at least for Friday, Strub was making the day extra special for the kids at Camp Massapoag. Natalia Comes America by Lowell Melissa. Paperback. Condition: VERY GOOD. Light rubbing wear to cover, spine and page edges. Very minimal writing or notations in margins not affecting the text. Possible clean ex-library copy, with their stickers and or stamp(s). Natalia Comes to America (Silver Blades) Melissa Lowell. Published by Skylark, 1997. Used - Softcover Condition: GOOD. Paperback. Condition: GOOD. Spine creases, wear to binding and pages from reading. May contain limited notes, underlining or highlighting that does affect the text. Possible ex library copy, will have the markings and stickers associated from the library. Accessories such as CD, codes, toys, may not be included. Natalia Comes to America. Melissa Lowell. Published by Random House Children's Books, 1997. Used - Softcover Condition: Good. Paperback. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Natalia Comes to America. Melissa Lowell. Published by Random House Children's Books, 1997. Used - Softcover Condition: Fair. Paperback. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. Readable copy. Pages may have considerable notes/highlighting. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Natalia Comes to America. Melissa Lowell. Published by Random House Children's Books, 1997. Used - Softcover Condition: As New. Paperback. Condition: As New. No Jacket. Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Natalia Comes to America (Silver Blades) Lowell, Melissa. Published by Skylark, 1997. Used - Softcover Condition: Good. Condition: Good. A+ Customer service! Satisfaction Guaranteed! Book is in Used-Good condition. Pages and cover are clean and intact. Used items may not include supplementary materials such as CDs or access codes. May show signs of minor shelf wear and contain limited notes and highlighting. Natalia Comes to America. Melissa Lowell. Published by Random House Children's Books, 1997. Used - Softcover Condition: Very Good. Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Natalia Comes to America Lowell, Melissa. Lowell, Melissa. Published by Skylark, 1997. New - Softcover Condition: New. Condition: New. New. Natalia Comes to America (Silver Blades) Lowell, Melissa. Published by Skylark, 1997. New - Softcover Condition: New. Paperback. Condition: New. Brand New!. Natalia Comes To America (silver Blades) Melissa Lowell. Published by Skylark (February 10, 1997), 1997. New - Softcover Condition: new. Tell us what you're looking for and once a match is found, we'll inform you by e-mail. Can't remember the title or the author of a book? Our BookSleuth is specially designed for you. Shop With Us. Sell With Us. About Us. Find Help. Other AbeBooks Companies. Follow AbeBooks. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. On The Besieged City by Clarice Lispector. Virgínia, the protagonist of Clarice Lispector’s second novel, The Chandelier , has come to live in the city after leaving her family’s estate in rural Brazil. In the rain and heat of the city street, her heart stirs and she feels seen, perhaps for the first time: “In the street she could be discovered by someone’s gaze,” Lispector writes. “[I]n her chest a contradiction of freedom and pleasure was being born, so intense and so mundane.” This internal space, of aching contradiction, is Lispector’s most riveting territory. The city presses in on Virgínia and, feeling suffocated, she withdraws into herself (from which she can’t escape). But what should happen to a person who, instead of internalizing, experiences the world only at its surface? In what ways might she become empowered? These are the questions Lispector asks in The Besieged City , the novel that followed The Chandelier , through the experience of another young female character, Lucrécia, Virgínia’s ostensible opposite. Lacking an inner-life, Lucrécia has in its place an animal nature through which she confronts the world outside, as a horse eyes up the stable door. The city here is the fictional São Geraldo, a backwater outpost in the 1920s, when the novel opens, with a market, charcoal works, trash mound, railroad, city gate, and a thousand trembling horses. A hill stands over the narrow streets of the fictional place that seems to be neither Recife, where Lispector grew up, nor Rio de Janeiro, where she came of age, or Bern, Switzerland, where she wrote the novel. (“Nobody knows where that besieged city is,” a Brazilian critic once wrote, according to Lispector biographer and translator Benjamin Moser.) Lucrécia lives in a dowdy apartment with her widowed mother, Ana, who keeps a plaintive eye on her daughter, amidst the weariness of one generation’s incomprehension of the other. Ana hopes Lucrécia will find a suitor. Just as Lispector suggests that “everything that Lucrécia Neves could know of herself was outside her,” everything that the reader could know of São Geraldo comes from Lucrécia. The complete intimacy between the young woman and her city mirrors another work of the midcentury: Time of the Doves, by Catalan novelist Mercé Rodoreda. As in Time of the Doves —which opens with Natalia, a naive young woman at a street fair escaping the assuming clutches of a young mechanic, Quimet—Lispector places ambivalent Lucrécia next to a soldier boyfriend, Felipe, in the center of a saints day festival crowd. “Faces were appearing and disappearing. Lucrécia found herself so close to a cheek that she laughed at it,” writes Lispector. Church bells ring eleven o’clock and “the fair stalls were warping as they dripped . . . the carousel illuminating the air in twirls, the lights falling trembling.” With this, Lispector establishes a descriptive language for the city suffused with a sensory ache but that can’t overwhelm, for Lucrécia is São Geraldo and São Geraldo Lucrécia. Lispector’s greedy, visceral, and sometimes jarring prose is as well-suited to the urban landscape as to the rough ocean of the heart. Felipe, stationed there from somewhere more modern, laughs at the small-time celebration. Prideful Lucrécia takes Felipe’s response as an affront and, like Natalia fleeing Quimet, pushes away from her date and heads home. On the way, she stops for a moment of quiet reverie with São Geraldo, as if confirming the city’s fidelity to her unique vision. “When she raised her head she decided not to forget to look at the narrowest house, the smallest shadow,” Lispector writes, “The closed shops with their rolling gates of iron. She was being gentle with all of them. I’m really touching this lamppost, she thought with more confidence. The lamppost was freezing.” Lucrécia’s intimacy with São Geraldo—“the glory of a person was having a city,” she realizes later in the novel—is the base from which Lispector develops a notably sophisticated set of urban observations: on the different ways one experiences a provincial city in contrast to a larger, more cosmopolitan one; on tradition, technology, and modernity and urban change; on the painful dissonance between a person’s lifecycle evolution and a city’s propulsive transformation; and, ultimately, on postmodernism’s objectification of urban history. By the end of the novel, old São Geraldo has been turned into a monument of itself and incorporated into a sprawling metropolis with a new name. In this sense, the simple plot of The Besieged City isn’t quite what matters, though the quiet happy ending has much to do with Lucrécia’s ability to see the city in her own image and not as a predatory fabrication of men and their great ideas. By force of this vision, Lucrécia is indeed learning to empower herself. “Every man seemed to promise a woman a bigger city,” Lispector notes, setting up another key urban observation: a woman—rather more internal, like Virgínia, or external, like Lucrécia—experiences the city at close range. The bigger city is precisely not what Lucrécia, alive to her own primitive reality, needs. Rejecting Felipe and a second suitor, the taciturn Perseu, Lucrécia marries an older and wealthier man, Mateus. (Rodoreda’s characters in Time of the Doves , Mateu, a tender friend of Quimet, and Pere, an ill-fated suitor of Natalia, suggest that beyond these thematic connections she may have been influenced by The Besieged City when she wrote the novel in 1957.) Mateus moves Lucrécia to a bigger city immediately after the wedding. “She was ceremonious and happy on the threshold of the big city,” Lispector writes. “A fire truck siren was going by to announce her.” But the siren is rather a warning. If, in São Geraldo “a street was a street, a church a church, and even horses wore bells,” in the busy metropolis it isn’t clear what anything is for or who people really are, or where exactly Lucrécia fits. While this sounds like a facile anti-modern critique, Lispector’s insight is an important one about the way a person brings home to a new place, often baggage that impedes integration. Large, cold cities make room for people with nothing to lose, but Lucrécia, refusing to give up her agency, won’t let go of São Geraldo. Natalia’s experience in Rodoreda’s Barcelona attests to the significance of Lucrécia’s insistence. Quimet’s foolish dreams amount to a kind of assault—and that’s before he becomes a soldier, and the city comes under violent attack. It’s worth noting that war, like any transformative urban intervention, is a masculine, predatory act. Under double assault, far differently from Lucrécia, Natalia can’t fathom her immense and broken city; the best she can do is carve her name on a door, a slight engraving to render her existence. When Mateus and Lucrécia return to São Geraldo it is already something else, and no longer the city she had formed with her own gaze. It’s changing faster than any one person does and eventually, like Natalia, she comes to live in a place she can no longer grasp. São Geraldo, Lispector writes, “had been the one that left her behind.” Cities change even as we hang on to what was. But Lucrécia, who relies on a primal imagination, isn’t stuck. For her, and for Lispector, what matters isn’t exactly the city itself, but the tricky relationship between person and place. Lucrécia invents her city, which, in turn, gives her life meaning, and her imagination becomes a rather satisfying interior force. Nathaniel Popkin is author of the forthcoming novel The Year of the Return (2019, Open Books) and five other books of fiction and non-fiction. He is co-editor (with Stephanie Feldman) of the anthology Who Will Speak for America? (2018, Temple University Press) and reviews editor of Cleaver Magazine . He is writer of the 2018 documentary film Sisters in Freedom .