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Is the realization you are officially “middle aged” totally screwing with your head? Does the fact that all the favorite bands of your youth are now doing “reunion tours” give you a paradoxical feeling of joyful melancholy? Does realizing you can’t lecture your kid about their tattoos and/or piercings without them bringing up yours give you a headache? Wondering how in the hell you are still out marching about the same bullshit you were back in your Riot Grrrl days? Well you are not alone!
Life is hard, yo! Just when you think you have it figured out fate throws a handful of nails under your worn tires and there you are, spinning out of control and desperately trying to gain traction. Big or small, it is easy to feel alone in your struggles and it doesn’t have to be that way. If you are anything like the rest of us tired assholes trying to accept that “middle age” is something actually happening to us, you thought you would have this shit figured out by now too. It is time to tighten up the laces on those old Docs and touch up our goddamned roots; because we are going to get through this crazy shit together. In the Welcome To Your Midlife Crisis podcast your hosts, Katie and Loni, gently usher their fellow aging GenXers into a peaceful midlife crisis through real talk about life’s bullshit, excessive swearing, and a healthy dose of arts & crafts. Welcome To Your Midlife Crisis picks up where their former podcast, Two Artsy Gals, left off. Think of it as Two Artsy Gals Chapter Two! Listen and relate as your hosts discuss the topics we are all facing head-on with humor and hope. Yes, they will still be talking about art, just from more of a sanity maintenance point of view rather than instructional. You can expect all of the laughter and inappropriate humor you have come to love from Katie and Loni, but with this podcast they are looking forward to sharing more about themselves and the things that really matter to them. |
Katie and Loni’s paths have crossed many times in the last 25 + years. In the 90s they went to the same clubs to see the same bands, and ended up at the same parties. They have more than one mutual friend and have most likely been in the same room hundreds of times, slightly sensing the awesome tingling of destiny yet never quite identifying its source. Loni and Katie finally met about ten years ago and quickly discovered their mutual interests in arts and crafts, as well as their shared obsessions with glitter; cats (and unicorn and narwhal), the sweet-sweet tunes of their youth, and pretty much anything considered nerdy.
Three years ago Loni agreed to step in as co-host on the Two Artsy Gals podcast when the previous co-host had to step-down. Only on Loni’s very first day of recording as Katie’s co-host did they fully come to understand the epic celestial alignment and fulfillment of fate they were a part of. *cue hard-core power ballad and more glittery pyrotechnics*
Their awesomeness eventually outgrew Two Artsy Gals (just kidding… it sort of ran its course) but they couldn’t imagine a version of their lives that didn’t involve them recording a podcast together. So over a lunch meeting at their beloved Fat City Café (seriously the best fucking turkey club you will ever put in your mouth btw) they brought their shockingly similar ideas for the new podcast together and Welcome To Your Midlife Crisis was born. *cue more glittery pyrotechnics and a shredding guitar riff*
Three years ago Loni agreed to step in as co-host on the Two Artsy Gals podcast when the previous co-host had to step-down. Only on Loni’s very first day of recording as Katie’s co-host did they fully come to understand the epic celestial alignment and fulfillment of fate they were a part of. *cue hard-core power ballad and more glittery pyrotechnics*
Their awesomeness eventually outgrew Two Artsy Gals (just kidding… it sort of ran its course) but they couldn’t imagine a version of their lives that didn’t involve them recording a podcast together. So over a lunch meeting at their beloved Fat City Café (seriously the best fucking turkey club you will ever put in your mouth btw) they brought their shockingly similar ideas for the new podcast together and Welcome To Your Midlife Crisis was born. *cue more glittery pyrotechnics and a shredding guitar riff*
Katie is the oldest of three in what her mother refers to as “a pack of wild howler monkeys”. As a child she found unfathomable levels of delight in doing the exact opposite of what she was told to do, which eventually grew into an extreme dislike for being told what to do (she still struggles with this on an almost daily basis). When not busy with her wantonly destructive monkey duties, Katie could often be found out in her grandpa’s shop taking things apart and turning them into other things (she never grew out of this habit either). She survived the angst of her teen years by writing and drawing/painting/sculpting about the bubbling caldron of emotion a properly brooding young girl experiences. Thankfully she shook off the angst (okay… most of it) and her artistic nature and curiosity stuck around.
The moment she was old enough to leave the small town she grew up in, that is exactly what she did. Coming of age as a member of GenX in the City of Portland was nothing short of magic. In the early 90s punk and grunge ruled the Pacific NW; there were social justice causes to fight for (Remember that bag of shit Lon Mabon?), a conservative government to rally against (Remember that time George Bush Sr. called Portland “Little Betrut”?), Portland was weird without having to advertise it, and Bud Clark was building skate parks under bridges (okay, just the one). It was everything the place Katie grew up was not, and it was the first time she ever felt like she fit in.
Katie still lives in Portland and despite the “Portlandia” phase it is going through, she is still in love with it… except now she is a middle-aged, empty nester staring down one hell of a midlife crisis. Artist; writer, podcaster, wife to a fantastically Muppet-like ginger, mother to a grown-ass-angst-wrapped-enigma, and weirdo who talks to her pets… When not creating pstrange artsy things and giant messes in her Portland home, Katie can often be found walking around the city alternately muttering swears under her breath, and laughing out load while listening to true crime podcasts through light-up, cat ear headphones.
The moment she was old enough to leave the small town she grew up in, that is exactly what she did. Coming of age as a member of GenX in the City of Portland was nothing short of magic. In the early 90s punk and grunge ruled the Pacific NW; there were social justice causes to fight for (Remember that bag of shit Lon Mabon?), a conservative government to rally against (Remember that time George Bush Sr. called Portland “Little Betrut”?), Portland was weird without having to advertise it, and Bud Clark was building skate parks under bridges (okay, just the one). It was everything the place Katie grew up was not, and it was the first time she ever felt like she fit in.
Katie still lives in Portland and despite the “Portlandia” phase it is going through, she is still in love with it… except now she is a middle-aged, empty nester staring down one hell of a midlife crisis. Artist; writer, podcaster, wife to a fantastically Muppet-like ginger, mother to a grown-ass-angst-wrapped-enigma, and weirdo who talks to her pets… When not creating pstrange artsy things and giant messes in her Portland home, Katie can often be found walking around the city alternately muttering swears under her breath, and laughing out load while listening to true crime podcasts through light-up, cat ear headphones.
Loni was born with an inherent resistance to authority and penchant for rule breaking. Her mother soothed her restless spirit with arts and crafts, so naturally Loni began expressing her emotions and defiant nature through art early in life by making detailed and anger fueled drawings when she was upset. One such picture of a loin, created specifically to let her mother know how angry she was with her, still hangs on the wall at her childhood home (her plan totally backfired as her mom loved the drawing). The missed signals it represents piss Loni off to this day.
Loni left the Washington State small town she grew up in for the greener pastures of Portland and spent the 90s fine-tuning her rebellious nature by joining a rock band. She played bass in Monkey to the Monster, performing at local clubs and recording two albums with them. Loni was eventually kicked out of the band for “being a typical bass player”, thus solidifying her legendary bad-assness. Angry drawings and rock & roll lifestyle be damned, Loni grew up to become a successful self-starter who likes to find her own way and make her own rules.
A recent migrant to Vancouver, WA (which is basically a Portland suburb), Loni and her fun-loving husband enjoy crossing the bridge back into Portland for live music shows (even though staying up late on a week night makes them grumpy the next day now). She is deep into the daily battle that is the maddening teen years with her youngest child, and wonders how on earth her oldest grew up so fast. When not releasing all the rage she feels about the state of our nation, and the messes her teenager leaves for her to clean up through “rock-therapy”, you will find Loni happily sewing and creating magic in her craft room.
Loni left the Washington State small town she grew up in for the greener pastures of Portland and spent the 90s fine-tuning her rebellious nature by joining a rock band. She played bass in Monkey to the Monster, performing at local clubs and recording two albums with them. Loni was eventually kicked out of the band for “being a typical bass player”, thus solidifying her legendary bad-assness. Angry drawings and rock & roll lifestyle be damned, Loni grew up to become a successful self-starter who likes to find her own way and make her own rules.
A recent migrant to Vancouver, WA (which is basically a Portland suburb), Loni and her fun-loving husband enjoy crossing the bridge back into Portland for live music shows (even though staying up late on a week night makes them grumpy the next day now). She is deep into the daily battle that is the maddening teen years with her youngest child, and wonders how on earth her oldest grew up so fast. When not releasing all the rage she feels about the state of our nation, and the messes her teenager leaves for her to clean up through “rock-therapy”, you will find Loni happily sewing and creating magic in her craft room.
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