Proud as a...

To say I'm attached to my name is a bit of an understatement. Just ask my boyfriend. Whenever the "Would you change your name/what are we going to name the kids?" conversation comes up, we somewhat functional adults turn into small children bickering over whose name is the best. He claims he has a mountain range in Ireland named after him (I call apocryphal), and I gently remind him that, not only is there a town in Italy (Formia) that has a large number of streets, squares, and structures named after actual, traceable, pasta-factory-owning members of my particular family (rather than an unverifiable band of Celtic hunter-gathers), but my last name, Paone, comes from the Italian word pavone, which means....peacock.

Now if you think I didn't love peacocks/peacock feathers/anything with remote traces of peacock colors before I found that out (which of course I did times a thousand eleventy billion),you better believe this news took me over the top. And during the past few years, I've accumulated a small collection of lovely peacock-themed items. Not that I'm a mad hoarder or anything. Actually, I'm pretty considerate of the fact that I share an apartment with a boy who probably does not want every piece of furniture in his living space to be covered in sequins and feathers. But I do sneak in the occasional dignified piece.

Which is why I MUST HAVE THIS:


{'Elegantly Perched Peacock' painting, copyright by artist Christine Krainock, on Etsy.

There's a lot to like about this painting- the thick brush and knife strokes, the composition with the peacock's incredible tail in the foreground, the combination bright-and-muted color palette. I'm not usually one for purchasing art (I tend to make my own) but this would be so incredible in our place.

And bring me one step closer to creating a Peacock Dynasty.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night!

Remember how I said I'm in a band? Well, we've got a show this weekend!


{City of Squares, photographed by Jenny Jope}


If you're in the Boston area and happen to be free on Saturday night, stop by Copperfield's to hear City of Squares play live. We'll be joined by two other local bands, The Bowry Boys and The Joint Chiefs, and it should be a killer night.

Here are the deets:

When: Saturday, November 12th at 8pm (we go on a bit before 10)
Where: Copperfield's Boston
89 Brookline Ave
Boston, MA
How Much: $10 at the door- make sure you say you're there to see City of Squares!
*This is a 21+ show*

If you'd like to hear some of our tunes pre-show, check us out on
Reverbnation, Facebook, or Myspace. We're also on iTunes and all of your other major purchasing/downloading/streaming sites.

Hope to see you Saturday!

The Costume Question

I love Halloween. Any excuse to dress up and ingest large quantities of candy rates high on my list in terms of favorable activities. And usually, I take a lot of pride in my cleverness when it comes to costumes. Rather than take the standard Slutty Pumpkin route I've done every cheeky, pun-ny idea that I could think of. I've been a Freudian Slip (slip + sign), a Blind Date (dress + sunglasses), one of the Seven Deadly Sins (Lust- ok, that one was a little slutty), and my personal favorite:

Jenna Jameson



Yup. It's me. As a bottle of Jameson. Go ahead and roll your eyes.

But this year, I don't have the slightest clue what to be. This is compounded by the fact that:

1. My boyfriend and I would prefer to do a non-lame couples costume, and
2. Adult-sized dinosaur costumes cost about $200, which seems just the littlest bit excessive.

Halloween weekend is coming up. I better get cracking...

Beautiful View

Photo of me by Emily Copeman



I mentioned something before about having lots of jobs. So what is it that I do, exactly?

Well mostly, I write songs.

I've been playing piano since I was four years old. And for the vast majority of my childhood, I hated everything about it. Hated practicing for an hour every day, hated playing classical music, hated the fact that I was not allowed to quit. Well, shock of shocks, like a lot of other people whose parents refused to let them stop playing an instrument, one day I woke up and just started loving it. I was living in Manhattan at the time, fresh out of college and auditioning for any acting job I could get seen for. Because I had graduated early from school and most of my friends were still back in the freezing tundra known as upstate New York, I didn't have much of a whopping social life. I was also going through that lovely post-academia spiral of terror and "What am I going to do with my life?" panic (I may still be going through that.) I had set up my keyboard in my apartment, more out of habit than anything else.

But suddenly, I had a reason to play. And suddenly, I had something to say.

It probably took me a few weeks to write the first song. When I played it for my parents, they were quiet for a minute. And then my dad very seriously said, "This is what you should be doing."

Now, granted, they were probably a bit biased. So it took me a few months to really believe I had something going. During those months I wrote and wrote, and eventually I moved back to Massachusetts to give this thing a shot. It's been almost five years since I started to chase this thing down, and while it's been possibly the most difficult undertaking of my life, I don't regret it for a second. I have two main areas of focus: solo work, and my band, City of Squares, but I write in a variety of genres and have a blast doing it.

I thought I'd share some of my tunes with y'all as we go along, starting with something upbeat and positive. It's raining in Boston, so it's a good day for something sunny.

I wrote Beautiful View a few years ago, inspired by guys like Jamie Cullum and Eric Hutchinson. It's a story about jumping into things head-on, but with an understanding of what you're up against(hmmm, weird that I would write about that.) To me, that's what makes all the difference between an impulsive decision and a calculated risk- keeping your eyes open and your head up, no matter what happens.

This particular version was recorded by City of Squares in Winter 2010.

Beautiful View by jennapaone

Beautiful View Lyrics

Well I've been told that
Love is a lonely road
And no golden bricks
It's
Made of myth and
Pretty wishes

And you'll grow old
And sick of the twists and the tricks
The shoot-and-miss
The midnight slips
And
All those bitter kisses

And now a mess of thorns is all that's left of another coulda-been
Me and you
And I must admit
Everything they told me was true
But turning back I see the traveled road
My lovers littered there like precious stones

And it’s a beautiful view
It’s a beautiful view- oo-oo-oo-oo

And I’ve been told the world is a danger zone
An all-for-me-nothing-for-free bunch of
Battle trench debris
And you’ll grow old and weep at the state of the streets
The make ends meet
The calm deceit, and
All those good guy defeats

Now one war’s ended but another one’s set to
Sweeping through
And I must admit that
Everything they told me was true
But sergeants surrender everywhere I go
And we take to dancing in the rocket glow

And it’s a beautiful view
It’s a beautiful view- oo-oo-oo-oo

And I’ve been told that
Risk
Is a knockout round
And you’ll waste your life just swinging blind
Shadow-boxing butterflies
But you’ll grow old and happy if you stick to the other side of the
Safety line
No blackened eyes,
No chasing titles, losing fights

Now the jabs keep stunning and my blood keeps running and I’m seeing
Double, too
And I must admit that
Everything they told me was true
But I’ll keep swingin’ till the final count
And if a K-O’s coming I’m smiling all the way down
'Cause I’ve traveled a lonely road and
I've danced in a danger zone and
I’ve had my jaw broken but kept my eyes open
All the way through

And I got a beautiful view
It’s a beautiful- whoa-oh oh oh
It’s a beautiful
It’s a beautiful
It’s a beautiful
Everything they told me was true
But I got a beautiful view.

In My Dreams

...I wear these.



Eight-inch Christian Louboutin silk and Swarovski crystal-encrusted ballet slipper heels. They were auctioned off to raise money for the English National Ballet.Someday, when I'm rich and famous, I'm going to commission another pair. And hope that all those years of dance training will prevent me from breaking my neck.

So You Think You Can Zombie

One of my multiple careers (you're learn more about others later) is as a part time dance teacher. I've been a ballet dancer- and we're talking the serious ballet kind- since I was two, and have done every other style and variation there is, from jazz to character to hip-hop. I've even had a little flamenco training. Ole!

Anyways, so I'm part of an after-school program that provides extracurricular activities to kids who don't have a lot of cash lying around for all the fun things that lucky children like myself got to do. And these kids deserve it. They are enthusiastic, hard-working, thoughtful, and genuinely interested in bettering themselves. I have a blast coming up with new and challenging pieces for them to do, and I can't wait to tackle our Halloween number:



Because let's face it, every kid should get the chance to act like a zombie on school property at least once in their lives. I'm pretty sure that's written into the Constitution.

Be Yourself

Remember that time I swore I would update my blog regularly and then I, you know, didn't? Yeah, that time is now.

To jump-start things again, I thought I'd share this fantastic video made by my friend Alison Bennett. She's a very funny lady from NYC with a fabulous and super-eclectic sense of fashion. Oh yeah, and she's pretty effing smart, too.

If you're anything like me, you might be a bit disturbed that our current definition of "girl power" looks something like this:



Now, don't get me wrong, I appreciate underlying message,and I admire good marketing. Hell, I applaud Gaga and her minions for their genius efforts. But let's call a spade a spade. Never have I woken up and thought to myself "My inner moon goddess needs to express herself through a bedazzled lobster fascinator."

For all you women out there who appreciate the humor in the "be yourself" popstar mantra that's running the music industry right now:




Whipped cream for everyone!

Mad for Plaid

I've been looking for a cozy wrap for crisp Fall days. Enter the fall "Exploded Plaid" wrap, from Nordstrom. I swoon.



Buy it here.

Falling For Neutrals

Hi, my name is Jenna, and I have a decorating problem.

No, seriously. I decorate. A lot. For every season. In fact, I've designed our apartment with a fairly neutral color scheme in order to maximize my seasonal decorating potential. At Christmas time, I completely dismantle my parents' house and design each room according to a different theme. I take on difficult, time consuming craft projects. I fold napkins into swans.

During the summer, I scour stores for beach-y accessories and spend hours collecting rocks and sea glass on the beach. But now that Fall is (officially, if not in actuality) here, I start to think of throw blankets and spangled pumpkins, faux spiderwebs and apple centerpieces. Usually I gravitate towards your standard vivid oranges and reds, but this year, thanks to some stellar inspiration from the Pottery Barn catalog, I'm considering a more grown-up approach: sophisticated creams and neutrals, with sages and nectarines thrown in. And of course, mercury glass. So much mercury glass.

We'll start with a wall lined with antique plates, and a mantlepiece overflowing with pumpkins made of rattan and the aforementioned mercury glass.


{Via Pottery Barn.}

Add in antlers, birch candles, and some more pumpkins (sea urchin-hued, this time.)


{Via Pottery Barn.}


{Via Pottery Barn.}

Just for fun, some silver candlesticks and tea-soaked parchment paper.

{Via Pottery Barn.}

And finish up with a healthy helping of Midnight Black to up the Poe factor.


{Via Pottery Barn.}


{Via Martha Stewart. Loving that green wall.}

Can I live in this store?

So yes, despite the fact that I claimed I was ready for fall, and that temperatures up here in Boston have dropped to a crisp 60 degrees, I have to get my last little bit of summer in.

This store is incredible.



I've spent every summer of my life on the Cape, and a fair portion of that time in stores on Main Street in Chatham, but I had only been into Midsummer Nights one or two times before this past Labor Day weekend. We took a little group expedition to the town for some end-of-season seafood, beers, and shopping, and as soon as we walked into the shop I whipped out my camera and started snapping.

They sell everything from downy cashmere sweaters to designer cocktail dresses, handmade jewelry, and devastatingly elegant home pieces. And seriously, I want to move in. If I could design my dream summer home, it would probably look something like this:

A grey-shingled facade with classic architectural details.



A color palette based in creamy neutrals, accented with pops oceanic color- sky blues, sands, and shimmering metallics.





Nautical accents everywhere, like this sailor-style chest and crystal sea critters.



A little eastern influence.



Linens, linens everywhere.



Maybe even a clawfoot tub. Love the way they styled this, but of course, we non-boutique owners would probably keep it in the bathroom.



Now all I need is the house.

I Don't Care...

...if he wears Uggs, has a ponytail, and dances the Macarena with the gusto of a twelve year old girl.



So long as he keeps being Brady.
First win down.

Lately Loving...

"Boss" Loafer Pumps by Aqua, at Bloomingdale's




This Charcoal and Plum color palette from one of my favorite blogs, Snippet & Ink




A sweet treat to ease my way from Summer to Fall. Recipe found here, courtesy of Coastal Living Magazine.



*Coastal Living Photo by Howard L. Puckett.

A Dog-E-World

On Wednesday night, someone I know had a life-changing experience.



The Liberty Hotel, usually a hot spot for the Boston social set, rolls up its sleeves every Wednesday night during the summer and plays host to a crowd of canines and their Chardonnay-swilling human companions. How I missed this before, I have no idea, but it was amazing.

This little guy was my ticket in.



His name is Pierre Murphy and he lives, despite his Hispanic ancestry, French name, and Irish surname, in the North End, Boston’s traditional Italian neighborhood. So yeah, he’s a pretty confused little pooch. He is also deathly afraid of the following things: loud noises from the apartment next door, noises in general, invisible spiders, men of all kinds, rats (they’re usually bigger than him), water, people who enter his home unannounced, snow, all other dogs, and pretty much everything else in the known universe. He loves to watch movies and TV, specifically Beverly Hills Chihuaha (shock), and anything on Bravo (it must be something about the constant squealing.) Not exactly a social animal.

His human Mommy, Caitlin, invited my friend Lisa (her roommate) and I along with them to the Yappy Hour. We spent the better part of the walk over betting each other how long it would take Pierre to have a heart attack upon entering into such a small space with so many other dogs. Pierre walked sideways, whipped his head around in panicked swipes, and looked back at us every two seconds to make sure we hadn’t abandoned him in the middle of the urban jungle.

But something strange happened when we reached the event…

Yappy Hour took place in the Yard, a normally sophisticated outdoor patio with Chinese lanterns and twinkling lights. There were dogs everywhere; jumping on each other, playing, begging for treats, desecrating the flagstone, fighting and trying to get their- ahem- groove on.



There were Pugs, Bulldogs, King Charles Cavaliers, Labs, Cocker Spaniels, and Daschunds, mutts and pure-breeds, teeny little yappers and several Great Danes that (A) were each roughly the size of a snowmobile and (B) attempted to trample me at one point during the night. To be fair, I accidentally kicked one of them in the face while untangling myself from the leash of a French Bulldog Puppy that I was actively trying to kidnap. . Most of the dogs in the place could have easily gulped Pierre down and still had plenty of room for their Kibbles.



Pierre cocked his head to the side, sizing up the situation. He looked at us, then back at the Yard. At us. At the Yard. Us. Yard. Us. Yard…



And then suddenly, it seemed to hit him.



Holy sh*%$@! I’m a DOG!!!

And just like that, Pierre-“My-Head-Explodes-At-The-Sight-Of-A-Mothball “-Murphy went to town. We could barely keep track of him as he pranced around the yard, strutting his stuff, sniffing and nipping and tarting his five-pound self to every corner of the patio. He rough-housed with strangers, he ventured into new territory, he let men pick him up. He even let his inner tough guy out...



…with somewhat adverse effects.


Clearly, a star was born.


Me, Pierre, and Caitlin


Lisa, Pierre, and Caitlin

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at a local pub with outdoor seating, so that Pierre could embrace his newfound love of the city and its inhabitants. A couple that had also been at the Yappy Hour were seated at the next table, with their doggie next to them. The dog meandered over Pierre to make friends, and we waited for Pierre to reciprocate. He looked at the dog for a second, cocked his head…



...and lost his freaking mind.

He spent the rest of the night in Caitlin’s handbag, trembling.


I guess some things don’t change after all.


Oh, and PS, Pierre is on Facebook.

So Long Sweet Summer

I'm not sure why, but summer decided to be about 95% faster and shorter this year than it usually is. Now, I'm a life-long New Englander. I like seasons to change. Just not so quickly.

Now here we are on the last day of August, and I haven’t done half of the things on my summer bucket list. There was no trip to Martha’s Vineyard, no outdoor movie screening, and a whole lot less beach time than I’d like. But I’m a glass is half full kind of girl, so I’ll focus on the awesome things I did get to experience…

...like Cape Cod sunsets



and Fourth of July fireworks!



Boating bliss...



…And Newport splendor.



For these, and for the sand in my toes, the nights around the fire pit, the barbeques and Atlantic ocean and Friday night concerts; the fresh fish and grilled corn and ice cream; the wedding bells and long walks and bike rides; the cold beer and hot sun and long, long days, thank you.

It’s been a blast...



…so bring on September!

Coveting...

From Pretty Plum Sugar. You all know it already, of course, but why not take another peek, just for fun? Something this beautiful could inspire creativity all day long...

"For once you have tasted flight...

...you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."

- Leonardo da Vinci

Welcome to DaVinci's Daughter. I'm Jenna - songwriter, singer, and would-be Renaissance woman. I'm excited to enter the blogging world and to share the things that inspire, awe, and fascinate me with all of you. Thanks for dropping by!