![\"\"](\"\/beta\/\/media.wonderlandmagazine.com\/uploads\/2011\/06\/kimsolo3_hires.jpg\" "\\"Kim")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kim Gordon \u2013 leading lady of noise punk legends Sonic Youth \u2013 on
\nmaking mud huts, junk email and post-election blues\u2026
\n<\/p>\n
When I was younger I used to hate Monday mornings. I suffered from school anxiety. I hated school. My elementary was a laboratory school at UCLA where my dad taught. It was a very \u2018learn by doing\u2019 school, like we used to make mud huts when we were studying about Africa and we skinned a cow hide once. It didn\u2019t prepare me for the bigger school, which was a real disappointment. So I skipped school a lot. <\/p>\n
Since the election, I don\u2019t know what to do with my Monday mornings. I\u2019ve become such a news junkie; now I have this big gaping hole. I\u2019m not a natural morning person. I\u2019m a reverse insomniac: I fall asleep and then I wake up at two or three in the morning and toss and turn. But I\u2019ve gotten out of the habit of sleeping in late. Sleeping late for me is eight-thirty these days. <\/p>\n
I live in Northampton, Western Massachusetts but yesterday I was in New York. I don\u2019t have such a constant schedule; the only constant thing is my daughter Coco. Thurston [Moore; husband and band mate] and I take it in turns as to who gets up with her. Coco is 14 years old now and just started high school. This morning I got up at seven. It used to be six-thirty but they start later at her new school, so that\u2019s better. <\/p>\n
Sometimes, if there is nothing really that exciting going on, then Monday is hard. If you travel a lot then when you come home you feel disconnected from your life. I\u2019d like to just go away and do a couple of shows and come home. It\u2019s hard to leave one child all the time. In the summer we can take her with us, but she doesn\u2019t want to tour that much: it\u2019s not that much fun plus she\u2019s not the one who gets to play. <\/p>\n
The first thing I do is go downstairs and feed the dog and let him out. He\u2019s called Merzbow \u2013 like the Japanese noise artists. He\u2019s an Australian sheepdog and very photogenic; he\u2019s either just turning five years old or he\u2019s six. Then the cat wants to come in and go out and come in. I have to put the dog in the crate because he chases her. He likes her but he\u2019s overly energetic and freaks her out. <\/p>\n
I have to constantly go up and see if Coco is getting up. I\u2019m back and forth up the stairs. One of the ways I try to wake her up is by asking what she wants for lunch. We\u2019re trying to get her to make her own lunch but she is a hopeless morning person. For breakfast I\u2019ll make Coco some oatmeal. I like that too. But lately I\u2019ve been getting into a fried egg on toast with olive oil and a slice of tomato. And I\u2019ll drink earl grey, green or black tea. <\/p>\n
I usually take a shower later in the morning, before I go to the gym. If I\u2019m lucky I go three times a week. I try to time it to watch The Daily Show <\/em>with Jon Stewart. During the election I would read the New York Wall, the New York Times and I\u2019d be checking the Huntington Post and Tina Brown\u2019s new blog on the Daily Beast at the same time. <\/p>\n On the weekend I don\u2019t really get that many emails. Mainly penis extension or extra orgasms, that kind of stuff. But I check my email every morning and I look at all the homework I have to do; I sift through and see how the things I have been procrastinating about are doing. That\u2019s sort of a good Monday morning thing to do. If I\u2019m really feeling organised I mentally plan out what I\u2019m going to get done. But lately I\u2019ve really been busy because I have all these projects. I\u2019m starting a clothing line called Mirror\/Dash and I\u2019m working on an art book for Rizzoli, which is a combination of some of my recent watercolours and some photographs. We\u2019re working on a new record, I have equipment set up in my basement and a studio in Hoboken, New Jersey. And I have to make a lion costume for my daughter.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a regular lunchtime. Sometimes, like today, I\u2019m going to go to Wholefoods to buy food and maybe I\u2019ll grab some sushi or I\u2019ll just grab a sandwich. We have a big Victorian house but the room I paint in is kinda messy, the ceiling is falling down and needs to be fixed. It used to be the servant\u2019s kitchen and it has a sink in there. So I sometimes work in the kitchen because the light is really good and there\u2019s a big table. It\u2019s one of these typical things: hardly anyone leaves the kitchen.<\/p>\n In the evenings at the moment Thurston is trying to catch up on Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em>, he\u2019s way behind, so we\u2019re re-watching it with him. So sometimes we\u2019ll watch an episode of that, or I\u2019m really into Mad Men<\/em>. I\u2019m really behind in watching TV, I\u2019m behind with Entourage<\/em> and Weeds<\/em>, and there\u2019s a new vampire show, True Blood<\/em>. <\/p>\n I go to bed around midnight. I usually read, usually fiction. I\u2019m reading this pretty good suspense book, called “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.” Although I have “My Sister Madonna” next to my bed by Christopher Ciccone. Sometimes I get my best ideas at night. But then it keeps me awake, like I really have to force myself not to think. I can really become a worrier about myself. I don\u2019t dream as much as I used to. I had a really weird one the other night about Thurston\u2019s mother; that she was pregnant. She\u2019s an incredibly youthful woman for her age, she\u2019s very vital. It was pretty bizarre. <\/p>\n Photographer:: Andrew Kesin<\/p>\n A full version of this article first appeared in<\/em> Wonderland #16, Dec\/Jan 2008\/09<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kim Gordon \u2013 leading lady of noise punk legends Sonic Youth \u2013 on making mud huts, junk email and post-election blues\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9419],"tags":[157,128,155,116,156],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n