2011 Wrap-Up + Photos & Videos that prove it was great!
I could write a novel about this year, but instead, I’ll limit it to some of my favorite highlights via pictures and videos! Thanks for ALL of the support this year! I can’t wait to see what 2012 holds. It’s going to be a big year and I’ll be worth watching for it. I promise 
Recording Album with Scott Nickoley (Release Date scheduled for Spring 2012)
So many fun shows! (Here some pictures from a few)
I moved out of the 1 bedroom I was sharing with 4 other people into my own apartment!
My old "room" - the dining room transformed with shelves, blinds, and a curtain for a door.
Still Managed to Squeeze in some Ultra-Marathon Fun!
Crewing out at AC100
Pacing a runner through the night leg of Nanny Goat's 24-hour Run
Feet post-Leona Divide 50. No blisters!
My 3rd niece, Marley Skye Benton, born!
Denali Sol Benton meeting her baby sister Marley Skye for the first time.
Photoshoot with Me in my Place! (Yowza!!)
Click for the whole shoot! (nsfw)
Max Goldberg and I launch our Social Media business, SHMEDIA, and have somehow managed to scrape by with it!
Click to check out our site! Still under construction, but coming along!
Thanks to everyone who played a part in this fantastic year!
To Whom it May Inspire
I absolutely love this – Open letter to artists of any kind from Pixar animator Austin Madison.
Enjoy
General Update – Album Status, Embracing Vegetables, and Starting a Business!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates or news, although it has been a great month for videos!
It’s November now and this is what will be going on from now until the new year:
Working my record! Still! Scott and I took a break for about 3 months while he worked on the score to the upcoming film “Mama I Want to Sing”. We’ll be back recording later this week and will be doing everything we can to have a finished product out ASAP! Thanks to everyone who has been donating money to the project and coming out to support me at live shows. If you’ve been coming to live shows lately, then you’ve been able to hear a lot of new material. There will be more shows to come and more previews of songs via my new Live From My Living Room online video series!
I’d like to run an ultra in the next 6-8 weeks and the only thing keeping my from racing is cash flow. Ridgecrest 50k is one of my favorite winter time fun runs. I’m hoping I can at least wrangle together enough cash for that so I can set a new 50k PR (current PR is 5:15), though it all depends on how my new business is doing (more on that below!!).
Although I haven’t been putting in the longer miles as often these days, my runs have been much stronger and faster which I think is the result of my new vegan diet. I’ve had a long frustrating relationship with food and cooking up until the beginning of September, which is when I started doing all my shopping at our Co-Op and farmer’s market in addition to getting fresh organic produce delivered to the apartment. The results have been a skinnier, faster, healthier version of me and being subjected to lots and lots of compliments on my skin and body. Right on. I’m not really a vegan, but the only food I’ve bought for groceries have been plant based and I haven’t felt deprived. Actually, to be honest, I feel like a superhero. I enjoy cooking, everything is delicious and filling, and I feel good about everything I eat at home. I came to this decision after a lot of research and a personal interest (concern) in what I was putting in my body, links between animal proteins and diseases, the amount of corn/corn syrup in food, and the general anxiety I feel every time I walk into a grocery store and can’t find actual food. The difference has been drastic. I’m not about to go on a vegan campaign, making everyone around me feel alienated or guilty. It seems to work well for me and that’s all I’ll say about that. However, I’ll post an occasional vegan recipe if there’s an interest. My vegan mac n’ cheese is pretty awesome. Just saying
Aside from music and running, I’ve also started a Social Media Marketing company with fellow performer/artist/entrepreneur, Max Goldberg. He’s been totally nerding out about website buidling and S.E.O. while I’ve been creating social content like a maniac for the businesses we work for. One of these days I’ll get to my OWN website and give myself a social makeover before my record comes out. So if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been lately, I’ve been right here, just posting on behalf of other people! I’m not sure where our little company will go, but we’ve been working our butts off and have successfully LIVED off of revenue from our company for the past 2 months. Just the fact that I don’t have to actually go work for someone else makes me want to kiss my new company on the face. Turns out I don’t like having bosses.
Speaking of, it’s time I get back to work 
More news and updates are on the way, so stay close!
Leave it to me to compete in 8 ultra mar
Leave it to me to compete in 8 ultra marathons straight without injury but roll my ankle while playing a video game. http://goo.gl/Go87j
Quick Quick! Go to Me in my Place to see a short teaser video featuring yours truly!
They put up a short teaser of me playing the piano! Warning – site is NSFW
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Somebody Else – Live from Molly Malone’s!
See, even though I’m on an airplane all day, I didn’t forget about you! Here’s a video as a thank you for visiting me here at my blog again today 
Song: Somebody Else
Music and Lyrics By: Katelyn Benton (of course!)
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Some days…
…you just wake up on the wrong side of the bed. That was me this morning. In fact, I went back to bed at around 10am and tried again at noon. For whatever reason, today just wasn’t my day. I did manage to get things done during round 2, including cleaning the house and getting an oil change. I’m getting ready to leave for Colorado on Wednesday night! I’ll be driving there and arriving Thursday evening for my show this Saturday at The Laughing Goat.
Off to eat a delicious dinner for Trader Joe’s Chinese Food. Come back tomorrow for a real update.
New Show Announced! Molly Malone’s July 1st with the FULL BAND
That’s right! I’m playing with a full band for the first time since last summer. I’m playing with drummer Eric Valentine and I reallllyyy want to show him off, so come out and support us! I promise you an excellent show! Come early for drinks!
Shake it up baby, get yourself some uncomfortable
I have been terribly uncomfortable and absolutely terrified of some of the things I’ve been feeling and doing lately. I must say, I’m either a masochist in ways I didn’t know, or my life is in such a transitional period that I recognize the need for risk and change and am allowing myself to feel a certain degree of shitty for a while in the hopes that this is all part of the long-run journey toward something new, brighter, and closer to where my heart wants to be. Either way, I’ve not only been accepting this uncomfortable period, I’ve actively been pushing myself into it.
First of all – some excellent news: I broke ground on my new album last week and it’s looking like it will be a late summer/early autumn release. I am extremely excited about this. Friend of mine Scott Nickoley is producing the record with me and so far, I’m having a great time. I also played my first full band Los Angeles show last week.
Katelyn Benton, Russell Peppers, Scott Nickoley at Molly Malones, Los Angeles 6/24/10
With the production of this record, I have quickly decided to put my training on hiatus (at least back off significantly) until its completion. Friends, there are reasons why people don’t pursue both ultra-marathoning AND being a rockstar. The lifestyles are quite different.
For a while here, I have pursued music at somewhat of a slower pace. I didn’t realize I was slowing so much until a series of horrible funks, total meltdowns, and some pretty clear-messaged dreams that all began about 2 months ago. It was as though the insides of me knew what it wanted and needed before my brain got the message – “Katelyn, THIS is what you truly love. If you don’t open your eyes while it’s in front of you, you will be extremely regretful.”
But loving music hurts. I wrote a song called “Hey You Rockstars” that basically says “Damn. Having a dream is hard. I wish I could be happy with something that didn’t constantly hurt me and that is a little easier to achieve.”
But what is that worth? Would you rather pursue something that is less sticky, less trouble, but wouldn’t fill you up the way you know you can be filled? If the universe has ever opened your eyes to something beautiful that is just for you, how can you settle with anything less?
This may seem hard and impossible, but if I don’t try this I will absolutely regret it for the rest of my life. Besides, if it’s still in front of me, hurting me because I don’t know exactly what to do with it, that’s a good sign. It means I still have a chance. When the dream stops talking to you, when it has given up on you listening, then you’re in trouble (theme from The Alchemist).
So I have actively been making myself very uncomfortable lately. The payoff has been incredible though. The more I take risks, the more I do and say things that I’m afraid of doing and saying, the more present I feel and at the end of the day I can tell myself, “I did it right today.” It doesn’t always feel good, but that’s okay. Is a life really considered balanced without giving yourself the opportunity to learn how to manage your own heartache? I think not. I have been depriving myself of this learning opportunity for some time now.
At the San Diego 100 Mile Endurance Run 2 weeks ago, for the first time I admitted to myself that I could see no way out of the race and I was going to have to drop at 80 miles in (see previous entry). Incredibly though, there was another side to this feeling and it lead me all the way to the finish line. No finish line has been sweeter. Learning that when I am emotionally and physically feeling completely spent, but then discovering that there is another side to that wall has been incredibly empowering. Now going forward I have that physical proof to any “wall” situation that I encounter. This is probably why I have been okay with jumping into a lot of scary situations over the past 2 weeks.
So while I’m honestly quite terrified of some of the positions I’ve put myself in recently, I have made terrified my new productive emotion. I know there’s another side to it. It’s either going to push me in a direction that is closer to where I want to be, or it’s going to eventually throw me off balance and I’ll abandon that particular situation. Either way, I’m learning and I’m not afraid to be afraid. It’s certainly not my favorite emotion to try and sleep with, but I’m willing to have sleepless nights in order to experience a growth spurt.
Besides, like I said, I’m on a hiatus from training so I don’t really need all that sleep I’m not getting anyway.
Progress- sort of.
I feel like I’m in a vacuum these days. The weeks are flying by and I’m constantly feeling like I can’t quite keep up with everything that I want to be doing. I want to start recording this week. That’s my goal. I’d like to have the EP finished (at least recorded) by Christmas and I need to get to work. Also, I have not been putting enough time in to writing. Goal for the week- get a new song out.
I got new shoes. I didn’t get another pair of Mizuno Inspires (which is what I’ve been running in for 4 years). The running store that I work at didn’t have a pair in my size and I really couldn’t wait another day for new shoes. Even just standing in the worn out Mizunos made my knees and back hurt. I ended up getting the Asics 2120. They’re working out pretty well. I’ll still end up getting another pair of Mizunos, money willing. This was the last 2120 in my size and the 2130′s came out a while ago, so I probably won’t find another pair even if I wanted to.
I went to Las Vegas this past week, which sort of botched my 24 miler on Saturday. I should have stayed in Vegas another night to hang out with my Mom (in town for a class), rather than try to do that run. I got back in town Friday night and woke up at 5:00 on Saturday to start running. I felt great actually, I was running quick miles and feeling strong, but I had to stop after about 2 hours in to adjust my slipping socks. Turns out it wasn’t my sock slipping and bunching, it was blisters that had developed from wearing dress shoes walking around the Vegas strip all night on Thursday. Ahh the things you don’t notice while enjoying dollar margaritas. Anyway, I cut back to my car at that point not wanting to risk my feet being covered in irritated blisters. I’ve done a few 20 milers recently and I know that skipping this 24-miler isn’t detrimental, but I was still pretty cranky about not finishing. On the up side, the sunrise that I caught was incredible.
Max and I are finding it a little more difficult to keep our meals inexpensive yet healthy and balanced. We live off of mostly eggs, chicken, and pasta. If you have any cheap meal ideas let me know- sample grocery lists would be good too.
Otherwise I’m going to keep living off of the fruit smoothie Power Bars. So good.
Here’s a picture from the most windy and fun day at the beach last weekend.
Old video of me and my Grandmother
This is me and my grandmother. She was a concert pianist. She’s awesome.
Katelyn Loses Her Job.
I got laid off from my job last Tuesday. A brief history of my job: I got offered this job right as I was coming out of Berklee. It was a music recording equipment manufacturing company that I have a very close relationship to and the director of marketing asked me to join his team. I’m not really into marketing, but I’m into every vein of music I can explore and figured that the job would be a great way to meet people in the business, learn more about the engineering side of recording, build my resume, and make some money. I was furiously unhappy, but I worked very hard and was very good at what I did.
I won’t go into detail about getting laid off except to say that it’s never fun to lose a job, money, health insurance, etc., with less than 2 weeks notice and it having nothing to do with how you performed your duties. Lame Sauce.
But man, I didn’t realize how unhappy I was and that my job was the source of this unhappiness. When my boss called me last week to “let me go” I was furious and upset and emotional, but even before our phone conversation ended, I was feeling this giant wave of relief come over me. Max took me to the beach immediately after I hung up, and I just felt free. I felt free to fuck up, and free to be broke, and free to explore other forums of music and money making. I had been working remotely and because of this, even though I cut down my hours to 30 a week to have more time to pursue music, I was spending every waking hour thinking about my job, wondering if I had forgotten to take care of anything, trying to predict which angle my boss was going to fall towards next so I could be ready. I haven’t had a moment to breath for a long time.
Back in March my good friend from Berklee, Lucas Carpenter, came to Baton Rouge and we did a show together. He is an incredibly talented songwriter who would make it on his business skills alone, but the fact that he’s disgustingly talented as well only increases the likelyhood that you too will know his name some day.
Lucas sang this song at our show called “Dreamers Working 9 to 5″ and it was as though someone put a coat hanger into my heart. It made me realize how far away I was from what I actually wanted to be doing.
So, now I”m jobless. I have very little money and a lot of expenses and things are about to get very tight. I’ve never felt better either. I’ve made more progress in planning and exploring new ways to make money doing music in the last week then I’ve had time to do in the last 2 months. For money’s sake, if I can just get 2 or 3 gigs playing piano around town or teaching a few lessons each week, I’ll be making more than I was and be much happier than doing marketing. Ugh. Barf.
Plans for the weekend- Katelyn Got Laid-Off party at the beach which will also include a nice long run down the water. More to come with marathon training. Ahem. I haven’t had a long run for a couple weeks, but I did join a gym and started taking group classes. I’m feeling stronger and more fit than ever.
Viva Las UNEMPLOYMENT!
ps- please send money or food stamps.
The Impossible Question- What Do You Want?
I am a musician and my boyfriend is a comedian. We’re both pursuing art as a career and therefore, eating plain spaghetti most nights. The other night we were talking about how we worried we had “peaked” early on in our careers. This is, of course, ridiculous because both of us are far more capable and talented now than we were even 18 months ago. The concern is born from an awareness that as kids in college, the only expectations being held up to us was to “make the most out of the experience” in the hopes of becoming something someday. I know this is true for me. I went to Berklee College of Music where all you do is play music all day and all night and the only thing expected of you is to show up and give it everything you’ve got, and oh yeah, to become hugely famous someday to make a $100,000 music education “worth it”.
It’s easy to feel like you’ve peaked when you have been spoiled by being around some of the most talented people on the planet playing music 24 hours a day with no other worry or care in the world. Doing what we want everyday with no financial obligations is as close to “making it” as Max and I have come.. so far.
Being an artist is hard. Er. Let me re-phrase. Being an artist is great and special and unique and a useful outlet. Relying on art to support yourself and basing your identity on the success of your career as an artist is hard. Max and I are both in agreement that if we turned out to be 40-somthings still working a “Plan B” job, only doing art when we have a free weekend or evening, and staying in the same art scene our entire lives, then we would be incredibly disappointed and equally suicidal.
For those in our breed, not succeeding isn’t an option.
So we both work our butts off to work towards the next step that will bring our reputation another inch closer to being who it is we’re trying to be. However, when faced with this question you oftentimes get when meeting face-to-face with the occasional person who just might be the one to give you a break, a lot of us do not have a clear answer.
“What do you want?”
Why is it so hard for us to be honest with this question? Why does it always stop us dead in our tracks?
Could it really be as simple as lining out what you want? I think it is. I think that a lot of artists struggle not because they can’t move forward, but because they don’t know where they want to go. Decide. And if you are under the notion that becoming rich and famous is selling out, then it is my personal opinion that you are wrong. Saying that you want your art to provide for your family, to send your kids to college, to give you options in time of financial crisis such as being faced with an unexpected medical need, this is not selling out.
But I digress.
In my career thus far, this has become one of the most important things I have come to understand: Don’t be afraid of what you want. Don’t be afraid to admit what you want. Don’t deny what you want because you don’t believe it is the “right” thing to want. If you pursue what you think is the “right” thing to want, then you are not allowing your art to take you where your heart wants to be. Your goals don’t need to be the same as mine, or John Mayer’s or Mother Teresa’s. I’m telling you this because we all need to free ourselves from that expectation. Seriously. I don’t want you jumping off a building in 20 years because you worked all these years and never got what you wanted.
I’ll go first.
Here’s what I want. I want to be a great songwriter. I want my name to be on the list when people name off names like Beth Nelson Chapman and Carol King. I want to be able to fill a venue. I want people to want to hear my songs and get excited when I release new music. I want other people to record my songs and for it to grant them success in their own album sales. I want to be respected among my peers as an incredible, capable, and dedicated member of the music community. I don’t want to need this second job to pay the bills. I want my music alone to be able to support me. There it is.
I moved to Los Angeles a few weeks ago. And not one day should pass when I do not think about what I want and what I can do on that day to get me closer to this goal.
I’m a believer that you can have anything you want. Material or not. But if you can’t admit that you can have whatever you want and you alone are 100% in control of your own success (you’re in control. not the guy who asks what you want. not the guy who didn’t come to your show. you.), then you’re destined to constantly be put in a position to be let down, unfulfilled, and unimpressed with yourself.
So why is it so hard to answer the “what do you want” question? Because it makes you accountable for getting it. We become a little blinded by being in a market and trying to fit the mold of what other people need at that moment. Hop-scotching from being what one company wants to what another label wants as a way to build a career is exhausting and tough. Answering this question means that we get to be what we want and therefore, we are the only thing stopping us or aiding us in getting it.
So i just booked my first gig in L.A. because I want to perform and I want other people to watch. It took one day of deciding that was what needed to be done. More to come.
Hello world!
Welcome to my new blog.
I had multiple reasons for creating this blog. The most simple being I need to write and I’d like to keep the people I’m far away from tuned in on what is going on in my life.
However, I needed a new and creative way to keep myself motivated in my two most dominating life passions: music and running. This should serve as an interesting way to keep track of writing, training, racing, performing, injuries, accomplishments, goals, etc. I have a tendency to become obsessed with learning about the things that I love and this knowledge always translates to motivation. Having a place to journal about these things will not only keep a detailed scrapbook record, but the content should be valuable or at least relatable to other people with the same interests.
Enjoy.
