Abe: Paloma’s Nest Egg

Friday Five: Animal friends

Anjana, Shiva and Mitra:

This week’s Friday five has more cute-power than a unicorn chaser.

My Fleetwood Mac dreams come true!

This evening has been in the making since I was five, bouncing through a choreographed lip-sync of Christine McVie singing Everywhere while my dad patiently acted as camera man. I created a complicated spinning sequence for the sparkly part at the beginning, followed by baby ballet toe-taps meant to shake all who watched to the core. Christine was my favourite, but the living-room diva in me secretly channeled Stevie, just spinning my ass off during all of the ‘sparkly parts’.

Friday Five: The follow-up edition

1. Another gadget orchestra: 
This time it’s an all-ipod MGMT cover. If MGMT were to die and become reincarnated… they would obviously come back as a group of ethinically diverse songstresses with adorable grins. And they would obviously multiply by two. A follow-up to Friday Five 02/20/09

2. A new song from St. Vincent:
The all-knowing Wikipedia Gods claimed her upcoming album Actors would be “sonically inspired by Prince”. The little taste of thick, dreamy electric guitars I got on this track makes me want to incorporate a sexual Prince joke into all of this, but I’ll hold off for today (2day). While you’re at it, click here, scroll past the ‘Blah blah blah decades-past… nostalgia-inducing pretenses blah blah blah’ and check out my favourite little tape recorder buddy. Num nums. A follow up to Lady Tunes, if you ignore my Ariel Pink digression.

3. The Eco-Friendly Port-a-Bach:
As far as housing aspirations go, I’ve upgraded from tiny traveling homes to homes made from boxes. Actually, you could say I’ve downgraded in the same way homeless people in box-towns are downgrades from hobos travelin’ the land. It’s really a matter of personal homeless-lifestyle preference, and whether or not you choose to keep your box house stationary. A follow up to I’m Not Joking 08/25/08

4. Hey Rosetta on Billboard.com:
I briefly mentioned Hey Rosetta back when they opened for H Dubbs in November, but did you know that their album is so wonderful that I’ve chosen to wake up to it every morning? Hey Rosetta’s Into Your Lungs lives permanently inside my cd alarm clock! They’ve survived what is normally the ‘music-I-love massacre’ of any album assigned to shake me from my warm, blanket-laden slumber-cave every single morning! Oh yeah, they’re also touted as the next Canadian break-through on Billboard. Whatevs. A follow-up to Hawksley Workman in London 11/27/08

5. Nadja covers MBV’s Only Shallow:
As pitchfork-centric as this post already is, I absolutely must include this. Reason: it had me doing weighty, exhaggerated head-nods in slow motion within seconds of its opening. Anyone who has seen me do this knows I have entered a realm of serious rocking/music enjoyment. A follow up to You Made Me Realise 09/24/08

Camera Obscura: French Navy

What’s up with me and mushy video clips? I think I miss Jon.

Music Attack: I suggest we take this outside

Believe it or not, there are good ways to be attacked. You can be kiss-attacked, massive attacked, sneak-attacked by friendly baby pugs, (this apparently happens a lot), and even music attacked on the streets of San Francisco.

I’ve actually featured a few videos filmed by La Blogotheque before, some done specifically for Beirut’s Flying Club Cup and more recently with Lykke and friends, (though I missed her awesome cover of After Laughter Comes Tears with Sarah Assbring. For shame!)

La Blogotheque don’t just film our favourite musicians performing unexpectedly on the streets. Though the Black Cab Sessions come from an entirely different group of film makers, Blogotheque continue their idea by filming concerts sailing on water or squeezed into traveling vans. It’s exciting to see some of my favourite musicians do their thing close up and on the go, instead of in a crowded concert or flashy music video.

My favourites? Guillemots take the cake, though little babies dancing to Menomena are certainly in the running. The Flying Club Cup sessions are also not to be missed. This post is already link-filled, so I’ll let you do your own exploring. Keep your eyes peeled for Tom Jones!

Friday Five: Lady-tunes!

St. Vincent

My brother introduced me to St. Vincent one afternoon at the office, and as Now, Now’s repeated lyrics “you don’t mean that, say you’re sorry” thoroughly creeped out my colleagues, I caught a St. Vincent fever. An incredibly talented musician and songwriter, (I think she plays just about every instrument on the album), Annie Clark’s songs are strange and dazzling.  This means a lot, as I hate to use the word dazzling unless absolutely necessary.  Recently a friend of mine mentioned how tired he is of the ever popular ‘indie-girl cooing’. If you feel the same way, St. Vincent is your coo-free alternative. Clark sings expressively and with intention, and you’ll consider her album title’s Arrested Development reference an extra bonus!  Watch Jesus Saves, I Spend, (the caterpillar!).

Lavender Diamond

Sounds like: a gang of all-female superheroines, donning flow-y vintage dresses and rollerskates, with the power to turn everything into a nostalgic super 8 mm video. All are welcome to listen, but I’m not going to lie, Lavender Diamond are mega girly. They’re called LAVENDER DIAMOND. You’re not allowed to name your band Lavender Diamond unless you’re the soundtrack to teen girls on car rides with other teen girls, holding their hands out the window and ‘feeling infinite’ and stuff. I uploaded my favourite song from Imagine Our Love here for all to listen to. Enjoy!

Undergrads: What I really learned at University

An unspeakable number of English assignments are about to swallow me whole, and all I can do is sit here, ass fused to futon, gnawing on mint chocolate candy and my fingertips. If there’s anything I’ve learned after four years of University, it’s this: if I’m not pursuing knowledge based on my own curiosity, my soul and brain will slowly turn to dust. And after 31 months of living in my head, sitting in a hunched typing position, and having all creativity focused on snappy essay titles… I am beyond ready to move on.

Bookmark clutter be gone: Kaboodle and LaterThis

Later This: If you’re anything like me, your bookmarks folder is a treasure trove of how-to’s, reminders, inspiration, and resources. I also do a lot of my research and event planning online, (my wedding bookmarks folder is massive), and some of my classes are through correspondence too. I think this is why I’m a bit of a maniac when it comes to organizing my bookmarks. Items must pass my critical test of importance before being labeled and filed in their proper place. Then I murmur ‘You just got cataloooggued’.

As a result of this compulsion, the lighter stuff I set aside for future reading is archived at LaterThis. To quote their main page, ‘LaterThis lets you save and manage all the links you’d like to have a second look at, but don’t have time for now.’ When I find something of interested I just click the ‘Laterthis’ button in my menu bar, give the item a title and tag, and continue on my merry way. On a rainy day when I have nothing to do, (a day that has yet to happen), I can head on over and read my Laterthis goodies. Until then, it’s out of sight and out of mind, keeping my bookmarks free of clutter.

Kaboodle: Remember Caboodles? Yeah… anyway, this is not about sparkly bathroom organizers of our youth. Kaboodle is the alternative to out of control fashion folders everywhere. It’s pretty much the same idea as Laterthis, only geared specifically towards clothing items found online. The interface allows you to look at photos of your items, along with descriptions and prices. Other options include making a wish list, creating nifty style boards, and adding other people who are equally addicted to internet shopping as friends. If you don’t like shopping for clothes, you can use this for just about any item you’d like to buy: books, art supplies, housewares, puppies…

Edit: A quick thanks to Lindsey for mentioning me in Fickle Little Machine yesterday, it was a nice surprise! Go check her out, this post pretty much made my day.

Friday Five

The Sister Project: Celebrating sisters of all kinds, an idea I wish I had conjured up first!

Snuggly winter gear: Cutest coats and warmest boots.

Kinetic art by Casey Curran: Her pieces come alive! It makes me think of the ticking clocks scene in Pinnochio. This was sent to me by Jon, he’s always finding neat art and thoughtfully sending it my way.

Exile in Guyville: It’s been a while since my last Liz Phair phase. I was twelve when my brother loaned me a copy of What’s Up Matador. It was then that Liz Phair’s Stratford-On-Guy became my obsession. I also have this hilarious memory of playing Cat Power’s song Nude as the News in the car with my father and best friend, expecting them to marvel at my musical taste. They begged me to turn it off.

A candid letter to the two pygmy marmoset babies who live on my left index and middle fingers.