It Wouldn't Be Summer Without:

1) A summer blockbuster—make it Super 8 so you can relive the magic of the first time you sat through E.T. or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. When you put the creator of Lost with Spielberg's genius, the result is a film that's as charming as it is suspenseful. Props to both for presenting an alien we haven't seen in theaters yet (as a total alien-movie nerd, I was pretty sure I'd seen them all). Definitely see it in the theater to maximize the suspenseful jumps and nostalgia that will ensue (preferably with a fantastic date to hang on to for the scary parts).




2) Peter and I will be hitting up the farmer's market this weekend with coffee in hand. In the age of bazillions of recipes available online, I can easily justify buying green tomatoes (to be made into fried green tomatoes, of course), jalapeno jam (for glazing salmon), and Japanese eggplant (um...jury's still out). It's actually tradition that I bring home a full Greek meal of soup, spanakopita, dolmadakia, and baklava whenever I go so we'll be reliving that.
The downtown one is getting almost completely outta control—if I want to buy candles, barrettes for a small child, and baked doggie treats I'll go there but Peter and I prefer the low-key, dogs-allowed, granola-eater's market on Sunday morning off of Old Cheney. God love the hippies!
I love to haul home big bouquets of mustard greens, fresh feta from the dairy, multi-colored peppers (purple's my favorite), and spicy radishes. Peter and I always try to out shop the other by finding the most exotic food and though he usually wins, I put up a pretty good fight.

3) Curling up on the couch with an ice-cold limeade(I made up my own concoction by squeezing a pile of fresh limes, making a muddle of basil and sugar water, and adding cucumber slices) and starting a summer read while it's storming outside. This year it's Moby Dick.

4) An art project. I haven't decided what this will be but I'm open to ideas. I have a few possibilities but so far lack the weekend during which to execute them. Last year it was learning how to knit once and for all.





























5) Weddings! I luuuuurv weddings, what's not to love? You get to watch two people in love commit to one another forever, followed by food and dancing. The dancing is obviously the best part, but still. I can't get enough of weddings and I'm proud to tell you that it's not b/c I'm taking notes for my own. I'd be very okay if that were a long while off. The only thing I know about my someday wedding is that it will be comfortable, easy going, with the best food ever and lots and lots of dancing. I took this shot during the lovely Leslie Davila's wedding last summer (GREAT wedding) of The Test Nest.


6) Long morning jogs/walk with lots of sweat, long cool shower, and lunch outside with a friend is the perfect way to start any day.





9) Fresh flowers from Daddy's garden (they smell best when they're just brought inside all warm from the sun).




8) Summer music is absolutely one of the sweetest things about summer. Most of these are old, some are new, some are "what's old is new again":

Mumford and Sons — "The Cave"

I can't believe it, Fleet Foxes did it again with — "Helplessness Blues"

Sorry for no video, but this song is the sound of my first summer in San Diego. Totally under celebrated is Jacob Miller's — "Charlie Brown's Lament"

Not sure how new this is, but it's new to me as of this week and I can NOT sit still when that guitar gets goin'! The Wooden Birds — "Two Matchsticks" The vocalist sounds identical to that of Death Cab for Cutie, any relation?

Oh Animal Collective led by Panda Bear's Noah Lennox, you have my heart —"Summertime Clothes" (don't miss "My Girls" and "Brother Sport")

This was summer 2009 for me, The Temper Trap's — "Sweet Disposition" thanks to the movie 500 Days of Summer

Hey Rosetta! — "The New Goodbye"

If you haven't heard of Karmin yet, you have now. I'm a little obsessed with her rendition of "Look at me Now" originally by Chris Brown ft. Lil Wayne, Busta Rhymes

Spring Songs

I had some help finding some good music for spring this week and was introduced to the following gems, I hope you enjoy them!


Band of Horses—"Is There a Ghost" (thanks Tiffanie Jurey)


The Civil Wars—"Falling," this one is so sad but so beautiful.


Daylights—"I Hope This Gets to You"—supposedly written for some girl and this guy hopes it will get to her virally and depends on viewers to get it to her. Gimmick to promote the piece? Maybe; doesn't change the fact that it's a great song with imaginative videography.


A Fine Frenzy—"Lost Things," an oldie but goodie (thanks Larka for showing this to me). By the way, she's gorgeous in the video but Alison Sudol is absolutely stunning in person.

Alex & Twitch on So You Think You Can Dance
(sorry, not allowed to embed)
Lil Jon & LM*AO—"Get Outta Your Mind," this video is sick; so much better than subjecting yourself to the original music video. I hope this also proves that I can get out of hipsterville and rough it up a little.

Postcard Project update: 26 postcards sent so far. Doria and Kristen, yours are on the way if they haven't arrived already!

Christmas Alternative

I stumbled upon this fantastic collection of indie/alternative Christmas music on Indie Rock Cafe. Some of it's awful, some so bad it's good and some is amazing:
The Friendly Beasts—Sufjan Stevens
Holiday—The Hopefuls
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas—Daphne Loves Derby
The 12 Days of Christmas—Belle & Sebastian

One I haven't seen on the list but I think qualifies is Vampire Weekend's Holiday too.
There's a player on the Web site you can use so you don't have to deal with a separate Windows Media Player opening up in a separate window.
Enjoy!

Song Steps

Amazing, I wish I could think of something like this to inspire and motivate people to do change one behavior for the better...just give me time.

Three Things to Tell You:

1) I love classic literature. LOVE it. Like, pretty sure I ruined a couple promising dates by waxing poetic about the brilliance of Jane Eyre's caracter or the deep perversion of Dracula, or arguing that Gatsby is the most tragic individual in literature since Hamlet. I even loved The Scarlet Letter while my classmates scoffed! However, I have finally determined (with 100 pages to go, mind you) that Anna Karenina is nothing but a verbose doorstop. This massive tome was NOT worth my time. I know it's this multifaceted Russian commentary covering everything from religion, sportsmanship, politics, industrial revolution, to infidelity, parenthood, and sex (and well it should, comprising a whopping 864 pages--only Harry Potter can get away with that much heft).

Seriously, I didn't find any particularly redeeming qualities about this book. No real take away quotes, thoughts on life, none of it. I am not totally sorry I read it but I will be much more selective in the next Russian novel I take up. Giving it minus one star out of five. Blech.

2) On the upside, Mumford & Sons music has given me new-found hope in new alternative/indie music (so has Florence + The Machine, I guess) but check out these fabulous songs! WARNING: "Little Lion Man" has the f-bomb in it over and over--not in a totally crass way, I think the group was trying to add edge to their folk song with the expletive and I forgive the gimick for its fabulous sound.




3) NPR.org is the I Ching. If you haven't messed around on that site lately, you're genuinely missing out. I discover my best music on "All Songs Considered" (though I would skip the most recent show and try this post), get my literary snack from "The Writer's Almanac" and have been known to listen to up to 12 past episodes at a time just to catch up. Morning Edition is the best news site you will find period (BBC is a close second). Don't forget my post on StoryCorps
I posted (and probably made you cry, again, sorry!) in August.

Enjoy the latter two, skip Anna Karenina.

Monsters and Post-Its

Oh my, I have found a fabulous new blog. Don Kenn Gallery is a blog by a man who draws monster scenes on post-its. Here's his blurb from the blog:
"born in Denmark 1978. I write and direct television shows for kids. I have a set of twins and not much time for anything. But when i have time i draw monsterdrawings on post-it notes... it is a little window into a different world, made on office supplies."
The only thing that makes me sad is that I've been working on a post-it portfolio for ages and ages and not much has come of it. Also, I have no theme to what I draw on my little 3x3 stickies so I'm very jealous.
Don also did a short film and posted it to Vimeo, please enjoy.

Said the Shark - True Love from Iwave records on Vimeo.

One Great Thing Friday

One of my all-time favorite songs; years later, I'm still not tired of it. His last album disappointed ("We are Golden" isn't bad but I didn't love the vid—a little too much MIKA for me...) but "Grace Kelly" is epic. Click the title and enjoy!

Scintillation

SCINTILLATION from Xavier Chassaing on Vimeo.

Belly Up with Landon Pigg & A Fine Frenzy

I almost didn't go, I was feeling so rotten, but then a red-haired angel named Sarah Shreves came and picked me up in her 1992 white Saturn and whisked me and her friend off to Belly Up in Solana Beach (on Cedros Avenue, the design district, which I very much intend to visit) to go hear Landon Pigg and A Fine Frenzy. Landon Pigg opened with "Falling in Love in a Coffee Shop," a song with this contrived a theme has no right sounding that gorgeous. It was fabulous.
He called out to the crowd after that song asking if we were a more rock or folky crew. I yelled "Folk!" about four feet from him in front but I was drowned out by the rockers. He apologized to the folkies and proceeded to perform a song that featured the band's fantastic drummer, she was ah-mazing. Afterword he looked down and addressed me directly, "Was that too 'rock' for you?" I laughed and called up, "I'm a believer!," and he sang a line from the song written by Niel Diamond.
We're pretty much dating.

Then A Fine Frenzy came up and Alison Sudol gave an outrageous performance, I had no idea what a fantastic entertainer she is! I also have to admit that she's one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen. Seriously. She is striking with her long lush bright red hair and the personality to back it up. She wore a fantastic outfit, brought tons of energy and dramatic flair to each of her pieces and her voice was absolutely amazing. I would totally pay to go hear her again and highly recommend you do so if you like this group's music. Enjoy the videos and have a harmonious day!
P.S. These photos are just space holders until I get the jpegs from Miss Sarah Shreves, photographer extraordinaire. Can't wait to see them!



This is her live-only cover, I loved it and wanted to share the video I found of it!

Five Great Things Friday

My cheap $10 earbuds look like a chihuahua got to them and outright unsafe as the plastic bits are clumping off (let's hope not in my ear!) so I went online to try to find a quality pair for cheap and here are some of the fun earbuds I found:
1)
Ah-dorable, I'm totally digging this tongue-in-cheek set (I wonder if the angel side is louder??).

2)
Too punky for me, but I do love these.

3)
Will these make my ears fat?

4)
I am LOVIN' these! But at $52 a pop, they're over my budget by about $32. I like these best, but I wouldn't say no to...

5)...these! YES PLEASE! For someone who doesn't have pierced ears, I'm thinking some genuine diamond ear bling is still within reach thanks to these babies.
Here's another pair, these would cost $3k...small price to pay for music, right? Sure.

Five Great Things Friday

Here are five great Web sites I'd never heard of before this week that are super great.

http://www.academicearth.org/
Ever kind of wish you were back in school sitting back and soaking up knowledge? I confess, sometimes I really do. I love a good lecture (they were sometimes few and far between in certain college subjects) and at this Web site, I can pretend I attend Yale, Princeton, Harvard, or MIT by sitting in on these classes by the best in their respective fields. After all, what's the difference between a Stanford student and me if we're getting the same lesson? I paid a whole lot less (i.e., nothing)!

http://www.craiglook.com/
I live and die for craigslist.com, however, every time I first glimpse the site I always thing "Huh, they still haven't prettied this up, huh?," not quite so. At craiglook.com you get all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a site so widely used and loved and it convenientely eliminates the old posts and gives you more surfing options in the side bars. You'll never craigslist again after visiting their site like this.

http://www.etsy.com/
In case I haven't made it abundantly clear, etsy.com is everything and the kitchen sink. Inspirational, entrepreneurial, home-grown, handmade bliss in a Web site. I admit I haven't purchased anything from the site yet but browsing makes me so dang happy I hardly need to thus far. Not like yo mama's craft fair, this site sells everything from one-dollar finger felt finger puppets, to mid-century pristine condition furniture; priceless antiques; one-of-a-kind diamond wedding rings; huge oil paints by soho artists, anything beautiful a person can make with his/her hands is here. Plus I love that they share the love and talent with instructional videos on the blog and interviews with the artists.

http://www.musicovery.com/
I'm proud (a little overly so) to say that I'd discovered Pandora about three years ago before it accumulated much praise (and before commercials filled every other minute of listening...ah I miss those days). I have not found its replacement yet, but I did find a fun site called musicovery.com. Like most streaming music sites, it's better if you're a member (not that I would know b/c I'm too cheap to spend the cash, but this site generously reminds you at every click that it's better if you pay). Anyway, this site works like a mood ring for music; tell it your favorite song or artist of the moment and tell it whether you're feeing calm, positive, dark, or energetic and it will match music to your preferences. Give it a whirl, it's better than pandora commercial pandamonium.

http://www.supercook.com/
This is what living in the 21st century is all about. Period. This is science fiction. You type in whatever you have in your fridge and this site comes up with recipes for what you've got. This is the best thing since sliced bread, end of story. I know what I'll be doing this weekend!

Hope you enjoy these, if you end up using one, let me know what you think. Have a great weekend!

Her Morning Elegance

I dedicate this blog post to my Alison who is undergoing so many refreshing, messy, necessary, and brave changes at this time. Moving away is the best hardest thing I ever did, if it's more hard than best before you go, give me a call. Love ya.

A Dedication

I wrote this song for my Alison a couple days ago skipping back with a bag full of nectarines, plums, mangos, and peaches from the little fruit stand close to my apartment:





La fruta la fruta me hace feliz,
La fruta la fruta me hace feliz,
Duraznos y pinas y fresas tambien,
La fruta la fruta me hace bien!

Party on a pineapple Alison. Party on a pineapple.

Think outside the box: Pandora.com

Alright, anyone who hasn't heard of Pandora.com NEEDS to check it out. I've done my best to ensure all my loved ones know about it, but for any stragglers, you need to have a listen. This is a free streaming online radio service that one can customize according to one's music tastes. Enter either a favorite artist or song title, and it will create a "station" based on your selection and proceed to play songs that feature the same musicality as your artist/song.
Stations I recommend (these are all group/artist names):
-Rufus Wainwright -The Postal Service -Regina Spektor -Sufjan Stevens -The Weepies -Mat Kearney -Spoon -Andrew Bird -Ok Go -Mika -Glen Hansard & Marketta Irglova

I'll be making a "Summer Mix" CD soon and I just bought a spool of blank CDs, so if you'd like a copy, let me know. Otherwise I'll just send them to my usual mailing list.

Belly Up with Rufus

My mother has an aversion to live performances because she always feels so nervous for the performers themselves. Will the dancer trip? Will the actor forget his lines? Will the singer miss a breathmark? I have a great affinity for live performances but I admit that I've always had a tendency to share in her anxiety for the performer and have some difficulty focusing on the art as I get caught up in putting myself in the person's shoes onstage and imagining the pressure they must be feeling--until Tuesday night. Rufus Wainwright's ease on stage and command of his art was at once refreshing and comforting.
Red and blue spotlights illuminated the Yamaha grand on the stage waiting to come to life. Attendees of most ages, fashion influences, and varying degrees of reverence for the performer crowded "Belly Up," a famous west coast venue with the virtues of an average neighborhood bar. High-top tables, benches, and stair-stepped seating filled up immediately while hardcore groupies pressed themselves against the raised stage.
Cool upon entering, the whole room temperature steadily rose as people poured in from waiting in line at the doors. I found a seat next to a guy of about 30, safe looking, on one of many padded chairs pulled up to a long wooden counter. While the person to my left shifts so we aren't touching overly much, I don't. It would be polite and arguably patriotic (Americans and their personal space, you know) for me to make myself as compact as possible and avoid violating my neighbor's "bubble," but I live alone. I don't touch people. People don't touch me and for some, like myself, being touched is like a quota that needs to be reached for us to feel okay. Besides, I knew that in half an hour, our bodies would relax and we'd end up touching anyway, so cramped were the quarters we occupied.
So I sat my purse down on the sticky wooden counter before me, folded my hands on top of it, and looked around. I listened to the rustling, and even smelled little wafts of cologne coming from the man next to me as he fidgeted. I tried to seem like I didn't notice but was inwardly amused at his efforts. I determined if he seemed truly agitated that I would give in, and indeed he did seem to become somewhat flustered and he finally looked at me with not a little irritation in his face. I turned to look at him, took in his face for half a second and smiled at him with not a thought in my head except that I thought he had a nice nose. He looked puzzled then, but no longer annoyed and looked forward again. I resumed looking around the room. After a minute he sighed and relaxed his body so his height decreased by about an inch and our elbows and thighs touched.
The show opened with a female singer, Julianna Raye, who sang a sensual song about an having an affair in New York, "one by one the zipper's teeth gracefully admit defeat." Soon after, Rufus came out on the stage wearing a red "ugly sweater," the kind that's ugly by definition but fashionable due to its character and credit done by the rest of the person's ensemble. He strode over and sat down at the piano without much ceremony and, commenced with a fantastic rendition of "Grey Gardens."



He looked somewhat slight against the large piano but his voice was more powerful that I thought it would be, much more so, in fact. I am no music expert, so excuse my amateur attempt at classifying Rufus' voice; perfect pitch, nasal almost stringent tonality enveloped in a warm and controlled vibrato, and low. Someone said that he sings almost as if he's between waking and sleeping--slurring some of his gorgeously written lyrics. All in all, it's an accomplished voice that is unapologetically original and beautiful.
It was a one-man show (accompanied by himself on the piano and guitar), he openly discussed how this is a fiscal necessity as he's preparing an opera (!). Additionally, he is taking this low-profile tour along the west coast so his sister, Martha Wainwright, can have the spotlight for a while as she releases her new album. He admitted that he also may or may not have put some of the saved funds toward augmenting his entourage followed by a sheepish laugh. He had the audience in stitches later and throughout the evening. Between comparing his altruistic effort to step aside for Martha to Hilary's fading star versus Obama's success ("I'm like Hilary Wainwright"), forgetting the entire middle verse of "Little Sister" with hilarious effect, and ad-libbing lyrics in the middle of songs he was absolutely charming and singlularly at ease on stage.

After his "final" song, he graciously quit the stage but returned for an encore of "Art Teacher," a piece without which I would've been devastated not to hear, and one that will appear on his next album, "Who are you New York." He prefaced the latter with the fact that he was being terrifically stupid to perform it as he doubted it was "performance ready," but that he'd observed that performing a new song once for a crowd has the same effect as practicing it 33 times on his own, so off he went. It was wonderful, I can't wait to hear the rest of the album. This was a very important event for me because out of all the great performers anywhere, he was the one I most wanted to hear in person (hence the eternal blog post).

Line up of songs he performed:
-Grey Gardens
-Going to a town
-Cigarettes & Chocolate Milk
-April Fool's
-California
-Beauty Mark
-Salty Sea
-Vibrate
-Little Sister
-Maker Makes
-The Art Teacher
-Zebulon
-I'm Not Ready to Love
-Matinee Idol (which he originally wrote for River Phoenix, but dedicated to Tinsel Town's latest tragic death, the late Heath Ledger, star of Brokeback Mountain for which "Maker Makes" was written as the lovesong for the soundtrack)
-Nobody's Off the Hook
-In My Arms
-Who are you, New York



Hope you enjoy the videos. Thanks for reading!