Well I think I see another side

I want to put my hands over your eyes and sing this to you

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything

insatiable

photograph: Glynis Selina Arban

Through Looking Back You May Go Blind

Bradford Cox (Atlas Sound) did a mini-show titled "Cemetary Gates" for Pitchfork TV, such an intimate and beautiful performance. I'm so in love with this man

"....To go away and not look back and think of what the others say
To go ahead and change your life without regard to what is said
And everyone must do the same
you find yourself lost again
forget the things you've left behind
through looking back you may go blind"

check out the rest of the session : here

On Repeat.

" ...but being honest to yourself can be a lie to someone else "

Harriet Dreams of Flying

1,2,3 Let's Go !

remember

remember when we were young and our bones ached?

longing to run when we could barely crawl
you wrapped your arms around me so tight
the world could end and we would not know it.

and it started just like this. just like this.
We climbed into our bodies once again
first peeking through the ears
finally stretching out into our limbs

We'd talk all night
whispering on the phone secrets we could only tell in the dark
our laughter running against each other
dancing in streams of light against my bedroom walls
now you've planted some wrinkles in creases around your eyes
harvested some greys in those crescent waves of coal
and in this moment I can only think of the past and nothing else

I'm ready

" What you wanted was your life
Well you'll get something more "

may.

Chasing silhouettes,
dreaming in pastels
I hear that slow rhythm again
that faint drumming in the distance
I've lost my vision of you

photo from Rinko Kawauchi.

goodness

excerpt from Anna Karenina:

"we are all agreed upon this one thing : what we must live for and what is good.
I and all men have only one firm, incontestable, clear knowledge and that knowledge cannot be explained by the reason- it is outside it, and has no causes and can have no effects.
If goodness has causes, it is not goodness;
if ti has effects, a reward, it is not goodness either.
So goodness is outside the chain of cause & effect"

Ginger

Memories I hope will never fade

Sonny and the Sunsets

"...strange girl with lipstick smudged, asks me if I've ever loved"

Another One Goes By

Kills me every time.

"Is your skin your skeletons
Splinters my daydreams
Under surface see is it any seed
Shadows fly across the wall
I walk outside and try to see you right in front of me
Silhouette of something sweet and so bright
Don't know what to offer you I'm only broke and lonely
And another one goes, and another goes by
Sometimes when I step outside I see you standing right in front of me
And another one goes, and another one goes by
Don't know what to offer you
I'm only broke and lonely
And another one goes, and another one goes by
Sometimes when I walk outside I see it right in front of me and so
Bright
And another one goes by"

Bon Iver

Have you ever felt that magic of the early morning hours? It's my favorite time of the day, while the world's asleep...softly whispering their secrets to you in the stillness. I feel like I'm the only one alive, but I don't feel lonely, just the opposite...that the world is endless and I can do anything.
Pair that feeling with the setting of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery and the soft lull of Bon Iver ....an unforgettable experience I'm sure.
I regret not going last September, just because I didn't have anyone to go with. I should have said to hell with it and gone in pajamas, slippers, blankets and all.

Dreaming Aloud

I wish I was one of the characters from Jen Corace's illustrations....

When the point of the horizon is hiding its blues, what would you want sky?

Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky from Adam Tanner on Vimeo.

Good deeds. Sky! [What would I want? Sky!]
Is everything alright? You feeling moany? You feeling lonely?
You're not the only
Is everything alright? You feeling stormy? You feeling phoney?
You're not the only
Do you get up up up? Clouds stop and move above me
Too bad they can't help me. What is the right way?
Do I float up up up? When I stop and look around me
Grey is where the color should be
What is the right way?
Old glasses clinking and a
New order's blinking
and I -
I should be floating but I'm weighted by thinking
That I got on the river
Really can't make you change
And the sky gets filled up too fast and the taxi man's saying, "You betta give me some money; stop daydreaming, dude!" When the point of horizon is hiding from you. What would you want sky?

Are you taking it lightly? Lost in the flurries, You start to worry. You will be buried
Taking it lightly, and so I hurry. I start to worry. Here come them flurries
Is everything alright? You feeling lonely? You feeling moldy? You're not the only
Is everything alright? You feeling stormy? You feeling foamy? You're not the only
Do you get up up up? Clouds stop and move above me
Too bad they can't help me. What is the right way?
Do I float up up up? When I stop and look around me
Grey is where that color should be. What is the right way?
Old glasses clinking and a New order's blinking and I -
I should be floating but I'm weighted by thinking
I'm a fly on the river, That'll make me some change
When the sky gets filled up too fast and the taxi cab's waiting, "You betta give him some money; stop daydreaming, dude!"
When the point of horizon is hiding its blues
What would you want sky? What would I want? Sky!

Cults

My latest "on repeat" artist is Cults, from San Diego. Cults is Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin, both 21 and yeah, they're together. Let's just hope this one lasts. They recently released their EP for free on the internetz, which you can download here. They're currently working on their full-length and plan to tour in the summer.
The song that pulled me in is "Go Outside." It actually makes me miss the sun and its warmth on my skin. Alas, spring and all its beauty is almost here. What I really dig about this song, is the contrast of the delicate xylophone da roo da da dee and the crazy Jim Jones "death tape" samples in the background.
Here's a video of the entire EP, starting off w/"Go Outside"

El Perro del Mar @ Troubadour 03.03.10

Is it the year of the dog?
I caught El Perro del Mar w/Taken by Trees this past wednesday @ the Troubadour in West Hollywood and it was such a beautiful show. I had only see El Perro del Mar once before, at the echoplex a few years back and my goodness, how this woman has evolved! She went from a shy wallflower to fully blossomed butterfly. Her movements so lithe and fluid. It was such a powerful and intimate performance, I think we were all holding our breath.
you deserve a better love..... this isn't over until I say when, when.

One of my favorite moments of the evening, was her cover of Big Star's "Blue Moon" I recorded it, but my memory ended so it's cut off. Here's the complete version (thanks to WorldofConcerts):

In a Dog's World

I was just recently introduced to this artist and I'm sorry for all the time lost not enjoying the melodies of Dr.Dog
Here's a must-see session he did for P.A.S.T.E. magazine and yes, those are paper towel rolls.

Do you believe

this was meant to be or just coincidence? Recently I've been challenging my beliefs on just about everything. But I think that's a good thing. We do maintenance and renewals on our homes, cars, licenses, why not then our beliefs? I'm changing perspective and embracing the possibilities. It also helps when you've got friends that motivate those sometimes sluggish wheels in your brain to turn a little faster.


and while I'm on the subject of beliefs, here's a film I can't wait to see

It Is Happening Again

It's raining, it's pouring and I've got to retreat to my Beach House to surrender this Silver Soul to the sun. How long until I dissipate? The mist is coming and its' haunting warmth. I've got that lump in my throat, goosebumps and I just want to drown in this song over and over.

We gather medicine for heartache
So we can act a fool
It's incomplete without you
The silver soul is running through
It's a vision, complete illusion, yeahhh
The needle along the spinning wheel
Collecting silver coil
It gathers heat without you,
Whether or not you're turned from it
It's a quick turn
To let it figure out
It is happening again (x4)
The bodies lying in the sand,
They're moving in the dark
It is so quick to let us,
We feel it move through our skin
It's a sickness, a manic weakness, yeahh
It is happening again...

Oh, How the Days Will Rain On You

With all this rolling thunder and desperate rain, I can't help myself.

And it feels like it should today
Falling back on a better place
You wouldn't hide awhile
If you knew it for two more days
I wont shovel through
All the shame that led me too
You wouldn't pass it off

Woods at Kraak Gallery from Sebastian Matthes on Vimeo.
mp3 courtesy of RCRDLBL: Woods- Rain On

I think I may have been adopted

My first halloween with my mother and brother, dressed as a Buddhist monk? or pumpkin?

Shall We, Charlotte?

Charlotte Gainsbourg's "IRM" is fast becoming one of my winter favorites. Here's a wonderful fan-made video of Charlotte Gainsbourg's "IRM" title track.

charlotte gainsbourg IRM stop motion from mimms cross on Vimeo.

well, look on the bright side...

I want to live in Julianna Bright's world. The vivid colors, patterns, oh the fantasy!. This is going on my 2010 inspiration board! Just one look at them and I'm overcome with the desire to sew, write, draw, have chai tea, photograph, listen to Fleet Foxes, Cocteau Twins, Taken by Trees, oh you get the picture...

It's the dream you've always wished you've had

“The pictures I make have became for me a way to circle back to that wonder I felt as a child,” says Julianna, “that time before I was even able to read when I could fashion a whole universe in my mind around an illustration.”
She's a Los Angeles native, studied at Berkeley and now lives in Portland, Oregon. She's also a musician. You can buy her prints etsy , including a 210 calendar for just $15 !
You can check out her website here

Since I'm obsessed with mustaches

So cool, Etsy has a youtube channel that profiles different artists, and has how-to videos. Since I am pretty much obsessed with mustaches, this video stuck out to me. So after your picnic of red wine, cheese and strawberries, you can use the strawberry container to make your own miniature plastic mustache. Put holes in it and make it a necklace, or if you have mustache envy you can wear it loud and proud right under your nose. It's all a part of "upcycling"...it's like a makeover. Basically you take something that maybe you'd only use once and throw away, but you re-work and give it another purpose.
Under the comments on youtube someone wrote that you can also use a microwave to shrink it - put in under low for 15 seconds. What I love about this project is that it seems simple and you don't need any fancy equipment.


here's another project I'd like to try:
Knitting Postcards

Twin Sister

I've been infatuated with this band for the past couple of months and I can't shake them. I can listen to their EP "Vampires with Dreaming Kids" for hours nonstop. And the best news is that you can get it for FREE off their website Their track "Ginger" was the first to reel me in.

They've been working on a new EP and they're almost done. Here's a snippet of their upcoming EP "Color Your Life"

Color Your Life from Twin Sister on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, they're only touring in NY at the moment. What's with all these wonderful bands I'd love to see and them only touring the east coast? Case in point: Small Black and Young Buffalo. Boo, come on over to greener, warmer pastures guys.

The Historian

It's always a sad triumph when you finish a good book. Goodbye "The Historian", thank you for taking me to Istanbul, Bulgaria, France, on train rides, through fire walking, crypts and wondrous libraries. I'll miss those colorful dreams you gave me, even the scary ones.

One of the places that stayed with me the most is Istanbul. The writing was perfectly descriptive, not too much so that it would bore me, but just right that I could picture everything in my mind the way it should be. And now I can't stop thinking about Istanbul and all its treasures.

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul

"the only thing we could do was to turn our feet toward our one landmark, the Hagia Sophia, orginally the great Byzantine Chruch of Saint Sophia. And once we drew near it, it was impossible for us not to enter. The gates were open and the huge sanctuary pulled us in among the other tourists as if we rode a wave into a cavern. For fourteen hundred years, I reflected, pilgrims had been drawn into it, just as we were now. inside, I walked slowly to the center and craned my head back to see that vast, divine space with its famous whirling shields covered with Arabic calligraphy in the upper corners, mosque overlaying church, church overlaying the ruins of the ancient world. it arched far, far above us, replicating the Byzantine cosmos. I could hardly belive I was there. I was stunned by it.
--Suddenly, in this echoing house of Byzantium - one of the wonders of history- my spirit leaped out of its confines. I knew in that instant that, whatever happened, I could never go back to my old constraints. I wanted to follow life upward, to expand with it outward, the way this enormous interiors swelled upward and outward. My heart swelled with it. "

It's about this teenage girl who starts discovering secrets her father has long tried to keep from her. It's a coming-of-age tale, realizing things aren't quite the way you imagined growing up....seeing the harsh truths of history. The character looming over the characters and the reader is Vlad III Tepes ("the Impaler"), whom Bram Stoker's Dracula was based upon, is more frightful than any blood-sucking vampire. Dracula actually means "son of Dracul", because his father was prominent in the Order of the Dragon. Believe me, google him and you'll earn yourself an unhealthy obsession. He was a scholar, an incredibly intelligent man yet ruthless beyond belief. This man was real, of human flesh, human heart and soul did unbelievable atrocious things such as: roasting people alive, boiling people, skinning the feet of thieves and have goat lick salt off their feet, feeding people flesh from a loved one. His main thing was impalement. Not only would he use it in battle, but he would impale infants to their mother's body. The impalement was not the type you see in movies, the way vampires get staked..... he wanted the victim to be aware of the situation, to feel the pain, the stake would go in through one end of the body and out through the mouth. They might last hours, or days and even dead they'd stay up there for however long Vlad III wanted. Thinking about this man, what he did, not just him, but all the other shameful acts humanity has committed. It's hard to get past it and to know how history has a tendency to repeat itself in one form or another