Today my focus is on fashion and when it's not the actual clothes or models, it has to be the music. Maybe some of these songs have been in shows and if so... I totally called that. =)
Sugar High
Jaymes Bullet
All the Girls Get Together and Rule
Costanza
I Wrote the Book
Beth Ditto
Bitchin'
The Donnas
Cut Up
Duchess Says
Work
The Saturdays
Boys Will be Boys
Goldfrapp
Down the Rabbit Hole
Adam Lambert
One Touch
Mini Vivia
Angel (RAC Remix)
Mr. Little Jeans
Crown on the Ground
Sleigh Bells
Straight To...Number One (Dreamcatcher's Mix)
Touch & Go
In my opinion, obscure fashion is the only type of fashion that makes the world go round. Like I said in my last fashion post, Nylon Magazine has been my obsession for the past year and in reading the "fashionister" culture of accepted music (Thank Baby Buddha for Allison Mosshart!), movies, and naturally fashion. But no one can ignore the bright flashy photo spreads of the chosen celebrities or maybe the unknown model. I'll work on researching the unknown models, but for now here are the three women who I have put on my watch list.
Elizabeth Olsen
Maybe a little more famous for being the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley and less on her Sundance premiere of "Martha Marcy May Marlene" a movie where she plays an ex-cult member trying to assimilate back into her biological family (also starring Hugh Dancy), she who is known better as Lizzie Olsen was interviewed by Ben Lyons at Sundance decked out in a dorktastic display of layers, suit shirt under a sweater and a thicker jacket. Lizzie straddles the gate between looking clean and elegant but with a heavy Indie-hipster attitude and accessories.Currently a student of psychology at one of the most fashionable campuses in the country, NYU, it seems that Lizzie has the upper-hand in more everyday wearable clothes.
Georgia May Jagger
I have never been too attracted to blondes but there is something about Georgia that I love. Maybe it's the rocker/vintage lovin' attitude which just comes from her genetics (Mick Jagger for a father and 70s model Jerry Hall for a mother) or maybe because she is proud to have the gap between or teeth or maybe just because she's one of the few of us that can look totally rocker in yellow. Either way, this 20 year old Hudson jean model is now branching into her own unique brand of fashion through her own retro collection with French designer Ben Taverniti complete with rock-inspired high rise tight stretch jeans and some with laces embellishments. Trashy? Maybe on some body types but this girl can dream. Either way I'm excited to see if she'll explode into fashion further after graduating New York's School of Visual Arts.
Juno Temple
"Street-smart Gotham girl" Juno Temple is edging her way closer and closer into Hollywood Gold, but her indie-ness still separates her from the rest of the plethora of actresses such as her choice of film roles ranging from Kaboom and her most recent Little Birds as a runaway to LA co-starring my boy-crush Kyle Gallner (Jennifer's Body). Her editorals have bordered on the high fashion of overly frizzed hair with super-feminine; but it's her downtime fashion I am most fascinated with. It may border sloppy to a point, but it's all about the attitude. At the New York press junket for Little Birds, she shows off that medium between femininity and rocker chick. But she accommodates rather well, doesn't she? (Plus she does look a little like a young Renee Zellweger in Empire Records.) (Plus Plus she only has 154 followers on her twitter, this is sacrilege!)
Any favorites or any ladies I should mention at a later date?
If anyone knows me very well, everyone knows that I am obsessed with retro-sounding music. Doesn't matter what the lyrics are, as long as you can dance like a 60s girl group in polka dots (see my inspiration in a few scrolls) whether in real life or in your head (that would be what I do all day).
You Don't Like Rock-n-Roll
Hunx and his Punx
VIDEO CONTAINS EPIC EXPLICITNESS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
What's boy-on-boy-loving, polka dot inducing and black leather all over? Mostly inspired from the 60s Ramones-style for their latest EP "Too Young to be in Love," Seth Bogart and his girly crew are back with a new sound. While Gay Singles was more on a power-punk pop and a few electrical licks leftover from Bogart's days of Gravy Train, they have fashioned a new sound and the images are... yeah... wow.
One Kiss Don't Make a Summer
Lucky Soul
Somewhere between champagne and bubblegum is where Ali Howard, Andrew Laidlaw, Ivor Sims, Russell Grooms, Paul Atkins and new addition Art Terry lie. Based out of South London and as an opener for The Pipettes back in 2009, Lucky Soul jumps between as a new Pink Martini of lounge music and early sixties revival.
Love in a Trash Can
The Raveonettes
The Raveonettes lack the ability to suck, especially early Raveonettes where everything is more garage inspired and the sound is like something out of Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" slightly goth yet bubblegum at the same time. The new album, "Raven in the Grave" has been released April 4th.
Sadness is a Blessing
Lykke Li
While a little more subtle with the famous Ronettes beat backing Lykke's signature electronic sound, "Sadness is a Blessing" is a little more sad than the rest of the music on this list, "These scars of mine make wounded rhymes tonight I dream of times when you were mine so I can keep it like a haunting" Li sings, admitting that sometimes sadness is a necessary, but somewhat of a positive attribute could come from it.
Release Me
The Like
This is one of the most addicting and dance-able songs to ever grace my ears. Like Hunx and his Punx, they shifted sounds (and the line-up) with their latest LP, 2010's "Release Me" which have become an improvement for the future of "The Like 2.0" from classic California alternative-rock. Their videos, like "Wishing He Was Dead", is jammed pack with 60s inspired fashion and not just in their music. They're 100 % into it and the love is noticeable.
Double Knots
The Living Sisters
Inara George is just one of those women who is truly immortal through both music (Merrick, The Bird and the Bee, as well as solo projects) and looks. The woman doesn't age, and as one third of The Living Sisters, she shows that she fits perfectly in a vintage frock assisted with her guitar alongside Eleni Mandell and Becky Stark (the voice of Lavender Diamond, The Decemberists) singing perfect and tight melodies.
Pull Shapes
The Pipettes
Video inspired from 60stastic "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" and a gift of witty writing through retro melodies has made me absolutely obsessed with the Pipettes... or at least their (rare) first and second line-ups of Rose, RiotBecki and Gwenno. Forget who they are now (Gwenno and sister, Ani) and even better, forget their early manifesto as wiping the Beatles off of the musical radar and focus on the right now of what they used to be.
I was Made For You
She and Him
It wouldn't be a retro play list without at least one song from Zooey Deschanel and guitar bad-ass M. Ward. Zooey as a mod hipster dream sings this surprisingly original song, written in 2008 that makes you need to google-search to make sure that this isn't a cover. Really! It isn't. It's THAT good.
What are the top books that immediately pop in your head to recommend to others that are not only your favorites, it should be someone else's favorites in order to contribute to a better world? Too difficult to come up with a list? Well, I know my top 3 indefinitely.
"Letters to a Spiritual Seeker" edited by Bradley P. Dean, Authored by Henry David Thoreau and Harrison Gray Otis Blake
Henry David Thoreau is a genius and is quite quotable in this book, where he even delves into the female sex, the essence of spirituality, praising nature and even religion itself - which seems appropriate for the letters written are being sent to Blake, an ex-Unitarian Universalist minister back in 1848 who wished to pick Thoreau's brain on all aspects of religion and life and the job is done in a way where poetry, prose, and correspondence meets perfectly. Best quote? It is a tie between Thoreau's“The warmth of celestial love does not relax, but nerves and braces its enjoyer.” and a very true statement, for me anyway, according to Dane that “Religion is never spoken because the deeper truths of human experience cannot be communicated directly from person to person.” Why? Because awareness according to spirituality/religion is becoming more defined or blurred depending on where you are from - this book seems to explain to your unconscious that spirituality/religion, the words and labels are irrelevant to the point it comes to one word that should truly matter: lifestyle.
Eros the Bittersweet by Anne Carson
Again stylized between literary types of poetry and prose, and that is more apparent in the Aesthetics of "Eros" than Thoreau's naturistic writing, Anne Carson discusses what Eros means - not as a Greek God, but more about what Psappha (or her English spelling Sappho) believed about Eros as passion, specifically for its glykopikron (which literally translates to the sweet bitter). The main thesis is supported by literatures ranging from Sappho's lyrics to Plato's Phaedrus but done in an original way that the sensitivity of the subject is emulated in form. You will become more enlightened, especially if you are a writer or artist, about what true love is, especially through the eyes of an ancient society that highly regarded passion. Best quotes? Too many to count but the most memorable: “No one in love really believes love will end. Lovers float in that “pure portion of anxiety,” the present indicative of desire.” “When you fall in love you feel all sorts of sensations inside you, painful and pleasant at once: it is your wings sprouting. It is the beginning of what you mean to be.”
Art Objects by Jeanette Winterson
Most known as a lesbian advocate and writer, Jeanette Winterson wiped that off that preconceived notion right away in one essay in Art Objects in a way that I do not have the quote exactly, but she advocates she is a writer first and loves second, the gender of her preference is irreverent to her writing. At least that's post-Oranges are not the Only Fruit. But in every single essay she has in this collection, she puts forth an astounding command of language and narrative over something such as memoir. While I spotlight on "A Veil of Words" the most for its importance in GLBT society, the other short essays are cute, quirky, and somehow have an underlying profound message. The why for this book seriously needs no reasoning, it's right out there in such quotes as “The Queer world has colluded in the misreading of art as sexuality. Art is difference but not necessarily sexual difference, and while to be outside of the mainstream of imposed choice is likely to make someone more conscious, it does not automatically make that someone an artist. A great deal of gay writing, especially gay writing around the Aids crisis, is therapy, is release, it’s not art. … It is true that a number of gay and lesbian writers have attracted an audience and some attention simply because they are queer. Lesbians and gays do need their own culture, as any subgroup does, including the sub-group of heterosexuality but the problems start when we assume that the fact of our queerness bestows on us special powers.” and “It would be a pity of lesbians and gay men retreated into the same kind of cultural separatism. We learn early how to live in two worlds, our own and that of the dominant model, why not learn how to live in multiple worlds?”
I would include Inga Muscio's "Cunt" but for reasons that are pretty apparent as well that doesn't need much embellishment.
When I was a little kid all I ever wanted to do was draw models with defined chins, large cheekbones in Award Show like dresses full of drapery and Greek Goddess like fashions. And when I wasn't drawing curvy women I was using this amazing Barbie fashion template. I remember back then I loved mixing the slightly boyish fashions with full skirts and t-shirts, boy jackets with mini skirts and sneakers. I never thought back then it would really be anything: I do not have an eye for numbers or measurements, so I resorted to just describing clothes in my stories and letting my mother dress me as for her power games.
Then it finally happened...
... I got a debit card.
About nineteen years later, I am still inept at the making of fashion; but since Nylon Magazine, the fashion section of BUST Magazine (oh and living in the island of hipsters, aka. Iowa City), as well as my introduction to my own personal fashion heroines that range from...
Natasha Khan (aka. Bat for Lashes)
and...
Sharin Foo of "The Raveonettes"
I have adapted my love of drawing clothes to the building of my own wardrobe to look as hipster as my icons. So here are five outfits and the back story on them hoping that I, in fact, have spent under 25 dollars on each of them. In other words, I feel like bragging but who doesn't?
Hipster Cartoon Character
I fell in love with this outfit as soon as I put it on Tuesday night the day of buying the leggings. I wear my black winter boots with this outfit, mostly because while I love clothes, I abhor shoes! Badly. Although no one else was dressed all hipsterish at the karaoke I was going to, I was pleasantly surprised how well the gold coat and the purple go together! I feel like a hipster cartoon character... Ramona from Scott Pilgrim maybe. I didn't wear my glasses for this one and scattered my side bangs over my forehead to give more of a hipster look from the neck up.
Immediate Love
It was a special night I bought the white bubble dress, having to usher for the Gallery Walk in the historical theater, I wanted to buy something downtown that was date-worthy for my late appetizer dinner with my girlfriend. Unfortunately I froze underneath it even with the almost translucent jacket. I love this jacket.. even though it was not love at first sight. Thank God for having a birthday the week after Black Friday. But it was truly immediate love when I first laid my eyes on the bowler hat, and although sometimes accessories don't work on me (my Aunt disagrees with this verily) but as soon as I put it on (in the store that I am OBSESSED over. Moreso than Revival and Ragstock combined) it was immediate love. So like everything else I enjoy I stalked it until I had the resources to buy it. I actually would wear this outfit with black leggings and (you can't see them in the picture) but a matching pair of wheat colored fashion boots to go with the hat.
Cry Baby Chic
Everyone I know LOVES this gun dress. I correlate it with my leather jacket as an homage to John Waters's "Cry Baby" for some reason. In fact it has a pretty great back story to it. The day I bought it was the day a friend dumped me for ABSOLUTELY NO REASON AT ALL. Maybe it was my collegiate PTSD and she as a student could not understand that. So, I was dumped by the closest friend I ever got (at the time before the girlfriend). So after crying into a bowl of gelato with another good friend who I wasn't able to see as often, telling me things that felt good such as the dumped friend looked like a hobbit and put eyeliner on like crayons. It was a feel-good, so before hitching a ride back on the bus, I headed over to Revival without thinking I would find anything and found this gem. After which, I saw one of my karaoke friends in broad daylight while she was at work and my day became immediately better.
Black Swan Love
This is actually my favorite picture out of all of them. There's really not a huge story behind this dress, other than the fact that it is clinically amazing, and if I had a picture of the back, it's like Alice in Wonderland's key hole and you can see all of my tattoos. The day I bought the tights (unfortunately... I prefer leggings but it's so hard to find colored leggings!) I also wore this combination the first time with lots of white beaded necklaces to karaoke that night. <3 Have I mentioned I love this dress? When I was a little kid I was obsessed with the idea of tutus as skirts and now I'm living out my dream.
I have been waiting my WHOLE LIFE for a cute retro umbrella, in fact, it took me two years to find the perfect one as of a month ago. It only took a friend to see it at first glance, laugh and say, "That is so YOU" which is the exact statement I got yesterday after buying the Victorian-necked Dollhouse shirt, my first ever clothing purchase at a local artist store. Multiple < 3's . I have quite an obsession with Victorian style shirts, that is possibly a blog for another day, much like my topic of nail polish. Silver Spider, my addiction, isn't necessarily the cheapest nail polish but the brand they carry, KleanColor, is quite possibly most candified colors out of any you'll find at a drug store. This is a drug-store color, but Confetti is probably my second brand of choice. It's hard to find the perfect nail color that looks natural yet candy at the same time when you have a darker complexion.
What's everyone's favorites?
Raindrops - Regina Spektor
Tea Party - Kerli
Lean - Oh Land
(PS: Thanks Karie, I'm hooked!)
Womanizer (Britney Spears Cover) - Lilly Allen
From the New EP "Katla" just out...
I Eat Boys Like You for Breakfast - Ida Maria
Shiny Monster - Gram Rabbit
Straight from the Target commercial...
Hey Na Na - Kate Herzig
When Life Gives me Lemons I Make Lemonade - The Boy Least Likely To
After a good long hiatus, that only means more criteria for the list that makes my vogue quiver. That makes no sense, but who is 100 % literate at midnight?
I cannot explain the magical intertwining of Josh Groban being his typical geeky self through an otherwise typical female singer-songwriter song, otherwise known as "Uncharted" by Sara Bareilles Also featured in the music video is Ben Folds (isn't that odd considering Josh was also in Ben Folds's and Regina Spektor's music video of "You Don't Know Me?"), Tegan and Sara, Vanessa Carlton, and Ingrid Michaelson amongst others. But Josh Groban takes the spotlight. (3/1)
"All I ever wanted was to be a gay band." - Katie Stelmanis says in the interview for AfterEllen.com. Naturally, the website has a bias towards a "gay culture," making sense where sex with the same gender ends and a wider sense of art begins but Lindsay Byrnes points out right away what Stelmanis attempts to make sense of is confusing.
" I'd like to say being a "gay band" means being gay and being in a band, but most of my band mates are gay and we've never really had that classification. I'm not sure if it’s based on the type of music we make or the community we come from, but I've always wondered why we seem to be exempt from the label. It probably has to do with the fact there are a lot of stereotypes of what a gay band — particularly lesbian-identified band — should sound like, and we don't really fit in with those stereotypes, which is confusing....
...It’s confusing because I have always been careful to separate my sexuality from my music and have always made it clear in interviews that they are two very different things. I am a musician first, and a lesbian second. But I think in doing this I've sort of discredited the fact that being gay is a huge part of who I am and definitely effects the music I make. I'd like to be recognized as someone who makes interesting, experimental music and also identifies as queer, especially because I really believe there needs to be a wider variety of queer representation in music."
OK, Katie my beautiful opera-trained beauty, explain this to me: our attempts at describing where art and sexuality begins and ends is so contradicting and inconsistent in the very art of merely explaining it? Is this just a state of knowing and that in the frustration of keeping "gay" or "lesbian" or that generic rainbow as a noun and not an adjective or an adverb to describe something? If I may quote two Jeanette Winterson back in 1996 which has foreshadowed gay cultural doom.
"Lesbians and gays do need their own culture, as any subgroup does, including the sub-group of heterosexuality but the problems start when we assume that the fact of our queerness bestows on us special powers.”
“It would be a pity of lesbians and gay men retreated into the same kind of cultural separatism. We learn early how to live in two worlds, our own and that of the dominant model, why not learn how to live in multiple worlds?”
It is bad enough knowing that you adored opera but chose not to do it for the sake of being discriminated against. I think that would be more courageous to actually do. From repression, no matter the level of pressure, comes creation and good things as long as you keep working at it. I love you and your music still, K, but that makes me sad that you're not doing opera. I've always wanted to experience a woman who can high octave NOT in the bedroom. (3/7)
Blogs To Live By: THANK BLOG FOR YOU!
Although from my last opinion on same gendered separatist societies, what is the BEST out of that mindset, comes Unicorn Booty blog created by Kevin Farrell and Nick Vivion in the attempts of making a GLBT blog complete with pop culture (which I tune in for), featuring hate crimes and REAL news stories concerning the world, and my personal favorite: their ardent love for The Onion.
s.e. Smith has been one of my favorite bloggers from Bitch Magazine's blog, and she has officially gained my undying love by sheer serendipity-doo-da of my girlfriend sending me Get Your Antifemininity Out of My Feminism which has become my personal feminine creed because IT IS SO TRUE! So she has a blog and I have been charging the Glee archives like a horny Trojan male soldier during battle. Love this this ain't living.
"Hey it's Mikala and my best gay friend Ty-ler."
Mikala Bierma is comedic gold with the sort of chatty over-gossiping satirical version of a "fag hag." Or is it her Disappointing Gay Friend Tyler Coates whose Bea Arthur-induced timing and wit under a minute can make me pee my pants laughing. This should be a TV show ... but then that was called Will and Grace back when.
Epic French Music Video 2 Videos in 1: Gaga, keep your hands off this.
I have adored Yelle's version of Robyn's "Who's that Girl" for the past year. And now she's out with new music and it seems like Gaga in a bubblegum underworld. Safari Disco Club album is out March 14th.
Blair...
...has been capturing my heart harder than ever... besides the fact I could own her Die Young album used for .99 cents on amazon. Her song "Hearts" has tickled the airwaves on that Nikki Blonsky show about a fat-camp last summer and she has fallen into the deep hipster underworld of awesomeness. She belongs there after this interview of some Eddie Vedder-lovin'.
Pimping a local band!
There is no online documentation of Techno Lincoln and the Technicolor Union, which is a shame, because I hung out with these Goth Mad-Hatter dressed guys and female violinist (who could rival Emilie Autumn) who must've been listened to "Bittersweet Symphony" too much back in the 90s for about three hours during the Iowa City Gallery Walk while I was getting high off of bad boxed wine while talking to the artist my venue was featuring, Jack'son Timothy. That is why I drink red and the band was hitting the wine hard.
But here is a two-part concert on PAtv at the ultimate hipster venue PS1 (Public Space One) that fully makes up for the lack of knowing their names or their mission statement. I love these people!
Maybe it's the youth gardens of Sweden or the Scandinavian stereotype of being quiet and shy so the music comes from that one special place where they can truly be themselves - well - either way, Scandinavians are amazing at their musical craft, probably even better than Americans. I swear by a good handful of Scandinavian songstresses, be it Swedish, or (where a fourth of my heritage comes from) Norway, or even Denmark.
ANNIE
What can I possibly say about Ms. Strand? Six words: I love her! I love her! Going by her first name, Annie has rocked music blogs since 2005 with her debut "Anniemal" hooking together indie and intellectual lyrics with candified electronic hooks. Five years later, she still does not disappoint after the release of a single, "I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me" then a much anticipated album just last year that shows off she's more than just another Kylie Minogue of electropop music. Songs such as "Take You Home" and "Marie Cherie" shows off her impeccable ability to create an atmospheric ambiance that lies somewhere between electro and your typical Yanni album. Have I mentioned she's the nicest woman I have ever spoken with? Add her, if you have her on the Little Bluebird named Twitter, you'll fall in love with her as much as I have.
CallMeKat is something soothing and ethereal, so it seems only proper to call her Goddess or simply Katerine Ottosen. Colliding blues with lo-fi, you're never too sure if Katerine is either depressed or simply one of those happy shades of melancholy (it exists!) in her lyrics but one of my favorites, "Bug in a Web" shows off a sort of sadness and yearning. "Don't go, just stay, I put my rusty mind away..." it gets stuck in my head so often. Anyone who can make a perfect interpretation out of Britney Spears's "Toxic" immediately touches my v-spot.
There really is no introduction I can give for Sune Rose Wagner and fashion goddess Sharin Foo. Intelligent and catchy lyrics somewhere underneath one part electronic music of a layer underneath five layers of pure synth noise under another layer of rock music. It is pure perfection and yet, not for everyone, at least their noisy masterpieces such as "Aly Walk With Me," "Noisy Summer," and from the most recent album "Break Up Girls." Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming album comprised mostly of B sides otherwise classics in the making. Other classics include "Suicide" and "Bang!"
How to describe Kate in a nutshell would be to explain to any Grey's Anatomy fan, "You've heard her in like every episode last season." Which is so true, about eight songs exactly. Soft and dreamy with a few synths intricately injected in between the line, Kate could easily be musically Frou Frou's little sister with a piano singing her diary. Look for Kate's latest, "You" to come out sometime this year.
I could not keep the duchess of S-Pop off of my list, it would be unimaginable to not see Robyn either in her rapping "Konichiwa Bitches" or her latest electronic LP experiments of last year that have accumulated into "Body Talk" shows off the best of her rapping skills ("Fembot" and another collaboration with Snoop Dogg on "You Should Know Better") and lyrics. Number one example? "You know when in Rome I sat down with the Romans said "We need a black pope and she better be a woman" There'll be no more celibacy even the Vatican knows not to fuck with me." But nothing is more majestic from the hit maker than her Grammy-nominated "Dancing on My Own" which has made awkward dancing look cool. But here is her latest single, "Hang With Me" upon the millions of perfect melodies this Swedish Songstress has to offer.
From pure amazing pop candy to something that belongs in an awesome underworld of bluegrassy circus music that would come out of Tim Burton if he was a musician is the crazy imaginative minds of the foursome Katzenjammer (replace the j with a y when you say it out loud). Taking their name unashamedly from a German cartoon these Norwegian ladies, Turid Jørgensen, Solveig Heilo, Marianne Sveen and Anne Marit Bergheim, primarily call themselves a folk band with their bigger hit on the other side of the Atlantic, "A Bar in Amsterdam" but it is songs such as "Demon Kitty Rag," "Le Pop," and "On The Devil's Back (Hey Ho)" they have many influences and like a good German expressionist film, they can be interpreted in a number of ways. Check out the cat guitar.
Those Dancing Days
Getting more and more popular nowadays, coming into their own sound that has become something like the female Artic Monkeys instead of their debut twee-inspired "In Our Space Hero Suits," Lisa Pyk, Rebecka Rolfart, Mimmi Evrell, Cissi Efraimsson with their lead vocalist (and the woman of my dreams) Linnea Jönsson are taking over and forcing you to like it in a dominatrix kind of way. Ahem. Anyway, their newest album "Daydreams and Nightmares" came out and even in the alternative rock, Linnea's sweet as honey voice still has never sounded better, especially in the current single on rotation, "Fuckarias."
Margaret is truly an enigma, not winning Norge Idol coming in second but gaining a whole GLBT following with her empowering songs such as "Samantha" and "Still." It's perfect pop music that America will never hear, it's another S-Pop woman singing about robots in "Robot Song" and perky Abba-hooky "Will You Remember Me Tomorrow?" Her second and most recent album, 2006's"Pretty Scary Fairy" had catapulted her into a new sound from 2004's "Chameleon" with a sharper electronic sound that could almost rival Annie. But let's not get ahead of herself.
Edit: Did more digging on Margaret and she recently put a new single, "In a Box"
Other notables?
Frida Sundemo "Towers"
Maria Mena "You're the Only One"
Marit Bergman "No Party"
Marit Larsen "If A Song Could Get Me You"
Bertine Zetiltz "Girl Like You"
So every Monday night I'll be showing off at least under 10 things that are making me happy or a voguegastistic bitch the past week in pop culture, facebookland, twitterland, or random irreverent things here in Iowa City.
LA Times on 30 Rock Episode
NBC is slowly getting me back onto their Thursday nights, and Thank God! I've been wanting to for quite awhile noticing the humor has changed from Will and Grace slapstick to the smart low-key situational comedy. Liz Lemon is reputedly a voice for women, as Tina Fey's writing is sharp and witty, but according to the LA Times Blog, this past Thursday was no other but another example how pop culture struggles to find us a situational middle ground - on feminism.
After ragging on Joanofsnark.com, Lemon has decided to do the "feminist thing" in bringing a writer, Abby Flynn, to work at TGS. Big mistake as she, at first glance, was a male-happy fetishist complete with pony tails, revealing clothing, and babytalking lesbian orgies and sexual innuendo. Until Flynn is outed as a disguised woman on the run from her homicidal boyfriend, duping Lemon into her usual "put foot in mouth" style - LA Times were quick to place "Are the Liz Lemons of the world motivated by righteous feminist indignation, or by their own gnawing insecurity?" This is common with Glee as well, if you give a theme too much power, it will look pro- and like an After-School special but if you do too little with the theme, it looks like people don't care. But while Glee is off worrying about a special middle ground in caring what things should sound like, I think 30 Rock did one thing right last week - it's all about balancing on a very teetering subject while still showing well written dialogue.
Well, 8 out of 15 nominations is pretty standard on my ballot card. Black Swan didn't get a single piece of recognition other than the amazing acting that was Natalie Portman (notice that her video clip was when she was telling her mother the news she got the White Swan part; how meticulous acting, happiness, relief, excitement, nervousness! All in one moment! That is acting, Christian Bale.) The King's Speech swept the Oscars, Inception most of the aesthetic awards, and Melissa Leo and Christian Bale rep'ed The Fighter. Best moments included Kirk Douglas being a dirty cheeky old man (I don't care what anyone says, I support old people getting their freak on, I just don't want to see it), James Franco dressed as Marilyn Monroe from "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and Anne Hathaway showing off every reason why I wish I could play her girlfriend on Glee. Thank you, Anne, for being the unstoned one.
Annie is featured on Designer Drugs "Crazy For You"
This needs no introduction because Annie is awesome, I did not even question her awesomeness that when she tweeted me back about Norwegian brown cheese. I don't care! I love this woman.
Ripped from the radio's "The Alex Jones Show," from the most appalling words from the famous party-man (somehow party-boy is a better phrase for how he acts) otherwise known as Charlie Sheen, this isn't your standard LOLcats.
I question myself in embedding the video, but I suppose for elaboration purposes, here is the newest from Ms. Germanotta (oh yes, I went there!) where the creative 80s inspired art direction in my concern is actually... dare I say... good? It's creative, and maybe I harbor a little resentment towards the first three minutes of the slight original score of Metropolis, but I suppose that only shows that Gaga as a film/media student further. I can accept that - looking strictly as the video. The song is a whole other story (or rather article) based on cultural and humanistic leniency and NOT about the gayness. As I have written multiple times before, and this should be made into a t-shirt, "Lady Gaga does NOT speak for me."
Stream "Wounded Rhymes" Lykke Li
But let's end on one of the best things that happened to me - or rather Li's fan club - is a full streamed preview of her album, Wounded Rhymes on stereogum.com. You can find the album everywhere as of TOMORROW! Spotlighted songs include "Get Some," "Sadness is a Blessing," and "I Follow Rivers."
The Academy Awards is my Superbowl without commercials, a full 24 hours of coverage covering pre-preshow, pre-show, red carpet, the awards themselves, and then the after parties. It seems a silly self indulgent thing for a person to be involved in - but when it comes to the Hollywood politics, they are in all pretty predictable, but there's always a few surprises. These are the surprises I'm hoping for.
BEST PICTURE:
Black Swan
So I'm biased, I have only seen this in theaters and Inception out of all of the nominations. But this movie had "B-Approved" written all over it. What advantages that Black Swan have outside of a postmodern technological pro-consumeristic film such as The Social Network that will probably unfortunately win, is the fact that Black Swan is one of the FIRST art films nominated since... well ever as far as my knowledge goes. So why not start now? Black Swan's themes of duality, true self and mental psychoses is probably just as modern as Inception and The Social Network. This is creative without being based out of concept, which is common trend lately in the making of films, there is something this movie has that the others don't. CREATIVITY. UNIQUENESS. Who could come up with another movie like this? All the other films in this category has at least one other movie you can relate it to. That's what Black Swan doesn't have, and thank God!
ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Colin Firth has been an overlooked asset for as long as I can remember by the Academy, nominated for A Single Man last year and multiple other nominations but none was enough for the Academy Panel. As of this year, he fits the standard. The panel loves an actor who can either be angry and deep or a historical figure and if you're lucky, you can get both in one person. Firth as the stuttering King George VI who needs some speech help, the role itself seems rather monotonous but for the actor himself, it's about damned time.
ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
There's another standard that is predominate amongst the Academy panelists and that does not count Ernest Borgnine's disgust over Brokeback Mountain. Veteran actors are encouraged to win, especially if they are eccentrics. While Lionel Logue maybe more on the British eccentric side, I would rather Geoffrey Rush win than Christian Bale, although it's highly speculative.
ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Again, I may be biased - but who else looks more lovely under Aronofsky's heavily textured grainy filters of intentional or unintentional 75 millimeter? Natalie Portman's performance by critics has been name-called to stiff to uninspiring and merely a victim to an overproduced movie. But that is the point, whether we look at the movie as a modern day answer to magical realism or a satire, Portman's performance as Nina a victim to the tight fasciousness of her mother and her dance instructor. Or the performance of what it truly means to be a method actor, Portman's ability to show that magical realistic characters is possible - despite the possibility of the Academy's attempts of being consistently politically correct of possibly award the Best Actress to Annette Bening for the Kids are Alright. So the real question is, can fantasy/magical realism possibly outweigh PC reality?
Actress in a Supporting Role
One of the most unenthusiastic nominated category in years, but many people are actually excited to see the golden man wedged between Melissa Leo's gigantic breasts. No, thank you! While we have had enough darkness to this year's predictions from a deranged ballerina, a stuttering King and an neurotic speech instructor, last thing I want is a rough-and-tough mother of two wrestlers. We have had enough of female power, at least unless it comes in the form of a sixteen year old with more balls than her male counterparts. Hailee Steinfield as an orphaned adolescent in the West, hoping to find her father balances biting comments that are not so Academy approved and the classic toughness of Old West ladies in a youthful presence. But, for this category, it's only anyone's guess at this point.
Best Director
Hands down, again all bias aside, Aronofsky has an ability to completely suck you in with the tiny elements of his craft. His time line up until now has attempted to make Mickey Rourke cool once more with an Oscar in "The Wrestler" and a 90s staple out of "Requiem for a Dream." What Aronofsky has that The Social Network's David Fincher doesn't have is the uncanny ability to be so attentive to tiny detail and not presenting a true-to-life consumerist rags to riches story. You would think in a time where movies are becoming less creative, Aronofsky's attempts at bringing high art into film would be commendable. So I beg you Academy, let the right man win.
Aesthetics Awards
Art Direction - Alice in Wonderland
Cinematography - Black Swan
Costume Design - the King's Speech
Film Editing - Black Swan
Sound Editing - Inception
Sound Mixing - Inception
(I am VERY disappointed that Black Swan was not nominated for any sound categories)
Visual Effects - Inception
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - True Grit
Writing (Original Screenplay) - Inception
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