Meow Mix

The brilliantly hillarious The Kitten Covers is all about "legendary albums from a world dominated by kittens..."

We are talking seriously cool cats here.

Meow.

xo

Happy Weekend

Katharine Hepburn

Happy Weekend, Dear Readers! Are you enjoying it so far?

This past week was a good one, filled with music and city adventures.

A dear friend called and asked if I wanted to be his plus one for Wilco's taping

(if it's all digital, is it even called a "taping" any more?)

of Live on Letterman.

Umm, yeah!

So Wednesday, it was up to New York in the pouring rain. And y'all, Wilco brought it.

But before you get too jealous, Dave wasn't there. Good thing, too, 'cause the Ed Sullivan Theater is tiny!

He would never have been able to out run me ;)

The week ended with more music in another city in the pouring rain.

This time, Nephew One and I had a city date day in Philly, and we spent the afternoon enjoying a fabulous performance by Diego Garcia.

. The Boy is fascinated by music, and I just plunked his tiny self down on a folding table in front of the stage and watched him suck it all in.

He went home and played his guitar for mommy and daddy and Nephew Two, adding an introduction to his songs by way of counting. Like I said, he sucked it all in. He's been talking about the Drum Man and his drums and sticks ever since.

A very good week, indeed.

The coming week is looking a bit more low key, a little less musical. But with all the same rain.

It is fall, after all.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Lovelies!

xo

I've Seen Those English Dramas, Too

I love Ryan Adams. But then, who doesn't?

I also love Vampire Weekend. So, apparently, does Ryan Adams.

Ergo, I love this:

And this:

Word on the street is there's an album to follow soon...

(Thanks, Sister, for showing me this.)

xo

Happy Weekend

Emmylou Harris

A sultry hello and welcome to the weekend, Dear Readers.

I'm sure you've heard (and are quite possibly experiencing) that it's hot. Triple digit hot.

The kind of hot that, when walked into from an air conditioned interior, grabs you and shakes you and has you saying, "So. This is what it feels like to be a firecracker."

The kind of hot that has you remembering the sleepovers of your thirteen year old self, when nothing could possibly have been more mortifying than having someone freeze your bra. Now you're thinking it sounds like a brilliant idea.

The kind of hot in which you would (or perhaps should) definitely think twice about attending an outdoor, three-day music festival. But not me. I thought once. I've been going since year one, and tradition is tradition.

Hot hot heat or not.

Now, you're probably all like "But wait- you hate heat!" Which I do.

So here's my plan: daytime performances, you know, the ones that take place under a blazing sun, those will be enjoyed over the radio, from the comfort of an air conditioned home or a pool. That's not to say I wouldn't really like to experience some of those in person, but, you know.

Mercifully, the big guns have all been saved to be enjoyed under cover of night. Which is when I will venture out, dressed in shorts and carrying a cooler filled with frozen water. Eighty five degrees at nine pm is certainly acceptable if I get to see Emmylou Harris!

How about you, Dear Readers? How are you spending this melty weekend? And how do you stay cool?

Be safe and hydrated, my friends!

xo

Sing Me To Sleep



This is how we rock, and this is how we roll.

Last Friday afternoon, Sister and I took Nephews 1 and 2 to see Gomez.
And though it was a rather stripped-down, two piece version of the band,
it was a far from boring performance.
Not that you could tell by looking at those two sleepyheads.



Mix Tape Monday, Volume 4

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Happy Monday, my friends!
And what a Monday it is. It's the second Monday of July (already!), and seeing as how the first Monday was a holiday, and I was off enjoying that fact, this week becomes the de facto week for July's edition of Mix Tape Monday.

This month, it's all about road trippin'.
July is the perfect month for such an activity: school's out, time off is easy to come by, and there are still a few pleasant weeks of windows down type driving days before the August heat settles in.

I could have gone a few ways with this mix-
 the classic rock route, my preffered listening choice for windows down driving,
or the literal route (Thunder Road, Born To Be Wild).
I instead decided on the songs that, when I hear them, remind me of a particular journey.
I remember a time in high school, riding in my friend's car, driving aimlessly about and singing
 Suite: Judy Blue Eyes at the top of our lungs, making up words to the last bit.
I remember travelling south on a bus from Rome to Naples.
Gasoline Alley came up on my iPod, followed by Dear Someone.
They both fit that particular moment in time so perfectly that I spent the rest of the ride listening to those two songs over and over again while catching distant glimpses of the sea out of one window, and Mount Vesuvius out of the other.
The Weight always makes me think of driving to my aunt and uncle's in upstate New York
with my family. It's probably one of the only things we could all agree on listening to without argument.
And there was the sleepless night spent on a train travelling from Paris to Barcelona,
trying fruitlessly to lull myself to sleep listening to Nick Drake's serenely beautiful Pink Moon album.

Enough of my rambling reminising.
Let's get to the listening!

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How about you? What do you guys like to listen to on a road trip?

Weekend Discoveries

Hello and Happy Monday, my sweets! Did you have a good weekend?

Mine was full of discoveries. Discoveries so fabulous, that I'm sharing them with you today (lucky ducks!).

The first discovery is a musical one.

I kept hearing this really great song on the radio. Everytime I heard it, I turned it up a little louder.

The song is called "You Were Never There", and it's from the fabulous Diego Garcia's equally fabulous album, Laura. I procured it for my listening pleasure, which I have been doing all weekend. I highly reccomened it. It will make your ears happy.

The second discovery was that I can make hummus. It seems simple enough. I mean, I have friends who make it, and my mom makes it, so why can't I? Well the answer to that one is simple: I'm a measurer. Everyone I talked to about it said you just "use some of this and add a bit of that." Yes yes, but how much, exactly?

A conversation with a friend finally convinced me to just dump stuff in a food processor and hope for the best. "You just take some perfectly good stuff and mix it together until something wonderful comes together. After all, isn't that what you do?"

Yep. That's what I do.

The third, and possibly best discovery, are these mojitos.

There is always a bottle of Italian blood orange soda in the house (for just such a cocktail occassion). There's usually rum and limes, too. And in the summer, there's mint in the garden.

Bottoms up, Dear Readers!

Wishing you a week full of fabulous discoveries.

xo

Rock On

You all know of my love of music. And you all know of my love of Etsy. When the two combine, magic happens. See for yourselves:

1.Notable Haircuts In Popular Music by Pop Chart Lab

2.Rolling Stones Bowl Set by Trixie Delicious

3.Kate Bush Tote by Fieldguided

4.Stevie Nicks Cassette Clutch by Sugar Shox Crafts

And all of this fabulousness so nicely fits into my everyday. I mean, I could hang the hair chart over my vanity for inspiration. I could put my iPod in the Stevie Nicks (!) clutch and toss it into the Kate Bush (!!) tote. And, seriously, who doesn't want to eat soup with Mick and Keith?

I need it all.

Rock on, Sweet Readers.

xo

Baby, We Were Born To Run

My Dears, it would seem I did promise you I'd be back to regular posting today...

but somehow today seems to have slipped away, between gluing together bits and bobs that will soon become new lovelies,

to photographing a big old pile of things that have been patiently waiting to be photographed,

to eating sandwiches and going to pilates.

So, before the day comes to it's last call, I wanted to pop in here and squeeze out a little post.

A music post; a really lovely song for a lovely Monday evening.

A lovely song for a Big Man who has gone off to play his Great Gig In The Sky.

A Big Man that I got to see twice, once in a Very Big Stadium and once again quite recently, in a tiny by today's standards arena.

(That was a good night. That night, "Born To Run" was performed, perfectly, in its entirety.)

So farewell to you, Big Man.

And to you, my Dear Readers, a good night.

xo

Mix Tape Monday Volume 3



World Metro Map Pillow by Atelier Pompadour

Welcome to June, Dear Readers!

 I hope you have your passports in order, because this month's Mix Tape Monday is taking us around the globe. It's going to be a whirlwind, zigzagging across oceans and several continents.

 So fasten your seatbelts and prepare for take off.

Happy travels.

xo

Ballad Of A Thin Man

There are few artists who have an oeuvre as voluminous, as diverse, as lauded, as criticized, as covered, as respected, as influential, or as wordy as that of Bob Dylan.

There are few who changed not to follow the scene, but changed, and the scene followed.

There have been many over the last five decades who have been declared "The New Bob Dylan."

But there is only one to whom the title rightfully belongs.

Happy 70th Birthday, Bob.

xo

                                   

{ps- I'd love to know...what's your favorite Bob Dylan song? My answer is in the comments!}

Cover Me

I am a huge music fan. Like, seriously, mega huge. But. When it comes to cover songs, I could pretty much take 'em or leave 'em. All to often, I find them bringing nothing new to the table. Just re-hashings of perfectly listenable songs in their original form (the recent onslaught of sing-song voiced girls-with-guitars covering The Cure comes to mind).

Of course, every now and again, somebody comes along with a version that completely transcends the original, like Sinead O'Connor's version of "Nothing Compares To You", or Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah". And  these two fabulously wonderful, blue grassy Radiohead covers:

Gillian Welch has the ability to pretty much turn everything she sings into pure perfection. This is no exception.

I first heard Sarah Jarosz's incredible version of "The Tourist" on my car radio, and was smitten from note one. It was a stay-in-the-car-until-it's-over moment. And it's been in constant rotation on my iPod since.

Happy listening, Dear Readers. I hope the week ahead holds for you many delights to be enjoyed in new and exciting ways!

xo

Go

Three years ago, when Santigold still went by the name Santogold and released her first, self-titled album, I was instantly smitten. With each listen, I became even more so. And the listens were plentiful- I listened in the car and on the train, I listened when I ran, I listened while I worked and while I lazed around in the sun. I listened with the volume turned up to 11, all through the summer and well into the colder months. So when I heard a brand new Santigold song yesterday, I absolutely squealed with glee. Summer of 2011, you officially have a soundtrack.

Mix Tape Monday- Volume 1

Hello, my lovelies! And welcome to a new week. Perhaps you remember, and perhaps you're just hearing, but way back in January, I made a list of things that I would like to make this year. One of those things was mix tapes. I mentioned this to a friend of mine, who replied with a raised eyebrow and a snide remark about whether I planned on building a time machine to take me back to a time when I actually owned a tape player. Good point.

Whatever you want to call it, I have made for you today a mix of melodies to delight your ears. And I want to make you more. I'm declaring the first Monday of each month Mix Tape Mondays. (It's at this point that I should mention that I am as equally proficient in Big Plans as I am in No Follow Through. But I like this. And I like you. So, I think there's gonna be follow through here.) So, have a listen, tap a toe, or get up and perform a little full-on boogie if you feel so inclined. Happy listening :)
xo