Friday 30 November 2012

Cover me: Hey!

I am a fangirl when it comes to Eddie Vedder and anything he does, ever.  He is the coolest guy on the face of the planet in my opinion (closely followed by Mandy Patinkin, but as far as I know, MP hasn't done any cool covers so you'll all have to watch Homeland instead). Below is a video of EV covering "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by The Beatles and doing what he does best - pointing out douchebaggery. I challenge you not to sing along.



Happy Friday lovers!


Saturday 24 November 2012

The Most Average 'Before and After'.

Have you ever seen a more average-looking 'Before and After'?
This is the path down the side of our garage. It is a space we rarely even look at let alone venture into. A couple of weeks ago I decided it was time to give it a bit of a tidy up because the stepping stones were completely covered with leaves. Just as I was starting I thought to myself 'Hey! This would make a great average 'Before and After' for the blog we have been neglecting lately.' So here are the (average) pictures from my phone camera.

Before.
Half done.





After.
After from the other end.

The old shower frame still needs to be taken to the tip and the roof tiles were there to stop a previous neighbour's dog from getting into our yard.

Enjoy! ;)



Friday 23 November 2012

Cover Me: Tonight, I can't hold a pen.

It's been a while since I've done one of these! Justin Townes Earle has been around for a little while, but is fairly new to my music radar. On his second most recent album, Midnight at the Movies, he covered one of my all time favourite songs "Can't Hardly Wait" which was originally by The Replacements. Both JTE and The Replacements are excellent, and you should check them both out. I love how, even with the complete change in style and genre, the core of the song and that catchy hook remain the same. Genre is bogus, music is music. Enjoy!





Wednesday 21 November 2012

Some new tunes for me, and for you.


How do people find new music these days? I seem to come across new bands via my friends or occasionally I will stumble across something new on the internet. I never, ever listen to the radio anymore, mostly because I don't really drive my car all that often and it never really occurs to me to listen to the radio around the house. Plus, both Nelly Furtado and The Ataris wrote songs about how much the radio sucks, and I kind of agree with them. It's starting to become a problem though - I find myself listening to the same things over and over (and over) again and occasionally I'll be out somewhere and a song will start playing that everyone except me knows the words to. Given that I am known for my ability to absorb the words of pop songs into the very fabric of my being, I'm thinking I need to lift my game. And the fact that  both the pop songs I just referenced are over ten years old just goes to prove my point, right? I mean seriously, how many of you forgot about Nelly Furtado?

I've stumbled across two new artists recently that I thought I would share. One of my extremely cool friends put me onto Father John Misty, and in particular the song "Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings." Incredibly catchy and a little unsettling - isn't that how we like our pop music these days? Also, the video clip features Aubrey Plaza eating flowers and spazzing out in all kinds of ways. Parks and Recreation fans might appreciate as she still manages to breakdown in a remarkably unemotional fashion. Deadpan is the name of her game.

 

If you enjoy this, it's probably worth checking out this clip of the song "I'm Writing a Novel" - Joshua Tillman's dancing is pretty amazing. But, just to give you some perspective, I think everyone's dancing is amazing. I love those who dance! Dancing means enthusiasm for life and enthusiasm always gets full marks in my opinion. 


The second artist I've come across recently is JJAMZ. It's kind of a "super group", being an amalgamation of members of bands such as Phantom Planet, Maroon 5 (not Adam Levine, sadly...), and Bright Eyes. I came across this band after reading about them on another blog (Imboycrazy - PLEASE NOTE! - some, okay, a lot, of the images on this blog are NSFW nor are they appropriate for the younger peeps, just so you are aware. I mean we're all adults here, but if nudity bothers you, maybe don't click). Apparently the girl who writes Imboycrazy inspired the above song from Father John Misty after making out with Joshua Tillman on a grave at a Halloween party. There you go. And that's how the internet happens people.




Anyway...JJAMZ! I dig. I can see this becoming a favourite summer album. I really dig the singer, Z Berg's gently croaky vocals. It's poppy, it's dancey, but it's also kind of dark...sensing a theme? Don't worry, my love for Taylor Swift will always balance out the darkness.



The gif of Thom Yorke makes my day. Many thanks to the aforementioned extremely cool friend for bringing this to my attention.

Sunday 11 November 2012

Sunday Sevens

It's been a while since I've done one of these. That could have something to do with the fact that I rarely find a whole seven new things to get into in the space of seven days - when I like things, I tend to obsess about them for a lengthy period of time and then get over them completely. It happens a lot with food, particularly confectionary items. For example at the moment, I'm all about musk sticks and banana lollies. However, in a few weeks time I'll probably walk past them in the local supermarket while suppressing a slight wave of nausea, telling myself never again...Ah sugar. Such a cruel mistress.

Anyway. 

Here's what's on my radar at the moment. 

1. Pitch Perfect

I cannot wait to see this - basically it's is a dancing movie, but with singing instead of dance routines. From what I gather, Pitch Perfect involves a capella groups from rival colleges battling each other to win some kind of competition. It also stars Anna Kendrick, who is the only good thing about the Twilight movies and was excellent in "Up in the Air" with George Clooney, a few years ago. Watching her in Twilight is a delight, because she's the only cast member who appears to have a sense of humour about the whole business of sparkly vampires, stalking and extreme pouting. And anything that incorporates "No Diggity" is always going to be appreciated by this 90s RnB loving lady...




2. Bonnie Raitt


Bonnie Raitt is one of the few (if not the only) female guitarists to regularly appear on lists like Rolling Stones 100 Greatest Guitarists and the like. She's got a mean set of pipes as well. I was stoked to pick up two of the last tickets for a friend and I to see her play at The Enmore in April next year. She's coming to Australia for the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival - hooray for sideshows! Check out this video of her on The David Letterman Show earlier this year. She is 62...62!!! Seriously cool.




3. The Chinese Checkers dress from Gorman


It wouldn't be a Sunday Seven without something fashion related. I don't know if I'll ever be able to bring myself to pay $289 for this little number, but it is pretty damn cute. And black with white polka dots appeals to me almost as much as navy and white stripes. I always love supporting Australian based labels when I can, and I do spend a bit of time cruising the Gorman site, waiting for things to go on sale...


4. Letterpress

One of my fellow word-game-loving friends put me onto this one recently, and I've become pretty obsessed. It's kind of like boggle - the letters are on a five by five grid, you play against an opponent, making as many words as possible and stealing letters from each other where you can. It takes a few games to get the hang of the rules and is quite addictive. The interface is simple and attractive (in my opinion - Letterpress was created by the guy who invented Twitter), and the only complaint I have is that it doesn't have a messaging function - I like to be able to chat with my opponents and either compliment them on their excellent plays, or amuse myself with some trash talking. It's available for iPhones and iPads. Play with me! My user name is CarrieBe4n.


5. Closer - Tegan and Sara

So, it looks like this is going to be a music-heavy post. Do you mind? I hope not. I've been a fan of these Canadian twins for a while, and when this song came out a little earlier this year it was on a loop in my brain for about three weeks. It is definitely a new direction for them, which some fans probably won't like. It's a lot more electro-pop than their previous alt-rock efforts, and kind of makes me think they have perhaps been listening to a lot of Swedish singer Robyn, and maybe some Passion Pit as well. I'm a huge fan of both of those artists, so obviously I love this. 



6. Girls


Lena Dunham is one of those women that everyone loves to have an opinion about. She's young, she's successful, she's talented, she has the kind of body that plenty of women can actually relate to - i.e. she's not a size 4 and she doesn't apologise or devalue herself because of it, so naturally it's game on to find all sorts of reasons why she is undeserving of the success she has achieved so far. She recently signed an extremely lucrative book deal, which of course resulted in the internet going absolutely bonkers about whether or not she "deserved" that many zeros on a cheque.

I like her. I think she's funny, but I'm going to be straight with you here - I hated the first 5 episodes of her TV show Girls. I loathed all the characters and found absolutely nothing redeeming, likeable or watchable about any of them. And then in the 6th episode something clicked, and I started laughing. And laughing. And laughing. And nodding my head, because sometimes, Lena is just saying out loud what I would really like to say out loud sometimes, but don't. Because my life is not a TV show (except in my head). Also, the character of Shoshanna is amazing.





I'm pretty excited - I've just ordered some new glasses, after having the same frames for almost ten years. I don't have to wear them all the time, so have never really bothered updating them because hey, what does my computer screen care what I look like? Recently however, I've found myself wearing them more and more at work - I don't know if it's because I'm tired, or I've just been in denial, so I thought it was time to bust out and buy some new frames.

Bon Look is extremely economical, and it's so easy to order - just upload a copy of your prescription and you're on your way... I ordered the "Urban Dandy" in honey tortoise. Yesssssss.