beatz and bleepz

how rude of me not to give you some weekend jamz on christmas! oh well, here they are, a bit late but danceable all the same:

2-1 (murdok rmx)-imogen heap

kaleidoscope (high contrast rmx)-tiesto ft. jonsi

too fake (rac rmx)-hockey

fun punch (xxxchange rmx)-bag raiders

pop the glock (felix da housecat's pink enemy rmx)-uffie

in for the kill (jon kong rmx)-la roux

jason cox non-remix quilombo

kimberly-good luck at the gunfight

civic transit-keenhouse

raven-cajuan (posted before, but i just love it so much)

88:88-danger

blood theme-data

afterburner-russ chimes

child prodigy

so i was rummaging around the child artwork drawer last night as a result of extreme boredom and i found lots of evidence that i was in fact a child pro

digy. not surprising, i'm aware. the first thing i found was a list written by an anonymous member of the burns children entitled "my promises". it reads as follows:

1. clean the yard when dad moes
2. get the paper on sunday
3. help with shopping bags
4. help plant seeds (?)
5. make your lunch (whose lunch???)
6. LOVE YOU (this part is surrounded by hearts)

good promises, all legitimate i suppose. i also found a stockpile of letters to santa, the tooth fairy, and the easter bunny. quinn's letters to the tooth fairy are always the most entertaining. for example, i found this one:

"dear tooth fairy,
can i have two dollars this is my nineth (nine-eth...awesome) tooth.
love,
quinn.
p.s.
give megan in the crib a qurtar"

how generous of her, assuming that 'qurtar' is supposed to indicate 'quarter'. i also found a santa response letter to one of mine that must have been every parent's worst nightmare, because i guess i posed some difficult questions such as, how does santa get in our house, why is rudolph's nose so red, why do reindeer fly, etc. my favorite is the response to the 'why is rudolph's nose so red' question:

"rudolph's nose is just glowy! even i don't know why. he's just a special guy."

evasive. i like it. i also found a list generated by my kindergarten class on mother's day stating all the reasons we loved our mothers. my only reasons listed were that, "she helped me find a shark's tooth and she goes with me to burger king." cool. i'm glad our relationship has such strong foundations. the other great thing i found was a really old valentines card made by my dad when he was little. it says:

"happy velientines (alien valentine's?) day
dear mother and dad i love you. this is from mike. (insert drawing of a heart-shaped cowboy standing on a fire engine and carrying an ambulance with a heart in the middle in his right hand.) this is the story of the milk man. (two more fire engine drawings now)one day the milk man came and my dog bit him and the milk man went into the house. he told my father on my dog. (insert drawing of a heart w/ an arrow through it)"

so apparently the moral of that story (which also proves that child prodigy-ism runs in the family), was that tattle tales suck and will grow up to be milk men. the end.

children are so smart that they seem dumb by adult standards. oh ps, here is a picture of the contract quinn made me sign at the age of 5 to make me promise we'd be sisters AND best friends for life. very official.

happy christmas!

happy christmas sounds kind of strange if you don't have a british accent, but it's all part of my 2010 plan to start spelling only the british way and using only british phrases. you get the idea, anyway. i am pleased to inform you that after today i will be part of the iphone krew thanks to 'santa' aka maureen...she had such a hard time getting the damn thing that she may or may not have told (more like threatened) a best buy worker that she was going to kill someone. other winner gifts of today included a usb vinyl archiver from my aunt stephanie that i've wanted for forever. she also sent over a polaroid camera, another thing i've wanted for a while even though the film is RIP, and a stack of old family polaroids. the best one is definitely a photo of me surrounded by tiny airplane sized liquor bottles around the age of 8...i look like a total baby alcoholic. i was just smelling them, though, i swear! okay so my gift to you today is a slew of the cutest videos ever which i may or may not have stolen from alida's super blog...they are of a four year old french girl named capucine. totally adorable. the first one is season-appropriate, although i'm pretty sure she nicked all her santa secrets from the santa clause movie, but whatever. if you want to watch the first two, you have to follow the links to vimeo. the third one is equally adorable and you can watch it right here wup wup wup!

Les secrets du Père Noël - Santa's secrets from Capucha on Vimeo.

Fooling the toothfairy from Capucha on Vimeo.

Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.

xmas songs that make you not want to vom

it does not feel at all like christmas to me, which is absurd since there is about two feet of snow on the ground, the tree is all decorated (a record for the burns family, trust me...), and maureen's poorly-hidden gifts are strewn about the house. i'm a little concerned about the box addressed to me from 'electric guitar world'...definitely didn't ask for an electric guitar, definitely don't want one. but that's neither here nor there. i've been watching christmas movies all day and am about to embark on a baking extravaganza the likes of which this house has never seen, but in the meantime i figured i'd throw together a little less-traditional christmas-y (slash wintry) playlist. there's only so much bing crosby i can take before i start to wish i was jewish (speaking of which, i have to go order chinese food for dinner. yummmmmm.) ps please note the photo of the festive and fun-loving dinosaurs...i found them building snowmen in my backyard and had them pose for a shot. okay so here you go:

fallen snow-au revoir simone

sister winter-sufjan stevens (just wait til this hits 2:58...epic)

it's christmas time-yo la tengo

merry christmas baby (please don't die)-crocodiles & dum dum girls

white winter hymnal-fleet foxes

it's christmas! let's be glad!-sufjan (again, i know i know)

white christmas-snowden

have yourself a merry little christmas-rose polenzani

winter '05-ra ra riot

how i hate to see xmas come around-jimmy witherspoon

and if what sounds like the soundtrack to a very serious 80's xmas appeals to you, here you go:

anorak christmas-sally shapiro

AND if you wish you were someplace warm slash in latin america like i kind of do...

el cha cha cha de la navidad-celia cruz

ughhhhh

i have so much boredommm. i can't go home until tomorrow morning, and this campus is literally what i imagine things will be like when the world ends (aka dead). so naturally to pass the time i have been drawing dinosaurs on pistachios shells that i put on top of my fingernails, and i'm having a staring contest with the michael jackson tribute poster. he's winning. i hope the ghost doesn't come get me since i think i'm the only one in my building right now...and yes, there is a ghost. a for real ghost who ruins our lives and who i would trade for a burglar any day. okay that's all i wanted to say. or, i guess that wasn't saying so much as complaining, but whatever.

beatz and bleepz: the i'm dying edition

during the next twenty-six hours i have at least fifteen pages of research to look forward to. can i do it? debatable. will this music help? possibly. hence the early posting of this week's beatz and bleepz. and we will now be featuring the jason cox section, because he always complains about the amount of remixes. so all the non-remixes will be under that section. and here we go:

riverside (breakage rmx)-sidney samson

one more time (george lenton rmx)-daft punk

los feeling (monsieur adi rmx)-visitor

sun to me (emalkay rmx)-faithless

sha! shtil! (l-vis 1990 vip rmx)-gucci vump

where is my mind (bassnectar rmx)-pixies

jason cox non-remix extravaganza:

a party like this-dskotek & teen wolf

crazy-i'm not a band

extraball-yuksek ft. amanda blank

aarghh!!-just a band

the subs-mitsubitchi

phar phar dec-george lenton

*ps jason cox has not endorsed any of the jason cox non-remix extravaganza tracks. but if he doesn't like them, it's his own fault for doubting the power of the remix.

venn diagramz

my usual opinion of venn diagrams is that they are lame, but these have (slightly) made me reconsider my negative outlook:

this first one is a nerd venn diagram. according to this, i am a dweeb.

the second one is for mythical creatures. practical. i repeat, dweeb.

so good...

don't know how i missed this matamatics remix of 'headlock', but here it is:

france in your pants

here we go with cinq (5) french 60's classixx pour vous:

notre prof d'anglais-chantal kelly

et moi, et moi, et moi-jacques dutronc

tu m'as trop menti-chantal goya

le marchand de temps-antoine

au secours ai-sophie mansart

beatz and bleepz

just in time to dance the night away. because that's what my ideal night would consist of. dancing the night away. ps, that's kind of a weird thing to say. does that statement imply that if you dance hard and/or fast enough the night will physically disappear? i hope not...daytime blowz. here you go:

bionic commando (rusko rmx)-bionic commando

tricky tricky (horror shower rmx)-royksopp

el tigeraso (sabbo rmx)-maluca

a funny thing (monarchy rmx)-penguin prison

rave box-PEST

favela-panton

super fusee-bsbtrgdclub

5am (valerna rmx)-something a la mode

iron zombie-breakbot

...and to finish off the night, i leave you with this DOUBLE HEADER remix of tricky tricky. tricky, i know.

tricky tricky (beyond deep rmx)-royksopp

...PLUS i'll leave you with this little number:

gold in the fire (diamond cut rmx)-monarchy

just because...

i just watched y tu mamá también for the first time. i thought it was pretty good. i liked the parts where they were driving and just being quiet and looking at things, and the part where luisa meets that old woman who tells her she has a nice name. 

folkin' emo!!!

i really couldn't help listening to a slightly emo playlist as i drove back to shiteous ohio this morning at 6 AM. the weather was crap for the majority of the drive. after i saw the sunrise, rain took over until i hit st. clairesville, oh. so if you're feeling the folky emo vibez too, here's a little sampling:

roslyn-bon iver & st. vincent
i don't feel it anymore-william fitzsimmons
norway-beach house
last song for b-devendra banhart
i can see your tracks-laura veirs
tear tassle ogre heart-ghost bees
brotherhood of man-the innocence mission
the rifle-alela diane
slow life-grizzly bear w/ victoria legrand

ps-can you believe i was able to stay awake after all that?!?

i love this commercial

sportmax gloves

WANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANT

say hello to your friendz

seeing as how it's officially the start of a new holiday season (allegedly the most wonderful time of the year), i figured it would be a timely move to post the babysitters club special christmas video. i'm pretty positive i've posted it before, but seeing stacey get shut down in the form of diabetes never gets old. and they just do so much shopping, i figure it may or may not rub off on you, which may or may not stimulate the economy. i'm just doing my part. so get pumped for the holidays or whatever, and don't forget to say hello to your friends (great advice):

bbbbbibio

i'm bibio obsessed recently. i first heard lover's carvings a while back and thought it was a fantastic track, but i've only just now started to really get into him. his songs have this amazingly old quality about them, and they all give off this weird balance between vintage and synthetic. definitely worth a listen.

dinner conversations

oh how i loathe the banalities of dinner conversation with my mother. hence my lack of enthusiastic remarks that are required for a two-person conversation, hence maureen's frustration, and hence her strategic maneuver to ruin my life slash bring up after graduation plans. this is not a subject i particularly enjoy, especially while eating, so i excused myself from the dinner table. don't worry, it was just salmon. i'm actually convinced that the burns household is single handedly massacring the entire world's population of salmon. but that's neither here nor there. instead, i'd like to discuss with you the most productive conversation i've had in quite a while, with none other than alexandra nicole michel. i'll break it down for you...pretty much she said, "where should we move that is far away from everyone when we graduate?" so i said, "miami?" and she said, "i was thinking more like thailand." so after a few minutes of tossing around random locations, i decided siberia was the place. we will both become professional tusken raiders; basically we can utilize our natural states of pallor to our advantage by blending in with the natural surroundings of snow and polar bears. then, having naturally camouflaged ourselves, we can shoot passersby and steal their belongings, using what little money we acquire to buy vodka and borscht. then, in our spare time we will raise and train siberian tigers from an igleepee, or an igloo-teepee. being professional tusken raiders we will obviously travel by bantha, which i'm sure run rampant in siberia and not just the fictional planet of tatooine. and if none of this ends up working out, or if i get frostbite and die or get amputated or something, i think the next best bet would be to make a tusken raider-inspired fashion line and become super rich and famous. siberia equals the promised land.

beatz and bleepz: the turkey massacre edition

as this is a holiday weekend for most of us, i thought it would be a nice gesture to present you with an early beatz and bleepz to dance off the tryptophan coma you will likely be enduring for the next few days. just in time for whatever fêtes (that's french for parties wooo) you decide to attend this evening, too! okay, so here you are, some brand new musique pour vous, and remember, show that turkey who's boss on and off the dancefloor:

fences (neo tokyo rmx)-phoenix

mi pieza (moustache rmx)-protistas

roche (breakbot rmx)-sebastien tellier

heartbeats (joe and will ask? rmx)-grum

under the sheets (jakwob rmx)-ellie goulding

psychic city (classixx rmx)-yacht

took the night (grum rmx)-chelley

belly dance (mowgli rmx)-round table knights

life on tv-kid sister

you should listen to...

...all of these bands i'm about to tell you about. if you are not so much a fan of the typical robotronic mess that i usually blog about, it's your lucky day! because none of these bands fall into that category. so, here is what we've got going:

very truly yours, a band based in chi-city, is made up of five people. they sound very similar to camera obscura and yo la tengo, if those two groups decided to produce musical offspring together. which would be a baby that i would babysit any day. for free even. listen to the following tracks to get a feel for what they're all about:

popsong '91

to see you here

1 2 3 4

aaaand next up we have the limes, which, i have to admit, is a rather underwhelming name for a band. if you're going to be a 'the' band, at least make it whelming. or if you're feeling crazy, make it overwhelming. but aside from the name, the limes are super good. they're an transcontinental band, which i guess mostly implies that they bounce ideas back and forth to each other across the atlantic. whatever they're doing works, though, and here are some songs pour vous:

beyond blue

sao francisco

next is back in judy's shack, probably my new favourite duo. they're lo-fi and lovely and very reminiscent of au revoir simone. ch-ch-check them out here:

the puff the drag the whiff

burning cold (can't listen on hypem but follow the link to DL free)

winter days

and last but not least (for this post anyway), we have total babe, some bb's from minneapolis. i digiheart them times a mil for making happy floaty slighty-but-not-too-twee-ish music. here you go:

bearbones

shape up

short stories

shoobeedoobeedoowop spanishpop

before i say anything else, i'd just like to notify everyone that the spanish version of 'shoobeedoobeedoowop' would actually be more accurately spelled as 'shubidubiduwap'. but that's neither here nor there. ahhhh spanish indie pop makes me swoon. we can probably blame it on fond thanksgiving memories of last year in argentina that make this year an automatic let-down. here are some of my recent favourites (british spelling! so sophisticated!), and pay special attention to entre rios, a band that has been on repeat in my brain for the last two weeks:

otra suerte-entre rios

los surfistas valientes-denver

mi pieza-protistas

swinging lima-los protones

miles de ojos-coconot

mil memorias-neon walrus

plasticos y metales-nadadora

rei-childs

frontera-entre rios

el viaje-superaquello

muzak

don't worry, it's not "muzak" muzak, but i figured i'd share some mellowed-out (at least, that's what i consider them to be...not bangers) tracks that i've downloaded recently:

i don't feel it anymore (george raquet rmx)-william fitzsimmons

videotape (mephisto mix)-radiohead

under the sheets (she is danger rmx)-ellie goulding

first snow-emancipator

strobe-deadmau5

*you can usually download all of the tracks i post if you go to the original blog source on hypem...just click 'read full post' and it should take you to a downloadable link.

beatz and bleepz

this week was absolutely ace for beatz and bleepz. at least i think so, anyway. find out for yourself right here, and have a bee-boppin weekend, fools:

digital love (algeronics rmx)-daft punkkiller on the dancefloor (mmmatthias rmx)-gringo oba oba

tik tok (fred falke rmx)-kesha

zingolo (doorly rmx)-tinny

sweat-max justus

simon says (mikey mic rock edit)-pharoahe monche

densetsu riddim-kanji kinetic

bad romance (starsmith rmx)-lady gaga

bad romance (chew fu h1n1 club mix)-lady gaga

shame on me (viking rmx)-amanda blank

*yes, i realize i doubled up on lady "oh my" gaga remixes this week. i'm not sorry.

cria cuervos

i've been pretty obsessed with this song recently, which led me to the movie cria cuervos from 1975. it's a pretty weird film, but i liked it a lot anyway. it jumps around in time and it's hard to tell what's real or not. you can watch it right here (in parts of course):

beatz and bleepz (the belated edition)

sorry i've been so bad about this...it's a direct result of me pretending i have no work when i actually have a lot. hence my current procrastination and subsequent influx in blog posts:

fascination (bit funk rmx)-nightwaves
little secrets (hey champ rmx)-passion pit
love in the digital age (tepr rmx)-heads we dance
something to finish-pierce
help i'm alive (80kidz rmx)-metric
not fair (doc rosen rosen rmx)-lily allen
the cricket scores-boy 8-bit
ski hive-worst friends

and this one i had to do...forgive me...
party in the usa (cahill club mix)-miley

karen o and the kidz

really digging the where the wild things are soundtrack. here are some songz to show you what i mean:

all is love

sailing home

rumpus

igloo

hideaway

don't cry 4 me argentinaaa

let's face it, the flaming lips said it best when they said that everyone you know someday will die. including me. morbid but nevertheless true. so when that day comes when i am an estimated 107 years old, i can only hope that my funeral looks a little something like eva peron's did. because it's one of the most badass things i've ever seen.

happy three weeks w/o facebook day!!!

can you believe it? i've made it three weeks without facebook, and surprisingly enough it's been a breeze! or, much easier than i thought it'd be, anyway. so hooray for me and sorry for you. our friendship will prevail, i promise.

ennio morricone obsessed

so as a direct result of my obsession with inglourious basterds comes my obsession with ennio morricone:



i hope that when i go, i go out dramatically fighting to this one:

moviesmoviesmovies

well, it was another weekend of me sitting around watching movies on the old laptop. illegally, of course. anyways, i won't fill you in on the oldies like pan's labyrinth or anything, but here is what i thought of three more recent ones.

whip it-i actually PAID to see this movie at the theater...i have to admit, i wasn't super impressed. i mean, the roller derby parts were badass, and there were some funny parts i guess, but jesus ellen page, could you get any afterschool emo on us? i don't care if your family hates you or that you totally got duped by that dreamy band member. i just want you to say funny things like 'honest to blog'. drew barrymore was definitely the highlight of the film as an overly aggressive stoner with crazy rainbow hair. i think i would say don't go see this in theaters, totally not worth the $$$.

inglourious basterds-i know, i'm only just now seeing this! and i could kick myself, because i could've watched it about 7 billion times on repeat in the amount of time it's taken me to get my shit together. this was the best thing i've seen like...ever? it made me really proud to not be german. 90000000 stars for this one.

the secret lives of pippa lee-THE WORST MOVIE EVER. i could stop there, but mostly i just want to say dear pippa, you're not that badass dude. and so what if your mom was popping speed to be a sick housewife. like, that's not that bad. at all. and you suck for going on to lead the most boring and conventional life evereverever. AND you suck for hooking up with keanu reeves when you're old(ish), and grandpa death when you're young slash serena from gossip girl slash you could've done way better. and winona ryder, what were you even doing there? none of it made sense to me at all. i wish that crazy ex-wife of herb's had just shot her at that bizarre lunch and spared us all a lot of confusion. i want those minutes of my life back.

beatz & bleepz (a little late, sawwy)

last week was arguably the most hectic of all time for me. hence the lack of weekend beatz. but if you're still looking to dance it out, here you go:

love in july (le prix rmx)-sally shapiro
i'm in love (foamo rmx)-dub pistols
i love london (paparazzi rmx)-crystal fighters
sometimes-miami horror
crysteena-mille
pop you got it (harsh edit)-b the sneekers
beyonce-sweet dreams
los feeling (clockwork rmx)-visitor
heart attack (digiraatii rmx)-lexicondon
ufo-jack beats

interviewzzz

so here are the interviews i've been working on for my internship:

moby

electric tickle machine

miike snow

janeane garofalo

ida maria

perez hilton

cocorosie

fiery furnaces

crystal stilts

tortoise

the phenomenal handclap band

deer tick

amadou & miriam

passion pit & harlem shakes

john parish

enjoyenjoyenjoy

america by allen ginsberg

every time i have to write about politics i like to listen to this poem. it gets me riled up and makes me wish we were communist or that i lived in a trailer park in kansas and bled red white and blue or that i had ever been to the grand canyon or mount rushmore or that i owned stock in stock cars or walmart or bob evans. i'm only posting half of it but you can find the rest anywhere and everywhere.

America I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
America two dollars and twenty-seven cents January 17, 1956.
I can't stand my own mind.
America when will we end the human war?
Go fuck yourself with your atom bomb
I don't feel good don't bother me.
I won't write my poem till I'm in my right mind.
America when will you be angelic?
When will you take off your clothes?
When will you look at yourself through the grave?
When will you be worthy of your million Trotskyites?
America why are your libraries full of tears?
America when will you send your eggs to India?
I'm sick of your insane demands.
When can I go into the supermarket and buy what I need with my good looks?
America after all it is you and I who are perfect not the next world.
Your machinery is too much for me.
You made me want to be a saint.
There must be some other way to settle this argument.
Burroughs is in Tangiers I don't think he'll come back it's sinister.
Are you being sinister or is this some form of practical joke?
I'm trying to come to the point.
I refuse to give up my obsession.
America stop pushing I know what I'm doing.
America the plum blossoms are falling.
I haven't read the newspapers for months, everyday somebody goes on trial for murder.
America I feel sentimental about the Wobblies.
America I used to be a communist when I was a kid and I'm not sorry.
I smoke marijuana every chance I get.
I sit in my house for days on end and stare at the roses in the closet.
When I go to Chinatown I get drunk and never get laid.
My mind is made up there's going to be trouble.
You should have seen me reading Marx.
My psychoanalyst thinks I'm perfectly right.
I won't say the Lord's Prayer.
I have mystical visions and cosmic vibrations.
America I still haven't told you what you did to Uncle Max after he came over from Russia.

I'm addressing you.
Are you going to let our emotional life be run by Time Magazine?
I'm obsessed by Time Magazine.
I read it every week.
Its cover stares at me every time I slink past the corner candystore.
I read it in the basement of the Berkeley Public Library.
It's always telling me about responsibility.
Businessmen are serious.
Movie producers are serious.
Everybody's serious but me.
It occurs to me that I am America.
I am talking to myself again.

sarah larnach

i've been obsessed with ladyhawke's album artwork and her video for 'my delirium'. i did a little investigating to discover that sarah larnach is the artist behind everything. here's her myspace to check out some of her amazing stuff. my favorite is the mount catmore extravaganza (pictured above) that was featured in the 'my delirium' video (below).

beatz and bleepz

this week was minus ten points on a ten out of ten scale. so in other words, it blew. it blew hard. i'm already pumped for the weekend more than ever, but here are some jamz to get you going for the weekend:

more than friends (congorock rmx)-fukkk offf

drumming song (jack beats rmx)-florence & the machine

stars come out-calvin harris

fragile tron legacy-daft punk

swagga (sleek raw bootleg)-excision & datsik

riverside (torro torro rmx)-sidney samson

cream-federico franchi

let me twitter dat (rusko rmx)-andy milonakis

hello cat-shazam

awkward slow dance song:

shadows (tanlines rmx)-au revoir simone

spanish pop

i've been obsessed with spanish indie pop recently, in case you couldn't tell by the foreshadowing in the jovenes y sexys post. so here's a little latin flare (minus the flare? or at least minus the reggaeton...) to add to your playlist:

depredadores-domingo en llamas

hoy me has dicho hola por la primera vez-la casa azul

hoy no quiero verte nunca mas-franny glass

un rayo de sol-le mans

amor platonico-jovenes y sexys

burbuja-cyan

diamante-nuuro

la chica vampira-papa topo

anju kitahara-emilio jos

anti-facebook anniversary

happy one week without facebook day! it's been a fantastic seven days, i must say. very liberating. have i forgotten people's birthdays? probably. have i ruined so many lives by depriving the world of my 'people revisited in neon and lasers' photo album? definitely. but i wouldn't trade it for the world. get back to me in another week and we'll see how i feel.

laura veirs

i've been meaning to post about laura veirs for a while but haven't gotten around to it. she's another indie-folk-rock artist that my ears (and maybe your ears, too) can appreciate. she kind of sounds like aimee mann. check out some of her trax here for a break from robotronic noise explosionz:

cast a hook in me

magnetized

galaxies

pink light

where gravity is dead

ocean night song

dionne warwick

why not?

do you know the way to san jose

walk on by

i say a little prayer

some amazing songz

i've been on an indie music downloading rampage this weekend, and here are a few gems i have stumbled upon:

billie holiday-warpaint

el cucu de l'avi-queta & teo

new slang-little my (cover)

summerland-the woodlands

diamante-nuuro

shugo tokumaru

shugo's a new favorite of mine. definitely check him out here for an amazing japantastic indie folktronica experience. his musical habilidades have reinforced my love for all things japanese. i'm pretty depressed i missed his 2008 north american tour, but even if i'd known about him then, i'd have been in south america. so i guess it was a lost cause from the start. shugo, should i just come to you? okay cool. see you in tokyo. here are some trax:

alaska

parachute

green rain

rum hee

clocca

future umbrella

jovenes y sexys

this is literally the best band i've heard in a while. jovenes y sexys (ignore the name) are like...the combination of spanish and folk that i've been waiting for. here's their myspace. check out some of their songz here, and download their EP here:

el reloj

amor platonico

divine hammer

beatz and bleepz

so this week's edition of beatz and bleepz is entirely inspired mostly by drum & bass/dubstep, because that's just what i've been feeling recently. so, here goes:

smile (d&b rmx)-lily allen

paciific steppaz (ethix takes you back to '95 rmx)-paciific steppaz

raindrops (doorly's dubstep rmx)-basement jaxx

acoustic jam-utah jazz

tear you down-brookes brothers

bonkers (doorly rmx)-dizzee rascal & armand van helden

paris is burning (alex metric rmx)-ladyhawke

pjanoo (high contrast rmx)-eric prydz

hold your colour-pendulum

propane nightmares-pendulum

semi-serious stoned part of the night song?

choices-nero

*ps, if you're looking for serious d&b hit up itunes radio 'bass drive'

movie reviews in 5 words or less

i've spent the last two days watching unhealthy amounts of movies online. here is what i have concluded about each one:

500 days of summer: really unsatisfying, good at times.
away we go: funny, cute, really liked it.
the watchmen: amazing effects, plot was bizarre.
sunshine cleaning: loved it. little miss sunshine-esque.
the september issue: AMAZING. obsessed. so good.

just a little preview...

...of my next amazingly ridiculous interview with electric tickle machine. emailed questions slash dialogue are/is as followz:

So this first one isn't really a question, but just like, tell me
everything. I guess that's a little broad. If you're not comfortable
with telling me everything, tell me how the year 1988 went for you?
That's when I was born. And if you're not comfortable indulging me
with information regarding my birth year, why don't you just tell me
about the tour? Are you so excited? I am.

So like, are you wearing right now?

Have you ever had to sneeze while you've been performing? What about
hiccups? What do you do in that situation? If you said no, have you
prepared at all for this scenario? If not, I think you probably
should. Anything is possible.

Are you guys still reading slash answering these questions? Okay good.
So this next one is a really tricky one, because I am going to ask you
to make up your own question and then answer it. It's an opportunity
for you to say what you've always wanted to but haven't been able to
since no one has asked you before.

If you were to take me on a date (don't worry, I'm attractive in a
non-threatening way) where would we go? And in the reverse, what would
your dream date scenario be? Like, who would you want to take you on a
date (besides me, obviously) and what would you guys do? Build
sandcastles in the sky? *Hint: that is what I would want to do on our
date...

On that note, which of you guys is the best in the sack? Who is the
worst? Are you lying? I hope not, this is serious.

What's your band mascot? Do you have one? Are you thinking about
getting one? What would it be? So many questions, I know.

I like your website. Are you planning to build a pyramid like that on
the moon? Have you considered the gravitational setbacks of
implementing a project like that? Also, side note, the moon is and has
been moving away from Earth for quite some time now. It has moved 60
cm away from Earth since I was born. One day in 4 billion years it's
just going to peace out entirely. And then the average Earth day will
last (are you ready for this?) 45 days! Think about that.

What is a magical and/or mystical creature that you wish was for real?
Slash, what magical and/or mystical creature have you been told is
nonexistent but really you've just never seen yet because it's so
elusive and magical?

If you could have a robot, like any robot at all, what would it do for
you? (This is a trick question. Everyone knows that robots will be the
downfall of society. Robots and Dakota Fanning. <---those are
synonymous, by the way...)

Do you guys have any weird allergies that ruin your life? I don't yet,
but I sometimes feel that one day I'll become allergic to nuts or
something I really love eating. Or maybe be allergic to a person I
really admire. Like I'd finally get to meet Lionel Richie and realize
I'm allergic, and my life would subsequently be ruined.

Thanks for (maybe) answering all/some of these questions. You are all
invited to my birthday party on January 9th. You think I'm joking but
I am so serious.

ghost?

this is going to sound crazy, i already realize that. but i was just sitting here by myself in the apartment on the couch, and i felt something shake/run into the couch like three times in a row. like, hard enough that i noticed it. i guess this could somehow be explained away, but it was really fucking weird.

puppies dressed as cats

conan's best idea yet:

and more puppies dressed as cats...

really like this...

fantastic mashup of sufjan's 'that dress looks nice on you' and blackalicious's 'make you feel that way'. ch-ch-check it out.

happy birthday...

to nicole richie and ricki lake! you guys are old, congratulations.

sunday unfunday

so today was gloomtastic, full of hangovers and grey skies and a general overall feeling of disgust. so naturally my playlist was a little mellower than usual. here we go:

south 2nd-cocorosie
fourth time around-yo la tengo
now that i know-devendra banhart
black tables-other lives
master of none-beach house
tingaling-tangles
please, please, please let me get what i want-she & him
it's a wonderful life-sparklehorse

and a slightly more uplifting track:
get going-headlights

japanese talking watch!!!

did i ever tell you about the best day of my life when i finally received this in the mail??? i don't think that i ever did, so i will proceed to do so now. okay, well. the watch came, i put it on, and i proceeded to push the talking button. it takes about 30-45 seconds for the japanese lady to tell you what time it is, so in that sense it's pretty impractical. but in all other senses, it's fantastic. i've found myself seeking out japanese people in hopes that they need to know what time it is. unfortunately, there are not very japanese people in these parts. mostly just overweight ohioans. i like to wear my watch on a daily basis. it comes especially in handy when the conversation lulls and things are just about to get silent and awkward. but THEN i wow them with "hey, want to know what time it is in japanese? okay cool i thought so." some people, after i proudly relay the time in digital japanese, give me blank stares or raised eyebrows. i know that they are just masking their amazement and jealousy. kind of like you're probably doing right now if you're still reading this. THE END. oh, and i'm still really bitter that it never went on sale for like a year and then all of a sudden it JUST dropped in price. bullshit. and totally the story of my life.

tengo la fucking resaca

uffffff...last night was not good things for my dignity or for my kazoo. both were lost. anyways, i woke up this morning with significantly fewer brain cellz and needed a personal sanity day. so i bought a new pair of motorcycle boots, six books from the twenties about the spanish conquest and one called pedro paramo which is the weirdest story i've ever read. slash i love it already. after that i went to columbus with my friend hajier for this thing called independents day which is like a big festival for independent artists to vend their shit. so i feel significantly better about myself. that's pretty much all i wanted to say. i'll let you know how the books go...something tells me that 'a comprehensive history of poland, russia, and the baltic states' is going to be an interesting read.

kazoo! (god bless you?)

so i've spent the entire afternoon trying to figure out how garage band works. i'm trying to loop different kazoo tracks to create one ultimately fantastic version of 'ce jeu' by yelle. it's coming along very very slowly. but i have two of the loops done, so that's a plus. in other news, kazoo sounds like zoobilee zoo, aka the most terrifying television show ever. they are all a bunch of manimal freakz. here's a clip for your nostalgia:

weird timez in my car

here is a little gem from this summer when i tried to jam 17 musicians and libby into my car:

r u 25 yrz old? - everyone in my car

things that make me want to vom

i thought you might be interested to know some of the things that make me want to vomit. so here is a brief and incomplete list to get you started:

1. mayonnaise. disgusting. don't ever give me anything with mayonnaise on it or i will sue you for attempted murder.

2. the circulatory system. i always failed that unit in school because i'd pretty much be passed out the entire time. if you say 'blood clot' or 'blood thinner', i will faint. this is making me nauseous already.

3. the sound of other people making out. it makes my skin crawl. don't do it around me or i will throw up.

4. this drink i had one time called a fuzzy brain. it was whiskey and baileys and as i suspected, one sip made me blorch. don't buy me that drink. don't get that drink. just don't.

5. that movie house of 1000 corpses. actually, all horror movies. i think there was one called the cave or something...that was pretty bad. just keep them all away from me. ugh.

okay that's the first installment. i can't write any more of these because they make me too nauseous.

dreamz

i've been dreaming about some weird things recently. my most recent weird dream was two nights ago; it's pretty much the main reason i even bothered to write this post because i was so impressed with my subconscious for being able to create such a fantastically bizarre image. the dream basically consisted of me searching for melted champagne bottles in a house with two staircases. those are the main details that i remember. i don't know what the melted champagne bottles actually looked like as i never found any in the dream, but i hope that one day i'll get the opportunity to see one up close for realz. i really feel like i want to incorporate this into something bigger, but i don't know what. like, that's literally the most perfect image i have ever come across. melted champagne bottles in a house with two staircases.

beatz and bleepz

are you ready for the weekend? mine's already begun, hence my early jump on this post. hitting the bowling alley this evening for a weird time. toothless townies, bowling balls, pitchers...sounds like the beginning of a great thursday night trend. want to come? okay cool, see you in ohio in two hours. here are some jamz para vos:

hollywood sound-lexicondon

father-anthony rother

take me to the hospital (rusko rmx)-the prodigy

time warp-the kids are RADIOACTIVE

earthquake (yes giantess rmx)-little boots

still wild-gooseflesh

up all night (john bourke rmx)-french horn rebellion

would've been the one (edwin van cleef rmx)-solange

thriller (louis la roche rmx)-michael jackson

1901 (fredrick carlsson rmx)-phoenix

and a super serious synth song for that inevitably awkward part of the night...

heavy cross (fred falke rmx)-the gossip

AND if you're still mad @ kanye, check out this little jam:

kanye's a jerk-team taylor

gaga for this gaga remix

do you hate love game? i kind of hate it. but now that it has been funktastically remixed/remashed, i think i am reconsidering that stance. whatchu think?

love game x the breaks (dj gizmo)-lady gaga x kurtis blow

yippee, yppah.

yppah is this guy named joe corrales. his music is awesome rocktronica shoegaze that you should definitely give a listen (especially gumball machine weekend...):

gumball machine weekend
shutter speed
son saves the rest

and this little remix of lady sovereign...
love me or hate me

Navajo Bixby

likelikelike. let's listen to navajo bixby and have mad fun times, okay? okay. it's like the soundtrack to my life if i lived on a secret island that no one knew about. here are some trax para vos:

many ways
moonlighting

coco avant chanel

i am beyond excited for this movie to hit the US september 25th. in the first place, audrey tautou can do no wrong as far as i'm concerned. in the second place, chanel's story is absolutely ridiculous...since this is coco before chanel, i am curious to see how far the film goes into her life. i read her biography a couple of years ago and she was absolutely delusional, and as a result, absolutely fantastique. but then again, that seems like a pretty standard trait in the fashion industry. here's the trailer, check it out. and i can actually understand like two words of it now from my french lessons! mad progress, mad progress. like i understood when they said 'what is your name?' and also the word fenetre...that means window. i don't know what context it's in, but who cares?

beatz and bleepz and beatz

they're baaaaaaack...i continue my endless search for beatz and bleepz to bring to your eardrums. plz enjoy. it's been a while...you might want to do some general earobics before you begin. i don't know what that would entail, but you know you better than i do.

bang (stanton warriors rmx)-rye rye feat. m.i.a

fake (a1 bassline rmx)-alex roots
gax-boys noize
phantom part 2 (freemasons rmx)-justice

right here right now (trumpdisco rmx)-fatboy slim

tetris (scott harris' kool kids rmx)-electrixx

seven (css rmx)-fever ray

warm heart of africa (alan wilkis rmx)-the very best

yoa (the twelves rmx)-theatre of disco

i'm not your toy (data rmx)-la roux

she's electric (house of nada mix)-nightwaves

*i have no idea who this freak in the chanel hat is, but i bet he would enjoy all of these songz...

tavi is the coolest

why is this 13 year old so much cooler than i can ever hope to be? actually, why are most people cooler than i can ever hope to be? i blame genetics. anyways, if you don't know who she is, tavi is, like i said, this super cool 13 year old who is mad obsessed with fashion. she knows her shit. she also has an impressively large vocabulary. she also is a fellow believer that sounds can be legitimate forms of adjectives. here is the link to her blog, and check her out on vimeo for some of her vlog entries. she's a real person, i'm not making her up. so cool. she's invited to my birthday party fo' realz.

*ps, i totally bought the space girl t-shirt she has in her sidebar. it hasn't arrived yet...in fact, i'm beginning to doubt it's ever going to get here. but when and/or if it does, i'm going to wear it for like three weeks straight to make up for lost time.

perezzz

so can we just talk about how i interviewed perez via telephone today? it was probably the most magical fifteen minutes of my life. i told him he was permanently invited to every single birthday party i have for as long as we live. he said, "oh, cute" and i said, "no, but i was really serious..." (okay i didn't really say that but i thought it. you'll be able to read the whole interview soon enough on BYT, and while you're there, be sure to check out my janeane garofalo interview which was totally amazing. i'm hoping to get a soundclip transferred from the video i took of me interviewing mr. hilton when he decided to start singing 'party in the usa' by miley cyrus. i want that to be my ringtone 4everrr.

you're a fucking bogan!

has anyone ever called you a bogan? they probably have, they just might've used a different word. bogan means white trash in australian, and they use it a shit ton on australia's next top model, my new favorite show. it totally kicks america's next top model's ass...they can say lots more stuff on tv, like one chick said 'fuck!' when she fell at the end of the runway. all of the girls are also crazy and are really mean to each other. and then cassi, who i'm currently trying to score a phone interview with for byt, is absolutely the best bogan ever. she's been smoking since she was ten years old (she's sixteen now), has a snaggletooth, and has a serious anger management problem. when she's not threatening to rip people's heads off, she's punching walls. seriously, you've got to watch it, i can't stop. here's a clip:

you can watch all the episodes (like i've done) on youtube by searching for australia's next top model cycle five. it's literally the best thing i've ever seen. i think a lot of it has to do with their funny accents. and the fact that my arch nemesis tyra banks isn't the host.

claudia's birthday!!!

by the way, i hope everyone is getting geared-up for claudia kishi's birthday on july 11th, aka saturday. i will surely be throwing her the biggest bday bash this side of stoneybrook, complete with paper-clip earrings and neon scrunchies. and junk food and misspellings, obvi. so excited! i'll have to do some serious math to figure out how old she'll be fo realz. you can expect your evites soon...

schemes

okay so just theoretically if i do decide to leave my life of free-loading off my mom, what exactly would my next career move be? well, i've thought about this pretty substantially and here's what i've got so far:

1) open up a transformers themed restaurant in which we principally serve optimus prime rib with bumblebeer. should be popular in the nerd community, and nerds sometimes have jobs that pay well. this could lead to a steady cash flow, and/or the opportunity to marry up.
2) finally produce prayerobics, the next craze in exercise. basically it will launch the strenuous sunday morning mass routine into a structured and effective fitness plan, including the sit-stand-kneel-somersault pattern typical of catholocism. the first volume will be called "sweatin' to the old testament". however, richard simmons will likely be an opponent of my program, meaning i will have to fight him to the death. and who knows how much power that afro holds.
3) invent something useful like a remote control pager. i'm told this has already been invented, but i don't own one yet so i don't believe it. if it existed i would totally buy thirty and page remotes all day. actually, that might be a better plan. buy the said existing remote control pagers, page everyone's lost remotes, hold them hostage, and charge money for their safe return.

i think these all represent a pretty solid start to my future.

rip michael...

red stripe is alright

so i had a meeting for work on tuesday night, and afterwards our photog dakota asked if anyone was going to the jamaican festival. when no one said anything, he added that there was free red stripe. he had me at the word 'free'. we headed over to 1515 14th street, right above p, to g fine art gallery. there was not a huge turnout, but there were lots of good things like free red stripe (took advantage of that to the fullest), good music, and lots of other free stuff like usb flash drives that were shaped like red stripe bottles. basically awesome. later, on the drive home @ a stop light, a cab driver told me i was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and then proceeded to give me his card. yes, his name was mohamed ali. president/ceo of ideas inc. i don't really know what that means. anyways, for a sample of what i was jamming out to, here's a track from hypem:
jamaican girls-terry lynn & johan hugo
it's worth it to check if this red stripe extravaganza is hitting up your city. i know they were headed to chicago tonight, and i know austin and nyc are in the works as well.

i'm alive i swear

i realize i haven't posted anything in a ridiculously long time, but i'm HOPING to be more consistent in the near future. this byt thing is quickly becoming my life! want to see what i've been up to? go to the website and check out some of my interviews and concert reviews. so far i've been to see jenny lewis/deer tick, and then i saw peaches on wednesday. amazing show. and then saturdays i spend @ the capitol skyline pool for our summer camp pool partiez. you should check them out if you haven't already. $10 for a day at the pool (a very nice pool at that). plus there's always day drinking if you're into that (everything's $5 and under, i highly recommend the sangria). and you can hang out with ME! anyways, in the spirit of my absence i'll leave you with a few jamz:
hot (treasure fingers rmx)-big gipp
triangle walks (allez allez rmx)-fever ray
gifted (treasure fingers rmx)-n.a.s.a
audacity of huge (naum gabo rmx)-simian mobile disco

sorrysorrysorry

i apologize for the lack of wednzilla jamz today...i had a post all ready to go, but i've been in a weird mood the past three days and didn't really feel like jamming out to electro beatz, even if you did. weekend jamz will most definitely be posted, though, and perhaps doubled.

semi-obsessed

i've had this song on repeat...i don't even know how to describe it. maybe a little kate havnevik-esque? a little bjork? perhaps you'd like a listen to figure it out (or not) for yourself:

cosmic love-florence and the machine

thoughts on willy wonka

pretty much i just realized that willy wonka's chocolate factory is kind of like rehab. everyone in there is an addict...agustus gloop is addicted to food, mike tv is addicted to tv (duh), violet is addicted to chewing gum (and talking obnoxiously, apparently), veruca is addicted to all things expensive and awesome (and being a bitch), and charlie...well, i guess he's addicted to being a goody two shoes (and poor). even the oompa-loompas are addicts...they're totally tanorexic. what does this teach us? i don't really know. but i feel like you can tell a lot about a person based on which willy wonka character best represents them. i would say i'm either a slugworth or an oompa-loompa, mostly because i'm a huge creep (i am always everywhere), and i like to break out into song and dance at inappropriate times. who represents you? i hope not agustus, because then you'd totes be a german fatty. death by chocolate fo' realz. anyways, if i run out of ideas for career ventures, i guess i'll just start up my own wonka rehab facility. winehouse gets dibs.

kidnap baby goats

so this band kidnap kids doesn't even need an introduction from me. here is their 'about us (slash me? i forget what they call it on myspace these days)' section:
Kidnap Kids is alie and celina! those two are basically just a coupla wise guys from the bronx. street smart and tough, they know their way around a guitar and xylophone, respectively. their lifelong dream is to play music to a crowd of people who are all ferociously making out. They also think it's cool to be smart.
the secret thing about kidnap kids is that they keep changing their name, but it's only because they have a secret crush on you. They have referred to themselves as the following: bears and chairs, beggars and chairs, de-luxembourg, mrs. vampire weekend, ratboy, and probably more. Do alie and celina like making up names as much as they like making up songs? is that boy in the corner wearing mascara or was he born with really long eyelashes? i can't remember if elephants have knees or not, do you remember? what do you want to be when you grow up?
all of these are viable questions, and i think you know what the answer is.
yes. yes i do know what the answer is to all of these questions. and the answer to any 'what should i listen to now' questions you may be struggling with currently is simple. kidnapkids! (and i don't mean that in like, the you-should-go-kidnap-some-children way. if that even occurred to you, you're probs a big weirdo and i think i don't want you reading my blog anymore. just kidding you can still read it.) okay and the cover of crank that (soulja boy DUH) is a.maz.ing, so listen to that shiz.

crank that
ghost
stories
lolita

blair waldorf no way!

umm...i had no idea leighton meester could sing songz, did you?? i thought the only thing she excelled in was playing a super bitch who loves headbands, but i stand corrected. allegedly she's releasing some sort of electropop album in the fall. i don't really know what that means. regardless, here are some trax. i actually kind of like the bette davis eyes cover...does that make me a bad person? this actually started out as a post about the bette davis eyes remix by mylo, but i happened upon that little gem and figured i'd share it with anyone else who has apparently been living under a rock like i have. back the mylo remix...heard it last night @ the sweetgreen block party last nite and was a fan. thoughts? ps, i feel like death warmed up today if that gives you any indication of my weekend.

bette davis eyes-leighton meester
in my arms (bette davis eyes rmx)-mylo

livin' in the land of the lost

scariest and most awesome show of all time. now that they're doing the new movie version, i figure maybe people will FINALLY believe me that it WAS a show. i've tried to describe it numerous times to people, and all i ever get is a blank stare or the suggestion that maybe i made it all up. false. how could i invent such a complex and amazing television program? plz enjoy the intro...ps, does anyone remember the episode where the purple moon makes all the dinos and prehistoric creatures go crazy? that was terrifying. the monkey is terrifying, too. not just in that episode, but always. if i saw him i would run away.