MUSIC?!?!?!

I'm usually much more inclined to listen to standup or watch a movie than I am to listen to music. That tends to be why I'm so behind in all of the latest bands and what have you. But my two latest obsessions have involved music in some way: there's the Adam and Joe show on BBC 6 Music– something, I've found, that makes my week seem complete– and The Lonely Island, the greatest fake MCs on earth (by the way, as if I haven't said it enough times already, buy their album!!). With these two I've found a lot more music that I really like, and want to share with you all. I can't guarantee that you haven't heard it already, or indeed, that you haven't known about it for months and I am ridiculously behind the times, as usual.

Every so often Urban Outfitters (ie Sophie's Outfitters) sends me a free playlist of songs that I can download. Past gems from this collection have been 'I'm not going to teach your boyfriend how to dance' by Black Kids, and 'Evident Utensil' by Chairlift (the ones who did 'Bruises', you know, that song about handstands). Here are the ones I'm liking from the latest list:

I'm sure everyone knows about Kings of Leon by now. They're pretty awesome. They're rumored to be headlining at Lolla this year, but that'll be confirmed this Tuesday. This is the first year I'm actually tempted to go. This is one of my favourite songs of theirs:

Apparently the 80s are back. Musically speaking, that is. Not in a sort of cyclical pattern of time thing... that would be weird. Two such artists who are proof of this are Empire of the Sun and La Roux, both of whom have pretty amazing tracks, check 'em:

La Roux won't let me embed her video, so you'll have to click here...

Anyone who has ever received a mix from me knows about my love of Travis. A couple of weeks ago I finally bought their latest album, after about 6 months after saying I was going to do so. 'Ode to J Smith' is quite different from the rest of their stuff, but it still has the distinct Travis-ness and it's made up of good tracks:

And finally (god this was a long one, wasn't it? thanks for staying till the end), here's a few that I wanna share with y'all but are all a bit random, in that they don't have much to do with the others. Mind you, that seems to be the pattern for this whole blog.

this one's directed by Richard Ayoade (MOSS FROM IT CROWD!!!)

Much love. x

Jasoooon Manfoooooord!

So... last night went to see Jason Manford perform at the Gulb. I can't help but feel a little bad for performers who come to the Gulb. Most of the time the place is pretty packed, and those who are in the audience are certainly glad to be there, but you can often see a look of disappointment on their faces as it is by no means a big theatre. But we definitely love them being there, and if there happens to be, in some crazy random happenstance, some awesome comedian thinking about coming to the Gulbenkian reading this, please come! we'd love to have you!

Anyway, so Jason Manford... (if you don't know who I'm talking about see the video in the post below).

First thing's first. The man is ADORABLE. He's the kind of guy you just wanna hug. His comedy seems to be observational, and not at all angry (and if you know anything about me you know my dislike for 'angry' comedy). They seem to be laced with childhood stories and 'weeing' anecdotes– including one about a coke bottle whilst driving, and a survey about urinal usage– which reinforce his childlike demeanour and makes you wanna follow him on his little story trajectory.

Urgh. I don't know that I should write reviews, I'm pretty rubbish at them. But I had a lot of fun last night. And I should say that his voice that he did when he was impersonating someone stupid made me die from laughing. DIE.

Music suggestions later in the week.

Much love. x

Coming soon...

I don't know what its like where you are, but over by 'yer we've had the most gorgeous weather over the past few days. And it has put me in the best mood ever. Ever. EVER. I think partly because good weather does affect my mood generally, but also because everything else going on in the world is all gloom and doom and it's nice to have nice weather as a distraction.

Anyway, here's a snippet of what's to come over the next week...

On TUESDAY, I'm going to see comedian Jason Manford, from 8 out of 10 cats, and from comedy in general. Should be a good gig, I'm going with Lara and Nat, who are swiftly becoming my partners in standup appreciation. Here's a clip of him if you've never seen him before:

So yeah, I'll "review" that show.

And then, on SOMETIME LATER IN THE WEEK, I'm gonna do a bit of blogging about some of the new music that I like, although most of y'all are probably so far ahead of me in terms of 'new music' that you'll have heard it all before. But you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't want my advice and input, now would you?

K, I'm gonna leave you with an 'Incredible Song'.

Much love. x

Friday the 13th

You guyssssss!

It's friday the 13th today. I don't have a great past with this day. I have found that for me it is true that bad things happen on this day, especially in three's. Highlights include falling down the stairs and losing $30 (which, when I was 14 and needing to buy xmas presents, was quite a lot of cash). I've been willing today to be a good one, but only time will tell.

I haven't posted in over a week, so I thought I'd just add a few random things.

By the way, have I told you all that I'm obsessed with The Lonely Island? Well, I am. and their album Incredibad is amazing. Get it off iTunes.

Is it bad for me to plug friends on here? I'm thinking no. My friend Adam is a great stand up performing in Chicago and if you ever have an opportunity you should go see him. He's very funny.

And a couple more random clips for you:

yes, this is a dude. His name is Robert Webb and I've actually written about him before. He's an amazing comedian and a pretty good dancer


If you've never seen the film Oscar starring Sylvester Stallone, Marisa Tomei, and Tim Curry, you should. really should. It's not great quality wise but it's just such a great watch! Tim Curry is pretty much amazing in it.



Til next time. Much love. x

I've been unusually nostalgic lately. I've been going through old photos, facebook stalking old classmates, and thinking about the days before I had a sister 14 years my junior and had a green card and spent my days just thinking about going to lectures, but not actually going. I've always said I was so ready to grow up, and that I can't wait to be 21, especially with so many friends stateside who are older than me and yell at me for not being able to drink. However, I too suffer from the cliché of pining for the days when life was 'simple', when the things you pondered most over in your life were when you were next allowed to have someone over to your house or what you were going to have for supper that night or what you wanted for your birthday.

TV is a good way to be nostalgic. 80s cartoons in particular. There are so many on this side of the pond that are so infamous so many people from multiple generations know about them. Watching these I find myself remembering all those times on Saturday mornings when you would be up absurdly early (I know most children do this as I am reminded of it constantly– there are kids who live next door and like to use this time in the day to scream their heads off as loud as possible) and watch telly with a blanket until one of my parents would come in and tell me I had to get dressed. I found this website, Retrojunk.com, which has got so much of these shows, plus commercials and movie info. It's pretty sweet if you're looking for a way to waste time. Which I am. always.

Anyway, these are the ones I wanted to share (just the intros) because they happen to be absolutely classic, and the kind of stuff that one just doesn't see anymore (sad times!)

Much love. x