So I hear bands like MGMT, Black Kids, all that stuff a lot on WOXY.com, but most things like this just kind of float through and don’t get filtered out into my special holding place for further investigation. They just add to the general sound of the day. But after a friend recommended MGMT, I gave them a closer listen. I always wonder how I miss this stuff when it’s on my dial all week! I think part of the reason is because when I’m at my computer at work, I don’t have the volume up too loud so most songs just drown out in the background or, alternatively, become really annoying at such a low volume so I switch the channel to like Indie Pop Rocks on SomaFM which is always mellow. A lot of times, strangely, the really annoying ones during the day are the really catchy ones when thrown on an iPod and turned way up.
Anyhow, yeah MGMT is a really good band! I am currently kind of obsessed with the song “Electric Feel”. I really like the “baby girl…” part. I don’t know why…just kinda cute. Also adoring “Of Moons, Birds, & Monsters” (the second half is wonderfully dreamy!). Anyhow MGMT has been referred to as “psychedelic synthpop” or something, but to me it just sounds nice and synthy in general. The videos are kind of psychedelic, though, which is neat. Why am I such a sucker for inorganic sounds? Hmmm. I actually knew “Time to Pretend” from seeing “21″ at the theater, too…it was the opening track. Oh and bonus, the singer is totally gorgeous. Not that it matters on an iPod walking through Columbia Heights. Or does it?
Conclusion: yay, new music! Always a thrill (really).
I finally got around to digitizing my senior project from college today…my big foray into film…a dancing stuffed animal sequence. It’s pretty pitiful but full of charm and life. Please disregard the unrefined green-screening. LOL, it was all I could do to figure out how to key that color out at all! Anyhow, this is for anyone who heard about this project back in the day but never got to see the final results (roomies?), and it was such a breath of fresh air at the time. Loads of fun, and I even think the campus police were called because we were making such a ruckus! I miss these girls like crazy, and I wish I would have put in a real dedication to them at the end as well.
Also, yes I do have a YouTube channel hiding out there where I store favorite videos/songs and clips from movies…so for anyone interested in stalking me, let’s see, now you know where my YouTube, Last.fm, Flickr, and maybe Yelp accounts all live. Happy hunting!
I’ve been totally raw for a little over a week! What’s that, you say? Well, I’ve been trying out this controversial new, I hesitate to use the word “diet” because I don’t need to lose any weight, so erm, way of eating. I’ve been battling endlessly with my skin my entire adult life since college started, and I thought it was time to start investigating things from the inside out. After a lot of thought, it only makes sense to me that what we put in our bodies directly affects every aspect of our health. How can it not? So, before I try any more medicines or manmade drugs, I am on a real big kick about natural health. I want to put healthy things into my system to get healthy things out of it. And I just feel in my gut that this is a good start, and that there is something real here.
The whole 80/10/10 thing basically means that you eat in a way that 80% of your calories come from carbs, 10% from protein, and the other 10% from fat. Even better is if you do it naturally, through raw, uncooked fruits and vegetables (few nuts and other traditional vegan fatty fare). Apparently most people get about 40% or something from fat which is no good. That’s not to say that it isn’t totally yummy, though. Having too much fat constantly clogging up your system messes up the body’s ability to absorb sugars. Eating like this gives you tons of healthy energy in the from of simple sugars from fruit (these aren’t the “bad” sugars) and lowering the fat lets your body get the energy from this fuel immediately and frees it up to work on other things, like healing old broken stuff, which it usually doesn’t have time or energy for. The downside is that you have to eat A LOT of fruit and vegetables to get in the calories you need each day.
So to sum things up, it’s rough. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons thus far…
I spent my Independence Day evening in DC alone by myself and watching “Donnie Darko”, my self-proclaimed favorite movie, a fact which I have decided still holds true.
I think this night is best represented in a homage to amazing 80’s music. “Donnie Darko” honestly blows me away with the top-notch collection of songs it features, all at just the right moments and filmed in just the right ways. And the instrumental score is gorgeous as well. I have fantasies (don’t laugh) of being in charge of the soundtracks for films. Can you imagine having that job and getting paid for it? Maybe that’s a reason I always adore Sofia Coppola movies (I actually watched the “Marie Antoinette” trailer over and over for months on my desktop before it came out, the version that featured “Age of Consent” by New Order). I have a mental stash of songs like “Here Comes Everybody” by Autolux and “Utopia” by Goldfrapp that would be perfect in these little vague, yet dramatic, montages I’ve concocted. The idea of setting music to visuals is like a dream.
But away from my tangent, lots of great 80’s music in the movie because it is set in 1988, so here is one of my favorite new wave songs from that era, “Cars” by Gary Numan. And no, I still don’t actually drive (but I’ve decided that if I ever do my dream car is a Porsche, an automative crush that has slowly been fermenting over the years…who knew I’d be so cliche?). The synths here are to die for, and I love the way they are laid out in the intro chorus as one long steady note while the “background” instrumentation shifts around behind it, and then it catches up a bit afterwards. I hope that makes sense. And I can’t ever escape the visual from the music video of Numan looking in random directions dramatically at all the intervals of all the important slaps and then being freeze-framed for dramatic purposes. Corny yes, but kinda cute, also yes.
I know I know…the Arctic Monkeys *rolls eyes a little*. I know they had that one really popular song which I can’t even recall anymore a couple years ago that got totally played out, but this is a really good little song. I really don’t know anything about the Arctic Monkeys at all. I also know I’m doing a lot of Songs of the Day lately, but I really love using that new little flash player doodad. You can’t download anything so I don’t feel too guilty, but it allows my faithful bounty of return visitors to listen inline while reading. And Seeqpod was getting a bit too unreliable. People moving their own files…the nerve! So I guess I’m feeling newly excited and inspired.
I don’t know why I have this song, actually…maybe it was from adventures in RadioLover? It’s one of those songs that takes its time to build and then just lets it out on ya. Those are always good. I love his accent, too. It has that classic intangible desperation that always wins me over musically, as well. I like to hear people’s pain in melody-form. It makes me feel alive and full of passion. And I’m always worrying about something, so like attracts like!
“…I’m always just about to go and spoil a surprise, take my hands off of your eyes too soon…”
MGMT - Electric Feel
Gary Numan - Cars
Arctic Monkeys - 505