This Saturday night is a GIRLS NIGHT with a couple of code buddies, and I'm spending all of this morning cleaning up and doing laundry to prepare for it, because I take hours to clean up perfectly and I don't want to do on the exact day the girls are coming over.
This is a sleepover, and we're gonna be inside all night talking and joking and watching movies until the early morning. I had to mull it over it my head what kind of music sets the tone for this kind of scenery. No one wants to try a compile a playlist of a billion songs, though I have done it before, for a random night.
So what I've done is taken a couple of albums that were made, really, for delicious lounge music, and put them into one playlist. To break up the monotony, I have also some party-esque albums as well, along with some instrumentals.
These are a few of those albums I'll be using. Use this as a guide for indoor get-togethers if you'd like. :)
Aquarian Angel By Blue Six
Turn The Dark Off By Howie B
Simple Things By Zero 7
Raise Hope For Congo Compilation Album
Dr. T By Billy Taylor
Off The Wall By Michael Jackson
The Diary Of Alicia Keys by Alicia Keys
Afrodisiac By Brandy
After Saturday is done, y'all will soon get two movie reviews for Safe House....and a surprise new movie. :)
Yes, yes, Happy Valentine's Day and all that jazz. -_-
Nah, just kidding, hoping you' all had a happy valentine's day!
I wanted to add my Valentine-friendly treats on the day, but they are really all-year-round goodies that just happen to work on Valentine's day as well. Plus, this kind of stuff shouldn't just be reserved for that one day, it should be for every day! Any day can be your Valentine's day! Don't be traditional! Be unexpected!
FIRST UP!
A Book.
Remember A Serious Of Unfortunate Events? Lemony Snicket? Yep, this is the real guy, DAvid Handler, using his real name to write a novel about a girl named MIN who send her ex-boyfriend a box full of little things, and with each item she has a letter that tells a story connected to that item and pointing out red flags in their relationship.
Equipped with illustrations of each item, this book is amazing. I finished it in a couple of hours because I couldn't put it down, and this was in a bookstore over the weekend with swarms of people coming in and out. I noticed none of them.
Then, of course, there's the movies. I said I would give you a quick review of Safe House, and I will. But because I'm trying to do the Romantic thing, I must, today, do I review of The Vow, the second movie I saw on Friday.
A couple made for each other are involved in a car crash and the wife loses her memory of their life together. Instead, she thinks she's in a whole different environment with a different boyfriend. Yeah, must be hard for the husband, but he works to try and bring her memory back with love and respect.
Very sweet, very poignant. Perfectly timed for V-Day. Of course, that was probably the intention, but yeah. It's very sweet. Channing and Rachel have pretty good chemistry!
And, of course, no damn V-Day post would be complete without the top songs to….er…set the mood.
Please note that most of these videos can't be watched on here and gives you a choice to go to youtube to view it. Not my fault. Not what I want to happen. But it is what it is. I hope you enjoy the songs anyway!
AHEM!
1) For those who are caught in the throes of that first romance:
2) For those who are single or recently ex-d and darn proud of it:
3) For those who are planning to propose to that special someone:
4) For those who are in long distance relationships:
5) For those who…uh….are trying to set a mood:
6) For those who are unlucky enough to have their heart broken by someone they loe:
7)For those who want the spice of 70's soul to set the mood:
8) FOr those who are so in love, it's embarrassing:
9) For those who are trying to win the heart of that special somebody:
10) And finally, for those who find all the love they need within themselves:
Yes, and so it is that we continue our lives wishing and hoping and flirting and fighting and loving and hurting and forgiving, but I hope this post has something to do with that (arrogant, i know.)
Tonight, we mourn the passing of a phenomenal singer and performer. The beauty of her life is what I choose to remember the most, and those who loved her music and followed her all these years will feel the same.
I like to work in Starbucks at times. It's either really loud with chatter or really relaxed and quiet. Either way, in the Starbucks where I live, they have a flat screen TV where they display the names of the songs playing, along with the artists and the albums. I have to say, Starbucks has really tapped into their musical sides, what with their Starbucks CD Mixes like "Dinner For Two" and "Wind Down," consisting of artists from all walks of life.
So I'm at Starbucks one day, and I hear a couple of really nice songs, so I write their names down and check them out online. Of course, I had to download them afterward,and so far I can't stop listening to them.
"You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" By Madeline Pyroux
I know this is a Bob Dylan song originally, but the way this is arranged, it sounds like it was originally made for both Jazz and Rock. Everything feels like Spring in this song. Pyroux's voice is a pleasant blend of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. She sure did study her Jazz Queens!
"Plage" By Crystal Fighters
The moment I heard this, it felt like it was summertime in Venice, California, right on the beach, and we were celebrating somebody's birthday. I've never heard of this group before, but if all their stuff is as fly is this, I'll be tempted to buy all their stuff. This goes right up there on the list of Top Feel-Good Songs Ever.
"Puncture Repair" By Elbow
A very melancholy, poignant song that contains one and a half verses and one chorus. It's one man's voice and a piano playing two notes at a time, yet somehow, the music fills the room the way an Orchestra would. I love the melody progression and the simplicity of the lyrics, and for cloudy days or cold nights this song is perfect.
"Homework" By Big Deal
Remember doing your homework and having something else on your mind, like a bad friend or a lost love? Nowadays whenever I do something similar to homework, this song comes in my head. The sweet, lilting voices of two British guitarists and songwriters enhance this beat-less symphony of acoustic and electric guitars. A perfect sunset tune.
"Late Lounge Lover" By Hacienda
I've got very few salsa jams on my iPod, and that's because I'm very picky about them. It has to really stick in my head, all six minutes of it, before I choose to buy it. So when I heard this, I knew I had found a keeper. Definite what the title implies--aa relaxed lounge joint with hints of charm.
"The Man With The Harmonica" Apollo 440
Probably the most eerie song in this whole collection. I did a little research, and the song was part of a compilation album dedicated to a composer named Ennio Morricone. With that in mind, I'd say they did a pretty good job. They integrated a classic sample into a totally electroniced-out beat, and did it well.
Not just a coffee when you walk into Starbucks, eh? I think I just found a new source of discovery for Art Batter!
Let me know what you think, and tune in soon for a review of Safe House! I'm watching it tomorrow!
Happy Friday, guys! Hoped y'all liked my first ever Friday Fondue last week. Sadly, there is no Friday Fondue today, just a bunch of things I recently got up on that I wanted to share with you. First off, I know that a lot of people are hype about Valentine's Day. Which is on a Tuesday this year. That's a weird day for anything. I mean, there's Monday, the day everyone despises, then there's Wednesday, the middle of the week where people get hyped for Friday, a level of anticipation that only rises on Thursday. But what is Tuesday? That period of, "Eh....well..." At least now, there's something interesting about it for one day. But enough about Valentine's day. It's not for another week and a half, and by then I'll have my V-Day special post. I'm bursting, right now, with this news. It's been out for a few months now, but I just found out about it. Clips of D'angelo performing in Europe are on the internet. I'm going to die.
You see, D'angelo is one of my have neo-soul artists, and he hasn't put anything out since 2000's "Voodoo." For those of y'all who are unlucky enough not to know about him, He came onto the musical scene in '95 with "Brown Sugar," an album of epic epicness, that had singles like the title track and "Lady." Five years later came "Voodoo," which is considered by many critics to be his masterpiece. After a tour in Europe promoting the album, we never heard much of him again. Until now.
And those are just the classics he's performing. Watch him performing some of his new stuff:(Kudos to the uploader of all these videos, we all appreciate it)
You know, it's not such a far cry from how his Voodoo tour was; the ingenuity of his live performances, the creativity of his renditions--it's all there now. Same as it was when he sang "Lady" back in 2000.
Someone on the internet said it best: 2012 will be the year of D'angelo's brilliant comeback, Rhodes and all. In the meantime, I'd love it if someone could lend me tickets to his next show. :)
In other news, I got to go to the movies earlier on today and see "Chronicle," a new movie starring Michael B. Jordan, Dane DeHaan, and Michael Kelly as the three high school friends who come across a strange "thing" (because no one knows what it is) and suddenly have amazing powers, like the ability to fly and move things with their minds. Even stranger is the fact that they get stronger, and whenever the other is in trouble, their noses bleed as a signal.
One of them, the bullied introvert Andrew, films the entire process from lucky children to victims of a power they don't know how to handle properly.
Here's the trailer for a visual.
Now, I have to say, this movie is really, really good. Not only are the actors natural, the compilation of different cameras filming the events in realtime makes everything seem more real and not staged. Did you notice Michael B. Jordan is in this movie? From Red Tails? Oh, yeah, that's the one. I completely forgot about that role when I saw this one, because he's so good at making us forget everything else in the world of reality and focusing on this Steve character, the popular dude who hangs out with the bullying victim and his cousin despite what others think. And of course, other two actors, especially Dane DeHaan, who plays Andrew. Andrew's complicated life and almost antisocial attitude seem not only believable, but relatable. To anyone who has ever felt overwhelmed by life or picked on by everyone, they will see this character and connect to him on some level, though hopefully not on the same level as he is on (watch the movie and you'll understand.)
What this movie does is not just deliver action and supernatural fantasies. It also delivers the human error that is constantly shown around the world to us on a daily basis: when a scarred person is given unlimited power, the world is in danger. I really can't go into more without giving everything away, as the plot is still fresh in my mind, but I'm telling you, I walked out of the theater not ooh-ing over the effects or laughing at the funny parts of the film. I left that theater wondering darkly how many people would end up like Steve, Matt, and Andrew in this world if there were such a thing as supernatural power.
Thanks for tuning in, I'm Cookie Manson tuning out to lounge music before bedtime. See ya next week for more delicious treats from the Art world!
