Blog Endorsement

In case you haven't noticed over to the top right hand corner I have added a blogs that I follow link. If F U Penguin is not the funniest blog, then I'm a monkey's great aunt. It was introduced to me by my friend Gigi via facebook and this guy facetiously berates cute animals in pictures for no reason. It's hilarious. Every time I read it I picture Andy Samberg playing Mark Wahlberg talking to animals on Saturday Night Live. I love it, Check it out F U Penguin NOW.

And in case you've never seen it:

Song of Your Day

I know that this is just a second rate Since You've Been Gone and she basically sold out to the record label when making this CD since she was trying to go in another direction and that the lyrics are a little awkward. But I don't care, I love Kelly Clarkson. And I love anything that sounds like Since You've Been Gone.

Digital Sandbox

This is a fun time waster - http://thisissand.com/

Glasvegas

This band is going to be huge this year, but the reason I love them is cause it sounds like Scrooge McDuck in another life when he started a band in his younger, more friskier years, with his friends, before he was a stingy old duck. This is their single, Geraldine. I can't put the video up cause BMG disabled it, but you get the point.

Circumhorizontal Arc

Also know as Fire Rainbows are one of the rarest nature phenomenas and only occur in certain regions, with the sun at a certain height, with only cirrus clouds when they have certain ice crystals in them. I think its awesome looking.

Master Cleanse

So in true hollywood style I am doing a detox. How will I fit in unless all of my cells and organs have been cleansed? I am on day five and it is kind of crazy. It's just crazy because its amazing how hungry I'm not. I am only drinking a crazy lemon, maple syrup and cayenne pepper mixture and then tea. Don't get me wrong I am definitely starving alot of the time, especially when I see all of the food commercials, and there are so many more of them than I realized. And when people talk about food, which also seems to be all the time. But so far so good. I have so much energy and I am waking up earlier which is a miracle. So 5 more days to go and I am done. Woo hoo!

It Was Only A Matter of Time

Faithfully

OBAMA SWEARS IN...FAITHFULLY - watch more funny videos

Whenever I Feel Like It Music Blog - Florence and the Machine

Its kind of ridiculous how many awesome female British singers have come out over the past few years. Joining the ranks of Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, Kate Nash, Adele, Duffy, Corrine Bailey Ray, Joan as Policewoman, etc... is Florence and the Machine.
One music blog that I frequent, NME, is raving about her and she recently one won a Brit Awards Critic'c Choice award, which is the British version of the Grammy's and the Critic's Choice award is given to someone they think will be big in 2009 and the year their first album will debut. Past winners of this award are Adele, and that's it, since it's only its second year for that award.
So Florence kind of sounds like a poppier version of Chrissie Hynde. She's off the hook. I heart her.

Here are some videos, check her out:

Kiss With A Fist, her first single.


Dog Days:


Hospital Beds - Cover of Cold War Kids

I Love Julia Roberts

Jules freaks out at the paps. Being a paparazzi in theory should be the perfect job for me since it combines all things I love, celebrities, photography and stalking. However I hate them and feel bad that celebrities have to put up with them. But what would I do with myself if there was no Perez Hilton?

Theresa Anderson Show

Today I took the subway in to Hollywood and went and saw Theresa Anderson play at Amoeba.


Amoeba is an awesome, huge, independent music store that has new and used music in all different formats and every genre. They also gives free music performances. So Theresa Anderson played today and since she was on my artists to watch list, I figured I check it out. It was pretty crazy. She is basically a one woman band. She played like 6 different instruments in the short 5 song set. During one song she played a mandolin (I think), an acoustic guitar, drums, violin and sang. She did live sound looping, which looked really confusing. She had bare feet so she could switch all the looping buttons with her feet. I met her after and she said it was confusing at first and she would fall over sometimes, but now she's used to it. The show was really great, the CD has some not so great songs, but I have to give it a few more listens. But, clearly she is super talented and she is older that what I expected from her voice. Her voice is absolutely amazing, but at times I felt like I was a little distracted from how great her voice was, by all the sound looping and instrument swapping happening on stage. However, still a great show and I am going to predict her song will be on Grey's Anatomy or a commercial this spring.


Here is a video of her doing all the crazy sound looping and instrument swapping in her kitchen in New Orleans. She actually recorded the whole album in her kitchen. She is a pretty cool chick.

Theresa Anderson - Birds Fly Away:

Poor Joaquin Phoenix

I think Joaquin Phoenix is a great actor and he has recently quit acting to begin a musical career. When I heard that I thought, it would be a genre in the rock and roll vicinity. But then I found out yesterday that he wants to be a rapper. Now I know he is crazy, he threw out a lot of disturbed interviews during the Walk the Line press, where he talked like a crazy person not making any sense and speaking gibberish, he clearly was on drugs. But this is taking it too far. What surprises me the most is the professional backing he is getting. Casey Affleck who I consider to be a pretty serious actor/artist, is documenting Joaquin's switch to Hip Hop and Puffy is producing his record. Don't these guys know, nobody is going to take him seriously?

Here's him quitting:


Here's the rapping video:


After this incredible performance, he fell down the steps leaving the stage. Its sounds and looks like me when I rapped and danced to TLC's "Hat to the Back" when I was 12. Actually I take that back - I was way better. Perez said he hoped this is some kind of Borat thing. I really hope so. Get off the drugs Joaquin.

RIP Indie 103.1

As I listen to my neighbors drunkenly singing, Shout, Unchained Melody and Informer, I am reminded that today was a horrible day for music in LA. I basically listen to two stations out here. Indie 103.1 and KCRW. KCRW is mostly talk and news but for a few hours each day they play some eclectic, singer songwriter, indie music. Like XPN, but much more international and well, eclectic. When they weren't playing music I listen to Indie 103.1 which was rated the #1 radio station in America by Rolling Stone in either 2007 or 2008. It was all indie rock and alternative rock, but not annoying emo crap. Plus they played alot of cool old alternative rock like the Pixies and Joy Division, etc...



They were a commercial radio station, but they did not play commercial music at all. They were being pressured into playing more commercial stuff and they would rather close shop then give in to corporate radio. The DJs said goodbye and then played My Way by Frank. Then for the rest of the day you heard their message and loop of The Clash, Sex Pistols and a few more. I agree with them, but it sucks. So they are now an internet radio station. Click here for their official announcement.

2008 Top 25 Mashup

Mashup of the top 25 Billboard songs of 2008 into one 4 minute song:

Whenever I Feel Like It Music Blog - 2009 Artists to Watch Edition

Theresa Anderson - She is America's answer to all the awesome British female singers out there today that sound like they are from another time (Amy Winehouse, Adele, Duffy). Check out Birds Fly Away. I think I am going to see her this weekend - if so, I'll let you know how it goes.


Glasvegas - Hmmm how to describe?. This band is from Scotland. If you combined 60's R&R with late 70's punk, this would be their bastard child band. Plus, they are awesome because they have a girl drummer.


The Boxer Rebellion - This is probably my favorite new band to watch this year. These guys are based in London, but one guy is from PA (the singer Nathan Nicholson), another from Australia and the other two from the UK. They remind me of Radiohead or Keane. I think they are absolutely amazing. They are unsigned and doing everything independently. You can buy their album on iTunes for like $6. I really like Evacuate, Watermelon & Flashing Red Light Means Go.

evacuate-



Little Joy - Fabrizio Moretti's (drummer from the Strokes) side project. They are very interesting and are getting alot of airplay in LA. Each song has a completely different sound so I have no way to describe it.

next time around -


Matt and Kim - This is a really cute couple that have been around for the past couple years. The girl is on drums and the guy is keyboard and vocals. I guess they are indie pop. Their first CD is an awesome exercise CD but most songs sound the same. Their new one has a lot more variation. I like it. Check out Daylight, Good Old Fashion Nightmare and Yea Yeah.

daylight-


Also some albums coming out in 2009 that I am really excited about:
U2
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
tegan & sara
Lily Allen
Kelly Clarkson
No Doubt
Outkast
Franz Ferdinand
DMB
The Decemberists
Dr Dre
Amy Winehouse (unless something horrible happens first)
Neko Case
Peter Bjorn & John
Imogen Heap

US Scare

Happy 2009!!!

I had the wonderful experience of flying to and from home on US Air. The flight to Philadelphia went completely fine. We even landed early and I got my bags in 2 minutes. It was the best experience I have ever had with them. Every other time I have flown with them I have been delayed, waited on the tarmac for hours, waited for luggage for hours, arrived much later, etc.. And those things aren't even that bad considering people lose their luggage and have had much worse delays that I had. I hate using them, but with holiday travel as expensive as it was, I kind of had no choice. So I was surprised when things went so well, especially on Christmas Eve.



It seemed US Air was saving all the fun for the way home. It seems someone broke the toilet on the plane and they were trying to fix it and after continuously postponing departure, they finally said, it's going to take 3 hours we are putting you on a different flight. But of course that meant everyone would miss their connection. So everyone freaked out and we stood in customer service lines for two more hours because they didn't know what to tell us so they just kept saying "Wait". After awhile they told us to get on another plane that will take us to Phoenix and we'll figure out what to do there. So we get to Phoenix at 10:00 which was 12:00 Philly time and wait in more lines. They give us hotel voucher and ticket for the next day, then tell us to go get our luggage, then they tell us if we want our luggage we have to wait 2 hours for it. So I just went the hotel. After running in to two people who were like "Screw US Air, we are driving to LA tonight just to spite them" They offered me a ride, but I just wanted to go to bed. Then I ran in to someone I went to college with - who was on the same flight. It was really random.

The next day the flight went off without a hitch, well besides the fact that you have to buy even water on the plane now for $2. At least other airlines give you water for free. Crazy. I actually sat next to a guy who flies US Air on the west coast all the time for work and never has problems. Interesting. I have never heard that. I have heard that there is a website about US Airways horror stories.

Anyway, I listen to a few travel podcasts and here are some links to interesting travel sites I have heard about on them.

www.airfarewatchdog.com - These people just sit and search websites all day for the best deals on the web. There is a really good Q&A section that gives really good info as well.

http://www.avoiddelays.com/ - This site gives you statistics on airlines and airports and their delays. Last time I checked this PHL was number 3 for the most outbound delays. I am happy to see they have gone down to 8. Funnily enough - US Air doesn't even seem that bad on here.

http://fabsearch.com - This is cool because its a travel aggregate and you just click on your destination and it will show you the latest magazine, newspaper, web article about cool places in that destination.

www.vayama.com - For international travel. It includes smaller airlines that you may get a better deal from, that aren't available on the travelocitys of the world.

OK That's all I got. Happy New Year.