i can't wait for this weekend, although i don't really have plans. i'm excited to hang out at home and start sketching for ideas that i have for new drawings.
since i've been home, i've been hanging out in my bed from the time i get home from work to the time i fall asleep. lazy, yes... i love sketching in bed with the company of my cat carli while watching shark week documentaries or listening to music. it's the perfect way to relax after a long and stressful day at work :)
here's a little doodle i did last night of just that!
i also wanted to share an awesome mix by the guys of washed out. i've been trying to get my hands on their new album, but haven't had any luck (wanna help a girl out?)
in the meantime, check out this mix! my favorite song from it is "a horse with no shame" by america.
hey there! can you believe it's already august? where did the summer go?!?
i haven't made one of these mixtapes in a long time! however, i was feeling very inspired by my recent trip to california when choosing what songs i was in the mood for. my friend joe and i listened to a ton of country music in the car while i was there, so i created this mixtape that reminds me of the good ol' summer days, with lots of good guitar riffs, banjos and folksy sounds. not all of it is new music, but they're the good tunes i know i can always rely on...
1. I got a full night's sleep last night thanks to a brand new air conditioning that Matt installed himself in the apartment
2. I made my first cup of (iced) coffee from my old coffee pot this morning! I've been trying to live without it since moving but I just... can't... resist...
3. I just found out that St. Vincent, the talented artist Annie Clark, is coming out with a new album in September (the day before my birthday, woohoo!) and she is playing twice in NYC! I definitely want to see her at the Met's garden roof show, how cool will that be?!
Hey hey! I'm super excited today because this week I responded to a Twitter callout via Amelia Gregory, who runs the fabulous illustration blog Amelia's Magazine.
This week she needed a few illustrations for some upcoming articles, and I jumped on the opportunity. She needed an illustration for an article about the singer Emmy the Great. I listened to her while drawing the portrait and I absolutely loved her! She's very folk-y and has a beautiful voice.
This is the illustration I created, using Micron pens & watercolors. I somehow completed it in one night! That's definitely the fastest thing I've ever done haha...
Happy February! I can't believe how fast the months are going... At least it means that we are only that much closer to spring, although it feels like this snow is never ending.
I've created a new mixtape to get you all through the rest of the winter. I hope it cheers you up! Click the image to download the whole mixtape, or the links below to get the individual songs... Enjoy :)
Hello there and happy Tuesday! I am happy to announce my final mixtape for 2010! Can you believe it's December already? I'm in denial. Anyways, this mixtape is a collection songs I can't stop listening to (*cough* Rihanna...) and maybe after giving it a listen you will feel the same way :)
I also designed the 'album art', using one of my photos from over the summer from my roll of film, and overlayed it with a pretty leaf patter. Don't you love the font?! It's called Hoedown and you can download it at Dafont.com!
I feel like I've neglected my blog this past week... My job sent me to take web design classes in the city, which was awesome, but left me with little free time to blog and such! Now I am back to work in the office after a nice weekend and I will try to resume my normal blogging schedule as best I can.
So just in time for the second week of November, and more importantly Music Monday.. here is a little mixtape I made for you all! If you ask me it's pretty good; enjoy!!! :)
Tracklist:
1. reading rainbow- always on my mind
2. warpaint- undertow
3. lykke li- get some
4. la sera- never come around
5. deerhunter- coronado
6. silje nes- the glass harp
7. bon iver & st. vincent- roslyn
8. crocodiles- hearts of love
9. twin shadow- slow
10. glasser- mirrorage
Have an awesome Monday and stay tuned this week :)
Hello friends! How was your weekend? Mine was very nice... I saw the movie Catfish {amazing!!! go see it!}, went shopping, took my puppy to the park, and went to my neighbor's party. I also over-indulged in pizza, Chinese food, and beer, so my tummy ain't feeling so great today, haha.
Here's a music video from El Guincho called Bombay... I can't understand the words since the song is in Spanish, but I still like the beat, and the music video is so strange that it's cool. So check it out, hopefully you don't think I'm a weirdo for posting this {but it's alright if you do...}
On another note... I've been doing more recent "What I Wore" drawings in my new sketchbook, but I want to wait until I finish posting these summer ones, so here's another from June 23!
Well, to celebrate the beginning of the month I am posting another mixtape!!! It is a combination of songs I'm loving at the moment and songs that remind me of autumn...
I am so happy to share this with you all, and I hope you enjoy it :)
On August 13th, a new show is opening at Cinders Gallery in Brooklyn. It will be curated by Sonny Smith, and it will feature 100 album covers for bands who don't exist... hence the name of the show "100 Records."
During my morning ritual Twitter-checking, I saw that Pitchfork posted a {new?} Neon Indian music video.
It's stop motion animation, so automatically I love it. It's a story about a one-eyed spider-thing who cocoons itself and becomes a beautiful spider complete with lots of eyes, 8 legs... and a mustache. So great!
And while we are on the topic of spiders...
I have been listening to Joanna Newsom nonstop! Her album "Have One On Me" is a beautifully constructed 3-disc LP, featuring almost three hours of Newsom singing and playing the harp. In all honesty, it took me a few months to listen to this in full, but I highly recommend it if you have the patience.
Oh yes, but about the spiders... This line from her song entitled "Have One On Me" has been resonating with me since I heard the lyrics:
There's a big black spider hanging over my door. Can't go anywhere, anymore.
I really HATE spiders and there have been too many times where I've been trapped in my room because I was too afraid to leave. I suppose there's nothing really special about these lyrics, except for me they remind me that I can't let things that I am afraid of get in my way.
So I hope you take the time to watch the awesome Neon Indian video and maybe even listen to Joanna Newsom!
I hope everyone had a great fourth of July! What did everyone do? I ended up spending the day at the pool, swimming, bbq-ing, drinking beer & margaritas, watching fireworks, and making s'mores afterwards... it was such a nice relaxing day!
I have decided to start making mixtapes for you guys to enjoy. I figured it would be nice to share the music that I sometimes can't help talking about. So about every month I will be posting a new mixtape with 10 songs on it. I'll try to keep it interesting :)
So here is the first one!
1. Real Estate- Beach Comber 2. Toro Y Moi- Blessa 3. Beach Fossils- Sometimes 4. Twin Sister- The Other Side of Your Face 5. Janelle Monae- Tightrope 6. Thao- Cool Yourself 7. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros- Home 8. Dum Dum Girls- I Will Be 9. Tennis- Marathon 10. Best Coast- Our Deal
All you have to do is click the image and download the files. Then play on repeat until my next mixtape :)
I would also love to hear feedback from you! Tell me if you like the songs, song requests for next mixtapes, bands you think I might like... really, anything!
-g.
ps- Fun Fact: The picture I used for the mixtape image was taken one day when it was reallllly humid outside, and my camera lens fogged up... It's a pretty neat effect sans Photoshop.
Instead of doing my usual "Pretty Things Friday," (I'll admit that I completely forgot it's Friday and I have nothing prepared...sorry, guys ) I am going to recap last night... which includes a review of Sea, Surf Bar, and the main event... Mirah & Thao's performance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg.
First of all I got an almost-amazing parking spot right infront of MHoW. I say "almost-amazing" because after the show people were leaning all over my car smoking, but that's how good a spot it was. Also, I am becoming an expert Brooklyn driver.
I met Allison after browsing through some depressingly expensive boutiques and we ate at a Thai restaurant called Sea. It's a really neat restaurant with a pond right in the middle, and off to the right there are some bubble swings and really interesting concave egg shaped chairs. We both got pad thai and it was delish.
After dinner we headed over to Surf Bar (I keep calling it Tiki bar.) I was so impressed by this place because it was so over-the-top beachy! Isn't that the theme these days anyway? The floor was covered in sand and they served their mixed drinks in Hawaiian cups with flowers and umbrellas. We sat in the patio and ordered drinks. Allison's mojito reminded us of a salty beach with seaweed, and I got a Blue Point Blueberry Ale. We met up with Katrina and headed over to MHoW.
I was never at the Music Hall of Williamsburg but it looked exactly like Bowery Ballroom except on a much smaller scale. We were given free Heinekens because Heineken was sponsoring the Northside Festival. Free beer is definitely the best. Anyways...
The first band that played was called Chica Vas. There were literally 17 girls on stage, each playing a different percussion instrument. The two main singers were twins, and all the girls were wearing pretty floral dresses, flowers, feathers, sparkles and facepaint. Basically, they were AWESOME. I've never seen anything like that. They had great energy and it was such a nice surprise. I hope they play more because I would like to see them again.
Another band played called These United States but I wasn't too into them.
Finally... Mirah & Thao with The Most of All aka Mirah/Thao superband. I didn't think I would ever get to see Mirah play again because she hardly ever comes to New York, so I was very excited for this show. I wasn't too familiar with Thao but she has awesome enthusiasm and I love the way she plays guitar. Mirah and Thao played so well together and it was nice hearing Mirah songs sung by Thao and vice versa. I was so excited that Mirah played the disco version of Gone Are All The Days for the final encore because it's such a great version of the song.
Overall, Mirah and Thao were amazing and their band was terrific as well. I'm so happy I was able to see Mirah again and got turned onto Thao, too!
Can you see me in the bottom right hand corner? :)
I found this video before I saw them and I wished they had played this song because it's so beautiful.
Just like an amnesiac trying to get my senses back...
I'm on St. Vincent mode and can't stop listening to her album "Actor." She is gorgeous and I want to be her. It also makes me happy that she has freckles... just like me!
Sunday night I semi-spontaneously saw Charlotte Gainsbourg at Webster Hall. I started listening to her new album IRM about a month ago, and I haven't stopped listening since! I lovvvve the way she sort of talks while she sings, and I think it goes really well with the hint of eerie music that plays in the background.
At first I was waiting for Katrina to show up so I was eavesdropping on a ton of conversations en francais, parce qu'il y avait beaucoup de gens francais who came out to see her (and that made the show 100000x better, just because...) Her encore was fabulous and she did a sort of electronic version of Voyage which is one of my favorite songs from the album, and her last song was one I never heard but it was called Couleur Cafe and it was a great song to end on (downloading that... now.)
Afterwords Katrina and I went to the Village Pour House and I got an Ommegang Three Philosophers! It was a great night, and now I know that I can go to concerts on a week night and still be fully functioning at work the next day (with only one cup of coffee!)
