This song is sweet, and melancholy, and needs to be listened to in front of a fireplace, while watching it rain outside your window. J. Tillman is currently touring across Europe promoting his new album, Minor Works. (You can pick it up here.)
The Silent Years are playing in Santa Monica, 11pm @ 14 Below, kicking off a tour to support their new self-titled album. This video is the best, any band that goes on quests and can talk to animals in that strange Mighty Boosh sort of way earns my love. Check them out at their site / MySpace.
Lulette is a lovely little spot where they make custom scarves-- in whatever color you want, whatever font, that say whatever you like. And? Adorable. If you're thinking about Christmas gifts put your order in now-- they have a 6 week delivery delay.
I like that feeling when it's so cold outside your cheeks feel like they're glowing and then one of your eyelashes fall and someone that you love very much looks at you with a little gleam in their eye and says look an eyelash, and they brush it from your face so it is sitting on the end of their finger and you touch your finger to their finger and they whisper to you their eyes never leaving your eyes: make a wish.
My friend owns a costume shop. Why am I telling you this? Because all year, you've wanted to dress like a pirate. And at the end of this month, you can put on your eye-patch and your hook hand, communicate only in guttural noises and no one will think you bonkers. Well, not any more than usual, anyway.
To put you in the mood while you pick out the appropriate jaunty garments, here are some songs from Rogue's Gallery. It's an album of exactly 43 pirate songs, featuring the likes of Bono, Lou Reed, Nick Cave, Antony, Sting, Rufus Wainwright, and a shipload more.
I am in love with My Brightest Diamond. Oh sure, I hear you say, aren't you also in love with toast, and xkcd and Hype Machine and Leonard Cohen and Lite-Brites, and, and--- "Well, yes", I would interrupt, "but my heart is vast as the ocean and twice as deep, and there are no limits to the things that can find their way inside there. The fire marshall has come to inspect, and put up a little sign announcing its unlimited capacity."
Yes, My Brightest Diamond. There is a party in my heart, and you are invited. Also, there is an open bar in my heart. Because, you know, the denizens of that place tend to be a little saucy.
Remember we mentioned the Urban Retro store a while back? Well, I just discovered they have a fantastic blog, featuring toys and art and things. (Check out this great painting by Jeremy Dower, and this graffiti artist who has a thing for cherries.)
Tokidoki is becoming its own little empire: they've created some adorable plushies, and they also have jewelry on the horizon. My favorite are the plush dolls though-- 9 inches tall, only $20 apiece, and they hit stores in November.
Several people wrote in to tell me, while there isn't quite a movable type branding iron to customize your toast experience, some wonderful creature has invented a toast printer. In case, you know, you ever wanted to print out your Mapquest directions on toast.
Tedd on 
