From the land of the nineties, this reminds me of our fair Jewlie. Also? Anything with cute red-headed girls singing about doing little dances is good stuff in my book.
For the record, I always buy boys flowers. Does it tip the gender scales that I have been known to shower menfolk with a dozen roses? I don't think so. And if nothing else, I have beautous French singer Emilie Simon on my side. (Thanks to Nathalie, from Rome!)
Man falls in love with girl on subway. Man makes amazingly cute cartoon as an ode to his burning, burning love for stranger-girl on subway. Man puts cartoon on internet, emails all his friends, and it gets picked up by ABC News. Man meets girl of his dreams, and tells the world.
We've been cleaning out and cleaning up in our house, and with all this sorting of assorted stuff, it got me to thinking of the more musical type of recycling.
Therefore, for your delectation, here be three songs, and their modern, samplified progeny. Recycling: it's good for music too, y'know...
To watch Jacques Brel is to see something extraordinary at work. He's utterly possessed, owned by the song until he finishes it, or it finishes him.
YouTube has a goodfew excellent Brel videos tucked away, but this one is special. Watch with, or without, subtitles - but whatever you do, just watch it.
Picking just one Maccabees song to listen to is a little like opening a box of whatchamacallits.
Sometimes, you want the pretty thing, the one that'll sparkle gently in the light. And sometimes, you want the jangly, clangy thing, the one that you can shake like a mad yoke, and clack and clatter and spin around to.
Right now, with winter biting at my fingers and toes, warm songs are the business. Toothpaste Kisses hits all the right spots. It tingles like a lover's warm breath on the back of your neck in the morning, delicious and intimate. Plus? For the video, they asked for a couple who had been together for more than forty years to share their photos. Lovelylovelylovely.
Check out some of their othersongs, too. This one stands out like a sore thumb (the most beautiful sore thumb I'd ever seen).
Andrew Brandou has written an essay on his moving collection of paintings "As A Man Thinketh, So He Is." He used this series of canvases to examine the famous Jonestown incident, the character of Jim Jones, and the situation his followers found themselves in while living in their commune in Guyana in 1978. The way he approached this subject was so interesting, and his paintings so touching and worthwhile, that I had to post them here. Here's an excerpt from the essay:
"...I use animals in my work instead of humans. Most people have vivid memories of the childrens books they read. They understand things like a lion is king of the jungle, or a rabbit is the everyman. The use of these simple visual metaphors works to take away distractions."
Even if you just moved in, you can give your new place that lived-in look with these self-adhesive furniture roots, designed by 5.5 Designers. I'm kind of ambivalent about this idea - frankly the thought of my breakfast table searching for sustenance in the floor beneath me is a little off-putting - but I have to applaud the creativity involved. So three cheers for creativity!
Both Sufjan Stevens and Luciano Lozano create art that is deceptive in its simplicity. You listen, you look, and you think "I could do that. That's easy." Then you sit down, and suddenly weeks have passed, and you've forgotten to shave, or bathe, or eat, and you still haven't produced anything one TENTH as beautiful, and you realize "Oh yeah! Nope. Actually I can't." So you go make yourself a grilled cheese sandwich (I recommend havarti with dill) and leave the music and picture making up to the experts.
I mean, I don't mean to speak for you. That's just how it goes for me.
So here's two great things that taste great together: Luciano Lozano's unofficial video for Sufjan Stevens' "Seven Swans."
Pepper loves salt. Salt loves pepper. So why not spice things up and put them thisclosetogether on your breakfast table? That was the idea behind Susanna Vesalainen's shortlisted entry in this year's "Ceramics for Breakfast" competition, sponsored by Designboom. And oh, what a pretty little piece of porcelain it is.
Last night was the annual Day of the Dead celebration in San Francisco's Mission District. And yeah, this year I missed it, and that sucks. (Here's my pictures from last year though! All eleven of them!) But in honor of the occasion, and because you shouldn't be TOO cheerful just because it's saturday, here's GOOD Magazine's animated exploration of...The Business of Death.
I saw the Frames in Belfast this week, and this was one of my favorite songs they performed. They put on an amazing show, and Marketa Irglova (Once, anyone?) even made an appearance at the end. Check out tour dates for The Swell Season this year (which is Glen Hansard, lead singer of the Frames, and Marketa Irglova) across the US and Canada, supported by the lovely Martha Wainwright.
I really hope this comes back. if it doesn't, you should hand it off to someone! I'm sure anyone (including myself) would love to take over fabulist and bring it back with a vengeance!
becca on 
