Untamed Menagerie are a mother and daughter team designing intricate acrylic jewelry that looks like it's made of wrought iron. They're inspired by such things as vintage illustration, nature, anatomy, and French fabrics, which combine in their brilliant little heads to create such varied and unique wonders as Marine Antoinette, Pocket Full of Posies, and Ghostly Octopi.
Beatrice Martin (aka Coeur de Pirate) has been playing piano since the age of three, and now she's eighteen and she's recording songs like these. They're in French and her Myspace page is in French (she's from Quebec, after all) and almost every web mention I've found of her is in French. Sadly I gave up learning French around lesson 1, so I can't tell you much more than that. I can't even figure out where to buy her album, which apparently came out September 16. But I can tell you these songs are gorgeous.
Sometimes, you don't wear the dress. The dress wears you. And someday, one of these dresses will be wearing the hell out of me out on the dance floor. Preferably that shark dress there on the right.
There's a story that goes around about George Formby.
Back in the day, himself and his wife found themselves in South Africa. It was 1946, and George and Beryl (former champion clogdancer) were on tour. At the end of the night, Beryl accepted a box of chocolates from a small child, bending down to kiss the girl on the cheek. The child was black; the audience was shocked and appalled. D. F. Malan and the National Party - who only two years later were to introduce apartheid - heard about it, and were not impressed.
Malan rang George and Beryl, or so the story goes. Malan was shaking with rage. They were not, they were told, to perform before black or mixed audiences. They were to perform to whites only. Beryl got on the phone - 'Why don't you piss off, you horrible little man?', she declared, and hung up.
George and Beryl cancelled their planned tour. They performed instead a free 20-show circuit, to black shanty-towns and halls only.
He was George Harrison's favourite musician. He was given his first banjolele by Peter Sellers' mum and dad. He played to soldiers in World War II (but not if the officers got better seats), and bopped Hitler in the jaw (at least on film). Later, they remembered George's punch as the single greatest morale boost to wartime Britain. He was a film star, a Lancashire cheeky chappy, and a fan of Blackpool Rock (ooer!). He was banned by the BBC, adored by the Royal Family.
He was George Formby, and there still isn't anyone who can come near him on the uke. Go on, George! Turned out nice again, hasn't it?
There's a scratch in her voice, and a scratch on the guitar.
I have no idea who Little Red Amp are - do you? The song is a demo, and it crept onto my laptop years ago, quietly, unnoticed. I've tried to find out about the band, or what happened to them, or even a single link in the whole internet tying them to this song, but nothing. Only the song remains, a song and a name - a scratch in her voice and a scratch on the guitar.
I return to it, over and over. The song is enough.
Do you have any lost songs knocking around? Throw them our way! Let's start our own repository, here and now - a finding of lost things, blowing the dust off forgotten demos and send them blazing into the life once more.
There's a romance to a demo, and an even deeper romance to a great, forgotten demo. Mail us at we.are.fabulist - at - gmail - dot - com. The reclamation starts here!
We've missed the 2008 Cartoon Forum held this year in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, from September 16-19. All we've got now is this gorgeous trailer, made by animation students, to heal our wounds. I hate to think we missed out on hanging out with all these cute creatures, but at least we get to watch them as they make their adorable way to the festival!
Rachael Yamagata's new two-part record, Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart, is finally arriving October 7. Mark that on your calendar with a few extra stars around it! This album deals with the breadth of emotions that surround difficult relationships and breakups, hence the two-part nature of the project. To quote Yamagata herself, "Elephants is much more intimate. It's about being willing to take a risk even if it's not going to end up well. Teeth is like rediscovering your backbone after you've gone through the loss."
I've had the pleasure of listening to this record, and it does live up to the hype. It's gentle, it's thoughtful, it's badass, it's angry, it's sweet. It's the sort of CD that I wish I'd had around to save my sanity during a few crucial moments in the past. So if you've got a similar void in your life, just try to wait until October 7 for that potential nervous breakdown. Then Rachel can help talk you through it.
In the meantime, here's an a cappella version of Rachael Yamagata's song "Elephants." Enjoy!
The Happy Hollows are coming out with a new EP, Imaginary, on October 21. I cannot for the life of me find where to purchase it, try as I may, but you are more resourceful than me and I bet you'll figure it out. In the meanwhile, here's two tracks off the coming EP and an older video to boot. The video is pretty lo-fi, but when I see those girls in those red-and-white-striped knee socks, jumping around to the beat of that jangly guitar, I know something good is happening, and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.
It gives me a propensity for run-on sentences, too, apparently!
War and Peace. Yin and Yang. A young boy with a gun and a flower in his hat. The contradictions intrinsic to the human race take center stage in Shepard Fairey's newest exhibit, The Duality of Humanity, now fully online at the White Walls SF website. Included is his now-famous Obama HOPE poster. This exhibit runs until October 4th, so catch it in person if you can!
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 
