January picks

People & Things I like/love/adore/admire:

Hanna Müller's drawings


Apc's ss '09 boots


Sofia Coppola


red lipstick


the beginning of a new year


santogold - L.E.S. artistes

this photograph

planning future travels

collecting books

nina ricci dresses

happy new year everyone!

Take me Out

(source)

Last night I went to see Franz Ferdinand perform and they were mindblowingly brilliant!

check back tomorrow for a more elaborate post ;)

Miss Brightside

Do you know the feeling of how sometimes everything in life seems to be going your way? Having a general feeling of being ok taking over? When little things start making you happy again? Well, whether you do or don't -and I hope everyone does-, it's a great feeling. It really is.

And some of those little things that do the trick are Gia Coppola's photographs, a last name that seems to be synonymous to endless visual talent.

To my utter joy, our trip to Paris is finally booked! So I made this collage of my favourite flickr photographs of Paris, just to get in the Parisian mood:

1. Paris, 2. moulinrouge, 3. Paris!, 4. Sacre Coeur, 5. itookthisinparis, 6. les enfants de paris 02, 7. Moulin Rouge, 8. Untitled, 9. Untitled

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And look what I got in the mail! Isn't it pretty? ;) I must sound like a silly fangirl by now, but seriously, this is going to be the best concert I've ever been to, I can just feel it!

the Call

Saturday I went to the cinema. Went to see the Chronicles of Narnia, as I'm a huge sucker for costume movies. Even if they feature talking animals, which was quite the (unpleasant?) surprise. I'm not going to elaborate on the plot though, I just want to point out that Regina Spektor's song that's played at the end of the movie is wonderful! As soon as I came home I youtubed it, and I haven't stopped listening since. If you enjoy Regina's music I would certainly recommend it!

Let's boogie..

I got tagged by the très lovely Jillian from nova.style and the magnificent heart-in-a-cage!

The Rules: "List 7 songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, wether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions with your 7 songs, then tag 7 people to see what they're listening to.

Manhattan/Cold Desert/whatever it's called - Kings of Leon
I can't stop listening to KOL's newest song. It's both addictive and brilliant. And now I really can't wait for their new album to come out. Why oh why is september still three months away?

Hey Hey Hey - Room Eleven
Because it makes me happy.

Summer in the City - Regina Spektor
Eventhough the title gives you the illusion that this song is about sunny days and lazy afternoons in the park, this song is in fact the perfect example of how beautiful sadness can be.

la Noyee - Yann Tiersen
Amelie, Paris, Yann, summertime, all combined in one melody. Sheer brilliance, that's what this song and it's composer are.

Love her Madly - the Doors
I have never been a big fan of the Doors until I rediscovered their music a couple of months ago. I think watching the most fascinating documentary about the life and death of Jim Morisson must have triggered it. Anyway, Love her Madly brings a smile to my face and makes me want to dance like a crazy girl.

In Transit - Albert Hammond jr
THE ultimate summer song. Albert's voice might not yet be as good here as it is right now, but I think that's actually part of the song's charm.

Knocked up - Kings of Leon
the second KOL song on my list. It could have easily been a list with nothing but KOL songs, as I'm addicted to their music, but that would have been pretty boring. Knocked up was one of those songs I never really appreciated until I heard a live version of it. And now I can't stop listening to it. Seven minutes might seem long, but I wish this song would go on forever....

The people I tage are:
A.V.A, Allure, Héloïse j., Ariella, Nita-Karoliina, <3 fashion chalet and little parisienne
It's up to you now!

Bright Young Thing

April first.

In June teNeues will release a book about Tim Walker. It will be filled with a vast amount of wonderful photographs he has taken throughout his career. Tim Walker is one of my favourite photographers so I'm obviously very excited about this book. Apparently Stern has also published a book with some of his work, so I'll try to hunt that one down first, eventhough it seems to be currently unavailable. Talking about books, friday I'll be visiting this huge bookfestival I might have talked about before. I have an enormous wishlist, I'd especially love to get my hands on some photography and art books there.

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I haven't bought a decent pair of shoes in a long time (and yes, long time is quite relative), so I reckoned it was time for some new footwear. I was actually looking for a nice pair of black gladiator sandals but since those seem to be virtually untraceable, I decided I could just as well look for shoes equally as cool. When I came across this pretty pair on asos.com I figured they would qualify for the job and ordered them right away.

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I'm going to end this post with one of my favourite songs ever, enjoy!

Nostalgia

There aren't a lot of songs that never lose their appeal, but Obstinate by Albert Hammond jr. certainly is one of them. It's the unpolished version of In Transit, a song that can be found on his album 'Yours to Keep'. Obstinate is part of a road movie made by the Strokes which is also called In Transit. If you like the Strokes you should watch it some time, it's on youtube and quite hilarious (hello ze Strokes!). Around the time I first discovered the movie I also went to see the Strokes perform in Amsterdam and this song will always remind me of that concert and the magnificent summer that followed. Ah those were the days <3

I'm no pair of dancing shoes

*trying really hard to ignore the cheesy title of the song*

I love Gavin deGraw's new song. No let me rephrase that, I love Gavin. His first album Chariot was and is genius. It's been in my cdplayer ever since I first discovered it back in 2005. It just doesn't get boring. In the summer of 2006 I went to see one of his shows. It was quite brilliant. And he's such a cool guy. Before the show started he came outside to talk to the people who were waiting to get in. That would include moi but I didn't know what to say and wisely decided to keep my mouth shut just to prevent myself from embarrassing myself. (I always try to keep my dignity, even when Fabrizio Moretti is hanging out of a window and waving) 'As expected' he took of his shirt during the show, I'm reforming a mental image as we speak, and threw it into the audience. My friend was the lucky bastard who caught it. She was kind enough to donate a thread of it to moi. And when I had to leave early to catch my train, she got him to sign my concertticket. How nice is that?
Anyway I can't wait for the new album to come out. And I hope it will be accompanied by a European tour. My thread and I would love to see him perform again. Oh and do click on the hyperlinks in this post, they're worth it.

Daily Inspiration

You're my rock & roll star

Today new names for the Rock Werchter festival were announced, and I'm insanely excited! The Kings are coming! And this year a holiday in France won't keep me from going! I can't believe I'm actually going to see them perform! I've been dreaming of that ever since I've first heard their music. I might die of excitement, but I suppose it will be worth it. This probably makes me sound like a silly fan, but my love for their music goes beyond anything else. If you've ever heard them I bet you will understand why. If you haven't, just believe me when I say that it's pure genius. And on the off chance you disagree, please stop kidding yourself. Ofcourse KOL won't be the only act sharing their magic. By 'inviting' Beirut, Kate Nash, Radiohead, REM, Editors and MIKA they have created what seems to be the perfect festival. So I'll definately be buying a ticket next week. More info about the festival & the line up can be found at http://www.rockwerchter.be/

Come and see the blinding

Evening Sun

Seems like blogging won't be anywhere near the top of my to do list in the next few days or so. Tomorrow morning I'll be having my first driving lesson. Pretty exciting if you ask me. Tomorrow night a miracle is about to happen, because it seems like the Babyshambles concert will finally be taking place, after being cancelled three times before. If all goes well I'll be there, dancing like crazy ofcourse. Wednesday will be my first day on the new job. Thursday my second driving lesson. And in between those events I need to find time to study. As you can imagine, all of this combined will be pretty time absorbing which means there won't be much time left for me to blog. I will try to post some photographs of the concert though. And with a little luck I'll be back on Friday. To make the wait more bareable I will put all my mojo in this post.

First of all, back to my ikea wishlist. As you might have read I was planning to go back there to buy the white couch. And I did. I also bought the white bookcase, the one at the left of my collage (weighing 32 kilos, landing on my toes, luckily not breaking them). Since there's no fun in storing your furniture for months, I decided that there would be no harm in already taking some of it in use. Or all of it. So I located my fathers toolbox and started DIY-ing. I discovered I'm a very gifted DIY-er. Miraculously, I excel in constructing IKEA furniture. Seems like I've finally discovered my talent.

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On a completely different and slightly musical note, saturday I bought a ticket for the Kooks' concert in Amsterdam on the 14th of april. Saw them play once before, at Pinkpop last may, and they were awesome. The whole audience went crazy. This concert is part of the promotour for their new album "Konk", which will be released on that very 14th of april. If it's anything like their first one ít should be very entertaining.
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Another great band, or should I say singer, is Beirut. I'm addicted to the song Nantes, a perfect mix between Yann Tiersen and indie rock. It reminds me of the many great summers I've spend in the south of France. Check out the video above.

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Yesterday I discovered Alison Sudol better known as A Fine Frenzy. I love her music, it's very dreamy and her voice is absolutely beautiful. Check out her myspace for more of her wonderful music: http://www.myspace.com/afinefrenzy

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Daily Inspiration

the sartorialist for style.com
And this is were this post comes to and end.

Daily Inspiration

Today's source of inspiration is the wonderful Kate Nash, whose music I've fallen madly in love with. Her songs are incredibly addictive and she's ridiculously cute. Last december I went to see her show at Melkweg in Amsterstam and it was one of the most terrific concerts I've ever been to. She was so full of energy and enthousiasm that night, it was simply fantastic!






other recommendations: we get on, merry happy, birds, the nicest thing, mariella & the skeleton song <3

Daily Inspiration

The Sony Bravia TV Commercial featuring the song Heartbeats by Jose Gonzales. Beautiful video and an even more beautiful song <3

Contagious

If you've ever taken the time to take a look at my blogger profile, no hard feelings if you haven't, you might have noticed that dance music isn't exactly well represented among my favourite bands/musicians. Given I'm not a big fan of the genre (and yes 'not a big fan' certainly is a euphemism) it isn't that surprising. What is surprising though, is the fact that I'm terribly addicted to the Alive 2007 remix of 'harder, better, faster, stronger'/'around the world' from Daft Punk. It's so bad, I'm actually affraid I might have contracted a form of acute danceitis. I suppose a steady dose of thirty remixes a day will help me fight this disease. And if it doesn't, at least I'll have kept myself entertained.

Not knowing whether or not this condition is contagious, I'm going to take the risk and share this piece of genius music with you.


Disclaimer
The author of this entry can not be held responsible for any harm caused by this ridiculously genius musicvideo. Watch/listen at your own risk.

Shake it like a polaroid picture

Sia's video for her song breathe me must be one of the most brilliant music videos ever created. The combination of 2,500 polaroid pictures and beautiful music is terrific.

Kate Nash, Melkweg Amsterdam, November 30th

Yesterday I went to see Kate Nash's perform at the Melkweg in Amsterdam. It turned out to be a truly wonderful show.

more photographs at flickr

Le Moulin

After seeing Amelie I got captivated by Yann Tiersen's music. Which simply can not be described in words. The way he translates emotions into little musical masterpieces is truly unequalled. And listening to them is one of the most delightful things one can do. So do yourself a favour and click on the play button. Merci and s'il vous plait.