Fire In Your New Shoes

(via weheartit)

Chat Roulette Improv

One of the best chat roulette videos I’ve seen. Pretty sure Merton looks like a mix between Ben Folds and Fraklin.

The River’s Overrun

(via antichocolatofobica)

The Countdown Begins

Aiden? Really?

OMG Shoes.

Immaculate gorgeousness.

Charlotte Olympia. She’s half Brazilian, half English, and 100% amazing. Just look at these beautiful creations. The first pair retails for $1,140, so needless to say they’re out of my league. But hey..a girl can dream, right?

A Music Lover’s Dream

Sometime this past week, my friend Nat introduced me to a spectacular treasure that I couldn’t help but pass along. Said treasure is La Blogothèque, a website hosting troves of videos of music performances. The shorts feature indie-rock type musicians and bands performing their own songs, acoustically, in the setting of restaurants, houses, public transportation vehicles or nature. The filmmaker Vincent Moon (who’s done most but not all of the videos) has created them guerilla-style, in one long take, in cities ranging from Paris to Montreal, New York to Osaka.

One of my favorite videos of Jason Mraz EVER, singing “Live High” as he strolls through the streets of a quaint Parisian neighborhood, is part of La Blogothèque. Unbeknownst to me at the time of that discovery (right after I saw a show of his at the Melkweg in Amsterdam) was there any another performance filmed with the same charm and intimacy. Imagine my delight when Nat told me to check out La Blogothèque and I discovered not one, but hundreds more.  Needless to say, I’ve now been eager to devour as many of these brilliant mini-shows as possible.

I love so many things about the style of the performances. I love how it allows the personalities of the artists to breathe freely. I love how the videos are raw and unfinished, with tiny blemishes that make them so much more real than traditional music videos. I love the improvisation. Tapping spoons on Metro handrails and clapping hands become percussion. The steady humming of the audience becomes bass lines and harmonies. If it isn’t obvious yet, to me this is hands-down one of those rare online gems that’s a true joy to find. Thanks Nat!

Here are 3 of my favorite “Concerts à Emporter” so far:

Yeasayer – No Need to Worry/Redcave

I love how lighthearted the guys are in this take away show! They are just riding the Metro in Paris, singing and clinking beer bottles on the poles and laughing at themselves. The imperfections are endearing and overall it’s a beautiful performance. Not to mention the last line of Redcave:

“I’m so blessed to have spent the time/With my family and the friends I love/ In my short life I have met/So many people I deeply care for.” How can you not love that?!

Yeasayer – 2080/Tightrope

This entire video is cool, but my favorite part is the transition into/beginning of Tightrope. It happens at around 6:07. The piano chords start reverberating and people begin slapping their hands on the floor. Then Chris Keating starts singing and it’s all over for me. I get sucked into the melody as easily as a paperclip into a Dyson and there’s no chance of coming down until the song is over. It enchants me.

Sigur Rós – Við spilum endalaust

This video shows Sigur Rós’ work for what it is: fine, effortless artistry. The backstory of filming the video itself is pretty funny – you can read it here on la Blogothèque. I would enjoy few things more than to have been one of those lucky, unsuspecting people at the cafe in the beginning who had no idea how special a treat they were in for. I have always adored Jónsi’s voice and here it sounds as mesmerizing as ever. It doesn’t matter that I can’t tell what he’s saying because it’s in Icelandic. His voice has such pure emotion that I can feel the essence of the song without knowing the words at all. The song in English is called “We Play Endlessly.” And I will listen endlessly!

You can find all the existing Take Away Shows here. Let me know if you enjoy them as much as I do! To la Blogothèque: you are amazing.

On Harmony

Been thinking a lot about this tonight: everything is not perfect. But life is not all about perfection, it’s about accepting and embracing the imperfections too. Everything is, however, relative. Connected.  Dots on a colorful spectrum of experiences, none of which could exist without the others. Without the bad, we would not appreciate the good. Without failures, we would never learn and never fully enjoy our victories. We would be robots… apathetic and lifeless, drifting down a river but having no inclination to swim.

Change is vital. It might not always seem like it, but if you take a closer look you might find that everything in life is part of a beautiful harmony.

(my own photo, taken in Ibiza, Spain)

Sorry to be deep; I can’t even remember what specific event got me thinking about this. And no doubt those ideas will be tweaked as I wisen with age. Just my two cents at 5 AM on a Monday morning