Playlist Post: February 2013

Ahoy!  I present you with another playlist!  I totally forgot to post one for January, but, in my humble opinion, I believe February's makes up for my brain malfunction.  I think last February I posted a playlist comprised solely of love songs because of Valentine's Day and what not, but I decided not to do that this time around.  There is a healthy mix of old, fresh, electric, mellow, colorful, jazzy, slow-dancey, fast-dancey tunes to feed your every appetite.  So go listen!  Relish in this pure delight to the ears.

Playlist Post: November 2012

Leaves are starting to fall, temperatures are starting to drop (slowly, but surely) and I've made yet another playlist.  Although, October is my favorite month of the year, November, December and January aren't so bad either.  This playlist features some of my new favorites including POLICA and Father John Misty as well as some golden oldies such as Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse.  These songs are best listened to by candlelight with a mug of hot tea.  Enjoy!

Quiet Mornings & New Music

Good morning!  I just know it's going to be a fabulous day.  Jason left for work about an hour ago, and I took Fozzie out to the dog park for a bit, really just as an excuse to go outside and soak up this 66 degree weather.  Unbelievable!  I feel like it's usually still swelteringly hot at this time of year, but oh well, I'm not gonna fight it.  Yesterday morning I made a delicious egg white omelet with corn, onion and jalapeno jack cheese.  I seriously impressed myself; I'm not too experienced in the making of omelets.  And being the carb-lover that I am, I had to pair it with a piece of cinnamon-sugar toast.  Mm mm good.  Oh, and there may or may not have been a Prosecco mimosa involved.  After breakfast, I started watching Gossip Girl season five, and I am loving it!  I'm sure many will disagree with me on this, but I think the show has gradually gotten better over the seasons.  I love it now that the Upper East Siders are all in college and (a little) more mature.  When I think back to their high school days, it's kind of upsetting to me how annoying Blair was with her dictator approach to friendship and excessive headbands and/or bows.  She's calmed down a ton; I actually like her now.  The rest of my day was pretty boring.  I just did a little Target perusing and hit up Sonic for a vanilla root beer.  When J got home we made tacos and cheese dip and watched the show Parenthood for the first time.  If you haven't watched the show and have access to Netflix Instant, I highly recommend it.  Any Nate Fisher or Lorelai Gilmore fans out there?  If so, you'll enjoy it for sure.  It reminds me so much of the movie The Family Stone.  They're both about large families, the kids are grown with families and problems of their own and they're all so close-knit and spend lots of time together at their parents' house.  Oh, and Craig T. Nelson is the patriarch in both.  Anyway, Parenthood is really wonderful, and like The Family Stone, it makes me want to have a large family someday and makes me hope that my brother, sister and I are close like that when we're older and have families of our own.

Today, I just decided to go with a simple bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and a plum for breakfast.  I've been eating a lot of plums lately.  I forgot how perfect they are - sweet and tart all at once.  My plans today include getting off of the couch, going to the San Marcos outlets for a few things, lunch at my favorite sushi spot, maybe the mall for some makeup and baking cupcakes.  We'll see how much of that actually gets done.

Today is a good day for new music!  New albums from Sea Wolf and The Avett Brothers are out today, and you can stream the latest from The Killers on iTunes.  Their album Battle Born is due out Sept.18 alongside Grizzly Bear's Shields.  I'm especially in love with the track "Blue Stockings" off of the new Sea Wolf album, Old World Romance.  September always seems to be a good time of year for new tunes.  Delight in it, my friends.

xoxo

Playlist Post: September 2012

It's time for this month's installment of amazing tunes that this gal can't get enough of!  Hip hip hurrah! There isn't much of a theme for this playlist.  I threw in a couple of oldies from Copeland (hello, high school) and Say Hi To Your Mom.  This is also probably one of my shortest playlists, but it'll get you dancing and probably make you cry a few times too.  Enjoy :)

Playlist Post: August 2012

Here ya are, folks.  Yet another playlist!  These are some of my favorite blog posts for sure.  Music has always been such a huge part of my life, and it's so much fun for me to share my music taste with you.  Yes, I was the girl at college parties begging to deejay/obsessively control the iPod, and I'm pretty sure the whole reason I hosted parties in college was for an excuse to make a bomb playlist and share it with the world.

MUSIC MONDAY & the Best Pizza Ever

Greetings, children.  Today's "music monday" is The Blood Brothers!  Now, I know people either love or hate their chaotic, noisy hardcore sound, and I happen to be one of the lovers.  Sadly they are not together anymore, but you can find a mellowed-out version of their style in vocalist/pianist Johnny Whitney's newer project, Jaguar Love.  I had the lovely pleasure of seeing The Blood Brothers live on two separate occasions in Houston at Numbers and Warehouse Live.  Twas a spectacular performance each time.

Here's a rad remix of "Nausea Shreds Yr Head" by Gajamagic:

Oh, btw, I made an out-of-this-world pizza for dinner tonight.  Get this - corn, CHORIZO, goat cheese, avocado and cilantro!  Wowie wow wow.  Eruption of flavors.  

Currently.

Anticipating:  This amazing dinner Jason is making; the apartment is filled with the savory smells of creole spices, shrimp and citrus!  My mouth is watering like crazy, and my belly is growling up a storm.  He's trying out one of the recipes in the Emeril's cookbook his dad gave me this past Christmas.  I'm sure it will be absolutely delicious; Emeril's legit, guys.

Drinking:  A new favorite...Fox Barrel Blackberry Pear Hard Cider.  Cider has always been at the top of my beverage preferences, but it seems like I'm consistently opting for cider over beer these days.  This one is particularly quite tasty.  The blackberry flavor is a perfect counterpart to the pear, making this the perfect, fruity summer treat.

Reading:  Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.  I know I'm so behind on The Hunger Games frenzy, but I was holding out for a copy of the second book to become available at our local library.  Three weeks into the hold I had placed on the book, it became clear I was going to have to grow, bottle and drink some miracle patience elixir before I would get my hands on it.  So, I gave in and purchased it at Target.  I am about halfway through and loving every second of it!  So far I like this one better than the first.  It's also neat getting to read the book and be introduced to the characters as they're selecting the cast for the CATCHING FIRE film due out next year.  One of my favorite actresses, Jena Malone has been chosen to play Johanna Mason, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.

Watching:  THE SHINING.  Oh, you know, I was just lounging on the couch after a day of work, as usual, flipping through the TV channels moaning and groaning because nothing interesting was on.  I was mildly intrigued by the "Caught On Tape: Teens Gone Wild" special on MSNBC, but that lasted all of about 35 minutes.  Sure enough, I came across one of the first movies to ever truly terrify me and give me psychotic nightmares.. on Spike of all channels.  Redrum.  REDRUM.  REDRUM.

Counting Down To:  My long-awaited trip to Portland, OR with my best friend, Jessica.  In approximately four days and eleven and a half hours, I will be boarding the plane.  This will be my first flight all by myself.  Not going to lie - I'm a little nervous.  I told Jason I normally don't pay much attention in airports when we travel together, I just follow his lead; my thoughts are much too preoccupied with the excitement of our destination.  We'll see how I do on my own.  I have faith in myself.  I think I can, I think I can.  Haha.

Listening To:  Dark, resonant tunes like this one by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club --

Lots of Righteous Death at the Mohawk Last Night

Photo by Jim Barrett

BASS DRUM OF DEATH is probably my favorite new band.  Lo-fi garage rock produced by two cuties from Oxford, Mississippi that you can dance to?  I think yes.  Their 2011 release, GB City, is true love on ice with a cherry on top as far as I'm concerned.  I have listened to this album countless times over the past year, and it never ever ever gets old.  Jason and I had the pleasure of seeing them live for the second time last night at the Mohawk with the also awesome duo DZ Deathrays from Australia.  BDOD is currently recording their second album which I will be buying on the release date.  And I will continue to see them live every time they come through Austin.


Here are some old-ish videos from the SPIN Loft during SXSW in Austin last year:

Many thanks to John Barrett and Colin Sneed for the colossal amount of fun I had last night.

xoxo

Playlist Post: July 2012

Here it is in all of its early '00s glory - my July playlist.  I realized it would be a lot easier to just take a screen shot of the playlist on Spotify.  Way less time-consuming.  As you can clearly see, this playlist has absolutely no rhyme or reason to it; it includes everything from Pinback (hello, high school) to Rihanna's new top 40 hit.  Sorry, guys, I just couldn't solidify an overall theme for this one, but hopefully you enjoy it nonetheless.