favorite things friday.

a smattering of my favorite sights, sites, stories, sounds, spreads, swigs and so forth this week…

SCRATCHbread (where i am now a baking apprentice!) 

chad vangaalen’s beautiful, creepy music videos

broke-ass stuart’s new travel show “young, broke and beautiful” premieres on IFC

the state of california, where i just spent an amazing two weeks turning left on red and eating fish tacos with old friends

favorite things friday.

a smattering of my favorite sights, sites, stories, sounds, spreads, swigs and so forth this week…

paula deen riding things

smorgasburg opens at the brooklyn flea

joshua frankel’s “plan of the city” featuring the NOW ensemble

the library of congress presents “the national jukebox”

oBsEsSeD.

eating a blood orange donut from DOUGH : eating happiness pop rocks :: listening to the new tUnE-yArDs album : my ears eating happiness pop rocks.

 

DOUGH video credit: Food Curated. “Bizness” video credit 4AD Records.

so this is kind of a big deal.

the incredible all-female quintet victoire‘s debut album cathedral city (new amsterdam, sept. 28) is streaming now on NPR a week before release HERE.

here’s the song that first hooked me: 

if you like what you hear, come catch them live with me at joe’s pub on october 2nd.

crushing.

you never call my name on the telephone.

www.theblackangels.com

“can you turn that down, please?”

or, i love wolf parade and i especially love them loud.

tuesday night, i was finally face-to-face(ish) with the canadian quartet again to hear new songs from their brilliantly chaotic, danceable album Expo 86 (and yes, i totally pre-ordered the vinyl on Insound.com to get the crappy but adorable promotional poster). as always, wolf parade delivered a high-energy, consuming show despite being in a massive space like terminal 5, so much so that fans near the front even attempted some short-lived crowd surfing. but instead of reviewing the show or new album, i would just like to gush for a bit about the fun of fandom.

i first discovered wolf parade my first week at my first job in 2005, when i was assigned the task of going through a massive bag of promo albums my pr company had been sent to check out and consider as clients. i listened to the ep first and was captivated; the frenetic “disco sheets” made me elated, the maudlin ”lousy pictures” crushed me to pieces. to this day, i remain sideswiped by these two tracks in particular and hope until the very end of each show to hear them live.

also in this bag was Apologies to the Queen Mary, which i have probably listened to at least once a week for the past 5 years. from the spastic energy on”fancy claps” to heart-rending ”grounds for divorce” and, of course, “i’ll believe in anything,” i quickly fell in love. if i fall for a band i fall hard, but unfortunately most of the bands i’ve fallen for throughout the years are no longer active (talking heads) or it’s near impossible to click “purchase ticket” fast enough to see them live (radiohead). so, loving WP has allowed me to feel like the rapturous music fan i never get to be and i am beyond grateful for that feeling — no matter how much it costs me in merch, ticket fees, and travel costs to see them as many times as possible.

enjoy…

the. spring. jam.

i cannot stop listening to this album/song. let’s go take a nap on the grass in the sun.