Mumford And Sons

A mix of Indie and Folk rock- this British quartet plays using guitar, dobro, mandolin, drums, keyboard, accordion and banjo.
Their vocals are soulful and make me melt.  They started out in 2007 making the local performance circuit in the UK.  This year (2011) they played with Bob Dylan and The Avett Brothers at the Grammy's.
I can't get enough of their contagious joy- especially in their live performances.








Dr. J promised to learn how to play a guitar with open tuning so that he can learn to play this song for me-
melt….

Forest Art, Music and Awe

This amazing kinetic art in Japan’s woodlands of Kyushu is a commercial for- well, you’ll see... but suffice to say it is amazing and you’ll want to watch it twice and if your monkeys are anything like mine- maybe thrice.

Done by Drill Inc, a Japanese advertising agency it features a wooden ball going down a marimba.  The sound that you hear is not superimposed but rather naturally produced. 

I love that the product is made from only discarded wood, I love that the beauty of the forest is enhanced with the natural marimba and I love the melody of Bach’s Cantata 147: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.  

The instrument was made by Kenjiro Matsuo at Invisible Design Lab.

Dare you to watch it once!

Eric Clapton Bell Bottom Blues

This song makes me melt and explode simultaneously-

Musical Stairs

How cool is this project?! I love how it is fun, creative and inspiring.

Here is the description of the Fun Project:

"There is a set of stairs, with a moving escalator next to it .... both of which lead to the same spot on the floor of the upper level. At first no one took the stairs, almost 97% of the people took the escalator. Okay. I think that could be a normal expected result. 

Then a group of engineers got together, and decided they wanted to change the percentage around.

Notice what these scientists did. Clever huh. And now they have reversed the percentages, as a whopping 66% more people take the stairs, than ride the escalator."

Film: The Runaways

Last night Dr. J and I watched a film starring Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning titled The Runaways- based on the life story of Joan Jett and Cherrie Currie.

The band made popular the song Cherry Bomb and Joan Jett later did a cover of one of my favorite songs Crimson and Clover- this film is surprisingly good and even has a 'make out' scene between Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.  Dakota Fanning has come a long way since starring as Sean Penn's daughter in I Am Sam- another one of my favorite films. The film also gives a great history of girl punk rock band's and music of the 1970s while showcasing Kristen and Dakota's actual singing chops-

It took my tech team two hours to upload this feature below

(by tech team I mean Dr. J) -so please have a listen:

Do you like to listen to Crimson and Clover- over and over?

Thrifting With A Monkey On My Back

Yesterday I went thrifting.  There was a lot of negotiation, bribery and threatening involved, because it was not a monkey free trip.

You need to be good, Yes it’s going to take a long time, I will buy you a treat, If you are not good I will take away the treat.
I had an awesome time. (Don’t ask about the shadow/monkey).

I thought I would see if they had any cute summer dresses and they did-I tried on six (monkeys love it when you go in the fitting room) and I bought two. I am wearing one today and tried to get a good photo. I have a new appreciation for Etsy shop photographers! The very first photo is by a monkey the others are me in a mirror.  It matches my toe nail color perfectly although I was not trying to match- the Oh So Koi- by Opi was already on my toes when I bought this dress:

I am in love with the ruffles down the front, the ruffled sleeves and the cute coral colored buttons that go the whole length of the dress- And it fits me perfectly.

My jump for joy moment was when I found the FREE TO BE YOU AND ME book for (drum roll) 99 cents! When I was a child I had a record player in my playroom with several shoe boxes of vertically stacked singles from the 60’s and 70’s- To this day I know songs by heart from my parents’ collection.  Out of all those records I only had two of my own, Free To Be… You and Me and There’s A Hippo In My Tub.

This book has all the song, stories and poems from the original soundtrack and even includes some scored music. The primary focus of the album was to teach tolerance and acceptance and to defuse gender role stereotypes and to celebrate feelings, happiness and individuality. I fell for all of this. A lot of the poems, stories and song are still relevant in today’s world. The idea was conceived by Marlo Thomas and features such artists as Carol Channing, Michael Jackson and Diana Ross on the album and in the subsequent movie/video.
My favorite outtakes from the soundtrack and now book are:
Free to Be… You and Me, Boy Meets Girl (the story of two new born babies trying to figure out if they are a boy or a girl), Parents Are People “Mommies are people/ People with children./ When mommies were little/They used to be girls,/ Like some of you/ But they grew.” I remember listening to these lyrics really wanting to picture my mom as a little girl AND picturing myself as a mommy! It’s All Right to Cry “It’s all right to cry/Crying gets the sad out of you./ It’s all right to cry/ It might make you feel better./ It’s all right to know/Feelings come and feelings go.”

My two MOST favorite are both by Shel Silverstein Ladies First: “I am a real little lady. Anybody could tell that”-is a story about a little girl who "ladies first's" herself to a tasty demise by a lair of tigers- and Helping.

The funny thing is that Ladies First was my favorite as a little girl but Helping is my favorite as a mom. Dr. J loves to sing “And some kind of help is the kind of help that helping’s all a-bout. And some kind of help is the kind of help we can do with-out”- during those ever so helpful moments when the monkeys are creating more work for us while they ‘help’ us- Of course the monkeys have always been oblivious to the sarcasm or true meaning of the lyrics.
Click to read reviews or to order the same book for as little as one cent! Or order the CD for less than $5

I found this grainy video of the movie that I vaguely remember seeing- the sound quality is great- just the video sucks- anyway it’s 44 minutes long- I just played it as background and it made me feel so happy.
If you are interested the first two songs are Free To Be... and Boy Meets Girl (voice by Mel Brooks).

Free to Be... You and Me (1974)
Uploaded by QzDaddy. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

A Day In The Life Of A Lady

Blueberry Smoothie

Blueberries, vanilla soy milk, vanilla fat free yogurt, flax seeds

Herb salad, shredded carrots, shredded purple cabbage, homegrown tomato's (compliments of Dr. J's extremely generous M.A.-K), fresh mozzarella, guacamole- salt and pepper

Tofu with curry balls rice and veggies

Indoor Laundry Drying inspired by GardenMama who reminded me to enjoy moments like these.

If you are interested in wining your own set of 18 bird decals like the ones pictured, enter HERE.

And the song that I can't get enough of because at the end of the day I love it when dirty laundry is aired in song lyrics- Kim is such an asshole. This is a live version- not the best sound quality but I love it live.

Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros- Las Vegas July 3rd- Hard Rock-

I am still on a high from seeing Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zero’s last night at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.  We were introduced to this band a few months ago by our friends T and F when we stayed with them in San Diego- I fell in love with the song ‘Home’ and listened to it on repeat for days.

This merry band encompasses the musical talents of ten musicians and is described as a blend of Alternative country, Indie folk, Neo-psychedelia. I am totally in love with the trumpet player Stewart Cole, such a talented musician with an adorable smile. I spent most of the show standing right behind Tay Strathairn the piano player. He wore rainbow colored tie dyed pants and a polka dot shirt. He ate gummy bears and drank water. I fell in love with him hard and fast. I seriously cannot picture this guy ever being angry or losing his cool- total vibe of perfection with a killer smile. The two main vocals who started the band in Los Angelos in 2009 are Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos. Alex is a charismatic talkative guy. He has a wonderful vibe about him and made himself extremely accessible to the audience.  I did not get too near him although I could have touched him- I’ve smelt dirty hippies before and didn’t need to go that road again. Jade, where was Jade? Not on the stage most of the time. I guess everyone is entitled to their bad days and last night might have been one of hers. For the first four songs Tay lead the bands performance, he encouraged Jade to sing one ‘prayer’ hymn but when she got a shock from the mic she left. Alex prompted the audience to call her back but instead the band took a set break after just four songs. One new song which they played was titled ‘Open Book’ and I call 'great' on it.

When they returned they dove right into songs off their album Up From Below. Just before ‘Desert Song’ Alex gave a monologue that described his affinity to the desert and how being in the desert in Vegas, he is amazed at how quickly everything is absorbed by the sand… like water, alcohol and blow.

This is Tay's worn in piano

The other members of the band:
Nico Aglietti does an amazing job on the guitar and synthesizer- He also spoke a bit during the show and seemed to really enjoy being there.  When Airin Older played the banjo I got a fresh burst of happy, he predominatly played the bass which is often the least appreciated and most important aspect of the overall sound. Josh Collazo is an amazing drumer. This guy played the drums while killing it on percussion. He gave a full body work out and I can only imagin that he would be sore ALL OVER after any performance. I totally love Nora Kirkpatrick and covet the dress she wore at the show last night. She is beautiful gracious and makes playing the accordion look sexy. Christian Letts is a talented guitar player and Orpheo McCord does a great job on percussion. The whole band pretty much does vocals and percussion at some time during their performance.
They were great. It was an amazing show. I really hope to see them play live again and I pray with all my heart they keep their vibe and continue to appreciate their fans as much as they showed us they did last night.
Here is footage from a live show taken a year ago- I think their dynamic is amazing.

Their Home

Phish 3D: Of Festival 8- Halloween 2009: We'll Make Hippies Of Them Yet!

We have been to a lot of Phish shows. Well I have been to ten shows- but Dr. J’s been to close to two hundred and by extension of being his wife for the past ten years-  I have been immersed in the Phish culture. For the record I never went to a single Phish show until Dr. J took me.
This past Halloween we took our monkeys to their first shows. It was a three day festival in Palm Springs at the Coachella site, Festival 8. For months we discussed it. The previous Halloween we had gone 'trick or treating' in the Pacific Palisades with friends and the monkeys were leaning towards full sized candy bars. Dr. J tried to entice them by saying “we can camp out on the lot” at which point Gman says: “Why would we stay in a tent if we could stay at a hotel?” (That’s my boy).

Here is our decidedly not camp ground casita where we spent three nights.

The festival was amazing. We saw tons of friends from Canada and the US and hung out with some pretty amazing people. The monkeys were fantastic and had a great time at the shows. At the venue we took them shopping for rocks and crystals which is their favorite thing to shop for.
They had really cool art installations set up all over the venue and in the main tented area. The largest attractions were the amazing fire shows which were audience operated and the million foot high Ferris wheel.

Can you see the Ferris wheel way in the back?

If you wish you were at the shows or are interested in 'seeing' what a show is like, get the patchouli out (optional) and prepare for the April 30th release date of the 3D concert experience of these shows. There are prescreening on April 20th in Boston; Burlington, VT; Chicago; Denver; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; Raleigh/Durham, NC; and Washington, D.C.
For my last post about the Darien Lake Shows this summer read here .

To see the trailer for PHISH 3D go to: http://vimeo.com/10419545

Led Zeppelin

I have liked Led Zeppelin since grade nine, slow danced to 'Stairway to Heaven', had mix tapes of their songs, bought a few CD’s and then didn’t listen to them for ten years.
Last year we visited our friend’s S and W in Costa Rica and Dr. S burned a bunch of their stuff. Part of that illegal burning session included our possession of Led Zeppelin’s complete Box Set and Box Set II.
Like most of the other musicians I love, they write poetry and sing it.

Here are some of the lyrics to:

The Battle of Evermore
The Queen of Light took her bow and then she turned to go

The Prince of Peace embraced the gloom and walked the night alone

Oh, dance in the dark night, sing to the morning light

The Dark Lord rides in force tonight, and time will tell us all
And what about D’yer Mak’er? Tangerine? Immigrant Song... I think they are genius poetry mixed with incredible adhesion of words to instruments to create music.
Led Zeppelin first played together in 1968 under the name Yardbirds and ten years later were winding down their tours and live concerts. Their song Stairway to Heaven is the most requested radio song, ever. In 1971 they released Going to California, a song about Joni Mitchell as well as Black Dog which was the first track on their unnamed album IV one of the most popular rock albums of all times.


The movie Almost Famous written and directed by Cameron Crowe is based on Led Zeppelin’s members Jimmy Page (guitar) and Robert Plant (vocals).

Here is a link to a great Rolling Stone article about the band:
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/ledzeppelin/biography

This article discusses the bands lyric controversies
http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimmypage.html

Phish at Darian Lake

I am not a Phish Phan but I love going to Phish shows. So you see it’s not a concert it’s a show. My love also stems from how happy it makes Dr. J, who in his hippy days went on several tours and around 200 shows. In 2000 Phish took a hiatus and Dr. J and I did too. Some members of the band went to rehab and many of their phans went on with their lives.
So eight years later and with slightly more lucid vision we went to see Phish. We arrived on site five hours before the show was scheduled to start and took a walk down to Shakedown Street. Shakedown, a Grateful Dead verbiage, is the area where Phish Tour people sell the things they sell, to get the phunds they need to get to the next show. Phans back their vans and set up tents making walkways of Phish inspired tee shirts, ganja goo balls, glass art, crystals, jewelry, sweaters, stained glass, patch work clothes, grill cheese sandwiches, fajitas, pizzas and lots of ice cold beer and water. We set up our LL Bean Sleeping bag and watched the madness unfold.

The line in Dazed and Confused “I get older, they stay the same age” could not be more spot on to describe the scene. Nothing has changed, the dynamics are the same, the interactions, the spirit but with different people and different distractions. There were still hacky sacks (back to the 90’s much) and I saw some devil sticks but to my great amusement a prop that is becoming popular at my local gym was a major presence, hoola hoops! Ribbony psychedelic ones. The fairy winged girls were all about the hoolahoop tricks, still wearing their knee high rainbow colored or argyle socks and barely anything else. I was mesmerized by one gorgeous nymph with bare pert breasts and a loin cloth tirelessly hoolahooping in the lot.

The first show I ever ‘got taken to’ was in 2000 at Radio City Music Hall. In retrospect that is an amazing first show experience venue. Not all venues are created equal and not all sites are as clean as Radio City Music Hall. Darien Lake in Buffalo is a dirty show, can’t be clean after that one. Luckily I already knew I was going to have a blast and knew my limitations on how to have a good time.

So this is my theory on how to have an awesome time at a Phish show. Just dance. Seriously.

I don’t know all the songs, I don't know the story behind the story or what they covered, I have no idea why one of them wears a dress, why they sometimes play a vacuum (yeah as if it's an instrument!) or why there are trampolines on stage at some shows. When they start playing some long 'hippy jam' I feel like scratching my actual brain out, sometimes.

Dancing like a wet noodle is fun. I had a fantastic show. Great experience. The band was more sober and even though it took about 48 hours to feel normal again I can’t wait to go to some of their West Coast shows in the fall.

Here is a link to Dr. J’s favorite Phish blogger about the show at Darien Lake- This guy knows the story behind the story.

http://phishthoughts.com/2009/08/14/lighting-the-fuse/

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen was born in 1934 in Montreal, Canada. Born into a middle class Jewish family, in the middle class Jewish neighborhood of Westmount, Mr. Cohen identifies strongly with his Jewish roots.

He received his B.A. in 1955 from McGill University and studied with Irving Layton. After finishing his undergrad Mr. Cohen spent one term at McGill’s law school before attending Columbia from 1956-1957 and publishing his first book of poetry: Let Us Compare Mythologies. This first collection of poems explored his Jewish heritage with classical and Christian mythologies juxtaposing religion with sensuality.

In 1961 Mr. Cohen moved to London, England where he wrote his first novel, a semibiographical novel based on the life of a Montreal Jewish boy’s journey to discovery though writing titled: The Favourite Game (1963). In 1966 he published his second novel Beautiful Losers and achieved international acclaim as a song-writer, singer.

Mr. Cohen has eleven studio albums his last one "Dear Heather" came out in 2004.
On March 31st 2009 Mr. Cohen is releasing “Live In London” recorded live on July 17, 2008 at London’s 02 Arena, an indoor venue- during his 2008 World Tour and includes songs from his 40 year repertory.

The album Live In London includes:

Disc 1 -

1. Dance Me To The End Of Love

2. The Future

3. Ain't No Cure For Love

4. Bird On The Wire

5. Everybody Knows

6. In My Secret Life

7. Who By Fire

8. Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye

9. Anthem

10. Introduction

11. Tower Of Song

12. Suzanne

13. The Gypsy's Wife

Disc 2 -

1. Boogie Street

2. Hallelujah

3. Democracy

4. I'm Your Man

5. Recitation w/ N.L.

6. Take This Waltz

7. So Long, Marianne

8. First We Take Manhattan

9. Sisters Of Mercy

Click here for a review by Jim Allen on Leonard Cohen’s performance Thursday February 19th 2009 in NYC:
http://www.prefixmag.com/features/leonard-cohen/beacon-theatre/26253/

RHCP

Yes. As in that band- Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I have been a huge fan since I was in 6th grade. Had a poster of Anthony Kiedis above my bed throughout adolescence and to this day think he is one of the sexiest men alive.

In nineth grade I wrote an English paper about the RHCP's lyrics for a poetry assignment. My English teacher Mrs. F gave me a good grade but wrote in the comments that she didn't know if she agreed with me (I had handed in a cassette tape (!) with the three song/poems I analyzed). In my mind I had failed- as an unconvincing writer.

Do you think this is poetry:

Under The Bridge

Sometimes I feel

Like I don't have a partner

Sometimes I feel

Like my only friend

Is the city I live in

The city of angels

Lonely as I am

Together we cry

I drive on her streets

'Cause she's my companion

I walk through her hills

'Cause she knows who I am

She sees my good deeds

And she kisses me windy

I never worry

Now that is a lie

I don't ever want to feel

Like I did that day

Take me to the place I love

Take me all the way

It's hard to believe

That there's nobody out there

It's hard to believe

That I'm all alone

At least I have her love

The city she loves me

Lonely as I am

Together we cry

I don't ever want to feel

Like I did that day

Take me to the place I love

Take me all that way

Under the bridge downtown

Is where I drew some blood

Under the bridge downtown

I could not get enough

Under the bridge downtown

Forgot about my love

Under the bridge downtown

I gave my life away

About five years ago I was on a flight from Toronto to Miami- Anthony Kiedis was on my flight-I was travelling with Sir S. When we were waiting at luggage claim I positioned myself beside him, arms length. His girlfriend and I exchanged pleasantries briefly over Sir S.'s gorgeousness. There is no doubt that AK looked at me and acknowledged my existence.