it’s friday. let’s dance.

this week i’ve done the macarena  > 3 times.

WHAT THE WHAT?!, you say.

some would think that dancing the macarena more than once in the past ten years indicates maturity issues. but this time travel back to 1995 has been cheering me up during a week that’s had more lows than i’d like to admit.

for those of you familiar with the dance song phenomena, you’ll find this chart entertaining. my recollection & performance of the song resembles this breakdown.

in case you forgot the moves, this aweseome 90s videos will get your groove back. eeehhhhhhhh MACARENA!!!

later tonight i’ll be trading in my macarena moves for the Naked and Famous‘ ultra synth bliss. i’m in need of a girls date night like WOAH.

check out my favorite track, Girls Like You, off the 2010 album, Passive Me Aggressive You.

pumped up kicks.

i’ve mentioned many times before, i’ve an affinity for poppy upbeat songs with a subliminally dark lyrical undertone. interesting, i know.

take Craft Spell’s “For the Ages” or the Antlers’ “Bear“; they present a sunshine-y beat, one fit for skipping and foot tapping. but listen closer and there’s a sad and unsettling message. the auditory & emotional sensation resembles the visual experience of the opening of scene of David Lynch’s classic, Blue Velvet.

Foster the People‘s new jam, “pumped up kids”, is of the same vein. the blissfully catchy chorus masks the dark lyrics which echo the columbine high massacre of 1997. the realization of what the lyrics mean is disconcerting at the least. it’s rare that the issue of teen violence is brought to light through a song, especially in this genre. most indie pop & rock songs are of found and lost love. this band takes a controversial stance by addressing more serious and cerebral content. i appreciate that. in addition to dreamy escapism, music should also reflect on the culture and society that we live in.

here’s the song, for your listening. it really is a catchy tune; the bright, simple, and purposefully bold hooks pull you right in. before you know it, you’re humming the tune in the middle of your 3pm meeting (whoops!).

beat kitchen: unicyle loves you & rainbo video

i wasn’t lying when i said that october was a musical month.

an impromptu show popped up on my calendar for next monday eve and i could not be more excited. i’ve a close connection with the third act, and i’ve pretty much got unicycle loves you on repeat lately.

check out mirror mirror, the most recent album of the headliner. this psychedelic rock meets dream pop sound will catch your ear and capture your heart. im a sucker for angelic female vocals accompanied by a deep male voice.

my favorite tracks: quagga, teenage ghost house.

a personal favorite of mine, rainbo video’s new album is absolutely seasonally appropriate and full of epic haunting melodies, texture, and thoughtful composition. the evolution of the ambient layers builds throughout the album and concludes with the strikingly beautiful and rather experimental track, “hidden in the ice”.

my favorite tracks: crystal glaciers, sable ruins

if you’re in chicago, come check out the show at beat kitchen. doors at 7:30pm & music at 8. tickets available in advance via ticketweb!

so chicago, see you there?

films for fall.

every morning last week i woke up to weather that screamed “don’t get out of bed! stay here. watch a movie. be cozy!”.

summer is wonderful & chicagoans look forward to it with an unmatched passion during those everlasting winters that seem to creep their way into “spring”. in fact, we love summer so much that nearly every year by the time september rolls around, we’re broke, exhausted, and sunburnt. no?

so you see, fall is welcomed with open arms in this household. that guilt complex of absolutely having to be outside during every waking moment of sunlight fades away as the air becomes crisp and cool. and just like that, i’m trading in my flip-flops for blazers and cinnamon spiced coffee.

fall brings the comforts of familiar & expected cool weather favorites–apple picking, pumpkin flavored everything, college football games, and rainy days curled up inside enjoying a lazy afternoon double feature.

today i’m sharing my rather eclectic list of favorite films, and one television series, to watch during autumn.

{a rom-com classic. gorgeous new york scenery. the plutonic friendship turned relationship feels all too familiar for this girl.}

{a television series shot like a film. haunting & dream-like, twin peaks will have you enthralled in murder mystery & the paranormal. david lynch is a master of the eerie.}

{i swear i’m not obsessed with ms. ryan. this movie is cute, cozy, and 90s fun}

side note, isn’t it interesting that this film is about book conglomerates taking over mom & pop book shops. those same “friendly” conglomerates were mourned earlier this year as they posted “out of business” signs around the country.

{a wonderfully inspiring period film complete with east coast scenery.}

{there isn’t much i don’t adore about this movie. it’s got that creepy, dark, suspenseful feel. i’m typically not a tim burton fan, but he got me with this one.}

don’t watch alone. i say this out of experience.

{we end with a quirky dramedy & a star packed cast. i loved seeing gwyneth in this role. alex baldwin’s voice is oh so charming as the narrator & the soundtrack is to-die-for}

do you have autumnal film favorites?

i’m going to hop right into the season and watch one this evening!

flick chicks & the klutz.

mindy kaling is close to topping my list of favorite hollywood ladies. better watch out tina fey, this girl is movin’ on up. in a recent new yorker article, flick chicks, kaling digresses on her obsession and fascination with romantic comedies, one i’ve similarly harbored for years. she expounds on the characters we encounter in the zany alternate universe in which these stories exist. because, we can all agree, it surely isn’t reality.

kaling says in this article, all those things i’ve been thinking about rom-coms for years. i nearly fell off the bed laughing when the boy read this quote aloud:

I regard romantic comedies as a subgenre of sci-fi, in which the world operates according to different rules than my regular human world. For me, there is no difference between Ripley from “Alien” and any Katherine Heigl character. They are equally implausible. They’re all participating in a similar level of fakey razzle-dazzle, and I enjoy every second of it.

GENIUS.

my favorite rom-com character profile, as described by mindy, is most certainly her depiction of “the klutz”:

When a beautiful actress is cast in a movie, executives rack their brains to find some kind of flaw in the character she plays that will still allow her to be palatable. She can’t be overweight or not perfect-looking, because who would pay to see that? A female who is not one hundred per cent perfect-looking in every way? You might as well film a dead squid decaying on a beach somewhere for two hours.

So they make her a Klutz.

The hundred-per-cent-perfect-looking female is perfect in every way except that she constantly bonks her head on things. She trips and falls and spills soup on her affable date (Josh Lucas. Is that his name? I know it’s two first names. Josh George? Brad Mike? Fred Tom? Yes, it’s Fred Tom). The Klutz clangs into stop signs while riding her bike and knocks over giant displays of fine china in department stores. Despite being five feet nine and weighing a hundred and ten pounds, she is basically like a drunk buffalo who has never been a part of human society. But Fred Tom loves her anyway.

this hilarious & articulate description of the most common of rom-com prototypes could not have come at a more perfect time. over the past two weeks i’ve been hemming and hawing over my final call of fox’s new prime-time sitcom, the new girl, starring zooey deschanel.

my poor boyfriend has heard many a dissertation on the subject. i admittedly foster a complicated relationship with ms. deschanel. while i adore her aesthetic & soulful sounds, i can’t seem to stomach her personality, the branded “cuteness”, or the blunt & slightly unfriendly interview demeanor. i’m constantly perplexed when masked rudeness is perceived by journalists as lovable. personality opinions aside, i’ve considered zooey’s new gig with as unbiased opinion as possible.

style icon and indie pop goddess, check. sitcom carrying comedian, she is not. the show is failing me for many reasons, all of which are summarized extremely well in lindsey bahr’s recent post on the subject via the junior varsity. but the most offensive trait of the new girl is the branding of zooey’s character, jess, as an awkward, lewd, geeky, klutz. i’m sorry fox, but i’m just not buying what you’re selling here.

the show is definitely marketed to women just like me, those vintage loving, sundress wearing girls who wish they could exist in the setting of 500 days of summer. but here’s the thing about “those girls”, they are educated. they aren’t just style conscious indie sweethearts, they are intelligent and thoughtful. they will consider the whole picture and formulate their own opinion of the entirety of a piece of work. this is exactly why jess’s character falls completely flat.

we are meant to believe that this gorgeous elementary school teacher has travelled through twenty-odd years of life and education unaware of social norms, etiquette, beauty and femininity. i’m sorry but there is NO WAY IN HELL that jess would have perfectly curled hair during the middle of a week long emotional breakdown spent glued to the couch with tissues & dirty dancing. trust me, i’ve been in this place. there are no curlers & mascara. there are only brownies and edy’s maxx. and as bahr points out, it is inconceivable that this perfectly styled vintage sundress wearing pixie would even dream of donning overalls to a date.

this isn’t a rant, this is a plea. please fox, stop forcing this unbelievable and ridiculously unreal character down our throats. we’re tuning-in to watch zooey. turn her into someone we can side with, who we would befriend rather than grimace at, someone who we want to see find love.

i’ll keep watching, with hope…for now.

shake down 1979.

OH! this cover by Remix Artist Collective of the Smashing Pumpkin’s “1979” is AWESOME. I can’t stop listening to the glittery synth sounds accompanied by light & airy female vocals. so carefree and pretty.

nicely done, RAC. if you’re as enchanted as i am, download the track for free here  and listen to entire RAC album via soundcloud. they mostly do remixes, which i’ve found to be highly fun.

memoryhouse, the years.

memoryhouse serves up the perfect soundtrack for this transitional seasonry.

just like september, which doesn’t completely belong to summer or fall, so does this album. it’s full of the warmth of summer and undertones of winter’s cold distance. nostalgia seeps into every note. we’re carried along on a beautiful soundscape of pop melodies that resonate the past & our dreams.

listen to the full EP below, from Sub-Pop’s re-release of the band’s EP, The Years. my favorite track, Sleep Patterns,

i need not mention that the photography and videography that compliment this album are TO DIE FOR. gorgeous & a perfect accessory for the dreamy sounds.

before sunrise. before sunset.

two films. one love story.

these are wonderful, conversational, romantic films.

i saw before sunrise last summer and just recently watched the sequal. to briefly synopsize, a man and a woman bump into each other on a train in europe and decide to spend a spontaneous 24 hour layover together in vienna. the entire film exists within these 24 hours and we witness the development of their friendship and romance. there isn’t any fancy plot, just conversation. two people getting to know one another. it’s effortlessly charming and romantic.

my favorite scene is where they pretend to be telephone home to a friend, describing having met the other. watch below!

have you ever seen these films? if not, go see now & let me know what you think!