M U S I C
- My absolutely most favorite thing of the moment is iTUNES GENIUS. This new application is automatically installed if you get the newest update of iTunes and trust me, my friends, it is totally worth the time it takes to load. To use Genius, all you do is click a song that you want to hear, and it will construct a playlist of up to 100 songs from your personal music library "similar" to that song. Now I realize this is what Pandora perports to do, but anyone who has used Pandora realizes that after about 20 minutes in you think to yourself "why am I suddenly listening to 90s heavy metal? this has nothing to do with Kelly Clarkson!" But iTunes Genius is unbelievably accurate. It distinguishes not only between genres of artists, but even seems to recognize what feeling of song you pick. I love love love it, thanks to jmorcos for enlightening me.
- BEYONCE news! Now I loves me some Beyonce. People like to hate on my girl because you can't go anywhere these days without hearing about her and so people assume she is overrated. That and she is a terrible actress. But when it comes to pop music, nobody does it like Ms. B. She is an unbeatable vocalist (including live, tune in to the second half of this one), who can get her dance card punched with the best of them (and sing while doing it! what pop stars can you name that sing live anymore?). Plus she is absolutely gorgeous. If you're wondering if this double album will result in an over-saturation of B, I simply ask you: have you seen the video for SINGLE LADIES yet? Because if so you would know that there is no such thing! No flashy effects here, no snazzy outfits. Nothing to distract you from her pure talent...in a leotard.
- I'm in no way an especially huge Marvin Gaye fan, but how can you watch this live, a cappella rendition of HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE and not be awed? Thanks jrugani.
A R T / D E S I G N
- Banksy's Village Pet Store and Charcaol Grill. Many of you are probably familiar with Banksy's public street art, but this new installation is a whole new level of genius. My favorite is the leopard coat.
- Best Week Ever covers the new Urban Outfitters catalogue
- Sonia Bravia commericals. I include this one only because it is the newest, though this is my favorite one. Though there are 5 that I know of and they are all incredibly worth watching.
- Connect-The-Dots tattoos
- Martyr Lamp
- Gawker's response to this vintage ad.
- What the first presidential debate should have sounded like. Let's be honest, folks. Who doesn't want to party with Putin?
- Is Sarah Palin confused or just stupid? Rachel Maddow: the best lesbian journalist since Robin Roberts.
- Wanda Sykes-Hall and Hilary Duff take a stand against homophobia
P E O P L E
- Ok, so I'll admit that I never watched Gilmore Girls. But I always thought that Lauren Graham is so beautiful. I never knew that she is adorable to the point of insanity. (As in, litearlly is she out of her mind?) Thank you Ellen for teaching me. I swear all 8 minutes of this are a delight, wait til she talks about the idols and the dieting.
T H E A T E R
- Audra Mcdonald performs with Barabara Cook to raise money for Obama. What's not to like here? We're talking about the greatest living musical theater artist, and no I don't mean Ms. Cook (though mad props to her, as well). Audra McDonald may be at the apex of Things I Like. I cannot even begin to elaborate...she is just the greatest performer I have ever encountered. I nearly failed my Science-B exam when I found out at the last minute she was performing at Sanders my freshman ye
ar...totally worth it. And I told her so the next time I saw her, in 110 in the Shade(ack she just breaks your heart). You may recognize her from Private Practice, but hopefully you know her from these, some of my favorites (though it's impossible just to choose a few): she belts (though really not anymore, so enjoy it here), she sings opera, she sings pop (kind of), she makes you cry (also something I like: The Allen Room at Columbus Circle, where she's singing)...more crying.
And here is her being gracious and gorgeous (she seriously gets more beautiful with age) on The View.
If you're interested, you can watch the entirety of her performance in Sondheim's PASSION (also featuring Patti Lupone and Michael Cerverus) and both her Build a Bridge concert for Jazz at Lincoln Center and her Songs From Movies New Year's concert on YouTube.
Sorry for rambling on about Audra, especially if you have no interest in theater singing. But I can't contain myself.
Hope this provided some pleasant distraction from midterms and papers!
The last thing I like: the cast and staff and pit of NINE! Amazing readthrough the other day and I can't wait to start rehearsals...as soon as I make the schedule...which begins...NOW!
2 comments:
I'm not getting any work done because of these Audra videos. thanks.
I actually walked into the banksy thing pretty close to the beginning of the month before I'd heard anything about it. I just wanted to check out what kind of store had a leopard in the window. I feel really lucky that I got to see it in that way and not as someone who knew exactly what they were getting into. It had more of an element of shock because of that. Either way though, it's pretty brilliant. That was the same day I called you after getting yogurtland while I was hanging up those posters all over NY. Did we talk about it then?
Can't wait to see you!
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