get ready kids

I am BACK.  I am in Oxford.  I am working on a sonnet tomorrow with John Barton.  I am eating Ambassador’s Choice ice cream from G&Ds.  This internet cafe keyboard is gross.

jolly yours,

Emily

okay fine i’ll talk about it really fast

I just got back from a midnight showing of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”  SPOILER ALERT – this does not refer to a magic monarchic dynasty of happy things.  This movie actually made me tear up a little. (because I am a badass?  No?  Okay.)

Quick thoughts:

• I still love the Malfoys, I don’t care what anyone says.  And Narcissa’s two-toned hair?  Fabulous.  I love that Stripped-era Christina Aguilera hair is the mark of high aristocracy in the wizarding world.
• Seriously, hair played a major role in this film.
  • Bellatrix’s hair was piled on her head, fancy Medusa-style – very “I’m going to kill you and then go on a romantic date with the Dark Lord”
  • Hermione’s was annoyingly cute for, well, HERMIONE.  Her frizzy post-Potions class hair was more like it.
  • Snape got layers!
• Daniel Radcliffe on magic Luck Cocaine = accio Comic Gold!
  • I really apologize for the “accio” thing.  Couldn’t help myself.
• There were a couple of great costumes, even at the small New Haven cinema.  Props to the guy who wrapped a turban around his head and attached a mannequin head on the back.  I like to think it was a shout-out to The Harry Potter Musical (“I came home.”).
• It was AWESOME.  All of it.  The movie was great.  Inferi are scary.  Truth.

Anyway, it’s late and I have work in the morning.  But I thought I’d get in on the ground floor.  Apparate to the blogger Astronomy Tower, if you will.

Okay I’m sorry.

Yours with the unfortunate promise of more magic jokes,

Emily

this exists somehow

A few days ago I shared my soon-to-be eternal love for the magical heaven gold condiment masquerading as Mango Ketchup (I say “soon-to-be” because I can’t legitimately profess my devotion until I’ve actually, you know, tried it).  Today we move from the combination of two items that perhaps should have been together all along, romantic comedy-style, to the combination of two things that happen to be things that someone combined for no discernible reason, henceforth to be known as Pierre Hardy-style.

I remember reading in the special Time Magazine Style issue (which, at least when I was 11, made me feel super cool and sophisticated) that neoprene was going to be a new fashion fabric.  It was all over the Milan runways, or whatever they say in Time Style.  Anyway, I have not really seen much neoprene since, which seems appropriate and logical in the world of reality-related items.  UNTIL NOW.

There is no reason for this.

Yes, that blue part is neoprene, or, as some know it, wetsuit fabric.

No.  Just… no.  For one thing – what?  As weirdly comfortable as this actually looks, where does one wear it?  Unless trying to seduce this guy, I don’t know.

Franz from the Life Aquatic - get it? Because of scuba! (And also how adorable yet creepy this guy is. What? It's true.)

And for another thing, this does not have the required level of irony for a shoe made of patent leather and neoprene.  It should be multicolored 80’s neoprene, or at least pretty patterned neoprene, or at least interestingly-colored neoprene.  Right now, it just looks like the kind of thing you give a quizzical look to in its corner at American Apparel, and then you move on with your life and keep looking at convertible jersey dresses in a variety of colors.

I do have to give a shout-out to the Barneys weekly emails for bringing this to my attention, though annoyingly enough without a downloadable image, which is why the photo links elsewhere.  I recommend the Barneys emails.  Considering the amount of explosions present in my preferred television, looking at the pretty jewelry and sassy Simon Doonan commentary  keeps my girly side strong.  At one point I saw a video where he got really excited about ridiculous fringed boots that I seem to remember were purple.  He may have petted them like friendly woodland creatures.  Keep up the good work, Doons!

Wow, this post took me way too long to publish.  But I got both Michael Bay and Wes Anderson in here, at least tangentially, so I think I’ve made my point?  Yeah, I thought so.

Yours in a tux and beanie,

Emily

a thing that i like somehow made into another thing that i like

Just in case you weren’t counting, that’s two things that I like that have become one thing that I will theoretically love for all time as if we were sparkly soul mates.

Ready?  I wasn’t.

AMAZING.

Seriously, world?  This is great.  Speaking as someone who, as a child, could actually use 15 (OK, 20) packets of ketchup on a bowl of fries, any ketchup is welcome in my life.  In Bulgaria, they had some weird cayenne ketchup or something… but they put mayonnaise and pickles on pizza there, so who knows.  It wasn’t bad.  Anyway…

I’m just establishing that I am speaking as one of the ketchup-obsessed.  Considering where this picture came from, I am not alone.  And by the way, is ketchup just taking a food and blending it with vinegar and sugar and other stuff?  I could look it up but eh.  Because Ketchup World also has agave and banana ketchups (not together).

Also, MANGO.  The best.  No argument.  This is not something to be discussed, but to be accepted with quiet dignity as a Fundamental Truth.

I didn’t really have a point with this.  It just needed to be said.

Blendedly yours,

Emily

P.S.  Thanks to A.V. Club Taste Test for the information.

free music is very important to my life

Weirdly enough, some of my favorite songs have been the iTunes free weekly download.

• “Le Disko” by Shiny Toy Guns (awesome scifi-esque video)
• “I’m Good, I’m Gone” by Lykke Li (WEIRD video)
• “Sewn” by The Feeling (no idea about the video)

But luckily for me and cheap music-listeners everywhere, there are more sites that have lovely free (and usually good) music every day or week or some other interval of time!  This list is as much for me to have a database as it is for anyone reading.  I am quite selfish in my blogging.

• Stereogum – a great music blog with pages and pages of free songs.  They have a visual media companion blog called Videogum which I read religiously.  It should be a snark and pop culture nerd requirement.  More people must know about The Room!
• The Hood – This is the blog (with a sporadic “weekly” stream/download playlist) for the Neighborhoodies custom clothing website, which is one of those websites I visit and ALMOST buy things at, but decide the stuff is cool and awesome but a just a little too expensive for its level of frivolity.  No offense, Neighborhoodies.  We can still be free music friends.
• Spinner – Some cool indie tracks, some live versions and remixes, some Bat for Lashes (am I the only one who thinks she and Lily Allen are secret twins?).  Sure, it’s an AOL blog and who even knows why AOL is around anymore, but free music!
• MTV – Discover & Download section.  It’s MTV, but not a scripted reality mess!  Say what you will about the network, but this is the site that gave me a 5 minute version of “Damaged” by the incomparable chorus of computer voices that is Dannity Kane.  A creepy lady voice says “Stereotypes, stereotypes” over and over in the background at the end.  So credit where credit is due, people.

This list is pretty small and sad.  We’ll call it a starter.  A tiny kitten list, that will become a jungle cat master list someday.  The Lion-o of free music blog lists.  Thunderlists, HO-OH!

Done.

Anyway, in other news: the 4th of July happened, so… good for that.

Yours with a first aid kit and the knowledge of how to patch up a wound,

Emily

the whole reason I decided to have this

Earlier this summer I did guest vocals on 3 songs with the Hogan Brothers at the Beta Lounge in Berkeley.

Two things I have to note:

1. The Beta Lounge is adorable and charming in a completely adult and classy way.  A bar on the smaller side, that only serves beer, wine, and sake (and sake cocktails!) as well as food that I did not eat but looked good.  It’s a great addition to downtown Berkeley.
2. The Hogan Brothers are AMAZING.  The name is true, they are 3 brothers and I don’t know if it’s some weird Escape to Witch Mountain (the 1995 version of course) sibling magic powers thing, but I know very few bands who can create such fluid and effortlessly fantastic live music.  Anyway…

I wanted to post the two recordings I have of that show, and tweet them, but I needed a place to host the mp3s before I could do that.  So that is why this blog thing has been unleashed on the unsuspecting world.

Gee Baby Ain’t I Good To You?

Summertime

Guest vocally yours,

Emily

because apparently I should have a blog.

Welcome to whatever this is.  Which is… a blog.  Perhaps someday it will take shape into something interesting and focused.  Or at least interesting.  (Focused?  Who am I kidding…)  More likely I’ll just link to stuff I like, plus maybe some of my music and life occurrences for anyone bored enough to look.

Things you might see here:

• Youtube clips of the odd, musical, nerdy, or movie trailer variety.
• Photos of things
• My music if I get my act together and record stuff
• Blog posts about what I’m doing/geeking out about (currently new episodes of Better Off Ted or the Harry Potter musical)
• Items that should purchased either by me or by people with the extremely high levels of AWESOME necessary for such items
• Websites that are good at their job of being websites
• Hopefully I’ll be able to refrain from too many references to the Disney Channel and the beyond brilliant television that is filmed in Vancouver, but no promises.

Cynically yours,

Emily