Filed under: personal | Tags: costume, friend, halloween, miley cyrus, pumpkin
Halloween at work is a very fun day, and tomorrow will be no exception. Every area group picks a theme, decorates their area and dresses up. This year we chose “Guitar Hero,” and we’re coming dressed as musicians and concert staff (i.e. bouncer, glow-stick vendor). We decorated one of the conference rooms like a stage, and I’m bringing my parents’ Wii so we can actually play Guitar Hero in there. Good fun! I’ll be dressed as Miley Cyrus, but I have a feeling my costume doesn’t look much like anything she’d wear.
IT'S MILEY!
A few days ago I met up with some friends to carve pumpkins and drink apple cider. Too bad no trick-or-treaters will get to see this beauty!
I’ll start posting better things this weekend.
Filed under: paper goods | Tags: card, halloween, invitation, the black apple
Today Emily Martin of The Black Apple posted a print-it-yourself Halloween card. It’s too cute! I don’t generally send out Halloween cards, and I’m not throwing a shindig to invite anyone to, but I’m going to get some of these out in the mail anyway.
Isn’t her work fantastic? I bought her Neko Case-inspired print, and I love it.
Filed under: photographers | Tags: autumn de wilde, beck, becky stark, devendra banhart, jenny lewis, lavender diamond, music, photography, she & him, the decemberists, the whispertown 2000, under the influence of giants
I said it two posts down, and I’ll say it here too. Autumn de Wilde is a genius. She takes some of the most amazing photographs of musicians for albums and the like, and there’s just no comparison. If you want to be taken seriously in the indie music world, you better get her number. In honor of her greatness, I decided to compile some of my favorite photographs of hers here, but please check out her portfolio for more!
Top to bottom: The Whispertown 2000, She & Him, Jenny Lewis, Beck, Lavender Diamond (Becky Stark), The Decemberists, Devendra Banhart, Under the Influence of Giants
Filed under: packaging | Tags: bottled water, green, tap water, tap'dny, water
Today swissmiss posted about Tap’dNY, a company that purifies New York city’s tap water and sells it in the bottles pictured above. Now, I’m all for drinking tap water! Here in Seattle, when I drink or cook with water, it is always straight out of the kitchen sink, with no Brita filter between it and my glass. What this company does, however, is it sticks that tap water in a plastic bottle! Isn’t one of the major benefits to drinking from the tap that it reduces the amount of plastic bottles piling up in landfills? Also, they tell people to buy their water bottled from local sources, yet they ship anywhere, except Fiji or France. As “green” as this idea tries to be, I think it has missed the mark.
What would have been a fantastic idea is that, instead of bottling water, they produce REUSABLE hard-plastic bottles with the same sort of design (which is awesome). Then they’d have found a creative way of telling people that you’d rather drink (perfectly fine and healthy) tap water, rather than contribute to the huge mess that is this “plastic bottle culture.” (And, actually, they do have some reusable Sigg bottles “coming soon,” so I can be happy about that.)
What do you think? Am I being too hard on them?
Filed under: music | Tags: folk, lyrics, morgan nagler, the whispertown 2000, whispertown2000
So again, this is off topic, but I just received my “pre-order” of The Whispertown 2000‘s new album, Swim, and it has some gorgeous packaging. Seriously, this isn’t some jewel-case major-label crap. Plus, it comes with the lyrics, which is a major bonus for someone like me who can’t tell “lawn” from “loft” (in “Old Times”).
Anyway, the real reason I wanted to talk about Whispertown was because I’m in love with their song “Erase the Lines” right now, and I had to share the lyrics, because they’re so fitting for this particular political climate we’re stuck with right now (I mean, seriously, can we please stop the middle-school trash-talk?). Morgan’s description of the song is: “This is a song about prejudices in our history and of today. I wish for One Love. And believe it’s true.”
Once a pine, in olden times, not far away from now,
He let down a single bow, and gave himself a crown.
He said I’m tall and you are small, to clover on the ground,
So clover spread himself around
And covered pine tree up and down.
This is my side of the mountain
Only youth would share his fountain
Only you can see the green leaf turn from red to brown.
The spotted tiger spotted me, an all white bird with a yellow beak.
He stared me down, he wouldn’t speak,
He let me go ’cause I was weak.
Hide I did, did never seek, I perched upon the tallest peak,
And all the birds would flock to me, to live in bird like harmony.
This is my side of the mountain
Only youth would share his fountain
We all watch the rising sun
Shining down on everyone.
But if you’re bad then we are bad
If you’re good then we are good
We stick to own, like skin to bone, and so we end up all alone.
But, oh, from this mountain you can see
And oh, like a baby, I do believe.
Now it’s time to erase the line,
I’m gonna introduce you to a friend of mine.
Sit back and toast to a world so fine.
Streaming: The Whispertown 2000 – Erase the Lines
Photo by Autumn de Wilde. (Who is a genius. It’s true.)
Filed under: photographers | Tags: book, collage, dan eldon, photography, scrapbook
When my sister was packing her stuff up to move across the country, I discovered a book she owned called The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon. The cover was intriguing, so I opened it up and was immediately drawn in.
Dan Eldon was a photojournalist for Reuters before he was stoned to death by a mob in Somalia in 1993 at the age of 22. As mementos of his short life, he left behind notebooks and notebooks of collages documenting his travels and work. For materials, he used anything and everything he could find, from photocopies and photos to beads and food labels, and they come together beautifully. Below are some samples, but I highly recommend checking out the book in person.
Check out the new header above! It was made by my awesome friend Adrian, whose brand new Etsy shop I plugged a couple days ago (which I still think everyone should check out)!
Filed under: music | Tags: album, folk, morgan nagler, mp3, the whispertown 2000, whispertown2000
I know this isn’t a music blog, but tomorrow The Whispertown 2000‘s sophomore album, Swim (their Acony debut), will be released, and it is amazing. I’ve known of the band since their Vagtown2000 days, and then as Whispertown2000, and now it seems they’ve added some spaces and a definite article to their name.
While their first album, Livin’ in a Dream, was truly a gem (that I’m afraid too few people have heard), their newest is more polished and features some of Morgan Nagler’s best songwriting yet. I love the jam session at the end of “From the Start/Jamboree,” and I can’t get enough of Vanessa Corbala’s secondary vocals in “Lock and Key” (which is this blog’s namesake, actually).
Please check it out on iTunes NOW; you won’t be disappointed! (For a preview, download the mp3 below.)
Download: The Whispertown 2000 – Done With Love
Today FormFiftyFive had a post about fifteen-year-old Eleanor Hardwick, whose photography is dreamy, smart, and absolutely impressive. Take a look at her photostream on Flickr to discover more.
Yes, I think she has a long career ahead of her.
Filed under: art prints, etsy finds | Tags: digital art, dinosaur, friend, ice cream, nursery rhyme, print
My longtime friend Adrian recently started a shop on Etsy, and she is currently offering 8×8 prints of her twists on traditional nursery rhymes. They’d be perfect for someone looking to add some creative artwork to a nursery or a child’s room! Adrian is a fantastic graphic designer, and very clever, as evidenced by this collection. Please check it out! $15
Lock & Key 