Drawbacks

One of the drawbacks about not posting as often anymore is that by the time I get around to putting an outfit up here, I've completely forgotten what I wanted to say about it or what I was inspired by that day. I'd be willing to bet that this song was on my iPod that day though, because it's been in heavy rotation lately; someone was playing it at the hostel I stayed at in Lisbon, and through the magic of SoundHound I discovered a fantastic artist I'd never heard of before:

If you don't have SoundHound on your smartphone, do yourself a favor and get it now. It's life changing!

Dress: Carolina Herrera (thrifted)
Scarf/belt: Banana Republic
Bag: Michael Kors
Shoes: Bettye Muller

Happy Saturday

Here's what's making me happy today:

Sunbathing Dogs

Gorgeous Weather

Spring Flowers

Hummingbirds at the Feeder

And fado, my current musical obsession

Carminho's voice makes me want to get on a plane and fly to Lisbon NOW. 

It's hard to believe she's only in her early 20's; she has such amazing passion.

With her signature long flowing skirts and closely cropped hair, Mariza is as beautiful to look at 

as she is to listen to.

Though more a mixture of flamenco and jazz than fado, Buika's music sits nicely alongside these 

other talented ladies. Her smooth, husky voice voice sends chills down my spine. 

A great song for a relaxed weekend. Enjoy!

Long Weekend

I wore this outfit for the last day of conferencing, because as soon as the conference was over I was going directly to meet Laura in the Tenderloin neighborhood, which is close to the conference venue, for drinks and a show. Since it was the last day of the conference I didn't mind dressing on the casual side, and I needed something that was comfortable enough to wear all day and  into the night. My sequin blazer gave the outfit a touch of glam while still being easy to wear.

The blazer has a shrunken appearance and is cropped short in the back, giving it a tailored look even though the fabric underneath the sequins is a stretchy jersey. My only gripe is that it buttons a little high for my long torso; I think the next time I go to my dry cleaner/tailor I might have them add a lower buttonhole and move the single button down a few inches so that I can button it closer to my natural waist.

The show was terrible, by the way. The band featured local hero Mike Patton, who Laura and I have seen in all of his incarnations every time he plays in town, starting waaaay back in the 90's when he was the front man for Faith No More. This permutation was mostly screaming and atonal banging on the piano, which was frustrating because the man has an incredible singing voice that he simply opted not to use. Maybe 10 years from now I'll get what he was trying to do, but here in 2011 we just left early and called it a night.

Jacket: B. Bella
Top: Max Studio
Jeans: Joe's
Boots: Bronx
Necklace: Manu Lizarralde (Argentina)

It's a long weekend here in the States, so I'll be taking the day off on Monday. To get your weekend started right, let me leave you with a catchy tune from great artist I've recently discovered, from France by way of Japan. Last year some close friends went home to Lyon for the summer and brought me back a mix CD of French hits. My favorite track by far was called Je Veux by gypsy-jazz artist Zaz. Fast forward to last month, when Laura returned from a trip to Osaka bringing me a great CD she had found at the listening station at Tower Records (yes, they still exist in Japan!). You guessed it, Zaz.

I couldn't embed the official video for Je Veux, so 

click the photo of Zaz to go to the YouTube link.

I would never make any comparison to Edith Piaf lightly, but Zaz really earns that distinction. I'd actually describe her voice as a cross between Edith Piaf's plaintive vibrato and Eartha Kitt's sultry purr. She's also no neophyte, having been a singer for many years and just recently finding more widespread success in her 30's. Je Veux was her big hit last summer, but another of my favorite songs from the CD is Prends Garde � Ta Langue; I couldn't find an official video for it, but click below to listen. Happy weekend, everyone!

Random Music Post: Holly Golightly

I first discovered Holly Golightly when I heard her excellent track "There's an End" on the Broken Flowers soundtrack. Which is interesting, because I've never seen the movie and in fact I don't even own the soundtrack, just the one song. But somehow (probably the result of an evening involving cocktails and the now-defunct Limewire) the track made it onto my iPod and I was instantly hooked on Holly's 60's girl group sound.

I couldn't find an official video for this song. It was recorded with the band The Greenhornes 

and is also on their album Dual Mono.

Since 2007, Holly has been teamed up with longtime bandmate Lawyer Dave to form Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs. Sounding a lot like a band you might've heard in a dirty backwater gin joint in the 1920's, the band combines elements of bluegrass and Americana and gives the whole thing a darkly humorous and sometimes vaguely sinister twist.

I got drunk on whiskey, drunk on wine

The lord don't like it but the devil don't mind

Ain't nobody gonna love you like the devil do.

-Devil Do, from You Can't Buy a Gun When You're Crying

There's plenty more to check out from this vastly under-appreciated artist, but I'll just leave you with one more from 2008's Dirt Don't Hurt. Also see Holly's website for tour dates and all sorts of other good stuff.

Behind the Times

Well, I'm behind on uploading my most recent batch of photos, so I got nothin' for ya in the way of an outfit. BUT! I recently had a, "Holy crap, how did I not know about this band??" moment and I thought I'd share. Actually I had two such moments. Forgive me if you see these videos and think, "Oh please, I've known about these guys forever! Where the hell have you been?" I've been listening to my iPod, that's where. It wasn't until I got a smart phone and discovered the joys of listening to Pandora in my car that I unearthed all this new-to-me talent.

The first artist I discovered was Santigold, who came out with her wonderful debut release way back in 2008, while I was blissfully ignoring radio and probably listening to nothing but the same 25 songs on my almost fully-packed 60G iPod. Sometimes I amaze myself with my immense and mostly unlistened-to music collection. Mark gives me all kinds of shit about it already, so don't you even start.

I liked Santigold so much that I created a Pandora station for her, and it was there I discovered The Knife, whose song "Heartbeats" I immediately recognized from the acoustic, folk version released by fellow Swede Jos� Gonz�lez back in 2005. The original "Heartbeats" dates all the way back to 2003 (just going to show how far behind the times I am), from The Knife's Deep Cuts disc. This version is pure electro synth-pop perfection; Karin Dreijer Andersson's intriguing vocal stylings blend the Scandinavian sound of Bj�rk or Emiliana Torrini with the plaintive, raw edge of Patti Smith, throwing in a bit of Cyndi Lauper's hiccup-y warble for good measure. Combine this with the heavy bass synth beat and Karin's adorable Swedish accent, and well, click with caution -- this song is so catchy you're pretty much dooming yourself to a lifetime of addiction.

If that's not enough for you, check out Jos� Gonz�lez's beautiful cover of the song, which he recorded for his 2005 release Veneer, a CD I bought after discovering Jos� at the Iceland Airwaves music festival.

If that's STILL not enough for you, have a look and a listen to The Knife's eerie, mesmerizing live version of the song, which in some ways is even better than the recorded version. Recorded in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2006.

Want more? The Knife went on to record progressively darker and more ambitious material; their third studio album, 2006's Silent Shout, includes some truly brilliant material. It was hard to pick just one track to highlight here, but in the end the animated mice won out for cuteness.

STILL not enough? It wasn't for me either. After researching the band a bit more, I discovered Karin's innovative side project, Fever Ray. Let's just say my already over-crammed iPod was loaded up with a lot of new material recently.

Hot Chip

Oops... I was out a bit late last night and am just too wiped out for an outfit post today. Last night was a special Sunday night Girls' Night Out; Laura and I went to see Hot Chip at the Warfield Theater. And let me tell you, that was one amazing show! It's not often you see San Franciscans dancing at a show, but Hot Chip had the whole house shakin.' Their recorded music is great, but nothing compares to the energy of their live show. Hot Chip have several more US dates left on their current tour, including Denver, St. Paul, and Chicago. Don't miss them!

In other news, City Hall is currently lit up in orange to celebrate the Giants becoming the National League West champions. How cool is that?

It also looks perfect for Halloween. But then again, City Hall always has great style.

WTF, Portugal?

I thought today we should have some music to accompany the outfit post. I'm sure that lately it must seem like I've suddenly got it into my head to post a bunch of music, but the fact is that I've had these ideas rolling around in my head for quite awhile and have only been motivated to actually write them down recently. Sometimes posts need time to percolate before they actually make it into print.

First I thought I'd share a track I absolutely love, called Ilusi�n; it opens with Brazilian singer Marisa Monte's smooth, throaty voice pouring out like warm honey. When Mexican artist Julieta Venegas joins the duet, it's like someone uncorked a bottle of sunshine. And when these two voices come together to harmonize, it's pure magic. What I find notable about this song is how each singer's voice is so perfectly suited to her native language. Mexican Spanish has bright, lively tones that are a perfect match for Julieta's sweet-spicy voice, while Marisa's sultry purr is the ideal vehicle for that most mysterious of languages, Portuguese.

Despite being fairly proficient at picking up bits and pieces of languages, I find Portuguese to be positively impenetrable. The problem is that the written language bears enough similarity to both Spanish and French to be tantalizingly familiar, and yet the pronunciation doesn't make a lick of sense in either. The minute someone opens their mouth to speak Portuguese, it's like the entire Arabic alphabet has been rearranged into some sort of secret code in which all the letters and their corresponding sounds have been shuffled around at random. Even Stephen Maturin remarked, "No man born of woman has ever understood spoken Portuguese." Seriously, WTF Portugal; why'd you invent a language that no one but natives can understand? It's so you can talk about us behind our backs, isn't it??

Yeah, go right ahead. I dare ya.

Ahem. Since we're on the subject of Portuguese-speaking artists, I should also mention that Laura and I recently went to see Seu Jorge and Almaz in concert, and what an amazing show that was. Seu Jorge is mainly known in the US for his Portuguese covers of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust album, which he recorded for the soundtrack to The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou. But his music covers a broad range of influences, and incorporates a very modern mix of funk, soul, and even a little psychedelia with more traditional Brazilian samba sounds. One of my favorite tracks from his latest record is called Pai Joao, to which tune I've been walking around singing nonsense lyrics ever since seeing the show (because clearly I'm never going to be able to make out what the fuck he's actually saying).

Free music - Pai Joao

Seu Jorge grew up in the favela of Rio de Janeiro, and his melancholy, gravelly voice conveys all the sadness and hardship of that background (he also appeared in the movie City of God, which is set in the favela). But there's also a lot of sweetness there too, which gives his music a depth you can really sink into. It's so good, I can even forgive him for singing mostly in Portuguese, and for having a name I can't ever hope to pronounce.

Outfit details:
Shirt: J. Crew, thrifted
Vest: Forever 21
Pants: Marlowe
Boots: Bronx
Handbag: Monserat de Lucca (via Gilt)

Random Music Post: Balkan Beat Box

I've gotten behind on my photo uploading again, so today I'm bringing you another music post about a band I've been meaning to talk about for awhile now. Balkan Beat Box are Israeli-born New Yorkers who blend diverse musical styles and influences to create music that is truly unique, as well as intelligent and fun. Their sound is primarily Mediterranean, but on any given track you might also hear elements of hip hop, electronica, klezmer, reggae and African beats, calypso, Latin rhythms, blues, and even some surf guitar. But this is no haphazard cobbling of musical styles; BBB blends these elements so seamlessly that it's easy to forget they are derived from such far-flung locations and cultures.

According to Wikipedia, Balkan Beat Box, "hoped to encourage and foster peace between citizens around the world by combining traditional music from various areas in the world," and that's exactly what this music does. BBB is able to integrate distinct musical forms through outstanding musicianship combined with strong anti-war and anti-racism messages, while all the time maintaining a sense of energy and good humor. You might think with heavy topics such as greed, war, and racism that the music wouldn't be very fun, but that couldn't be further from the truth. This music can make you dance just as easily as it can make you believe that peace among different races and religions is really possible.

Mark and I saw Balkan Beat Box earlier this year at The Fillmore, and it was easily one of the best live shows I've ever attended. Even the notoriously too-cool-to-dance San Franciscans nearly shook the house down, and I even witnessed hipsters getting down to the music (not that it was a pretty sight, but still). By the end of the show there were 20 or 30 people who had jumped up on stage to dance with the band. It was as much a spontaneous street party as it was a musical performance. Meanwhile, the band dazzled us with their musical acrobatics, giving the songs a fervent energy that went beyond the already spectacular studio recordings.

I'll leave you with one more track, which is one of my favorites from the most recent album, Blue Eyed Black Boy. Just to show you that BBB isn't all about sociopolitical ills, here's a touching little love song that blends a sexy Balkan dancehall sound with a characteristic reggae beat and a touch of Latin flavor. Now THIS is what love should sound like!

Random Music Post, Or, A Celebration of the American West

I've been listening to a lot of Neko Case lately. Normally I'm not a huge fan of country music, but Neko really captures a particular slice of the American West that I find particularly haunting. It's that image of eerie desolation; a blowing tumbleweed, a lonely train whistle in the distance, an old mining town and dark, rolling clouds on the horizon. There's something very special about the American West that I've really come to appreciate in recent years; it was something I always took for granted growing up in the heart of the Gold Rush country in California.

As an avid traveler and a devotee of so many other cultures, it's easy to sometimes overlook the unique culture that exists right here. It's also easy to dismiss American culture in general, given our unpopularity in the rest of the world. During the Bush years I would never introduce myself as an American when I traveled; I always said, "I'm from San Francisco." But being American isn't a shameful thing, and despite our relative newness on the world stage, we still have a fascinating and storied history that is worth exploring.

Country music in many ways celebrates the uniqueness of the American experience, right down to its unglamorous and even seedy side. And Neko Case is one of those artists who brings to life the rough and uncivilized Western past that still has traces in our culture today. 

Neko's music reminds me that I'm proud of our rugged, pioneering ancestors, who left behind civilized cities like Boston or New York and headed West to make their fortune, or sometimes to die trying. Some were entrepreneurs, some were fleeing a dubious past and came in search of a fresh start and anonymity, and some just loved adventure and risk-taking. Some succeeded spectacularly and others failed miserably, but the legacy they left behind is one of spirited determination and fierce individuality. And from an "I can accomplish anything" kind of confidence to a "This is me, like it or not" attitude, I see many elements of that legacy in my own beloved city today.

If you get a chance to see Neko Case live, don't miss it. Her live performance is wonderful, and she's quite a character to boot; she looks like a sweet, fragile little thing behind her big acoustic guitar, but the girl swears like a trucker and is funny as hell. She's my kind of country music, and my kind of American.

Today's outfit (sorry, I really should've worn cowboy boots to accompany this post, shouldn't I?):
Capelet: F21
Shirt: J. Crew, thrifted
Skirt: Anthropologie
Boots: Bronx