Tuesday, June 21, 2011

summer lovin

Happy first day of summer!!

While it has certainly been warm enough already to qualify as summer, today is officially the first day. To celebrate the longest day of the year, I have a pretty long mix prepared for you all. I'm excited for some of the trips and things that I know will be summer highlights already:

  • Newport Folk Festival
  • the final installment of the Harry Potter movie franchise
  • the first wedding I'm going to of a friend/peer (rather than a family member, etc).
  • plus, visitors & housewarming parties & whatever free outdoor shows still exist in New York!


[image found via the Glamourai]

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

so fresh and so clean

For over a month it has felt like I've been in a state of perpetual motion. Starting with a new company, looking for apartments/signing/moving/unpacking, and now I am finally starting to settle in. There is still a lot to be done with the apartment, but most things are out of boxes and have a home. Until I manage to get a new couch and frame some of this art, things are more or less how they'll be for good. Thank goodness, because during that stretch of time I had more-or-less sequestered myself into a life of packing and unpacking and trips to Ikea/The Container Store/Bed Bath and Beyond. Now that things are less hectic, I'm getting back into the swing of things, including working on a summer mix.

Over the weekend I (finally!) saw some of my friends and two movies (and, of course, The Dodos concert). I saw Bill Cunningham at IFC (smallest theater I've ever seen!) which was amazing. The man is an icon and so endearing. I also saw Bridesmaids which really was just as funny as everyone told me it would be. I was nervous to see something with so much hype, but all of those ladies knocked it out of the park (and Jon Hamm, who had such a ridiculous character...). We also went to the new-ish home of the Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg, which was a little surreal. The entrance is near one of those newer waterfront condos, and it really looked like an architectural mockup of the "outdoor space" with people lounging in the grass, sitting on benches, with dogs and children interspersed. I picked up a bottle of ginger syrup for Morris Kitchen (insanely delicious), and an old 7Up crate that I'm now using as a spice rack:

As a visual reference, this post is being written from this corner of my living room where I've set up camp. Here's a before and after:

 (as you can see, I really need a real couch...I ditched the futon frame during the move, so now I just have the mattress which is looking pretty sad these days).

Sunday, June 12, 2011

what I want, what I need


Gauntlet Hair:


The Dodos:




After what feels like a long hiatus, I went to see a show on Friday night. We went to see The Dodos play at Music Hall of Williamsburg, and despite not getting there terribly early, I found myself breezing right up to the stage. Front row!

Gauntlet Hair opened, and while their name is a little silly, their sound was really good and the crowd seemed really into them (we were, too). When the Dodos took the stage, it was just as fantastic as I thought they would be. It was difficult to hear the vocals, probably due to being so close to the stage/the drums, but overall the experience being so close was amazing. The guy behind us realllly wanted them to play Jodi, and he finally got his wish during the encore. I hoped they might play Fables (which is my ringback tone!), but they left that one out. C'est la vie. I love all of their songs, so there was no wrong turn in my book.



Summer is more or less here now, though the weather is still pretty spastic, and the various concert series have kicked off around the city. It seems like the pickings for free shows are sparser than in years past, but I'm still excited for my favorite musical time of year in NYC.