While packing up my room, I thought I’d like some music to fill the room in the process of performing the rather mundane task. For the first time, I decide to try tuning in to an online radio station. I googled and this provider appeared at the top of the page: Live365 Radio http://www.live365.com/index.live. According to it, it claims to contain a thousand plus individual radio stations, both professional and amateur, offering specialisations and hybridisations of genres. I search ‘random’ and decide to try this station named ‘Randomness Strikes Again’ – perhaps the choice of music it plays does live up to its name. The description attached reads: ‘A variety of music ranging from Contemporary Christian to some good old Rock-n-Roll….’

            While listening to it, I spot some really interesting songs and quickly note them down. Thank goodness there is a window that shows the names of the songs that are being played, as well as the names of the artistes. I run a search of these songs that I jotted down, and what a pleasant surprise, this station actually plays indie (short for independent) stuffs as well.

            Here’s the songs of interest that I’ve noted down, and trawled YouTube for videos so that you can listen to them too:

Gravity’s Job by Mali Woods

The feature of this song is the vocal arrangement: there is a lot of overlapping and counter-melodies. This applies to another Mali Woods number ‘Stars’ which, unfortunately, I am unable to find a music video containing the full arrangement.

I’m in Love with the Terminator by The New Killer Bombs

This also reminds me of Austin Powers who unwittingly marries such a cyborg at the end of the first movie that attempts to assassinate him at the beginning of the sequel and is eventually destroyed by him.

Fight the Man by Rappy McRapperson

I think the lyrics are so nonsensically interesting.

Does anyone notice that the tune of the verse of ‘Call Me’ (by Blondie) is similar to that of Sally Yeh’s 潇洒走一回 (Xiao Sa Zou Yi Hui, for those who do not have Far Eastern script installed on their computers)?

Call Me – the verse begins from 0:13

潇洒走一回 (Xiao Sa Zou Yi Hui) – the verse begins from 0.40

Yes, I am an 18 year old male. Yes, I realize that I am writing a blog about the phenomona that 12 year old girls and cougars both wet their pants over. The series known as Twilight.

Now, some may ask if the “Twilight” saga counts as a cult film. and by definition, my answer is yes. There are legions of undying fans willing to do just about anything (and yes i do mean anything) to let everyone know that they are fans. Just because its a financial success and very, very mainstrean doesn’t mean its not a cult film.

The newest addition to the series is of course “New Moon.” I went to the midnight premiere of this film expecting and hoping for a trainwreck comparable to the first film, which I would describe on the uncomfortable scale as a “being touched inappropriately.”

However, “New Moon” was actually pretty good. The hipster in me loved the soundtrack (Thom Yorke and Bon Iver for the win!) and it was actually very aesthetically pleasing with interesting uses of conventional ideas and symbolism (i.e. the “Romeo and Juliet” cover when Bella falls asleep.

The movie isn’t all white make up and hot topic gift cards though, because let’s face it, the reason behind the movie actually happening is stupid. Edward leaves Bella after absolutely NOTHING happens at a birthday party and then Bella spends half a year whining about instead of doing what women ages 12-46 wanted her to do, which is get with werewolf Jacob Black. Also, there is one awkward part that just makes you feel nostalgic of the first film.

One last note, if you’re a guy DO NOT go see this movie with your significant other. The group of werewolves spend a majority of their time without shirts on and you WILL feel emasculated. I promise.

Lately I get this very weird and mixed emotions…
I Feel ridiculously good… yet sorrowful…
Nostalgic… and insecure…
Divine… and crawling on the floor…
Childish and gorgeous…

That dropdead, shimmering, weird stammering, bottom lip biting, puppy sweet emotional thing…

I feel something i don’t want to get rid of… I feel I want to give someone a hug.. and not let him go…
I feel this urge of being silly, and ridiculous, and childish, and girly, and i hear songs and i want to sing them outloud, and i have this rush, this rash, this itch…

And the only thing i can do is hide the phone from myself… and stop being a sissy coward in the fear of losing up something i hadn’t even gotten…
And remind myself how “All good things are wild and free” in an absolute urge of becoming Wild and Free myself…
Get a damn Grip girl, stop dreaming of this close range, smoldering eye contact, of this perfect, amazing, beautiful, just plain awesome, the blonde hair on the pillow, the outburst of laughter in the middle of the night, This friendship set on fire, and whatever makes me go back to him time after time…

Get a grip… but i can’t stop feeling this awesomely wild and free…

I constantly get this feeling

Damn…. I think I just fell in love…

I’ve got maybe two more regular shows left, including this one, and my Christmas show. Spend my last couple of Wednesday nights on KRUI 89.7 fm with me from 8 to 10 pm, you can also listen in online here.

1. Blondie, Blondie (1976), X Offender

I pulled this sweet image of Debbie Harry off of the Blog entitled “x” Another cool bit of info is that this photo was taken by Bob Gruen who’s exhibit at the MoMA I just got to experience. “x” does a really nice job describing the image, so I won’t go there, if you want to read about it check it out.
2. Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense (1984), Take Me To The River
3. Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures (1979), Disorder
4. Liz Phair, Whitechocolatespaceegg (1998), Polyester Bride
(I’m engaged, and I wouldn’t mind having a polyester dress.)
5. Lyres, 12 Classic 45s, I Want to Help You Ann
6. Mazzy Star, So Tonight That I Might See (1993), Fade Into You
(God I love this song, tell me its not beautiful?)
7. Mission of Burma, Vs. (1982), Trem Two
(Another definite favorite, it’s in my top 10 favorite songs for sure.)
8. New Order, Power Corruption and Lies (1983), Age of Consent

9. The Replacements, Let It Be (1984), Unsatisfied
10. Sonic Youth, Dirty (1992), Theresa’s Sound World

11. Superchunk, Incidental Music 1991-95, Night of Chill Blue
I might have to say this is my favorite Superchunk song.
12. Pixies, Doolittle (1989), Here Comes Your Man
This song just appeals to everyone, I bet even my parents would jam to it and they prefer to rock out to Elvis and Peter Paul and Mary.
13. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (1992), Chicken Walk
14. The Jesus and Mary Chain, Automatic (1989), Head On
(The Pixies do an awesome cover of this track)
15. Pavement, Terror Twilight (1999), Spit on a Stranger
You know what I heard? Pavement is going to be featured on GUITAR HERO! Yuck. Steve what are you doing? You know who else is going to be featured? Spoon. I don’t know why this shocks me and I can’t seem to figure out why it annoys me. If someone can articulate this better than me please do it. For now, I’m going to sit down and think about it.

16. XTC, English Settlement, Senses Working Overtime
17. INXS, The Best of INXS, Need You Tonight
The single came out around 1986.
18. The Psychedelic Furs, Talk Talk Talk (1981), Pretty in Pink

19. Tears for Fears, The Hurting (1983), Change
20. Billy Idol & Generation X, Billy Idol (1982), Dancing With Myself

21. The Swirlies, Cats of the Wild, Vol.2 (2003), Sleepytime
22. Polvo, Exploded Drawing (1996), Bridesmaid Blues
23. Enon, Believo, Cruel
24. The Jam, The Gift (1982), Town Called Malice
25. PJ Harvey, Uh Huh Her (2004), You Came Through
26. Slowdive, Souvlaki (1993), Souvlaki Space Station

I was thrilled when the nice people at C&H Sugar offered me a $20 gift card toward ingredients if I would bake something from their website. Grocery money and the chance to try out some new recipes? Sounds like a good deal to me!

I picked two recipes. First up is Chocolate Chip Blondies. These were easy to make and they turned out so chewy and delicious, thanks to dark brown sugar in the batter. I also appreciated that the recipe is for an 8×8″ pan. Sometimes you want a smaller batch, and I was happy to not have to do the math to reduce the recipe! The recipe for Chocolate Chip Blondies is here.

Chocolate Chip Blondies

I also made Black Bottom Cupcakes. These are a chocolate cake batter with a generous scoop of a cream cheese-chocolate chip mixture in the center. Moist and delicious. No need to choose between cake and cheesecake, because these are the best of both worlds! The recipe for Black Bottom Cupcakes is here.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

This was a lot of treats, so I packed up most of them and sent them to work with my husband to share the joy of fresh baked treats!

Packed up and ready to go

I had a fun time looking at the C&H Sugar website. Along with lots of recipes, they have a page with printables, which includes gift tags and baking gift certificates you can print at home. I always give my dad gift certificates for baked goods, so I’ll be printing some of these cute certificates to use this year! They also have recipes for homemade sugar scrub, which looks really cool. There are lots more neat things on their site, so check it out! Thank you C&H Sugar for asking me to participate!

One more thing for all of you Twitter users out there: Each time #NoKidHungry is mentioned in a tweet, Domino®/C&H® Sugar will donate $1 to the Share Our Strength organization, up to a maximum of $10,000! Please take a minute to send a tweet!

Once upon a time, rap music was all about legitimacy, beginning with the poet activists of the ’60s and the inner-city residents rhyming about life on the streets of the Bronx in the ’70s and ’80s. Then something happened. Something horrible.

The mainstream media began using rap to push everything on consumers, from rapping Chicken Nuggets to video games. Even white-bread celebs like David Faustino and “Rappin’” Rodney Dangerfield tried their hands at the musical genre. Join us as we take you on a detailed, blow-by-blow journey through Where It All Went Wrong. As with so many things that went wrong, it all ends with Miley Cyrus.

Keep reading to travel through time to see the worst raps in history, covering movies, television, commercials and more.

Our journey begins in 1981. Until that point, rap music had safely been kept in the hands of urban toughs who knew how to keep it cool. White suburban rich kids had never even heard of the style. It would have stayed that way, too, if not for the one location where the dregs of urbania mingle with snotty rich kids: the punk clubs. Enter Blondie.

With her horrible flow in “Rapture,” Debbie Harry put rap on the radar of those who would eventually kill it. However, horrible rap music still hovered below the mainstream bubble. So society turned to its number one ambassador for bringing things from the ‘hood to the picket fence: Mr. T.

Mr. T makes it seem OK, even cool to rap like about how to “treat your mother right.” Soon, every celebrity with a big ego and a dearth of performing talent tried to cold shock the mic, ala Rappin’ Rodney:

Despite all this, shoddily constructed raps were still seen as an art form only good for appealing to children. Awful rap would not take the next step until it appeared on the one medium which interests children and low-functioning adults: football. It’s the 1985 Chicago Bears with the “Superbowl Shuffle!”

Now, all of middle America was exposed to music’s latest art-form-turned-marketing-gimmick. And what a played-out gimmick it became. Nerdy kids bought into it, as evidenced by this “Legend of Zelda” rap.

The Lakers did it, proving they’re the richer, slower guy’s equivalent of the Chicago Bears.

British people who worked on Wall Street bought into it:

This was right about the point where the fad reached its peak of ridiculousness, then began to collapse upon itself like a dying star. This phenomenon was documented in the following video. (The rap starts at 2:20, but the whole thing is hilariously horrible.)

Via: Asylum

After a very successful 2009, IoW Festival have announced a superb set of headliners for 2o10. Hip hop superstar Jay – Z and Julian Casablancas’ The Strokes have been penned in  for the event, with the former topping the bill on the opening night (June 11), with the indie stars taking to the stage the following night.

As well as the two headliners, organisers have also confirmed veteran act Blondie, dance legends Orbital and Pink for the summer event. One more headliner is set to be announced closer to the event.

The festival will take take place from 11th – 13th June, with tickets set to go on sale on Friday 4th December.

(Image courtesy of www.isleofwightfestival.com)

Deborah Harry, surviving New York, 1976, by Bob Gruen

Debbie Harry: “The idea was to be desirable, feminine, and vulnerable, but with a resilient, tenacious wit, rather than poor female sapped of her strength by hearthrob.”

Gigwise.com is this morning reporting that current NME “album of the decade” holders The Strokes, and ‘go to Hip Hop headliner’ Jay-Z are to team up and take the reigns at next years the Isle Of Wight Festival.

Other artists also announced to perform at the festival are Oribital, Squeeze, Blondie and power-pop star Pink.  A rather odd mix of artists thus far, but as this is the first headling show from The Strokes since 2006 it’s sure to be a popular one nonetheless.

The festival takes place, as per usual, at Seaclose Park, from 11th – 13th June with tickets going on sale this Friday at 9am from the usual outlets.

Blondie, released December 1976

1. X Offender (Deborah Harry, Gary Valentine)

Of the eleven numbers from Blondie’s debut album in this post, six of them: Little Girl Lies, Look Good in Blue, Man Overboard, Rifle Range, Contact in Red Square and Kung-Fu Girls were recorded live for the German TV show Musikladen on 21 January 1978 (There are more songs from the Musikladen recordings in the Plastic Letters page).

2. Little Girl Lies (Harry, Chris Stein) – live 21 jan 78 on German TV, Musikladen

3. In the Flesh (Harry, Chris Stein)

4. Look Good in Blue (Jimmy Destri) – Musikladen 21 jan 78

5. In the Sun (Stein)

6. A Shark in Jet’s Clothing (Destri) – Audio only. The provider gives the date 21 September ‘77.

7. Man Overboard (Harry) - Musikladen 21 jan 78

8. Rip Her to Shreds (Deborary Harry, Chris Stein) – live

9. Rifle Range (Stein, Ronnie Toast)

a. live on Musikladen 21 jan 78

b. slide show over album track

10. Kung-Fu Girls (Destri, Harry, Valentine)

a. album track

b. Contact in Red Square (Destri) from the second Blondie album, Plastic Letters (77), and Kung-Fu Girls – live on Musikladen 21 jan 78

11. The Attack of the Giant Ants (Stein)

Blondie’s second album, released October 1977

1. Fan Mail (James Destri)- live on Musikladen 21 jan 78

The following songs on this page are from Blondie’s appearance on the German TV show Musikladen on 21 January 1978: Fan Mail, Youth Nabbed as a Sniper, Contact in Red Square, I’m on E (first one), I Didn’t Have the Nerve to Say No, Love at the Pier, Kidnapper, and Cautious Lip (the second one).

2. Denis (Neil Levenson)

a. The original video in HQ is available, but the embedding is disabled. Click on the image of Debbie Harry doing a little strip tease. This link was made incorrectly at the time I put it in. Sorry folks. Fixed it on 2/12/09 at 9:24 AM PST.

b. same video, a bit worse quality, with a cheesy intro added

c. live, German TV

3. Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45) – (Chris Stein) – see also the second song in the I Didn’t Have the Nerve live video, track 8.

a. live at the Old Waldorf, SF – 21 Sep 77. Audio with slides.

b. this one is labeled “version 2″. studio track with slide show

4. Youth Nabbed as a Sniper (Chris Stein)

a. Musikladen 21 jan 78

b. Second song is Kung Fu Girls, track 10 from Blondie. This appears to be from the same session as track #7b, a performance for the Beat Club, 2 dec 78.

5. Contact in Red Square (Destri). Song two is, again, Kung Fu Girls (Destri, Harry, Valentine) – Musikladen 21 jan 78

6. (I’m Always Touched By Your) Prescence, Dear (Gary Valentine) – Harry’s intro: “Alright you monkeys, this next one’s called…” – live on Old Grey Whistle Test. Blondie follows this song with Detroit 442 (see track 12, below)

7. I’m on E (Harry, Stein)

a. Musikladen 21 jan 1978

b. live at the Beat Club, Germany – 2 dec 78

Here comes side two

8. I Didn’t Have the Nerve to Say No (Destri, Harry)

a. album track

b. live on Musikladen – 21 jan 78. Second song is Bermuda Triangle Blues (Flight 45)

9. Love at the Pier (Debby Harry) – “Is there any ocean here?” – Musikladen – 21 jan 78

10. No Imagination (Destri) – album track

11. Kidnapper (Destri) – Musikladen, German TV – 21 jan 78

12. Detroit 442 (Destri, Stein)

a. official video.  click on the image to watch the video because the embedding is disabled.

b. live on Old Grey Whistle Test

13. Cautious Lip (Stein, Ronnie Toast)

a. live at the Old Waldorf, SF – 21 Sep 77 – audio with slides

b. Musikladen 21 jan 78