Banksy Buzz

LA's been all about BANKSY recently. See the Oscar's are Sunday, and senor Banksy and his movie "Exit Through the Gift Shop" are up for Best Documentary.

"Crayola Shooter" on the Urban Outfitter's in Westwood -
which I walk by everyday

So "Banksy" has been tagging tinseltown for the last week and a half or so.  Annnnd, of the seven new Banksy works that popped up this month (that I know of), 4 of them are on the very route I commute on - or were, two have already been removed.  Pretty pretty awesome.


Okay The LA Banksy tour recap in case you want to wander around LA and check them out:  There are 5 still up that I know of.  "Crayola shooter" is still up in Westwood, "Livin' the Dream" - the billboard on Sunset has been taken down, "Charlie Brown arsonist" - which was on an abondoned burned down buidling in West Hollywood, was stolen or removed or something, "Dog Wizz" is in Beverly Hills and is still up, and I haven't seen the other three, "Kite Caution," "Crayola House Foreclosure," and "This looks a bit like an elephant" but I think they're still up. Recap photo from here.

Okay, where are they: Just click on the map to go to the actual google map for more precise locations.

UPDATE: "Kite Caution" and "Crayola House Foreclosure" are no more...gone...removed by thieves or the owner or something.

Under the Influence...

Cover's playlist!  Okay, so Rob and I made a music mix comprised solely of cover's; only rule was we had to know the cover as a cover, ie knew the original first.  It was crazy how many amazing cover's we came across.  We found so many awesome one's we ended up having massive creative differences on which one's would actually make the CD, but after a time-out, we were finally able to settle on this list:

All Time High  Pulp covering Rita Coolidge
Weighted Down  Beck Record Club covering Skip Spence
Everyday is like Sunday  the Pretenders covering Morissey
It's all over now, Baby Blue  Them feat. Van Morrison covering Bob Dylan
The Headmaster Ritual  Radiohead covering the Smiths
Within You Without You  Sonic Youth covering the Beatles
Temptation  Diana Krall covering Tom Waits
Lover Lover Lover  Ian McCulloch covering Leonard Cohen
Love will never tear us apart  the Cure covering Joy Division
Darklands  Primal Scream covering the Jesus and Mary Chain
Creep  the Pretenders covering Radiohead
Bird on a Wire  Johnny Cash covering Leonard Cohen
Disco 2000  Nick Cave covering Pulp
Pale Blue Eyes  Patti Smith covering the Velvet Underground

My Girl  the Jesus and Mary Chain covering the Temptations

People Are Strange  Echo & the Bunnymen covering the Doors

Into the Groove(y)  Ciccone Youth covering Madonna

What a Wonderful World  Nick Cave covering Louis Armstrong

The Whitey Album cover 

Only going to listen to one?  Okay, pick Into the Groove(y).  Like we needed another reason to be consumed by Sonic Youth, but here it is: Ciccone Youth!  Ciccone Youth is this amazing, twisted, experimental side-project from the members of Sonic Youth, all working under the guise/pseudonym...and a sort of homage to the superqueen of pop, Madonna, who was living in the same area of NYC when both groups were just starting out.  They cover 2 of her songs on the album and do a bunch of other weird stuff for the rest.  I love it!

Fun facts: Ciccone is actual Madonna's last name; the "band" formed in 1986 and put out 2 records, the Whitey Album started after the band joked about covering the Beatles; all the band members took on an alias (Thurston Moore = The Royal Tuff Titty, drummer Steve Shelley = SS Beat Control, Lee Ranaldo = The Sigh, Kim Gordon = Fly Fly Away) and did hilarous gag interviews, toured, etc.

FRIDAZE

Morning music mix on the 6:46

LA River - view from the train

BANG BANG nancy sinatra
PARADISE CIRCLE massive attack
SHADOW OF A DOUBT sonic youth
AMERIMACKA thievery corporation
LEMONADE cocorosie
UTOPIA goldfrapp
LET ME TAKE YOU OUT class actress
GLORY BOX portishead
ELEPHANT WOMAN blonde redhead
ONE STEP TOO FAR faithless
BREATHE télépopmusik
ENDLESS SPRING houses

IN A BEAUTIFUL PLACE... boards of canada

CLIMBING UP THE WALLS radiohead (zero 7 mix)


Turns out trip hop really does it for me when stuck on public transportation in the morning.

What does not so much do it for me?  All the germ ridden denizens of the jam packed metro 720.  Come on people, dracula cough.  I'm not joking buddy, into the elbow nook.  I have never so actively avoided touching my eyes and mouth before - still, it will be a miracle if I avoid the flu this year.  For the first time, I'm actually considering getting the flu vaccine.

See I found this little bad boy on the LA County Department of Public Health's communicable disease website; and that chart's from this week. So looks like the number of sickies on the bus is only going to get worse.  By the way, let me tell you, that website is a hypochondriacs worst nightmare.  People in LA are getting all kinds of diseases...Typhoid, Malaria, Dengue, Hep A-Z, West Nile, parasites galore, Kawasaki Syndrome - I thought that was a motorcycle, but 70 people got it last year.  Okay, those diseases are pretty pretty rare, we're talking 10 million people in Los Angeles, but still typhoid? Whoa.  I'm not even going to get into the STDs, those numbers are crazy.

Wow, sorry about that, I'm studying epidemiology right now. One last music video.  Love the song and the music video's weirdly fitting and cool too.  Oh, and you should know, it might actually be impossible to keep Zach Braff in his wallpaper patterned shirt out of your head when listening to this song, just go with it.  Thanks Britain for all your great work in this genre.

Robe violette et Anémones

My curves are not crazy.  
   - Matisse

...

Well, a barrage of rain, some untimely winds, and a huge eucalyptus tree literally crushed my ability to post the rest of my self-preservation tactics aimed at surviving the holidays.  Days before Christmas I was standing outside as a falling eucalyptus tree down the street pummeled 7 power, cable, and internet poles.  It was awesome.  A week, stuck in your house, with your family, no cable, internet or phone.  A real Christmas miracle.  Anyway, the rest of my game plan would have had something to do with prescription drugs, Schindler's List, and my Great Aunt Kayleen.  It remains unformulated.

Music time:

Haphazard for the Holidays - Strategy for Survival #1

Alright, love 'em or hate 'em, everyone needs a strategy for surviving the holidays.  For me, I'm going to take it day by day, adapt, like a chameleon.  The Von Trapps are coming over for a sing-a-long, no problem, I just remembered I have to run to the mall for a last minute item real quick, where I will sit at Starbucks with my laptop for an hour. Insert nosy relative's name here wants to have a one on one chat about where your life is going, no big deal, confess to not having a life plan and grab some more pie. But even with this bullet-proof master plan in play, I've decided to nail down some specific tactics to ensure a Happy Holiday.  So:

Strategy #1 for Surviving the Holidays: find a completely refreshing and new band you just can't get enough of - and listen to them ALL THE TIME.  My pick: Warpaint.

Okay, they're not exactly new, having been around since 2004, but they're new to me. Four girls from Silverlake, hypnotic and psychedelic, intricate weaving of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and a little dissonance as the cherry on top.  Needless to say, but I will anyway, I really like them.  Their newest album is called The Fool, check it out.

Don't worry with dysfunction running rampant through all those warm and gooey family holiday moments, I've got more strategies to come.  Stay tuned folks.

Helllllo December! So glad you're here!

I had a few ideas for this blog post...

• FIFA - Russia, cool. Qatar...really? I mean okay I guess.
• Pirate Bay - the "menacing" makers are going to prison.  Hmmm, well I get why companies/judges with their hands in the company money jar, I mean, ahem impartial government officials are angry, but private companies controlling the internet, well I don't like it
• Cute baby polar bears who get eaten by their fathers, as seen on NatGeo; did not like!

Anyway, when it came down to it, turns out I didn't have it in me to actually write a post on any of them. Oh well, here's an article by someone not as lazy: What a third of the world has TB??? Okay, I knew that, probably has something to do with me studying diseases or something. But, really, wow.

Every time I hear someone cough on the bus, I cringe.  I'm convinced I'm either being exposed to TB or whooping cough.