I think of myself as a happy and hopeful soul but somehow i have a penchant for sad music and the way it can capture a feeling had or imagined. PBS' Art Beat recently interviewed Adam Brent Houghtaling, author of "This Will End in Tears" The Miserabilist Guide to Music". Here is the video interview.
Apparently the book is filled with numerous playlists in each section
and the grand finale, which may live up to the name of the book, is a
top 100 sad songs list. The list has been conveniently transcribed via Spotify. Check it out here and leave your own comments for your favorite sad song.
I can't believe I hadn't come across this before, but what a pleasure it was to find this gem whilst randomly killing time in Urban Outfitters. So what is it that could get me so excited I hear you ask - the most useful book for any visitor to London (or indeed local) - Pimp London: The Guide aka "the definitive guide to London for global style hunters". This is definitely going to blow your Lonely Planet out of the water, because this is not for you if you're looking for how to get from Buckingham Palace to Big Ben, but this is a guide to where real Londoners spend their time and hard earned cash, enjoying the best of the capital's rich and diverse culture. Featuring the best of art/culture/bars/clubs/shops in all four corners of London town.
Brought to you by the guys at pimpguides, who "publish the most luxurious free magazine on the market - a hardback collectable style and street culture title" as well as being an "artist agency [which] represents some of the world's biggest and best contemporary street artists whose work you can buy in [their] online store" and they also "throw parties, art exhibitions and music events" to boot! Phew! So you can rest assured these guys know what they're talking about.
I had a lot of fun competing with my mates to see which places we had been to and which ones we'd heard of - ah, the stories of people jumping fully clothed into the pool at The Aquarium! One of my favourite features are the interviews with London style icons and trensetters asking the question, "Someone arrives in London for only 4 hours, where do you take them?" which is a great question for any city in the world. So, come on pimp peeps, when are the LA and NYC editions coming out?
Warner Brothers just released this new poster to their big alternative comic book movie "Watchmen." Some of you may recall seeing the trailer before "The Dark Knight." Kinda hard to explain the concept of the story, but let's just say it's a ridiculously interesting look at how the real world would mesh with masked heroes. The film is based on the epic graphic novel by famed writer Alan Moore- a piece that's not only considered one of the greatest comics of all time, but one that's been named to several "best NOVELs of the 20th century" lists. Zack Snyder of 300 fame is on directing duty, and the cast is pretty badass- Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Billy Crudup, and Jackie Earle Haley to name a few. Here's the trailer for those of you that haven't seen it yet:
The last James Bond 007 Movie, "Casino Royale" served as an awesome reboot to a franchise that was starting to get really cheesy. Led my a gritty performance by Daniel Craig (he killed like 3 dudes with his bare hands!), the series is back on track, and the next film "Quantum of Solace" (weird name, I know) is coming out this November. Hopefully this movie will give us more of the witty dialogue and really show the human side of the characters while maintaining all the style... Brioni tuxedos and Aston Martins anyone?
The Aston Martin DBS - Big British Pimpin' 007 Style
The film is directed by Mark Forster, which seems like a bizarre choice given his previous works- "Stranger than Fiction," "Kite Runner," and "Finding Neverland." That said, these new Daniel Craig driven Bond films really seem to get into the characters as opposed to senseless action sequences so who knows, it could totally work. Between this and "Defiance" (see the awesome trailer here) it looks like Craig has a great year ahead of him. Now, kick back and checkout the trailer to the 22nd James Bond film... I'm stoked for it:
Penguin Books has commissioned illustrator Michael Gillette to redesign the covers to the classic Ian Fleming James Bond novels (the original source material for the James Bond Films). Love this idea and hope it helps to sell some books and gets a few more people to actually read.
Penguin's earlier foray into hiring hip artists to redesign classic book covers saw Shepard Fairey (of "Obey" fame) redesign the covers to classic George Orwell novels "Animal Farm" and "1984." Given Fairey's avid usage of communist imagery, red tones and stars, it was a great fit with the undertone of Orwell's stories.
So earlier today I read this article, and it absolutely amazed me. Apparently, this guy Alex Roy (a famous driver on the renegade road rally circuit), broke the speed record for getting across the country (NY to LA) in a car- 31 hours and 7 minutes. That's an average of 89 miles per hour! The previous record was set in 1983. To be completely accurate, Roy actually set the record in October of last year, but was only able to make the press release now after the statutes of limitations for all the states in which he broke the speeding laws had passed!
I totally understand that this may not be the most responsible or safe pursuit, but regardless, the story totally pumped me up... I mean, this guy is the closest thing to a modern day pirate! His 'pirate ship' was a BMW M5 disguised as a German Police car! What his story to the real police was going to be as to what a German police car was doing in America, I wouldn't know.
31 hours people! 31 hours! I've done the cross country road-trip several times, and my best time was 52 hours!
Roy's ridiculous speed aside, my own trips were definitely memorable and introspective experiences. Last summer, one of my best friends and I drove from DC to LA, through Cincinnati, St. Louis, Kansas City, Denver, Vegas, and much more. The trip was filled with fun misadventures and only one minor scuffle. When I told my FoundTrack Amigo that I wanted to post the aforementioned story on our Blog, he suggested viewing the following music video to Lacquer's "Behind." I watched it, and it definitely captured the feeling of that festive cross country journey last summer:
Want to know what we were listening to on OUR cross country journey? Truth be told, the very first album of more than 50 we listened to along the way, was our very own July' 06 mixtape
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