Mini Rambly Update

My sister Emily graduated from Massey University today! My aunt has the photos on her camera, so I'll post those at a later date, just a couple from my phone for now. Dad's face in that last photobooth picture is cracking me up. It was a beauuutiful sunny day, this weather is so ridiculous and amazing for May. The graduation ceremony itself was actually really enjoyable, I suspect it wasn't as long as those some of my friends have attended because it didn't drag on at all. Emily looked beautiful as always, and it was lovely celebrating with the family. Super proud of my little sister!

I ended up coming back to Wellington after dinner tonight rather than going to my parents' house. My birthday on Friday is going to be pretty busy with a couple of medical appointments (lucky me!) and just celebrating with Charlie, so I think I'll do some big time cleaning around home tomorrow and hopefully some drawing once my workspace is tidy again... Busy weekend ahead with another Arthritis New Zealand event on Saturday (I'm speaking on a panel) and a family lunch on Sunday. May is mad.

I'm being really common and listening to this song a lot lately. Those of you overseas may have already heard it after it got some Buzzfeed attention. To be honest I didn't see what the fuss was about when I first listened. And something about her face reminds me of someone from my past I have no good feelings towards. But after that one listen I had it stuck in my head and went crawling back to it again after a couple of days of  repeating 'royyyals... ruuuler' under my breath. I love her hair in this video so much. Super styled I guess, but it still kinda sorta makes me want to stop damaging my hair with straighteners and let the curls go for it... When I was at high school I used to wear it curly a lot, and it formed such nice ringlets. It's so damaged and dry now that no matter how many treatments I try, the curls just frizz apart. This post is going somewhere really boring so just watch the damn video and goodnight. Haha.

 

Lil Dicky

Our Friday night soundtrack, hilarious (fair warning; naughty language and bums).

Influential Albums

Renee has quickly become my favourite local blogger, and you should all click over to her page pronto. She recently posted her most life changing albums, so I decided to do the same. I've only included albums that were released during my lifetime - really to save myself the trouble of thinking about when, and by whom, I was introduced to older musicians that make my favourites list.

Hanson - Middle of Nowhere 1997

When I was a child I listened to children's songs or my parents' music. Sometimes the radio I guess, but MMMBop was my first introduction to (at the time) current pop music as far as I recall. Hanson was the first band to make me go 'oooer yeah, I'm a fan! Zac Hanson forev's [or the '90s pre-teen equivalent - rocks?]!' etc.

5ive - 5ive 1998

I never got into the Backstreet Boys really, preferred Westlife. But as for dancing around my bedroom and boyband crushes, Scott from 5ive was all I needed. I just had a look back through the track list from that album and the cringe worthy lyrics have come screaming back to me.

Silverchair - Neon Ballroom 1999

I really liked Anthem for the Year 2000 when this album was released, and dubbed the album on cassette from a friend. But really I didn't get into this album until a few years later - closer to the end of high school.

Zed - Silencer 2000

If you're a family member or old friend reading this, you're aware of how intense my Zed obsession was. If you're in neither of those categories, then it's totally best that you don't know. Zed was like New Zealand's early noughties Beatles (am I going to get hate for that statement?) Their musical talent and legacy of course bears next to no comparison. But the mania? From jumpy old news footage it seems rather similar. New Zealand's cheesy teen magazine at the time, Creme, was basically an illustrated love letter to the group for months on end, and girls went batshit for them - myself included.

Rufus Wainwright - Poses 2001

Another album I didn't really get into until a few years after its release, but I chose Rufus' Poses of all his releases because Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk was his first song I remember hearing. I have all his albums now (though am yet to buy a physical copy of Out of the Game for complete-collection's sake) and he's in my top three musicians.

Rolling Stones - Forty Licks 2002

Kind of cheating with this inclusion - but technically this compilation was released in my teens. Dad's a Stones fan, so I did grow up listening to their music, and I believe their Wellington concert in 2006 was my first proper 'headline concert'.

David Byrne - Lead Us Not Into Temptation 2003

I think I watched Young Adam around 2005, and adored the soundtrack by David Byrne - The Great Western Road is probably my favourite song of all time. I do like a lot of Talking Heads songs, but they were one of my ex's favourite bands so I have to admit they've been soured a little for me. I hate how that happens. Fortunately David Byrne's solo work is even more to my taste, and I went to his concert at the Michael Fowler Centre in 2009 - another musician in my top three.

Lostprophets - Start Something 2004

I included this album on my list because Lostprophets was the first group I was introduced to online by some UK 'friends' in my early MySpace days. It seemed to take foreverrr for Start Something to be released in New Zealand - or at least become available in my local Sounds store - but when it arrived I snapped it up, and took great delight in being an 'old fan' when people around me jumped on the Burn Burn bandwagon. Such a wannabe snob.

Hellogoodbye - Hellogoodbye EP 2004

Hellogoodbye was another MySpace introduction, from a friend in California. I bought their imported EP on a Wellington trip at Real Groovy, and used Jesse Buy Nothing... Go to Prom Anyways on my sixth form Media Studies film - mainly because the 'prom' in the song is held on my birthday.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah 2005

This album will forever remind me of art class in my final two years of high school. We rotated students' CDs through the player, but whenever no one had anything decent to offer, the teacher's copy of this album was played on repeat. I guess the memory association thing is really effective, because it's still in my 'art time' playlist.

Kate Miller-Heidke - Curiouser 2008

I think my introduction to Kate Miller Heidke was her Are You Fucking Kidding Me? (Facebook Song) video which did the sharing rounds on, well, Facebook - but I can't quite remember. She's now the third musician in my 'top three' list, and while I listened to Little Eve and Curiouser tracks shuffled in together, Curiouser contains my favourite of her songs, No Truck. I have to be honest that I haven't listened to much of her latest release Nightflight yet, but I have a few Fatty Gets a Stylist (collaboration with her husband) songs in my iTunes.

Kimbra - Vows 2011

I still periodically add CDs to my collection when I spot a bargain, but Kimbra's Vows is the first new release physical album I've purchased in years. I distinctly remember the first time I saw the Settle Down video, at our apartment in Boulcott Street (admittedly this was only two years ago), and initially fell in love with her haircut. The Somebody That I Used to Know phenomenon was when I really jumped on board, and I bought her solo album the day it was released here.

Please let me know if you create your own list of influential albums, or let me know some of your favourites below!

Rufus on Ellen

Rufus was on Ellen last week (the episode aired here today but I totally cheated and watched it online. I am too impatient). Watch the whole performance here, and check out the video for the song if you're a Helena Bonham Carter fan. If you're not familiar with his music and this song isn't your cup of tea, I strongly urge you listen to the rest of the album, or better yet his earlier work - Release the Stars is probably my favourite. I have to confess I've bought the Out of the Game single on iTunes, but have only been listening to the album itself online so far... I'll definitely buy it when I'm back on my feet financially. Also on my shopping list will be a pair of those floral pants...

I need to start buying Lotto tickets so we can go see him again in Australia this September. Wish me luck.

Waiata II

While loading all my CDs into iTunes I rediscovered some albums I hadn't listened to in a long time, particularly by Australasian artists. Since a couple of you enjoyed my previous New Zealand music recommendations post, I thought you might be interested in hearing some older stuff (early 2000s) from these parts. Apologies that some of the video/audio quality is a bit shit, it was the best I could find.

Things that have kept me entertained

Hi, friends! Happy Easter, et cetera. I am feeling pretty good today, thank goodness. And thanks so much for your well wishes. I need to work out how to enable the 'reply' function on comments... I tried following a tutorial but it didn't seem to work for comments in a pop-up window, which is what I prefer... let me know if you know how to get around this, and I'll do some Googling at some stage too. Otherwise might just have to change the comment display setting, because it is a great feature I should use.

So, over the past couple of weeks I've spent a LOT of time alternating between sleeping and trying to prevent boredom. I've watched several movies, but I think I'll do a brief review of each in a separate post.

I watched the six episodes in the second season of Miranda, because I'd only seen season one on NZ TV - such fun. And Tom Ellis is so cute, but in a very charismatic kind of way... in that, the Google images I just looked at make him look like Ted from HIMYM, but he's far more attractive on the show.

I sat with my phone and read through many, many pages of the STFU Parents blog, lol-ing all the way. I am probably just totally slacking on this one since the site recently celebrated its third birthday, but this shit is hilarious. The term "mommyjacking" fills me with glee (and despair, I suppose).

I also read a lot of xoJane articles on my phone - not sure whether there's an even better way of reading it, but their mobile site on Safari is great; just a list of articles and super easy to skip way back in time.

I try and watch Ellen every day even when I'm healthy, but haven't missed an episode the past couple of weeks (although they seem to be playing repeats for the school holidays which is annoying. I hate how television schedules outside of normal school hours change... by all means, put cartoons or whatever on 8-3, but why do we all have to suffer in the evenings, man? Clearly when I'm housebound I get even more passionate about what's on the box). But anyway, I love Ellen - I don't know how anyone could not. And I have most definitely been known to spend several hours watching her hidden camera segments on YouTube.

I've been playing a lot of Draw Something, although it irritates me that despite parting with a couple of dollars for the upgrade, I'm still getting the same words over and over again. It's fun though, those interactive games are so great for super-boredom - always a bunch of games waiting for you or the last resort of starting a new one with a random player. My favourite is definitely Scramble With Friends, which is the Bogglesque, less-popular sibling of Words With Friends. If you want to play me on either my username is NicetiesCoNz haha. I'm not sure how you can find me on Draw Something, because I stupidly signed up through Facebook, so I'm just Alice J, which is obviously no help.

I really don't know what I would have done without YouTube on my phone and our relatively-new unlimited broadband plan during this time. I've discovered so many new favourite channels, but I'm incredibly bad at remembering to subscribe to those I like, which later leads to searches like "facebook rant blonde girl" and such. I mostly watch beauty gurus, but Charlie and I watched a lot of mostly-'90s music videos together on Thursday evening which was fun. And I came across Sophie Madeleine's Pumped Up Kicks cover, which I mainly love because she reminds me of Marie Schrader from Breaking Bad, not gonna lie. But she does have a beautiful voice, too.

I've watched wayyy too many beauty gurus to list, but I'll make special mention of Shannon from Palmerston North who's going to be featured on NZ 20/20 in the coming weeks. Those of you who are local may have to get past her strong accent as I did, but she's pretty entertaining if you enjoy that type of thing, and I'm envious of her on-camera confidence.

Yesterday was Friday, and Charlie moved my computer and art supplies into the bedroom. Which I know is probably super bad feng shui, but we have a small house and too many computers! And mine's the desktop that can pick up wireless, so it makes sense. I also think it might be good for me in terms of creating more artwork, since I won't have the distraction of the TV and the view - though the light isn't as great... but to be honest I do most of my painting at night anyway.

Not that I've picked up a paintbrush in several weeks now, though I have used my sketchbook quite a bit. I started a portrait a few weeks ago and then abandoned it, incomplete, and when I pulled it out of a pile of paper yesterday I discovered a Wallace tooth-shaped hole in the bottom right-hand corner. So either I have to adopt that as my signature, or bin it. Bugger.

Also yesterday I imported most of my CDs into iTunes, which was great because the only other time I attempted to do that was on an ancient triangle-box shaped Mac and each disc took like and hour so I gave up. I thought having my own computer would be handy in stopping those times when Charlie and I both need to use his PC, but it's also really fun personalising it.

Congratulations if you made it to the final paragraphs of this post! I know it's not terribly exciting, but as is my life lately! I'm spending some time with my sister Emily today - we're going to do some shopping and then film a video together, so that should be something interesting to post here! I'm not sure how soon it will be ready though, as editing it will be my first attempt at using this version of iMovie so we'll see how it goes. I also have a video to edit and upload of me getting my Humira shot... but no, I didn't do it myself. I tried. I really wanted to do it. But I had to call Charlie for help in the end, and it stung like a bitch this time too which won't help my confidence for next time.

Anyway, fingers crossed I'll be visiting my parents tomorrow for Easter Sunday, so very much looking forward to that. I hope you all have a great Easter break, and scoff heaps of chocolate.

Totes Adorbs Tuesday

Now, I don't know if this will become a regular thing, and I certainly don't know whether it would continue to have this title- I cannot always be as chipper as I am right now! But I have a bunch of cute things I've seen recently that I'd like to share with you.

If I could have my way, my home decor would take Marie Schrader's colour scheme taste to a purple extreme... in one room, at least. I adore the combination with mustardy-gold in these two photos from Alspics and Homedit.

I've been following New Zealander Jo's Lost in the Haze blog for a little while, and her most recent Madeline post was one of the cutest outfits I've seen in ages! For the fashionably-inclined among you, go and check out her blog to see what your New Zealand equivalent is wearing.

And if street fashion's your bag, you can't go past Wallace Chapman's Street and City Photos blog. (I may be just a little biased after winning the Eyes of Common ring from him, but it really does have some beautiful images). Photos are mostly from my city, Wellington, and New Zealand's largest city Auckland. Plus, it's updated daily.

If you have NZ$165,000 (or-there-abouts) perhaps you will consider purchasing (me) this ridiculously amazing house boat for sale on Trade Me?

I love this beautiful watercolour by Fiona Connor which is part of the Documentation through Drawing: Demolition at the Auckland Art Gallery series. Thanks to Jo for the photograph!

And finally, these are the four songs I've been listening on repeat for the past week or so (literally, on repeat- I must be so annoying to be around).

Wallace & the Dresden Dolls

So it's been a week since I wrote an actual post on here, which annoys me because I want to make a more regular appearance around these parts. I haven't been particularly busy at all, but rather my brains been occupied by things I can't really blog about. At this point in time a least.

Also, even though I have now found ten rechargeable batteries strewn throughout the house and charged up four of them, and even put my camera back in my handbag... I forget to use it. Instagram sure makes me use my iPhone camera more than I would otherwise, but it's almost too much! So I don't really have any photography to show you either, other than these snaps of Wallace.

And for those of you who really love Wallace (which is hopefully most of you, otherwise I don't really know why you visit!) here's a short video of him falling asleep on Friday night, on his back, on my lap. It was a super chilly evening (for Summer, anyway) so I was curled up with him in a sleeping bag watching Shortland Street.

Yesterday my friend Jo came down from Tauranga. I used to work with her in 2007 at Te Papa's Espresso Cafe, and then when I met my friend Sarah in 2009 through an arthritis support group I discovered she was Jo's flatmate so we re-met again; Wellington really is such a small-town city! So we sat in the sun yesterday afternoon drinking a few beers (getting a little sunburned, oops) before heading down to the Opera House for the Dresden Dolls concert. I'd heard of them before, and followed Amanda Palmer on Twitter, but I hadn't really listened to their music before Jo asked me if I wanted to go. From what I saw on YouTube, they seemed cool though probably not music I'd listen to otherwise... but I'm down for a night of live music.

I was crazy-impressed by them, Amanda's a phenomenal vocalist live and is such a badass. It was really fun! Plus they played for almost three hours. Also really enjoyed the opening act which was Princess Chelsea (and three other musicians but I'm not sure they have a collective name) from Auckland. One of the musicians was Jonathan Bree from The Brunettes and their Cigarette Duet was my favourite song they played because his voice is gorgeous. I've bought that song on iTunes today, and you can watch the video below. Besides being aurally magical, the lyrics are so very true.

I did have my camera with me, but ended up just snapping rather crappy phone photos instead. Even though several people were snapping away with flashes... I'm a wimp. Don't want to get told off. Seriously, it's a problem.

Mette Lindberg

This advertisement has been on TV for a while now, but I never paid much attention nor bothered to Google the song until now. My new I-wish-I-could-be-you crush.

One week until Christmas! More posting of substance this week, I swear.

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Waiata

The New Zealand Music Awards are being held in Auckland tonight. I haven't taken much notice of who's nominated for what this year, but I thought I'd share my six favourite songs by New Zealand musicians from the past few years. Let me know what you think of any you listen to!

Oink

1976

2006

2011

"The original Pink Floyd pig was designed by Roger Waters and built in December 1976 by the artist Jeffrey Shaw with help of Designers team Hipgnosis, in preparation for shooting the cover of the Animals album. Plans were made to fly the forty-foot, helium-filled balloon over Battersea Power Station on the first day's photo-shoot, with a marksman prepared to shoot the pig down if it broke free. However, the pig was not launched.

On the second day, the marksman wasn't present because no one had told him to return, and the pig broke free due to a strong gust of wind on the third day, gaining a lot of press coverage. It disappeared from sight within five minutes, and was spotted by airline pilots at thirty thousand feet in the air. Flights at Heathrow Airport were cancelled as the huge inflatable pig flew through the path of aircraft, eastwards from Britain and out over the English Channel, finally landing on a rural farm in Kent that night.

The pig was recovered and repaired for the resumption of photography for the album cover, but unfortunately the sky was cloudless and blue, thus "boring". However, the pictures of the sky from the first day were suitable; eventually, the album cover was created using a composite of photos from the first and third days."

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Leisure

I feel like I haven't written anything of substance in quite a while, so I'll attempt to change that some time this week! Although I suppose it's kind of a good thing, because it means I don't have anything to rant about. For now, here are a few things I've been keeping busy with lately.

Game of Thrones

Charlie watched the HBO series Game of Thrones through in about a week, and is now reading his way through the books. I've watched about five episodes so far. It's definitely not my genre of choice- I don't really enjoy any kind of medieval nor fantasy entertainment. It's well made, and there are some brilliant characters, but it's definitely not a series I would have sought out if Charlie didn't have it. I will keep watching though, because I do want to know what happens! Also, I realise it's her title, but 'Khaleesi' is such a pretty name. And Maisie Williams as Arya is adorable, her eyebrows are fantastic. If medieval fantasy is your thing, then I'm certain you'd adore this show.

Breaking Bad

I've also been watching the new season of my favourite show ever, Breaking Bad. Waiting for each Monday (New Zealand time) to swing around is torturous, although I guess it makes the whole back-to-work thing less painful. Intense, intelligent, tragic drama- that's definitely my preference. I won't spoil anything for those of you who haven't been watching (watch, watch!) but this season is sooo good! Aaron Paul's acting is mesmerising, as always. I'm not really siding with any particular character so far this season, I just love them all and want shit to go downnn!

I've been doing some work on my Monthly Painters' Challenge submission as the reveal date is next week. Definitely have a lot of work left to do but I'm confident I'll make good progress over the weekend. Check back here next week to see it, or 'like' the MPC Facebook page to stay updated about everyone's work.

While working on my painting I've been listening to Kimbra's debut album Vows which was finally released last week. I was considering going all out and writing a proper review of it, but it seemed a little redundant to write an album review on the internet. Surely it's easier for you to click some links to YouTube and listen to it yourself? I've listened to it about 10 times since I got it, and her singles are still my favourite tracks. The album version of Settle Down is even better than the version on YouTube in my opinion, and I also love Cameo Lover and Good Intent.

And lastly, I'm reading Divergent by Veronica Roth- following Lauren's recommendation on this post, I ordered it on Trade Me. I've only just started, currently on chapter two. I guess when I say I don't like fantasy it's not entirely true- I definitely enjoy futuristic worlds, dystopian fiction... oh, and films about aliens. Anyway, so far so good with this book, and I'll definitely write a review once I've finished it. I know Lauren's blog is well-followed, so is anyone else reading this book at the moment (or already read it)?

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Woman Like a Man

Can't say I care much for her music, but I have to like Lady Gaga. She's a walking work of art.

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New Kimbra video

Damn she's good. I'm still crazy about her duet with Gotye posted a few weeks ago now- apparently it's almost at overkill point on TV and radio, but fortunately I pretty much only watch/listen to the news... Her debut album comes out next week and I can't wait to get it!

Alfred Wertheimer

The first image below has been all over the news today due to a Vanity Fair article which identifies the woman kissing (or, um, whatever) Elvis Presley as now-75-year-old Barbara Gray. Read the article here when you have a minute. Below are a few other photographs of Presley by Alfred Wertheimer, and you can read a great interview with him here. Not really bothered either way when it comes to Presley's music, however I looove old photographs.

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Gotye & Kimbra

I'd never heard of Gotye before this song. I've listened to a bit more of his music on YouTube since, though it's not really my thing so far (by all means, recommend me something though). But this song, with Kimbra of all people, I'm crazy about. I'm really looking forward to Kimbra's debut album next month, and I absolutely hope she blows up- I think she'll be someone New Zealand can be genuinely proud of. I often feel we're a nation of rather negative people when it comes to our musicians' success, so it's quite fantastic to have hardly seen any bitter comments on her videos and websites that mention her.

Check out this song below, when you have a spare four minutes. And if by some crazy reason you don't like it, link me something better because I'd love to hear it!

Jessie Juxtaposed... ISWYDT

All credit to Saskia the Style Fairy for alerting me to the above the moment I logged on to Blogger this morning. I was simply too shocked not to post on my own blog, but make sure you jump over and follow Saskia if you don't already!

If you don't know who Jessie J is, well, I can't say I really blame you. Up until now I liked her a heck of a lot more than Lady Gaga, but she's still not really my thing. Everything about her look was far too harsh (click here to open a photo in a new window if you still can't place her).

Now I know I'm at risk of being a total hypocrite when talking negatively about her old super-straight, super-blunt fringe (bangs), because I just can't seem to stop attempting to make one work myself. However I think that after seeing the above pictures of Jessie from the Woman of the Year Glamour Awards UK (in which she was named Woman of Tomorrow) I may be finally convinced that every girl needs eyebrows. Which you would expect me to know by now, considering how much care I give mine... in my defense, I battle with having both well-groomed eyebrows, and a fivehead. Dilemma. I also have trouble accepting the fact I have a round face and while I know I absolutely should not even attempt a fringe... I just can't help it. But if even strong-jaw-Jessie can't pull it off, I really have to let it go

I digress.

The 'new' Jessie J looks a zillion times more gorgeous than the 'old'. Fin.

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The Adults

Avalanche City

International readers; this NZ song is just so pretty, and you need to listen to it!

Ed Westwick

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