cookie monster cupcakes

Today I've seen this on both FFFFOUND! (an image bookmarking site) AND It's Nice That (where it was tumbled upon), so naturally it's worthy of recognition on this here blog.
So without further delay I present: Cookie Monster cupcakes.
Favourite childhood treat meets favourite childhood character= one awesome dessert.
I'm going to try and make these one day. Hopefully it's not that hard.

Big Time Waster and Oh so Fun!

Anyone who knows me knows I love procrastinating. It's pretty much my full time job. I have developed a talent, finding endless ways besides the usual to do so. One such way is making your very own Jackson Pollock paintings from jacksonpollock.org .
Here's a beauty I made while procrastinating this blog post.
Lovely isn't it? So if you're looking for something fun to do... this may be your best bet.

2009 Looking Good

It's the fourth week of 2009 and we've already seen releases from such awesome artists as: A.C. Newman (of the New Pornographers), ANDREW BIRD (more about that sometime soon), Animal Collective, Antony and the Johnsons, and Bon Iver. So far these albums have all been pretttttty good. This leaves me with one theory, 2009 is going to be an awesome year for music.

What follows is a list of some artists with expected releases coming to a record store that I am particularly excited for click here for a larger list off of last.fm, that I have used to supplement my own knowledge of SOME upcoming releases (mainly consisting of the alternative/indie-whatsit genre)

FEB 02 - Ben Kweller - Changing Horses
FEB 17 - Beirut - March of the Zapotec (double EP)
MAR 10 - Bell Orchestre - As Seen Through Windows
MAR 16 - Pete Doherty - Grace/Wastelands
MAR 24 - The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
MAR 31 - Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
MAR 31 - Peter, Bjorn & John - Living Thing
APR 14- Metric - Fantasies


Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Patrick Wolf - Battle
Silversun Pickups - Swoon
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Maxïmo Park - Rollerdisco Of Dreams (working title)
Kings of Convenience - (title TBA)
Muse - (title TBA)
The Strokes - (title TBA)
The White Stripes - (title TBA)
Wilco - (title TBA)
The Flaming Lips - (title TBA)
Sufjan Stevens - (title TBA)
Arctic Monkeys - (title TBA)
The Wombats - (title TBA)
The National - (title TBA)
Shout Out Louds - (title TBA)
The Shins - (title TBA)
Modest Mouse - (title TBA)
Broken Social Scene - (title TBA)
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists - (title TBA)
The Arcade Fire - (title TBA)
Klaxons - (title TBA)

The aforementioned journal entry I found this list on also states rumours of... wait for it.... wait for it Jeff Mangum / Neutral Milk Hotel WHAT?! HOW?! Man... if that turns out to be true, well that's just plain HISTORIC.


All I can say is... WOW. This year could totally beat '07 for awesome releases of bands I know and love. I mean, 2008 was a fairly good year for music, but most of the releasing came from new bands (think Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, MGMT, The Dodo's, Plants and Animals, etc.), it was a year of discovery. If new bands keep it up, and the bands listed put out some awesome albums... then... even making a top 100 releases of 2009 could be difficult.

Learning to Love you More

So... I wouldn't call myself a fan exactly because I am not such a huge follower but I'm always impressed with the work of Miranda July. She wrote, directed, and starred in the movie You, Me and Everyone We Know which is fantastic. She has also published a book, and done several performance/video/web projects that have appeared in the Museum of Modern Art,and the Guggenheim.
Today I came across something that reminded me of one of her newer projects called Learning to Love you More. This project is on the web and anyone can participate the website states:

Learning to Love You More is both a web site and series of non-web presentations comprised of work made by the general public in response to assignments given by artists Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. Yuri Ono designs and manages the web site.
Participants accept an assignment, complete it by following the simple but specific instructions, send in the required report (photograph, text, video, etc), and see their work posted on-line. Like a recipe, meditation practice, or familiar song, the prescriptive nature of these assignments is intended to guide people towards their own experience.

Brian McGovern- Assignment #10: Make A Flier of Your Day

It's kind of like a post secret but with different tasks that range from personal, simple, humourous, and kind. Examples of tasks include: grow a garden in an unexpected place, braid someone's hair, heal yourself, Photograph a significant outfit, make an encouraging banner, make a flier of your day. It's fun to look through what people have sent in. I think it's a pretty cool project, so check it out.

Mike Perry

So... sometimes designers are so great I find myself frequenting their websites only to find nothing new because, well HECK, projects take a long time (that's why I like blogs, CONSTANT updates). One such designer is Mike Perry from Brooklyn NY. He is part of an art/design collective called YouWorkForThem . YouWorkForThem is "an award-winning group of artists that produce some of the most groundbreaking design work available today" featuring some of my other favourite designers.
Anyhow, I was recently very pleased to discover Mike Perry had redesigned his entire website and added new content. The website itself is now cleaner than before, but it is harder to see his work, you need to get PDF's to see properly. Regardless, his stuff is wicked so you should check it out.
I was shocked to find that there is no Wikipedia article on him (well, not one I could find) because he has done work with New York Times Magazine, Dwell Magazine, Microsoft Zune, Urban Outfitters, eMusic, and Zoo York. He has also published two books called Over and Over (a book of hand made designs and patterns and features Travis Stearns another designer I have posted about), Hand-Job (a book of hand drawn typefaces), and has started a magazine called Untitled. You can see he's a pretty busy guy, so the Wikipedia absence is still confusing me.

Bands I sometimes forget exist but are AWESOME- #1 The Delgados

Ok... so there are some bands that are dinosaurs. They have been around forever, and in my itunes since... well, since I've HAD itunes. So I'm going to do a series of posts every once in a while about bands that aren't brand new, but are classic that should keep getting attention even if they've been around a few decades. After all, this is the music that our (my) favourite musicians have maybe listened to or been influenced by.
I was reminded by house-mate Andrew about one such band. He also told me to blog about their awesomeness. That band is The Delgados. They hail from Scotland and formed in 1994. They were making good music before I knew how to do simple math (ok, that's not true I could add and subtract a little) and disbanded in 2005 before I discovered them in 2006. It's a pity. Lead female vocalist Emma Pollock started a solo career which is super and you should check out as well.


The Delgados have a very dynamic sound that varies song to song, yet they still remain consistent. From the layered mellow sounds of 'Clarinet' off of 1998's Peloton, to the more traditional indie-rock 'Accused of Stealing' off of 2000's The Great Eastern, and the baroque-pop soaring melodies of 'The Light Before We Land' off of 2002's Hate, The Delgados have done it all.
So if you appreciate variety, originality, and good music in general I strongly recommend checking these guys out.

Bon Iver's Blood Bank

Ohhhhh dear. Bon Iver's much awaited followup to For Emma Forever Ago arrived this past Tuesday.


Blood Bank is 4 tracks of SOLID GOLD. The only real problem is, it's not enough. Though I've only listened to it a few times I know it's bound to be played as much as For Emma was this past year. For those of you who don't know Bon Iver's music it's kind of across between older Iron and Wine's guitar stylings and a falsetto voice comparable to a raspier Ben Gibbard meets Elliott Smith living in the higher octaves (best analogy I can think of). Anyhow, if you haven't heard Bon Iver, you probably will. It's only a matter of time before the surrounding hype explodes onto radios and TV shows everywhere.