This.....



Turned into this....


So this week I received an incredible surprise! A good friend of mine sent me a Frida Kahlo bag in the mail, you cannot even begin to comprehend the extend of my happiness after seeing this bag in my hands! It was truly one of the nicest things anyone's ever done for me, and I was so ecstatic! The first picture is from a bag I had seen during a family trip to Santa Fe a few months ago, and I knew I just had to take a picture and label it as "the bag of my dreams." And then, this week I get an even more incredible version of the bag in the mail (as seen in picture number two)! I am in debt forever and always! *sigh...I can die a happy woman now that I have a Frida bag!!!!

In sort of an unrelated note...this bag got me thinking that it's almost that time of the year again...my birthday! I'll be turning 21 this year...I can't believe how fast time flies! I think the best gift this year would be spending it with good friends (such as the amazing sender of the Frida bag) but I will have to postpone that for a few months. In the mean time, I think I'll have a low key celebration with the family, maybe even go up to Santa Fe again. I'm excited, and no, not because I'll be able to buy alcohol and get into clubs...I'm actually excited to see what this new age brings. I hope many many many blessings!

Future Shorts has quickly become one of my favorite YouTube channels (apart from Blogotheque, of course). It features the absolute best of short films from all over the world, check them out if you have a chance...some of them are even better than complete feature films!
This right here is one of my favorites. It is called Apricot and it was written and directed in Australia by Ben Briand .
This short deals with memories of the past, of a first love, and of discovery of the present. The cinematography of it is astounding...everytime I watch it I think "best 10 minutes I have ever spent!"

Enjoy!

Wedding Preview: Noah and Rachael 8.14.10 from Ben Potter & Drew Barefoot on Vimeo.

The beauty of love not only touches the lives of those involved, but also of those around it. Love can transcend all barriers and even reach the lives of complete strangers, that is the case with this video. Love beautifies real life as well as film. I can honestly say that this is one of the most breath-taking wedding videos I have ever seen!

I will use this Frida Kahlo quote for personal use and change the word "wings" for "ears," because it is true that music can transport you to far-away places.

So, like I promised last week I have made a new playlist. This week's theme is all about traveling!!! I was pretty down the last couple of days because I want to travel and I want to meet different cultures and people and eat different kinds of food and pretty much just be able to say "Yeah, I've been there!" But, since it is impossible for me to do so right now, I decided to have a world traveling experience with music. In this playlist you will hear music from all over the world...well...mostly from the other side of the globe! Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts because our journey is about to begin.


[click pictures to view videos]




Bizness by Tune-Yards: Our traveling starts in New England! Painted faces, feathers on uniforms, and amazing haircuts….is this how kids from the future will look like? I sure hope so! The Tune-Yards is a one-woman project that started back in 2009, by Merril Garbus. This video is seriously one of the coolest things I’ve seen. It actually reminds me of a story my mom told me of how when she was little and still in school. Her teacher would sometimes leave the classroom to do who knows what, and this one time, her teacher left and all chaos broke loose! All her classmates started clapping and dancing and, of course, her being my mom she stood on top of a desk and started dancing too! Now, you can imagine what came next...yep, the teacher returned and she got caught haha but not before she was able to fit in a little bit of fun in her curriculum. This song sort of encapsulates the same topic…if life is boring..why not stand up and make it your own?



What You Know by Two Door Cinema Club: We make our next stop in Ireland. This trio is everything I love about European indie bands which is that distinctive guitar/bass sound! If you haven’t noticed it, listen to any song by Foals and you will hear it! I got a hold of this song merely by accident (like most of my music) while getting asked some questions by a random person. So this band came up and I decided to look them up, first song I played on YouTube was exactly this one and that was it…I was hooked. I don’t think I even blinked once during the video, the choreography and editing are just incredible. You know what I like about these guys? I like that they can ACTUALLY sing! I was watching their live performance on “Later with Jools Holland” and they’re just as good as the recorded track!



Come Closer by Salma Agha: When I started looking up information about this song, I couldn’t believe it was recorded in 1984. Sure, it has that retro feel but…to be honest..which song doesn’t these days? So with this song we go all the way to Pakistan and India. Pakistan because Salma Agha was born in Pakistan and India because this is where she developed a very successful career as a singer and actress in the 80s. This song is the perfect combination of smooth, sex appeal and bilingual lyrics. I wonder if this song was very risqué in the 80s!




Tekitoi by Rashid Taha: Now, from India we move over to France. Les Jeunes de Paris is a new skit from SNL, Miley Cyrus and Emma Stone have both played the part of French teens in a café who suddenly get into a crazy French stand-off! This song was actually featured in the episode hosted by Miley Cyrus (don’t ask me why I as watching) and it was the most memorable part of the night. Rashid Taha is the man behind the masterpiece. He was born in Algeria but he and his family immigrated to France in the late 60s. So as you can see, that probably caused the inspiration behind the combination of French lyrics with rustic sounds.




Bombay by El Guincho : Our musical traveling now takes us to Spain, Ole…okay that was cheesy, but this song has nothing cheesy about it! In fact, one of the most original things about this video is the PBS-like introduction at the beginning, where it talks about "the cosmos...what is or what will be." I decided to include this song in this compilation because a “latin-based” song is a MUST in everyone’s iPod, especially a song one like this one! I was extremely surprised when I found El Guincho’s album at my local library (one of the reason why I heart Albuquerque). Just by listening to his music you would never think he is from Spain, he has more of a South-America type of vibe that includes marimbas, drums, and that electronic sound that a lot of new artist from Chile are starting to use. WARNING: this video has moderate nudity in it and sexual references, so…don’t watch it at school or anywhere people might gasp!



El Blu del Ping Pong by Rita Indiana Y Los Misterios: few years back we saw Ivy Queen opening the road for other women in the urban contemporary style, now the turn belongs to Rita Indiana Y Los Misterios. This artist from the Dominican Republic has been opening the doors for other artists in the cumbia/merengue rock style and has also reached the American public and shown that a woman can make it BIG! Rita Indiana caused quite a stir in her country when she admitted to being homosexual, so you see...any woman who can fight her way through all of society's taboos and make amazing music is a Goddess in my book! This song is one of my favorites from her album El Juidero, if you have a chance to listen to all of it I strongly recommend you to do so. She mixes a lot of common latin beats in cumbia, merengue and even a little bit of reggeatton with modern rock rythms.




Sun Hands by Local Natives: All journeys must end, and what a better place to end up than sunny California, home of the Local Natives. I must truly thank my brother for introducing me to this band, especially this song. I swear, every time I listen to this song I go into this trance-like state where I close my eyes and just let my body move! it is just perfect, the drums, the lyrics, the singing…everything! The Local Natives remind me of a more up-beat version of the Fleet Foxes (another band that you have to check out!). They do not have an official video for this song yet, which turned out to be great because you can feel their energy when they’re playing live, they REALLY feel their music which is something all great artists must do but sadly only a few actually do!

The title of this entry explains it all! I've been feeling lucky within the past 24 hours because I've discovered many songs that I cannot stop listening to! I feel like this blog has turned into "hey check this song out, hey check this band out" but I can't help it....I love sharing music with you all. So I've started making another compilation of music that I'll be posting soon, so get your ears ready!

In the mean time...I don't know...check out my Tumblr or just hang in there haha! And also, in the meantime, I'll catch up on some letter writing, movie watching, or page flipping that I've been neglecting lately!

-Italia.

...y mas con canciones como esta?

via Club Fonograma.

I'm a Cyborg, But that's OK, is an amazing North Korean film directed and written by Chan-wook Park, starring Su-jeong Lim and Rain (who you might recognize from Ninja Assassin).
North Korea is starting to be called "the new Hollywood" because of it's great cinematography, and I'm a Cyborg, But that's OK is the prime example of that. This movie introduces us to the story of Young-goon (Su-jeong Lim), a girl who suffers a traumatic experience after her grandmother is sent to a psychiatric hospital for believing she is a mouse. After this, Young-goon soon comes to an important self-realization: she is not completely human! She believes is also a cyborg, or a robot as she explains to her mother, a robot who is desperately trying to find the purpose for her existence.
After Young-goons confession to her mother, she has no other option than to be sent to a psychiatric hospital, where the rest of the story takes place. In the hospital, goon meets a peculiar character...Park Il-sun (Rain) who is one of the patients there. He has admitted himself at the hospital four times in the past five years after not being able to cope with his schizophrenia. He also believes he can steal essential parts of a soul...kindness, sympathy, ping-pong skills, a perfect voice, and even things like socks that can make you fly. Together, Young-goon and Park Il-sun take us through an amazing journey of how to cope with emotional and psychological issues while, at the same time, making us laugh and cry at their silliness.

If you have seen...and loved Amelie, and The Science of Sleep then you will definitely like this out of the ordinary quirky story of survival. You will be able to find the entire film on Youtube, it is divided into eleven 10 minute parts that make it well worth your while! You can also watch the trailer by clicking on the picture above. I really really really hope you enjoy this film, because it instantly became one of my favorite films ever!

I noticed that my blog has turned into this open window to my iTunes library, so I decided it was time to share once again some of the songs that have been on constant re-play for the past few weeks.

There is A LOT of variety in this playlist, some of the artist you might already know and some of them you might not.
I've listed the track's name and artist down below as long with a brief description. So if you have nothing better to do, or you have a little bit of free time give them a listen!

Click on pictures to watch the videos!!!!!






1. Adele- "Love Song"
Adele is an amazing girl from London who is only 23 but has the experience and artistic quality of someone twice her age. I've had the opportunity to listen to her newest album titled 21 and her lyrics are simple incredible. The compilation starts with this amazing cover, one that makes us remember why this song was so good in the first place. Love song is the perfect song for Adele's voice and character...it truly makes you love every second of it!

2. Foals - "Blue Blood"
Another great track from a band that is also from England. This is definitely a band that you appreciate more and more as years pass; it was in late 2008 that my fascination for Foals began and now, almost three years later their music still holds a special place with me. Blue Blood is one of their best tracks, and the video is equally great...if you are not amazed by the kid in the video and his awesome moves then I don't know what will "wow ya"

3. Geographer - "Original Sin"
Geographer made me believe in love at first sight. I discovered this trio from San Francisco, CA almost a year ago by pure accident and I have not been able to stop listening to this song ever since. You might recognize the lead singer from one of my posts from a few months ago, and whether it is him singing acoustically or with his band the effect is the same: breath-taking.

4. Devendra Banhart - "Love"
The Venezuelan-born Banhart has a very distinct style of music, his isn't like any other I've ever heard before. His music has very earthbound sounds, the lyrics are simple yet meticulously drafted, and his voice creates more of a whisper melody that reaches those hidden places in your brain. This video here is one of his latest, starring him and his girlfriend for a company that makes eye/sunglasses. The song is in Spanish, the melody resembles a bossa nova style , and the photography in the video is stunning....and it works because I now want to buy a pair of sun glasses myself, they ones shown here are just fantastic. (warning: the video is somewhat graphic so it might not be a good idea to watch it at school or in front of parents hahaha)

5. The Temper Trap - "Love Lost"
This Australian band gained stardom due to their single called sweet disposition, which was featured twice in the film 500 days of summer, and since then we've been hearing their songs in commercials, movies, and the radio. One of their latest songs is precisely this one "Love Lost" a song about how sometimes we're ready for love but love is not ready for us and vice-versa. I love the video, it seems very....British! Plus, who doesn't love watching people run in the rain?

6. BlakRoc - "Ain't Nothing Like You"
BlakRoc is the a project created by the now super famous band The Black Keys (whom I've been obsessed with for the last couple of months) in collaboration with various hip-hop and r&b artists like Mos Def and Jim Jones, who are featured in this song. This was recommended to me by a good friend who is a great music connoisseur and who has a very ample music library (I first listened to the temper trap's "love lost" song after he posted it on his page which only makes him more awesome!). From the moment I first heard this song I was instantly hooked. I think this makes a great end for what I think was a fabulous playlist! Yes, I just said fabulous ha!
This is the sort of the song that starts playing after the movie credits start rolling, a song that leaves you happy and feeling good.




So there you have it! I hope you get to listen to these amazing songs and actually like them. If not, then you deserve a thumbs up for at least being adventurous!