Naked

Towers

Both this song and its accompanying video are simply lovely. There are no other words. Enjoy.

Bon Iver - Towers (Official Music Video) from Bon Iver on Vimeo.

Sealion Woman

After reading an interesting interview/article about Fiest in UNCUT magazine this weekend, I've been continually brought back to one of my favourite ever Later Live with Jools Holland performances. Not only does the article follow up the critical responses to Fiest's most recent album, Metals (released in September 2011), it depicts the ever changing persona and career of one of Canada's finest musicians. The below performance is divine, and for me at least, tops the likes of James Blake, MGMT, Bloc Party, Lykke Li, Lissie and Bon Iver, all of whom I loved on Holland's show.

Enjoy kids, enjoy...

..

This Is My Home from Mark on Vimeo.

This is for Matilda

"So Matilda's strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone." 

 

- Roald Dahl, Matilda

Your Oldest Fears

Roots

I was asked to watch this as part of my prep for a film seminar, it's darkly, hauntingly beautiful.
As is Root's music, for which this short film was made.

Babygirl, boomboom.

So many memories...

At night

At night I feast on dreams.
I feast on dreams at night.
At night I feast on dreams.
I feast on dreams at night.

And at night, 

at night I feast on screams.

I've been hit

Time for a bit of good old nostalgia. 
My love for We Are Scientists (especially Keith Murray) will never waiver, I adore them. And I love everything about this song, and always will.

Once upon a time, three whole years ago to be precise, I went to see Dylan Moran perform his What It Is show in Birmingham's Alexandre Theatre with a long since passed Valentine/Birthday Boy. We both loved the entire show, and I still remember this part as one of my favourites.


Enjoy, and Happy Valentines day y'all.

Be my Valentine

The Old Maid sent this to me, her Loyal Minder, this morning. Too much love in the cosmic space between my drafty kitchen and her cosy Budapest flat.
Have a happy day kids.

One Love

Just watched the first half of this. Such a treat. The rest is saved for tomorrow's Valentines night when I'm all on my lonesome. 
How the Loyal Minder loves her sexy children...

Legacies

I am so excited about this, words cannot even express.

I've been lookin', I've been searchin'

This song was the reason I fell back in love with Whitney Houston (overlooking her bizarre and somewhat worrying Xfactor performance way back when). I am saddened to know she's no longer going to be around to release such tremendous pop tunes and dazzle us with her fabulous outfits and hair-dos. Gutted.

Howling Forever

If any song deserves the honour of being HTGAOML's 1000th blog post, it is this one.
Especially as The Loyal Minder misses her Old Maid as much as she does. 
Turn it up loud, dancing wildly, head bang until it hurts, and remember those who matter most.

Pals Plus

I watched this the other night when having a girly evening in with The Mother, The Cat and a ton of really yummy curry. It was fucking hilarious, to say the least. I'm now even more madly in love with both of them.
The Mother and I are going to send it (the DVD, not The Cat or the curry) in a care package, along with some limited edition Butterscotch Vaseline, to The Little Sister at uni. Lucky mite.

Buda-f****ng-Best

So The Old Maid now lives in Budapest with her replacement Loyal Minder, as I'm still stuck in England battling with essays. To say I'm jealous doesn't even touch on it right now.

Anyway, after various reports back home filling me in on flats and uni, the Old Maid has informed me of quite how well received HTGAOML is in Hungary.

Thanks guys!

You don't know-oh-oh

I just can't help myself. One Direction make my life better. I watched the above numbers back four times last night, much to the disgust of my mother and the cat. I squealed, squawked, squirmed, shook and screamed - they're so fucking amazing, and I'm such a rampant fan girl that I cannot even put it in to words. Time to go flick through my OD calendar again and try to calm down...

I would still be on my feet

My love for this song has once again be rekindled. It takes me right back to Paris and Penny and Lainne's fateful night at La Cigalle where we met the beautiful-Elvis-Costello-playing-Sebastien, as well as Mr Blake himself. How this video, featuring the lovely Rebecca Hall, has evaded my attentions until today is beyond me, but I'll say this much - I fucking love it.

L-U-V, AHEM, NEVER?

She had to go and do it, didn't she? Ruin one of the most credible and fabulous music artists we have around today. Why M.I.A. decided to join in on this freakishly put together shambles will forever be beyond me (watch this space for the inevitable interview/press statement from the London-born-and-bred "super-star" and my attempts to unpick its meaning). A friend posted on facebook that "seeing M.I.A. dance around with pom poms  shouting L-U-V MADONNA was deeply, deeply unnerving" - to say the least, right?
Also, I don't really get why our decade spanning "super-star" Madge herself felt the need to presumably poke fun at her rampant baby obsession - is that a joke baby bump I can see? No doubt she looks incredible (at least until she takes her coat off and we are witnesses to those terrifying legs and that forever spread crotch) and it's a catchy, if infuriating, track - but to ruin first M.I.A. almost beyond repair, and then use Minaj to all the wrong purposes, is shameful and looks pretty pathetic in the long run. 
What a mess, what a mess, what a mess.

So freakin' classy.

Hjálmar are my new favourite thing.
Wow.