My Last Five Music Purchases

 Frank Ocean: Channel Orange

Since CDs and MP3s came along, it seems rare to find a really well thought out album. Most albums now seem to be mostly singles without a cohesive flow. Channel Orange is a great album, you will enjoy listening to it all the way through. It has elements of great R&B (romantic lyrics, slow jams) and of the current wave of popular music (interesting beats). The album was playing while I was brunching a few weeks ago and it was perfect Sunday morning music.

Favorite Songs: Super Rich Kids, Pyramids, Bad Religion

Mumford and Sons: Babel

This is the best album of 2012. I don’t know that for a fact, I mean, I have been waiting two years for this album so that might be influencing my hyperbole. If you love Mumford and Sons or other folksy rock, you will love this album. Just listen and if you don’t like it, please don’t tell me.

Favorite Songs: Lover of the Light, Lovers’ Eyes, The Boxer

Kanye West Presents Good Music Cruel Summer

Mercy was one of those songs that I was compulsively listening to for the last few months. When I realized it was part of a whole album that Kanye West was producing of all the artists on his record label, I got extra excited. It features so many people with very different styles (Pusha T, 2 Chainz, Jay Z, John Legend, Big Sean and more) it doesn’t necessarily flow like one album. It seems like the general consensus of reviews of this album is, it’s good but we expect great from Kanye West. There are definitely some songs I like more than others but I think overall it’s a good investment if you like Kanye West’s previous albums. 

Favorite Songs: Clique, New God Flow, Bliss

The Sitter: Music from the Motion Picture

Occasionally, the music in a movie is so good all you think about the whole time is, I hope there is a soundtrack for this. In the 90s this seemed a lot more common, when music videos were practically the same as movie previews. The Sitter was an entertaining movie with an amazing soundtrack. It feels like this would have been the soundtrack of my younger years if I had grown up in New York or New Jersey instead of California. How had I never heard Slick Rick? Major hole in my pop culture knowledge. Oh and it allowed me to get the Gucci Gucci song without having to buy Kreayshawn’s album.

 Favorite Songs: Children’s Story-Slick Rick, Runnin’-Pharcyde, Just AFriend-Biz Markie

The Civil Wars: Barton Hollow

The Civil Wars are an adorable folksy duo that I first saw on the Grammys. Barton Hollow is a great album to play on a rainy day when you just want to chill out in your pajamas or when you are winding down for bed. I also like to use it to detox from radio rap every once in a while. It could be called country but its more folk-y like The Lumineers.

Favorite Songs: My Father’s Father, Dance Me To The End of Love, 20 Years

Rent This: Romantic Comedies

 The Five Year Engagement

If you like: Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall or 40 Year Old Virgin

This movie was both hilarious and sweet, which is what I expect from Jason Segal. Jason Segal and Emily Blunt are a San Francisco couple (he’s a chef and she is a Psych Post-Doc) who get engaged after a year of dating and decide to put their wedding on hold when she is offered a job in Michigan. Obstacles keep them from getting around to the wedding. It definitely has some moments of boy, gross out humor that you expect from this crowd but it is a great meditation on what makes a successful relationship and the compromises that are required. There are so many hilarious people in this movie (Kevin Hart, Mindy Kaling, Chris Pratt, Rhys Ifans, just for starters), there plenty of spontaneous giggles and guffaws. I definitely think this will go into my “if it’s on cable I will stop what I am doing to watch this” rotation.

Think Like A Man

If you like: He’s Just Not That Into You

This movie offers some relatively well traveled relationship advice through a series of vignettes of couples in different types of relationships. There is the wealthy woman with the blue collar guy, the couple that’s been together for so long that it’s unclear what they have in common anymore, a momma’s boy with a single mom, a player who falls hard for a girl who is trying to stop sleeping with men before they respect her and a divorced guy telling all of them to stay away from marriage. It’s all very cliché but somehow still brought me a lot on joy, especially when quoting from the movie to my friends over dinner. 

This Means War

If you like: Pretty much any Reese Witherspoon movie

Reese Witherspoon plays a product tester who decides to try dating two men (Tom Hardy and Chris Pine) at once. Turns out they are both spies who work for the same government spy agency and turn their resources towards keeping each other from winning the girl. Chelsea Handler plays her married friend with some interesting advice. It was entertaining and did the job of a romantic comedy but wouldn’t be something I would return to. And that’s without even spending too   much time contemplating how weird it is to set up a romantic comedy where government resources are used to monitor someone’s date.

Back to…Shopping

Somehow the need to shop in August/September has become deeply rooted in me. Instead of spring cleaning I like to do Fall closet and stuff clean out and then replace with other new exciting things. Now that I am a responsible adult (perhaps), I actually enjoy shopping for myself and others. Since I want you all to think of me as selfless here are some great gifts:

Adorable embroidered initial necklaces and baby gifts (perfect for besty necklaces)

Imported British baby clothes that are too adorable to resist from Boden (also available at Nordstrom)

Handmade State or USA cutting boards

Fun Brass Jewelry             

Repping Oakland

And some things I have bought that I love (stealing from my fav Mindy Kaling blog that I am trying not to get angry about her not updating while she works on her shows):

Tom’s Desert Wedges

Suki Skin Care: great smells, great products with sample boxes to try it out (also available at Whole Foods)

Cure for Daily Frustrations

Some days the world just doesn’t do what you want it to and instead of yelling or crying I like to look at adorable things to feel better. 

Have you met Tard the Grumpy Cat? His misery will make you giggle.

Is there anything wrong with a little interspecies cuddling?

Who can get me a baby red panda?

Or a baby wombat?

Or let me recreate my favorite movies with a baby as the main actress?

Sometimes your Koalifications are completely Irrelephant.

If there can’t be real unicorns, cats dressed as unicorns will do.

This fussy baby bulldog totally gets your frustration.

There was an actual cat video film festival and the winner understands ennui.

Thank you internet…I feel so calm now.

My Summer Books

I am saving all my vacations for the fall but I did manage to get in plenty of summer reading. In between romance novel binges, I really enjoyed the following books:

Gone girl-Gillian Flynn

Read this if: You think Nancy Grace is nonsense and wonder about the real stories behind the crimes we see on the news.

This psychological thriller is on all the best seller lists this summer and for good reason. I could not put down this story of a missing wife and a strangely aloof husband.

Born Round-Frank Bruni

Read this if: You think being the New York Times food critic would be one of the most amazing jobs ever, you struggle with your weight or you love reading about family dynamics.

Frank Bruni’s memoir about being asked to be the food critic for the New York Times when he has just gotten to a good place in his life long battle with food and his weight is extremely entertaining and thoughtful. He recounts his childhood, growing up in an Italian family where food was love and the life of a political reporter, where eating fatty foods at all hours became the norm.

The Borrower-Rebecca Makkai

Read this if: You feel a little unsatisfied with your regular life while imagining yourself saving the world and want to read how taking action can go a little wrong.

A librarian in a small town who feels like she is trapped in a life she didn’t choose finds one of the ten year old patrons of the library camping out in the stacks one night. She learns that his extremely Christian parents have been sending him to anti-gay therapy and he is running away to avoid the classes. She decides to single handedly rescue him and they commence a road trip where they each learn a lot about themselves.

Between You and Me- Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus

Read this if: You try to imagine what it would be like to Britney Spears or a member of her family.

A young woman, Logan, gets a call to come visit her super famous pop star cousin, Kelsey, after being separated for years due to a family estrangement. The visit quickly turns into a role as assistant to a very broken, isolated girl with an extremely manipulative family. While Kelsey quickly makes a series of decisions that could wreck her career, Logan tries to keep things together. This is a quick entertaining read, like a novelized US Weekly.

A Discovery of Witches-Deborah Harkness

Read this if: You dream that every time you go to the library, this time will be the one where you will stumble upon a mystery that leads to a wild adventure.

A young witch leaves behind her family legacy and turns to an academic study of alchemy. Her studies unearth a book that many mystical creatures are interested in acquiring. Adventures ensue as she meets a handsome vampire and must protect the secrets of the book. The first book of a trilogy offers a little historical fiction, a little fantasy, a little romance and lots of entertainment.