Tag Archives: friday five

Friday Five(ish) on Saturday…Music blogs

I decided to round up the links to some of the music blogs I’ve been checking out lately because, well, you keep asking me to and I keep promising I’ll get to it. So here you go, in no particular order:

Pitchfork isn’t really a blog but I’m going to put it at the top of the list because it’s useful. And even when not useful, it’s silly and amusing (although not intentionally so). Pitchfork is frequently accused of being over-wrought, pretentious and opaque (often by me). Isn’t that what rock journalism is all about? Quit your whining.

Brooklyn Vegan, of course, because you’re not cool unless you read Brooklyn Vegan.

Music snobbery is also a good read, although I have the same problem with Music Snobbery that I have with Brooklyn Vegan – I’m unfamiliar with a lot of the venues they mention, but that’s okay.

The Music Slut is constantly posting videos I’d otherwise miss out on, seeing as I no long spend my days in an office and lack coworkers dropping by and asking, “Hey, have you seen…”

Gorilla vs Bear had me with their name and graphics, but I enjoy the content as well. Like Brooklyn Vegan, Gorilla vs Bear produces a blog radio show for Sirius XM radio. (For now).

Stereo cupcake
is where I learn important tidbits such as: Santogold changed her name to Santigold. Every bit as silly as it sounds, but I bet it’s been publicity gold. Case in point: this is the first time I’ve ever mentioned Santigold on my site, ever. Also probably the last, but that’s not the point.

Sasha Frere Jones is, of course, a professional music critic/journalist and musician. He gets double bonus points for this great post, “Who is on Twitter?”

  • people who are just back from a really awesome run
  • people who are involved with “computers”
  • DJs
  • DJs at the airport
  • DJs who are drunk
  • people who don’t have anyone’s email address
  • people who are mad at television
  • people who have forgotten how to email
  • people who have forgotten how to text
  • people who are involved in “social networking” and optimizing the power of re-Tweeting and “computers”
  • people who can’t find a reasonable picture of themselves
  • people who really like the news
  • DJs at the airport
  • people who are hungry
  • rappers
  • people who are cold
  • people who are back from an OK run
  • people who can’t figure out what to feed their kids
  • Shaquille O’Neal
  • people who have never seen snow
  • Rachel Maddow
  • forty-five people I’ve never heard of who all invented the internet
  • people who are concerned about the collapse of the publishing industry
  • people who like Battlestar Galactica
  • rappers who are eating food
  • DJs
  • people who are about to go for a run
  • DJs who want to know where you are
  • people who are mad at Twitter
  • people who are mad at rappers
  • a nun
  • DJs

His New Yorker music blog is where the in-depth music writing is, but I just wanted an excuse to link to that twitter post.

Sovietpanda is a Minneapolis music blogger and DJ who came to my attention recently after a friend forwarded me one of his tweets:

“Faces do not melt because of your shitty DJ set. Faces melt because the Ark of the Covenant is opened.”

True ’nuff.

Friday Five: fabric edition (mostly)

Thanks to JenInMaine, I’ve been coveting some fabrics by Amy Butler. Which ones? All of them, I think.

If you love quilting-weight cotton you can always have your own designs printed on-demand by spoonflower. I’m lazy so I haven’t ordered any, but it’s a very nice idea.

I’ve been coveting Jenae Michelle’s amazing purses, hand-crafted with gorgeous vintage wool. She had her summer line of super-cute quilted bags marked way down last I saw her at the Downtown Holiday Market, but I’m holding out for one of this winter’s bags. You really need to see them in person to appreciate the depth of the textures and the luxuriousness of the fabrics. Plus, you get the added bonus of a surprise each time you open a bag, because the linings are as beautiful as the exteriors. She’s also at the Torpedo Factory and Eastern Market.

As I was writing this post I clicked over to panda head, a local fashion blog, to find a post from last week I wanted to link to in the fabric round-up. I immediately got derailed by this post about local artist Johanna Mueller, who is not a fabric designer. I was just introduced to her at the Sackler Museum by Michele while we were checking out the Garden and Cosmos: the Royal Paintings of Jodphur at the Sackler Gallery. Small strange world.

Now I’ve been derailed from my original subject, and more specifically from the last link that I picked for today’s post, ecostilleto’s list of Things that Suck. Cotton’s on the list, so maybe I didn’t end up as far afield as I thought.

Friday Five

Since last weekend was a holiday weekend, I took the week off from the Friday Five. It was the second week since I’d revived the feature, so I was due for a break anyway, right? Right.

So, earlier this week I linked to Quelle Erqsome, she of fearless literary scholarship, dissertation writing, and equally fearless sock knitting. I’m hopelessly behind on my sock knitting, and fear being booted from her Interweave Socks-A-Long, so maybe this would be a good time to suck up about what a great blog she has. You should read it, religiously. Great, great blog. Great, great gal. Smart as a whip. A gentlewoman and a scholar.

But I digress…I replied to a bookmeme, which she picked up from Pymette, who incidentally knitted the cutest coffeepot cozy ever for her French Press. But again, I digress.

The overwhelming reaction to the bookmeme from my readers has been to ask me, “Why haven’t you read Vanity Fair?” This is a good question and I have no good answer, so next up on my reading list: Vanity Fair.

While I’m reading Vanity Fair, you should go visit JenInMaine, who’s posted pictures of her newly spun yarns. They look yummy. When she gets her etsy shop reopened you can even buy those lovely yarns – she’s in the process of moving mainegirl.etsy.com to earthybirthymama.etsy.com. Just because she had a baby she thinks we’ll cut her some slack. The nerve of some people…

If you knit, you no doubt read Franklin’s blog, Panopticon, and, of course, the Yarn Harlot. The Yarn Harlot has been kind enough to take a brief break from knitblogging to explain Whatthe hell is going on in Canadian Politics these days, which was very helpful because I was very confused. (There are 649 comments on that post, so I clearly wasn’t the only one).

The theme of this roundup was supposed to be bookblogs. Or maybe it was knitting blogs. Often they’re the same. Honestly, I’ve forgotten what the theme was supposed to be because I’m not feeling well and the phone has been ringing off the hook and I have 83 emails messages since I went to bed and I’m about to declare defeat and go back to bed. Or, maybe I’ll tune out all the noise and check in with Crazy Aunt Pearl, that will make me feel better. Her blog description is, “The true-life diary of a thirty-something, newly divorced, displaced Southern obsessive-compulsive knitter who has four cats. (Because nothing is sexier than a divorced woman with four cats.)” See what I mean? Don’t you feel better already just reading that? Imagine how much better you, and by “you” I mean “I”, will feel after spending a few minutes at her actual site.