God bless America, my home sweet home

Hello there!

Haven’t blogged lately mainly because my year ends at the same time the fiscal year does. New interns, fellows, and attendings always start July 1. I am now officially halfway through residency! Yay! Now I just have to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and all will be well.

This month I am on elective, which means more time to bake and cook and explore and hopefully document things. I am in DC for the 4th of July visiting my friend Danna. So I don’t have much to chat about at the moment….maybe some photos of fireworks when I get back home.

For now, I leave you with an improptu playlist. It is triggered by my current feelings of gratitude and satisfaction (for which I am happy at the moment).

1. Natalie Merchant- Kind and Generous

2. Mikky Ekko- I Love You (I Always Have)

3. Des’ree- You Gotta Be

4. Brooke Waggoner- I Am Mine

5. Grizzly Bear- Knife

6. SBTRKT- Wildfire

7. Tune-Yards- Gangsta

8. Broken Social Scene- 7/4 Shoreline

9. Feist – I Feel It All

10. The Noisettes – Break Free

Bon Iver

do not walk, run to buy this album.

Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) does it again. No it is not recorded in solitude in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in the dead of winter this time. It has both lushness and sparseness, highs and lows, and really makes me reflect on what I’m doing with my life as it plays. I have had it as my soundtrack continuously over the last week or so.

It was accidentally posted on itunes before the scheduled release date because of some faux pas, was then live streamed on NPR for a few weeks prior to its release, and Vernon was on a few late night shows covering Bonnie Raitt and whatnot.

Standout tracks– Perth (the snare drums are spot on); Wash. –which brings tears to my eyes. and Michicant. (what a punny word eh?) The album ends on this throwback 80s soft-rock/quiet storm bit filled with synthesizers. so enjoy.

Robyn

 

My friends, that blurry picture above is ROBYN.  Swedish pop singer extraordinaire.

SUCH a good concert. Pick up Body Talk 1, 2, & 3.

 

I Promise, I’m on it

I honestly don’t know how I found out about this album. All I know is that I bought it postcall one saturday from a record store on South Street in Philadelphia….the same morning I bought the Jonsi album.

It was spring, I rolled the windows down and blasted it. Instant love. Good indie dancey music. Sounds like freedom and relaxation and spontaneity. in fact,  the song Photobooth would be THE playing at my wedding reception (maybe one day). They defintely have an 80s feel. Especially songs like Lovesick and Paris (I LOVE this song).

Go and listen!

wait for it

So I have some recipes on the backburner…..baked kale chips and a strawberry rhubarb pie/tart to be exact. But I am back to working days at the hospital, so I have to get back into the swing of a new schedule.

In the mean time, ANOTHER MUSIC REVIEW!

So I told you about my penchant for teen tv dramas. Well I also love bad dance movies. Stomp the Yard, Save the Last Dance, Center Stage, and I’ve seen every Step Up to date. The most recent one, Step Up 3D, actually plays one of the songs from the above album in one of the dance scenes—“Beggin” is the song.

Madcon is a Norwegian hip-hop duo whose sound can be best described as a mixture of old-school funk, soul, and of course the sort of “conscious” hip-hop sound.

Happy Monday! “Liar” is one of my favorites. After “Beggin” I must admit.

Put a little pep in your step

I have a confession– I really like the show “Gossip Girl.” I’ve been watching since it started on the CW back around 2008 or so I believe.  I say it is because my adolescence was pretty devoid of angst and drama, so I live vicariously through the fictional, beautiful, wealthy, and dysfunctional characters.

In addition, they have a great music coordinator. I’ve heard Robyn to Massive Attack to Kings of Leon to Miike Snow on the show. I am NOT a Lady Gaga fan, so I could care less about her….but I digress.

Oh Miike Snow. What a great one! The Swedish duo (childhood friends) previously produced and songwrote together (think Britney Spears’ Toxic), and then came out with their self-titled album in 2009.

It is so immensely catchy and fun. The entire album is smooth, dancey, and effortless, in a way that really only Europeans know how to pull off.  The song Animal was used at the end of of one of GG’s seasons during a scene with the infamous Georgina (played so well by Michelle Trachtenberg, for those who watch the show). Other standout tunes are Black and Blue, Cult Logic, and Song for No One.

Enjoy!

When You Live, You Give It All You’ve Got

The tagline above are lyrics from Sufjan Stevens’ album The Age of Adz.

The song has the same name as well. I have been a big Sufjan fan since college. I was a dj for my university’s radio station, and we had to “program” cds, which pretty much means, make sure they didn’t say any words banned by the FCC, time each song, and write a little bit about the album itself and if it was worth playing or not.

Greetings to Michigan came out during that time, and I took it home to listen. It was like nothing I had ever heard before. I went back to his older albums which had a bit more religious overtones, and required a bit more patience I think. Of course after this, I was waiting for everything he would make and looking forward to a concert.

Seven Swans came next (which I still can listen to from start to finish), and then Come on and Feel the Illinoise, which pushed the introvert into the indie limelight, all thanks to the film Little Miss Sunshine.

There were somethings in between….B sides from Illinoise, Christmas albums, the film in honor of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. But The Age of Adz is the first full length album Stevens has released since Illinoise.

It is a far cry from his other works. Not as sparse and landscape-esque as Michigan. There are very few bells and chimes in this album. It addresses some of the same heavy subject matter of Seven Swans, but with a more upbeat tone.The sweeping, turn of the century musical feel of Illinoise is also absent. This album is rooted in the 2010s–with autotune, lots of synthesizers, and dare I say it, dancey beats.

The song writing of Stevens is one of his strengths. You feel as if you are privy to all the fears, hopes, and dreams that he might not articulate in any other way.

I highly recommend it.

Standout Tracks to me– Too Much; Impossible Soul; Get Real Get Right; Futile Devices

Music Mondays!

Maybe I can pull this off. I’ll try to expound a bit on what is playing on repeat on my ipod.

These days, as the summer heat rolls in like a tidal wave I’ve been listening to the new album “Rome” a creative effort between Danger Mouse (of Gnarls Barkley fame), Daniele Luppi (an Italian composer with a penchant for lush soundscapes), Jack White, and Norah Jones (as we’ve never seen her before!).

I happened upon it prior to release while scanning NPR for new albums to stream. The critics describe it as a “soundtrack without a movie.”  I’m sure we all remember the epic blockbusters of the 1990s that had film scores that did not always stand so well on their own (I don’t care what anyone says, “The Last of the Mohicans” IS an exception).

The idea of a soundtrack without a film is quite creative I think. And this album very much feels like a story from start to finish. If La Dolce Vita needed a soundtrack today, I could place Norah’s piece’s there for sure. Her voice is sultry and atmospheric and very European. A change from Come Away with Me and Feels Like Home, both of which I appreciate as well.  Jack White’s (I just cannot separate his name)  voice definitely conjures up the “spaghetti westerns” of bygone days, and the instrumentals are fantastic.

For the music snob amongst us, Pitchfork gave it a 7.0 out of 10. Not too shabby.

I reccommend listening to it with the windows down on a nice drive OR over a nice impromptu dinner party with your favorite red and good pasta and friends.