11/10/2012 New Shuffle Saturday: International Date Line Edition
It's already Saturday in Paris, which would imply two things: 1) It's unquestionably time for a long-overdue shuffle; 2) My god, do I miss the city. You know the one. The city ahead of which I'm currently time traveling, sidling around the sun six hours in advance: NY, NY. Lounging around in black skinny jeans and eating croissants from my dorm's vending machine might mean I'm living the Paris dream, but it also means I'm constantly day-dreaming of NYC. And it's often on Friday nights, when grocery stores close at 6 and the metro at 1:30, that my heart is with the city that never sleeps. I don't worry too much, though, we're all looking up at the same moon, right? If either of our cities could see it through the pollution. And digital music transcends time zones, man. All that to say: here's another mix, from Paris, with love.
5. Purexed- P.O.S.
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8/15/2012 WORD TO THE WISE: WEETZIE BAT, Y.A. FABULOSITY
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8/11/2012 Shuffle Saturday: S-s-s-s-sticky summer exams edition
Evening, city slickers and country bumpkins. I've a confession: whenever suffering through another finals season, my go-to jones isn't studying, or sleeping: it's spending an hour shuffling it up for you kids. There's no helping it: neither common sense nor a prohibitive French language pledge (for instance) has done much to keep me on the academic straight and narrow. And this time I even went to the extra effort (heruclean, really) to delete all the acoustic folky bits, thus ensuring I haven't become the Generation Y equivalent of a broken record (maybe that girl you know who updates her status with "Sooo bored txt it" every twelve hours? Hail the great philosophers of our time). Here's hoping you appreciate it, as my GPA certainly won't. (You're welcome.)
Postscript: I was also about to write you guys an alt rock edition of If You Like Then You'd Like with fun. and the band Walk the Moon, until I found out that they're on tour together this fall. Which revelation would have taken the wind out of my blogging sails had it not been that I'd already bought tickets to the Paris fun. show and love them both.* So maybe you didn't hear it here first, but you'll hear it here now: if you like fun., then you'd like Walk the Moon. I definitely do (Anna Sun was the theme song of my 2011 summer, Some Nights 2012's). And consider this my official prediction, one I made within seconds of hearing their debut i want! i want!: Walk the Moon are going to break it big** sooner rather than later. Get ahead of the curve!
*If you're a music snob who thinks a band with a #1 hit on the pop charts can't be insanely talented, you are wrong.
**(-ger than they already are)
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8/10/2012 TIPOFF: GLOBALFEST
- Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Foo Fighters, Black Keys, Band of Horses, and K'Naan.
- Central Park, September 29th.
- Free, if you can score a ticket.
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7/28/2012 Shuffle Saturday: Newport Folk Fest Edition
2. Six Weeks- Of Monsters and Men
3. Little Toy Gun- Honeyhoney
4. I Found You- Alabama Shakes
5. Boy With a Coin- Iron & Wine
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7/25/2012 DARK KNIGHT: VIOLENCE ON SCREEN AND OFF
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7/24/2012 ONLY IN NY (Mini & Outdated Version)
Recently got some film developed that I shot in the city this May. I like this Only in NY because (for once) it could actually be many many places where green things come up in spring.
Some of the first buds coming up in Morningside Park, May 2012
Early Spring 2012 in Riverside Park
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7/20/2012 Wanderlust: Park Slope
I soon found that this sort of understated elegance permeates the majority of Park Slope. Everything is a little closer to the ground, it’s a little more woody, rustic, and organic. People walk slower, their sunglasses are a little less mirrored. The main prediciment this environment causes for your average tourist is that it becomes hard to find the key destinations. There are no major commercial intersections marked with clusters of screaming fluorescents to direct you to the thrills of a blob of Justin Bieber-shaped wax or a plastic tube of $10/lb. M&Ms. So people get lost in Park Slope, wandering aimlessly around, walking around in circles, poking their heads in random boutiques and organic food markets, searching for the excitement. Luckily, for you fortunate readers, veni, vidi, vici, and I’m willing to share the spoils.
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7/20/2012 WORD TO THE WISE: Spiderman, The Stone-Garfield Edition
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7/19/2012 If You Like, Then You'd Like: Bon Iver and Ben Howard
A year or two ago Bon Iver was still the stuff of small clubs and All Songs Considered, skirting mainstream music and shunned by Billboard charts. But after two Grammys and months of buzz you now have no excuse to be ignorant of Justin Vernon’s singular crooning on Skinny Love (I mean, Pitchfork gave their self-titled second album the No. 1 spot on their Best of 2011 list. Come on! Not that it stopped the confused American masses). That’s why the indie folk outfit is the If in this resurrection of If You Like, Then You Like (as a bonus, my money’s on Ed Sheeran for a similar rise to stardom, just saying). The Then this time around is the much smaller and equally talented Ben Howard, English singer-songwriter who’s only just begun to sell out American rooms. His May show at the Bowery was incredible—don’t think twice the next time he’s in town. So there you have it: If you like Bon Iver, then you’d like Ben Howard.
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7/19/2012 Wanderlust: Sea Bright, NJ//Where Not to Spend Your Summer
Hello New Yorkers and fellow exiles! I've been revising some thoughts I put down this spring about going back to my high school job, and decided that giving it to you might make me leave it alone for once and for all. Longer than usual, but I think you'll like it (it's about you, after all. Sort of, anyway. It might mostly be about me. But I'll leave that open to debate).
Read me ramble under the cut:
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7/15/2012 ONLY IN NEW YORK: ROCKAWAY EDITION
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7/15/2012 ONLY IN NEW YORK
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7/14/2012 WORD TO THE WISE: ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
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6/15/2012 TIPOFF: THIS AIN'T CALIFORNIA
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5/10/2012 Good night and good luck
Unbelievably, tomorrow I'm actually moving home for quite a while, and I'm not sure what to do. I'll sacrifice pithy alliteration this week to simply say: New York, I miss you already. I don't know when I'll be back again for the long haul, but I won't let it go too long. In the meantime, I'll be living it up on the Jersey shore and trying not to think too much. HAGS. Never change.
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3/04/2012 Not So Shuffled Saturday: Go on an' git!
Its that time of March again, and I'll confess to have begun collecting songs almost immediately on returning from winter break. Nevertheless, we're leaving school, we're coming back home, we're grudgingly starting term papers and failing to study for midterms. What better time for a homeward bound playlist, even if some of our destinations may be less than homey (I'm looking at you, Cancun). Count on another one come May--it's not as if it's an uncommon theme in either song lyrics or the life of an undergrad. And once again, while going home and leaving NYC are synonymous for me, they may not be for you, and for that I apologize. Then again, I can only recommend moving to New York as a solution--if you're unconvinced, try last year's homeward bound playlist on for size. My advice: stay just long enough for that sunny-sweet homesickness to kick in. Happy Spring.
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2/07/2012 Shuffle Tuesday: There but for the grace of god go we
Good evening, intrepid and intermittent METROPOLIS readers. Dwelling as we do in this metropolitan den of iniquity, I hope my fellow New Yorkers can find it in their constitutions to suffer another shuffle of a weekday. After all, devil music is surely a step in the wrong direction. Fear not! Assuming your moral compasses are as degraded as mine has become, take this 5-song playlist as a not-quite-as-good substitution for a spiritual awakening, a chocolate bar, or a long summer car ride with the windows down (that is, whatever your heart most deeply desires). If I knew a better way to guide you I would--in the absence of enlightenment, an ignorant iTunes mix will have to do. Ever in the face of adversity we must soldier on, and to that effect I reward your persistence with yet another lazy shuffle, equally lazily-introduced.
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1/12/2012 Shuffle Thursday: What up, yo
Hey kids! Back from the grave and better than ever, METROPOLIS mini-revival at your service. Hold on to your headphones for a Thursday shuffle that will blow your minds, and not just because it's the first post in months. That's right, treat your last Thursday of vacation to some Saturday style. Let's call it fitting: one short week from today, Thursday night'll give you the semester's first taste of weekend freedom (from the higher education that is also freeing your wallet from the constraints of cash). Break monotony's overrated, or that's what we're telling ourselves. But enough banter! Back to my failure to get a jump on next term's reading and your enjoyment of this bangin' playlist, brought to you by iTunes® and laziness.
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