Let's make happy
Listened Things
Pearl and the Beard Giveaway
Jun 29th
Our giveaway winner is comment #40 by knitcrazy!
Me, my Mom, and my Mom’s friend Vera. We all love knitting (well, maybe my Mom less), so we would be wearing and knitting the sweater at the same time!
You may have noticed that occasionally I blog about music that I love, even though most of my blog is dedicated to things knitting related. Very seldom do these two interests collide, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard about Pearl and the Beard, a fantastic Brooklyn band (so, also local to me!) with a love for knitting. The 3-person sweater pictured on their new album was made by Jocelyn Mackenzie, one of the members!
Killing the Darlings is definitely 3-person sweater-worthy.
Pearl and the Beard draw you in with warm 3-part harmonies that are sweet and haunting at the same time—combined with masterfully played acoustic instruments (cello, guitar), the songs are steeped in tradition with a very 2011 spirit. Just check out this free track from the album, “Reverend”:
So about that sweater. Jocelyn designed and made it herself using a knitting machine, which is something I’ve been really interested in lately. She explains how it all happened in this video.
I mentioned a giveaway in the title of this post, and it’s true! Pearl and the Beard are letting me give away a copy of Killing the Darlings to one person, so I’d like to ask you all: who would you put in your 3-person sweater? Myself, I’d wear the sweater with my two cats. They would hate it, but it would make for a great photo shoot!
Let us know who your sweater companions would be in the comments to this post, and I’ll randomly select a winner this Friday, July 1st. If the winner is in the US, they’ll get a physical copy of the album, and if they’re out of the country, they’ll get the album as a download. Good luck!
Bizness by tUnE-yArDs
May 11th
I’ve been a bit obsessed lately with the new tUnE-yArDs album, “Whokill,” so I thought I’d share this video of one of the songs. It reminds me of the Fang Island video I posted here last year. Face painting and classroom fun!
Summer Reading
Jul 6th
My July 4th weekend consisted largely of reading and sleeping in the grass. How appropriate that I was reading this book.
I loved it. It’s been a long time since I got excited about a book, so I feel the need to spread the word. As you can see, it’s The Accidental by Ali Smith. It came out a few years ago.
While I’m talking of new favorite things, the best movie I saw recently was Please Give (not spectacular, but unexpectedly good), and in the music category I’ve been enjoying The National’s Boxer (admittedly late to this one too).
Fang Island
Apr 20th
It’s been a long time since I’ve talked music on the blog! I guess I haven’t been too excited about any new music lately, but here is a happy song by Fang Island that I am loving. (Not so much the video, but whatever.)
Grizzly Bear in Claymation
Feb 3rd
I recently started taking a stop-motion animation class, just because I’ve always been interested in it. We haven’t gotten to the point of actually animating anything yet, but I’ve been especially on the lookout for good examples of it, and I just came across this video for Grizzly Bear’s “Ready, Able” (from one of my favorite albums from last year). It’s a great song and a beautiful (though somewhat creepy) animation.
