Finally...Little Dragon Pictures and Review

I'm horrible at my blogging duties. Always letting life and its antics get in the way. But I am finally posting photos from the Little Dragon show. Unfortunately, I did not get very many decent photos of the Sweedish electronic kick-ass four piece band. I really need a good camera. However, the show was great; everything that I hoped it would be - awesome. And like so many groups in that genre, you must see them live in order to fully appreciate everything that goes into their music. Same goes for Billygoat. I only caught half of their performance, but I was nothing short of impressed. With such mixed media and mellow vibes, they really pleased the audience. I personally am a fan of instrumental bands. I find them refreshing, and Billygoat was exactly that, refreshing. Another band that is not to be judged until seen live. When I tried to listen to their music on Myspace, I honestly wasn't much of a fan...but I know better than to judge based on a couple of recorded songs.

Did I mention that lead singer, Yukimi's outfit rocked? Not only can that girl dance and has hell of a voice, she most certainly can dress. Speaking of dance moves, her interpretive-like movements really reminded me of myself, other than the fact that she has way more grace in her pinky finger than I hold in my entire body. Best part of the night? Dancing like a robot, sprinkler and just your average grocery shopper with some old friends who are always a blast!

GUILTMAKER, Saturday Go!

So for those of you in the Tampa Bay area who have never been to Gaspirilla but plan to go this year and are all excited about it - get over it. It's over rated. For those of you who have been and want to immediately jump down my throat and argue this with me, I want you to take a moment and think about every time you have gone to the Gaspirilla day parade. (For those of you even thinking about going to the night parade - just stop reading my blog now please). How much preparation do you go through for the day? What grueling hour do you wake up to head to Tampa if not already there? How much shit do you lug around with you all day? Like me - and refuse to carry a lot of crap? How much do you regret not bringing a chair? How many times have you gotten all you're favorite people together to go, but inevitably by the end of the day - one is missing, one is puking, one has a black eye, and the other is crying. Most likely you have a wild card that is doing all the above.

One way to do it right and still have a good time is to avoid the parade all together and go to a house party near by. You still partake in the festivities, drink much cheaper than if you were to go to the parade with the new rules and laws they began enforcing last year, and you have a safe place where everyone can meet if separated.

I'm not trying to be a pessimist or negative. Go to the parade, have a blast, but when you're done, head over to Vinyl Fever at 4110 Henderson Blvd., Tampa for their Send Off party. I've never been, but from what I understand, it was a beloved record store for many. Awesome band of awesome people, GUILTMAKER will be playing around 5:30. Check them out, they are a local band, and they're definitely worth your time. Other bands playing include Will Quinlan and the Diviners and Matt Hires. If you go for no other reason (other than checking out GUILTMAKER), Matt Hires is a total cutie. Just saying. His music is a little soft, but it's still good. Love his voice. I wish I could say I am going to be there, but I will be pretending to be a grown up at a house warming party that I am already committed to. Wish GUILTMAKER and Matt Hires were playing earlier. Good thing GUILTMAKER will be a Fubar in St. Pete Feb. 12!! Click here for more details on Saturday's event.

I Heart....Vintage

New feature alert! As anyone who hangs around me on the reg, you must know that I use the expression "I heart..." often, overly often. I'm not proud of this, I realize it is one of those bad habits of mine that is sure to annoy the people around me. However, no one has complained so far, so I am going to embrace it. Some of the things that I heart - and are well known that I heart are zippers, lace, modern art, short dresses with a high neckline, and much more. Now I will share with you that I heart...vintage. I've recently come across a few sites with some great vintage pieces. I have not purchased any yet, I will probably wait till next paycheck on Friday (story of my life : /) Most pieces that I liked are sold out (boo) but check out some favs!

We Move Vintage:

Hallelu:

 Nasty Gal

Ok so I can't afford the vintage items on this site, but the new items are very vintage-y and super cute!

This Week's To-Do's

WRITE!!!! and taking more pictures! I know that I MUST start including more photos in this blog if I am going to continue on with it. So I have saved like 4 titles of different posts to add, and have yet to write them, including a new weekly feature. I don't know how I manage to stay so occupied, but I do. A very busy week followed by a very busy weekend it has been. Fortunately, I was pretty productive today, surprisingly. I managed to overcome the urge to go drinking with my guy friends after my friend's baby's 1st birthday party. Baby G is ohhh sooo adorable! One of the sweetest babies I have ever crossed paths with. His mother is a lucky lady - and he is a lucky and very loved little boy. Instead, I went grocery shopping (might actually cook a meal this week), went for a run - which I don't regret but am in so much pain considering how I worked out for the first time in forever on Saturday morning - cleaned, watched a movie, and even got some work done before the party!

This weekend as a whole was a great one - visits to old watering holes, workouts, a failed attempt to go to the new Dali museum (a horrible line to wait in the windy cold? I think not!) resulting in a trip to the Chihuly collection I had yet to visit, and some music discovery. Not to mention, I got to see lots of friends this weekend, all great ones, including some I have not seen in many moons. It's crazy how you can have certain people in your life that re-introduce you to a little piece of yourself that you may have lost (deep, I know). Oh - and an amazing, yet probably totally unnecessary trip to Forever 21, which resulted in lots of good finds - pics to come soon.

Looking forward to a productive week - once I get some sleep! Most of all, looking to catching up with even more friends this week with dinners, coffee dates, the Little Dragon show on Thursday at CrowBar that I am BEYOND excited for, and more! Oh, what busyness is ahead of me.

Whoohoo for Ra Ra & More Show Announcements

The other day I received incredible news via Facebook that Ra Ra Riot will be coming to Crowbar in Tampa March 9. Check out the deats on the Aesthetisized Presents site. I must say, I thought they would have a bigger following to play a bigger venue, but no complaints here. More intimacy with one of my fav NY bands for me! That is, if I live here. If not, I'm sure I will have plenty of opportunities to catch them in NY - the beauty of that decision. Indie bands are now finally making their way to Florida on their tours - heck, even the Tampa Bay area, but there's no telling if they'll return. They always return to NY. Just saying. All my Burg peeps - be sure to check this show out, you can thank me later.

Other shows much worthy of mention:

• Of Montreal and Kid Sister - this Saturday 1/15 at The Ritz Ybor
• CAKE - SOLD OUT  ( also this Saturday 1/15 at Jannus in St. Pete
• Broken Social Scene (whoop whoop so pumped) - Friday 2/11 at The Ritz Ybor
• Iration & Ballyhoo - Friday 2/18 at Jannus - um...the night before my birthday, or should I say the 2nd anniversary of my 21st birthday. Iration puts on a pretty good show, you should probably go ahead and mark your calendars now. 

In March Jannus is getting a swarm of great reggae/surf rock bands including:

• Slightly Stoopid with Fishbone - 2 nights
• G. Love & Special Sauce
• Rebulation
• And Citizen Cope is coming back to Jannus March 26. At least this time we won't all be sweating buckets, hopefully. 

I've seen all of these bands a number of times, and they are all great. Slightly Stoopid happens to be in my top five fav bands, no matter how much indie music I listen to, I will always go back to them. Check them out here. More show announcements to come later.

Currently Obsessed: Sites, Photos and Fashion - Part One

So, 2011 is the year for me to be a total loser apparently. Other than my trip to New York, my life has consisted of work, web surfing, job search, work, dancing around my room to Daft Punk, work, blogging, watching TV,  and sleeping. Not just any TV - but Millionaire Matchmaker, Houewives, Tosh.0, Pretty Little liars - starting to grasp the severity of my ADD? A bit different from 2010. Needless to say, I've had plenty of time to think about all my current obsessions other than New York and music. Unfortunately for me, my third most prevalent obsessions are fashion and shopping. Why unfortunate? Because I am 100% broke. Very possibly one of the reasons why I've turned down every invite to do anything this past week. It's times like these that I wish I had a dog : / I miss my Marley Pooker Dog (pictured below).

Of my current obsessions, included are: military boots (FYI - Swell.com has 30% off all boots till Friday), oxfords, these unisex tote bags I'll never be able to afford - I'm a huge fan of Matt & Nat bags as well, sequins, lace, zippers (duh, I heart zippers), heals I can actually walk in and so much more.

Most people know about sample sales such as Gilt, Beyond the Rack, Haute Look, RueLaLa, etc., but here are a couple other shopping sites/service you may not be aware of (warning: beware, you're likely to become obsessed):

• boutiques.com
• shopittome.com

Another prevalent obsession of mine: street fashion.

I've already mentioned that I'm a huge fan of The Sartorialist. Another street style inspired (featuring real women in the fashion and beauty industries) blog - IntotheGloss.com, edited by former Hills girl Emily Weiss. Our very own ILovethe Burg.com has a feature called Downtown Style File that they admittedly took from The Sartorialist, featuring stylish girls on the streets of St. Pete. 

I could write a novel on my current obsessions. More to come soon.

Sidenote: I'm so trying a veggie dog tomorrow. Check it out here!

Currently Obsessed: Music New and Old

Could it really be? Am I actually blogging again? There's a number of other things I could, and should, be doing, but I thought I would try this whole blogging thing out one more time. I understand that many of my posts are just ramblings about myself and my interests. I totally understand that these may not be of any interest to anyone other than me. However, every now and then there will be a gem on here. I personally think that these "Currently Obsessed" posts can be valuable to some...or not. 

Here's the music that is currently taking over my life. Check out these bands and let me know what you think! I've been dipping into some different sounds lately. I was on a huge electro-pop/indie kick, which was a little odd for me (but not really). Now I'm just trying to keep a good variety going at once. Oh - and if you've yet to do so - check out Grooveshark.com - it's free streaming music. that's right - FREE.

1. White Rabbits - oh boy I wish I could be seeing them in NY next month : ( I heard they're AMAZING live

2. Yeasayer's Live at Ancienne Belgium album - currently free to download - uh chu ya. Not to mention, it reminds me of the awesome show they played at State Theatre. So happy I went thanks to Lisa Leone!! one of THE most memorable shows this year.

3. Broken Bells - a collaboration of Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and James Mercer of The Shins - need I say more? I had listened to them before, but I listen to so much music, I tend to forget about some groups. fortunately, when in New York, my friend Danny reintroduced them to me. Definitely on the must see live list.

4. Passion Pit - nothing new here, just happy music.

5. Marina Topley Bird - this is a brand new find for me. I believe the genius of Danger Mouse is somewhat behind this chick. I like what I hear though!

6. Broken Social Scene - nothing new here, but can I take a moment to say that I already have my ticket for their show at The Ritz in Tampa Feb 11 and I'm sooo pumped (I may have been the purchaser of the first 2 tix to be sold at Daddy Kool records). I do, however, hope that I get a call asking me to move to NY, but if not, sooo pumped.

7. Wavves - some will like, some won't. I've personally been feeling them, especially with their latest album "King of the Beach." If I do by some miracle move to NY, you best bet I'm going to see them next month!

New York, New York

A post just for Bec Bec, my number one supporter. 

Last week, I went up to New York for my first-ever real job interview. It was nerve-racking, scary, exciting, and all that jazz. It ended up going pretty well. I'm supposed to hear back by the end of the week. Fingers crossed! I don't have my hopes up too much, considering how I have no idea what my interview skills were really like. I do know, however, from an inside source that there was talk about "the girl from Florida" before I went up there for my interview. The job would be a great experience, and the company is a super cool one I could see wanting to stick with and growing within. My current sources of inspiration and motivation to keep up my efforts to seek more opportunity are this video about one of my all-time favorite blogs The Sartorialist, and Kate Miss' blog For Me, For You. Although she just relocated to L.A., her amazing and unique photos of NY would make me lust for the city, and her stories of the transition have served as quite the source of inspiration as well. Not to mention I would have never found out about this career opportunity if it wasn't for her. Thanks!

I decided to make a mini-weekend getaway of the trip. It was the first time traveling by myself since I was 12, and it was kind of awesome. Of course I love my friends, and would have loved for them to be with me. There's just something about the freedom, independence of traveling by yourself, doing your own thing on your own schedule that's refreshing. I got to visit MoMA (one of my favorite places in the world), The New Museum of Contemporary Art (I had heard soo much about it),  eat some meatballs with my hilarious cuz and her awesome friends, and did some exploring by myself. I didn't even get lost on public transportation. I don't know how, but I am much less directionally challenged there than I am here, weird. Anywho, New York, New York (Brooklyn) I hope to call you home soon, even if it means working three jobs and never sleeping.

P.S. this was my first time seeing snow fall! Pretty crazy huh?

P.S.S. Anyone else who may read this - I never would have posted again if Becca didn't mention her checking it, thinking I would post in the airport. That's a supportive friend, just saying. I'm a quitter, I need to be pushed.