Filed under: design, gadgets, music | Tags: ACL 2008, ACL festival, Apple, austin city limits, C.S.S., Ipod touch, Ipod touch ad, Nick Haley
(I have a dancing problem that turns into a video problem when I try to do both at the same time, my apologies.)
Give it a listen - maybe you’re wondering the song sounds so familiar?
You’ve heard it on an Ipod Touch ad – check out the story & videos below.
Neat story behind this ad – a college student in the UK (Nick Haley) came up with this in his free time. He posted it to YouTube, Apple heard about it and decided to fly him out to L.A. to get his help producing virtually the same ad for real t.v.
Here’s Nick’s original – pretty close to the real thing, huh?
Filed under: events, music | Tags: ACL 2008, ACL festival, ACL pictures, ACL videos, austin city limits, Band of Horses, C.S.S., Erykah Badu, Flyleaf, heartless bastards, Hot Chip, Vampire Weekend, white denim, Xavier Rudd, Yeasayer
Originally uploaded by cooperella
For your viewing and listening pleasure, I give you my audio-visual recap of ACL 2008, day by day.
Fav shows, in very particular order:
1- Band of Horses
2- Xavier Rudd
3- C.S.S.
4- Vampire Weekend
5- Hot Chip
6- Yeasayer
7- Flyleaf
8- Erykah Badu
9- Heartless Bastards
10- White Denim
Filed under: events, music | Tags: "No one's gonna love you", ACL, ACL 2008, Austin, austin city limits, Avril Lavigne, Band of Horses, Flyleaf, music, music festivals, Xavier Rudd, zilker park
ACL 2008, success!
Day 3 was a GREAT day of music. My favorite of the entire weekend, by far.
My day started at the AT&T stage with a band from Belton, Texas called Flyleaf. Lacey Mosley’s vocals remind me of Avril Lavigne (here’s where I confess to being an Avril fan). The music is hard, but sweet – her voice is powerful but fragile. It was a knock-out combination, like milk chocolate on salty pretzels and I loved it.
The second big stop was for Xavier Rudd. Originally I had pointed this show out to Justin because the band description seemed right up his alley, with comparisons to John Butler Trio, Ben Harper, Jack Johnson. I didn’t really expect to be there myself, but boy am I glad I was. Xavier was my big surprise of the weekend. That boy could BLOW. Like C.S.S. was Bjork on crack, so was Xavier Rudd like Jack Johnson on crack. There were times when I couldn’t tell if I was at a rave or at a Peace Corp rally. His set was upbeat and soulful. And the number of instruments that were played between himself and his drummer were astounding. The man can play the didgeridoo and a steel guitar at the same time. Talk about talent!
Xavier Rudd, ACL 2008, photo by Justin
Band of Horses, ACL 2008, photo by Justin
My third favorite show of the day was, of course, Band of Horses. Just typing the name makes me melt into a big puddle of pudding. They played all my fav’s, including my fav of fav’s, “No one’s gonna love you”. Again, I’m melting just thinking about it. I’m not sure what it is about these guys that makes my physiological state morph in this fashion – maybe it’s Ben Bridwell’s mass of tangled wet spaghetti hair or his massive burly beard, I don’t know. More likely than not it’s their beautiful lyrics and Ben’s fantastic but thin voice – again, there is a fragility there just speaks to my soul. If you’re not familiar with the tune, I encourage you to check out their website and give it a listen – go to www.bandofhorses.com and click on the “Media” tab. Maybe you’ll melt too – if so, let me know. I’m curious.
Overall it was an awesome ACL weekend. We made sure to keep a piece of our lives intact while the shows were going on by getting up early & taking care of the day to day (like running and grocery shopping and laundry). Then in the afternoon headed to Zilker Park and saw all the shows we wanted to see. By the time our legs were hurting and our lungs were full of dust we were ready to go home and get some good rest for the next day.
In the coming days I’ll try to do an overview of the whole weekend with a top ten of bands, as well as a link to more photos & video that we took during the weekend. Till then hang tight, and start checking out some of the bands I’ve mentioned in my daily posts – maybe you’ll discover something new that you like too!
Filed under: events, music | Tags: ACL 2008, austin city limits, C.S.S., Erykah Badu, Iron & Wine, music, Nittany Lions, Penn State football, PSU vs. Illinois
Day 1, all smiles!
Day 2 was a little tougher than Day 1. I swear there were twice as many people there, if that’s possible. The extra bodies made getting to and from stages a little tougher, and getting in close to the stages was out of the question. This is when the festival scene sorta looses me – when I can’t see the musician’s faces except for on a big screen. Call me crazy, but I’m there to SEE these people, not just their super-imposed images on a megatron… Oh man, I am so high maintenance. :)
The upside was that the heat was still not nearly as bad as last year. And there were some great shows – my favorite by far was CSS. That girl – dude… she’s just crazy. A fellow show-goer stopped to chat for a bit and mentioned that she was “Bjork on speed”. I can’t think of a better description. She came out sporting an 80′s turquoise & eggplant printed unitard (full uni with legs and all), and a ginormous black octopus boa. The band is from South America, so she had a bit of an accent – not Icelandic, but definately bears some resemblance to Bjork’s sharp & sweet tone. She be-bopped all over the stage, did front rolls and pushed the mic in front of audience member Jeremy’s face during the song “Alcohol” (his favorite drink is a gin and tonic, if you were wondering). The energy was excellent, and the songs were fun. Two thumbs up!
CSS, ACL 2008
Iron & Wine played a solid set, but I have to admit… I wasn’t really paying as much attention as I should have been. Erykah Badu was probably my second favorite of the day, that woman just has an amazing set of vocal chords!
Erykah Badu, ACL 2008
We caught a bit of Robert Plant & Allison Krause before heading to Pluckers to catch the second half of the Penn State game. I was so excited! This was the first time this season that I’ve been able to see my team play. They looked great, and beat the Fighting Illini up a good bit. I’m sad that I wasn’t able to join my Penn State LArch friends in Happy Valley… but I’m glad I got to see the end of a good game that ended in a win. Go Penn State!!!!
PSU vs. Illinois, 09-27-08, photo courtesy Zach's iphone (darn those are good seats...)
Tomorrow is the last day of the festival, and I’m definitely looking forward to the last couple of shows: Heartless Bastards, Band of Horses, and Foo Fighters. There are also a few unfamiliar bands I’m looking forward to in the early afternoon – Against Me!, Flyleaf & Octopus Project. I’ll be sure to post tomorrow with my wrap-up for the weekend!
Filed under: food, go green, Heath + Beauty, lifestyle | Tags: boggy creek farm, farmers markets, localvore, tips for shopping farmers markets
It’s been a month or two since I’ve been shopping at Boggy Creek Farm every Saturday morning for my local groceries. Shopping at the farm is a lot different from shopping at the grocery store, so I thought it might be helpful to pass along some things I’ve learned thus far.
1- Go early! Boggy Creek and most farmers markets have a very short window of open hours – Boggy Creek is open from 9-1 on Saturdays and Wednesdays. They open at 9 because they spend most of their morning harvesting the veggies that customers will be buying later on – great for me, since I’m not an early riser, but the small window of time makes finding what you want a challenge. On the mornings that I’ve gone at 10:30, I’ve been disappointed with only snagging a few small tomatoes, some salad greens, and some items from the dairy fridge. The trick is to get there within the first hour of opening. Today I got there at 9:45 and there was MUCH to choose from, all sorts of vegetable pretties, some I’d never even heard of! Check out the bounty I brought home!
Arugula, heirloom tomatoes, onions, cherry heirloom tomatoes, feta cheese & bison meat, oh my!
2- Dig around! It took me awhile to get comfortable enough at Boggy Creek to start rooting through nooks and crannies, but sometimes that’s what it takes to find what you want. Check the website of your grower to see if they have a list of current offerings. If you don’t remember seeing something on the list at the market, ask them about it or look a little harder! I had no idea my local farm offered bison, beef & lamb from Texas ranches that give their animals a good life by feeding them grass (no pellet corn product), and allowing them to be truly free-range animals. This week I did a little digging and found much more than a freezer stocked with meat – I found ice cream too! WooHoo!
3- Bring your own bags, and feel free to ask the farm hands if they accept returned packaging, like egg cartons or produce baskets. Nothing’s better than feeling good about buying local, reducing waste & giving back to the farm that feeds you!
