foreignmama

Completely in Regressive Love with Juno - the Movie, that is

This weekend I watched Juno, what put me in an incredibly regressive mode. First, I paid to get into a Movie Theater (long time did not do that), second, the next day I had to run to Amoeba to buy the CD with the soundtrack (another thing I thought I was not going to do ever again). I can't stop listening to it, I've already ordered Diablo Cody's Candy Girl (and I can't help but be jealous of someone almost exactly 5 years my junior with such a successful writing career  already - but as my hub replied "She did sit down to write, didn't she?" - but I digress...) and I am in love with Michael Cera - too bad we are 15 years apart...

Tetti loved the soundtrack - his favorite song is Vampire, by Antsy Pants. Last night as, I played the record for the third time, he set up the living room for a show - dining chairs in rows, a bodyboard as stage, the Amoeba logo cut out of the store wrapping paper stuck in our main door to announce the happening... It is funny, since he did not watch the movie, how the compilation inspired him into such performance. Maybe drama is not dead yet, after all.

My favorite song is "Anyone Else But You", by The Moldy Peaches. (beware spoiler coming up!) Take a peek at Cera and Page ending the movie with it:

Animated Video for Renee and Jeremy's It's a Big World by Hsinping Pan

Beautiful, lyrical animation for  a  very nice lullaby. Made by an old friend of a new friend of mine.

Emiliana Torrini: Heartstopper

I've already declared my love for Emiliana Torrini before, but I forgot to show my ever favorite song and video (and Tetti's also: whenever I play it, he has to watch it again five more times, over and over and over).

Hip Hop gone Cute

Rappers Delight Club is the future of hip hop and slowly becoming an international sensation  - without even recording an album. Check them out at their My Space page. Or listen to their greatest hit, When We Were Kids, right below, courtesy of YouTube. (By the way, I came across them by the also wonderful NPR show All Songs Considered - do yourself a favor check it out as well, and often!)

"Brazilian Girls" and "Mosquitos"

So it seems that nowadays Brazil is the "cool factor". Just add some Brazilian spice and anything gets a little more... interesting. In our lounge/groove/Buddha Bar era, including some Brazil to your mix is a sure hit - the gringos hear something in a sweet girlish voice over an electronic background and they go "Coooooool...", even if the singer is just saying "café com leite é bom" (coffee with milk is good). Some DJs and fans tell me they just love the way Brazilian Portuguese sounds - sultry, warm and full of promises... A guy once told me that just listening to me talk in my native language made him "weak in the knees"! (he also told me he was still in love with a former Brazilian flirt...that should explain much of his weakness).

Maybe you don't even need to speak any Portuguese to borrow from our coolness: take the band Brazilian Girls; a bunch of guys and only one girl, the singer Sabina Sciubba, who, by the way, is Italian, and sings in English, French, Spanish, and German... they just needed a catchy name. Made you look, didn't it? Click here to listen to MP3s of their last album, "Talk to La Bomb". And click over here to watch the video for Don't Stop: With Smoking in YouTube. Here you can watch Pussy live in NYC (Parental Discretion is advised; the chorus goes like this: "Pussy pussy pussy marijuana").

The band Mosquitos, on the other hand, is not as cool!-the-latest-thing-to-be-aware-of-in-New-York-city as Brazilian Girls seems to be (who, by the way, may suffer from trying too hard - making too much effort to be edgy is so, uh, uncool), but they are really cute. Funny. Soft. And cozy. You can visit their site to listen to the "Songs of the Day". And they do have a Brazilian singer, who knows how to sing - in a lovely style -  in Portuguese. And whose name is Juju (how dare her? Too bad I did not register my Trademark). Below you can watch the video for their hit Boombox:

Emiliana Torrini, beautiful global voice

Thanks to Angel, I discovered this sweet Icelandic singer, Emiliana Torrini who is as multicultural as one can get: Italian father, Icelandic mother, sings in English with that mellow,  child-like accent that only Icelandic singers can pull off (Bjork and Selma come to mind). One more proof that there is an asset in having an accent (anyone remembers that ad, “Secret #24: Sometimes I fake an accent at parties” ?). The clip bellow - the song is "Sunny Road" - is a favorite with kids, maybe due to the fairy-tale/collage atmosphere...