Beacoup d'Ellie

More and more Ellie Goulding!

I ended up going to her acoustic performance at AllSaints in the city monday night.

Some photos from the night:















And there are two videos I took..waaay better quality than the previous ones:

It's not what you've lost, but it's what you find: Ellie Goulding Webster Hall 2011

I saw Ellie Goulding perform at Webster Hall this past thursday. One of the greatest nights of the year so far. In case you didn't know (you probably already know if you are an avid reader of this blog) I am a huge fan of Ellie's music. I had been preparing for that night the first time I heard "Starry Eyed"..which actually wasn't the first Ellie song I've ever heard..it was "This Love (will be your downfall)" a cover by Kate McGill who I absolutely loved at the time and still do. From there I came to discover "Fighter Plane", which was full of dreamy lyrics and sounds along with "The Writer" with it's lustful imagery. I was in love..haha. Her voice is so beautiful and she is so full of talent.

The show opened with The Knocks..who I wasn't too fond of..they got the crowd moving a bit, which was great..but their songs were extremely similar with the same pounding bass and techno feel along with redundant lyrics. I give them credit..but let's admit it..we weren't there for them..we were there for Ellie.

And when she came on stage and opened with "Under the Sheets" it was just pure greatness. She played the entire US album including Elton John's "Your Song". The only thing that was disappointing was she didn't cover some of my favorites like "Fighter Plane" and "I'll Hold My Breath" which was on the UK album. I also would have loved to hear a few more of her covers but I was pretty much craving way more Ellie than the show was going to entail...haha.

The show overall was great, she had some sick drum solos and acoustic pieces and the crowd was tolerable and upbeat. I plan on seeing her perform an acoustic show on monday night, which I expect to be equally as wonderful.

These next few photos I actually borrowed from Erica (www.electrocutieblog.com) who I saw the show with. My camera was really shitty unfortunately.



Erica and I



Ellie, looking saintly






Her shirt was really cool. It looked like gloves were holding her boobs..for lack of a better description...ahah.



Getting "Lights" signed by the lovely EJG herself!



This is a shitty video I got of the beginning of "Your Song". The sound quality is okay though.




This one is "Your Biggest Mistake"



"This Love"

A stereotypically fancy artsy fartsy afternoon

My friends were home for spring break..so we decided to drive upstate to Beacon to find this little artsy street I had visited a few years ago but never got to walk down. A previous summer I drove around trying to find it and I never did..and we were finally successful. It was lined with coffee shops and galleries. We gallery hopped a bit..checking out local artists and their openings..snatching bites of fancy cheeses and sips of fancy wines. There was also a pub crawl going on so we had to dodge some crazy drunks.

But along the way..I found this adorable tea room that I couldn't resist. So while one of my friends went to meet with her art school professor who happened to be in town..my other friend and I went to the tea room.











The tea pot had a little cozy on top of it to keep it warm. I got the red chai.



And then there was this little contraption on the pot..which I had never seen before. It looked like something with a hair tie, butterfly clip and a sponge attached at the end. Whatever it was..it did a wonderful job at preventing the lid from slipping off when I poured the tea. It also stopped drippage down the spout.







My friend and her potato leek soup.



I got a tuna sandwich and a bowl of potato leek soup. The plate had a little indent in it for the soup bowl..added adorableness.

It was all delicious and the service was very friendly. Loved the atmosphere and the decorations of course...even the bathroom was cute.

Weekend update: Andy Kehoe and Gary Baseman

I went to visit my friend in the lovely Manhattan once again..because she's awesome and always has fun ideas for things to do on weekends.

On Saturday, March 5th we went to the Jonathan Levine gallery to see one of her favorite artists..Andy Kehoe..who was having an opening of "Strange Wanderings". I had never heard of him until she introduced me..and I absolutely love his work! The characters in his paintings all had this really cute and unique look to them..and almost every one was covered in leaves and nature-like details. We were also mesmerized by his technique. Here are a few of my favorites:



Love the antlers..love the cute leaf mustaches...love the autumn colors!



Who could resist a kitty cat with acorns riding on it's back?

And then I was excited to see that Gary Baseman was also having an opening for his "Walking Through Walls" exhibit. I currently follow him on twitter and I was familiar with "Teacher's Pet"..a Disney cartoon that he had created. I recognized his style immediately..a lot of his characters have very distinct eyes and a tiny button nose.



He also did a little speech on how a lot of the exhibit was dedicated to a sad time in his life he was going through because of the death of his father. Hence the morbid themes. He also created a little ghost girl character who went along with his "walking through walls" theme. He gave me a little screen-printed handkerchief of her.



Yeah I'm in my pajamas..it's a silly picture okay?



And this is Mr. Baseman and I.



The next day I did some henna..while watching Benny and Joon.



A cute little bow..



And we went to our favorite place on Mott St...Shanghai cafe. I got this delicious Magic Mocha smoothie.



And we saw the plumpest kitty ever.

Cool, calm water bring your voices back..

When I was younger...I used to spend most of my days after-school and summers in the woods..exploring..building forts....making trails..can you tell this has influenced me a lot? Haha.

At the age of 7 I wandered in the woods with my older brother and we explored a few blocks away from our house..we had packed sandwiches in our backpacks and wandered so far we reached these power-lines and I remember seeing a farmhouse down the hill with chickens. We had no idea where we were...but when we got home..our mother was calling the police because she had no idea where we went. From then on we were banned from leaving our street. Of course that didn't stop us..

Every summer my brother and I would gather wood and build a fort. He would build bows and arrows and I would furnish the fort with moss and leaves. Then we would battle the neighbors and defend our makeshift castle. In winters we would replace our wooden fort with a frozen one.

I recall this one time when my brother and I wandered to the woods across the street that we hadn't been to before. Kids on our block tried to scare us by saying the Blair witch lived there (just by this reference you can tell around what year this happened..ahha). Of course we went anyways. We wandered until we found this small ravine. We walked down into the stream and I was excited to find natural clay..the kind that you make those coil pots with in art class and bake. My brother found a deer skull. Eager to get home and show our treasures to our parents..we rushed up the ravine and my brother ended up slipping and falling into the clay at the bottom. He was stuck. His shoes had sunk up to his ankles and he was sinking by the minute. I was such a wee age..so of course the situation was terrifying..and I started to cry and get all worried. I tried to pull him out with a stick but he wouldn't budge. I was debating in my head whether to leave him and try to get help from our dad..but I didn't want to leave him alone because I was afraid something would happen to him. Thankfully he decided to take his shoes off and was freed. We walked home and our parents questioned why his shoes were missing. It was beyond a silly situation. Later I remember baking coil and pinch pots and the deer skull still remains in our attic somewhere.

To this entry I dedicate this song..one of my favorites by Manchester Orchestra:



And here's the original..by the Annuals..you can decide which one you like better: