Play it again, Frenchie.

                                 

Today I took to listening to all my French music. I recently pirated some Jacques Brel, because I couldn't stand listening to Zach Condon of Beirut's drunken rendition of "Le Moribond" any longer. I had a song by Brigitte Bardot, but when I looked into what music she made, I was dissapointed to find there was nothing that wasn't complete fluff besides "Moie Je Joue", the track I already have a copy of... which is, by the way, pretty much fluff. I also attempted to find some good Serge Gainsbourg songs, however I was mostly just entertained by the Bardot/Gainsbourg "Bonnie and Clyde" track, so this was really the only one I downloaded.

I also rediscovered Edith Piaf, and downloaded her music as well. Well, one song. I didn't really look that hard at all. I'm not doing a very good job, am I? If you are by chance an Edith Piaf fan, or at least know what she is famous for, you probably guessed that the song was "La Vie En Rose." Piaf wrote the lyrics, and Lous Gugliemi (or "Louiguy") helped with the melody. I believe this song became popular in the late 1940s. [As a side note, I must confess to you now, I am actually not a particular fan of fashion from the 1940s unlike many, but the music and films of the 1940s, I completely adore.]

I have seen bits of "La Vie En Rose" the film. If I may be so bold.... such a film isn't worth watching unless you want to know the details of a person's life. The problem with that second bit of what I said is that the movie is not completely accurate, because the fact if the matter is, is that Edith Piaf's life is shrouded in mystery. There were plenty of rumors and stories left floating around long after she had gone. That first bit of what I said, I said because I personally do not find movies made to depress entertaining, however beautiful everything in it just might be, although this really is all purely opinion.

It really was a brilliant song. I have listened the Madeliene Peyroux cover a countless number of times now. I have been playing it all day. Now I'm just wondering how long my addiction is going to last with all this French music. If you don't know who any of these artists are, you really ought to look them up! Listening to the music of these chanteurs and chanteuses is taking a good bite out of French culture. That, and most of old French songs sound very pretty.

Summer start now.

Could I have been born in a better place for feeding my greatest obsessions? Thank you, mes parents, for birthing me in Seattle! Because this year, we have more than just a few really great shows and festivals this summer (and exhibitions! Warhol/Cobain at the SAM!). I really do expect this years Capitol HIll Block Party to be the best one yet! Yes, oh yes. I am on of them. The Concert-goer, child of concert-goers, and of musicians. Of the music obsessed, who were once grunge rockers, earliest fans of Ozzy, bona-fide metalheads, midwestern punk kids, with their weird affinities for the soul, for shoegaze, for jazz music. And for really great singers, too, crooners, for Billie Holiday, for Bing Crosby, for Sarah Vann, for Ella Fitzgerald, and for, most of all and above all vocalists, Frank Sinatra.

The great thing about music is that I never know where it will take me next. Doesn't that just sound stupid as hell? But, really, when heavy metal meets grunge meets old pop standards, meets indie, meets The Smiths, meets the honky tonk hour on you local independent radio station --- hard to say that tomorrow you won't start listening to early David Bowie and, I don't know, world music. I started listening to Beirut... Balkan Brass Gypsy Music and Grunge rock are two very separate things.

For those of you who (somehow) do not know, the summer here is good for seeing loads of amazing musicians. Our Bumbershoot Festival really IS incredible, most years, and we in general see tons of great artists and musicians at Seattle Venues throughout the summer months. I am particularly excited for July. We get to have MGMT play for the 2010 Capitol Hill Block Party. That's east of downtown Seattle. Yes... on a hill. I would describe Capitol Hill as a very, very mellow version of something slightly resembling the scene in, maybe, San Francisco, but sized down, with way less of the fun stuff; with lots of weird little restaurants, some really great cafes, and a couple very smelly and sometimes very overpriced consignment opportunities. The block party I have been to, but do not exactly remember (I was taken when I was about 3 years old by my father).

July might be one very busy month for me if I'm going to Capitol HIll Block Party, San Francisco, getting a summer job to save for a graduation trip (France) and finishing a large portion of my AP Studio Art summer homework. There is much work to be done needless to say. And I am still undecided about my Senior Project. Art show?

Speaking of art... we received all our artwork back from the school art expo, at last! I sent in my French Horn Sketch to a community art show. It was really the only piece that was, by my standards, "finished". I took all my unfinished and "unfinished" pieces home on Friday.

You know what really gets me? Those green "honorable mention" ribbons stamped on some of the pieces in the Art Expo. My tree was one of these pieces. Let's see, Kendra receives first place ribbon. Brendan receives second place ribbon. And... *mystery place* ribbon for Amelia! I don't know who was on the panel of judges this year, but boy, do they know how to make an intensely hard-working art student feel second-rate.

Special thanks to Ms. King for being one person completely in love with this thing. I honestly wish I could appreciate this tree as much as you do (especially after all the work and weekdays that I had to put into it).

You can probably tell, this piece is very large. But this is about as big as I am, as is my self portrait.

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My eyes need... surgery.

Here is a painting I did at the beginning of a year. It is my favorite painting, but oddly enough, the subject, once a friend of mine, completely stopped talking to me this year.

(Acrylic paint) 

And this painting, unfinished, was the start of a song interpretation piece. "There is a Light, And It Never Goes Out" by The Smiths. That odd little white carrot-shaped man at the bottom will at some point be Patrick Morrissey. When I showed this to my Dad, he said "Of all the romantic imagery you could come up with, you got...what, a light bulb and the guy who sings the song? Jesus." That made me feel really great. That's probably the reason I left this alone for such a long time. It is getting there....

And my last unfinished piece of the Amelia Unfinished Collection. The Bicycle still life!

This year nearly killed me. Thank goodness summer is almost here. And only one, single, torturous week left! Hallelujah!