Griff says; Time for some Stone therapy

I'm sure many of you are already familiar with the dreamy and intimate music of talented Australian folk siblings Angus & Julia Stone. What you may not have realised is that Julia recorded a solo album in New York in late 2008. This album titled 'The Memory Machine' was finally released last Friday, September 10th, and has been a firm favourite on the Streetlamp dansette for the last 5 days.

If you already like Angus and Julia's melancholy-tinged music then you'll love this. Best of all it can be freely downloaded here, here and here. The album features 10 dream-pop suffused indie-folk songs of the highest quality. You won't be disappointed. Angus & Julia will be touring Australia, the US, the UK and Europe throughout September, October, November and December. Check their myspace page for dates near you.


Julia Stone - My Baby by angusjulia





Julia Stone - This Love by angusjulia





Julia Stone - Where Does The Love Go by angusjulia

Enjoy!

Griff
xx

Ellen v. Allison: Welcome to Hilaritydome

So ESPN apparently has this great special about the Martina Navratilova/Chris Evert rivalry/friendship called “Unmatched” playing right now. It has gotten very high praise indeed for its portrayal of the two women and their long history, and I need to set my DVR before I forget (schedule is here, if you want to record it with me). But, of course, this rivalry got me thinking (always dangerous) about other rivalries. Which naturally led me to mortal enemies Ellen DeGeneres and Allison Janney. These two women share a vicious, some might say obsessive, rivalry that has spanned years. Competitors cheat. Competitors talk smack. Competitors draw blood. And we, we laugh like crazy people.

Ellen v. Allison: A Retrospective


Ellen v. Allison: Sumo Wrestling


Ellen v. Allison: Arm Wrestling


Ellen v. Allison: I’m Gonna Smash Your Face


Ellen v. Allison: Being Ellen


It’s awfully hard to pick a winner. I’d say us.

Tank Top Tuesday/SGALGG: Rizzoli & Isles

Kittens, do we need to hug out last night’s “Rizzoli & Isles” finale? Why am I even asking, get in here. *hughughughughughughug*

Better? Still no? What about if I combined a very special Tank Top Tuesday with a very special Straight Gals Acting Like Gay Gals Edition? I think it is only fair after what can only be classified as a really fucking traumatizing cliff hanger. When I said “HOLY FUCKINIG SHIT,” I meant “HOLY FUCKING SHIT.” Of course, we know she will be fine. The show has already been renewed for a 13-episode second season and they’re not going to rename it “& Isles.” So for the long, long, long year that we have to wait until our leading ladies get touchy feely in a non-“let me dress that wound” way with each other again, let this tide you over.

[Click any and all to enlarge the therapeutic T3/SGALGGing]

HUGGING!GAZING!TOUCHING!SHARING THE SAME BED!

DREAMING – SWEET, SWEET DREAMING![Another Photoshop masterpiece by the amazing Bee!]

And if none of that helped, take comfort in the inevitable Dr. Isles nursing Det. Rizzoli back to health fan-fic that will no doubt flood the internet until next summer. Tell the doctor where it hurts.

UPDATE: My Subtext Recap for the finale is up at AfterEllen. Mmm, subtexty.

Year of the Dragon

You know when you hear about how great something is for so long it feels like you’ve already experienced it and agree completely with its greatness. But then you actually take the time to experience it for real and you’re like: What, why didn’t anyone tell me this was so fucking great? But of course, they did. You were just were too busy/tired/preoccupied/frazzled/dumb. Yeah, that’s me with “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” Also, holy good God, Noomi Rapace.

Besides being a brutal, taut and well-constructed thriller, TGWTDT’s best feature is its introduction of the universe to the amazing talent that in Noomi. You Swedes probably knew this all long, but us in less fortunate geographic locales needed to see her transform completely into Lisbeth Salander to find a clue. Wow. I mean, damn. What is more emphatic than wow and damn? WAMN! I don’t know. But I do know that having seen interviews and pictures of Noomi outside her TGWTDT role and having seen her on screen, that’s am amazing bit of acting. She looks, of course, different (and, I might add, queerilicious), but her body too has been sculpted into one gorgeous mass of sinew and muscle.

Plus, oh kittens, that scowl. You know how much I love a sexy scowler. (Oh Lena, Lena).

If, like me, you have been remiss in seeing this film I would advise you forget whatever inferior film you are thinking of renting (Is that, are you…? No – no “Prince of Persia.” For one, Jake Gyllenhaal is in no way Persian.), and pick up “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” instead. Plus, how many other movies will give you a bisexual punk kick-ass hacker for its lead? Lucky for us, its sequel “The Girl Who Played with Fire” comes out on DVD next month. And this time we get to see Lisbeth do more than just wake up next to that hot lady friend of hers.

Though, while we’re on the subject, do we really need an American version? I like David Fincher as much as the next gal (except Benjamin Button...why...so...long?), but are we really that lazy that we can’t read the subtitles? And, while we’re still on the subject, (SPOILERS if you haven’t seen the film/read the books, seriously, don’t yell at me this seems like enough warning space for spoilers…) does the thought of Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara making with the sexy time together as the story demands fill anyone with an overwhelming sense of ewww? The problem in Rooney looks so much younger and more frail than Noomi. Which, to reiterate, is ewww. But, hey, maybe the kid will surprise me and make her own transformation into a fierce fire-breathing avenger filled with scowl and fury.

Or maybe I’ll just watch the originals again.

~Kitten Wine~#17: The Grandfather Brothers(and the mix-tape that begat them)

And so we return to the art of the mix-tape.

As I've said in previous Blogs, thanks to Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity' mix-tapes have become symbols of smug twattery, a way of saying "My taste in music is far superior to yours! Hear listen to this and see how much greater than you I am!" But there are times when mix-tapes are essential, and we're going to look at one now that pretty much became the foundation upon which the whole 'Streetlamp' universe was built.

So it's back to High School then.....

In the last days of High School Griff had joined/formed a band with three others and called themselves The Cakes. I could only look on with seething frustration as I desperately wanted to be in a band myself. I began pestering Griff for a place in the band but every position was taken. I would have been happy to even have just operated the tape recorder for them, so urgent was my desire to be involved. To his credit, Griff persuaded the others to let me join, originally on keyboards but I would have played anything at that point....I just wanted IN!

To give me some kind of idea where The Cakes were at at this point, Griff compiled a mix-tape of where he felt the band were heading. The first few tracks on the cassette were fairly pedestrian second-wave-of-Punk type guff; things like Infa Riot, Chron Gen, The Violators and The Adicts(who once hilariously played on 'Cheggers Plays Pop' as The FUN Adicts...oh how we laughed!). But there were other, decidedly more left-field tracks on the tape that sewed seeds that would continue to flower over 25 years later.

You see we were of that generation for whom Punk was the first REAL music we all got into, and whilst I never really ventured too far beyond The Sex Pistols, The Stranglers and The Damned, Griff and the other Cakes pursued the whole second wave enthusiastically, while I got into the more poptastic world of Adam, Dexys, Kraftwerk and Tenpole Tudor.

And it was these more left-field choices that drew me in and which, when The Cakes ended and Griff and I pursued a different musical avenue, would form the basis of our new project....The Grandfather Brothers. So let's look at the tracks that led us to here....

First up, and the first one that REALLY jumped out of the tape, The Slits and their cover of 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine'. This really made me sit up and pay attention! Of course the original is one of the most familiar and overplayed tracks EVER bit this new take was slithery, sexy and sinister all the same time. Already the cogs were turning....

'For My Country' by UK Decay was a remarkable track....all chanted vocals and pounding drums, it was originally mistaken as some kind of Nationalistic right-wing defiance before it was revealed to be an anti-Falklands War stance....a Punk 'Shipbuilding' in a sense. It's often been difficult to pigeon-hole UK Decay, I've often seen them listed as Goths(hardly?) but probably Post-Punk makes more sense.

Then came one of the oddest tracks on the tape....'Pagan Love Song' by The Virgin Prunes....where to start? The Virgin Prunes hailed from Ireland and were friends of U2(but let's not hold that against them), they were a kind of arty Goth/Punk theatrical type of outfit with a men-in-frocks thing going on. Main vocalist Gavin Friday would later work with The Fall and The Man Seezer before releasing records under his own name. 'Pagan Love Song' sounded positively other-worldly at the time.

(I couldn't find a studio version so you'll have to make do with this ropey live version!)

Next came a couple of tracks that forever sum up that period of time for me.

First up, 'The Masque' by The Dark. I remember that we really loved this song, and I think a part of me really hoped that this is what The Cakes would sound like one day, urgent but with a doomy delivery. Listening to it again now, I'm surprised by how '70s' it sounds! All Glam-y compression and pub-rock riffing...it sounded better at the time!

And then there was 'Movements In Time' by The Paramedic Squad....now, I'm sorry but I know virtually nothing about this band, it may have been the only thing they ever recorded, I have no idea. But I played this song to death. For years I had it on one of my own mix-tapes and it was immediately followed by 'Leave Me Alone' by New Order, and for years these two tracks back-to-back were the sound of my final days of school. Proustian doesn't even scratch the surface.

I've left one track till last, not because I think it's the best but because it's one of only two songs The Grandfather Brothers ever recorded. Yes, we recorded a cover of Demob's 'No Room For You'.....and again, listening to it years later, I'm not sure why! Again it has a very 1970s feel and isn't particularly well sung....but we covered it so we must have REALLY liked it at the time.

And so, from this unlikeliest of sources did we find ourselves in The Grandfather Brothers. This was our chance to move away from the cul-de-sac of Punk and adopt a more experimental tone. I was able to bring my love of the more experimental Indie music such as Cabaret Voltaire, The Passage and The Surface Mutants to the table. We tended to record using multiple tape-recorders(there were no computers in them days!) and I was forced to play both drums and bass(actually the top four strings of a standard guitar) and attempt backing vocals whilst Griff played guitar and sang. As I can't play bass or sing, the project folded quicker than we expected. Aside from our cover of 'No Room' our only other song was called 'Typical Rebel' and was an attack on the lack of creative ambition within the Punk movement.

And that was it.....

For nearly 25 years....

For, when in 2007 Griff and I decided to make music together again, we saw it as our chance to finally DO The Grandfather Brothers thing properly! We even toyed with the idea of resurrecting the name, but somehow it didn't sound so ironic anymore....so we called ourselves ~Sighrens~ and the rest is history(or 'current' I should perhaps say). So ~Sighrens~, and perhaps to a lesser extent ~Lost Gloaming~ is The Grandfather Brothers Part 2.

And all from a scabby C-60 cassette!

~Gordon~

My Weekend Crush

Oh Michelle, Michelle. I have not seen “Machete” yet. But my reluctance has nothing to do with Michelle Rodriguez. In fact, M-Rod is pretty much the reason I would go see “Machete.” Well, that and the eye patch. What I like about her, beside her obvious ridiculously rocking body that makes you want to bite your fist on sight, is that she is unapologetically the tough girl. She embraces her strength, she knows it makes her different. And, to be blunt, she doesn’t give a fuck. She realizes because she doesn’t play the girlfriend or the victim, her roles are limited. As she said before:

“I could give two shits. I only wanna be someone or I respect or someone that I consider interesting or fun. I’m here to entertain people and make a statement about female empowerment and strength and that’s what I've done for the last 10 years, and people can call it typecast, but I pigeonholed myself and I put myself in that box for saying no to everything else that came on my plate.”

You have to respect that. In an industry where too many actresses feel forced to make too many concessions to make it – be the eye candy, take off your clothes, get rescued, play dumb – Michelle has made practically none. She exists solely, it seems, to be fierce. Like I was saying, respect. Happy weekend, all.

Remote control

Fire up your DVRs kids, it’s TV watching time. Fall shows start returning tonight and my little TV-loving heart couldn’t be more pleased. Per usual, there will be a major log jam on Thursday nights. When you have to resort to four different recording/viewing methods in a two-hour span, you have to think the TV gods are just fucking with you. There are other nights of the week, people. Spread the love. Speaking of love, the only thing more fun than watching TV is comparing notes with other TV watchers. So, let’s see it. I’ll show you my fall schedule if you show me yours.

Vampire Diaries, tonight, CWI might be the only person here who let out a little squeal when Nina Dobrev jumped out like a cat to join the big Emmy opening number. She is lovely as nice human girl Elena, but bring on the year of the Kat. I’m a sucker for badass vampire chicks. Sucker, see what I did there?

Nikita, tonight, CWMy, Maggie Q, what stretchy stretchy pants you have. Suddenly, Q is my favorite letter in the alphabet.

House, Sept. 20, FoxI stopped watching last season. And Olivia Wilde isn’t even going to be around for much of the beginning of this year. But I still included it because it totally looks like Thirteen is copping a feel of Cuddy’s ass.

Chuck, Sept. 20, NBCHow come I never get seated next to someone who looks like Yvonne StraHOTski?

Glee, Sept. 21, FoxJane Freaking Lynch. Enough said. OK, fine, also Brittana.
Now, really, enough said.

Criminal Minds, Sept. 22, CBSI can’t believe they’re getting rid of A.J. Cook. But her love of Paget Brewster will live on forever in femslash.

Modern Family, Sept. 22, ABCI don’t know if Sofia Vergara and Julie Bowen ever got over their feud, but I also don’t care as long as they keep bringing the LOLs. And the Hot.

30 Rock, Sept. 23, NBCOh, Tina. Hold me.

CSI, Sept. 23, CBSThat little lesbian Justin Bieber is in the season premiere. But Starbuck is joining the team starting in November sweeps. Katee Sackhoff and Jorja Fox fan fiction, please. And if you’re feeling really naughty, Marg Helgenberger can come and play, too.

Bones, Sept. 23, FoxI hate Emily Deschanel’s new bangs. There, I said it.

Fringe, Sept 23, FoxLike House, I stopped watching Fringe last season. But Alternate Universe Olivia Dunham is pinging the hell out of my gaydar.
I mean, that belt.

Body of Proof, Sept. 24, ABCMy hopes aren’t super high for this show, but Dana Delany and Jeri Ryan are at least worth a look. Or two.

Yes, I realize Grey’s Anatomy is missing from this list. (*whispers*) I don’t watch. But I am happy to YouTube the Calzona bits later. And yes, Parks & Recreation is missing, too. But that’s because it doesn’t premiere until midseason. (*single tear*) OK, so, let’s see it. How will you be abusing your DVR – or VCR, if you like to kick it old school – this fall season?