It's an early Friday afternoon, and I happen to have the day off. Finally. As everyone who has seen me over the last few days knows (due to my near-constant whining about it), I've just come off an eight-day stretch of nearly all closing shifts at my job, and having a couple days (yesterday and today) off is a giant relief, and a godsend.
This particular day off finds me in a coffee shop in Tempe, AZ which had recently been recommended to me by a friend in the area. It's called Gold Bar Espresso, is right off McClintock and Southern Ave., and is pretty cool. It's your standard, non-chain coffee shop, with all the mismatched, vaguely artsy, vaguely 90's, openly-thrifted decor one expects from such an establishment, as well as the usual bookshelf crammed with board games, and baked goods the size of your head. The only element missing is a playlist of decidedly moody and offbeat ultra-indie tunes playing from unseen speakers- it's as silent as an abandoned library in here. This silence, mixed with the sleepy summer haze of heat settling over the Valley, brings to mind those dusty saloons in western films, where broken-down cowboys quietly nurse their bruises and brews, only looking up from the bottoms of their tin cups when the sudden creaking of an opening door momentarily captures half their attention. The atmosphere, and the supreme zucchini-walnut muffins, ultimately add up to a perfectly fine place to sit and write out a long-overdue Friday Favorites post.
Now, before we get in on the faves, I'll tell you this: I was planning on giving you a detailed update on the goings-on of my recent, somewhat-life. However, I'm not gonna do that anymore. Not today, anyway. But I'll give you a quick insight: I've made new friends, reconnected with old ones, been in and out of a couple relationships, bought a car, am trying to find a new apartment, and have spent a lot of money on chain restaurants. There you go.
Alright, let's get into it:
FF 1: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Ah, yes, the much-anticipated, third studio album by my all-time favorite musician, Florence + the Machine, was released on the second day of June, and I am in love. Much like Ceremonials (Flo's second album), HBHBHB took a few play-throughs for me to really fall in love with it, but fall I eventually did. The album is much more raw and pared-down- both musically and lyrically- than anything the willowy Londoner has heretofore produced, with the result being that HBHBHB feels more honest and autobiographical than either Lungs or Ceremonials. To listen to this album is to listen as Florence Welch- the one consistent cog of the amorphous Machine- puts herself together, piece by piece, after a year of falling apart in spectacular fashion. Destruction, heartache, and wishful thinking are prominent themes throughout, made all the more real to the listener by the unrestrained, imperfect, live-sounding main vocals that Flo belts, whispers, and roars on the tracks. While I thoroughly enjoy each song, my favorites (for the moment) are the fun and sweeping "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful," with its goosebump-inducing outro, "Delilah"- a self-destructive, hard-hitting rock song of biblical proportions and sentiment, "Which Witch"- a demo found on the deluxe edition that blows my mind with its tribal beats and Gregorian-esque chanting, the self-motivating "Third Eye," and the mournful "Various Storms & Saints." As each album has been before, HBHBHB is my favorite of Welch's works. Please give How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful a few good listens, and lemme know if you want to join me this October as I see Florence live in Phoenix, and again in San Diego!
FF 2: Vanic
I've gotta give props to my bff, Sandi, for introducing me to the electronic wonderboy that is the Vancouver-based DJ known as Vanic. This guy, who began uploading his remixes and music to a Soundcloud account just over a year ago, is awesome. His music, while technically falling into the "EDM" category, is not quite like anything I've yet to hear from artists in the same genre (not that I'm well-versed in it- I've barely dipped my toes in the electronic dance music waters). His work mainly consists of emotionally-intense remixes of works by, and/or collaborations with, pseudo-indie, predominantly femme-or-femme-fronted musicians such as Chvrches, Zella Day, and Lana Del Rey. What's so fascinating about Vanic's music is that, instead of chopping song samples to bits and re-arranging them into songs which, while a lot of fun, have almost nothing in common with the source material, he seems to prefer to keep the core of whatever song he's working with intact, and instead adds his own music to it, often in a way that amplifies whatever emotion the original piece was conveying. The sexy re-working of Zella Day's "Hypnotic," is a fine example of this, as is his remix of Die Antwoord's "I Fink U Freeky." The most poignant demonstration of DJ Vanic's ability to mix his own incredible skill as a dubstep musician with the heart and soul of another artist's honest work is his danceble, heart-wrenching remix of Birdy's cover of "Skinny Love," which takes the quiet sadness of the piano-based ballad and turns it into an electronic storm of anguish. Birdy's soulful voice takes center stage here as Vanic soars in the background and all around, bringing the sorrow of Bon Iver's lyrics to heart-pounding life with synthesizers, drum programming, and despondent atmospherics. There's a drop in it that hits you in the stomach in a way that only the unintentionally cruel words from a significant someone can. I could go on and on about this song, and Vanic in general, but I'll just have you listen instead:
FF 3: Skin Care
Alright, everyone, it's summer time- which means we should ALL be paying extra-special attention to our skin and doing our best to take good care of it. A lot of us are probably spending a significant amount of time outside, feeling the warm embrace of sunlight (unless you live in Phoenix, where we retreat to the comforting coolness of Starbucks and froyo establishments in order to escape the death by heat stroke that awaits those who spend too much time outside with not enough water) which is great- but also damaging to the skin if we don't watch ourselves. SPF is a MUST year-round, and especially during the summer months in which we swim and shop and wear booty shorts and tan (except for me- I just collect freckles like melanin merit badges). Being the exceedingly pale, fish fillet of a human being that I am, I'm all-too-familiar with the world of sunblocks and sunscreens; I've spent many a day peeling myself off of surfaces to which I was stuck due to an overabundance of SPF 90, recoiling at the bitter taste of Coppertone on my lips, and reeking of canned coconut scent. However! This tribulation was not for naught, for I am here to tell you that I've found products that I not only tolerate, but enjoy using, that keep me healthy and translucently pale! There's no stickiness, no stench, and no cancer cells to be had if you properly use the products about which I am about to gush.
My first SPF love is Shiseido's Urban Environment Oil-Free UV Protector SPF 42, which can be found at most department stores and cosmetic retailers.
If, however, you're not looking to spend $30+ for a sunscreen (I got mine with employee discount), I highly recommend Neutrogena's Ultra Sheer Sunscreen. It comes in varying degrees of protection, is unscented, and offers long-lasting protection. This stuff saved my life (probably in a very literal way) during my two years of traipsing around South Africa, and the best part was that I never felt it on my skin. Ever. (Unlike the Shiseido stuff, which I do feel at the end of the day.) Ultra Sheer can be found in any drugstore here in America (I think- I've never had trouble finding it) as well as in the cosmetics aisles of a lot of supermarkets, such as Target, and costs about $10. It's worth every penny.
Keep in mind, though, that neither of these products are sport SPFs, meaning that if you're doing strenuous outdoor activity or swimming, these two are gonna slide right off your body. Thankfully, both brands also offer fantastic Sport protection as well, so you athletes and wannabe-merpeople are covered. Literally.
FF 4: Nylon Magazine
Alright, kiddos, the last one: Nylon Magazine. I. Love. This. Publication. Both Nylon and Nylon Guys. Five years of perusing the fashion sections of bookstore zine aisles (and hundreds of dollars in overpriced cafe drinks) have brought me to the conclusion that Nylon is the glossy-mag manifestation of my materialistic spirit. Each issue is hella fun from cover to cover; edgy fashion shoots, intriguing interviews with even more intriguing individuals, beauty and life advice, and an unapologetically exuberant graphic design and layout are to be found throughout the monthly (or bi-monthly, in the case of Guys) publications. They're unrestrained, yet professionally aware of their aesthetic and target audience, and deliver awesome content tailored to young creatives who wanna look at Givenchy, but also wanna know where they can find its $30, mall-shop, derivative. Pay the $6 for an issue or two, and if you love it, go for the subscription as I'm soon to do.
Much Love,
Adam