BIRDIE NUM NUM

my ALL TIME favorite ALL TIME movie in the whole wide world is THE PARTY with amazing Peter Sellers & the sweet Claudine Longet (i have one MP3 of a song of hers here & another here)!!!
it's screening tonight at The Hollywood Cemetery. Picnic on the grass with some grass anyone??? i can't imagine a better Saturday evening! especially since my friend Mara works the gate & i don't have to deal with the hassle of waiting in a line or whatnot. i know i know, these screenings have become hipster central but i don't have tickets for The Cure at The Hollywood Bowl so this is a great consolation choice.

friday snapshots

Farah at Mountain Bar was a hysterical mess...
still Jenn & i managed to laugh it all off, riding the mechanical donkey outside on Gin Ling Way for one:

we left early & briefly swung by a much better party a few blocks south in the center of downtown LA, where Philthy performed:

FARAH 2NITE + The National & Modest Mouse

Italians Do It Better present FARAH
tonight at Mountain Bar in Chinatown:

check THIS link for photos of the last Italians Do It Better party i went to...

as big of a fan as i am of Jamie Lidell, i missed his show at the El Rey last night since i've seen him before...
i chose instead to go to the Hollywood Bowl to see bands i love & have never seen live: The National & Modest Mouse. Jenn introduced me to some tour or band managers as well as the band; they're all super nice. Macaulay Culkin & some actors from Big Love were around, the usual Hollywood crowds blahblah... i didn't have a camera, so the only crappy pix i have were taken on my mobile:






They opened for REM and all i gotta say is... REM is sooo GAY. there's absolutely nothing about REM that inspires me or excites me. watching them, i felt nothing. i never liked any of their songs anyway. so while they were on i wondered around & i met a few really cool people instead. it was great to be at the Hollywood Bowl though; the sound is so good. it's such a great venue, especially when you have a gold parking pass with valet & everything!!! The National was definitely worth seeing. and i'm glad i got to see Modest Mouse for the first time. last century at USC, all my friends were so into them & they've grown on me over the years. they're such a big West coast band. i'm a West coaster after all!
i only wish i could go see The Cure at the Bowl tomorrow. i saw them once back in the 80s, and then once at the Jimmy Kimmel show (haha) and then at Coachella. i remember my eyes welling up big time when they did "Boys Don't Cry."

anyhew, over lunch Charong took me to the loft of Miami's Joshua Levine who recently moved here from NYC:

we then went to go see his piece in JAIL:

back in Hollyweird before going to the Bowl:

BACK TO AFRICA (playlist) + gobbledigook

since my mother decided that our next big family reunion was to happen in beautiful Cape Town, i recently received an email from South African Airways with my plane ticket & itinerary for the Southern hemisphere's summer of 2009. that was a really nice surprise! i'm so excited to finally go back to Africa...

in the spirit of African music i dug up some rare African grooves & tossed in some amazing new tunes from the "Western" part of the world:

AFRICAN LOVE - MP3 downloads

28 MP3s... 28 is a pretty important number. it takes 28 days to graduate from rehab haha! it takes at least 28 hours to get from LA to Cape Town, via Washington DC, Frankfurt & Johannesburg. i'm gonna need to make sure my iPod is charged up & fully loaded...

this playlist includes Sigur Rós' new song; here's the Gobbledigook video, directed by fellow Icelanders Arni & Kinski, former members of the band Gus Gus who have become commercial directors in LA.

also in here you'll find Ratatat's new song; their album will be released in July i believe. it has a very Crystal Castles quality to it, or should i say Crystal Castles sounds a lot like Ratatat. either way, i love it! also in here is another Pilooski edit, this time of John Miles. and MAC 3000 does a great remix of Aphex Twin, as well as Tepr of Santogold. tomorrow at the El Rey James Pants opens for Jamie Lidell. i really love Pants' remix of Howard Johnson.

back to the freezing North, Norwegians Rajaton blend in quite well with the African sounds in this playlist, as well as a crazy club anthem of Ost & Kjex...

speaking of disco, 1979's italo disco "African Love Song" kicks ass. it's all about jungle love!!! for more tunes like this one, i highly recommend Disco Italia (the videos posted on this site are to die for).

this playlist kicks off with a 70s highlife hit by the legendary Prince Nico Mbarga. you can also find a recent cover of "Sweet Mother" by Soulfège... Stones Throw's Now/Again's "Color Me" is a lot of fun. go here for more songs like this one...

i don't have a lot of info on the African artists featured in this playlist. and unfortunately the production value of the recordings was pretty poor. still you get the idea...

Wganda Kenya is a studio band at the Fuentes record company that was put together some years ago to record non-latin tropical hit songs from places like West Africa, Curaçao and Martinique.

i really love to dance to Wakimbizi who are huge in certain parts of Africa. "Baby Baby" is the only MP3 i have, but check out their super low fi clip for "Hallo Hallo." Wakimbizi in Kiswahili, the National language of Kenya, simply means Runners or it can also means Runaways, so it depends in which context one uses the word. The Group Wakimbizi, was formed in 1996, the decade of the coming of a new generation of Kenyan Artistes with diverse styles, such as dancehall, hip hop, ragga, African reggae and even R&B, all done the Kenyan way. for more hip-hop but from the Western end of the Sahara, check out Nomadic Wax.

several years ago i had the pleasure of meeting Frederic Galliano who has done amazing things with Frikyiwa. he recently released an album by Angolans Kuduro Sound System...

i end with 4 long & haunting tracks from Morocco, a country i love so much. my brothers & i used to have a lot of fun there... the music of Mahmoud Guinia will take you to another place entirely. not on this playlist, but from just South of Morocco, check out "Soutouro" by Ablaye Cissoko. here's more on him, and here's a site where you can find even more eclectic music...

well, if the ambien doesn't do the trick while on the long trip from LA to Cape Town, i have to have some music that will help me space out, such as Spain's cosmic "Quasar 2C361" by Neuronium. trippy!!!

since i didn't include any MP3s of Soukous (Zairian or Congolese salsa/rumba with French lyrics), here's a video:

of course, i had to include a few cumbias & salsas popular on the Caribbean beaches of Venezuela & Columbia, where most of the locals' ancestors are Western African. the music is very similar...

gay sunday

spending the afternoon hiking & napping with CHICHO is the best... my shades look good on her too:




i think i'm in for the night, but if i get a wild hair i guess i'd swing by Trannyshack. if it's as "scream" scary as the flyer below then i don't know what to say. but if it's as fun & silly as Trannyshack in San Francisco (click HERE for some pix) then it should be a blast...

if the bear fits...

WEAR IT:

Keanu Reeves is totally awesome!!! i love him.

if you're staying in LA over this holiday week-end...

take a fun dance class in Silverlake by Ryan Heffington whose classes you might have taken at Fingered:



or brave the hipsters for a yard sale featuring cool local designers, music, food & drinks in Hollywood:

COOL BREEZE (playlist)

i'm laying low this memorial day week-end. still, i can't get away from listening to old & new tunes alike. here's my new playlist:

COOL BREEZE - MP3 downloads

i started with 2 cool remixes of Warp's Berlin resident Jamie Lidell whom i love ever since i saw him live a few years ago at the Troubadour. he will be at the El Rey this coming 29th of May, with James Pants opening... in this playlist, Frenchies Mondkopf & Barney do a fantastic job revitalizing 2 of Jamie's recent releases. here's a 3rd MP3 of a Jamie Lidell song if you want...

i've blogged about Belgian pop star Lio before. of course she usually is credited as being a French pop star. the French always get credit for everything Belgian, from chips or fries to art & fashion! anyhew, Lio's Amoureux Solitaires will always be one of my favorite songs (check link for translation & video). Montréal's Les Breastfeeders came out with a very cool cover of the song, added to this playlist. here's another cute clip of Lio...

this playlist opens with "Cool Breeze" by the Jeremy Spencer Band. Jeremy was Fleetwood Mac's first guitarist... I went a little overboard with a bunch of songs from Secretly Canadian artists; great label & even greater name! anyhew, you'll find songs from the Abba'esque Music Go Music, and from the cool Bodies Of Water, Richard Swift & Throw Me The Statue.

following Jeremy Spencer is one of my all time favorites: the 1980 robotic "Love Machine" from French pioneers Space Art. there's plenty more dance tunes: Ghostly's Osborne, a Midnight Juggernauts remix of fellow Ozzies Cut Copy, Lifelike remixes of Cazals & of Alyoa, a great Scuola Furano remix of Chromeo as well as their own track "G Funk 3000" and the list goes on...

Domino's Light Speed Champion will be at the Troubadour on the 21st of June. Brazilian Bo$$ In Drama does a crazy remix of one of their songs here; check out my page to listen to the Ol'Dirty Bastard remix by Bo$$ In Drama that i posted for now... aslo from Brazil, you'll enjoy São Paulo's NRK formerly known as New Raver Kids (On The Block)!

from Valencia, Spain, Cof Cof just released the kinda beats that are perfect for the summer. "Caribbean Boy" is so up my alley & you can download more of their songs from their page. i also included one of my favorite songs from 2007 by CocoRosie.

my favorite instrument to play with is the xylophone. ever since i got a fisherprice one as a little kid, it's been my fave. my other fave i never played nor do i know how to is the mbira. so i had to throw in a song from Zimbabwean star Stella Chiweshe. for more on this exceptional woman, check out her own site... i do get a little folky with Finnish singer Lau Nau. listening to her somehow brings up images of Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams" as i close my eyes... anyhew, i even embrace some country music with a duet by Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn who crack me up when singing to each other "you're the reason our kids are ugly." now that's real love!

speaking of duets, i hope you enjoy just as much as i do the Nôze song featuring Dani Siciliano who invite us to dance with them. i've loved her voice ever since i first heard her singing for Matthew Herbert many years ago... i also love what Jürgen Pappe did with the voice of sexy Israëli polyglot & bond girl Daliah Lavi... i thought it would be fun to mix in some Greek garage with Zoitsa Kouroukli & then a little bit of old school British punk with X-Ray Spex. i like DeVotchka who scored "Little Miss Sunshine" so there's one of their songs in this as well. and i found some fun boogie by the Biddu Orchestra.

on a different note, you'll find some Ratatat who are with XL. also on XL, Vampire Weekend. here is a video of theirs i posted last year (2nd one down). one of my favorite 2008 songs is "Bang On" from The Breeders who are with 4AD. i recently discovered Texans Shearwater who had a show here in LA earlier this week. keep them on your radar! they are with Matador...

for good measure you'll find some songs from the voices of the girls Serge Gainsbourg seduced one by one: Mireille Darc, France Gall, Brigitte Bardot, without counting Catherine Deneuve, Anna Karenina & his 2 wives Jane Birkin & Bambou!!! it's almost summer again, so for whatever it is you didn't accomplish this Spring, just listen to Billie Holiday & remember there will be another Spring... dance it off with Conchita Velasco's Yéyé, or kick back to the Rolling Stones covers by Claudine Longet & Sandie Shaw. this wouldn't be complete without Nancy Sinatra's "The Last of the Secret Agents" or Dionne Warwick's theme song for "The Valley Of The Dolls". if you haven't seen Russ Meyer's "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls" yet then i highly recommend it. the Carry Nations rock!!! check video at the bottom of this entry...

by the time i hit #54, my mind drifted to what it must have been like to party in the heyday of Studio 54. i dug up a fierce banger that brings me back to my crazy party days of the early 90s: Pryda's Pjanoo. then i had to follow-up with some old school disco with Dalida who just wants you to let her go on dancing, which she did till she committed suicide in the 80s. as a kid i remember being very sad about that... another disco song on here is by the one & only Melba Moore who still rocks the night clubs...

i wrap it up with Del Shannon revisted by the incomparable
Pilooski. this song really makes me feel great for some reason. one day when i want to start dating again i imagine this would be the perfect song to listen to on the way to pick up my date, whether he's a Gemini or not...

Lykke Li photos + Anna Ternheim

yesterday Eric hosted a private LYKKE LI show at Media Arts Lab. here's lucky me, Lykke Li & Eric G:

Lykke Li with her enchanting band and the LA sun:









Lykke Li made Jules smile:

obviously i haven't learned a thing from Zoolander:

here are pix i took at the El Rey the previous evening:







i had never heard of singer ANNA TERNHEIM before. she opened for Lykke Li & i enjoyed her very much:

GOD BLESS CALIFORNIA

EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL!!! check THIS out.

MAN FIX (playlist)

when your inner Paula Abdul -- u know, that crazy voice inside your head -- is screaming "I'M SICK & TIRED OF YOU NOT APPRECIATING THE GIFT THAT I AM!!!" wellll, the only thing that will shut her up are the manly voices of the artists featured in this playlist:

MAN FIX - MP3 downloads

RADIOHEAD is the best band of my generation, no question about it. they will be back at the Hollywood Bowl this summer. enjoy the 2 songs on this playlist, recorded just a few days ago at their DC show. check IT out.

i've blogged about Eastbourne's DAVID FORD before; his video is amazing. Jenn turned me onto ELBOW from Manchester; they played at Avalon last Friday... the songs of Elbow & David Ford are great road trip singalongs!!! i haven't sang out loud in the car since i was a little kid. we'd jump into the car, head to the Provence or the French Riviera for the week-end. my dad would sing along to his Neil Diamond cassettes; my mom to Abba; all of us to Boney M. and i'd complain about both of them smoking cigarettes in the car!!! ok i remember in my teens, driving with friends from Quito to Atacames, smoking my own marlboros, singing along to really cheesy Latin pop songs by the likes of Mana or to the great ALPHA BLONDY...

somehow, we had convinced our parents to skip class for a week, or maybe they were back in Europe & we were home alone with the staff & it didn't matter. Esperanza was the best. she never told our parents about all the parties we had each time the folks were away. anyhew, we'd chill in Atacames "like adults." that was before we all had cell phones. my mom would sorta freak out when i would get back to Quito 3 or 4 days later than permitted. there was no way for her to contact me so... from my end i figured "no news good news." there was only one or two pay phones in Atacames back then, and they didn't always work. by the time i had to make a call i was broke anyway. i'd only have enough cash to make it back to Quito by bus whenever i could.

to this day, i remember every single word of Brigadier Sabari. also check out "Jerusalem" & "I Love Paris" on his myspace. Alpha Blondy was huge in Europe and if not in Quito, in Atacames for sure. that beach had a nice bohemian mix of locals of African descent, crusty white Europeans with dirty dreadlocks, surfers from California, Hawaii & Brazil, Cuban refugees or simply studying in Ecuador for a semester, Jamaicans on the run, shady Colombian drug dealers buying all my drinks to hang out with my high school girlfriends... or my hot girlfriends visiting from Europe; they'd always end up having "sexy times" with some hot local while i smoked all their weed & had deep meaninful conversations with some rastafarian hanging around. life was so much simpler back then... back in the day haha!
OK, back to the present playlist!

i love "Short Term Memory Loss" by ASTRONAUTALIS. happens to me all the time! i also threw in some WOLF PARADE for good measure. this wouldn't be a man mix/fix without some WHITE DENIM testosterone from Texas. i still wanted to add a feminine touch with a cover of Radiohead by San Diego's CALICO HORSE. to calm down after "Idiotheque" live, i wrap it up with Miami's amazing CAT POWER. Chan might be a woman, but she most definitely has balls for covering THE HIGHWAY MEN... check them out:


just in case you missed it, go to bottom of THIS POST to find a cool Holy Fuck remix of Radiohead.

ZODIACS (playlist + vid)

ok well this playlist is all over the place...

ZODIACS - MP3 downloads

some obscure icelandic demo opens it & LYKKE LI's "Tonight" closes it. in between you'll find some disco, some pop, some folk, some oldies... Grace Jones, Madonna, The Smashing Pumpkins, Cat Power, Yazoo, KLAUS NOMI, etc etc... one of my favorite new finds is at #16; something about this tune makes me smile. and then at #22 Roberta Kelly's unforgettable "Zodiacs!" here's the video:

hipster alert!

wanna get your hipster on? yikes!!! well, just in case, Peanut Butter Wolf is worth it. most definitely the best thing to happen in all of Hollywood tonight & since i'm in the neighborhood...


PEANUT BUTTER WOLF will do a special video set. also curating the decks is Stones Throw's newest artist, Dâm Funk.

along with residents Steve Aoki, Them Jeans & Dan Oh + photos by The Cobrasnake.

Cinespace - 6356 Hollywood Blvd.

LYKKE LI IN LA

joining EL PERRO DEL MAR, the amazing LYKKE LI will be taking the stage at the EL REY on Monday 19th of May...
revisit previous posts with free Lykke Li MP3s:
- click HERE for "Tonight" at #16 & for "Little Bit" at #50
- click HERE for "Dance Dance Dance" at #07
- click HERE for "I'm Good I'm Gone" at #01

happy mother's day!

since it's mother's day, i dug up some pix of my mom & my grand-maman, who unfortunately died of cancer when i was only two, but who was so good to Magda (my mother) & Myriam (my aunt) who in turn passed on the love (and maybe even a little wisdom!) to my cousins, brothers & i...

here's a pic of my maternal family. my great grand-father & great grand-mother are holding hands sitting on the front row in the middle; my grand-parents are to their immediate right. to their left sits my great great grand-mother, and to her left my mother's aunt "tante soeur" which in French is auntie sister (she was a nun & the head of a catholic convent). my grand-father Rufyn was the eldest of 4 brothers & 3 sisters... my mother is the one in white sitting on the lawn between 2 boy cousins; she was my great grand-father's first grand-daughter... my entire maternal family would often get together then at the family's country home in Flanders, north of Brussels:

grand-papa & grand-maman in front of a phone booth in Cape Town, where they lived during World War II & where my mother was born:

grand-maman in the Congo:

grand-maman with my mother in Bukavu:

a holiday picture of my mother:

my mother with her baby sister, my aunt & god-mother Myriam:

back in Belgium with grand-maman & grand-papa:

my mom with my aunt again:

she was my great grand-father's favorite, biensûr:

Marcy & my mom grew up together in Africa. they've remained best friends to this day. here she is at Marcy's first wedding in Brussels:

my mom & i in Portland, Oregon, where i was born:

watching grand-maman's plane leave after one of her visits:

in Lyon with my brother Eric in her arms:

with Eric again:

Eric & i with our mother, right after giving birth to Jonathan in Lyon:

at Disneyland in 1981 i think; i'm the one on the left; representing in LA our primary school Le Verseau haha:

back at our Genval home with my brother Jonathan:

Genval is where cousins & friends would drop by constantly to play soccer on our vast backyard lawn, for BBQs when the weather allowed & we even had the pool filled with water on a few summers. we'd also take long walks around the lake, took a few sailing classes on windy days but i remember capsizing more than anything else. paddle boats were more fun. and this is where we grew up horse riding 2 short train stops away in the middle of the beautiful Forêt de Soignes. the riding club was my temple... picture Ang Lee's "The Ice Storm" but set in Genval in the 80s. that was us in a nutshell! anyhew...
belgian summers are fickle, so we spent many holidays at Marcy's villa on the French riviera... here's my mom and Jonathan by the pool (i actually knew how to swim before i started to walk):

and here we are soooo not posing back in Genval:

this is just outside of Würzburg at my step-dad's family home:

in 1990 just outside of Quito, at the foot of the Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano in the world. Magda, André (my 1st friend from the french int'l school, my brothers & i attended, whose parents kindly showed us around), me, Jonathan, Eric & Gunter:

later in Caracas i took this portrait of my mother; here are more pix of us on the beach in Venezuela... and here's my mom being a good catholic when Gunter & her met Pope Jean-Paul the Second:

2007 in Bruges also known as the Little Venice of the North:

and here are a few more pix taken the last time my 2 brothers & i were reunited in DC with Gunter & Magda...