itunes widgets are back!

true to the word of the nice itunes person who finally emailed me back after i sent a couple of angry notes about my widgets not working, the "purchases" and "favorites" widgets are back up and running. i'm wondering if the "purchases" widget is worth putting back up though, since it's getting a little crowded over there to the right with all the last.fm and project playlist widgets.

whaddy'all think?

x-factor vs dan le sac vs scroobius pip

i forgot how much i love these guys. this video (promo for the new xmas single "from god to man" available from their myspace page for freeee dec 24-31) is just hilarious.



for you americans, x-factor is (yet) another pop idol sort of thing in the uk.

to download the song, which features wicked ranting and radiohead samples go to dan le sac vs scroobius pip

best of lists

so it's that time of year again. here at performer we're all compiling our best ofs and getting ready to send them to the three corners of america (we have northeast and west coast performers too). though we're allowed to pick whatever region, label status or what have you for our picks (ie. i don't have to stick the the indie, se stuff that we feature in the mag), naturally most of my stuff is indie, se stuff. cos, basically, that's the best stuff out there right now.

the list is streaming courtesy of project playlist - though it should be noted that they didn't have everything on my list (namely the fandabbydosy dance awesomeness of judi chicago), so here's my list:

janelle monae
the coathangers
y-o-u
black kids
arcade fire
judi chicago
young knives
warm in the wake
the avett brothers (added! how could i forget??)
dan le sac vs scroobius pip (added!)
magic apron (just added)
through the sparks (just added)


this list is bound to be edited, as many of the folks i was going to mention had releases last year... so here are my late '06 mentions, since i didn't do a list last year:

lady sovereign
lily allen
jarvis cocker
joan as a police woman
cold war kids
peter, bjorn and john
bombadil


oh and what i'm excited about in the new year:

the selmanaires
y-o-u (again!)
the wombats

shows, shows, shows

my goodness there are so many shows this week. i'm hoping to go to all of the below:

weds 28: band together with morning state, the pendletons, dj preston craig
the earl


thurs 29: lord don't slow me down (oasis movie)
the brewhouse

bowie tribute with the julia dream
the 10 high

fri 30: stomp and stammer birthday party with the black lips, the selmanaires, deerhunter, snowden
the variety playhouse


fri 30: clipd beaks, judi chicago, gold painted nails, the coathangers
lenny's


sat 1: janelle monáe, deep cotton, trial by fire, dj yum yums & filipino colada
lenny's


so much to choose from. hope to see y'all out and about.
fandabbydosy!

at last fm

have finally joined the music-networking thingy known as last fm. you can check me - and what i'm grooving to - out here theleila on last.fm. right now it looks like i'm loving on the selmanaires, black kids and judi chicago. natch. i'll have a little widget up here too in a sec, since the itunes one has gone kaput. what's up with that, anyone?

black kids at big trouble in little five points/performer presents

i know i posted this before, but i feel that it needs posting again, since the show is this week. huzzah! it's three wicked acts guaranteed to have you boogying all night long.



it's free for christ's sake. be there.

bizarre rickman

for some strange reason, possibly in anticipation of his role in tim burton's new film adaptation of the musical sweeny todd, i had a dream last night that i was watching the tony's and they were doing guys and dolls and all of a sudden there's alan rickman doing "luck be a lady" or something similar. weird.

so i'm thinking, in my dream, oh i've got to go rent that. only to be disappointed when i realize that it would have been a stage version since it was the tony's, and there won't be a video, dvd, etc.

again, weird.

talking of bollucks...

our lovely german shepherd is finally undergoing the dreaded de-nadding operation. he'll come back a little less of a man than he was before, but he's still the big dog to us. we don't get to see him until the end of the day, so i'm a little worried - keep him in your thoughts, we love him lots.



isn't he pretty?

file under utter bollucks

or bollocks. whatever version you prefer.

from nme.com:

Elvis Costello never to play 'England' again

Singer says Glastonbury performance put him off playing homeland
2 hours ago

Elvis Costello has indicated that he will never play in England again.

The singer-songwriter who was born in Paddington, London, but who now lives in New York, has said he is not bothered if he plays in the land of his birth ever again.

"I don't care if I ever play in England again," he declared, sighting his appearance at Glastonbury in 2005 as the reason he would not play a rock show in the country again.

Describing the festival set as "fucking dreadful", he said: "That gig made up my mind that I wouldn't come back. I don't get along with it. We lost touch. It's 25 years since I lived there. I don't dig it, they don't dig me."

Costello, however, said he did like the country's music scene, but just felt he was no longer connected to it.

"A lot of good bands still come out of England, but I just don't feel a part of it," he told Mojo. "British music fans don't have the same attitude to age as they do in America, where young people come to check out, say, Willie Nelson. They feel some connection with him and find a role for that music in their lives."


what a moody bastard.

h-ween party

i'm nicking meg's subject line as well as her pics for this post. if you missed the annual regan-porter h-ween party - with heavy representing from the crafts of meg and amanda - then you, my friend, are lame. and not my friend.






for some buggary reason, though when i open the pics using iphoto or preview and rotated them and saved them then reopened them they were the right way round, the blog program doesn't want to show them that way. suggestions? will try and figure it out.

anyway, scott is the robot, amanda is medusa, meg is the greek godness, chris is the goblin king (bowie) from the labyrinth and i, naturally, am liza from cabaret.

almost impossible?

sometimes rolling stone shocks me and does something rad. take their almost-impossible rock'n'roll quiz and see how well you did - i got a whopping 39/58, which i was pretty chuffed with, since a lot of those seriously stumped me.

comment with your own scores below!

remember, remember the fifth of november

what with all the crazy fire restrictions in my neighborhood, we won't be able to properly celebrate guy fawkes night tonight. but here's a nice pic anyway.



american's may be confused by this weird effigy, so click here to have the history explained. it's all about catholics. really.