Weird, Wonderful Holiday Mix from Dart DJ

I meant to get up bright and early to post this for you all..... But I went to the Dart DJ holiday party last night and then to Footsie's and drank waaaaaaay too much whiskey and also some really grody stuff I don't remember the name of that Elizabeth claims is the new Jagermeister.

Now my head hurts.

Anyhoo.


Click here for your weird, wonderful holiday mix from the Dart DJ boys. Which is actually not very holiday. It's mostly just a great, weird collection of covers and lesser-known versions of popular songs. (Even if Elvis's "Crawfish" drives you nuts, stay tuned for Hot Chip covering Joy Division!)

BONUS: If you're cheaping out on the dj for your wedding, Dart has a bunch more mixes over here. The Flashdance also mixes a mean mix.


Photo from last night by Michelle of Rad + In Love

Pls help me shop for MUSIC

Dear ESB,

My wedding was about a month ago, and it was awesome and fun and spectacular and all that. Endless thanks for helping me stay sane throughout the process. You helped talk me into hiring a videographer, and now I need a bit of help in that department. The local guy we hired wants us to choose our own music -- for a 5-10 minute video, he asked for two suggestions each for slow songs that would be the backdrop to the ceremony, and two to match up with the dance party scenes.

The only songs we specifically asked our DJ to play were Spoonful by Howlin' Wolf (first dance) and Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes (last song of the night), otherwise we asked him to stick to mostly 90's stuff, No Diggity, early Britney and the like. Makes for an awesome dance party, but none of it quite works for a wedding video... Some ideas we've tossed around and rejected include King and Lionheart by Of Monsters and Men (too epic) and Love and Happiness by the Rev (too bluesy).

So here I am, hoping your great taste -- and your readers' -- in other facets of life can help lead me to some good wedding video music. Got any suggestions? If songs are beautiful but actually about a stalker i.e. Sting, I would like to be aware of that. 

Totally thought I was done making wedding style decisions, ugh. Thanks in advance for any ideas! 

*****

a) These are all good.

b) You are way overthinking it.

c) IT'S HIS JOB TO CHOOSE THE DAMN MUSIC

Collage by Richard Vergez via Jamaia Johns

HALP I NEED RUNNING MUSIC

4 days into a 10-day visit with in-laws and I have become an AVID RUNNER. 

Yesterday I even went out and bought myself a pair of actual running shoes. (2 days x 5 miles in "casual" athletic shoes = 1 enormous blister + 2 sore ankles.)

So here's my question: WHAT SHOULD I BE LISTENING TO?

Most of my old workout faves aren't fast-paced enough.

You guys have been killing it lately, b/t/w. Did I even mention I bought the Blu Dot table after this one turned out to be too big? I think I ought to just crowd-source everything from now on.

______________________________

Nikes via Misha West

Non-cheesy first dance songs

Dear ESB,

You must get asked this a lot, but do you have any suggestions for non-cheesy first dance songs?

*****

I asked The Flashdance (aka Michael Antonia) to field this one. Obv.

He sent this missive from the beach in Mexico:

i do get asked this question a lot and it always makes me uncomfortable. to me it is like asking an artist to paint a picture of you in the dress you will be wearing without ever having seen it (or you!). honestly i would be no better at picking one of the most sentimental songs of your entire life without any more information than your first name! i can give you a bunch of songs that i think are great, which would work, but really they will always be my favorite songs and will likely mean very little to you... my suggestion is to stop thinking about it in terms of a first dance, the way your guests might interpret it, or the lyrical content etc and think of it only as a song that means a lot to you and your fiance.

but, esb didn't ask me to wax philosophical on you, or make you feel bad for not having the right song... she asked me to give you some advice. try this link out. there are 17 songs i chose that i think would make a beautiful first dance (and you can download them all for free!) but do me a favor... drive your car to the end of a dirt road somewhere in the mountains and make out to these songs for a couple of hours before choosing one for your first dance!!!

(Jack Kerouac via FFFFOUND!) 

Neil Young may be hazardous to your health

Exhibit A: Two plants after having been exposed to Bob Dylan (left) and Neil Young (right).

Save yourself! Stop listening to that shit.

BOB DYLAN VS. NEIL YOUNG (2007) by Tony Romano via I'M REVOLTING via Happy Accident via Limbo Youth

Mr. & Mrs. Wool

Seven months ago I asked woolgathering & miscellany if she would send me wedding photos. Or, rather, I harassed her via formspring. Remember formspring?

Anyhoo, I received one image in January and one in March and (hurrah!) three more just this month. So. Without further ado...

Dear ESB,

Here's our wedding. Mind you this was over six years ago. We were young, dumb, and full of cum.

Our tattoo artist friend, Aaron Coleman, made our invitation. The original is a watercolor that's framed on our wall. This was also the invite and CD cover.

Our great friends Ean & Reba of Tales from the Birdbath wrote this song for us and flew from Seattle to play our wedding reception. We gave out CDs of the song as favors.

Another buddy, comedian Neil Hamburger, and a local band called Schlitzkrieg also performed. Neil threw a toaster at R on stage. My mom didn't get it.

Reception was held at Hollywood Alley. Anyone/everyone was welcome. Including the 5 drunken bachelorettes who showed up at the end of the night, blow up peen in tow. I must thank them, because this is the ONE photo I treasure most.

Photos are from friends/strangers who brought cameras.
Cake is from some crazy place that my mom liked.
Free kegs all night.
Air hockey in the back

I loved it because we just had so. much. fun.

Hope you enjoyed!
xoxo,
Gracie

check it.

H and I co-wrote a guest post that just went up on unruly things.*

Topic: Ten Reasons Being Married Is Just Better.

If you care to submit a suggestion for REASON #11 in the comments below, the winner (to be determined by H-town) will receive a copy of the super rad mix cd I made for the swap last month but never got around to posting.

(Polaroid by Kari Hartmann courtesy of The New York Times)

______________________________

*Alyson is already running off to get married! Remember when she was just a wee slip of an engaged girl...? 

Go ahead and try to tell me this is not the best version of a Bee Gees tune EVER RECORDED.

This cinematic version of the video is much cooler, but it doesn't seem to be embeddable. Plus there's kind of a letterbox-within-a-pillar-box thing going on since it was shot directly from someone's tv set. I ♥ YouTube.

p.s. I broke my video-embedding cherry! Do I get a cookie? A gluten-free cookie, obv.

I made you a playlist. (Yeah, you.)

Please go directly to The Flashdance to download. And put it on tonight, wherever you are.

Happy New Year! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!


p.s. MA & crew have somehow neglected to use my rad artwork (vandalized photos by Lauren Dukoff via tobacco and leather and عبير*) but I trust you will print out the above image and tape it to your ipod or whatever.

Speaking of Joy Division....

In January, we saw a screening of the documentary in Williamsburg. It's really beautifully done.

Then my friend K won a t-shirt and I got so excited that she gave it to me.

(Image found here)

The Wedding Spinner

You guys, weddings just got a whole lot cooler.

Meet Michael Antonia, who recently relocated to LA from NYC (welcome!) and decided to add more weddings to his dj schedule in order to spend time at home with his wife and new baby.

Hire him if you can. Or at the very least take his suggestions. Srsly. Any dance mix that moves from Stevie Wonder to Roy Orbison to Salt N Pepa is killer in my book.

And then there's The Flashdance, a new alt-wedding blog Michael has built with Our Labor of Love & Max Wanger.

Awesome.

Part of me really wishes we had a dj. I love the music we spun on iTunes, but it was kind of a bummer that the best man, H-town and I had to step away from the party at various points to man the computer.

Christina just made me cry

Please go immediately to her guest post on A Practical Wedding.

(I recommend playing this while you read.)

Photo by Chris Strother

bob dylan is back

Hedi Slimane Fashion Diary, Paris June 2008. Via design for mankind.

Bob Dylan portrait (1964-1965) by Daniel Kramer.

And if you haven't seen Dont Look Back, D. A. Pennebaker's documentary covering Dylan's 1965 concert tour of the UK, rent it now.

I'm not generally a big fan of docs, but just being in the room with him - without doing a single interview - Pennebaker captures the spirit of 23-year-old Dylan.

(Screen shot from Dont Look Back. Dylan holds a cue card in the often-imitated music video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues.")