AG & BS

Adam Green has been a long time favorite of mine.  Friends of Mine was the first album of his that I heard and shortly after, became obsessed with.  His lyrics are pretty goof, sometimes inappropriate, but the melodies are catchy, sweet and loveable.  It's the kind of music that you can listen to with your mother while sitting on the patio drinking a white wine spritzer or two on a hot summers day, and she will enjoy it until she pays attention for one second and realizes that he just said "and I don't go out for lunch/and I don't go out for cunts" from his song 'Bluebirds'.  His other two favorite albums of mine are Sixes & Sevens, which has a heavy cabaret feel that makes you want to sashay around your house while never letting go of a glass of scotch, and Minor Love which at first was a little disappointing because it didn't make my shoulders want to shimmy like Sixes & Sevens did but it eventually grew on me in classic Adam Green style, heavy on the guitar and vocals.

Binki Shapiro is the very girl-crushworthy babe that was a part of "Little Joy", a band that I previously wrote about.  She has a sweet, quiet voice that makes you think of decades passed.  She was previously dating Fabrizio Moretti of The Strokes and Little Joy, but they broke up and bummed me out because they were the most attractive couple ERR'RRR.  And looking good together is one of the most important things two people should consider when they decide to start an adult relationship, right?

Well, on January 29th, these two coolios are coming together with their debut album!  I've only heard the one song "Here I Am" from it, but it sounds quite sweet.  Not sweet like, "Sweet, Brah" but sweet in its original form.  Listen to it below:

And check out this interview, I even "lol'd" when they were laughing about Binki feeling like a woman for the first time. 

My Kind of Woman

This guy looks just like a friend of mine, Tanner, right down to the over-sized plaid shirt, constant cigarette, big grin and shitty hat.  I chanced him based on his appearance but am now obsessed with his music.  I can only find his first album, Rock and Roll Nightclub but I look forward to buying his new one, 2 on vinyl when I move to da big city, as Walmart is literally the only place to buy music in this town.

This music belongs on vinyl.  It sounds super old-school, especially his album Rock and Roll Nightclub.  Half the songs he's singing in a low, half-assed Elvis voice like on "Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans." From the few songs I've heard of his latest album, 2, things are sounding a little more current in the vocal department, but it still has the grungy old punky alternative, whatever you wanna call it sound, similar to The Modern Lovers.  The music is pretty simple but there are still nice melodies and keyboards that make it stand out, and I reaaaaaaally wanna cover "My Kind of Woman" with my "band", temporarily called Threesome (thanks to Brandon rumors!) until we can find something better.  Or start jamming more.  One or the other.

Baby's Wearing Blue Jeans

My Kind of Woman

Royal Wedding

I, Alison Nicole Vandale, have had my secret dream come true.  I've been invited to a wedding. A good wedding at that.  I never get to go to weddings!  My parents pity-invited me to a dude from high schools wedding, because they're friends with his parents.  I considered it, because I've heard through the grapevine he's "not racist anymore" and doesn't get black out drunk to the point where people can spray paint fake hair on his skin-head-shaved-bald head.  (Anymore)  However the bridal shower invitation saying "No gift registry but anything in purple or butterflies would be great!" grossed me out so I decided to opt out.

This wedding is for my good friend Jade.  Haven't seen her in a few years, mainly because she got deported back to ENGLAND, WHERE THE WEDDING WILL BE!!!!!!  So exciting!  (And she didn't get deported, her visa just ran up but we thought having a "deporta-party" sounded pretty hilarious, espesh with an English accent)  I met Jade when I was a wee lass of 19, fresh to Victoria.  Daniel and I were out at Monty's, the downtown strip club and noticed a guy that was getting titties shaken in his face.  He stuck out in our minds because he  really wasn't enjoying this experience.  Then we saw him shortly after at McDonalds, ended up chatting and having a funny time so we exchanged numbers and decided to hang out!  I remember being so friggen excited cause it had been so long without meeting any friends.  Anyway, long story short, Jade was his roommate, and hallelujah, she was just the friend that I had been looking for!

Jade and I went out all the time, we had sleepovers, we cooked dinners, she taught me how to make curry, we went for walks, we played with cats, we spent all the holidays together that we couldn't go home for, I taught her how to "Canada Day", she taught me funny British words and phrases (a SUV is a people carrier), we kissed boys at house parties together, went for hundreds of breakfasts, snuck into pools when it was late and dark, went to the beach, etc.  I called Jade at 1 in the morning, from under my covers when I was 'certain' someone was 'breaking into my apartment' and she came hustlin' over from her place two blocks away to save me from the big bad Absolutely Nothing that had B&E'd my pad.  The first real (only?)  friend-wedding I ever went to was with Jade, and a gay wedding no less!  I guess you probably get the point that we were really tight and hung out all the time and I just am way too excited to see a really great friend marry a great bloke that I'm sure I'll love!  Plus Jolene and I get to go to England, Scotland, hopefully Spain and France too...

Look at these old ass pictures!  We were babies!

 Jade and I tossin' around the ol' pig skin at the beach

 Pool hopping late at night

 Canada Day and some piddly fireworks with Jade & Jolene

I'm also excited to write a big juicy blog post once I get back from the trip!  I've been boring myself with my humdrum-ass life as of lately, laying in bed watching ShamelessDexterWalkingDeadWeedsHomelandANTM on rotation, pretending to do homework, day dreaming of moving to Winnipeg and friendship-sexting Katy.  ("And then, we can make extravagant brunches and drink mamosas while listening to Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings...")So it'll be nice to have something super exciting to write about! 

Well This Is Just Great

The Divine Fits covering Frank Ocean's 'Lost'???!?!?! Yes please! 

Whip Appeal

My brother got home yesterday, which is great for two reasons:  I haven't seen the kid in over a year and he brought home my new whip, a Kia Rio which traded him for a new Ipod.  Great deal right?!!  I have never had so much love for something so shitty before (the car).  It's way better looking than the Lumina that I previously owned, but I'm pretty sure everything that can be wrong with a car, is wrong with my new ride.  The breaks blow.  It takes about 20 minutes to actually come to a stop, and I'm pretty sure the breaks on my bike are better.  The drivers side window does not roll down, the passenger side door must be opened by pulling hard and downwards on a rigged up string, one of the back doors doesn't open, the left turn signal must be manually turned off, the windshield wiper reservoir is broken so I gots no wipin' fluids, the CD player doesn't work nor the cigarette lighter, the windshield is cracked to shit, I've already broken most of my nails trying to get all the dumb stickers off, there's random squeals and ticks and I'm sure a ton of things are wrong on the inside.  Either way, I love this thing, it'll get me to Winni and back to see ma babygurl and with the cold weather coming it'll be nice to drive! 

****Update:  This happiness ended abruptly.  The piece of shit was quoted as "costing thousands of dollars" to safety, and shall be taken to the wrecker in the next few days.  Shit.

1st Mixtape

I'm a huge believer in things happening for a reason. Katy and I dated a pair of bff's that treated us in a manner that would definitely upset our dads; and there happens to be a huge bright side to this, which has solidified my belief and makes it seem less like this in my head....

...And a lot more like this:

Had we not had these boyfriends, Katy and I would not have had weekly "Brickyard Nights" where we would drink cheap pitchers every Tuesday and bitch about our boyfriends, which in turn let us get to know each other better and made our little bud of a friendship grow into the big ass Rafflesia Arnoldii that it is today.  (Yes I Googled "What is the largest flower in the world?)  Going for "a pitcher" always turned into at least 3 and then going to a club afterwards, even though poor Katy worked at 6am every Wednesday.

Also, I was introduced to three of my favorite Victorians through these dudes, (Hi Kirsty, Alison and Stacy!) who I still consider my best peeps! And had we not met, these friends would never have spent time in Brandon, Manitoba and that is not ok.

I probably wouldn't have moved home to Brandon, where I have the best girlfriends in the whole world (even though some haaaaad to move to Montreal, RINA). I wouldn't be on my last semester of my degree and I wouldn't be moving to Winnipeg in 3 months to live with Katy.

Another huge thing that happened for a reason was the mix tape that was given to me in the first few weeks of meeting said dude. It really opened my eyes to a lot of amazing music that I wasn't listening to and has sculpted my taste in music today. I can't find that tape anymore, but I still remember most of the tracks on it, so I made a little 8tracks playlist. These are the songs that actually changed my life and make me happy that I've done everything that I have, even if it wasn't the most pleasant at all times.

1st Mixtape from alivandali on 8tracks Radio.

Lets Just Hope This Happens...