tunes you need Tuesday: OK Go

At least two months ago, when Of the Colour of the Blue Sky came out, I promised an OK Go Tunes You Need Tuesday and here it is.  You know OK Go from their video a couple of years ago with the treadmills, but they're more than fun videos, they're a very talented band and this is a superb album.  You should get it.

The End.

Not really.  But I could end it there, that's how much I like this album.  It's supergood and hard to describe.  OK Go calls it a dance album, but it's a mix of rock and pop and fun.  The songs are catchy and funky, the band's sound is fantastic, and well, maybe I should let the first track, "WTF?" speak to what OK Go sounds like.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7166047&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=00ADEF&fullscreen=1

So, that's good stuff.  OK Go is great at doing good stuff.  They're a phenomenal band.  This is from their bio on their website:

 

Some of the other cool shit they’ve made lately: a record accompanied only by trombones, a play, an essay in the best-selling collection Things I’ve Learned From Women Who Dumped Me, op-eds in the New York Times and Huffington Post. They’ve testified before Congress and played in the Senate chambers. I repeat: they played music in the chambers of the United States Senate. They’ve been commentators on All Things Considered. They interviewed a member of N’Sync in the bathroom of Radio City Music Hall. They have a project where they walk the streets with fans handing out burritos to the homeless. They raised most of the money to buy a house for soul legend Al Johnson, so he could move home to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

And they make music too, like "Needing/Getting."  

04 Needing_Getting

I mentioned the OK Go website, but it's worth more than a mention.  It is what a band website should be.  OK Go goes beyond what most bands do and posts video of performances on tv shows, embeddable official videos, and streams live performances.  It's because they care about their fans and about making cool stuff, lead singer Damian Kulash said it on The Colbert Report last night.  

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
OK Go
www.colbertnation.com
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:308103

Back to the music.  I'll leave you with my two favorite songs from Of the Colour of the Blue Sky, "Back From Kathmandu" and "Louisiana Land."  Enjoy.

11 Back from Kathmandu

14 Louisiana Land

may desktop

Remember last month when I said that was my favorite desktop?  Well, I have a new favorite.  Hope y'all like it. 

KBFMaydesktop
As always, it was made to fit my MacBook Pro screen, but it should work for you as well.  Click on the image above to save, then make it your desktop if you so wish.  

this shit has to stop

I've had it. 

I've had it with a lot of stuff and people lately, including Aretha Franklin (I'm not finished with you, Aretha, you will get your own post), but when I saw this I knew I had to climb up on the soap box.  If you were looking for music reviews or something funny, come back another day, I'm not in the mood.  

We're going to talk about this poster:

SEX-AND-THE-CITY-POSTER
Whether you're a Sex and the City fan or not is irrelevant.  I don't care.  I saw this poster on a blog two days ago and thought "that's an interesting painting."  I don't think I've ever seen such a bad Photoshop job on a major studio release.  I'm an amateur graphic designer and could probably do better than this garbage.  Let's examine the f*ckery.

500x_satc2posterjezebel430
The image above with arrows added is from Jezebel.  The arrows will help in dissecting the poster.  

  • For some reason SJP's eyes are WAY close together.  
  • Kim Cattrall is a painting.  Not only does it not look like her, she looks emotionless and Barbie-like. Very scary.
  • Kim's elbow has been 'shopped to death resulting in something that looks like it didn't heal properly after an accident.  Also, her wrist is tiny.  The Photoshopper had arm issues and gave Kim a malformed arm.  Her other arm seems to be taken from a baby doll and is oddly the same color as Cynthia Nixon's.
  • SJP's hidden leg is out of proportion to the rest of her body.  
  • Kristin Davis is standing on one leg.  On sand.  At an angle.  Or the Photoshopper forgot to put her legs in the poster when he assembled it.  If that's supposed to be Kristin's knee it looks weird.  
  • Kristin apparently has a boob job in this film because COME ON.

Cynthia Nixon is attempting to escape this disaster and I can't blame her.  This poster is absolutely dreadful and I know dreadful when I see it — you should see my prom picture — I'd straightened my hair, then it rained. 

My thoughts on the poster are this: are we living in a world where it is so wrong to age or have extra flab anywhere that every trace must be removed via the art department?  Does Kim Cattrall care that she is almost unrecognizable?  Everyone knows the series ended years ago and the actresses have aged; is the studio afraid no one will go to the theater if there is a wrinkle on one of the four?  This kind of crap has to stop.  

Before I get off my soap box, I give you this: 

Kimorabloodylee
This is Kimora Lee (used to be Simmons) for Baby Phat.  On the left is an unretouched image, on the right her ad for the new Baby Phat fragrance.  She is a Barbie in another life.  But this isn't just the work of a highly skilled Photoshopper.  OH NO.  

Photoshop-Solved-Kimoras-Ad-Cribbed-From-Vogue-Cover
The Photoshopper stole the body of a model from the cover of French Vogue.  You know, because no one would recognize THAT.  I have a feeling that since Kimora owns her company, she said "make me look like I did in my modeling days."  But this is blatant.  I'm not sure if this is merely a woman trying to sell a fragrance or a woman hating her own body and her desperation to look thin.  If it's the latter, then it's time for all women to embrace who they are and the skin they're in. 

If I'm wrong and it's purely the work of an evil Photoshopper, then listen up, and this goes for all of you who work in the medium:  stop making women into unrealistic plastic-looking Barbie dolls.  We understand when you Photoshop out a blemish or under-eye circles, but this shit has to stop.  It's out of control and it's making women look not only younger and thinner, but taller, and out of proportion.   Just because you have the tool (in this case, Photoshop), it doesn't mean you have to use it to death.  It's time to let women be women. 

Okay, I'm stepping down from the soap box.  

oh, hell to the no

I've been in a bad mood for several days.  It's not my fault.  Really.  Do you know what mantra is for a bad mood?  I've shared it before and it's the title of this post.  "Oh, hell to the no."  Today  I thought I'd share with you the history of "oh, hell to the no" as well as something very special to me.  Yes, this is a Very Special Episode of The Kerry Blog.  

Back in June of 2005, I had just moved into the house I live in now.  I was extremely pregnant with the third child and the hubs was finishing up his job in Uzbekistan.  It was a rough summer.  It had been a difficult pregnancy and having the hubs gone was hard.  Then lo and behold — on the Bravo network there was a silver lining.  

Being Bobby Brown debuted at the end of June and cheered me up like nothing else.  It got me through the end of the pregnancy and recovery from the c-section.  Hell, it was there for me through Hurricane Freakin' Katrina.  

I can't put my finger on exactly what it was that made the show so special for me, but it was trainwrecktastic and I couldn't look away.  I set the DVR to full speed ahead and looked forward to every episode.  Bobby was just so-so, the show was all Whitney "hell to the no" Houston.  Whitney was priceless.  Maybe drunk or high on "life," but priceless nonetheless.  

Whitney was awesome for scenes like this:

Which is what you should sing any time your spouse is aggravating.  

Sometimes Whitney got a little belligerent.  

Yes, that's the same Whitney from The Bodyguard, people.  She shows many sides in Being Bobby Brown.  I'm still not sure which one I liked best.  It may be the Whitney in the following video.  This is Whitney and Bobby in a gift shop trying on sunglasses.

Why "Being Bobby Brown: The Musical" isn't on Broadway RIGHT THIS SECOND is the question I know you're asking yourself. 

And yes, that cashier was afraid for her life.  Poor thing never saw THAT coming.  

Hell_1

screencap by fourfour

 

Back to "oh, hell to the no."  Whitney made this her signature phrase on the show.  I adopted it because it's pretty fabulous.  Feel free to use it, but use it correctly and don't wear it out.  A pronunciation guide can be found in the link above the videos.  Don't embarrass yourself (and Whitney) by saying it wrong.

Being Bobby Brown ran for one season and produced a Christmas Special.  OH, YES THEY DID.  But I would have to say my favorite episode was the Mother's Day episode when Bobby foolishly agreed to keep his brother's children for the weekend.  The episode spawned the Whitney quote: "it's Mother's Day, not All-Everybody Day!" Thank you for that, Whitney.  I think of you every Mother's Day now.  The saddest thing about Being Bobby Brown is that Whitney refused to do a second season and will not agree to have dvds released.  

I can't imagine why she doesn't want this show to live on and on.  

sunday rewind: michael penn’s march

This '80s Sunday Rewind has been a long time coming, but as usual the trouble was finding enough quality videos to make a complete post.  I've been a fan of Michael Penn since March and think he's as incredibly talented a songwriter/musician as he is under-appreciated.  March was Penn's 1989 debut and with "No Myth," it seemed like he would be the new darling of the 1990s, but that wasn't to be.  Many people think of him as a one-hit wonder, but listen to the other songs in this post and I think you'll agree Penn is quite fantastic. Hit up the iTunes Store for all his stuff.  

EDIT: I hit up the iTunes Store because I can't find my cd of Penn's Free For All (great album) and the mixed tape a friend made of the album back in the day is still stuck in the cassette deck of my mini-van — yes, you needed all of that information.  So, I found out that now on March and Free For All have been combined in a 2001 re-issue of March, minus one of my faves, "Now We're Even," which if I recall correctly was the closing track on Free For All.  So, lucky you — you get two albums for the price of one!  Fantastic.

Here's the song you'll remember, "No Myth."

I wish I had this whole episode of Unplugged.  Here is "Brave New World."  The acoustic version is sublime.

What did I tell you?  "This may not be my best day, but this ain't no golden age."


There isn't a real video for "Half Harvest," but I really like the song, so here you go.

My favorite line has always been "What makes you think that just 'cause you dress bright means that you shine?"  Penn has such great insight.  


Love him.

sign round-up

Y'all know I'm a word junkie.  I love words.  And I love signage.  The goofier the better.  Some signs just speak for themselves.  All of these are from one of my favorite blogs, Oddly Specific.  

I need to go to this store because I never got my Obama unicorn.

1291437740045814161

So awesome.

129131861883752013

Apparently everyone was kung-fu fighting.
 

129146147786434191

You didn't know I wrote manuals, did you?
 

I think this next place would be my friend Molly's new favorite store.  

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 Pepperspray, stunguns, and fudge!  What more could a girl ask for?

 
Would you do me? I'd do me.

"Not creepy trapped" always puts me at ease.

Y'all have a good weekend.

I’m starting my Christmas shopping early

That's right.  I've found the perfect gift for ALL of my friends, and I do mean all.  Shopping for my friends is hard mostly because I'm very particular when it comes to gift giving.  I consider gift giving to be one of my strong suits.  It's a gift.  I have a knack for gifts.  Last year for Christmas I found fabulous patterned market totes and had them monogrammed for my scrabooking friends.  I also gave Mom Agendas and monogrammed Pottery Barn Christmas ornaments.  But not this Christmas.  This Christmas my friends will be cookin'.

I was perusing the Amazon.com last night and came across what has to be the most intriguing celebrity cookbook I've seen: Cookin' with Coolio.

Screen shot 2010-04-20 at 11.15.36 PM

 *I did not Photoshop this.  Seriously.

You know you need The Ghetto Gourmet.  Let's take a look at the Contents.

Screen shot 2010-04-20 at 11.12.54 PM

Now, who doesn't want to become a kitchen pimp?  Thank goodness that's chapter one!  I thought I'd have to wait 'til the end for that.  Appetizers for That Ass has to be a good one, as does Salad Eatin' Bitches (Crazy Pollo Salad "easily serves 4 crazy motherf****ers").  Coolio uses "dime bags" instead of teaspoons and has instructions such as "beat those eggs like a Mother#$%&er who crossed you" or "spin them around like a stripper on a pole."   Martha Stewart he is not.  

So, friends, start looking forward to your Christmas gift.  Oh, and don't worry, Will — it's on the Kindle as well.