Le Flaneur

In case you haven't noticed, I'm obsessed with Paris right now. A friend shared this amazing video of Paris at night that is composed of 2,000 still images and set to video with a soundtrack courtesy of The XX. Love it!

Le Flâneur (music by The XX) from Luke Shepard on Vimeo.

You can read more about the artist here.

Local Natives

I can't stop watching this amazing video of the Local Natives. May I suggest you listen with headphones and turn it up...

Local Natives | Who Knows Who Cares | A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

The Orbans

There's a great local band out of Ft. Worth that I've been hearing on the radio. Last week I caught their live session on a warm January day while cruising the tollway with my windows down. It could've been the weather, but I'm hooked. Check out their live sessions on YouTube or sample their entire album on amazon. Lovin' it.

Marching Onward

As 2010 draws to an end, I've been seeing things everywhere that attempt to wrap up, rehash and rank the year's events.

"The Best of 2010"
"The Worst of 2010"
"Highlights of 2010"
"A Year In Review"

A lot has transpired in the last 12 months; the Rangers went to the World Series, oil spewed into the Gulf for way too long, Lost finally ended...the world was graced with Antoine Dodson's brilliance. It's really too much to try to sum up, so I'll leave it to the experts. Therefore, I will choose to look forward.

So here's what I'm doing, in no particular order:

• I'm reading My Life In France by Julia Child and dreaming about a summer rendezvous in Paris.
• I'm also brushing up on my classroom French, you know...for the same reason.
• I'm registered for a hot yoga class with work friends to make winter a little less bitter.
• I'm taking an adult spring break trip with 10 of the craziest people I know and seriously considering snowboarding the Breckenridge slopes.
• I'm starting a tumblr. in hopes that the casual and simplified blog/twitter hybrid will be updated more than once a quarter, as is currently the case over here.
  
• I'm going to set spontaneous goals for myself. (Did I mention that I ran a half marathon this year?!)

Most importantly, I'm going to channel the gumption and confidence of Elizabeth Bennett. I just re-read Pride & Prejudice, a personal fave of mine, and like all classics tend to do, I learned something new from it this go-round.

"The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them." - EB

Be genuine. Be unique. Be what the Lord has called you to be.

Cheers to a wonderful 2011!

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Or total eclipse of the moon. I stayed up last night to see the lunar eclipse in all its glory. It was pretty strange and kind of incredible; not sure I've ever felt so small. In my own personal experience of the eclipse, I envisioned the song from Fievel Goes West as the perfect soundtrack, but this version is pretty dramatic too.

Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse from William Castleman on Vimeo.

The Social Network

I get chills every time I see this movie preview in theatres. I'm pumped about the movie, but it's mostly just because the song and the trailer are so well put together!

How good is that?! It's exciting because we were at the perfect age when Facebook came on the scene. I was at a large university that was one of the select few to have early access to Facebook, before it opened up to the entire world. In that regard, I think that this movie will sum up our generation and the past decade perfectly.

I'll come clean here; I am a choir-junkie. I started kids choir at church as a mere babe and continued on into every school choir, youth choir, select ensemble and musical I could audition for. It's a lifetime devotion...I'm just waiting to get old enough to join a big Baptist church choir without any awkwardness about being the youngest person there by a few decades.

All of this confession to emphasize how I can't get over the creepiness and the awesomeness of the song! Turns out, the new take on Radiohead's "Creep" is by a Belgian girls' choir that covers all kinds of famous grunge and hard rock hits. As soon as you click on to their website, you immediately hear their cover of Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters"...are you kidding me?! They've got it all from Nirvana and Muse to U2 and The Police.

Hi - my name is Alyssa, and if you're looking for an additional member, give me a call.

Mr. 152 Insights Into My Soul!

As I sat on the lawn taking in the cool breeze and the steady scream of the guitar, I tried to add up how many times I've seen John Mayer live and when this whole torrid love affair began. The number I came to is 6, but I swear that seems low...

Believe it or not, I'm aware of the absurdity of my obsession. Most people want to label him as a womanizer, a douchebag, or a sell-out, but the truth is that he's a musical genius. And when you take all the tabloid headlines and supposed character flaws away and evaluate the work aside from the person, it's easy to understand how a dreamer like me could fall into this trap.

In my defense, I'm not the screaming girl in the tiny "I heart JM" tee holding up suggestive signs to get attention. I much prefer to revel in the moment quietly, take it all in and sing along. There's just something about someone who has that much passion poured into so much God-given talent that is hard to look away from.

Why is talent so attractive? Why do these types of people seem impossibly untouchable? And why on earth are these the only people I'm attracted to? I have no answers to these questions and I seriously consider that this may be my #1 character flaw and the reason for my single life. I cling to the hope that I was made this way for a reason...

Here are a few excerpts of some of my favorite lyrics. All kidding aside, it is its own kind of Shakespeare.

When Autumn comes, it doesn't ask

It just walks in where it left you last

You never know until it starts

And then there's fog inside the glass around your summer heart

I never liked this apple much; It always seemed too big to touch

I can't remember how I found my way before she came around

I tell everyone, I smile just because I've got a city love...

and I can't remember life before her name

You're not the perfect hand but I don't hit on 19...

and I don't need another kind of green to know,

I'm on the right side with you

Once in a while when it's good, it'll feel like it should

And they're all still around, and you're still safe and sound

And you don't miss a thing, til you cry when you're driving away in the dark

singing stop this train, I want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in