Sunday, January 31, 2010

Hamm and Buble


I'm a recent convert to Madmen (still on Season 1) but I certainly get the allure of the show and the main man, Jon Hamm.  He hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend and I dare say he is the new Alec Baldwin to SNL, handsome, talented AND funny.  Singer Michael Buble is surprisingly funny as well....

Friday, January 29, 2010

Free Music Friday

Such a great Podcast on NPR All Things Considered featuring two bands from Sweden that I am just looooooving, who play ethereal, otherworldly music: the duo known as jj and a band called Fredrik. The podcast also includes new music from The Besnard Lakes (see blog entry about them on Tuesday), Surfer Blood, Midlake, singer-songwriter Josiah Wolf and a group called The Hotrats covering a classic from Pink Floyd. Download it here
Download this great (and FREE)  remixing of  Phoenix's single 1901 by Memory Tapes right here.....

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Inspire Me

I've had a cork board hanging in my shop office for over a year. A Shephard Fairey Obama HOPE postcard and last years calendar are on it.  It hangs next to my baroque black picture frame that everyone thinks is a mirror because it has no picture in it.  You get the idea.  Not a lof ot follow through! My inspiration board needs some inspiration!  Do you have one? What's on it?

Myphone

All the hype over the ipad turns out to be, for the most part, mostly hype.  I'm going to stick with my iphone and macbook for now....but my iphone could use a little jazzing up. Enter Uncommon, (courtesy of sfgirlbythebay), a company that creates customizeable iphone cases.  Choose from designs by a range of artists or use one of your own designs or pictures (so easy right from my iphoto).  The case is durable shatterproof polyccarbonate. Hear that Anjeli? Shatterproof! The image is transferred on the case and voila a one-of-a-kind iphone. Or Myphone.  Uh huh, I said it.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Magnetic Fields gets Real


The Magnetic Fields are one of my all time favorite bands, ever since seeing them live in New Orleans ten years ago (gasp) and playing their 3 CD compiliation 69 Love Songs until the lyrics became my unconscious narrative. And now they're back with their follow-up to Distortion, a folksy LP, titled Realism, which dropped Wednesday via Nonesuch Records. The album centers more on acoustic strumming, folk sensibilities, flourishing keys and subject matter such as cults and shipwrecks. No one writes love, or for that matter indifference as clever, witty and achingly beautiful as Stephin Merritt. Swoon.


We've run out of room! SALE SALE SALE


We received 8 boxes, bulging, packed, stuffed boxes of new Spring goods today.  We're diligently tagging, hanging, rearranging, putting old items on SALE (Coats and Shoes 40% OFF!!)and I'm uploading them to the online shop to launch on Monday.  Here's a preview.  Seriously seriously great stuff. And Pssst....our spies tell us there's another nearby local boutique carrying many of the same items as POP for twice as much.  Pays to shop around:)



Besnard Lakes, that's silent s to you


Albatross, a new song from Besnard Lakes, is my absolute favorite song on rotation right now.  You know, the song that every time you hear it you look to see what song's playing, and go, oh, right, I love that.... It's that good. And just for you dear reader, I found a free MP3 of it so you too can go oooh that's good. 

Something old, something new...in the Poconos!

Ah the Poconos. For some that conjures visions of champagne shaped tubs, for others Dirty Dancing (though that was really the Catskills), or as an English friend of mine called it, the coconuts?!  If you're unfamiliar, the Poconos are a mountainous region, about an hour and a half from NYC, in northeastern Pennsylvania that borders the Delaware River. It's filled with hiking trails,  ski "resorts", waterfalls, antique shops, and great inexpensive house rentals, hotels, and restaurants. A super cheap fun and close weekend getaway. Okay, okay, I'm a little partial, having grown up near there and having purchased a three bedroom little house in the mountains two years ago (which by the by, I'm thinking of selling if anyone is interested. Just don't get out there enough with the shop here in Brooklyn. That said, loooove hosting friends and family there.) This past MLK weekend six girlfriends and I spent a weekend dining, hiking and antiquing.  Here are a few of our great finds for a weekend: After the jump...

Monday, January 25, 2010

Into the Blue


Sondre Lerche Covers Animal Collective - MP3 - Stereogum
Norwegian singer/songwriter Sondre Lerche, now a Brooklyn transplant, recorded a beautiful rendition of Animal Collective's Bluish, in a Brooklyn basement with only an acoustic guitar, his vocals and some spacey vocal effects. Apparently it was Lerche's favorite song of 2009. His version certainly tops our list!

Love in Vain



Waldemar and Max are a photographer duo from Sweden that take heart breakingly beautiful pictures. Here's a little sample from their editorial work for Forum Magazine and Dealer du Luxe.

Mon Dieux Dior!


Designer John Galliano, debuted his Spring-Summer Christian Dior Haute Couture 2010 collection in Paris today.  No, we won't be selling the beautifully inspired, and cartoonish feminine aesthetic a la Gibson Girls here at POP. One dress would likely equal our whole inventory! Still, the sculpted jackets and overly dramatic skirts lend inspiration to contemporary wardrobes, just as the best on the couture catwalk are  intended to.  P.S. It also seems riding crops and whips will be huge for Summer!

Images via Jezebel

Breakfast in Bed


Mornings like this, rainy, cold and dark, wouldn't waking up be so much sweeter if someone was serving you breakfast in bed? Even sweeter still if it was on one of  these bright birch serving tray from Swedish designer Maria Dahlgren. My answer is "ja!"


Hedgie the Hedgehog


While a hedgehog wouldn't be my first choice of pet (or third or fourth), especially since I came dangerously close to sitting on a friend's hedgehog that unbeknownst to me, liked to curl up in the couch cushions. That was years ago, but thoughts of pulling quills from my pants still haunt me! That said, that cute little face, the protected sweet little underbelly, they're adorable as decoration. No, I don't mean taxidermy! We just got in these too cute for words hedgehog planters, cactus sold separately, but a great touch! Some other examples for sale at etsy....








Friday, January 22, 2010

Free Music Friday


Insound, a great site for purchasing indie music, offers up thirteen free MP3's from some pretty darn good indie musicians, some new and some ol' vets, including Lou Barlow and Nirvana.  Download it here.