Posts tagged “Leeni”

Link of the Month:
A Mighty Girl
I know I said I wouldn’t post baby stuff on this blog, but this website is just too cool to pass up. It’s a one-stop resource for all media that positively portrays girls (from pre-schoolers to pre-teens) in a strong, independent, intelligent, and otherwise positive light. This is where to go to help girls become active and confident participants in their lives, not just passive princesses waiting for a hero. These girls are their own heroes.

Album of the Month:
Prom Queen: Night Sound
“Prom Queen” is one of the musical projects by friend-of-a-friend Celene Ramadan, who is also known as my favorite chiptune musician, Leeni. Prom Queen is pretty far from Leeni. It’s lush, dreamy, 1960s-inspired music. Dark, sultry, dangerous, and sensual (and authentically vintage), this album sounds like the ultimate yard sale vinyl find in a very, very good way. As Celene puts it, “If David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino were to co-direct your prom, this would be the soundtrack.”

Here’s a video of “This Town Ain’t Big Enough”

Exhibit of the Month:
Cooper
Now through January 2014, the Washington State History Museum has an exhibit about the notorious Dan “D.B.” Cooper, the only unsolved domestic hijacking case in the history of the United States. The D.B. Cooper case has been romanticized over the years (right now there’s a very funny D.B. Cooper comic book that postulates he was a super-secret agent who fights aliens and monsters and such) and become something of a pop-culture icon. Heck, there was even an important storyline about him on NewsRadio in the 90s! So it’s nice to actually get some grounding and learn about all the actual facts surrounding this mystery man. It’s a fascinating exhibit, even though it does at times veer too far off into modern-day air security (many measures of which were developed in response to Cooper’s actions). It also has a bit of a personal connection: Carrie’s dad worked for Northwest airlines when the hijacking happened (he wasn’t involved in the least, though, since he was stationed in Cleveland at the time). There are also some really awesome artifacts: actual stewardess uniforms, vintage travel posters, airline giveaways and the like. Good stuff.

There are a bunch of musics that I really should pick up. This post serves a dual purpose:

1. It serves as a reminder to me of what I might otherwise forget
2. It lets you, dear readers, see the kind(s) of musics that I am currently diggin’

By the time you read this I will have most likely gotten some of these. So, y’know, there’s that.

So what am I missing, folks? What other musics should I pick up?

Link of the Month:
Comic Book Resources
It’s weird; I have a strangely encyclopedic knowledge of comic books, especially from the Marvel universe. Here’s where I go to get all my comic book news.

Album of the Month:
Leeni: The Only Now
Sometimes I think I’d like to meet Leeni, but then I think I might inadvertently creep her out because (1) I also make chiptune music, (2) I also play the ukulele, (3) I also do improv comedy. I’m like a guy version of her except I can’t sing. Fortunately she can. In this album, her third full release as a chiptune musician, her silky, ethereal, dreamy vocals are smoother than ever, and her chiptune compositions (with some added enhancements) are intricate and lovely. There were a dozen amazing albums that came out in the past few weeks, but Leeni ends up winning this month.

TV of the Month:
Community: The Complete Second Season
Still the funniest TV show currently on the air. The 2nd season did not perhaps have as strong of an overall arc as the first season. There were storylines that seemed like they were gonna be important or go somewhere that ultimately ended up fizzling or going somewhere it didn’t quite seem like they belonged. But this season still has some of the best episodes of any TV series ever (yes, I will go on record with that), the highlight perhaps being the D&D episode. Just unbelievably creative television making by everyone involved. It’s inspiring and a bit depressing because I know no matter how hard I tried I’d never be able to make a TV show this good.

I decided it was about damned time that I made myself a new mix CD. For your convenience, I’ve included (when I can) links to where you can get these songs for yourself, should you so desire!

1. Things I Think About On Planes – Palmdale
2. An Open Letter to Stephen Fry – Molly Lewis
3. All The Same To Me – Anya Marina
4. Airbrushed – Anamanaguchi
5. Career Advice – Open Mike Eagle
6. Common Scents – Spot Two – JP Inc.
7. Dark Dark Eyes – Marian Call
8. Deer God – Busdriver feat. Open Mike Eagle
9. End Of Line – Daft Punk
10. Stay The Same – Bonobo & Andreya Triana
11. Haircut – Open Mike Eagle
12. The Internet – JP Inc.
13. Juicy Fruit – Mtume
14. Meet The Future Downlow – Palmdale
15. The Mating Game – Bitter:Sweet
16. Sentimental Heart – She & Him
17. Nothing in Between – Celene Ramadan
18. Lieutenant Custard & His Banger Of Time – JP Inc.
19. Promise – Cocorosie
20. Three Is a Magic Number – Molly Lewis
21. Your Woman – White Town
22. Original Butterscotch Confection (Three Ninjas Remix) – Open Mike Eagle feat. Busdriver
23. Bucky Done Gun – M.I.A.
24. Nothing Unusual – Three Ninjas feat. Geli Wuerzner
25. Twice As Nice – Pomplamoose

I especially like how I have a Busdriver song featuring Open Mike Eagle AND an Open Mike Eagle song featuring Busdriver.

This video for Leeni, probably my favorite chiptune musician, was animated by James Franzen of Radio Gosha. Hey, I know that guy!

As a follow-up to my Festivus Round-up, creative collective The Beta Society has posted the entirety of the movie portion of A Very Alan Thickemas. It features the real voice of Alan Thicke, and also an impersonated voice of Alan Thicke. It’s directed by Celene Ramadan, who you might also know as chiptune musician Leeni. Yes, it’s a puppet musical.

Happy Festivus, everyone! I hope you get to air some good grievances. I hope the plain aluminum pole is not too distracting. And I hope you win the Feats of Strength!

Here I’m going to round-up a big random heaping of things I’ve found interesting recently. Artists, websites, musics, games, whatever. In random order:

Michaela Eaves

I saw her at a studio open house where she had some paintings and prints out for display. I really dug the way her paintings have heavy outlines, and the way the lines break up the colors in such a way that her paintings almost look like stained glass.

She also had an adorable painting of a rocket ship, done in a soft, children’s book style of painting. I dug it, but I can’t find a picture on her website (which is mostly about her graphic design & illustration business):
www.michaelaeaves.com

8-Bit Jesus

I thought this was pretty spectacular. Not only did Doctor Octoroc (sic) make 8-bit chiptune versions of many Christmas songs for his album 8-Bit Jesus, but he also wrote them in the specific styles of various 8-bit video games. My favorites are definitely “Carol of the Belmonts,” “Bubbles We Have Heard on High,” and “8 Days of Master Robots,” which very excellently captures the essence of the Mega Man experience. Also, “Icarus! The Herald Angels Sing” is quite accurate. Check it out:
http://www.doctoroctoroc.com/8BitJesus/

Machinarium

Machinarium is a beautifully done, old-style, point-and-click adventure video game, unbelievably done entirely in Flash. I like it ’cause it’s about robots. But more than that, the world is completely enthralling, and the puzzles all involve robot logic more than real-world logic.

The art style is pretty much spectacular. You can play a demo for free, or buy and download the full version here:
http://machinarium.net/

Kaiju Dance to Thriller

Just what the title says: a bunch of Kaiju dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Wonder Woman Pumps

This woman takes shoes and tastefully collages them with pages from Wonder Woman comic books. She tends to use mostly monochromatic images, so the effect is a little subtler than you might expect.

She has an etsy shop where she makes all kinds of shoes and boots (not just Wonder Woman):
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Pachainkapink

Regurgitated Thanksgiving Dinner Scarf

Taisha McGee sells what she calls “Ugly Scarves.” They’re mostly actually quite pretty, but she nevertheless gives them hilarious names based loosely on their color schemes, names like “Mulched Roses,” “Tidy Bowl,” “Moldy Cheese,” “Mushy Froot Loops,” and my favorite, “Regurgitated Thanksgiving Dinner.” She also has the sense of humor to take photos of the scarves wrapped around a cardboard stand-up of John Wayne. Bravo!

Check them all out at her etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TaishaMcGee

Alexis St.John

An artist whose work I saw in a tea shop in Downtown Tacoma (Mad Hat Tea, 1130 Commerce Street) and I liked the humor and simplicity in it. I also really appreciated how most of the paintings were really small; a lot of ’em were only like 6″ × 6″, and I don’t think anything of hers gets over 20″ in any direction.

You can buy the actual artwork, of if you’d prefer you can buy frameable prints of it.
http://alexisstjohn.com/Gallery.html

TheSixtyOne

TheSixtyOne.com is a fascinating idea for a democratic music website, where the more people like a song the more popular it becomes, and ANYONE can upload ANY song they’ve created (as long as they’re legally allowed to blah, blah, blah, y’know).

Not only that, but it turns listening to music into kind of an RPG. You gain experience (called “reputation”) and rise in levels. There are quests (like “Listen to 7 recently-uploaded songs” or “Listen to the radio stations of 5 other people for 5 minutes each”) that let you earn experience and “hearts,” which you can use to mark a song as a favorite (i.e., you heart the song). And you also earn experience as other people later heart songs that you previously hearted. The more reputation you have, the more likely other people are to listen to your opinions (in theory at least). So you get tangible rewards for finding new, unheard songs that you really like and then getting other people to like them as well, other than the reward of discovering good music.

Also, TheSixtyOne.com is the only place right now where you can hear Taisha’s musc (yes, the same Taisha that makes those scarves). Just go here:
http://www.thesixtyone.com/taisha/

A Very Alan Thickemas

THE Alan Thicke, Leeni, and puppets. Lots and lots of puppets. And Blake Lewis is somehow involved. It exists, I just have no idea of how to see it. Other than these:

That’s about it for now.