I Just Want One Night With You

I have a friend who is absolutely in love with Mayer Hawthorne. It's not typically my style (where the dance beat at?), but after Sofie at Sssssound! posted the the superb Classixx remix of his song Green Eyed Love, I knew I had to give him another chance.

Hawthorne's debut album A Strange Arrangement was released earlier in the year and is definitely worth checking out, but my other favourite song of his is not on the album - it's No Strings Attached, which is produced by Classixx (see the trend here? Classixx = brilliant).

You know, people always said Barry White is the ultimate swoon-inducing singer but I never really understood. Now that I've heard Mayer Hawthorne, I totally get it. Hawthorne is aaall about the swoon. Just listen to those lyrics! That voice!

"I know you're trying to be good girl, be you imagine what I'm like in bed...

You try to push it aside girl, but it already went through your head

It's one o'clock in the morning, and you're buzzing like a honey bee

You're trying to control it, when you wanna just come home with me"

Specsy.

He's playing at SploreCity in Auckland next year, which unfortunately is the same weekend as Campus A Low Hum, so I won't be going.

But you should!

(please don't mention anything about me being a bad blogger, believe me, I know. Sssshhh... )

Oh My Blog: 9eyes

9eyes is a Tumblr blog that is curated by Jon Rafman. He posts the best screen captures he finds from Google Street View.

There are some insanely beautiful and bizarre scenes and, of course, hookers loitering on street corners.

You can listen to the podcast of my full review of 9eyes here.

The Three Levels of Partying, According to Red Falcon

'Level One: That time that we played the Ramones, then Blondie, then New Order.
Level Two: All songs with 125bpm (our favourite bpm), e.g. Cut Copy, YACHT and Metronomy.
Level Three: The peak of a Red Falcon set. Daft Punk, LCD Soundsystem and Will Smith's 'Miami'.

"They're my all-time favourite girl group." - Diplo.'

We recently had to put together this little blurb for something very exciting we've been asked to be involved with, which hopefully I can reveal to you in the next couple of days.

We're DJing at D.O.C Bar on K Rd this Saturday for my friend Henry's 21st, you should come and dance with us!

Oh My Blog: Always | Sometimes | Anytime

Wallflower by Chelsea Jade Metcalf.

This week on Oh My Blog I featured a new website called Always | Sometimes | Anytime, which is run by Courtney Sanders here in Auckland.

The blog / website "is a platform committed to exposing emerging creative talent to an audience of people who are similarly motivated and inspired."

Love is a Building on Fire by Daniel Luxford.

And it's darn good, especially the fashion editorials. It has only just started but already there is a really high calibre of content - if you want to get involved you can get in touch with Courtney via the website.

You can listen to the podcast of the full Oh My Blog review here.

Writing is Spooky

Norman Mailer, sly dog.

"The moment I think of a good plot, I find that the book becomes impossible to write, because I know I won't believe it. Life may consist of people plotting all the time, but the plots rarely develop. We decide: I'll make this move in my life, and that should result in the following - then life confounds us. So I prefer a story that develops out of the writing. I don't like one that moves ahead of my characters, because then my people won't live."

-Norman Mailer, The Spooky Art - Thoughts on Writing.

Norman Mailer's approach to outlining the plot is vastly different to J.K. Rowling's, who created a spreadsheet for each of her Harry Potter novels.

Here's one from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix where Rowling outlines each chapter in detail, including the title and plot. It's interesting to look at the subplots too, where even if a storyline (such as Cho/Ginny) isn't mentioned in a particular chapter, she has still thought about how they are developing.

Hmmm, two writers whose work I have grown up with and who have also influenced my working and writing style, and they each have well-reasoned ideas about the process of plot development.

Just as well I'm not a fiction writer, eh?

Sunday Style Snaps

Photo Credit: Vanessa Jackman and various sources.

There is something so feminine about wearing a long skirt - I like to make my movement slightly more dramatic as to encourage the fabric to float around with me. Dancing in a long skirt is the best. How elegant!

Just don't trip as you walk upstairs in your ankle-length skirt. Negative elegance.