mtvU Woodies get fancy...and, oh, I LOVE YOU DIPLO!

The mtvU Woodie Awards were filmed on Wednesday night at Roseland Ballroom, and I have to admit, they were the best I've been to yet. That doesn't mean I didn't head straight for the bar the minute I got there, though (Survival tip to anyone not famous and older than 21...when attending a show choreographed around artists and college kids--a cocktail, along with slow, belly breathing are your best assets. It may be a lesson in contradictions, but guess what? So is life.)

Lot's to highlight; from the naked people to why I'm a ridiculous geek when it comes to DJ/Producer Diplo, but I'm travelling today so will stick with some photos and save the good stuff for Monday's LifeStyleLetter (Note to anyone not yet on that mailing list: join here!)

Nostalgic for TGIF...Happy Monday because of MOMA and Mute Math

Phenomenally inspiring Friday. Seriously, TGIF hasn't rung this true in a super long time. Why wait until Monday to fill you in? Cause cardinal rule of blogging is it's my blog and I'll do what I want.

Went to the MOMA for the first time. (Insert reactionary GASP! here) What can I say, when I lived in NYC the mentality was, I can always go and check it out. So it took me moving to appreciate it. And let me just say, WOW! I honestly don't know what's more compelling, the building itself or the art it houses. Either way, I wandered and found it impossible to soak it all in at one time. So I took pictures. Just like every other tourist. Here's a few of my favorite pieces; largely because of the voyeuristic component the photos communicate.

And then Mute Math at Nokia that night. Ah, Mute Math, how your energy and harmony do inspire me. And yet, I'm fairly certain at least 75% of music lovers have never heard a note. Yup, that's going to be a topic for coffee talk. Cause that's just wrong.

Just bought the new album. Too early to share my thoughts beyond that I'm loving Burden the most so far....

Mute Math

For some reason when I think Mute Math (at least if you isolate the singer's vocals),  I think of Simply Red.

What Gramcracker Says...the birth of a brand built around my 87yr old grandmother

What began as a way to amuse my family, has taken on a life of its own.

What Gramcracker Says... began one morning a few months ago to document the running commentary elicited from watching music videos on VH1 with my 87 year old grandmother. (We had dubbed Grams gramcracker, because my cousins and I refer to her as grams and she just happens to crack us up. Between her unique mannerisms, splattering of Yiddish, and a saucy tongue, there's few people who can make me laugh harder.) Her comments are so priceless in fact, that a blog was born. It started off as something to do in between her Mahjong games at the library and working on puzzles, and has blossomed into a destination frequented by people other than those related to me.

Ever the marketer, I thought Gramcracker should have a logo, and herein lies the golden nugget of entrepreneurship; when starting from scratch, you need absurdly talented friends who don't mind cutting into their sleep time to help you out. Pandora founder, Tim Westergren, had said as much in his keynote at the New Noise festival. (Granted, I think asking people to work for free for two and half years is a stretch.) Jimmy P. offered up his brother, Los Angeles-based graphic designer, Mike Pargas; whose patience despite my hemming-and-hawing about the hook on the "g" is nothing short of saintly. Then another friend from across the pond, London-based designer Rich Clayton offered to create the Gramcracker character.
So two months and ten time zones later, we have a phenomenal logo and one of the best examples of what community and collaboration can inspire. (Sometimes images don't load correctly, in which case head to What Gramcracker Says...)

(I fear fame may have gone to her head as Gramcracker can be found telling passerby in Falmouth that she is "known nationwide as Gramcracker"..I'm not kidding, she really said that to someone.)
In anticipation of THE GREAT GRAMCRACKER ANNOUNCEMENT next week (Think of it with the same fondness with which you might revere Charlie Brown's "Great Pumpkin" and that will be an excellent launching point!), below is the 1st Gramcracker Recap Playlist

Twitter insight isn't a foreign idea...

Not going to lie, had begun wondering if my time on Twitter was coming to an end. Between living life in full, and the growing number of fake followers, disenchantment was running thick.

And then I saw this tweet from Rachel and I thought, "hmm, perhaps not so bad afterall". Give it a second, I think you'll appreciate it.

RachelPlatten 

  

I love this. :) RT @julsmarietells "Take full advantage of this beautiful mess, my dear. Chaos this fertile is hard to come by."

Yoga + Music - Self-care tools after Halloween Weekend of Vices

Two different yogis, both with an eye towards helping musicians balance their mind and bodies for peak performance sustainability.

Preview: The Curateur's LifeStyleLetter: Pen Pal Edition with Miss Meyer

Similar to a "Friendly Spotlight", but with questions and insights exclusive to The Curateur's LifeStyleLetter Mailing List...curious? Join the community by entering your email on the right!


One of the basic tenets of The Curateur is community. It is with the intention to inspire community and collaboration that I introduce a new periodic series.
The Curateur's LifeStyleLetter: Pen Pal Edition; invites one of the talented and amazing people within The Curateur's Community to step into the spotlight. The questions will stay the same, I guarantee that the responses will not!

Pen Pal: Miss Meyer
Pen Pal Geographic Location: Gramercy, Manhattan--packing for a weekend trip to LA at the moment.
What I'm particularly attracted to that makes my life full is...Current cultural trends & applying them to brand marketing during the week, and dining on pounds of cheese, sipping champers, and exploring on the weekend.

1. What is the current song playing in your head? Empire State of Mind, by Jay-Z feat. Alicia Keys
2. What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally? Raw, honest truth

Join the list. 
Warmly,
The Curateur

One eskimO "Amazing": how musical discovery actually happens

I have a complicated and highly-personalized method of discovering new music. One eskimO* is my latest "discovery", and today I'm loving the song "Amazing" in particular. Curious?

Two weeks ago...

Listening to Steph's mix echo on the car speakers as we glide down PCH on a blissful afternoon, a song comes on and catches my ear. I ask "Is this new James Blunt?"

"No. One eskimO", she responds.

"Really? His vocals sound like James Blunt."

A few minutes pass, and I drop back into my own thoughts, snapping photos as we coast along. Another song catches my ear and I ask,

"This is James Blunt, right."

"Still One eskimO", Steph responds.

"Really? Does James sing in One eskimO?"(At this point, she pretty much wants to throw me out of the car, and I make a mental note that is lost somewhere between Long Beach and Boston to check out their music.)

A week later...

As I'm falling asleep listening to MVY Radio, I hear a song that I like. It's called "Kandi" by a band named one eskimO. As the song ends, I wonder how I will remember to look them up in the morning. Then my friend Jess comes on-air, and I make yet another mental note to ask her in the morning over Facebook, who the band was that was playing as she got to work the night before.

Next morning...

Mental notes getting lost everywhere. But for some reason midday, the name of the song "Kandi" resonates, and I go searching on iTunes. Lightbulb!

I think, "Hey, this stuff is pretty good...and it's $5.99 for the whole album. It's risky, but I can invest six dollars in a new band I may end up hating."

Luckily, I am loving the album. And that's how my musical discoveries tend to happen these days. With the loss of record stores where I could walk in and say, "I heard this band, the vocals sound like James Blunt, can you tell me the name?", it takes me that long (sometimes longer) for music to saturate to the point that the name and the music join.

Got a better method or story of discovery? I'd LOVE to hear it!

*Side note: there better be a really good reason for spelling your band name One eskimO. Otherwise it's like one of those girls who spells their name Typhanie, instead of Tiffany, with a heart in place of the dot above the "i".

Let Love Rule...rethinking my take on chanting mantras thanks to one of the most smoldering Jewish men I've ever seen

I never would have expected a Lenny Kravitz show to inspire a jam-band like environment, but the evening was eerily reminiscent of another evening not long ago spent at NYC's Hammersteim Ballroom with The Black Crowes. Then again, Chris Robinson has a lot of soul, but nothing compared with the heat emanating from the Orpheum's stage. (Have to be honest, never thought a man named "Leonard Kravitz" could inspire such ecstasy from a crowd.) There were moments during the concert where it seemed as if Lenny was as entranced by the music being performed as we were...listening to the organist or any one of the four horns taking center stage, he swayed and pumped the air like many of the other audience members. From the moment K'Naan took the stage to open for Lenny, through to the final chant of "Let love rule", I never stopped moving.

"Let Love Rule" is one of my favorite Lenny Kravitz songs, along with a few selected below. What I hadn't realized until the other night is that it is essentially a mantra being chanted over and over again. This became clear when, at the end of the concert, Lenny led the audience in a euphoric ten minute chant of the words "let love rule". Typically, chanting is not something I enjoy. When asked to chant "Om" in a yoga class, I follow suit half-heartedly, trying to convince myself of it's merit even though it often feels like a shirt that fits too tight in the sleeve. I appreciate the power of chanting a mantra to the point that it reverberates to your core, but I usually spend that portion of class trying not to cringe. And yet, when Lenny Kravitz asked me to repeat this mantra that he had contrived in a room of a few thousand, I happily and enthusiastically followed along. Was it Lenny's enthusiasm that made it palpable? Was it the joy in seeing his reaction to our output in euphoric spasms? Or maybe it just felt like a comfortable arena to repeat the mantra; I could forget I was surrounded by people and just let the words flow through and around me; it was dark, my dristi (fancy yogi word for "focal point") was Lenny Kravitz, I had been dancing for almost 2 hours, and could dissolve into the sea of fans.

Let love rule

*Fun fact: I included (2) of my favorite Vanessa Paradis tunes from the album that Lenny produced. See if you notice his influence...this was the first CD I ever purchased along with Janet Jackson's "If". I realize I just dated myself, but oh well.

I'm uncertain of where I stand on chanting mantra at this point. Listening to my mother's CDs of Celtic monks chanting still creeps me out, but listening to Lenny Kravitz repeat his mantras of love and peace could be an entire afternoon's activity.

Today's words of wisdom: If you think something is just "not for you", perhaps you should reconsider it in a different context as I was encouraged to the other night. Let love rule my friend...

I love this homemade video from the other night. Lenny has a crazy amazing smile, but the commentary by the camera person is pretty hilarious.

Bringing your music into your yoga practice

Yoga is what you make it. Yes, there are basic elements that contribute to a balanced practice, but for the most part, once you learn the fundamental poses, learn how to intuit your own most perfect alignment, and remember to breathe purposefully throughout the practice, you can adapt it to fit any environment, demographic, and body-type. Some people enjoy an austere and meditative environment--there are times of the week that I crave that kind of serenity. And sometimes I'm looking for something more playful that appeals to the fact that there is a constant soundtrack playing in my head (ie. When I'm bored or waiting in line, I find myself humming AC/DC's "Thunderstruck". I have no idea why.)

So with tongue-in-cheekiness, below is the first volume of The Curateur's Indie "Rock" Yoga Series. (On reflection, I probably should have labeled the playlist more accurately "Alternative" as not all tracks are indie or rock or indie rock. But the indie rock genre has been bastardized to the point that I'm not really sure what music falls under that heading. Case in point: I've heard the band The Killers referred to as indie rock. Great band, but they're signed to Island Def Jam...pretty "major" rock if you ask me.)
There is some sensitivity to the kind of yoga practice being done while listening to recognizable songs, in that you want to avoid negative connotations during your practice. Yoga asanas (fancy yogi word for "pose") help to expand the body and listening to a song that brings up nostalgia can seem like a physical assault. To begin, I would use this playlist during a more active practice like Ashtanga Vinyasa, or if you're into it the more Westernized-style of Power Yoga. (I suppose you could do it during a Bikram class, but for the most part you couldn't pay me to take a class that fashions itself after what I envision Purgatory to be.)

Bottom line: Yoga is what you make it and I decided today I would make it indie rock....Here's to a perfectly imperfect yoga practice.

Friendly Spotlight: MySpace just got really, really lucky

This spotlight isn't so much mine as it is the Wall Street Journal's, though it seems MySpace is undergoing a massive PR shift between yesterday's post noted below, and this article posted on WSJ.Com, MySpace Tries to Recover Its Cool. The "cool" in said article is namely the introduction of newly-appointed Chief Revenue Officer, Nada Stirratt, former Executive VP of Digital Ad Sales at MTV Networks. 

Ms. Stirratt, who earlier in her career directed sales at Internet-ad company Advertising.com, has a reputation on Madison Avenue as a savvy businesswoman who understands the technical side of the Internet business but also knows how to build creative ad sponsorships that attract dollars from big brand advertisers.

Nada is a rare find in the world of business; strategic, informed, creative, and with such style and grace  that when she's talking to you, she's really talking to you (an attribute with unassignable value in most people, and covetable to the point of extinction in the executive class). I may be slightly biased as she is someone I've known and gone to for advice; both personal and professional, but no bs...MTV you lost out.  Nicely done MySpace, you may pull up alongside Facebook just yet.