believe

We are so bummed that we missed Eddie Izzard's documentary when it played in NY. But in our defense it was only here for a week-the week of CMJ. AAHHH the conflicts. Here's hoping that if we wish hard enough it will come back. Eddie is THE funniest comedian out there and as we are prone to do, we quote him often in our daily lives. His story is touching and makes you love him even more (as if that was possible).

kings of convenience

Kings of Convenience played Bowery Ballroom on the 10th of September and we were fortunate enough to be there. This show was a HOT ticket!

When I first moved to New York they played two nights there. It was the first time I saw them and the first time I had ever been to the Bowery Ballroom. Both nights were fantastic. After the second night I met Erland (who I have a massive crush on) which made me love them even more. Erland is so charming and funny it's impossible not to like him. Plus he is a very talented musician and songwriter. swoon!

This time Katie and I were able to go together along with a friend of hers from work. The show was so magical-it was just the two them with their acoustic guitars (just like last time).


The crowd was so quiet, taking it all in. They played a lot of their news songs from the new album Declaration of Dependence. (it is released on October 20--we highly recommend everyone run out and BUY it!! You won't regret it) At one point you could hear a professional camera snapping pictures which when it's oh-so quiet it can be a bit distracting. After the song was finished Erland said "Dear professional photographer, please refrain from taking pictures." Then Erik offered to pose for a few photos so they could get their shots and be quiet. The poses that they gave were perfect "musician" stances, with a bit of tongue in cheek to them of course. They also did a cover of "It's My Party" and moved into their classics.




The encore was so fantastic. They came out and stood at the edge of the stage and just sang out to the audience without their guitars a favorite of ours "The Build Up" and near the end of the song when Feist joins in we all were wondering if she was there when from above us on the balcony she started singing and everyone freaked out a bit. It was so beautiful and raw.


Found this video of the encore on youtube. It was a fantastic way to end the evening.

chesterfield

I've been thinking of what furniture I want on my must have list. No place for it to go but I am always thinking of what I would like to get for that "someday" when I have my own home and more money to splurge with. I have always wanted a chesterfield sofa, I love grey so chances are very good that when I am able to get my Chesterfield it will be in a soft luxurious grey felt to snuggle up on and take long naps.


--heidi

under the influence

"I play the game of favourites now."

we are the people

We've been busy with lots of visitors lately and then working and going to some amazing gigs, so no time for updates, but I wanted to share some new things that I can't stop listening to lately.

First a duo called Empire Of The Sun who sound a little bit like MGMT . They have some great videos but the one I really like has the embedding disabled so just go here instead. Here's a YouTube post for another of their songs.



I'm also loving this song by Telepathe.




I'll be dancing all over work tonight with these on my ipod.

--Katie

j'taime phoenix

If you ever feel the need to dancity dance we highly recommend Phoenix. The new album is truly addictive from start to finish. It is the soundtrack to our summer.

marimekko love

I am a a textile junkie and when it comes comes to Marimekko I am on a textile high. I could stare and plot ways to use their fabrics for hours. The new fall line is killing me. I want. I need. Now who wants to help a girl out and give her the funds to feed this addiction?




Plus some of my all-time favorites...




and the most classic of all Unikko. Love it in every colorway there is.


The clothes this season are to die for. The fall lines always kill me.







--heidi

redfish here we come

It's our favorite time of year. The annual family trip to Redfish Lake outside Stanley, Idaho. We love living in a big city where there is always something going on but it's always nice to go home and see the mountains and spend some time with our family (haven't seen them since Christmas). This summer we've been looking forward to this trip even more than usual it seems with us gathering "Redfish type" music for a playlist on the ipod.

Back in a few weeks!

reach out and touch faith

We have been trying for the last few weeks to get tickets for Depeche Mode in NY. Shouldn't be hard but when you have a very small amount of money to spend it is tricky. By the the night of the show (last night) we still didn't have anything but we figured if we went maybe we could find something cheap from someone who just wanted to make some of their money back instead of loosing out on all of it. We weren't even going to be picky about the seats, we just wanted to go. It got down to 15 to 10 minutes before the show and by then all the touts knew that we were not interested in buying from them.

We finally started to accept defeat when we saw a lady who looked like she maybe had some spares to sell so we were about to go ask her when one of the nicer touts that we had spoken to earlier started calling out "where are those two girls, give 'em to them!" He had asked her if she was selling and she was, or so we thought...she then gave us the tickets for free! We offered to pay her what little money we could afford to pay but she insisted we take them. We rushed in with BIG smiles on our faces to find our seats and right when we got to them Depeche Mode came out.

It was fantastic to see them live again and sing and dance to all our old favorites and hear some of their new songs live. As always the visuals were incredible, really adding to the entire experience. Dave was in fine form doing all our favorite moves, Martin looked great in a silver suit and Fletch was so charming as always. It was worth all the stress that we went through to get there.

"Never Let Me Down Again" is one of our favorites live. When Dave has us all put our arms in the air and you look out and see the crowd it's magical. The best part of the show! Below is a clip from Berlin this year. Wonderful.



If you have never seen Depeche Mode 101, you must! Our sweet mother who indulged all our musical obsessions got it for us when we turned 15. We must have watched it every afternoon for months. It is a classic that we still quote to this day.

The video of "Enjoy the Silence" reminds us of our junior high and high school days when we would watch 120 mintues. ahhh....good times

happy birthday dad!

Happy Birthday to our daddy-o! Even though he's not feeling so hot with a cold this weekend, we sure hope our dad had a great birthday.

Great things about our dad....He makes yummy waffles and pancakes and he makes the best egg sandwiches. He used to take us, when we were little, out for a nice long drive on Sunday afternoon. He likes to prank his friends at the pool-they love it. Every Sunday night when we were younger it was a given that he would pop popcorn and we would get out the ice cream and licorice then watch the made for TV Sunday night movie. He's always willing to drive 2 1/2 hours to pick us up at the airport just to turn right around again to Idaho from Salt Lake even though we've insisted we can take the shuttle. He must really want to see us. We love our dad!

bored to death

Could this show be any more perfect for us? Jason Schwartzman. Zach Galifianakis. Kristen Wiig. Parker Posey. Brooklyn. Mystery. Amateur Detective.

We think not. Can't wait til September!

"i'm not 50, i'm actually 40-10 "

Since we are such the international jet setters we were off to an extended weekend in England just 10 days after getting back from Scotland. Only one thing would make us go back so quickly-The Man's 50th birthday gig at the Apollo Theater. Those that know us have heard us talk for years about him and what an important part he is in our lives, so need we say more about why we rushed back to the UK for this glorious event.

We flew Virgin Atlantic this time and it was not even close to the flights to/from Scotland. Very cozy indeed and again the meals had soggy lumps of spinach in them. Why? Why? Why? Fresh uncooked spinach-yes, cooked spinach-gag inducing. This was a cattle car type situation with six people across and our seats were so uncomfortable barely any sleep was to be had on this red eye flight but there was a great interview on the TV/Radio with the Blur boys so that was good at least.

We flew into London and then took the Megabus (which was way more comfortable than our flight) up to Manchester getting in to the city around early evening. We stayed at a hostel with friends of ours who were also in town for the big event. The hostel was in a great central location just blocks from the city center so we were able to get around without any problems and it was certainly one of the better ones we've stayed in over the years. The only downside was at night the streets were full of drunken lads and ladettes and they are very loud, breaking bottles on buildings etc. We were in the corner room on the top floor so we would get all the noise from both sides, but somehow we manged to fall asleep through it all. It really wasn't bad-does it sound like we hated it? It was really a very nice place and neighborhood (Katie did watch a guy getting arrested our first night there but even that was pretty tame).

Our hostel (party central)


Our first night we walked around to see how much things had changed since we had last been in Manchester 10 years before (then to pay respect for The Man's 40th birthday). Once again, we were surprised by how much we remembered of the city as we had in Edinburgh. After walking around for awhile we ended up at a Thai restaurant for dinner. Not bad, but our server was a bit strange and ended up laughing and leaning in on Katie's shoulder. She was saying something about the couple seated behind us to her but it was extremely hard to understand what she was saying through her fits of giggles, we just pretended to understand and then high tailed it out of there. Next stop was a supermarket for some treats, ie: our daily dose of Malteasers. We eat them constantly every time we are in the UK. Can you blame us really, they are the best treat.






When we got back to our hostel Heidi mentioned her ankles were swollen, her right arm was tingly and she was having mild chest pains. We got on the Internet to investigate what it could be, figuring it was probably from all the travel, and that's what it seemed to be. We decided on a wait and see approach and crashed in our room from exhaustion.

The next morning Heidi woke up early with severe chest pains and was worried that it would get worse. This was the big day that we had traveled so far for, nothing could get in our way of celebrating that night with The Man. So to be on the safe side we ended up going to the infirmary to have Heidi checked out. Fortunately, we got there early enough and it wasn't busy, the rush from the night before had just cleared out before we got there. Everyone was so kind, they took very good care of Heidi and did an excellent job of checking her out. The best part of the whole experience...it was free! Thank goodness for universal health care, especially since Heidi doesn't have any insurance. Just another plus in the pro list of living in the UK.


After the unexpected detour in the morning we got ready to go over to the venue and when we got there the excitement of seeing HIM kicked in. It had been almost two years since our last gig so we were READY. We were able to catch up with lots of old friends and made a few new friends while we there. Even though we had just seen them, it was great to see Maggie and Vikki again and share in all the excitement. (We would never have met them if it wasn't for The Man so we have him to thank for our friendship.) There were many people from all over the world who had traveled for this special event. The first in line was a chap who came from Mexico City, he arrived the day before and just came straight to the venue from the airport.




As the time grew closer for the doors to open we started to get anxious so we peaked inside to see what was happening and saw a banner that made us a bit teary eyed. Just to really bring the point home in case it wasn't obvious by now-we have loved this man with all of our hearts for over half our lives and such an event meant so much to us, we weren't taking it for granted that we were lucky enough to be there for something so very special. There was an electric energy in the air and everyone was excited and so happy to be there to celebrate HIM. It's nice to be surrounded by people who KNOW and UNDERSTAND.

Truer words were never spoken.


A half hour before doors opened the staff of the venue came out to give everyone special laminates for the gig. We grabbed a few just so we would have back-up in case something happened to them during the show. Holding these precious gifts made us teary once again.



The setlist-he didn't really sing that song for the encore (it's a joke) he sang First of the Gang.


The show was amazing and there were so many great moments. The crowd went mental, singing along with all our hearts to "the songs that saved our lives". Heavenly! Here is a clip from YouTube of the crowd singing Happy Birthday. The sign that he holds up was made by our dear friend Vivian. Yea! The sound is a bit dodgy and it's a bit wobbly but you'll get the idea.



On Saturday this man was our source of entertainment while in the queue. By 9:00 am he was well on his was to being drunk for the day. He took it upon himself to chat all the girls up, sleep on every step so we had nowhere to sit, yell incoherently at everyone and then proceed to accidentally spill his beer all over the place. Right after Maggie took this picture for us he walked out into traffic and tried to get hit by all the passing cars. Then he tried to pee in the street, in which he did not succeed. We did get mooned one last time before he left us for the day. The collective groan from us said it all.


That night was yet another brilliant show and again we were just on a total high of happiness. Here is another clip from YouTube from Saturday the 23rd that someone from the balcony recorded. We love what he says about us saving his life-it's really the other way around but nice to have him say it as well.



The next day we went with Maggie around Manchester and revisited the places that are so special to us because they are all associated to HIM.

We lifted the lead off The Holy Name Church.


"A dreaded sunny day, so I meet you at the cemetry gates"


"So we go inside and we gravely read the stones "


"...under the iron bridge we kissed, and although I ended up with sore lips"
The bridge had a lot of graffiti on it that once again made us teary. The love this man inspires is breathtaking.



384 Kings Road where he lived as a boy.


Salford Lads Club, a must in any pilgrimage to Manchester.


The sight of the first ever gig. October 4, 1982 almost exactly 10 years before the first time we ever saw The Man live.


The hospital he was born at. We had the nicest taxi driver who was born and raised in Manchester. He said we were his most interesting fare of the day and seemed to have a lot of fun driving us around.


The G-Mex center (now known as Manchester Central) was home to some famous gigs.


MEN Arena where he played in 2004 for his 45th birthday. The first time he played Manchester in over 12 years. (click on the picture to see it better)


We also did a few other touristy things that weekend. We walked around with Maggie shopping and admiring all the beautiful architecture. The most surprising sight was the public urinals in the city center. Better than a dumpster which is a very popular choice in NY.







We love libraries and the city library here is one of our favourites.


Dale Street...just for you dad. Vinyl Exchange is a well known record shop, we could spend a lot of time there for sure.


She's knicking his wallet! The cheek.


This mural was right outside our hostel. What a sight each morning when we went out.


It was a fantastic weekend filled with celebrations, laughter and so much love for The Man.

och aye land part 3

The rest of our time in Scotland was spent in Glasgow. We went to The Lighthouse with Vikki one afternoon and checked out their current exhibit on the architecture of John Lautner. It was fantastic, filled with with models and construction documents. The drawings were all done by hand so heidi was in heaven looking everything over.




We climbed to the top of The Lighthouse to see the amazing view of the city. We got quite the workout on those stairs but it was worth it (stairs, schmairs).







This is a sign for the toilets that we thought was sooo funny.


After The Lighthouse we walked around Glasgow and had a look around. We could so live here (definite possibility-sorry mum).






Before we went to pick up Maggie for dinner Vikki took us on an impromptu tour of some Glasgow sights. Once more a lot of our photos were taken from the car since it was raining.





Makes us hungry for chips n' curry.



The famous Barrowlands where many great bands have played.



Stow College where Belle and Sebastian got their start.



Growing up in Idaho we would see horses or cows being transported on the roads, here it's sheep..baaaaaa




In most neighborhoods of Glasgow they say...


After our tour around Glasgow with Tour Guide Vikki we went out to dinner at an Italian Tapas Restaurant with Maggie, Vikki and Maddy and closed the place dooowwwwn. After dinner we went over to Maddy's flat to visit her doggies. Skeeter, Sweetums and Shannon were all in a playful mood and seemed to remember us from our time spent with them in December.

One of our last days in Glasgow was rainy and then the sun came out so while it rained we went to Habitat with Maggie and spent a long time looking everything over. Then the sun came out and we met up with Vikki and we all had lunch at a great vegetarian cafe and had a wander around. The girls took us by a great vintage shop where we picked up some vintage silk scarves. We love scarves so we really hit the jackpot there.






Heidi is really into this play's poster's scattered all over Glasgow and now we have one in our flat.


Did you know that pedestrians look like aliens in Glasgow... so beware of them OK.


This is the view from the girls flat. We loved their flat and we would love to live across the hall from them.


Our other hosts while in Glasgow were Sandy...


and Marsalis

As a final treat on our last night we tried fried Mars bars and they are heavenly!


We were sad to leave Scotland but since we knew we would be coming back in less than two weeks to go to Manchester it wasn't quite as depressing as it could have been. We are very lucky to have met Maggie and Vikki on our trip to England in 2006. This was the best trip with lots of laughter, music, and good food (yes, the Brits have a bit of a reputation for bland food but everything we had was great). We had a running joke that our trip was sponsored by Polo mints since we went through several rolls of them so, thanks Polo mints (better than water from a bucket!)

We've already got big plans for when Maggie and Vikki come to NYC at the end of August. Let the good times continue!!

passion pit

A few weeks ago we went to see the much hyped Passion Pit play at Bowery Ballroom. We have been addicted to the ep and the album so we were very excited to see them live. Once again we hit the jackpot with great opening bands. First was Body Language from Brooklyn (whoot!). So much energy and so much fun. Their visuals were very 70's retro but perfect for the set. They just released an ep, it will have to tide us over until they release a full album. Check out their song "Sandwiches", it's our favorite. Next was Bear Hands another Brooklyn band (whoot whoot!). Completely different sound, a bit edgier and raw. They remind us of Les Savy Fav. It was a great set and they got us geared up for the main event. Check out their song "Can't Stick 'em", we love it!

When Passion Pit came out everyone was ready to dancity dance. They were excited to be there and they got the crowd movin'. The set lasted about an hour, it may have been a short set but it was certainly packed with all our favorites. Can't wait to see them again in September when they open for Pheonix, now that will be a brilliant gig!

Check out their video for "Sleppyhead". So creative and different.

crocodiles kill

After being on a bit of a downer yesterday here is another band I'm digging at the moment and I luvvvvvv this song. I can't wait to see them play with The Horrors in September AND October. Yay to going to gigs!

Crocodiles "I Wanna Kill"



--Katie

away we go

We went to the film Away We Go a week ago and my new music find is Alexi Murdoch whose music was all over the film. I had one song from an OC soundtrack but now I've got his album Time Without Consequence and it's perfect for right now since I'm in a homesick, melancholy, ennui state of mind for the last month (June was the worst month this year). He's very mellow and it's what I need right now (it's been all about sad songs or angry punk on the ipod playlist). The film was also so good and I highly recommend it-it corresponds to a lot I've been dealing with lately (minus the pregnancy!).

Here is a live video of Orange Sky which is probably my favorite and is it just me or does he totally remind you of Nick Drake too?



--Katie

och aye land part 2

The next few days after we returned from Belfast were spent going around to cities within an hour or two from Glasgow with Maggie. The Scottish countryside was so beautiful. Most of our pictures were taken from the car so we could stay dry.




We saw the Wallace monument outside Stirling (didn't manage to get a picture of it) and also saw the castle in Stirling. We explored the city a bit and had lunch while we there. We had baked potatoes at a vegetarian cafe. It tasted more like squash, nothing compares to good old Idaho potatoes.



One day we drove towards Perth and Dundee and admired all the wonderful architecture. On our way there we finally saw a highland cow, which we were so excited about but we were on the motorway and zipped by too fast to get a picture. There was a lot of road work going on and we couldn't help but love the sign in case your car broke down.






As usual we received a lot of questions about us being twins so when we saw this cafe we felt we would fit right in.



This had to be one of the funniest signs we saw while we were in Scotland. We want to know what happens at a cat show, do the cats roll over and purr?

och aye land part 1

Our trip to Scotland was non stop laughter. We had so much fun with our friends we are now plotting our next trip back to Glasgow (next year perhaps).


This was the best flight we have ever taken to Europe because we sat in Business Elite! We couldn't believe it when we boarded the plane-our seats were like recliners and they pampered us big time. One question though-why do people think that if you're vegetarian you like soggy lumps of spinach? Blech!

We flew into Edinburgh with plans of exploring the city for the day before we went on to Glasgow to stay with our friends Maggie and Vikki. Since we only had less than a day to get any sights in we did a cliched tourist thing and did a bus tour.








It's really the best way to see a lot in a time crunch but while we were on the tour (almost all the way through) Katie decided she had to have a nap if she was going to be able to continue on for the rest of the day. Not really having a place to go we just went to the park, sat on a bench and slept for an hour in the sun and woke up to some man taking our picture. Not sure why he did that since we weren't the only people in the park taking a wee nap on the benches. It was mid-day and there were a lot of people out enjoying the nice weather.

Next stop was a museum to get some culture in before lunch. After that we headed to one of our favorite markets for food... Marks and Spencer. Yummy sandwiches, wish they had such good veggie choices in New York.

On the bus tour once again we spotted the place that we had jacket potatoes at 10 years earlier. It was amazing how much we remembered of the city.







We then decided to explore on foot and after walking all over Edinburgh we took a bus to Glasgow. We spent the rest of the evening into the early morning eating and catching up with our friends and laughing. While Maggie went to work the next day, we slept in so we would have energy for our travels to Northern Ireland. Since our ferry didn't leave until that evening we explored the girls neighborhood until we left-there is a flat for rent just two doors down that we would love to have-sigh. While out and about we found Boots straightaway, so it was a successful search of the 'hood.

Once we were off to Northern Ireland it really felt like the vacation had begun. Just four girls in a Mini Cooper driving to Troon to take the ferry to Belfast. Can you say trouble....yes indeed. The ferry was nice and relaxing and we had an incredible view of the sunset.


Our ferry landed in a little village called Larne which was a bit deserted at 11:30 pm. We drove to Maggie's hometown (an hour past Belfast) where we stayed at a very nice bed and breakfast. It was a lovely little village with very friendly people. Especially our hosts at the B&B who Maggie had been texting to let them know we would be late arrivals. We only had the name of the wife-Rita and by 1 am when we just couldn't find the place we called and talked to Rita's husband who came out of his warm home to help us out. We never got his name so he ended up being called Mr. Rita (not to his face obviously). We had more interaction with him that the actual Rita and we started to wonder if she existed.

The next few days were spent in Belfast. Our favorite story from Belfast was when we arrived, again at 1 am-we're never ones for getting anywhere at a respectable hour. It seems like we are always getting to our destinations around 1 0r 2 in the morning. We were going to stay at a hostel and had a bit of a difficultly trying to find it (surprise) when Katie woke up from the backseat to hear Maggie and Vikki arguing over where the hostel could be and saved the day by saying "I'm not sure if this means anything but there is a sign right there that says hostel". It was pointing down a side street where our hostel was located. Vikki was already unsure about the area we were staying in, she thought it wasn't safe enough, and we had to agree once we went to get our room and the guy at the desk was a bit dodgy. Then we saw a pub close to where we were supposed to stay and that was really the end for her. Vikki cried out "There's a man....in a cage!" There was a mean looking guy standing in this cage, smoking and guarding the pub entrance. We weren't quite as freaked since NY has made us a little impervious to such things but it was interesting. We were laughing so hard at Vikki (done out of love) that we forgot to take a picture of it. This photo was found via flickr. After some research we found out that they had had some shootings in the past, hence the reason for the intense security. So instead we ended up totally lucking out and stayed at a house in the university area of the city which was really close to a yummy restaurant where we had brilliant Indian food.


While we were in Belfast we took the bus tour. This is the Europa Hotel, the most bombed hotel in the world.


Parliament was far from the city center but was surrounded by beautiful grounds.



The tour was very interesting but frightening to think of how much the city has been through. Even though there had been "peace" for several years just hearing about the conflicts between the Catholic Republican or Protestant Loyalists was enough to make anyone a little uncomfortable.








After our bus tour we drove to Larne to catch the ferry back to Scotland.


This ride back wasn't quite as smooth and the rocking made us a bit green around the edges (Mamma Mia playing also didn't help) but we manged not to toss any cookies and picked up some new slang on our drive to Tescos for dinner ingredients. "Neds"-we got a little too into this term and were calling everyone a Ned for awhile. Rather than explain what a Ned is go here instead-lovely pictures of their breed-also known as Chav's in England.

Tescos was heavenly and we had too much fun looking at all the options. The place was HUGE! If only we had a grocery store like that in our little patch of Brooklyn.

So, part one is complete and we will certainly be quicker with the rest.

doll and the kicks

While in Manchester we had the chance to see Doll and the Kicks. We like them a lot, please check them out.

it breaks my heart

I love this picture. I'm not positive where it came from but I'm guessing here. If I were better at crafty things I would make one of my very own.



--Katie