Five Songs For November

This list comes from my dear friend Jen Meyer who wants you all to go out and listen to some great music. Jen works at local independent record label 604 Records Inc., and the affiliated management company Simkin Artist Management.

1. Yeasayer (as seen above) “Tight Rope”

Somewhere between eastern and western, synths and tambourines, choir harmonies and world rhythms, this band reminds me of something that TV on the Radio might listen to themselves. Then, just to throw me, they put out this video.

2. Girls “Lust For Life”

Girls, the San Francisco-based duo of Chet JR White and Holy Shit’s Christopher Owens, sounds like the soundtrack for a hipster first date, or hipsters riding their bikes through Strathcona, or hipsters looking bored in their skinny jeans, or…well…you get it. It’s good. And you can’t get it in CD format yet. Which means hipsters will love it. Because it’s unavailable and obscure.

3. Tim Fite “Big Mistake”

Fite brings together a country infused hybrid of folk and hip hop for one of the most unique and insta-favorite sounds I’ve heard all year long…sounds like slide guitar, chime, drums, banjo, bass, pedal steel, piano and mandolins with the best lyrics I’ve heard…well…all year long.

4. Kings Of Leon “I Want You”

Anyone who has read a music magazine in the last two years knows who this band is. This song is possibly one of the sexiest things I have ever heard. “I Want You” is to their newest album “Only By The Night” what “Milk” was to “Aha Shake Heartbreak”.

5. 16mm “Lula”

One of Vancouver’s own, this band is one of the many reasons I love working where I do. The music is hook-filled, very danceable, and completely fun, 16mm is pop at its best. But cool pop. Not the lame cheesy midriff bearing kind. Pop that dyes its hair black and might wear Cheap Mondays. 16mm opened for The Secret Machines at Richards On Richards last night.

The Dark & Beautiful Mandula

We’re in Gastown’s Mandula – a gorgeous treasure chest (ok, boutique) tucked into an 1899 heritage building on Abbott between Water and Cordova Street – and even the food the lovely sales girl eats (fluted glass of Perrier and white china bowl half fat of purple black grapes) looks perfect.

The store itself makes you feel as though you have just walked into circus tent from the late 1800’s complete with antique spotlights, heavily worn canvas curtains and an array of curiosities to pick up and play with. Antique straight razor on a heavy chain link anyone? It’s a necklace, selling for $175.00.

Mandula’s line has a definite Victorian spookiness to it with beautiful ivory cashmere bloomers hanging next to a tissue thin white tee with what appears to be a small spray of blood on the shoulder. Turns out its vegetable dye – what most of the organic and recycled fabrics here are colored with. Vests with a faint ‘straight jacket feel’ and full gauzy skirts fill the rough timber racks along the wall. The pieces have a definite romanticism to them while still seeming to be entirely wearable (and comfortable) for day or evening.

So while you’ve put away your favorite vampy dress now that Halloween is over, Mandula’s beautifully constructed, eerily pretty pieces are just the thing to add an extra touch of style and mystery to your closet this winter.

Mandula | 214 Abbott Street | 604.568.9211 | www.mandula.com

Vogue: “Lashes Are The New Breasts”

In these times of uncertainty and distress I find it comforting to know there is one thing I can always turn to for a little sobering advice and timeless wisdom – a fashion magazine. As an avid hoarder of Vogue, InStyle, et cetera, I wait anxiously each season to be told that metallic leather pants are worth their weight in rent money or that winter 2008 will be “all about sequins”.

Luckily, budget constraints and a small dose of common sense usually prevent most of us from following these declarations too closely, but who among us hasn’t had at least one “What was I thinking” moment with an unflattering unitard or some ill-conceived off-white denim?

But please don’t misunderstand – I genuinely love fashion and all it’s furious insistence that each season a formula has been found upon which we must base our entire outward personas from here on in. One the best headlines (in my opinion) appeared a few years ago and you could almost imagine the editor, manicured nails pinching a wrinkled nose in a display of utter exhaustion as you read the blazing words “THIS SEASON, THE ONLY PANT THAT MAKES SENSE IS THE SKINNY”.

Well, finally. That solves our debate! No other form of coverage is even remotely acceptable – we all must begin ‘Operation Wide-leg Purge’.

So it was with no small amount of delight that I read the following in October’s Vogue. I warn you now that this may change a few rules in polite society as we know it, so prepare yourselves. According to some inside sources at Madison Avenue it seems that “Lashes are the new breasts”.

I know, I know – but how can this be? Millions spent on augmentation, reduction, push-up bras and miracle cream when all we needed to do was pop down to the nearest Shoppers for a $5 tube of Maybelline!

Just imagine the consequences of this new development. Demure women will have to wear sunglasses, even at night (clear frames for you exhibitionists out there). Curious men will constantly be asking ‘May I take your spectacles?” and applying a nice thick pair of ‘falsies’ for a night out is now tantamount to having ‘work done’.

So there you have it. Another development in a world where ‘Spain is the New France’, ‘baby is the new black’, and ‘gnocchi is the new spaetzle’.

And remember – that playful wink to your friend is now basically a lap dance until further notice.