Be Pretty, Be Reckless

Taylor Momsen's band, The Pretty Reckless, is one of the coolest bands I have heard in years. The little girl from The Grinch rocks out, literally. It seems like the wardrobe changes did change something inside of her, and brought out rockin' Little J. The band makes heavy, kind of dark rock music. As she said: "it's probably not what people are going to expect." And that's right, because people wouldn't expect such good music from a freakin' 16 year old. People will expect some kind of Miley Cyrus/Taylor Swift songs, but they couldn't be more wrong. Taylor can sing, pretty good actually; her rough voice reminds me a bit of Courtney Love. The music sounds like a punky dark mix of the Veronicas/the Clash/No Doubt. They will be opening for the Veronicas until June 30. Their debut album will be released this fall. I can't wait!

You can listen to a demo here:

Blender

Tomorrow morning, 5 a.m., I will be flying to Morocco. I will be there for four weeks, and I don't know if there will be internet, so I may not be able to post. It's possible that you won't hear from me the next four weeks. But I'll be back! I wish you all great holidays and loads of sun!

Walkin' on sounds...

'Soundwalks' is a project that I was working on this year. A soundwalk is some kind of audio tour, you're cycling a route while you're listening to instructions. The soundwalk can be played on an iPod as podcast. You'll hear a voice that tells you where to go, you'll hear some background information and you'll hear recorded sounds like birds and talking people. At the same time, you'll see beautiful photos on your iPod. It's the cool combination of seeing, hearing and being there at the same time that makes you really experience all the places.

The soundwalks are designed for expats: children whose parents work at multinational companies; who are living in The Hague for some years. With the soundwalks they can learn something more about the place where they live. I made a soundwalk with two friends; it was really fun to do. We planned the route, wrote the script (the script had to be in English. This was sometimes hard, because English is not our original language, but I think we learned a lot of it), recorded the sounds and made the photographs. The soundwalks are not completely finished, but you can sneak a peak on the website; watch example A, that's the one I made.

Soundwalk

Currently listening to: So What - Come With Me

Feeling kinda like Blair Waldorf today.

shirt: Temt, skirt and headband: vintage, ribbon: found it somewhere in my closet.
The headband, check. The skirt in the waist, check. Plaid, check. I even had a Good Hair Day. Add to that the flats, and Oh Yeah, I felt like Blair Waldorf!

Currently listening to: Vampire Weekend ~ A-Punk