Martine & Co

Martine is a series of children's books. Recently, a Martine Cover Generator enabled people to create their own covers with different messages... I'll try to explain...
Create your own cover here. I create those (sorry I know they're in French)

Jay Jay Johanson - electro era!

Talking about Jens Lekman, I remembered how much I enjoyed another Swedish artist's attempts at the electronic genre. Jay Jay Johanson was not welcomed by a landslide when at the time of the release of his 2 electro albums. Even if the minimal new wave sound that he probably borrowed from the Pet Shop Boys or Kraftwerk was pretty good, to my opinion.



The first of the two, "Antenna", whose two extracts "On The Radio" and "Automatic Lover" were released in 2005 introduced a fucked up Jay Jay Johanson complete with long red hair that were not really convincing...



After a best of CD, the second album showed some more maturity. With "Rush" (2005), Jay Jay who came back to a much more reasonnable clothing style gave us very melodic chords like Air's.



Another extract of this weird but beautiful album: "Because Of You", which is closer to an optimistic Daft Punk track.



The next album ("The Long Term Physical Effects Are Not Yet Known" - 2007) was a come back Johanson's musical roots and - incidently - to critical acclaim.

Jens Lekman

I just bought a CD that I heard is excellent. It's a Swedish singer who is already releasing his second album. Some people say his music is very orchestrated and that he is a genius writer.



This is a single from the fist album, which I think, is ont as refined as "Night Falls Over Kortedala" (2007) named after a suburb of Gothenburg. This artist is definetely worth being listened to.
Some links to help you know better of him:
- his official website
- his MySpace <-- check it out

Enjoy!

Kylie - White Diamond + 2 Hearts

A lot of Kylie Minogue news these days. First, the new CD is on its way, and the single is already out. It's a massive surprise hit. Why surprise? Because everyone expected Ms Minogue to be back with an electro poppy catchy tune like she often does with so much gusto but instead, here she is, presenting a rather glam-punky attitude! This little jewel written and composed by UK sensation Kish Mauve is called "2 Hearts", it's the new Kylie sound and it's just brilliant!



Another good news, is the upcoming release of a double DVD featuring the "Showgirl Homecoming Tour", the second part of the tour she had to put on a hiatus because she retired to fight breast cancer. This revamped version of the already highly successfully acclaimed show is even better! The Scissor Sister song "White Diamond" was added to the line up and it kicks ass...



This DVD also presents us with a unique onlook on Kylie's privacy during this tough period. It's called "White Diamond" too and here is the preview.

Pushing Daisies

Take the graphic universe with satured colors of "Big Fish", mix with a bunch of very bright characters that could come a Caro & Jeunet movie, add a camp visual humor à la "Ugly Betty" and finally add a pinch of poetic-metaphysic-surreal elements like in "Dead Like Me" without forgetting some murder-solving mystery material like there was in "Desperate Housewives" season one... Pushing Daisies, the latest ABC dramedy -- drama-comedy -- that debuted this 2007 fall is ready!


In the Barry Sonnenfeld directed pilot, Ned discovers during his childhood that he is gifted with a very special talent: with one touch, he can bring back to life dead things and beings. If he touches them again, though, they die for ever. Another bad consequence is that a minute after bringing back someone to life, someone else in the vicinity has to die... In a nutshell, Ned has a troubled time growing up but finds his place in a pie making restaurant, The Pie Hole. He launches a business with a private investigator, they win the police rewards when solving murders - by asking the deceased how they were killed. One day, Ned's childhood neightbor - and also, incidently, his first kiss - is found dead, he decides to bring her to life for good, accepting the condition to never touch her!


Lee Pace is a very sexy version of French communist politician Olivier Besancenot, he is very convincing in the first role. Kristin Chenoweth, the Broadway sweetheart that everyone loved in Galinda's role in fabulous Wicked, is secretly in love with the main character and she's just irresistible.


Thanks to the success the show met after airing, "Pushing Daisies" was signed for a whole season. I hope the producers will know when's the right time to stop before the show gets old, like too many other shows have done lately...

Boutiquimmo

Boutiquimmo is the website I'm working for right now. The site should be launched next week, here's an exclusive preview ;)

In the meantime, why don't you join the mailing list, it's free and easy and it will just
give me a very appreciated extra hand.

PS: Anaïs's got a blog too!

Madonna 25th anniversary

A 25 year carreer for Madonna doesn't go unnoticed! They said a CD-DVD boxset would be released for the occasion, what's up with that today? Anyway, here's a megamix found online. It's not just another megamix, this one is really interesting, featuring amazing clips of videos or concerts and mixing songs in an interesting way, not just a collection of extracts...



I'm waiting with a certain undisclosed apprehension that the new CD is out, but the date of release keeps being postponed.

Tiji

I was instantly seduced by the message and the images of this new advertising campaign for the French network that aims at kids, Tiji. "Aiming" is an interesting word that I use to underline the fact that I am very sensible at how companies attack (the word isn't too strong here either) to the younger targets. This campaign was designed by DDB et sets the child in the center of the message without really addressing him directly. The style of the drawings are appealing to youngsters though, but doesn't aggress them in any way to sell them an unhealthy product (sweets) or to promote a poor mass culture (tv or toys) like lots of other billboards that I personnally find offensive do.

Opening

Here's yet another blog. I will try to update it frequently. There's no particular theme or particular reason behind this except maybe the fact that MySpace's blogs aren't really user friendly. We'll see if BlogSpot will enable me to get more visitors.
Catch you later!