Our Man, Leonard Cohen

Haven't you heard of Leonard Cohen? Haven't you listened to his songs? Then all your musical experience equals with nothing. Because Leonard is indeed an experience. His voice scratches its way through to your core. Literally. The hoarsing sound of his voice moves you deep down to your soul after 10 seconds. Few can express the tortures and the longings of the human being in a more beautiful way than him. You can't be the same after listening "I'm Your Man" (which is one of the most beautiful and excruciating love declarations ever made) or "Dance Me to the End of Love" or "Suzanne".
At his 71 years, with his unmistakable black hat, I would dare to say that he looks even more attractive than he did in his youth. This summer, Leonard concerted in Bucharest for the second time. I regret missing that. Even more, after I found out that he would like to retire. On one hand, due to his shaky health, that made him faint during a concert in Barcelona, and on the other hand due to the fact that he is huge debt. Hearing that was one of the saddest things I have ever heard. But he can't do that.Because being Leonard is an irreplaceable phenomenon that can't disappear like that. It would leave a hole way too big to fill up.
If you listen carefully to his songs, you will realize that Leonard Cohen is a singing poet. He published his new book of poems called "The Book of Longing". Even though I don't think we will find it in Romania, I recommend anyone who has the chance to have it in his/her hands to never let it go.
Another thing: a beautiful documentary about Leonard Cohen: "I'm Your Man".
Here are two of the songs I mentioned before:




"My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10 000 nights I spent alone."

"The Voice" is back!

I was so happy to find out that one of the voices of my childhood is really back. And I'm talking of course about one of the greatest comebacks in musical history: Whitney Houston. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is as good as ever in her new album and her two new videos: "I Look To You" and "Million Dollar Bill". The album " I Look To You" landed on Billboard's #1 spot right on its day of launching: 31st August and everyone is thrilled to find out that her voice hasn't changed at all and that she looks as well as in her twenties.
Whitney's downfall began shortly after marrying the former rapper Bobby Brown, a real trouble-maker. Soon enough the rumors about Bobby beating her and convincing her to take drugs started. Even if Whitney denied at first all the accusations, it was easy to see that she wasn't the same: the good girl began to look thinner and thinner and she even canceled some of her concerts because her voice was damaged.
Gladly, she eventually divorced Bobby Brown in 2007, gaining full custody of her daughter and did some rehab sessions. She now seems to be back in shape and hopefully she will stay this way for a long time.
The new album has her same well-known style: sometimes powerful, inspired from gospel songs, with a strong voice,and sometimes playful and joyful.



"I Look To You" is obviously biographical. A very strong and powerful song, probably about her faith in God.



"Million Dollar Bill" is a danceable song, really catchy, more modern, but its still written 'Whitney Houston" all over it.

Why Do I Read Esquire?

- because it's written by men for men
- because it's written by women for men
- because talk about women in a way that any of us would like to be talk about
- because it teaches men to be exactly like we want them to: smart, well-dressed, polite, funny, sexy, well-informed, with a little devilish side
- because its articles are way better than the ones in women's magazines and you actually learn something from them
- because the articles aren't about "Barbie For One Day In Bucuresti"(?!?)
- because its pictorials with beautiful women have a lot of written space
- because it has less ads
- because has articles like "Women We Love" and "10 Things You Don't Know About Women"(written in a funny and witty way by actresses, singers, models and so on)
- because it's ironic, funny, captivating

La Mome Piaf (The Little Sparrow)

You can say you know nothing about music if you haven't heard of Edith Piaf. She is considered France's greatest popular singer and her chansonettes are regarded as emblematic for the French lifestyle. Her nickname - La Mome Piaf - refers to her height (she was only 1.42m tall) and her unmistakable voice. It was said that her songs were Paris itself. In her melodies, Edith's voice is sometimes as high as the Eiffel Tower and sometimes as low as the outskirts and brothels in which she grew up. She sings about love, happiness, melancholy, sadness, prostitutes' life... there's something for everyone in her songs. She once said: "I want to make people cry even when they don't understand my words." And she made it. She sang in the USA and she was successful even if no one understood one word. Later she translated some of the songs in English, but they don't sound the same. Another thing she was famous for were her beautiful hands with very long fingernails. Even if she wasn't a very pretty woman, she had impressive blue-violet eyes.
"Non, Je ne Regrette Rien"

"La Vie En Rose"

I must confess that I grew fond of Edith Piaf and her songs since I saw, about a year ago, the movie about her called ironically " La Vie En Rose". I said "ironically" because her life was anything but pink. Then again, she had such moments of extreme happiness that some of us only dream of. The movie is "brutally candid" as stated on IMDb and Marion Cotillard does a wonderful job playing Edith, for which she truly deserved an Oscar. I had heard of her and I had listened to her songs before seeing the movie, but I became more interested in her life after that.

And one more thing: if you love Marion as i have loved her in this movie, you will be delighted to hear that now she is the icon for Dior's new campaign and she is starring in their new commercial called "The Lady Noire Affair" inspired by Hitchcock's black-and-white movies.
P.s.: Look out for her astonishing sandals :D

Miss Keri, baby!

Well, most of you know Keri Hilson since her video with Timbaland, "The Way I Are". That was when the flashing lights shone on her for the first time. But the lady didn't stop there. She collaborated with many of the well-known hip-hop and r&b artists: from Nicole of Pussycat Dolls to Lil' Wayne no one could say "No" to this girl!
She has now her own album, "In A Perfect World..." that features Ne-Yo, Kanye West, timbaland, Lil' Wayne and so on. It is a combination of love-making melodies with a bunch of really catchy and full of rhythm clubbing songs.
Her latest duo includes R. Kelly in the video "Number 1 (Sex)". Well...I don't have to tell you what it is about, I assume you have already figured it out ;))

Her latest video single from her album is called "Slow Dance" and it is one of her sexiest videos, with the black lingerie and all that :D And also she gathered around big names like Chris Brown, Omarion and Brandy just to play small parts in this video. She ain't playin' right here!


I personally like both of them as I like all her previous works. One more tip: Sean Paul called on Keri for a new song "Hold My Hand". You can listen this happy and shiny reggae song right here:


"Y'all know perfection takes time!" as Keri says in "Slow Dance" :D

Dido

Since I have come back from my holiday in Croatia the song that have often in mind is Dido - Sand In My Shoes.

Dido - Sand In My Shoes
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The song is beautifully-sad, softly-heart-breaking and Dido's melancholic voice makes it even more charming. It's about the feeling we all have when we come back from the sunny seaside to the dirty, loud and crowded city and wonder: "How did I survive here so far?"
Since we're here I will post another two videos that I also love:

Dido - Don't Leave Home
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Dido - Life For Rent
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If you liked these, you must know that Dido has a new album entitled "Safe Trip Home".

"Dido started working on her third album in October 2005 in Los Angeles. The album has been produced by Jon Brion and herself. Collaborators include Brian Eno, Questlove, Mick Fleetwood, Rollo Armstrong and Matt Chamberlain. Recording sessions were held at London's Abbey Road and at Jon Brion's home studio in Los Angeles.

Dido's official website has been relaunched to coincide with the release of the album. The release of the album has been postponed several times, though no official reason has been given for this. The first single from the album, "Don't Believe in Love" leaked to the Internet on 5 September 2008 and was made available digitally on 27 October, 2008. The full album was leaked to the internet on the 1st November, 2008, some 16 days before its official launch date. On 13 November 2008, the full album was available for a world premier listening at iLike.

On 22 August 2008, Dido's official website confirmed that the album was to be entitled Safe Trip Home, with the official release date of 17 November 2008. A free song from the album, "Look No Further" was available to download from the site for a limited time. Other songs to be included in the album are: "It Comes And It Goes", "The Day Before the Day", "Never Want To Say It's Love" and "Grafton Street". The latter was composed in collaboration with Brian Eno. The album cover features a photograph of astronaut Bruce McCandless II during a spacewalk, as part of space shuttle mission STS-41-B.
“ I recorded my vocals next to the hoover in Jon’s broom cupboard. It was so small, there wasn’t even room for a guitar: I got quite addicted to singing in there. ”

—Dido, Interview in Q magazine.

In December 2008, Dido's song "Let’s Do The Things We Normally Do," was criticised by Gregory Campbell, MP for East Londonderry and Minister for Sports, Arts and Leisure for Northern Ireland, for referencing lyrics from a song, "The Men Behind the Wire” which was written in the aftermath of the introduction of detention without trial for persons accused of being members of paramilitary groups. Campbell described "The Men Behind the Wire” as, "written about people who were murderers, arsonists and terrorists". Campbell suggests that "she (Dido) should clarify her position so that her fans and the wider public knows where she stands on these things." The song has been rumoured to be inspired by the death of her father, William O’Malley Armstrong. The album failed to be promoted as her previous efforts." says Wikipedia.

Miss Coppola

I think it's time to talk about my latest obsession: Miss Dior Cherie: The fragrance, the commercial, the song ( Brigitte Bardot "Moi Je Joue").

It's smell is witty, playful and sweet, just like the cute and pinkish commercial directed by Sofia Coppola, the daughter of the great Francis Ford Coppola(who, by the way, is interviewed in the September's issue of Esquire along with Johnny Raducanu and Marcel Iures, so make sure you don't miss that out :D)
What more can I say about Miss Coppola? She has her own style of directing and you can recognize her works because of their freshness, positivity and fashion inspired atmosphere. Another of her works of art is, in my opinion the movie Marie Antoinette. The critics said that the portrayal of the Queen of France was shallow and without real historical references. But I must disagree. Coppola's Marie Antoinette is smart, mature, fragile and full of life. The evasive way of dealing with the historical facts, like the French Revolution, does nothing but increase the film's mystery and fascination. Kirsten Dunst is perfect in portraying the Queen as a scared child to whom is given great power too early. Her exaggerations in fashion and parties make up for the indifference with which is treated by her husband. The best part is the fact that the soundtrack includes pop-rock songs underlining the idea of "Marie Antoinette-The Rock-Star" :D. The costumes are colorful, deserving the Oscar the movie received.
All in all "Marie Antoinette" is a must see for all fashionistas and not only.
Let them eat cake!

Leighton Meester

As we were talking about "Gossip Girl" yesterday, it came across my mind the fact that recently Leighton Meester, the actress playing Blair Waldorf has also started singing. I must confess that the songs sound pretty good. I don't know whether her voice is edited in the studio, the way many people say, but the fact is that they are really catchy. Her first video, featuring Cobra Starship for the song "Good Girls Go Bad" has already started making it's way through the USA tops and you can see in it the influence Blair has had upon her style.

Another interesting song of Leighton's is her modern interpretation of "Bette Davis Eyes from Kim Carnes.

Let's hear what wiki has to say about her:
As Meester has been working on her first album, she confirmed on her official Twitter feed that she already recorded several songs, including "Body Control", "What Is Love", produced by RedOne, "I Feel Love", produced by Clinton Sparks, and at least one song written by Meester, Shahine Ezell and Cathy Dennis. Also a cover from Kim Carnes "Bette Davis Eyes" was released via Perez Hilton. She is reportedly working also with Polow da Don, J.R. Rotem and Kara DioGuardi.

Go Queen B!

The Pierces

These sassy ladies are best known for their soundtrack song "Secret" from the TV show "Gossip Girl". It' a combination of playful yet pretty creepy rhythm. Their songs have become one of my guilty pleasures lately ;;)
"But what you may not know is that these two sisters in harmony are totally good at mixing the avant with the pop, the populist with the highbrow, the trashy with the chic. Serious business is what these girls are slinging. Songs filled with lust and love, secrets and lies, sex and deviance.Also, it doesn't hurt they're totally hot!" says the music, art, news, mp3, and nightlife photography web site www.thecultureofme.com
If i have caught your interest, you can also try listening their older songs: "Turn on Billie", "Boring", "Kill! Kill! Kill!", "Ruin", "Sticks and Stones", "Three Wishes". I can assure you you won't be disappointed.

Overture

The first unasked question I feel I must answer is "Why have I decided to write in a blog?" Well, the fact is that almost everyone nowadays has one, but to be honest, this is not the reason for my choice. The truth is that a pretty...let's not say boring, but rather "unoccupied" evening made me think about this.
Almost every day I find a song or video, old or new, that pretty much sums up my feelings for that moment or is simply too catchy to get it off my head. So I thought about posting these songs somewhere, so that I could keep an evidence of them and maybe even make other people interested in the music i listen to. I will also post additional trivia to the song to make it more interesting.
Now that I think about it, I may also post on movies, books, pictures or articles that caught my eye.
Finally, I must confess that I haven't started a blog in order to have many visitors. For me, it's a fun way to spend a couple of minutes every other day.
These being said, my name is Cristina, let us begin!