BBBBRIXTON BRIEFCASE

Today on the 31st of January was the official release date of the new Chase & Status record and gahhhhhd downloading it HAD to be the very first thing I did this morning when I woke up, computer ON, internet CONNECTED, i tunes UP - dun. The album 'No More Idols' has been ridiculously long awaited, they teased us from absolutely ages with their release of Heavy (feat. Dizzee Rascal), Hypest Hype (feat. Tempa T) and Blind Faith within 2010. But they kept us waiting until the new year for the full 15 tracks to be released. The album is far more clean cut and polished than 'More Than A lot', they have got rid of their rough around the edges look but the whole thing is still pretty heavy. They've taken more risks adding a soulful side to 'Midnight Caller' featuring Clare Maguire, however despite this soulful, toned down image their future gigs are hardly going to lack the fun and the crazy promoting the new one, which they totally managed to portray the past couple of times I was lucky enough to catch 'em live with the promo for 'More Than A Lot'.
The biggest treat in my eyes is that they managed to nab White Lies onto their record, but that's simply my biased opinion because I have always been head over heels for White Lies - I'm sure those of you who are obsessed with Tinie Tempah will find 'Hitz' as yer biggest treat within the tracklistings.
Personally, 'Embrace' (feat. White lies), 'Flashing Lights' (feat. Sub Focus) and 'Fool Yourself' (feat. Plan B - so many points for putting Plan B back onto their tracks, that man can do no wrong) are so far my winning favourites. I urge you to downloaddownloaddownload all 15 tracks and decide YOUR ultimate faves.

The Romantics

I'm an absolute sucker for romantic wear when it comes to talking trends, I have this piece of information buried somewhere else within this blog I'm sure of it, but the passion is strong people. Chiffon, silk, satin - I crave it. You can never fail to look anything other than elegant, sexy but sweet and the effort of the outfit is clearly shown, the trend allows dressing up in the daytime acceptable. I like to make an effort with what I wear, yes I will turn up to my lectures in a maxi dress, but when you're wearing the pretty, cutesy romantical clothing it makes you feel good about yourself. I tend to wear a dress when I'm hungover because it doesn't make me feel so terrible rather than lounging around in my sweats or pjs all day (although, don't get me wrong, I'm totally guilty and game for a pj day where you sack off plans to play on The Sims or have a Gossip Girl marathon).

The designer See by Chloe (a personal fave of mine) have some very romantical pieces in their s/s 2011 collection, I've completely fallen head over heels in love. I've picked out the ones that i want, need and must have:

Awards Season, Darling.

I always get all silly and over excited over this time of year, award shows grab and fascinate me - ridiculous amounts of entertainment. I love to research the hotly tipped and nominated for the shortlist of each award and view 'em to see what all the fuss is about.

So, a bezzie of mine wisely illegally downloaded an amazing copy of the tipped for the Oscars ballet thriller Black Swan and this week my housemates and I had a bit of a girls night in to watch it - 'mazin. I have to admit I was ridiculously hyped up for the film, due to all the awards buzz that has completely surrounded the movies release my expectations were built HIGH. Expectations were met - Natalie Portman deserves the Oscar as does absolute fitcake Mila Kunis (yunno the brunette from Forgetting Sarah Marshall that every girl wanted to be and every guy wanted to be on?) who was as good if not better than Portman.
With every film along with the praise comes the criticism, It's a shame the films been shammed so much for the poor portrayal of ballerinas, is it not clear that Portman's character isn't representing every single ballerina out there, she's simply portraying a schizophrenic who's symptoms are triggered by her hobby/job/life? The ballet doesn't conjure the schizophrenia, yes Portman's character falls far into deep with the role she plays within Swan Lake and therefore this triggers the schizophrenia, but some critics have simply said that the films basically portraying all ballerinas as schizophrenics with eating disorders, when it's in fact the characters issues in her mind placing themselves to something in her life so they are triggered, the problems were always there, they were just waiting for the character to be placed in a convenient situation in her life (her taking on the role of the swan princess) for the problems to start showing themselves and for her to be involved in something that enables them to be triggered.
The film doesn't deserve the criticism it's gathering and I believe the critics are being narrow minded with their perspective of the film (meow!).

Last weekend a trip to the cinema was in order to watch 127 Hours - please, if you have not seen this film, you MUST, I can not encourage you enough, it will not disappoint! I preferred it to Black Swan, which is simply down to the directors and the way each went about their films, I have always favored Danny Boyle (127 Hours) over Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) due to his hugely fabulous films such as The Beach (you all should have seen that by now, right?) so favoring 127 Hours over Black Swan didn't come as a huge shock to me. The filming and screen play of it is completely spot on and totally fast paced and original, the music is absolutely fantastic and no other choice of soundtrack could fit the film any better than it already does, James Franco is AMAZING (no complaints about watching him for 90 or so minutes), the critics spoke total sense with this film when they said that this is by far his best role and performance yet - couldn't agree more. I feel as if I should stay loyal to my country and root for Colin Firth to win the best actor nom for the Oscars, but heck I hope Franco wins first prize! 'Mazin.
p.s. Franco cutting his arm off is gross.

The final film I'll quickly mention which won the Golden Globe for best picture and took away a few more along the way is The Social Network, heaps of encouragement to buy this on DVD, I came out of the cinema in ore. I have no criticism to give, only a piece of advice: you MUST concentrate, very fast moving fast pace film, trust me you don't want to miss a second of it.

If it was up to me, the Oscars would belong to the three masterpieces mentioned above, hands down.

obsessed.com

Crushing so bad on Rihanna. The girl is HOTHOTHOT and too fucking cool right now, I got 'Loud' as a stocking filler and 'Complicated' as an absolute fave,

The godsend company Live Nation have released a bunch of 'Club Experience' tickets for her LOUD tour incl a two hour pre show party and complimentary bar, darling. I want, I need, I must have.

I never thought I'd be in ownership of a Rihanna CD, (also, on the topic of popularmusic i may aswell add...) I'd never thought I'd be a fan of the JLS and Tinie Tempah combi that's gracing the screen of MTV hits right now, never the less, I AM. (whathashappenedtomymusictaste&whendiditgoohsocommercial!??!!?)

♥ ♥ ♥

Brandi Strickland

Injection of COLOUR

Mara Hoffman Crystal Printed ANYTHING please!

If I didn't know any better I'd say these prints were inspired by acid or mgmt videos or sommin'.

Her S/S 2011 'Military gone Native' collection is mesmerizing, I love the vibrant, busy prints,,

She's previewed her S/S collection in her blog and I pretty much want to own 99.9% of the pieces!^&^^$%£!%$£!!

Music like this gets me in the mood for modelling prints like that:



p.s. This website has offered me endless entertainment, their range of jewellery, particularly the 'Pyramid' collection, bodes well with Hoffman's aztec theme, cute!

Oh, Russell!

(yesyes vvv blog happy tonight here I go again,,,)

I have been up each night, when at home, till about 4 in the morning, totally, completely, 100% HOOKED on Russell Brands second helping of his autobiography nonsense. If that man was a song writer he would be a lyrical genius. Heck, he IS a lyrical genius, be it song writer or novelist! I have yet to read around 40 pages of his 'Booky Wook 2' until it comes to an end and it saddens me greatly, coming to an end of a good book is like losing a friend. The book has been full of humor, philosophical reasoning, wittiness, sadness, and at times filled with just damn right stupidity - however all in all absolutely ULTRA FANTASTICAL.
PLEASE read, you will NOT regret,,,

(hahahaha nervous laughter - his fan puts my on edge slightly...)

BBC Sound of 2011

I'm going a little blog hyper tonight, clearly have too much to say (or too much time on my hands?)...

All this week Radio 1 have swapped their night time DJ's and put them in the daytime slots to get the daytime listeners tuning into a bit of a varied style of music and to introduce them to some new sounds, love this. I have adored listening to Mr Nick Grimshaw aka Grimmers during the day playing some of my faves that you wouldn't usually expect to hear on day time radio, e.g. Nero, Funeral Party, Yea Sayer, Chase & Status, Warpaint etc. (full track listings of all DJ's shows this week are indeed on their radio1 website yada yada yada) This week has all ofc been in aid of the 'Sound of 2011' (those of you who are not aware of this topic,,, basically at the beginning of each year, the BBC introduce a number of acts and create a list of the top 15 acts who are bid for greatness within the year to come). This list always excites me stupendous amounts and the top 15 have finally been announced! I have already chosen my faves; James Blake, Jamie Woon, Clare Maguire, Nero and The Naked And Famous. I urge you to go and find out YOURS.

WHERE THE EFF IS ADAM BRODY!?

My bezzie and I watched god awful so bad that It's brill horror flick 'Jennifer's Body' with sex bomb Megan Fox in it tonight and it was a total delight to see the OC's finest Seth Cohen aka Adam Brody starring. I had forgotten how much I adored this man and obvo fell straight back head over heels in love with him as soon as his face appeared on the silver screen. Which begs me to ask the question, where the eff is Adam Brody!? I just imdb'd the fella and apparently he's in post production for Scream 4 - like that will be a success? The guys actually pretty ultra talented, he was fabulous in the OC, vvv charismatic, no? I miss him, his character got me into DCFC for crying out loud, and I therefore felt obliged to dedicate a post to the hotdog. Channel four should at least consider airing re runs of the OC, no? Replace Friends with the show on E4 when that eventually gets taken off air? I may pursue and suggest the idea to the main bloke at Channel Four, or at least see what Adam's getting up to on perezhilton.com... (omgzomgzstalker.com)

Home Sweet Home?

I've been back home for two weeks and three days now, away from the house in Cheltenham that I share with five other fellow University students, for the Christmas holidays, and despite having another week and a half here at home - I am very ready to head back, so ready in fact, that I am yet to UNPACK from Cheltenham, because I know that I won't be sticking around here for too long. I have adored the novelty of being at home - home cooked dinners, someone to wash your dirty laundry, my original bedroom, needless forget the excessive amounts of Christmas decorations - however I think there comes a point, when you hit a wall and you once again crave that freedom and independence that you gain as soon as you walk into your very first home alone, aka the one without the rents. As soon as you have a taste of this independence your original home somewhat changes, you begin to realize and acknowledge certain characteristics that you were unaware of before - the control, the nagging, the complaints - everything that makes a family what it is, typical family values. It saddens me somewhat because what was completely 100% your home before isn't necessarily what it is now. I crave freedom and I have always considered myself somewhat rather independent, but freedom and the crowded house doesn't make a perfect fit. On a positive note this brings new ideas into my life, what can be done during the Easter and Summer holidays to avoid this crowded house; travel, festivals, work experience.

I'll leave you with a quote from my ALLTIMEFAVE film, Garden State, Zach Braff knows what I'm talkin' bout YUS:

"You know that point in your life when you realize the house you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone. You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that's all family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place."

Now it's 2011, It's perfectly acceptable to get excited for the spring time, right?

I am aware It's only the 02.01.2011, I am AWARE it is FREEZING cold still (no complaints, I'm still holding onto the dream of owning the 'Best of British - Wax Sheepskin Short Coat' for as long as England is holding onto this cold, cold temperature), yet I cannot help but already be over excited for SPRING! Spring is by far my favourite season, and due to England's famously messed up climate, March, April and May always end up warmer than summer itself, ergo the season of spring is ridic appealing. Besides, Topshop's website have just released the preview of the spring/summer collection and have recently added some cute cute spring time pieces to their 'new in' range (Cream Butterfly Print Flute Sleeve Blouse you WILL be mine).

Here are my faves:






...I have been living in black for far too long, here's to injecting some COLOUR into my life!

Artists and their videos can always inspire a season. I've literally had this track on repeat whilst creating this specific post, the mood of the song, outfits, and video setting itself has got me mad excited for spring, here's to pub gardens, pimms (eep, is it too soon to mention pimms when a Christmas tree is still standing in my living room?) and rosy prints.

Begin As You Wish To Go On...

Happy New Year my darlings!

An essay reporting NYE antics will surely arrive on here asnap, however for now, it is currently 2.28am (ah, insomnia) on the 2nd of January 2011 and I am still mildly suffering from the 31st of December 2010 and I am therefore in no fit position to ramble on just yet. Therefore, in the mean time, i leave you with three songs that were featured in Jo Whiley's personal top 40 hits of 2010 broadcasted on her radio 1 show. I briefly caught a sachet of the show whilst tuning into the radio to accompany my coffee making, and these three gems were infact played in a row, the first two tracks I was only just being introduced to through this broadcast and the last I had previously heard yet attention was previously lacked with such a masterpiece, ah, better late than never, no? The full show is obviously available on her Radio 1 page and minus a few tracks (aka no. 10), her list is rather marvelous - hot job Whiley.

Enjoy!







p.s. - another I forgot to share, I adore this, It's beautiful,,,