music – Movies and Manicures

How much are you freaking out over Florence + The Machine’s new album? I pre-ordered my copy months ago, and I am now the proud owner of a hard copy CD and a printed booklet of beautiful and ethereal shots of the woman herself, Florence Welch.

Her latest album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, is named after the third track, which she wrote for “someone [she cares] about.” She encourages all of us to share it with the people we care about, and I’m not one to disappoint a musical goddess, so of course I had to provide the link:

Honestly, I think it’s a masterpiece. In honor of this album, I of course had to do an appropriate manicure. My nails have been taking on either a very bright or a very dark tone as of late, so it was fun to use the white to lighten them up a bit. And, as always, making them blue makes me happy and fits in perfectly with the theme of the album.

I promise, I’ll take a blue hiatus for a couple of weeks, seeing as I’ve posted so many blue manicures lately (it’s my favorite color!). At least comfort yourselves with the thought that I used a white this time. And it was blacklight reactive, for reasons I’ll go into later.

The hangnail was unfortitunate…and painful.

The colors are mostly repeats that I’ve used in other manicures: Essie’s Bikini So Teeny and China Glaze’s DJ Blue My Mind. The new blacklight-reactive twist is Julep Dana, which has blue shimmery undertones if you hold it in just the right light. How blue, how beautiful indeed!

But…why the album nails? Well, one of the things that kept me very busy this week was my trip to…SEE FLORENCE IN CONCERT!

My friend Helena and I were able to get pre-sale tickets (which were my main reasons for buying the actual CD instead of downloading HBHBHB) and wound up sitting five rows away from the stage. I swear, Florence and I made eye contact at one point. It was amazing.

I’ll be out of town this weekend, but many new movies and manicures will be headed your way. While I’m gone, I’ll leave you with some cool concert shots I got when I wasn’t too busy rocking out and singing along.

Stay beautiful,

Mary

There’s something different in the air tonight: I’m featuring two friends instead of one!

Everyone, meet Kelsey and Liz. They’re some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and The Roommate and I are currently in talks to move in with them at the end of the summer (because I don’t know about you, but DC area rent is far less stressful when it’s split four ways instead of two).

Kelsey and Liz do something that I had honestly never heard of when I met them. I’d heard of karaoke, of course, and I’ve participated in it a few times at bars that fall everywhere on a scale of “dive” to “whoa, are we even allowed in here?”, but man, they take karaoke to the next level.

I present to you: District Karaoke.

That’s right, there are teams that compete all around the DC area in various match-ups, with both solo and group numbers. Points are awarded for creativity, and these girls get these points in spades. Here’s Kelsey and a few of her group members performing the final number from School of Rock on the 2000s themed night.

district karaoke 1 — The Boyfriend is in this picture too, but it wouldn’t be fair to do a post about him. Just accept that he’s pretty cool.

As you can see, costumes and props are encouraged. One time, Kelsey sang “Say Something I’m Giving Up on You” (I don’t know the actual name of the song, but I think it’s by Christina Aguilera?) as Tom Hanks’s character in Cast Away at the moment he lost Wilson to the sea (I’ll give you a moment to sob). And here’ Liz in a solo competition, singing Avril Lavigne’s “Complicated” to a box of Ikea furniture.

So basically, Kelsey and Liz have discovered the absolute COOLEST way to get out and have some fun at a bar on a Tuesday night. Seriously, I’m not even a huge fan of the bar scene and I can’t wait to hear what they’re coming up with next. I’m hoping it has to do with Harry Potter, because that’s actually something that I talk about with them on a semi-regular basis.

Talk to you soon,

Mary

Tag: music

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

My Friends Do Cool Stuff: Volume IV