My new musical obsessions

I don't have much to report this week. Life is moving at a fast clip these days, work is busy as Drew and I dive into our 2010 agenda at ProZ.com. We do have some exciting trips and visitors coming up - but I'll save that information for after each trip/visit.

So I thought I would share some of my new musical obsessions. I love music. Can't get enough of it and I am always in search of new music to add to my various playlists. I like all types of music, but I do trend towards soul music - I like something with a good melody and I particularly appreciate a golden voice.

Most of my obsessions I find on the web (natch) via a few music blogs that I read on a regular basis:

• http://prettymuchamazing.com/
• http://audiomuffin.com/
• http://soulbounce.com/soul/
• http://xolondon.blogspot.com/
• http://soul-sides.com/
• http://www.billboard.com/#/column/underground
• I also always check out the "breaking and entering" section of billboard.com

Here are some recent finds that I'm totally into right now along with what I hope is a decent description of their music or at least why I like them. I also include links to my favorite songs by each artist so you can have a listen for yourself.

• Laura Izibor - Album: Let the Truth Be Told - A great soul singer from Ireland.  The entire album is chock full of uplifting songs that make you smile.  Pick song: From My Heart to Yours

• Pixie Lott - Album: Turn It Up - British beauty who I find to be a cross between Britney Spears and Adele.  I know strange combo, but on this 17 year old it totally works.  Pick songs: Mama Do & Cry Me Out

• Paloma Faith - Album: Do You Want The Truth or Something Beautiful - Wow, I don't even think I can do justice to this album.  I'm not sure it's available in the US, but living abroad has it's benefits.  EVERY song on this album is perfectly written, arranged and of course performed by Paloma.  She is also British (hmmm, seems I have a trend going here) and her sound is like a modern Etta James.  As I mentioned every song is beautiful, but if I HAVE  give a "Pick song": the Title Track will suffice.

• Mayer Hawthorne - Album: A Strange Arrangement - so this dude is from Detroit (yea a Yankee!) and I don't know what they put in the water up there, but he came out sounding like a Smokey Robinson meets Justin Timberlake.  I've only just gotten his album and it is on HEAVY rotation on my iPod, pure blue eyed soul.  Pick songs: Just Ain't Gonna Work Out and Green Eyed Love

• Melanie Fiona - Album: The Bridge - an R&B upstart, Melanie is a great singer whose album takes really old school samples (like The Zombies's "Time of the Season & Venus by Frankie Avalon old school) and pairs them with hard hitting back beats and her killer voice and lyrics.  I wouldn't really compare her to anyone, because this album is something NEW for R&B/Hip-Hop for sure.  Pick songs: Give It To Me Right & You Stop My Heart
  

• Anjulie - Album: Anjulie - A Canadian in the mix - sweet!  You may have heard this lovely ladies lead single "Boom" - I think it was on just about every TV show in the fall from Eastwick to The Vampire Diaries.  This is another tough artist/album to peg into a hole, some songs are beat driven multi-layered songs reminiscent of M.I.A others are soft and breezy more like Duffy.  Anyway, I love it all.  Pick songs: Boom and Love Songs

So there you have it - some of my favorite music.  This was fun, I might do it again in a few months.

I would LOVE to hear your feedback.  Happy Listening!

PB&J's Argentine Style

I mentioned a while back that one of the things we really miss about the US is various foods that we can't get here. Some things are just stuff we like a lot like smoked gouda... but other are very simple like pancakes and peanut butter.

Well - Tia & Carl visited us for the holidays and brought with them the most wonderful of gifts - a huge jar each of Skippy peanut butter (smooth of course) and Welch's Grape Jelly (yummy).

So there isn't exactly Wonder bread here in La Plata... but even better they have pan de miga. This is huge slices of crustless white bread used to make sandwiches de miga an Argentine staple. So I went to our local sandwich de miga place and got three large slices of pan de miga to get started.

You can see here how big the slices are... and I get to work...

First the peanut butter then the jelly. Yummy stuff - Drew is taking all these photo, waiting for his sandwiches ...

Now it's time to assemble the awesomeness...

And now for the results!!

Mmm mmm GOOD!!! - Thanks again Tia & Carl - you are the best!

2009 Year in Review

What a wonderful year this has been! Plenty of exciting things the largest being our move to Argentina.

My new year's resolution is to get back to blogging on a regular basis - so look out for more info from us down here in Argentina as we head into the last part of our 1st year living abroad.

To give you a perspective of our good times during 2009, I put together a short movie.

Traveling with just the two of us presents the unique problem of taking photos of the both of us together. Luckily Drew has long arms that go with his 6'3'' height and is able to use those arms to take some pretty good self portraits.

Here is a video of our 2009 self-portraits.
It was quite a year - ENJOY!

The song used is off the GLEE Vol 2 soundtrack.
Easily my favorite new show of 2009.

Happy New Year!