It's Lexi, Bitch!

September 30th and October 1st changed my life forever…..as I finally got to see my queen bee, Ms. Kylie Minogue, perform live! What’s that? Her first North American shows EVER?!?!!?! Yes, that’s correct, and I was there for both of them!! “LIFE-ALTERING” DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE THE MAGNITUDE OF THE EXPERIENCE CELLA AND I HAD.

To channel our nervous and excited energy in the days leading up to the shows, we did what anyone would do. We made shirts and headbands to celebrate our Kylie.

“Understaaaaand, I’m a diamond for yoooooou, a white diamond for yoooooou” inspired us, naturally!

SO EXCITED I CAN’T EVEN DESCRIBE.

Upon rounding the corner and seeing the marquee, our screaming began and did not end for HOURS.

We planted ourselves on the first tier so we were at an even level with our girl, and then it began…….she descended from the ceiling on a giant crystal skull singing “Light Years.” We literally screamed bloody murder and both sobbed instantly. The Beatles’ crowd on Ed Sullivan had NOTHING on us. The guys in front of us gave us their spots within 15 seconds.

She brought that shit, and she brought that shit wearing an INCREDIBLE custom wardrobe from Alexander McQueen.

She walked down a man-staircase in stilettos, after her hot dancers took showers together under stage prop showers while videos of nude mens showering together were projected behind them. I keep re-reading that sentence and it doesn’t make sense. Sorry, just remembering it has made all the blood in my brain evacuate and rush to my nethers. Yes, this is why she is the queen bee.

This is the only point during which I didn’t scream, and that is simply because I was bawling as she sang “White Diamond” while acting out a tormented and sad love story with one of her male dancers, followed by “Confide In Me” and “I Believe In You.” This is why we wore waterproof mascara.

Fabulous Gareth Pugh headpiece, fierce-as-fuck Louboutin boots, welder mens dancing, and enchanting smile. IT’S JUST TOO MUCH TO HANDLE, IT REALLY IS.

The next night we did it all again in formal wear….

And our devotion was rewarded with a setlist! I look at this every single day and feel happy, and I listen to “Light Years” every single day and get the roller coaster belly all over again.

My beloved Kylie was charming, hilarious, personable and effortlessly entertaining…..and the cabaret version of “Locomotion” WENT OFF. Until next time, Kyles!

(All photos by Cella, thanks my sweet!)

Oh. My. Fucking. God.

This happened a few months ago, but I’m still processing it and almost still can’t even talk about it.

I bought tickets to see Ms. Kylie Minogue on September 30th and October 1st. Kylie, the queen bee, the leader of the tiny tribe, my muse, hero, idol and, I’m assuming, future best friend once we meet in some adorable comedy of errors the day of her show wherein we keep running into each other in downtown Oakland (buying gummi bears at Walgreens, reaching for the same pair of shoes in a shop, and eating at side-by-side tables at a sushi restaurant, in case you were wondering) until we can’t deny that our friendship is destined and ride off on brother-and-sister Shetland ponies together (because we’re small). I’m so excited for it! What should I wear?

At the same time I am shitting happy bricks about seeing Kylie, I am shitting sad bricks from missing my sister. She’s been out of the country for 8 months and THAT IS JUST NOT HOW WE DO THINGS AROUND HERE. What is life when you can’t smush your sister’s face, make blanket/pillow nests and watch “Troop Beverly Hills” together for the millionth time whilst quoting it and each playing different characters, dance to Prince together and then fight with each other about something ridiculous anytime you want to? So I’ve been writing an essay on being a sister and I just sit there and write and cry like Claire Danes in ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ which is to say, loudly, unattractively, and blotchily (I still love you, Claire).

In the middle of the Kylie and the blotchy, I found pictures of Kylie and Dannii Minogue together that totally exemplify sisterhood. They are so bew I could just fart.

Other than that, oh I just have so many things on my plate right now, you guys. I’m organizing an ice cream social for work tomorrow so we can go into the weekend in a blaze of fatty dairy. I’m making felty beards*. I’m working on a secret project. And I’m practicing the theremin quite intensely for my upcoming solo performance entitled: “This Is The Only Way To Outdo The Date Rapist Downstairs.**”

*I found this shop on Etsy and my friend Erin and I are going to try to make our own because $40 is preposterous for a felty beard. Erin was a child prodigy and she can cut things out of paper without drawing them first and they come out perfectly. It’s totally creepy, fascinating, inspiring and amazing. Today she made me a mustache. Check out this motherfucker!

**He plays utter shit at all hours on repeat, so loudly that shit falls off my walls. My favorite is when he starts at midnight, IT’S REALLY A DELIGHT. Passive-aggressive notes in disguised handwriting seem to make no difference at all, either! Isn’t that standard neighbor etiquette?! COME ON.

Dear Ms. Loretta Lynn,

Happy birthday! You are the queen bee and I love you. Our birthdays are 10 days apart (err, and a few years). Today I booked a trip to Nashville, which is the best way I can think to honor you.

Maybe we could have tea and crumpets while I’m there! Can you teach me how to write songs, sing and make my hair as big as yours? You are the queen of all this and more. Here’s to 74 more years!

Love,
It’s Lexi, Ma’am! (I wouldn’t dare to swear around you.)

(I am NOT cheating on Kylie, she’s the Australian Queen.)

A Loretta classic:

The first time I heard this song, my eyes popped out of my head. Not unlike Wile E. Coyote when Bugs Bunny dresses in drag!

The NYT Magazine Style Section relied on the old standby of dressing up musicians in designer wear for a fashion spread this week. They did a great job, though, by casting some amazing and unique musicians instead of awful, awful, heartbreakingly ridiculous groups like Panic at the Disco (or Panic at the Dickhole, as some might say…). They focused on some pretty fantastic women, most importantly!

Kazu Makino, the extremely brilliant singer, songwriter and guitarist of Blonde Redhead.

I’ve been fortunate enough to get to spend some time with Kazu a bit over the last few years and see Blonde Redhead many, many times, and I just adore her. She’s such an incredible lyricist, talented musician, and independent spirit. You see her playing fetch with her dog after a show and it blows your mind that someone who’s doing this totally human activity was just singing couplets and melodies that cripple you and bring you to tears. Kazu’s strength and personality are exemplified in the fact that she was nearly killed by a horse trampling her several years ago (she had her jaw restructured and had to re-learn how to sing), yet she still seeks out places to ride horses every day while on tour.

Natasha Khan a.k.a. Bat for Lashes.

Oh my goodness, Natasha. She goes by Bat for Lashes when she’s in musician mode, while the rest of her band are hired players. My friend Jay introduced me to Bat for Lashes’ music about a year ago and I was instantly mesmerized by the spooky, echoey “What’s a Girl to Do?” Her first album, Fur and Gold, ended up being one of my favorites of last year, and I only fell in love further when I saw videos and pictures of her. She looks like a wee forest mouse or sprite, she adorns herself with feathers and bright blue streaks across her eyes, and poses with taxidermied bears in press shots.

The revolutionary Iranian artist Shirin Neshat.

Shirin is an incredibly poignant photographer and video artist. Her subject matter is almost entirely Islamic culture and women’s roles in Islamic societies. She takes truly touching photographs and makes haunting video installations that bring forth important examinations of women’s lives. How much does she look like fellow goddess PJ Harvey in this picture?

Check out all the shots from The Fusionistas spread here.

Fellow shorties of the United States, get ready for our queen bee’s arrival next week! The original Five Feet of Fabulous, Kylie Minogue, is releasing her latest album X here next Tuesday, April 1st.

Stream the new album on her MySpace page and then pre-order it here on Amazon. “2 Hearts” was the first single outside of the U.S. and is so much fun, and “Wow” is the best thing that’s happened to dance music since Kylie’s last album, and “Speakerphone” is SO AWESOME.

Her schedule is packed with appearances and I can think of no better way to spend my birthday week than by seeing my muse on American TV for a whole week!

Here’s the schedule:
Monday, March 31st:
-Interview with Matt Lauer on the Today Show

Tuesday, April 1st – RELEASE DAY!
-If you didn’t pre-order X here on Amazon, download the album on iTunes or get to the record store when it opens to buy it!
-Kylie performs her new single “All I see” on Dancing With the Stars.

Thursday, April 3rd
-Kylie will be interviewed and perform on the Ellen DeGeneres show. Just the thought of her coming out and dancing with Ellen MAKES ME SO EXCITED I CAN’T STAND IT!! She’s going to be too wee to walk over the table like Ellen does! It’s going to be SO CUTE!

I’m so excited Kylie’s going to be back in the States and I really hope her album does well and she comes back to tour. She’s been through so much in the last couple of years, she has worked her tiny and hot rump off for 20 years straight, and she is the tiniest, sweetest person. She is amazing and I support everything she does (which is why I have her t-shirts, perfumes, posters, buttons, dolls, cards, etc. and listen to her every single day). If I won the lottery tomorrow, the first thing I would do is book tickets to follow her on tour in Europe.

Watch her new video for “Wow” here:

and her gorgeous and bouncing performance of “2 Hearts” on “Wetten Dass?” here:

I’m not ashamed of the fact that when I watched that performance in December I cried my eyes out when I saw the fan holding the red sign that says “KYLIE’S BACK.” Kylie IS back, and I am so excited!

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On the recommendation of an old coworker, I rented the film Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey from Netflix over the weekend. It was amazing – I had no idea that the history of the theremin and the story of the man behind it would be just as creepy as the sounds a theremin produces. The electronic, stringless and handless instrument was invented by Léon Theremin, a Russian inventor. He brought the instrument over to New York, where he set up a 4-story brownstone to include his living space on the 4th floor, a dance studio on the 3rd floor (dancing to a theremin, of course), a theremin studio on the 2nd floor, and a theremin workshop on the 1st floor. It was in New York that he met a fellow Russian named Clara Rockmore. They started dating and for her 18th birthday he built a theremin-inspired table to hold her birthday cake…..as she walked closer to it, the table started spinning, and when she walked away from it, it stopped spinning. This bit in the movie is so cute, I can’t even.

Clara Rockmore became a theremin virtuoso. The scenes of her playing it are so beautiful; she has wonderfully old and elegant hands, not to mention killer style. I love her fortune teller-inspired ensemble!

Clara then….

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Clara later….

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Léon Theremin ended up falling in love and marrying the African-American dancer Lavinia Williams. The interracial marriage was very scandalous, but the couple remained together. From here, details get a little sketchy….in the film, it is said that Léon was kidnapped by the KGB from his brownstone in front of his wife, who watched helplessly and hysterically. His Wikipedia page mentions that he left quickly because of tax problems in New York. Whatever it was, he disappeared instantly from his wife and all of his friends. He then spent 12 years in jail in Russia, where the Stalin and the KGB commissioned him to invent what we now call “the bug” to use for spying during the Cold War! This totally blows my mind.

The story goes on from there….he ended up teaching for several years at the Moscow Conservatory of Music until a New York Times reporter recognized him and wrote an article about him (until then it was widely believed and reported that he’d been executed). The article enraged the Russian government so much that he was fired from the school and all of his instruments were demolished in front of him. The article shocked his friends back in New York, and he eventually returned years later where he was reunited with Carla! This scene in the documentary is really sweet – two old friends who haven’t seen each other in years, fussing over each other and clucking to each other in Russian in Carla’s apartment.

The other awesome thing about the documentary is they weave in different famous scenes from movies where the theremin is used to portray ultimate creepiness and suspense. There’s also some crazy parts with Brian Wilson discussing the song “Good Vibrations” and how his childhood experience with a theremin was his inspiration for the song to begin with, which is why he of course had to play a theremin in the song.

I’m now totally obsessed with wanting to build my own theremin and learning how to play one!

…as someone idiotically inquired over at Melonie Diaz’s IMDB message board.

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In fact, Melonie Diaz is a super-talented and smart young actress who has been steadily getting more attention and critical praise over the last few years. She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2007 for her role in A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, was adorable and fun in her role as Blanca in Lords of Dogtown, and this year was all over Sundance with four movies! The LA Times crowned her “The Queen of Sundance,” unsurprisingly. One of those four films was Be Kind Rewind, which has brought her more into the focus of the public eye. That will only continue because she has six movies coming out this year alone!

In Be Kind Rewind with Jack Black and the Mighty Mos. (source)

This quote from her interview with Paper Mag is awesome:

“…most of the roles she’s offered are uneducated and lost Latina girls. But this Lower East Side born-and-bred New Yorker refuses to play that game. ‘I don’t do the Latina ghetto girl or the Mexican girl in the ‘hood, and I don’t play pregnant,” she says. “I may be jobless and I may be broke, but I have to keep my integrity.’”

Yes! This is what we need – young actresses who work hard and don’t cave into taking the shitty roles Hollywood throws at young women. Melonie is the type of young actress that we need in the public eye so little girls can stop idolizing the Lindsays. I’m really excited to see what else Melonie does this year (the same cannot be said for Cameron or Lindsay).

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I’ve been reading a lot about The Duke Spirit lately, but it wasn’t until I watched this interview on Jezebel with the band’s singer, Leila Moss, that I decided to seek out some of their music. I’m so glad I did, because I am in LOVE with their album “Neptune.” It has a definite desert/stoner-rock sound to it, so I was not surprised to learn that Chris Goss (Kyuss/QOTSA producer) produced it and that it was recorded in the Palm Desert! Leila’s voice is fantastic – deep and raspy – and I love hearing a woman-fronted desert-rock band (OK, they’re from England, but you know what I mean), as this is something that’s been missing in my life since PJ Harvey sang on the “Desert Sessions” a few years back.

Check out their MySpace page with some great tunes here – I recommend “Dog Roses” and “The Step and the Walk.”

My favorite song, though, is the brilliant “This Ship Was Built to Last.” Check out an mp3 here (courtesy of Local Vertical).

I never liked The Sounds as much as I thought I would, and I think it’s because I always wished they sounded like this.