Friday 30 December 2011

WOKE UP WITH A DREAM...

 I want to go to Rome and live there for a year and learn fluent Italian.
Only listen to Mina, Lucio Battisti, Adriano Celentano, Donatella Rettore, Milva, Raffaella Carra and Pavarotti. Buy a vespa, drink espresso in the little bars in the morning and go on dates and eat pasta with beautiful Italian men.

Sunday 25 December 2011

BEST AND SHITTIEST 2011



Year Survey: 
1. Did the year turn out as you expected? No. It never does. I am not a planner. I like to be quite spontaneous. I decide from one week to the other if and where I’m gonna go travel, etc. I had many good surprises and a very good year the first 8 months of it and then a more shitty one except for a few exceptions the last 4 months. (much because I can’t stand the winter and always reach my bottom low during that period.)
2.What did you learn this year: To trust myself even more and believe I am unique and can do and achieve anything I want if I believe in it.
3: What inspired you this year: As usual the new people I met and the different things I experienced and the places where I travelled. And to some extent movies and new music.
4.What bored you this year; All the time I had to spend in Paris when I wanted to be somewhere else traveling around.
5.Where did you travel and which countries did you visit:
I travelled quite a lot, but only in Europe; Stockholm beginning of the year, then London in June, followed by Ibiza, St Tropez, Stockholm again, Italy, London again and finally Stockholm a third time.
6.Best new person you met in 2011: Someone I met in June.
7.How many where  you in love with?
Hmm, complicated. I thought I was in love in the beginning of the year, but I wasn’t really I understood later. I wanted to be so bad so I kind of told myself I was for a while, but it was just an illusion. Then I was for real sometime in the middle of the year.
8.The Best parties of the year: Almost every night during Women's Fashionweek in Paris in September when my Swedish crowd was in town and we had crazy nights out with long dinners, spontaneous dj’ing at clubs, fountain swimming and karaoke to name a few activities. A poloparty in London in June, The clubnights in Ibiza, A spontaneous party in a hotelroom in Paris and some others.
9.What do you regret: Not much. It’s easy to be hindsight, but when I think of it I didn’t really rush into anything very unforeseen either...
10.What would you do again? Travel to Ibiza any day between June and September, I totally fell in love with the place from being a bit sceptical before I was amazed by this place and discovered it was so cool.
11.Best Christmas present: A little envelope from my mum ;-)
12.Best series you watched: Bored to Death, Downton Abbey, Brideshead Revisited. (didn’t watch that many series this year.)
13.Best music you listened to: Some dubstep and lots of awesome playlists with new music I created and shared with very few people.
14.Best movies you saw: New movies; Black Swan and Drive, and then I only saw old movies. Was watching lots of 80’s movies the first 7 months of the year and then I changed and got obsessed with old classics such as The Great Gatsby and Audrey Hepburn movies. Think I went to the cinema like totally 3 times the whole year.
15.Best new discovery: Ibiza.  God what I love that island. Always had prejudices about it before, thought it was a place for screamy, uneducated pill popping English teenagers, but now I can’t think of a nicer place to party and hang out.
16.Hang up of the year: To learn everything possible about finance (since I didn’t care much during some business classes I took 12 years ago.)
17. Who did you hang out with the most? 50/50 with new people I met during the year and with my old friends I always hang out with. A good mix.
18.Best buy of the year: All my vacation trips.
19. Worst buy of the year: I like everything I bought. I didn’t really overspend this year, more the opposite.
20. Best drink this year: Champagne as usual, Sangria during the summer and the last couple of months I rediscovered good red wine.
21. Best food this year: The tuna carpaccio at Blue Marlin in Ibiza, my friends Karin and Keiron’s cooking. My mum’s and everyone else who cooked for me’s food.
22.New gastronomic experience; Re discovered warm edamame beans with salt, a true pleasure.
23. Places you wanna visit during 2012; Chateau Marmont, Rome, Ibiza again, New York, LA, Florida, Sydney, Bali, Singapore and Asia in general. Moscow, Bahamas, all countries in Eastern Europe. Mexico, Brazil, Carribean Islands, Sau Paulo, Buenos Aires, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Cape Town.  Well anywhere actually, would travel all the years 365 days if that was possible.
24.New projects for 2012: A lot. The first ones are coming up already in January what it seems. Cool and exciting.  Stay tuned on the blog for more info.
25.New years resolution: To be professional, driven and make sure to reach my goals and to make more money than 2011. Travel as much as possible. Be happy and open and strong.  Help every friend who needs it, it's important to help each other. Stay true to my values and person. Never do things I actually don’t want just to please other people. 


Tuesday 20 December 2011

NIGHTCALL BY NATALIA

Just love this beautiful cover of Kavinskys Nightcall from the movie "Drive" with Natalia Moscou.
Dreamy....

Monday 19 December 2011

ON NIGHTS IN BEFORE CHRISTMAS...

I'm spending my pre days of christmas like this in Paris; 
Cheminée, candles and cosy, li'l cat curved up on furniture or next to me while I'm  discovering new series, drinking tea and listening to Chopin. peaceful and quiet. Merry You.

Tuesday 13 December 2011

ONE DAY AT WORK


Lindsay in da mix
This is what one day at work can look like for me, when I'm hired to do press gigs.
I arrived at 9.30 this morning to a huge loft close to Etienne Marcel in Paris to start my work day.
(Last week the founder of Napster Sean Parker was in Paris and threw a Napster/Spotify party at Silencio. I was there and also went to his after party at a rented loft, but in the middle of the night and with totally different people. Guess how surprised I was to discover that it was the very same loft I walked into this morning!)
It was a press day for the UK brand New Look today, they expected a couple of hundreds journalists, bloggers and other people in the business. It turned out I knew the marketing manager since years and everyone else were very kind as well.
I installed myself behind the decks and was pleased when I saw that they had rented the best material; one of the newest Pioneer mixers and 2 CDJ 2000 decks=cool. It was raining outside and I started the morning with a chilled retro set of my favorite oldies.
A catering was there to cook the food for the guests as usual and the journalists began to drop in almost immediately. They had fresh fruits, croissants, pain chocolates, coffee or tea for breakfast while they looked at the collection and made their orders.
At lunch time I took a break and put on a mix tape. The catering team made heavenly blinis (a sort of french mini pancakes you eat with a special caviar.) With that we had four different sorts of salmon, sweet potatoes, coquillles St Jaques, herring, caviar and lots of other Scandi inspired things -yummy. Afterwards macarons and other delicious little desserts were served during the rest of the day. After lunch I change my set as the day continued and the weather slowly got better. I played lots of different genres and styles of music to create a nice mix. Always selected, rare tracks, never too commercial, since that's too easy and not very interesting. At around 6 they put out the champagne and around 7 all the bloggers arrived. The last hour and a half I played my "club set" with my best, newest and coolest mixes while I had a couple of glasses of champagne and some more salmon. One of the catering guys and some other people came to discuss music and ask me about my job as a dj. Everyone was happy and satisfied in the end and came to say thanks. Someone told me there was a Grazia party and some other party later on and was wondering if I was going. I was not even considering to go party somewhere since I was way too tired and kind of cooked and was looking forward to roll around in my habitat sheets at home.  It was a very pleasant day indeed. A slight pain in my feet after standing up in high heels all day long though, but I don't complain, there are worse jobs to have:-)
I just LOVE my job days like this. How much I get payed? Well, that's a professional secret, but let's say a pro dj with my background and experience normally take no less than a four digit amount (in euros) for a corporate gig like this.
To be continued...

Lunch; blinis, kaviar,different salmons and champagne
At RODIER Showroom, Pressday, November -11
Catering guy making pancakes for dessert
Showroom, pressday, December-11
In the cosy loft 
View of the loft from my workspace behind the decks

Monday 12 December 2011

HOW MOST PEOPLE LISTEN TO MUSIC

                                      (Skrillex)

Most people just wanna have a smooth sound in the background, they are happy with what the heck ever, like slick, a bit vocally 60’s soul or something very easily digested. Ask me and I say it's boring. 

To dj for those people is like inviting someone who has lost the taste buds on a truffle and oyster feast. Meaningless.
People who have never developed their taste in music shouldn’t be allowed to speak about the subject at all.
I have discovered that I consume, discover and listen to music differently than most other people do.
If I hear a song or an artist once, the chance is big I will remember it the next time. My brain takes in music like other peoples brains takes in names, faces or macro economic facts. 
I analyze and register the voice, the arrangements, what timeperiod the song was recoreded in, but also what other artists that must have inspired the singer and/or the band and the next time I hear the song I know after a couple of seconds into the song right away what it is and by who. Guess that is a necessary skill when you work with music. Can't stand when I show people some music and they ask me what it is and I say ”guess” and they say some artist out of the blue that they might know about but who doesn’t have any similarities with the artist in question.
Or like another time when a guy tried to be cool and impress me and started to play air guitar to a song by Lykke Li, when it was obvious there were absolutely no guitars in that song what so ever. 
Awkward I remember.
Or even worse,when people stop discovering new music. They ”develop” a "style" when they are 20, out of  let's say 10-15 albums (like Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Michael Jackson for example) and then they listen to that same crap day in and day out for the next 10 years! Unbeliavable. Like being brainwashed, or like having the same style and wearing the same clothes as when you were 20 until this very day. Well, I guess some people do. (I could never…)
I function like this. I listen to as much new released  music as possible on blogs, at party’s, through friends, etc. If I like it I download it and then it’s with me in my dj playlist for a couple of months. Never more. A new song is cool and fresch maximum 6 months after the release date, after that it isn’t funny and inspiring anymore, like who the hell wants to hear a remix by Lykke Li released over a year ago and played at every club since ,out now? The only exception are certain retro songs which you can play out at all times.
There isn’t anything worse than when I’m in the middle of a dj set where I have free hands and some loser manager without taste in music comes and screams; ”Hey! Put on some Ibiza music”  while I’m in a set of much cooler New York nu or old disco, something totally experimental or something else (yes, it’s actually happened-in a Costes place in St Germain this summer) That just proves their total lack of taste and nowledge in what music is and all I want to say is; ”Listen, I have 15 years experience of professional music listening compared to yours two, so shut up and let me do my job please.
I love all kind of music and can be standing in a bar dj’ing in the middle of a retro set when I suddenly feel an urge to hear really heavy dubsteap, so while I let my autopilot (my two hands) mix the song played at the moment I listen to an over- remixed version of Skrillex on highest volume possible in the headphones, the other mix goes on and people just notice that I dance a bit different.
I appriciate a Chet Baker song as much as I love a Luciano set at Pacha in Ibiza, or an Italian love song from the 60's. It’s different, but the feeling of love for the music is the same.
I sometimes feel I can’t play exactly what I want when I’m out working cause I have to take into consideration other people's underdeveloped taste in music and are afraid they would start to complain of pure ignorance if I played something that didn’t exist in their small and under developed universe of music, which is sad.
Well, the work of a dj is and remains to show people what they didn't knew they loved.
Peace.

Saturday 10 December 2011

I LOVE MOVIES

What am I doing when I’m bored, don’t feel like going out cause this time of the year kills me and instead of hanging out at cocktail party’s and openings?  I watch movies.
I’ve already seen almost all of them once or even twice, rediscovering  others and the rest I wanted to see a long time. A list of the last few weeks conquered ones:

DOWN BY LAW (1986) 
Jim Jarmusch black and white movie about three different men in a Louisiana prison. Very funny Italian actor Roberto Benigni in one of the roles is starting the ice cream riot; ”I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream”
NIGHT ON EARTH (1991) 
One of Jarmusch best ones and a personal favorite. About taxi rides in the middle of the night in 5 different cities in the world… This movie is awesome, see it.
BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S (1961) 
Audrey Hepburn at her best. Based on a Truman Capote novella, this movie is a classic everyone just have to see, if only for the chic clothes.
REAR WINDOW (1954) 
I just say one thing, Grace Kelly, she is an icon.
THE GREAT GATSBY (1974) 
This movie makes me wanna go back to that time and era, where everyone were well dressed, polite, well mannered and you went to each other places to have afternoon tea, love this golden period in American history.
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED (2008)
Middle class Charles Ryder is studying history at the University of Oxford ,where he befriends wealthy Lord Sebstian Flyte, a flamboyant homosexual with a teddybear and a drinking problem.
THE TALANTED MR RIPLEY (1999) 
An orgie in well dressed men and woman. Can’t decide who is the most sexy in this movie, Jude Law as the spoiled playboy Dickie Greenleaf, or Jack Davenport with his charming upperclass brittish accent as Peter Smith Kingsley. (Matt Damon is out of the question here since he looks like a nerd.)
AMERICAN GIGOLO (1980) 
Richard Gere, the hotboy of the 80’s is playing a handsome male prostitute and is doing a lot of shirtless walking around in this movie. Besides from french and english, Gere is also trying to learn Swedish in this movie, very funny.
DANGEROUS LIAISONS (1988) 
Bored aristocrats in eighteenth century France looking to take advantage of this or that young lady, takes place in a golden age of french couture. John Malkovich is playing Vicompte de Valmont, a cynical, convincing manipulative womanizer, Glenn Close as Marquise de Merteuil  and Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves in their earliest roles.
THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1968)  
A very rich and successful playboy amuses himself by stealing artwork, but may have met his match in a seductive detective.
LOVE STORY (1970) 
 Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O’Neil) and music student Jennifer Cavilleri fall in love and things become complicated since they come from such different backgrounds.

Other movies I really like, but didn’t put on the list cause I’ve seen them too many times already; 
Belle de Jour, The Godfather, Scarface, Mystery Train, Cinema Paradiso, Lost Highway, Mullholland Drive, the Dreamers.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

I SHOULD HAVE BECOME A JOURNALIST

I like to hang out with kind, nice, sweet, polite, intelligent, well mannered, happy, open minded and thinking people.
(Luckily 90% of my friends fit into that description)
I'm getting high on people. That's how it is when you are curious and social.
I always wants to know more about a new person I meet. What's their background? Why do they think like they think? Act like they act? What's behind the surface? How many layers do this person have? How many can I go through and see? How can I challenge their intellect?
Interesting people are often the well educated ones, the ones who lived abroad, grew up in many places, read some great literature and saw some great movies and of course, listened to some great music. Creative people, open minded people without prejudices, ready to try things in life, free spirit and mind people, loving and thinking people. People with values and ideas. Driven and passionate people.
I hope I'll meet many more people like this in my life and that I'll have the opportunity to interview a few of them. Maybe for a book.
I should have become a journalist.
(Referring to what I wrote a couple of months ago; "I should have become a detective")
I'm open for everything, challenge me,
To be continued...


ALWAYS DO SOBER WHAT YOU SAID YOU'D DO DRUNK. THAT WILL TEACH YOU TO KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT.

Ernest Hemingway

Monday 5 December 2011

NIGHT ON EARTH-PARIS


Very lovely weekend.
Saturday dinner with friends at Davé in Paris, then Harry's Bar and Hotel Costes ending up somewhere else watching Jim Jarmush movies, laughing hard at the Paris part in "Night on Earth" when the two drunk businessmen from Cameroon pretends that they have the Cameroon ambassador in their bag and tells the driver he should drive very careful since they are very important people. They annoy and tease him more and more and asks "What nationality are you little brother"? upon which the driver answers "Ivoriean"which in french apart from being a person from the republic in west Africa also means "I vois rien" (I can't see anything) and they keep on bugging him telling him he just ran four red lights and that he shouldn't drive without his glasses. Extremely funny.
On Sunday night I had dinner at my friends Jean's beautiful new apartment in the 1st with Jean's new bf and friend André and his new bf. My straight female friend Karin and André were doing the cooking. The most amazing french bouillabaisse (fish soup) I EVER tasted with so many fresh ingredients directly from the market, lots of wine, champagne, confessions and talking.
What should I do without my friends?
<3

Friday 2 December 2011

There are some people you meet in life that you know is gonna be in your heart forever.
Soulmates. Maybe you've already met in another life before. You have a special connection.
You know they are gonna care about you what ever happens. 
I have someone like that in Paris. 
I miss him now.