Tuesday Tunes, October 1, 2013: Random Edition

Tuesday Tunes, October 1, 2013: Then and Now Edition

Tuesday Tunes, October 1, 2013: Breaking Bad Edition

Tuesday Tunes: August 6, 2013-Anglophile Edition

As citizens living in a constitutional monarchy, we honor the birth of our new, silver-spooned symbolic overlord, Prince George, with this Brit-inspired list. Basically, it's the gift you give the person who literally has everything (except actual political power).

In addition to having everything any tot could ever have (with the possible exception of Blue Ivy Carter,lbr), Georgie will also have THE best wing-man once he grows up.

See our list under the cut!

Grand Theft Auto: Westeros

Have you ever wondered what "Game of Thrones" would be like if it took place in the 80's/90's?

Well, if you haven't, artist Mike Wrobel has, and his art is a crazy look into a neon-hued Westeros clad in oversized-clothing. You have to check it out here and here.

Things That Make Us Feel Old: The OC Edition

Do you know it's been TEN YEARS since The OC premiered???

We could turn this into an incredibly long-winded nostalgia post, but if we started, we probably wouldn't be able to stop. Those astute cultural references! Those height-of-early-2000's-fashion choices (remember, Marissa had Uggs before anyone did)! Seth's favourite bands becoming our favourite bands! THE ACTING!

Entertainment Weekly has the scoop on what our favourite Californians have been up to since 2003.

We might also marathon Season 1 in the near future and see how a decade has treated the show. In the meantime, let these dulcet tones sweep you away to a simpler time...

Oh My God!

Holy crap! We're so sorry it's been so long! Exciting life things do tend to get in the way of blogging, but we promise to try and make it up to you.

So much has happened, though, that we feel the need to acknowledge a couple of pop culture-related items (in no particular order) so you know we haven't totally slipped:

• All hail Prince George! (But we actually we mean this Prince George. Oh, Canadian humour!) Hopefully the little one will inherit his mother's shining head of hair and not his namesake's speech impediment. Fingers crossed...
• Angry, horny Kanye = love from Pitchfork
• Mad Men, what exactly was this last season? We're still puzzled.
• Catching Fire trailer omg Katniss + Peeta 4-eva11!!

More to come from us in the days to come. Until then:

Tuesday Tunes, July 2, 2013: Here's to (Kind of) Growing Up Edition

It's the second worst day of the week, so you know what that means...Tuesday Tunes!

 This week we give shout-outs to those artists we knew way back who are returning to their roots, as well as those new artists who are all too keen to grow up and leave their childish images behind.

See our five under the cut!

Attention Academy Voters

This trailer for "The Wolf of Wall Street", the new Martin Scorsese/Leonardo DiCaprio movie, has got us all excited. The humour, the dancing, the Kanye track... we can practically taste the Oscar nomination:

Bonus points to you if you can spot Shane from the Walking Dead (R.I.P.), looking like some sort of weird gay beefcake model in the background of a couple shots...

Good luck to you, Leo, in this year's Oscar race. We raise a glass to you!

GOAT?

Last week, Rafa Nadal continued making history at the French Open by winning the tournament for the eighth time. He managed this after coming off a 7 month break from the game, due to knee injuries.

The Spanish Stallion also continues to give Roger Federer, cardigan enthusiast and certified DILF (is our bias showing?) a run for his GOAT title (Greatest of All Time). While the Swiss Maestro holds a commanding lead in Grand Slam titles over his Iberian adversary, Nadal has bested Federer 20-10 while playing head-to-head.

While debates over who is the GOAT (lol) continue, one thing is certain. Nadal definitely has Federer bested in the grunt face category.

This article carries on Buzzfeed's tradition on focusing on the important aspects of Nadal's career.

Keep fighting the good fight, Buzzfeed.

Song of the Summer

Thought "Blurred Lines" couldn't get any sexier?

You thought wrong.

Happy Father's Day, Don Draper

As a special treat for Father's Day, Vulture has given us The Mad Men Guide to Being a Father. It includes this little gem (spoiler alert):

Do leave the back door to your apartment unlocked at all times. That way if a random woman who calls herself Grandma Ida shows up, she can just walk right in while your kids are alone and unsupervised, then make a nice plate of scrambled eggs before she steals a bunch of your stuff. Remember: A nutritious breakfast is important for young bodies, even when it’s served late at night by a home invader.

A father like Don, however, begets a daughter like Sally, who most definitely has some issues of her own. Like what, you ask? Well, let's ask a qualified mental health professional. Actually. This guy is a real psychiatrist who spends his spare time analyzing the problems of television characters. But what the hell, why not? At least it's not fanfiction.

Things That Make Us Feel Old: MuchMusic VJ Edition

Remember when you'd come straight home from school and turn on MuchMusic immediately, because you know that's what all your friends were doing too?

And then you'd go to school the next day and rehash The Countdown minute by minute, and be like "Did you see that Jennifer Lopez is a singer now? I bet that video cost like a hundred thousand dollars. And that's probably not even including that BRAND NEW iMac she threw into the swimming pool..."

(1999, people. 1999.)

In a similar vein, the first MuchMusic Video Awards were held in 2002, and were hosted by the two best VJs MuchMusic ever had: George Stroumboulopoulos and Bradford How (if you disagree, COME AT US.)

Perusing the above wikipedia entry got us to thinking: what are all those former MuchMusic VJs doing these days? You know, now that music television is no longer the cultural zeitgeist it once was...

Luckily for us, omg at Yahoo wondered the same thing. Click on over and reminisce with us!

Blog of the Month, June 2013: The Fobulous Mom

Written with just the right sense of wryness, exasperation, and love, "The Fobulous Mom" hilariously chronicles the childhood and current adventures of a Canadian woman with her Chinese mother.

Even if you're not the child of a FOB, you'll enjoy this blog. Motherly neuroticism truly is a universal language.

Tuesday Tunes: June 11, 2013

We're baaaaaaack! And ectoplasm-free!

And because it's Tuesday, what better way to celebrate our return to the blogosphere than with a post on the songs that we just can't get enough of?

Check them out under the cut!

Something Everyone Should Read

Remember this post, where we said we should take more time to celebrate the amazing things humanity is capable of?

In that instance, we were talking about a person being able to live, breathe, and play songs while floating around a giant space station orbiting Earth. But sometimes we don't have to even talk our feet off the ground to see some pretty spectacular stuff.

This story about a reddit user's attempt to make fun of a Sikh woman (and the subsequently reaction from both parties) has gone viral this week, and you really owe it to yourself to read it.


The woman in the photo, Balpreet Kaur, not only takes the time to respond to the inflammatory post, but does so with an eloquence, serenity, and self-assurance that we found incredibly moving. One rarely sees such thoughtful words and the insight behind them on a day-to-day basis, let alone on the internet (and let alone on reddit, to be honest.)

Take a minute to read the exchange, and then take a moment to reflect. There's a lot to be learned here about issues of faith, body-image, tolerance, respect, the Golden Rule, etc. Whatever we do as people-- whatever we say, however we act-- there's a good chance it can be improved upon. Let's use this story as an example to show that people are capable of doing the right thing!

OKC

Thoughts and prayers are with those in Oklahoma City. You'll get through this.

Text  REDCROSS to 90999 to donate.

Things That Make Us Feel Old

We checked out "The Great Gatsby" on Friday with some friends, and one line haunted us with its razor sharp precision into the human condition. No, we're not talking about any lines regarding that g-d green light.

THIS is the quote which shook us to our core:

I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous menacing road of a new decade… Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair. 

We consoled ourselves with the fact that we still have a few years left before that menacing decade. And with the fact that in the 1920s, the average life expectancy was probably, what, 50? But all our shallow attempts to reassure ourselves that we're really not THAT old were for naught.

Why, you ask?

Because of this urgent and horrifying news story.

IT'S BEEN TEN YEARS? WHERE DID THOSE YEARS GO? We can remember that finale like it was yesterday...we miss you, Scoobies!

Goodbye, David

David Beckham played his last game ever as a professional footballer yesterday for Paris St-Germain.

The club even made him captain for the night, an event which was full of man-tears, customized boots, and uncharacteristically mussed hair.

If you need her, Mocha will be crying in the corner holding her 2002 World Cup England jersey (number 7, naturally) and softly humming this:

Tonight we're gonna party like it's 2006...

...because we finally joined TWITTER!

Follow us, tweet us, and do other Twittery/Twitterish things: @halfandhalfblog!

Seriously. (We have 0 followers).

And The Stars Look Very Different Today

Welcome home, Commander.

We live in an incredible world, full of incredible people. Let's take more time to celebrate the amazing things that humanity is capable of.

Joss Whedon's Magical Comedy Tour

Just like the weather here in E-town, summer movie season is heating up. Cannes is almost underway; Iron Man 3 and The Great Gatsby have both been released; and STID will soon be unleashed upon the world (Star Trek Into Darkness, not a venereal disease).

But while we love summer's big tent-pole movies, we here at Half and Half are really excited for the opening of Joss Whedon's labor of love, "Much Ado About Nothing". The movie was filmed at Joss Whedon's house over 11 days with a close-knit cast including Whedon favorites Nathan Fillion, Alexis Denisof (WESLEY WYNDHAM-PRYCE, thank you very much) and Amy Acker.

This talented cast also features some huge comedic chops in the form of Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, the man-boy geniuses behind Youtube comedy sensation, BriTANick.

While they may be best known for their video "Academy Award Winning Trailer",  our favorite is  "The Dinner Party", which best showcases their characteristic mix of profanity, absurdity, and profundity. Check out ALL their videos if you have a chance--it's well worth your time (if for the Whedon and Fillion cameos alone). These two are making it big and we can't wait to see what they do next.

Back to MAAN (sounds like some historical Middle Eastern epic, no?): while it may not have the media campaign dollars of Gatsby or Iron Man, the cast has been having a blast over the few months with stops at various comic and movie conventions, including a Shakespearean road trip to the SXSW festival. What we wouldn't do to be on that bus!

Here's the trailer for your viewing pleasure:

 

Tuesday Tunes: May 7, 2013. When Boy Meets Girl (In the Studio) Edition

We here at Half and Half, like the rest of North America, are digging the P!nk/Nate Ruess collaboration, "Just Give Me a Reason".

Their (sometimes indistinguishable) voices and full commitment to the sometimes saccharine lyrics have won us over. And got us thinking of other collaborations/duos featuring vocalists of both genders.

Check out our Fave Five under the cut!

A Brief History of the Flapper

Are you sick of The Great Gatsby stuff yet?

Are you sure?

If you're not, we've got a hell of a resource for you when it comes to all those Roaring Twenties parties everyone will be throwing in a few months.

Get a head start on all your friends and wow them with your knowledge of the history of flappers, courtesy of Threaded, the Smithsonian museum fashion blog.

It's a four-part, fashion-minded series that covers a ton of information about the era- personal and sartorial freedom; the importance of makeup; that classic silhouette; and, of course, the bob.

Now go! Learn! Daisy Buchanan Carey Mulligan compels you!

Confession Time!

We're ready to tell the internet a deep, dark secret about us.

*deep breath*

We judge books by their covers.

We know! We know! We're sorry! (And we both have English degrees, which we think makes it even more grievous.)

One small comfort, though, is knowing that everyone else does it too. 

And you guys are all like, "Sure, 'everyone' does it, you're just trying to make yourselves feel better about being terrible people" but this time we have hard evidence to back it up.

Literary blogger Robert Bruce recently pulled some classic books off his shelf, showed the covers to his two year old son and asked, "What do you think this book is about?"

The result? Absolute gold.

A few of our favourites are below, but make sure you check out the full post above for every shred of brilliance.

The Great Gatsby: 

“This book is about singing. It’s about singing ‘Barbara Ann.’ Those are the lights, and there are lions in those lights.”

We say: Gatsby. So hot right now. Gatsby. Also, insert "rrrrrroaring Twenties" pun here!

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret?:

“This book is about feet. They are lion feet and they stomp things.”

We say: Well, "Margaret" and "Mufasa" both start with M. Seems legit. 

Atonement:

“It’s about babies, and they are swinging into the water. They don’t got any shirts on. They are going to go right in the hole and that is their house and they are going to play with toys. And there is a lion in the house.”

We say: This is oddly accurate.

ALL THE ROBOTS

Okay you guys, remember this post? Mocha though she would never be able to use the "robots" tag again. But, thanks to it Being the Future For Real, she can!

The United Nations Human Rights Commission recently posted a report online about the "legal and philosophical issues involved in giving robots lethal powers over humans". Because there are robots that exist right now that are only a step or two away from being able to make autonomus decisions about WHO TO KILL.

Actually.

This is crazy! And it opens up some fascinating questions and compelling arguments both for and against this new technology. (It's already got us thinking about some pretty heavy stuff which we won't get into here, because this is a happy blog! HAPPY!)

Suffice it to say, we'd rather the future look like this:

Instead of this:

Tuesday Tunes: Taylor Swift Edition. Kinda

Remember when we said we would more timely with our posts? Well, this stupid thing called "life" continues to get in our way, in the best possible sense. It seems those momentous life occasions can happen all at once and April was a doozy for us here at Half and Half.

But enough about us! Moving on to...Taylor Swift! We've been hearing her ubiquitous song "22' and...don't hate it. Also, girl looks fiiiiine in that vid. Tay's got a gift for making catchy, adorable, disposable songs, which merit hilarious (and so very true) parodies. She's a pop star, damnit!
We get what she's going for with her song--trying to capture the feeling of possibility, fear, and excitement about being 22. We just think there are artists who convey those feelings better, without having to actually title the song "22".  And with more subtlety. But come on, if she was subtle, she wouldn't be TAYLOR SWIFT!

See our favorite "22" songs under the cut!

Tuesday Tunes: April 23, 2013

Tuesday Tunes are back after last week's absence. Forgive us, but we were watching our Oilers continue their downward slide. At least we were in fabulous seats!

While last week was all about losing, this week is all about winning. Winning=funk. Ergo, this week is all about funk. See our picks under the cut!

We Wish This Was Real!

We were going to make a post about Mad Men and our thoughts on the season so far, but then Mocha saw this awesome recut and knew it needed a post unto itself:

Seriously, just watch this. Isn't it crazy what some creative recutting of dialogue/scenes can do? We'd love to see crazy unhinged Pete Campbell go after the equally deranged and unstable Don Draper. And when you add that ridiculously epic "Inception" soundtrack to the mix, things get real (even though this whole thing, technically, is not. Boom.)

It gives us the creepies, but in a good way. Awesome!

Weekday WTF

What do Lindsay Lohan and Reese Witherspoon have in common?

A mugshot.

We never thought we would say the following words: Reese Witherspoon got arrested over the weekend. For disorderly conduct, after frontin' a cop who pulled over her husband for suspicion of driving under the influence. Turns out Mr. Witherspoon's blood alcohol level was off the charts--and Ms. Witherspoon had also imbibed.  Like you, we always suspected Reese was a teetotaler who lived off cucumber sandwiches, lemon water and rainbows.

So to recap: America's sweetheart  was ARRESTED. Let that one sink in. At least Elle Woods won't be representing herself?

Another Mindless Crime

It's been a week since the horrific Boston Marathon bombings. It's been a week of heartfelt messages of support to the city; overeager, sloppy reporting; and heroic acts of endurance and generosity.

It's been a week of rushing to judgment, surprise at the perpetrators' ethnicity, and earnest discussion on why such acts happen. Are these bombers simply losers? Entitled white men who somehow feel excluded?

It's been a week of questioning, how could this happen here? It's been a week of questioning, where is the media attention when this happens abroad?

We've seen weeks like this before. In the last year alone, we've seen the media onslaught brought on by the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut and the movie theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado. We've seen the looks of incomprehensible suffering on the faces of parents, teachers, and family members.

But it doesn't get any easier--there are no simple solutions to the grief, moral questions, or political issues.  You don't get hardened to the pain. But somehow, in between each tragedy, we forget. We promise we won't but we do.

Our hearts are with you, Boston.

Oh man!

Ack, you guys. We're so sorry we've been kind of absent as of late. Isn't it one of those unwritten rules that real life shouldn't interfere with the internet? 

There's just been so much going on! Try to forgive us though. For tomorrow we are going to drop a post on you with the fury of a thousand suns, because the new Daft Punk single will be officially released. (Mocha has a theory that the internet might actually explode as fans everywhere rush to hear/download/buy/discuss a high quality version of "Get Funky". We shall see.)

Accept our apologies in the form of many new movie trailers. Surely you'll find something here to get you all excited about the summer:

Listen to Benedict Cumberbatch practice his evil monologues (with bonus lens flare) for "Star Trek: Into Darkness"!

Ponder the weird casting choices of "Man of Steel" as you simultaneously cry at the sight of Henry Cavil without his shirt on!

Listen to Beyonce butcher an Amy Winehouse classic while Leo wears a pink linen suit in "The Great Gatsby"!

Or maybe you can find something here to get you excited for the fall! Like perhaps even the month of November. The 22nd, maybe, but it's not like we're getting all specific here for any particular reason...

Tuesday Tunes: April 9, 2012

This week's Tuesday Tunes will be short and sweet, unlike your authors, who are tall(ish) and spicy.

See them all under the cut!

Sigils For All!

It feels like sigil-mania right now on the internet in the wake of the Game of Thrones Season 3 premiere. Seriously, every time we open one of our favorite websites, someone has done a sigil version of something, to the nerdy delight of all.

Soccer blog The Fifth Pitch has taken the six of the makor Premier League football clubs and given them their own GOT-style sigils, complete with mottos, their in-universe counterparts, and the reasoning behind the choices. Naturally, we favour Liverpool:

The Fifth Pitch sees them as akin to House Targaryen, with the motto being "a playful attempt to make fun of Liverpool's obsession with their history (and subsequently their claim to success.)" Far enough, guys, but we have this to say in response:

And there is no arguing with Captain Fantastic.

Be sure to click here and see what The Fifth Pitch make of Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspurs, and Manchester City. They get into the real nitty gritty of both the GOT universe and the football world to explain their choices, and we have the hugest internet crush on them right now.

But football not your thing? We got you. How about some custom sigils for Google, Wikipedia, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Reddit, just to name a few?

As far as the GOT series itself, Latte has dived right into it and has watched the first few eps of Season 1. Mocha doesn't know whether to read the books first or watch the show, but she's probably going to end up watching the show.

And for the record, we'll probably start calling ourselves "House Halfie" in a few weeks. Need to think of a motto, though...

The Great Hypesby

God, aren't we just so clever with that title? 

Anyways, here at the offices (read: parent's basements) of Half and Half, we aren't exactly sure what to make of the forthcoming Baz Luhrmann version of "The Great Gatsby". There's so much going on, it's kind of overwhelming.

Yes, Prada is associated with some of the film's costuming, but not hardly has much as media would like you to believe. (Here is a great article by Clothes on Film on "Gatsby" and the difference between clothing and costume design.) The Prada designs are mostly for background extras-- there's only one specially-designed piece for Carey Mulligan-- and a lot of them are simply slightly modified runway pieces from seasons past. Plus, can't we get a little love for the men's tailoring? (Brooks Brothers, people!) There's a lot of love for a well-cut suit around these parts.

The official soundtrack information has been also been released, and it's kind of a crazy mishmash of artists: Beyonce, Jay-Z, Florence and the Machine, Jack White, Lana Del Rey, Gotye, and . . . will.i.am? ... Actually? The whole anachronistic soundtrack-thing did work amazingly well in "Moulin Rouge!", but we're not sure if it will translate here. This time around, it's not so much of a bohemian fever dream as it is a tale of decadence and excess, but some of these tracks may get the mood across (especially with some of those crazy party scenes.)

New character posters are showing up too, and dear God, they are Photoshopped to hell and back. (Or you know, maybe not. Back in the 1920's if you were young, rich, and fabulous, maybe there was also a way to get rid of every pore on your face?)

So yes, we're definitely flip-flopping on this one. May 10 will either herald the arrival of a hot mess, or a haute one.

Tuesday Tunes: April 2, 2013

This week's Tuesday Tunes: we've got some songs that will make you get up and dance and songs that will make you feel introspective. Hopefully. If you feel nothing at all after listening to these songs, please go see a doctor.

See our picks under the cut!

He's Just Being Nikolaj...

Which means Sexy. Seriously, if we were Stephen Colbert, we would tell our Nation to get on Urban Dictionary and expand the definition of "Sex" to include Nikolaj Coster-Waldau.

Everyone's favorite medieval fantasy porn, Game of Thrones, returns to HBO on March 31st. And we thank God for that, not because we watch it (although, seriously WE NEED TO START), but because its premiere has brought a media onslaught of our boy Nikolaj. Thank you, HBO!!  And to you, gentle readers of good taste, we present our curated collection of the Best of Nikolaj, under the cut!

Tuesday Tunes: March 26, 2013

The five songs Earworming the hell out of us this week. Something old, something new, 100% awesome.

We... uh... Sorry, What Was That?

We're sorry, are we supposed to be typing actual words right now? Because this happened:

THIS. 

HAPPENED.

(That is all.)

The Return of a Legend?

Mocha is going kind of insane at the news that Xabi Alonso may return to Liverpool.

It's hard to quantify exactly how huge of a deal his return would be. Latte's analogy is that it might be similar to the euphoria Edmonton Oilers fans felt at the return of Ryan Smyth to the win-challeneged hockey franchise.

Together on the midfield, Gerrard and Alonso made the opposing team shit their kits. It was a lot like this, actually (if you think of Stevie and Xabi as the umbrella.)

As recently as November Gerrard confirmed on Twitter that if he could bring one player back to Liverpool, it would be Xabi. And now, Liverpool is preparing a formal offer for the Spaniard.

Oh, and let's not forget that Xabi is "still in love with Liverpool Football Club". 

Yup. Liverpool Football Club.