Alexa Chung Update

I've recorded and watched every "It's On with Alexa Chung" episode so far. It's good, okay!



I just wanted to send props to the talented cutie ptutie Conor Knighton of Infomania, who I already gushed about here 5 million years ago. MTV, do you know how impressed I was with you after I got over the shock of seeing him on the show? Good job! You deserve a pat on he back for that decision.

He was great, especially for his first time. And you could tell Alexa liked him because she gave him a high-five in the end. Hey, MTV, keep your good streak going and bring him on the show again. I would also be pretty awesome if you brought Sarah Haskins, also of Infomania and Current TV fame, who does the revered "Target Women" clips.

Hmm other suggestions for future celeb-gossip-guests (I love how they keep rotating):

-Perez Hilton. That would be hilarious. Seriously, get on that.
-Trent of Pink is the New Blog
-Michael K of the hilariously snarky blog Dlisted
-Kathy Griffin. yeahhh girl.
-Rosie O'Donnell. HA.
-Tom Green. OMG can you imagine.
-Rich from the fourfour blog. Please! Also his famous cat Winston would get major bonus points.
-Tracie, the girl that does the "Pot Psychology" videos with Rich on Jezebel
-the ~famous mods over at ONTD - mattchew03, ecctv, and brenden
-Martha Stewart. or Ina Garten! omg how great would that be if it was both of them.
-John Mayer. He's funny, mmkay.
-Joel McHale of The Soup!
-some of those people from the now cancelled Best Week Ever THE SHOW. Not the blog and that horrible BWE blog woman (ok gosh she's not horrible I know I know BUT SHE IS) Michelle something or other. Not her. I'm talking that guy that was always high... people like that. BTW Michelle or whatever was a mega bitch the second time she was on "It's On." WTF girl, chill and go away.
-Adam Lambert. Yeaaahh.
-Simon Amstell or Alex Zane! bring some British imports por favor.
-Kanye West! Hhahaha.
-Lady Gaga. yes please.

Ok that's enough. MTV show poducers pay attention, I have provided you with solid gold right there.

Also, the more the merrier on the same show. Today three members of some sketch comedy group talked with Alexa about the gossips and it was a lot funner with less awkward silences than usual.

And Alexa, you are marvelous darling. The girl is a natural. Keep doing your thang.

"It's On" with Alexa Chung: an Overly Thorough Review of the Premiere

I tuned into the very first episode of "It's on" with Alexa Chung on MTV today- all proper timing and everything. I don't really know why. Possibly because I have known about this girl for a while now (you're so damn slow USA!)- even before she started dating Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys (lucky girl). I knew about her from a discontinued music interview show in the UK called Popworld, which she hosted with equally awesome Alex Zane. Here is a sample interview that proves she's got it going on- she asks Panic at the Disco questions and they act like idiots. So she treats them like an evil bitch, obv, and I love her for it.

It's funny- I know I would hate this girl in person, but on TV she's just very entertaining and doesn't take shit from anybody. Breath of fresh air for MTV- if they don't beat it out of her, that is. I'm not going to hold my breath.

............Michael Cera gave Alexa a snuggie as a gift teehee............

The show itself was mixed. It's the first episode, so I can't judge too harshly, but most of the downers were MTV's fault and the high points were Alexa's.



Lame:

- That woman wearing the horrendous striped top, talking about celebrity gossip with Alexa at the beginning of the show. I couldn't catch her name and I haven't found it anywhere, not even on the official website for the show. [EDIT: I found her! Michelle Collins]. Maybe the producers are trying to hide her as a quick fix? 'Twould be nice, because she was TERRIBLE. Okay, okay- not that bad, but she just didn't fit with Alexa at all. She did this cheesy commentary that would go fine with Entertainment Tonight but looks like crap in contrast with Alexa's straightforward, no-BS snarkiness. And you could tell Alexa wasn't having any of it either- she kept looking disgusted after each awkward comment she peeped out. See what I'm saying- Alexa can be mean in a way that is very satisfying- especially in this case- on TV, but would be a huge turn off in person. Think Blair Waldorf. Anyway, this idiot of a woman- oh, fine, she seemed sweet, whatever- but she's so wrong for the show. She brought everything down. This calls for a catty gay guy or something to take that dullard's place and match Alexa's wit. MTV producers- I know you're surfing blogs for reactions right now, so listen to me- FIRE THAT WOMAN and hire someone better. You can switch her to host some crap reality show, whatever. Just take her out.

-the Internet pimping. Goodness gracious, MTV. I swear sometimes I think these old exec dudes are like "if we mention twitter the kids will cream themselves!!" No they fucking won't idiots, it doesn't work that way. You don't just integrate a bunch of useless mentions of Facebook statuses and feature illiterate tweens twittering and call it a show. Granted, the "internet integration" wasn't as bad as I expected after initially reading the press about the show. But it was still bad. We're watching TV for a reason, MTV. So no more twitter commentary (don't you want people to post the interviews online and have them 'go viral'? You don't want that ugly rectangle covering half the screen).

-Too fast-paced, too much crap going on. Actually at first with the celeb gossip part, it was really slow because that other woman was talking nonsense and it looked like Alexa was utterly bored by her. But then the show went into overdrive and it jumped from pictures of cats on heads to relationship advice to beat-boxing, and surprises left and right. Too much.



Good:

-The set was nice. It reminded me of Good Morning America or the View or something, but in a good way. I'm just glad it's nothing like TRL. It's new for MTV. Fresh.

-Alexa. I'm impressed with MTV for hiring her. First Russell Brand, now her- not bad. Now they just need to bring Alex Zane and Simon Amstell over- maybe even Zane Lowe, and Jonathan Ross- and I'll be happy. Anyway, back to Alexa- I can't wrap my head around HOW she is so confident and seemed completely unfazed about hosting this show in the US for the first time. Yes she has done this in the UK for 3 years, but it seems like since this is her first US and MTV show, she should be stuttering and blushing and instead she was owning it as if she has been in that same studio for five years already.

-She is not going to be MTV's puppet. She knows what she wants the show to be and she will not be afraid to wrangle it out of her guests if she has to. I just hope, again, that MTV won't crack down on her too much (they inevitably will to some degree. Bastards).

-that idea to have Jack Black and Michael Cera narrate over the trailer was hilarious , but it didn't really work out because the stupid fucking producers decided to show them staring at the screen and talking instead of making the video full-screen and letting the viewers enjoy the narration! Otherwise what is the point? That part pissed me off. It was such a good idea, too, and I feel like now the producers or whoever will probably think it failed and throw it out. Tragic. Oh and Jack Black was right, they should have the actors narrate over a scene instead of a trailer, which is too fast-paced. Michael Cera was hilarious in this part by the way hahahah. He just kept saying "heey" and finally he admitted "I'm bad at this." I love Michael Cera.

Here are exclusive videos that will probably be taken down, The first is of Alexa interviewing lovely ol' Souljah Boy. You can witness the annoying twitter updates here too. Distracting!

http://www.rapradar.com/focus/soulja-boy-tell-em-checks-in-with-qits-onq.html

And go to this link to see a video of a young female beat-boxing champion (Julia Dales) being surprised by one of her heroes, Rahzel:

http://nahright.com/news/2009/06/15/video-rahzel-vs-julia-dales/



And an official MTV video, of Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt making a surprise visit:

It's On with Alexa Chung - MTV Shows

By the way, not that anyone cares but this IS my blog after all muaha- I'm not that into Alexa's style. It's okay but it's not worthy of all the 'fashion icon!!111!" praise it gets. She wears nice things, but for some reason it doesn't seem natural. Almost as if she doesn't choose the clothes herself, although I know she probably does. I think what it is is that nothing she wears is very original. Also her current hair is a cop out of this era MIA, just sayin':



If you do want to know what label and brand and blah blah Alexa's clothes are, MTV's Buzzworthy Blog will be updating readers on what Alexa is wearing daily, so keep your eye on that.

New Epic Video from the Killers

A Dustland Fairytale. Gorgeous beautiful gorgeous beautiful gorgeous beautiful. Enjoy (before it gets taken down):



The director is Anthony Mandler, who also did the When You Were Young video. I salute you sir.

Childhood is "In," Didn't You Know?

I was looking through the Cobrasnake Coachella 2009 pictures, because I still do check that site out sometimes, plus I wanted to see some sweet Bflow goodness... and I stumbled across this:



No this is not just random photo of young aspiring hipsters. The girl on the left is wearing my childhood sheets. It bugged me out for a second to see someone wearing my beloved Minnie Mouse bedsheets, until I realized oh durr she cut them up and sewed them into a dress. Now I know I usually like to poke fun at or, rather, bash endlessly (possibly jealously?) everything that has to do with hipsters, but even I have to admit that I was impressed by this creativity. So all I have to say is, you go girl. That is fucking awesome right there. And where can I get a sewing machine and lessons to make me an exact carbon copy of that dress? Fuck originality, I want that fucking dress and I still have the sheets stowed away in the back of some closet at home.

Speaking of the Cobrasnake, He posted this music video he filmed on his website:



Again, I know I'm being too easy on the guy (is my college turning me into a hipster enabler?? oh shiiiit. Too many hipsters, too little resolve). Nah, but I really thought it was sweet. I know there must be some kind of illegal activity going on with a 25-or-whatever-the-fuck-Mark-Hunter's-age-is-year-old-dude (with a creepo mustache no less) filming a scantily clad, seemingly under age "nymphet" (ew I feel creepy and Humbert Humbert-y using that word. i hope I don't get hits from child molesters now. But then again a hit is a hit and I'm in dire need for more traffic ever since I've abandoned my poor blog.... kidding! I will not stoop that low, promiseeee. uhum). that was a long parenthetical aside. Where was I. Oh yes, well the video is actually nice with the beach and the sun. Maybe if it wasn't so damn creepy, it would be even better. But honestly I've never hated Mark Hunter as much as others seem to, so I tend to keep my mind open when it comes to him. The trendy techno-y song is not so bad either. Apparently it's called "I'll get You" Classixx feat. Jeppe/ Kitsuné.

This is what it says by the video:

Exclusive video directed by Mark "The Cobrasnake" Hunter
When the most famous photoblog in the world meets the nicest music label on Earth, you get a wonderful association presenting the finest of the new American scene.

Please, welcome Kitsuné x The Cobrasnake !

Out on digital Worldwide 06-01-2009!

Aah it feels good to be back and blogging. I'll try to keep up now that summer has begun. I'm in NYC for the next to weeks (be jellis, it's ok) so I should have some things to report back on. Laters.

What's in Your Closet?

I wrote an article for my college's fashion magazine, Contrast, called "What's in Your Closet?" However I could only publish five questions from each interview and one picture from each, so I decided to post the rest on the Contrast blog. And here it is (I'll post the pdf of the magazine itself once they put that up- it turned out gorgeous).

Hells Yeah- The Killers Cover Bright Eyes' "Four Winds"

I can't not post this. The Killers have covered "Four Winds" by Bright Eyes and twisted it up completely. I love the original, and the two versions should honestly not be compared for quality because they're too different. They should just be compared for sheer polar difference. And still, in my opinion, this cover version works in its own way. Of course it's going to piss off hipsters to no end... but that's what the Killers do- take risks and endlessly bother music snobs- why not!

Take a listen for yourself-



I love it. Who knew you could mix Stewart Price's Pet Shop Boys effects, the Killers' touch, and Bright Eyes lyrics to make something awesome like this? Brandon's voice is flawless, too. Some people are complaining that he isn't expressing enough emotion the way Conor does- but I think it's a nice contrast. Anyway, he would be pummeled if he tried to show a lot of emotion too so he can never really win.

My favorite parts are:
:40 "four winds blowing through her hair..." with the sound effects, ah.
:50 "she just can't sustain..." with strings. Again, gorgeous. I'm such a sucker for pretty sound effects behind nice vocals.
1:20 "The Bible's blind. The Torah's deaf. The Qu'ran is mute. If you burned them all together you'd get close to the truth" - haha, I dig that Brandon is singing this even though he is Mormon. Respect.
1:48 "And it's the sum of man..." with the piano kicking in. I especially love the rising piano a few seconds later during the lyrics, "A heart just can't contain..."

I pretty much love the whole song, really. I can't stop listening. It's addicting.

To compare and see just how different they are, here is the original (sorry, embedding disabled):

"Four Winds" video by Bright Eyes

...and here is the same song but without the added crowd noise in the video, plus Conor Oberst's lovely, brilliant lyrics featured in it:



You know, no matter what music snobs say, it's pretty nice of the Killers to cover Bright Eyes, because this is giving them a lot of attention from Killers fans. They're also acknowledging the greatness of a very underrated song from Bright Eyes' latest sort-of-ignored Cassadega album. This is the first contemporary artist cover the Killers have recorded, or even just performed, previously- before they have all been covers from previous generation artists such as Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet", David Bowie's Moonage Daydream, Joy Division's "Shadowplay", Kenny Rogers/Mel Tillis' "Ruby Don't take Your Love to Town", Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", Morrissey's "Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself", etc.

This makes me even more excited for the Killers' upcoming covers album! It's going to be so fucking epic.

Brandon Flowers' Runway Looks: Dior Homme by Hedi Slimane

It's no secret that Brandon Flowers, singer of the Killers (as you should know by now), loves Hedi Slimane (ex-designer and founder of Dior Homme). He has praised him in interviews, he bought/wore almost exclusively Dior Homme while Slimane was still there. And the opposite is true as well. Hedi took these two pictures at different times, for one: Brandon smoking a cigarette (before he quit) & Brandon's "k" keyboard.


I decided to do some research on men.style.com... and, well damn, Brandon's closet really has been dominated by Dior Homme pieces. Almost all of his most memorable outfits included Dior. And before you dare say anything of the sort- Brandon in fact chooses his own outfits and has a very healthy and enviable personal style. No stylists for this guy, thankyouverymuch.

He has said that his only indulgences are clothes, and homeboy wasn't lying! Keep in mind, the runway pieces I recognized from Brandon's outfits are merely a fraction of the actual amount of Dior pieces he owns. They are the ones that are easiest for me to spot out, unlike the more simple Dior pants, jackets, and button-ups which I know for a fact that Brandon owns but are just too difficult to distinguish.


Also, notice that these pictures dwindle and start to end around the Sam's Town era (2006/2007). This is because Hedi Slimane left Dior Homme at that time for other pursuits, and Brandon probably wasn't as taken by the new designer who replaced Slimane, Kriss Van Assche. However, Gareth Pugh is to replace Assche any day now and pick up where Hedi left off. (Is it just me or does Dior only appoint fairly good-looking and young designers?). Pugh is known as a "consistently envelope-pushing, innovative designer" according to BlackBook so maybe Brandon will be drawn back?

Well anyway, without further ado, I bring to you- Brandon's Dior pieces, on the runway, and on him. In backwards order from latest to earliest:

From Dior Homme fall 2006 collection:

A sober gray jacket with black details. Brandon is seen here wearing it with some of his own added flair- red roses- while performing at the 2006 NME awards. He would later say in an interview that that was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of his life because he was singing a cover of "Shadowplay" by legendary band Joy Division in a room full of musicians who hated him and didn't want him to be there (the typical problem of the Killers- they're famous, so music snobs hate them. Well, you win some you lose some).
























Western-style button-up with black around and white in the chest area. I love this shirt. Brandon is here wearing it at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards while performing When You Were Young. This was a bit before Sam's Town was released.
























Spring 2006 collection:

Shiny red dinner jacket with golden square designs. This reminds me of the circus for some reason. In a good way. I believe Brandon is wearing it at a concert in Brixton Academy around October 2006 in London, performing songs from Sam's Town for the first time in the UK.
























Snakeskin-print track jacket. According to Blender magazine it sells for $2,000. Brandon is serious about his clothes, people. Here he is posing for press photos for Sam's Town. Oh, and Kanye West owns this jacket as well. He has been known to admire Brandon's style...
























... Aaand one Dior Homme track jacket was obviously not enough because Brandon got himself another one- a Sergeant Pepper - style one no less. Here he is seen on TRL promoting Sam's Town's release. The truth is that Brandon has yet another Dior track jacket with bedazzled animal print, but it doesn't show up on the runway. Custom-made, I see? He has worn it to promote the Killers' latest album Day & Age. Oh, by the way, Kanye also owns this one.

























Oh dear. The dreaded manshrug. The less said about this one the better. Forgive and forget, right?

























Fall 2005 Collection:

Loose button-up shirt with long extended ends starting from the collar. Tiny white circle details on the shirt if you look closely. The one on the runway is burgundy but I'm almost positive that Brandon's black one is the same, just a different color. Whenever Brandon wore this (during the latter part of the Hot Fuss tour) he would wrap the extended fabric around his neck like a scarf, as seen here. I think it looks pretty damn good. He was here photographed by the Cobrasnake backstage at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, either before or after performing "All These Things That I've Done". Fun fact- there was a big red heart stuck on the back of his blazer there. Another fun fact- this is what he wore the first time I saw the Killers in concert October 2005, at the Long Beach Arena. Ah memories...
























Burgundy pea coat with black buttons. In the picture he is seen with Sarah Lewitinn aka "Ultragrrrl," who has been credited with helping the Killers rise to fame. They are at a Misshapes party here (once hipster mecca party in NYC- they no longer take place) sometime during the Hot Fuss tour, post-"Mr. Brightside" fame explosion. Brandon doesn't usually go to such parties so this was a special occasion. Sarah wrote this next to the picture on Buzznet: "the best thing about this photo is that it was taken in the summer of 2005 at misshapes and it was FUCKING HOT. like painfully hot. And i guess brandon had just gotten this coat and he insisted on wearing it. i can only guess that he wanted to be the first one photographed in it ever, and misshapes would be the perfect place for that. he also wore it with the most amazing pair of high top sneakers i've ever seen." Haha- oh, Brandon.

























Spring 2005 Collection:

Powder blue jacket with black lapels. In this picture Brandon is wearing the jacket at a very important time- during the Killers' performance at the 2005 Glastonbury festival in the UK. This was a triumphant performance for the band and cemented their position as a huge act. Here's a video where you can also see the whole simple yet impeccable outfit.
























Oh, the famous pink leather blazer. Or "salmon" as some liked to specify. Here Brandon is wearing it at some Killers concert in the US during the middle of the Hot Fuss tour- probably at the Outdoor Theatre at Madison Square Garden performance in NYC. He also wore it at the Killers' first performance on Saturday Night Live. Introduce yourself to middle-Americans with a bang, why not. This jacket is a classic among Killers fans, especially those who, like me, joined the bandwagon early on. Brandon later said in an interview that he unfortunately had to put the jacket away because it started turning orange from extensive wear and sweat.
























So, that is all I could find for now. Maybe later I will make another post of Brandon's new designer duds- there have been many bits and pieces in magazines... one said that Marc Jacobs tailored custom clothing for Brandon, another claimed that Burberry Prorsum designer Christopher Bailey did the same. Or maybe I can talk about Brandon's J. Lindbergh shirts. Or the fact that Donatella Versace adores his style. Or the Dolce & Gabbana jacket with added feather epaulets that Brandon simply cannot stop wearing lately. Or maybe the designer, "Mrs. Jones" (Fee Doran), who stuck those feathers on for Brandon in the first place. Decisions, decisions.

If you guys want to read some more about Brandon's style, I suggest this interview from last year with British GQ, after he won most stylish man of the year (click to make bigger):