Tag Archives: Black

Music, Pop Culture

Video Clip of The Week: Flights Over Phoenix, “Middle Of The World”

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Hey what’s up. I hope that you are enjoying your weekend. Now that we have done some cursory bonding, I would like to say that with today’s Video Clip of The Week, which is for the awesome song “Middle Of The World” from LA-based trio Flights Over Phoenix, it is my hope that I am exposing you to a potential ear-worm that is powerfully addictive enough to supplant Ed Sheeran’s quasi-pervy, aural seduction device, “Shape of You” — which, I am sure we will all agree, simply cannot be resisted. You’re welcome.

Filmed on location at Soggy Dry Lake, in the California desert, and visually styled in the manner of, say, a John Varvatos photo shoot, “Middle Of The World” features the band performing on an arid plane punctuated only by inflated black balloons tethered to the dry earth like bobbing, mutant cacti. And speaking of cacti, the protagonist of our story is an anthropomorphic cactus who finds a picture postcard of California and decides to take a cross-country journey to the beach  — trading one sandy environment for another, but with a few essential differences that change his world completely. In this way, “Middle of The World” serves as a powerful metaphor for breaking free from your restrictive comfort zone to find what you need in order to attain a state of true happiness, or something like that. Heavy.

Aurally, “Middle Of The World” is guilt-free ear candy. The lyrics convey a universal message of self-empowerment and lead singer Keith Longo has a voice like butter.  The band explains that, “‘Middle Of The World’ is a song that explores the feelings of isolation through imagery that one might experience in a dream of that nature. In writing the song, we wanted it to feel like a journey, and so we wanted the music to be up-tempo and have a lot of movement.” Mission accomplished.

“Middle Of The World” can be found on the band’s newly-released EP, Where I Comedown. Like them on the FaceBook at This Link! Enjoy!

Flights Over Phoenix Band
Flights Over Phoenix are Chris Santillo, Jordan Nuanez and Keith Longo.

Music, Pop Culture

Video Clip of The Week: Black Mirrors, “Funky Queen”

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Oh boy, here’s a good one! This week’s Video Clip, courtesy of Belgian rockers Black Mirrors will coax you right out of any residual funk, because it is called “Funky Queen” — and it kicks ass all over the place! If Janis Joplin, Jack White, Anouk, Nirvana and Queens Of The Stone Age ever had the chance to breed, Black Mirrors might have been their very attractve spawn. Black Mirrors is Belgium’s answer to pretty much every rock band out there: fronted by the stunning vocalist Marcella Di Troia, these guys manage to gather an endless amount of influences which have been ruling the rock n’ roll universe for decades, combining them seamlessly into Black Mirrors‘ very own addictive sound.

The artfully-shot-in-black-and-white performance-based video for “Funky Queen” was filmed and edited by Van’s Ography and it perfectly showcases Di Troia’s incredible vocal chops, on-stage charisma and undeniable sass! “Funky Queen” is the title song from Black Mirrors‘ upcoming 4-song EP, due out on March 3rd, 2017 via Napalm Records! Like the band on the FaceBook at This Link! Enjoy!

Black Mirrors Marcella

Design and Innovation

Favorite Swimwear from Land’s End Spring Preview!

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Black Suit Deep V
All Images Courtesy of Land’s End

Since I’ve discovered that Cruise vacations totally rule and are among the most enjoyable vacations one can take, I’ve also realized the importance of having at least a couple of attractive, well-fitting pieces of swimwear. Because eventually, you are going to get wet, and you want to look good.

Continue reading Favorite Swimwear from Land’s End Spring Preview! →

Food and Drink, Lifestyle

Black. Metal. Cupcakes.

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Metal!
None More Black

In a perfect world everything would be as stark and void of color as >these cupcakes. They are baneful in their absolute disdain for your tastelessness, and are true misanthropes as far as baked goods go.

Make Them:

Cake:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup oil
2 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
2 cups cold water

Cream Cheese Sea of Woe:
8 oz. Cream Cheese (softened!!!)
1/3 cup sugar
1 large egg
Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In a large bowl sift together: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

Add: Oil, vanilla, vinegar, cold water
Stir gently until just combined. Too much friction annihilates the bubbles!

In a small bowl stir together until creamy:
Softened cream cheese, sugar and egg. Add as many chocolate chips as you can stand.

Fill cupcake tins about half full of cake batter and drop cream cheese mixture by the spoonful into each one.

Bake 15-20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into cakey part comes out clean. Let cool and decorate with a splattering of melted chocolate.

Best enjoyed when paired with obscure French Black Metal.