Music, spending time with my friends, going on bike tours in lovely places, yoga, photography
What Karen Means
K is for Kinky
A is for Articulate
R is for Relaxed
E is for Enjoyable
N is for Neglected What Does Your Name Mean?
Music:
MY FAVORITES: Kila, Michael Brunnock, The Frames, Joe Purdy, Tom McRae, Brendan O'Shea, Josh Ritter, BellX1, Del Amitri, Justin Currie, Dead Can Dance, Damien Rice, plus lots of local NYC singers like Matty Charles and the Valentines, Julia Darling, Kelley McRae, Dan Donnelly (Sonovagun), Mark Dignam, Jenna Nicholls, Fionn O'Lochlainn, Trevor Exter, Andy Fitzpatrick, Mark Geary, Susan Enan... I recently had the pleasure of hearing Melody Gardot play at Rockwood Music Hall. She's fantastic.
Have you ever heard Kila? They are World/Irish music, from Dublin. Really gorgeous music. They have a new cd out called Gambler's Ballet that is excellent! It can be ordered on www.kila.ie
They met a musician in Japan named Oki and they invited him to Dublin to make some music together. Their Kila + Oki CD is really beautiful. The album is getting fantastic reviews from music publications around the world and is nominated for a Meteor Award in Ireland. www.kila.ie
Have you heard Paddywhacked Radio - great internet radio station!
WOW - I never knew there was video of Penguin Cafe Orchestra on Youtube! And this is one of my favorite tunes of theirs. They're from England and had several CDs but the main composer passed away in 1996. You may have heard their music in films and documentaries though. This piece in this clip was used in Ken Burns' documentary about the Twin Towers.
Movies:
Buy the DVD: Glen Hansard of The Frames and Marketa Irglova have just won an OSCAR for 'Falling Slowly', from their film ONCE. It won the Indie Spirit Award for best foreign film and the Audience Favorite Award at last year's Sundance Film Festival. The soundtrack is great too.
Rolling Stone called it the BEST OF THE BEST at Sundance! (March 8 2007 issue)
Here is what Rolling Stone said: BEST OF THE BEST - That would be writer-director John Carney's Irish musical Once. Shove the jokes. Think U2, not Riverdance, and get set for something unique and unforgettable. The Frames frontman Glen Hansard stars as a Dublin songwriter who takes his guitar to the streets and sings himself hoarse to deaf ears. That is, until he meets a pretty Czech pianist (Marketa Irglova) who gives him the guts to quit his dad's repair shop and start finding the bucks to make a recording. That's it, a bittersweet love story with blazing Hansard music ("Falling Slowly" is a killer). Nothing about this movie should work - the budget is shoestring and the actors are inexperienced. But Once is the essence of Sundance: attempting the impossible and making magic.
Television:
The Office, LOST, Scrubs, 30 Rock, Survivor, Family Guy, Craig Ferguson
