It’s about that time to pick up my pen again.. and start writing.. and creating. I may never fit in with typical on-time music bloggers but am somehow perfectly content because what I share is based only when I’m moved by something. However, I really have missed sharing music while getting overwhelmed in the bubble of this so-called life. My little side project or hobby as my family likes to call it, of having the jewelry line *Couture by Lolita* has now rushed me into my big real-time dreams, and my heart is beginning to finally open up all the opportunities that I’ve always wanted to maintain as apart of my secret. In the last year, I overworked myself to the point of severe exhaustion, but believe my own business has lead to doing the most fulfilling work that I ever have.

Although I do love designing jewelry & accessories, this is not my dreams will forever love the beauty and power of music, and that’s how it will remain. Sounds and lyrics effect my day to day, and are what I plan to always base my entire world on.  The way colors of notes, and wavelengths border patterns of beats to visual images are something that will continue to be embedded in my mind. Writing about the passion behind a musician’s biography, interviewing a genius who provides an extended amount of vulnerability and intensity, and standing underneath the lime lights of an electrifying live show are all things that challenge and lead to the success of why I even bother to express how these details inspire my sun-drenched, gypsy soul.

In the last few months, I’ve gathered music is art ideas under my sleeves and have been educating myself to strive harder not to only be a good woman, but to utilize my strengths into helping others who deserve the time and effort. This past January, I turned the adult age of 30 and celebrated my birthday as if I was gifted with the notion of finally understanding who I am. There are no more excuses, and there are no more past mistakes anymore. To my family, friends, strangers, people I may never know, and most importantly to myself, I promise that I will continue to be better in everything that I do, share, and am as a person this year. Even if it’s the simplest and smallest degree of change, deep down I know it will be worth all that I can give. It’s time! More soon…

~*~

Art: Eric Fortune

Listen: Gotye – Somebody That I Used to Know

(Making Mirrors, 2011)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

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Couture by Lolita Day of the Dead themed Victorian Lolita skeleton cameo jewelry and accessories, and is offering a Valentine Lolita Skeleton Cameo Necklace for one lucky winner. Please be sure to see the rules below:

To be entered to win, please visit Couture by Lolita and leave a comment below with your favorite item from the shop! (Be sure to leave an email address or Twitter name for contact!)

For additional entries (Please leave a separate comment for each!):

Tweet about the giveaway and include a link
Like Couture by Lolita on Facebook
Follow Couture by Lolita on Twitter

You’ve got four chances to win! A winner will be drawn and announced on February 1st, 2012!

Congrats to Ana Silvia Zarco for winning our Valentine’s Contest! ♥

Thanks to all those who participated, and get ready for more contests this month!

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I’ll never stop loving the beauty of a physical album. Everything gives meaning from the scent of a new vinyl, to the magic of reading the lyrics and seeing the images inside the insert, to the touch of the glossy, matte or recycled paper, and the most important factor — the cover art of the actual overall masterpiece.

Here are 25 of the best album covers of 2011. It’s easy to see in all of these artists, that there was an actual thought to the structure of not only their music but how it visually sounds. Enjoy!

Artist: The Antlers

Album: Burst Apart

Record Label: Transgression

Designer: Zan Goodman

Listen: I Don’t Want Love

Artist: Beastie Boys

Album: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

Record Label: Capitol

Designer: Mike Mills

Listen: Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win (ft. Santigold)

Artist: Bill Callahan

Album: Apocalypse

Record Label: Drag City

Designer: Paul Ryan

Listen: Baby’s Breath

Artist: Bon Iver

Album: Bon Iver

Record Label: 4AD

Designer: Gregory Euclide

Listen: Perth

Artist: Braids

Album: Native Speaker

Record Label: Kanine

Designer: Marc Rimmer

Listen: Lemonade

Artist: Bright Eyes

Album: The People’s Key

Record Label: Saddle Creek

Designer: Zack Nipper

Listen: Shell Games

Artist: Coldplay

Album: Mylo Xyloto

Record Label: Capitol

Designer: Tappin Gofton

Listen: Every Tear Is A Waterfall

Artist: Cults

Album: Cults

Record Label: Columbia

Designer: Dave Bett and Jeannette Kaczorowski

Listen: Abducted

Artist: Cut Copy

Album: Zonoscope

Record Label: Modular

Designer: Alter

Listen: This Is All We’ve Got

Artist: DJ Shadow

Album: The Less You Know, The Better

Record Label: Island

Designer: Tony Papesh

Listen: Scale It Back

Artist: Explosions In The Sky

Album: Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Record Label: Bella Union

Designer: Esteben Rey

Listen: Trembling Hands

Artist: Fleet Foxes

Album: Helplessness Blues

Record Label: Bella Union

Designer: Toby Liebowitz, Sean Pecknold and Dusty Summers

Listen: Grown Ocean

Artist: Friendly Fires

Album: Pala

Record Label: XL

Designer: Phil Lee

Listen: Blue Cassette

Artist: Gillian Welch

Album: The Harrow & The Harvest

Record Label: Acony

Designer: John Dyer Baizley

Listen: The Way It Goes

Artist: The Horrors

Album: Skying

Record Label: XL

Designer: The Horrors and Alison Fielding

Listen: Still Life

Artist: Iron and Wine

Album: Kiss Each other Clean

Record Label: 4AD

Designer: Sam Beam

Listen: Tree By The River

Artist: Jay-Z and Kanye West

Album: Watch the Throne

Record Label: Def Jam

Designer: Riccardo Tisci

Listen: Primetime

Artist: Kasabian

Album: Velociraptor!

Record Label: Columbia

Designer: Aitor Throup at A.T. Studio

Listen: Rewired

Artist: Liam Finn

Album: Fomo

Record Label: Transgressive

Designer: Sarah Larnach Design by Anna Taylor

Listen: Cold Feet

Artist: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

Album: Belong

Record Label: PIAS/Slumberland

Designer: Winston Chmielinski

Listen: Heavens Gonna Happen Now

Artist: Radiohead

Album: The King of Limbs

Record Label: XL

Designer: Stanley Donwood

Listen: Codex

Artist: The Strokes

Album: Angles

Record Label: Rough Trade

Designer: Guy Pouppez

Listen: Machu Picchu

Artist: SBTRKT

Album: Young Turks

Record Label: Rough Trade

Designer: Matt de Jong

Listen: Hold On

Artist: Vetiver

Album: The Errant Charm

Record Label: Bella Union

Designer: Nathaniel Russell

Listen: Can’t You Tell

Artist: Washed Out

Album: Within and Without

Record Label: Domino

Designer: Ernest Greene and Jeff Kleinsmith

Listen: Amor Fati

DOWNLOAD ALL TRACKS (.ZIP)

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-Neil Gaiman-

~*~

Listen: Beyonce : I Was Here (4, 2011)

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For the last month, I drove from the tip of Northern California’s wine country all the way down to San Diego and the Mexican border, east to the Grand Canyon and snow in the mountains of Arizona, the sandstorms of New Mexico, the saddening cattle meat packing farms of Texas, into the wild tornadoes of Oklahoma, the eerie bible belt of Missouri and Illinois, the changing leaves of Indiana, the darkness of Ohio, through the hills of New Jersey into the skyline of the best city in this world, New York City, and all to circle back once again to the deserts of California.

Driving over 9000 miles allows the mind too much time to wander through your own fears of the unknown. Most of us travel to discover a new reality however, those we share our real stories with may never understand the extremities of what we experience.

With each new state it was exciting to see the physicality of America, but inside internally heartbreaking and somehow inspiring to feel alone with no home and no direction on the road.

“Wherever you go there you are.”

The past haunted with tantalizing ghosts motioning the road towards crashing over canyons, snow peaks, and valleys. So blinding but impossible to forget what the imagination of pain, death, and cascading into a million little pieces feels like.

Crossing through lines of so many dark moments, my eyes opened to numerous sunrises and sunsets congratulating my completion of this test, and for making it across all of these scattered paths safely.

Throughout that journey, some of the songs I listened to over and over again are now remembered as the words and music that saved me. A few artists are secrets from my favorite songs of 2011, and the rest are old timeless songs that will always be cherished.

~*~

Please enjoy!

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds : If I Had A Gun… (Self Titled, 2011)

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