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!

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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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running away from yourself

your body, your mind

all your life

with each place

it’s easy to keep wondering

what brings us there

and what we are expecting to find

so we create our own distractions,

to figure out who we are and where we are going

until it’s realized the past is over

and all that matters right now is the present.

listen :: fleet foxes :: mykonos

you go wherever you go

you go today

you go wherever you go

you go today

you go wherever you go

you go today

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..laying myself down..
..just to regret and that’s all..

After 15 years of waiting for something new, California’s Mazzy Star released two beautiful singles Lay Me Down, and Common Burn on October 31, 2011 through their private label Rhymes Of An Hour Records. Hope Sandoval and David Roback will soon entertain a series of tour dates in early 2012, and will release an entire LP of new material.

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..when we can’t dream any longer, we die..
artwork by royal art lodge

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Science Fiction/Double Feature
at a deadly pace
it came from outer space
and this is how the message ran..

original: rocky horror picture show
cover: mefirst & gimme gimmes
cover: the dresden dolls

every halloween it seems quite fitting to find the cult classic rocky horror picture show gracing your cable station repeatedly during the countdown towards the haunted holiday.  by blending science fiction into sexuality, bewilderment was the kind of word to use when the rocky horror picture show musical world of flamboyant and transsexual fantasies truly came to their provocative reality.

back in 1973, richard o’brien wrote the british storyline and shared the rocky horror picture show as a theatrical broadway experience.  however, after a few years of fast success, a movie executive finally purchased the screenplay and created it into the 1975 famous movie that marked the introduction of then new-coming actors tim curry, susan sarandon, meatloaf and barry bostwick.

Time Warp
with a bit of a mind flip
you’re into the time slip
and nothing can ever be the same
you’re spaced out on sensation
like you’re under sedation
let’s do the time warp again!

original: rocky horror picture show
cover: string cheese incident
cover: life organization
cover: damian

although its important to see the movie and gain an idea of what the crazy mayhem is all about, the most ideal situation to understand the rocky horror picture show in all its glory is to actually attend one of its local theatrical showings as there’s nothing quite like it. based in mostly every city, fans come out at midnight decorated in full cast apparel of drag, lingerie, fishnets, red lipstick, maid costumes and every type of disguise to resemble their favorite characters from the film.

known not to be made for the faint of heart or those with shy reservations,  attendees are expected to dress provocatively, scream obscenities and throw things at people.  according to many venues who share this exhilarating and interactive experience, there is a whole list of props and etiquette to be brought to each excursion.  in some places not all theatres are alike and rules are different for each showing, but nonetheless, the anticipating audience, even the rocky horror picture show virgins, truly all seem to know how to participate and enjoy.

Touch Me
ive tasted blood & i want more
i wanna be dirty
thrill me, chill me, fulfill me
creature of the night

original: rocky horror picture show
cover: belinda sinclair
cover: apple-pie band
cover: paul pecorino

images & music: thankyou to rockymusic

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Born in NYC, Elizabeth (Lizzy) Grant is a singer/songwriter known under the stage name of Lana Del Rey. Her managers suggested that Elizabeth go with a new name as the music she was making was reminiscent of Hollywood glamour. Her debut ep “Video Games / Blue Jeans” was released by Stranger Records on vinyl on October 10, and October 11 digitally. Lana Del Ray has no qualms about revealing of how the business challenged her to become an indie retro pin up girl, and secretly shared her opinion in an interview with Pitchfork of how sleeping with the boss does nothing for your career. What truly is the deciding factor on her fast success is not how the internet conspiracy provided her quick rise to fame while people loved or hated what she stood for, but how Lana Del Ray’s actual music brings back memories and qualities of a young Stevie Nicks, providing a soft but rifled beauty discovered easily throughout her own melodies.

singing in the old bars
swinging with the old stars, living for the fame

kissing in the blue dark
playing pool and wild darts, video games

he holds me in his big arms
drunk and i am seeing stars, this is all I think of

Lana Del Ray - Video Games

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“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”

~*~

Listen: John Lennon – Well Well Well
(from the album Plastic Ono Band)

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