Funky president

Congratulations for making the right choice. Way to go!

Fabulous Souls - Take Me

Take Me by an obscure touring funk combo Fabulous Souls is a great organ lead funky charger with nice interchanges of female and male vocals. Lamp Records released the tune on a 7" originally in 1971 and Stones Throw reissued it in 2002. The single itself is worth buying but the art work of the package is equally amazing.

If you feel like dancing to this tune but you don't have the right moves let this guy help.

Fabulous Souls - Take Me [320 kbps]

Red,White & Blue

Don't forget to vote, Americans!

The world is watching and soon we will have a new president elect for The United States of America. It is going to be a very exciting day!

~Miss Kris~

COCO *ALERT*

Hi Everyone! I apologize if I am behind but, "Have you heard yet?" that Audrey Tautou is playing Coco Chanel in an upcoming movie expected to be out sometime next year (2009) titled Coco before Chanel. It is still in it's pre-production stage. I can not wait to see it!!! I am saying it again I can not wait to see it!

My reason why I can not wait to see the Audrey Tautou movie is, I fell in love with another version of Coco Chanel's life on The Lifetime Channel staring Shirley MacLaine as the older Coco and an actress I never heard of until now ~ the lovely Barbora Bobulova as the younger Coco. It was a WONDERFUL movie!!! So romantic and the scenes were so beautiful. I never knew too much about Coco Chanel but she had a beautiful story to tell besides just about her clothing/products etc. If you have seen the Lifetime Movie version let me know your thoughts on it.

***Spoiler Alert*** Don't read this paragraph if you have not yet seen the Lifetime movie. Coco and Etienne Balsan were so wonderful together! In that, the Lifetime version I saw. I want to believe that they would have ended up together. Someday. If it wasn't for his untimely death. sigh sigh...

Please let me know if anyone has heard anymore about the Audrey Tautou movie ~ Coco before Chanel or if you have any comments about the Lifetime Movie about Coco Chanel

~Miss Kris~

Coffee Breaks, pt. 5

What do you get when you take the best features of The Dap Kings, El Michels Affair, The Budos Band and Antibalas and mix them all together. The answer is my favorite LP of the year Make The Road By Walking by Menahan Street Band. The sound on the album is something amazing and what's even more amazing is that the album was recorded in Tommy Brenneck's bedroom on Menahan Street, Brooklyn.

The album came out just recently but the title song was released on a 7" already in 2006. Like so many times before Jay-Z was on the spot when hearing Make The Street By Walking. Or actually it was Diddy's Hitmen who found the tune and passed it to Jay-Z. You'll find more info on that here. I haven't been very impressed by Hova's production in the last couple of years but I dig Roc Boys or actually the whole album.

Menahan Street Band - Make The Road By Walking [320 kbps]

Jay-Z - Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...) [320 kbps]

Chairman Mao & Citizen Kane - The Greatest Part

I haven't posted a mixtape for a while so I decided to make it up by sharing one of the best soul/funk/disco mixes out there. This one dates back to 2002 and it was put together by Chairman Mao & Citizen Kane. All the tunes are solid gold and it's mixed together with finesse. What else can you expect from these guys.

I can't offer you a comprehensive tracklist since it doesn't appear on the sleeve notes. Most of the tracks I've spotted but there are some obscure ones I haven't yet identified so you'll be left with some record nerd detective work to do if you wanna find all the artist and the titles on the tape. You'll find at least one tune that I've posted on this blog earlier.

If you're feeling The Greatest Part, you'll most likely digg Selects 001, another great mixtape by the same duo. Check out also Chairman Mao's new solo mixtape Run For Cover featuring cover versions of both classic and obscure soul tunes. You'll find more of Mao's thouhgts on the mixtape and DJing from this article. And here's a good interview with Citizen Kane.

EDIT: When writing this I should have remembered to recommend Citizen Kane's excellent mix Adult Section but for some reason didn't remember to mention it. Go get it, it's worth it. It's available for purchase for example on Turntablelab.com

Chairman Mao & Citizen Kane - The Greatest Part [zip-file, click to download]

Bastide de Charme

Hi Everyone! I am sharing with you one of my all time favorite images of a home from the Bouches du Rhone area in southern France. This magazine (Maison Francaise Juin 99) has traveled with me from my time in St Louis Missouri & even sorta inspired my first mural in the furniture store I was a buyer for. I'll share that mural with you in a later post.

If my foyer had similar architecture I would love for it to look exactly like this. Not one single change. I love the iron chandelier. The tiled floor. OMG the iron railing! And I love LOVE LOVE the walls. Such lovely shades of soft greens & robin's egg blue mixed in with beautiful simple touches of gold. And the sky ceiling~so soft. I would never leave my foyer.

Plus, I would love to paint this! It would be a few days of heaven for me!

~Sorry about the images~

The soft green & robin's egg blue walls is being carried into the parlor with the beautiful gold touches again. I'm not into the bright color so much but this is stunning to my eyes. I love the double french door in a celedon wash. It just feels like HEAVEN!


The garden grounds. The statues just beautiful! The rustic iron door knocker is so charming against the lovely shade of the French Blue Door.


So lovely! I can almost feel the sunset against my face. OK, I'm just dreaming for a bit.
I love the cute lanterns reflecting off the beautiful patina of the stone terrace and the water. Lovely!

So that is it. Thank you for taking this journey with me! Let me know your thoughts of this place?

Have a great day Everyone!

~Miss Kris~