i don’t care if you’re channeling etta, if you’re singing about your umbrella i am hitting the snooze button. and i know some artists might be labeled as “genius” (cough-mr. dylan-cough), but if your voice doesn’t cause pleasant vibrations in my ear drums i will probably hate you for making the auditory mapping of my day less pretty.

anyway.

that being said, i had to write about Melanoid, an OC band of melodic dreamyness fronted by John Hanson and his absurdly gorgeous voice. good lord, it’s like the vocal equivalent of putting peanut butter on your toast right when it comes out of the toaster and it makes it all warm and gooey. plus, he’s speaking about greater things than raingear. also, the arrangements on Melanoid’s debut album “Asleep in the Wake” are super exciting and interesting, thanks in part to Dallas Kruse at Zion studios, who just so happens to be producing my new record.

so i think everything’s going to be ok, friends. now go visit Johnny so you can add more music to your “delicious” section.

i thought i’d do my first effusive, geeky praise blog as a double snap: a snap with two fingers, if you will. which, now that i think of it, isn’t that how people snap anyway? or do you good people out there in cyber-land employ the three fingered snap sandwich?

anyway.

last sunday i had the pleasure of seeing my good (and handsome. and talented.) friends adrian and steven dance in OBT’s swan lake and holy sweet mother of hotness, those dancers are killer. and i don’t just mean that they could crush you with the power of their thighs. though they probably could. what i really mean is: they dance so pretty i cried.

before seeing the performance i several times came across Alicia Rose’s work and her photographs of these wonderful OBT dancers, and i have to admit to being in girl-crush territory here. seriously, i want to mate with alicia’s amazing photos and have little amazing photo babies. she has got a true gift. her shots are so vibrant and alive, they make you feel like you’re a kid and it’s kind of dark and spooky outside, but your favorite uncle is reading you a bedtime story, and he’s using all sorts of funny voices and has you entirely convinced that the prince is going to save the princess and good will triumph over evil but you’re still gasping for breath out of anticipation and and and….

you know what i mean.

anyway, i highly recommend that you visit her WEBSITE and get drunk on the intoxicating truth of her amazingness.