Vixen's Mixens: The Bird Is the Word

Like the brilliant Sheldon Cooper, I suffer from Ornithophobia. Simply put - birds scare the bejesus out of me. I guess it all stems from watching The Birds at too young of an age as well as the incident where a pigeon flew at my head trying to take the sandwich I was in the process of eating on a park bench in Portugal.

Regardless of when and where it began, I hate birds. I will literally cross the street if there is a bunch of pigeons on the sidewalk. I am afraid to go to Venice because of all the frickin' birds they have there. No lie.

So why, you may ask, am I dedicating this month's playlist to the birds that so make my skin crawl? Because despite their filthy feathers, beady eyes and obnoxious chirps they make for great lyrical subjects. I guess the whole being able to fly thing really gets songwriters inspired. So I have faced my fear and produced: The Bird is the Word - a playlist filled with songs about all types of birds or songs by artists with birdy names, such as.... Birdy (ha!)

I hope you enjoy. As always, let me know if I have made any glaring omissions.

Vixen's Mixens: Hipster's Guide to Alternative Wedding Songs

Picking the song to be your first dance as a married couple can be quite stressful, especially for Hipsters since Hipsters by nature want to be unique and super cool. My husband and I actually had an easy choice, because on one of our early dates we danced together in my living room to a super cool unique song, Carla Bruni's Quelqu'un m'a dit. Little did we know our wedding song would lose uniqueness points when it ended up on a Hipster soundtrack to a Hipster movie, "500 Days of Summer."

To help out those who are searching for their perfect wedding song, but want something different than your typical Michael Buble, Celine Dion treacly tune, I have created a Hipster's Guide to Alternative Wedding Songs playlist.

Here you will find a nice variety of "it" bands and singers. Some of the songs are nice and slow, such as Dirty Beaches True Blue, while others are fun and upbeat for the Hipster couple who like to boogie, such as Belle and Sebastian's Another Sunny Day. For the Hipster's that kick it old school I threw on some non-obvious Billie Holiday (Yours and Mine) and Betty Carter (It's a Big Wide Wonderful World). And for the Hipster who likes to cowboy up there is some sweet Willie Nelson (And So Will You My Love) and bad ass Lucinda Williams (Essence). For the Hipster with a sense of humor I end the playlist with the cheeky Mountain Goat's tune No Children.

I must give a shout out to Jonathan for being kind enough to let me put his ideal (future) wedding song on the playlist, the fabulous Hysteric by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. He also gave me some more great suggestions, such as Warpaint's Baby and Kyle Andrew's You Always Make Me Smile. Also thanks to Jen for introducing me to Gotye, who is so talented that his Save Me is the second track on the playlist. I also included the wedding song of an adorable couple who were kind enough to invite us to their wedding in Texas a couple years back. Julio and Lilia picked the super ballsy and beautiful Bjork song Unison which made such a powerful impact at their down home Texan celebration. That is the definition of a winning Hipster wedding song.

Even if you are not getting married, this is a nice set of love songs that are not in the least bit corn ball that you can enjoy for Valentines Day. Let me know if you have any Hipster Wedding favorites you would like to share! Until next time.

Vixen's Mixens: Wintry Mix

Now that snow is falling outside, I finally feel that winter has come to New England. Although I am usually anti-snow, as it is a Saturday and I don't have any big plans I can sit back and just appreciate the beauty of it. Ask me again how I feel after I have to clear my car and shovel myself out and you may get a different answer. But for now I am in full Lorelei Gilmore snow love.

To honor this unusual change in my mood I decided to post my long-developing Wintry Mix. I started this playlist about two years ago on (eek) iTunes and have been tweeking it ever since. Transferring it to Spotify made me obsess even more since I could add a gajillion songs that were not in my local files.

The majority of the songs on the playlist directly reference the winter, being cold, snow and ice, such as the obvi Hipster winter anthem White Winter Hymnal by Fleet Foxes. Then there are some that just evoke the winter sensibility, such as Lykke Li's I Know Places and PJ Harvey's Beautiful Feeling. This mix is at times melancholy and lonely, but at other times warm and joyful, which is to be expected during the winter. I invite you to sip on some hot cocoa, stare out your window at the snowflakes falling and enjoy the tunes.