My Dancing Skillz in the Bay Guardian

After spending a day hiking around Bass Lake and driving around Bolinas, it was pretty hard to work up the motivation to go out last night, but for some reason intuition told me that going to the Soul Clap 60s soul night/dance competition at the Elbo Room would be a stellar idea. Well um, I'm glad that I did because Colin convinced me that we should both enter the dance competition because a lot of the contestants were shaping up to be pretty chumpy and uh well...I won! The competition was judged by a bunch of local writers/dj's and semi-celebs, including Jello Biafra. Jello rallied for me, saying that I was hot (yessss) and had the best moves. YES! Sorry to brag but I am feeling a little awesome today. And $100 richer.

Chris Brennan pointed me to this article in the Bay Guardian. I'm number 26, obvs. I like how I'm totally rolling my eyes at the runner-up on page one of the article. Ha.

Cold, Drizzly July Five

WHAT HAPPENED TO SUMMER??!?! Seriously last weekend I was riding my bicycle carefree through Golden Gate Park in a short-sleeved dress, and today I'm wearing a fucking sweater and a scarf? What kind of cruel joke is this? Am I going to be planted inside in front of the space heater this weekend or for the love of god can I please get some sun time in? Am I gonna have go back to Stockton?

Anyway, my five songs this week are songs from my "Singalong" playlist on my iPod. Yes, I'm a giant nerd and I sing in the shower, and I made a special playlist of songs that I know all the words to just so I can sing along really loud and make my roommates feel embarassed for me. But did you know that I'm a singer? You probably did, right? Did you know that Bertie Pearson and I are in a band called Wine Club and that we're going to start playing shows soon? See? I need to practice, ok? I need to keep my pipes nice and strong so I can belt my shit out proper.

Anyway, here are five of the songs you'd hear me give my all to if you were in my house during shower time.

1. Espers - Dead Queen (Black is the Color is actually my song of choice, but it's nowhere to be found on Youtube.)



2. The Finches - Step Outside



3. Alton Ellis - Why Birds Follow Spring



4. Dolly Mixture - Never Let It Go



5. Francoise Hardy - La Maison Ou J'ai Grandi (I kinda know the words in French...?)

Tijuana Dreamin'

In three weeks I will be at the above beach in Tijuana, getting a sunburn and drinking Jarritos. Admittedly Tijuana is a weird place to vacation, but I have a good friend living down there that I can hang out with, I'll be able to pratice my rusty, broken spanish, and it's the only place I can think of where I can vacation on the beach for a week and only spend like $200. I'm so excited!

Oh, did I mention that next Thursday is my last day at my job? Summer fUnemployment here I come! To make a little extra money to supplement my unemployment benefits, I've opened up an ebay store called Year of the Cat. (Bookmark it now, even though there's nothing in it!) I'll be posting more info when I stock it (within the next couple of days) and I expect you guys to buy EVERYTHING. I picked up a ton of rad finds in the amazing thrift stores of Stockton last week, plus I'm selling off all the designer shit I never wear that I bought last fall when I was rich. You guys will be super stoked, trust.

Love Always,

Melanie A Berlin

Evil lurks in the water

Watch your back this weekend...

Top Tunes

I didn't do a weekly 5 last week because I was too busy petting baby goats at the Alameda County Fair.



So to make up for it, this week I'm posting the 5 most awesomest, summeriest tunes I can find. For your summer!

1. Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Sunshower.

This song is a little cheesy, I admit. Also it sounds like there might be some Jesus-centric lyrics in there, but this song still fills me with such awesome sunshine vibes. Bonus: Dr. B's OSB became one of my fave bands ever, KID CREOLE AND THE COCONUTS! Yeah, I know...their disco-meets-40's-Havana-Nightclub schtick is really corny but have you heard "Off The Coast of Me?" Have you seen their awesome performance in Downtown '81? If not, my friend...you are in for a treat.



2. The Chills - Kaleidoscope World

This song sounds like the state fair to me, and if you know me at all you know that to me, California State Fair time is the best time of the summer. BIG FUN!



3. The Necessaries - More Real

I've been obsessed with this song ever since I heard it on Musicophilia's mind-blowingly awesome 1981 collection. I couldn't find it on Youtube, so you'll have to settle for listening to it on my Tumblr page.

CLICK HERE!!!

4. The Clean - Tally Ho!

Duh! This is the official song of my summer, every summer.



5. The Undertones - Here Comes The Summer

Feargal Sharkey = Ugliest Frontman EVER!!! This song rules though.



Ok so it's almost weekend time for me, since I have Fridays off now. So stoked for it! Maya and I are cooking up some awesome lakeswimming plans. Can't wait, especially because I realized the other day that I haven't left San Francisco since I went to NYC 2 months ago. It's time.

I'm Tumblring again

I forgot how much I liked posting my cheesy camera phone picture to tumblr, kinda creating a visual diary or whatever. After a 7-month hiatus, I've decided to start it back up.

Go here to check it out:

Some samples of what you'll find:

July 7, 2009



December 23, 2008



November 1, 2008



September 10, 2008

Still Ill

Baldur hasn't even bothered changing out of his robe, and we haven't left the house all day.