An afternoon in London

Hello guys, I spent a lovely afternoon in London with my equally lovely blogger extraordinaire friend Emma of Owl Post fame. Drank some sweetheart tea and read some love messages. Perfect. Here are the photos.

Fashion Fix #24 Wildfox Special

Fashion Fix lovers! Welcome to this week's fix. It's about Wildfox. I am THE BIGGEST Wildfox fan, simply because their quirky and laid-back style is unique and totes cute. All their designs are outstanding and I would be sporting any of the below any day! Get on it.

Another Songs + Videos

I apologise but this really speaks to me. Like really. Duh.



Wow this video looks dated, but the tunes are still right here.



Beautiful song. Beautiful band. Beautiful video.



Now this is a bit like a Herzog movie, in sounds and images, mixed with some chivalrous art porn, and that’s why I’m loving it.

When words fail....

Some days lyrics say more than words ever could. Today is a day like that.

Small things about you excite me
But then I'd hate to spoil the tone
All my little somethings just ran out of luck
Secret dates with strangers
Dirty words and fighting talk
I'm so scared it's killed me
Time and time again
I can't live with compromise
So maybe we could talk as friends?

Telling me to get my shit together
now I got my shit together, yeah,
Now I made it through the weather
better days are gonna get better

No one will answer your prayers until you take off that dress
No one will hear all your crying until you take your last breath
But you will learn to mind me and you will learn to survive me

When you've finally thrown up your hands, poured your heart out, yet nothing stands.
It seems our efforts are wasted but yet it hasn't been in vain.
Unfulfillment is killing you, seems like no one shares the same view.
We may have never met but it might be you who pulls me through.

You wrote me oh so many letters and all of them seemed true.
Promises look good on paper, especially from you, from you.
The weight of all those willing words I carried all alone.
You wouldn't put your pen to bed when we hadn't found our own, our own.

I noticed you.
You stood out like a sore thumb.
The most beautiful sore thumb I’d ever seen.

Don't hold on. Go get strong or don't you know there's no modern romance.

From my window I saw two birds lost at sea.
I caught our reflection in that silent tragedy.
But with hope prevailing I draw galleons sailing in full sail billowing free.

I wish you would, I wish you would
Come pick me up
Take me out
Fuck me up
Steal my records
Screw all my friends
They're all full of shit
With a smile on your face
And then do it again
I wish you would

I am about to start feeling and in no way did I plan to do that today.

This is it.

Hiya guys, it’s time for another of these shitty girly emotional posts today. I’m sorry but I cannot help it. It just has to be out there. Compulsive. Random.

You know the feeling when you have lost all hope that there are nice guys out there. Guys who actually have beauty and brains (and good bums). I experienced a phase recently when I thought all hope was futile and just started going on dates with guys that I didn’t even fancy, neither emotionally nor physically. Obviously that didn’t help to alleviate my emotional distress. My dictum was to lower my expectations and just embrace mediocrity. Stupid. Because>>>>

However, then I realised that if you don’t fancy the person you’re going on a date with, you might as well not bother. Spark and attraction are vital parts to finding romance and even though we all experience depression and self-doubt sometimes, this is a call to all the girls - fuck yes, there is hope. Patience is a virtue and one day someone will come along.

Many of my girlfriends (and myself) have been sinking into some sort of mid-25-life crisis about the endless difficulty that are relationships and feelings and longing and disappointment, so I thought it would be a good idea to re-focus and think about the good things that come with fancying someone. You know like when you pick up on all the small things and they become big?

So here are a few things that make me go all mushy in the brain about boys.

I love it when they have a gap tooth smile.

I love when they are innocent and not jaded, to counteract any jadedness of mine.

I love when they don’t take themselves too seriously.

I love it when they know how to look at you without being sleazy.

I love it when they don’t think their hair is more important than their heart.

I love when they can pull of really basic outfits and still look damn hot.

I love when you have ‘moments’ with them.

I love when they strike the right balance between being a clown and not being a clown.

I love it when they strike the right balance between taking control and giving up control.

I love when they have nice arms. And not from playing the guitar.

I love it when they say nice stuff and actually mean it.

I love it when they’re not scared to be affectionate, in case it ‘emasculates’ them.

I love it when they’re in equal parts feminists and Formula 1 fans.

I love it when they are not scared of the ‘love’ word. I love many things and sometimes it feels good to just say it. Just look above. Whatevs.

Love you all. Linda xxx

Fashion Fix #23

Hiya guys, I'm terribly sorry that I missed posting fashion fix last week. Shocking, I know. Anyway I was occupied, though this week it's back in full force. It's about the Scandinavian sense of fashion, which is just wonderfully laid-back, pure and simply stunning. That nearly all Scandinavians look like models makes it way easier to appreciate it, too.

Most shots are taken from leading Scandi street style blogs The Streethearts and Wayfarers. Enjoy.

Oya - The Review

Hi guys, even though this is all over the interwebs already, I still thought it's a good idea to post it on here, too.



Øya festival is the largest outdoor music festival in Oslo, Norway and promotes a diverse line-up from across the globe. Situated right in the heart of the city, the festival site boasts with four different stages catering to every genre you can possibly imagine. Basically Øya is a dream-come-true for music fans across the board where it’s nothing special that zef-rap crew Die Antwoord rub shoulders with indie royalty Pavement and experimential popsters Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti.

Arriving on site on Wednesday, for the first festival day, just in time to catch a glimpse of Raekwon’s set, Øya’s atmosphere is incredibly laid-back and friendly. Corey Woods, who is better known as Raekwon, confirms his reputation as one of the best MCs from the Wu-Tang Clan. Raekwon serves up plenty of tuneful smash-hits ranging from old Wu Tang material to his new solo stuff. Hitting the crowd hard with chant-along raps and his typical swagger, this first set at Øya is a good indication of the high quality of the festival.

Next on the main stage is punk veteran Iggy Pop and even though he has seen better days performance-wise, the crowd welcome him warmly. Overhearing a couple, who are watching his set proclaim that “there must be a reason why so many people are here to watch Iggy”, one can assume that his iconic status is more of a crowd magnet than his show. Despite Iggy’s best efforts to set the stage on fire with his never-ending thrashing about and writhing whilst belting out old hits such as ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, unfortunately the spark doesn’t really catch on.

Experimental-trance-poppers Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti play the smaller stage next, which doesn’t hinder them to put on a grand show. With their unique mix of absolutely bonkers tunes and perfectly refined guitar magic, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti are a band that equally entrances and inspires. Kurt Cobain look-a-like and mastermind-singer Ariel Pink calls their genre ‘World Goth’. These four music whiz kids play chill-wave, which is clashing with stoner rock which is having a little dance with electro pop, which is colliding with geek-rock. Pink’s squeals and shrieks stretch further through the octaves and Haunted Graffiti’s rhythms are both tighter and more expressive, at times even veering into math-rock territories. Ariel Pink’s set was undoubtedly one of the must-see highlights of Øya, where the melodic married the dissonant and the harrowing embraced the healing. In a world where everybody is making up about stupid genres such a ‘Witch-House’ Ariel Pink show that sometimes it’s best to make music so obscure that no genre name will ever encompass it. Absolutely brilliant and breath-taking set.



M.I.A. is headlining the main stage next and her set is unbelievably energetic and gratifyingly danceable. Stunning in sounds and beauty, M.I.A. pulls off a show that leaves the mass of fans ecstatic and sweaty. She’s got the beats and brains to entertain and crowd-pleasers such as ‘Galang’ and encore ‘Paper Planes’ go down a storm. A worthy ending to a fantastic first festival day.

The second day starts with a lacklustre set from US emo-rockers Against Me!, who play their usual bland stadium rock, but things look up soon when Surfer Blood take to the stage. Like a more cheerful Weezer, Surfer Blood bring the proverbial LA sun to Øya with their pure and tuneful indie pop.

After Surfer Blood, psych-rockers The Black Angels gather a devoted fan-crowd, who lust after the band’s blend of moody rock and fuzz-pop. These Texas-based trance-rockers subtly combine the Velvet Underground’s mysticism with Spacemen 3’s outlandish drone- rock and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s feedback heavy loops. The sonorous voice of lead-singer Alex Maas paired with the heavy guitar and bass creates a wall-of-sound grandiosity, which makes this set very enjoyable indeed.



Brooklyn’s Yeasayer do what they do best next – make the crowd dance. With a set that could best be described as ‘tropical disco’ Yeasayer step up their musical game by integrating multicultural and multi-harmony weirdo pop. Merging references from Middle Eastern pop and nonchalant indie to something approximating Balearic house, Yeasayer’s bleepy bliss set is astoundingly eclectic. Sounding somewhere between writing a Nintendo theme tune and the next big indie hymn, like M.I.A ., the other musical world fusionist, Yeasayer move away from one-dimensional genre boundaries and instead embrace the odd, eclectic and individual. Thanks Yeasayer.

Pavement headline the second day and even though their legacy pulls the biggest crowd so far, their dreary set at Øya doesn’t justify their mass appeal.

Friday starts off with a mind-blowing set from South African Zef-Rap-Crew Die Antwoord, which makes for a spectacular viewing and could indeed be ‘The Answer’ to all your musical dreams. Even though minuscule singer/rapper Yolandi Visser and mentalist MC Ninja started as an online hype, Die Antwoord prove that there is much more to them than just empty words. With flow and energy so infectious and beats to catchy, Die Antwoord perfectly encapsulates everything that is ‘now’. It’s a collision in raw urban rap, refined electronica and simply mental world music, which makes you forget you’re losing the plot to crazy tunes at four in the afternoon. Never too early to embrace the delirious, notorious and genuinely great Die Antwoord.

Flaming Lips pull off an equally fascinating performance next with their typical gadget-heavy set, which sees singer Wayne Coyne walk over the crowd inside a giant rubber ball, handle all sorts of confetti blasters and throw massive balloons into the crowd. The tunes are good, sometimes great especially the ephemeral beauty of ‘She Don’t Use Jelly’ and ‘Do You Realize’, but what really stands out about Flaming Lips is their ability to put on a circus-like show.

The highlight of the last day was half-Norwegian/half-British singer Lucy Swann, who performs in the tiniest tent at the festival. However, the small venue doesn’t distract from Lucy’s immense stage presence. With her amazingly strong voice, which Lucy loops over and over to create a sense of a choir of a multitude of Lucys, the singer gives you goosebumps with her fantastically inventive and unique mixture of electro pop. Walking the thin line between emotive fragility and emotional strength, Lucy is a magically powerful singer. In this background-blizzard of clapping and clinking, Lucy Swann’s soulful voice stands out with its poignancy. Her raw honesty combined with her vocal performance and musical arrangements certainly make her one of the most exciting new performers around. Think Bat For Lashes’ exquisite voice paired with Patrick Wolf’s organs and mysterious story-telling and 80s keyboards and you’re only half way there. Lucy Swann is definitely one to keep in mind for big things.

If you like your festivals aesthetically and musically beautiful and prefectly organised, then Oya is the place for you. Fall in love with the festival and the people and the city. I certainly did. See you there next year!

Oya - The Photos

Babes, Oya festival was amazing! AMAZING. Or 'fantastisk' as the Norwegians would say. Gigwise review and This Is Fake DIY and Tunited reviews to come soon. But photos first. Boom.

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