Buzz Guide: Lily Allen Remixed, Chace Crawford and The Vinyl Princess

MUSIC

As much as I’m a fan of Lily Allen, I liked Alright, Still exponentially more then her most recent release. Who knew that could even be fixed? Imagine an album you liked in a lukewarm way got scrubbed, dismantled, rebuilt and given a fresh mood. This is exactly what Dr. Rosen Rosen, remix artist extraordinaire accomplished. I usually pick up remixes for cardio-blasting inspiration, but these 12 tracks, as touched by Rosen, are prime for every day, all day listening. You can get all 12 tracks for free by visiting his official site and entering your email below the album image (see right side column, scroll down). You can listen to a redone F*ck You on welikeitindie and you feel like beefing up your twitter list, follow the doc.

MOVIE

Valentine’s Day

LOOK AT THAT CAST! I mean, you had me at Jennifer Garner, but there isn’t one flop in that entire bunch.

I hope it’s a little more Love Actually than it is He’s Just Not That Into You (I heard it was bad).

INTERNET

Where In The World is Cobra Starship?

This is a tribute to the old school game Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego, which I never once triumphed. Same goes for this game, but at least I enjoy going to all the wrong places to catch the sarcasm of various Cobra-buddies.

Play it here. Have any of you caught any of them? What happens?

BOOKS

The Vinyl Princess by Yvonne Prinz

You love High Fidelity, Empire Records and if indie stores weren’t becoming the dinosaurs of retail, you’d KILL to work in one. The co-founder of Amoeba Records knows a little something about this. I’m betting the lot of you could easily slip into the chucks of Allie, her 16-year-old music geek turned blogger main character.

The music makes it official. This house of worship is open for business. This is the place where people come to find community, they come here to confess their sins and talk to their gods, they come for validation and understanding, they come here to get their groove on, let their hair down, visit the past, look to the future, find some spirituality, search their souls, get some peace, stir things up, or live a little. This is Bob & Bob Records. This is where I work.

Read the longer transcript here. HarperTeen just put this out in December, so it’s a pretty fresh read.

BOYS

Chace Crawford

You know him best known as Gossip Girl‘s riches-to-rags pretty boy, Nate Archibald. His character has had make ups and break ups and illicit affairs, but his role on the show hardly requires as much depth as say, Chuck Bass. The good news is he’s about to go bigger via a lead role in Twelve, a film that got picked up quickly at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Chace will play White Mike, a teenage dropout drug dealer who does a lot of greiving. Director Joel Schumacher said, “Trying to shoot a scene on the streets of Manhattan with Chace Crawford — when all the schools let out around 3 o’clock and you’re trying to do an intimate scene with two people and there are 300 kids screaming — was a challenge.” Well, duh. I mean, look at this: