welp, spring is here & love is in the air…or maybe it’s just that extra dose of vitamin “d” we’re all starting to get. whatever it is, there is a ton of great new music floating around. Like this music video from haim. I seriously can’t get enough of it. and this new(ish) band from chicago. i’m really anticipating 2013 to be a great year recording artist.

who’s one band you can’t stop listening to lately?

– nathan michael

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this mixtape is for all the night zombies out there. you know who you are … the one’s dedicating extra hours to their craft, pushing harder than they thought was possible, accomplishing more than other’s believed was achievable.

keep up the hard work.

what’s one of your favorite songs for burning the midnight oil?

– nathan michael

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the fall is almost here, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel on summer. here are a few of my favorite songs to vibe on when getting sand in my hair (and yes, chicago has a beach!). so, don’t just sit there. get outside & catch some rays.

no waves, no glory

– nathan michael

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summer is one of my favorite seasons for collecting memories with friends. late night concerts, weekend bbqs, antiquing, movies in the park …

… But I always find myself missing out on that ultimate adventure: the summer road trip! welp, this year, that’s not going to happen. i’ve decided i’m going to pack my car with a few cronies & just drive. no rules. no agenda. just a tank full of gas & a playlist loaded with my favorite songs.

if you could ditch town & head anywhere — where would you go? What are some of your favorite tunes when hitting the road?

– nathan michael

>> click here to listen with spotify

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– keep up with what nathan’s listening to by following him on twitter.

the view from here this week:

1. maps seem to be everywhere in decor these days. are we feeling a little directionless, perhaps? you can find loads to paste on your walls on this site printed space. from aerial views of paris, to old maps of london streets. where ever you wanna go, there you’ll be.

2. meet proud mary. when Harper Poe returned from volunteering with Habitat for Humanity in South America, she realized she’d fallen deeply in love with the indigenous peoples and brightly colored textiles, so she decided to combine her passions into a sustainable design business promoting social change. By providing a global exploration of textiles, Proud Mary, supports and empowers global artisans and their families while celebrating their beautiful work. bravo. [just noticed, she’s featured on fab.com today, too!]

3. The Fox Is Black was created as a blog for sharing interesting ideas with like-minded people and has become a staple in the design community as a destination for creativity and fresh thoughts. Updated daily, it shares a melange of topics ranging from design, culture, music, and films. Every Wednesday they generously release a new desktop wallpaper, a way to decorate your computer background with the work of the best illustrators, designers and photographers in the world. check out the amazing mixtapes, too.

4. Wax is a surfer/shaper from bondi beach, australia inspired by the surfing culture of the 1950′s and 60′s. wax has embraced the “old school” aesthetics in his surfboards by applying 1950′s surfboard building techniques to advanced traditional shapes for people that appreciate the quality of a hand made product. if you’re a fan of surf culture, check out the blog, too. surf is way up.

5. this is an amazing and bittersweet project. the lost & found project documents photographs found after the 3.11 tsnumani that swept east japan. As the search for survivors ended and attention turned to the clean up mission, firemen, and policemen who were in Tohoku to help survivors began to pick up photos they found in the mud, and store them in an elementary school gymnasium. They were not asked to do it, nor did they have a clear sense of their objective. Perhaps they were just desperate to find something in of the rubble that could be saved. Over time, the gymnasium began to fill up with salvaged photographs. read more about the collection that grew from the efforts of the memory collectors here.

6. are you listening to lana del rey? whoa. that girl has a voice on her. she’s been described as a “self-styled gangsta Nancy Sinatra”. i can see that. she’s kinda mysterious and smoldering and just really, really good…at least on the radio. i heard her snl gig wasn’t well-received, but i can still listen!

7. i’m a huge fan of this american life. it’s the smartest public radio program out there, in my humble opinion, and i am madly in love with its host ira glass — he’s smart and sexy, my favorite combination. but i digress. sorry, he does that to me. each week they bring you stories that are inspiring, sometimes heartbreaking, but always honest and real. you can listen to their podcasts too. check out their radio archives here, on this american life.

Hey there. Nathan Michael here again. :) So, I’ve decided to share one of my best kept secrets with you this week. Two Words: Bop Records

Tucked away in Ballard, Seattle; Bop is filled to the brim with over 100,00 records. Yep, you read that right. Pure ecstasy! For those of you who share my love for vintage, vinyl goodness, this is like the holy grail of record stops. just imagine all that beautiful, gritty-sounding vinyl cooped up in one place…it’s almost too much to handle!

If you’re ever in Seattle this is a must visit. No excuses :)

Who are you listening to these days? I’m in constant need of new music :)

Until next time,

nathan michael

the beautiful and powerfully gifted adele graces the cover of vogue this march and she’s never looked more lovely. now, i know what you’re thinking…retouched. but hey, i’d like them to retouch me up a bit so i’d look this, especially if i were going to be in the pages of vogue. and regardless of any retouching here, i think it’s safe to say, adele’s voice is the real thing, as is i think her soul. and for me, that’s what really matters. her music gives me the chills. i have to actually change the radio station should she come on at a time, heaven forbid, i’m feeling even a tiny bit heartbroken — or i just lose it! anyway, this tuesday’s girl, is all about adele.

this fab friday, let’s get a little groove on — what say you? you with me? i have really varied tastes in music and what i’m listening all depends on my mood. i love lots of new stuff, but i have some old favorites, too. what are you listening to these days? i’m always looking for something new to blog to!

brigitte bardot; Crosley Spinnerette Portable Turntable Suitcase via california home & design; love listening to the invincible eartha kitt; i can never get enough of the beatles; elvis costello: the first ten years — a personal hero of mine; roxy music’s avalon — my very favorite album of all time; and uma thurman and john travolta dancing in pulp fiction just makes me happy.

• top image via trendy.

today’s “it list” comes from that adorable and dynamic duo, Ted and angie from poketo. i love their poketo shop, and their sense of style and taste, so it’s fun to peek behind their lives and find out what’s on their “it list”. not so much shopping, but adventure!

Traveling is probably one of the biggest inspirations for us. We’re definitely due for another getaway. Ted and I have been dying to go to Istanbul for a long time. The place seems so amazing with all the amazing colors from textiles, spices, and the fact that it’s situated between Asia and Europe with so many influences is fascinating. We can’t wait to go.

Though we love living in Los Angeles we also love nature. We try to get away as much as we can. Living in California, it’s great to be able to camp even through September and October. We’ll be going to Yosemite and Havasupai in the next few weeks. We just got some light and compact sleeping bags, as the place we’re camping in Havasupai can only be reached on foot after a 10 mile hike. A nice discount on cooking gear Hammocks and hiking boots at REI would be awesome!

Big Sur is one of our favorite places in the world. A nice cottage overlooking the ocean for a vacation home would be really nice too! :) But for now, we’re very happy like this. A week retreat at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur would be really nice though.

Now onto things. To be completely honest, I’m a total minimalist. I don’t shop much. It’s quite ironic that I make designs and products for a living or maybe my minimalism became stronger because of my occupation. :) But these are a few things on my list. Now, Ted on the other hand is much more of a collector and I’m sure he can definitely add more to this list.

We’re looking for a nice chaise sofa for our TV room that doesn’t take too much footprint. Something like this modernica day bed. These stools have been on our wish lists for a while. We even met the designer who’s super cool. One of these days, we’ll have these in our dining room. We’d get the 24″ height in Red and Blue legs.

We remodeled our kitchen a few months ago and we’ve been cooking a lot. Something on our list is a nice stand mixer. I don’t bake much but Ted loves to bake. I’m more of a throw a little bit of this and a little bit of that while Ted is great at following directions therefore he’s actually a great baker. We’d like this model with all the extensions for pasta maker, sausage maker, ice cream maker and etc.

Books, books, books. So many on my list. I could just live here at hennessey + ingalls. and, Music, we mostly listen to records at the office, and Origami Vinyl is in our neighborhood. A season pass to Disney Concert Hall and Hollywood Bowl wouldn’t be bad either.

get poketo’s “it list”: 1. a trip to istanbul; 2. camping in Yosemite and Havasupai 3. a discount at REI; 4. a retreat at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur; 5. modernica day bed; 6. objeti drop stools; 7. kitchenaid artisan stand mixer; 8. books from hennessey + ingalls; 9. music from Origami Vinyl; 10. season passes to the Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

did you ever use to make mixed tapes for someone when you found yourself falling in love? i made them many times for the loves in my life. now i burn cd’s or make itunes sets, but there was nothing like sharing your feelings through the mixed tape. i loved writing out the set list in my own handwriting, and including scrawled little love notes and drawings to my boyfriends, each song bringing back a special memory, or evoking something personal just between us.

i saw these zippered and velcro pouches for stashing your ipod in the likeness of mixed Cassette tapes and just instantly flashed back to the many old school recordings i’d made over the years. love these from etsy shop Brave Moonman. For more styles and Brave Moonman’s other pouch creations, check out the shop and transform your ipod into a blast from a mixed tape past.