For almost a year I was on the hunt for a good weekender that was stylish, of good quality, and affordable. That hunt ended when I found The Worton Weekend by Blue Claw Co. The Worton Weekend is handmade in America (Philly to be precise), and features thick, imported leather, and a high end, waterproof, wipeable liner on the inside making it easy to clean.

My bag arrived just in time for my trip to Jamaica – the day before in fact. Though my trip was for an entire week, all my clothes and some of the girlfriend’s fit all into this bag. In fact, it may be a little large for an overnight or weekender bag, but that only means I’m not limited to using the weekend on just short trips. Highly recommended.

Some of you may have seen me tweeting about this camera for a few months now. I’ve finally just purchased it (it’s been on back order for forever). So far, I love everything about it, especially the picture quality and the design. The picture quality is unmatched in similarly sized cameras, and as a lover of film, I was super excited to find that the traditional rangefinder design wasn’t the end of homage to film – it also has Film Simulation Modes.

With this purchase, this blog is going to head in a different direction a bit – more about life in Los Angeles, less about music.

I love this song and video for Airship’s “Kids.” This band is officially on my radar.

Frenchkiss is probably the hottest small indie label right now. After delivering us records from Passion Pit, Local Natives, The Dodos, and The Antlers it seems like they can do no wrong. Again, they deliver with 1,2,3. You can preorder the new 1,2,3 record here.

I’m possibly in the market for a bike. The last bike time I owned a bike was about 5 years ago when I lived in Philly. My bike and the train were my main modes of transportation, until it snowed while I was at work and a plow ran into my bike and wrapped it around the pole it was attached to. While searching around, I found this rad company called State Bicycles. They’re based in Arizona make some super slick bicycles. I especially like their Samurai model, with white tires, pictured above.

Hooray For Earth’s video for “True Loves” is one of the most interesting and unique music videos I’ve seen in a while. The music isn’t bad either. The “True Loves” LP hits stores on June 7th.

When I first heard the new Battles material, I was super disappointed as it’s incredibly different than their older material. But then they released this video for “Ice Cream,” and now I’m really into it, regardless of their completely new sound.

Titus Andronicus is one of the more exciting bands around right now. I grew up in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and this video of them touring New Jersey takes me back to my teenage years.

The video for “MindKilla” is a bit hard to watch, but I’m really excited about this new Gang Gang Dance album.

I’m consistently surprised that Stars is not a bigger band than they are. It’s not that they’re unknown, but they’ve just never quite got the recognition that many of their Canadian peers have. Regardless, this is one of the most well done music videos I’ve seen in a while.