Little Things That Count - The Weekly Roundup November 14

Music : Florence + The Machine - Cosmic Love. How great was this album, right? One year and a half later and it's still relevant. One of the best British exports in the last 10 years, Florence + The Machine, fronted by London-born Florence Welch, are back in the studio working on a new album, which makes me very happy.

Florence is the daughter of a Harvard-educated Professor of Renaissance Studies and Academic Dean of Arts at Queen Mary, University of London (mother) and an advertising executive (father). When she was a teenager, she attended one of her mother's lectures and was deeply impressed. "I aspire to something like that but with music. I hope that my music has some of the big themes - sex, death, love, violence - that will still be part of the human story in 200 years' time", she said years later, in 2010.

Cosmic Love is one of the best tracks from the album and it's one of those songs that is so much better when played at high volume. Just try it. 

"The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart."

Brilliant.


Movie/TV Show : Black Swan. It hasn't opened yet, but it's highly anticipated and the early reviews are excellent : "a true gem", "fantastic", "Aronofsky's masterpiece". There's talk about an Oscar nomination (and possibly a win?) for Natalie Portman's performance and I can't wait to see it. It's the one movie that's been on my mind this week. The beautifully designed Black Swan website has gone live with videos, gallery, downloads and of course the trailer. 

Perfume: M. Micallef - Note Vanille. A beautiful, sophisticated, grown-up vanilla fragrance that includes notes of cognac/rum, jasmine and sandalwood.  


Random thought: I miss nectarines.


Blast from the past: Moloko - The Time Is Now. One of the sexiest songs I can think of, off the top of my head. It makes me think of silky smooth black lingerie slowly dropping to the floor. Why black? I love black. Black's awesome.


Food/Dessert: There's been a lot of chocolate eating going on in my house lately and the leading role has been played this week by a good, affordable dark chocolate from Ritter Sport, called A La Mousse au Chocolat. Forget the fancy French name. What you'll get here is a dark chocolate with a fine cocoa filling and it's delish. Great value for money. They have actually repackaged it recently and it looks a bit different than the picture below (which is the only one I was able to find) but the new packaging doesn't look extremely different, just cooler (it's black. Black's always cool) and more modern.

And speaking of Ritter Sport, I want to go here: it's their "Colorful Chocoworld" store in Berlin, Germany, where you can find a lot of details about the history of the brand, have a cup of hot chocolate or try one of their selected menu offerings in the Chocolounge section. Children can have fun in the Chocoworkshop area, where they can make their own chocolate. I'm sold!

This week, Jay-Z debuted a new glossy website, to coincide with the release of his new Greatest Hits collection later this month. Complete with videos, discography, photos and social media integration, it's a thing of black and white beauty, exactly what you would expect from one of the best names in rap music history.

 Photos from Flickr.com and Rittersport.com