first, i should say please tune into to ustream.tv tomorrow to see a live interview with me and you get to ask the questions. excited? i am.

now, for the brea list.

jean grae - jeanius - i really liked jean grae’s last album but didn’t even know this one was out until a friend told me i HAD to get it (thanks alyx!). she was right. i do not consider myself a hip hop expert by any means, but this is one of my very favorite hip hop albums of this year…by far. she is intelligent, sexy and a brillaint musician and lyricist. i’m sure you’ll agree. here’s another official website in addition to the myspace one above.

that’s the video for “love thirst.”

swallow me whole by nate powell - just read this last weekend and it’s really amazing. the art is simple but beautiful. the story deals with illness, family turmoil, crushes, and pretty much anything you can imagine. also, insects play a pretty important role. it’s worth the read for any indie comic fan.

lookbook - i find myself on this site a lot looking for clothing ideas. the other day, i had a whole conversation about how i think people in other countries dress better. it went like this. me: “you look good. like you’re from norway.” my friend lindsey: “what does that mean?” me: “…” clearly, this website has shaped my thinking without me actually realizing it.

the x-files season one - i started re-watching this and i must say it is amazing. if you can tear your eyes away from the very 90s suits scully is wearing, you’ll remember why you loved this show so much. if you are a baby-child and have never seen it, you should. i don’t like aliens or conspiracy theories and it is still some brilliant show making.

since i’ve been in portland this weekend, i thought it was high time for another themed brea list. this one is the portland edition. maybe i went a little overboard here and linked to too many things. whatever - come back later this week if you are overloaded. it’ll still be here.

horse feathers - if you are having a crappy day and you just want to relax, the first thing i would suggest you do is put on horse feathers’ “a house with no home.” it’s the equivalent of a warm cookie at the end of a hard day. and they live in portland. i think. the video below is just at someone’s house but i’m linking not for the video quality but the tone overall. i think it’s an accurate depiction.

olio united - a shop i like to hit up while i’m here. if i haven’t been to the actual store in a while, i pretty much know what they have via their great website. if you look at any red carpet photos of me, i’m probably wearing a dress from here at one time or another. mostly local and all indie designers.

reading frenzy - a very good comic/zine/independent press store in portland. the kind of place you could walk into and spend hours looking from book to book.

powell’s - if you read ever, you’ve probably been to the powell’s website at some point another. that could never prepare for the massive building that sits close to the center of portland. it literally takes up a block and you could get lost if not for the helpful maps.

voodoo doughnuts - any place open 21 hours a day wins my vote. also they do weddings. in addition to the obvious (selling donuts).

ground kontrol - vintage arcade games. i played tron tonight. need i say more? (except that maybe it’s also a bar.)

miranda july - i think technically miranda july lives in los angeles now but i associate her with portland. by far in the top 10 creative people ever. wait, yes, ever. also, if you have never seen the site learning to love you more, i urge you to go there right now. and complete an assigment. and then post it in the replies on this blog and on the site. at the very least, it will make you feel creative and you can tell people about it later.

thanks to laura for posting a guest brea list last week. a laura list, if you will. hope everyone enjoyed it because there are definitely weeks that i am too busy to blog. i promise london pics to come, by the way.

so many bands, so little time.

cold war kids - loyalty to loyalty. this album has been out for a little while. i should’ve written about it a while back. a year or two ago, a friend of mine took me to a cold war kids show (they are a southern california band) and he told me he thought they were going to be huge. from what i could tell, they were already huge because the show was packed. either way, they put on an amazing live show and their new album is pretty bomb too.

LOCAL by brian wood and ryan kelly - on my trip to london, i had quite a bit of time to kill on the plane and this giant hardback book came in handy. not that it’s just for a long trip. it’s 12 short stories so you can read it a bit at a time. the stories are all related in some way or another to Megan, who at times reminded me of people i know and other times eerily reminded me of myself. loved the stories set in austin, portland, and richmond (i’ve spent a lot of time in all those places).

and brian wood’s twitter and blog are pretty great too. yeah - i realize i just blogged about channel zero a few weeks ago. can’t a girl be a fan?

austinhandmade.com - you know i love austin and creative people. this site combines both. all austin designers - a great place to get a holiday gift for friends. i’ve spend a lot of time looking at the necklaces and stationery.

amelie gillette - the hater: pop culture love letters - part of the onion’s a.v. club, this blog cracks me up. she never fails to point out the ridiculousness of pop culture.

I know what you’re thinking: who is this Laura person we don’t care about and what is she doing on Brea’s blog?  WE WANT BREA!

Who am I? My company helps people like Brea keep their online empires happily humming along. I do things like explain the weird intricacies and etiquette of twitter and make sure that her facebook and blog are linked up. When something breaks I fix it, and when something is confusing I explain it. You can catch me on twitter as @lkr.

As for why I’m on her blog, Brea ask me to do a guest Brea List while she’s away in London. I thought I would theme my list around my favorite web resources, and give you a little sneak peak behind the scenes of the Brea Grant Web Empire.™

Twitterrific (for brea) & TwitterBerry (for me): When you spend all day running around (bad unintentional pun) like Brea, a phone app for tweeting is a must-have. Who am I kidding, I spend EVERY day in front of a computer but TwitterBerry allows me to get my fix from the beach as well!

FeedSmith, CommentLuv and Twitter Widget: These are some of my favorite plugins, I use them on pretty much every project. Despite its frustrating, wildly fluctuating numbers, feedburner is essential for tracking the metrics of your blog. I think commentluv is a great way to encourage comments, and I love being able to give a little “reward” to commenters for taking the time to say hi. Twitter widget makes it dead-simple to embed your twitter feed into your blog which is great for driving traffic to your twitter account.

Yotify: Social media types know that what we call listening (basically looking out for mentions and media pertaining to the client) is probably the most important element of online strategy. For monitoring Brea, I’ve been playing around with a new site called Yotify. It can be annoying with all of the multiple set-ups, but it allows more targeted, in-depth searches than your standard google alert.

Gary Vaynerchuk: When Brea and I started discussing her jumping into the whole social media thing, I sent her a link to this Gary V speech. As you can guess, she was not only immediately sold on the power of all this stuff but totally fired up about the possibilities.

mixing it up a bit this week for the brea list. instead of bands and books, it’s all about the internet. here’s are three of my favorite web series(es) - what’s the proper way to right that?

david wain’s wainy days.

that’s the first episode but you can see more here. one time i was at a party david wain was at and i was too nervous to say much of anything to him. but i like this web series. there it is.

i know everyone had seen felicia day’s series, the guild, but i just caught on post-dr. horrible. anyway, here is the first episode of the guild. more can be found at watchtheguild.com.

want more felicia day? her website is feliciaday.com. all her interviews are pretty funny too.

lastly, a web series i happen to be involved in. valley peaks - a dramatic mockery of teen shows.

that’s the first episode but if you keep watching, i make an appearance in episode 6.

gonna start a new thing for the brea list - guest list-ers! people who i think are rad and have interesting things/lists to share.

sick of sarah - i love this band. they remind of a band i really would have wanted to be in about five years ago. (and now too - i just don’t come up with “fantasy” bands as much as i used to.) here’s a video for “daisies.”

“mr. incredible” also recently made it onto my gym rotation mix. the whole album is amazing and you can vote for their video on LOGO’s website here.

born standing up: a comic’s life by steve martin - i’ve been on a bit of a memoir kick lately and my friend jeff recommended this one to me. it’s great i think for both actors (because you can see that even steve martin struggled - he performed to completely empty clubs) and non-actors (because it’s steve martin and he’s interesting). this npr page has a bunch of links to video and sound clips of steve martin. the fun balloon animals link is pretty funny.

smashing darling - this is a great website for indie designers (and buyers of course). there is a great blog with editor’s picks and new stuff on the site. and i follow julie darling on twitter where she links to a lot of cool clothes on the site.

veganize it…don’t criticize it! - my friend jenn writes this blog and i think it’s great (for those who have time to cook - which is sometimes me). you might know her better as jenn-who-makes-vegan-twinkies-at-vegan-spot (if you live in los angeles) or jenn-the-deadpan-high-school-girl-from-reno-911! (if you live elsewhere and watch tv). either way, now you know her as a brilliant, online blogging chef. you can even copy her twinkie recipe from her blog.

the veronicas - hook me up - sometimes i just need a good pop/rock album and the veronicas provide just that. good for the following situations: singing loudly alone, singing loudly in groups, trying on clothes and posing (alone or in groups), and running. my favorites are “hook me up” and “this is how it feels.” here’s a video to “untouched.”

also - one of the main reasons i wanted to post this is that they have these cute videos on their website. here’s how to make tacos on tour.

notes on a life by eleanor coppola - loved this book. married to francis ford coppola and i’m ashamed to say i had no idea who she was. she is a fascinating lady who juggles being an artist herself (visual and film), raising a family, and being married to one of the most famous directors in the world - a balancing act a lot of women have to deal with in one way or another. also - reading about her travels and behind-the-scenes on set is great for people both in and out of the film industry.

seraph cosmetics - i mentioned seraph last week in an interview for beautyinterviews.com and wanted to give them an official shout-out. seraph makes my favorite lip gloss ever. they also use natural ingredients, have refillable containers (so less waste!) and are a local los angeles company. the girl who runs it is super nice too.

wormwood: gentleman corpse by ben templesmith - just read this and loved it. you might better know him from 30 days of night but he both wrote and did the art for wormwood. it’s truly a work of art. (plus, he’ll be at the same convention in london that i’ll be at in a few weeks.)

here’s a video for the comic that i found. i can only imagine he actually made it.

soko - soko not sokute i love this album. it’s simplistic and adorable. soko is an amazing french singer who is in her early twenties. and i think this song is incredibly cute and a little scary at the same time. hard to pull off. and the simple one-take video is amazing.

when you are engulfed in flames by david sedaris - i’m a huge sedaris fan and while i don’t think this is the book you should start with when entering the sedaris world (that would be me talk pretty one day in my humble opinion), it’s still very good for all the die-hard fans of his work. he’s infinitely funny and clever in the oddest ways possible. here’s a link to npr’s page of sedaris reading some excerpts from books or short stories. the santaland diaries is one of my all-time favorites.

channel zero by brian wood - published back in 2000 but i only recently read it. a comic set in a world where there is no freedom of speech, it follows Jennie 2.5, a freedom fighter. i really loved the art and the message.

i’m a cyborg but that’s ok - a park chan-wook film (probably best known for old boy), this south korean film manages to be both cute and weird at the same time.chuck kim, one of the writers for heroes, suggested it to me and i just got around to watching it this week. (thanks chuck!) one of the only movies i’ve seen that combines a love story, a mental institution, dentures as a central plot point, and robots.

so, i thought i’d make another themed brea list this week as it is the first week heroes airs. so on the brea list this week is a few of my personal heroes. (p.s. this is a lot harder than i imagined and these are just a few that i feel like i haven’t written about yet.)

and if you’re just tuning in because you saw me on tv, welcome to my blog. yes, this is brea writing a blog. no ghost writers or any of that crap. aside for other random posts, i do a weekly brea list of stuff i like mostly consisting of books, movies, comics, websites, clothing designers, and food. just general stuff i think is awesome at this moment.

a brea list of heroes:

M.I.A. - any album. i feel like M.I.A. really helped to revolutionized/revived electronic music. she put life back into it and suddenly people all over loved it again. (i know this can be said for a lot of bands.) her songs are political and you can dance to them. two things i enjoy. plus, she’s just rad.

as this is the first song i fell in love with by M.I.A., i decided it was an appropriate post. but check out her new album, kala, too. you probably already know “paper planes.”

marilyn monroe - i’m not only a huge fan of her amazing style, but i could watch her movies over and over again. netflix some like it hot right now. and then after that, gentlemen prefer blondes. she is an amazing and beautiful actress who is so much more than a pretty face.

here is a video of “diamonds are a girl’s best friend” from gentlemen prefer blondes.

barbara kingsolver - wrote a book that changed my life, animal, vegetable, miracle. she and her family lived only what they could grow for a year. that’s very impressive to me and i’ve never learned so much in one book.

the austin craft mafia - (you know i have to give a shout-out to austin, tx.) in general, i love people who do stuff - you know, like they get out there and do what they want to be doing. these ladies started crafting back when mostly grandmothers were doing it and started an amazing support group for each other. they put on a great fashion show every year. they combine my favorite things: indie fashion + diy ethic + austin, tx

my mom - she’s awesome. most supportive mom in the world. no link here. sorry.

fun week hanging out with friends so i hope you all don’t mind if i skimp a little on the list this week. but i feel like these are solid choices so let’s go for quality and not quantity here.

theresa andersson - hummingbird, go!

this girl is amazing. she’s swedish but lived in new orleans, austin, and now i’m not really sure where she is. either way, this album has me humming all afternoon.

this is by far one of the most amazing videos i’ve ever seen. if you listen to the song on its own, you think, “ah. recorded in a studio with many takes.” then you realize, she can do it all live. amazing.

world war z - by max brooks. one of the best books ever written for you zombie fans and non-zombie fans alike. it will really make you evaluate your zombie escape plan. go here to calculate your personal chance of surviving a zombie attack. i’m only 35%. (i feel like you’d do way better if you owned a boat.)

melissa shoes - amazing plastic shoes. you can see me wearing them on the dvd/online commentary for the second half of the first episode of heroes. i’ll link it as soon as it comes up. these plastic shoes are incredibly comfortable. i also own a pair of the flip-flops.

penelope - adorable movie starring cristina ricci and james mcavoy. and featuring the hilarious catherine o’hara and reese witherspoon. seriously - netflix it.