Friday, September 20, 2013

Meet Heloise, the Electro-Pop Diva of Vermont

If you picture a 39-year-old singer-songwriter who lives in Burlington, Vermont with her husband — who is contemplating homesteading — it’s safe to say you’re not picturing Heloise Williams. But it’s fun to imagine the looks she might get up among the Birkenstock-wearers. When we meet at Roebling Tea Room, she’s wearing New York black, accessorized with a child’s Mickey Mouse baseball cap, fringed Jeremy Scott high tops, a rhinestone-encrusted manicure, and peroxide blonde milkmaid braids that she’s eager to reveal are extensions.

“All these bitches wear wigs,” Williams tells me over pansy-colored cocktails. “I was resistant for so long. It’s fun. I do feel like I’m in drag a bit.”

Williams is in town to celebrate the vinyl release of her dance record, Diamond Dust, her second as Heloise and the Savoir Faire, along with actor Elijah Wood at the Ace Hotel Tuesday night.  (Williams is on Wood’s record label, Simian.) But nor does she fit the profile of the electro-pop diva, even if she does resemble one. Williams is best known as the front woman of a Brooklyn-centric, Debbie Harry-championed theatrical disco pop troupe. The band shed six of eight (give or take) musicians and dancers between its 2008 debut Trash, Rats, and Microphones and the new album, so Williams is now basking in the logistical and creative efficiency of going solo-except-for-your-husband-on-guitar.

“The business aspect of all arts escapes me,” she says, “but I feel like I’m getting better at it.” We had been talking about about offloading her vintage Ungaro and YSL collection (she always forgets to charge more than a $20 markup), but now we’re talking about her band. “Having six people travel around is expensive, so if you want to actually survive ... ” Williams says, in a voice like “duh.” “I have a spread sheet. I’m paying attention to it now.”

The pared-down act is a big change for the woman known in New York circles for bringing, in her words, “the most elaborate productions to the shittiest rooms ever,” featuring choreographed dancers in matching ensembles by designer Todd Thomas (master of camp for Victoria’s Secret’s annual runway circus), when they wore anything. But without all the people to manage and on stage distraction, she says, “I feel like I’m connecting with people for the first time.”

Williams and husband/guitarist James Bellizia moved to Vermont, where his family lives and where she went to college, after 2008’s Microphones, for a summer break that stretched into a four-year hiatus. “I was deep in some Internet k-hole research,” Williams says of the period, when she read Joseph Campbell mythology books and William Morris translations of Norse myths. “Then I was like, well, God, who cares what I have to say? I should be helping people.” She went back to school to fulfill her pre-med requirements, but was reaffirmed of music’s importance when she wound up working in a research lab studying its effects on the brain, to see if music can be prescribed as a pain analgesic. Specifically “big, woman vocalists,” Williams says. “It was Celine Dion. Whitney Houston. Big football players would come in and be like” — here Williams shifts to her bro voice — “Yup. Every time. This is where I get the chills.”

She decided to get back to making the music, not studying it, and the result is a dance record full her own big, woman vocals, plus lots of liberal arts-ish references that Williams can barely talk about with a straight face. The title, Diamond Dust, refers to the carbon molecule. “It’s what we’re made of, it’s what diamonds are made of, it’s the hardest material, death is rebirth, blah, blah, blah”— and there are allusions to the Prometheus myth, Beowulf, C.S. Lewis, and John Hughes. “You can’t tell any of this from listening the album!” she says, more apology than promise.

In spite of its grandiose themes, Williams says it is her most personal work yet, because she made it alone, safely removed from the radius of New York influences: “cool kids, surface, members' only kind of things.” Which is not to say she doesn’t still feel their allure each time she’s back. “Everything I do is here,” she says. (As if on cue, former Heloise dancer Joe Shepard shows up for his bartending shift.) But Bellizia — a carpenter and former organic farmer — wants to homestead. They could always do both, she says, a subsistence farm in Vermont and an apartment in Greenpoint. “Now I just have to go out and sell one car commercial,” she says, “and we’ll be great.”


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Scanadu Scout tricorder tops $1 million in funding, now comes in black

Scanadu Scout tricorder tops $1 million in funding, now comes in black data = {blogUrl: "www.engadget.com",v: 315};when = {jquery: lab.scriptBs("jquery"),plugins: lab.scriptBs("plugins"),eng: lab.scriptBs("eng")}; var s265prop9 = ('20626519' !== '') ? 'bsd:20626519' : ''; var postID = '20626519'; var modalMNo = '93319229', modalVideoMNo = '93320648', modalGalleryMNo = '93304207'; when.eng("eng.omni.init", {pfxID:"weg",pageName:document.title,server:"acp-ld39.websys.aol.com",channel:"us.engadget", s_account: "aolwbengadget,aolsvc", short_url: "",pageType:"",linkInternalFilters:"javascript:,",prop1:"article",prop2:"household",prop9:s265prop9,prop12:document.location,prop17:"",prop18:"",prop19:"",prop20:"", prop22:"jon-fingas", prop54:"blogsmith",mmxgo: true }); adSendTerms('1')adSetMOAT('1');adSetAdURL('/_uac/adpagem.html');lab._script("http://o.aolcdn.com/os/ads/adhesion/js/adhads-min.js").wait(function(){var floatingAd = new AdhesiveAd("348-14-15-14d",{hideOnSwipe:true});}); onBreak({980: function () { adSetType("F");htmlAdWH("93319229", "LB", "LB"); adSetType("");}}); EngadgetMenu NewsReviews Features Galleries VideosEventsPodcasts Engadget ShowTopics Buyers Guides Sagas Store HD Mobile Alt Announcements Cameras Cellphones Desktops Displays Gaming GPS Handhelds Home Entertainment Household Internet Laptops Meta Misc Networking Peripherals Podcasts Robots Portable Audio/Video Science Software Storage Tablets Transportation Wearables Wireless Acer Amazon AMD Apple ASUS AT&T Blackberry Canon Dell Facebook Google HP HTC Intel Lenovo LG Microsoft Nikon Nintendo Nokia NVIDIA Samsung Sony Sprint T-Mobile Verizon About UsSubscribeLike Engadget@engadgettip uswhen.eng("eng.nav.init")when.eng("eng.tips.init") onBreak({980: function () {htmlAdWH("93308280", "215", "35",'AJAX','ajaxsponsor');}});Scanadu Scout tricorder tops $1 million in funding, now comes in blackBypostedJun 18th, 2013 at 10:16 PM 0

Scanadu tricorder tops $1 million in funding, now comes in black

Scanadu clearly knows to tap into our collective Star Trek dreams, as the company just reached $1 million in funding for its Scout tricorder. The backing so far comes from people in 91 countries, including luminaries like Eugene Roddenberry (who else?) and Steve Wozniak. That figure is more than symbolic, we'd add -- backers who've paid for a Scout can now get theirs in black rather than a clinical-looking white. Should the new color option prove tempting, it's not necessarily too late; as of this writing, there's still a few days left to make a pledge.

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Microsoft updates Blink for Windows Phone 8 with GIF-like clip creation (video)

Microsoft updates Blink for Windows Phone 8 with GIF-like clip creation (video) data = {blogUrl: "www.engadget.com",v: 315};when = {jquery: lab.scriptBs("jquery"),plugins: lab.scriptBs("plugins"),eng: lab.scriptBs("eng")}; var s265prop9 = ('20627002' !== '') ? 'bsd:20627002' : ''; var postID = '20627002'; var modalMNo = '93325862', modalVideoMNo = '93320648', modalGalleryMNo = '93304207'; when.eng("eng.omni.init", {pfxID:"weg",pageName:document.title,server:"acp-ld39.websys.aol.com",channel:"us.engadget", s_account: "aolwbengadget,aolsvc", short_url: "",pageType:"",linkInternalFilters:"javascript:,",prop1:"article",prop2:"software",prop9:s265prop9,prop12:document.location,prop17:"",prop18:"",prop19:"",prop20:"", prop22:"alexis-santos", prop54:"blogsmith",mmxgo: true }); adSendTerms('1')adSetMOAT('1');adSetAdURL('/_uac/adpagem.html');lab._script("http://o.aolcdn.com/os/ads/adhesion/js/adhads-min.js").wait(function(){var floatingAd = new AdhesiveAd("348-14-15-14c",{hideOnSwipe:true});}); onBreak({980: function () { adSetType("F");htmlAdWH("93325862", "LB", "LB"); adSetType("");}}); EngadgetMenu NewsReviews Features Galleries VideosEventsPodcasts Engadget ShowTopics Buyers Guides Sagas Store HD Mobile Alt Announcements Cameras Cellphones Desktops Displays Gaming GPS Handhelds Home Entertainment Household Internet Laptops Meta Misc Networking Peripherals Podcasts Robots Portable Audio/Video Science Software Storage Tablets Transportation Wearables Wireless Acer Amazon AMD Apple ASUS AT&T Blackberry Canon Dell Facebook Google HP HTC Intel Lenovo LG Microsoft Nikon Nintendo Nokia NVIDIA Samsung Sony Sprint T-Mobile Verizon About UsSubscribeLike Engadget@engadgettip uswhen.eng("eng.nav.init")when.eng("eng.tips.init") onBreak({980: function () {htmlAdWH("93325870", "215", "35",'AJAX','ajaxsponsor');}});Microsoft updates Blink for Windows Phone 8 with GIF-like clip creation (video) MobileBypostedJun 19th, 2013 at 1:58 AM 0

Microsoft updates Blink for Windows Phone 8 with GIF-like clip creation (video)

If Vine still leaves you pining for the choppiness of GIFs, Microsoft's got you covered -- on Windows Phone 8, at least. Redmond's Blink app, which helps smartphone photographers capture bursts of images, has hit version 2.0 and scored the ability to create short animated clips, aptly dubbed Blinks. In addition to the bite-sized videos, the latest update bakes in camera settings in capture mode, sharing to social networks and web galleries for shared creations. Microsoft Research also released Blink Cliplets for Windows 8 and RT, which allows users to layer static and dynamic elements atop footage. Hit the break to check out the new release of Blink in action, or jab the first source link for the download.

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Best Bet: Sylvain Le Hen Gold Barrette

Back in the late nineties, girls would sweep up their hair into messy interpretations of a French twist, complete with perfectly arranged face-framing bangs. You could fasten it with a claw or you could clamp it with a barrette. Consider this Sylvain Le Hen version to be a 2013 upgrade on the latter. The extra-long, sleek, and minimal gold clip is perfect for keeping hair off the nape of your neck during warm summer days, and it can work equally as well for crafting chic and easy evening styles.  

Sylvain Le Hen XL gold barrette, $65 at La Garçonne


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Trent Franks’s Abortion Bill Passes the House, With One Last Gaffe

Now that Trent Franks's 20-week abortion ban has passed the House, it stands no chance in the Senate. So the debate before its 228-196 passage was probably the last opportunity for the bill's supporters (and its opponents) to get in some grandstanding on this bit of legislation. This is probably just as well for Franks, who last week said the "incidence of rape resulting in pregnancy (is) very low," to no shortage of criticism. Franks has since been sidelined, and while the commentary from representatives on both sides was less controversial this week, it was not without its batty moments.

As debate on the bill started, Rep. Michael Burgess, a Republican supporter from Texas and a former OB/GYN, appeared to argue that fetuses in the womb were conscious because they masturbate: "They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?" It's not the world's biggest gaffe, but it gets "masturbating fetus" into a headline.

That's just the kind of thing Dave Weigel was on about in Slate Tuesday evening:  that Democrats love to point to problematic Republican science in these debates. And point they did. "Republicans have repeatedly demonstrated a lack of understanding about basic women’s healthcare, and this bill is just one more example of their continuing attack on women’s rights," said Dina Titus, a Nevada Democrat.

The bill was never going to get to President Obama's desk, and he said he'd veto it anyway, so it's not like it's a viable threat to Roe v. Wade. But it does show us what the new abortion debate will look like: gaffey.


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J.Lo: My Outfits Look Racier Because of My Body Shape

Before her widely rumored breast implants (or whatever it was that caused her chest to suddenly grow, as so many actresses' do), Kate Hudson once told InStyle, "Maybe the reason I don’t have a problem with nudity is that since I have such small breasts I never feel that they are gratuitous." If that is the case, then Jennifer Lopez experiences the opposite effect. In a new Telegraph profile, she addresses recent criticisms of the outfit she wore to perform live on Britain's Got Talent in a leather thong body suit.

I think it’s a little bit much ... I don’t think I’m any racier than any other female pop artist. OK, I’ll wear a sexy outfit, but I think it’s more because my body shape’s a little different to other body shapes, so that’s not very fair.

She's right, of course. Having a more bodacious figure means that showing skin has more impact. And we've gotten so accustomed to seeing extremely thin celebrities on-camera that when we see one with legitimate curves (and not "curves"), it's almost shocking. A thong on J.Lo looks radically different than one on Rihanna or Madonna. And while there's certainly something to be said for dressing with one's body type in mind, it is unfair to say that Lopez is a racier dresser than other pop stars, because she's not — she's simply got more to show, and she shouldn't be judged for it.

Speaking of which, she joins the great camp of famous women who call bullshit on the expectation that their bodies will bounce right back post-birth:

"Tricks" as in plastic surgery, contour spray-tanning, mysterious leg-rubs, and goodness knows what else. So let's enjoy J.Lo's thong-clad ass just the way it is.


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