"The Rhumb Line is waiting there too, you know it's worth the night's we wait there" -- St Peter's Day Festival, Ra Ra Riot
The melodies linger in my head long after the last track has played. The tracks are orchestral, yet danceable (if you so choose). The lyrics are focused and descriptive, each line a snapshot that brings to mind the pain, tragedy and joy that the band must have experienced as it made this album. I can't say for certain that the band worked through it's grief by making this album, but it certainly feels that way, and if so it is a stronger album because of it.
The Top Ten Albums of 2008
- The Rhumb Line by Ra Ra Riot
- The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit
- Brighter Than Creation's Dark by The Drive By Truckers
- Dear, Science by TV on The Radio
- For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver
- The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley
- Real Emotional Trash by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
- Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
- Santogold by Santogold
- Stay Positive by The Hold Steady
- Loyalty to Loyalty by Cold War Kids
- Evil Urges by My Morning Jacket
- Rook by Shearwater
- Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend
According to Last.fm
My most played albums of the last-twelve months filtered for those released this year looks like this:
- The Rhumb Line by Ra Ra Riot
- The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit
- The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley
- Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend
- Modern Guilt by Beck
- Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes
- Narrow Stairs by Death Cab for Cutie
- Stay Positive by The Hold Steady
- For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver
- Wagonwheel Blues by The War on Drugs
"Until you see that you deserve better/I'm gonna lay right into you."
You should know the drill by now, so let's dive right in.
This week's list is built around the White Stripes' 'You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As Your Told)' from the
- You Don't Know What Love Is by the White Stripes
- Fluorescent Adolescent by Arctic Monkeys
- Dashboard by Modest Mouse
- Australia by The Shins
- Gold Lion by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Say It Ain't So by Weezer
- Loser by Beck
- The Distance by Cake
- Run by Gnarls Barkley
- In Bloom by Nirvana
I think this is a pretty solid play list from top to bottom. Many of them are album or artist favorites. Even the Arctic Monkeys' tune, who iTunes continues to foist on me, is catchy enough that I didn't feel like skipping it. 'Dashboard' by Modest Mouse comes in with the most plays, but 'Say It Ain't So' by Weezer is my favorite song on the list. 'Gold Lion' has the least plays, but is one of my favorite Yeah Yea
Odds are you've probably never heard of Son of Rambow. If it weren't for my undying love of public radio I may never have heard of it either, but a favorable review there prompted me to add the movie to my Netflix queue where it sat unremembered until it arrived in the mail a few days ago.
The basic premise is a schoolyard bully tricks his latest "bullee" into being the stuntman in a recreation of Rambo: First Blood the bully intends to submit to an amateur film contest. It's a comedy, as you've probably guessed, but much more.
It's a hell of a premise, and one that gets better as the story moves along. It's got all of the bad cliches of a John Hughes film--the movie actually takes place in 80's England--but it pays them tribute, and even outperforms those old cliches. It's a comedy, as you've probably guessed, but much more.
For me the film does a wonderful job of capturing boyhood. The way young boys think, the way they dream, the way they deal with reality by ignoring it. So many scenes prompted memories of me and my brother running through the woods behind our parent's home, playing army or cowboys and Indians, or whatever version of hero versus villain had captured our thoughts that week.
A must see for sure.
"I could be there when you land"
Each Friday I'll post a playlist built using the iTunes Genius feature based on the first song I find myself singing that morning.
This morning I woke up with Franz Ferdinand's 'Eleanor Put Your Boots Back On' on my lips even as my eyes were still opening.
Here's what iTunes did with it:
- Eleanor Put Your Boots Back On by Franz Ferdiand
- I Summon You by Spoon
- Ocean of Noise by The Arcade Fire
- 505 by the Arctic Monkeys
- Summersong by The Decemberists
- Turn Into by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Hands by The Raconteurs
- Barely Legal by The Strokes
- Jacqueline by Franz Ferdinand
- Energy by Apples in Stereo
'Eleanor' might be one of the best, but underrated Franz Ferdiand songs. It is very different from their usual dance-rock forte, but I've always liked it since the first listen, and it is probably my favorite song of the list. According to iTunes the track with the most plays is 'Ocean of Noise' which is not surprsing, because iTunes seems to love the Arcade Fire's Neon Bible. The song with the least plays is '505' by The Artic Monkeys. It's been played one time back in July of 2007.
The Apples in Stereo track, 'Energy' is a free download when you install Amazon.com's MP3 downloader, but I already owned--and loved--the entire album.
I read a lot of different things, books, magazines, newspapers, short stories, and web articles. I thought I'd try keeping track of what I read each week and each Monday post about what I read the prior week.
This week's books:
- Hell to Pay by George Pelecanos
I started reading Pelecanos because of his work on the phenomenal TV series The Wire. Pelecanos' books take place in D.C. neighborhoods very reminiscent of the Baltimore neighborhoods he wrote about for the wire, and deal with the same issues of race, crime, drug, and police work. Hell to Pay is the second in a series featuring detectives Derek Strange and Terry Quinn.
They're great reads, not too dense, but full of brilliant observation surrounded by quickly moving plots. I can't wait to read the next in the series, and the rest of Pelecanos' works.
- Imbibe! by David Wondrich (reading)
- Flight by Sherman Alexie (reading)
I didn't get around to many articles this week.
- 'The Uses of Adversity' by Malcolm Gladwell for The New Yorker
I try not to miss any of Gladwell's writing, he writes brilliantly through anecdotal evidence about a variety of topics. This piece covers the rags to riches story, that someone from a poor, minority background was once able to "end up on top, by starting at the bottom" versus todays version of sucess seens as "a matter of capitalizing n socioeconomic advantage, not compensating for disadvantage."
- 'The Oval Office Facebook Group' by Dr. Mark Drapeau for Science Progress
An insightful look about how government intranet sites based on popular social networking platforms like Facebook and Google Docs are changing the way our government shares information.
"Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?/Can I handle the seasons of my life?"
I've seen this done on a few other sites and liked the idea enough to post my own version.
The way my version will work is I'll build an iTunes Genius playlist based on the first song I find myself singing Friday mornings.
This week's list is built around 'Landslide' as recorded by the Smashing Pumpkins. It's originally a Fleetwood Mac song, and has been covered by the Dixie Chicks as well as others.
The song has been in my head since Tuesday night. Shouldn't be hard to guess why.
- Landslide by Smashing Pumpkins
- Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town by Pearl Jam
- Rape Me by Nirvana
- I Will Survive by Cake (another cover)
- Last Nite by The Strokes
- You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As Your Told) by The White Stripes
- Perfect by Smashing Pumpkins
- Rebellion (Lies) by The Arcade Fire
- Blister in the Sun by The Viloent Femmes
- Phantom Limb by The Shins
The most-played track on the list is 'You Don't Know What Love Is' from the Icky Thump album. My favorite track on the list is 'Rebellion (Lies)' from The Arcade Fire's brilliant Funeral.
I read a lot of different things, books, magazines, newspapers, short stories, and web articles. I thought I'd try keeping track of what I read each week and each Monday post about what I read the prior week.
First up the books:
- Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (finished)
- Imbibe!
- Hell to Pay by George Pelecanos
Short Stories:
- The Stone-Hearted Queen by Kelly Barnhill
I finally started reading my way through the Jul/Aug issue of Weird Tales. My favorite story of the issue so far is Kelly Barnhill's 'The Stone-Hearted Queen'. It's a fantasy piece, which I've never been a fan of, but this one is different. It doesn't get caught up in the fact it is a fantasy piece and just tells the story. Barnhill is also a Minnesota author, so I intend to seek out more of her work.
- How I Got Here by Ramsy Shegadeh
This one came highly reccomened by Jeff VanderMeer. It's almost too weird, but proved interesting.
- All In by Peter Atwood
Meh.
Articles:
Michael Pollan, one of the smartest writers I've read, penned this powerful letter to the next president. In it he explains why food policy will be one of the most important issues of the next presidency. He manages to tie energy policy, foreign policy, and environmental policy to food policy in ways that make sense. This is the one must read from my list this week, even if you aren't going to be the next POTUS.
A great article about game design focused on Epic, the creators of Gears of War for the XBOX 360.
Restauranteur Joe Bastianch reconciles his passion for food with his new found desire to run the New York Marathon.
From McSweeney's Internet Tendency comes this funny and very accurate (hopefully) fictional account of a man, his Warcraft addiction, and his girlfriend.
"I don't know why I/ Feel so tongue tied."
I've seen this done on a few other sites and liked the idea enough to post my own version.
The way my version will work is I'll build an iTunes Genius playlist based on the first song I find myself singing Friday mornings.
Today's edition is built around Myxomatosis by Radiohead from their album Hail to the Thief.
- Myxomatosis by Radiohead
- Friend of Mine by The National
- Youthless by Beck
- Touch Me I'm Going To Scream, Pt. 1 by My Morning Jacket
- And It Rained All Night by Thom Yorke
- Dollars & Cents by Radiohead
- I've Seen Enough by Cold War Kids
- Nature Springs by The Good, The Bad & The Queen
- Razz by Kings of Leon
- Obsatcle 2 by Interpol
Myxomatosis is one of my favorite songs, but another goodie from this list is the My Morning Jacket track. The most-played track is Nature Springs, but honestly until I heard it I couldn't have told you a thing about the song. Another oddity brought to you by the iTunes shuffling algorithim.
Instead it is a brilliant study of life and death with music at its heart. At times laugh-out-loud funny, and downright sad at others, Young@Heart is a deeply moving and satisfying film.
Music is an important part of my life, and to see the impact music continues to have on adults several generations older than me is inspiring. Music carries them through their lives, through love and loss. Music empowers them to keep going when most of us wouldn't.
At some point this week I reached 10,000 scrobbles on Last.fm. I thought it would be the perfect time to look back over my listening history(as documented by last.fm, more on that later) and see what I can discern from it.
The top five artists in my library are:
- Radiohead
- Kings of Leon
- Modest Mouse
- The White Stripes
- Mike Doughty
Mike Doughty, on the other hand, has only 71 tracks. He truly is one of my favorite artists, though I prefer his early solo work (and his work with Soul Coughing) more than his most recent stuff.
The top five tracks tell a different story. They are:
- 'Disaster' -- The Besnard Lakes
- 'Plasticities' -- Andrew Bird
- 'Neon Bible' -- Arcade Fire
- 'Another Travelin' Song' -- Bright Eyes
- 'Fans' -- Kings of Leon
Finally, the top five albums in my library according to Last.fm are:
- Because of the Times -- Kings of Leon
- Armchair Apocrypha -- Andrew Bird
- Sky Blue Sky -- Wilco
- Cease to Begin -- Band of Horses
- Neon Bible -- The Arcade Fire
The problem with all of these lists can be ascribed to the fact that for the first few months of my Last.fm subscription I didn't own an iPod. I still listened to CDs and mostly in my car. The only things being added to Last.fm at the time were tracks listened to on my computer, which were few. Even when I bought my iPod I wasn't as good about scrobbling tracks to the site as I am now. I'm almost adamant about it these days, and get quite upset when I realize something I'm listening too won't be logged on the site.
In another 10,000 tracks or so I'll take another look, and see if a clearer picture has been painted of my listening habits.
