Monday, December 18, 2006

Best of 2006: Pt. 3-Music Albums

Everyone has their opinion and hopefully mine will be considered more intelligent than others when it comes to music. I've continued to be the music enthusiast throughout the year having purchased many an album. I've found it difficult over the past 5 years to narrow down my top year end albums to 10 albums, and therefore this year, I've decided to christen the birth of the 2006 Top 50 albums (in no particular order):

1. Jon Auer-Songs from the Year of Our Demise
2. Arctic Monkeys-Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
3. Girl Talk-The Night Ripper
4. Shack-The Corner of Miles and Gil
5. Orson-Bright Idea
6. Ron Sexsmith-Time Being
7. Sloan-Never Hear the End of It
8. Brother Kite-Waiting For the Time to be Right
9. Long Blondes-Someone to Drive You Home
10. Jarvis Cocker-Jarvis
11. Young Knives-Voices of Animals and Men
12. Sunset Rubdown-Shut Up, I am Dreaming
13. Peter Bjorn and John-Writer's Block
14. Elms-Chess Hotel
15. Gnarls Barkley-St. Elsewhere
16. Twilight Singers-Powder Burns
17. Vitalic-Ok Cowboy
18. Clearlake-Amber
19. Hot Chip-The Warning
20. The Office-Q&A
21. Zutons-Tired of Hanging Around
22. David Mead-Tangerine
23. Decemberists-The Crane Wife
24. Bruce Springsteen-We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
25. I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness-Fear Is on Our Side
26. The Bees (US)-High Society
27. Raconteurs-Broken Boy Soldiers
28. Joseph Arthur-Nuclear Daydream
29. The Hold Steady-Boys and Girls in America
30. Belle & Sebastian-The Life Pursuit
31. Placebo-Meds
32. Yo La Tengo-I am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
33. TV on the Radio-Return to Cookie Mountain
34. Bob Dylan-Modern Times
35. Josh Ritter-The Animal Years
36. M. Ward-Post War
37. Sparklehorse-Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
38. Oh No! Oh My!-Self titled
39. Apollo Up-Chariots of Fire
40. Futureheads-News and Tributes
41. Wolfmother-Self titled
42. The Rapture-Pieces of the People We Love
43. Gomez-How We Operate
44. Josh Rouse-Subtitulo
45. Bottle Rockets-Zoysia
46. Rhett Miller-The Believer
47. Snow Patrol-Eyes Open
48. Guillemots-Through the Window Pane
49. Drive By Truckers-A Blessing and a Curse
50. Lindsey Buckingham-Under the Skin

Currently Listening To:
CSS
Cansei De Ser Sexy
Released on: 7-11-06

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Best of 2006-Television

With the invention of Tivo, my television viewing has definitely increased. I travel pretty regularly and with the addition of a child, it is almost required that I record my shows. Looking back at this year, I would have to say that the following are my favorite TV shows of 2006:

1. Entourage
2. The Shield
3. The Sopranos
4. Big Love
5. How I Met Your Mother
6. Heroes
7. Everwood
8. Robot Chicken
9. The Office
10. Scrubs
11. My Name is Earl

Currently Listening to:
Clinic
Visitations
Released on: 10-16-06

Monday, December 11, 2006

Best of 2006: Pt. 1-Music Reissues

When you are an avid music fan, you fall on one side or the other when it comes to year end 'Best of' lists: (a) you either hate them and don't like to attempt to categorize music from best to worst; or if you are like me, you look forward to what people consider to be the best albums of the year. Over the past few years, I've restrained my lists to only the top 25 or so albums, but this year I've decided to expand my horizon to include reissues, album disappointments, TV shows, movies, and of course, music albums. To start out my year end lists, let me start with my top music album reissues. I'm not going to attempt to list them in any certain order (so don't assume that #1 is really the best of the group.

1. Beach Boys-Pet Sounds
2. The Cure-Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
3. Depeche Mode-Violator
4. Depeche Mode-Songs of Faith and Devotion
5. Pavement-Wowee Zowee!
6. T. Rex-The Slider
7. T. Rex-Tanx
8. Jesus and Mary Chain-Pyschocandy
9. Jesus and Mary Chain-Darklands
10. Manic Street Preachers-Everything Must Go
11. Massive Attack-Collected
12. Gram Parson-The Complete Reprise Recordings
13. Pulp-Common People
14. Pulp-This is Hardcore
15. Johnny Cash-Live at San Quentin
16. REM-And I Feel Fine: Best of the IRS Years 1982-1987
17. The Cure: The Head on the Door
18. Go Betweens: That Striped Sunlight Sound

Well, I don't have time (and am not paid) to document my justification in numerous paragraphs as to why I selected the above reissues. They are just a list of albums I found important and worth mentioning this year. Let the one or two talkbackers discuss the list..haha.

Currently listening to:
The Brother Kite
Waiting for the Time to be Right
Released on: 9-12-06

Monday, December 04, 2006

5 Stupid Things that People Won't Shut Up About

1. Britney Spears wearing no panties: I mean come on people, do either she or K-Fed really have a whole lot when it comes to smarts. If you were hot like her, without that dumbass black boy wannabe (btw, I still find it funny that record companies would give this guy a record contract..the guy sold 6,000 copies of his debut album..I hope I don't get that gag gift), and not being a responsible parent, wouldn't you be out and about at the nightspots of NYC and Vegas showing off your cooter too? This girl is making a big case for sole custody of her children. Wouldn't it be nice if there were a half smart judge who would award the poor kids to some responsible adults??? I'd say Britney's family, but I'm having a hard time believing they did a great job with Miss Pink Taco.

2. Barack Obama: So, this Senator from Illinois..who really no one knows much about strolls on Oprah, kisses her ass, writes a book, and decides that running for the Democratic nomination is a good career goal? I'm not giving this guy much hope for the nomination, but hell, anyone is better than Hillary.

3. The BCS Title Game: Yes, it's Ohio St. vs. Florida. I'm still trying to understand why people don't realize that the SEC is the most difficult conference in the country. I'm a TN fan, hate Florida football with a passion, but am pulling for the SEC to win this game. Do you think that the voters also realized that no one in the South, West, or East would watch the Ohio St. vs. Michigan game on TV. The NCAA isn't the NFL, but they gotta make some money too. I also think we would be thinking that Michigan vs. Ohio St. would be a waste if Ohio St. beat them again.

4. Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii: I read today where a kid was shot dead today for trying to steal a Playstation 3. Wow, is it really that awesome that I want to die for it? People, these consoles will be out in stores after Christmas, there aren't tons of games out for them yet..let's get a reality check. I'd like one too, but waiting in line for a week in the freezing cold to get a console...it's starting to sound like a new Star Wars film was opening up. Shouldn't these boys be interested in actually getting girlfriends, looking at porn, or something constructive..geez. By the way, where do young kids get the 600-800 bucks to buy the Playstation 3? Might be a good time to be a person in need of an organ donation..

5. Netflix putting movie theaters out of business: There was a news article on the frontpage of Yahoo about this today. With the advances in technology, home theater systems, plasma TV prices dropping...I kinda like the idea of staying home. Like I wanna go to a theater to listen to people talk, sit in scrunched chairs, listen to cell phones going off, having a kid kick you in the back of the head....I like sitting at home with a pause button, clean bathroom, couch/pillow, cheap food and drinks. Oh, and for 5.99 a month for endless movies..it kinda makes going to the theater to see one movie for 10 bucks..sound kinda nice.

Currently listening to:
Bloc Party
A Weekend in the City
Released: in 2007

Sunday, December 03, 2006

A Broken Business Model

About a month or two ago, I finally got a new cell phone. To start off this blog post, I have to get up on my soapbox and spout venom at the cell phone providers. Why the hell do you sell phones that barely can make it a year and then require that a person sign a 2 year agreement? It blows my mind. Before I got the new phone, my other Motorola was falling apart...terrible battery life, bad reception, dropped calls....most people can understand the frustration I'm vocalizing. I did all this research to find a highly rated phone, but of course, the highly rated phones are the ones that are not on sale. It was either the choice of a lower priced Razr, or a $350 Samsung that had high ratings. With a new child, I broke down and got the Razr with my $100 towards a new phone. I can't complain too much about the functionality about the Razr...most anyone will admit that the phone is cool to look at..and it is nice to throw it in your pocket. Though the phone is nice to look at, Verizon has decided to totally screw up the phone by putting on its own operating system..this whole V-Cast bullshit. Verizon has locked down the phone to where if you want to do anything cool, then you have to buy the extras..at outrageous prices..at least in my mind. I was hoping that I could upload some of my own mp3's, but Verizon tells me to bend over. In order to upload or play any mp3 on your phone, you have to buy a song from their library...for like $3 a song....give me a freaking break, I can go out to Best Buy or Target and buy the whole freaking album for the cost of 3 songs. Do I look like an idiot? I just don't see the legitmicy of this business model. I guess people are crazy enough to buy individual songs for that amount, but don't people realize that you can go to Apple and get the song for 99 cents? I guess young people are more ignorant that I thought. I also don't understand why Verizon locks down the phone so that I can't do anything fun. Didn't I buy the phone from you bastards (I'm starting to think that I'm renting it), don't I pay you 60-70 bucks a month for this service? Oh well, I guess that I'm just frustrated, and maybe I really am getting older. I just would hope that Verizon would re-think their business strategy...heck, I'm starting to see Cingulair commercials where they advertise that you can upload your songs for nothing...and you don't have to purchase the songs from them. Oh well, it's not like my opinion really counts.

Currently listening to:
The Long Blondes
Someone to Drive You Home
Released on: 11-6-06