Merry Christmas!

We'll be in MO visiting family over the holidays. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Top 5's of 2007--Part 2

Mon made some good picks in her comment to Part 1 that I wholeheartedly agree with. Here are my top five (or six) non-music moments of 2007, in no particular order.

Seeing old friends. We got to see Scott, Laura, Ludo twice and Brett (twice for me), and Tom moved back from Korea this year. Ludo's also planning a return visit in Jan. of next year. We've got a comfy bed all set up for visitors...



European Vacation. One of those times we saw Ludo was when we met him and Valerie in Florence in July. What a great trip.



Turning 30. We each got a surprise trip for our 30th birthdays this year. In Vegas for Mon's birthday I played poker for the first time at a casino and won $200! Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead. Brett and Kim surprised me in Chicago on a freezing day in April for my first pro basketball game. Apparently the taxi drivers were on strike.



Running. Speaking of 30, Mon dubbed this year the Year of Health. I got bit by the running bug. The highlight was the Golden Gate run on Labor Day weekend. But it's been fun to see my improvement with training.

Blogs. I'd like to add blogs to the Better Living Through Technology theme of 2007 (dvr, online shopping). Thank you Mon's insomnia. I'll link to yours if you link to mine.

Durham Love Yourself. Finally some of the anticipated upgrading of downtown durham is in the works. Three new restaraunts went in that are all top notch: Piedmont, Watts Grocery and Rue Cler. Plus a giant new performing arts theatre is under construction. The new farmer's market is finished and is a big improvement. Expensive new condos are going in just next to our neighborhood where a crappy old metal building used to be. We even have a new movie theatre within 5 min of our house. It's a good time to be Bullish on Durham. (They should get me to write slogans.)

Top 5's of 2007--Part 1

I'm going to break my Top 5's into two parts. For those music lovers out there (who care about my opinion on the matter), this week is all music focused. Next week I'll get to the more important stuff.

Sorting my music by Date Added revealed that this has been a good year for music. One theme I noticed early in the year was that a lot of bands that I got into while I was in Australia had follow-ups this year. To kick things off, let's look at:

Top 5 New Albums by Old Favorites
1. Radiohead--In Rainbows. Very close to my overall Top 5, but just missed the cut. Still growing on me.
2. Okkervil River--The Stage Names. Good effort that did grow on me.
3. Wilco--Sky Blue Sky. Solid album, but not exceptional.
4. White Stripes--Icky Thump. Couple tracks I didn't like, but overall great as always.
5. Arcade Fire--Neon Bible. For those that like their rock passionate.

There were also several artists new to me this year that I'll probably start following regularly.

Top 5 New Bands
1. The Avett Brothers. Local guys that have a great mix of bluegrass and rock.
2. The Books. Caught up on their back catalog this year. Creative, cutting edge collages of found sound and electronics.
3. LCD Soundsystem. Tongue-in-cheek dance rock.
4. Bishop Allen. Good pop band.
5. The Broken West. Ditto.

I don't really buy singles, but here were a few of my favorite individual songs of the year.

Top 5 Songs
1. Fidelity--Regina Spektor. Happiest sad song of the year.
2. Stronger--Kanye West. Great use of samples.
3. What Light--Wilco. Loved this song in concert.
4. A Postcard to Nina--Jens Lekman. Funniest song of the year.
5. I Feel it All--Feist. The iPod add wasn't my favorite song on the album.

Mostly as an excuse to include some good albums that didn't quite make my top five, here are my favorite albums by bands that have a distinct "feel." All of the stuff by these bands is good, even if most of the albums by the band have similar overall sound.

Top 5 Vibe Albums
1. Iron and Wine--The Shepherd's Dog. My favorite vibe band of all. The perfect fit for a run on a cool fall day through falling leaves, banked by dying kudzu.
2. Band of Horses--Cease to Begin. Great voice. For fans of My Morning Jacket.
3. The National--Boxer. For those late nights when your mind's too active to sleep.
4. The New Pornographers--Challenger. These guys are starting to branch out, but still do the best power pop.
5. Bloc Party--A Weekend in the City. A lot like their last one, but that's not a bad thing here.

Finally (start the drum roll here), here are the

Top 5 Albums of 2007
5. The Dears--Gang of Losers. Big, earnest rock. I was a little surprised that it made it this high, but it was a fun album from start to finish. Try "Ticket to Immortality."

4. The Shins--Wincing the Night Away. I'm a huge fan of this band and this album had to grow on me. But seeing it performed live finally confirmed it as a great album for me.

3. Josh Ritter--The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. I still think he's the best lyricist out there right now. This album is more rock than his previous ones. I'd highly recommend seeing him live if you get the chance. His smile is pure joy.

2. Jens Lekman--Night Falls Over Kortedala. Brilliantly orchestrated pop music with heartwarming and funny lyrics. I might be skewed by the fact that he's moving to Australia just for the heck of it, but the quality of the album supports my pick.

1. Spoon--Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. See my review from earlier this year. Never topped.

Best of 2007

I've forced my friends for the past few years to join me in my "best _____ of the year" list making. I enjoy reading lots of album reviews and most of my favorite sources collect their favorites this time of year. Of course, being the creative people they are, my friends have morphed the tradition well beyond just albums. So this year I'd like to open up the challenge to all. There really aren't any rules, only suggestions. Share your top 5 (or 6, or 10) favorite albums, movies, books, life experiences, jokes, web sites, philosophical concepts, things you learned, etc. Oh, and Mon's Rule is that they don't have to be new in 2007, just new to you in 2007.

So start thinking. I'll kick things off next week. Let's surpass the record number of participants in my Radiohead poll from early this year (1)!

The gods are not angry

At the risk of stealing Chris's thunder, we went with them to see Rob Bell's lecture "The gods aren't angry." I read Velvet Elvis on Chris's recommendation and I can see why he's such a big fan. Rob is sufficiently liberal, especially in his view of the bible, that I at least feel like we can have a common starting place. The main theme of his talk was that we're loved and accepted by God don't have to live lives as slaves to guilt and shame. I've heard lots of sermons with the same theme, and those were always my favorites. Unlike those sermons though, Rob's point of departure was a mini-history of human religion as a response to the anxiety of human finiteness and powerlessness (to borrow some terms from Tillich, as Rob also did). He then moved through the revolutionary view of God offered by the earliest stories in the bible, a view pushed even further by Jesus. He finished with a few very moving stories relating all of this to our (post-) modern lives. I really enjoyed the lecture. My quick summary: Stop living just to seek approval and beating yourself up when you don't get it. You've got it, now go live and love fully.

"You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you, and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for the name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything; do not perform anything; do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted!"

Paul Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations

Ode to the Bus

Feels like it's time for another Aussie Haiku. This one goes out to the bus drivers of Adelaide's free city buses. Somebody thought it would be good to give them microphones.

Accents, most local,
One slavic. Thick to new ears.
Never stop talking.

Radiohead update

It's time to update the most popular quiz to date on the blog (1 respondent!). Mike had a very nice take and reported that he paid $6 for In Rainbows, Radiohead's new album. He also correctly guessed that I paid $10 for my copy. The Sound Opinions guys reported that in the first 1.5 weeks, Radiohead got 1.5 million downloads. Half of those people paid an average of $10, so Radiohead received about $7 million in the first couple of weeks. Not bad. Paste magazine is also doing a poll about how much reader's paid.

As far as the album goes, I like it. Not a huge departure from the last couple albums, but it is more accessible than Kid A or Amnesiac. It's a little slow; I wish there were a couple more rockers on the album. But in my first three listens it's very solid and growing on me. The last track, Videotape, is really beautiful (lyrics) and kind of disturbing (music) at the same time. What else would you expect from Radiohead?

Oink

We went down to Lexington, NC for Barbeque Fest last weekend. Lexington is a small NC town with the distinction of having more bbq restaurants per capita than anywhere in the world. The festival attracts over 100,000 people, so we figured it was worth checking out. I was expecting more of a bbq focus, with a competition and a chance to sample several recipes, but for those Bolivarites out there, it reminded more of a big Country Days. They had bbq sandwiches for sale that were OK, but not great. But there was a lot of good people watching. The subtitle for the festival could be "Demonstrations in How Not to Wear Your Hair"; we lost count of the mullets and bouffants. We also went down to the Hogway Speedway to watch the pigs race.



The feel of the day can be summed up with the following story. On the bus ride from the parking lot, the driver's instructions were interrupted by a request to turn up the radio because "they're playing Kenny", which apparently means Kenny Chesney who writes hokey songs about getting older.

Soooiieeee!

Pumpkins!

Would you pay?

Last week Mike told me about the fact that Radiohead was going to be pre-releasing their new album "In Rainbows" from their website. The new angle is that you can choose how much to pay for the album download. The guys on Sound Opinions were super excited, saying this is the end of the record industry and a revolution in the making. Of course, the artists are hoping people pay for the record.

Standard economic theory would predict that there's not much of an incentive for anyone to pay. But my friends Ralph and Ruppert showed me research that showed that people often do pay for things in similar settings and supporting theories for such behavior.

So here's the quiz:

1. How much would you pay for a new album by your favorite band?

2. How much do you think I paid for the new album?

I'll confess the answer to the second question in a week or two.

Once I would have worked my butt off

This morning I woke up and walked to my neighbor hood plant store and rented a tiller and walked it home; the walking it home was a silly idea I'll admit, but that isn't what this is about. I tilled the space between the sidewalk and the street (does this space have a name, I just don't know). It was heavy work and I didn't realize how I could and had to bend that tiller to my will until my neighbor wanted a turn on the machine (very Tom Sawyer of me) and was over come by it. It was 5 hours, I helped my neighbors with a little tilling; turns out renting one of these is like a virus. Then I glazed a mixed of pecans & walnuts for pear & spinach salad I'm taking to a dinner party tonight.

Now I sit on my porch enjoying the breeze and the wafting sounds of Lone Palm (yes well one day I'll write a blog about things I'm embarrassed about but that isn't today). This is a big deal for me. Now I sit. I sit down and soak in the being of the day and stopped the doing. I am gazing on my accomplishment and not placing plants into or scheme the next task or hang curtains or knit a hat for my friends' friend I know who is going thru chemo. Yeah, no I'm just sitting. My counselor brought it up that it might be good for me to have a little be-ing in my life. So like a good do-er I called all my good "be-er" people and asked how exactly to accomplish it and got nowhere. My dear cousin said it was just natural to him. One said, "is there some other way to be?" The be-ers are trying to keep this from the do-ers. Force of will didn't really work. Slowly, slowly I killed the monkey. Or at least was able was just was able, once in a great while to take a deep breath, smile in my liver and be a little bit. I hope you all can add a little BE or DO to you too.


Mon

PS I realize the irony that I wrote this post--it is a doer thing to do, but in my defense I did embrace the thought and that is a be-er thing to do...or so I hear

Haiku How Are You?

This edition of Haiku's Aussie Style is dedicated to the econ staff at Adelaide.


Coffee?

Cibo or Illy?
Doesn't matter. I'll just have
a hot chocolate.


Ian's Rule (aka Friday Wine)

Spouses were allowed,
but, to drink, economists
must attend the talk.


An Englishman in Adelaide

Have spelling question?
The English trust the Scottish;
John's Dictionary

Is it Ping-Pong or Table Tennis?

After 4 months, 3 parts orders, and a few minor curse words, the ping-pong table is up in the basement! And almost completely functional. Turns out that one of the first pieces we attached we put on backwards, so the table doesn't fold up like it's supposed to. But at this point I'll take it!

If you're in the Triangle area, you're invited for ping-pong.

Andrew (a strange) Bird

We went and saw Andrew Bird at the Carolina Theatre this week. Aside from having probably my favorite album cover of the year (see picture), I really like Andrew's music and lyrics, both of which I would describe primarily as "intelligent." His lyrics tend to darker subject matter and include lots of literary illusions that are beyond me. He told one story at the show about eating alone at a restaraunt in France and hearing a loop of the same 4 crappy pop songs over and over. "And that made me think of the plasticities of the human mind." Of course.

Musically he uses a lot of violin, even plucked like a guitar, and whistling. At the show he had a xylophone and could play each note while hitting it exactly with a whistle at the same time! The concert was basically a one-man show; he would play and record a melody line, loop that while recording the base, then add that to the loop and continue with different layers. It was a little tiresome to have to do this for every song, but it was interesting to see the songs constructed in layers like that.

I was tired when I arrived at the show and was honestly more in the mood for some grooves. But he brought me in over the course of the first three songs. Like so often happens when I would watch my friend Tyson play, I felt like I was in the presence of someone who saw and heard things in the world in a completely different way than I usually do, and I was glad to see and hear a glimpse of their worlds.

Top 5 Track 3's

On the latest Sound Opinions, a great rock talk show, they gave their favorite lead-off tracks of all time. I've had a theory for a few years, probably from listening to a bunch of U2, that the third track on an album is often the strongest. While the lead-off track often makes a statement and sets the stage, I think that by the third song, the band is settling into the album. So here are my top five #3 tracks:

1. U2 "One" Achtung Baby--Probably one of my favorite songs of all time and one of the songs that motivated the theory. U2 is the master of the Track 3 Theory: see "With or Without You" on Joshua Tree and "New Year's Day" on War.

2. Pearl Jam "Alive" Ten--In high school everyone seemed to like Evenflow better, but "Alive" is the song that got me into Pearl Jam (and into rock).

3. Radiohead "High and Dry" The Bends--While I like all the twists and turns that Radiohead have given us in their later career, this album and song got me through many study sessions my freshman year in college.

4. The Postal Service "Such Great Heights" Give Up--At the risk of being overplayed, this is still my favorite song on an album that is showing staying power in my playlist.

5. Spoon "I Turn My Camera On" Gimme Fiction--Since I'm on a Spoon kick right now, thought I'd point out that they also subscribe to the Track 3 Theory. Also see "You Got Yr Cherry Bomb" from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.

Alternate for Laura: Beatles "Dear Prudence" White Album

PBR

I'm not sure I would say I'm "hooked" yet, but my trip to San Fran this past weekend got me pretty excited about running. Maybe it's not surprising that a personal best 8 miles across the Golden Gate Bridge with one of my best friends would peak my interest. But wow, it was really fun. I've been battling out 3-4 mile runs for a couple months here in Durham in the 100-degree heat and humidity, and while I was proud of myself for keeping to my workout schedule, it was grueling at times. But Sunday was perfect weather, I had friends with me, and it has to one of the most scenic routes out there. From the bridge you could see the city, Alcatraz and the beach. I was so psyched that I gave up my plan to only go 6 miles and went for 8, and made it!

Thanks Brett for the great trip!

Common denominator

I can be a judgmental person at times. Mostly it's the kind of judgment that gets passed in the first few seconds of seeing someone--he's heavy, she doesn't look too bright, etc. Most of the time these kinds of thoughts are caught and identified as the unfair, hurtful preconceptions that they are. What follows is usually a course correction for my thoughts that often seeks some point of common ground between us, a point of identification. Last week, I had a minor epiphany about how that is done.

As a Christian, we are often encouraged to find common ground in our shared sinfulness, brokenness, and neediness (of salvation). But identifying with others on these grounds can be defeating, both to them and to oneself. Neither the other nor I is lifted up; instead we are both brought down. Spong, towards the end of his latest book Jesus for the Nonreligious, speaks in no uncertain terms about how degrading and dehumanizing such a focus can be.

At the end of our yoga classes we depart by bowing and parting with the word namaste, which means:

I honor the place in you where the entire universe resides,
I honor the place in you of love, of light, of truth, of peace.
I honor the place within you where if you are in that place in you
and I am in that place in me, there is only one of us.

Quotable quotes

"I am slaloming wildly through life."

-Werner Herzog

Oh me too, me too

Royal Adelaide
I looked for the Queen to come
Not that kind of place


Walking on Hindley
The only mexi-like place
Plus sixteen strip clubs


Greek yoghurt and quince
pick me an avocado
market of my dreams

--Monika

Ga Ga Ga ... Great

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the latest release by Austin rockers Spoon, could be the commercial breakthrough the band is obviously shooting for, similar to the late-career meteoric rise of Modest Mouse ("Good News for People...") and St. Paul favorites The Walleyes. Artistically, the band is treading water, content to regurgitate the same crunchy, stick-in-your-head-for-a-week, minimalist guitar hooks and driving rhythms found on 2005's never-to-be-topped "Gimme Fiction." Not only is the band to closely tethered to their previous work, but too much of Ga Ga relies lazily on obvious influences: the drumming would fit on any of the b-sides from Neal Peart's one-armed-tied-behind-his-back masterpiece "Handicapped" and the keyboard riffs can't help but to remind any listener of Prrr's "Tuna Tonight." Maybe the masses will "spoon" up heaping helpings of Ga Ga, but the rest of us realize that post-punk art-rockabilly alt-indie was so spring 2006.

Just kidding.

I enjoy reading music reviews but too often they read like that: too many inside references and made up sub-genres. I'd like to try my hand at writing thoughtful, interesting reviews, but sometimes satire is easier.

That said, Spoon is a band that I've gotten into recently. Trent turned me on to Gimme Fiction a couple years ago. I'd bet "I Turn My Camera On" is probably one of the most played songs we've had since then. So I was excited for the new album and it's living up to its predecessor so far. The new "Camera" for catchiness is "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb." I also like "Rhythm and Soul" and "Finer Feelings." Spoon is not a band to listen to for deep and meaningful lyrics. I have no idea what "Cherry Bomb" is about and 90% of the lyrics to "My Little Japanese Cigarette Case" are in the title. But I did like this one from Rhythm and Soul: "winter gets cold in ways you always forget." Especially when it's 100F out. Overall a very strong album, especially for a run or just rocking out a bit. I'm giving it 8 thumbs up out of 10 thumbs.

NOTE: I promise to give credit to anyone who turns me on to a new band. Who wants to be famous?

Haiku, Aussie style

We have heaps of pictures from our time down under, but as time slides by (we moved there three years ago now!), I don't want to forget the little things we experienced. Haiku to the rescue!

We moved there in in the middle of winter--June. You wouldn't think 55F is that cold, but when the houses aren't insulated that well and you don't have a heater (or THINK you don't have a heater) it can get chilly.

Jetlag

Temporary house,
jet-lagged and without heater.
Look in the closet.

New series

I think it was Tyson that once suggested the idea of capturing memories in haiku form. Like a poetry photo album for trips and such. We've been bouncing the idea around a while but haven't done anything about it. That changes now.

Contentment

Perfect summer night,
strolling, yoga, and water-
melon, namaste.

My Turn

One of the benefits of being married to a "doer" is that you get asparagus boxes put in and blogs started while you sleep. I'm pretty excited about the blog. This surprises me a bit because I've never been a successful journaler; there have been a few attempts along the way but they tend to fade away when they start feeling like a chore. So don't expect a journal from me. Since it's mostly family and friends that will ever find this page, I'll leave the day to day happenings to emails and phone calls. I'd like to use this space for more esoteric bits of whatever, to try and push my creativity while at the same time sharing some of the really fun moments in life. So expect irregular, nonlinear (I'm trying Laura!) posts on this and that that percolates to the top of my consciousness. This will hopefully include deep thoughts, some haiku, my first stabs at record reviews, and ... we'll just have to see.

And if the activity fades after a few weeks, I warned you.

Justin

Well Justin should be doing most of the music review here, but this one is for me to do since they are my favorite band. I am unable to litter my review with obscure references too little known bands and sulky references; look for that elsewhere. I like the band and if you can follow his literate comments you are cooler than I am. Feel good about it. The Decembrists are super fantastic. I give them nine thumbs up. The lead singer voice is, well not great, but that is just the way I like it. They use so many different instruments I get confused, I saw them in concert and they brought out one instrument that looked like a gourd with three or four strings. The lyrics are where it is at. The Crane Wife is my favorite song off the album, but it isn't my favorite. The Mariner's revenge is what originally hooked me because I like pirate songs, I'll admit it. I danced to the Mariner's Revenge in a public place when everybody else was really lame and wouldn't and have on occasion forced my friend's to dance to it as well at the climatic end. O Valencia and The Sporting Life are among my Top Ten of their songs as well as well. Go get it their great.

So It Begins

Let us start out with some expectation management here...I don't imagine our lives are exciting enough to really warrant an ongoing blog, but then again, most blogs I've read don't indicate that the writer's lives are either. I also don't imagine I'll keep up with this little blog any more than I keep up with my cell phone message so we're starting off on a real high point here. Also I'm not good with spelling or punctuation, however I thought I should move into the electroatmosphere so I am. I'm not forcing you to read, your eyes are. Pluck them if you must. Okay so quickie update, we're transplanted back in the states enjoying our new home. We did just take a great holiday to Italy/Denmark prompted by a conference for Justin and a desire to see our friends Valerie and Ludovic. It was a really good two week where I (Monika) forgot all my cares and wondered (wandered) aimlessly, semi on purpose. Currently I am dealing with insomnia, my kind comes in the type that wakes you at 5-6 in the AM not the kind that keeps you awake in the middle of the night. One time I put in an asparagus bed at 5 o'clock in the morning. Insomnia is weird for me, this time it results in a blog.