Friday, November 30, 2007

2006 Music

It's getting to be that time of year. No, I'm not talking about Christmas, or even winter (although I think it's pretty much here).

I'm talking about the time of year-end "Best of" lists. Specifically, music and movies. More specifically, just music. A couple of blogs have already started posting their Best 2007 Albums lists, and it is not even December. For the past two years, I have put together my own favorites lists, and I'm getting excited about this year's as well. But I've still got a lot of listening to do before my list is ready.

Here is my original list of favorite albums from 2006. I did a top 15 in order, plus a list of other notable albums that I really didn't feel differentiated themselves enough for me to order them.

1. Yo La Tengo – "I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass"
2. Secret Machines – “Ten Silver Drops”
3. Mew – “And the Glass Handed Kites” (this might be a 2005 release overseas, but I'm counting it as 2006)
4. Flaming Lips – “At War With the Mystics”
5. Belle and Sebastian – “The Life Pursuit”
6. Mastodon – “Blood Mountain”
7. Loose Fur – “Born Again in the USA”
8. Futureheads – “News and Tributes”
9. Sloan – “Never Hear the End of It”
10. Don Caballero – “World Class Listening Problem”
11. Kooks – “Inside In/Inside Out”
12. Frank Black – “Fast Man Raider Man”
13. Killers – “Sam’s Town”
14. Slayer – “Christ Illusion”
15. Thom Yorke – “Eraser”


Since making the list, however, I've caught up on some 2006 releases that I did not know well enough to include. One of these, Phoenix's "It's Never Been Like That" would clearly have made the top 15 if I had heard it in 2006. It probably would have knocked off Thom Yorke, although now that I'm looking at the list 11 months later, there might be some re-arranging to be done...

Anywho, here are some other notable 2006 albums that I liked:

Strokes – “First Impressions of Earth”
TV On The Radio – "Return to Cookie Mountain"
Keane – “Under the Iron Sea”
Built to Spill – “You In Reverse”
Robert Pollard – From a Compound Eye
Robert Pollard - Normal Happiness (better than Compound Eye, IMO)
Asobi Seksu - "Citrus"
Dragonforce – “Inhuman Rampage”
Portastatic – “Be Still Please”
Early Day Miners – “Offshore”

Silversun Pickups - "Carnavas"

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Aww crap.

Ugh. I forgot my friggin' iPod and headphones at home today. I'm stuck here at work without any tunes and it's killing me. I actually do have a few CDs in my bag, which would get me through the day, listening through my laptop. But without the headphones, I'm pretty stuck. My office is very quiet, so listening to the laptop speakers is not really an option. Damnit!

I really am going to have trouble concentrating today. Do you have this problem? I've kind of theorized that the only way I can get my left-brain to do any work is if I occupy my right-brain with music. The opposite occurs when I'm on a work conference call - the informational audio is perceived by the left-brain, but I'm forced to doodle to keep my right-brain happy. If I don't have the right balance, I just shut down and do nothing.

Geez, it's only 10:30. Ugh.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Picture


Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The Songs in My Head

I get songs stuck in my head all the time. I'm sure you do too. I decided to start a running feature here called "The Songs in My Head" and just list whatever song is in there at the time.

Unfortunately, I've got a pretty awful song stuck in my head right now, and it's kind of embarassing that it will be the first one I post. But, this is not a blog of lies. I'm not going to say I have some particularly cool, obscure indie-rock song in my head if it's not true (indie-rock, your time will come).

No, the song right now, for no discernable reason, is Sheena Easton's "Morning Train (9 to 5)." Not the Dolly Parton song - you know, it's the super cheesy one that goes, "My baby takes the morning train / He works from 9 to 5 and then / He takes another home again / To find me waiting for him." I can't get that chorus out of my head right now. Ugh.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Mouse Arrest


Last week, I found some new mouse droppings on the back porch. Set a trap. Within two hours I had a nice dead mouse in it.

It was actually pretty artistic. The trap was on a beam slightly off the floor. The mouse had gotten caught in such a way that the trap was turned perpendicular to the beam, and the mouse was kind of standing (hanging from it), looking up. There was no blood visible on the mouse, but there was a perfect little pool of bright red blood right next to him. I almost took a photo, it was so serene. But that's kind of morbid, I guess.

Monday, November 5, 2007

I keep having dreams

For some reason, I can't think of anything better to write about than my dreams, and I keep having some interesting ones. Ever since we first had a mouse in our old apartment (like 6 years ago), I occasionally have mouse dreams. I dream of them running around, getting in my furniture, my food... And about a week ago, I found a dead mouse on my kitchen floor. Since then I've had THREE mouse dreams. Last night's dream involved other animals too.

In the dream, I was inspecting a house (not mine) for mouse droppings, and found plenty. I was sucking them up with a vacuum cleaner (because in a dream, that's just as good as washing and disinfecting). But I found some larger turds and at first I thought they were from different kinds of mice (and rats!) that had gotten in the house, but I later realized that they were from cats and rabbits and other furry friends. It actually made me feel much better knowing that I didn't have any rats.

I'm kind of freaked about rats too because over the summer I found a dead rat in my back yard. I scooped him up with a shovel and tossed him in the garbage bin in the alley. A few days later I made the mistake of checking to see if it was still there. It was. I gagged at the sight. It haunted me for a while.

Anyway, the dream didn't have much of a plot or anything. Nothing really happened. I just wish I would dream about hot chicks or something instead of mice and rats.