Jan 20: Bon Iver “Blood Bank” (EP)
Jan 27: Franz Ferdinand “Tonight”
Feb 3: Ben Kweller “Changing Horses”
Feb 3: Nous Non Plus “Menagerie”
Feb 17: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (self-titled)
Mar 3: U2 “No Line on the Horizon” (we’ll see if I actually buy this)
Mar 3: The Boy Least Likely To “The Law of the Playground”
Mar 24: The Decemberists “Hazards of Love”
Mar 31: Great Lake Swimmers “Lost Channels” (or just “Channels” acc. to some sites)
The best movie I saw in October was a three-way tie between Zach and Miri Make a Porno, Let the Right One In, and Hunger, all of which I saw at the Chicago Film Festival. In regular movie releases, I also really liked The Duchess.
The best book I read in October was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson. I also really liked Conversations at Curlow Creek, by David Malouf, my favorite Aussie author.
The best gig I went to in October would be Fujiya & Miyagi. I didn’t write up any of the October shows so here’s the quick and dirty: Liam Finn, was completely unlike his album, super into experimental, extemporaneous, and jam band-type style if you can be a jam band when there are only two people on stage; Catie Curtis sang some really nice sweet songs, but also some goofy stuff that isn’t really my thing. And Fujiya & Miyagi was good, they sounded great, people were into it, the beats were hoppin’….but at some point all the songs start to sound the same. Felt like we heard an hour of one long song with a great beat.
My favorite tunes in October were the latest albums from Keane and Ray LaMontagne and my top two favorite songs were “Honey Let Me Sing You a Song” Matt Hires and the First Aid Kit cover of Fleet Foxes’ “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song”.
Random personal highlights: My dad came to visit and joined wholeheartedly in my 365 project and it was outstanding.
Lowlights? Fallout at secondary browsing location continued. My Morning Jacket concert cancelled and then I wound up blowing off a Joseph Arthur concert as I just didn’t have any energy that day. Also had a weird shiatsu massage that bruised/hurt my back so badly I could barely sit in a chair for two days afterward
I seem to have fallen behind here, haven’t I. Kept waiting for myself to have written up movies, books, etc., before doing these. Ah well.
The best
The best
The best
My favorite tunes in September were (the only in some cases or the most recent) albums Schwayze (yeah, I know I’m the only one, but it’s FUN), The Billionaires, The Wave Pictures and Everlast.
Random personal highlights: The aforementioned weekend at Monolith (including visiting Mariah, Stephan and Jack!).
Lowlights? Well. If you know about the secondary browsing location and events therein, then you know I had a very, very, very shitty September. Very Shitty. And honestly, the fallout is still going on.
Intense show. Some of the songs sounded really good (“Highly Suspicious” and “I’m Amazed”), their harmonies were really pretty. But unless you are into jam bands (I’m not), you probably want to skip seeing them live as I would conservatively estimate that two out of every three songs devolved into a 15-minute Allman Bros-type jam session. (And it was probably closer to three out of four, frankly.) A few per concert would be fine. Two out of three songs? Kinda boring. I’m just more into lyrics. Or the combination of lyrics, harmonies AND the music.
The rest of the crowd seemed to be totally into it.
Our other question was: Jim James, are you prone to chills?
At this point last year, I had already gone to all the concerts I would be going to. Oddly, it’s December 26, but I still have some live music left to see in 2008!! But I’ve only bought tickets to one thing so far in 2009, which is equally odd. I better start checking concert listings!!
Dec 27: My Morning Jacket!!! (The rescheduling of the October show that got cancelled.)
Dec 31: The Sea & The Cake! (with Cathy coming to visit! Yay!)
Feb 7: Griffin House (with Steph coming down for the night! Yay!)
Eating: The new Clubby sandwich from Potbelly’s which is so fucking delicious it may have ruined me for all other sandwiches. But it’s (most likely) insanely high in calories (they don’t even list it on their nutrition page!). Thus helping me in my goal of being the fattest girl in the universe.
Making: Oh, you know. This ‘n’ that and mostly things I can’t talk about.
Reading: At home I am reading “The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood” by David Thomson that I’m pretty sure I borrowed (from Dad) last Christmas so it’s about time I read it, no? I didn’t feel like carrying it on the train this morning though so in transit I am reading “Silver Wings for Vicki” by Helen Wells, who I’m sure only one of you (hi CCB!) knows is the author of the Cherry Ames books which were very, very beloved to me in childhood, although technically they are books originally from my mother’s childhood (the first Vicki book was published in 1947 and the first Cherry Ames in 1943).
Where Cherry was a nurse, Vicki is a flight attendant. And just as with the Cherry Ames’ series, they are full of now hilarious (but so non-PC and borderline offensive) comments on how to be a good woman (to your man), or things of that nature. Here’s a “great” (that’s me, being sarcastic) description of the requirements to be a stewardess, from Vicki’s interview: “Real beauty isn’t necessary, but you have to be nice to look at: well groomed, pleasant, and not too tall or heavy. After all, a plane must carry the biggest payload possible, and the heavier the crew the less paying weight we can carry. Did you see that tall girl who came in ahead of you? She was qualified for this work in everything except that she’s five feet eight and weighs proportionately. But the airlines do recognize that American girls are growing taller, and we’re gradually raising the height and weight limits.”
So far, I don’t love Vicki the way I love(d) Cherry, but she’s growing on me. She’s so perky, how could she not! 🙂
Watching: Only two episodes left to (re)watch in my (zillioneth) rewatch of all of BStarG to get read for the season 4.5 premiere on January 16. (So close, but yet so far.) As well as the webisodes. Which are OK. But not “oh holy shit!” entrancing. Also in the midst of a (re)watch of all four of the Alien films, although my plan to marathon through them all yesterday did not materialize. (Apparently I needed a lot of those hours for sleeping.)
Listening to: Frightened Rabbit “The Midnight Organ Fight” with a little of Sufjan’s old Christmas box set thrown in. (There is a new Xmas EP out but I’m not sure I want it based on this review.)
It takes more than fucking someone you don’t know to keep yourself warm.
-Frightened Rabbit “Keep Yourself Warm”
Yes, from this album.
So back in June, I started listening to this song “Backwards Walk” by Frightened Rabbit that was on a Paste sampler. By August, I had become officially obsessed with it; thus its presence on my Dragon*Con mix.
Yet somehow I kept forgetting to check out anything else by this band. What is wrong with me? Then a week or two ago, I start, as is my usual December pasttime, reading through all the year-end lists so nicely compiled by Large-Hearted Boy. And I start seeing Frightened Rabbit everywhere… And I look at my iPod and wonder “Do I have anything by them? Why Yes. OH? THIS IS THEIR SONG!?!” And then they popped up on Heather’s (Fuel/Friends) year-end list and I knew I had to get my lazy butt in gear.
Frightened Rabbit “The Midnight Organ Fight” = best album of 2008 that I didn’t listen to until December. And I totally regret that. But at least I’m listening to it now. It’s REALLY good.
When I first got your album, I have to admit, I found it kinda cheesy. Not in a bad way. Just in a “Oh, those are some cheeesy pop songs, dude” way. Do you believe in love at first sight? I think you do! But wow, these songs really grow on a girl. Don’t get me wrong. The cheese factor is still there. But now it’s a cheesy in a “that song really makes me grin” and “awwww” kind of way.
This weekend it was ALL I wanted to listen to. Particularly “Moment of Weakness”. Good on ya!
Smooches,
Duff
p.s. Also? it’s surprisingly danceable. I’ve got a whole hallway slip-n-slide routine going to it. Even the somewhat sad “I’ll Be There” has a good background beat.
This song was a BIG hit with the kiddos over Turkey Day.
A is for apple
B is for butt
C is for cat butt
D is for doodoo
E is for elephant doodoo
F is for fart
G is for gorilla fart
H is for huge gorilla fart
I is for eyeball [sic]
J is for jammies
K is for kid farts
L’s for loud and long farts
M is for monkey butt
N’s for saying night night to niko at naptime
O is for … Oh!
P is for panda peeing and pooping in her potty while poppa plays peekaboo
Q is for qbert
R is for robotic monkey who’s going to take over the world
S is for stinky
T is for turd
U is for uhoh
V’s for flying v
W’s for weewee
X exactamundo
Y is for yucky and yummy and you
and Z is for farts that smell like the zoo
-“Alphabutt” Kimya Dawson