Saturday, December 31, 2005

Home....The Other Home

Been back in Richmond since Monday, but been ridiculously busy since with work and whatnot. The trip back home was a blast. It was pretty wild too. I got quite hammered almost every night. Good times.

Got a nice reminder of what Richmond life is like today when I was in Target. I was getting a mocha from the Starbucks inside when this store cop goes flying by....then a couple more. Then some dude comes around the checkout lines towards the exit. Like four dudes tackled the guy and cuffed him. Cool.

Just a couple more hours 'til midnight. I hope everybody has fun tonight. I will. I'm heading out pretty quick to a party at a fellow director's house. Should be fun, other than this nasty cold I've caught. I felt it coming on for a couple of days. Yesterday I woke up from a nap during the Missouri-South Carolina game (Brad Smith rules!!) with a pounding headache, swollen throat, and my sinuses feeling like they were stuffed with bowling balls. Dammit, though, I'm still going out to have fun tonight. I don't have to work tomorrow so I'm not wasting the night.

In a couple of days I'm planning on listing my top albums of 2005. Here is a list of the candidates....or every 2005 release I bothered to get:

Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Cold Roses
Ryan Adams & the Cardinals - Jacksonville City Nights
Ryan Adams - 29
Animal Collective - Feels
Big Star - In Space
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Matt Sweeney - Superwolf
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Bright Eyes - Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
Broken Social Scene - S/T
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - S/T
Coldplay - X&Y
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Decemberists - Picaresque
Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
Eisley - Room Noises
Feist - Let it Die
Fiery Furnaces - Rehearsing My Choir
Orenda Fink - Invisible Ones
Flotation Toy Warning - Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck
Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have it So Much Better
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Jandek - Raining Down Diamonds
Magnolia Electric Co. - What Comes After the Blues
Most Serene Republic - Underwater Cinematographer
Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Portastatic - Bright Ideas
Silver Jews - Tanglewood Numbers
Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love
Son Volt - Omekah and the Melody of Riot
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Supergrass - Road to Rouen
Maria Taylor - 11:11
John Vanderslice - Pixel Revolt
M. Ward - Transistor Radio
Weezer - Make Believe
White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

I think that's all of them....at least those are the ones that matter. Remember, no live albums, compilations, or EPs....even though there were plenty of good ones this year.

Anyhoo.....have fun tonight.....I will. Happy New Year!!
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Sunday, December 18, 2005

Home

This'll be my last post for a while. Tomorrow I fly home for a week. I'm so excited. Don't get me wrong, I'm not homesick at all. Still, it's going to be so much fun to relax for a week.

I thought I'd catch you up on some sweet new stuff I've picked up. I was so broke my last paycheck after rent, then Ahrens and I tearing up the town. When I got payed on Tuesday and got my holiday pay for Thanksgiving, I just had to hit up Plan 9. I picked up:
Feist - Let It Die
Flotation Toy Warning - Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck

Both are great. Feist is a part of Broken Social Scene and I've heard her new album is great. It is. "Mushaboom" might be one of the best singles of the year. It gets a little too Suzanne Vega at times. Not that that's necessarily a terrible thing. Everybody should own a Suzanne Vega album....so long as it's Nine Objects of Desire.

Flotation Toy Warning is a Wajda suggestion. It's good, but I haven't given it much attention yet. I'll pull it out on the plane tomorrow and pay more mind.

A couple days after those purchases I went back to go on an EP frenzy:
Jimmy Eat World - Stay on My Side Tonight
Robert Pollard - Zoom
White Stripes - Walking With a Ghost

All three were only about $6 and look good in my collection. The Jimmy Eat World and White Stripes are nothing spectacular. The Robert Pollard on the other hand is a great EP.

Off to bed, I go. I'll be back in a week. Happy Holidays!
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Sunday, December 11, 2005

Hunting Accidents

Currently in between shifts at work (three shifts in one day, 4am-11pm). I just thought I should mention this:

I finally finished up the Guided By Voices book last night. It was great. Very non-linear for a biography, but great nonetheless. It was a great explanation of an enigma-like band for me. However one thing took me out of it.

Two pages from the last is the story of how Bob met his current girlfriend "in Columbia, Missouri, at a venue called Mississippi Nights." Now any good Missouri boy like myself would notice, Mississippi Nights in actually in St. Louis. To most this error would not take much out of the experience of this book. However, to me, it damn near ruined it. It just sucks that it was on page 212 out of 215. Oh well, still a good book.

By the way, I'm not as good a GBV fan as I seem. I've never seen GBV live. Terrible, I know. I've had a million chances because they played Columbia all the time. To make things worse, I actually bought a ticket to a GBV show at the Blue Note.

Josh and I went to Columbia and got our tickets the day of the show. We were so relieved that we actually got tickets. I asked what time doors open and nobody there seemed to know or care, which was odd. We then went to Streetside Records to kill some time before the show. On the way out, I saw a poster for the GBV show and noticed the date, March 8 2004. I looked at my watch and saw March 1. Yeah we were a week early.

I could've gone back a week later, but I was in a plane from Seattle to Kansas City all day. When I got home I had enough time to head down to Columbia, but I was exhausted. A year later, GBV broke up and I never saw them. I've done a lot of bad things in my life, but I'll never forgive myself for never seeing GBV.
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Sunday, December 04, 2005

I've Been a Bad, Bad Blogger

It's been some three weeks since my last post. The reason is simple...I have nothing to talk about. I'll just pass on a note to let everybody know I'm still surviving Richmond.

I haven't bought any new albums in a while. The last new one I picked up was Wilco's Kicking Television-Live in Chicago, which is great. I'm just getting over a big Guided By Voices kick. I'm nearing completion on the GBV book and kinda went nuts over collecting more of Pollard's back catalogue. Right now I pulled out some Sufjan Stevens again. I've been listening to Michigan all day.

I also got into a big Katamari Damacy kick a couple of weeks ago. It's the most idiotic, yet addicting, game ever. Plus it's nice and cheap too....only $20. Go get it. When I'm ready to give up on my social life again I'll pick up the sequel.

Sleep has been my biggest issue over the last couple of days. Friday I was exhausted when I got home around 3pm. I slept on my couch until around 8pm, took a shower, then went to a party. Just before 1am I went to work and relaxed on the couch in the break room for a couple of hours. I left work just after 10am and passed out until 1:30pm. The problem is that I was supposed to be back for the lottery drawing at 1pm. Whoops. At least I was just an extra hand so it wasn't a big deal. I got a killer nap in when I got home at 10am this morning, so I'm ready for my weekend. A three day weekend at that. Plus Ahrens is supposed to come up tomorrow!

Only two more weeks and I'll be home for a week. I'm pretty excited. I really haven't been too homesick though, and that's good. I've been having a blast here in Richmond. Still, I can use a nice vacation and it'll be great to be home.
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