Sunday, December 30, 2007

Yay Christmas!

Wow I am a lazy, lazy man. I feel like I've done nothing productive in weeks. I don't mind though. It's the holidays!

I hope Christmas was nice for all. 'Twas for me. This was my first Christmas away from home. Even during my many years away from home, I always found a way to get back home for Christmas. This year I just stayed here. Molly went to Richmond, but I passed not wanting to have lonely kittens destroying our place. It was nice and relaxing, spending the break playing with my new toys. I got some new clothes, puzzles, CDs, DVDs, and cash. I got to spend most of Christmas Eve with Hedges. He was in town with his girlfriend.

I was forced to take a break from buying music through much of December. Nobody wanted to risk buying me a gift I already bought. That's okay, I got pretty much everything I wanted this year.

Speaking of, I am mostly done with my best of 2007 list. Here are the candidates:

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Apostle of Hustle - National Anthem of Nowhere
Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
Autumn Defense - s/t
Band of Horses - Cease to Begin
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
Bright Eyes - Cassadega
Bill Callahan - Woke on a Whaleheart
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder
Kevin Drew - Spirit If...
Feist - The Reminder
Fiery Furnaces - Widow City
Golden Smog - Blood on the Slacks
The Good, the Bad, and the Queen - s/t
Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light
Jens Lekman - Night Falls on Kortedala
Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Most Serene Republic - Population
National - Boxer
New Pornographers - Challengers
Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Page France and the Family Telephone
Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Phosphorescent - Pride
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Son Volt - The Search
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
Travis - The Boy With No Name
John Vanderslice - Emerald City
White Stripes - Icky Thump
Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

I can pretty much release the list now, but with one major problem: The new Radiohead isn't officially released until January 1st. Since it's been available for a while, I decided to put it on this year's list. The big problem for me is that I still don't have it. I didn't partake in the download or the disc box, so I'm waiting until the official release on Tuesday.

This is going to be a killer list too. It was the most difficult one I've ever done. Most years I struggle to fill the top fifteen. This year however, there are plenty of albums I loved that aren't on the list. I'll release the list sometime later this week or next.
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Sunday, December 23, 2007

Early Presents

Wanna see what I got Molly and I for Christmas?

The one on the left is Sophie. The one on the right is Daniel. They are ten weeks old and siblings.
Daniel actually went through several names today (Fritzy, Auggie, then Daniel). We settled on Daniel while we were watching Danielson: A Family Movie tonight. Both of them were sleeping, except when Daniel woke up and took interest in one scene featuring both Daniel Smith and Daniel Johnston. Well there you go.
It's been an eventful first day with them. Of course, they were both scared when they got here. It didn't take much time for the explorers to come out. Daniel is a lovebug, but Sophie has taken much longer to warm up to us. She's getting there, though.
It's so funny watching them together. They do everything together (explore, play, eat, sleep, bathe). Dammit I love kittens. I picked out a pair of winners too.
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Saturday, December 08, 2007

Old Men

I finally got to see No Country for Old Men last weekend. I'd been dying to see this film for months. Was it worth the wait?

Oh dear lord, yes.

Every second of this film was truly engrossing. Every scene was fascinating. It was disturbing, funny, intense. Basically it was a Coen brothers film. I've been reading reviews saying it's their best since Fargo. Well, that's true.

The performances were all spot-on. Javier Bardem is so freaking good as the villain Chigurh. Everytime he popped up, you could see the audience squirming in their seats. In fact, at one point he popped up, the guy behind me whispered throughout the whole scene, "Oh my God. Holy crap." He really was terrifying. True embodiment of unstoppable insanity.

Oh, by the way, does it make me weird that I am a fan of Josh Brolin? He was incredible in this film. But before I saw this movie, I loved the guy.

Anyway, No Country for Old Men is by far the best film I've seen this year. Nothing was even close. Not Grindhouse. Not The Host. This is the best film in a long time.

Well at least until There Will Be Blood comes out here in a few weeks.

(Hey, speaking of awesome films.... I just finished watching They Live on Encore for like the millionth time. Shit, I love that film. John Carpenter's best..... better than The Thing, yes.)
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Friday, December 07, 2007

For Sale

Ok, so everybody knows I never like to blog about work or about the business I'm in at all. However, this is something I have to mention.

My first day in Richmond, Raycom announced they were selling off KTVO. After I left WTVR about a month ago or so, a couple of weeks later Raycom announced they are selling it off.

I really wish everybody in Richmond luck. Hopefully they'll be in better shape than KTVO is right now.

I have two ways of looking at this. Either I'm a station killer or Raycom sees no life after me. Either way, I just have to be involved right? I mean one little director can reshape a billion dollar company like Raycom, right?
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