2008

Last day of 2008. It's been a wonderful year in some ways, a horrible year in others. Let's hope 2009 is fuckin' well better in those other ways.

Good things to keep in mind for 2009:

1) May should be a great month for movies.
2) After February the manufactured corporate holidays end for a good long while. Well, okay after Easter then.
3) July is a great month for birthdays.
4) Perhaps the new government can make some steps to repair the damage of the last eight years.
5) And the world is not scheduled to end until 2012, so we don't have to start worrying about that for a couple more years.

Top 10 Albums of 2008

1. Centro-matic/South San Gabriel "Dual Hawks"
Double albums are hard to pull off. Count how many truly great double albums come to mind. Not that many, right? This is
the best double album I've heard in a long long time.

2. Okkervil River "Stand Ins"
The companion piece to their last album "The Stage Names". They should have been released together and this would have been the best double album I've heard in a long long time.

3. Jenny Lewis "Acid Tongue"
Last time she was funneled through folk and country, this time it's soul, r & b and gospel and Gawd-o-mighty it's good.

4. Death Cab for Cutie "Narrow Stairs"
Their best album as far as I'm concerned. They tend to get too precious at times, but they avoid that almost completely on this one.

5. Amanda Palmer "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?"
Listen to "Leeds United", a mix of piano and cabaret singing and you will most likely be hooked. She also gets the prize for album title of the year, hell, the decade.

6. Destroyer "Trouble In Dreams"
I was a huge Destroyer fan after "This Night" came out, but my interest waned over the subsequent albums. This to me is a big return to form.

7. Hello Saferide "More Modern Short Stories From..."
Hello Saferide. I first discovered them on Cable and Tweed's blog. Annika has a great voice and the lyrics are really something special. I love it when she sings "You Stupid Fuck" three times in a row.

8. Black Mountain "In the Future"
After their first LP, I was looking forward to this one immensely and it was not a disappointment.

9. Shearwater "Rook"
Another beautiful record from this band led by Jonathan Meiburg who used to be part of Okkervil River.

10. Elvis Costello "Momofuku"
The best Elvis alive. He rarely has a clunker and this album definitely does not clunk.

Honorable Mentions:
Vampire Weekend “s/t”
Mudcrutch “s/t”
Conor Oberst “s/t”
Fleet Foxes “s/t”
Foxboro Hot Tubs “Stop Drop and Roll”
British Sea Power "Do You Like Rock Music?"

Other Awards:
Best album title: Amanda Palmer "Who Killed Amanda Palmer?"
Best Double Album in years: Centro-matic/South San Gabriel "Dual Hawks"
Best Album Cover: Shearwater "Rook"

Best of What I've Seen, Read or Watched This Year

Movies:

The Future Is Unwritten
Michael Clayton
The Proposition
30 Days of Night
Iron Man
Dark Knight
No Country For Old Men
Tropic Thunder
Step Brothers
Persepolis

Books:

Gilbert Hernandez - Palomar: The Heartbreak Soup Stories
Jamie Hernandez - Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories
Alan Moore & J. H. Williams III - Promethea book 1
Nicola Barker - Darkmans
Craig Thompson - Goodbye, Chunky Rice
Craig Thompson - Blankets
Elmore Leonard - Swag
Elmore Leonard - Mr. Paradise
Donald Westlake - What's So Funny?
Mark Waid - Superman: Birthright
Brian Wood - DMZ book 1
Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five

TV:

True Blood
Fringe
Dexter
Californication
Life
Torchwood
Dr. Who

Webcomics:

Girls With Slingshots
Cat And Girl
Bears With Nuts
The Abominable Charles Christopher
Freak Angels
Octopus Pie
Kukuburi
Something Positive
Thingpart!

Characters:

Luba from Palomar
Hopey from Locas
Grace from Promethea
Lafayette from True Blood
Tidwell from Life
Lew Ashby from Californication
John from Torchwood
Tilda Swinton's character from Michael Clayton
John Travolta looking governer, Blagojevich, from Illinois

Amanda Palmer - Leeds United video

Amanda Palmer - Leeds United

Picks

Movies:

The Future is Unwritten
The Slaughter Rule

Books:

Houdini: The Handcuff King by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi

Quotes:

"Watch where you step." - Unknown or myself

Picks

Books:
Gilbert Hernandez - Palomar:The Heartbreak Soup Stories

Movies:
Michael Clayton

Song of the Week:
"A Good Flying Bird" Guided By Voices

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

Y is for Yorick whose head was knocked in

Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin

Picks

Books:
Jaime Hernandez - Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories
Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee - Absolute Batman Hush (incredible artwork)

TV:
True Blood

Music:
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

Worst recent commercials

Those smarmy Cadillac commercials:
"Does it return the favor?"
"Oh have I said too much?" I'd really like to punch that guy in the face, whoever he is.

The Microsoft "I am a PC" answer commercials to the Apple "I'm Mac, I'm a PC" commercials.

All the credit card debt consolidation commercials.

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

W is for Winnie embedded in ice

X is for Xerxes devoured by mice

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

U is for Una who slipped down a drain

V is for Victor squashed under a train

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

S is for Susan who perished of fits

T is for Titus who flew into bits

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

Q is for Quentin who sank in a mire

R is for Rhoda consumed by a fire

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

O is for Olive run through with an awl

P is for Prue trampled flat in a brawl

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

M is for Maud who was swept out to sea

N is for Neville who died of ennui

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

K is for Kate who was struck with an axe

L is for Leo who swallowed some tacks

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

I is for Ida who drowned in a lake

J is for James who took lye by mistake

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

G is for George smothered under a rug

H is for Hector done in by a thug

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

E is for Ernest who choked on a peach

F is for Fanny sucked dry by a leech

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

C is for Clara who wasted away

D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh

A Gashlycrumb Tinies Halloween countdown

I've decided to post all the couplets from Edward Gorey's The Gashlycrumb Tinies in a celebration of creepiness. I'll post another one every couple of days on the way to Halloween.

Here's the first one:

A is for Amy who fell down the stairs

B is for Basil assaulted by bears

Picks

TV:
Fringe
True Blood

Books:
Dark Tower: Treachery


Starting reading today:
Matthew Lewis The Monk

We Don't Need No Stinking Pic-A-Nic Basket!

Doctor Who Haikus

Sonic screwdriver
Fly me off in the Tardis
Squareness gun, what’s that?

Rose Tyler returns
The fuck is Sarah Jane Smith?
Torchwood fires

Rachel Haiku

Tattoo’s wild colors
Muted by your smile so bright
Would your heart was mine.

Picks

Books:
Nicola Barker - Darkmans
Craig Thompson - Goodbye, Chunky Rice
Neil Gaiman - Absolute Sandman Volume 1

Music:
Centro-matic/South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks

TV:
Firefly

Ladyhawk and Neva Dinova at Charleston Pour House

Thursday, March 15th
The Pour House
Charleston, SC

This was a great show before a sparse but enthusiastic crowd. The lack of numbers didn't seem to matter to either band, as they both played great enervated sets as if the place was filled stage to bar. If they come to a venue near you, go to the show. You will not be disappointed.

Hear some songs:
Ladyhawk

Neva Dinova

thought

tempus fugit

Desert Tongues

I flew in from Bonneville.
It was far too salty and flat for my tastes.
I thought I might find you out there racing.

I walked out of the Gobi.
Sand and wind aren’t my cup of tea.
I spent 3 long years searching for your bones.

I left the Sahara.
My skin was getting leathery and the sand got in my radio.
I bribed nomad after nomad, but no news of you though.

Photograph

Emulsion burned in
Long enough to burnish skin
To furnish your sin.

We Both Thought You Were Beautiful

My love for you would have been strong and dutiful,
But I see that the only thing we had in common
Was that we both thought you were beautiful.

You Are Not Real

“Hey, you can’t be looking at something like that in here. These are real people walking around with real sensibilities and fears, hungers and desires. They aren’t fictional characters like you.
“With your ball cap and your talking way too loud on your two-way phone planning three-way sex. Your shaved, stubbled head, your braying laugh.
“These people are blocked with solidity. They are unerringly corporeal. They have substance. They are real.
“They are not like you.
“You’re a caricature, a cartoon hound pacing back and forth from computer to telephone inscribing an ever-widening path in the already worn carpet.”

Proud bumper sticker

I saw a bumper sticker today that read, "PROUDLY SERVED IN THE AIR FORCE 1973 - 1978".

It inspired me to create this one in order to display my pride.

Picks

Books:

Craig Thompson - Blankets
Elmore Leonard - Swag

Movies:

The Proposition
30 Days of Night

Free Comic Book Day coming soon

Record Store Day coming soon

Quotes

"Who will help the widow's son?"

-Alan Moore
-From Hell

Quotes

"I have heard the languages of apocalypse, and now I shall embace the silence."

-Neil Gaiman
-Sandman: Endless Nights

Picks

Books:

Mark Millar and J.G. Jones - Wanted
Nail Gaiman - Sandman: Worlds' End
Neil Gaiman - Sandman: The Kindly Ones

TV:

Sarah Connor Chronicles (so far!)
***update*** think again on the Sarah Connor Chronicles- the third episode- bleaaggh!

"Her Face" haiku

Black hair frames her face
Her wondrous face glows even
In harsh fluorescents

Woman from Sticky Buns Throwdown

I was watching an episode of "Throwdown with Bobby Flay". It was the sticky bun episode and the challenged was explaining the difference between her and Bobby's sticky buns. The challenged was a Harvard alumni and a lot of the crowd were Harvard affiliated. So as she explains the difference, a woman from the crowd chimes in with "That's how they do it at Yale!", and I was so impressed with how cute she was that I wrote her this haiku:

Spectacled goddess
“That’s how they do it at Yale!”
Sung from the sidelines