monthly mix

March mix madness

What music was I listening to in March? This music:

  1. “My Little Town” by Simon & Garfunkel
  2. “Say Hey (I Love You)” by Michael Franti & Spearhead
  3. “Joey’s on the Streets Again” by the Boomtown Rats
  4. “The Flood” by Annie Gallup
  5. “Ring Shout – Peace of Mind” by Wynton Marsalis
  6. “Apple Pie Bed” by Lawrence Arabia
  7. “Samson the Mason” by Israel Darling
  8. “Lake Erie” by Boca Chica
  9. “Logic” by Operator Please
  10. “The Letter” by the Box Tops
  11. “On the Radio” by Emmylou Harris
  12. “Where Did the Night Go” by Gil Scott-Heron
  13. “Lazarus” by Sophie Solomon
  14. “Style it Takes” by John Cale and Lou Reed
  15. “The Power of the Heart” by Peter Gabriel
  16. “The Ghost Inside” by Broken Bells
  17. “A Million Ways” by OK Go
  18. “Just War” by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse

I considered turning this into some kind of April Fool’s Day prank, where the list would be almost entirely Justin Bieber songs or something, maybe with a Black Eyed Peas or David Hasslehoff thrown in for good measure. I even went so far as to suffer through a few minutes of two of Bieber’s videos on YouTube, that’s how committed to the idea I was. But, like a lot of April Fool’s Day pranks, it just wasn’t worth the effort and wasn’t very funny. So I decided to just share with you my actual March mix.

Though no doubt my page ranking has just jumped a few notches somewhere just by mentioning Bieber’s name.

February’s mix

Wondering what I’ve been listening to last month? Wonder no longer:

  1. “Dreamworld” by Robin Thicke
  2. “Got Nuffin” by Spoon
  3. “Bears” by Sam Isaac
  4. “Break Up the Concrete” by the Pretenders
  5. “Nemesis Required” by Mavis (feat. Cerys Matthews)
  6. “Sleep Alone” by Bat for Lashes
  7. “Gives You Hell” by the All-American Rejects
  8. “Breathe” from The Heights (Original Cast Recording)
  9. “Lovin’s for Fools” by Sarah Siskind
  10. “Fallin'” by De La Soul & Teenage Fan Club
  11. “Live and Learn” by the Cardigans
  12. “Summer of Drugs” by Soul Asylum
  13. “Whiskey in the Jar” by Thin Lizzy
  14. “Haunted” by Sinéad O’Connor & Shane MacGowan
  15. “Keys (It’s Alright)” from Passing Strange (Original Cast Recording)

What I listened to in January

“Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.” – a recent fortune cookie*

Every month, I cobble together a mix of the songs I’ve discovered or rediscovered during that month. This is what January 2010 sounded like:

  1. “Baby, Put Down the Hammer” by Lost Boy Scout
  2. “Days” by Sambassadeur
  3. “Islands in the Stream” by Constantines & Feist
  4. “World News” by Local Natives
  5. “Alligator in the House” by SJ Tucker
  6. “Crazy in Love” by Snow Patrol
  7. “The Weary King” by Ryan Bingham
  8. “My Skies” by Flamboyant Bella
  9. “Hey Sailor” by the Detroit Cobras
  10. “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag” by Minnutes
  11. “Generator (Second Floor)” by Freelance Whales
  12. “Sukie in the Graveyard” by Belle and Sebastian
  13. “O Mary Don’t You Weep” by Bruce Springsteen
  14. “Brand New Key” by the Dollyrots
  15. “The Polaroid Song” by Allo, Darlin’
  16. “Be Yourself” by Graham Nash
  17. “Help Yourself” by Sad Brad Smith
  18. “You’re So Static” by Elton John
  19. “Southland in the Springtime” by Indigo Girls
  20. “On the Wings of Horses” by Emmylou Harris
  21. “The Ghosts that Haunt Me” by Crash Test Dummies
  22. “Exterminate, Regenerate” by Chameleon Circuit
  23. “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music

* Also, apparently, Pablo Casals. If you’re going to steal quotes, fortune-cookie writer, at least do a little attribution.

2009: My year in media

These are the books I read in 2009 — just shy of my hoped-for 50-book minimum. Reading the twelve books of Gene Wolfe’s so-called Solar Cycle slowed me down a little. Beyond the Wolfe (which I think I’m going to have to read again at some point), some of my favorite reads this year were Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert’s Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Guy Delisle’s Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea, Lorrie Moore’s Birds of America, Naomi Novik’s His Majesty’s Dragon, Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler’s Wife, and Scott Westerfeld’s Midnighter trilogy. I don’t know what, if anything, that says about my reading habits and preferences. There were a couple of small disappointments in the list, but I don’t think I read a single bad book this year.

These are the movies I saw this year. Some of the highlights, in the order I saw them, were:

Honorable mentions include Doubt, Speed Racer (yes, really), Away We Go, The Man From Earth, and George Romero’s zombie ouevre, which I finally got around to watching all of this year. (I think it’s a toss-up between Dawn and Day of the Dead as my favorite.)

Surrogates and Lady in the Water were easily the worst movies I saw this year. (Excluding The Room, but I had Rifftrax to get me through that painful experience.) And at least Surrogates is tied up in fond memories of the Vegas Capfest.

I listened to a whole lot of music in 2009. You can see the evidence of that in my monthly mix CDs. That’s 223 songs altogether. Is it any wonder I had trouble putting together a “best of the year” mix?

I’m not even going to talk about the television I watched in 2009. Well, not yet anyway.

December songs

The month (and year) wouldn’t be complete without another mix of music. Here’s what December sounded like for me (minus the Christmas carols, of course):

  1. “Both Sides Now” by Rachael Yamagata
  2. “9 Crimes” by Damien Rice
  3. “Jim Cain” by Bill Callahan
  4. “Coast of Carolina” by Telekinesis
  5. “Black Is the Color” by the Dry Spells
  6. “Kettering” by the Antlers
  7. “Do the Ballpoint!” by the Rifftones
  8. “I’m a Vampire” by Future Bible Heroes
  9. “Fidelity” by Regina Spektor
  10. “Biologically Blue” by Greg Trooper & the Flatirons
  11. “Ruby” by Kaiser Chiefs
  12. “Spinnin'” by Speech Debelle
  13. “To Lose Someone” by Taken by Trees
  14. “Run This Town” by Jay-Z (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West)
  15. “Blow Away” by A Fine Frenzy