Albums of the Year

2008 was a strange year for music. While a good year, ultimately it doesn't live up to the standard that 2007 set. For me, 2008 has been an "out with the old, in with the new" year for music: several bands and artists I have liked for a while (Death Cab, Jenny Lewis, Of Montreal) put out less-than-stellar albums, while most of the albums on my best-of list are by bands who are relatively new, or who I discovered recently. (Most of which I was turned onto by my friend James.)

So, with that out of the way, here is my list of Best Albums of 2008:

1. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
2. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
3. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Deerhunter - Microcastle
6. Portishead - Third
7. Sun Kil Moon - April
8. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
9. M83 - Saturdays = Youth
10. The Dodos - Visiter
11. Bonnie "Prince" Billy - Lie Down in the Light
12. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
13. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
14. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
15. The Walkmen - You & Me
16. Sigur Rós - Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
17. Kanye West - 808s & Heartbreak
18. She & Him - Volume One
19. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
20. Tilly & the Wall - o
21. Silver Jews - Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
22. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
23. Nomo - Ghost Rock
24. Beck - Modern Guilt
25. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

I'm working on putting together my 2008 mix cds. I'll post those when I have them finished. Until then, have a happy new year.

Dear Arkansas,

Do us a favor: if you're going to have a separate, lower speed limit for tractor trailers, have lanes just for them. We're sick of driving 55 in a 70 in the left lane as one truck spends half an hour trying to pass three others. It's not like you don't have room to do it, since there's miles of barren nothingness on either side of the interstate.

If that proves too costly, at least fix the potholes. Seriously. We've driven on some unpaved roads that are smoother than I-40 in West Memphis.

Sincerely,
Your neighbors.

... the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art.

To ring in the (almost) new year, I decided to go with a new title and new layout for my blog. The original title was meant only as a placeholder, and I never really liked it all that much in the first place. Too dramatic. And I grew terribly bored with the old layout, everything all brown and smooshed together. Let me know what you think of this -- I don't know if it's permanent or not.

Oh, and happy christmas evening.

According to the Roman Calendar

It's been a month today. I don't know if I've ever been so happy being single. There have been some rough patches, sure, but for the most part, I'm happy.

The Journey, part 2.

I'm in Beckley now, hanging out with Ixi. The drive today was less eventful than yesterday, even though there's a lot more to see in Tennessee than in Oklahoma or Arkansas. Unfortunately, I saw mostly orange road cones and tractor trailers and cars going 65 in the left lane. I swear, after having no road work at all yesterday and very little traffic, it seemed like once an hour one of the lanes was shut down today and there were so many trucks. But at least I made it safely. And ultimately, the drive wasn't too bad.

I had a scary moment about five or ten minutes after I got back on the interstate this morning: I saw a black dog run across the road about 100 yards ahead of me. It scared me, but I was thankful that there were no cars at that moment. Then right before I got to that spot, a beagle ran out of the median where the black dog had come, crossed the left lane and then froze in the right lane where I was driving. I barely had time to react. I swerved to the right onto the shoulder at 70 mph, and the car behind me swerved to the left into the other lane, which was luckily clear. I hope that little dog made it. I thought for sure I was going to hit it. Normally, I would have been pretty upset if I hit a dog (which I never have), but now that I have a dog, I would have been devastated.