Chicago: Become Familiar with its Distinctive Neighborhoods

Haha, I couldn't even come up with a top 10 this year, it was a top 9. Although now I'm being convinced to check out a bunch of albums that I couldn't get excited about when they came out, like LCD Soundsystem, M.I.A., etc..

Hi Kenan. Where have you been lately?

I'm right here. Always on AIM and GChat, if you wanna say something witty and insightful. Been spending a lot of time doing computer geek things -- last week it was dumping windows altogether and getting on linux in a real, dedicated fashion. Right now it's setting up (and playing with) the web server space I just bought myself as kind of a christmas gift. Some of you got my silly little podcast link, and next i'll have a wordpress installation and a wiki installation and... whatever else I can think of. It's probably not going to be a premium destination on the internet. Just a place to play with things and break things and see if I can fix them. I don't remember how much php I've already forgotten.

Anyway.

I don't know if I heard much new music this year that I'd list as favorites. The Innocence Mission's We Walked In Song. Regina Spektor's "On The Radio". Stevie Wonder doing "Superstition" on Sesame Street. Lavender Diamond LP was a big disappointment after their EP, which I still love. This Guy Clark song, "In The Parking Lot". Heard John Cooper Clarke's "Evidently Chickentown" for the first time and loved that.

Haha awesome... on my other workstation, I've got iTunes open and am occasionally sliding the chair over to edit my "Best of 2007" playlist. It's been reworked so so many times, but damnit, it's time to SETTLE.

And there is Dan Deacon. Oh yes, there is.

Btw I stayed up until almost 1:00 last night finishing the Wire (well, I didn't get off work until after 7:00). I'm sure season 5 will be great, but I really enjoyed the non-status quo of s4, what with major crimes being scattered and almost zero McNulty etc..

I watched a couple minutes of the extras and hearing McNulty talk with his real accent fucking freaks me out.

M.I.A.'s appearance on all these year-end lists doesn't surprise me, but I still think that album is really weak. An intriguing persona doesn't trump half-assed tunes.

Actually, the thing about Dan Deacon is if "Wham City" were like half as long, I'd probably find room for it. That's the only song on the album I'll go to bat for.

My Idolator poll is short reissues this time. Every time I clicked on either 'Hold Ballot' or 'Lock Ballot', those forms disappeared.

From what I've heard the production and ideas are great, but her voice and hooks are starting to get on my nerves.

What's Dan Deacon like?

Controversial.

best of 2007, in alphabetical order by song

"atlas" battles
"axis mundi" magik markers
"brainy" the national
"can't tell me nothing" kanye west
"candy castle" glass candy
"EMG" el-p
"the equestrian" les savy fav
"fantasy world" pissed jeans
"geremia" bonde do role
"get it on" grinderman
"grapefruit" marnie stern
"gronlandic edit" of montreal
"honest james" thurston moore
"a house is not a home" field music
"kanske ar jag kar..." jens lekman
"manchasm" future of the left
"sailing to byzantium" liars
"shining path" trans am
"spaetes licht" september collective
"spring and by summer fall" blonde redhead
"strange lights" deerhunter
"sycamore" bill callahan
"take me to the riot" stars
"take pills" panda bear
"waters of nazareth" justice
"what's a girl to do" bat for lashes
"wucan" black mountain
"you are never alone" vic chesnutt

it's kind of a weird list in that some songs are individual songs that i really liked from albums that i didn't really like that much (like bat for lashes, kanye, stars, etc) while others are representative or not-so-representative songs from albums that i liked a lot but had trouble picking one song in particular (ie liars, deerhunter and others). also it's just a pared-down version of all of my quarterly mixes and i didn't feel like going back and reevaluating my choices so that's why it's all songs from my quarterly mixes

dan deacon was a fun show but i never downloaded the album

i thought the mia album sucked

Good man.

I enjoyed the MIA album.

Yeah, me too, but I was more enthused about it during the first couple weeks than after that. It's still very good, just not as good as I assumed at first.

I keep almost getting the Burial record, but I have a love/hate thing with his beats, and also I think "don't I have enough melancholy atmospheric/background music at this point? am i really going to listen to this much?"

Yeah, me too, but I was more enthused about it during the first couple weeks than after that. It's still very good, just not as good as I assumed at first.

I felt that way about the first one. The second one never did much for me at all.

LA Times xword, I'm callin you out - SCHLEPPY is a terrible answer for "like a frump". I thought it had to be SCHLUBBY. Schleppy is like Larry David saying "Eh, I don't wanna go skiing, it's too schleppy".

Tausig had a couple of clunkers this week, too.

Frumpiness (out of shape) can be a cause of schleppiness (moving at a slow/dawdling pace), but they aren't the same thing.

Agreed, but the theme was pretty damn clever.

Yeah, I was about to object to ILLROMEO until I realized it was part of the theme.

I hated Kala at first, but its really grown on me lately.

I learned last night that "oh snap!" was coined by Biz Markie in "Just a Friend." I didn't know that. I was telling Kr that I associate it with kids on the bus in 7th grade. She thought it was a recent coinage. I was trying to figure out whether this had to do with the four-year age discrepancy or the fact that I went to school with black people.

http://www.randomimage.us/files/ohsnap.gif

I learned last night that "oh snap!" was coined by Biz Markie in "Just a Friend."

support this statement with evidence. i bet he popularized it, but i doubt he made it up

You're probably right. I can't find it now, but whatever I was reading said that the "earliest recorded usage" was in "Just a Friend" -- but of course that doesn't mean that it wasn't already in use in schoolyards or whatnot.

I had a burrito for lunch that tasted like it had olives on it, but there were no olives on it. EXPLAIN ME.

The person that made it was playing with olives shortly before beginning your burrito?

"playing with"

you are not a super-taster

Gross. To the Jo(h)ns.

I am not a super-taster, that is true.

There's something wrong with Jenny's burrito...It's Olive

shoot first, play drums later

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74MvcFBLJdY

oh man, i'm fading. i feel like my heart is racing from all the caffeine i've had to keep me awake, but i still feel like i could fall asleep while at my desk.

i really wish we'd finished our cooking last night! i'm not fancying going home to cook stuffing for 6 people.

Wheeee! My reward for The Bad Thing I Did This Week?

I get a Christmas Bonus!!!!

yay, that's great news jesse!

great, i felt a little guilty being the only one to get a bonus!

I can really use this money. They are requiring me to use it to pay for the damages.

Not really.

Actually, my boss confided to me that I'm getting a bonus this year, too. Although she said she couldn't quite believe it herself and that I should check next week's pay stub to make sure it actually happened.

All right, time for glogg. Next time you hear from me, I'll probably be drunk.

Looks like 2 weeks pay!

I am pretty grateful considering that I've worked here such a short time.

Also I found out that one of the partners is petsitting my predecessor's pets, even taking them with her downstate.

And the cherry on top: We are closed Dec. 24, 25, 26, plus the 30th.

I mean 31st.

Sorry. I'll shut up?

Get yourself some Le Bec, Jesse.

We have half days on the 24th and the 31st (meaning I took a half day of vacation on the 24th, and another on the 26th).

The Dark Side of Being a Public Servant OR Things You Get that I Don't Get:

1. Christmas Eve off.
2. Christmas bonus.
3. New Year's Eve off.
4. Paid particularly well.

But then again, things I get that you don't get include:

1. Defined benefit pension.
2. The opportunity to work in a building that looks like a spaceship or maybe a shiny upside down toilet bowl.
3. The warm feeling of having done a good job for the tax payers.