New address of the All-MST3K channel.

I just set up an OK Cupid account and sent my first message to a guy.  For my info, I basically copied and pasted the text from my old Match.com profile with a few minor changes.  Man, I hate writing those things.  I think I'm going to take a less serious attitude when it comes to meeting people this time around and just do it.  I've never been super serious about it as far as expectations are concerned--when a meeting is set up I show up and be myself and see what happens--but in the past setting up the initial encounters has been a lot of work.  Yeah, I'm busy, but I want to meet people, so I suppose I'll have to fold this into my waking hours like everything else (without it becoming a chore as that last sentence may have implied).

...so here's a video of a bunch of people performing "Do You Hear What I Hear?" with beer bottles:



UPDATE: Oh, and I still don't have anything to say...

...So here's a preview of Christopher Lee's upcoming metal concept album.

WOW.

2006 answers
2007 answers
2008 answers

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Road tripped in a foreign country (Baja California, Mexico).  Owned a dog (for a week).  Got really really tired of work (May/June 2009).  Did a Sierra Club service trip (Chaco).  Climbed an 11a and 11b in the gym.  Went somewhere other than home for the holidays.

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't really make any.  Recently I saw a post online that said only: "No resolutions.  Just change."  I really like that.  It's about where my head is right now.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, my sister-in-law had her second baby, my nephew Nathaniel Dean Moseley, in May.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, thankfully.

5. What countries did you visit?
Mexico, and more of the USA.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A boyfriend.  Regular climbing partners.  A faster iPhone.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 29.  That was the day Andy, Mike, and I climbed from our base camp to the summit of Middle Palisade and all the way out to the trailhead.  It was a grueling 9,000-foot, 16-hour, 12-mile day.  But more than that, it just sucked.  I do that stuff to have fun and since I definitely wasn't having any, I had to reexamine why I was even there.  It made me question all my motivations for being on the trip, which forced me to think about other maybe not-so-great reasons for other choices in my life.  In the moment, I just felt useless and clumsy and slow.  Total boat anchor.  Feeling that low shook me into making some changes.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Cutting financial ties with the German and the house.  In the spring I contacted him and told him I would stop paying the mortgage--I was happy to let it foreclose--and then I contacted the bank and closed our joint account, contacted the lender and stopped automatic debits, and probably made the German pretty mad.  That wasn't my intention; I just needed to be done with it since I'd already let it drag on too long.  Corollary to this achievement, I got all the paperwork in order for him to assume the mortgage in a refinance next year.  In the meantime, my name is still on the loan but I'm not paying anything, which is how it has to be for now.

I'm also very proud of my climbing this year.  New shoes, more yoga, and a can-do attitude got me up to a new level this year.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Letting the situation with the German go on as long as I let it.  I should have stopped paying the mortgage a lot sooner.

I was also very burnt out with work at the end of the last school year, and that frustrated me.  I normally love my job and love showing up everyday, but I lost patience with all aspects of it in May.  I know it's to be expected, but I couldn't shake it, and I consider it a failure that I couldn't change my attitude to get my mojo back.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I had some lower back problems early in the year, we think from running the half marathon in October 2008, but my massage therapist did a great job working it out.  Other than that, nothing major.  Not even a big cold.  Lucky me!

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Nothing I bought is coming to mind except my salad spinner.  I guess I wasn't too consumery this year.  My new climbing shoes are pretty rad (La Sportiva Mythos).  Oh wait!  I bought Andy's old 20D DSLR!  I'm learning how to take real photos!  It's great!  And my new laptop is fun, too.  I guess that was my big ticket item.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Rob has been a good friend.  Andy was an excellent adventure partner on our trips this year.  Good times.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
A couple of my friends treated each other pretty badly.  It's hard to know the whole story, but it definitely made me depressed.

14. Where did most of your money go?
I'm happy to report that my money was NOT mostly spent on a mortgage!  So the obvious answer is probably rent, then gas, gym membership fees, etc.  I didn't buy any big ticket outdoor gear this year.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The spring break trip.  That was a ton of fun.  Andy and I went to Arizona to some canyons, The Wave, then we off-roaded our way through the back woods to Escalante in Utah.  Great photos, good times, and it was really nice to be on a trip that wasn't all about a single activity (climbing, canyoneering).

I also got really excited about my road trip to Chaco right when school let out in June, which dovetailed into a canyoneering trip with Team Leeroy around July 4 and then a fourteeners trip with Andy as we headed back into California.  The whole trip was super fun.

Finally, there were a couple of SF Symphony concerts that sent me over the moon.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
"Bruises" by Chairlift.  I downloaded it when Hal visited in March, so it reminds me of that, and it's just a great song.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you
i. happier or sadder?  About the same.  I'm not as at ease with work, which disappoints me.  But I file that under "more frustrated" or "less mojo" rather than "sad."
ii. thinner or fatter?  About the same.
iii. richer or poorer?  Richer!  Yay for no mortgage!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Climbing.  Yoga.  I did a lot of yoga, but even more would have been better.  Cooking.  Hanging out with friends.  Backpacking.  READING.  This year felt so busy, and I didn't do nearly enough reading!

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Working.  I still love my job, but this was the first year I've sincerely wanted to be somewhere else doing something else on many of the days I had to work.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I woke up in the truck on the beach of Bahia Conception, opened the box from my mom, and then Andy and I found Feliz Navidog on the side of the road and adopted her.  We stayed that night in Ciudad Insurgentes.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
No.  But I loved plenty.

22. How many one night stands?
I had to read the Wikipedia article about One-Night Stands before answering this.  I think according to what I just read, one.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
I didn't watch much TV this year except for CSI and 24, usually while I was grading papers.  They were both okay.  Not ground-breaking television, but entertaining.  I'm told I must watch Mad Men, so that will probably be my answer next year.  I enjoyed Glee, but there are only a few episodes to speak of at this point.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No.

25. What was the best book you read?
See #18--not enough reading.  I did read some books this year, but I'm getting so old I can't really remember what they were.  I haven't been to book club in months. :-(

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Iron & Wine.

27. What did you want and got?
New climbing shoes.  A digital SLR camera.  A new laptop.  Fun trips during all my vacations.

28. What did you want and not get?
Fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Nothing comes to mind.  Man, I didn't read, I didn't go to the movies... what was I doing all year?

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Oh...  I was in Chaco Canyon.  I awoke before dawn and went with Jed, Joe, GB, and some others to Casa Chiquita to see if there was a sunrise solstice event at that ruin (my birthday is the day after summer solstice).  There weren't any obvious alignments, but it was a nice way to start the day.  Later, Jed and I... I think that's the day we went hiking to Tsin Kletsin.  Anyway, I was in Chaco hanging out with Jed and it was a really nice birthday.  I turned 31.

31. What's one thing that would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
More vacation.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
There is no concept.  But I guess now that I don't have a mortgage I should really get around to buying new clothes.

33. What kept you sane?
Going to yoga regularly.  Spending every minute of every break from school doing something adventurous outside.  Prioritizing play over work during vacations.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I still fancy Obama as much as last year.  Peace Prize, baby!

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
The environment.  I'm also concerned about health care, but since I'm employed and covered and not severely ill, it hasn't been as urgent an issue for me as some.  Besides that, I have a feeling political extremism will be on my radar in 2010...

36. Who did you miss?
Michael.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Jedediah Drolet!  But I also met other great people like Joe Kennedy, Micah Jaffe, GB Cornucopia, some nice Sierra Clubbers... and I finally met benwills  in person, which was great, and through Ben I met Alexi and Andy, who are cool.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.
I mustn't wait around for things that might happen.  I need to make what I want to happen, happen.

Oh boy. So I've got these two auditions on Saturday, you see...but I have no songs yet. I feel that this is perhaps a problem.

~*~*~*~

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

I'm gunning for Muriel. I will not get Muriel (for at least two major reasons I can think of off the top of my head), but one of my secret New Year's resolutions (which will, uh, no longer be secret, I guess) is to audition for a whole bunch of stuff this year, even if I know I don't have a chance in hell of getting in and/or the part I want.

The score for this show is by David Yazbek, who also wrote The Full Monty. So maybe "Life With Harold"? It sits a little higher than Muriel's two numbers, but that's fine. The tone of the song isn't quite right, though; a bit too over-the-top and flamboyant, I think. Other suggestions?

Rent

Man, I sure would get a kick out of playing Joanne. I am not what anyone pictures when they think of that character, physically speaking (CURSE THIS SNOWY COMPLEXION OF MINE), and all of her stuff has a tendency to pop to the very tippy-top of my limited belting range, but honest to god, I have that character down.

The audition notice calls for "16 – 32 measures of your best song, preferably a pop/rock song or ballad." I...have no flippin' clue what to do for this one. Quick! Those of you who actually have some knowledge of pop and/or rock music! What song should a girl sing if she's trying to convince people she can actually sing this song?

Into the Woods

Okay, this one actually isn't Saturday, it's near the end of February. And I probably won't even go, unless I miraculously shed about 100 pounds in the next sixty days. But, y'know, there's that whole resolution thing about auditioning for stuff. And it's probably a good idea for me to branch out; audition for people I don't know and who don't know me.

I've wanted to play the Baker's Wife since I was but a wee thing. In fact, I'm pretty sure the Baker's Wife is a role I could play happily on a loop for, like, the next twenty years. That's not exactly feasible, though...so once at least would be fine. It won't happen this time, but one of these days. I'll get there. Or I'll just end up fifty and Jack's Mother. And you know...that's okay, too.

~*~*~*~

Oy. New resolution: Get together some kind of audition book this year, with ready-to-go cuts of good "me" songs. I still approach auditions in the haphazard fashion of a frazzled teenager.

OH, HEY, HAPPY NEW YEAR, GUYS.

I had a very tough time finishing songs for the first two-thirds of the year, then WOOSH out they came.

Lots of variations in style, from big power ballads to mandolin-based shuffles to funky acoustic blues and even some soft soul.

Songs written this year (in mostly chronological order):

"Serenade" ... The consensus Best Thing I've Written. In about 30 minutes while giving a practice test, no less!

"Missing A Cue" ... My first fully conscious use of 'Sensitive Female Chord Progression'.

"Trinity" ... Unrecorded, mostly finished piece whose title is a reference to the first A-bomb test. not the father/son/holyspirit. And not Carrie Anne Moss.

"Squat" ... Unrecorded, soft song about a girl who didn't remember me.

"New Year's Resolution" ... Big ol' chorus, reference to Sisyphus in the bridge, hmm. (can hear at theutah.org)

"Barista" ... Unrecorded, silly ode to a girl who works at one of the coffee shops I frequent.

"Two Vines Entwined" (lyrics by A.T.) ... Unrecorded, adapted an old love letter into a song.

"Alone With Everybody" ... Unrecorded, angry blues number loosely based on Bukowski.

"Feeling" ... The song that officially broke my somewhat-imagined writer's block. (can hear at theutah.org)

"Mirages" ... Unrecorded, uber-emo piano song with an hilarious backstory.

"Caverns" ... Song in a weird tuning, loosely based on a dream. (can hear at theutah.org, with lovely backing vocals from my friend Megan)

"Fortinbras Strikes Again" ... The return of The Amazing MANDO! This one's a hoot.

"Run Through The Downpour" ... Sad song I wrote about a rock concert I went to recently...

"4 Songs Plus This One" ... Big piano song, playing it tomorrow night at The Utah.

This week I'm finally gonna do some serious recording. Don't know where to start!

i can't sleep.

but at least this cheered me up:



...a little.

Okay, so it was going to be 100, but I remembered a couple extra as I was making this list.

Movies I've yet to see from this year and are, thus, potential adds to this list: An Education, The Hurt Locker, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, A Single Man, (500) Days Of Summer.

Note: You may notice that some of my selections don't match up with the order of movies on some of my other lists, such as the Best Documentary list I did the other day. Remember that "best movie-watching experience" and "best documentary" are very different ideas.

Also, some of the order here might not match up with best-of-year lists I've made in the past. This is for two reasons. 1) My views on these movies have evolved over time, and 2) I'm too lazy to check so bite me. (:

Interesting tidbit... Two of the decade's Best Picture winners did not make my list: Crash and Million Dollar Baby, both of which were too heavy-handed in their execution to really do it for me.

Okay here... we... go!

102. The Manchurian Candidate ...underrated remake, with a great turn by Meryl Streep as Evil Hillary Clinton.

101. The Last King Of Scotland ...it PERSUADED ME!

100. Silver City ...An uneven film from John Sayles, but here mostly for Chris Cooper's amazingly hilarious performance as, essentially, George W. Bush. ("We have to keep our infrastructure in place... where it belongs.")

( Let's put the Top 99 behind the cut, for your friend page's sake, shall we? )

--To stay completely point-neutral on Weight Watchers for the entire month of January. No flex points or any of that stuff. Yes I sound like a middle-aged housewife, or like I'm in a cult, or whatever.

--To have all lyrics memorized before I step on stage, whether at The Utah or anywhere else. Perhaps not impressive to some of you, but when I learn (or write) a song I don't have a MD walking me through the whole thing.

Large Scale

What fashion statement will define the 2000s to future generations?
"Let's get some shoes." Yep. It's a statement... about fashion.

What was the best movie of the 2000s?
Find out later today when I put up my top 100 movies of the decade!

What word will define the 2000s?
It's down to "bromance" or "staycation". Or maybe APPLE JUICE.

What was the most significant political event of the 2000s?
It didn't even happen in the public eye. It was the secret deal between Florida's then-Governor Jeb Bush and the private outfit tasked with overseeing the state's voter rolls to improperly purge almost 30,000 voters from the state's rolls because they were supposedly convicted felons. Gore won the state, and it wasn't nearly as close as the few hundred votes that people talk about. From that one decision came the negligence that led to 9/11 and all the horrible choices that followed it.

What was the most significant scientific event of the 2000s?
The release of Ben Stein's Expelled. LOL just kidding, how about either the discovery of water on Mars or the beginning of operations with the LHC.

What was the most significant cultural event of the 2000s?
Our collective decision to share every waking thought we have with one another.

What was the Highlight of the decade, on a grand scale?
8:00pm, November 4th, 2008. Yes we did.

What was the lowlight of the decade, on a grand scale?
Probably "My Humps". That, and 9/11.

What was the greatest TV series of the 2000s?
Six Feet Under. Only BSG and Dexter come close.

Greatest Tragedy of the 2000s?
The 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Most influential person of the decade?
I feel bad for the younger generation who, until last Fall, never knew a leader outside of Bush. The only caveat is that most of his worldview has been essentially discredited, though you wouldn't know that from the media.

What music will define the decade?
The full emo-takeover of punk, the Auto-Tune takeover of hip hop, and the rise of a ginger-haired youngster named Rick Astley.

Personal

Of the ten years of the last decade, which one was your favorite?
2006. Maybe 2009, but I've had so little go on in that one particular realm of "personal" this year for that to be my answer.

Which was your least-favorite?
2001.

Was it a life changing decade for you?
If it started when I was 19 and ended when I was 29, it had better've been! (FWIW I got my B.A., got a good job and a nice place to live, released an album and developed a great community of local musicians)

Highlight of the 2000s?
The second half of 2006 was an action-packed time for me, all the way around, mostly involving music (Fiddler orchestra), work and my personal life.

Lowlight of the 2000s?
The second half of 2004 was a period when I lost all forward momentum, a long-term relationship ended, I gained weight and more or less ended the year with a direction-less life. I'd fix that not long after though.

Are you happier or sadder?
Definitely happier. Life is good but life is about to explode big-time in 2010.

What do you plan to tell your grandchildren about?
A time when President Newsom was once mayor of my hometown.

The Future

What is your greatest fear for the coming decade, on a global scale?
That a great many low-lying areas of the world will be immediately threatened (or worse) by rising sea levels due to global warming.

What is your greatest fear on a national scale?
A political assassination. There are too many fear-mongers with media soapboxes to stand on these days, I would not be surprised if some impressionable bigot does something horrible.

What is your greatest fear on a personal scale?
That I will repeat the same mistakes that I have made before. My biggest goal is to improve how I interact with the world, but the process is never finished.

What is your greatest hope for the coming decade, on a global scale?
That the Palestinian Authority "stops the bullshit" (in McCain's words, haha), the Israeli government halts (and significantly scales back) settlements in the occupied territories, and peace can be found.

What is your greatest hope on a national scale?
That Obama signs healthcare reform in January, and that it is expanded substantially in the years to come.

What is your greatest hope on a personal scale?
To make creativity, love and compassion the pillars of my life (and the primary source of my income in the case of the first!).

(big-media, no local singer songwriters edition)

Remember, this is a "favorite songs" list, so this is very subjective, and one that skews heavily toward rock, indie, etc.

My one rule: only one song per artist.

Humor and wit aside, my most reliable method of judging a song is, "did it give me goosebumps?" There are other criteria as well, but let's move on shall we...

RunB's Top 25 Songs Of The 2000's

HONORABLE MENTION: Too many to name, but here's a smattering in alphabetical order by artist...

Arcade Fire - "Rebellion (Lies)", Ben Folds - "Still Fighting It", Conor Oberst - "Lenders In The Temple", Fiona Apple - "Red, Red, Red", The Frames - "Happy", Interpol - "Say Hello To The Angels", Lily Allen - "LDN", Matt Nathanson - "I Saw", Modest Mouse - "Ocean Breathes Salty", My Brightest Diamond - "Something Of An End", The Notwist - "Consequence", OutKast - "Hey Ya!", Pearl Jam - "Life Wasted", A Perfect Cirlce - "3 Libras", Peter Gabriel & Afro Celt Sound System - "When You're Falling", Scissor Sisters - "Filthy/Gorgeous", The Shins - "Caring Is Creepy", Silversun Pickups - "Lazy Eye", Whiskeytown - "Sit & Listen To The Rain", Yusuf - "Thinkin' Bout You"

Okay, now the top 25...

25. Queens of the Stone Age - "No One Knows" ...A song Josh Homme will never top, a monster performance on the drums from Dave Grohl, and a guitar riff that you just can't shake.

24. Muse - "Knights Of Cydonia" ...It's this generation's "Bohemian Rhapsody". Seeing it performed live was one of the greatest pleasures I've had this decade.

23. Tegan & Sara - "Walking With A Ghost" ...Such a simple thought, expressed unambiguously, refreshing in this era of foggy metaphors in rock music. Put it next to a Shins song to see what I mean.

22. The Postal Service, "Such Great Heights" ...Such unbridled romance (with a slight tinge of melancholy) wrapped in a package unprecedented in pop-rock, with a lovely no-frills vocal from Ben Gibbard. Far superior to the Iron & Wine cover version, which is fine in its own right.

21. Leonard Cohen, "In My Secret Life" ...Even though I've become a huge fan of all his music, it was this song, from 2001's Ten New Songs, that made me fall in love with all things Cohen.

20. Green Day, "Jesus Of Suburbia" ...Yes, boys and girls, once it was a real rock song, on a real rock album! Hehe all kidding aside, it was track #2 on 2004's American Idiot, and it was the track that signaled, with its many movements and its very un-punk 9-minute length, that the band's Dookie-era vacuity was over. Note the sly melodic sample of "Ring Of Fire" in the final movement. I'm a fan of "big" music, and this was the moment Green Day grew three sizes in my view.

19. Rufus Wainwright, "Go Or Go Ahead" ...When I have a record contract and unlimited resources, the album I make could very well sound a lot like Rufus's 2003 masterpiece Want One. That CD is full of imaginative, expansive music, but this song is the one that stays with me most, for its desperate musings on love, and for its epic chorus.

18. Tool, "Schism" ...A popular modern rock song that switched 12/8 and 13/8. It had the bassline everyone wanted to play, and a lyric that showed that Maynard could write about heartbreak without blatantly violent overtones. The "between supposed lovers" portion onward is ever so powerful.

17. Sia, "Breathe Me" ...And no, not just because it was the soundtrack to the last 5 minutes of Six Feet Under's finale. Also because the mix of delicate vocals, soft, round piano, churning cellos and pounding drums twists the figurative knife in my metaphorical chest.

16. Nine Inch Nails, "All The Love In The World" ...I love songs that feature abrupt and unexpected changes in tone, tempo, atmosphere and feeling, and this is no exception. A tense but predictable first three minutes gives way to Trent Reznor's Dance Party USA, as he adds elements one by one, layers countless vocal tracks and blows us away.

15. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Maps" ...From the opening looped guitar and hypnotic drumbeat, just a great song.

14. Iron & Wine, "Naked As We Came" ...I'm a fan of "we'll be together until we die, so let's think about that" songs. This was the best of that bunch from the decade, narrowly edging out Ben Folds's "Prison Food".

13. Sufjan Stevens, "Chicago" ...A song of such quality that Stevens itself thought it warranted approximately 6 billion alternate versions. I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes...

12. Ryan Adams, "Meadowlake Street" ...In many ways, to me this is the quintessential song. It builds from virtually nothing to a big hyper-romantic anthem. Adams treats this lyric with more care than he usually does (he can be platitudinous from time to time). But don't feel sad for him, he goes home to Mandy Moore.

11. Sun Kil Moon, "Carry Me Ohio" ...I could put 20 different Sun Kil Moon songs in this slot ("Floating", "Moorestown", "Like The River", "Tonight In Bilbao", "Duk Koo Kim" all come to mind), but this one takes the spot, and not (just) because of its use in Shopgirl. The linked video has it playing over a montage of scenes from Cowboy Bebop.

10. Wilco, "I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" ...(Note: Link goes to an especially high-quality live performance from the Lowlands Festival earlier this year) Nothing in Wilco's prior recording history set anyone up for this one. Listening to this song for the first time was akin to Radiohead fans hearing "Everything In Its Right Place" for the first time. It set the tone for its album (2002's best album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot) and, oddly enough, due to an accident of timing was a strange emotional counterpoint to the events of 9/11.

9. Band Of Horses, "The Funeral" ...I will not hold it against them that they sold this song to a car commercial. (Note: The linked video comes from their 2007 performance at the Hollywood Bowl opening for The Decemberists. I was there!)

8. The Decemberists, "The Mariner's Revenge Song" ...Easily the best accordion-based song of the decade, perhaps in the history of pop music. And hey, I think we played a bang-up version of it a couple years back!

7. Wolf Parade, "I'll Believe In Anything" ...Canada's answer to Modest Mouse delivered one of the best songs of the decade, with its signature almost-binary synthesizer part, it's stomping drums, and passionately-yelped vocals from Spencer Krug. Love that unexpected 4/4 outro.

6. The White Stripes, "Seven Nation Army" ...Probably the best riff of the decade, and a staple among the crowd chants heard at European football matches. (somehow)

5. Regina Spektor, "Fidelity" ...Quirky, skillful and heartbreaking all at once, a song about caution or maybe fear, love or maybe lust, fullness or maybe emptiness, music or maybe just sound. I kept on singing love songs just to break my own fall

4. The Hold Steady, "Stuck Between Stations" ...This song landed on my ears at pretty much the exact right moment in my life, so I always give it special deference. If I could drink, read and rock at the same time, this is what I'd want to hear. Not a wasted line in this song's perfect lyric. There are nights when I think that Sal Paradise was right / Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together

3. Coldplay, "Amsterdam" ...It's a beautiful tender piano ballad for the first 3 and a half minutes, but what follows is the most goosebumps-inducing sequence of music in this decade. A dirty cathedral organ joins Chris Martin's piano, grows more sonically urgent over its 16 bars, at which point the guitars and drums blast off and the song becomes an entirely different beast altogether. All with an understated, yet effective vocal melody behind it all. I'm dead on the surface, but I am screaming underneath

2. The National, "Fake Empire" ...Even though American Idiot yelled the loudest, and Neil Young's Living With War was the angriest, it was The National's Boxer that best captured the mood of America's decline in the Era of Bush. Within that album, this song feels the way I felt walking around UCSB deserted campus after hours in late 2004 after the election. (after the fact, of course) As a composition, it is still full of merit; I love songs that start with piano and gradually build and add from there. The icing on the cake is the brass that comes in near the end, so unexpected and hauntingly dissonant in a way. Tiptoe through our shiny city with our diamond slippers on / Do our gay ballet on ice, bluebirds on our shoulders / We're half-awake in a fake empire

SPEAKING of songs that start with soft piano and build from there...

And the RefsUnBrendans Top Song of the 2000's IS...

1. Radiohead, "Pyramid Song" ...Honestly, I was not into post-rock Radiohead until I heard this song. There was nothing to fear, nothing to doubt

Again, this list is, by nature, utterly subjective, so yeah, don't like it? Make your own! (:

Ten yeeeeeears ago,
I fell in love
with a Jewish girl
she took my heaaaarrrt

But she went and screeewwwwed
some guy that she knew
and now I'm in 'Frisco
with a broken heart

A broken-hearted test-prep tutor sucker guy
A broken-hearted test-prep tutor sucker, sucker guy

One day I'll go there and win her once again*,
but until then I'm just a sucker
of a guy


* - er, no I won't.

I will challenge myself by keeping Errol Morris and Michael Moore out of this list. Eh screw it.

My two items of criteria:
1) Quality as a film.
2) Impact on real life after its release.

HONORABLE MENTION

Control Room
The Trials Of Ted Haggard
Food, Inc.
No End In Sight
Super Size Me
The Corporation
Invisible Children
Capturing the Friedmans

10. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart ...What was to be a simple making-of album documentary became a record of a band's turmoil, both within and without.

9. Jesus Camp ...Made ever more effective by the decision to minimize narration and let the people depicted speak (in tongues) for themselves.

8. Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room ...You'll leave pissed.

7. When The Levees Broke ...You'll leave really pissed.

6. Taxi To The Dark Side ...Seriously, you will not be a pleasant person to be around after this one.

5. Shut Up And Sing ...As crazy as things seem politically right now, we can't hold a candle to the height of the Iraq war frenzy in 2002-3. Remember, people wanted Natalie Maines and the rest of the Dixie Chicks strung up, all because she said precisely the following: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the President's from Texas." That's it, that's all. We now have elected members of the GOP caucus saying much much worse on a weekly (daily?) basis.

4. Fog Of War ...Okay, fine, here's an Errol Morris movie. Happy Josh? It features extensive interviews with Robert McNamara, aka "Rumsfeld Prime".

3. Sicko ...Say what you will about Michael Moore, but we simply wouldn't be where we are today in the health care reform process if it wasn't for this movie.

2. An Inconvenient Truth ...It's hard to highlight a problem that to much of the developed world seems like an "out-patient" issue when our perspectives about crises are so hard-wired to be "in-patient". But Al Gore and the filmmakers succeed in warning, informing and galvanizing us. Plus we can now utter the phrase "Academy Award-winning singer Melissa Etheridge."

And the number one documentary of the 2000's is...

1. Man On Wire ...Eerily relevant for obvious reasons, you nevertheless leave this film in curious awe that a man such as Phillippe Petit even exists, a soul that is at the same time zany and tranquil, a man in search of beauty through the defiance of death... and a good view. In a strange way, it also occasionally plays like you're watching a heist movie, as he and his crew carefully and secretly position themselves in the top floors of the WTC towers. If you haven't seen this documentary, rent it now.

Okay, it's waaaay past my bedtime.

UPDATE: I should add that the following two high-quality films were deemed ineligible by, well, by me...

1. Waltz With Bashir, because it was animated

and

2. Religulous, because it was much less about its subject matter than about the humorous interaction between its central character and the subject matter.

Uh, I totally got a car for Christmas.

(No, seriously. Blue 2004 Honda Civic, in gorgeous condition; previously owned by my mother, who has wanted a new car for some time, and finally gave in and bought herself a fancy new Prius. Merry Christmas to both of us!)

I'm so excited. Four doors, very roomy, great gas mileage, a sunroof, and A CD PLAYER OH THANK GOD. (Some of you may recall that not a month after I got my previous car, the CD player/radio was stolen. I never really had the spare money to replace it, so I spent the first year driving in silence, followed by a couple of years of listening to my iPod with one earbud in. Lame.)

Of course, now my vehicle needs a name. My first car, a silver 2000 Ford something-or-other, was Artemis, because I like Greek mythology, and I was also eighteen and wanted something ~*~sleek~*~ and ~*~mystical~*~. My second car, a scrappy little 1998 black Honda Accord (that will actually be much missed) was The Black Pearl, because after a year-and-a-half of car-lessness, that thing looked a hell of a lot like freedom to me. More often, though, it ended up being fondly referred to as "The Lermobile" in honor of its prior owner, vox_dei.

And that brings us to my new car. I brainstormed a bit with Jaime and Reynaldi before Nine last night, and here are the two options we came up with:

The Wild Blue Honda - On Friday afternoons for a while back in high school, my mom would pick my friend Clarissa and me up to take us to the tap class she taught at DAC. She was still driving her old car then, which was also a blue Honda, and at one point Clarissa and I, bored while waiting for her to arrive, came up with a little song and dance to pass the time. The lyrics - sung to the tune of a very truncated "The U.S. Air Force" - were thus:

Off we go into the wild blue Honda!
Off we go onto the road!
Off we go into the wild blue Honda,
Hoping we don't get towed!

I feel both the name and theme song are as apt for my car now as they were for Mom's back then.

Jake Sully - Pronounced "zhakesoolee", as Zoë Saldaña's big blue naked alien self said it in Avatar. Reynaldi actually suggested "Neytiri", which is pretty...but I think "Jake Sully" is funnier.

I like both of these a lot. I am, however, still very much open to suggestion...which means it's time for A POLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!

Poll #1503648 NAME MY CAR!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 19

What should I name my car?

Okay Señor(ita) Smartypants, what's your brilliant suggestion?

Give me your thoughts, O Internet.

I, in the meantime, am going to zoom off to Palo Alto in my fancy new caaaaaaaar, the speakers blasting Mika and various showtunes all the while.

Well I was hoping for a white Christmas, and apparently now we have a BLIZZARD WARNING! ^_^;

It's supposed to keep snowing into Sunday, though ligher after Saturday morning.. Oh well, no place to go until Monday, and I gots plenty of leave available if the roads are still bad..

Christmas Eve dinner was the traditional Italian feast, vegetarian of course.. Nice wine from Sicily too ^__^

I'll be sure to take some blizzard pictures when the sun comes up! If the sun comes up...

^__^

Because no, they didn't actually write that. It was probably Leonard Cohen or Tears For Fears.

(this is a non-independent artist only list, otherwise I can think of some other good ones i heard recently...)

Artist - "Song" (Original Artist) - year

HONORABLE MENTION

Ben Harper - "The Drugs Don't Work" (The Verve) - 2001 ...He took an impossibly sad song and made it sadder.
Tori Amos - "New Age" (Velvet Underground) - 2001 ...She makes it sound like she's singing from a trashed hotel room the morning after.
Foo Fighters - "Darling Nikki" (Prince) - 2002 ...True story: This cover is why Prince covered the Foo's "Best Of You" as part of The Greatest Super Bowl Halftime Show Ever.
Ben Folds - "Get Your Hands Off My Woman" (The Darkness) - 2003 ...I can understand the words in this version!
Scissor Sisters - "Comfortably Numb" (Pink Floyd) - 2004 ...Re-imagining the song as a modern metro dance jam. Great for the gym.
Iron & Wine - "Such Great Heights" (Postal Service) - 2004 ...Recorded not long after the original, made popular by its inclusion in Garden State.
Mark Kozelek - "Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes" (Modest Mouse) - 2005 ...While a big fan of Kozelek's, I've never hugely enjoyed his all-covers solo albums, but his brooding take on what was originally a disco-from-Mars-sounding track is lovely.
A Perfect Circle - "Imagine" (John Lennon) - 2005 ...By the sound alone, the definitive Bush-era cover.
Matt Nathanson - "Romeo & Juliet" (Dire Straits) - 2006 ...A personal favorite of mine.
Flaming Lips - "War Pigs" (Black Sabbath) - 2008 ...Or then again, maybe Cake's cover version was better.

AND NOW, THE TOP TEN.

10. Gnarls Barkley - "Reckoner" (Radiohead) - 2008 ...Cee-Lo was born to sing this song. Also, they have better percussionists than Phil Selway.

9. Marianne Faithful - "The Crane Wife 3" (Decemberists) - 2009 ...Would it be possible to hear a voice more different than Colin Meloy's sing this song? Not likely. Gives it a mystical quality that provides a compelling counterpoint to the original's restrained melancholy.

8. Gary Jules - "Mad World" (Tears For Fears) - 2001 ...I spent most of the decade thinking this song was an obvious, cloying schmaltzy play-attempt at loneliness, until I finally saw that godsdamned movie last summer.

7. Rage Against The Machine - "The Ghost of Tom Joad" (Bruce Springsteen) - 2000 ...While the band had been playing it live since 1997, they didn't lay down an official studio version until 2000's Renegades. Here it is.

6. Franco Battiato - "Ruby Tuesday" (Rolling Stones) - 2006 ...The link is to a quirky live performance, but again, it was this version's association with a movie that put it over the top for me. Coupled brilliantly with the decade's most dreary movie, Children Of Men, this cover entered an unchartered dimension of heartbreak.

5. White Stripes - "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" (Dusty Springfield / Burt Bacharach) - 2003 ...There's something about the distortion in the chorus on the studio version of this, it's just heaven it is. Wish I'd thought to arrange this song this way.

4. Gillian Welch - "Black Star" (Radiohead) - 2008 ...Never thought I'd hear the country in this song, but after hearing this version, I'm baffled that I didn't before.

3. Bear McCreary - "All Along The Watchtower" (Samuel Anders Bob Dylan) - 650,000 BCE 2007 ...The third cover on this list that directly enhanced a piece of on-screen entertainment, there was word that SciFi wanted to shell out the money to get either the Dylan or Hendrix version for BSG, but Ron Moore had other ideas. Of course, writing a coherent and non deus ex machina-laden finale was not one of them. Oh well, can't have everything!

2. Johnny Cash - "Hurt" (Nine Inch Nails) - 2002 ...Again, context puts this near the top of the list.

And my personal favorite cover song of the 2000's is...

1. Ryan Adams - "Wonderwall" (Oasis) - 2004



Even Noel Gallagher concedes that this is the definitive version of the song. ("I think Ryan Adams is the only person who ever got that song right.") Of course, that's also a dig at Noel's little brother, but hey, I agree!