Death Cab for John Hughes

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

My Top Albums of 2009

Top 40 Albums of 2009
1. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
2. Brand New - Daisy
3. Passion Pit - Manners
4. Girls - Album
5. Tegan & Sara - Sainthood
6. Phoenix - Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus
7. The xx - xx
8. Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Pains of Being Pure at Heart
9. Cut Off Your Hands - You & I
10. And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - The Century of Self
11. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
12. Raveonettes - In and Out of Control
13. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
14. The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
15. Morrissey - Years of Refusal
16. Japandroids - Post-Nothing
17. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
18. Crocodiles - Summer of Hate
19. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
20. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South
21. Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
22. The Soft Pack - The Muslims
23. Julian Plenti - Julian Plenti is... Skyscraper
24. The Dodos - Time to Die
25. Real Estate - Real Estate
26. Discovery - LP
27. Silversun Pickups - Swoon
28. Matt and Kim - Grand
29. Pearl Jam - Backspacer
30. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
31. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
32. Black Lips - 200 Million Thousand
33. Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
34. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young
35. U2 - No Line on the Horizon
36. Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3
37. Why? - Eskimo Snow
38. Metric - Fantasies
39. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
40. Sonic Youth - The Eternal

Top 10 EPs of 2009
1. The Drums - Summertime!
2. Bon Iver - Blood Bank
3. Death Cab for Cutie - The Open Door
4. Superchunk - Leaves In the Gutter
5. Delorean - Ayrton Senna
6. Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind
7. Washed Out - Life of Leisure
8. Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than the Stars
9. Fight Like Apes - You Filled His Head with Fluffy Clouds and Jolly Ranchers, What Did You Think Was Going to Happen?
10. Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange

Most Overrated Albums of 2009
Bat For Lashes - Two Suns
The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
St. Vincent - Actor

Biggest Personal Disappointments of 2009
Youth Group - The Night Is Ours
Peter Bjorn & John - Living Thing
John Vanderslice - Romanian Names
The Dead Weather - Horehound
Eminem - Relapse

Albums I Wish I Heard
Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Atlas Sound - Logos
Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms

Camokini

"The pervasiveness of camouflage - from fashion to war - attests to the troubled relationship with violence that seems to characterize modern times." - Thomas Hirschhorn

I Hate the Dentist

Dentist: "What we're gonna do is cut away the gum with a little electricity."'

Me: "That sounds awfully horrific."

Dentist: "Well, Benjamin Franklin actually had an idea to use electricity to kill animals. He thought it would be more humane. OK. Ready to begin?"

Seattle Seahighlighters

"Check out the new Seahawks jerseys. If you don't think they're awesome, you need awesome lessons."

- Neil Everett, SportsCenter

Adopting a Theory by Megan Fox

This month's RollingStone features an in-depth interview with the adroit Megan Fox. She drops pearls of wisdom left and right, but the one I'll be taking to heart is her advice on how to avoid dieing in a plane crash:

"She happily elaborates on why she likes to listen to Britney Spears on her iPod while flying: 'Flying really freaks me out, but I know that it's not my destiny to die while listening to Britney.' "

So, next time I'm on a plane, I'll be sure to be pumping some Nickelback. Real loud.

Satan

I went for a jog this evening and was pleased to come upon some sidewalk-chalk graffiti. Written in the middle of the street (in pink, mind you) was "I love Satan". Kids these days...

37 Years

My parents have been married 37 years as of today. Not to sound cheesy, but hopefully I learned something from them.

I feel the need to recycle this excerpt from an old MySpace blog since MySpace is dead to me...

Quoting my Mom: "Marriage isn't about how many rooms of the house you can have sex in; it's about being there for the other person when they need you... it's having your husband hold a pillow against your boo boo."

As Andre 3000 would say, "Thank God for Mom and Dad, for sticking through together."

Location, Location, Location

Barb and I want to move in the fall of 2010. We know what we want but we don't know where it exists. On our own, we both came up with a list of 10 requirements that our new location would ideally have. Do you know if this place exists? Help!

My Requirements (in no order):
- near the ocean (preferably with an irregular coastline)
- town has a "main street" (plenty of food options)
- within 1 hour of mountains/hiking
- no-snow winters
- major music scene within 1 hour
- close proximity to a major sports market
- affordable real estate for future house buying
- lots of outdoor activity options
- town is a little funky / has charm / history
- must photograph well

Barb's Requirements (in no order):
- walk-able "downtown"
- ocean or lake within 30 minutes
- MLB park doable in a day
- university / college to work at
- mild winters, low humidity
- young family vibe (not old or young high school / college vibe)
- potential to buy property before we're 30
- classy food scene
- free outdoor entertainment and fun (ex: beach movies)
- slower pace of life

Bellybutton Legs

I had a dream a few nights ago and it's been freaking me out ever since. In my dream I had what I'll describe as "bellybutton legs".

I was sitting on a chair on a dock. Sticking out of my right thigh were 2 cardboard toilet paper tubes. They were about half-way in and my reasoning for having them was to hide my disfigured leg. I pulled them out and I had 2 "bellybuttons" on my right thigh ("innies", not "outies"). These were big bellybuttons though and whenever I picture them in my head my right leg tingles.