Best Albums This Year So Far

You people pine for me and my music opinions. And you smell like trees when I do so. Did you know that? Did you?

10. The National--High Violet. It's not hard to dress up melancholic torpor in midtempo, and I'm not the first person to say it. Hard is to do so in a way that feels like an invitation. (Note: these sentences make sense to me.)

9. MGMT--Congratulations. First: best album title ever. Second: I rally behind bands that mix shit up. Third: their music scares me most of the time.

8. Titus Andronicus--The Monitor. Concept album about the Civil War from a band of children who are aware of Springsteen but likely aren't aware they're aping him.

7. Das Racist--Sit Down, Man (mixtape). I hope they never sign to a major label because then they'd have to pay for their samples. Diss tracks, nonsense, psychedelia" what's not to love?

6. Tennis--Tennis. I'm convinced this band has a time machine. That they're from the 1960's or the 2060's is anyone's gambit.

5. LCD Soundsystem--This is Happening. Most of their songs take me a mile to get through, and most of the time I've barely noticed I'm mostly running.

4. Sleigh Bells--Treats. I should be very sick of their blown-out bubblegum sound by now, but I've seemed to skip that part of listening to an album too much.

3. The Walkmen--Lisbon. A band that truly cares about how far each mic is from each instrument. That's got to mean something, right?

2. Grinderman--Grinderman 2. If you've heard it, you know.

1. Wolf Parade--Expo '86. They wear their influences on their Canadian sleeve and we're all the better for it, eh? Plus: more solos!

0. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy--Kanye. I haven't heard the official album yet, but if his Friday G.O.O.D. leaks are any indication, this record will knock off my socks.

Honorable Mentions And In Order To Boot:
The Black Angels
Roky Erikson & Okkervil River (shock much?)
Beach House
The Drums
Surfer Blood
Girl Talk
Gauntlet Hair
Ariel Pink's Whatever the Fuck the Rest of that Band's Name Is
Arcade Fire
John Mellencamp
Jonsi
Sharon Van Etten
Raekwon Mef & Ghost
Erykah Badu
Harlem
Girls

Bands I gave a proper shot this year and would've put on the list but whose albums came out last year thus disqualified them from my hyper-fucking-disciplined process:

The xx
Real Estate
Smith Westerns

See How Far They Can Run

Shit's been afoot. I have new work (vintage taxidermist), we have a new house (a faux Chateau). I jogged that one time and soccer's been on. Stirf refines and employs room specific carpet sunshine matrices. I made a best man speech and I read booky wooks. I'm a twat. I miss old friends and I've hung four mirrors and I can't wait for fantasy football and I don't mind landscaping when it's, you know, my yard. I like Ina better than Paula, y'all.

All well and good, but what of me now? Why, I'm strutting that ass of course.

I like 'em when they pair off and make dreamy pretty depressing pop crap.

'Til Mates of State get daycare, have you some Beach House.

They're on Kimmel Friday night (the 22nd).

(By the time you've read this, they
may have already done him.

And we may be both dead.

Maybe more enlightened.)

(Prolly less.)

England's Lady Gaga + Hot Chip cover + a tenori-on = Little Boots is Ready for the Floor:

A Sequence of Tubes and Roses and Tube Roses and Water Globes

Everybody we saw over the holiday was happy--family, friends, family friends, all. No remember when, just hot tubs, love aids, Maine, basement floods, and pith so thick.
++++++
We're Chicago-bound again soon; with both of us working, plans to do it right are taking shape. I'll have bacon that looks like Swedish fish please.
++++++
I'm still running, but it's been a lot of treadmill lately. I get outside, but I'm trying to just put miles on. Fitness=fun.
++++++
Delillo. Knife Opera.
++++++
Teaching a 100% web-based class. Teaching 2 100% chalk and workshop classes. Both ftw.
++++++
Got my folks a netbook for Christmas. Dad was so giddy.

I set it up for him.

He's sitting in his recliner, looking over the Wal Mart reading glasses on his nose, pondering where to go on it.

"I want to see some Bigfoot videos. Or Loch Ness monsters."

He starts typing. Then says "Whoa."

He hands it back to me.

Porn everywhere.

He Googled 2 words.

"Unusual Things."

I defy you not to love that.

He now has WoT.
++++++

Dispatches from Telescope Machine

I have an essay left to grade this semester. It's on Rocky III. I'm milking it.

I recently bowled a bumpers-down 178.

I had food poisoning, lost a bunch of weight, had four Thanksgivings, gained it all back.

You look great, though.

Great.

My niece called the Joker on Dark Knight "the mean clown."

Purchased:

• a southern gothic called Hell at the Breech
  
• a historical fiction called Wolf Hall
  
• a experimental called Edisto
• a nonrequired called Nonrequired
  
• a book about the Supreme Court called The Nine
  
• a book on Renaissance tapestries called Tapestries in the Somethingorother,

And I will devour them.

Once I.

Once you.

My fantasy football teams are strong. Playoff losses are damn near certain.

People on Facebook. Right?

My bestest, most favoritest books of the decade (so far):

1. A Gutwrenching Effort of Monumental Smartness by Dave Eggers
   
2. Senor Wao's Awe-Worthy Lifetales by Junot Diaz
   
3. Cooking Place--Shhh! by Anthony Bourdain
   
4. The Lengthy Domicile by William Gay
   
5. Think about This Langostino by DFW (RIP)
   
6. The Fixes by Jonathan Franzen
7. Very Little Country Out There for Geezers by Cormac McCarthy
8. Drive-Through Country by Eric Scholsser
9. There's No Way to Funny Up the Title Gilead by Marianne Robinson
10. Stronghold of Lonliness by Jonathan Lethem
11. El Terroro by Dan Simmons
12. Pointy Stuff by Gillian Flynn

I took another winner of a picture for my license.

Smirky,

salty.

Who knew running in the cold would be so invigorating.

I live a life that's never not interesting.

May you too.

Some young 'n strongvoiced TVZ:

Eesh and me fittin' togoto onea themthar SwanLake hickeydo's as our Xmas presence to eachovur, and to helpma whet ma ballett pallette whirlymagig, I be watchin' vidyos with them purty dancingirls and all they whatnot. Herego lookit: