January 2012
6 posts
Song #19 // Langhorne Slim "Diamonds and Gold"...
And now, finally, the story can be told. With, of course, some caveats, including:
This is not a new song, or even a song from 2011. In fact, the original was released three years ago, in 2008.
Though the studio version is great, I always based my love for this song off of a semi-acoustic rendition performed for Daytrotter in 2008.
This is not my song. I didn’t write it, and I never...
Song #18 // Wilco "I Might" [The Whole Love]
For me, Wilco will always be wintry days, when the snow blows small and in pellet form, like stones thrown from the sky, dryly accumulating in piles that are whisked away by ungloved hands or anxiously unfrozen wiper blades.
It’s a time in grey, when ponds and roadside ravines realize their standing water is a shield that can protect them from the coming months, and in a rush they work to...
Song #17 // Raphael Saadiq "Radio" [Stone Rollin']
These are simple pleasures: a summer afternoon, childhood games, and speakers (however ill-equipped) pumping out grainy, feel good tunes.
This was the scene one summer day this past year when I traveled up to my parents’ house in Leelanau and convinced them to finally pull out the badminton set they had bought on clearance at Meijer (Michigan pronunciation: Meijer’s) a few years...
Year in Review keeps on moving [sorry for the...
For those playing along at home, my sincere apologies that the tunes are rolling out as slowly as they are. Lots of travel and life eventing is causing me to push the Pause button more than I’d hope.
Still, there are 27 total songs this year and we’re already at 16, so the end is relatively in sight.
Thanks for listening along.
Song #16 // Charles Bradley "The World (Is Going...
By now you’ve either heard Charles Bradley’s story or you need to. And if you fall into the former category, it bears repeating: the 60-something parttime cook who had dreamed of being James Brown since he saw him at the Apollo decades earlier. Never giving up and eventually “discovered” by Daptone and paired with the surprisingly tight Menahan Street Band. After a string...
Song #15 // The Head and The Heart "Lost in My...
Like most of us, I first heard The Head and The Heart this year despite the Seattle-based band appearing on Sub-Pop a year prior. Whether or not this release was fated to meet my ears just as the May rains opened up green buds and unsheathed winter windows is up for debate. It’s impact is not; it’s the perfect spring song, filled with hushed optimism and crushed grass bombast.
...
December 2011
32 posts
Go Irish!
Song #14 // The Decemberists "Down By the Water"...
The Decemberists surprised me (and a whole lot of other people) with The King Is Dead. While I was never necessarily against them, I was also never really a huge fan. I (like a whole lot of other people) loved “O Valencia!” but otherwise didn’t pay the band much attention.
There was also a sense that there was just a bit too much effort behind the albums, such as 2009’s...
Song #13 // R.E.M. "Mine Smell Like Honey"...
R.E.M. was so many things, so many memories, so many places.
This is the power of music.
Growing up it was the first indicator of music cred. In a pre-Internet world, R.E.M. was the pre-indie band. The continuation of a Talking Heads artscape, but with meatier hooks, and popularity that didn’t need to be fought over. If you liked them, you were in. If you didn’t, that was OK too.
...
Year in Review 2011: Song #12 // Ben Harper “Don’t Give Up On Me Now” http://t.co/HWuloxsk #yir2011
Song #12 // Ben Harper "Don't Give Up On Me Now"...
The term “ear worm” is used to describe a song that wiggles its way into one’s ear and lodges there for an extended period of time, housed in the thoughts and memory of the host, not just taking up occupancy, but in effect infecting all other sounds and ideas. It becomes the looped soundtrack to the movie of our lives, infiltrated with even the slightest invitation. It’s...
Year in Review 2011: Song #11 Adele “Rolling in the Deep” http://t.co/8NgE7WEG #yir2011
Song #11 // Adele "Rolling in the Deep" [21]
Years ago, before I left California for Michigan, I decided to book a West coast swing, starting up in Alaska and working my way down through Vancouver and Seattle. It was a last minute, ill-planned trip that I undertook by myself without any background knowledge at all. I paid for it, of course, through overpriced hotels, rental cars, and salmon sandwiches that I could have scored for half the...
Song #10 // Bon Iver "Calgary" [Bon Iver]
Looking back years from now, people of a certain persuasion will undoubtedly see Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago as a high water mark, especially in the artistically bereft early years of the new millennium. (Where art thou, Will Smith; and whither your promise of a new Willennium?)
For me, I won’t be the least bit surprised if it is looked back on as one of the best albums of my...
Song #9 // Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues"...
Like most fans of Fleet Foxes, I was initially drawn to the harmonies of the beard rockers. Listening to Fleet Foxes is like stumbling upon a drum circle campfire campground in the middle of the woods while Robert Bly stands off to the side extolling the virtues of men in all their manliness. As my wife and I zipped around the northern redwood forests of California several summers ago she...
Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education #TED http://t.co/1AwC1jZN [awesome, but let’s not confuse technology for great teaching]
Year In Review 2011: Song #8 // Chris Bathgate “Salt Year” [Salt Year] http://t.co/stdboSnE #yir2011
Song #8 // Chris Bathgate "Salt Year" [Salt Year]
Chris Bathgate’s “Salt Year” was quietly my favorite album this year. I’ve tried to rationalize other choices (due to potential conflicts of interest with friends of friends and close proximity to the Ann Arbor/Ypsi native, etc.) but I just can’t. This album has gotten more airplay and has been played on repeat on too many dark hours of my days to choose any other...
Year in Review 2011: Song #7 // Hezekiah Jones “Airplane Window” [Have You Seen Our New Fort?] http://t.co/uULQq4j9 #yir2011
Song #7 // Hezekiah Jones "Airplane Window" [Have...
Before we go any further, let me first say that you can download this song (and two others, including the brilliant “Cannonball”) for FREE by visiting this site. In fact, it’s the version of “Airplane Window” in this set that I’m referencing here. The studio version is great, but the soft acoustic rendition is so earnest and so touching that it haunts any...
Song #6 // Hellogoodbye "The Thought that Gives Me...
This, my friends, will be the most joyous song on the list this year. Packed in at just under 3 minutes, it’s a tiny gift of pop and happiness rounded out by (what is that, anyway?) a ukelele and jaunty handclaps over a low organ that comes in at just the right time.
Sure, it’s cute for the first minute or two. Maybe even worthy of some distant future insurance commercial background...
Never Forget: http://t.co/wqDCVzde #KimJong-Il
RT @TheAtlantic: RT @ellenmrolfes In 2010, Hitchens came to Notre Dame for “The God Debate” arguing against Dinesh D’Souza http://t.co/e …
RT @BedfordBits: How Do We Read Comics? Andrea Lunsford explores the reading strategies of students in a class on Graphic Narratives: ht …
Song #5 // Sondre Lerche "When the River" [Sondre...
My love is a red-eye flight waking up to a captain’s voice and fluorescent lights telling myself that two hours of semi-conscious unconsciousness can be considered sleep, at least for today. It’s overhead announcements reminding me what time zone I’m in and to not trust anyone with my bags.
In the winter it’s the blast of cold like a smack in the chest, so quick and so...
Goodbye to Christopher Hitchens, a brave SOB http://t.co/CcFhjoP0
Song #3 // Keegan DeWitt & Song #4 // Romany Rye
By the time we arrived at the farm, the late April day was quickly closing in, and it felt like we had been driving forever in the back country dirt roads of Washtenaw County. Though we were only headed to Dexter (just a bit outside of Ann Arbor) the ride seemed to take us not only to another place, but another time.
As I pulled off the potholed gravel street, a farmer greeted us in his...
I’ve seen this floating around but finally clicked on it tonight. I now consider every day I waited to have been wasted http://t.co/TRUSRX3u
Song #2 // Lynn Miles “Something Beautiful” [Fall...
Synesthesia is a neurological condition, essentially, where our brains confuse senses; or more appropriately, they fuse senses. Typical reports include examples of people seeing music as colors (I once read that John Mayer suffered from this condition while reading somewhere else that people suffer from John Mayer.)
I’ve never experienced anything like this, though I have noticed...
Song #1 // The XX “VCR” [Live at KEXP Volume 6]
The first volley over each year’s musical bow is always what came immediately before in the year prior. Typically (in fact, always) this means my sister’s annual Christmas gift to me: a copy of Live at KEXP, this year entering its 6th edition.
Though there was a string of snoozers in the years leading up to this one, this volume was packed with really great live versions from really...
The Year in Music // 2011
And so it rolls on. Like in years before: last year’s incomplete 2010 list; 2009’s first foray into blog entries; and all the annual offerings from 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005. From Indiana to New York to California to Michigan. From life as a student, a DJ, a writer (of sorts), a teacher, and a student again. It’s rolled on with a steady beat: perhaps the only consistent thing in...
RT @mashsocialmedia: YouTube launches tool to help teachers & students get their learn on - http://t.co/JkQWvGI0
The Best Videos For Educators In 2011 http://t.co/qiJIU3Ck [obviously arguable, but fun]
FREE #EBOOK! From Saturday until Monday check out Chris Gerben’s short story “The Cafe” FREE for Kindle/Prime users! http://t.co/7t7QUcdA
Salon: What real education reform looks like http://t.co/7gDxtzVF
Teens and Social Networks data from @pewinternet http://t.co/JV7FweVQ
RT @TheAtlantic: How Herman Miller designed the modern classroom http://t.co/HWC97Sax
Margaret Atwood says Twitter, Internet boost literacy http://t.co/e1uREXgQ [care of our friendly Northern friends at the CBC]
November 2011
15 posts
Verlander, MVP!!! Go #Tigers!
Take a second to tell Rep. Conyers about the deleterious effects on education and creativity to be caused by #SOPA http://t.co/w2ns4JzB
RT @TechCrunch: Facebook Updates Events, Makes “Not Attending” Less Insulting http://t.co/S9uCNjmP by @joshconstine
RT @OpenIDEO: Featured Inspiration: The ‘Cool’ Factor http://t.co/XqOK8pJ3 /@humansindesign shares this story of how ‘cool’ can revitali …
Did anyone else’s Twitter revert to the old design today? I was just getting used to the new changes…
I was sleeping/ My eyes were dark till you woke me/ And you told me, that opening is just the start/ It was - Thanks again @blindpilot
Is this "writing"?
How can we prove it?
RT @AlecJRoss: On this date in 1990, @timberners_lee published a proposal to create the World Wide Web. Read the proposal here http://t. …
This is oddly poignant: 8-Bit Game Deaths http://t.co/cLLa5WCQ
RT @ebertchicago: Photo for 11/11/11 of an electric guitar dial: http://t.co/DGyfYAIH
RT @pewinternet: Which groups of teens use social media? A breakdown by demographics: http://t.co/jZPDc4Vc
RT @carr2n: Writing is a muscle, not a thought. Am filing more for Web and find the words come easier the more you step up to the plate.