The Obligatory New Year Post.

What is the deal with 2009? I don't know. I don't have any grand pronouncements to make or any promises/resolutions with which to bullshit you. So what do I have? What is the point of this post? Fuck, I don't know. Here's some random shit I did or thought about this past year:

Accomplishments:

1. Thesis.
2. A car that does not suck or make me out to be a child molester:


3. Uh... That's pretty much it.

Yeah, 2008 mostly sucked ass, but Obama was elected and the malaise of 2007 seemed to be exorcised. The self-flagellation of my thesis was put behind me, and I'm eager to start working on my custodian essays/memoir. Eventually I'll come back to the novel, but right now I'm content letting it sit and ferment in the back alleys of my sub-conscious. For once, I'm cutting myself some slack and not worrying. Come the end of winter, I have a sneaking suspicion that "Chaotic Neutral" will come out of the drawer and I'll look at with eager eyes.

Anything else?

Yes. Because I'm a fan of lists and can't stop watching VH1's Top 500 Hard Rock Songs for like the 49th time, allow me to salute you with the following:

Songs I Loved In 2008:

1. Watch Your Step -Jason Anderson (released in 2005, fuck you if you think this is cheating)
2. Kim & Jesse -M83
3. Constructive Summer -The Hold Steady
4. The '59 Sound -Gaslight Anthem
5. Sultan -What Made Milwaukee Famous
6. Time to Pretend -MGMT
7. The Shock of the Lightning -Oasis (I'm a total sucker for this band)
8. Supernatural Superserious -REM
9. Waving Flags -British Sea Power
10. My Only Offer -Mates of State

Hon. Mention: The Wrestler -Bruce Springsteen, Slapped Actress -The Hold Steady, Graveyard Girl -M83, Soul on Fire -Spiritualized

Albums Everyone Else Liked Except Me:

Dear Science -TV On the Radio

-I don't know. I guess I'm missing something, but this just sounds like David Byrne on amphetamines howling into Pro Tools.

Vampire Weekend -Vampire Weekend

-Sweet fucking Christ! Will someone just kill this band! As I've said to friends, Vampire Weekend sounds like frat boys singing every Paul Simon song I hate.

Favorite Album of Year:

Saturdays = Youth -M83

-This is the best album of 1983 released 15 years after the fact. Still, it is the most luscious-sounding record of the year, and one that Kate Bush/Peter Gabriel/Cocteau Twins would have killed to make. It's interesting because I tend to focus on lyrics and guitar sound in the music I love, and Saturdays = Youth lacks in both departments, especially the latter. But there is something so earnest and innocent about the work here that I cannot help but be moved. There is a moment in the middle of "Graveyard Girl" where a teenage girl speaks these cheesy lines:

"I'm gonna jump the walls and run
I wonder if they'll miss me?
I won't miss them.
The cemetery is my home
I want to be a part of it,
Invisible even to the night.
Then I'll read poetry to the stones
Maybe one day I could be one of them...
Wise and silent.
Waiting for someone to love me.
Waiting for someone to kiss me.
I'm fifteen years old
And I feel it's already too late to live.
Don't you?"

There is a pause between the last two lines, magnifying the question directed at the listener. It is so over-the-top, cheeseball emo that I wanted to throw up, but then the ethereal synth and bass line came in and I smiled instead, remembering that every teenager is a little bit goth and filled with unrealistic romantic ideals.

Saturdays = Youth is a soundtrack for an unmade John Hughes film, and every time I put it on I imagine driving through the North Chicago suburbs in summer time, daydreaming of Molly Ringwald.


Well, goodbye 2008. I'll leave you with this picture of two kids looking constipated at a bar:


Good night, and good luck.