Month: December 2008

Artists To Watch 2009

Band Song Next area appearance Why them
01. Jukebox The Ghost Hold It In Change is in the air, and what better sounds to start off with the best new local group, a jangly bit of piano pop. Check out the video for some nice Peanuts based humor.
02. Katy Perry Hot N Cold 4/10/09 9:30 You’ve probably heard it already, but I just could not get it out of my head. If you’re earwormed too, you’re welcome.
03. Lindsey Buckingham The Right Place to Fade 3/10/09 Verizon Center The Fleetwood Mac pop mastermind veers back to sounding like his band after his last solo album, and that’s a good thing.
04. Red Molly May I Suggest 1/18/08 Birchmere While the three members are talented players (not just guitar, also banjo, Dobro and mandolin), it’s this acapella number that grabbed me.
05. Ben Arthur Tattoo The first (of three) videos I recorded.
06. Crooked Still Did You Sleep Well? Artists To Watch vets, back with a new lineup and great songs (and another video of mine).
07. Gary Louris She Only Calls Me On Sundays 2/10/09 Birchmere The ex-Jayhawk marries his sound with some gospel. Great album and tour, but next year he re-teams with Mark Olson – watch out for that.
08. Ellis Paul Abiola 1/16/09 Andy’s From his kids album, a scintillating duet with Antje Duvekot.
09. Jim Boggia To And Fro The power pop master returns with another round of great songs.
10. She And Him Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? This list doesn’t mesh too often with the best of lists, but the collaboration of actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward is something special.
11. Jim’s Big Ego Everything Must Go 1/22/09 Jammin’ Java My favorite song about death all year. Jim’s duet partner is Jennifer Kimball.
12. Vampire Weekend Oxford Comma 2/28/08 Richmond Coliseum Again a popular choice, but their Paul Simon/Peter Gabriel influenced world pop is danged catchy.
13. Dar Williams Buzzer 1/26/09 The National I’ll bet we’ll never hear a poppier song based on the social psychology experiments. Also the last of my videos.
14. Steven Wilson Harmony Korine From the Porcupine Tree mastermind’s first solo record. I don’t like it as much as the Tree, but it’s still got a great riff.
15. Great Big Sea Company of Fools Listen to this and you’ll know why we want to go on a cruise with them.
16. Thea Gilmore Rosie A softer track than usual, but a nice melody.
17. Extreme Run They reunited two years ago, but this year they wrote a new album, here’s the best groove.
18. The Feeling I Thought It Was Over These guys are huge in the UK, this is why.
19. Lenka The Show 5/?/09 Herndon Festival There were lots of female singer/piano players this year (Sara Bareilles was good too), but only Lenka will be playing minutes away from us next summer.
20. Queen + Paul Rodgers Say It’s Not True This song is a great summary for the supergroup – Brian and Roger start on their own, then Paul swoops in – it’s a kind of magic.
21. Robbie Schaefer Evergreen 1/16-18/08 Birchmere The reason I couldn’t finish until the last minute, the CD was not released until a day before our party. A lovely coda for the disc and the year.

Leftovers (in no particular order):
Absentstar – Half Life
Amanda Palmer – The Point of It All
Amie Miriello – I Came Around
Ben’s Brother – Stuttering
Catie Curtis – Soul Meets Body
Gemma Hayes – Out Of Our Hands (featuring Kevin Shields)
Kate Voegele – Only Fooling Myself
Matt Nathanson – Gone
Natalia Zukerman – Better Me
Ruut – Sweetest Thing
Slow Runner – Trying To Put Your Heart Back Together
Snow Patrol – Crack The Shutters
The Takeover UK – Lean On It
These United States – The Business

No Christmas mix CD this year – barely got one disc done in time. Maybe I’ll plan better next year.

Graduation and party

Thursday we braved some horrendous weather and associated traffic to get to Georgetown for a reception for Jill and her classmates. They had a nice spread of appetizers, and I met a number of her classmates and teachers that I hadn’t met previously. We got there late, but they ran a bit over the scheduled time and Jill was able to chat with everyone she wanted. Here are Kelly (our temporary roommate) and Jill.

Kelly and Jill

Friday Jill picked me up after work, and we headed over to Jammin’ Java. We waited 30 minutes before they opened seating, got our seats and ordered dinner (salad and chili for me, half sandwich and chili for her). Stuart joined us for the show, and Shelly was working merch, and it was nice to catch up with them both. We were there for Robbie Schaefer‘s album release show, and we also managed to chat with the rest of efo during sets. John Jennings (who produced his album) was scheduled to open the show, but that turned out to be wrong as he was Robbie’s guitar player during the two sets Robbie played. A really good show, but Jill was developing a headache and we left just before the end (at least we heard all the new songs played).

Saturday I was up early after being up late working on the party favors, and we managed to finish cleaning before we had to get dressed and leave. We met Sharon and my parents for lunch at The Tombs near campus, Jill had a nice salad with fried chicken bits and I had an Eggs Benedict. Jill had to leave early to get ready for graduation (technically a “completion ceremony” since it’s not official until June), and we followed along soon after to get good seats. The ceremony was nice, but took a while since it included nursing students and three other master’s programs. Afterwards they served cake and champagne, but we didn’t stay long as we still had things to do.

Jill at graduation

After we got home, I headed to the store for a little more food and sodas, and Jill started decorating. I got back, put food away, and joined in (we’ll need more lights next year, more were burned out than I thought). We were ready just in time for our first guests to show up (as usual). The party was much fun, with the usual mix of friends and coworkers. More food was brought, and too little consumed (as our groaning fridge will attest). For a change, everything was over by midnight, but that was a good thing as we were both pretty exhausted.

Today we both hung out at home. I watched the Skins lose a game that they shouldn’t have (giving the Bengals only their second win), then tried to catch up on newspapers. I watched a movie while making a fiery West African stew with beef, chicken and peanut butter, now Jill is watching Christmas movies while working on Christmas cards.

Books I’ve read, week forty-nine

73. Coraline (graphic novel)
Writer: Neil Gaiman Artist: P. Craig Russell
A bit hard getting into initially, as I’m familiar with the title character as originally envisioned by Dave McKean (which is also the way the movie will portray her), and this version with her as a normal character was quite different. Still, the story is the same, and all the characters are nicely rendered. B+

BTW, the first time I listened to it on audio in the car. The phrase “a spider the size of a small cat” still gives Jill the shivers.

Repeal Day weekend

Friday was the most social part of the weekend. Jill had made a chicken tender salad for dinner and we wolfed that down, then headed out to Georgetown. A number of her classmates were getting together at Garret’s, and we parked in a garage and headed over. We had a nice evening chatting with folks, it was in a small room upstairs. It was a coincidence we were at a bar on the 75th anniversary of Repeal Day, but I took full advantage of it.

Saturday I was on my own for the most of the day, and mostly watched TV and caught up on newspapers. I forgot to mention earlier that Jill’s classmate and friend Kelly has been staying with us since Monday, since she didn’t want to keep her apartment through December, and her and Jill were off studying during the day. I grilled some burgers for dinner. Later on I built a fire and we watched the Colbert Christmas Special and the Tenacious D movie – both pretty fun. Today I had a full day on the computer (auctions, DVDs, CDs, etc.) – good thing as Kelly and Jill were studying here. Now I need to go make some pulled pork so we can have sandwiches for dinner, then I’ll watch the game when it comes on.

It’s back

The Star Wars Holiday Special always held a special place in my heart – until I actually saw it again a couple years back. While the Boba Fett cartoon is still cool, the rest has the worst of 70s excess (can’t decide if Jefferson Starship or Bea Arthur is the low point). But now 30 years have passed, and it’s at least being acknowledged, if not officially released. Poking around brought me here, which led me to find that one of the MST3K splinter groups had done their own commentary track. After checking out their site, I also found a Jurassic Park commentary track with Weird Al, and I bought both of them. I foresee some comedy gold in my future.

5th Edhead Cruise videos

My goal for the weekend was to make DVDs of the last Eddie From Ohio cruise as I work backwards through my recordings. Here’s some of the best performances:

First set on November 2, 2007:
Fire
Schoolhouse Rock Medley

Robbie and Julie doing karaoke on November 2, 2007:
You Don’t Bring Me Flowers

Robbie, Mike & Eddie acoustic on the back deck on November 3, 2007:
Jerusalem
Ring Of Fire / Boy Named Sue
Friend Of The Devil
The Weight

Second set on November 4, 2007:
The Three Fine Daughters Of Farmer Brown
The New James Bond
Eddie’s Concubine