Random Acts of Journalism

I think i’ll post some more resolutions that i will never ever follow soon, but in the meantime, a message about New Year’s Eve from Will Leitch:

“I hear people complain about New Year’s Eve, that it’s always made into a big event that ultimately disappoints, that they feel pressured to have some kind of momentously fun time. These people are sad, really, incredible dullards and whiners. Pressured to have fun? Hey, I’ll take that kind of pressure every time, no problem. I wish I was pressured to have fun every day, rather than pressured to pay the bills, pressured to hold onto my job, pressured to keep my head above water.

If you can’t relax and have fun on New Year’s Eve, well, you’ve got more problems than this column can solve, so there is no hope for you here.”

Read the rest here and have a happy New Year.

It’s been an interesting year for music, and i’ve found myself enjoying and listening to a lot of different stuff. As always, these are albums that were new to me in 2008 and not necessarily new this year. Some highlights and lowlights:

Favorite Band of the Year: The Hold Steady
My girl hates them, but i love ‘em. Great combination of heavy rock, good lyrics, sing-a-long songs and fist pumpers. I don’t know how long they’ll last but in a year that was dominated by sissy hipster music, these guys had the teeth to get my attention.

To All The Albums I’ve Loved Before:
The National – Boxer (maybe the best album of the year.)
Modest Mouse – We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank (I don’t care if it came out in 07, i still listened to it all year.)
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga (New to me…Underdog may be my favorite song of the year.)
Okkervil River – Stage Names
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Griffin House – Flying Upside Down (i hope he blows up in 2009 so i can say i knew him when…)
Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs (lots of varying opinions on this album, but i thought it was outstanding)
Ryans Adams and the Cardinals – Cardinology (This could end up being one of my favorites of 09, since it just came out.)
Anberlin – Lost Cities (Random band for me to like, but sometimes, you just gotta rock. Like the dudes voice too.)
The Black Keys – Attack and Release (Is there anything Danger Mouse produces that isn’t excellent these days? I can’t believe this much sound comes from 2 guys.)

Albums that i Got and then Didn’t Listen to At All:
REM – Accelerate
Counting Crows – Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings
Mars Volta – Bedlam in Goliath
The Roots – Rising Down
Jack Johnson – Sleep Through The Static
Okkervil River – The Stand-Ins

Fueled By Ramen Albums that i Ignored:
Panic! At the Disco – You Don’t Have to Worry… (heard this was actually decent…anyone?)
Fall Out Boy – Folie A Deux (I think i’m a little too old for them now…amongst many other reasons to never listen to them ever again…)

The Dow Jones Award for Things Heading the Wrong Direction:
The Killers – Day & Age (This album makes Sam’s Town sound like Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run…)

The Dave Mathews – Lillywhite Sessions Memorial Award for Album most Affected by a Breakup:
Kanye West – 808s and Heartbreak (It’s not a terrible album, so i’m not going to get upset about it, but it could have been so, so, so much more.)

The Mick Jagger Award for “You’re really old and apparently still rocking”
Metallica – Death Magnetic

The Arthur Fonzarelli award For Officially Jumping the Shark:
Coldplay – Viva La Vida (“You know how i know you’re gay? You listen to Coldplay” I’m over them…entirely. Go away.)

Albums That Are On Everyone’s List That i Haven’t Even Listened To:
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
TV On The Radio – Dear Science
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig!! Lazarus Dig!!! (i have it, i’ll get to it.)
Kings of Leon – Only By The Night

2009 Albums I’m Looking Forward To and/or Hoping They Come Out:
Common – Universal Mind Control (even though it is out already, i will not have it until this list is published, making it a 2009 album in my book. Plus, this album was supposed to drop 6 months ago…i have to wait, now so do you.)
Andrew Bird
Kanye West
Mos Def

Is there anything that could happen in the United States that would spur the youth of this country to action like this?

I say “No.”

We may post something angry on our blogs or facebook statuses (stati?) but as soon as Spencer and Heidi bought a Starbucks or something we’d get distracted. As usual, i weep for the future.

What do you think? Is there anything, in your mind, that could make you throw a rock at a cop?

It’s been a while since i’ve done one of these because i felt i was devaluing the apocalypse every time some guy got arrested soliciting a child for sex while wearing a “World’s Greatest Dad” shirt. But today — ok, last night –  i saw something that could not be ignored.

Lewis Black — a comedian who has filled a nice void for me since the death of my idol Carlin — has a bit about seeing the end of the universe. It’s in Houston, Texas…where there is a Starbucks built acorss the street from a Starbucks. In his words, “A man with his family, hands filled with fresh carmel machiattos, emerges from a Starbucks to the view of an empty lot across the street. The man puts his arm around his wife as he gazes upon the lot, eyes fresh with opportunity, and says, ‘You know what i think that space needs honey? A Starbucks.’ That, my friends, is the end of the universe.”

And i don’t mean to contradict Mr. Black because he very well may be correct. Unless he was watching television last night and witnessed the trailer for the Homeland Security reality show! In fact, maybe he did see it and we just haven’t heard from him yet because his living room is littered with brains from his head exploding.

The only thing more shocking than some prick executive green-lighting that show is that it wasn’t a prick executive from FOX.