Awards @ MindSay 
music
Today was the annual block party my workplace holds to kick off Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We had games, prizes, door prizes/raffles, clog dancers, belly dancers, music, FOOD, face painting and crafts....I worked from 9:30 am until 2:30 pm. I learned how to make egg rolls and helped in making 500 of them! Yep, lots of leftovers! We also awarded 3 community members for their outstanding work in helping victims of domestic violence. The first was an investigator that works with the county's DA office. He's amazing....I've had him speak in one of my classes so I know how personal and serious he takes his job. The second person awarded was the head of the county humane society. She was awarded because my agency has an agreement with them in which they house pets of families that are fleeing violent homes. It's an amazing thing they do in helping us/our clients that way because often times there are families who want to leave but don't want to leave their pets behind. Most, if not all, shelters don't allow animals so this enables them to be able to get a fresh start and keep their furry loved ones safe too. The third person awarded was the police chief of a nearby suburb that we work very closely with. After multiple domestic violence related homicides in his district, he took a major stand and his force implemented a new program and new efforts to combat domestic violence. More law enforcement should be as dedicated and take it as seriously as he does. News crews were there, and I missed being on tv by a few inches - the person I was standing next to was on tv, but I wasn't. Oh well. I know I was there, and I smell like greasy egg rolls to prove it! There was also a table with information about therapy dogs....and there were probably 8 or so dogs there too....that drew a crowd too. I had a really great time and I was honored to be involved with the event!
So I'll go ahead and do that now... a month and a half late.
10/ The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
09/ Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
08/ The White Stripes - Icky Thump
07/ Iron and Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
06/ Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
05/ Battles - Mirrored
-I was voting for one of my favorite bands (MuteMath) in an online awards thing that was judging the best acts and new bands of 2007. I saw that a band I had never heard of (Battles) was up against some other band I knew nothing about. To give each a fair chance, I gave their sample song a listen. It was only 30 seconds of the song "Atlas" but it was enough to make me run to Best Buy the NEXT DAY and buy their album. There aren't really a whole lot of words I can use that would successfully describe this record but three come to mind: Rhythmic, percussive, and quirky. "Race: In," "Atlas," "Tonto," "Rainbow," and "Race: Out" are my favorites.
04/ Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
-Animal Collective is one of my favorite bands. I bought their 2005 album Feels because I had heard the song "Grass" on a friend's MySpace profile page. Ever since then I've been waiting for the new album and it is just as incredible as I expected it to be. I had heard a handful of the songs from this album from bootleg recordings of their concerts and was excited to hear the studio versions. The day it leaked I immediately downloaded it and was blown away. The amount of times I listened to that album in the first week that I had it was jaw-dropping. When it finally OFFICIALLY came out in September I bought it up on the first day and listened to it all day long. "Peacebone," "Unsolved Mysteries," "For Reverend Green," "Fireworks," "Cuckoo Cuckoo," and "Derek" are my favorites.
03/ LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
-I knew very little about LCD Soundsystem when I bought this album. Pretty much all I knew was that it was basically one guy and he had a crazy song called "Daft Punk is Playing At My House." But it was topping (if not #1 then #2 or #3) all these Best Album lists (this was early January). I figured that since it was really high on nearly every list I saw it on that it couldn't possibly be bad. I bought it on January 2nd and I cannot tell you what my favorite song is. Every single song on this album is like... holy shit. You just have to dance to everything on this album. If you don't like this album your ears are FUCKED UP. I EVEN PUT IT ABOVE ANIMAL COLLECTIVE WHO IS PRETTY MUCH ONE OF MY FAVORITE BANDS OF ALL TIME. THAT is saying something.
02/ Panda Bear - Person Pitch
-Perfection. Utter perfection. Every single song on this album is masterfully crafted and I would consider this the best album of 2007 IF Radiohead weren't my all-time favorite band who delivered an album that basically delivered upon every single expectation I had for their new release. BUT! That aside, let's focus on this BEAUTIFUL album. Panda Bear is actually Noah Lenox from Animal Collective gone solo. I'm not sure what led him to make this album but I am so glad he did. If you took Animal Collective, The Beach Boys, Liars, and the softer sides of The Velvet Underground and put them all in a blender and then immersed the new blend in a hot bath of reverb, you would get a similar sound to what's on this album. I'm not sure what else to say other than some will love this, some will hate it. But coming from someone with a vast musical background/taste, it's incredibly close to being my top album of 2007. Unfortunately...
01/ Radiohead - In Rainbows
-Radiohead took the cake. In every sense.
A long time ago I heard "Creep" on the radio and it was one of those "hey I kinda know the words to this song... whatever" types of songs. That was basically how Radiohead and I rolled until late 2000. I was in Atlanta and my Dad and I stopped by this shoddy little music store that still sold new vinyls and I was browsing the CD section. I saw Radiohead and saw !NEW ALBUM! IN STOCK! DISCOUNTED! Just under that sticker was their just-fresh album Kid A. I picked it up, knowing that they had been advertising it like crazy on MTV, made itself comfy at the #1 spot on the Billboard Top Albums list, and that they were "that band that did 'Creep.'" So I picked Kid A and Fatboy Slim's new album and took off. After listening to it a few times, I decided it was pretty cool but a little weird. I went back to listening to other things until 2003, when I found Kid A in the closet. Putting it back in the CD player to give it a fresh listen... I fell in love with it. I didn't know what to think. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before.
Shortly after, I was on vacation and picked up Hail To The Thief and fell in love with the band a second time. Now we're at 2004 when I flat out bought the rest of their albums all at once. OK Computer! Amnesiac! The Bends! What love! Soon they had sealed the deal as my favorite band of all time.
I was curious to know what they were doing, so I joined the fan site ateaseweb.com. Lucky enough for me, it was also a haven for the "elite" fans that had alllllllll the B-Sides, Unreleased material, and Live recordings I could get my hands on. After scooping up a large knowledge of Radiohead history, I soon planted myself in the garden of LP7 (the "codename" given to Radiohead's 7th LP record [now In Rainbows]) to wait for it to grow into a new album. 2006 now comes along with Radiohead premiering a large amount of new songs on a tour that I, unfortunately, could not make it to. I listened... I exploded with excitement... this was it... it was finally NEAR! 2007 comes along. Nothing. So little information coming from the band... just pictures and blogs that described bland studio sessions that didn't seem to be going anywhere. Until September 30th! Jonny Greenwood posts his oh-so-famous blog entry that states "We've finished recording the album. We've called it In Rainbows. It comes out in 10 days. Love from us all, Jonny."
10 days later, Radiohead release In Rainbows to the public via their website as a download only album. I bought the $80 discbox so that I could get the mp3 album on October 10 and the vinyls and CDs (with bonus disc of extra songs) in December.
This album delivers on every single expectation I had for it. From DAY ONE when I started waiting for it, this massive expectation had accumulated that SURELY no album by Radiohead could meet. But this album met it. By tenfold. This album caused me to revisit that sense of wonder and amazement that I had when listening to Kid A after rediscovering it in my dusty closet.
I'm stopping here... enough is enough. This was my favorite album of last year and I consider it to be the best album of last year. Please buy it.
It is incredible.
Honorable mentions:
Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
Eisley - Combinations
Burial - Untrue
Liars - Liars
Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass
2007 Darwin Award Nominee
Confirmed True by Darwin
(21 May 2004, Texas) Michael was an alcoholic. And not an ordinary alcoholic, but an alcoholic who liked to take his liquor... well, rectally. His wife said he was "addicted to enemas" and often used alcohol in this manner. The result was the same: inebriation.
The machine shop owner couldn't imbibe alcohol by mouth due to a painful throat ailment, so he elected to receive his favourite beverage via enema. And tonight, Michael was in for one hell of a party. Two 1.5 litre bottles of sherry, more than 100 fluid ounces, right up the old address!
When the rest of us have had enough, we either stop drinking or pass out. When Michael had had enough (and subsequently passed out) the alcohol remaining in his rectal cavity continued to be absorbed. The next morning, Michael was dead.
The 58-year-old did a pretty good job of embalming himself. According to toxicology reports, his blood alcohol level was 0.47%.
In order to qualify for a Darwin Award, a person must remove himself from the gene pool via an "astounding misapplication of judgment." Three litres of sherry up the butt can only be described as astounding. Unsurprisingly, his neighbors said they were surprised to learn of the incident.
Last night my 17yo daughter and I went to the Washington Post Music and Dance awards show at The Warner Theatre in Washington DC. The newspaper sponsors a competition for high school juniors and awards 12 of the 2500 who apply with a nice little scholarship for college.
Approximately 250 are named "finalists" (including my daughter who is a dancer) and invited to perform at this event. Many of the performers were also "scholarship winners" but really, all the kids are winners as they get acknowledged for their years of hard work -- the finalists represent the top 10 percent of the regional kids who apply.
I was blown away at the talent represented on that stage last night - and all by young adults - none of whom were over 18 years old. Classical & jazz pianists, strings, opera singers, vocalists, dancers (modern and classical ballet) and the most amazing saxophone player I've EVER seen/heard in my entire life to date.
The Post newspaper puts a competent producer in charge of the awards show, and they round up an impressive cadre of judges who seemed to pick the best of the best without any partiality or politics. And they get corporate sponsors to foot the bills for the tuition checks. The Post is generally a little to far to the left for my personal choice, in terms of editorial bent, but this project is first rate and I give them all the credit they deserve for establishing a quality program that benefits the youth of my area. Woot!
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