December 2009
37 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-27) →
Patton Oswalt (5)
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down (2)
Band Of Skulls (2)
The Go Find (2)
The Drums (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Of records released in 2009, my 40 most-listened
At least, according to last.fm. Many great records don’t make this list because they came out later in the year, resulting in fewer listens.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Jaydiohead – Jaydiohead - Jay-Z x Radiohead
Doug Gillard – Call From Restricted
Emmy the Great – First Love
Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – The Pains of Being Pure at...
Pitchfork Top 10 Albums, In US Sales
perpetua:
1. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion 131k 2. Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca 48k 3. the xx xx 35k 4. The Flaming Lips Embryonic 75k (estimate) 5. Raekwon Only Built For Cuban Linx Part II 141k 6. Grizzly Bear Veckatimest 132k 7. Bat For Lashes Two Suns 36k 8. Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix 205k 9. Fever Ray Fever Ray 23k 10. Girls Album 19k
I don’t know the economics...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-20) →
Dinosaur Jr. (5)
Ola Podrida (3)
Matt & Kim (3)
Speech Debelle (3)
Foreign Born (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My impression of the signs along I-85 across South...
(Inhale)
WelcomeToSouthCarolinaJesusFIREWORKSCollegeFootball ChristAdultNoveltiesSUPPORTOURTROOPSJesusGunsBobJonesUniversity DaleEarnhardtAmmoOUTLETS250STORESAbortionIsMurder FireworksChristXXXMoviesCouplesWelcomeGUNSTheseColorsDon’tRun LIVEBAITByTheWayDidWeMentionJesusWelcomeToNorthCarolina.
Thank you.
Oh, hello
Wow, 2 1/2 days without so much as a toot - that’s my longest absence since Twitterific came out back in mid-2008.
It’s been a horribly busy week, which is why I’m writing this at 4:30 AM. This is weird: not long ago, these depths of December were when I finally had time to do things like clean up my files and re-pot my office plants. Not this week: the phone is ringing,...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-13) →
The-Dream (4)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs (4)
Eluvium (3)
Shelby Sifers (3)
Johnny Flynn (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
(346 characters)
Last week I asked a U.S. military officer why the armed forces are taking on lots of new roles.
He told me that the military is the only U.S. government agency with “surge capacity.”
I don’t think that’s fair to other U.S. government agencies. Their “surge capacity” is just fine.
I mean, except for last night. And it’s never happened before.
When we were older John had a great party piece – he’d put speed in your drink. When I was about 24 I nodded off one night at someone’s house and he stuck some in my drink. I was like a rabbit in the headlights for four days!
… He was a bit aggressive at first. If he found he could browbeat you then you were under his thumb. He used to treat Stuart [Sutcliffe] really badly at...
Last April during the Summit of the Americas, President Barack Obama shook hands with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Their greet-and-grip photo op had that street-smart flair — hooked thumbs, hip dude grins, brothers in populist cool.
“Hey,” the defenders of this particular example of self-proclaimed “smart diplomacy” argued, “the Summit’s going down in...
Percentage of Americans who believe in angels: 55
Percentage of Americans who believe in evolution: 39
Percentage of Americans who believe in anthropogenic global warming: 36
Percentage of Americans who believe in ghosts: 34
Percentage of Americans who believe in UFOs: 34
- Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy.
“[F]or a Cuban blogger to get to the mythical Ithaca that is the Internet, they...”
– Good article in In These Times.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-12-6) →
James McMurtry (22)
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists (7)
The xx (5)
Esau Mwamwaya (5)
Vampire Weekend (5)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“After a stunned silence, Hollywood’s response to the war on terror became...”
– Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.
Am I the only one unable to understand Dean's... →
Take-out menus? Finding “clever and funny things” by following sources I already follow? I’m clearly not smart enough to know what Dean is talking about.
I got my first-ever @ reply from the Favrd chicken a year ago. It was a revelation to find so much humor, and witty people, in the same place, and to know that my own posts weren’t going out into a vacuum.
Dean’s...
(327 characters)
“Sorry, kid. Crunch Berries are for tired, middle-aged grownups like Daddy with only small pleasures like this to look forward to amid physical decline, long hours of work and ever-more-imminent death. You’ve got no responsibilities and your whole life ahead of you. Eat your damn bran flakes.” Have a good weekend, everybody!
Said the Gramophone's 75 best songs of 2009 →
Some good ones here. Check it out before the RIAA seizes all of their assets.
Check out this website for an elite Bolivian... →
But make sure your computer’s volume is turned down.
We just put out a 44-page, 22,000-word report at work, about U.S.-aided counterinsurgency / nation-building programs in Colombia. It’s the product of months of research (including some of my travel to Colombia earlier in the year) and many, many late nights of writing and editing.
There’s already an article about it on the website of Colombia’s largest newspaper.
It feels...
moltz:
adamisacson:
He said that he would not oppose war in general, but dumb wars. On that basis, we went for him. And now he betrays us. Although he talked of a larger commitment to Afghanistan during his campaign, he has now officially adopted his very own war, one with all the disqualifications that he attacked in the Iraq engagement. This war too is a dumb one.
- Garry Wills in the NY...
I did not think he would lose me so soon—sooner than Bill Clinton did. Like many people, I was deeply invested in the success of our first African-American president. I had written op-ed pieces and articles to support him in The New York Times and The New York Review of Books. My wife and I had maxed out in donations for him. Our children had been ardent for his cause.
Others I respect have...
Just recorded an episode of “Agenda Washington” at the Univisión studios. If you’re in the States and awake Sunday morning, tune in to hear me speaking Spanish with a New Jersey accent.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2009-11-29) →
Peggy sue (3)
Harlem (3)
Alex Bleeker and the Freaks (3)
The Potentials (3)
The Walkmen (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz