Best Albums of 2009 and the 00's - so far... · 15/11/09
Here are my initial thoughts on my lists of best albums of the year and of the 00's. I'm probably forgetting a couple of important albums, and there's probably a bunch I just never heard or have forgotten about. Feel free to remind me...2009
So I think the following albums are destined (if the year were to end right now) to make it into my top 10 of 2009. That leaves one spot that is up for grabs from a rather large list of albums I'm still considering. And there's still a month and a half left in the year, so things could change.- Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
- Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
- Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South
- Passion Pit - Manners
- Sonic Youth - The Eternal
- U2 - No Line on the Horizon
- Various Artists - Dark Was the Night
- M. Ward - Hold Time
- The xx - xx
The 2000s
- Blue Scholars - Bayani
- Bright Eyes - Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
- Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts
- Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs or The Photo Album
- Johnny Cash - American III: Solitary Man and American IV: The Man Comes Around
- Gorillaz - Gorillaz
- Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
- Jurrasic 5 - Quality Control
- Kevn Kinney - The Flower and the Knife
- Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News
- Mos Def - The New Danger
- The National - Alligator
- Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below
- Okkervil River - Stage Names or The Stand-Ins
- Pearl Jam - Riot Act
- The Postal Service - Give Up
- Radiohead - Kid A
- The Roots - Phrenology
- Smoosh - Free to Stay
- Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
- The Streets - Original Pirate Material
- Ken Stringfellow - Soft Commands
- Tricky - Knowle West Boy
- The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters
- Vast Capitol - What More Else...
- Jason Webley - Only Just Beginning or The Cost of Living
- Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals
- Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Greendale
- Thom Yorke - The Eraser
And now a MarsEdit test... · 19/02/09
Just to see if it works.Ecto Test · 19/02/09
Let’s see how this works…
Top 10 Albums of 2008 · 18/12/08
It took a lot of thinking, but my top 10 releases of the year are:
- Cloud Cult – Feel Good Ghosts
- The Twilight Sad – Here It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did
- Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
- Common Market – Tobacco Road
- Shearwater – Rook
- Tricky – Knowle West Boy
- Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer?
- Wild Sweet Orange – We Have Cause to Be Uneasy
- Radiohead – In Rainbows (Bonus Disk)
- Byrne and Eno – Everything that Happens will Happen Today
The first eight are solid but I’m less sure about the last two. They were pretty much tied with a lot of other releases this year, including:
- Head Like a Kite – There is Loud Laughter Everywhere
- Wye Oak – If Children
- Live at KEXP, Vol. 4
- The Saturday Knights – Mingle
- Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
- Throw Me the Statue – Moonbeams
- Billy Bragg – Mr. Love and Justice
- Death Cab – Narrow Stairs
- R.E.M. – Accelerate
- Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
- David Karsten Daniels – Fear of Flying
And others. Overall a pretty good year for music.
Spenatskärare · 29/11/08
So in cleaning out my grandma’s house up in Lake Stevens, one of the interesting things we found was this:
That’s Swedish on the box and ‘spenatskärare’ literally translates as ‘spinach cutter’. I have no idea what it is for. A Google search isn’t much help as all the pages with ‘spenatskärare’ are in Swedish, which I neither speak nor read. I could probably figure this mystery out given some time, but I haven’t really tried to do so quite yet.
And I'm Off... · 03/07/08
A bit late in the day, but by this evening I should camping somewhere in central Idaho.
Getting it Into Shape · 01/07/08
Okay, so there is still a lot to do on my site here. But I’m taking off on Thursday for my almost-month long trip across the United States (via car) and back (via train). And for purposes of blogging from the road and keeping in touch with people I think it is Good Enough for the moment. There are still a lot of formatting things that bug me, particularly typographically, but they’ll have to wait.
If you do see something amiss or have an idea on how I could spruce things up around here, go ahead and drop me a note.
No, the iPhone Upgrade Policy Does NOT Make Sense · 01/07/08
Earlier today John Gruber said he didn’t get the iPhone upgrade policy for current AT&T customers without iPhones. But M. Jackson Williamson responded by explaining that the iPhone 3G upgrade policy makes sense. And yes, Williamson is correct in stating that current non-iPhone AT&T customers under contract are paying off their previous subsidies and that is why they can’t also get an iPhone subsidy. But then he goes on to say, in the comments
“I can’t think of any realistic scenario where an existing AT&T non-iPhone subscriber could pay $199 for the 3G unless AT&T was giving you a $200 gift. If they did that, I imagine I’d be pissed about it as a stockholder.”
But if I were a stockholder I’d be pissed about the current plan. Because it makes sense both financially and in terms of maintaining customers to go ahead and give that $200 gift. Here’s why:
When the original iPhone came out, I was sans contract over at Verizon. I had heard some horror stories about AT&T and didn’t want to tie myself to them for 2 years without testing the waters. So I took in a perfectly good phone that I bought on eBay and asked if I could activate without getting a contract. They said why sure they could do that, but if I signed up for a contract I could get this brand new RAZR for free and I could test out the service for 30 days and bring it back, no questions asked. They assured me over and over again that I could buy an iPhone at any point and just extend my contract from there.
But here I am 12 months later facing an extra 200 bucks if I want to get an iPhone. And what do I have to show for it? A RAZR that wasn’t even worth 200 bucks 12 months ago.
Maybe I’m just furious that I fell for the salesmanship of the AT&T store employees. But I feel like I’m getting ripped off by AT&T. They didn’t HAVE to get my money for the last 12 months. THEY were the ones insisting on giving me a phone that I didn’t even need and haven’t really used.
And, if they let me upgrade to an iPhone right now, I’d be paying them at least $35 more a month. Over the course of the 12 months I still have remaining on my contract, that’s $420 extra that they could get from me if they let me upgrade now. They’re going to be paying the same subsidy whether it is now or next July, so why not get the extra $420? If indeed they were giving me a $200 gift, as Williamson calls it, they’d be making $220 in profit over the next 12 months.
Now, I’d probably just swallow it and pay the extra if it was only $100, but $200? Not when you look at what my monthly bill would be as well! The salesperson I spoke to last week said they have a lot of leeway when it comes to doing early upgrades. I don’t know if that is going to be true with the iPhone, but perhaps they’ll be able to throw in a bluetooth headset and case and I’ll still bite. But likely what will happen is one of the following:
- I’ll wait until I can upgrade and get the iPhone
- I’ll find a used iPhone (perhaps from a friend who is upgrading) and activate that (if there are still the cheaper EDGE-only plans available)
- I’ll wait until my contract is up and look at all the shiny new Android phones that will be out by then
- I’ll get a jailbroken iPhone and activate it with another carrier
I don’t see how any of these scenarios makes financial sense to AT&T and the last two just flat out hurt them by losing customers. I would think they’d want to get as many people as possible happy in iPhone contracts so that they don’t (and can’t) stray. So explain to me besides “This is the way cell phone subsidies have always worked” why this policy makes sense and I shouldn’t be upset, because I just am not seeing it.
New Flickr Photos · 24/06/08
Finally caught up with last summer and all of the end of year stuff at work. Check out my Flick photostream.
This School Year Has Been Crazy · 02/03/08
I had every intention of being on top of everything this year, but it hasn't happened for a variety of reasons. Sigh. Maybe next year, right?