I am made of blue sky and hard rock and I will live this way forever.

The albums I liked in 2008, and the ones everyone else liked. Now with more overlap.

Nate — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:11:40 +0000

With the new year comes reflection, and how better to reflect than with an endless sea of top-10/20/50/83494 lists? I don’t remember ever disagreeing with a batch of best-records-of-the-year lists as much as I have this year – I don’t know what it is, but I just thought a lot of the stuff that everyone seemed to love was pretty blah. Vampire Weekend? Overrated. Fleet Foxes? Boring. She and Him? Eh. Nick Cave? Go away.

There were an awful lot of people who seemed to make the list just because they managed to release an album between January 1 and December 31, regardless of quality, like Beck, R.E.M., and Cat Power. There’s a lot of decent stuff, but not great. Then again, a lot of what I thought was really good was probably just decent at best to others. Ah well.

Reading material:

Magnet Magazine’s list:

http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2008/12/23/magnets-top-25-albums-of-2008/

Q Magazine’s list:

http://www.qthemusic.com/cgi-bin/50bestalbums/month.pl?id=2

Jim DeRogatis (Chicago Sun-Times/Sound Opinions/www.jimdero.com):

http://blogs.suntimes.com/derogatis/2008/12/the_best_albums_of_2008.html

Greg Kot (Chicago Tribune/Sound Opinions):

http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2008/12/top-albums-of-2.html#more

My 10 favorite albums of the year:

10 – Okkervil River – the Stand-Ins
9 – the Walkmen – You & Me
8 – the Standard – Swimmer
7 – Darker My Love – 2
6 – Vivian Girls – S/T
5 – Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
4 – the Rosebuds – Life Like
3 – M83 – Saturdays = Youth
2 – the Hold Steady – Stay Positive
1 – Frightened Rabbit – the Midnight Organ Fight

Haters, appreciate.

Nate — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:34:54 +0000

This is just an amazing piece of news.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/61444-why-the-world-hates-cristiano-ronaldo

I love the fact that people didn’t Google “ronaldo” or “cristiano ronaldo” or “ronaldo united” or “ronaldo man u” but “I HATE RONALDO”.

The fire! The passion! The hate!

Oh, to be in Minnesota.

Nate — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 16:41:49 +0000

http://tinyurl.com/foodstick

You can always spot true evil by the extra set of arms.

Nate — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:50:39 +0000

Grimace is a large, purple anthropomorphic being of indeterminate species with short arms and legs. He is known for his slow-witted demeanor. His most common expression is the word “duh”. Originally, Grimace was the “Evil Grimace”, with two pairs of arms with which to steal milkshakes. After that first campaign, the character was revised to be one of the “good guys”, and his number of arms was reduced by two. Commercials and merchandise generally portrayed him as a well-meaning simpleton, whose clumsy antics provided a comic foil to Ronald McDonald. The character was retained after the streamlining of the characters in the ’80s.

Life can be so fleeting.

Nate — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:55:09 +0000

This is perhaps the best personal ad I’ve ever seen:

It was you and I and it felt as if it was only you and I there on the street waiting for the bus. We sat semi close to one another and kept exchanging smiles. Then the bus got into a accident and they rushed you to the hospitol and thats the last time I saw you. So if your still living contact me so we can do lunch sometime.

Nature’s most perfect food. No, not that one.

Nate — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:08:53 +0000

If it’s summertime, it’s hot dog time. This article is pure class. Tuna! Chorizo! LAMB!!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/foodanddrink/sns-fdcook3-wk1,0,4267185.story

Bourdain is much easier on Guy Fieri than I.

Nate — Thu, 22 May 2008 04:32:42 +0000

I absolutely love this quote, both because I love the Poochie episode and I hate Guy Fieri. You have to be a real douchebag to sit down at a TGIF and dig into some crap meal with wristbands on, commercial or not.

TVGuide.com: Guy Fieri maybe?
Bourdain: Guy Fieri… did you ever see the Simpsons episode where it’s decided that Itchy and Scratchy need a sidekick? So a committee gets together and they invent one called Poochie…. Guy Fieri kind of looks like he’s been designed by committee.

TV was much better in the early 1980s.

Nate — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:16:57 +0000

Why don’t we have quality shows like this anymore?

http://www.starcade.tv/starcade/episodes.asp

They don’t write ‘em like they used to.

Nate — Fri, 16 May 2008 03:23:17 +0000

This link to an old eugenics text is worth more than a few looks.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13444/13444-h/13444-h.htm

This fellow didn’t read it, and look how he ended up:

Dammit. The link was foiled.

Awesome AND useful!

Nate — Fri, 16 May 2008 02:40:57 +0000

A periodic table of condiment shelf life.