Top 20 o’ 05
So this is sort of my top 20 songs of 2005. There was some logic to putting this together… audioscrobbler, playcount, subjective good feelings, and whether or not I’v included it on other mixes for people… It’s not so much the BEST songs from this year as much as it is a general soundtrack to my year (minus non 2005 releases)… or something. Anyways, I’ll send you a physical copy of this mix if you want it (although I think it’ll take 2 cds) just let me know.
01. Sirenes De La Fete - Brazilian GirlsSo. Damn. Sexy. I want Sabina Sciubba so bad.
02. Dare - Gorillaz So much love for Gorillaz.
03. Do The Whirlwind - Architecture In Helsinki The title of my last screenprint
04. Missing - Beck continues to be increasingly awesome, even after all this time.
05. Emerald City - United State Of Electronica I have a weakness for vocoders. I had to buy it.
06. Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird I am in love with Andrew Bird.
07. Revolution Solution (Feat Perry Farrell)- Thievery Corporation Lots of good songs from this album.
08. Huddle Formation - The Go! Team If only I didn’t get sick the day I was suppose to see them live…
09. Peter Gunn (Max Sedgley Remix) - Sarah Vaughan Verve Remixed 3 has tons of awesome remixes
10. Black and White Town - Doves My fav. of the album, the rest was pretty okay.
11. Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games - Of Montreal We’re going to see them next month!
12. Mushaboom - Feist I really love her voice…
13. Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple Re loving Fiona.
14. Come On! Feel The Illinoise! - Sufjan Stevens We all love Sufjan
15. Lovely Night - Richard Swift Something about the horns in this that make me melt.
16. Night of the Dancing Flame - Roisin Murphy Voluptuary.
17. Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap The voice of Frou Frou + vocoder = major audiogasm.
18. I Feel Like A Child - Devendra Banhart So many good songs on the new album, and he was cool live.
19. The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah They’re pretty over hyped, but I do really like this song.
20. Alpha Beta Gaga - The Bluegrass Tribute to Air I don’t know who actually does this version, I thought it was Old School Freight Train, but it turns out it’s not… so I dunno. But this is why I bought a banjo. Plus the original, Air, version of this song is also one of my tops of the year.
This list is terribly hard to read! Maybe I’ll fix it later…
jollification
I was out of my slump by Friday night and had a pretty sweet Christmas eve. Saturday night at home with the family we had Thai food and watched an old Indian movie from the late 70’s called “Satyam Shivam Sundaram” which my brother pointed out is also the name of a Thievery Corporation song, which features music from the movie. Craziness!
Anyways! I’ve been putting together my 2nd anual end of the year mix, and in doing so I’ve found lots of my stuff tagged wrong! Mostly just like the year, which I never really cared about until now cause I was getting sad that so many of my favorite things weren’t from this year. I rarely know when exactly things are released cause I often get into bands years after they’ve broken up or months before they’ve actually put out an album. But yeah, thanks to Google, most of my mix made the cut. Unlike last year, I limited to just things released in 2005…which is kind of annoying cause people like RJD2, Radiohead, The Ditty Bops, and Nellie McKay don’t make it onto the list even though they get heavy rotation in my room, just cause I was slow in discovering them. and Air who I’ve sort of re-discovered this year and am obsessed with, miss out too… but whatever….
I think a lot of these artists are showing up on a lot of other people’s top of 2005 lists as well which is kinda interesting to me just cause I never really know what the majority of other people are listening to. Most of my recomendations have come through friends (mostly Zach) who I guess keep up with new things a lot better than I do.
off-center
I’ve been having really terrible dreams lately. The past couple of night they’ve just been stressful school related things. 3 of my design professors have made cameos in my dreams, mostly to tell me I suck. It’s as if my body needs school related stress so when it doesn’t get any durring the day it makes up for it at night. I’d wake up thinking “oh no! I need to finish that paper that’s due tomorrow!” or something. Then after a few minutes of confusion I remember I’m not even IN school right now. I’m pretty sure I’m insane.
But last night was probably the first real nightmare type thing I’ve had in a really long time. The first half of it was just really mundane stressful things. But in the second half it was just scary:
I think I was in St. Louis on the 4th of July. I was watching fireworks from under some sort of bridge or something with lots of other people. Somehow I end up laying next to a creepy older guy (maybe mid 40’s or so), under the same blanket. He looks over at me and just starts jacking off. So I try to get away and he grabs me and I fight him off. The next large chunk of time is spent running away and trying to fight him off with my pocket knife. But the knife is useless on him, no matter how much I cut and stab him he doesn’t seem to even care. Cutting into his skin is like cutting into rubber. I think he cuts my arm a few times too. So I’m running away and somehow end up in the backyard of one of my old best friends in St.Louis. Her mom is out in the backyard planting flowers or something. I’m obviously distressed but she refuses to help me. I run across the street into our old house and start to lock the windows. I see him walking around my outside, in that slow and deliberately creepy kind of way. He stares in at me from the windows occasionally. I try calling 911, but I get no dial tone or anything. And then I hear a window opening.
And then I wake up terrified, refusing to go back to sleep. It was really scary.
I think I have been really off center the past few days. I went to bed really anxious and unstable. I think I need some sun. As much as I love rain, the short gloomy days get to me.
winter break rocks
I’m taking a break from my illustrating and since no one else is around, I thought I’d do a little update…
Break has been laid back yet mildly productive. Riley and I painted the walls a lovely shade of marron/purple/dark magenta and I finally got that gigantic canvas up. I cleaned and totally reconfigured my room to maximize open floor space, with the help of Zach, the interior design master. I finished the sketches (now I’m working on making them look “good”). I put up my friends’ prints. I finally installed CS2…
I put together my second anual year end mix, although it needs a little tweaking. But I’ll be posting and or sending it out soon. Maybe with a mini year end zine. I keep saying I’m going to make another zine for years. I have a good feeling about this winter break though. I think it might actually happen, even if it is just a little one full of fluff.
And I finally got my little red all terrain wagon! I’m so excited for it! I’ve only been going on about it to everyone I know for weeks. It’s everything I could ever ask for in a little red wagon. Oh what good times we will have together. taking trips to the grocery store. Transporting random large, heavy, and cumbersome masses with ease and style. It’s going to be great!
Okay. Back to Illustrator-ing.
done(ish)!
So the past few weeks or whatever have been pretty crazy, but this end has been very anti-climatic for some reason. I guess the build up pressure this quarter just hasn’t been nearly as bad as the past few.
I still have to go to my last class to drop stuff off tomorrow but I’m done with all the real work for the quarter, which means my (not so sucessful) internet fast is over! I suppose it was more of a blogging fast. I couldn’t avoid bloglines. I’m pretty sure it’s an addiction. But whatever, the quarter is (pretty much) over! 2 whole weeks to “do nothing” or finish the illustrations for that damn book. I should be able to focus pretty well though with most people gone and me having absolutely nothing else to do… hopefully I’ll get it done.
I already got the book for my interpersonal communications class next quarter, cause I’m a dork and really wanted to look at. I may read some more of it tonight, just for fun. I’ve recently realized that I don’t do very well with fiction. Things that are personal or sociological things just hold my interest so much longer than anything else, which explains my addiction to blogs. Maybe it’s this craving to understand how other people think, or just a craving to know that I’m not the only crazy person out there.
And I found out that spring quarter my screenprinting teacher will be teaching a class on artist hand made books, which i’m REALLY excited for even though it’s 2 quarters away. It’ll be another crazy 3 studio quarter, but I don’t really care. I think i’ll enjoy it enough that it will be more fun than work.
And I’ve decided to go to Rome next summer for the VCD thing, if it actually happens. If it does, it’ll be awesome, but more about this once it’s more finalized. This would be after Thailand. It’ll be a crazy awesome summer.
I am such a dork. I think about things way to far in advance… I guess you could just think of this post as an introduction to the rambling to come over the next year.
I’m so excited for winter break!!
