Amazing! One of the best movies I have seen in a while. A story of passion/obsession expressed through two story lines of an unsolved crime and an unrequited romance. This film was a foreign film (Argentina); but, despite the subtitles, the action was fast-paced and unpredictable with beautiful cinematography and characters that were authentic and believable.
Here's the CD that sums up the year. You guys are dropping like flies. Any volunteers to join the club? Anyway, hints to why these got picked:
1. Sushi / Kyle Andrews - Because you have to kick things off with an upbeat track. It was a year of whistling and hand claps and moments.
2. The Ghost Inside / Broken Bells - Hostels in Scandinavia, Danish festival goers, open windows and iPods. Dance party.
3. Crash Years / The New Pornographers - Try not singing along to this one.
4. Heaven Can Wait / Charlotte Gainsbourg - Sexiest woman alive and a break dance champ.
5. Sunlight / Harlem Shakes - How do I explain? "We won't dance, we won't sing, we won't talk" and a Williamsburg wedding ending in a tawdry parking lot.
6.I Wanna Go Surfing / The Drums - Because I really do want to go surfing.
7. Say La La / Keegan Dewitt - la la la la la la la la
8. Could You Please Crawl Out Your Window? / The Hold Steady - You gotta lotta nerve to say you are my friend if you won't come out your window. Also the crazy cover slot.
9. Out of Place / Slackstring - I am too old to go to festivals.
10. Fire & Water / Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes - Sometimes "heartbreaking" is the best adjective in the whole world. I want to park in a car and make out to this song. Maybe even with that trumpet player.
11. Congratulations / MGMT - Trippy and beautiful
12. Rollin' in the Deep / Adele - Motown lives. Sing it, girl.
13. In Sleep / Lissie Just hot. And it is no surprise that the singing reminds me of someone.
14. Aphorism / Collin Herring - I don't think he's from North Carolina; which makes this the first ever year-end mix without boys from NC represented. Wow. Yet, kinda, they still are.
15. Ahead of the Curve / Monsters of Folk - It isn't any trouble, if you want to come with me. I know it's out of the question, but I sure could use the company.
16. I'm Coming Home / Kathleen Braun Beautiful. Thank you, Robert.
17. Beauty in the World / Macy Gray Let's keep it real. Always.
18. Fafa / Vieux Farka Toure For my old transvestite friend from the L.E.S. and her immortal words.
Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year. If you are so inclined, read our online holiday card and let us know what you have been up to!
This is one depressing, shocking, intelligent, fascinating book. It’s very French. Not for the weak of heart, but utterly compelling.
Three things rocking my world right now:
1. Moby Dick by Herman Melville- Yes I am finally starting my March project, reading this rather large, rather famous book. It's worth the wait and I am sure I will have much more to say on the topic as I continue reading.
2. Oro de Calabaza Golden Ale by Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales- This is my go-to weekend beer ever since I discovered I could buy it locally (and on sale!) It is really a complicated-tasting beer with a nice sour taste. Jolly Pumpkin uses open fermentation and bottle conditioning to make some really great beers. They had them temporarily at our Whole Foods before they ran out and claimed that they couldn't get it anymore. It's great that a few local places carry it now, because it truly is a great beer to be experienced.
3. Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective- What can I say. I know this was a 2009 album, but I think it's going to carry me right through summer 2010. This album is absolutely infectious and it makes me unbelievably happy. I highly recommend it, if you need something a little different to carry you down the road with a smile on your face.
I've also become a slightly obsessed yoga-holic...but more on that later...
Here's the CD that sums up the year. I got some flak for seeming too negative (this happened in 2007, too). So here's the inspiration behind the choices.
1. Secondhand News / Fleetwood Mac - If you weren't at SLC Baccanalia in 1999 to see the world's best FM cover band, well this choice probably makes no sense to you. If you were..? 2009 was not only the anniversary of Woodstock, people!
2. The Rising / Bruce Springsteen - The inauguration and the We Are One HBO concert. It was great and if you didn't see it you can only hope HBO does something with the license to all those great performances.
3. Midnight Train to Georgia / Gladys Knight - Sometimes you gotta choose: "if you'd rather live in his world, or live without him, in yours..."
4. Wild Wild Life / Talking Heads - Because I made it up to Seattle and got to renew an old friendship, thus leading to many, many, happy phone conversations.
5. Nobody Right, Nobody Wrong / Michael Franti and Spearhead - The feel good song of the summer might have been their hit, but this song is just fabulous.
6. Perfect Timing / Drive-by Truckers - It is like Dinosaur Jr., Neil Young, and Steve Earle mushed into one sound. Love it and had to put something on this year's playlist. "here I am again...perfect timing..."
7.Casino Queen / Wilco - Simple. Show at The Joint in Vegas. Played this song, just for me.
8. Like a Rolling Stone / Bob Dylan - Simple. Show at The Joint in Vegas. Played this song, like it had never been played before.
9. Different Drum / Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet - Because I randomly found their cover albums and they are like candy.
10. Helpless / Neil Young and The Band - Because of The Last Waltz. What else can I say? Go watch it again.
11. Sheena is a Punk Rocker / Ramones - Everyone needs to be schooled by Joey Ramones every once in a while. In 2009, I needed it.
12. Sentimental Heart / She & Him - I love, love, love She & Him. So, this is year 2 of inclusion on the playlist. Just a good sound.
13. The New Love Song / Joshua James - The new 2009 find for the sensitive boy singer slot. Catchy.
14. Niteclub / Old 97's - Because we are 2567 miles from Manhattan.
15. Take Me Home Country Roads / Jason and the Scorchers - The crazy cover song slot. I have been way into John Denver in the last half of 2009.
16. Kick Drum Heart / Avett Brothers - Added this one because it's happy and upbeat and I love the Avett boys.
17. True Love Will Never Fade / Mark Knopfler - A sweet cinematic song, lovely and a nice message to end the year with.
Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for a very Happy New Year. If you are so inclined, read our online holiday card and let us know what you have been up to!
I mean come on! Any book incorporating:
dogs
Doppler effect
Patagonia (Argentina)
cultish meteorologists
and a heartbreaking love story
Yeah. I loved it.
The University Libraries are pleased to announce the launch of a new digital collection:
Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years 1900-1925
http://digital.library.unlv.edu/boomtown
The LSTA-grant funded, Southern Nevada: The Boomtown Years 1900-1925 digital collection brings together a wide range of original source materials found in the rich collections of UNLV Libraries Special Collections, as well as items from the Nevada State Museum and the Clark County Heritage Museum.
The project contains over 1500 digitized items; including photographs, correspondence, newspapers, maps, and ephemera from several mining and railroad manuscript collections documenting both large historical events, and the more private and social lives of individuals and their communities during the mining boom in Southern Nevada.
Notably, this collection also promotes the use of primary source materials by K-16 educators by providing a wide variety of standards-based teaching activities for elementary and high schoolers.
It's been a long time since I have checked in. I skipped writing about our Christmas trip to Denver and basically February flew by uneventfully. I should mention that there was a great trip to Mojave National Preserve where we got to see the Camper Van Zinda. March came quickly and, well, here I am on my way to another hellishly hot Vegas summer. So did I miss anything while I was obsessively listening to Thunder Road? Let me know. Here's an update about my recent trip to Seattle, and I promise to try to do a bit better at keeping up with things.
How exciting to welcome in a new era! I'll be raising a glass as we try to look forward, with hope, to the future. The festivities and events have begun in Washington, D.C. and over the next few days I hope we can all enjoy the excitement of this historic event.
Just had to add that the HBO "We Are One" concert was absolutely amazing and awesome. And yes, Pete Seeger is totally my hero. And Garth Brooks ain't all bad, either! With a feel-good concert like this I can see why some are calling it Obama-stock!
It's that time of year again and we are sending out a greeting from the desert! We have posted our annual holiday letter so if you want to know what the highlights of the year were you can check it out. Happy Holidays to our friends and family!
So this month XM Radio merged with Sirius to form some hybrid mutation mega-satellite radio channel with new programs, added news content and Howard Stern. It took me a while to download the channel guides and decipher which channels changed names and numbers, and figure out where my personal favorites were repositioned.
What a shock it was to turn on my radio and see "Outlaw County" replacing my much-loved XM Channel 12, "X (Cross) Country. I quickly searched the dial to see where they relocated X-County, but lo and behold, it was gone. I looked up the guide for the new channel and saw that several of the same artists that I like were listed on the page (Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, David Allan Coe, etc.) and I thought I would give it a chance.
This past weekend I spent several days in the truck driving around California and had a chance to really listen to the music. This is a different channel altogether. First of all I noticed that there are radio "hosts" that actually make comments and talk a lot more than any of the folks on X-Country (Do I really need to listen to Shooter Jennings pontificate on the new kanye West and Guns and Roses albums? And then do I really need to listen to the new Guns and Roses track? No!).
Secondly, the music is different. One morning, on the way to work I heard one favorite (The Gourds version of "Gin and Juice") but the rest of the day I didn't hear much. I ended up listening to Bluegrass Junction instead. On the long weekend, my husband and I listened to the channel almost exclusively and as much as I like and respect Outlaw Country artists, this is not the same as alternative country. Gone are the songs by Uncle Tupelo and the whole No Depression movement. Gone is the wry, political music of Todd Snider and Jack Ingram. Gone is are the crossover artists that defy any classification like the Be Good Tanyas and Chip Taylor. Instead there seems to be a focus on playing "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother", in one weekend I heard it three times; not that it is a bad song...
I will greatly miss the shows that I grew to love. Especially "Rogue Calls" the call-in request show. I seriously could listen 24/7 to nothing but the request show because X-Country listeners had good taste! There is a reason why I subscribe to XM- and it is because people need a place to learn about new music. iTunes is not, and will never do this for me. I fill up my iPod with music I read about, or hear on X-County, through No Depression magazine, and through friends. Losing my beloved channel 12 is a sad, sad thing.
But, other folks have noticed and are upset, too.
Go to this web site to sign a petition to Bring Back XM Channel 12.
And this great blog post sums up what I've been thinking perfectly.
Come on XM/Sirius, don't alienate your users! Aren't there enough numbers on the dial for you to add in one more? Alternative country deserves it. Bring back X-Country and do it now!
The month-long challenge for would-be novelists begins again! November 1 marks the start of the 2008 National Novel Writing Month. The goal? To write 50,000 words in a month. Amateurs and authors are encouraged to, "write like the wind and edit later" with the main idea being to output the word count and hope that an idea emerges. So get your typing fingers ready and sign-up! Sounds like a fun experiment!
We may live in the Sun Belt, but we are still tough enough to winter camp. Check out the 10 inches of snow over night in October in Great Basin National Park!!! Fun!
So I have done a pretty horrible job of recording the Yellowstone trip, I didn't keep any notes because I was navigating and driving a lot, but I did want to finish the summary and I happen to have some time on my hands while I am in an airport waiting to fly back to Vegas.
So, a couple things I wanted to record, some notes on the fishing and some notes on the drive home. I personally fished on two rivers while we were up there, the Madison and the Lamar. If I were to recommend one, I would go with the Lamar, because the drive out to the valley is amazing (which is important if the fish are laughing at your casting and don't bite -- this happened a lot to me!!) Our fishing friend who accompanied us also had lots of luck on the Yellowstone River when he backpacked in for an overnight. I think if I went back I would try to plan a lesson at the beginning of the trip. I am a true believer in getting some decent technique at the beginning and since it has been a while since I had been fly-fishing, I think it would have helped. Even our experienced friend, struggled somewhat until he got into it and had some time to practice.
On the last day at Yellowstone, we headed out towards Ennis to drive through some more pretty country and to make a stop at the Jackson Hot Springs Lodge where we stopped last summer. We had one wrong turn and ended up driving extra miles (like a couple 100 extra miles really matter??) We turned on the road out of Dillon and a huge thunderstorm hit. It was amazing with the clouds looming and lightning and thunder. There were weird pockets of sunshine in between and then spots of hail. A typically dramatic summer storm out west. We arrived at the Jackson Hot Springs Lodge and got a cabin for the night. A few things had changed since we had stayed there last year during the Backpacker project. The former owner sold the lodge and it was not longer being run by Inga and her staff. There was a new bartender/manager and a new chef (not that I got to EAT last time--grumble, grumble!). We spent some time at the fabulous bar, found out about a fishing hole that we had permission to access off one of the ranches, and found out the cowboy poet we met last year had passed away. It was great to spend some time there and check out some of the places we hiked. The weirdest thing was that the whole time we were there last year we NEVER saw the mountains because of the fires and smoke haze. I was SHOCKED at the view and would have never known just how pretty the valley truly was. We took a soak, met some nice folks, listened to the locals talk about the "wolf problem" and observed the Lodge's signature "Shot-ski" where they served shots on a ski outfitted with glued on shot glasses. Three people drink on cue and it is very amusing!
The next morning we stopped at Big Hole National Monument and headed back to Idaho Falls to our favorite Motel 6. That night, in search of food, we stumbled upon a Russian restaurant in the phone book. When we saw the name, we knew we had to check it out...and that is how we ended up at Ida-Russkie!! The woman who waited on us was so incredibly nice - even though we made her cook us every single Russian dish on the menu (actually they weren't on the menu, as this was a fast food place in a strip mall, but we has called ahead and knew she offered Russian food.) We ate and she cooked and we laughed and really enjoyed ourselves at this little gem of a place. Thanks for the hospitality, it wasa a great way to end the trip!
The next day was sad, we dropped our friend at the aiport in SLC, drove the long drive back to Vegas and unpacked the millions of boxes of gear. It was a fun trip and I'm so happy we got to do it with our grood friend from the trail.
