Happy Holidays

This year I am feeling extremely lucky this holiday season.  It is important to cherish your loved ones and not to take them for granted.

Here is a collage I made on my iPhone of my best friend.

Miuzi Weighs A Ton

I'm not sure what cars passing us by yesterday thought was more amusing:

It was 26 degrees outside, and felt even colder in the wind that was unrelenting.  It wasn't the best day to walk the dog.

or

My dog's coat.

Either way, I am sure the two of us turned some heads.  I wanted to get a couple miles in since I will more than likely not be able to get any exercise in today.  I was trying to do so without the dog noticing, but she didn't let me off the hook.  I tried to break her little heart and sneak out the side door, but my wife pointed out that we had a "winter coat" for her to wear.  So I caved and this is what we looked like after fifteen minutes.

Did you know that my dog was a hippie?  I guess she really took to heart that Dead live album I was listening to yesterday.

The most hilarious part is what I was really listening to on this walk.  Public Enemy.

Baby It's Cold Outside

Off work until after Christmas.  Disgusting snow on the ground.  Third cup of the coffee of the day.  I guess it is time to get in the mood for Christmas.  No better way than to listen to my Christmas Mix.  From the Volumes of Secret Constellations I present entry #29-Christmas:

Ronettes-Frosty the Snowman

Leon Redbone & Zoey Deschanel-Baby It's Cold Outside

Mark Mothersbaugh-Snowflake Music

Bing Crosby & David Bowie-Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy

Bruce Springsteen-Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town

Darlene Love-Marshmallow World

Johnny Cash-Blue Christmas

Burl Ives-A Holly Jolly Christmas

Frank Sinatra-Jingle Bells

Ronettes-I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Louis Armstrong-Winter Wonderland

Thurl Ravenscroft-You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

Beach Boys-Little Saint Nick

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles-Noel

Eddie Vedder & Mike McCready-Let Me Sleep (It's Christmas Time)

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band-Merry Christmas Baby

Jackson 5-Up On the Housetop

Bing Crosby-White Christmas

Dean Martin-Let It Snow!

Harry Nilsson-Silent Night

Paul Westerberg-Away In a Manger

Bobby Darin-Go Tell It On the Mountain

Crystals-Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Perry Como-Home For the Holidays

Brenda Lee-Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Darlene Love-Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

Bobby Helms-Jingle Bell Rock

Vince Guaraldi Trio-Christmas Time Is Here

She & Him-I'll Be Home For Christmas

Carpenters-Merry Christmas Darling

Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans-Here Comes Santa Claus

Judy Garland-Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

John Lennon-Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Great for listening once a year.  So it leans heavily on the Phil Spector album, but that is a great album.  The rest, like actual Christmas music, is a solid mix of cool stuff with a ton of cheese.  Absent of course is that Paul song I am not very fond of, but I might listen to that one as well.  I guess I'm just in the spirit a little more than usual this year.  I am not really sure why.

Cold Rain and Snow

Getting ready for work this morning, sad that I didn't get to take Julia on our normal Thursday morning walk.  Listening to Grateful Dead Dick's Picks Volume 9 from Madison Square Garden in 1990.  A great version of "Cold Rain and Snow" came on, fitting since we missed the morning walk due to rain.  I guess our first winter weather will be appearing by the end of the night.  Sigh.  I guess I'll spend the rest of my day thinking about better weather and draining threes.

Let Me Roll It

My thoughts on the Hurricane Sandy Relief show earlier this week:

-Always love hearing the E Street Band.  Really liked hearing "My City Of Ruins."  Don't really care for Jon Bon Jovi joining in on "Born to Run," but I understand it probably brought the house down with so many Jersey residents in attendance.

-I really regret not going to see Roger Waters do The Wall last year.  Who is this guy, though?  He looks like he is having a blast up there.  Eddie Vedder guesting on "Comfortably Numb" was fantastic.

-Yeah, The Stones look old.  But damn, Keith Richards rules.  What is he 70?  Yet, he could take every new rock band to school.  There will never be another Keith Richards so every opportunity to see him is gold.  It is pure bliss watching him rip into the opening riff of "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

-The Who are touring Quadrophenia.  I've heard show reports that have been pretty positive.  I thought they ruled.  I am super pumped up for the show in Columbus in February after seeing them last night.  Remember the Super Bowl performance?  It was the exact opposite of that.

-Can't say I've really listened to much Coldplay, but I did enjoy Chris Martin and Michael Stipe doing "Losing My Religion."  That was a nice surprise.

-I don't get all the negative feedback about McCartney playing with the remaining members of Nirvana.  I thought the song was cool.  I will listen to anything with Dave Grohl drumming, but I think the highlight was Pat Smear grinning the whole time.  It was awesome seeing those guys get an opportunity like that after what they went through at the end of Nirvana.

-Paul's performance reminded me of seeing him last summer.  What a great night.

So yeah, not the greatest musical night of all time, but I admit I liked it a lot more than I was expecting.  Now, is it February yet?

2012 Favorite Things (Music Division)

Here is a rundown of my Favorite Things This Year (Music Division):

1.  Guided By Voices-Reunited with THREE great albums.  "White Flag."  "Waves."  "Chain to the Moon."  These are the things I live for.  Honestly, just reuniting and putting out one decent album would have made the number one spot.  But these three albums exceed expectations and I am glad there is more coming in the new year.

2.  Neil Young & Crazy Horse-Reunited with TWO albums.  The covers album Americana came first and was a great way to get reacquainted with this wonderful band.  But man, Psychedelic Pill is the stuff of dreams.  It is The Horse stretched and rambling in 2012.  "Ramada Inn" might be my favorite song since "I'm the Ocean."

3.  Emmylou Harris-I've been a fan for a few years, but this year she became one of my favorite artists.  Everyone talks about the voice, which is heavenly, but she also has a gift in picking out great songs from other artists and making them her own.  See: "Every Grain of Sand."

4.  Thin Lizzy-Jailbreak-Renewed interest in this band came in March, but this was my album of the summer.  Perhaps my favorite single moment was sitting on my porch after midnight in a light storm listening to it.  I can smell the humidity.

5.  Cheap Trick-In Color-This one could probably show up on every year end list for the rest of my life.

6.  Bob Mould-Silver Age-Bob Mould's Sugariest set of songs since Copper Blue backed by Jason Narducy and Jon Wurster.

7.  OFF!-It was a frustrating year at work.  This album was the perfect stress relief in the car on the drive home.  Who knew hardcore could age this well?

8.  Ice Dragon-Couple of great albums and singles by these guys, but I think I liked Dream Dragon the best.  All of their albums are different yet unmistakably Ice Dragon.  This one is like a demented, psychedelic take on folk.  They are on Bandcamp and you should definitely check them out.

9.  Robthebank-They reunited!  I love buying an album and knowing all the words to the songs before I even hear it.  Great album that I was sure was lost to time.

10.  Motel Beds-Dumb Gold-I got into these guys about a year ago and their new album is great.  Maybe this will be the year they get more well deserved attention.

11.  John's DJ Set-He owned it.  If you are getting married/having a house party/need someone to follow you around with a boom box, call John.  I even got him to play "Ripple."

After midnight with Thin Lizzy, Summer 2012.

I Got the Blues

Finished up The dB's on my morning walk and moved on to Outkast.  I don't have a lot of their stuff in my music library but I am checking out their first album right now on Spotify.  Pretty cool.  I remember reading somewhere that the group cited Kraftwerk as an influence.  I was intrigued but for some reason never really checked them out until "Hey Ya!" became the biggest song in the world.  When I first heard the song I told a friend, a big hip-hop fan, that I thought "Hey Ya!" sounded like a Cheap Trick song.  I later read that The Ramones where the influence on that song.  I wasn't far off.

I've got the Pixies Doolittle queued for the bike this afternoon.  I have seven straight days of exercise in and will be ahead of my goal.  I think I've earned my rest day tomorrow.  First, though, I have to a get my quarterly haircut.  I hate getting my haircut these days because it seems like every time I go there is more and more gray hair on the floor.

So now I'm depressed.  Luckily, I have a good cure for the blues.