if you has got pubes you can vote

I had an Ali-G moment, and totally couldn't remember the name of that pet detective guy or whatever.

And Finally - Top 10 records of 2007

Which really should have been Top 10 #2 albums of 2007, since all of these were very deserving records, and yet, I couldn't justify a #1 slot for any of these.

• The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (Kompakt)
  
• Social Studies - This is the World’s Biggest Hammer (Homeroom)
  
• Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam (Domino)
  
• M.I.A. - Kala (Interscope)
  
• Nathamuni Brothers - Madras 1974 (Fire Museum)
  
• Soundtrack - THE DARJEELING LIMITED (Abkco)
  
• Battles - Mirrored (Warp)
  
• Six Organs Of Admittance - Shelter From The Ash (Drag City)
  
• Jose Gonzalez - In Our Nature (Mute)
  
• Radiohead - In Rainbows (S/R)
  

Reviews and other possibilities for this list (stuff I haven't had a chance to check out yet) to follow ...

Top 6 The Only Movies I saw in 2007

Which roughly translates to movies playing at the Parkway/Cerrito theatres during Baby Brigade night.

• Pan's Labyrinth
• Knocked Up
• Death at a Funeral
• The Darjeeling Limited
• Dan in Real Life
• Beowulf

Top10RecordsNotActuallyReleasedThisYear

Much of the music I ended up really digging this year wasn't actually put out in 2007. In fact, my 2007 list seems a bit underwhelming in terms of my relative enjoyment of the music. So this is really the list closest to my heart ...

10. Darc Mind - Symptomatic of a Greater Ill [Anticon] (1997/2006)
The lost hiphop album from 1997, this record finally saw the light of day in late 2006, thanks to the kind folks at Anticon. Dense and brooding, rich and intelligent in that mid 90s NYC kinda way. This is everything that I miss about hiphop.

9. Prince Rakeem - Ooh, I Love You Rakeem [12" Single - Tommy Boy] (1991)
Pre Wu-Tang era RZA kicking it, back in the halcyon days of hiphop. An insanely catchy riff (that sounds scarily like "Summer Nights" from Grease) with charming lines like "I've got too many ladies \ I just gotta learn to say no" - yes indeed - we love you Rakeem.

8. The Left Banke - I've Got Something On My Mind [12" Single - World United Studios] (1967)
I ran into this song via a sample in Jens Lekman's "Black Cab". One way to discover great music is to shamelessly track everything Jens Lekman has ever sampled. The man's taste is impeccable. This is a forgotten British invasion band (probably because they were actually from New York), doing a lesser known single (they are best known for "Walk Away Renee") - glorious pop in all its baroque sixties flavor.

7. Dirty On Purpose - Hallelujah Sirens [North Street] (2006)
Beautiful droney shoegazer indie-rock. I will always remember this record (and specifically the song "Your Summer Dress") as the soundtrack to the day Satya was born. It provided me with hope and confidence and meaning for everything that was to come.

6. Various Artists - Colours Are Brighter [Rough Trade] (2006)
This is what you get when indie musicians start breeding. Rough Trade released this compilation CD of kid's music featuring the likes of Belle and Sebastian, Fourtet and The Flaming Lips. This was designed specifically with a certain brand of hipster parent in mind - the kind that is trying to maintain their last remaining shred of indie cred, now that the days of drunken punk shows and 3am techno and dirty toilet sex are a distant memory. Or for people who never actually experienced any of those things, and used music as a substitute for their lack of a sex life. ANYWAY - this comp is good, clean fun with plenty of weird and a very strong cast of musicians. Also, your kid can now claim that the first record they ever listened to was something on Rough Trade.

5. Huun Huur Tu - The Orphans Lament [Shanachie] (1994)
Tuvan throat singing is fucking genius. And these guys are the best in the biz. We used this record and the low baritones of the kargyraa to soothe Satya in the early days. She still seems to have a special affection for deep rumbling noises. I'm so proud!

4. Mathematicians - Level Two [S/R] (2006)
This album is crazy and all over the place. The only coherent theme between the songs is math. Songs range from angular post-punk to synthy rap to soulful R&B. And yet every single song is good. And super dorky. "We'll be just fine \ when the number is prime" - Hell Yeah!

3. The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee [4AD] (2002)
John Darnielle gives up his low-fi DIY ethos for a more full blown studio sound in this concept album. While some may argue that his newer work borders on saccharine and over-produced, this, right here, is perfection. Just enough production to really bring out the music, but still raw and earnest in keeping with his earlier stuff.

2. Jose Gonzalez - Veneer [Hidden Agenda] (2005)
We keep rocking gently on this list, thanks to Swedish boy#2. Lovely syncopated guitars, an angsty yet soothing voice, and a fantastic cover of "Heartbeats" (originally done by fellow Swedes, the Knife). Funny thing is JG seems to be at his best when he does acoustic covers of electronic music - maybe he should do an entire album devoted to this genre.

1. Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens [Secretly Canadian] (2005)
We have a Swedish meatball sandwich here at the top of the list. Ok - more like a Swedish veggie-meatball sandwich. Anyway - we played this album over and over and over again all year long. And then we played it some more. And yet, it never got old. Jens Lekman also has fantastic taste, and liberally samples the music he loves. You can definitely hear him channeling the Magnetic Fields throughout the album, but he also has plenty of other, more obscure influences (See #8). This is the kind of album you play while falling in love. And since this year has been all about falling in love with our little tinyness, this pretty much had to be the album of the year.

listmania

Instead of simple list format, I will actually include a mini-commentary for my end of the year lists this time around.

Here we go ...

17 months

Why do so many parents insist on giving out their children's ages in months? It always creates this dissonant pause in my head, while I quickly try to extract a remainder from the ensuing mental long division (in base 12 no less). See - it took you a while just to parse that sentence! That is what "Oh - she'll be 17 months in 2 weeks" does to me. They have units for a reason, people. Seriously, what is so hard about saying 1 year and 5 months? Gads ...

it's no rushmore, but ...

the darjeeling limited is still an entertaining movie. a little disjointed, and a little euro-centric in its depiction of india, perhaps, but still worth a dekho as they say in the desh.

i was a little confused by the signature track (where do you go to my lovely - peter sarstedt), but i just discovered that mr. sarstedt was born in india, as were his two brothers, and suddenly it makes perfect sense.

in the mail

my new toy

WTF?

Umm - why have I had the pantsless leprechaun story headlining my blog for so long?

In other news, I'm back from Chile.

Leprechaun Opens Car Door for Pantsless Man

On BoingBoing:

Posted by David Pescovitz, October 17, 2007 4:01 PM | permalink

This gentleman, Kim Leblanc, was arrested in Cincinnati, Ohio on Tuesday morning sitting in someone else's car and not wearing any pants. According to an article on WLWT.com, Leblanc told police that "he had done drugs and believed that a leprechaun had let him into the car." [Link]




... and some featured comments ...
Comment #4
All right, sir. A leprechaun led you here."
"Yes, officer. That's correct. A leprechaun!"
"Okay, sir, now what about the pants?"
"The pants?"
"You're not wearing any pants."
"CURSE YOU MAGICAL IRISH BASTARD!!!"

Comment #12
I appreciate the guy's honesty. "Listen, officer. I was tripping balls and this leprechaun told me to drop trou and get in the car. What the hell was I supposed to do? Say NO!??"

configure; make

i've been hearting technology lately.

i just discovered google's street level 3d view. holy crap - it is pretty fantastic. some scary ramifications w.r.t. the whole surveillance society thing, but it makes for a pretty nice navigation tool.

yay for subversion!

trying to scrobble my xmms playlists to last.fm has been a pain in the ass. and building the regular last.fm player has been an adventure in dependency hell. i think i finally have something working though. oh - wait no ... i hate linux. wait - i didn't mean that. linux is awesome. linux is like sliced bread. like butter. like butter on sliced bread. like ... forget it.

the real issue is that my playlists seem to get pushed out, but then end up somewhere in the void. the idea of the internet void is an interesting one - a place where forgotten bits end up. packets without a recipient. the informational equivalent of the dryer sock fairy. or entropy. hmm - should explore that idea sometime.

new radiohead - drm free, sliding scale and completely downloadable. this is the future. it is really special that the biggest band in the world is offering up a great big fuck you to the riaa. nice.

update:
i almost missed the nextbus (hurrr for the pun). yes - this is truly the way to ride. now i know exactly when to time my mad sprint for the bus stop to minimize rain soakage. what's YOUR bus?

Less Than Zero

I must have gotten on a list somewhere, because I've now been part of two telephonic polls in the span of a week. The first one was survey on radio listening habits. The other one was a political survey of some sort, possibly related to MoveOn. In both polls I got to hand out zeroes - a zero for a certain new-country selection that made me want to rip my ears out, and a zero for one Mr. Bush that makes me want to rip out every other part of my body.

Speaking of opinion polls. It seems that these have effectively replaced the actual electoral process when big decisions get made by big people in between elections i.e. the other 363 days of the year. This makes its one's duty to take as many surveys and opinion polls as possible, since opinion polls seem to carry just as much weight as actual elections these days. Gotta represent!

got_it

must. eat. camera.
Originally uploaded by shreddd

Kiddoes are unpredictable. One week it seems like they just fit into everything that you want to do ... you're eating out, seeing the occasional show, going to parties, yadda yadda yadda (My first yadda yadda yadda in writing btw). And then suddenly they are fussy and needy and catch colds, and even watching an hour of TV becomes impossible (or something you have to break down into 10 minute increments). Such is the life. She is pretty damn cute though.

twittering

I am playing with Twitter in an attempt to completely sell out to the Web 2.0 revolution. You can now follow my every single mundane micro moment (now conveniently located right *here*) as I twitter my way towards post-humanism. Once the web becomes sentient, my persona will exist into eternity. Whoa!

ugh

yesterday was a really crap morning. we were already spooked about having to take the babezorz in for a kidney test and didn't sleep much the previous night. then, on our way out the door to the hospital, i tripped over the stairs - HARD. as in badly twisted my ankle, rolled over twice and bumped my head hard. as in, passed out in pain while trying to get back in the house (and bumping my head again) hard.

which meant that poor e had to take the baby in by herself for the test. which meant that she had to try and console a 5 month old as they poked at her with an iv for half an hour. watching a strapped down, screaming infant will pretty much break your heart. e - i am so incredibly sorry that you had to go through that, and that i wasn't able to make it.

and now we have to deal with the very real possibility of surgery in the coming months. like i said - not a good morning.

os x-pert

so i'm getting a little better at moving around and manipulating things on the new macbook. adding a three button mouse was a life saver - i can right click again!

seriously though - i'm still looking for tips to create a more zen like state of flow in my computering. any specific tools / applications / hints are very welcome ...

nostalgia

I'm writing this from my brand new MacBook Pro. It is very very sexy. Everything seems prettier on a Mac. Things just work. Magic seems to happen every time I push a button. Ah - the allure of design ...

And yet - I know, this will sound absurd but - I miss Linux.

As nice as the new BSD based Apples are, something feels a little odd and klunky when you try to operate from the command line. Aqua is totally awesome, but it was never meant to (with good reason) interface with the shell. I guess Linux makes me feel more godlike, while the Apple makes me feel more like a spectator. Still enjoying though ...

jens + left banke

jens lekman does this great song called "black cab", where he samples the left banke's "i've got something on my mind" - also a brilliant number. both artistes are definitely worth checking out. the left banke is probably one of the most underrated bands from the 60s, and jens lekman is basically e's new swedish husband, in a manner of speaking. i had to share.

daydream nation

wow - somehow, surreptitiously, mysteriously my social life has crept up on me. as in, i suddenly have one. in the course of the past 10 days, we've ended up going to a movie, hanging out and drinking with peeps in cafe/bar like situations (twice), doing trivia night and finally going to a sonic youth show.

s.y. show was our first non-baby social experience ever, which was both terrifying and liberating.

speaking of trivia - did you realize that hyphy doesn't have any of the standard vowels (a-e-i-o-u)? weird!