During the previews for Avatar last night, an ad for Carmel car service caught our soon to be 3D'd eyes, mainly because its logo was to Paul Rand what pork rinds are to Michael Pollan.
First of all, judging by the size and placement of the wheels compared to the body of the car, it would fail to bring me anywhere, except maybe the ground, when its top-heavy frame crashed upon me. Also, what's so special about the "A" that it gets to be lined in yellow, red, AND black?
Needless to say, we were amazed:
2. Pretzel Bag Wisdom
A lunch snack I purchased the other day (bag was about 5" by 7"- the size of a regular snack size chip bag)
Oh! Hungry size. I see now. It's almost like saying a sweater is "size pretty".
This should really be KM's post, but I am stealing her musical taste and presenting it as my own. I'm sort of kidding - we do like the same songs, but she knows way more about music, is more discerning about what makes a song or album good, and is generally much cooler than me.
Too often, I'm a sucker for depressing indie rock, or I'll mistake a song with atrocious lyrics for being good because I'm distracted by the hand claps or someone hitting a wooden block in it (cute!), or I'll be too focused on singing along to a catchy chorus too notice that it's idiotic. Needless to say, I was grateful when KM came along to gently expose me to the fact that 30 percent of what I was listening to was toothless - soft and palatable, it was the musical equivalent of provolone cheese (Examples, you want? Uh, Mason Jennings, The guy that sings "Orange Sky", other shit like that).
We still disagree about some types of music (I find country music dripping with sentimentality, literalness, and narrative-driven glop to be interesting in a cultural analysis/human response sort of way, she just says it sucks, I can't stand a certain level of noise band no matter how cool it is, she naturally leans that way always), we agree 90 percent of the time about what's awesomely good. And I appreciate her ability to find good music and share it with me, along with admiring her strong opinions on the stuff that makes up a devoted music lover (willingness to listen to new things, passionate belief that one must listen to an entire album several times to truly evaluate it, and compulsion to categorize and record yearly lists of her favorite music). All of which I agree with - although I am less disciplined about exploring it regularly and have a bad habit of selective listening to one or two songs that I like from a band, while knowing nothing about the rest of the album, history, or musical catalog.
That said, she makes a yearly "Best Of" CD, which I present here for 2009, along with whatever clips I can find of the songs. Here is the track list for the Best Songs of 2009:
1. It Ain't Gonna Save Me Jay Reatard
2. Crown on the Ground Sleigh Bells
3. Sleepyhead Passion Pit
4. 1901 Pheonix
5. Dominos The Big Pink
6. Young Hearts Spark Fire Japandroids
7. Despicable Dogs Small Black
8. Antonia Jane Lightning Dust
9. Blood Bank Bon Iver
10. Two Weeks Grizzley Bear
11. Swans Camera Obscura
12. My Girls Animal Collective
13. 11th Dimension Julian Casablancas
14. Psychic City (Voodoo City) Yacht
15. Warm Heart of Africa The Very Best
16. Empire State of Mind Jay-Z
17. The Boys Will Love Us Wavves
18. Lust for Life Girls
19. Young Adult Friction The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
20. Let's Go Surfing The Drums
21. VCR The xx
22. Paparazzi Lady Gaga
23. Zero Yeah Yeah Yeahs
24. Idiot Heart Sunset Rubdown
25. Watching the Planets The Flaming Lips
26. Stillness is the Move Dirty Projectors
27. Calculator Micachu and the Shapes
28. Fiya Tune-Yards
Below, a sampling from the artists - in some cases not the song on KM's list, but hey, it's hard to find shit on YouTube, and these songs are equally awesome. Note: The Grizzly Bear video is extremely creepy and sort of amazing. And Ring Ring is my favorite song of the year.
