I put my first page on the web a little over a year-and-a-half later, in December 1994 as a freshman at Mary Washington College, thanks in large part to help from Ernie Ackermann. Mine was the second student web site on the college’s server (John Forrest had #1, if I remember correctly) and before long was challenging the college’s own home page in terms of amount of traffic (hits, pageviews, bandwidth, I don’t remember). The page had a picture of Grover sitting on the toilet.

I took some time today to look around a the oldest saved version of my site, from 1996. Lots of hideous tiled backgrounds, amusing content, and memories are contained therein. Here are a few pages of more general interest:

• Setting Up a Web Page at MWC – because people kept asking me
• Browser stats for all of mwc.edu through October 1996 – very interesting to see ia_archiver on there at a mere 0.03%. If it weren’t for that spider, we wouldn’t be looking at these pages today. Thank you, Internet Archive.
• My headaches page, where I go on and on about why I never have time… I still pull this crap at age 37

The web was a very, very different place back then. I remember when all backgrounds were grey (you kids and your gentle CSS gradients, you have no idea how good you have it!), there was no chance you could separate style from content in any meaningful way, cgi-bin was a scary but magical place, BLINK was perfectly acceptable, HTML tags had to be uppercase (and closing tags? HAH!), <b> and <i> weren’t frowned upon, and advice like “upload your files using telnet and ZMODEM” made sense. Shoot, I remember freshman year that it wasn’t clear the web was really going to become something huge and I simultaneously published some content on a gopher site because more people at the school knew about it.

Over the past 18 1/2 years, I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of the web and make a living on it. While the feeling that I had in the mid-90s for the web is completely different from what I feel now, I’m still amazed every day at how the medium has grown and matured. If 1996 hideous-background-tiling me could see the 2013 web, he would be astonished at the beauty, the depth, and the mainstream acceptance it had gained. The web is still an awesome place to be.

Among that issue’s ads was one of the ubiquitous Columbia House “11 for 1 cent” promotions:

When I looked closer, I realized nine-year-old me had filled out the form, but never sent it in. Ignoring the fact that I wrote in album names instead of the ID numbers, as instructed, I decided to build a quick Spotify playlist of all the albums I would have gotten (on vinyl, take note) if I’d mailed the form in with $1.86. Only two albums (Rockwell’s Somebody’s Watching Me and The Stray Cats’ Rant N Rave were not available on Spotify).

(Another interesting bit: all selections except for classical or jazz albums were available on 8-track, even in 1985. This is because “1982 was the approximate year the 8 track tape disappeared from record stores yet Columbia continued to release new titles in the format until 1988″ (Wikipedia). That’s why it is possible, though difficult, to find some hip-hop on 8-track today, if you look hard enough.)

Anyway, it occurred to me recently that we’ve written a lot about Family Ties over the last 13 years and I thought I’d collect all the posts about the show or where the show is a key part. Here they are, sorted by date:

• May 3, 2000: Family Ties Vacation
  Remembering the Keatons’ trip to London.
• July 1, 2000: Alex P. Keaton Goes Back to the Future
  Before Back to the Future, Michael J. Fox time traveled on Family Ties. Didja know that?
• August 3, 2000: Lazy Flashbacks
  When sitcoms get lazy, they do flashback episodes. Family Ties did three in four seasons.
• September 18, 2001: The Meaning of Life
  In this one, a commenter obliges with a story about how Family Ties enlightened her to all the universes’ mysteries. (See comment #2.)
• February 5, 2003: 20 Years
  Elyse Keaton gets me thinking deeply.
• March 19, 2003: The Problem with Andrew Keaton
  Poor Andy went on to have a pretty rough life, so I feel a little guilty for blaming him.
• April 15, 2003: The Dark Background
  What happens when Family Ties gets all dramatic and theatrical.
• September 11, 2003: TV Graduation
  Did you know Family Ties had three graduation-themed episodes?
• June 4, 2004: Andy Gets Arrested
  Sad.
• November 15, 2007: The Family Ties Game
  “Nevertheless, the game proved to be quite enjoyable, considering it seems like it was slapped together at the last minute by people who said, ‘We have a board, we have stock photos from the show, and we have dice. Let’s make something up.’”
• February 5, 2009: Family Ties… ON YOUR COMPUTING DEVICE
  Before it was on Netflix, it was on CBS.com.
• April 7, 2009: Robert Costanzo
  The same dude played five different characters on Family Ties. And you’ll recognize him from any other favorite 80′s sitcom, too.
• June 25, 2009: Family Ties Editing
  What happens when a Christian network airs reruns of Family Ties where the lord’s name is taken in vain.
• July 1, 2009: Yet Another Family Ties Fun Fact
  Fascinating facts about Alex’s girlfriend Ellen.
• October 7, 2009: Family Ties Haiku
  5-7-5.
• September 26, 2010: Mallory’s Clothes
  Paul finds a nifty blog.
• September 29, 2011: At least he doesn’t say “Al-X!”
  Nick in his most horrifying role ever.
• October 3, 2011: The Art of Being Nick
  Nick got his own spin-off series. It didn’t last long.
• December 1, 2011: The Family Ties Documentary
  YouTube embeds of a documentary about the show as well as a bunch of bloopers.
• June 21, 2012: A Family Ties Birthday
  Two cast members share a birthday – to the day! Guess which ones.

Everything’s sorted in alphabetical order. (Note: Many album links are affiliate links to Amazon’s mp3 store.)

(See also: all previous years-in-review.)

Best of 2012

• Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
  I admit it. I’m finally calling myself a fan of Fiona Apple, she of long, obtuse album titles. She’s a great songwriter, a terrific musician, a tortured soul, and she makes powerful, heartfelt albums. The Idler Wheel… is the latest and contains so many darkly playful, engaging tunes, it’s hard to pick a favorite. Plus, you’ve gotta admire that she was willing to cancel tour dates to be with her sick dog. (Also: if you haven’t read this article, you should.)
• Baaba: The Wrong Vampire
  Eclectic Polish band Baaba does it again with this hodgepodge of creepy cross-genre experiments and improv that’s nu jazz one second, grindcore the next, and blippy electronica the second after that. Favorite cut: “To the Cellar,” a cinematic, Goblin-esque heart-stopper with wicked flute and sax melodies and driving drums.
• Beneficence: Concrete Soul
  I’d never even heard of this NJ emcee before stumbling on this album on MOG. Boy am I glad I found it… the tracks with Lord Tariq (“Y.W.E.”), Grap Luva and Rob-O (“Cold Train”), and El da Sensei (“Way We Rockin’”) have that classic mid-90s snap without sounding dated in the least. And Beneficence isn’t an emcee to sneeze at, either. The guy’s got bars. This is an album made for cranking in the car, son.
• Josh Berman & His Gang: There Now
  Super engaging Chicago free jazz (on Delmark, no less!) from Berman, also featuring the awesome vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz.
• Brownbird Rudy Relic: Chicano Dynamite
  Brownbird does it again with another dynamite (see what I did there?) lo-fi, solo, soulful blues release. The title track is scorching, but Rudy also slows it down and shows the strength of his voice on ballads, as well. Love it. (Bonus: a video I shot of Rudy performing the title track in DC earlier this year.)
• Casual & J. Rawls: Respect Game or Expect Flames
  Great production by J. Rawls and some of Casual’s best work lyrically in years. Favorite cuts include “Nota Problem Part II,” the Hiero posse cut “Hier-O-Dot (feat. Copywrite, Phesto, Tage, Tajai, Opio & Jakki Da Motamouth),” and straight fire on the title track. Great album, terrible album title.
• Avishai Cohen: Triveni II
  Cohen is one of my favorite modern jazz trumpeters and on this trio’s second release, there’s a lot to love. Innovative and free without being formless, this is some of the best modern jazz has to offer. Love “B.R Story” and the drumwork on “Safety Land.”
• Cuefx: International Post-War Chill
  Dark, sorta-glitchy Skalpel-esque nu jazz from Poland. Love “Neurodramatic Hip Hop” parts 1 and 2. A remixed version of the album just came out this month. See also (and this, too).
• DJ Format: Statement of Intent
  The 10″‘s design harkens back to 60s Stereo Action exotica releases on RCA and the LP artwork is nearly as excellent. The music: pure late-80s throwback. There’s not a single thing I don’t love about this album, from the production to the emcees to the package design. All-around brilliance.
• Michael Kiwanuka: Home Again
  Bill Withers’ last album was 27 years ago, but Michael Kiwanuka gives us an idea of what a modern day Bill Withers album would sound like. Warm and soulful, this is an outstanding release. Leading up to the album, Kiwanuka released a few EPs that contained a few tracks not on the album. I collected all of the tracks he released in one MOG playlist, if you’re interested (and here’s a Spotify version with a few bonus Spotify-exclusive live tracks tacked on at the end).
• Shawn Lee: Synthesizers in Space
  Fonky space funk based around “the mystery box,” an unidentified vintage synth Lee found at a shop in Austin. Thoroughly enjoyable and funktastic. My favorite of his recent releases.
• Los Miticos Del Ritmo: Los Miticos Del Ritmo
  Thanks to Josh from Herbivore for turning me onto this one, which ultimately became one of my favorite albums of the year and led me into a several-month long love affair with Cumbia music and Soundway Records entire catalog (Cumbia and otherwise). Good ol’ Quantic had a hand in this album, as with so many other excellent releases this year. Some more background info from Soundway: “The record was recorded entirely on 4 track tape, using a process of overdubs and tape transfers to record multiple sessions at different times with different musicians.” The end result is funky and super danceable, even on covers (“Another One Bites the Dust,” “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”) that could have easily turned out gimmicky. In fact, my favorite cut on the album is the fantastic cumbia dub rehash of the Abyssinians’ “Satta Massaganna.” Super, super stuff.
• Nas: Life is Good
  Easily Nas’ strongest album in years (maybe his best since Illmatic). He lets vulnerability shine brighter than his ego and gets handed a lot of great beats. Loved “A Queens Story,” “Daughters,” “The Don,” “Nasty,” and especially the brilliant No I.D. production on “Loco-Motive.”
• Nostalgia 77 & The Monster: The Taxidermist
  Ben Lamdin seems incapable of making a bad record. Just enough free, just enough funk, just enough nu to make to achieve that balance of instrumental awesomeness.
• Oddisee: People Hear What They See
  Oddisee’s a pretty amazing dude. Over the past few years, he’s become one of my favorite producers, eschewing an easily recognizable signature sound for a jack-of-all-trades style. One never know what angle he’s going to come from, but it’s almost always done with finesse. Turns out Oddisee’s a dope emcee, too. Don’t pass this one by.
• Ondatrópica: Ondatrópica
  More Quantic on the list. The cover of “Iron Man” is clever and you’ve gotta dig the beatbox-infused “Rap-Maya,” but the entire album is a deliciously chill blend of the folky Columbian cumbia sound with any number of other genres, from salsa to bossa nova to hip-hop.
• Pep Love: The Rigmarole
  This Hiero release flew under the radar, receiving very little mention on the music blogs I read. That’s a shame because it’s some classic Pep Love with solid production throughout and Pep at the top of his lyrical game. Peep “Runaway Slave” and the Bollywood-inspired “Everywhere.”
• DJ Premier & Bumpy Knuckles: The Kolexxxion
  Premier’s beats are inspired and reminiscent of his heydey (Primo’s “reject” beats are still better than yours!) and Freddie/Bumpy is bringing the pain like he hasn’t since Industry Shakedown. Listen before going outside to punch people in the face.
• Quantic & Alice Russell with the Combo Bárbaro: Look Around the Corner
  Seriously? Another amazing Quantic joint? Buddha have mercy. Funky soul and soulful funk by way of Columbia. Easy now.
• Stik Figa: As Himself
  Technically this came out originally in 2009, but it wasn’t until 2012 that Kansas MC Stik Figa’s debut LP got the wide release it deserved. The first three tracks (“The Skinny,” “Corner Store,” and “Absitively”) are straight bonkers. Excellent production by Seven.
• Tensei: Two
  Spacy, soulful, and jazzy instrumental EP (mostly) that kicks off with great Alice Coltrane samples (ones I’ve also used) but features some excellent live instrumentation, making this an above-average collection of beats. One is also good.
• Yva Las Vegass: I Was Born In A Place Of Sunshine And The Smell Of Ripe Mangoes
  Venezuelan-born New York street performer Yva Las Vegass not only has an incredible voice, but is an amazing instrumentalist and songwriter. Her music blends Venezuelan folk songs with punk intensity. Don’t miss her NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert and her Soundcloud channel.

Almost Best of 2012

• AWOL ONE: Shockra!
  Weird, quirky, subdued, instrumental.
• Belleruche: Rollerchain
  Though not as strong as their previous albums (Turntable Soul Music and 270 Stories are personal favorites), there’s still a lot to like about the minimalist, electronica-soul band’s Rollerchain. Dig “Stormbird“… it’s blippy, bassy, and frenetic.
• Black Taxi: We Don’t Know Any Better
  Shared with me by former co-worker Jason, Black Taxi is sounds like they’re straight of the 80s with their reggae-influenced punk. Good stuff.
• El-P: Cancer for Cure
  A lighthearted romp through flowers and sunshine! Great to help the kids sleep well with dreams of fuzzy bunnies and rainbows.
• Vijay Iyer Trio: Accelerando
  Modern jazz lives. Iyer can always be counted on to prove that. (And a jazz verson of “Human Nature” that doesn’t come off corny? Only Iyer.)
• Matisyahu: Spark Seeker
  Matisyahu’s taken a Michael Franti turn, veering away from his reggae roots and going more toward reggae-infused happy rock. He does it well, though, and it’s hard not to like albums like Spark Seeker, especially good on a warm summer day.
• Mello Music Group: Self Sacrifice
  A strong compilation form the ever-popular MMG. I dug the album’s opener, “Focus,” with DJ Soko and Def Dee and “Soul Survivor” with Boog Brown, PRT’s Wise Intelligent, and Georgie Anne Muldrow.
• Frank Ocean: Channel Orange
  His sexuality initially overshadowed the release of the album, until people realized, “Holy crap. This is a good R&B album. I remember those.” Digging “Thinking About You” and “Super Rich Kids.”
• Plug: Back On Time
  Luke Vibert found an album’s worth of unreleased drum-n-bass tracks from the mid-90s–Remember Drum-n-Bass for Papa? Yeah, that era–and I’m mighty glad he decided to release ‘em. This stuff takes me back to my college years and my dabbling in drum-n-bass, jungle, and experimental electronica on my Trancelike State radio show.
• Portico Quartet: Portico Quartet
  Innovative UK jazz using a 21st century percussion instrument, the Hang.
• Rocket Juice & the Moon: Rocket Juice & the Moon
  Enjoyable, low-key album from the supergroup made of folks from the RHCP and Blur and Fela Kuti’s drummer with some good guest spots.
• Tabasko: Ostatnia Szansa Tego Rapu
  Number one in Poland for two weeks, this O.S.T.R. production isn’t as fire as his previous work, but tracks like “Sluchawki” and “Zachlannosc” will stick with you.
• Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now
  I came to Loudon Wainwright III very late in the game (only after seeing him on Undeclared) and I am admittedly not up on his extensive back catalog (this is his 22nd studio album), but I loved his humorous, thoughful take on aging, family, and death on Older Than My Old Man Now. “The Days That We Die” is a duet with his son with poetry written by his father. A great quote from Wainwright about turning 65: “When you’re sixty-five, everything seems to be somewhat in the rear-view, or at least in the side-view. Well, not everything, and hopefully your windshield wipers are still working.”

Best of 2011 I missed until 2012

Oddly, I didn’t mark anything down this year.

My Daughter’s Favorite Tracks This Year

My daughter, now six, has developed an interesting taste in music. Here are her favorite tracks this year (not limited to songs from this year), loaded up in a MOG playlist that we often spin when we’re on the road.

• Naughty by Nature: “Hip-Hop Hooray”
• Bill Withers: “Just the Two of Us”
• Max Romeo: “I Chase the Devil”
• Screeching Weasel: “You Are My Sunshine”
• Heavenly Beat: “Hurting”
• Heavenly Beat: “Tradition”
• Beastie Boys: “The Panda Rat”
• Yabby You: “Warn Them Jah Dub”

Best Tracks of 2012

Last year I put together 8tracks playlists, but this year I realized that a lot of tracks I liked I only have access to streaming. On the flipside, not everything is available on Spotify, so I can’t make a streaming playlist and cover everything. Maybe by next year there will be a way to combine local tracks and streaming tracks in a playlist that can be shared. Until then, I’m just going to give you a big ol’ unsorted list of some favorite tracks of the year.

• 7 Immortals: “Thursday Night Live”
• Black Taxi: “We Don’t Know Any Better”
• Cuefx: “Neurodramatic Hip Hop (Part 1)”
• Robert Glasper Experiment: “Smells Like Teen Spirit (feat. Lalah Hathaway)” or “Afro Blue (feat. Erykah Badu)”
• Gensu Dean: “On Down (feat. Sputnik Brown)”
• Jeb Loy Nicholls: “Hard Times (Darq E Freaker & African Boy Version)”
• MA_Doom: “PBS”
• DJ Format: “Terror (feat. Mr. Lif)”
• People Under the Stairs: “Uprock Boogie”
• Pep Love: “Everywhere”
• DJ Nu-Mark ft. Bumpy Knuckles: “Dumpin’ Em’ All”
• Belleruche: “Stormbird”
• Gift of Gab: “Nlp”
• Casual & J. Rawls: “Respect Game or Expect Flames (feat. Del the Funky Homosapien)”
• Quakers: “What Chew Want”
• Boog Brown, Wise Intelligent, and Georgia Anne Muldrow: “Soul Survivor”
• THEESatisfaction: “Enchantruss”
• Willis Earl Beal: “Take Me Away” (great story behind this album)
• Stik Figa: “The Skinny”
• Tensei: “Passport”
• Rakaa: “Frequent Flyers (feat. Prevail)”
• Liknuts: “Grumpy Crocodile”
• Portico Quartet: “Steepless (feat. Cornelia)”
• Baaba: “To the Cellar”
• Oddisee: “Do It All”
• Ming & Ping: “Chinatown (feat. Mariqueen Maandig Reznor)”
• Yva Las Vegass: “Crack Whore”
• Los Miticos Del Ritmo: “Satta Massa Cumbia”
• Muneshine: “Lower Level”
• Pink Freud: “Horse and Power”
• Josh Berman & His Gang: “One Train May Hide Another”
• JJ DOOM: “Dawg Friendly”
• Everlast: “Prison Folsom Blues”
• Shawn Lee: “Lost in the Shuffle”
• Brownbird Rudy Relic: “Chicano Dynamite”
• Craig G: “Rabbit Season”
• Styles Of Beyond: “Take That (feat. Celph Titled)”
• Chino XL: “Father’s Day”
• The Coup: “Your Parent’s Cocaine feat. Justin Sane of Anti-Flag”
• Brother Ali & Jake One: “Letter to My Countrymen (feat. Dr. Cornel West)”
• Hannah Williams & The Tastemakers: “Work it Out”
• Busdriver: “Werner Herzog (feat. Open Mike Eagle & Nocando)”

My Top 15 Scrobbled Artists for 2012

1. Beastie Boys 148
2. Bill Withers 138
3. Dennis Brown 129
4. Barrington Levy 115
5. IV the Polymath 102
6. Brownbird Rudy Relic 95
7. King Tubby 92
8. DJ Format 91
9. Piero Umiliani 89
10. Half Pint 81
11. Michael Kiwanuka 80
12. Lee “Scratch” Perry 77
13. Scientist 76
14. Junior Wells 75
14 (tie). Johnny Clarke 75

(Previous years-in-review collected here.)

The Year, By Month

January

• Started a tea phototumblrblogsitething
• Learned that the woman considered to be the “eccentric neighbor” was a spy for the French resistance in WWII!
• Found a Korean 100 won coin in our house. Value: 9 cents.
• King Shameek (from Twin Hype) and L.L. Cool J reply to/retweet me.
• Painted our living room and moved all my music to the basement. Took a Jeff Hardy-style dive off of the ladder, but only once.

February

• Shepp has a playdate with some other basset hounds
• Got a Jawbone Jambox (one of my favorite purchases of the year)
• Dead mouse, burial.

March

• Worked the polls for the VA Republican primary. Thanks to the race being pretty much decided and only two people on the ballot, a mere 100 people showed up all day long.
• Cleaned the sump cover of our dishwasher. NOT PRETTY AND APPARENTLY SOMETHING YOU SHOULD DO OCCASIONALLY.
• Visit from the Shaver crew

April

• Took Rasine to her first hip-hop show, an in-store with Ragz and Mudd.
• Met Kristin from Will Travel for Vegan Food
• Had wood floors put in the house, replacing some old arse carpet.
• Finally got to see Brownbird Rudy Relic play live.
• Went to a friend’s wedding just a few days before…
• Our son, Ramsey Long (aka Norval Ogilhinn), was born.

May

• Started the Feightful Fridays tumblrblogmusicthingsite
• Ninth annual Poplar Spring Run for the Animals (and my ninth time participating)

June

• (nothing happened)

July

• A spider crawled across my screen. While I was browsing the web. Amazing!
• Introduced Rasine to the wonders of Super Fuzz
• Met up with Shawn Lov, NJ underground hip-hop old-timer, and his wife for lunch.
• Lunch with former co-worker Viren for the first time in years.
• Got childhood friend (and fellow vegan) out to Poplar Spring for the first of several visits.

August

• Celebrate 14 years at my job
• Vacation in Ocracoke, including time with sis’ family and the Shavers
• Laid off from my job of 14 years
• Took an injured baby squirrel into the emergency vet, sure they’d put him down. He recovered!
• Dog #1 of the year found and returned to owners

September

• Introduced “We’re Not Gonna’ Take It” (the song and the video) to Rasine. It’s requested almost every day for the next two months.
• Rasine starts softball
• Visit from Sir Josh Hooten for Herbivoreville

October

• Dog #2 of the year found and returned to owners (on my eight-year veganversary, no less)
• Turned 37.
• Dog #3 of the year found and returned to owners
• Hurricane Sandy hits and we escape any effects other than a few minutes without power and a little moisture in the basement

November

• Rasine runs her own polling location
• My Tweet of the Year
• I work the polls for the ninth year in a row, this time as an assistant chief in a presidential election
• Introduced Rasine to the Star Wars series
• Switched away from our dentist who took out a nutty political ad in the local paper (and later found out he’d missed a bunch of cavities that had formed, so he was a crappy dentist, too)
• Rasine lost her first two teeth (inadvertently eating her first)
• Rasine ran her first race, a super chilly one-miler in 11:16
• Closed my PO Box after 13 years
• Saw the opening night of the Hip-Hop Gods Tour in DC, featuring Public Enemy, Wise Intelligent, Son of Baserk, X Clan, Schoolly D, Monie Love, and others. And, thanks to Matt Wriggy, I got to hang out at Sirius/XM beforehand for some press events. Caught up with DJ Jay-Ski for the first time in many years and got to meet and chat briefly with Wise Intelligent.

December

• The beard returns
• Formed a new LLC, nearly signed a commercial lease, and started preparations to open up an online shop (coming 2013!).
• (Re-)introduced Rasine to What’s Happening!!

Favorite New Teas of the Year

• Dong Pian oolong

RIP

Based solely on the folks I RIP’ed on Twitter. People I knew personally in bold. Dates are when I tweeted, not the actual death date.

• 1/16: Jimmy Castor
• 1/20: Etta James
• 1/27: Winston Riley
• 2/1: Don Cornelius
• 2/2: King Stitt
• 2/29: Davy Jones
• 3/16: Outspoken/Big Cat/Andre Catlett
• 4/18: Dick Clark
• 5/4: MCA
• 5/8: Maurice Sendak
• 5/16: Chuck Brown
• 5/17: Donna Summer
• 6/4: Richard Dawson
• 6/6: Ray Bradbury
• 6/18: Rodney King
• 7/3: Andy Griffith
• 7/8: Ernest Borgnine
• 7/18: Ms. Melodie
• 7/30: Sluggy Ranks
• 8/10: David Rakoff
• 8/20: Phyllis Diller
• 8/23: Byard Lancaster
• 10/13: John Tchicai
• 10/19: David S. Ware
• 10/31: Tracy 168
• 12/5: Dave Brubeck

Books I Finished Reading

In order finished.

• The Ask: A Novel by Sam Lipsyte
• The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records by Ashley Kahn
• Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• The Secret Lives of Hoarders: True Stories of Tackling Extreme Clutter by Matt Paxton
• Taft 2012: A Novel by Jason Heller
• Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• My Seinfeld Year (Kindle Single) by Fred Stoller
• The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron
• The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• Coltrane on Coltrane: The John Coltrane Interviews by Chris DeVito
• There’s Gotta Be A Pony (Considerations on a Journey of Mastery) by Jim Perry
• Fire Monks: Zen Mind Meets Wildfire at the Gates of Tassajara by Colleen Morton Busch
• The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash: My Life, My Beats by Grandmaster Flash
• The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• Tik-Tok of Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
• Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists by Courtney E. Martin
• Scarecrow of Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki by David Chadwick
• Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies, & the Truth about Reality by Brad Warner (audiobook version)
• A Brief History of Rhyme and Bass: Growing Up With Hip-Hop by Shawn Livernoche
• Hardcore Zen Strikes Again by Brad Warner
• The Providence Rider by Robert McCammon
• Rinkitink in Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• The Boombox Project: The Machines, the Music, and the Urban Underground by Lyle Owerko

Total number of books finished: 26 (one more than 2011)

Books re-read: 2

Books written by someone I’ve know or have at least spoken more than a sentence to: 4

Books in progress at the end of the year: 3

Movies I Watched and Re-watched

In order watched.

• Marvelous Land of Oz, The (1987)
• Kuroneko (1968)
• Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest (2011)
• Blue Velvet (1986)
• Timecrimes (2007)
• Vegucated (2010)
• Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1998)
• Sleepaway Camp (1983)
• Identity (4/25/2003)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Shut Up Little Man: An Audio Misadventure (2011)
• Humanoids from the Deep (1980)
• Primer (2004)
• Red Beans and Rice (2011)
• The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry (2008)
• 28 Days Later (6/27/2003)
• Dawn of the Dead (1978)
• Insidious (2010)
• Confessions of a Superhero (2007)
• Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
• Picture of Dorian Gray, The (1945)
• Card Subject to Change (2010)
• Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008)
• Empire of Passion (1978)
• Super Fuzz (1981)
• Friday the 13th: Part 4: The Final Chapter (1984)
• Town Called Panic, A (2009)
• Nightmare on Elm Street, A (1984)
• Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988)
• Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland (1989)
• Heckler (2007)
• Not Quite Hollywood (2008)
• Next of Kin (1982)
• Big Lebowski, The (1998)
• Mary & Max (2009)
• Omen, The (1976)
• Mr. Mom (1983)
• Film Unfinished, A (2010)
• Gate, The (1987)
• Return to Oz (1985)
• Horde, The (2009)
• Session 9 (2001)
• Baby, The (1973)
• Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
• Descent, The (2005)
• Frankenstein (1931)
• Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
• Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap (2012)
• Ici et Ailleurs (1976)
• Do pivnice (1983)
• Polar Express, The (11/10/2004)
• American Scream, The (2012)
• Muppet Family Christmas (uncut), A (1987)
• Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1977)
• Beaches of Agnès, The (2008)

Number of movies: 55

Number of those movies I’d already seen: 18

Average year (a stat my wife calls “pointless”): 1992

Average rating: 3.69

(The annual music year-in-review is coming later this week.)

“The house started out as a private residence with a motel built behind it. My father, who was a contractor and built a number of motels in North Wildwood, was hired to build an addition to the motel, which I believe was located on or near 23rd Street. The year was 1963. Since the house was in the way of the addition, he and my mother purchased the house and had it moved down Surf Avenue to it’s present location on 5th Avenue. The house remained in the family until 2005.”

Two things struck me about this video:

1. The truck that’s carrying the house isn’t particularly large. It’s pretty amazing they were able to move a house (even a small one) on such a tiny truck.
2. Check out the dude just chilling on the roof like it’s no big thing!

The house now (thanks to my sister for sending this one along, which she took this past summer):

My wife and daughter decided last week that it would be fun to set up an election precinct on our front porch. So, they did! They put together a ballot, then invited homeschoolers, neighborhood kids, folks on Facebook, and any kids that happened to walk by. We opened the polls yesterday from 1-3pm. (Absentee voting was done online until later in the day.)

In the two hours we had 25 kids come by to vote, which is more activity than in any two-hour span when I worked the Republican primary elections earlier this year. Impressive turnout by the youth voting bloc!

Here are the final results (and here is the Google spreadsheet with additional details):

President/Vice President

• Barack Obama/Joe Biden (D): 22 (71%)
• Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan (R): 8 (26%)
• Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala (G): 1 (3%)
• Virgil Goode/Jim Clyme (C): 0 (0%)
• Gary Johnson/James P. Gray (L): 0 (0%)

US Sentate (VA)

• Timothy Kaine: 16 (55%)
• George Allen: 13 (45%)

The age range of in-person voters was 3-10, with the average being 6.9 years old. (We didn’t ask for the age of the absentee voters.)

Rasine by our street sign.

Rasine casting her ballot.

We had a great turnout of enthusiastic young voters.

Just like at the real elections, we signed and sealed the ballot box until it was time to count the ballots, to prevent voter fraud. Unlike the real election, Shepp was the guardian of the ballots.

Cracking open the ballot box.

This page discusses the affect on nearby Cape May (damages in excess of $3 million, equivalent to $20-$25 million today). Philly.com collected other home videos of the storm. And one woman recounted her experience as a child in Sea Isle City during the storm.

Sluggy was a dancehall artist who came into his own in the mid-1980s, after he’d come to the United States from Kingston. His voice was unique and his mess was conscious and positive, in contrast to many of his dancehall contemporaries.

I thought I’d share three of my favorite tracks Sluggy’s been involved in. I’d love to hunt out more of his work, but much of it is hard to come by.

First is “Ghetto Youth Bust,” where Sluggy takes shot at the gun culture that’s been prevalent in dancehall and among Jamaican youth for decades:

“Progressive youth must try, / kill dem with positive vibes! / It’s nothing but conscious style. / Just tell me who a go hold it back, hold it back, / hold back the youths from buss!”

Sluggy reused the “Ghetto Youth Bust” hook when he teamed up with Trenton’s Poor Righteous Teachers and X Clan’s Brother J on the fantastic “Conscious Style” from PRT’s third album, The New World Order:

My favorite Sluggy track, “Ethiopia,” comes from his work with the Easy Star label on their debut 1997 compilation, Easy Star Volume One. The track is called “Ethiopia” and really captures Sluggy’s talent.

More here (with some inaccurate info re: his involvement with Easy Star).

Confessions of a Superhero

A touching (and ever-so-slightly exploitative) look at the mere mortals behind the superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard. With Superman, Batman, and the Hulk, you can sense that this is probably a spot they’ll be in for a while, despite all their best efforts. While Wonder Woman’s story isn’t overly sad, you can sense she’s destined for bigger and better things (since the movie, she’s had bit roles on Party Down, True Blood, and New Girl).

Heard

Miles Davis: Get Up With It

Like anyone else who’s ever spent any time in a college radio station, I went through a heavy Miles Davis period when I was starting to get into jazz. Kind of Blue and Bitches Brew were, of course, on heavy rotation, but I tried to dig into some of the lesser-known Miles albums from various points in his career as well. Somehow, I missed Get Up With It, a double-LP of super-electic electric recordings from 1970-1974. Even if you’ve heard his other electric-era recordings, you’ll be surprised over and over again with Get Up With It.

The two most notable tracks are the 32-minute “He Loved Him Madly,” a dedication to the recently deceased Duke Ellington, and the supremely bonkers “Rated X,” a fiercely funky assault on your senses. The latter is particularly ahead of its time, sounding a lot like the intense electronica-infused jazz we’ve seen coming out of Poland in the last decade (a la Pink Freud, Robotobibok, etc.). (The live version on the Miles Davis In Concert album isn’t as good.)

Read

Fire Monks by Colleen Morton Busch

A super interesting look at the California wildfires of 2008 and how the monks of Tassajara (which is connected with Suzuki Roshi’s San Francisco Zen Center) worked to defend their land even with little help from professionals. Really engaging and a fascinating examination of how “beginner’s mind” works under extreme pressure.

Don’t miss this Flickr set with photos from before, during, and after the fire by Mako, one of the five monks that fought the fire from beginning to end.

Now that Ramsey’s a week old, I thought I’d share the most important lesson I’ve learned as the father to a baby boy:

Point it down.

(Longer version: For heaven’s sake, if you want to avoid a drenched onesie, when you’re diapering your son: POINT IT DOWN.)

Seen

A Show, with Ze Frank

Welcome back, sir! And thanks for the inspirational opening video. No, really. I’m filing this one alongside Jay Smooth’s Little Hater and Merlin Mann’s Courageous Sucking as part of the eternal battle to get over the f’ing fear.

Heard

BADBADNOTGOOD

This non-drinking age crew got their initial notice thanks to their jazz treatment of Odd Future tunes last year and has since gone on to release two albums and two more live albums. I was shocked to hear kids this young (those whippersnappers!) could making such innovative, interesting music. It’s dark, it’s complex, it’s the next logical step after nu jazz (or, at least, a parallel step). All their material is available for free via their site or Bandcamp.

Here’s a video of a recent track of them, which features the group eating cereal. And that’s it.

Read

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami

My friend Alex turned me onto Murakami a number of years ago and I’ve been slowly working my way through his back catalog. I was especially excited when the English translation of 1Q84 hit the shelves late last year. It was originally released as three separate books in Japan, but the Knopf version combines all three volumes and weighs in at a hefty 944 pages. I’m about a third of the way through the book, which means that at this pace, I’ll finish the book at about the one-year mark.

True to his previous work, 1Q84 presents a hazy, dreamlike tale in a such a fashion that it seems completely plausible that a women would descend a latter beside a highway and find herself in a slightly alternate version of 1984.

I’m definitely enjoying this one so far and look forward to continuing to savor it throughout the rest of the year.

Hip-Hop Songs That Sample or Reference Sesame Street from laze on 8tracks.

Really interesting book so far. Just learned that:

• the average English speaker has a 100,000 word vocabulary
• of those 100,000 words, the 20 most commonly used words (0.02%) make up 30% of our spoken and written language (they’re all “stealth/function words” (prepositions, pronouns, etc.))
• expand that to all 450 commonly used stealth/function words, and that 0.04% of our vocabulary accounts for 55% of the words we use

Absolutely Awful Hip-Hop Love Songs from laze on 8tracks.

In the 1979 book Future Cities: Homes and Living into the 21st Century, these two pages outlined the “Living Room of the Future,” featuring a number of prescient technological predictions, including e-mail and flat-screen TVs. Among the less likely of the predictions was that there would be a “domestic robot [that] rolls in with drinks,” along with an interesting sidenote:

One robot, the Quasar, is already on sale in the USA. Reports indicate that it may be little more than a toy however, so it will be a few years before ‘Star Wars’ robots tramp through our homes.

Turns out, unsurprisingly, that this “robot” (actually named Klatu by its creator, Quasar Industries) was little more than a marketing gimmick that could “supposedly vacuum, dust, cook meals, walk the dog, and do the laundry,” despite the fact the technology to do any of these things wasn’t even close to existing:

After some research, I found that one of the division managers at Quasar had decided that they were going to sell a robot, dammit, and it didn’t matter that none of the technology they needed even existed at the time. That was a simple matter for the engineers to worry about. The robots that appeared in the media, in the meantime, were apparently radio-controlled by humans who just happened to be hanging around when the robot made an appearance. I even suspect that they might have had a guy in a suit for some of the things it did, although I’ve never seen that confirmed. After successfully scamming not only the public, but also his managers at Quasar, for many months, the guy apparently confessed that he pulled the whole idea out of his ass and then slunk off in humiliation, never to be heard from again.

A man named Tony Reichelt was the marketing push behind Klatu, described by an ex-Quasar Industries employee as “a lovable con-man – who really did love robots.” (This link also has a whole series of fascinating pictures of Klatu and other similar “promotional androids” of the time.)

I suspect Reichelt, wherever he wound up, probably looked at the Roomba when it debuted a decade ago and thought, “Klatu could do that.”

My curiosity remained, so I took to Twitter and asked Boots if he knew what was up with E-Roc these days:

Before long, he replied:

It’s cool to see two former music partners collaborating again years later in this way.

1. I don’t have to think about where I’m linking

When I was in my post-delicious-pre-Pinboard stage I was doing all sorts of crazy nonsense with my links. I was posting some things to twitter, some to Facebook, some to Delicious. The links were all directed at different audiences, so having different links on different services wasn’t the problem, but when I wanted to find something I’d linked to, I sometimes couldn’t remember where it was.

Using a combination of Pinboard’s built-in tools and ifttt, I now pull everything into Pinboard:

• I can post a link directly to Pinboard. Normal, regular joe stuff.
• If I post to twitter, Pinboard can monitor up to three accounts and automatically save links that I share or retweet. If there are hashtags, those become Pinboard tags.
• If I save something to Instapaper to read later, Pinboard will save it as well. (It can do the same with Readability and Read It Later.)
• If I share a link on Facebook, I have an ifttt task set to save it to Pinboard.
• If something somehow winds up in my old delicious stream, Pinboard will grab that as well.

The end result is something beautiful and simple: one place where anything I save to read or link to is archived and searchable (right now, I’m also paying the premium so that Pinboard saves the content of what I link to). Combine this with the unofficial Pindroid app and apps like Send to Instapaper, and whether I’m at my PC or on a mobile device, I can be ensured I’ll find what I need.

(Someday, I hope to be able to pull any links I “like” or “+1″  and save those as well. That’d be the topper.)

2. The Linkstream

Having all these links in one accessible place also has the benefit of having a nice stream of links that represent what I’m looking at and consuming at any given period in time. I have a “Linkstream” page on the site that gives a current view and, of course, there’s my Pinboard page for a deeper archive (which, incidentally, includes all my old links from delicious).

3. Random other niceties

Pinboard has a nice (and kind of random) feature: it can save your tweets separate from your bookmarks. Why is this a big deal? Because just try and find something you tweeted a year ago. Twitter search isn’t worth using for anything older than three seconds and I’ve never had luck with third-party tools like Snapbird. But Pinboard’s dead simple twitter search option? Beautiful and fast.

Pinboard also has read/unread and read later functionality, but I haven’t even messed with that. I suspect that could be pretty great, too.

4. Pinboard’s creator is in it for the long haul.

You can just tell. Follow Pinboard on twitter and what you’ll see is a single developer that’s taking his time, building a service that works well, serving his users with features they want while hiding ones they don’t need (prime example: his impressive support for fanfic writers without turning Pinboard into a fanfic service), and leaving the bullshit aside. It comes down to this: I trust the guy to make the right decisions about the service, something I can’t say for 95% of the apps and services I use, no matter how much I like them.

Go ahead and sign up. It’s still less than $10 (the price goes up by $0.001 with each user that signs up) and would be worth it if that were a yearly subscription fee and not a one-time charge.

2011 was another amazing year for music. I think I have more in my “best of” category this year (29) than any previous year. With so much music getting released (and, really, so much of it being so good), it can be easy for great albums to get overlooked. It’s impossible to be 100% complete, so here’s this year’s completely subjective rundown on my favorite music of the year.

(See also: 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007.)

Everything’s sorted in alphabetical order.

Best of 2011

• Andrzej Przybielski & Oles Brothers: De Profundis
  Polish trumpeter Andrzej Przybielski passed away earlier this year. While I haven’t heard much of his work, this final album of his is remarkably intricate, moving, and cerebral. See also: his 2009 album with Sing Sing Penelope.
• Archie Shepp & Joachim Kühn: Wo!man
  Though I haven’t enjoyed Shepp’s albums in recent years anywhere near the level of the fire music he was making in the 1960s, the releases have been good. This duet with German jazz pianist Joachim Kühn is by no means a return to Shepp’s 1960s form, but the interaction between the two is a thing of beauty. The elegant and lush arrangements have a quiet sophistication befitting elder jazz statesmen like Shepp and Kühn. There are five originals and three standards here (Ellington’s oft-covered–by Shepp especially–”Sophisticated Lady,” Coleman’s “Lonely Woman,” and Hagen/Rogers’ “Harlem Nocturne”).
• Atmosphere: The Family Sign
  You know you’re going to get something personal when Slug hits the mic, and this time is no different, with outstanding tracks like “The Last to Say,” “Just for Show,” and “She’s Enough” (which has the year’s most adorable video). Also: great packaging on the vinyl release.
• Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
  “We were free to get back to our bread and butter: fart jokes.” That’s what Mike D. said about the Beastie’s return to form on Hot Sauce… It truly is amazing at how a group of guys in their mid-to-late-40s can make a record that sounds as fresh and fun as the stuff they did almost 25 years ago.
• Blue Scholars: Cinemopolis
  A Kickstarter-funded ($62,000 of a requested $25,000) album that answers the question, “How does music influence cinema?” Song titles are all people’s names. “Anna Karina,” actress in many Godard movies, basketball player “Slick Watts” (with an excellent accompanying video featuring Slick himself), and oft-forgotten, the amazing civil rights activist “Yuri Kochiyama.” Sabzi’s production is outstanding and Geo’s lyrics are some of the best of his career. This is hip-hop.
• Brownbird Rudy Relic: I Am the Juke
  Another great collection of original “holler blues” from the dynamo known as Brownbird. He goes the old-school route once again, recording on a 1950′s Concertone one-track reel-to-reel with a 1940′s era RCA Victor Radio mic in an abandoned Brooklyn loft.
• Czeslaw Bartowski/Analog Burners: Drum Dream
  Inspired by Polish drummer Czeslaw Bartkowski, Analog Burners’ Mensa-El freaks Bartowski’s work into dope instrumentals.
• De La Soul & DJ TenDJiz: De La Soulviet
  Classic De La tracks remixed with Soviet jazz samples? Excellent. The beats are well constructed, the samples well chosen, and the overall vibe, very chill.
• Freestyle Fellowship: The Promise
  It’s been nine years since the last album from the highly lyrical collective. Considering the break, it’s amazing that the result was so a cohesive, funky, enjoyable. The album dips a bit in the second half, but the first half is outstanding. Production is handled by Eligh, Black Milk, Exile, & more.
• Greg Foat Group: Dark is the Sun
  I don’t even remember how I came across this particular album, but it’s a doozy. Funky UK jazz with harpsichord, organ, and synths that goes beyond just drums and bass. Dark is the Sun is a real gem that will appeal to fans of 70s spiritual-funk-jazz. Don’t overlook this one.
• Honey Ear Trio: Steampunk Serenade
  Phenomenal release with Erik Lawrence on sax and flute, the always awesome Allison Miller on percussion, and Rene Hart on bass and loops (which are so subtly integrated, I had no idea they even existed). Their take on “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” is one of the best ever.
• Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Race Riot Suite
  A concept album about the 1921 Tulsa race riot that’s intense, grooving, and wholly unique. This group’s 21st album in 18 years serves as a reminder that there’s amazing jazz coming from all around the country.
• Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations: Josh Rouse and the Long Vacations
  Fun, short indie pop songs that are impossible to dislike.
• KIRk: Msza Swieta w Braswaldzie
  Dark, blippy electronica-infused jazz reminiscent at times of both Pink Freud and Robotobibok.
• Matthew Shipp: Art of the Improviser
  Shipp gets open on his version of “Take the A Train.”
• Muzykoterapia: Piosenki Izy
  Very solid nu jazz (damn it, I hate that term, but there it is) from Poland. A nice accompaniment to Nostalgia 77′s album.
• The Natural Yogurt Band: Tuck In With
  Quirky, funk-library style tunes. Massive breaks abound.
• album of the year Nostalgia 77: The Sleepwalking Society
  This album got far more rotation from me than any other album this year. German vocalist Josa Peit joins Benedic Lamdin on his latest album as Nostalgia 77. Peit’s sultry voice is the perfect match for Lamdin’s nu jazz (there’s that damn term again), as heard on “Sleepwalkers,” song-of-the-year “Simmerdown,” and “Beautiful Lie.” This is one of the rare albums that I love, my wife likes, and even our 5-year-old daughter requests songs from. The Sleepwalking Society is near perfection.

  Here’s a 30-minute playlist of Nostalgia 77′s videos, acoustic versions, and interviews from this year:

• Onra: Chinoiseries Pt. 2
  Pitchfork pooped on it, but I loved it nearly as much as the first.
• Pharoahe Monch: W.A.R. (We Are Renegades)
  Sure, I’d love to see an Organized Konfusion reunion album, but I certainly can’t complain about Pharoahe’s solo albums. Favorite songs: “Assassins,” “Let My People Go,” and the title track.
• Prince Fatty Meets The Mutant HiFi: Return of Gringo!
  Spaghetti western ska dub, Ennio Morricone meets The Specials meets Augustus Pablo.
• Priscilla Ahn: When You Grow Up
  Alternating between light, poppy folk and subdued contemplative folk, Ahn delivers a super mellow and very enjoyable album. Favorite cuts: the title track, which is like a breezy spring day and the über-catchy “Oo La La.”
• The Roots: Undun
  A late-in-the-year contender, this short (for The Roots) concept album is deep and moving. A great addition to their discography. (See John Book’s in-depth review for a great look at the album.)
• Shabazz Palaces: Black Up
  I hadn’t kept up with the Digable Planets’ Butterfly since he and his crew denied me an interview for the college paper back in 1995 (not that I hold a grudge or anything), but my jaw dropped when I discovered his abstract work as part of Shabazz Palaces. His two EPs last year were very good and this year’s Black Up is even better. Unlike anything else out there and absolutely engaging. Loved (deep breath) “An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum,” “Endeavors For Never (The Last Time We Spoke You Said You Were Not Here. I Saw You Though.),” and “Swerve… The Reeping Of All That Is Worthwhile (Noir Not Withstanding).”
• Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings: Soul Time!
  Sharon Jones has a permanent spot on this list if she releases an album.
• Shona Foster: The Moon & You
  There’s a clear Tori Amos influence from this singer I found via This American Life (not how I usually find my music because, well, I already know about DJ Shadow), but there’s a little Erin McKeown-esque style thrown in the mix making Shona Foster more interesting to me than her strongest influence. Niceness on “No. 34,” “Queens,” “Bad Intentions,” and “Where We’ll Go.”
• SuperHeavy: SuperHeavy
  By all predictions, this album should have been somewhere between a confused mess and an acceptible “supergroup”-style album. Turns out it was an extremely enjoyable, “big” album with great performances all around from Jagger, Junior Gong, and the rest.
• Thao & Mirah: Thao & Mirah
  Quirky and varied instrumentation makes this effort from the somewhat-odd-couple pairing of indie-folk singer-songwriters Thao (of Thao with The Get Down Stay Down) and Mirah one of the most engaging of the year. Favorite tracks: “Likeable Man” and “Squareneck.”
• Various Artists: passionjunkies.it: Aa.VV. Dolphyn Surround
  Dope instrumental hip-hop from Italian beatmakers. Each track is based on Eric Dolphy samples.

Almost Best of 2011

• Albert Kuvezin & Yat-Kha: Poets & Lighthouses & Live at the Stray Dog
  Two more strong releases from the Tuvan throat-singing powerhouses. Poets & Lighthouses was officially released in 2010, but not released in the US until 2011. Live at the Stray Dog was graciously released for free on Bandcamp.
• AWOL One & Factor: The Landmark
  I’ve always been a fan of AWOL One’s left-field brand of hip-hop and this release with producer Factor is a nice addition to his discography. Favorite tracks: “Coming to Town,” “Frenemies,” “Rewind Yourself,” and the excellent duet with Moka Only, “The Wasp.”
• Bubble Geese: #foamparty
  Offensive, party-friendly hip-hop with enough pop culture references to make Entertainment Weekly blush. Love the way they freaked Ramsey Lewis’ “The In Crowd” on their first single. (Do I have to disclose that my cousin is one of the MCs? There, I just did.)
• Common: The Dreamer, The Believer
  Common’s late-year contender is his best album in years. Favorite cuts: Ghetto Dreams (feat. Nas), Lovin’ I Lost, Sweet.
• Elzhi: Elmatic
  I dig Elzhi and think he’s talented, but have never placed him in the top tier. This excellent mixtape had started to change my mind. Very well done with a lot of attention to detail.
• Evidence: Cats & Dogs
  The self-name-checking weatherman is back with a solid solo release on Rhymesayers. Really dug “Late for the Sky (feat. Slug & Aesop Rock)” and the DJ Premier-produced “You,” which also had an incredibly dope video.
• Moka Only: Barbecued Horse Contest Instrumental
  Moka is as prolific as they come in 2011. This year alone he’s released at least five original, full-length albums. Do you even realize how insane that is? I didn’t even have a chance to check all of them out, but I really enjoyed this collection of beats quite a bit.
• Oddisee: Rock Creek Park
  If you still haven’t grasped what Oddisee is capable of as a producer, this album will do it for you.
• Paul White: Rapping With Paul White
  Very solid album of aggressive tunes, but not absurdly so. Does that make sense?
• Tech N9ne: All 6′s and 7′s
  Outstanding effort from N9ne. “Worldwide Choppers” is absolutely epic.
• Tori Amos: Night of the Hunters
  This album is a weird one for me. I’m not a big fan of Tori Amos and I don’t think I’ll listen to this album very frequently, yet it’s a really, really good release. Funny how that happens sometimes.

Best of 2010 I missed until 2011

• Levity: Chopin Shuffle
• Jason Adasiewicz: Sun Rooms
• Arszyn/Duda: ŚĘ (my review)
• Allison Miller: Boom Tic Boom
• Shabazz Palaces: Shabazz Palaces / Of Light

My Daughter’s Favorite Tracks This Year

My daughter, now five, has developed an interesting taste in music. Here are her favorite tracks this year (not limited to songs from this year), loaded up in a MOG playlist that we often spin when we’re on the road.

• Beastie Boys: “Intergalactic”
• The Upsetters: “Black Panta”
• Nostalgia 77: “Simmerdown”
• Dilated Peoples: “Live on Stage”
• Dilated Peoples: “Worst Comes to Worst”
• Rakaa: “Observatory (feat. Mad Lion)”
• Rakaa: “Delilah”
• Lee Perry & The Upsetters: “Kojak”
• Beastie Boys: “Sure Shot”
• Half Pint: “Have a Little Faith”
• Tech N9ne: “Worldwide Choppers (feat. a ton of people)”
• Go Diego Go: “Morning in the Rainforest/Diego Theme” (had to get one kids song in there)
• Scientist: “Steppers”
• The Upsetters: “Dub Organizer”
• Nostalgia 77: “Beautiful Lie”
• Dennis Brown: “Sitting and Watching”
• Kathy Young: “A Thousand Stars”

Best Tracks of 2011

Here are two mixes I put together at 8tracks.com covering my favorite tracks of the year. I tried to stick to one track per artist and per album. The first mix was put together midway through the year and the second mix I just finished up. Total listening time: 2 hours, 18 minutes, 37 seconds.

I actually don’t have much in the way of commentary to share, so let’s just get into the series of lists that do a surprisingly good job of capturing the year at a glance.

2012 will be the year I finally get done most of the stuff I vowed to do in 2009.

The Year, By Month

January

• The year starts.

February

• F you, Mozy. Hi there, Crashplan!
• Found a five-year-old item in the fridge that read “use within 30 days of opening.”
• Returned a library item I’d renewed 23 times and had checked out for ten months.
• Huyen found a dog, had to have her scanned (collar, not tagged, but microchipped). She lived about six houses down.

March

• My parents’ cat stayed with us for a month.
• Trip to NY for Pint show, visit to 5 Pointz, hang with bro-in-law, etc..
• Rasine’s unsuccessful soccer camp.
• Reading Sesame Street with Rasine sparked a conversation about punk music.
• New dishwasher gaskets!

April

• Italian zombies night at Dave’s.
• Rasine cut her hair.
• Wrote my first full-length album review in years.
• Won the ex.fm contest.
• Bought my first smartphone. Entered 2007.

May

• Goats walked on car.
• Rasine finishes preschool (& recital).
• Started a new blog.
• Relaunched laze.net with a new look for the first time in eight years.
• Woke up with a tick in my back, plucked it, left the head in, had to take a trip to the doc.
• Another pair of dogs found and returned home. The owners never said thanks.
• The world didn’t end.

June

• NYC with fam & Huyen’s fam.
• Saw the Miss New York contestants on the Staten Island Ferry.

July

• Returned to the abandoned snack shack and Dixontown Road house.
• Guy I know is on Hoarders.

August

• 13 years.
• The Great Hard Drive Drop of 2011.
• One Sentence turns five.
• Matt’s wedding.
• Earthquake in VA.

September

• Tenth anniversary.
• Another non-event jury duty.
• Rasine turns five. B-day party at the Tally Ho movie theatre days before their 80th anniversary.
• We find out that baby #2 is on the way.

October

• Tenth anniversary trip to Woodstock.
• Pulled over for a dead headlight (I got away without a ticket).
• I turn 36.
• The Fly/Dawn of the Dead.
• Rasine as Tin Woodman for Halloween.
• Snow!
• Hurt my knee running.
• New projects.
• MOMs in Herndon opens.
• The world still doesn’t end.

November

• Sold a DVD on Amazon for $25.
• Nene’s wedding.
• Rasine snuck Halloween candy. As a result, so did Shepp.
• Election Day 2011.

December

• Visit from the in-laws.
• The best holiday in recent memory.

Favorite Teas of the Year

This year I had the opportunity to try a lot of new teas, like some Hawaii-Grown White Tea that I bought directly from the farmer. Or some Royal Purple Tea from Kenya (their “Moonlight White” was also a very nice surprise). I also tried the best Japanese Gyokuro that I’ve ever had this year. Plus, I rediscovered some old classics, like Bi Luo Chun, Wenshan Baozhong Formosa oolong, and a good Da Hong Pao Wuyi oolong.

TV Shows from the Past That I Discovered This year and Liked

• 10 Items or Less
• Party Down
• Shaun the Sheep
• The Bill Cosby Show

RIP

Based solely on the folks I RIP’ed on Twitter. People I knew personally in bold. Dates are when I tweeted, not the actual death date.

• 1/24: Jack LaLane
• 2/27: Lana Cokos
• 3/4: Steve Glaspey
• 3/7: Mike DeStefano
• 5/28: Gil Scott Heron
• 6/2: Geronimo Pratt
• 7/12: Sherwood Schwartz
• 7/25: Amy Winehouse
• 10/5: Steve Jobs
• 11/9: Heavy D
• 11/9: David Hess
• 12/16: Christopher Hitchens
• 12/17: Cesaria Evoria
• 12/26: Sam Rivers

Books I Finished Reading

In order finished.

• The Myth of Multitasking: How “Doing It All” Gets Nothing Done by Dave Crenshaw
• Zombie Spaceship Wasteland: A Book by Patton Oswalt by Patton Oswalt (audiobook version)
• Not Always So: Practicing the True Spirit of Zen by Shunryu Suzuki
• The Mindful Child: How to Help Your Kid Manage Stress and Become Happier, Kinder, and More Compassionate by Susan K Greenland
• The Vegan Revolution… with Zombies by David Agranoff
• A Confession by Leo Tolstoy
• Edible Secrets: A Food Tour of Classified US History by Michael Hoerger
• Where the Hell Am I?: Trips I Have Survived by Ken Levine
• A Widow’s Story: A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates
• 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth (And Other Useful Guides) by Matthew Inman
• Fuzzy Logic Get Fuzzy 2 by Darby Conley
• 1975 and the Changes to Come by Arnold Barach
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (with Rasine)
• I Found This Funny: My Favorite Pieces of Humor and Some That May Not Be Funny At All by Judd Apatow
• Beware Dangerism! (Kindle Single) by Gever Tulley
• Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets by Cadillac Man
• Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty: Poems by Tony Hoagland
• Free-Range Chickens by Simon Rich
• Vegan Pregnancy Survival Guide by Sayward Rebhal
• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary by David Sedaris
• The Five by Robert McCammon
• Nothing Is Hidden: Essays on Zen Master Dogen’s Instructions for the Cook by Shohaku Okumura
• The Issue At Hand: Essays On Buddhist Mindfulness Practice by Gil Fronsdal
• Mile 81 (Kindle Single) by Stephen King

Total number of books finished: 24 (one more than 2010)

Long/challenging books: 8

Books in progress at the end of the year: 3 (plus the second book of Oz with Rasine)

Movies I Watched and Re-watched

In order watched.

• Last House on the Left (2009), The (2009)
• I Think We’re Alone Now (2008)
• High and Low (11/26/1963 (USA))
• Dave Chapelle’s Block Party (2005)
• Still Bill (2009)
• Coca-Cola Kid, The (1985)
• Coraline (2009)
• In the Footsteps of M. Hulot (1989)
• Idiocracy (2006)
• Bed & Board (1970)
• Horrible (1981)
• Autism: The Musical (2007)
• Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
• Happy Feet (2006)
• Parking Lot Movie, The (2010)
• Toy Story 3 (2010)
• Piranha (2010)
• Hell of the Living Dead (1980)
• Stripes (1981)
• Zombie (8/25/1979)
• Happy Birthday to Me (1981)
• Toy Story 3 (2010)
• True Story of WrestleMania: Vol. 1, The (2010)
• Scream 4 (2011)
• C.H.O.M.P.S. (1979)
• Into the Pit (2009)
• Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo (2010)
• Babies (2010)
• Bridesmaids (2011)
• How to Die in Oregon (2011)
• Season of the Witch (1972)
• Darwin’s Nightmare (2004)
• Martian Chronicles, The (1980)
• Dreams (1990)
• Madagascar (2005)
• Menace II Soceity (1993)
• Godzilla, King of the Monsters! (1956)
• Illusionist, The (2010)
• Jerk, The (1979)
• Disturbia (2007)
• 127 Hours (2010)
• Made in U.S.A (1966)
• April Fool’s Day (1986)
• Winnie the Pooh (2011)
• Synecdoche, New York (2008)
• Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
• Femme Mariée, Une (1964)
• Critters (1986)
• L’Ann&´e dernière à Marienbad (1961)
• Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (7/15/2011)
• I Saw the Devil (2010)
• Protagonist (2007)
• Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
• Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
• 13 Assassins (2010)
• The House of the Devil (2009)
• Bad Sleep Well, The (1960)
• Across 110th Street (1972)
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (2011)
• Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2011)
• Fox and the Hound, The (1981)
• Conquest (1983)
• Ossuary and Other Tales, The (1964)
• TrollHunter (2010)
• Beat Street (1984)
• Back to the Future Part II (1989)
• Tony Takitani (2004)
• Dawn of the Dead (1978)
• Fly, The (1986)
• Boogeyman, The (1980)
• Mutants (2009)
• Twelve and Holding (2005)
• Halloween H20 (1998)
• Funhouse, The (1981)
• Big (1988)
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (12/1/1989)
• Trick ‘r Treat (2008)
• I Am Comic (2010)
• Comedians of Comedy, The (2005)
• Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010)
• Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, The (2011)
• Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1977)
• Muppet Family Christmas (uncut), A (1987)
• Super 8 (2011)

Average year: 1994

Average rating: 3.39
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There’s a lot of talk right now about Spotify’s new radio functionality that not only greatly improves on their previously lame attempt at “radio,” but also reportedly gives Pandora a run for its money. Though I’m not a frequent Pandora listener, I have found their careful classification to result in pretty darn fine listening.

I decided to run my own comparison using my favorite song of the year, Nostalgia 77′s “Simmerdown” as the base. The song has a very distinct groove and vocal tone, so I was curious to see which radio provided the best listening. (I would have included other streaming services in the test, but none offer radio based on elements of a single track.) Here’s what I heard:

Spotify

• Nostalgia 77 – Beautiful Lie
• Kinny – Water for Chocolate featuring Souldrop
• Lizzy Parks – All That (Natural Self Remix)
• Sola Rosa – Ready Now
• Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro – Undelivered Letter
• Ebo Taylor – Heaven
• Skeletons – Marathon Man
• Flevans – Loose Gardener
• Quantic presenta Flowering Inferno – Cuidad Del Swing
• Unforscene – Don’t You Worry Feat Alice Russell
• Quantic and his Combo Bárbaro – Canção Do Deserto
• Belleruche – The Itch (Acoustic Version)
• Bonobo – Terrapin
• Lizzy Parks – Raise The Roof

A number of Tru Thoughts tracks came up (appropriately, as that’s Nostalgia 77′s label) including Belleruche, but there were also some other wonderful songs I’d never heard before, like Kinny’s “Water for Chocolate.”

Pandora

• Baby Charles – Life’s Begun
• Bobby Rush – I Am Good As Gone
• Dave Matthews Band – Grey Street (Live 2007)
• The RH Factor – Forget Regret (feat. Stephanie McKay)
• Mindi Abair – Get Right
• Con Brio – Not At All
• D-Influence – Shake It
• JackSoul – As We
• Ben Sidran – Ballad of a Thin Man

Of this batch, there were two terrible choices that I thumbed-down (thumbs-downed?) after about 30 seconds (Dave Matthews Band and D-Influence) and two that I thought were really good matches in terms of vibe, tempo, and vocals (The RH Factor and Con Brio).

The Verdict

Spotify served up a really solid collection of tracks that were very much in line with the vibe of the original track. I was quite impressed by Spotify’s list, enjoying the entire hour-plus of music. I’m not sure what they’re using to generate the list of suggestions, but their algorithm is pretty darn good.

I was surprised at how underwhelmed I was by Pandora’s line-up, especially when Dave Matthews hit (shudder). I ended up cutting my listening short because Pandora just wasn’t holding my attention. It wasn’t a complete failure, though, giving me two excellent tracks I’d never heard before.

One other difference between the two offerings: Spotify allows unlimited “thumbs down”s while Pandora cuts off at 12 per day for free users (and 6 per hour for all users).

Pandora’s the go-to for smart radio, but Spotify’s starting to make things interesting. (MOG: you should come along for the ride!)

The White Panther Party (WPP) of Detroit and Ann Arbor, Michigan was a radical counterculture group which became a major target for the FBI’s counter-intelligence (or “COINTELPRO”) program between 1968 and 1971. In October of 1970, the FBI referred to the White Panthers as “potentially the largest and most dangerous of revolutionary organizations in the United States.” However, just three years earlier, the group’s leaders hosted a “Love-In” on Detroit’s Belle Isle, presided over by John Sinclair, whom the Detroit News proclaimed “High Priest of the Detroit hippies.”

The formation and name of the group came from an interview given by Black Panther leader at the time, Huey Newton. Newton was asked what white people could do to support the Black Panther Party; he replied that they could start a White Panther Party.

In a later interview, Newton clarified:

MOVEMENT: Your comments about the white prisoners seemed encouraging. Do you see the possibility of organizing a white Panther Party in opposition to the establishment possibly among poor and working whites?

HUEY: Well as I put it before Black Power is people’s power and as far as organizing white people we give white people the privilege of having a mind and we want them to get a body. They can organize themselves. We can tell them what they should do, what their responsibility is if they’re going to claim to be white revolutionaries or white mother country radicals, and that is to arm themselves and support the colonies around the world in their just struggle against imperialism. But anything more than that they will have to do on their own.

The group existed from 1968 through 1975 and spawned rock band MC5. The Panthers lived at 1510 and 1520 Hill St. in Ann Arbor. Their biggest moment came 40 years ago, on December 10th, when they staged a concert/rally that drew 15,000 attendees in support of their jailed leader. Speakers included Allen Ginsberg and Bobby Seale and performers included John and Yoko Ono, Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd, Stevie Wonder, protest singer Phil Ochs, and of course, MC5. YouTube has 70+ minutes of video from the concert, available in two parts.

This weekend, there’s a reunion.

Further reading on the White Panthers and their role in the movement:

• The John and Leni Sinclair Papers, 1957-1999
• A Panther is a Blank Cat: Differences between The Black & White Panthers in Theory and Practice
• The White Panthers’ “Total Assault on the Culture”
• obligatory Wikipedia entry

Seen

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, directed by Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman

While this documentary won’t change the mind of someone whose views are set about “radical” activism, it will no doubt show that there is a big difference between groups like Al-Qaeda and organizations like the ELF/ALF. And it does make one wonder about the “#1 domestic terrorist threat” being an organization that has never physically harmed a person. (That said, their tactics are certainly not ones that I would ever choose to use, but I can understand the thought process behind them.)

There is a bias to the documentary, but even so, it does give a legitimate voice to the victims of the activists’ actions such that the film doesn’t feel like a propaganda piece. Worth watching.

Heard

France Gall: Baby Pop

A while back, I asked on Quora, “What are some amazing upbeat ye-ye albums?,” looking for music similar Chantal Goya’s amazing songs from Godard’s Masculin/Féminin soundtrack. It took a while, but I finally got a bunch of great suggestions from Brie Larson.

I dug in this week and checked out France Gall’s 1966 album Baby Pop. It seems to have been the trend for the most successful ye-ye singers to be pretty young women that didn’t necessarily have the most amazing vocal range, but could carry a tune and look innocent and naive while doing it. Gall fits this role: you can hear some inconsistencies in her vocals, but the songs are catchy as all get-out and downright fun.

Read

Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets by Cadillac Man

I recently finished this book I received through LibraryThing‘s Early Reviewers program. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a tale of homelessness as told by one that lived through it: stories of violence, spiraling depression, and a healthy dose of quirky characters. Land of Lost Souls gives us a glance into the everyday lives of the people we pass on the street, often without a second thought.

Though the book’s chronology jumps all over the place, making it hard to get your bearings on your place within Cadillac Man’s life, the structure turns out not to be all that important. What is important are the individual stories, like the touching story of Penny, a 19-year-old runaway who Cadillac Man develops both a fatherly and sexual relationship with before helping to reconnect her with her family. That sounds creepy, but it’s more that it’s just how things go in that environment.

Recommended.

(Cadillac Man reads a selection from his book in this CSPAN video from a couple of years ago.)

They all agreed with Rokeach that there could only be one Jesus Christ. Joseph was the first to take up the contradiction. ‘He says he’s the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. I can’t get it. I know who I am. I’m God, Christ, the Holy Ghost, and if I wasn’t, by gosh, I wouldn’t lay claim to anything of the sort … I know this is an insane house and you have to be very careful.’ Very quickly he decided that the other two were insane, the proof being that they were in a mental hospital, weren’t they? Therefore Clyde and Leon were merely to be ‘laughed off’. Clyde concluded that the other two were ‘rerises’, lower beings, and anyway dead. He took, perhaps, the most godlike tone: ‘I am him. See? Now understand that!’ Leon, who became adept at ducking and diving in order to maintain his position without causing the social disruption they all found threatening, explained that the other two were ‘hollowed-out instrumental gods’. When Rokeach pushed Leon to say that Joseph wasn’t God, he replied, “‘He’s an instrumental god, now please don’t try to antagonise him.”

This is an interesting look at how shaky the ethics of psychological studies can be, particularly during this time period. It was kind of shocking to see the justification for this type of experiment:

In the book Rokeach acknowledges that his experiment with his children had to stop where the trial of the three Christs started, with signs of distress: ‘Because it is not feasible to study such phenomena with normal people, it seemed reasonable to focus on delusional systems of belief in the hope that, in subjecting them to strain, there would be little to lose and, hopefully, a great deal to gain.’ This is a very magisterial ‘non-deluded’ view of who in the world has or has not little to lose. Evidently, the mad, having no lives worth speaking of, might benefit from interference, but if they didn’t, if indeed their lives were made worse, it hardly mattered, since such lives were already worthless non-lives. It also incorporated the bang-up-to-the-moment idea that if you want to know about normality you could do worse than watch and manipulate the mad.

Despite having gained some insight into delusion, in a later edition of his book book The Three Christs of Ypsilanti, Rokeach expresses regret at having conducted the study:

There were, he says, four people with delusional beliefs, not three. He failed to take himself into account, and the three Christs, not cured themselves, had cured him of his ‘God-like delusion that I could change them by omnipotently and omnisciently arranging and rearranging their daily lives’. He came to realise that he had no right to play God and interfere, and was increasingly uncomfortable about the ethics of his experiment. ‘I was cured when I was able to leave them in peace, and it was mainly Leon who somehow persuaded me that I should leave them in peace.’

(I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit amusement with the name changes the participants made during the course of the study. Two worth considering for your next child: Dr. Domino Dominorum et Rex Rexarum, Simplis Christianus Pueris Mentalis Doktor and Dr. Righteous Idealed Dung.)