Day 53 - End of '09

New Year's Eve. End of a year. End of a decade. No "Best New Rock of 2009" this year though. I'd like to have made one, but there was just too much going on. I didn't have nearly the time to search for new music this year. So I was thinking what to do instead--it occured me during the last few weeks to make a list of my favorite music albums from the last decade. Turned out to be pretty fun looking back at all my music, so here's what I came up with. Some of it might surprise you. Keep in mind, these are just my favorites. I'm not going to pretend to know enough to judge the "Best" or "Most Important" albums or anything. With that said, presenting "Mark's 20 favorite Albums of the aughts":

20. Guster - Ganging Up on the Sun
Guster's latest effort took me a while to get used to, but then what Guster album didn't (see below)? The Satellite-Manifest Destiny-One Man Wrecking Machine-The Captain combo has just about everything you could ask for from a great band


19. Coldplay - Rush of Blood to the Head
This album was released when I was in high school, and like every other guy I refused to listen to it, well, because it's Coldplay. I'm glad I came around (Thank Viva la Vida for that). "The Scientist" got me hooked but the whole album is stellar.


18. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
The first Lips album I ever heard and of any I've heard since. Does Yoshimi defeat the Pink Robots? And if so, what happens to Unit 3000-21? Listen to it and decide for yourself. Experimental and wonderful, an album with a grammy it actually deserves.


17. Keller Williams - Laugh
Although Keller is really best enjoyed live, this album comes close. Perfectly listenable even over and over. The guitar work is amazing and the songs happy and care-free.


16. The New Pornographers - Challengers
First I heard "Myriad Harbor" and loved it. Then "Challengers". Then "Adventures in Solitude". It took long enough for me to actually listen to the entire album, but it was worth it. Now I need to branch out and check out the rest of their albums.

15. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Incredible Album. I'm listening to it right now actually. I don't know what half of their lyrics are about sometimes, and other times i listen and it seems perfect. "Keep the Car Running" hits home every time, though.

14. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
The first time I listened to Muse was the song "New Born" in 10th grade. 5 years later I heard "Supermassive Black Hole" and thought it was the catchiest tune I'd heard in a while. Until I heard the rest of the album. Wonderfully political and operatic, despite not containing my favorite Muse song ("Hysteria" from Absolution), it is definitely an incredible piece of work.

13. Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
One of my favorite night-time driving albums. This band is so chill it just puts me into a trance. I especially like "Soul Meets Body". The first song is especially relatable to my current situation ("If I could open my arms and span the isle of Manhattan, I'd bring it to where you are, making a lake of the East River and Hudson").

12. Incubus - Morning View
I love Incubus. There, I said it. It's no secret actually. It was very difficult to pick an album of theirs though. I think my two favorites were the two that are ineligible for this list (came out in the 90's). Classic tracks and brilliant lyrics. Also watch the video for "Warning". One of my favorites.

11. The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
If I were to pick an Artist of the Decade, it would be Jack White. Everything he puts his hand to becomes music magic. This is just my favorite of the half-dozen or so albums he's made this decade. It's refreshing to hear pure rock when so much nowadays is so muddled, mixed up, formulaic or just plain bad.

10. Arcade Fire - Funerals
Whoa, top 10! See my comments abou Neon Bible above, only better. The Neighborhoods saga is crazy. They're so passionate about it. I don't even know what else to say. This album rocks. Uncle Stophers recommended these guys to me when this album first came out. I listened to one song and then not again for 4 years. Shame on me. Pick this one up.

9. The Fratellis - Costello Music
If you were to have spent time with me during the summer of 2007, this would be the only thing you'd have heard in my car, room or head. Pretty much embodies my last summer of college (and only summer in Athens). Provided the backdrop for an incredible trip to Virgin Festival in Baltimore. Every song is about drinking, partying and loose women. If only Here We Stand had been as impressive. First album on this list to have a #1 song from my "best of 20XX" lists.

8. The Killers - Hot Fuss
With 6 (I think) singles on a debut album, you know a band is bound for big things. Or maybe not, actually. But this band is awesome. Every song rocks. So many bands have tried to sounds just like them and while some are close, none can pull it off. If you've only heard the singles like "Somebody Told Me" and "Mr. Brightside", check out some of the song "On Top" to see what I mean. "All These Things I've Done" was my #1 song from 2004.

7. Cloud Cult - Feel Good Ghosts
Probably the latest of the albums on this list, Feel Good Ghosts has everything. It's experimental, operatic and rockin' all at the same time. Great themes of clouds and weather and space and god. No other album has such uplifting songs and positive lyrics. Definitely the underdog of the decade.

6. Mae - The Everglow
There is (or was, anyway) a link on Mae's website called "What is The Everglow". I never clicked it. I didn't need to. After listening to this album once (and yes, you have to listen to it all the way through to get the whole experience) I knew what The Everglow was. The story is fantastic, emotional and perfectly paced. More of an experience than an album.

5. Red Hot Chili Pepper - Stadium Arcadium
The best double-album since Mellon Collie. Red Hot Chili Peppers are the best rock band of a generation. 28 unbeatable tunes. It was okay that RHCP went on a hiatus afterward, because this album will last longer than any other on this list

4. The Postal Service - Give Up
Wow. Actually, wow might not be the right word. This album says everything I want to say. It's perfect for long drives at night or during the day, flying on a plane or laying in bed, curing unhappiness or enhancing joy. Give Up is always the first album I put on an MP3 player, because I know I'll always want to hear it.

3. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
As Costello Music was to 2007, The Hold Steady is to 2009. Another band and album that took me a long time to come around to, The Hold Steady has quickly become one of my favorite bands. And this is the best they've made (that i've heard, anyway). Craig Finn's abrasive voice fits perfectly to the recurring characters and themes of catholicism, drugs and intrigue and make every song so deep and cryptic. The heavy and complicated riffs are addicting. In their own words "Our songs are sing-along songs!"

2. Guster - Lost and Gone Forever
My go-to album. Lost and Gone Forever took me a while to come around to, but it's now one of my favorites, period. It has a song for everything. L&GF came out when Guster was still Brian Rosenworcel was still using his hands for all the drumming (no sticks). The harmonizing is pitch-perfect and the guitar riffs are simple and beautiful. My favorite album from possibly my favorite band.

1. Green Day - American Idiot
There's no doube in my mind that this is the best album of the 'Aughts. I listened to green day a bit growing up, but in my opinion American Idiot is far-and-away their best work. It redefined them. This album gets me so worked up listening to it, to the story of "Jesus of Suburbia" as he tries to find truth, love, wisdom and a place in the world. I can talk about this album for hours (just ask keegan). Every song is just great, and when put together they make what the best rock-opera since Tommy and the best album of the last 10 years. My favorite line, is from the end of Letterbomb, when JoS is reading the letter from Whatsername: " 'You're not the Jesus of Suburbia, and St. Jimmy is a figment of your father's rage and your mother's love' Made me the idiot, America". I'm getting chills just thinking about it.





Man! Hard to choose a song after all of that. I guess i'll have to go with

Song: "Letterbomb" by Green Day

Happy New Year!
-U

Day 52

A few more pics from florida:

Seagulls flying over the Gulf Coast Sunday evening at Sunset

Standing on Bonita Beach during sunset. Someday I want to have someone take a picture of me who knows how to frame a photo.

Big new years eve celebration tomorrow! I'm going with my new roommates to a bar called 3-forty grill. Pretty expensive to get in but there's open bar all night plus food. The roomies went last year and said it's fun and worth it. I plan on drinking enough early on to be social, and then enough later in the evening to sleep until noon on the 1st.

But I still have to work tomorrow :-(.

Song: "Map of the Problematique" by Muse

-U

Day - 51 Back in the Jers'

I got back yesterday, actually. So here's some pictures from Florida:A lizard who has made his home in the wreath

My folks place in Florida. That's the living room, complete with my brother reading a Glenn Beck book.

The rest of these pictures are from our dayhike in teh Six Mile Slough Preserve. It was a boardwalk that meandered above the swamp. Great visual after reading Abbey talking about "life crowded upon one another" or some such.

A giant grasshopper that I nearly walked past.

That was supposed to demonstrate how massive (and docile) the bug was. It kind of failed, he doesn't look that big in this picture.

Big'ole gator out on the island. A few minutes later a Bearcat jumped out of the water and tore him apart.

My bro and dad (and my mom hidden between) strolling down the boardwalk. There were all kinds of birds, but I didn't post any pictures of them. Herons, Egrets, Stocks, etc.

A very large bird. I'm not sure what type. Plaster?

I have more pictures I want to post but it takes sooooo long to upload them sometimes. Maybe in the next week or so I'll get around to it. Overall a fantastic vacation and a merry Christmas.

Song: "All That I've Got" by The Used

-U

Day 46

Today was a good day-

1. Worked on-site all day, so I didn't have to commute
2. Got off a bit early and was able to find a spot I can stay in the next 5 days
3. Got a package from Tory with a letter, a fun-looking book "Food Lover's guide to New Jersey" and a wonderful picture of her and a chocolate-covered strawberry (I'll let your imagination do the rest:-).
4. Worked out! It's hard to keep my heart rate between 60% and 75% of max.
5. Chill end to the night knowing I don't have to work tomorrow.

Alright. Here's a song and a Grand Canyon pic! Adios, and Merry Christmas!

Song "Hey You" by Pink Floyd

The Mojave Wall, I think. You can see 6 layers here (from top to bottom): Kaibab Limestone, Toroweap Formation, Coconino Sandstone, Hermit Shale, Supai Group, Redwall.

-U

Day 43 - Computer Gamin'

Hello, hello.

Woke up a bit late this morning, then ended up even later because I had to dig my car out of about a foot of snow. Good fun though, I got out on the first try. Work was fun. I spent an extra hour or so afterward helping get some things in the mail. That was frustrating. If you make a wrong turn in Jersey, there is no mercy. I had to make 3 u turns and drive on 5 separate roads just to get back to the damn fedex. Oh well.

When I got home Tory and I played games online all night. Lots of fun. We played a few games of pool and a few of go fish (i know, real tough games eh?). Last night we tried Battleship. Tory dominated that game. I think she's part sea-captain.

Okay, time for bed. No commute tomorrow :-). Here's todays Canyon pic:

Tory and my brilliant idea to keep the mice from getting our food: put it in the colorado river! Needless to say it got a little wet. . .but those mice didn't get their stinking paws on it!

Song: "Scars" by Papa Roach

-U

Day 42 -- Snowboken

Song: "The '59 Sound" by Gaslight Anthem

Big snowstorm last night! Check out these pics of Hoboken this afternoon. Pretty nice--we got some 6 to 8 inches (although the weather man called for closer to 24. go figure).




Oh what else. I watched 2 movies last night during the storm. The first was Amadeus, which I wanted to see because it won the oscar for Best Picture the year i was born. I'd give it 4 stars actually (out of 6). I wasn't a huge fan of everyone having such nice american accents. Great performances by both the male leads though. I'm surprised neither of them had any major starring roles after that. The music was great also, of course. I loved the way they worked it into the scenes.

The second was The Seventh Seal. That one was. . . .interesting. A very heavy movie (not that Amadeus was particularly lighthearted). Man very depressing too. I don't want to give away the end, but it was quite chilling. I'd give it 4/6 stars as well. Kind of slow beginning but really had me tense for about the last hour.

Lots of things going on lately though, i'm not going to try and post them all. Looking forward to going to Florida in a few days for Christmas. Excited to see the family and all that. Then maybe some big plans for new years too. Not sure about that yet though so I'll keep you in the dark:-).

Finally, I got pictures from Grand Canyon in the mail from Tory today:-). There's SO many I'm not going to try and post them all. I'm just going to do one per post for the next few months or so. So here's the first. It's a picture of a rock formation we could see for most of our trip. We called it "the preacher" due to it's shape and it's proximity to the Cathedral Stairs, a very steep section of the hermit trail we descended on day 1:

Day 30

Long night last night. I was at work from 11:00 PM until about 5:00 AM. After a regular full day. And it was pretty boring--something went wrong and nothing got done.

Anyway, not a lot to say today. Talked to my girl again for about an hour this morning, that was a relief as usual. I also mastered the art of propping my phone between my ear and the pillow while talking in bed. Very nice skill to have.

And my cactus The Squire is slowly losing the fight :-(. Keep fighting bud!

I cleaned a bit today. I am being pressured from multiple sources to take pictures of my apartment. I'm working on it.

Song: "Peacemaker"--Green Day

-U

Day 28—Snowy Paradise

Man what a great hike today! Ace and I left around 9:00 this morning to bag Mount Paradise, the 3rd highest in Jersey and also #3 on my list for the state. We expected a little bit of snow—it had been snowing in Hoboken the night before. We weren’t prepared, however, for the 6 inches or so of fresh powder that covered the slopes of the Kittatinnies.

After getting turned around a few times on the way there (mostly because of closed roads) we reached the trailhead at the base of Buttermilk Falls. The falls were much more impressive than I expected: 90 feet of cascading snowmelt framed by the snow-covered tree limbs. The hike went straight up some stairs next to the falls. Very slippery.

After the stairs, the trail didn’t get any easier. It went nearly straight vertical for the first mile or so, gaining most of the altitude. The snow made obstacles out of otherwise ordinary things: rocks were suddenly too slippery to step on, tree branches half buried in snow made great trip hazards and cold snow kept melting and falling from above. Still a beautiful scene, and in surprisingly little time we made the 1,100’ climb to the summit, where we were greeted by this:

Damn New Jersey (although I can’t say too much . . . Sandia Crest is also littered with radio towers)! Not a lot of views at the summit. Luckily, our loop followed the AT to two other peaks which folks claimed have wonderful views. We had a quick snack and headed out to Rattlesnake and Bird Mountains.

Hiking on the AT was much easier than on the previous trails. We made it to Rattlesnake in no time, and decided it would be quicker and easier to continue on than to turn around (despite not knowing how to get off the mountain from Bird Mountain). Here are some of the pictures from the 2 peaks:

After summiting Bird, we started the bushwhack (snowwhack?) back down to the road. The first few hundred feet down were nasty—lots of snow-covered rocks and logs. After that though, it was pretty easy hiking; probably easier than going down the actual trail. The trees spread out and for a while we were actually on a trail of some sort. As the sun set we made it back to the road and hiked an uneventful 1.5 miles back to the car. Just under 7 miles. Overall a great day I think.

Now it’s time for bed. Potentially 18 hours of work tomorrow. . .i’ll let you know how that goes. Here are some more pictures from the hike:

Song: "Automatic" - Chrome & Price

-U

Day 26

Song: "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire

Bobcats lost to CMU in the mac championship. Bummer. I kind of expected it though, and we're still going to a bowl game (which we will likely also lose).

Rest of the day? Work was uneventful and so was after-work. I got a little more cleaning and unpacking done. Oh, and my door is broken. The bottom hinge came right off. My roommate/landlord said he'd fix it tomorrow before someone comes to look at the 4th room at 10:00.

Time for bed. Well, reading The Quiet Game then bed.

-U

Day 25

Song: "Washed Your Car" by Cloud Cult

Whoa, didn't mean to go that long without a post. Lots has been going on the last few weeks getting settled in. I won't give the play-by-play, just some highlights:

-Fully moved into my new residence in Hoboken
-Buckeyes and Bobcats became division champs. . .Bengals are on their way.
-First dayhike since moving here (much needed) to Jersey's #9, Bearfort Mountain. Went with Ace. Pretty fun hike despite the lack of a definitive peak
-Week in Arizona/Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. Grand Canyon backpack for 4 nights. It was incredible. When I get some pictures I'll post them. Spent the whole week with Tory, which was great. . .and got my first professional massage. Not a bad holiday.

Okay, those are the highlights. Today I got to work on site in Hoboken again. It's great when I don't have to commute to work. What else? Working on my Peak Project. Since there aren't any definitive peak lists for New England like there are for every western state, I've decided to try to make my own. It's pretty tedious work, but great for someone who loves maps like me. I'm going through topos from each state (at www.digital-topo-maps.com) and looking for peaks. I'm basically scanning the entire state for any mountains with >300' of prominence. I'm also noting any 200'ers that I find. It's kind of fun. I'll move on to the next state when I'm convinced I've found the combined top 20 peaks. Right now I'm doing Massachusetts. Almost done with Berkshire County.

OU is on TV tomorrow! It's the MAC championship. Watching that either at the res' or going out to a bar. Also on the horizon--working overnight on Monday then trying to go to a Good Old War concert Tuesday night. Plus maybe Parlor Mob on Christmas Eve-eve? We'll see.

Oh and I found this cool website--lala.com. You can listen to all kinds of music from all kinds of artists. I think it's better than Myspace because you can queue up songs and then keep browsing the site and they will just play regardless. Today I listened to two full albums "The Resistance" by Muse and "Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus (from which comes the song of the day). Pretty cool.

Okay. Time for bed. Now that I'm all set up I'll try to post more briefly and more often. Here's some pictures from #9--Bearfort Mountain:

Ace up on one of the many rock fins the trail traversed

A particularly swampy section of trail

Home made pano of Terrace Pond, near the summit (in fact that could be it on the right).

-U

Day 11

Okay—let me bring you up to speed. About 2 months ago I heard I might be transferred to New Jersey or get laid off. Long story short, I took the job and now live in Hoboken, New jersey and work in Parsippany. I’m trying to stay sane while dealing with parking in the square-mile city, an hour-or-more commute, a new job, a long-distance relationship all in a state where I know no one and the weather is terrible.

THURSDAY, (DAY 11)

Another long day, although with a GREAT ending this time. Don’t read ahead. Had to get up before 5 this morning for the second morning in a row (yesterday it was to drop the folks off at the airport) so I could get to the parking garage before another $10 was added on to the fee. Made it to work at about 6:30 and after my best effort, fell asleep at my desk for about 20 minutes.

So there’s 3 ways for me to get home from work—we’ll call them the north route, south route and really south route—and I’ve decided to try each one for a week, no matter how long the commute. Then I’ll average the times for each and decide which to take. Today I started with the north route. One hour and thirty-four minutes. The good news: GOT MY PARKING PERMIT!!! Unless you’ve lived in Hoboken, you have no idea how great that is.

Talkin’ to my girl tomorrow:-) More this weekend.

-U