Monday, January 17, 2011

Space Cadets Dressed in Fibreglass

Wow, my 2010 "Top 60" is way late. I've come to the obvious conclusion that my taste in music gets shittier every year, as you'll see below. I think I'm just purely too lazy when it comes to seeking out new bands, though I do honestly feel that some of the craptastic pop in my top ten is acceptably catchy. And I know there's absolutely no reason to have "Fireflies" in there but I think it's cute.

60 Rihanna - Rude Boy
59 Owl City - Fireflies
58 General Fiasco - Ever So Shy
57 Mystery Jets - Flash a Hungry Smile
56 Lady Gaga - Alejandro
55 Plan B - Stay Too Long
54 Delphic - Doubt
53 Taio Cruz - Dynamite
52 One EskimO - Kandi
51 Wakey! Wakey! - Almost Everything
50 Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Collapsing Cities
49 Miike Snow - Sylvia
48 Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Jackson's Last Stand
47 Marina and the Diamonds - Hollywood
46 Goldfrapp - Rocket
45 The Naked and Famous - Young Blood
44 The Script - Break Even
43 Rihanna - What’s My Name?
42 RPA & The United Nations of Sound - Born Again
41 The Joy Formidable - The Last Drop
40 Usher feat. Pitbull - DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love
39 Ash - War with Me
38 Arcade Fire - We Used To Wait
37 Klaxons - Echoes
36 Broken Bells - The High Road
35 Trey Songz feat. Fabolous - Say Ahh
34 Lady Gaga feat. Beyonce - Telephone
33 We Are Scientists - Ambition
32 Badly Drawn Boy - Too Many Miracles
31 B.o.B. feat. Hayley Williams - Airplanes
30 Tired Pony - Dead American Writers
29 Ash - Return of White Rabbit
28 Hot Chip - I Feel Better
27 Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg - California Gurls
26 Carl Barat - Run with the Boys
25 The XX - Islands
24 I am Kloot - Proof
23 Yeasayer - O.N.E.
22 Jamie T - Emily's Heart
21 The Temper Trap - Science of Fear
20 Kings of Leon - Radioactive
19 Civil Twilight - Letters from the Sky
18 Kate Nash - Kiss That Grrrl
17 Mark Ronson & The Business International - Glass Mountain Trust
16 Fenech Soler - Lies
15 Florence and the Machine - Cosmic Love
14 The Joy Formidible - Whirring
13 Ke$ha - Tik Tok
12 Everything Everything - Schoolin'
11 Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work
10 Calvin Harris- You Used To Hold Me
9 Mark Ronson & The Business International - Bang Bang Bang
8 Ke$ha - We R Who We R
7 Two Door Cinema Club - I Can Talk
6 Everything Everything - MY KZ UR BF
5 The Wombats - Tokyo
4 Cee-Lo Green - F**k you
3 Katy Perry - Teenage Dream
2 The Courteeners - You Overdid It Doll
1 One Night Only - Say You Don't Want It

I seem to be going to less and less gigs each year. I'm just too tired! Also, I feel too dumb to take photos so there's only one (I probably should have stopped snapping pics years ago anyway.) Here's my list in alpha order -

Gigs '10
Ash - Santos House Party
Athlete - Bowery
Badly Drawn Boy - Le Poisson Rouge
Better Than Ezra - Webster















British Sea Power - Koko (Mairead made a good point about this on NYE - since they played before and after midnight, what year does this gig actually fall under?)
Everything Everything - Music Hall of Williamsburg
Florence and the Machine - Terminal 5 (the April show, not the bandwagon one)
Howie Day - City Winery
The Joy Formidable - Bowery
Julian Casablancas - Irving Plaza
Mark Ronson & the Business International - Webster
Rodrigo y Gabriela - Radio City
Two Door Cinema Club - Webster
Vampire Weekend - Bowery

Hands down Rodrigo y Gabriela takes the cake for best show of the year times about 29372536. I'm giving Mark Ronson and his all star band an honorary second with The Joy Formidable in third
.

I have not been doing much as of late. On Friday night we went to two tapings for Comedy Central hosted by John Oliver (yay for free activities.) One of the comedians was making fun of a video game called Heavy Rain. I guess I should have known about it being that I work in video games, but anyhoo. What I took away from his jokes was that it's total drama, and not the video game type - basically, your youngest son gets hit by a car and dies, your wife leaves you, you're having issues with your older son, then the game actually starts when a killer comes to town. It's all psychological decision making. I want it but it's only available for PS3 BOO.

Check out the trailer, it totally looks like a movie:

On Saturday night we went to dinner with Liz and Graham at The Smith where I mainly spit globs of fat from my steak not-so-discretely into my napkin. After that we went into a gay bar that had a two-for-one drink special: two Grey Geese and two beers for $15! Also, we watched Miss America there which may have been the most appropriate place to watch a pageant ever. PS I can't believe that busted blonde chick won - what state was she from anyway?

Yesterday we were completely useless - we went to the diner and then sat on the couch all day watching Dexter Season 5. Who plays Cole? He looks so familiar. Okay, thanks
IMDB, he was Whistler on Prison Break.

Today we spent half of the day (literally) waiting for our landlord to show up, to check on something to do with the "architecture", aka the apt. is set up illegally and maybe he got caught?? Anyway, he was supposed to come between 9:00 am - 12:00 pm, then at 12:30 pm we received a call that he'd be here at 1:00 pm, then nothing. No call or visit at all = GRRRRR! At least I got my crappy old laptop working while I was waiting for him, so I've basically spent the whole day pulling photos, documents, and music onto an external drive before the computer breathes it's final breath (I'm only on H bands - if the system fails and Haddaway
doesn't transfer, someone will be held responsible.)
gthzjng
Oh, we also made meatloaf yesterday so that was of course a highlight.
gthnzjng
By the way, I went to London for Xmas. Here are a few photos...


Dave and his new hands (I think this is the funniest thing ever; also Hunter Mountain people should be having a flashback)
Then me, Dave, and his mom hula hooped
I barely went into London this trip ($50 roundtrip for the train!!) but at least I got to see some peeps (Laura, Kat, Joy, Andi, Maristela, Sunil, and Jon who happened to be in town as well.)

Kat and LauraAndi, Joy, Me
On New Year's Eve I was sick but forced myself to go to Camden since we'd already bought tickets to see British Sea Power. Holy mother of God you should have seen the girls on the train from Essex, it was the Whore Express! I know girls get more dressed up in the UK than in the US, but boobs hanging out, stilettos, and no stockings with skirts so short that I can see your twat is NOT okay!!

At Koko (where I was fully clothed), it was me, Dave, Laura, Mairead, Mike, Rich, and some of Alex and Emily's friends (they didn't go bc Emily was sick.) BSP were good but played a pretty short set. New Years came mid-set and one of the dudes climbed up to the canon.
BOOM!
Happy New Year
We were fortunate enough to see the British Sea Power bear!! Of the 8 or so times I've seen them, this monster had only appeared at Glastonbury '04.
You'd think that an NME night with British Sea Power headlining would equal indie music. Apparently it actually means dance music, therefore I did not dance. We stayed until about 3:00 am and knew we had to stay out till the first train back to Essex. Dave and I headed into central London to walk around and kill time. I was completely sober since I was ill (seriously, Diet Cokes consumed all night), so watching all the drunk girls walking barefoot, falling over, and puking was quite hilarious. We contemplated taking Boris bikes to Liverpool Street but decided to just take a picture on them instead.
Then I discovered something slightly unappetizing
We went to Bar Italia, which is one of the few places that stays open all night in London. I had the best panini of my life.
This is Dave after an espresso and a coffee at 4 am
We caught the 5:07 am train back to Essex and stayed at Eggman's house since our train wasn't leaving for another few hours. We finally made it back to ours around 1:00 pm. I was feeling so sick that I didn't get out of my pajamas for the rest of the trip.

Now Dave is playing Fable III and his avatar just burped in someone's face. I heart my husband.