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Happy New Year everyone.. 2010 is well on its way, so I’ve put together a little mix to get it started… 2009 was an amazing year for new music. Whoever said that the digital age is killing music obviously isn’t actually out there listening to the stuff.

The year opened for me with a whole lotta Bon Iver, whose Blood Bank EP was an awesomely haunting way to open the new year. Then, pretty much most of my 2009 was spent listening to Phoenix’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix.. man, that entire album is insanely awesome. And then, just as 2009 was about to close, the xx stormed the scene.

2009 was also the year of the remix for me, aided with the hype machine, remixes (good AND bad) are flooding out more than ever. Yes, it takes time to sort through the crap to find the gems, but once you do, it’s quite rewarding. Also, if you haven’t heard the brazilian remixing duo, The Twelves, yet.. I highly suggest you go and check them out. Now.

Anyway, I’m rambling.. so, without further adieu, here’s my picks for best songs of 2009.

Enjoy.

As long as I have your attention, I might as well also list out the live shows that I saw for 2009:

• The Bird & The Bee @ The Independent
• rjd2 @ 103 Harriet and Vessel
• Toshio Hirano @ The Rite Spot
• Ratatat @ The Fillmore
• Band Of Horses @ The Fox
• Jason Reeves, Brendan James, Amber Rubarth @ Cafe du Nord
• Emilie Simon @ Le Poisson (NYC)
• Bon Iver @ The Fox
• Dawes (opening for Langhorne Slim, but I left after seeing Dawes) @ The Independent
• Joan As Policewoman @ Knitting Factory (Brooklyn)
• Friendly Fires & The xx @ The Independent

Not a bad take for this year, I suppose.. I got to see 2 of my top 3 acts of 2009 — Phoenix actually played the Warfield, but I refuse to go to that venue cuz I hate it.. yuck. Clearly, The Independent is my favorite place to go see shows this year (and I’ll be back there for Miike Snow soon). Strangely though, no shows at the Greek for 2009.. Weird.

Anyway — hats off to a super awesome musical 2009.

Happy New Year all.

Happy Holidays everyone!

This is becoming somewhat of a tradition, having done this for 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005 now…

This year featured New Years in Philly for AJ & Joann’s wedding, Angie’s bday trip to Whistler, a “non-wedding wedding” trip to Charleston, SC, and thanks to my knee injury, I had to cancel my trip to Cancun, but then, because of the knee injury (since I couldn’t play baseball on the weekends anymore) a few camping trips were added. As compared to the 9 weddings last year, I only had 2 this year.. My family’s new place in Tahoe meant several trips up to Tahoma, and more to come in the future… All-in-all, a great year, and honestly, I can’t believe 2010 is already upon us.

Anyway, without further adieu here’s my list of cities that I’ve spent one or more nights in for 2009.. (* means more than 1 trip there)..

Philadelphia, PA
San Francisco, CA*
New York, NY*
Kings Beach, CA
Whistler, BC, Canada
Truckee, CA
Toronto, ON, Canada
Tahoma, CA*
Las Vegas, NV
Charleston, SC
Usal Beach, Lost Coast, CA
Kenwood, CA (Sugarloaf Ridge SP)
Chelmsford, MA
San Mateo, CA
Zephyr Cove, NV

Hmm… on second thought, 2009 apparently wasn’t a big travel year.. just a few trips here and there, and I never even left the North American continent. Oh well. 2010 should promise more world locales, with trips to Cannes and Switzerland already in the works.

Happy New Year everyone!

Inspired by spangley, here’s a list of every place that I’ve ever lived. I think when I was born, we were in some apartment in Richmond Heights, but I don’t remember that place, so I’m gonna start with the Mayfield Heights place…

I’ve included links to memory maps for the first two places, and actually.. now that I’m looking at this list — maybe it would be fun to do some memory maps of the other places.

1. Gladwin Drive, Mayfield Heights, OH (1976-1985)
2. E. Juniper Ln, Moreland Hills, OH (1985-1993)
3. South Baker, Ithaca, NY (1993-4)
4. Clinton Township, NJ (Summers 1994, 1995)
5. College Ave, Ithaca, NY (1995-6)
6. Tunkhannock, PA (Summer 1996)
7. Eddy Street, Ithaca, NY (1996-7)
8. Jones & Geary, Tenderknob, San Francisco, CA (1997)
9. Collingwood & 20th, Castro, San Francisco, CA (1997-8)
10. Arguello & Fulton, Richmond, San Francisco, CA (1998-9)
11. Lyon & Post, Lower Pac Heights, San Francisco, CA (1999)
12. Cesar Chavez & Church, Noe Valley, San Francisco, CA (2000-3)
13. Church & 20th, Dolores Heights, San Francisco, CA (2003-4)
14. Fulton & Gough, Hayes Valley, San Francisco, CA (2004-8)
15. Natoma & 9th, Soma, San Francisco, CA (2008-present)

15 places in 33 years.. not bad.

Happy new year, everyone!

Another year, another list… (I did this for 2005, 2006 and 2007)…

This year was defined by a lot of weddings.. 8 to be exact (appropriate for 2008, I guess)… Bachelor parties took me to Mexico and Georgia (I suppose that’s wedding related), but I went on a completely wedding-free vacation to Taiwan.. I also started using dopplr, so you can see my 2008 there (but I think you need to sign up and friend me or something), but I’m still not sure whether or not I find dopplr useful or not… I want it to automagically make me a map of 2008, but I can’t seem to find that anywhere. Like, that would be a very nice blog-widget for them to have, non?) Maybe I’ll make a Google Earth flythrough if I get ambitious..

Cities that I spent the night in 2008 (* means multiple trips):

San Diego, CA
North Hollywood, CA
San Francisco, CA*
New York, NY
Sarasota, FL
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Morgan Hill, CA
Garberville, CA
Coloma, CA
Healdsburg, CA
Cleveland, OH
Pigeon Point, CA
Savannah, GA
Las Vegas, NV
Taipei, Taiwan
Kenting, Taiwan
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean…
Philadelphia, PA

Lots of California travelin’ this year, although ZERO Tahoe trips for some reason (I am guessing that will change)..

All in all, a good year!

(Update: Thanks Mike for reminding me of my red-eye back from Taiwan)

I consume a lot of music. Out of the 1,259 songs I’ve added to my library this year, 61 songs received the coveted 5 Star “Dennis Loves This Song” rating. 304 songs garnered the still prestigious 4 star “This Song Makes It Onto My Ipod” award. So yah, it’s been a pretty good year, musically..

Anyway, I made a little mixtape of my 11 favorite songs of 2008… Enjoy.

Drive My Soul, by Lights
Yes, I admit it.. I first heard this song on The Hills. It’s bubble gummy, but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad. Cheese flavoured (spelled that way since Lights is canadian) gum to be exact.

Last Day Of Our Love, by The Bird And The Bee
With its retro-ish sound and wispy vocals, listening to this song is like eating cotton candy in the park on a brisk fall day in the 1960s.

I Adore You, by Melpo Mene
Like I’ve said before, this song is so frikkin cute. So, if you’ve had enough of shiba-inu puppycam, listen to this.

Only A Song, by Ben Sollee
This dude is like the coolest cello player I know. Well, besides that dude Yo Yo Ma, that dude is bad ass.

Momma’s Boy, by Chromeo
Chromeo rocks. This song, while honestly, not as good as “Needy Girl,” is still a really solid, solid track from the Montreal duo. (Hmm.. why are there so many Canadians on my list?)

A Lovely Beginning, by Vic Ruggiero featuring Lisa
So, Masnick and I went to see Vic play at Amante this year. He has been doing solo projects, sans the Slackers, for awhile now, and yah, it’s good.. This track is from his latest solo cd, and features some woman named “Lisa,” who Masnick tells me is German or something. It’s not very ska, it’s got a nice Calypso thing going on..

I’m Yours, by Jason Mraz
This is the second song that I’ve been introduced to by Jocelyn Yvette, a girl who covers songs and posts the videos on YouTube. I found her cover of Regina Spektor’s “Samson” last year, which is still one of my favorite versions of that song.. Anyway, here’s her version of I’m Yours if you’re interested.. Anyway, she’s good, and I wonder if she’ll make it big one of these days.. Oh yah, and Jason Mraz does a pretty good job on his song too. Thing is, after hearing this song, I bought the whole album, and I must say it sucks pretty bad. Aside from this song and “Lucky” with Colbie Cailait, the entire album is pretty much teh suck.

To Be Loved, by Joan As Policewoman
Yet another sophomore album release on this list (along with Chromeo), this track is really, really good.. but.. “I Defy” from her first album is absolutely amazing, which is the same problem I had with this year’s Chromeo track… Oh, the bitchy shadows of success.

Coney Island, by Good Old War
Weeee! I fun little country-ish, bluegrass ditty. It’s got it all knee slappin’, vocal harmonies, pickin’ guitar, and a tambourine.

Falcon Jab, by Ratatat
Ratatat’s album LP3 is probably my vote for best album of the year. It’s insane. It’s hard for me to even pick a best song off that entire album, so just go buy it and listen to it in its whole-y glory please.

Undertow, by Stars
Sheeza, yet another Canadian on this list. I guess they make good music up there. I first heard this song when Stars played the Fillmore, and immediately I was in love with it. A simple soothing melody followed by a nicely jamming bridge.. good stuff.

Anyway… that’s it.. if you’ve made it this far, then you deserve to actually LISTEN to this mixtape… so go here to listen.

Update:
Ooo.. Trying out this embeddable player from 8tracks.

Update:

Ok, I’ve added two songs that were late entries to this list..

Don’t Watch Me Dancing by Little Joy.
Can’t Help Falling in Love by Ingrid Michaelson.

Ahh.. summers in Ohio. What did that mean? Trips to amusement parks and carnivals, mainly: Cedar Point (the gem), Geagua Lake (since closed, sadly), and Sea World (closed for awhile apparently, even though on my last trip to Ohio, I happily advised my row-mate to “definitely go check it out” — oops. Figures, it never really made sense to put an ocean park in OHIO of all places, did it?).

Anyway, without further adieu, here’s my list of carnival games that I love. I was talking with Steph the other day and that Roller Bowler game came to mind, and that was inspiration enough for this post. Thanks Steph!

Roller Bowler.
Man, this game was awesome. Deceptively simple, yet wickedishly hard. Oooo.. There’s one for sale on eBay! Only 104 days till Christmas! Act Now!

Whac-a-Mole.
Ok, even though I said that Steph inspired this post, that’s only half true. Cuz Masnick wrote up a post last night that mentioned this game, and I was like “Wow, two mentions of carnival games in one week — yah, I should write this up.” I do remember that it was fairly easy to cheat at this game though. At some kid’s birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese’s in like 1986, I recall four kids, each with their hands holding down a mole. The moles had no chance, and the machine was streaming out tickets like a mofo, natch.

That Spinny Rope Ladder Game.
I did love this game, although apparently being a fat, nerdy kid does not prime you for a career in spinny rope ladder walking. I never did get even remotely close to that darned bell. Oh, the bell!

Other games that I love, but this list is getting long.
Shoot Out The Star (man, I love that game). Shoot The Clown In The Mouth With A Water Gun. Throw Darts At Balloons. Throw Rings At Bottles. Throw Balls At Bottles. Throw Dimes On Plates.

Hmmm. It appears that I love all carnival games. I can’t really think of one that I don’t like. Man, I’m a sucker. Or maybe just a huge aficionado of ginormous stuffed animals.

Oh, SNAP! I just found this: Wii Carnival Games.

Happy New Year! Ok, this is becoming somewhat of a tradition — I did it for 2005 and 2006.. Here’s a little list of the cities that I’ve spent at least one night in… This year had my Thailand trip, so that bumped up my city count a bit…

As per the previous lists, this is in somewhat chronological order of the first stay and *s indicate multiple stays…

West Hollywood, CA
San Francisco, CA*
Las Vegas, NV
Truckee, CA
New York, NY*
Ithaca, NY
South Lake Tahoe, CA
North Hollywood, CA*
Bangkok, Thailand*
On an Overnight Train, Thailand
Krabi, Thailand
Ko Phi Phi, Thailand
Phuket, Thailand
Pigeon Point, CA
Hillsborough, CA*
Princeville, HI
San Diego, CA

Wooo.. that’s a nice little list… and it’s awesome to go back through the year and remember everywhere I’ve been… and shudder at just how quickly it all flew by.

Happy trails, everyone.

This was a good year for me musically, me thinks… I took a look at my Last.fm chart, as well as my iTunes to gather some data.. here are my top 11 tracks of 2007..

1. Your Hand in Mine – Explosions in the Sky
2. The Way I Am – Ingrid Michaelson
3. My Favourite Book – Stars
4. I Defy – Joan as Policewoman
5. Foundations – Kate Nash
6. Your Red Dress – Alaska in Winter
7. Sky Blue Sky – Wilco
8. My Eyes – Travis
9. New Young Pony Club – Ice Cream
10. To Build A Home – The Cinematic Orchestra
11. The Salmon Dance (feat Fatlip) – The Chemical Brothers

Well, I guess these were not necessarily all released in 2007, but, these tracks came to my attention in the past year…

Here they all are, in a Seeqpod player, for your listening enjoyment:

Hmmm.. not that Mongolian Candidate needs a new name, but since we haven’t played together in like a year, maybe, just maybe I’ll join up with a new band someday.

And if I do, maybe it will be named:

Astronaut Cowboy
Donkeytail Spurge
Rhymes With Desk
Black Squirrel
Burping Otter
The Melikes
Surely Shirley
Benadryl Bailey
Lazy Jane

Any other good names? (thanks stepha for a lot of these)

So Jason and I were discussing cars the other night, and we decided to start a lil’ top 5 meme.. Who knows if it’ll actually continue, or if it’ll die right here, but whatever, it’s fun.

He asked me, “if money were no object, what would my top 5 cars be?”

Jason posted his top 5: a 2006 Lotus Exige, 1991 Acura NSX, 1990 BMW e30 M3, 1998 Porsche 993 911 Turbo, and a Spoon Honda Fit race car.. Interesting… all great cars, it’s obvious that J wants speed & handling from his cars… Someone likes to drive fast.

Hmmmmm… so, without further adieu, here’s my list…

1. Lotus Exige 265E
   
   Yah, J has the 2006 Lotus Exige on his list. But, I want the Lotus Exige 265E. Why? the 265E runs on e85, so it produces 44 more bhp, and 70% less carbon dioxide emissions… So, I can go fast AND be nice(r) to the environment. Al Gore would be proud. That’s a lot of responsible get up and go.

   Also, it’s handy if you’re ever being chased by an Apache Helicopter..

   Damn, I want that car.
   

2. 1988 Camel Trophy Land Rover 110 and/or a 2008 Range Rover Sport
   
   I’ve always loved Land Rovers, especially the old Series ones.. They’re so bad ass looking, and you can do an engine rebuild in the middle of the African desert with only a 3/8″ wrench. The Defender is the last of the line of Land Rovers in that whole series, and while I do really like the Discovery, the distinct character brought on by the boxy lines died with the Defender. So, as long as we’re in the “money no object” category, I don’t want just *any* Defender.. I want the one that raced in the 1988 Camel Trophy race through Sulawesi.

   Ok, ok.. if I can’t find a 1988 Camel Land Rover in decent condition (since, as seen in this video, they sure did go through a lot of abuse), I’d settle for a brand new 2008 Range Rover Sport.. That thing has real offroad cred, AND you look bling’in rolling up in it. After all, it’s handy if you’re ever chased by a tank. (ed: I did not mean for this post to be a running homage to the best car show on TV, Top Gear, but I guess it’s kind of turning out that way..)

   Oh yah.. one last thing. For both the Rovers and the Lotus above, left-hand-drive please..
   

3. 1974 BMW 2002 Turbo
   
   So, originally I was going to put the 2002tii on my list (and actually, for this slot, I almost put an old Austin Mini Cooper too). I love the old 2002, and the tii is the most desirable.. But, since this is a “money is no object” list, I think I’ll go with the 1974 BMW 2002 Turbo.

   Only 1,672 of them were ever made, I believe it was only available in the classic Alpina White with the BMW blue and red decals (hot 70’s styleeee). I love that “TURBO” is written on the air dam in mirror-image, so that it proudly announces who it is as it zooms up behind you in the rear view mirror.

   HOLY CRAP!! There is one for sale on craigslist right now for $40k. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm…

   (sound of gears turning in my head)
   

4. 1966 Lincoln Continental Convertible
   
   Check it out.. an American car in my list. Woohoo. Kennedy was a fan of them, and the boys from Entourage can be seen in one in the opening titles of their show. The ‘66 Continental was a huge car (almost 19 feet long), a gas guzzler, and rode like a sofa on wheels. I love that it has 4 doors, 2 of which are suicide.. So frikkin’ cool.

   Aha.. craigslist strikes again.. Here’s one for sale for $23k…
   

5. 1991 BMW Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo
   
   Yes, yes.. I know.. I already have a Bimmer on the list, but I guess I just like them or something. I love the E34 M5, and the Alpina B10 Bi-Turbo was the fastest of that breed… So… yah, that’s what I’d like. 360hp in a four door sedan is quite a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and it’s awesome to be able to share that power with four friends.

   And, here’s a video… I don’t think it’s Top Gear, but the dude has a British accent, so it’s kinda like it..

So yah… that was a little difficult to come up with this list, but I think I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve got quite a range of cars for everything from the track, to the mountains, to roadtrips.. There are a ton more cars that I really love (like a Porsche 993 Carrera 4, an old 60’s Mustang, the EV1, an Audi S8, and a ‘97 RX7) , but these are my five.. for now, at least.