So that plan I had to spend the long weekend crafting up a storm? Yeah, not so much. My car battery died last Wednesday and screwed up my plans for a few days. Then my laziness caught up with me and I spent the weekend doing the following things:

• watching reruns of House
• watching Bones
• rewatching season 3 of Mad Men (the season finale is one of my favorite eps)
• watching The Mighty Ducks
  
• playing Civilization Revolution

Needless to say, I'm a nerd and I wasn't as productive as I thought I would be. But I did work on some patterns. Still haven't finished the pattern I've been struggling with. For now it's on the backburner until I figure out how to finish it. I also worked on my spool knitting. It's about 3 feet long now and still has no purpose in life. I also started stitching something new finally...



This may or may not have something to do with LL Cool J...
I think I'm going to do 2 versions of it, so no finished pictures until I get them both done.

Waaaay back when, I stitched this little number for my bf. A couple of weeks ago I came up with the idea to do a stitchers' version of it, minus the binary because frankly, I didn't want to stitch all those ones and zeros again.



I'll be adding the pattern in the next few days, depending on my level of laziness.
(Edit: Pattern for this and l33t crafter on the Patterns page now!)

I also started a new crafty thing- spool knitting. I used to do it when I was a kid and somewhere in my mom's garage is my original stuff. I decided to start up again to give myself something relatively simple to do while watching tennis or golf over the summer. Particularly when I'm not stitching something. It worked nicely while I watched the final round of the US Open on Sunday.

So, there'll be no more monthly album lists. For the remainder of the year I'll be working on compiling the best of 09 list, albums of the decade and possibly songs of the decade. Haven't decided whether the album list will be 50 or 100, although I'm still leaning towards 50. Still have alot of albums to sift through, been slacking lately.

Seeing Sondre Lerche tonight. I haven't seen him since his first album was out way back in 2003, so there's lots of songs I've never heard that I'd like to. The new album is growing on me and I'm really interested to hear what some of the songs sound like stripped down.

• Sleep On Needles
• No One's Gonna Come
  
• Track You Down
  
• Two Way Monologue
• Counter Spark
• The Curse of Being in Love
  
• She's Fantastic
• Airport Taxi Reception
• Phantom Punch
• After All
• Let My Love Open the Door
  

2006 was a decent enough year. Neko Case and Thom Yorke were highlights. I forgot how much I liked Sondre Lerche's Duper Sessions.

This months' 2007 albums should be pretty easy, since they're so recent. I've listened to most of them in the last few weeks. I really need some new music to listen to.

Beirut- The Flying Club Cup
The Good Life- Help Wanted Nights
PJ Harvey- White Chalk
Interpol- Our Love to Admire
Kings of Leon- Because of the Times
Sondre Lerche- Phantom Punch
The National- Boxer (which is NOT better than Alligator)
The New Pornographers- Challengers
Radiohead- In Rainbows
Silverchair- Young Modern
Spoon- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Tegan and Sara- The Con
David Usher- Strange Birds
John Vanderslice- Emerald City

And for point of reference, my best of 2007 list.

Between being sick and vacation, I kinda slacked off on my '05 albums and still have a few to listen to. Luckily the list for '06 is fairly short.

Here goes:

Beirut- Gulag Orkestar
Black Keys- Magic Potion
Brand New Heavies- Get Used to It
Neko Case- Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Cursive- Happy Hollow
Gnarls Barkley- St. Elsewhere
Grizzly Bear- Yellow House
Emm Gryner- Summer of High Hopes
Sondre Lerche- Duper Sessions
Placebo- Meds
Corinne Bailey Rae- Corinne Bailey Rae
Silversun Pickups- Carnavas
Thom Yorke- The Eraser

Been in a Sondre Lerche mood lately. Listening to Two Way Monologue a bunch. It's much better than I originally thought. Nice when albums surprise you like that. Definitely looking forward to the new album and the show in Sept. He's one of the artists I've been wanting to see again.

 

What I Did on My Summer Vacation-



From the song "Plastic Sun" by Sonic Youth. Flight attendant on my way to Phoenix said it was hysterical. This was my first time using varigated floss and I did the 2 lines of the border separately to try to maximize the color differences and make it look more like water.

Also, I picked up a few cross stitch books which have given me even more things to work on. And went to a cross stitch store which was insane. So much fabric to choose from, I was completely overwhelmed but still managed to pick a few things out. Needless to say I'm going to be busy working on lots of new things.

Side note: Hello to anyone visiting from mrxstitch.com! Poke around and feel free to contact me (ponyinarope [at] gmail [dot] com) if you have any questions. I'm happy to share.

July's albums (another short list):

• Nikka Costa- can'tneverdidnothin'
• Emm Gryner- PVT
• Emm Gryner- Songs of Love and Death
• Jimmy Chamberlain Complex- Life Begins Again
• Kings of Leon- Aha Shake Heartbreak
• The National- Alligator
  
• New Pornographers- Twin Cinema
  
• QOTSA- Lullabies to Paralyze
• Spoon- Gimme Fiction
  
• David Usher- If God Had Curves
• John Vanderslice- Pixel Revolt

Now that I've crossed into the second half of the decade, it's time to say goodbye to the albums that were sacrificed to the Smoke Monster.

• Black Keys- The Big Come Up
• Coldplay- Parachutes
• Nelly Furtado- Woah Nelly!
• Good Life- Novena on a Nocturn
• David Gray- White Ladder
• Emm Gryner- Dead Relatives
• Interpol- Antics
• Long Winters- When I Pretend to Fall
• Muse- Origin of Symmetry
• Muse- Absolution
• Nada Surf- Let Go
• The National- The National
• New Pornographers- Electric Version
  
• Orbit- xlr8r
• Roland Orzabal- Tomcats Screaming Outside
• Placebo- Black Market Music
• Remy Zero- The Golden Hum
• Bic Runga- Beautiful Collision
• Silver Scooter- The Blue Law
• Sunset Valley- Icepond
• Travis- The Man Who
• David Usher- Morning Orbit
  
• John Vanderslice- Mass Suicide Occult Figurines
• John Vanderslice- Life and Death of an American Fourtracker
• John Vanderslice- Cellar Door

This is not to say these albums are bad (although a few are borderline), but to create a top 50 list, some things have gotta go.

Latest project, appropriately called Electric Blue Squirrel. This came about after attempting to watch the squirrels that live by the train tracks where I work. Little bastards blend into the scenery, so I decided they should be electric blue so that I can see them, which is really kind of pointless because my actual office has no windows in it. Electric Blue Squirrel also sounds like the name of a 90s alt rock band along the lines of Dishwalla. Or maybe that's just me.



While stitching this up, I convinced myself that it's too big, especially for its intended recipient, the S.O. And since he's the main recipient of my work (the Kobe piece is now in his "man cave" with the l33t hax0r one), I may just keep this one for myself and take it to work. Then I can squirrel watch all day.

I'm having a bit of stitcher's block right now. I'm planning to make some gifts for friends/family for my trip back home next month, but the ideas just aren't flowing. So at the moment I've got nothing to work on...boo.

On a lighter note...I finally bought something from Etsy...



Presenting...Bun the Jacabunny! Kit Lane's work makes me happy. I pretty much freaked out when I saw him and snapped him up accordingly. Now I just need to clean my dust magnet desk and possibly find a better place for him. Even so, my desk just got much cuter.

So 2003 wasn't so bad, although it certainly didn't live up to the hype I manufactured in my head. These next few years (2004-06) should be interesting because I think they are hands down the worst of the decade overall. Not to say there weren't good albums released in those years, but the overall level of quality sunk to its lowest (particularly in '04). But here's the 2004 albums I'll be listening to:

• Black Keys- Rubber Factory
  
• Franz Ferdinand- Franz Ferdinand
  
• Interpol- Antics
• Keane- Hopes and Fears
• PJ Harvey- Uh Huh Her
• Sondre Lerche- Two Way Monologue
  
• Sonic Youth- Sonic Nurse
• Tegan and Sara- So Jealous
• John Vanderslice- Cellar Door

Since I'm at the halfway point of the decade, I'll also be re-listening to some albums from previous years that I think require more attention (see below). And post a list of the albums that have been fed to the Smoke Monster so far.

• The Black Keys- Thickfreakness
• BRMC- BRMC
• Interpol- Turn on the Bright Lights
• Muse- Origin of Symmetry
• The National- The National
  

In honor of tonight's finale, I made sure to finish this in time.


"The Bear" Station

I saw this on the back of a shirt at the Radiohead show I went to last August. I never saw what was on the front, but Lost + Radiohead = win in my book.

Apparently most of the Dharma station names are related to Apollo. His twin sister, Artemis turned one of her nymphs, Callisto, into a bear.

Favorite Lost characters:

• Desmond
• Daniel
• Sawyer
• Locke
• Juliet (Because she wants Kate to die almost as much as I do)
  

Least favorite Lost characters:

• Kate (I was REALLY hoping the Others shot her in last week's ep)
• Jack
• Sun (Living off the island didn't do her any favors)
  
• Michael

2002 was a pretty damn solid year for music. I enjoyed everything I listened to and all the albums will most likely make the list. I especially enjoyed listening to the Long Winters first album again. It has that debut album magic that is hard to replicate on future albums.

Up next, 2003, the year I've most been looking forward to for some unknown reason.

• Black Keys- Thickfreakness
• Cursive- The Ugly Organ
• Kings of Leon- Youth and Young Manhood
• Long Winters- When I Pretend To Fall
  
• Muse- Absolution
• Nada Surf- Let Go
  
• The National- Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers
  
• New Pornographers- Electric Version
• Placebo- Sleeping With Ghosts
• Radiohead- Hail to the Thief
• Those Peabodys- Unite Tonight
  
• David Usher- Hallucinations

(Suggestions are always encouraged)

This decade has been pretty lousy for music, which doesn't come as much of a surprise to me, but I really thought that the early years were much better than they actually were. The stupidest realization I've had during this process is that hey, there's a reason you haven't listened to some of these album since they were new....THEY ARE CRAP! Imagine that, some rhyme and reason to my listening habits. 2001 was filled with albums from bands that just went to hell afterwards, and in some cases, on that particular album (I'm looking at you, Remy Zero). I was going to post my original best of list from 2001, but frankly, it's embarrassing. Let's just move on to 2002.

• Bic Runga- Beautiful Collision
• The Black Keys- The Big Come Up
• Bright Eyes- Lifted....
• Neko Case- Blacklisted
• Emm Gryner- Asianblue
• The Good Life- Black Out
  
• Imperial Teen- On
• Interpol- Turn On The Bright Lights
• Sondre Lerche- Faces Down
  
• Long Winters- The Worst You Can Do is Harm
• Sonic Youth- Murray Street
• Spoon- Kill the Moonlight
• Queens of the Stone Age- Songs for the Deaf

Not too much for 2002, luckily there have already been a number of solid albums released this year so far, the Emm Gryner, Neko Case and Cursive albums are current favorites of mine.

I thought 2000 had too many boring albums. Too much middle of the road, non-offensive music for my taste, but I think that's all the UK was producing the first few years of the decade. Hopefully 2001 will be better. This is what I'll be listening to.

• BRMC- BRMC
• Death Cab for Cutie- The Photo Album
• The Faint- Danse Macabre
• Emm Gryner- Girl Versions
• Ed Harcourt- Here Be Monsters
• Muse- Origin of Symmetry
• The National- The National
• Orbit- XLR8R
• Roland Orzabal- Tomcats Screaming Outside
• Radiohead- Amnesiac
• Remy Zero- The Golden Hum
• The Sheila Divine- Where Have My Countrymen Gone
• Silver Scooter- The Blue Law
• Spoon- Girls Can Tell
• Sunset Valley- Icepond
• Those Peabodys- Those Peabodys
• David Usher- Morning Orbit
• John Vanderslice- Time Travel is Lonely

Recently, it was brought to my attention that 2009 means best of the decade lists. So of course I jumped at the opportunity to anguish over another best of list, only this time, it can be drawn out for the entire year! Luckily I have a partner in music snobbery  who is into this as much as I am. So a very long list was compiled of all albums from 2000-08 that are currently owned (211). Some initial cuts were made, because let's face it, beautifulgarbage should not be on anyone's best of the decade list. So that leaves approximately 90 albums for me to listen to throughout the year, along with whatever comes out this year and the possible addition of other albums I may have missed out on the first time (suggestions very welcome). All to create a top 50 albums of the decade list.

To break things up a bit, I'm taking it one year at a time, of course starting with 2000. So for the rest of Jan until the end of Feb, I'll be listening to the following albums:

• Bjork- Selmasongs
• Bright Eyes- Fevers and Mirrors
• Neko Case- Furnace Room Lullaby
• Coldplay- Parachutes
• Cursive- Domestica
• Death Cab for Cute- We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
• Nelly Furtado- Whoa Nelly!
• Emm Gryner- Dead Relatives
• The Good Life- Novena on a Nocturn
• David Gray- White Ladder
• PJ Harvey- Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
• New Pornographers- Mass Romantic
• Placebo- Black Market Music
• Queens of the Stone Age- Rated R
• Radiohead- Kid A
• Travis- The Man Who
• John Vanderslice- Mass Suicide Occult Figurines

Some of these albums are a lock to make the list, but some I haven't heard in so long I really have no idea.

• Finished Rant last night. I enjoyed it, although there was some pretty messed up stuff going on. But from what I know about Chuck Palahniuk that's par for the course. I'll be starting Atonement this week.

• The best part from the otherwise boring spelling bee

• Yet again, new month means new albums. I enjoyed listening to both Placebo and Spoon. I had some serious nostalgia going on while listening to A Series of Sneaks. That album reminds me of Austin so much. Without You I'm Nothing, even though I can remember when I bought the album, doesn't remind me of anything else. Nut listening to it for a month reaffirmed that it's not my favorite Placebo album. Since those albums have 2 of my favorite album covers, I thought i'd make a proper list..

In no particular order...

Joe Jackson- Look Sharp!


Placebo- Without You I'm Nothing


Keane- Under The Iron Sea


The Police- Ghost in the Machine


Spoon- A Series of Sneaks


This month's albums are similar because I used to really like these 2 bands and then they started to completely suck and sadly, I've abandoned them to the point that I don't even listen to their good albums anymore. So this month I'll be constantly wondering what went wrong and thinking how good these bands used to be. I've actually been looking forward to these albums.

Death Cab For Cutie- Something About Airplanes
    I'd guess it's been 6 or so years since I listened to this album. I gave up on death cab around the time Transatlanticism came out and Ben Gibbard did all that horrible electronic crap known as The Postal Service (which in my opinion is what ruined his ability to write good songs). But way back in 98, I was just hearing about Death Cab and for 3 albums they were really fucking good. So it's going to be hard to listen to this album without wanting to curse the music gods for turning Ben Gibbard into a complete toolbox. No doubt I will like it as much as I did back when it was new.

Snow Patrol- Songs For Polar Bears
    Um....I last listened to this album maybe 6 years ago as well. Unlike Death Cab, I think this is Snow Patrol's only good album. Their second album had some good songs on it, but overall kinda sucked. And then after that they decided they wanted to turn into Coldplay (who now wants to be U2, go figure), changed their sound and got successful. For the record, it's not the success that bothers me, it's the turning into Coldplay. Anyway, I think this first album is pretty good, and it's sad they've changed so much from what they used to be.

• Kobe won the mvp...yay!
  

• Much to my delight, Merge reissued A Series of Sneaks and Girls Can Tell on 180g vinyl. Inxs may going on hiatus soon.

• Yesterday, one of my projects appeared on my favorite site, Apartment Therapy

• I should be finished with The Time Traveler's Wife next week. I'm limiting my reading to school hours only, otherwise I'd finish it this weekend. It's really really good.

Spent the evening making and discussing top 13 favorite songs by various bands.....here's some of mine...

(In no particular order)

INXS

never tear us apart
stay young
need you tonight
to look at you
kiss the dirt
taste it
by my side
everything
disappear
i'm just a man
the stairs
faith in each other
devil inside


Smashing Pumpkins

thirty-three
ava adore
saturnine
tonight tonight
drown
stand inside your love
in the arms of sleep
obscured
muzzle
let me give the world to you
cherry
everlasting gaze
xyu


Radiohead

street spirit
fake plastic trees
the bends
just
black star
how to disappear completely
no surprises
karma police
let down
punchup at a wedding
myxomatosis
there there
sulk


Emm Gryner

this mad
acid
phonecall 45
the good you make
your sort of human being
july
seranade
big day
revenge
half sorry
doomsday
stereochrome
queen of the boys


John Vanderslice

everything changed
my old flame
radiant with terror
continuation
me and my 424
time travel is lonely
you were my fiji
amitriptyline
up above the sea
they won't let me run
trance manual
keep the dream alive
letter to the east coast


PJ Harvey

shame
long snake moan
the dancer
send his love to me
no girl so sweet
the garden
we float
cat on the wall
a place called home
the slow drug
the darker days of me & him
the whores hustle and the hustlers whore
you said something


Spoon

the guestlist/the execution
reservations
anything you want
the fitted shirt
paper tiger
i turn my camera on
the way we get by
the delicate place
the two sides of monsieur valentine
i summon you
my mathematical mind
take a walk
jonathon fisk