Redwood City Daily Photo Spring 2015 #63
Day #63: Wall of birdhouses.
Tag: birds
Redwood City Daily Photo Spring 2015 #41
Redwood City Daily Photo Spring 2015 #30
Redwood City Daily Photo Spring 2015 #9
Day #9: Inexplicable (unless you know the history) hummingbird paintings on an Afghan restaurant, Broadway.
As any bird lover knows, hummingbirds are a new world family, only occuring in the Americas. So why would someone paint them on an Afghan restaurant? The answer is that someone didn't. It was previously a Latin-American restaurant called Sabor Colibri (In English: "Hummingbird Flavor", although I never saw hummingbirds on the menu). I guess the owners of the Afghan restaurant, RocknWraps & Kabobs liked the hummingbirds and decided not to paint over them and for that I am grateful.
Before it became Sabor Colibri, the location was home to Ladda's Thai Cuisine, about which I blogged in my original 2010 Redwood City Daily Photo series.
As any bird lover knows, hummingbirds are a new world family, only occuring in the Americas. So why would someone paint them on an Afghan restaurant? The answer is that someone didn't. It was previously a Latin-American restaurant called Sabor Colibri (In English: "Hummingbird Flavor", although I never saw hummingbirds on the menu). I guess the owners of the Afghan restaurant, RocknWraps & Kabobs liked the hummingbirds and decided not to paint over them and for that I am grateful.
Before it became Sabor Colibri, the location was home to Ladda's Thai Cuisine, about which I blogged in my original 2010 Redwood City Daily Photo series.
Projects For 2014 Update
This is mainly for my own reference since no one reads Livejournal.
1. The Corner Laughers' summer single "Midsommar" is out now on Bandcamp and Youtube:
(Video by Karla Kane)
2. "Here Comes The Reign Again: The Second British Invasion" is a compilation album of today's artists playing the British new wave hits of the 80s. The Corner Laughers were invited to contribute a version of Madness's "Our House". Other artists include Chris Collingwood (Fountains Of Wayne), Mike Viola, Kelly Jones, The Nines, Rachael Yamagata, Ken Stringfellow, Cliff Hillis, Bleu, and Freedy Johnston. The full track listing is here.
(Video by Ned Stash)
3. I'm continuing to update Octavia 2014 and 2014 Yard Almanac, and I've added a new ongoing photo series called "People I Know Holding Tea".
4. Most of the stuff that I cataloged in February remains in the works.
1. The Corner Laughers' summer single "Midsommar" is out now on Bandcamp and Youtube:
(Video by Karla Kane)
It has been featured on BBC6's "Fresh On The Net", selected as KZSU's unofficial song of Summer, played on KALW's Today's Local Music segment, and deemed one of the 20 coolest songs so far this year by Pop That Goes Crunch. It was also mentioned in 2 UK music blogs: Sonic Breakfast and The Metaphorical Boat.
The B-side "Martha (Cincinnati, 1914)" is a tribute to the last Passenger Pigeon. It's gotten some attention in the UK nature press, most notably in Mark Avery's "Standing Up For Nature", and "Natural Light", a blog about art inspired by nature, curated by Laurence Rose of The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
The B-side "Martha (Cincinnati, 1914)" is a tribute to the last Passenger Pigeon. It's gotten some attention in the UK nature press, most notably in Mark Avery's "Standing Up For Nature", and "Natural Light", a blog about art inspired by nature, curated by Laurence Rose of The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
2. "Here Comes The Reign Again: The Second British Invasion" is a compilation album of today's artists playing the British new wave hits of the 80s. The Corner Laughers were invited to contribute a version of Madness's "Our House". Other artists include Chris Collingwood (Fountains Of Wayne), Mike Viola, Kelly Jones, The Nines, Rachael Yamagata, Ken Stringfellow, Cliff Hillis, Bleu, and Freedy Johnston. The full track listing is here.
(Video by Ned Stash)
3. I'm continuing to update Octavia 2014 and 2014 Yard Almanac, and I've added a new ongoing photo series called "People I Know Holding Tea".
4. Most of the stuff that I cataloged in February remains in the works.
The Corner Laughers -- Midsommar
20/20 #2
It's March 2014, which means it's been 20 years since I moved to the Bay Area. I figured I should commemorate this with a series of top 20 lists. Today's list is "20 Birds I Had Never Seen Until I Moved To California".
( Read more...Collapse )
( Read more...Collapse )
Sheldrake
Para-quoting my 2012 self: I don't seem to be able to regularly update LJ unless I give myself an ongoing serial posting project, so for the next couple of weeks I'll be rolling out the brand new Agony Aunts album - one song at a time, in order, provided I can get the Bandcamp links to work. (2013 note: Bandcamp embedding no longer seems to be supported on LJ.)
Track #1: "Twenty-four Mergansers"
http://agony-aunts.bandcamp.com/track/twenty-four-mergansers
Whenever I watch a TV show or a movie or read a book, I generally only remember one thing from it after a few weeks, and I can usually tell what the one thing is going to be at the time that I am reading or watching it. In this case I remember what the one thing is but I can't remember where I learned it. I think it was a David Attenborough bird documentary. Or it could have been a totally non-Attenborough nature show. Either way, the thing that I remember that I learned is: when several families of mergansers build nests and hatch ducklings on the same lake or river, one of the merganser mothers will gradually steal all of the other merganser mothers' ducklings so that eventually there will be one huge merganser family swimming together.
goldenmoonbear and I have seen this phenomenon in real life on the San Lorenzo river in Santa Cruz, CA. Every year there are new flocks of Common Merganser ducklings on the river; the most we've seen with one mother merganser is 24.
Although Agony Aunts songs are sometimes abstract and shouldn't always be taken literally, I imagine that this one is told from the point of view of a merganser duckling being taken from its original family and joining a new one. The arrangement is structured in build-up fashion with each verse becoming more dense and orchestral as new mergansers are added to the flock. It's possible that the mergansers are metaphors for other things, like life becoming more and more complicated with each technology that comes along to make it simpler. Or maybe it's a standard love song about a couple that meets, gets married, and produces offspring. I wish I could say it's a parable about the follies of greed, but it's not. The merganser who ends up with all of the ducklings suffers no consequences. Nature is cruel and unfair. You can debate that amongst yourselves; I'll just enjoy the triumphant KC Bowman / Anton Barbeau guitar and synth orchestra in the middle section.
Trivia from Wikipedia:
*Although they are seaducks, most mergansers prefer riverine habitats, with only the Red-breasted Merganser being common at sea. These large fish-eaters typically have black-and-white, brown and/or green hues in their plumage, and most have somewhat shaggy crests. All have serrated edges to their long and thin bills that help them grip their prey.
*Chapel of the Chimes was founded in 1909 as a crematory and columbarium in Oakland, California. The present building dates largely from a 1928 redevelopment based on the designs of the architect Julia Morgan. The Moorish- and Gothic-inspired interior is a maze of small rooms featuring ornate stonework, statues, gardens, fountains and mosaics. The name "chapel" refers primarily to the style of interior design, as it is not a traditional cemetery chapel building.
*From a list compiled in 2006 by British police chiefs of more than 5000 offenses warranting that the DNA of an arrested suspect be retained for life in a national database: disturbing badger when it is occupying badger lair (Harper's Magazine)
*The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (subtitled "A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East") is a 1970 book about the linguistics of early Christianity and fertility cults in the Ancient Near East. It was written by John Marco Allegro (1923–1988).
*Bottom of the Hill is a concert venue located in San Francisco, California, in the Potrero Hill district. As a venue, it is one of the most active in the city, usually holding shows seven nights a week. It has won the Readers' Poll Best Of The Bay award for Rock venue several times including the last 10 years in a row (as of 2012). It has been a live music venue since September 1991. The club is known for having hosted a huge number of now-famous artists when they were still relatively unknown, including Green Day, Death Cab for Cutie, The Flaming Lips, Blink 182, The White Stripes, The Arcade Fire, Alanis Morissette, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Oasis, Lush, Kid Rock, Marilyn Manson, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Cake, Queens of the Stone Age, The Strokes, Bright Eyes, and Neutral Milk Hotel, among many others.
*Consistent with paraphernilia, Orb backscatter has been broadly interpreted as a highly variable range of supernatural paranormal phenomenon without verifiability—including invisible spirits, unexpected lights, auras, angels, ghosts, energy fields, psycho-energetic artifacts, energy balls, etc.
Track #1: "Twenty-four Mergansers"
http://agony-aunts.bandcamp.com/track/twenty-four-mergansers
Whenever I watch a TV show or a movie or read a book, I generally only remember one thing from it after a few weeks, and I can usually tell what the one thing is going to be at the time that I am reading or watching it. In this case I remember what the one thing is but I can't remember where I learned it. I think it was a David Attenborough bird documentary. Or it could have been a totally non-Attenborough nature show. Either way, the thing that I remember that I learned is: when several families of mergansers build nests and hatch ducklings on the same lake or river, one of the merganser mothers will gradually steal all of the other merganser mothers' ducklings so that eventually there will be one huge merganser family swimming together.
goldenmoonbear and I have seen this phenomenon in real life on the San Lorenzo river in Santa Cruz, CA. Every year there are new flocks of Common Merganser ducklings on the river; the most we've seen with one mother merganser is 24.Although Agony Aunts songs are sometimes abstract and shouldn't always be taken literally, I imagine that this one is told from the point of view of a merganser duckling being taken from its original family and joining a new one. The arrangement is structured in build-up fashion with each verse becoming more dense and orchestral as new mergansers are added to the flock. It's possible that the mergansers are metaphors for other things, like life becoming more and more complicated with each technology that comes along to make it simpler. Or maybe it's a standard love song about a couple that meets, gets married, and produces offspring. I wish I could say it's a parable about the follies of greed, but it's not. The merganser who ends up with all of the ducklings suffers no consequences. Nature is cruel and unfair. You can debate that amongst yourselves; I'll just enjoy the triumphant KC Bowman / Anton Barbeau guitar and synth orchestra in the middle section.
Trivia from Wikipedia:
*Although they are seaducks, most mergansers prefer riverine habitats, with only the Red-breasted Merganser being common at sea. These large fish-eaters typically have black-and-white, brown and/or green hues in their plumage, and most have somewhat shaggy crests. All have serrated edges to their long and thin bills that help them grip their prey.
*Chapel of the Chimes was founded in 1909 as a crematory and columbarium in Oakland, California. The present building dates largely from a 1928 redevelopment based on the designs of the architect Julia Morgan. The Moorish- and Gothic-inspired interior is a maze of small rooms featuring ornate stonework, statues, gardens, fountains and mosaics. The name "chapel" refers primarily to the style of interior design, as it is not a traditional cemetery chapel building.
*From a list compiled in 2006 by British police chiefs of more than 5000 offenses warranting that the DNA of an arrested suspect be retained for life in a national database: disturbing badger when it is occupying badger lair (Harper's Magazine)
*The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross (subtitled "A Study of the Nature and Origins of Christianity Within the Fertility Cults of the Ancient Near East") is a 1970 book about the linguistics of early Christianity and fertility cults in the Ancient Near East. It was written by John Marco Allegro (1923–1988).
*Bottom of the Hill is a concert venue located in San Francisco, California, in the Potrero Hill district. As a venue, it is one of the most active in the city, usually holding shows seven nights a week. It has won the Readers' Poll Best Of The Bay award for Rock venue several times including the last 10 years in a row (as of 2012). It has been a live music venue since September 1991. The club is known for having hosted a huge number of now-famous artists when they were still relatively unknown, including Green Day, Death Cab for Cutie, The Flaming Lips, Blink 182, The White Stripes, The Arcade Fire, Alanis Morissette, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Oasis, Lush, Kid Rock, Marilyn Manson, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Cake, Queens of the Stone Age, The Strokes, Bright Eyes, and Neutral Milk Hotel, among many others.
*Consistent with paraphernilia, Orb backscatter has been broadly interpreted as a highly variable range of supernatural paranormal phenomenon without verifiability—including invisible spirits, unexpected lights, auras, angels, ghosts, energy fields, psycho-energetic artifacts, energy balls, etc.
Archaeology Lingers Under My Eye
The California Audubon Society just published their Top 10 popular songs about or related to birds list. Naturally, I took that as a challenge. As you might expect, their list is a little overplayed and obvious (except for their #10; who even knew that song was about birds?). I couldn't narrow mine down to one top 10 list, so I did two; one for generic "bird" songs and one for songs about specific bird families. I'm not even going to bother to lj-cut this, so confident am I that there's no one out there left to complain about me taking up their friends feed.
( Changed my mind, cutting it after all.Collapse )
( Changed my mind, cutting it after all.Collapse )
Tedious Lists 2012
This year I modified my format slightly, to try to keep up with the changes in media and technology that have occurred over the past few years. And instead of trying to merge half-year into full year, I’m just going to add-on with separate sections for Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec.
MUSIC (Formerly "2012 Albums" & "Albums From Previous Years Heard For The First Time In 2012")
Jan-Jun:
1. Everything released this year on the Mystery Lawn Music label. Of course there's Poppy Seeds, but there's also Alison Faith Levy's World Of Wonder - kids' music that will make your kids smarter and have better taste in music, The Hollyhocks' Understories, and the vinyl version of Mixed Greens by Allen Clapp & His Orchestra.
2. The Beach Boys 50th anniversary reunion. Everyone who regularly reads this LJ knows that I'm kind of obsessed with the Beach Boys. Karla got me tickets to their June 1st Greek Theater show for my birthday. I was excited about seeing all of the surviving members back together but I honestly didn't have huge expectations. I figured they're all 70 years old, they'll probably just show up, half-ass their way through their 10 biggest hits and call it a night. Instead they played for 2-1/2 hours - 46 songs - and they sounded fantastic. It wasn't just the hits from the 60s either, they played a lot of the hipster catalog stuff that the younger generation (meaning people under 50) of Beach Boys fans is into, such as "California Saga", "All This Is That", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Sail On Sailor". The new album isn't bad either.
3. Men Without Hats - "Love In The Age Of War" They sound exactly the same. It's like I'm in 8th grade again.
4. The Classic Albums documentary series, available on Netflix, Youtube, etc. I don't even like a lot of theses albums, but it's fascinating to see how music was recorded in the 60s and 70s. My favorite parts are when they show an engineer in a control room and they play back isolated sections of songs like the backing vocals or the bass so you can hear exactly how they were done.
5. Willie Wisely - True
6. Rosie Abbott - Rosie Abbott
7. Mouse Deer - The Mouse Deer EP
8. The New Sell Out I've been waiting to hear this whole collection since 2000, when I played piano on the CvS track "I Can't Reach You". There's a long story behind it, but it's finally out. If you were into 90s Power Pop like I was, you'll recognize a lot of the names.
9. The re-issue of the first 3 Cleaners From Venus albums. I'm a huge Martin Newell fan, but I was never able to find these albums in a decent format. (No, I don't think the hipster cassette trend was a great idea.) The early stuff is kind of hit and miss, but I'm glad that it's finally available.
10. Pseu's Thing With A Hook, Pop Garden Radio, Snap, Crackle, Pop, and The Time Traveler Did you know you could still find great music on broadcast radio? You can. Add to that the fine, fine internet radio shows like Twirl, Shock Pop, Alan Haber's Pure Pop and The Forum on Recharged and you'll have to quit your job just to keep up.
Jul-Dec:
1. Martin Newell’s Golden Afternoon. -goldenmoonbear and I have been dreaming of attending this annual event for 10 years. This year we were finally able to work out our schedules and justify spending the money (it takes place in Colchester, UK) because, unbelievably, we got to be one of the opening acts.
2. Frank Turner. Mark & Helen Luker (Fun Of The Pier) covered a Frank Turner song while we were touring England with them in September and played some of his albums in the car on the way to various cities. We remained obsessed with him for several months after we returned home. I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of him before, as it’s the exact kind of music that I always like.
3. Wendy James – Now Ain’t The Time For Your Tears (1993). There’s a chapter in the Elvis Costello biography “Complicated Shadows” about how in the early 90s Elvis was approached by singer Wendy James for career advice, and on a whim he and his wife Cait wrote an entire album for her in a weekend. Even though I’m a huge Elvis fan and own all of his albums, I had never heard “Now Ain’t The Time…” It’s surprisingly good. A lot of it is in the same vein as “Brutal Youth”, but you know how when you’re writing songs for someone else to sing and you can kind of have fun with it and say stuff that would be cheesy and embarrassing if you were singing it yourself? That’s what this album is like. And I mean that in a good way.
4. Dan Bern – Doubleheader
5. Aimee Mann – Charmer
6. Allo Darlin’ – Europe
7. The Honey Wilders – Singles For Singles
8. Cliff Hillis – Dream Good
9. Fiona Bevan. - We played on a bill with her at the Duke Of Uke in East London. Shortly after that we found out that she co-wrote a #1 song for One Direction. Dude, that’s hella big time. He solo albums are great too.
10. Kirsty MacColl – Desperate Character: Kirsty’s debut album from 1981 was never officially available in digital format until this past October.
FILM, TV, AND OTHER VISUAL MEDIA (Formerly "2012 Movies", "Movies From Past Years Seen For The First Time in 2012", "TV Shows") I don't think I've seen a single first-run movie in the theater this year (Dec. update – I saw 4), nor have I watched much TV live as it was happening. Since getting a Nexflix gift subscription I've been overwhelmed by such bounty that I am barely able to leave the house.
Jan-Jun:
1. Mad Men Season 5
2. Sherlock Series 2
3. British comedies on Netflix: Come Fly With Me, Mitchell & Webb, Todd Margaret, Shameless, The IT Crowd.
4. Weird documentaries on Netflix: I Think We're Alone Now, The Hollywood Complex, A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, For the Love of Dolly.
5. Serious, well-made documentaries on Netflix: For the Bible Tells Me So, Magic Trip, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, Festival, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Commune, A Technicolor Dream, Ken Burns's Jazz, Nothing Is Easy.
6. Dirty Pope, aka The Borgias
7. ABC Family / Disney Channel guilty pleasures: Switched At Birth, Make It Or Break It, Camp Rock, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, Lemonade Mouth
8. Downton Abbey
9. United States Of Tara
10. BBC sci-fi dramas: Primeval, Merlin
Jul-Dec:
1. Peep Show - One of the best British comedies ever.
2. TED talks - There are about 1000 of these on Netflix; I try to watch 2 or 3 every night just to keep my brain in shape.
3. Life Of Pi
4. Louie
5. David Starkey’s Monarchy (2004)
6. Robin Hood (2006 BBC Series)
7. Argo
8. Moonrise Kingdom
9. Nature: Animal Odd Couples / An Original Duckumentary / Raccoon Nation
10. Looper
BOOKS (Books are still books, in whatever format.)
Jan-Jun:
1. Forever: A Novel - Pete Hamill
2. A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown - Julia Scheeres
3. Late Autumn Sunlight : East Anglian Verses - Martin Newell
4. Sarum: The Novel of England - Edward Rutherfurd
5. Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970 - David Browne
6. 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
7. Ready, Steady, Go!: The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London - Shawn Levy
8. I've Got Your Number - Sophie Kinsella
9. Bossypants - Tina Fey
10. The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret - Kent Hartman
Jul-Dec:
1. How to Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran
2. Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo - Vanessa Woods
3. The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
4. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
5. The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language - Mark Forsyth
6. Our Garden Birds - Matt Sewell
7. I Think I Love You - Allison Pearson
8. The Woman Who Died A Lot (Thursday Next #7) - Jasper Fforde
9. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
10. Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans - John Marzluff, Tony Angell
MUSIC (Formerly "2012 Albums" & "Albums From Previous Years Heard For The First Time In 2012")
Jan-Jun:
1. Everything released this year on the Mystery Lawn Music label. Of course there's Poppy Seeds, but there's also Alison Faith Levy's World Of Wonder - kids' music that will make your kids smarter and have better taste in music, The Hollyhocks' Understories, and the vinyl version of Mixed Greens by Allen Clapp & His Orchestra.
2. The Beach Boys 50th anniversary reunion. Everyone who regularly reads this LJ knows that I'm kind of obsessed with the Beach Boys. Karla got me tickets to their June 1st Greek Theater show for my birthday. I was excited about seeing all of the surviving members back together but I honestly didn't have huge expectations. I figured they're all 70 years old, they'll probably just show up, half-ass their way through their 10 biggest hits and call it a night. Instead they played for 2-1/2 hours - 46 songs - and they sounded fantastic. It wasn't just the hits from the 60s either, they played a lot of the hipster catalog stuff that the younger generation (meaning people under 50) of Beach Boys fans is into, such as "California Saga", "All This Is That", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Sail On Sailor". The new album isn't bad either.
3. Men Without Hats - "Love In The Age Of War" They sound exactly the same. It's like I'm in 8th grade again.
4. The Classic Albums documentary series, available on Netflix, Youtube, etc. I don't even like a lot of theses albums, but it's fascinating to see how music was recorded in the 60s and 70s. My favorite parts are when they show an engineer in a control room and they play back isolated sections of songs like the backing vocals or the bass so you can hear exactly how they were done.
5. Willie Wisely - True
6. Rosie Abbott - Rosie Abbott
7. Mouse Deer - The Mouse Deer EP
8. The New Sell Out I've been waiting to hear this whole collection since 2000, when I played piano on the CvS track "I Can't Reach You". There's a long story behind it, but it's finally out. If you were into 90s Power Pop like I was, you'll recognize a lot of the names.
9. The re-issue of the first 3 Cleaners From Venus albums. I'm a huge Martin Newell fan, but I was never able to find these albums in a decent format. (No, I don't think the hipster cassette trend was a great idea.) The early stuff is kind of hit and miss, but I'm glad that it's finally available.
10. Pseu's Thing With A Hook, Pop Garden Radio, Snap, Crackle, Pop, and The Time Traveler Did you know you could still find great music on broadcast radio? You can. Add to that the fine, fine internet radio shows like Twirl, Shock Pop, Alan Haber's Pure Pop and The Forum on Recharged and you'll have to quit your job just to keep up.
Jul-Dec:
1. Martin Newell’s Golden Afternoon. -
goldenmoonbear and I have been dreaming of attending this annual event for 10 years. This year we were finally able to work out our schedules and justify spending the money (it takes place in Colchester, UK) because, unbelievably, we got to be one of the opening acts. 2. Frank Turner. Mark & Helen Luker (Fun Of The Pier) covered a Frank Turner song while we were touring England with them in September and played some of his albums in the car on the way to various cities. We remained obsessed with him for several months after we returned home. I don’t know how I hadn’t heard of him before, as it’s the exact kind of music that I always like.
3. Wendy James – Now Ain’t The Time For Your Tears (1993). There’s a chapter in the Elvis Costello biography “Complicated Shadows” about how in the early 90s Elvis was approached by singer Wendy James for career advice, and on a whim he and his wife Cait wrote an entire album for her in a weekend. Even though I’m a huge Elvis fan and own all of his albums, I had never heard “Now Ain’t The Time…” It’s surprisingly good. A lot of it is in the same vein as “Brutal Youth”, but you know how when you’re writing songs for someone else to sing and you can kind of have fun with it and say stuff that would be cheesy and embarrassing if you were singing it yourself? That’s what this album is like. And I mean that in a good way.
4. Dan Bern – Doubleheader
5. Aimee Mann – Charmer
6. Allo Darlin’ – Europe
7. The Honey Wilders – Singles For Singles
8. Cliff Hillis – Dream Good
9. Fiona Bevan. - We played on a bill with her at the Duke Of Uke in East London. Shortly after that we found out that she co-wrote a #1 song for One Direction. Dude, that’s hella big time. He solo albums are great too.
10. Kirsty MacColl – Desperate Character: Kirsty’s debut album from 1981 was never officially available in digital format until this past October.
FILM, TV, AND OTHER VISUAL MEDIA (Formerly "2012 Movies", "Movies From Past Years Seen For The First Time in 2012", "TV Shows") I don't think I've seen a single first-run movie in the theater this year (Dec. update – I saw 4), nor have I watched much TV live as it was happening. Since getting a Nexflix gift subscription I've been overwhelmed by such bounty that I am barely able to leave the house.
Jan-Jun:
1. Mad Men Season 5
2. Sherlock Series 2
3. British comedies on Netflix: Come Fly With Me, Mitchell & Webb, Todd Margaret, Shameless, The IT Crowd.
4. Weird documentaries on Netflix: I Think We're Alone Now, The Hollywood Complex, A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, For the Love of Dolly.
5. Serious, well-made documentaries on Netflix: For the Bible Tells Me So, Magic Trip, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, Festival, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Commune, A Technicolor Dream, Ken Burns's Jazz, Nothing Is Easy.
6. Dirty Pope, aka The Borgias
7. ABC Family / Disney Channel guilty pleasures: Switched At Birth, Make It Or Break It, Camp Rock, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, Lemonade Mouth
8. Downton Abbey
9. United States Of Tara
10. BBC sci-fi dramas: Primeval, Merlin
Jul-Dec:
1. Peep Show - One of the best British comedies ever.
2. TED talks - There are about 1000 of these on Netflix; I try to watch 2 or 3 every night just to keep my brain in shape.
3. Life Of Pi
4. Louie
5. David Starkey’s Monarchy (2004)
6. Robin Hood (2006 BBC Series)
7. Argo
8. Moonrise Kingdom
9. Nature: Animal Odd Couples / An Original Duckumentary / Raccoon Nation
10. Looper
BOOKS (Books are still books, in whatever format.)
Jan-Jun:
1. Forever: A Novel - Pete Hamill
2. A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown - Julia Scheeres
3. Late Autumn Sunlight : East Anglian Verses - Martin Newell
4. Sarum: The Novel of England - Edward Rutherfurd
5. Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970 - David Browne
6. 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
7. Ready, Steady, Go!: The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London - Shawn Levy
8. I've Got Your Number - Sophie Kinsella
9. Bossypants - Tina Fey
10. The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret - Kent Hartman
Jul-Dec:
1. How to Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran
2. Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo - Vanessa Woods
3. The Age of Miracles - Karen Thompson Walker
4. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
5. The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll through the Hidden Connections of the English Language - Mark Forsyth
6. Our Garden Birds - Matt Sewell
7. I Think I Love You - Allison Pearson
8. The Woman Who Died A Lot (Thursday Next #7) - Jasper Fforde
9. The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes
10. Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans - John Marzluff, Tony Angell