My 2006 mix - part one

Here are the first ten tracks (of 19 total) on my best of 2006 mix CD. I call it ...

"Whiners, Assholes and Prang"

1. "God's Gonna Cut you Down," Johnny Cash - Posthumus releases aren't normally a thing I dig, but this one hits the spot - "hat's done in the dark, will be brought to the light" is a powerful lyric.

2. "Black Rain", Ben Harper - Harper's notes of Bush forgetting about the less fortunate of New Orleans isn't as ranting as Kayne West's live moment of truth, but this still rocks.

3. "5-22-02", Golden Smog - One listen to this poppy tune by the alt-country supergroup, and the chorus will be stuck in your head ... all day long.

4. "The Great Salt Lake," Band of Horses - A bit like Built to Spill, but something hit me in the quietly building fuzzy playing that made this track stay in constant rotation.

5. "Parachutes," Pearl Jam - Finaly, a solid album by the grunge masters who won't lie down. Two nights of shows by them in May made me realize they are much more than radio fluff.

6. "Pretty Balerina," The eels (with strings) - Nice rendition with an upbeat piano laid down with violin, cello and drums.

7. "The Song is Still Slipping Away," Shooter Jennings. - Son of a gun, this guy's good. 'you're heroes turn out to be assholes,' is often a true lyric. Great country playing with a rebel swagger - void of any sugar coated crap that Kenny Chesney would pour on top.

8. "The W.A.N.D.," The Flaming Lips - Imagine the echos of a hangover from a three day bender, add some high pitched sirens and one hell of an explosive chorus, you've got a great tune ... by far, my favorite live performance of the year as well.

9. "When you Wasn't Famous," The Streets - A brittish rapper who's hard to understand, unless he's talking about coke snorting supermodels whose pictures are on the cover of tabloids.

10. "Bean Bag Chair," Yo La Tengo - Horns, a soft voice singing, and the best album title ever - "I'm not Afraid of you, and I will Beat your Ass."

Happy days are yours and mine

Hurray for Christmas
Hurray for Baby Jesus and the mass consumerism that is done in his name.
Cynical? That's me.
I love Christmas. Honestly. I love getting gifts for people. April got an iPod this year that I saved and saved for. Heck, I even loaded it up with her albums.
I love getting gifts.
My aunt (my favorite aunt) got me a new Cubs jersey with my name on the back. How awesome is that?
My nieces got me a new book. My brother-in-law, that I don't really know too well yet because he's in Afghanistan, got me and my dad tickets to the Bears vs. Packers game on New Years Eve. My sister was a lot of fun in giving this one .. she made my dad go on a scavenger hunt to find the tix. My sister rounded out my sports team year with a new Colts t-shirt. Cool huh? I loved all of my gifts.
My in-laws got me some more books too. Heck, they're even books I want to read. God love Barack Obama. America needs a trustworthy face. If nothing else, Obama's the bomba.
Why the downside two days later? Not sure.
The consumerism I took part in does not feel like it made me a better person. I don't feel that it helped the world stop killing each other or hating each other.
I didn't feed anyone who was hungry other than myself, but I have a job, and can most often afford to eat.
I didn't clothe the needy or help shelter the homeless. My aunt clothed me, and my folks sheltered us for the night we visited.
My goal for the new year is to help with the world's problems a little more.
Give more of my time, more of my money. Well...at least what I can.
Give a little more to my church even.
Most of all ... give a little less to the DVD collection, the comic books, the trips to Gelsosomo's (best pizza - hands down).
Now, Cubs games, the real toughy, I'll knock it down to five this year. All in the name of lowering my part in mass consumerism, and just enjoying the life that I've been given.
-DJr-

Borat makes me laugh - and cringe too

So, after a quick finishing off of the Christmas shopping, April and I caught a matinee of "Borat." Even better, the matinee price was $3 so I didn't feel like I'd just been fisted by Kerasotes.
"Borat" was exactly what I though we were in for. An amazing view at an outsiders life - that was totally made up with amazing social commentary on the state of America.
I felt sorry for some of the people who were his victims. Borat hates jews, gypsies, gays and women. At one point staying in a bed and breakfast owned by an elderly jewish couple, he is convinced they are shapshifters who have turned into coackroaches. To defend himself against the jewish bugs, he throws money at them. Holy Crap do people still act like this?
At a rodeo, he tries to kiss a man on his cheeks, traditional European style. One older cowboy tells him only the fruity guys do that. The ones who love the 'man on man' action. Borat says his country hangs them - the cowboy responds by saying "That's the way our country is trying to return too." For real ... not scripted, not acting. Real attitude, real reaction..

Is this the way our country is returning too? We laughed at the comments. Not laughing in humor, but laughing in shame that this man truly believes his statement to be correct. Is this what children are learning? Is this just an old man with old ways who refuses to accept people as people?

I am glad to have been raised to accept people for being people. Everyone is different, and everyone has something to offer the world. Even comediens who expose people's weaknesses behind a hidden camera.

-DJr-

A little sporadic - hopefully to change

OK, I heard the comments, or non-comments, and I promise to more regularly update this blog.

Since returning from Hawaii, I've been swamped with work and planning our next step in the world. What it is, I don't officially know, but I have a good idea - and it's overwhelming.

Saw my first Purdue basketball game at Mackey Arena in almost six years. The Boilers outplayed Mizzou in a strong showing that I hope continues. Purdue needs a return to basketball glory, or half glory, or at least respectability.

Today being nine days until Christmas, I hope to finish our shopping. We have two or three things left to get, but we know what they are and where they are. Get in, get out, get home to enjoy each other.
I've been throwing together a 'Best of 2006' music list. Keep your eyes out for that one to be posted on Monday. Really. I swear.

-DJr-

Aloha all

I love being home, but I hate not being in Hawaii.

Oahu is a beautiful island full of laid back people, traffic jams, shrimp trucks and the North Shore. Our house was on the ocean where in the morning we could watch turtles play off shore and the neighbors fish for their dinner.

Dang, I loved the North Shore. April and I spent two days up there watching the "small" wave surfing. Waves were only 6-10 feet those two days, and the locals were waiting for the big ones to arrive .. any day now.

Purdue played its best half of football all year, too bad they didn't play that way the entire game, or we would have had the victory we were after.

We hiked in a rainforest to see a ginormous waterfall. Of course, being in a rainforest means, it's gonna rain. And rain it did, but what fun it was. We even did some snorkelling. Saw a ton of fish, but limited my snorkelling to three trips. We even got my dad to go out one day. He was lucky enough to come face to face with a sea turtle.

When we got home, my favorite aunt in the whole, wide world greeted us at the airport with our cars. We didn't even have to drive back to Bargersville and then back north. It saved us at least an hour and was the nicest thing. Even nicer than that, she filled up the gas tank so we didn't have to stop on the way home. How cool is that?

I got a good chunk of "In Cold Blood" read on the long, ass-numbing plane ride, and will likely finish it this week as I slowly move out of "Island-Time" and get back to the stressful work of newspaper.

-DJr.-