2012 Music

These are the albums I added to my collection in 2012:

Aaron Freeman: Marvelous Clouds
AC Newman: Shut Down The Streets
Allo Darlin: Europe
Alt-J: An Awesome Wave
Andrew Bird: Break It Yourself
Animal Collective: Centipede Hz
The Avett Brothers: The Carpenter
Band of Horses: Mirage Rock
Beach House: Bloom
Beachwood Sparks: The Tarnished Gold
Ben Folds Five: The Sound of the Life of the Mind
Best Coast: The Only Place
Beth Orton: Sugaring Season
Big Boi: Vicious Lies And Dangerous Rumors
Big K.R.I.T.: Live from the Underground
Billy Bragg & Wilco: Mermaid Avenue Vol III
Bloc Party: Four
Bob Mould: Silver Age
Bowerbirds: The Clearing
Brandi Carlile: Bear Creek
Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball
California Wives: Art History
Cat Power: Sun
Chairlift: Something
Cloud Nothings: Attack On Memory
Colossal Gospel: Circles
Craig Finn: Clear Heart Full Eyes
Damien Jurado: Maraqopa
David Byrne & St. Vincent: Love This Giant
Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan
Divine Fits: A Thing Called Divine Fits
Dr. Dog: Be The Void
Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeros: Here
Father John Misty: Fear Fun
Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do
Freelance Whales: Diluvia
Fun.: Some Nights
Glen Hansard: Rhythm & Repose
Great Lake Swimmers: New Wild Everywhere
Grizzly Bear: Shields
Heartless Bastards: Arrow
Horse Feathers: Cynic's New Year
Hospitality: Hospitality
Hot Chip: In Our Heads
Imagine Dragons: Night Visions
Imperial Teen: Feel The Sound
Jack White: Blunderbuss
Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, Yim Yames: New Multitudes
Jens Lekman: I Know What Love Isn’t
Joshua James: From the Top of Willamette Mountain
Josh Ritter: Bringing In The Darlings
Kathleen Edwards: Voyageur
Kendrick Lamar: Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City
Killer Mike: R.A.P. Music
Leonard Cohen: Old Ideas
Lord Huron: Lonesome Dreams
Lucero: Women & Work
Lupe Fiasco : Food And Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Part I
M. Ward: A Wasteland Companion
Menomena: Moms
Mumford & Sons: Babel
Nada Surf: The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy
Norah Jones: Little Broken Hearts
Old Crow Medicine Show: Carry Me Back
Patterson Hood: Heat Lightning Rumbles In The Distance
Pop Etc: Pop Etc
Punch Brothers: Who's Feeling Young Now?
Regina Spektor: What We Saw From The Cheap Seats
Santigold: Master Of My Make-Believe
Sharon Van Etten: Tramp
Shearwater: Animal Joy
Sleigh Bells: Reign Of Terror
Southeast Engine: Canaanville
Spiritualized: Sweet Heart Sweet Light
Tame Impala: Lonerism
Tanlines: Mixed Emotions
Tennis: Young & Old
The Lumineers: The Lumineers
The Magnetic Fields: Love At The Bottom Of The Sea
The Mountain Goats: Transcendental Youth
The Shins: Port of Morrow
The Soundtrack Of Our Lives: Throw It To The Universe
The Tallest Man On Earth: There's No Leaving Now
The Walkmen: Heaven
The xx: Coexist
Titus Andronicus: Local Business
White Arrows : Dry Land Is Not A Myth
Wiz Khalifa: O.N.I.F.C.
Yeasayer: Fragrant World

I've been eating better. I've been, say, seventy percent of the time, adhering to this thing called the Paleo Diet. There are a lot of rules, most of which nudge you toward cooking your own food. So I've been cooking a lot of my own food.

We have, actually. Alicia and I. She's been cooking breakfast, I've been cooking dinner. Lunch has been a collaboration, often made from leftovers. This has been going on for over a year.

I've learned a lot. How to cut onions, mangoes, green peppers, etc. Not to fill a pan too much, lest moisture accumulate. How to use the broiler and what it's good for. How to use a crock pot (and how not to use a crock pot).

I've made flourless pizza dough from scratch and flourless banana bread, egg muffins, omelets, fried fish, broiled fish, baked fish, seared steaks and pork chops, fried plantains, curries, "breaded" fish and chicken and pork and even chicken fried steak. I can't think of a vegetable I haven't roasted, steamed or sauteed. My mashed sweet potatoes are fantastic. My stir fries are -- actually my stir fries are sub-par. I need to work on those.

There's a lot I need to work on, actually. I'm not comfortable juggling more than two or three dishes at once. Braising is intimidating. I'd like to get comfortable throwing a stew together from ingredients on hand. Reducing sauces (say, from pan juices) has been a challenge. I want to figure out a good spice mix to make my almond butter more interesting. I'm still shaky with allspice or fish sauce or, hell, let's say about a third of the other spices in the racks.

So I'd call this a hobby now. Cooking. I'm not aiming too high or anything, just enjoying it, the work of it. Sometimes the results.

Still Here

I am, that is.

The distance between words coming out of me and those words sounding terrible to me has become extremely short.

Music, 2011

Nobody cares, I tell myself. And yet the urge to compile my favorite music from the year remains.

It's been a good year for music for me, although using a subscription service makes it easy to explore so much that I worry not only that I haven't taken enough time to savor the good stuff, but that I might lose track of some of it. So: lists.

I enjoyed these albums in 2011:

• Abigail Washburn: City of Refuge
• Adele: 21
• Beady Eye: Different Gear, Still Speeding
• Beastie Boys: Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
• Bon Iver: Bon Iver
• The Builders and the Butchers: Dead Reckoning
• Cake: Showroom of Compassion
• Cass McCombs: Wit's End
• The Cave Singers: No Witch
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Hysterical
• Death Cab for Cutie: Codes and Keys
• The Decemberists: The King Is Dead
• The Dodos: No Color
• Dolorean: The Unfazed
• Eisley: The Valley
• Elbow: Build A Rocket Boys
• Feist: Metal
• The Felice Brothers: Celebration, Florida
• Fleet Foxes: Helplessness Blues
• Fruit Bats: Tripper
• The Green Apple Sea: Northern Sky, Southern Sky
• Handsome Furs: Sound Kapital
• The Head and the Heart: The Head and the Heart
• Hooray for Earth: True Loves
• I'm From Barcelona: Forever Today
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: Here We Rest
• Kanye West & Jay-Z: Watch the Throne
• Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring For My Halo
• The Low Anthem: Smart Flesh
• Lykke Li: Wounded Rhymes
• Mates of State: Mountaintops
• Middle Brother: Middle Brother
• The Middle East: I Want That You Are Always Happy
• The Midwest Beat: Gone Not Lost
• Noah & The Whale: The Last Night On Earth
• Oh No Oh My: People Problems
• Paul Simon: So Beautiful Or So What
• Peter Bjorn and John: Gimme Some
• PJ Harvey: Let England Shake
• Ryan Adams: Ashes & Fire
• R.E.M.: Collapse Into Now
• The Rural Alberta Advantage: Departing
• Say Hi: Um, Uh Oh
• Sloan: The Double Cross
• Southeast Engine: Canary
• Steve Earle: I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive
• St. Vincent: Strange Mercy
• The Strokes: Angles
• Tapes n Tapes: Outside
• Telekinesis: 12 Desperate Straight Lines
• TV On The Radio: Nine Types of Light
• Wilco: The Whole Love
• Wiz Khalifa: Rolling Papers
• The Wooden Birds: Two Matchsticks
• Wye Oak: Civilian

And this is a handful of tracks I enjoyed from other albums:

• Apex Manor: "Under the Gun"
• Bastille: "Flaws"
• Cage The Elephant: "Shake Me Down"
• Cut Copy: "Need You Now"
• Dawes: "Fire Away"
• DeVotchKa: "Exhaustible"
• The Forms: "Fire to the Ground"
• The Get Up Kids: "Shatter Your Lungs"
• Gomez: "Options"
• Lia Ices: "Love Is Won"
• Lupe Fiasco: "Till I Get There"

I haven't listened to the new Coldplay, Jayhawks, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jens Lekman, Deer Tick, Cass McCombs (he put out two this year!) or Black Keys records yet. They might deserve a presence on one of these lists.

 

Standing Desk, Six Weeks In

The standing was a distraction from work when I started doing it. I could stand for an hour or two before my body would fight it and I'd need to sit to keep focused on what I was doing. (Luckily, my setup allowed for this: Laptop in sitting position, desktop in standing position. Remoting from laptop to desktop or vice versa.)

Now, it's rarely a distraction, aside from folks asking about it from time to time. I've been in the zone for hours at a time, completely forgetting that I'm standing up. I'll still sit during lunch, and maybe for thirty minutes here or there. I'll often sit if I'm reading something lengthy, for instance.

A few other observations:

• Coming home after a day on your feet and crashing on the couch (or making a nice dinner and sitting down to eat it) feels good. Satisfying.
• Come the weekend, if I sit all day or sleep too long, I'll feel like crap. Restless, and sometimes achy in the upper back or head.
• I've been finding it easier to get to sleep at night, and easier to get out of bed in the morning. Also been finding myself a bit more energetic throughout the day.
• I've been drinking regular soda instead of diet soda every now and then. Mountain Dew cravings. This could be unrelated.
• One of my knees has been bothering me a bit. I'd started doing Couch to 5K again for a while, and this may be because of a tweak during that, or a combination of the standing and the running after months of virtually no activity. Not sure. But I should point it out, 'cause it definitely could be because of the standing.

Things I Wish I Did More Of

• Longer-form writing
• Longer-form reading
• Making things
• Cooking
• Biking
• Editing

Best of 2010: Albums

(or: A Collection of Highly Enjoyable Albums from 2010, Roughly Ordered By My Estimation of Their Quality)

Rogue Wave: Permalight
The National: High Violet
Frightened Rabbit: The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Justin Townes Earle: Harlem River Blues
Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Phosphorescent: Here's to Taking It Easy
The Tallest Man On Earth: The Wild Hunt
Slow Club: Yeah, So
Broken Bells: Broken Bells
The Black Keys: Brothers
Steel Train: Steel Train
Freelance Whales: Weathervanes
Harlan T. Bobo: Sucker
Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Record
Frontier Ruckus: Deadmalls and Nightfalls
The Morning Benders: Big Echo
Delta Spirit: History From Below
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin: Let It Sway
Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More

LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening

The Futureheads: The Chaos
Kings Go Forth: The Outsiders Are Back
Titus Andronicus: The Monitor
Roky Erickson & Okkervil River: True Love Cast Out All Evil
Horse Feathers: Thistled Spring
Band of Horses: Infinite Arms
Futurebirds: Hampton's Lullaby
Damien Jurado: Saint Bartlett
Venice is Sinking: Sand & Lines
Hot Chip: One Life Stand
Typhoon: Hunger and Thirst
The New Pornographers: Together
Matt Pond, PA: The Dark Leaves
Josh Ritter: So Runs the World Away
Yeasayer: Odd Blood
Call Me Lightning: When I Am Gone My Blood Will Be Free
Fran Healy: Wreckorder
Belle and Sebastian: Write About Love
The Rescues: Let Loose the Horses
Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
Fang Island: Fang Island
Vampire Weekend: Contra
Suckers: Wild Smile
Beach House: Teen Dream


Also, off the top of my head...
Disappointments: Gorillaz, Ryan Adams, Spoon
Overrated: Dum Dum Girls, Best Coast

Best Albums of 2010 So Far

I've been working on my list of the best albums of 2010 all year long this year. So far, here's the shortlist:

Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More
The National: High Violet
Josh Ritter: So Runs the World Away
Frightened Rabbit: The Winter of Mixed Drinks
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings: I Learned the Hard Way
Broken Bells: Broken Bells
Phosphorescent: Here's To Taking It Easy
The Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt
Good Old War: Good Old War
Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can
Band of Horses: Infinite Arms
Free Energy: Stuck on Nothing
Avi Buffalo: Avi Buffalo
Dum Dum Girls: I Will Be
Hot Chip: One Life Stand
Broken Social Scene: Forgiveness Rock Revord
LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening
Steel Train: Steel Train
Peter Wolf Crier: Inter-Be
The Roots: How I Got Over
Anais Mitchell: Hadestown
Laura Veirs: July Flame
Call Me Lightning: When I Am Gone My Blood Will Be Free
The Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
Jesca Hoop: Hunting My Dress
Futurebirds: Hampton's Lullaby
Best Coast: Crazy For You

You can view the live list here: http://schultzy.tadalist.com/lists/1352872/public. I'm moving things above the first dashed line as I decide they'll make the list, and checking them off as I decide they're not making the list.

Staggering Resolutions: Weekday Veg

It's been a long time since I introduced "Staggering Resolutions," my plan to do a new mini-resolution every month. The first one of those resolutions was to quit smoking, and I've had serious trouble sticking to that one. But now I've got several months of not smoking under my belt again, and I want to move on to the next thing.

So I'm trying a new one this month: weekday vegetarianism. This means exactly what it sounds like: Monday through Friday, I'm not eating meat. On the weekends, I'm reverting to my natural, carnivorous state.

I've found it a bit difficult to explain precisely why I'm compelled to do this. It's mostly for health reasons, I think, but it's also kind of interesting to change up my routine. And already, I've found one meal near the office that's absolutely delicious, and which I probably never would've tried without the constraint of vegetarianism. (The meal: Alterra Foundry's grilled veggie burrito.)

Anyway, this is happening. And I might blog about it some more. We'll see.

Lala Web Albums

No, I don't really expect you to care, but I wanted to make a list of the web albums I bought from Lala.com, to make sure I don't forget any of them, and I figured making it public might not be a bad idea.

Most of them are pretty good.

• The Airborne Toxic Event: The Airborne Toxic Event
• April Smith and the Great Picture Show: Songs For a Sinking Ship
• Blind Pilot: 3 Rounds and a Sound
• Broken Bells: Broken Bells
• Carolina Chocolate Drops: Genuine Negro Jig
• The Futureheads: The Chaos
• The Futureheads: The Futureheads
• Goldheart Assembly: Wolves and Thieves
• Great Lake Swimmers: Lost Channels
• Horse Feathers: Thistled Spring
• Horse Feathers: Words Are Dead
• JS Poppe: Sleep Therapy
• Juniper Tar - The Howl Street EP
• Laura Veirs - July Flame
• The Low Anthem - Oh My God Charlie Darwin
• The Low Anthen - What The Crow Brings
• Matt Pond, PA - Several Arrows Later
• Matt Pond, PA - Winter Songs EP
• The Morning Benders - Big Echo
• Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
• The National - Cherry Tree EP
• Outkast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
• Passion Pit - Manners
• Say Hi - The Wishes and the Glitch
• The Submarines - Honeysuckle Weeks