Add Radiohead and Lykke Li to the Mix

From PJ Harvey to Radiohead to Lykke Li, my head is about to explode with awesome new music. Lykke Li's album isn't out yet (March 1st!), but she leaked it last week online. I posted some PJ in my last post, so here are my two favorite songs from Radiohead and Li.

New PJ Harvey

"Let England Shake", the new album released today by PJ Harvey is pretty remarkable. On my third round; each round brings about new understanding. This is a war album, and it shows. Marching beats and explicit references to death sprinkle almost every song. Highly recommended.

OMG! Obama a Christian!

Apparently, Obama's team finds it necessary to underscore (yet again!) that he is in fact a Christian. I get it. A lot of Americans vote by their faith, and a lot of Americans are Christians. A politician must exploit his belief system in order to cater to the concerns of his more religious constituents. (Well, technically, nobody ever HAS to do anything, but politics is certainly a game of "whatever it takes to get on top".)

(Here's the article on Yahoo!, which if you've ever read the comments on Yahoo! articles, you'll realize why it's pretty apropos that it's a major headline there. Even articles on cute cat tricks inevitably contain comments praising Sarah Palin as an angel and Obama as a demonic socialist.)

So, even though I understand the necessity for this, I still find it pretty unnerving. I believe Obama. Being the US President is a tough job and it is often under extremely stressful situations that people turn to faith. I totally buy every quote he's spewing out; however, it's the reason that bothers me.

The reality is, if Obama wants to get reelected in 2012, he is going to need to build a stronger base among typically conservative Christians. This is a great start to a necessary PR scheme. All I'm saying is, I don't have to like it.

Lia Ices

Lia Ices. Music as smooth and comfortably cold as her surname. She peers over the fence at all the waif-sounding, dime-a-dozen song fairies, but doesn't climb over. Instead she runs back to all her friends (like that Bon Iver guy) and they sing songs by the fire of pretentious genius - but, you know, they just sing and dance around it, totally unaffected.

Check out the album, Grown Unknown, released on January 25 (coincidentally, also the best day of the year... ahem).

"Alan! Alan! Alan! Al! Alan!"

Absurd.

Hang 10PM

Remarkably dangerous, I'm sure. Still pretty awesome.

Mark Visser Rides JAWS at Night! from Fortrus Sports on Vimeo.

How to Extend Your Life without Extending Your Life

Via BoingBoing, an interesting experiment on how to prolong your life by manipulating the passage of time. Sign me up.

The Time Hack - Day 4: Explainer from The Time Hack on Vimeo.

Visit www.thetimehack.com to follow the journey.

2010 Musical Highlights

A tad too lazy for creating a thorough top ten album list for 2010 (not to mention, totally delayed).

The circumstances for 2010 were strange for me in general, and unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to pay attention to the music scene as much as I normally would. Regardless, I'd still like to share some of my favorite songs from the year.

No rankings, no explanations, no need:

The Roots (feat. Joanna Newsom & STS), "Right On"


M.I.A., "Space"


Arcade Fire, "We Used to Wait"

The National, "Sorrow"


Robyn, "Indestructible"


Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, "Better Things"


Black Keys, "Too Afraid to Love You"


Fatboy Slim & David Byrne, "Here Lies Love"



... and because I can't resist. I don't know why I love this song so much.

Flo Rida (feat. David Guetta), "The Club Can't Handle Me"



I can say quite confidently that I am missing many favorites that I had, but have just forgotten. Here's hoping 2011 is a better year for music... or at least, a better year for musical posterity by me.

Josh Groban on Jimmy Kimmel

Please watch this 400 times in a row.

My Sister's Neater

Growing up, my sister could never clean her room well enough to even make a pathway to the door. Now she's hosting parties, brunches, and events for her family, friends, and church that rival event planning professionals. Just goes to show that we all change as we grow older.

Over Christmas, we reminisced about how she once coerced me into admitting that I put a hole in the bathroom wall (a hole that she made!) in order that we could both end up going to the Harvest Festival in Irvine where we grew up. I took the fall. My sister went, I didn't.

Now she's a married, mother of two with her hands full. Yet she still manages to do things like this:

To read more from her blog (in my opinion, much more interesting, creative and inspiring than mine) visit: http://jmtjohnson.blogspot.com/

1/1/11

I'm back from my 9-month sabbatical. It was unannounced, unplanned and totally not kosher with the "being disciplined" theme of this blog. 2010 turned out to be a bit tougher than I expected. Lots of capital-C Crossroads (yes, Britney-serious), revelations and letdowns. But it's a new year. Amid all the resolutions, celebrations and irresponsible drinking, one thing that I love about New Year's Day is the communal belief that it truly is the beginning of a new chapter. I find it remarkable that we as an intelligent species are still so prone to hop on the bandwagon at each arbitrary turn of a year. I like that. It reminds me that we as humans are a) capable of starting over and learning from our mistakes, and, b) stupid.

So, what are my resolutions? I'm not quite sure, but I have some ideas. One, which may be obvious as I'm saying this all here, is to write more (or, again) on this blog. I had a few people say they missed reading my posts (which was validating) and a lot negative Nancies in my head pushing me towards abstaining given my personal disappointment with the content/quality/laziness of writing that had started to creep out. No guarantees that this blog will change anyone's life (including my own), but I think any opportunity that arises where I can get out of my own head is a good one.

One big change this year: I started graduate school. Along with the long nights of cramming microeconomic concepts, interpreting financial statements, and analyzing political case studies, my diet sort of flew out the window. Rewarding yourself with buckets of licorice and vats of Diet Coke just for finishing assigned readings is not a healthy habit. It's amazing how your mind can justify your behavior under stressful situations. I was eating pretty healthy for the first nine months of 2010, and I'm going back to that. My body will probably really enjoy getting rid of the extra 15 pounds I managed to pack on in under 100 days.

So, what else? Not sure. 4.0? Find love? Cook more? Save an Asian elephant? For everything else that the year will offer, I'm just resolving to be open-minded... and to stay out of the ivory trade.

Happy New Year!