Favorite Music from 2007

As the year winds down I've seen a lot of "best of" lists when it comes to music from 2007. These lists are obviously comprised of songs and/or albums that were released in 2007.

This of course got me thinking about what my personal favorites from the year were. However, I soon realized that most of the new music I started listening to consistently in 2007 didn't necessarily come out during the year, but was new to me. In some cases it was 20+ years old. The following is not in any particular order and in some cases is not a specific song or album but rather an artist.

1. "Beyond the Neighbourhood" - Athlete
This was one of the few ones on my list that came out this past year. Their album "Tourist" still remains one of my overall favorites.

2. Badly Drawn Boy - I can remember hearing the song "You were right" a few years ago but never knew who sang it. I came across it when I was on Hype Machine one day and ended up checking out a lot of other BDB songs. All good stuff. BDB did have an album come out in 2007 called "Born in the UK" but "Have You Fed the Fish" is the by far his best in my opinion.

3. "Sundress" - Ben Kweller
This is one of those cases where I liked this particular song a lot, listened to it over and over. Unfortunately I could never really get into any of his other stuff.

4. Joy Division
I had always been a big New Order fan but could never really get into their precursor band Joy Division other than the song their probably most well-known for, "Love will Tear us Apart." Then I watched the movie "Control" in November which is a biopic on the late Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division. The movie itself was pretty good but it of course feature a huge dose of Joy Division songs. After watching the movie, Joy Division became a regular on my workout playlist. I could listen to "Transmission" over and over again.

5. "Mockingbird" - Derek Webb
I love the way Derek sings about his faith and puts it the context of everyday issues. He isn't the most subtle guy with respect to how he feels about something, just check out these lyrics to "A King and a Kingdom" - there are two great lies that i’ve heard:“the day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”and that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican

6. "Mr. Lemons" - Glen Phillips
Although I continue to be a huge fan of the former Toad the Wet Sprocket lead singer, when this album first came out in mid-2006, it really didn't do much for me. Then there was a few days of brutal commutes a couple of months back that I was listening to nothing but GP and the Mr. Lemon's songs really spoke to me. The lyrics to most of the songs had a very spiritual undertone to them, particularly "Everything but you" and "Thank You."

7. "Nothing Left to Lose" - Mat Kearney
The title song hooked me on this album. Took a little while before I could appreciate it but the strong lyrics did it for me. Kearney is one of the best Christian songwriters I have heard in a while.

8. "We were dead before the ship sank" - Modest Mouse
I could listen to "Dashboard" over and over again. Former Smiths' guitarist Johnny Marr joined the group for this one and put these guys over the top in my opinion.

9. "Boxer" - The National
One of those artists I constantly heard thanks to satellite radio. Never got tired of hearing "Start a War."

10. The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
Great band out of Chicago but you would think they're from Ireland. Kind of have a bit of Chieftains sound to them.

11. "Our Ill Wills" - Shout Out Louds
Everytime I hear their lead singer, it makes me want to watch Austin Powers Goldmember. Lead singer sings with a heavy dutch/scandanavian accent, but it's not so bad that you can't understand what he's saying.

Tis the Season for Texas Christmas Fun

We got our Christmas buzz on this weekend when we headed up to the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, the self-proclaimed "Christmas Capital" of Texas. I'll take their word for it given there are tens of thousands of towns in Texas and I really don't feel like trying to substantiate the claim.

The weekend had very much a Christmas feel to it as a cold front blew in on Saturday morning and there was a biting wind all day that made it feel like it was in the 20s with the wind chill. I'm sure all of our friends in the midwest and northeast yawn at that one but hey, we've been in Texas for eight years now, our tolerance for cold weather stops when the temperature drops below 50.

After the requisite picture in front of a really big Christmas tree in the town square, the kids turned their attention to Frosty.After tormenting Frosty, a Santa Claus on stilts and an elf, we took a carriage ride for more small town Christmas fun.
After being outside for more than 30 minutes, we determined that we were far colder than we should have been (at least Tricia and I were, the children were of course unphased by it all) and we headed over to the Gaylord (insert "Meet the Parents" movie reference here) Texan Hotel for an indoor winter wonderland. I looked long and hard at every Target in the great Austin area for this decoration and could not find it, apparently it's one of a kind.

We thought we could warm up by going inside but that typically doesn't happen when you decide to check out ice sculpture exhibits. For some reason, 9 degrees is the magic number to keep ice from melting indoors. I'm guessing with all those cooling units working 24/7 to keep the million-plus pounds of ice frozen, achieving carbon-neutrality is a bit challenging for the hotel.

Amen!

We got back in time on Sunday to enjoy the neighborhood holiday party. Unfortunately our HOA couldn't secure one of those cool throne-like chairs the mall Santas get to sit in all day. The park bench was the best we could offer. I'm pretty sure we ended up with a non-union Santa as a result.

Chandler pondered her numerous requests and Clancy and crew figured there was strength in numbers.
While the weekend had its challenges - seven plus hours in the car, a restless night's sleep at the hotel, some lengthy waits and the typical angst that results from our kids spending lots of time around each other, it was a fun time and I wouldn't hesistate to do it again!

Extreme Team Makeover: Ed Wade Style

With the trade of Chris Burke, Chad Qualls and Juan Gutierrez for D-backs closer Jose Valverde, this is now officially Ed Wade's team. The guy has guts, that's for sure. While I still think he gave up too much for Tejada (I'm not even going to get into the steroid issue this post,) it was the type of shake things up trade this franchise needed. This team was not going to win next season with some minor tweaks.

I still don't know if this team is good enough to win a weak division, I still think Wade needs to go out and get one more decent starting pitcher. The idea of going into the season with Woody Williams, Brandon Backe, Wandy Rodriguez and Chris Sampson as the guys throwing when Oswalt doesn't is a bit unsettling for me right now. Woody showed us last season he has nothing left, Backe and Sampson have had arm troubles and Wandy was erratic. I have concerns about the bullpen as well after Valverde and Brocail. However, if everyone stays relatively healthy, there's no reason this team shouldn't contend with the lineup they have in place now.

Here's my wild (and wishful) thought of the day: Roger Clemens has a Texas-sized ego, I'm almost certain the guy thinks he has something to prove following the Mitchell report. Why not extend some overtures toward him for a May/June return. Perhaps he will give the team the hometown discount circa 2004 season.

Pac=10 Co-Champion = trip to Holiday Bowl

So here's my rant:

• ASU is co-champions of the Pac-10. They are co-champs of what could arguably be the 2nd or 3rd toughest conference in college football. If Oregon has a healthy Dennis Dixon, I'd say we're tied with the Big-12 for 2nd.
  
• Hawaii - congrats on going undefeated with your 137th ranked strength-of-schedule (according to Sagarin.) Spare me the whining about how no good non-conference teams want to come and play you. I hope you guys go to the Orange Bowl and thump Kansas (89th-ranked schedule) but you'll have to do better than you did against the LAST PLACE team in the Pac-10. ASU's strength of schedule according to Sagarin's computer model - 29th.
  
• West Virginia - a 28-point favorite against Pitt loses, costs itself a spot in the National Championship and because of the stupid BCS conference tie-ins, the Fiesta Bowl is forced to take them.
  
• Speaking of conference tie-ins - the Rose Bowl people should be ashamed of themselves. Congrats on picking a team with three losses who will get thumped by USC, maybe even worse than ASU did. Here you have the flexibility to set up a great match-up with another, more deserving team like maybe West Virginia, but you feel compelled to keep that Pac-10 vs. Big 10 tradition alive. Get over Rose Bowl committee, Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler don't coach in the Big-10 anymore. The Big-10 is awful and overrated.
  
• It's a complete travesty that Ohio State is playing for the national championship .... again.
• Then again, had the Devils taken care of business in just one of the games against Oregon or USC, then all of the above are moot points. Sigh.
  

Living in the Austin area, I get Longhorn football shoved down my throat pretty consistently. I accept it, it's part of being a sports fan in the home of the biggest university in Texas. It doesn't mean I have to like it however.

This is where I see a silver lining in all of this. My bitterness about ASU not playing in a BCS game is somewhat off-set by the fact that ASU will take on the Longhorns in San Diego. If ASU wins this game (and there's no reason they shouldn't) I get to throw this in the face of my fellow co-workers, neighbors, parishioners and anyone else who rides the burnt orange bandwagon for the next year.

My note on last night's win over Tucson is simply this: Chris McGaha is a freaking stud. It's a shame the guy hasn't scored a TD yet this year.

Diving Catch By Chris McGaha in Arizona vs. Arizona State