Happy Hanukkah!

Starting at sundown today, Hanukkah begins! I know a ton of Jews that celebrate Hanukkah, and I just wanted to wish them a happy holiday.

I will be at home fixing a few things, then relaxing and watching Elf. Not exactly the most celebratory night ever, but I've definitely had worse.

Rolling Stone: 100 Best Albums of the Decade

Yesterday Rolling Stone released their list of the 100 best albums of the decade. I guess I am pretty happy with the list since bands like Radiohead, Jay Z and Kings of Leon have multiple albums in the list; and even happier that 'Aha Shake Heartbreak' (my favorite album by KOL) was ranked the highest out of all of them.

But I also feel like RS just latched on to some of the more popular names, like Kanye West and Coldplay, and put all of their albums in the list just to please the readers. I mean, there is no way '808s and Heartbreak' would be on the list at all, let alone at number 63. That (absolutely horrible) album was ranked higher than Franz Ferdinand's 'Franz Ferdinand', Coldplay's 'Parachutes', RHCP's 'Stadium Arcadium', Arcade Fire's 'Neon Bible', and The Postal Service's 'Give Up'...all absolutely amazing albums that deserve to be listed much higher than Kanye's. The same goes for Coldplay's 'Viva la Vida', which was just not good enough to be named in this list either.

I am happy that a few newer artists like Amy Winehouse, Vampire Weekend and Phoenix (who has been around for the entire decade, but whose newest album was really the only one that stood out enough to be named) were given the nod to be included. I am also happy for a few of the albums that normally would go unnoticed were included in this list of popularity like Fiona Apple's 'Extraordinary Machine', Fleet Foxes 'Fleet Foxes', Interpol's 'Turn on the Bright Lights', Spoon's 'Kill the Moonlight', Danger Mouse's 'The Grey Album' and Daft Punk's 'Discovery'.

I am mostly surprised that The Strokes took the number 2 spot with 'This is It', which I completely agree with, but don't have any other albums in the list. Also, the fact that Oasis has no albums in the list is very surprising. Missing from the list are Cold War Kids' 'Robbers and Cowards', The Killers' 'Sam's Town' (if Viva la Vida is on this list, Sam's Town should be too), Muse's 'Black Holes and Revelations', Justice's 'Cross', Cut Copy's 'In Ghost Colours' and Bloc Party's 'Silent Alarm' just to name a few.

I don't think anyone could ever create a list like this without backlash and criticism, but I think RS did a (mostly) good job with their list. At the very least, be happy there isn't any Nickelback or Creed!


1 | Radiohead: Kid A

2 | The Strokes: Is This It

3 | Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

4 | Jay-Z: The Blueprint

5 | The White Stripes: Elephant

6 | Arcade Fire: Funeral

7 | Eminem: The Marshal Mathers LP

8 | Bob Dylan: Modern Times

9 | M.I.A.: Kala

10 | Kanye West: The College Dropout

11 | Bob Dylan: Love and Theft

12 | LCD Soundsystem: Sound of Silver

13 | U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind

14 | Jay-Z: The Black Album

15 | Bruce Springsteen: The Rising

16 | OutKast: Stankonia

17 | Beck: Sea Change

18 | MGMT: Oracular Spectacular

19 | Amy Winehouse: Back to Black

20 | The White Stripes: White Blood Cells

21 | Coldplay: A Rush of Blood to the Head

22 | Green Day: American Idiot

23 | D'Angelo: Voodoo

24 | Bruce Springsteen: Magic

25 | Radiohead: Amnesiac

26 | Cat Power: The Greatest

27 | The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

28 | Yeah Yeah Yeahs: Fever to Tell

29 | Sigur Rós: Ágaetis Byrjun

30 | Radiohead: In Rainbows

31 | My Morning Jacket: Z

32 | Lil Wayne: Tha Carter III

33 | Daft Punk: Discovery

34 | OutKast: Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

35 | PJ Harvey: Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea

36 | U2: No Line on the Horizon

37 | 50 Cent: Get Rich or Die Tryin'

38 | Ryan Adams: Heartbreaker

39 | Kings of Leon: Aha Shake Heartbreak

40 | Kanye West: Late Registration

41 | Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

42 | Elliott Smith: Figure 8

43 | The Killers: Hot Fuss

44 | System of a Down: Toxicity

45 | Kanye West: Graduation

46 | Justin Timberlake: FutureSex/LoveSounds

47 | Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes

48 | TV on the Radio: Dear Science

49 | Fiona Apple: Extraordionary Machine

50 | Bright Eyes: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning

51 | Spoon: Kill the Moonlight

52 | M.I.A.: Arular

53 | Kings of Leon: Only By the Night

54 | Norah Jones: Come Away With Me

55 | Robert Plant and Alison Krauss: Raising Sand

56 | Vampire Weekend: Vampire Weekend

57 | Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism

58 | Danger Mouse: The Grey Album

59 | Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights

60 | Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

61 | The Shins: Oh, Inverted World

62 | Johnny Cash: American III: Solitary Man

63 | Kanye West: 808s and Heartbreak

64 | Gillian Welch: Time the Revelator

65 | Manu Chao: Próxima Estación Esperanza

66 | Antony & the Johnsons: I Am a Bird Now

67 | Björk: Vespertine

68 | U2: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

69 | Missy Elliott: Under Construction

70 | Sleater-Kinney: The Woods

71 | Bright Eyes: Lifted or the Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Eart to the Ground

72 | Franz Ferdinand: Franz Ferdinand

73 | Coldplay: Parachutes

74 | Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium

75 | Arcade Fire: Neon Bible

76 | Sigur Rós: ()

77 | Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

78 | Sufjan Stevens: Illinois

79 | The New Pornographers: Electric Version

80 | Kings of Leon: Youth and Young Manhood

81 | Ryan Adams: Gold

82 | Queens of the Stone Age: Rated R

83 | The Black Keys: Attack & Release

84 | Eminem: The Eminem Show

85 | Coldplay: Viva La Vida

86 | The Postal Service: Give Up

87 | Gnarls Barkley: St. Elsewhere

88 | Brian Wilson: Smile

89 | Radiohead: Hail to the Thief

90 | Amadou & Miriam: Dimanche a Bamako

91 | The Hives: Veni Vidi Vicious

92 | Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago

93 | Johnny Cash: Unearthed

94 | The Libertines: Up the Brackett

95 | Alicia Keys: Songs in A Minor

96 | The Streets: Original Pirate Material

97 | Wilco: Sky Blue Sky

98 | TV on the Radio: Return to Cookie Mountain

99 | The Hold Steady: Almost Killed Me

100 | Leonard Cohen: 10 New Songs

The Goods; Live Hard, Sell Hard

If you wanted to see the movie The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, but haven't seen it yet...you really aren't missing much. So, to save you the time and money, I have posted the absolute best/funniest moment of the movie below. This is a Will Ferrell clip from the movie that explains the death of McDermot, and had me laughing the entire time.

Don't be fooled, though, this movie is nowhere near as good as this clip, but is worth the $1 I spent at RedBox renting the movie for a night.

Also, just FYI: On playgrounds a 'Don Ready' is a euphemism for a hard on.

2010 World Cup Draw!

The 2010 Word Cup draw happened today, and the US got really lucky!! Even though they pulled group C, which already had England (and will play them in their first game), they ended up with two very poor teams, Algeria and Slovenia, filling the final slots. This basically guarantees that England and USA will advance to the next round!

Mexico also lucked out by choosing group A, which already had South Africa, the weakest of the pool 1 members (and was only there because of their host duties) and is a very weak group with Uruguay and France. Yes, France has been very good in the past, but they will most likely be weaker this year, and each group will advance 2 teams, so Mexico has a great shot to move into the next round.

Group G will be known as the group of death this year with Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal all being very strong teams, with North Korea as the only weak team in the group.

I think the 2010 World Cup will be very exciting with many chances for middle-teams like Mexico and USA to advance. The only problem I see is that every group, other than group G, has an (almost) guarantee for their powerhouse team to advance with ease. This will be bad for teams like the US later, but will also lead to some great match-ups as well.

The full draw results are below:

World Cup Groups

A

South Africa

Mexico

Uruguay

France

B

Argentina

Nigeria

South Korea

Greece

C

England

United States

Algeria

Slovenia

D

Germany

Australia

Serbia

Ghana

E

Netherlands

Denmark

Japan

Cameroon

F

Italy

Paraguay

New Zealand

Slovakia

G

Brazil

North Korea

Ivory Coast

Portugal

H

Spain

Switzerland

Honduras

Chile

It's December, I Am Cold!

It is cold out! I am sitting at work in a sweater with a scarf around my neck trying to avoid doing my actual work completely freezing. I don't know if it is the rain and 40 degree temperature outside, or the fact that my job apparently doesn't know when to turn off the air conditioning and start the heater. Either way, it blows.

I've had a lot going on lately between the Thanksgiving holiday and life, and I realize I need to post more than just once a week; but I can't think. Well, that and the fact that I am desperately trying to find a decently priced car online, even though I absolutely do not like cars and don't want one....but I need one.

While I try to break through this completely lethargic mood that I am in today, I will leave you with a few videos and posts that have gotten me through the morning so far.


The first post is Austin Town Hall's recap of The Get Up Kids show I was at on the 18th. The show was absolutely amazing, and probably even better for me since I had never seen them live before. High school me definitely came out and had a good time! They have some great pictures from the show, so don't skip those.

The second post is from Maggie's Austin about stuntman Damien Walters. I have been wanting to see Ninja Assassin since I saw the first preveiw, but I have actually heard the movie is amazing and I definitely know that this guy will bring some crazy moves to the movie.

The third post is from [Redacted]. Dan is one of my favorite bloggers, and when I read this post I thought it was both hilarious and true. A great read for anyone procrastinating at work. Also make sure to check out his Thailand adventure stories.

And finally, a video that somehow got me in the holiday spirit:

SXSW 2010: First List of Bands

I know that SXSW 2010 seems like a long ways away (I wasn't even thinking about it yet), but the amazing folks at SXSW decided to release the first list of 200 bands that will be playing in Austin this March. Even though I definitely won't be able to go for 3 full days like I usually do, hopefully I will be able to make it to a few shows/parties.

A few notables are Deer Tick, We Are Scientists and The Crystal Method. Chuy told me that Black Rebel Motorcycle Club will be playing as well!

You can find the full list of bands here

LED Tattoos

I am one of those people that have always wanted a tattoo, but a.) can't decide what to get and b.) take life way too seriously and only focus on the reasons not to get one. Well, the days of the old-school tats might be gone, now that they are introducing LED tattoos!

It isn't clear on whether or not you will need a specific design (or at least the frame of a design) when your LED tattoo will be "inked" on your skin, since the object can move/stetch, but it definitely gives me a good reason to figure out what I would want!

Taken from Wired.com:

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have created new LED tattoos - there are developing silicon-and-silk implantable devices which sit under the skin like a tattoo. Already implanted into mice, these tattoos could carry LEDs, turning your skin into a screen.

The silk substrate onto which the chips are mounted eventually dissolves away inside the body, leaving just the electronics behind. The sheet of silk will keep them in place, molding to the shape of the skin when saline solution is added.

These displays could be hooked up to any kind of electronic device, also inside the body. Medical uses are being explored, from blood-sugar sensors that show their readouts on the skin itself to neurodevices that tie into the body’s nervous system — hooking chisp to particular nerves to control a prosthetic hand, for example.

Chips are already used inside bodies, most notably the tiny RFID tags injected into pets. But the flexible nature of these “tattooed” circuits means they can move elastically with the body, sitting in places that a rigid circuit board couldn’t.

The Slammin' Salmon

This is the new movie by Broken Lizard, the comedy group that made Beerfest and Super Troopers. Even though there is no chance it will be as great as either of those movies, it has potential to be good. Plus, they have brought in Cobie Smulders from HIMYM to play one of the waitresses...can't go wrong with that choice.

Salt | Prince of Persia

It is sad how often I get hooked on random/crappy/dorky-looking movies. Once I see the trailer I will look up details on the movie, and then end up seeing it and loving it. These are usually the movies that other people watch and then wish they would have saved their $8 by staying at home.

Hopefully these next two will not be movies in this category...

'Salt' starring Angelina Jolie has the best potential to be a blockbuster hit. Although, it definitely reminds me of the Geena Davis movie from the 90's called 'The Long Kiss Goodnight.'

'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time' is definitely a dork movie. It looks like it has the same potential as (maybe) the Spiderman movies (because they weren't great), but without the popularity. Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead makes no sense to me, but will probably bring more people out to see the movie.

Monday = Random

I am feeling very random today. Maybe it is the time change...or maybe it is just because it is Monday.

1. Jet set list from Austin show: K.I.A., Get What You Need, She's a Genius, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, La Di Da, Take It Or Leave It, Black Hearts (On Fire), Last Chance, Skin and Bones, Kings Horses, Shine On, Are You Gonna Be My Girl, 17, Cold Hard Bitch, Rip It Up | Walk, Hey Kids, Get Me Outta Here.

2.I have been watching a lot of the 2009 World Series of Poker on YouTube lately. I have never seen a Royal Flush at the table before, and this is what it looks like to beat 4 Aces:



3. Texas Tech coach Mike Leach is crazy. If you have never seen his press conferences, then you should enjoy this (skip to the 25 second mark):



4. Video for "Empire State of Mind" by Jay Z ft. Alicia Keys: