The World According to iTunes

According to iTunes, these were the songs that I listened to most often in the month of January:

1. Ready To Start - Arcade Fire
2. Big & Tall - Lifter
3. Overkill [Acoustic Version] - Colin Hay
4. Chicago Promenade - Jason Isbell
5. Thirteen - Big Star
6. Sweet Disposition - The Temper Trap
7. Southwood Plantation Road - The Mountain Goats
8. Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect - The Decemberists
9. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) - John Lennon
10. New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down - LCD Soundsystem
11. No One Sleeps When I'm Awake - The Sounds
12. Oh! Sweet Nuthin' - The Velvet Underground
13. Lovers' carvings - Bibio
14. Tokyo Storm Warning - Elvis Costello
15. Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen
16. Handkerchiefs - Winterpills
17. Pink Turns to Blue - Hüsker Dü
18. Here Comes Your Man - Pixies
19. Human Behaviour - Björk
20. Crosses - Jose González
21. The Rich, Dark, Sultry Red Of Hate - Lifter
22. This Modern Love - Bloc Party
23. Sabotage - Beastie Boys
24. Hector (For Winnie) - Lifter
25. Reckoner - Radiohead

Really interesting selection, no?

Do you think that there is an overriding theme?

Defining One's Terms

Cheers - A common toast used when drinking in company; goodbye; thank you. show approval or good wishes by shouting (Source/Source)

Kudos - from the Greek κῦδος (not to be confused with κύδος "taunt"), kydos, (literally "that which is heard of") means "fame" and "renown" resulting from an act or achievement. Extending "kudos" to another individual is often done as a praising remark. (Source)

This helpful reminder has been brought to you by a grant from Cee Lo.

Look what I found!

While Teacher Dave and I were Habitating today, we had to stop at Stewart's for supplies (bottles of water, et cetera) and look what I saw in the cooler!




Yep, that is Four Loko still in the wild.

I had to buy it and Teacher Dave agreed!

Watermelon flavored Four Loko!

I took it to the register and the woman stated, "Something must of changed to allow us to sell it."

"Nope. That's why I am buying it. "

"Huh."

And then she sold it to me.

Awesome, no?

Seeing that this was supposed to be off the shelfs months ago, and the leftovers have been turned into ethanol, this was an amazing fine.

By the way, it was the last one in the cooler.

(and Watermelon?)

So...should I save it, drink it, or use it to strip furniture?

More on Books and Reading

A couple of months ago, on Fish's recommendation, I bought and read "The Giver" with the belief that I was going to give it to TEA to read. It ended up being far to dark for a then seven year old and I put it away for when he was a little older.

However, it did re-introduce me to the genre of young adult dystopian fiction (from now on, it will be referred to as YADF) which was a genre that I loved growing up. Think of the great ones from your youth: A Canticle for Leibowitz, Alas, Babylon and all those short stories that popped up. They changed my world view. One of the things that I loved about these books and stories was that there was no magic. It was a fantastic world but one that played by real world rules.

I read some of the Harry Potter series and the magic bothered me. The same problem existed with Pullman's Dark Materials series (but I could use the Clarke quote (See Law 3) here, because it was science-based even though it was fantastic) and I couldn't get into them.

Over the past couple of weeks, a number of people had mentioned The Hunger Games (including the good people on the Slate Political Gabfest) but when my friend Heather mentioned that she was reading it about a week ago, it fully hit my radar. Then as I was running some errands yesterday, the book was endorsed on Slate's Culture Gabfest, and I knew that I had to have it.

So, I purchased it and read it and I am hating Heather and the others that promoted this book. Why? Because it is the first of three and it is really good. Like I want to run out right now and get the second book right now good.

This story is set in a post apocalyptic America after a civil war and each area (or District) has two select two (one of each gender) children between the ages of twelve and eighteen to compete in the Hunger Games which is a combination of Thunderdome and Survivor.

Any more than that and I will give away too much of the story. What I can say is that even though these are YADF novels, at no point do they become condescending to the reader, and if you have some idea of what is going on now, you will be well prepared to understand the world (and you can figure out with area gets blown (literally) off the map).

Here is the perfect book (or books, I will get the other two tomorrow) for the cold winter that is still upon us.

Diner Food

All Over Albany had a great post up earlier in the week about diner food in the Albany area. (The included the Halfmoon Diner and as you know, I had quite possibly the worst dining experience of my life there which was part of a spectacularly crappy day.)

Miss Albany topped this list (oh, and if you noticed, MAD made the TU today) and of course they did. They are always good and very often excellent. They are what diners should be.

That being said, I want to make another plea for the Pearl Street Diner(Facebook Page).

I rarely change my breakfast menu. Coffee, rye toast, home fries and two or three poached eggs. It is an "easy meal" as in it sounds simple, but is can be screwed up spectacularly. (The eggs go on the toast, not in a bowl on the side, and I am talking to you, Johnny B's Diner.) Poaching anything well is difficult and poaching it badly is surprisingly simple.

While the Pearl Street Diner has been good the six or so times I have been there, this morning the eggs were poached to perfection. As Anthony Bourdain said on Top Chef All-Stars during the Restaurant Wars episode if you put a runny egg on anything, you have made it delicious. Today, the perfectly poached egg on the well buttered rye toast was as close to Heaven as I am ever going to get.

So, when you are in Downtown Albany next, and the Miss Albany Diner is packed, or you are just looking for something new to try, I plead with you to try the Pearl Street Diner, and have the poached eggs. I cannot promise that they are going to be a sublimely good as they were this morning, but I can promise that they will be tasty.

(Off topic for a minute: How do you like your eggs? This post (and Runaway Bride, and yes, I have seen the film, and yes, it made enough of an impression on my that I think about it) talked about cereal as the litmus test for compatibility but I don't like cereal. I really don't like it. I am a hot breakfast person, and I love eggs, toast, and coffee. I swear that someone I dated only put up with me because I was strict about making a hot breakfast even when she had to leave the house by 6:30 to get to work. It was my only decent behavior, but I never asked her how she liked her eggs. So, are eggs a better test? You can't get Kix at your local diner (or I pray that you can't) so...maybe eggs?)

(Off topic for another minute: And for the foodies out there, and the Top Chef fans too, here is a great post from people who were at the Restaurant Wars in person and recounted their experience.)