December 2008
21 posts
Tracklist: Rohindro
Thanks to David for helping me get this one up before my trip. I really would’ve liked having this for Christmas day, but between a locked computer and a slew of firewalls on my school’s network it just wasn’t meant to be.
Anyway, here’s Rohindro, a set of tracks that I’ve been listening to this Fall/Winter.
Rohindro, Part I & Part II [follow links to d/l zip...
Onto the 20th Century
“Friend”.
At the end of January, 20th Century Boys, Ch. II will be in theaters in Japan. I tore through this manga in about a month once I found a translation for it. Something about it must’ve just hit me at the right time in my life because it’s really stuck with me. It probably helps that it has one of the greatest antagonists I’ve seen in quite awhile...
2008 Honorable Mentions
Joe Pug - Nation of Heat EP
After the whirlwind of my first year in Japan I’d spent a lot of time building up the trip back home in my mind - anxieties, people to see, things to do, etc. Among them was the yearly trip my family takes to the greater North (Michigan’s U.P.), where I would get a chance to exhale and reset myself for the next year. In the months leading up to that time,...
Top 5 of '08, #1
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
My original top 5 list was a bit different. For a moment, I was operating on the fact that For Emma, Forever Ago was technically released in ‘07, then rereleased in ‘08 once the steam had started gathering. But that was stupid of me. 2008 will forever be remembered as the year that I found something new in music that I didn’t know existed, or...
Top 5 of '08, #2
AA Bondy - American Hearts
If I had a theme this year, it definitely would have been 1 man + 1 guitar = success. There are quite a few singer/songwriters that reflected that theme (The Tallest Man On Earth, Ricky Votolato, Paleo & others) but AA Bondy grabbed me right from the start. Maybe it’s because his songs have a taste of the southern heat or that his lyrics are honest and...
Watch
Top 5 of '08, #3
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Mada Minu Asu Ni (まだ見ぬ明日に)
It’s unlikely that this will really hit home with many apart from me - but when I talk about the albums that affected me most this year I can’t leave out my favorite Japanese band of all time. Mada Minu Asu Ni (To the Unforseeable Future) is actually a mini-album of songs that must have been scrapped from the leftovers of...
Top 5 of '08, #4
The Dodos - Visiter
Initially I was only slightly interested in the Dodos, but when I realized how much fun they were to chase & slaughter I was having Dodo meat every night and scrambled Dodo eggs for breakfast. Their subsequent extinction is regrettable, if only because of how much fun it would be to say we’re having dodo for Thanksgiving.
The band of the same name, on the other...
“Now, evil and suffering are more real to me then they ever were before. My eyes...”
– Kristin Caynor, via her blog.
Top 5 of '08, #5
Ever since moving to Japan, the way I’ve listened to music has been different. It’s probably not all good, either - nowadays I skim music blogs to try and find hidden gems among the piles of dirt laying around which leads to a lot of unnecessary labor on my part. It also means that I rarely have time to go deeper with a lot of the music I find, keeping most artists to a handful of...
Part of the 365 days project, this recording was...
Dotter Dotter 8-bit 3d Art →
This guy has a ton of this kind of 8-bit related art on his blog. Pokemon, Mario, Megaman, Excitebike, etc. Also, River City Ransom FTW.
This is the Uglysuit, and they have a song about Chicago. Take that, Sufjan. (for Sara, Chan, Holly, Blythe, Charity, Chad, Elissa, and anyone else who lives (or lived) in the Windy City that I know).
The Uglysuit - Chicago
Zombie Haiku
Zombie Haiku by Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that zombie plagued night. And take the shotgun. Zombie Haiku by Silvia Plath From head to black shoe, daddy, I had to eat you because I’m starving. Zombie Haiku by Robert Frost Two lobes in the skull. I eat the bloodier one – not much difference. Zombie Haiku by e.e. cummings if anyone lived in this wretched how town (they) would be soon eaten....
