Top Five Albums of 2010

Sorry this is a little behind schedule, but that's just how it is. I'm not doing 10, I'm only doing 5. I'm also not going to explain myself. I've been working on this for too long and can't seem to find the words. This frustration led me to decide to just post the list and move on. I'm done with 2010. A bunch of these I've already given my two cents on as well and went through and hyper linked to the previous posts. And without further ado...

Honorable Mentions

Gil Scott-Heron - I'm New Here
The Black Keys - Brothers
Eminem - Recovery
Kid Cudi - Man on the Moon Part II: The Legend of the Rager
Arcade Fire - Suburbs

#5 of Montreal - False Priest

#4 Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

#3 Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty

#2 Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

#1 Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest


Good bye 2010. You were good. You were bad. But mostly you just were.

I won't rest till I buy your land

Tomorrow you're going to get my top 10 albums of 2010, which is really today, it's very late. In anticipation I've decided to give you a little treat. #1 song of the year:



If you don't agree comment or I don't really care

I want a confetti canon

(thanks to NESF for the find)

The meaning of life?

Yesterday was 10/10/10. If you translate that into binary you get the number 42. So it could be argued that yesterday was the meaning of life. That is if you believe Douglas Adams was right. And that binary is the true language. And that the Gregorian calendar is in fact the true measure of time. And that for some reason this time it happened was somehow more significant than the last. Mostly it comes down to whether you're willing to put enough faith in so many things that are mere creations of man. It wasn't a bad day by any means, but it wasn't the best either. I guess that it could have been the meaning of life, in the sense that any given day could be...

Chili Cook Off was good times. Ray and Jen did a great job of hosting the event. I hope that it is the beginning of many successful cook offs to come. My quest for the winning chili failed yet again, but there's always next year...

Life's kind of complicated right now, but I don't really want to get into that. So instead I'll leave you with a little Deerhunter...

"Halcyon Digest" streaming on NPR

That's right people, the new Deerhunter can be streamed NOW! I'm very pleased so far. I've listened to it about three times and it's grown on me more with each go around. If you don't have time to listen to the whole thing this is my favorite track so far. That being said it really should be experienced as a whole.

I had plans to go away for days

It's finally here. Tonight is Deerhunter. I'm leaving work early. I didn't really need to. But I figured that this is a treat to myself. I bought the tickets while I was still injured. I've now spent 2 months healing waiting for the point when I could go enjoy a show. Unfortunately I have this new foot problem, but as I told my colleague I'd go to this show even if my leg was gangrened and oozing puss. I wish it wasn't at the Block Party, but ob la di. It's going to be amazing...

I can hardly wait.

It's only 15 days till Deerhunter.

The subject was always just out of frame

I can't wait to get out of here. I'm sitting at work bored out of my mind and this weekend I finally get to get away. I'm going to Ohanapecosh (SE Mt Rainier) with my dad. Well we're hoping to find a site there. If not we're going to hit up the family compound and pitch tents there. Either way it's going to be nice to get out of Seattle even if its just for the weekend...

I've been fending off boredom by working on the festival. Things are starting to come together nicely. Looks like I still need a few more acts, but I'm also adding a surprise performance. I might release more details as the date nears, but I probably won't. You'll just have to show up to find out...

I mowed the lawn last night. I must say, "Damn, it looks gooood!" It was exhausting though. By the time I was done I was dripping in sweat, my leg throbbed and my skin burned. But my foot didn't hurt. There's a plus...

I'm still obsessed with Deerhunter. It never stops...

Who brought the witch to the Gay Parade? Does she need surgery?

This was the first weekend in a while that I was out and about on the town. It was good. I am starting to feel like a member of society again. But as my dear friend told me society might not have been entirely ready for me to come back. While I was out yesterday I found myself suffering from a sort of turrets. Borderline(maybe a little further) comments were coming from my mouth left and right. One such instance was at the Fremont Street Fair on Sunday. A 20-something woman was walking by us. Completely disregarding the heat of the day she sported a Gothic black dress, long stockings and a brimmed black hat that rose above her head into a point. Now this woman was obviously a witch, or at least wanted us all to think that she was. So I called her out as such. There were also a couple of situations involving women with unusually large breasts and an elderly women in the PCC wearing a helmet, but I feel those were much more reserved...

I've very close to beating Trauma Center: Second Opinion. I thought that I was going to beat it last night, but even after taking down the "final" formation of GUILT and successfully saving the patient it went on to the side track that I guess I have to finish now. I cannot express how much I'm loving this game. Well I could tell you that I went out and bought the other version of it. That kind of suggests my obsession. DR. STILLES!!...

Today it's all about the Gay Parade. The Scout and I were talking about it yesterday and I haven't been able to get it out of my head since. "They gather up all the countries flags and they burn them!" It's just such a good album. Hopefully Of Montreal's next album will be more in the vein of their early stuff. I'm still disappointed in their latest...

On Saturday I found two things that should forever be combined: Buck Hunter and Deerhunter. I spent 2 hours at Redline in West Seattle going between Cryptograms and Microcastles while pilling up buck carcasses in a virtual world. First time I've played since the injury. It was so good to get back at it that I went again on Sunday...

I love that Neutral Milk Hotel was able to help save a carousel. I hope that they use this experience to put together a new album. We've been waiting for over 10 years now. I guess it's more likely to be a case of words on a gravestone: "I waited but you never came"...

I've been blogging a lot lately. This is already the 150th post. Seems like just yesterday was the 100th post...

"Twitter slandering"

I just got tickets to see Handsome Furs a week from Friday at Neumos. Should be a good time. I'm anxious to get back out there and feel like a part of the scene again. That's just the beginning though. I also snapped up tickets to see Deerhunter at the Capitol Hill Block Party. I am going to be counting down the days...

I'd like to share some words of wisdom from P.:

dont support puppy mills
outing people on the online
facebook divorces'n shit
twitter slandering

The theoretical existence of naked singularities is important because their existence would mean that it would be possible to observe the collapse of an object to infinite density.

never go to bed without a piece of raw meat

if you do go on the price is right you should tell drew carry to perk up a bit, then thank him for soccer in seattle

He mentions another thing in the end there. I think that I'm going to go on the Price is Right with my dad. It would be AWESOME!!! Maybe I'll win a trip to Europe or a new car. Even if I don't I'm sure it will be fun, I just need to figure out what else we should do in So Cal...

I'm trying not to be disruptive at work. Its difficult since on of the people I'm talking to is making me laugh hysterically. I tried to suppress the outburst and the laughter came as tears...

Today is a blur kind of day...

Memorial day without the mayhem

It's a holiday. The sun is shining. If you want to bbq come over to my house. I want to eat copious amounts of animal flesh and drink buckets of beer...

The injury is healing nicely if I have to say so myself. It's been about a week since I've had to take any pain killers. And I'm only using the crutches when I leave the house. Tomorrow the doctor should tell me that I can ditch the sticks all together. I can't wait...

As you all can probably guess from recent posts, I've developed a sort of obsession with Deerhunter. I went through their blog and downloaded all kinds of stuff. It's all that I've listened to this weekend. It has a way of making me feel very human while still completely detached from the world. I guess that's how I've been feeling a lot lately. It's been inspiring me to write though...

I made some pasta salad last night at midnight. I'm not sure why. I guess I didn't realize what time it was when I started. I even made the dressing from scratch. It has bacon and egg and peppers. I hope it's good. When I tried it last night I decided it should chill before I give it a final verdict...

I ate so many swedish fish last night that I thought I was going to puke. But it was soooo good...

I'm starting to make some decent progress on this 7 project I've been working on. Had a meeting last week and it totally changed my prospective on the whole thing. Here's another little teaser:

St. Christopher sits behind the wheel, slightly hunched, asks for the fare. His facial features and skin tone seem to change as if a cameleon gone into shock. He admires them all, then pretends like they were never there, as he continues to constantly watch them. The Vicario brothers board in a frenzy. Behind their eyes its apparent they haven't slept or eaten in days. Pedro can't stop tapping his foot, a beat resembling the national anthem. Pablo is picking the moles from his forearm with a knife he unwrapped from a newspaper. Pedro's arms jet up from stillness, fingers pointing forward as if to sign some great event. His satchel falls scattering watches, tobacco and a variety of hot sauces all across the ribbed floor. He attempts to sell a watch to a Korean immigrant before collapsing into sleep.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the rest of what's in my head adequately expressed within the confines of words. I just have to have faith in myself, which seems to be growing every day...

Deerhunter blog excerpt

So I don't know how I've missed the deerhunter/atlas sound/lotus plaza blog but don't worry I've found it now. I was going through all the old posts, some of which are really interesting. This particular part stood out to me. Maybe it's because I've been to the hospital a lot lately....

After the Deerhunter show at the Market Hotel Friday, I became extremely ill. Lockett and I had both been suffering from a severe flu, but I think exhaustion and too much cigarette smoke pushed me beyond my limits and by Sunday, the 13th I had to go to the emergency room in Manhattan. I honestly felt like I was dying and there is no better time to explore and relive small tears in your past than to have them floating in front of you in a haze of painkillers and i.v. bags.

If you want to read the whole post you can check it out here.

Rainy day in May

The healing process is in full effect. The only down side is now I have lots of dead skin and calluses falling off. I think that the best way to deal with it is to get a pedicure. I've never had one. I wonder if my doctor would allow it...

I have a bunch of new music to listen to. It's pleasing me greatly. I got it all last week from a friend. The first thing I dove into was Cryptograms from Deerhunter. I almost forgot about everything else...

Speaking of deer, I'm going through some serious Buck Hunter withdrawals. Dangerous Hunts doesn't even compare. So I've been playing Trauma Center on my wii. Love that game. You have to perform surgeries and reconstruct bone and such...

I have no idea what I'm doing for the holiday yet. I think I'm going to have a BBQ with my family at some point (details are still sketchy). And I'm probably going to do something with Matty Ice. Maybe go to Boundary Bay or something like that. I have the whole house to myself so I might through a kegger for the peeps left in the city for the holiday. I will say though, keggers aren't quite the same when you have beer on tap at all times...

I need to find more guest bloggers. If anyone is interested in submitting something to the blog send me an email at desolatesorrows@gmail.com. As long as it's somewhat relevant to the subject matter of the blog (which as you can see is very loosely defined) I'll post it...

I had a dream a few night ago. Over the past few days bits and pieces have been coming back to me about it. It began in Magnolia. I was under an overpass in a very industrial area. I was following an animal which may have been Urban Phantom, but I'm not sure. As I wandered further I ended up at a street carnival. There were booths lining the streets and lights strung all overhead. It wasn't long before I realized that the carnival was full of whores. Nothing but whores. But none of them were "working". It was almost like a convention. At one point I went up to a ticket booth to make some purchases and have some photos developed. They told me that the photos would take 30 days to develop. That's all I remember, so far. Usually I can remember most of my dream and what I don't is lost forever. Its a very strange sensation with this one. Little things in my day lead to massive feelings of deja vu...

The coffee is lack luster today. But I guess that it is everyday...

I'll leave you with this..

I'm suffering from urban overload

If I had my way I'd plan a concert at the pier. It would feature Deerhunter, Wolf Parade, the Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Blur and the original Elephant Six (in that order). After which I think that my life would be complete and I could fade away into the sunset...

Stitches came out yesterday. Doc said all was well. Once I get it all cleaned up I'll post a pic for your viewing displeasure. It's pretty gnarly...

Farmers market is tonight. I'd be more pissed about missing it if it was later in the year. But I'd still like to go...

Here's an excerpt of a project that I've been working on forever. I think it fits here:

Another Drull Sunday

I woke up,
a cool gray haze
hung sulking in the view
from my kitchen window.
A pigeon
perched on the sill.
I studied it blankly
with exonerated eyes
as if to say I’m sorry
but I don’t know for what

Maybe someday I'll post a link to the whole thing. Just not today...

The city is bearing down on me. Memorial Day is coming up quickly. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I need to do something. If nothing else I'm going to catch a bus to Centralia and get a hotel, just to be away. Or Bellingham is nice this time of year. The buildings are all close to the ground...

Moving on

Wow, a hundred posts. I'd like to once again thank Nathan for his guest blog. He was able to capture the true essence of this blog (and here you all thought there wasn't one!). You're awesome Nathan!...

Deerhunter. It's all about Deerhunter. All of you should check them out. They have a sounds that falls somewhere between pop, avant garde and garage rock. I can't get enough...

Its beautiful outside, but only if you observe it from indoors. Once you leave the sanctuary of a building you'll realize that it's freezing cold. The kind of temperatures one would think more suitable for the Yukon than the pacific northwest. Climate change is real...

Here's some Deerhunter...