Favorites of 2005

A few of my favorite 2005 things:

The absolute best music I heard this year was from the late 60s/early 70s. I cannot recommend the "Ethiopiques" series of rereleases of Ethiopian pop music from that era more highly. This music comes closer to expressing pure joy and confusion that anything I've ever heard. I would recommend volumes 1 & 3 in particular as good starting points. James Brown-y backing instrumental stuff fronted by amazing singers trained in a totally idiosyncratic vocal style combining elements of traditional Ethiopian music, Armenian music and Arabic pop music. Totally, mind-bogglingly awesome!

My Favorite Albums of 2005

1) The Joggers - With A Cape And A Cane
2) Animal Collective - Feels
3) M Ward - Transistor Radio
4) Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
5) Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die
6) Akron Family/Angels of Light - S/T
7) Deerhoof - Green Cosmos EP
8) Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
9) System of a Down - Mesmerize
10) Sleater-Kinney - The Woods


I would also add that it was a much better year for "singles" than albums. By this, I mean there were some great songs on mediocre albums. Some of my favorites are:
I'll I'll Believe In Anything - Wolf Parade
7/4 (Shoreline) - Broken Social Scene
Hi-Fi - M Ward
Grass - Animal Collective
Police & Private - Metric
Dry Drunk Emperor - TV on the Radio
Cold Wind - Arcade Fire
BYOB - System of a Down
Raising The Sparks - Akron/Family
It's 5 - Architecture in Helsinki
Wicked Light Sleeper - The Joggers
In The Reins - Iron & Wine/Calexico

Favorite Concerts of 2005:
The Books @ Holocene
Nice Nice @ PDX Pop Now!
Talkdemonic @ PDX Pop Now!


Favorite Book Released in 2005: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Favorite Young Adult Sci-Fi Book Series I Hadn't Read Until This Year; The Ender's Saga by Orson Scott Card
Favorite TV Show of 2005: Six Feet Under Final Season (Maybe the Artistic Highpoint of the year generally)
Favorite Movie: Murderball
Favorite Geographical Structure: Islands (Hawaii and Greece, in particular)

Favorite News Items of 2005: That plane crash in Canada where everyone survived, and 311 collectively kicking Creed frontman, Scott Stapp's, ass after he picked a bar fight with them.


And my own band - At Dusk - will be recording its 3rd record starting on Wednesday. WhooppEEEEEEE!

Al-Qaeda Exchange Program

I had a dream a few weeks back. In it a was participating in an exchange program. There was some sort of bureaucratic error, and I was placed in a host family in the Middle East headed by an al-Qaeda operative. It took a little for me to figure this out, although the family sertainly wasn't hiding anything. As it turns out, they were also the victims of a misapprehension, as they thought I was an al-Qaeda trainee.

This was not a nightmare, nor was it particularly stressful. Mostly the dream was filled with the banalities of daily life. The dad/operative was all pissed off that their wireless wasn't working, so I had to tinker with it to get it to work again. Bro picked on sis at the dinner table. Things went pretty smoothly.

I'm not sure how the dream ended, and I also haven't been able to figure out how we communicated exactly. My closest recollection is that my family, in training for their mole operation, were conveniently speaking English at home all the time

I would love to write a book about this.

Also, does anyone remember how in the first wave of reporting on al-Qaeda, the spelling was totally variable? Which spelling would I use in my book? What is the preferred self-descriptive spelling?