Best New-to-Me Music of 2008

Yesterday my friend Jeffrey blogged his favorite music of 2008. He inspired me to finally blog something. Here goes.

These are things I liked in 2008. I'm sure some of them will end up being from before 2008, since I'm about as far from hip as is possible. Also, some of this is probably supposed to be lame, or only appeal to one particular group to which I don't necessarily belong, or whatever. Again, I'm not hip; I just buy what I like. Feel free to let me know how much this bothers you in the comments.

I was going to make this a list of everything I bought in 2008, since certainly that wouldn't be much of a list... but it turns out Amazon's MP3 Download system was very effective on me. I bought quite a bit this year, probably coming pretty close to the most I've ever spent on music. Kudos, Amazon.

Anyhoo, without further ado:

10. The Reminder by Feist

As you might notice going through this list, if it's in a commercial, there's a good chance I like it. It isn't that I like it because it's in a commercial; I'm a DVR addict, and usually don't realize the stuff I buy is in commercials until after I've bought it. It's just that, apparently, the kind of music people think is good for selling stuff seems to be the music I like. I know that makes me lame, but I don't care.

Feist definitely falls into that category. Her video for "1234" was a piece of single-shot coolness that bought her a long-running iPod commercial. I think I managed to see that video before finally buying the album... on Amazon, so suck it Apple!

9. Oracular Spectacular by MGMT

Something about MGMT music just makes me happy. I think it's that it sounds like they're having fun playing their songs. Or maybe it's the association with the Rock-afire Explosion YouTube videos, like the one I linked above.

8. Carnavas by Silversun Pickups

I don't get the 10 seconds of interference at the end of "Well Thought Out Twinkles," but I love absolutely everything else about this album.

7. The It Girl by Sleeper

I think this is the oldest album on my list, but I had to include it. I don't remember how I randomly stumbled on Sleeper years ago, but I fell in love with them. Last week, I found out they had an album in-between the two I owned already. I don't know how I missed it, but I had to buy it.

6. Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend

They have a song about the Oxford comma (aka the serial comma), of which I am a huge advocate. Sure, they imply that I'm somehow strange for advocating Oxford commas, but their music is awesome enough that I got over their dismissiveness.

5. "Yes We Can" by will.i.am, etc

This one made the list even though, as far as I know, it isn't on any album (if you know of an album that has it, let me know; will.i.am deserves to get some cash from me for putting this together, since I've listened to it about a billion times). This video/song/speech explains in four and a half minutes why I was willing to devote so much time to getting that guy elected. The speech is beautiful, moving, and informative. Listen to it; he isn't just saying we want some glittering generality of "change" like his critics always claimed. He lays out, of course in broad brushstrokes in this few minutes, but still with a fair amount of specifics what it is we're working for. Together, we can continue to strive toward a more perfect union. Beautiful.

4. XO by Elliott Smith

I've listened to "Miss Misery" from the Good Will Hunting soundtrack many, many, many times while feeling down, and something about its sad beauty always cheered me back up. For some reason, I had never though to buy anything else buy Elliott Smith until this year. Sadly, I can't buy anything new; Elliott killed himself (probably; there's still some speculation that foul play was involved) in 2003.

3. Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow by Jonathan Coulton

The best thing about Rock Band is the new music it introduces me to. I really should have heard of Jonathan Coulton before "Still Alive" and "Skullcrusher Mountain" made it into Rock Band, but somehow I'd missed him. I've begun to rectify that with this album and the two versions of "Still Alive" from the Orange Box Soundtrack. He has a friggin' song about the Mandelbrot Set. How could I possibly not love that?

2. Costello Music by The Fratellis

Apparently the Fratellis had a song or three in commercials. Somehow I missed that until after a bartender friend played them at his bar. I went home that night and downloaded their album on iTunes; it wasn't on Amazon, so I installed iTunes and set up my iTunes Store account, because I had to own that album. Their music is just so fun.

1. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog (Soundtrack) by Various Artists

If you have not yet watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, go do so right now. I love everything about this thing. I'd heard some buzz about it before it came out, but I never expected the music to be as complex and interesting as it turned out to be. And it stars Barney Stinson, Mal, and that Guild geek chick. Could it possibly be more awesome? I don't think so.

Honorable Mention 1: "MyHope" by sweetafton23

For some reason she doesn't have an mp3 of this available yet, so I can't listen to this easily enough on repeat to figure out if I'd still love it... but I really don't have enough ukelele in my playlist. Mostly I love that people can just do this now, putting out music without a studio, let alone a label. Good stuff. Now let me give you money for your mp3!

Honorable Mention 2: "Keeping the Dream Alive" by Münchener Freiheit

I still can't find an mp3 of this (in English, at least), but I actually bought two somewhat crappy covers of it earlier this year when somehow it randomly came to mind. God I love this song. I have listened to this one on repeat (back in the early 90s), but it's not at all new to me; it's just something I dug up when I realized YouTube would let me do so. Thank you, YouTube!

Why I'm Both Happy and Pissed about Warren

Background: Obama picked a homophobic prick named Rick Warren* to invoke the sky giant at his inauguration. Rick Warren is the stereotypical evangelical asswhipe, who, for example, thinks that, if we allow gay marriage, we have to also allow incestuous marriages and pedophiliac marriages. 'Cuz, you know, homosexuality is exactly the same as incest and pedophelia in his eyes.

People are very pissed that Obama has invited such a jackass to his inauguration. There are certainly reasons to be pissed, but there are also reasons not to be.

1. Obama is able to use this outrage as cover to say things like this:

It is no secret that I am an advocate for gay and lesbian Americans.

Without this controversy, there's little reason for Obama to make such a statement, which, btw, is something no president-elect has ever said before.

2. The coverage is all about what a jackass Warren is. Some Americans knew before all this that Warren was a dumbass. Now, a larger percentage have heard about the quote comparing gay marriage, incest, and pedophilia. The coverage is making sure he continues to appeal only to the intolerant jerks that he already appealed to.

3. This is going to work on some percentage of people. Idiots who agree with everything Obama says other than the "fact" that he's Muslim can say, "Oh, if an evangelical idiot like me invokes God for him, I guess he must not be Muslim." Maybe they can leave the idiotic side of their personality behind and vote for the stuff that matters, and maybe they can even listen to Obama and learn something.

4. It's the part of the inauguration where they ask the sky giant to pay attention, and Obama picked someone who he does not agree with. In other words, Obama doesn't give a shit what the sky giant thinks. He's doing this for politics, and the religious side of it doesn't factor into his decision. That's great.

All that said, Warren is a big pile of idiocy. He was a big supporter of Prop 8, which was already a kick in the teeth to LGBTs on election day (I mean, it was also a kick in the teeth to those of us who think that kind of thing is evil, but not as directly aimed as it was at the LGBT community). So I can see how this makes people continue to think they aren't wanted. 

But here's the other part of all of this: it is our job in this play to be pissed off. Numbers 1-3 rely on as much of the left being pissed off about this pick for a meaningless post as possible. So, fuck Warren. And dammit Obama, why did you pick someone so bad that I'm considering digging through the Urban Dictionary to find an insult scathing enough to fit him. You should have picked someone who didn't matter at all.

* People keep calling this fucktard "Reverend" Warren. Fuck that. Reverend means "worthy of reverence." Why do we still use that term for idiots who clearly aren't worthy of reverence? Tell ya what, if people will agree to refer to people who work in education as "The Brilliant Jon Harmon," for example, perhaps I'll start calling these jerks "Reverends."

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/15

I haven't done one of these recaps since Friday, but it doesn't look like I shared too much over the weekend, so this shouldn't be too huge.

Science and Medicine:

• I love this scale model of the solar system in Maine. I really want to get one of these together in the Austin area.
• Researchers in Australia have found that sarcasm is useful for detecting dementia. I dunno, I'm not sure I believe there are demented people in Australia.
• Researchers at the University of Toledo have reported the first case of sleep-emailing. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend turning on Mail Gogggles in Gmail Labs.
• Ferrofluid is awesome. Must... own... lots! I'm thinking some sort of system hooked to a speaker magnet would be very cool.

Software and the Internets:

• Apparently there's a Firefox-like open-source alternative to iTunes/Windows Media Player. The duplicate-finder add-on alone makes it enough for me to check out, at least for my home library.

Politics:

• It looks like I was also wrong about the pick for HUD. This guy sounds qualified, though, so I'm fine with being wrong again.
• The origin of the so-called War on Christmas, waged by the likes of Bill O'Reilly, has been traced to white supremacists. Not much of a surprise there, really.
• Obama's transparency has already infected the Congressional Oversight Panel, tasked with keeping track of where our $700 billion goes. Woot.
• Work on spreading this meme: Harry Reid is an ineffective Senate Majority Leader. Any failures aren't because we didn't get 60; they're because the modern filibuster is a joke. The filibuster is supposed to be there so you can block legislation you findunconscionable, not legislation that you want to vote no on.
• The first batch of answers from "Open for Questions" are up at Change.gov. Neat.
• The Illinois House has begun the impeachment process for Blago.

Christmas with Woodrow Wilson

I just learned something interesting from last night's Rachel Maddow Show. 

The election of 1916 was very close. It took several days to figure out whether Democratic incumbent Woodrow Wilson had won, or if he'd lost to Republican Charles Evan Hughes. During this period of doubt, Wilson sent a letter to his Secretary of State, informing him of the following:

• If Hughes won, Wilson would immediately name Hughes as his Secretary of State, and push through his confirmation.
• Wilson and his VP, Thomas R. Marshall, would immediately resign.
• Being third in line, Hughes would immediately become President, cutting out the lame duck phase.

Bush should really, really consider this. I want my bike.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - President Goofus and President Gallant

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/12

I skipped yesterday, so there will probably be quite a few shared items here. So, without further ado...

Hardware:

• Shut down your PC when you aren't using it. I still leave mine on, but this story might finally kick me into being better about power management.

Astronomy:

• A group of Dutch geophysicists have proposed that the Moon arose by a massive nuclear explosion 4.5 billion years ago. I don't think they'll supplant the impact theory (that the Moon formed when a very large object smacked into the early Earth, leaving its heavy bits behind and ejecting a bunch of the Earth's crust, which then coalesced into the Moon), but it's an interesting idea.

Politics:

• Obama is looking into changing the War Power Act, or, as I like to call it, the "Nanana I can't hear you the President can do what he wants nanana" Act. Er, well, one of such acts.
• Do not, as the New York Times did in their summary of this article, buy into the myth that the overpaid UAW is killing the auto industry bailout. UAW line workers, on average, make less than or equal to their equivalents at non-union, foreign plants in states like Kentucky or Alabama (according to Olbermann last night, at least). It just so happens that senators from those states are spreading this myth of the overpaid, obstructionist UAW worker. Funny how that works.
• Looks like I'm probably wrong about who Obama will choose for Secretary of Transportation. I haven't looked into it enough yet to know whether I'd prefer the Texas guy or the California guy.

Science:

• Japanese scientists have reconstructed images by scanning a human brain while it viewed those images. In other words, they, in part, read people's minds. That is fraking unbelievably awesome.

Zombies:

• Holy crap, it's Zombie Friday again already! The third one is hilarious. The first is pretty funny, but just wrong. The second is awesome but I didn't re-watch 'cuz I'd already seen, and the fourth is way too long.

Software and the Internets:

• Lifehacker had a feature on Open++, a program that lets you add anything to Windows right-click menus. I like.
• Lifehacker found an online Photoshop replacement that's even cooler than the Phoenix I linked to before.
• The Austin teacher who insisted there's no such thing as free software is calming down, as is the guy who started the story. It sounds like both sides were overreactive morons, but the teacher is the one who threatened legal action while being the opposite of right, so I still side with the Linux guy.
• NiceTranslator is badass. Set your target language, type a phrase, and it uses Google Translate to figure out what language you're typing in and give you a translation. Neat. Hey, wait. That's kinda sci-fi, even if it can only work with known languages. Neat.
• I recommend against the auction site called Swoopo, based on this write-up. Jeebus that can't be legal.

As always, comment on these or any other shared items (or items you'd like to share with the rest of us) below.

Interlude: Trivia at Pluckers

I've long been a trivia addict. In the last few months, some friends and I have started attended pub quiz trivia at Pluckers Wing Bar, a local Austin wing chain/bar. The trivia is normal pub quiz rules, in this case a $50 gift card for the first place team after 8 rounds of 10-12 questions each, each round with a theme (TV, TV theme songs, movies, sports, etc).

However, Pluckers has a special way to break a tie: the wing-off, with a member of each tied team racing to eat five of their "Fire in the Hole" wings. I tried a batch early in the night to see if I'd be up for it, but decided they were the kind of thing you want to take slow.

My teammate Phil was up for the challenge when we tied, though. Here he is gloving up to begin the wing-off, already looking forward to the beer he'll drink triumphantly when he wins.

Pluckers serves these extraordinarily hot wings drowned under the sauce. Clearly they didn't pay attention during Saturday morning cartoons when they were a kid. I believe this stuff qualifies as "goop."

Phil attacked the wings with style. He chose to go one-handed when one of his opponent's gloves ripped.

Unfortunately, his opponent used two hands, and kicked Phil's ass... winning the third-place $15 that we had tied for.

Phil finished the wings anyway, and came to regret it. He didn't even finish the beer.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/10

I'm sleepy, but that doesn't mean I won't get today's shared Google Reader items out of the way before drifting off to early sleep.

Austin:

• Yesterday it hit 80 during the day in Austin, then snowed at night:
  
• In other Austin news, a teacher in Austin sent an angry letter to a charity that gives away Linux laptops, chiding the charity for fraudulently telling children the software was free, when "No software is free and spreading that misconception is harmful." For those who aren't sure, yes, Linux and other free and open-source software really is free. The teacher is an idiot. Also, Ubuntu is awesome and way easier to use than Windows, and I really need to start using it on more than just my backup desktop.

Technology:

• Nintendo is bringing eBooks to the DS. I strongly approve.

The Internets:

• Google has published it's year-end zeitgeist round-up. My personal favorite is the large number of international top-tens which include "google" as a search term on google.
• This image "evolution" system is fairly cool, but, after running it for a bit, I found it did what the weak version I wrote several years ago in Javascript did: it bloats and bloats, and starts to take over your memory. I'm still hoping to borrow from their idea (which, in turn, borrows from someone else's idea) to get my version up soonish, but I still think Flash would be a much faster way to go.

Politics:

• 538.com had a good rundown of what happens next in Illinois, now that Blagojevich has been indicted but neither convicted nor impeached (yet). He followed it up with more details of whether the Senate can reject a Blago pick, and a run-down about what Obama didn't know.
• The Obama transition team added a badass question voting system to change.gov. When you have a few minutes, register and vote. It took me a few tries to get logged in (probably because the servers were getting hit heavily from the news spreading), but it was very cool once I got there. Bonus awesomeness: the check, x, and "skip" buttons show "yes," "no," and "meh...", respectively, when you mouse-over them.
• Obama has chosen his Energy Secretary, EPA head, energy "czar," and head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. I love the Energy pick: a Nobel Prize-winning physicist (and biochemist, 'cuz he's cool like that) and long-time alternative-energy advocate, Steven Chu.

That's it for today. As always, comment below!

Coming tomorrow: A blog about something else, with photos!

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/9

Holy crap, I haven't done this since last Thursday. These are my favorite Google Reader shared items in that timespan.

Zombies:

• My friend Jon found two cool zombie movies. And I created a "zombies" tag, because I realized it was missing from my blog.

Politics:

• The new New Deal is starting. Woot.
• I don't have anything against David Gregory for Meet the Press, per se, but I was pulling for Chuck Todd. Then again, I've never seen Chuck Todd interview anyone, and that's what's required. It's big shoes to fill in any case, and I'm not sure anyone can pull it off.
• The first challenge of Obama's citizenship has been rejected by the Supreme Court. There's another one coming, but it's a good start. He was born in Hawaii, you idiots. That's all it takes, as long as he hasn't rejected his citizenship... and if it's possible for a little kid to reject their US citizenship, the system is insane.
• Holy crap, the Governor of Illinois is super corrupt, and was trying to sell Obama's Senate seat. It may take a while now to get that seat filled. Chances are good the Senate will reject anyone Blagojevich picks, and it takes time to spin up an impeachment and/or special election.
• Bill O'Reilly, in describing how terrible Seattle is from a war-on-Christmas perspective, makes me want to move there.

Science:

• This article was entitled "Scientists Achive Mental Body-Swapping," but it's about getting people to essentially think as if they're in another body. It's not nearly as sci-fi cool as I thought it must not possibly be.

Technology:

• The summary of this article about Hawaii's plan for a state-wide electric car network on Slashdot annoyed me. An electric car grid encourages/allows more efficient power generation; it takes the power generation step out of the car, so you can do whatever it takes to make the power generation clean on a statewide basis. It doesn't rule out wind and solar, it just puts that step in a centralized place.
• I'm very annoyed that I didn't hear about/see the 3D NFL broadcast.

Biology:

• There's some evidence that the herpes simplex virus (the virus that causes cold sores, among other things) causes Alzheimer's. It would be awesome if this pans out and leads to treatment and/or a cure.

Atheism:

• Techskeptic (via Pharyngula) has a list of Atheist/secular charities. I've often wanted something like this myself, so it's nice that someone else compiled it for me.

The Internets and other Computeriness:

• A nearly full-featured, browser-based, image-editing program is available. It's very cool, and I love the pic they made in their demo video.

Programming (but the first one is awesome, Libby):

• This evolutionary algorithm to create the Mona Lisa is stunningly amazingly awesome. It dovetails with something I've wanted to do, and might inspire me to finally get that project moving.
• Google has announced Google native client, which promises to put code written for x86 processors onto the web. That's very, very cool, and opens up all kinds of possibilities.

Finally, uncategorized, I shared this old video of "Keeping the Dream Alive" by Munchener Freiheit (huh, I always thought the band was just "Freiheit"), because I missed it and randomly searched to see if it was on YouTube... and it was. Enjoy. Or, ya know, don't, if you don't like cheesy music. In any case, comment below.

Blogless

No blog today, probably no blog tomorrow. Too much to catch up on.

Instead... puppies!

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/4

It's time to play catch-up on my Google Reader Shared Items.

Technology:

• Cell phones and other portable electronics may not need batteries soonish. This is super, super cool.

Computers and the Internets:

• I think this "friend connect" thing is neat. I haven't decided for sure yet, though.
• A Windows download lets you search your photos by filters like "snow" or "yellow." I wish someone would make something like this for online books and such. It'd let you find a page of an electronic book the same way you remember/scan for a page in a print (text)book.

Politics:

• Prop 8: The Musical showed up in several blogs I read yesterday. It's good stuff.
• In 1975, Australia found out that giving a ceremonial appointee actual power and assuming he'll never use it is a really bad check-and-balance system. Since then, although they haven't yet succeeded in getting the Queen out of their constitution, they've been moving progressively toward doing so. Now Canada is learning the same lesson. I'm just excited because, as a Son of the American Revolution, there's a drive in the back of my mind that makes it exciting possibly finally drive the English monarchy completely out of North America. Come on, Canadians! You can do it!
• 538's still going strong. His analysis of the swing Senators is very interesting, at least to political wonks like me.
• Bill Richardson has officially been nominated as Secretary of Commerce. I thought that was already decided, but apparently it wasn't official yet.

Science:

• An alien comet may have entered the solar system. Neat.
• Physicists cannot be trusted.
• Holy crap, it might be possible to break up hurricanes using supersonic jets. This is just unbelievably awesome. I can't wait until they try it.\
  

As always, comment about these or anything else below.

12/3/2008ish

No blog today. Or is there??

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/2

Another day, another couple dozen shared Google Reader items. Here are my favorites.

The Internets:

• Microsoft's Live image search now lets you find images similar to other images. That's potentially quite useful.
• A new browser-based OS is on the way. I like. I think we're at the point that computers could be ubiquitous; you should have a computer or three in your kitchen for checking recipes, for example, and one by your window for things like identifying birds in your feeder. Super-light-weight OSes (geared toward super-low-power computers) are a big step in that direction.
  
• Apple now recommends that Mac users install antivirus software. I have to congratulate Apple. That means they're finally getting popular enough that people bother writing viruses for them. It's sad that they can't claim that they're more secure anymore just because nobody bothered to write viruses before, but that's the price of popularity.

Education?:

• A calculus teacher in San Diego is selling ads on quizzes and tests. I applaud his effort in busting a door open that could lead to more money for me.

Politics:

• Unless otherwise noted, everything on Change.gov is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Ie, you can repost or otherwise use anything from there as long as you say that you got it from Change.gov. Even commercially, if you want. That is cool.
• Fox News's website warned today that Hillary supporters might not go for Obama in last month's election. I love the poll.

Those are the highlights from today. As always, comment below.

Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 12/1

I'm going to try to get back up to daily (or more) posts, at least 'til Newtonmas or so. So, without further ado, here are today's shared Google Reader items.

Life:

• Lifehacker has a guide to pronouncing names correctly. If you're bad at this, read it now. I'll personally be using the other links in that article, about how to find out a name you've forgotten and how to remember names in the first place.

The Internets:

• In case you didn't see it, Cartoon Network Rick Roll'd the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Good stuff. In case you haven't been exposed to it, "Rick Rolling" is the internet meme of sending a link to the Rick Astley video "Never Gonna Give You Up" and telling the recipient it's something else, like a movie trailer.
• The FCC is considering a plan to provide free wireless internet for the US. I hope this works out.
• Woot, Chrome's about to get extensions. I love its stability and javascript speed. Making it extensible would keep me permanently off Firefox (except for work, where I need Firefox for some things, and even IE for a few things. Grrrr).

Biology:

• A diet of fat, sugar, and cholesterol may increase the risk of ALzheimer's. I had something witty to say about this, but I can't remember what it was.
• This quote from Creationist Ray Comfort is dumbfoundingly idiotic. It's even more moronic than his banana argument, in which he merely didn't understand that bananas had been selected by humans. This new one is just... wow.
  
• Geologists are finding evidence that the early Earth cooled long before we used to think it did. That makes some things make more sense; chemical evolution would have more time to ramp up from simple chemistry to life. But, darnit, it means we can't say "Life showed up on Earth just about at the moment that it was possible for it to do so" as an argument for why finding water on another planet would be super, super awesome.