12/25

Merry Christmas ye who stumbled upon my blog!

Best Of: Music

In no way shape or form copying Klein’s blog (great minds just think alike, deal with it), here is my best-of 2009 list for the world of music.

Album of the Year –

Silversun Pickups – Swoon

I was surprised so many critics were not impressed with the group’s second album. I found it to be just as good, if not better than “Carnavas”. It is a bit more polished but I really don’t think that’s a bad thing as Carnavas, for all its pluses, had several times when it just sounded like noise. “Panic Switch” and “There’s No Secrets This Year” are thundering alt-rock forces, while “The Royal We” and the intimate “Catch & Release” incorporate a string arrangement to great effect, the latter being the best song on the album.

Runners up:
Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures
Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
Muse – The Resistance


Worst Album of the Year –

Weezer – Raditude

I knew this was going to be bad going into it, but I picked it up anyway, just out of respect. I wished I hadn’t. Minus the opener “I Want You To” which oddly enough is one of the best songs they’ve done, this album is complete crap. Instead of explaining further, I’ll just say Lil Wayne is featured on a track. Done.

Runners up:
Nothing really else I picked up is even close to that bad. There are some albums I haven't listened to all of (cough... Black Eyed Peas - The E.N.D. ... cough) that I would put here, but as for whole albums:
Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown
Eminem - Relapse


Best Song of the Year (that received radio play) –

“Audience of One” – Rise Against

Runners up:
“Kids” – MGMT
“Brother” – Pearl Jam
“Panic Switch” – Silversun Pickups
“Check My Brain” – Alice in Chains


Best Song of the Year (not on radio) –

“Antenna” – Sonic Youth

Runners up:
“Amongst the Waves” – Pearl Jam
“I Belong to You” – Muse
“Catch & Release” – Silversun Pickups
“Peacemaker” – Green Day


Worst Song of the Year –

“Boom Boom Pow” – Black Eyed Peas

Runners up:
“Meet Me Halfway” – Black Eyed Peas
“Just Dance” – Lady Gaga
(Creed and Nickelback apparently both had songs this year, so… them)
“Birthday Sex” – Jeremih


Genre specifics:

Best Alternative Album –

Silversun Pickups – Swoon

Runners up: Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, MGMT – Oracular Spectacular, Muse – The Resistance, Arctic Monkeys – Humbug


Best Rock Album –

Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures

Runners up: Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue, Pearl Jam – Backspacer, Rise Against – Appeal to Reason, Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound, Sonic Youth - The Eternal


Best Non-Rock Album –

Mos Def – The Ecstatic


Best New Artist –

MGMT

Runners up:
Phoenix
Gaslight Anthem
The XX
Airborne Toxic Event


Already looking forward to albums from these bands in 2010:

THE STROKES
THE ROOTS
DEFTONES
Radiohead (???)
Blink 182
Vampire Weekend
MGMT
Arcade Fire
Gorillaz
And more…

Coming soon, Best of: Sports

Iverson

A.I. is BACK!

I've seen my baseball team win it all. I've seen my football team win it all twice. Still though, my favorite moment in my sports watching career, is in that video.

Grandmom Kay

Well I don’t know how to start this post at all but I feel like I should post it. I guess I’ll start with the phone call that I got from my mom right before Game 1 of the World Series. Literally minutes before the opening ceremonies of the Phillies vs. Yankees, I saw that my mom had called the day before and I decided to call her back before I was to be cursing at the Phillies, the Yankees, Joe Buck, and the umps. My mom called to say that my grandmom had a kidney scare and was placed in the ICU. Two days before my call back, she said, that we were pretty sure that she wasn’t going to make it. The kidney failure had caused her intestines to begin to not work either. But that day, she said, that the doctor told her that she had fought it off remarkably well and that she might even leave the hospital if she continues at this rate.

This of course was bittersweet news, hearing that you almost missed your grandmother’s passing when it came out of nowhere, but it seeming that it had a chance to go away.

Then, minutes later, the Phillies were playing in the World Series. My grandmother turned 93 in the summer, but she had the most youthful spirit. I loved going to visit her, not just for her stories, her jokes, or compliments that I completely didn’t deserve, but also because even at her age, I could connect with her as a Phillies fan. She could recognize most of the players, criticize things like Ryan Howard’s strikeouts or Terry Francona’s managerial moves, and every once in a while she would surprise me with her current knowledge (“Adam, how about that triple play!?”). I was about to watch our team in Game 1 of the World Series, sporadically thinking about if this would be the last game I could talk to my grandmom about.

That weekend was Halloween weekend, and the night before, I had tickets to see one of my favorite bands, Pearl Jam, in Philadelphia, and decided to stay home that night so that I could be with my family. I’ve already written about how amazing that concert was, but there was one moment that stood out that made it something I’m truly thankful I got to experience. One of my favorite Pearl Jam songs, “Alive”, (a fairly popular song) contains the chorus “Oh I – heyy I’m still alive” repeated a few times. When performed live, however, Eddie Vedder often changes the last time that it repeats in some form that goes something like “You – you’re all still alive!” or “You, me, we’re all still alive!” before erupting into a guitar melody that is so musically powerful. Well thankfully, they played “Alive” near the end of their set and when Eddie yelled “you’re all still alive!” I closed my eyes and thought of my grandmom. Now, I know my grandmom was not there, or let alone would like that music, but some how some way, I felt like my grandmom and her youthful spirit was standing right there next to me awkwardly swaying along with me, lost in the moment. I knew she would not have much time left, and it was a great experience to be able to be there with her and celebrate in that song that she “was still alive”.

I obviously wanted the Phillies to win for the World Series for many reasons, ranging from complete selfishness to being able to dedicate this one for Phillies beloved broadcaster, Harry Kalas, who had passed away in the beginning of the season (Grandmom Kay was a big fan of his. Well, all of us were.) but now the main reason I wanted them to win was to be able to give my grandmom some bit of good news the next time that I saw her. It turned out that this was not the case.

Grandmom Kay was able to hold on for a long time. She had to stay in the hospital the whole time, and was forced to go back into the ICU. After a while, my mom and her two sisters were forced to make a decision about changing her feeding tubes (her intestines were now not working at all). After they decided to go for the bigger tube, Grandmom was able to hold on for another couple of weeks. She even could still talk and hold conversations with my mom and aunts. But when I asked my mom how she was doing (while beginning to break down), she said that she was handling it well but she was acting like she was afraid to die. I don’t know what it was about this line that made me start to cry. Maybe because I never associated my grandmom with being afraid to do anything. Or maybe because it was the first time I had heard my mom actually talk about Grandmom dying. Either way, I started to tear up alone in my bedroom for a few seconds while on the phone with my mom. Eventually, as I like to think I’m good at, I was able to get past it and lighten the mood a bit for the rest of the conversation, and later in it we were joking about random stuff. I like to think that I get some of my humor from my grandmom.

As I was preparing to clean and head back home I got a phone call again from my mom today saying that last night my grandmom passed away. I knew that it was only a matter of time, and in some kind of strange way, I’m glad that she didn’t have to suffer for too much longer. I’m glad that my mom and her two sisters are able to stop seeing their mom like that. I realize that everyone’s day must come, and I’m happy that she was able to live a long happy life. I feel like (and I’ve said this earlier this year) there have been way too many deaths this year that are tied to and affect people that I’m close with, and here’s to hoping that this is the last one this year.

Rest in peace, grandmom. I hope you will help me achieve my goals. Miss you.

15 Things I Would Rather Do Than This Paper

-procrastination at its finest-


1. Cash the check that Klein gave me. Yup.

2. Find out why my air conditioning also doubles as a bug zapper.

3. Creepily facebook chat EVERY ONE of my facebook friends.

4. Blog. Apparently.

5. Search to see if the men’s basketball team won. (they did)

6. Watch Sixers’ highlights.

7. Use up two three of these 15 things about basketball.

8. Surf. Just being honest.

9. Hit Rob with a slingshot.

10. Fill up Andy’s 72oz bottle with any type of beverage, (save for eggnog, coffee, and that Gatorade Ice that was purplish not exactly sure what flavor they were going for with it – don’t think it was exactly grape – might have had some grape to it but I think there was more to it than just that – bottom line is it wasn’t that good and I don’t think that it’s still around anymore) and chug.

11. Cardio.

12. Pickup sticks.

13. Pogs.

14. Checkers.

15. Make another one of these and eat all of it this time.

Some Thoughts on Sports

So it took awhile to get over, but I’m able to finally shake off the fact that the Phillies lost in 6 games to the Yankees. It sucks, but whatever. Two straight years of my team going to the World Series is something not to be overlooked. Next season should be a fun one, and I’m already looking forward to it. (My picks for postseason awards haven’t changed, and they can be found here http://adamromo.blogspot.com/2009/10/mlb-playoff-preview.html, scroll past the playoff predictions) It’s too early to give a prediction for next year because of free agents, trades, retirement, players possibly shooting themselves in sweatpants, etc. but if I had to make a guess I would say that the Yankees are the very early forerunners in 2010.

Now, shifting gears, here are some midseason NFL awards:

First half MVP: Drew Brees (apologies to: Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Adrian Peterson, Darren Sharper, Cedric Benson)

QB of the First Half: Drew Brees (runners up: Manning, Favre, Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady)

RB: Peterson (runners up: Benson, DeAngello Williams, Michael Turner, Chris Johnson)

Defensive Player: Darren Sharper (runners up: Jared Allen, Elvis Dumervil)

Coach: Josh McDaniels (runners up: Sean Payton, Marvin Lewis, Jim Caldwell)

So yeah, so far my predictions look great, minus the Colts pick, the Panthers pick, the Vikings pick, the Bengals pick, the Broncos pick, the Seahawks pick, the … well, you get the idea.

Pearl Jam 10/30

This was the best concert of my life. Period. Wow. Oh, and Rauuuuullllllllllll was at the show. Gave a wave. Epic.

I'll have a more visceral blog post that will encompass this show soon, but for now, here's the setlist.

Set 1
Gonna See My Friend
The Fixer
In My Tree
Given To Fly
Tremor Christ
Untitled
MFC
Hold On - song they never played live before
Unthought Known
In Hiding
Deep - haven't played since 2003
Habit
Cropduster
Off He Goes
Force of Nature - dedicated to Raul Ibanez
Present Tense
Got Some
Do The Evolution

Encore 1
Just Breathe
Parting Ways
Jeremy - yesss! finally got to see all of the "big 4" (even flow, alive, black, and jeremy)
Breath
Light Years
Rearviewmirror - 3/3 getting this song... love it

Encore 2
Whipping
Crazy Mary - wow, I had never heard their version of this before but knew they played it a lot. finally got to see it and am so glad i did
Footsteps
Once
Alive - !!!
Sonic Reducer - holy shit!
Baba O'Riley - i've seen them play this song live twice now, and it's fantastic. don't believe me? check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGzjAxYPpso&feature=related