we're less than a couple hours away from two full weeks since my last posting. and the world, except for the economy on the whole (and the stock market in miniature), didn't even pretend to come to an end.
that's a good thing.
but in that time (since my last posting) North Carolina lost their first two conference games (to Boston College who has lost its four games since and to Wake Forest who stands alone as the country's last undefeated college basketball team) and won their next two (Virginia and Miami).
a US Air jet landed in the Hudson and a private plane landed, unadorned by so much as a pilot (he had parachuted out over the Childersburg, AL area), came down in some Florida Panhandle scrub brush.
I worked right at 100 hours over 12 days trying to help the Voice's annual Pazz & Jop issue come together, and saw John Doe and Exene Cervenka perform as an acoustic duo for just their second time on my only true night off.
I also saw The Dark Knight and Burn After Reading (on DVD, of course) and a bunch of Weeds episodes.
I conducted my second interview ever at the Algonquin Hotel (the first was Elizabeth McCracken several years ago), and listened to a whole bunch of music (and the extra commuting time allowed me to finally finish the awkwardly entertaining The Making of the TVA by Arthur E. Morgan (the first chairman of the agency)).
it seems that there is other computer work out there besides transcribing interviews (which does kind of occupy your ears), and if you do it at an alt-weekly no one has a problem with you spending the days wearing earbuds, particularly if you're working on an annual music issue.
Yo La Tengo's And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out, A.C. Newman's Get Guilty, Mayo Thompson's Corky's Debt to His Father, Rodney Crowell's Sex & Gasoline, Robyn Hitchcock's Goodnight Oslo, Sonny Rollins' Tenor Madness, Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha and Noble Beast, Lyle Lovett's My Baby Don't Tolerate, The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Matt & Kim's Grand, Lambchop's OH (Ohio), Fleetwood Mac's Mirage, The Explorers Club's Freedom Wind, Paul Westerberg's 49:00, Volcano Sun's All Night Lotus Party, Vic Chesnutt's Dark Developments, Bob Dylan's Tell-Tale Signs, the Primitons' self-titled EP, Red Garland's Red in Bluesville and When There Are Grey Skies, Van Morrison's Astral Weeks Live and Avalon Sunset, Nick Cave's Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!, My Morning Jacket's The Tennessee Fire, Eccentric Soul: The Prix Label, a whole bunch of Husker Du, a whole whole bunch of Bonnie "Prince" Billy (including his upcoming Beware (to be released in March)), Drive-By Truckers' Southern Rock Opera and Brighter Than Creation's Dark, the Hold Steady's Stay Positive, Charlie Haden's Rambling Boy, Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger and Teatro along with Phosphorescent's upcoming To Willie, Big Star's #1 Record and Radio City, selections from the Charles Mingus Passions of a Man and Earl Bostic Story 1945-55 box sets, Burial's self-titled debut, Buddy & Julie Miller's Written in Chalk (also coming out in March), Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid, Falcon's debut EP, Gregg Allman's Laid Back, the Jesus & Mary Chain box The Power of Negative Thinking (most all of it), Joan as Police Woman's To Survive, Kimberley Rew's Bible of Bop, Let's Active's Big Plans for Everybody and The Windbreakers' Time Machine, The Uglysuit's self-titled debut, Sun Kil Moon's April, The Fabulous Thad Jones, MGMT's Oracular Spectacular, my first opportunity at Animal Collective's much talked about, much written about Merriweather Post Pavilion (and just about every other Animal Collective release as well) and Panda Bear's Person Pitch, Ben Kweller's Changing Horses, Bill Evans' Loose Blues, Portrait in Jazz and Trio '64, the Blake Babies' Sunburn, Magnetic Fields' Distortion and 69 Love Songs (mainly Volume One), Madeline Peyroux's Bare Bones, Antony & the Johnsons' The Crying Light, Dr. John's Gris-Gris, some of Metallica's last show in Detroit (1/13/09), both Los Campesinos' albums, the Lyres' On Fyre, Great Plains' Naked at the Buy, Sell and Trade, Nina Simone's To Be Free, the Punch Brothers' Punch and Abigail Washburn & the Sparrow Quartet, Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, Titus Andronicus' Airing of Grievances, Miracle Legion's Surprise Surprise Surprise, No Ages' Nouns and Ben Nichols' The Last Pale Light in the West.
in case you were wondering what a music writer with fewer assignments than usual (two that were assigned two weeks ago disintegrated while another formed overnight like a mushroom) listens to while working on a 2008 year-end critics' poll.
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