"I don't make home videos, I make home films."

I've been wanting to write about this for three months. Colleen and I finally gave our Christmas present to her family; the (nearly) comprehensive collection of their VHS home videos on DVD.

First, the how. Here's what you need:

Computer (I used my Mac)

VCR

Adapter with audio/video cable ports and USB ports (and included software for capturing video) (Elgato Video Capture Device for Mac users)

DVD burner

Blank DVDs

Video editing software (iMovie for Mac users)

DVD burning software (iDVD for Mac users)

Photoshop software

VHS tapes

In a nutshell, here's what we did. Recorded all the VHS tapes using the VCR and adapter software, loaded the raw video files into iMovie, edited all unwanted portions out, placed chapter markers on the files, grabbed still frames to use for menu screens and the DVD covers, transferred edited video files to iDVD, picked the specific menu template, formatted the menu and chapter selection screens so they would fit a normal television screen, loaded stills into the menus, double-double-checked everything and then burned the DVD. Time-intensive parts were capturing the raw footage from the tapes onto the computer and burning the actual DVDs because capturing the video required just starting a tape and letting it play the whole way through in real time and burning the DVDs took like 6 hours a piece. Thankfully they were time-intensive and not labor-intensive; I could get one started and go do homework or something. The labor-intensive part was the editing. The most frustrating part was making sure everything worked. The worst portion of this entire project was the afternoon I got a video down to the final edit and tried to burn it. For some reason, the software kept saying I wasn't putting in a recordable DVD in the drive when clearly I was putting in a recordable DVD. I couldn't find an answer anywhere, online, I called Best Buy, Staples, everybody's gave me the same answer, "Huh. Weird, it should be working." Thanks a lot everybody. So I ended up having Staples send in the drive and get me a replacement drive, which worked perfectly. But for that afternoon...yikes. I was not a pleasant person to be around. But for the most part, the editing went fairly smooth, the biggest hiccup was trying to find a version of iMovie that had a chapter marker functionality. For some insane reason, Apple removed that tool from the previous version of iMovie when they upgraded to the version I have on my Mac (iMovie '09). Thankfully, Colleen's Mac is still kicking four years in and that had the older version of iMovie so we used that. The only problem is that hers is wicked slow so the process was slowed down a bit, but we still managed to get it done.

The covers were easier; Colleen and I went to the UIowa Main Library and used Photoshop to create the covers. I found a free cover template online that I loaded into Photoshop and changed around to feature our chapter titles, DVD titles, and stills from each video. We also made the backgrounds of each a different pastel color so put together the set of eight DVDs looks awesome. We just had them printed at Copyworks after their graphic designers resized the file so it would print to fit an actual DVD case.

Now a bit of the why: this is very possibly the biggest gift I've ever given or been involved in. Not physically big but more in the emotional attachment Colleen and I have to it. I've given some gifts in the past to Colleen that I was excited about, but this one was different, because it was really a joint effort between the two of us. It connected me to her and her family in a way that I hadn't really expected. We spent many hours recording the raw video, figuring out chronological orders, adding clips together, editing out the many unwatchable, damaged parts of the VHS tape or random stuff like the 1988 Iowa/Iowa State basketball game Jim had preserved. In the past, when the girls would get out the old VHS tapes and watch them, I would usually watch and enjoy them to a certain extent, not as much as the girls but still laughing at seeing how they were when they were young. But working on this project connected me to this videos more deeply because the end result is ultimately ours. I wouldn't label us "creative" types, and I don't mean in the sense of being a unique personality (we are both pretty odd), but more in the sense of doing actual creating. We don't paint, never had many drawing skills, never been much for creative writing, and we both are very musical but we don't exactly create it. However, this project was an act of creation for the two of us. We took raw materials in an untouched form and turned them into something beautiful and creative. And finishing it up to give away is an emotional thing because it's like your baby.

What made this gift especially meaningful for me to give away is that it's exactly what I want to do with my career. At the core, librarianship is about getting information into the hands of people who want it and can't find it. It's about preservation of information and extending access to anyone who needs it. Colleen and I had a lot of raw information and a specific user set and we've connected the two beautifully. It was a very rewarding experience and I hope to do it again soon. The best part about it is that next time I do this type of a project, it will be so much more efficient because I've worked out 75% of the kinks and can visualize each piece of the process so much better than before. That being said, anybody who's interested in hiring me, I'll do a better job than Walgreens and for an insanely lower price. Just let me know. Seriously, I am itching to start another project.

But after all is said and done, can you really put a price on this?

That's what our kids will look like.

-Jon

Facelift.

Thought it was an appropriate background. I was close to choosing something else; it's almost sensory overload. I also figured out how to make the entire blog space wider so it will stop cutting off the right side of YouTube videos I embed. Niiice.

In approximately 4 hours, Semester 1 is done. Today Colleen said, "If you think of it like a pie, you're 1/4th done with the pie!" What a delicious metaphor. I would say my graduate school experience so far has been like French Silk.

Speaking of blogs, this is a super sweet one that was featured on Neatorama. These two guys decided to pick a random place in the world and stay there for three months, their thinking being that three months is a good amount of time to get to know the location, not as well as the locals but certainly better than the average tourists. The main reason it caught my eye was that their first 91 days was spent in Oviedo, Spain. Going through all their blog posts was very reminiscent for me, as I recognized tons of the places they visited. It was cool to see somebody else living in the place where I lived, taking pictures of foreign places that became so commonplace to me and my classmates. So it won't be nearly as great if you haven't been, but it's certainly worth a peruse. The duo are currently in Savannah, Georgia, taking pictures, chattin' up the locals, and experiencing Georgia as it's meant to be experienced. I guess. Who knows, I've never been to Georgia. Here's their blog:

Savannah & Oviedo

So that's cool. I also wanted to put up the final project I worked on for my computing class. I worked with a guy named Jon on it; surprising we didn't come up with some clever play on having the same name. Our project was to design a site or system that was interactive for web users and met some information need. Clearly, we went above and beyond that. Check it out: Live in Iowa City. Jon came up with the idea and I wrote a killer proposal and then we put the site together. That's not completely accurate. Jon constructed the majority of the site since he had access to an external server and had some experience in PHP coding and I contributed a few pretty simple HTML coding pages, Javascript, etc. Right now, the site has a lot of things to update and fix, but the functionality of most everything is there. Be sure to click the events to see the sweet drop down animation. After we presented our project to the class, our professor said this was like halfway through his next class' coursework as he didn't really get into the details of PHP in this class. So that's great. Even better, Jon and I are both the class in the spring so I smell a continuation project happening. Look out for this site to blow up soon. I'm predicting the Facebook of the next decade.

I hope we get snow soon.

-Jon

Rap Doc.

So...this looks awesome.

The audio is off, and it's directed by actor Michael Rappaport, which is unexpected. But other than that, this whole documentary looks super interesting. Tribe is almost certainly my favorite hip hop "group" versus single rap artist, and getting to hear thoughts and interviews by the group members themselves along with other prominent members of the hip hop community is bound to be very interesting. Sign me up for anything where ?uestlove talks about music. I'll keep my radar up for this thing on DVD.

-Jon

The Ghost Inside

This is awesome. Continuing the tradition of DJ Danger Mouse flipping conventional music media on its head, here is the latest video from Broken Bells, the pairing of Danger Mouse and Shins lead singer James Mercer.

The song is The Ghost Inside off of their self-titled debut album. This is the second video released for this song, and this one is far cooler in terms of being really off-the-wall zany. The whole thing is basically the entire video of Private Eyes by Hall & Oates, with Mercer's mouth interposed over Daryl Hall's. So you're watching what was a terrible video from 1981 co-opted to make a cool video from 2010. Very reminiscent of Danger Mouse's video mash-up from The Grey Album. The result is a little creepy looking, but man is it unique. This probably breaks several copyright laws of some kind. Danger Mouse rules.

-Jon

Lonely Avenue

Music review time. I recently acquired the new collaboration between Ben Folds and Nick Hornby, an album called Lonely Avenue. It has a different feel than previous BF releases, but that's a given as it's a collab. Still absolutely worth a listen.

I'm assuming most readers know who Ben Folds is. He has been releasing records for the last fifteen years, some under the moniker Ben Folds Five and later on a few solo albums. He has gained a niche among college-aged and young adults with his heinously catchy melodies and heartbreaking lyrics. And he is a whirlwind live performer. If you ever have the chance to see him, TAKE IT. It will be one hell of a show.

Nick Hornby is an artist not generally corollated with writing music. He has written about music his entire career as a writer, but this is his first instance of actually collaborating on a musical album. He is most well known for writing several popular novels, including High Fidelity, About A Boy, and Juliet, Naked, as well as the screenplay for the 2009 movie An Education, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. So the dude's got chops. I am not in love with every single thing he's ever done, but on the other hand some of his work is the best written material I've ever read. This guy knows how to pierce your heart through writing about normal people with real problems. He can capture dialogue so incredibly well and make you feel heartache you've never had.

So how do these two collaborate on an album of music? Hornby writes words, Folds writes lyrics. Sounds weird but potentially awesome. And in my opinion, it turns out to be mostly awesome. The interesting part is that it clearly sounds like a Ben Folds album, but the disconnect happens as he starts to sing. The lyrics are not Ben Folds lyrics, and you can tell. It feels more like a Nick Hornby book than a Ben Folds album. And on some songs that's amazing, some it doesn't completely work. I don't think Hornby has his complete songwriting chops down yet, like on songs like Your Dogs and Picture Window. The songs have great feelings communicated but they don't feel natural to me. And that's just me. The majority of the album works great. And I think the biggest reason it's great is because they chose the perfect pairing of artists. Nobody could've pulled this album off but Ben Folds. His music is the ideal vehicle for Horby's writing. Hornby writes in such a familiar way, with stories about real people, and that's how Ben Folds has always written his music. It doesn't feel totally like a Ben Folds album, but it's as close as you can get. And the off-kilter feeling you get isn't bad, it's just not totally Ben Folds.

One of the best examples is the song Password. It uses a really unique songwriting device, spelling of words, and at first listen it seems a little cheesy, but after a few listens and the songs sinks in, holy cow it just rips you apart. You stop listening to the spelling of the words and you feel the pain in the narrator. That is unique and weird songwriting. But it's awesome. The song changes gradually the more you listen to it.

Final verdict? Great album. Not the best Ben Folds album ever but that's because it's not purebred Ben Folds. What it is is a great listen for fans of either artist.

-Jon

P.S. The album comes with killer liner notes. A quick blurb written by Hornby about each song, and then four different short stories written by him as well. Super great. Cool photos too.

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Yesterday, Colleen ran 26.2 miles. It was incredible. She participated in the IMT Des Moines Marathon with 1,634 other runners. She was running with the Iowans for Africa group from Orchard Hill Church in Cedar Falls. The group was running to raise support for a elementary school being built in Mozambique, in the region they sponsor. There were about 60 or 70 runners from Orchard Hill, all wearing bright yellow shirts. It was really cool to see so many of those shirts pass as we cheered the runners on.

It was a really cool experience, even as a spectator. As a runner, obviously it's incredibly physically draining and difficult, but ultimately rewarding. And as a spectator, it's such an interesting atmosphere, there is so much goodwill among the thousands of people around. Everybody wants everybody else to finish strong and do their best. We all cheered not only our small group of runners we knew but also the entire Orchard Hill team and all the other runners working hard.

Colleen ran with her small group of friends with whom she'd been training since May. They all finished great, each about three or four minutes apart from each other. I was able to catch up with them eight times around the course to cheer them on. Colleen did such a great job, her final time was 4 hours, 43 minutes, and 31 seconds, and her average mile time was 10 minutes, 50 seconds. So great. She kept a very steady pace throughout the whole race, and only really slowed down to a walk for a few seconds at most water stops. I couldn't be more proud.

So hip hip hooray for Colleen. She was very strong and determined throughout the whole run. Now if she could just get me to do the next one with her! *tuba noise*

-Jon

Metadata in the Real World.

Library school is in full swing for me. It's hard, but not impossible. Lots of reading, which is annoying only because when people ask me what classes are like, I have to reply, "It is a lot of reading." This furthers the stereotype that all the field consists of is reading. Wrong. Librarianship isn't about books, it's about information. One main concept we've started to talk about now is "metadata," essentially, data about data. Informally, metadata is "a cloud of collateral information around a data object" - Clifford Lynch. Metadata are the descriptions of items or records in a catalog that allow you to search by keyword or description rather than the search engine having to search loads of full text and taking much longer. Example time.

So for a particular album or book or DVD or journal article, metadata and data are different. Let's look at a random album to make this a bit more real, say, the album 19 by Adele. Metadata would include things like, album title, artist, record label, executive producer, and the data for the specific album would be 19, Adele, Columbia/XL, and Jim Abbiss. So that's metadata.

Metadata allows better cataloging and more efficient searching. But it's also super complex and confusing, far more than I ever really thought it would be, mainly because no specific format for metadata has achieved real standardization in the information world. So you've got millions of different individuals, corporations, libraries, and groups using all sorts of different search methods using different metadata. Confusing.

It's an interesting concept to me though, and it will be especially interesting once I learn how to apply it to real life or actually get to work with metadata in a real way. Since that won't happen for awhile, I've decided to undertake a giant personal project to get my head around the idea. I'm metadata-ing my iTunes library. Hawt.

I'm going to try to get one album a week catalogued, which means I'll have this whole project done by the year 2022. Not bad. To get more specific, I'm going to basically be adding info about each album I have into the comments section of a song or album's info. So I'm starting with some cataloging already done, a few standard fields all filled in:

1. Album Title

2. Artist Name/Group Name

3. Year released/recorded

4. Genre

5. Album Artwork

Five fields, all already filled for every song and album in my library. But I'm going a bit further. I'm going to add as many additional authors as I can for these songs. For example, I just catalogued the album of earliest release date in my library, the Columbia Symphony Orchestra's recording of George Gershwin's masterpiece, Rhapsody in Blue, and the New York Philharmonic's recording of another of his beautiful works, An American in Paris. Here's the metadata I added:

1. Additional author: Gershwin, George (1898 - 1937)

2. Add. author: Bernstein, Leonard (1918 - 1990)

3. Add. author: New York Philharmonic and Columbia Symphony Orchestra [each one labeled to the specific track they recorded]

4. Original recording date: June 23rd, 1959 (for Rhapsody) and December 21st, 1958 (for AAIP)

This will be unique for every single album, and very possibly for every single song. For these two Gershwin songs, they have different information because they were released and recorded before the standard "album" as we know it was commonplace and they were two totally different works done by the same artist; it's only for continuity's sake that I've put them together under one album label. Once I get into newer albums, there will be a lot of additional metadata fields for record label, additional performers (featured artists), executive producers, etc. There is tons of extra information I can add. If I wanted to go totally nuts, I'd start cataloging sampled works in the music I have. Holy cow that would be insane. I could label samples of samples and also do covers. The data is seriously unending.

So far, the biggest obstacle I'm running into is that iTunes isn't set up for this kind of data entry. The comments section of song info is really the only place I can put this much superfluous information, and I can't organize it as well as I'd like. I can't even put info into separate lines. Blah. The other main problem is that while iTunes is referred to as a "library," there is no good catalog setting through which to search. Anyone who pops onto my iTunes and is curious to see what items I have that have Leonard Bernstein somehow included in their metadata has to create a smart playlist that matches the following rule: "Comments" "contains" "Add. author: Bernstein, Leonard". Not a lot of room for error here. But it's a work in progress. And (I hope) it's getting me ready for some sort of real world work in the field of library/information science, whereas in all of my classes we're basically just gabbing at each other all day long.

Oh hey, if anyone wants me to completely revamp their iTunes collection, making sure no duplicates are there, everything has correct data entered in all fields, then add lots of metadata for better cataloging purposes, and you're interested in paying me hundreds of dollars to do it, just let me know.

-Jon

"You cannot wield it, it has no other master!"

This is freaking amazing.

INTERACTIVE MAP OF MIDDLE EARTH.

Essentially a Google map of Middle Earth. Wow, this is incredible. You can even look at the labels in Elvish. This is a great compliment to what is easily one of the greatest stories ever told. Truth be told, this is a little nerdy or geeky or whatever, but still it's cool. Look at the background page; looks like an old, unrolled scroll. Who's up for watching the trilogy?

-Jon

Jon AKA web designer.

How sweet is this? I have created my own web page.

Take a peek.

For my Computing Foundations class, we get to use the library science program's online web server to upload things like websites. Our first assignment was to learn a bit about HTML by reading a textbook and writing a website in HTML. It's pretty cool, programming in HTML isn't really "designing" a website, but rather taking the template for a website and telling it what to do. So this is website is very basic but I'm still pretty happy with it. Obviously it could use some work and I will hopefully be updating it as I come up with new stuff; any suggestions?

-Jon

Thoughts over coffee.

I'm in the 4th floor of the University of Iowa's Main Library. Tucked far away in a corner of the Graduate Reading Room. The only other thing in this room are stacks and carpet dryers left by the overnight cleaners. In the last week, I keep thinking of things I should write about, but they are always just germs of ideas and it would be so much easier to "tweet" these things rather than blog about them. Luckily, I don't have Twitter and am forced to think through what I want to write about.

For example, I am back in school again. It's a little different this time around, as I am a full-fledged graduate student. This brings with it many perks, such as a key to the School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) Department ($200 lost key fee) and the entitlement to look down on younger students I pass on the street. But there are still lots of reminders of what undergrad looks like in this city. I pass by Mayflower, my first dorm, every time I drive into the city for class. Kids are always outside waiting for the bus to come pick them up and drive them into campus. I remember the year I spent out on those steps with my first generation iPod shuffle. Last Friday night I went to a CAB sponsored event at the Union, the stand-up comedy of David Koechner. The show itself was terrible, he's never been funny in any movie or show he's ever been in, why would his stand-up be any different? But I was more struck by the crowd which attended. It was almost entirely the freshman class of this school. I saw one older couple, probably fans of Koechner from his early SNL days, but everybody else was young and wearing Iowa apparel. Groups consisted of four nerdy-ish looking guy friends all enjoying their first week of college. Young, young looking couples fresh out of high school. Girls whose outfits were just a bit too paltry for their own good. I remember being those kids and seeing them all just brings back all those feelings of being on this campus by myself, scared, lonely, not really knowing what I was doing and feeling in over my head all the time.

But then I remember I have an expensive key that opens a whole wing of the library that they can't get into, and I snap out of it. Niiiice. You know else I've been reminded about? SLOW WALKERS. Gracious there are some slow walkers on this campus. If you must walk slow, just do your best to be spatially aware and move out of the way of walkers with a purpose. Gosh is it annoying.

And classes have started for me now; I'm a full week in. It's going to be a lot of work, a heck of a lot of reading but really interesting. Once I really get into the readings I can start to share interesting articles/books/whatever I come across related to the field.

Finally, September is just around the corner, which means BRING IT ON MUSIC MONTH. Can't wait. Plus Coll's and my bird-day month. Plus the start of fall weather. Hi-oh.

-Jon

P.S. The Daily Show writing team wins the Emmy over The Tonight Show with Conan Brien's writing team? There is no justice in this world.

Do you remembah the twenty-first night of Septembah?

September is shaping up to be the best month in months. More related to music than anything else, but some other things as well. Get a load of how many albums are coming out in just a few weeks time. Because of the uncertainty of release dates, I'll list them alphabetically by album:

Clapton - Eric Clapton

Not much to say, other than this is probably going to be a pretty standard, run-of-the-mill Clapton album. That is to say, another awesome album of killer blues/pop tunes layered with the most melodic guitar playing you can hear in today's music scene. Most people say John Mayer is the next real bluesman/guitar player of our generation; it's because he essentially copies everything Clapton does musically. Smart move, because Clapton rocks. He can write great hooks and then throw a solo in that melts your face. Or heart. Depends what kind of mood you're in. Either way, this is going to be a great album, no question.

Kaleidoscope Heart - Sara Bareilles

A few years back, Sara Bareilles hurtled onto the pop scene with her single Love Song and her debut album Little Voice. Holy cow does this woman have some pipes. Seriously, this whole album was full of hook after hook. Her voice sounded real. And bold, and unique. I think it was different because she had a powerful voice, and it was good, and there wasn't a hint of disingenuousness* in it. I have heard the first single off this new album and I liked it, but I'm hoping that the deeper cuts will yield even better results. That's how it was on her first one. Love Song was a great song, but holy cow there were loads of even greater songs on it. This will be an awesome album.

Lonely Avenue - Ben Folds & Nick Hornby

Any music by Ben Folds is a guaranteed winner**. Lyrics contributed by Nick Hornby, author of novels like About A Boy and High Fidelity. How could this thing be bad?

Nothing - N.E.R.D.

OK, this one I'm a little iffy on. Their last album was a pretty big let-down for me, mainly because the album before it was absolutely awesome. I won't be buying this one on Day 1, but I'll give it a listen and see if it has the potential to grow on me. I can't give up on Pharrell yet.

Record Collection - Mark Ronson

Another one I'm unsure of at this point. I've only heard the first single, and it was a little synth-heavy for my taste. Ronson's last solo album was really fun, he had horns going all over that thing and some great guest spots. This one, fewer guest spots, and possibly a more electro bent to it. Which isn't bad, if it's done well. I trust him to do it well.

Untitled - Adele

This one is the album whose release date could be pushed back as no real definitive release date has been set as of yet. It would be hard for me to not like this one though, or at least be more open-minded with this one than any of the others. Adele's first album took forever to grow on me, but oh my did it ever grow on me. Her voice just enchants me, and musically her debut was really different for a pop album. Nothing cookie-cutter. And on this next album, she's getting producing from Rick Rubin, flavored with a country-twinge, and she's got some heavy hitters playing sessions with her, namely Pino Palladino (John Mayer Trio, D'Angelo, Clapton, anybody ever who wanted a good bass session player) and James Poyser (executive produced Al Green's 2008 effort Lay It Down and worked on D'Angelo's Voodoo, 'nuff said). It's going to be awesome, even if it takes awhile to get into my system. Super, super excited about this one.

Wake Up Everybody - John Legend & The Roots

This is going to be another really fun album. I love soul music, especially when it's redone to sound awesome by awesome musicians of our generation. Almost this whole album will be covers of old soul tunes from the '70s. Awesome. I've started collecting the albums from which the covers are taken, and they are all really good. All of this music revamped by the one and only ?uestlove will just be fun. And it will be great to listen to John Legend and enjoy it again.

So considering that through the month of September, I will almost double the number of albums I have released in 2010, it's safe to say that it will be the best music month of the year. Unless Kanye actually does release his new rap album in November. Here's to hoping.

-Jon

* this is almost not a real word.

** see: the spoken word album Has Been by William Shatner. Sounds like a recipe for disaster doesn't it? Thanks to the incredible producing touch of Ben Folds, it's an awesome listen.

A brief history lesson.

A very cool article from the LA Times about the beginning of the Disney Archives:

click

The very first ticket to Disneyland ever sold. To Walt Disney's older brother Roy, for only $1. This is awesome for a few reasons. Preservation is such an important part of our life. Librarian Smith was able to join a company that wasn't holding its own history in such high regard and turned it around so they wouldn't lose sight of where they came from. What a huge accomplishment, and especially for a company as enduring as Disney. Disney is truly one of the most established brands in this country's history. I would argue no other company's name has as much clout behind it. "Disney" evokes such an enduring legacy of pure entertainment infused with heart and meaning and love and goodness. True, they've produced their fair share of crap material in the last twenty years*, but no other brand name has as much good quality entertainment under it's belt as Disney does. And they've done so well by keeping sight of their past. They've let their past successes inform their current endeavors. You've got to keep sight of where you came from to know where you're at and where you're headed. That's why the Disney Archives are so important and awesome.

It's also another reason for me to get excited about library school. I have no idea what I want to do once I'm actually there, but heading into the program is exciting because I know my core desires have to do with what the field is all about. Information, preservation, organization, communication. Lots of -tion words that are important in life. It's cool to me that in hopefully three years, I will get a job in an institution where information is highly regarded and I will get paid to organize and communicate that information to others. Awesome.

Also, Lost was/is the most incredible television experience I've ever had. Hopefully more on that later.

-Jon

* Why they chose to work with Roseanne, I'll never understand. Moo.

Garfield minus Garfield.

This is a hilarious to me. I read the newspaper comics quite often as a kid, and there were a few that held a special place in my heart. Calvin & Hobbes, Foxtrot, The Far Side. These were all very funny comics strips. Then there were the others. Family Circus. Beetle Bailey. Marmaduke. But then there was Garfield. I think there was probably a time when I legitimately thought it was funny, but that passed quickly. When I got a bit older I realized it was just a stupid comic about a cat who thought things and a lonely, middle-aged guy who was the most pathetic character. Possibly ever.

This blog illustrates that perfectly. Imagine if Jon Arbuckle couldn't understand Garfield's thoughts, that Garfield was just his cat who was fat. The things Jon says would be horribly pathetic, wouldn't they? This blog brilliantly has taken Garfield out of the Garfield comic strip and you're left with just Jon Arbuckle and his pure, unadulterated loneliness. Far funnier than the actual comic strip.

Enjoy.

-Jon

I love Michael McDonald's voice.

One thing that's great about my wife is that she loves Time Life Records Classic Music collections. Especially their infomercials. The other night as we were flipping TV stations, we stumbled across the Classic Soft Rock collection. Now all their collections truly are really good, whether it's the Classic Soul Ballads, Classic Rhythm & Blues, Midnight Soul, Flower Power, etc. But we started watching the Classic Soft Rock infomercial, because each infomercial has clips of the artists performing their hits while a clip of the song is played. One of the clips was The Doobie Brothers playing "What A Fool Believes." Colleen says, "Oh I love this song!" and I reply, "Hm. Never heard it." She responded with such incredulity that I immediately felt a little embarrassed but determined to get a hold of the whole song. I grabbed my computer, loaded up Youtube and away we went. This is what I found:

Holy crap. What a great tune. This is why Colleen is great. While I know lots and lots and lots of music, there is a lot of music from the last 50 years that most people know that is just absolutely awesome, like this song, but that I never heard or was ever exposed to because my parents listened to a lot of Michael Card while I was growing up. No old Chicago or 5th Dimension or Doobie Brothers or Paul Simon or Stevie Wonder or anything. So I missed tons of this good stuff. Music that I would absolutely love if only I knew about it. Thankfully, Colleen does. And she is educating me, little by little. So enjoy this tune if you haven't heard it in a while. It's incredible.

-Jon

Top 25 Albums of the 2000s

I was hoping to get this one done closer to the beginning of the year, but this list is so freakin' long that it took me awhile to write. So here we go.

25. Rockin' The Suburbs - Ben Folds (2001)

This album became a go-to album during my first year at Iowa. I remember standing at the bus stop right outside of Burge after dinner, waiting for the bus to get back to my room in Mayflower, and listening to The Ascent of Stan over and over. The harmony starting right around minute 3:00 and especially at 3:10 just floored me, and listening to it now still hits me in a crazy way. There was just so much great stuff on here, and I hadn't heard the piano used in such an effective, pop way before.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Not The Same

2. The Ascent Of Stan

3. Still Fighting It

24. Feed The Animals - Girl Talk (2008)

Watch out boys and girls, this one's definitely not one you play on a family vacation. Girl Talk is just one dude, a computer, and the most brilliant mind for mash-ups ever. Greg Gillis has taken samples of music from the last 60 years and mashed them all together in a way that makes me want to start riots. This whole album is the most high energy thing I've ever heard; it's basically just straight club gangster rap over samples like The Carpenters, The Band, Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, etc. The beat never stops. It just goes, and goes, and goes, and the listener is just happy for the seemingly endless onslaught of pure rhythm and movement that is shot like a heroin syringe right into your musical arm vein. Awesome.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Set It Off (the Bubba Sparxx's Heat It Up over a sample of Dexys Midnight Runner's Come On Eileen is pure brilliance)

2. In Step (the Earth, Wind, & Fire sample of September underneath Ludacris rapping in Fergie's Glamorous sounds SO good here)

3. Give Me A Beat (when Ice Cube's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted starts over Daft Punk's Face To Face, it makes me want to dance for seven years straight. Unbelievably great.)

23. The Odd Couple - Gnarls Barkley (2008)

Their first album was good, but man this one was so awesome. It is such a bizarre album; I have no idea how exactly to describe it or label it because it has so many different sounds. It's like soul electro pop cartoon circus music. Whatever you want to call it, it's awesome. Cee-Lo's voice over the production of one my favorite producers, DJ Danger Mouse, fits so perfectly.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Charity Case

2. Who's Gonna Save My Soul

3. A Little Better

22. Back To Black - Amy Winehouse (2006)

Aside from her decadent lifestyle filled with drugs and alcohol abuse, Amy Winehouse belongs in 1968. Or maybe with that stuff too. The reason I loved this album so much is because it has so much Dusty Springfield/Aretha Franklin/etc. soul with just the right pinch of '00s beat. It's really just Motown for Generation Y. And while Winehouse has got one hell of a voice, I have to give credit to Mark Ronson for that incredible production. He pulls some favors here, as you can hear the rich sounds of the Daptone Horns playing on most of these tracks. No wonder there is so much Rhythm & Blues on this record.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. He Can Only Hold Her

2. Back To Black

3. Tears Dry On Their Own

21. Room For Squares - John Mayer (2001)

I loved this album when I was in high school. Listening to it now, it's still good, but certainly a first record. I will say this though, I'm really glad I found this album when I was 16 and not 23. If I heard this record for the first time this last year, I would've probably set it down right away and not even gotten to the good stuff. On it's own, it's a fine album, but compared to his later work, it's pretty bland. Far more poppy than anything else. But if nothing else, it's really a great indication of what a great artist John Mayer is. This was his first album. How does a guy write a song like 3x5 on his first record? Impressive.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. 3x5

2. City Love

3. 83

20. FutureSex/LoveSounds - Justin Timberlake (2006)

This is one of the best second records I've ever heard. Justin Timberlake went from the bubble gum pop of 'NSYNC to pop with a bit more of a hip-hop edge (thank you Neptunes) on Justified, and then holy cow did he upped his game with this one. I didn't get into this album at first, mainly because another of my very favorite records (spoiler alert, it's #1 on this list) came out on the same day (my bday coincidentally). But once I really dug into this, it had so much to offer. There are layers upon layers of sexy, soulful, electro-pop on this album. The interludes alone are worth the purchase price.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. LoveStoned/I Think She Knows Interlude

2. Until The End Of Time Feat. The Benjamin Wright Orchestra

3. What Goes Around.../...Comes Around Interlude

19. 19 - Adele (2008)

I don't want to sound sexist here, but I don't groove on female vocalists as much as male vocalists. Maybe it's just cause I can't sing along. Adele is a grand exception (to the me liking her, not to the me singing along). She has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. Period. And to hear a voice of this caliber in our age of auto-tune and paint by numbers pop starlets is just astounding. Adele has such control in her voice, it's remarkable. And on top of being floored by her voice, the music on this record is really great. It's great modern British pop sounds with lots of homage to late '60s soul. Plus one of the best Bob Dylan covers ever.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Hometown Glory

2. Tired

3. Right As Rain

18. Alive 2007 - Daft Punk (2007)

I had a hard time not putting this one higher on my list, but in reality, I only truly fell in love with the first half of this record. But holy cow what a first half it is. I think going to a Daft Punk show would be the best way to burn calories, EVER. They put on a hell of a live show which really just equates to one colossal dance party. This show consists of just a mash-up of killer Daft Punk songs. My only beef with this is my normal beef with Daft Punk: they give us too much of a good thing. Some of the later tracks are too long and too monotonous to stay focused and into the music but that is not the case for tracks 3-5, the most glorious continuous seventeen minutes and thirty-seven seconds in music I think I've ever heard. The triumvirate ofTelevision Rules The Nation / Crescendolls, Too Long / Steam Machine, and Around The World / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger is breathtakingly and relentlessly awesome. Awesome the way my grandparents use the word. The whole time I'm just filled with wonder at how incredibly cool these songs sound. It is just an onslaught of sound and beat and melody and robots and guitars and cheering and beauty. Probably great for working out.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Around The World / Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

2. Television Rules The Nation / Crescendolls

3. Too Long / Steam Machine

17. The Black Album - Jay-Z (2003)

If you ever want to hear an artist at his zenith, listen to this album. One might argue that The Blueprint is Jay's best work, but I have to stick with The Black Album. The Blueprint was the game changer for Jay-Z, and this one is the one that solidified his status as King of the Rap Game. First off, the production on this thing is just insane. He's got Kanye, Just Blaze, Timbaland, Eminem, the Neptunes, even Rick Rubin produces on this record. What a line-up. And then on top of some of the sickest beats I have ever heard, you've got Jay at the top of his wordplay. This is like watching Michael Jordan play basketball in 1996. His verses are just crazy good. Jay's got swagger cause he knows this is his "last" album and he's going out on top. You can hear a bit of sadness on December 4th when he says "Goodbye to the game, all the spoils, the adrenaline rush." This album was truly Jay's "grand closing."

Top 3 Tracks:

1. December 4th

2. Encore

3. 99 Problems

16. Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future - The Bird And The Bee (2009)

I heard the first single from this album back on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno (the original, not Part Deux) and it absolutely blew me away. I even blogged about it I think. Yup I did. This woman's voice is just perfect, so soft and pretty and melodic and overtaking. Her harmonies are gorgeous. The chorus on Diamond Dave has some of the prettiest vocal layering ever. And the music production is so weird, it's like jazz/pop rooted in electronica. It sounds like an odd mix, but the sound combinations produce such a huge wall of breathtaking music.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. My Love

2. Ray Gun

3. Diamond Dave

15. Try! - John Mayer Trio (2005)

Who knew John Mayer could play the guitar? I did. And so many of his fans did too, but this album, along with the arrival of the Trio was the moment we could hold our heads up high and no longer be reviled for being fans. This is a powerful album from the guy whose record company had released Daughters as his previous single. He breaks out of that mold completely though, introducing his young fans to hits by Ray Charles and Jimi Hendrix, as well as showing them what Daughters was originally written as (slow soul tune). And a seven and a half minute slow blues tune too? From the Wonderland guy? John Mayer effectively avoided getting pigeonholed with this album and started to dictate his own career rather than having it dictated to him by his record label. And in the process, you gave us a pretty bad ass record. Well done, John.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. I Got A Woman

2. Wait Until Tomorrow

3. Gravity

14. X&Y - Coldplay (2005)

The Joshua Tree for my generation. Coldplay had had a small hit with Parachutes, gained some notoriety with A Rush of Blood to the Head, but this was the album with hype. Everybody wanted to see where they would go next and they took it to another dimension with this one. A dimension where bands only play arenas. Every song on this album seems like it would fit a giant stadium better than anything else (coincidentally, Coldplay just performed an acoustic version of A Message on the Hope for Haiti TV special months ago, and it was SOOO great). I fell in love with this album. So many immense sounds and instruments and melodies and harmonies and it's just so great. No one can write emotion that bursts out of your soul into song like Coldplay. And this album proved that.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. What If

2. Fix You

3. The Hardest Part

13. Miles Remixed - The Apple Juice Kid (2008)

This one is maybe the least well known on my list. Okayplayer.com (The Roots website) featured this album as a free download by kind of famous producer The Apple Juice Kid. I had never heard of him but the album cover looked sweet and I had a fairly large Miles Davis collection, which I enjoyed listening to from time to time so I thought I'd give it a try. Glad I did. This is one of the smoothest sounding albums ever. It combines the jazzy melodies of Miles Davis from the '50s and '60s with some beautifully smooth hip-hop beats. AJK has just taken bits and pieces from some of Davis' seminal works and cut them up, rearranged them, and mashed them together in a way that is just so easy on the ears. That's one reason I liked this so much. I listened to this when I studied, I listened to it playing darts in our duplex garage, it was perfect mood music. There were so many nights that Kevin and Colleen and I would stay up late, throwing darts, drinking a bit and just talking while this was playing in the background. It creates a very tranquil atmosphere in which to hang out. Jazz often turns lots of people off due to its grand or seemingly pompous nature. This is an album that takes jazz and makes it completely listenable.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. SnapMusic

2. Masco

3. ViolinGreen

12. Catching Tales - Jamie Cullum (2005)

This album finds its strength by being very catchy pop, but rooted in something that isn't ubiquitous in today's music scene. Jamie Cullum has the jazz piano chops to pull this album off super well. He's got crazy chords all over the place and sexy progressions and melodies, it's just so much fun to listen to. His voice can be a bit grating at first listen, but with time, one comes to realize how much control he's got and how easily he can manipulate his voice. And hoo boy can this guy scat!

Top 3 Tracks:

1. 21st Century Kid

2. My Yard

3. Nothing I Do

11. Parachutes - Coldplay (2000)

It's remarkable that Parachutes is a debut album. Coldplay writes and sings and plays with depth, emotion, and some real sexy piano music. Chris Martin might not have the most technically perfect voice ever, but he does exactly what he needs to do song after song here. Listening back to it, it's amazing to hear how much depth these guys wrangle out of their acoustic guitars. One of my favorite records ever.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Trouble

2. We Never Change

3. Sparks

10. Late Registration - Kanye West (2005)

Another great sophomore album. I liked The College Dropout fine enough, but this is when I knew for sure that Kanye could deliver and his debut wasn't a fluke. There are so many great tracks here, and the music is insanely eclectic. Kanye brought in an outsider not really known for producing hip-hop, Jon Brion. He is known for scoring movie soundtracks such asMagnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (one of my personal favorites), and Synecdoche, New York, among many others. And his influence on this record is key. Kanye is great but pushed the boundaries of his own style with Brion's help. This is a bizarrely eclectic albums with sounds you'd never expect from a huge hip-hop star. Also, Kanye lays down some amazing samples all over the place here, including, but not limited to, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Curtis Mayfield and Bill Withers. How much more soul can you fit onto one record?

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Gone Feat. Consequence and Cam'Ron

2. Crack Music Feat. The Game

3. Gold Digger Feat. Jamie Foxx

9. Heavier Things - John Mayer (2003)

There is so much growth between this record and Room For Squares. He went from writing pretty run of the mill pop songs to songs with some punch to them. Sure, these are mostly all pop songs again, but with just enough soul hidden inside that they can catch you off guard. One of the strengths of this album is that it matches sonically with what he's singing about. The feelings evoked by the words of Wheel is exactly the feeling evoked by the music of the song. And many of these songs just hit bullseye in that regard. Clarity, Something's Missing, Split Screen Sadness. There is emotion that lines up just perfectly between music and lyrics. It is a very satisfying listen.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Clarity

2. Wheel

3. Something's Missing

8. Discovery - Daft Punk (2001)

I know I've written about this album somewhere else. Thinking about it now it might be in an unpublished Top 5 Favorite Artists blog somewhere. Anyway, this album rules. For me, it's the sum of everything good about Daft Punk's strengths. In their older stuff, the "techno" sound of their music overtakes everything and they don't use any restraint. On this album, they take the techno sound and turn it into songs that are listenable. Real songs, not just seven minute club tracks. Songs with different parts, verses, choruses, the occasional bridge here and there. It's that complex of a thing, but when they start writing real songs in their crazy robot sounding style, it's so awesome.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Digital Love

2. Something About Us

3. Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

7. Fly Or Die - N*E*R*D (2004)

This album is the summer of 2004 for me. There is hardly anything that makes sense on this album musically, considering who N*E*R*D is and the kind of music they made before this. Since some of N*E*R*D's members make up the hip-hop production team The Neptunes, you'd think this album would be rooted in hip-hop. Not at all. While there are some flavors of hip-hop throughout, this is far more of a crazy pop-rock album than anything else. Am I supposed to dance to these songs or "rock out" as the saying goes? Who knows. You listen and you love it.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. She Wants To Move

2. Maybe

3. Breakout

6. Once - Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova (2007)

Most soundtracks are comprised of songs from which clips were featured in the movie. This one is different; almost all the songs from the soundtrack are performed in their entirety in the movie. Which, now that I think about it, makes the movie more of a musical than anything. Tangent. These songs are breathtaking. The voices are simple; his voice warbles from time to time, but you can tell he means every word he sings. That is truly a rare trait in music today. Her voice is beautiful; so simple and it fits right where it needs to. She doesn't overpower him and only adds to him. It's perfect. Their combination is so well-matched. It might be such an emotional album for me because it's so intimately tied to the movie. When I hear these songs, I think of the relationship between these two characters and that they are really singing these songs to each other. They are singing about hurt, about loss and pain and failure and love and hope. When The Guy really lets his voice loose in Say It To Me Now, it is chilling because you hear what he is feeling. That is where the strength in this album lies. There isn't anything technically out of this world, it's mainly just two simple voices over simple instruments. The beauty lies within the feeling behind each voice and how much they can communicate with just their voices. Amazing.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Say It To Me Now

2. Lies

3. Once

5. Graduation - Kanye West (2007)

Highest ranked rap album on my list here. Kanye reached his zenith with this album. He had a great sound on The College Dropout, tweaked it just enough with Late Registration and hit the nail on the head with this album. Just great production here, all the way through. The craziest samples ever. Steely Dan, Daft Punk, Elton John, Curtis Mayfield, and one of my absolute all time favorite samples ever, Michael Jackson's P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) samples in Good Life. Maybe the hottest sample ever. So clever too. P.Y.T. is such an incredible pop song, and Kanye just took it and slowed it waaaay down, until it's almost unrecognizable. It took me lots and lots of listens before I realized he was even sampling anybody, and then I had to really focus to catch the sample. So subtle but man the end product is just so hot. And can I talk aboutFlashing Lights for a second? I don't even think I should. This is definitely on my Top 5 Hip Hop Songs list. It is undeniable how great the beat in that tune is. This album isn't perfect (Drunk And Hot Girls and Big Brother are two huge blemishes), but where Kanye gets it right, he REALLY gets it right. Beats and rhymes both. He was completely on top of his game here.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Flashing Lights Feat. Dwele

2. Good Life Feat. T-Pain

3. Homecoming Feat. Chris Martin

4. Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends - Coldplay (2008)

It has to be hard to release albums each better than the last. Coldplay has pulled it off for the last decade. Impressive. I had a lot of high hopes for this album and was totally blown away by it. The sounds here are just crazy. The intro song, Life In Technicolor, just starts with the craziest sounding weird piano instrument and opens into a huge rolling sea wave of sound that overtakes you and doesn't let you come up for air until the end of the album. The band paints so many landscapes with the songs. If I was to make a music video for Cemeteries Of London, I would have the band playing the song amidst a giant Revolutionary War battle. Cannons firing all around them, soldiers bayonetting each other. The song just sounds like a colossal battlefield to me. And how about Viva La Vida? Maybe the most inspirational sounding song I've ever heard. Really though, this whole album boasts songs that are just big. They belong in another universe. Just like X&Y, I feel like the only place they could ever truly live is in a giant stadium arena. I can't imagine Death And All His Friends any other way than the whole band performing it in front of tens of thousands of fans. All the way through, this album just sets my heart on fire.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Lost!

2. Viva La Vida

3. Life In Technicolor

3. Voodoo - D'Angelo (2000)

Remember that sexy music video from about ten years ago of that super buff black guy singing the song with no clothes on? The camera rotated around his whole body, just showing his insanely ripped torso? That was D'Angelo. And that video basically communicates what this album is all about. SEX. But it really is so much more than that too. But the sexy is the most obvious element of this album. I'd never heard music made of silk before this one. Each song is a study in not just how to get a certain feeling behind the music, but how that feeling can be communicated by the musicians. True, the feeling here is sexual/sensual soul, but it's so well communicated by how the instruments are played. The bass is pushed so far back behind the beat, it's like a game between the musicians to see how off kilter they can take the music without completely tearing everything apart. Imagine musical notes dancing around each other like they know some sexy business is going down soon. That is this album in a nutshell. Reading over that again, that's the worst comparison I could come up with but it's the only way I can communicate how much soul this album has. So much.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Greatdayindamornin' / Booty

2. One Mo' Gin

3. Feel Like Makin' Love

2. Al Green - Lay It Down

Al Green is one of those classic artists that has enough credibility from the last fifty years that basically most anyone you ask would say "Oh yeah, I love Al Green!" when really the only songs they know are Let's Stay Together, Love And Happiness, and if you're lucky, Call Me (Come Back Home). I used to be one of those people, at least until two years ago. And then he released this album. After the opening bass riff of the first track, I was sold. Not only on this album, but on Al Green as a musician in general. This was the album that did it though. Produced by ?uestlove and James Poyser, both from The Roots, this album is like the incarnation of the '70s Al Green soul imputed into the R&B of today. Holy moly is it fun to listen to. Soft guitar, bass lines that are just out of this world, horns that could only have come from James Brown's band, and all of this lays the setting for that silky falsetto of Al Green. A few great guest spots too, John Legend, Anthony Hamilton, and Corinne Bailey Rae. And the songs are just good songs. Songs about love. No politics here. No messed up relationships. Just simple love songs, of which good ones are very hard to find nowadays.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. Just For Me

2. Lay It Down Feat. Anthony Hamilton

3. What More Do You Want From Me

1. John Mayer - Continuum

It might be a while before Mayer tops this album. This one came at just the right time; he was at just the right spot in his musical timeline to coalesce so many different genres and influences into a modern masterpiece. He touches on blues, jazz, funk, lots of pop, and in general just music that can be enjoyed by such a wide range of humans. And that's just the music. Lyrically, he reaches into the deepest depths of anything he had done (and even stuff he's done since this album). There are truly universal themes here, themes that at some point or another, everybody thinks about this stuff. Everybody has issues with seeing their parents age. Everybody has issues with dealing with the good and the bad in life. Everybody deals with the concept of belief in one form or another. Everybody deals with fighting off the world in order to hold onto their confidence. There is genius writing all over this one. And back to the music again, every song can be traced back to its influence if you listen closely enough. This album sent me on a hunt to find what inspired it. Here's a short list: Curtis Mayfield, Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Steely Dan, Coldplay, and Ray Charles. And that doesn't even cover all of the songs. It's hard to find things that aren't really, really great on this album. And that's why it's on the top of this list. It's so difficult to pull together such a great mix of elements and pull it off so perfectly as Mayer does here. Great album art too.

Top 3 Tracks:

1. I Don't Trust Myself (With Loving You)

2. Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

3. Stop This Train

Metal mouth, tin grin, railroad tracks. I can't think of any others.

I'm starting an experiment tonight. For the next two weeks, I'm going to wear my retainers to bed every single night. I don't plan on this being a pleasant experience. Right after I got my braces off, my orthodontist told me I should wear the retainers all the time for the first six months and then just at night for a year after that. He also said most orthodontists are starting to recommend that former braces-wearers just wear their retainers for the rest of their life.

Ha, I said. We'll see how that goes.

I've hardly worn them every night since that day, much less all the time. My longest streak of consecutive nights wearing the retainers is probably four days. And I can always tell that it helps keep my teeth together, mainly because the mornings after I wear them to bed, my teeth are in excruciating pain. I can hardly chomp on my Golden Maple Quaker Oat Squares.

So hopefully these two weeks won't be awful for me. But they probably will be.

-Jon

P.S. Remember that time that UNI upset the best team in the nation for a school-record breaking NCAA tournament run? That was pretty awesome.

I can hear my stomach grumbling at me.

After I graduated, I challenged myself to write one blog a week. It didn't go well until the end of February, and I think since around then I've kept it up alright. So the only real reasons for this blog are that I want to get my one blog for the week and I'm hungry and don't have much brain capacity for anything deeper than this.

I am very hungry right now. Colleen is meeting her mom out for dinner tonight so I've got to fend for myself. I could just eat a microwaveable pizza, but who the heck wants that when there is truly an assemblage of great fast food places close by? Here's the rundown:

McDonalds:

Great tasting food, but I feel worse after I've eaten a Mickey-D's meal than any other fast food place. Why? Not sure, it might be from that documentary Super-Size Me, which I didn't even see. Thanks brain for ruining a perfectly delicious restaurant. Super cheap and great fries. Except they have Coke products. Bummer.

Burger King:

One of my favorite fast food places. Cheap and good. And again, great fries. Good chicken sandwiches too, all on the dollar menu. Again though, Coke products. But after I'm done I don't feel like I ingested straight fat into my arteries like I do after the golden arches.

Taco Bell:

Hey gang, let's head south of the border! TB is such a great place to eat. A nice change from the normal cheeseburger. And even though every item on the menu is some permutation of cheese, beef, beans, and a shell, it's all still really good. And Pepsi products, so I can get my Mt. Dew. Except for the Mt. Dew Baja Blast they have is awful, tastes like Listerine. Gross.

Long John Silver's:

Anybody want flies on their food? Didn't think so. Granted, I haven't been to LJS' for years and years, and I remember loving it when I was a kid, there just always seemed to be three or four flies cruising around the joint every time I ever went there. Weird. I should give it another go sometime soon.

Hardee's:

Worst ad campaign ever, which is probably why most people I know say they "hate" this place. Too bad for them, because Hardee's is the best fast food joint there is, no contest. It's a bit on the pricier side, but it's so worth it for what you get. Delicious, crispy fries, regular or curly. Giant drinks (even their medium puts other places larges to shame). Huge angus beef patties. I don't even know what angus beef is, but man is it tasty. It's just all fun food to eat. What a great place.

So there's a quick rundown of what's around to eat. I could also just get a large pepperoni pizza from Little Caesar's for $5.35. One of the best deals around. But in the end, who really cares where I go for dinner except me? Weekly blog done.

-Jon

Spring Music Preview '10.

Rolling Stone has published their annual Spring Music Preview, giving its readers a sneak peek at new albums coming out through the summer. Here's what I think.

1. Erykah Badu - New Ameryikah Part Two: Return of the Ankh (3/30)

Weirdest title ever. What is the deal with Erykah Badu? Do I like her or do I not? It's a tough one. Sometimes she's like a female D'Angelo, sometimes her music is just a tish too freaky for me. But I'll probably get my hands on this album eventually. She seems like one of a few truly creative and free-thinking minds in R&B today, and that goes a ways with me.

2. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - I Learned The Hard Way (4/06)

This one actually isn't profiled by the Rolling Stone article which is weird because it will almost certainly be better than most of the other albums on their list. There are not many groups these days with such an authentic, old-school sound. They are straight soul/funk/R&B. They sound like the JBs have time-warped fifty years and connected with Sharon Jones to make just the purest sounding soul music. I'm sure this album will be no different.

3. Keane - Night Train (5/11)

Another one not profiled by RS. I'm iffy on this album because I haven't even heard Keane's last album, Perfect Symmetry, back from late '08. So I should probably pick that up before getting excited about a new Keane album. That's sort of how Keane is for me though. I don't get excited about their albums, I get them months (or years) after they are released and then I have a quiet appreciation for them. It'll be the same with this album I'm sure.

4. Jack Johnson - To The Sea (6/01)

Considering the change between In Between Dreams and Sleep Through The Static, I can only imagine this is going to be a killer album. And Jack Johnson has long hair now. Weird.

5. Sara Bareilles - Title TBD (Date TBD)

Remember how great Sara's first album was? Word on the Wikipedia is that ?uestlove and James Poyser (both of The Roots) are helping her out with this one. Enough said. It's going to be incredible.

6. Maroon 5 - Title TBD (Date TBD)

Oh wow, Maroon 5 is coming out with a new album? Forget it guys, you released a totally phenom first single, a decently good debut album to back it up, and followed it up with kind of crap. It's going to be hard to redeem yourself after taking like four years between albums. Who do you think you are, Sade?

7. Mark Ronson - Title TBD (Date TBD)

One of the best producers around. Whatever he does with this album is going to be awesome. His second album was great, Amy Winehouse's Back To Black was great, the stuff he does with Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings is great, Rhymefest's Blue Collar was great. It doesn't matter what direction he goes in because he can do great stuff in any genre. Bring it Mark.

So those are the albums that stood out. None of my favorite artists have stuff coming out, but man is this year already looking miles better than last year's spring preview. And so far, this year has been waaaay better than last year. Already, we've got new albums from OK Go, Sade, Jamie Cullum, Daniel Merriweather, Corinne Bailey Rae, and in the next month, Broken Bells, Gorillaz, and Jimi Hendrix. While none of these are Top 5 Favs for me, the number of albums I'd like to get is way bigger than normal. Awesome. Cheers to 2010 huh?

-Jon

Another one about music.

First, I know it's been nearly three months since I wrote last. Yikes. I'll see what I can do about it.

In a week, Jamie Cullum's fourth album, The Pursuit, is released in the US. I'm crazy excited, because Jamie Cullum is awesome to begin with, but yesterday I finally listened to one of the songs off this upcoming album. I hadn't heard any cuts yet, and holy cow did this one blow me away. You will almost certainly recognize this song by Rihanna:

OK, so that's a great pop tune, killer MJ sample in the middle, great beat, fun to dance to, the whole bit. It's a fun song. Now, here is one facet of Cullum's genius that blows me away. He can take a song from basically any genre and make it incredible in his own specific way. He takes Rihanna's great song and turns it into this:

Why can't Youtube write embedding codes that work well? I'm not savvy enough to get this video to fit inside the parameters of my blog. Anyway.

Gosh. Hear how he builds into the chorus? It feels so huge. And his chords, oh man does he nail this song. He turns this great pop tune into the most beautiful, jazzy anthem. Unbelievable.

The last album I bought was JM's Battle Studies; before that, Jay-Z's The Blueprint 3. I hardly ever by CDs anymore, and this is one that I am definitely making the trip out to Best Buy next Tuesday to get. You should too.

-Jon