i am in the process of updating and changing the layout of my website because it is about a year and a half behind my life. the part i always forget about but love the most about building a new site (especially one's own) is the research process. one thing always leads to another thing you never intended on looking at or has nothing to do with what you actually wish to find but in the process you end up seeing all kinds of hilarious, magical and wonderful stuff that always makes me remember how much i like to look at stuff and to make stuff to be looked at!









so while none of this has anything to do with my site, it actually has everything to do with my site. think about it, man.

in the yeeeaaar twoooo thoooouuusaaaaand!

soooo, this decade is swiftly coming to a close and it kind of has me, like most reasonable human beings, thinking back on the last ten years. when we entered the 21st century it was 11 days before my 15th birthday. i was a freshman in high school, gwen stefani had fashion braces and had not yet made me cry tears of agony and shame with love.angel.music.baby, technology was doomed and for reasons i can no longer truly remember i wholeheartedly believed the apocalypse was upon us. so at the stroke of midnight i was (literally) under my bed bending over and kissing my ass goodbye (figuratively) thinking about how i'd never get to have sex (literally). but then it didn't happen. y2k didn't kill 'em all and thanks to that we had about 600 years worth of bottled water in the basement, i had to continue going to high school and eventually i got to make whoopie. more importantly however! i got to continue on and experience a new decade of totally bitchin' music. while none of the music of this decade makes it into my all time top five or anything it is certainly great and makes it into my second top five? moving on! because this list could no doubt go on for about 40 scrolling minutes i have limited myself to ten choices. in no particular order here are my top albums of the 2000's!!

1. xtrmntr- primal scream - creation, 2000
primal scream is good, duh. but primal scream + kevin shields + bernard sumner is just madness!! and while some of us (me) do not generally wish to mix their music with their politics i can let it slide with this particular aural gem. parts of mbv arkestra (if they move kill 'em) frequently make me think my ears are about to bleed. sooooo what i'm saying is i love it.
2. tender buttons- broadcast - warp records, 2005
a decidedly awesome strangely more electronic departure from their usual (albiet loved!) minimalist, drawn out, psychedelic aesthetic. i looooove it.
3. geogaddi- boards of canada - warp records, 2002
3 records! just great. needs no explanation.
4. the sophtware slump- grandaddy - V2, 2000
i think this album really captured a moment in time. it's mostly classic grandaddy nonsensical, even vaguely humorous at times but with a huge underpinning of sadness while conveying a true sense of loneliness like not much else i have ever heard. it has perfectly characterized a time when no one really has to communicate face to face if they don't want to and we are more acquainted with the objects that fill our lives than our own neighbors. it's simply honest and heartbreaking and magically beautiful.
5. fishscale- ghostface killah - def jam, 2006
seamless mix of hip-hip and soul, past with present and wu-tang-like skits with real content in a multiple listenings way that i would have never expected.
6. rock action- mogwai - matador, 2001
this album makes me feel like i am alone on top of some mountain somewhere but i am not sad about it at all. it is the perfect mixture of completely beautiful and total brutal wall of sound. a+++
7. rather ripped- sonic youth - geffen, 2006
they just keep on doing it. this certainly stands up to the best of their own and can be listened to endlessly without tire!
8. standards- tortoise - thrill jockey, 2001
nothing by tortoise is ever bad. this album is beautiful and intricate and clearly crafted with love and attention. it's more outwardly electronic in parts than something off of millions now living will never die, but by no means inferior. they manage to take the parts of their work that are great and simply add more layers of greatness. how is that even possible?
9. lcd soundsystem- lcd soundsystem - the dfa, 2005
dance party in a box.
10. sex change- trans am - thrill jockey, 2007
i always think of trans am as a better, more interesting version of daft punk which is why daft punk didn't make my top list. this album is great through and through. it is akin to futureworld but without the bits of sadness even in its downtempo moments. and the uptempo times are totally bloodthirsty and awesome. zing!
10.5 swimming- french kicks - vagrant, 2008
i realize i've cheated and added and extra but i got to the end of this and realized i hadn't yet listed french kicks!! AND all of their full length albums have been released in the 00's! so basically take your pick of any of their albums, they are all great not to mention that they put on a fantastic live show. they never cease to offer up dreamy mystical heartbreaking songs that are honest and real and make you remember that you're a human being. kinda like neil young but with a somewhat more dulcet tone and possibly less bitterness toward corporate entities.

honorable mentions:
now here is nowhere- secret machines
howdy!- teenage fanclub
desperate youth, bloodthirsty babes- tv on the radio
one/three- dabrye
discovery- daft punk

although this list could certainly be populated with dozens of other choices spanning all genres! i stand by it!! ladies and gentlemen, the sounds of what has defined this decade for me for one reason or another. and no, there is no spiritualized ;)

on a p.s. note y2k was really funny and i wish that y210k was happening. no i don't know what that means.

i suck at having a web presence :(

i just started reading the x-files comics and i am wondering where they have been all my life.

i am working on a painting right now that should be pretty funny when i am done.

anecdote

at a gas station in western michigan i get out of my car and begin pumping the gas. i planned on filling the tank and i have a 20 gallon tank (insanity i know) so i chose to wash the windshield as it was covered in bug guts. they are settled in there pretty well so i am really working at it. as i am getting into the thick of gutsville a man at the next pump says something to the effect of "looks like you're working really hard there." while kind of half laughing. i respond simply with, "yeah." there is a few beats of silence and then he starts again. "so do you like doing that more than the dishes?" to which i reply, "i wouldn't know. i don't do dishes, that's what men are for."

it's 2009.

well i made it. my magical beauty machine of a 15 year old car performed like a champ and dragged me from sea to (nearly!) shining sea! it was a long and sweaty journey, but i learned many things:

- the middle part of the united states DOES in fact have people there. seriously. i talked to some of them!
- towns that are serviced by only three roads and allow you to ride your bike on the freeway are a LITTLE creepy.
- this wasn't so much a newly learned thing as a reaffirmation, casinos suck. las vegas sucks and gambling is really sad and weirdly pathetic. but buffets are good. duh.
- nebraska has basically nothing in it sans the occasional arby's or fast food establishment attached to a gas station where the people who live in the "city" (you know, where the arby's is!) make you feel fairly unwelcome if you are not wearing pleated front khaki shorts that go down to your knee and a shirt that advertises something. also it's not too much to look at either, in my humble opinion.
- iowa on the other hand! what a gem! the people were great, it was beautiful, and we got to stay in the creepiest motel i have ever had the pleasure of LOOKING at let alone stepping foot it. the whole thing was just an addition to the home of the woman who owned it! and the bar next door closed at 10pm. amazing.
- the visual beauty of utah and colorado caused me for the only time in my life to truly describe something as "majestic". i finally get all that purple mountains majesty junk they always made us sing. maybe they should show kids that so they know what it's about.
- bugs are hard to clean off your car.
- the grand slam breakfast burrito is the greatest thing ever created by the hands of man. i DREAM about this thing. just thinking about it makes my mouth water even when i am not hungry. the breakfast dagwood can walk off a cliff. grand slam burrito i would die 4 U.





anyway. all in all it was an incredible journey. america rules.

art coming soon.

tomorrow will begin my slow but steady crawl across the united states. i will leave my oceanside oasis for the humble but homey home that is detroit. my emotions are mixed. i am very excited to return to all of my favorite michigan things. my family, my dog, my friends and love, pbr and even white castle a little. but i will certainly miss this place that has been my home for the last nine months. i will miss being able to get up and go to the beach before anyone gets there and watch the waves while the marine layer burns off and the sun starts to peek through. the traffic, i can take or leave. preferably leave. but i will miss all of the amazing people that i love here, definitely the in-n-out burger. not to mention this:

i am camping across america! i have never seen the middle before so i am pretty excited for that. all in all i am excited to see how this next chapter in my life unfolds and where i am off to next. i hope the cosmos wishes me luck and cowabunga dude. totally rad. later southern california.