On...Words of Freedom

From the Washington Post

Just a little article by Anne Applebaum on "WORDS THAT MATTER," as we near 2009. I wish these articles could be longer and more detailed but it's a nice appetizer to think about. The end has a nice comparison of the historical flow of the USA and that of Russia.

On...The Best Music of 2008

The Best Music of 2008
Brought to you by Snow Day and The Sleeping Claires

Here is my List of the Top 40 songs of 2008
Many of the songs might be new to you so you can spend hours listening to some great tunes on ITunes or Napster or Amazon or wherever. Granted the list is a bit heavy on Alternative, Rock, Indie/College Rock, with a little Electronic, Folk, and Pop mixed in but that's what I like.

Please email me or post any comments or songs that would make your list. I post a collection of them (if I get any.)

40) Grafton Street by Dido
39) Signs by Bloc Party
38) AEIOU by Charlotte Sometimes
37) Black & Gold by Sam Sparro
36) Spiraling by Keane
35) Lucid Dreams by Franz Ferdinand
34) Runaway by Ladytron
33) I'm not going to Teach your Boyfriend how to Dance by The Black Kids
32) I Kissed A Girl by Katy Perry
31) Mercy by Duffy
30) Darlin' Don't You Fear by Brent Dennen
29) It's Amazing by Jem
28) Buildings and Mountains by The Republic of Tigers
27) Falling Down by Oasis
26) Detroit by Black Gold
25) Black River Killer by Blitzen Trapper
24) Night Reconnaissance by The Dresden Dolls
23) Id Engager by Of Montreal
22) Mykonos by Fleet Foxes
21) In a Cave by Toyko Police Club
20) Go On, Say It by Blind Pilot
19) Highly Suspicious by My Morning Jacket
18) Into the Summer Sky by the Smoking Popes
17) We Won't Break by Zoot Woman
16) Funplex by the B-52s
15) The World Should Revolve Around Me by Little Jackie
14) Waiting for a War by The Morning Benders
13) My Mistakes Were Made for You by The Last Shadow Puppets
12) Shut Up and Let Me Go by The Ting-Tings
11) Ready for the Floor by Hot Chip

and the Top 10

10) Light & Music by Cut Copy
9) Human by The Killers
8) Flame by Bell X1
7) You Don't Know Me by Ben Folds and Regina Spektor
6) You, Me, & The Bourgeoisie by The Submarines
5) Olympic Airwaves by The Foals
4) Song We Sang Away by Low vs. Diamond
3) I'm Good, I'm Gone by Lykke LI
2) The Geeks Were Right by The Faint
1) Old Enough by The Raconteurs

BEST 5 ALBUMS

Though I believe this is a dying concept, since most people just buy singles now, I will list my Top 5 Albums of the year, which is certainly saying something because it is rare for an entire album to rock.

5) My Morning Jacket: Evil Urges A really unique blend of old school rock and eclectic new wave pop. A few songs are duds but overall it is bold edition.
4) The Killers: Human The glam boys of Vegas are back and they don't disappoint. Perhaps not as dynamic as their last couple of outings, but a fine listen.
3) Bell X1: Flock I listened to their single Rocky Took a Lover all year, but it wasn't until a week ago that I got a hold of the whole album. The best late year surprise by far.
2) Charlotte Sometimes: Waves And Both Of Us Best pure pop album of the year. She's only nineteen or there about, but she has fine ear for sound. Should be bigger than Katy Perry, but there is no justice in the world of pop music. Solid album from track one to track twelve.

1) Death Cab for Cutie: Narrow Stairs Hands down the best full album of the year. Yes, I have a soft spot for DCFC but they came through. I had high expectations for Ben Folds, Kaiser Chiefs, and Keane, but they all disappointed. DCFC nailed it. Give it a few listens. Once I warmed up it was on high rotation on my listening schedule.

And a few side notes.

• Best Rediscovered Song: Venice is Sinking by Spirit of the West. I loved this song in college and played it a lot on the Guten Morgen Morgen Show on 87.1 WIDR FM. But I could never find it and my brain forgot the title. Luckily 93.9 The River played it two months ago and I heard it. It is a beautiful song.
• Best Discovered Classical Music: Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Upon listening to it I would never would have thought it was from the 1870s. Really magnificent and a bit haunting. Beautiful work from a tragic man.
• Best Song on a Cold Night Roasting Marshmallows: Flame by Bell X1. Just listen to this cool song and you'll understand.
• Biggest Disappointment: Ben Folds; Way to Normal. Only a couple of songs are really good. I'm still shocked.
• Weirdest Euro Video (Yes, the still produce videos): I'm Good, I'm Gone by Lykke Li. Just have to see it. SEE HERE
• Best Baroque Reissue: Joshua Bell and The Academy of St. Martin of the Fields and Vivaldi's Four Season. A fine recording for those Vivaldi fans.

I'll post my Best Films of the Year in a few days and anyone's recommendations. Later.

On...SNL takes a few shots at NY Gov. Paterson

SNL has stirred some controversy (translate as some people with no sense of humor have a problem with their disfunctioning humor gland) over their Weekend Update sketch which takes a few hard shots at current accidental-governor of New York David Paterson. Just in case you didn't know, he is legally blind.

Check it out for yourself below.

On...Move over Ponzi...

There's a new fraud in town.

Meet Bernard Madoff. The news about him is just beginning to trickle in among the Big Three Loan to Nowhere battle. He may be the biggest swindler in history, akin to the notorious Charles Ponzi. However Ponzi might end up being a rank amateur when all is said and done. $50 Billion is a lot of moola.

Here are two articles to catch you up.

London Times Online

Yahoo! Finance

On...Humor...Ask a Ninja

Just in case you are behind the times like me you might not know about Ask A Ninja.

It's pretty funny, especially the Ask A Ninja's review of Pirates of the Caribbean 3.
Enjoy

ASK A NINJA

VDH's Take On...The Humanities

Victor Davis Hanson's Essay from City Journal on the Future of the Humanities and the difficulty of obtaining a classical education from many public universities.

On...Greg Maddux

Greg Maddux

The best pitcher of his generation is hanging up the cleats. 355 game winner Greg Maddux is retiring at 42 years old even though he is clearly in good enough shape for a few more years and a few more wins. But every career must come to an end. Even you you have that many wins, 4 consecutive Cy Young Awards and 18 Gold Glove Awards (the most by anyone ever). He is also 10th all time in Strikeouts (3,371) and only Walter Johnson and Warren Spawn have more wins since 1900. And 17 straight seasons with at least 15 wins or more. That there is amazing.

I've enjoyed watching Maddux since I was a kid loving the Cubs and their ace, Mad Dog in the late 80s and early 90s. A nickname by the way which is clearly a joke. The guy is nice, almost vanilla, but he could paint the corners and tear apart a batting line up. I still admired him when he went to the Atlanta Braves (and yes helped beat my Cleveland Indians in the 1995 World Series). By the way he was 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA. That too is freaking amazing. And the year before his ERA was 1.53. He did make it back to Chicago for a few years before finishing his career with the Padres and Dodgers who gave him little run support. He should have at least 10 more wins.

He is a first ballot Hall of Famer and should get one of the highest percentages of all time in the voting. No one can deny Greg Maddux the halls of Cooperstown. Later Mad Dog.

ESPN has a nice article HERE about Maddux

Career stats HERE

Plus the classic and hilarious "Chicks Dig the Long Ball"
Nike ad from the 90s with fellow Brave Tom Glavine.

ON...Best Game Ever?

Empire: Total War, coming out in Feb 2009 looks unbelievably awesome!!

I'm going to lose a lot of hours playing this bad boy.

VIDEO TRAILER HERE

On...the Power of Money

Cash cow

In the final stretch of the 2008 election, Obama had 4x the money to spend than McCain.

Wow, how could you not lose? That is a huge advantage, especially in reaching fence-sitters through ads.

Just shows the enthusiasm of the Obama supporters compared to the McCain supporters. Too many conservatives stayed home on election day and closed their wallets all fall. Which on one hand I understand (McCain 2008 wasn't McCain 2000 enough) but on the other hand you stay home because you don't like McCain and you get someone who appeared clearly left-wing. So you get nothing close to what you want. There's level 1 thinking for you.

I'm still amazed McCain scored 47% of the vote.

More on the data of cash from Bloomberg's

On...Surviving a Terrorist Attack at your Local Hotel

Interesting piece from Atlantic blogger Jeffrey Goldberg

How to Stay Alive in a Terrorized Hotel

On...Bombay

The Hot Spot

I don't pretend to really know all that much about India and its diverse culture and long history/rivalry with Pakistan but I do know that it will play no-small role in the future. As for the terrorist attacks in Bombay the war against Islamic-fascism knows no rest. I've included a number of article for your enjoyment regarding the latest battle.

First Christopher Hitchens on why India is a very important ally and what we need to do to assist them.

Second a brief article from SLATE on why Bombay's name was changed to Mumbai and why I will continue to call it Bombay just as I will call Burma Burma and not that other name.

Third is from Robert Kagan on what the USA should do regarding Pakistan. From the Washington Post

President-Elect Obama rattled the sabers pretty hard regarding Pakistan, it's soon going to be game time. Now that he firmly has a centrist (almost center-right) foreign policy team (Hillary, Gen. Jones, Gates, Biden) I wonder if the moonbats are having indigestion yet.

Rich Lowry of the NY Post mirrors much of my take on Obama's Alpha Team HERE