Sidney Jayne's Guide to the Best Albums of 2010

2010 has been a banner year for some fresh beatz and sick hooks, my friends. Let me share a few with you. In no particular order.

Florence + the Machine - Lungs
I love this album. So do five kajillion other people. I crossed the finish line to my first half marathon to "Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)", so it holds a special place in my heart. Aw, barf.

Sounds like: That weird ethereal British chick in your class who you made fun of in 3rd grade,but then she got really talented and you're like 'OH SHIT'. I don't know what that really means.

Favorite Tracks: "Cosmic Love" & "Between Two Lungs"





Foals - Total Life Forever
Foals are finally getting some recognition. Good for them. I feel they've grown so much as musicians, that they'll have to change their names to Mares. HAHAHAH OH SIDNEY.

Sounds like: Aggressively eating cookies when you're high, and you're chowing down HARD. Sweet, yet hardcore. I don't know what that means either.

Favorite Tracks: "Total Life Forever", "This Orient", "Black Gold"



Blitzen Trapper - Destroyer of the Void
My dad loves this album. So do I.

Sounds Like: Some early 70s southern folk rock band that your dad listened to, but never got any radio play. Womp wommmp.

Favorite Tracks: "Below the Hurricane", "Destroyer of the Void"

Passion Pit - Manners
Okay, so I may have not been in a completely coherent state when seeing them at Sasquatch this year, but I had a moment where I fell head over heels in love with them. Could have been the tequila, but listening to this album sober makes me think it was more than that. Mmmm.

Sounds Like: The bridge between cool music and popular music.

Favorite Tracks: "Moth's Wing", "Little Secrets", "Make Light"



S. Carey - All We Grow

This album is good. It's especially good when you're lying on your bed, and thinking 'Yeah man, I get it. Hrrrnnngggggggggg'. Just like that.

Sounds like: Bon Iver's slightly embittered brother

Favorite Tracks: "In the Dirt", "In the Stream"





Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - Record Collection

Say what you want, but this album is THE SEX. IT IS JUST SEX. I am not even ashamed. It makes me want to dance in ways I didn't know were kinetically possible.

Sounds Like: Funky sexy time

Favorite Tracks: "Bang Bang Bang", "The Bike Song", "The Night Last Night", "Lose It (In the End)"



The Head and the Heart - S/T

Aw, Seattle. You have such great rising talent. These guys are getting big really quickly. You still have a little time to listen to this and say you heard them way back when.

Sounds Like: Crosby, Still, & Nash screamed too loud so their voices were hoarser. And then they were like 'hey, let's add a chick to the band'.

Favorite Tracks: "Down in the Valley" "Cats & Dogs"


Mad Rad - The Youth Die Young

More Seattle awesomeness. I still feel sort of like I'm not allowed to listen to hip hop, like I'm not cool enough to be in the club. Whatever, I DO WHA I WAN.

Sounds like: Hip Hop + Electronic + Crooning

Favorite Tracks: "Love in a Strange World", "The Machine", "I Want Your Blood"


Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz

I have to admit, when I first heard this album, I was like 'WHAT IS THIS TOMFOOLERY?'. But then I simmered, listened again, and began to enjoy the aforementioned foolery of tom. I feel like I'd like this album more on some sort of barbiturate, but it'll do, pig.

Sounds Like: Sufjan Stevens parents gave him a MIDI synth for Christmas. And drugged his egg nog.

Favorite Tracks: "The Age of Adz", "Vesuvius"


The Courage - Fearful Bones

Formerly Noah Gundersen & the Courage, these Seattle kiddos are superb. And they just keep getting better. No pressure, guys.

Sounds Like: The Von Trapp Family singers, if they kicked ass and threw in some killer fiddle. Also, they sound nothing like the Von Trapp's. Whatever

Favorite Tracks: "Frequency", "Chances", "Summer Sky"

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Okay, I'm getting too lazy to upload more photos and awkwardly try to format them (Blogger, you need to step it UP. Ugh), so here are the rest:

Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
Favorite Tracks: "Something Good Can Work", "I Can Talk"

Viper Creek Club - Letters
More local awesomenesssss.
Favorite Tracks: "Eliza", "Doubt"

The Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
Well, duh.
Favorite Tracks: "City With No Children", "We Used to Wait"

Sleigh Bells - Treats
WHOA.
Favorite Tracks: "Tell 'em", "Treats"

Symmetry & Ryan Lewis - S/T
Ulllllltra awesome local hip hop / funky jamz, even if you don't think you like hip hop.
Favorite Tracks: "Down", "Feel Right"

Cee-Lo Green - The Lady Killer
Aw, yeaauuhh.
Favorite Tracks: "No One's Gonna Love You", "Fuck You"

Dan Black - Un
Think Mika + even more electro goodness. Super guilty pleasure. But it's good, shut it.
Favorite Tracks: "U + Me =", "Symphonies" , "Cigarette Pack"

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm kind of over it too. And yet, it's still good. Goddammit, general population, stop ruining good albums for me.
Favorite Tracks: "Awake My Soul", "White Blank Page"

Hey Marseilles - To Travels and Trunks
Seattle is just pumping out some great music this year. GO SEATTLE! This album is pretty great.
Favorite Tracks: "Rio", "Goodbye Versailles"

Washington - I Believe You Liar
This one is sort of hard to track down, but it's totally worth it. Think Laura Marling if she had more lady balls. And throw a little Florence in there too.
Favorite Tracks: "The Hardest Part", "Rich Kids", "Lover/Soldier"

Congratulations - MGMT
That lead singer is hot. I shouted that a lot when seeing them at Sasquatch. Om nom nom.
Favorite Tracks: "Congratulation", "I Found a Whistle"

And there you have it. Go forth, young music lovers. Go forth and listen.

TOMORROW!

Yes. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. I leave for Europe tomorrow. I want to have a drink and toast it to morrow. To morrow!

I will be updating my blog through internet cafés, and hopefully the largess of my friends who ARE taking their computers. With my track record of damaging expensive electronic equipment, I thought it wise to perhaps leave the ol' Macbook at home.

To those who are unaware, I'm about to embark on a 6-week trip to France, Scotland, and England. I will be studying acting at the Pontelevoy Abbey in the Loire Valley for 4 weeks with a group of UW students, and then we're going to Edinburgh for 2 weeks to experience the Fringe theatre festival! Words are not enough to explain my excitement, despite our rigorous training schedule (9am to 10PM Monday-Friday!!!! Ahhh!!!!). That's saying a lot.

And so, I must finish all those last minute to-do lists.

À bientôt!

Thoughts on a rainy day

Rain like this just makes me want to dole out a big snifter of brandy and go to town on a paperback novel. I don't think I've ever really drank brandy, but it seems a fitting libation for shitty weather. Or good weather, for that matter. Not mediocre weather, though. That's what gin is for.

I rub my lips with my fingers. Constantly. I rub them between my fingers, back and forth, collecting little crescent rolls of dead skin. It’s not a pleasant sensation, nor a wholly painful one. I think of it more as the white noise of pain; I am oblivious to my little exfoliation ritual, or at least until I start bleeding. Which I just did. Ouch.

On Writing

The thought of sharing any sort of creative writing terrifies me. I've never really had any burning desire to write, though that probably stems from the fact that 95% of what I've written in my life was research based.

Bland. Facts. Figures. Annotations. Soul deadening. Kill. Me. Now.

It's not that I find researching worthless - au contraire! I love learning everything there possibly is to know about Neoclassicism or the Narwhal or even Nehru (alliteration aside, I have written papers on all three topics), but why the hell do I have to then proceed to write about it? Sure, I'll read a book on the topic, but that's good enough for me! Done! No more thx! You want to verify that I learned enough on the topic? Why don't we just go out for a drink and talk about feminist semiotics over a Cosmo. We can even talk about the genderification of cocktails. Don't worry professor, I'll pick up the tab. You just pick up my GPA.

Sure, we had weekly 'free write' assignments in high school, during which we'd turn off the lights, light some candles, and read our assignments out loud if we felt so inclined. Sounds great, right? Well, I never wanted to be the kid reading the painfully awkward sci-fi/fantasy fan-fic, so I mainly used these assignments as a medium in which I could verbally regurgitate all my shitty teenage angst. Or I'd do a bunch of 'Top 10' lists. Sometimes the two would overlap. For example:

'TOP TEN WAYS IN WHICH I WOULD LIKE TO DESECRATE THIS TEXTBOOK'
'TOP TEN BLOOD BROTHERS SONGS I'D LIKE TO MAKE OUT TO'
'TOP TEN REASONS WHY I AM A SAD LOSER (WITH ILLUSTRATIONS)'

And so on.

College was no different. Sure, maybe the topics got more interesting (If you ever want to know about every single filmic motif in "The Departed", I'm yer girl), but none of it really quenched my creative thirst. I stuck to pen and paper, but instead of words, I created stories with doodles. I give each little creature I draw a back story: When was their first kiss? What veggie do they go for first on the snack platter? What is their typing speed? Are they upset with me for giving them such a large, unsightly nose?

And so on.

I never took creative writing classes, because I was always so bogged down with all the research papers for my other classes, I couldn't possibly add more to my load. While in high school, I always had grand fantasies of college as a place where you could just learn WHATEVER you wanted. Oh, such foolhardy naïveté. I never dreamed I'd end up in a Watershed Resource Management class just to fulfill some bullshit general education requirement. The only thing I got out of that class was free coffee and the ability to do an entire Wednesday crossword puzzle without cheating.

So what am I getting at with all of this? What I'm trying to say is that I've finally found that desire to try and write something, but at the risk of being terrible at it. I guess you've got to start somewhere. And I'm starting here, sitting cross-legged on my bed, eating yogurt and putting off the paper I have to write. The research paper I have to write. The only writing I've ever done til now.

Wish me luck.

It's that time again!

I guess the New Year always brings in that itchy feeling in my fingers that tells me I should start updating my blog again. And who am I to resist such temptation?

So. 2009. I have a feeling it's going to be substantially better than 2008, because in all honesty, I don't know how it could get much worse than 2008. That was some pessimistic optimism for you, folks (aka, "The glass is HALF. Not empty, not full, just half. Just shut up."). At least my resolutions have been sticking well. My first resolution was to drink at least 1.5 liters of water a day, and with that goal brought the desire to start running again, and also to cut out diet sodas from my diet. Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day where I'd politely decline a Diet Cherry Coke, but that day finally came. And it was a Tuesday.

I feel like sort of a fraud though, because 80% of my motivation for working out is so I can just finish ooone more episode of Law & Order while I'm on the treadmill. None of that "Feel the burn" "Love the pain!" "Push it!" crap, I'm more like "What hilarious comment will Jerry Orbach say THIS time? Guess I better keep running until I find out!". And that is how I've been running at least 7 miles a day.

In other news, I've started working with the Night Zero team (www.nightzero.com), which is a zombie apocalypse photographic novel that kicks ass. My character's name is Jezebel, and apparently has a penchant for leather and being a total bitch. It's cool.

Well, I have a splitting headache and a need for more protein in my diet, so I guess I'll be off!

Until I feel inclined to write again, adieu.

Tenenbaums & Enchanters

I attended a surprise birthday party last week, themed so that everyone had to dress as characters from the birthday boy's favorite movies. And obviously, I was Margot Tenenbaum, because I had the hair. The rest of the costume wasn't perfect (e.g. lack of stripes on my dress, et. al), but it was fun. Please note my fabulous wooden finger.

Here is Markie as Max Fischer from Rushmore, another wonderous Wes Anderson film


It's fake.


My face is too round to be like Gwyneth's

...

I think I'll go to France the day after tomorrow.

Just a thought.

Enticing

Tonight I am slowly sipping a diet energy drink, which kind of tastes like ass, but i spent 2.50 on it, and by god I will finish it.

I will also rent a movie on itunes, play solitaire, and question my social life.

bitchin'.

Siberia

Well, I'm not sure what the hell is going on, but apparently the weather here has decided to exact revenge upon the citizens of King County, leaving me freezing and unable to control the constant presence of goosebumps.

In other titillating news, I am fed up with my hair, so this Friday I am chopping it off and making it blonder, just so I can truly encapsulate the vapid TV melodrama sorority girl of my dreams. After all, someone once said that I looked like Tori Spelling (I've never fully recovered from this traumatic event), so I might as well embrace the whole image. Well actually, I'm just fucking sick of growing out my bangs, so I find this to be a wonderful solution to my hair issues.

In other trivial, shallow news, I am broke.

DONE

done with finals!
weee!

Things to look forward to:
• Hawaii in 4 weeks!
• Spring Break
• My Epic Garage Sale
• New Classes (18 credits, shiit...)
• Hopefully selling my textbooks and having money for once

AUSCHWITZ

My meal plan is out of money, and I am here til Thursday/Friday, therefore I have my box of Special K to subside me for the next couple of days.

THIS IS LIKE FUCKING AUSCHWITZ, I TELL YOU. and it's not even the Red Berries kind of Special K, it's the original kind, which is bland and gets soggy very quickly in my dixie paper bowl with skim milk. In other news, I am attempting to sell my textbooks online. Thankfully 500 million people are taking Human Sexuality next quarter, so that ups my chances for actually getting rid of these books that cost more per ounce than gold.


I am slowly fading away into the night. Alas. Alas. Twas so good to have known you.

Been Awhile

Ah yes, the annual bug has infected me once again, the one that says 'oh HEY, you should start a BLOG'. Of course, when I follow through on my brilliant idea, I remember that 'HEY, you already HAVE a BLOG'. This explains the gap between entries, because to be quite honest, I had no recollection this one already existed. In fact, there are probably at least half a dozen web journals with one or two entries that I have started, and I hope I never come across again (e.g. my 7th grade angsty stage motivated me to start a 'deadjournal', in which I wrote everything emo style, as in wrote.like.this.for.entire.paragraphs.)

Anyhow, I haven't been keeping up with my analog journal, and because I am left-handed, I hate handwriting anything, because then I get ink smudges all over my hand and then I sleep with my face on my hand and I look like a domestic abuse victim in the morning, unless I was writing with a pink gel glitter pen, in which case I look like a sparkly burn victim.

I have one more final before I am released into the brain cell killing festival known as Spring Break. My big plans include planning a garage sale, because after buying my ticket to Hawaii, I am more broke than...fuck. It should be a pretty rousing event, chalk full of dog related books, harry potter trading cards (never been opened!) and a cobweb infested snowboard.

In other news, I just finished doing my first play at UW, The Book of Liz, which was written by David & Amy Sedaris, aka my eternal muses. It was as wonderful of a first experience as I could have hoped for, and I got to wear a bonnet, which was a longstanding aspiration of mine. I also played another character, a recovering alcoholic, hobag of a doctor, which allowed me the wonderfully comfortable feeling of saying 'cum in my ears' in front of my entire extended family. Ah, the joys of theater.


Anyhow, I'm just looking forward to having money, going to Hawaii with Koa, Koa getting his TempurPedic bed delivered (FUCKYEAHMOTHERFUCKERS), and being able to poop in the privacy of my own home. It's gonna be the good life...

Normally

As a general rule, I've never really cared much for blogs. I suppose I'm old fashioned, but I have always preferred the palpability of a leather journal over a webpage filled with flashing glitter text and animated emoticons. Plus I've always been slightly uneasy at the prospect of fuckin nutcases reading whatever I have to say.

But apparently, I've gotten over these qualms.

Tomorrow marks the first of five days that, in the theater world, we refer to as 'Hell Week'. In other words, this is tech week preceding opening night. This is the first time in my theatrical history that I'm not solid on my lines, but that's probably because I've made absolutely no attempt to learn them. But then again, I've never tried.

Anyhow, we're doing 'The Madwoman of Chaillot' by Jean Giraudoux. I play the title character, which has instigated countless comments about typecasting. Ba dum bum. But apparently, I'm supposed to look like the picture above. Dead ringers, I say.

What I'm most looking forward to is my sister coming home to see the play this weekend! I can't believe she's come from Boise to see every show I've been in, so I just try and imagine her coming home under the pretense that she just loves me...because I don't know if I would travel that far to see some of my crappy performances. Koa and I are formulating a plan to go and visit her in Boise, as soon as I have free time and any money whatsover.

HOWEVER, i have formulated a brilliant plan to make wads of cash. I am going to submit every retarded family anectdote to Reader's Digest, because those bastards pay people $300 per story. FOOLPROOF.