Bests of 2006

Okay, I'm inflicting a list on you. I hardly ever do this, but 2006 was a weird year for me and I am compelled to document the things that made it fun.

Best Albums

Decemberists: Crane Wife
Colin Meloy played a few songs from this album at the 826 benefit in August (see below) and it made me even more excited for the release in October. So good.

Band of Horses: Everything All the Time
Lovely. I know it's on everybody's list right now, but that's for good reason. "Funeral" and "The Great Salt Lake" are great songs, but dig deeper because the whole album is great.

Silversun Pickups: Carnavas
This gets a lot of play on my ipod. My favorite tracks are "Checkered Floor" and "Future Foe Scenerios." Yeah, Pitchfork only gave it a 5 and I've read several other reviews claiming the band is too derivative of late 80s-early 90s rock--Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins, etc.--but I'd argue their sound is more a distillation of what was good about that music, with none of the annoying stuff (like Corgan's whiny voice).

Jon Auer: Songs from the Year of Our Demise
I waited years for this release, and it lives up to my expectations. If I have one criticism it's that the songs are even prettier when Jon plays them acoustic, without any of the added layers of sound. Check out his appearances on KEXP last April and August if you want to hear what I'm talking about. But SftYoOD is a beautiful, beautiful album that you need to hear. A couple of mp3s are available at Pattern 25.

Ghostland Observatory: Paparazzi Lightning
This is just fun. "Vibrate" has to be my favorite song, but I like it all. Discovering them (thanks, Cass) reminds me of Bumbershoot (2004?) when I walked into Sky Church to see Math & Physics Club and United State of Electronica was still playing and it was dancy, dancy fun all over the place--only BETTER. GO rocks all.

Best Live Shows

Silversun Pickups/Viva Voce @ Hi-dive (Denver, not Seattle)
I came for Silversun Pickups and was not disappointed. I can't remember seeing a live band this good for about ten years. For serious. My faith in the crunchy guitar rock has been restored! Viva Voce was really good, too. I finally picked up "Get Yr Blood Sucked Out" the other day and I recommend it. It's not on the best list because I didn't get into it until the last week of 06 and I don't know if it rates yet.

Ghostland Observatory @ Hi-dive (Denver)
I posted about this back in August, but will reiterate what a great show it was. If Ghostland is playing near you, go see them.

the Gossip @ Bumbershoot
Why had I never seen the Gossip live before? I knew I liked them well enough to check them out at Bumbershoot, but I was pretty impressed. As soon as I got back home I was digging through my mp3s to find some of their stuff and have since been grabbing up their back catalog.

826 Seattle Benefit before Bumbershoot
I'm so happy Mel got us tickets to this. I was psyched to see Ben Gibbard and Sarah Vowell, but the whole thing was awesome. Some enterprising people YouTubed some of it. Check out Colin Meloy's acoustic "O, Valencia!" So awesome. And the Meloy-Gibbard combo just about blew me away with its sheer adorableness. The Seattle Times (kind of) liked it, too. Eggers reviewed the audience, glowingly, in the Stranger.

Best Awesome Internet Retailers Who Allow Me To Live in Wyoming and Still Occasionally Buy Good Stuff

Sonic Boom
What's not to love about a record store that always has what I want and has friendly staff? I go in every time I'm back in Seattle because there's stuff I can't get in WY. Plus they always send nice messages when I order online.

Peggy Li
Peggy made some of my favorite pieces ever, like the slide oval choker I should wear more often and the bird charm necklace I wear several times a week.

Nordstrom
The supplier of my favorite jeans, the perfect t-shirt, and many things I don't need.

Etsy, specifically Orange Peel Enamel and Adorn Jewelery
I love the jewelery too much and these two make beautiful stuff.

Zappos
Shoes! Free shipping! And too many cute Campers for me to buy on my salary.

Best Blogs

I, Asshole
The one, the only. SJ's writing is indescribable, in a good way. From PNW'ed to Mal Mots, it's gold. Never go away again, Lady!

The Rich Girls Are Weeping
An mp3 blog all about the indie rock, but with a healthy and not snarkily ironic dash of old standbys like Harry Nilsson and Joan Baez. And it's not just a bunch of links to music; Cindy and Pinkie write really great posts about the music.

Gwen World
Gwen's is probably the first blog("online diary") I ever read. She kicks so much ass you can't even imagine it. She also writes books, and you should read them. If you're a librarian like me, you should buy them for your library.

50 Books
Thanks to Doppelganger, my to-read list is longer than my lifespan is likely to accommodate.

Go Fug Yourself
Celebrities wear stupid stuff sometimes. It's fun to watch them do it.

What, No Best Books?

Well, I didn't really read any knock-my-socks-off books this year. I can't remember if I ever managed to post about the NYT "10 Best Books of 2006" or not. I'm guessing not. Of the alleged best books of the year, I've read exactly none of them. Ha! I mean, not that I think the Times knows all, but it still cracks me up. I also didn't read anything on the best lists of PW, the Times of London, or even the Seattle Times. Maybe next year.

I'm it

Jessica tagged me with the "Five Things You Probably Don't Know About Me" meme. So here goes.

1. I get obsessive about things. Like when I found a (pretty affordable) cashmere v-neck sweater, I bought one in every color they had and still make sure I check back every season to make sure I get the new shades. I have to restrain myself from doing this with everything I love, from lipgloss to iittala glass cards. The rampant consumerist inside me is embarrassing.

2. If I had to choose between books and music, I'd choose music. Bad librarian! I saw more than 50 bands (I kept a list) the summer after I graduated high school and don't regret not saving my graduation money for college. I wish that many good shows were happening these days. R.I.P. Seattle of 1992.

3. I got five speeding tickets during my first two years as a licensed driver. At one point I was in danger of being sent to traffic school. I also crashed my parents' minivan when I still just had a learner's permit. Believe it or not, I'm very responsible now and haven't been ticketed in almost 15 years.

4. I am ashamed of my car. For ten years, I drove a little Neon with no frills and good gas milage. After moving, I got an SUV. It's a little one, but I still feel guilty whenever I drive it--especially because I'm almost always alone now. I miss the bus, even though this car is the nicest one I've ever owned with leather and everything. Residual urban guilt is hard to shake.

5. My favorite smell is the ocean. In close second is asphalt right when it starts to rain--that dirty, oily scent mixed with fresh Pacific Northwest air. I really miss the grey and the rain. Wyoming is alltogether too sunny for my taste, but at least I'm getting some vitamin D.

I'm not explicitly tagging anybody, but if you read me and feel inclined to do this, go ahead.

Homeward bound

The holiday rush at the Laramie Airport

There are a couple of nice things about flying out of Laramie that balance out the cost and massive turbulance in the prop plane. The most awesome is free wireless. Another is only having to check in an hour before the flight. There's also the crowd issue. As you can see, I'm not exactly cramped for space here. It looks like it will be me and two guys on this flight.

After a night in a nice hotel near DIA, I'll be home early tomorrow! First on the agenda is talking the dog in for her checkup and then burgers at Burgermaster with the dogs and my parents.

Abbie Update

I forgot to report what we found out about Abbie. It's mostly better news than I expected. What the vet initially thought was a mass in her gut seems to be a lot of extra air from all the panting she's been doing because she's in pain. Her chem panel came back fine--one of her liver enzymes is a little wacky, but she's old and has a history of that. The radiologist figured out what was causing all the pain: the connective tissue in her spine is bulging and pressing on her nerves.

Abbie's been on the dog version of bed rest for the past ten days or so. She's not allowed to run or sit up human-style, which she loves to do for some reason. My mom said she's doing okay, but we're taking her for a check-up on Wednesday right after I get off the plane.

I'm not sure how much I'll update over the next two weeks, but I'm sure I'll have lots of dopey pictures!

Abbie

My mom called today and told me my dog, who now lives with my parents, is sick. She's had liver problems in the past but has been pretty healthy for a couple of years. Abbie has a big mass in her abdomen, so she had x-rays and a biopsy today. We'll know more after the radiologist takes a look at her films. She'll likely have get an ultrasound next week, and she's off her pain meds (for joint pain) so her liver isn't so taxed.

It was hard to leave her behind when I moved, even though I know she's better off not being cooped up alone while I'm at work every day. Abbie's getting close to nine years old, but I'm not ready to lose her. I still think of her as my little baby, like this:

Taken the day we brought her home in June 1998. She was four weeks old.

Abbie all grown up

I'm really glad I'm going home in ten days to spend a couple of weeks with her. With midwinter in Seattle in January, I'll get a few more days with her soon after, as well. It sounds awful, but missing Abbie is harder than missing the people I left. The phone and email keep me in touch with friends and family, but there's nothing like that that works for dogs.

one more thing on last.fm, etc.

Instead of entering your Pandora username and password on a third-party site, you can use a Firefox plugin to scrobble your streams into last.fm. I love that.

Speaking of extensions, my library finally has a LibX toolbar plugin and it's great. I just added it today and I'm already instinctively going to it instead of constantly going to the homepage. The only problem is my toolbar is getting crazy crowded. Even though I use blummy, I have 21 bookmarks I use so often I need one-click access to them. If the meebo link wasn't staring me in the face, I'd forget to log in every day and I need to leave it up if IM at work is going to be useful. It's weird how everybody works differently. I like as few windows as possible, so I keep many, many tabs open as I work. My dream would be for everything in the universe to work like a combination of firefox and tivo.

hateration, holleration

Have you all been following Nancy Pelosi's doings as the next Speaker? I have, but that's not what I want to talk about right now. During my regular morning NYT browsing session, I came across this article* about Pelosi not selecting Alcee L. Hastings for the new chair of the House Intelligence Committee. The part that caught my attention was this quote from Hastings's statement:

“Sorry, haters, God is not finished with me yet,” he said.

For some reason, I love it when politicians drop slang like this.

*You might have to log-in to read it.

My life in beta

I just switched my blogs over to Blogger Beta. I'm already regretting not waiting to switch until I absolutely had to because now I can't see any of my comments. My current plan is to just wait a while and see if things resolve themselves. This is my usual M.O. and sometimes it works.

In other, more fun news, I started using last.fm along with Pandora, via real-ity.com. I'm not sure how much I'll use some of the features, but I'll give it a try.

Buried in RSS

So, when my Bloglines show 6170 unread posts, do I just give up? It's kind of like the 300 flagged for "follow-up" emails I have in my work inbox. How does this happen?

Rocking out and buying books

I don't have any standing appointments on Mondays, so I try to squeeze in as much collection development as I can every week. I spent the better part of this morning ordering the various faculty requests that have piled up in my inbox lately. I forget how fun and relaxing it can be. It's also a good time to listen to music. Today I realized the Smiths make the perfect book-buying soundtrack. I also recommend Wilco, which has the added benefit that I'm less likely to sing along to it.

Back on the CD tip. One especially savvy person sent over search results from MLA, which gave me a chance to test out our new link resolver. It works really well. I especially like that we recently added the option to search the unified catalog to which we belong and it executes the search automagically. I just wish we could do the same from our catalog, like I'm used to from University of Washington catalog to Summit. If only we were a III library--I miss that.

Speaking of my alma mater, I read that my grad program's student newsletter, the Silverfish, is getting a new name. This makes me a little sad because I liked the name and think it's unique and edgier than most. It's been renamed before, but I thought it was cool that the staff went back to the original name in 1996. Actually, I don't know that there wasn't an earlier name, but Silverfish goes back pretty far. R.I.P., Silverfish.

The state of my office/the state of my mind

This is why I can't think clearly:



That's actually after I spent some time cleaning up.

I had nine instruction sessions last week, and my first T&P packet was due Friday. My hot water tank exploded on Tuesday night and my landlady was in Mexico until Sunday. I've been super busy for the past month, with teaching mostly, but last week was the undoing of me. After five days of boiling water for dishwashing and bathing, I'm very glad I'm getting things repaired today. I'm trying to get back to posting, but make no promises that it will be interesting for a while.

Travel is fun II: Home at last

Thirteen highlights:

1. "Shuttle" from Laramie to Cheyenne = some guy who works at the airport driving a minivan rented from Hertz.
2. That guy doesn't know where he's going. He also drives kind of slowly.
   
3. We arrive in Cheyenne minutes before our flight boards. It doesn't matter; the plane is late.
4. I [allegedly] succeed in carrying [alleged] lipbalm in my pocket. Victory and non-chapped lips are [allegedly] mine.
   
5. We arrive in Denver after our next flight begins boarding. The pilot calls our connecting flight.
6. With fast-walking and positive thinking, we make it halfway across the airport and to our gate in 13 minutes.
   
7. Our bags do not make it.
   
8. Our pending upgrade to first class went through, so we sit down in relative comfort just as the doors close.
   
9. I commence drinking wine, eating fruit and cheese, and gossiping with the flight attendant.
10. The towncar Mom thoughtfully booked drives us home.
11. My brother and sister-in-law come over for dinner, bearing the news that they're having a boy. We celebrate, then watch the Big Brother All-Stars live eviction show.
    
12. Blissful sleep in my parents' comfy guest bed, which I share with two large dogs.
13. United delivers our bags at 6:00 am.
    

I made it!

Travel is fun

This vacation hasn't gotten off to a great start. I drove to Denver yesterday morning to pick up my mom at the airport. She was going to drive with me back to Seattle. My car overheated just as I got onto the airport exit. I cranked the heat, rolled down the windows and made it to pick up Mom. We had AAA tow the car from a parking garage at DIA to a repair shop in Aurora, CO. We ended up wasting a travel day while my thermostat was repaired, so we drove back to Laramie in the evening, stayed at my place and booked a flight for morning.

We're at the Laramie airport now, and just found out that out flight's been cancelled, so we're getting shuttled to Cheyenne. I don't know if we'll make our connection in Denver, but we'll try. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Where I'm at

I've been on a blogging hiatus of sorts lately. It's more by circumstance than design. We've been gearing up for the new semester and I've been trying to get things ready before I leave on vacation. Several things in particular have been occupying my attention, including the rollout of a project I've been working on: the library's fancy new website. We still have a few things to work out, but it's pretty nice. The other big thing is the new responsibility I recently inherited. For this year, I'll be coordinating the library outreach instruction, and I have a lot to figure out in a short amount of time. That goes double because I'm still figuring out how to do my primary job.

Classes start in the morning, and I'm pretty excited to see all the students come to campus. Summer's been great, but fall has always been my favorite time of year. Of course, it's not quite fall yet, and I'm not used to the semester system. Personally, I think it's cruel to make kids start school before labor day weekend, but then, I'm not in charge. In any case, I'm only going to be at work for a couple of days before heading back to Seattle to get my Bumbershoot on; I start driving on Wednesday and should roll into town late Thursday night. It might be an awkward time for a vacation, but I don't anticipate BIs to start heating up until I'm back. So, I'll have four action-packed days at home before driving back here in my new car. It will be nice to actually get to use the vehicle I've been making payments on for the past few months. Plus, having a working radio will make the 1300 mile trip home a bit more fun.

If you're one of my hometown people, I can't wait to see you!

Dance til you can't dance til you can't dance no more

Bad cameraphone picture of Ghostland Observatory at the Hi-Dive

I haven't left town much since I got here. Before moving, I assumed I'd be going down to Boulder or Denver for shopping and music on the weekends. This has not come to pass. It's a combination of the price of gas, my nagging residual city-guilt about single-car driving everywhere, and sheer laziness. The radio also went out on my car, so that makes long drives pretty unappealing. So I've pretty much been rambling around town all summer.

One of my colleagues here is full of crazy and wonderful ideas. She's always instigating last-minute karaoke or something equally fun. So when she organized the Ghostland Observatory Caravan, there was no way I was going to miss out. Basically, she borrowed her mom's minivan, filled it with her friends, and had her husband drive us all down to Denver for the GLO show last night. I even broke out and danced. We got home at about 3:00 this morning, but I seem to be plugging along quite well at work today. We're already forming a plan for Silversun Pickups in October.

Meebo me

I just added the new Meebo Me widget to my sidebar after seeing Kris's post about it. Now you can IM me right from the blog, if you're so inclined. I just have to remember to log in! I used to be really good about logging into my various IM clients, but have been forgetting lately. Maybe this new toy will be a reminder.

lack of updates

I've been neglecting this space. Plenty is going on, but not much is interesting enough to blog about it. Workwise, I've mostly been focused on working on content for the new website. I think it's going to be really nice and, most importantly, usable.

So far summer has been hot and dry, with occasional thundershowers. I'm settling in quite well, but I'm really looking forward to visiting home and taking in all the green and the water--and the city!

Mostly I miss this:

West Seattle, from the Vashon Island ferry, August 13, 2005

And this:

Deception Pass, Summer 2004

Support Mississippi Gulf Coast public libraries!

I don't know why I didn't link to this sooner, but here it is. Pamela Ribon (pamie.com, Why Girls Are Weird) has been running online book drives benefitting public libraries and disaster-stricken communities since 2003. This year, she teamed up with David T. Cole (Television Without Pity) and launched the Dewey Donation System. The 2006 book drive benefits the Harrison County Library System, which was hit hard by Katrina. If you're interested in helping out, click the fancy button in my sidebar.

Edited to add: The button seems to have disappeared, but the code's still there. Hmm. Just use the link above, if you want to donate.

Every Day is Like Sunday

We got some very welcome rain this weekend. Yesterday, trying to capture the feeling of home, I holed up with steaming cups of chai and tried to get some work done. I'm not sure if the stormy skies were to blame, but the power kept going out intermittently and then totally went off for a good part of yesterday afternoon. After lying on my bed for a while, feeling sorry for myself because I couldn't cook anything, finish my laundry, play on the internets updating blogs and paying bills, talk on my phone (I only have cordless), or watch anything saved up on Tivo, I was surprised and delighted by the power coming back on at the precise moment my grad school bff, SJ, decided to call me up and plot our Bumbershoot plan of action.* Looks like we both want to hit Monday, but I need to confirm with my since-we-were-eleven bff, M. If any of my Seattle homies will be there, give me a shout.

Anyway, after my talk with SJ, I got off the bed and back to work, clearing up some piles of paper in my office that were threatening to eat me. Several more person-eating piles remain, of course--much like my office at work. Which reminds me that I have a journal article lined up for winter. I'm quite looking forward to this project and it sure will be nice to have a fresh publication credit ready for my first T&P packet next spring.

*longest sentence ever, not counting Proust?

Fourth of July

I hope you had a nice holiday. I had a good time hanging out at a colleague's home and watching the town's fireworks show.