Wincing the Night Away

So...
a few months ago the new Shins album leaked online - and being the pirate that I am, I got myself a copy of it.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Shins, but I like them alright. I did not like the movie Garden State all that much, but it gave the band a lot of press and recognition.

Their last album was released in 2003. We've had four years without a new Shins album. One would think they took this time to expand their sound, creatively.

I don't find that has happened on this new album. It sounds like the same ol' Shins as before, which I'm fine with. As I said -I was never the world's biggest Shins fan. I like their sound alright. I just thought they'd be able to find something new and/or more creative in close to four years.

I 've heard this album has been completed for well over a year. I assume they've been shopping it around to Major Labels and have been turned down. That's just a guess though.

Stacey

This picture (and the girl within) makes me very happy. We'll be celebrating two years together this weekend. It has gone by pretty quickly. These have been two great years. thanks, bayba.

Swan Lake

I have been eagerly anticipating the release of Swan Lake's album Beast Moans - so I was pleased to find iTunes had released it at midnight on Tuesday. I wanted to get it before I had to leave town for thanksgiving... and now I had the chance. For weeks leading up to its release I had gotten two MP3's from the jagjaguwar website and loved them.
I uploaded the album and my iPod and was ready for my travels to Boston.

Our plane left Chicago at 8:05 am. Stacey soon went to sleep and I put my headphones on.


I couldn't even get through the album once without turning it off. It's not good. I'm very sad.
I suppose I didn't take into account that I am NOT a Destroyer fan in the least. Dan Bejar is more of an annoyance than a musical genious to me. However, I am a big Wolf Parade fan. Frog Eyes... ehhh... never really hit me one way or the other. I guess the odds were never in my favor.

It's too bad.
The Krug songs are pretty good, but overall it wasn't worth my anticipation.

boo.

sour home chicago

here is chicago from a plane at 7:45 am.
we left Boston at 5:30 am.
how lovely.

I wonder how the Texas Is The Reason show in New York was this weekend... I wish I could have been there. If anyone finds any MP3's of it, please send them my way. thanks.

Aldo

Stacey and I were prepared to miss Arlo while we spent thanksgiving in Boston and he stayed home in Chicago. When we needed to be reminded of his cuteness I took out my computer and we watched a short film I made of the little monster a week after we got him. He's just a little guy in the video, but it sums up his cuteness quite well.
Little drewster began requesting to see the movie about every 3 hours... and when we watched it we could never watch it just once, as Drew would demand "again".
Nancy (Stacey's sister) soon began to ask Drew if he wanted to watch the "Aldo video" and Drew would say he wanted to watch the "Awlo veedeeyo".

Nancy was convinced our puppy's name was Aldo.

Aldo?

Drewster

One of the reasons Stacey and I love returning to Boston is getting a chance to see and reconnect with Stacey's family, specifically her nephew Drew. the Drewster is one of the cutest little three year old boys on the planet, if not THE cutest. He's got it all going for him and it's not quite getting to his head... yet. Although he has a baby sister on the way (due date is January 4th) so he'll have to get used to being a big brother and not so spoiled... with all the affection he gets.

Thanksgiving in Boston

On thanksgiving morning Stacey and I are woken up to the sounds of Turkey. Not a cooking turkey but the sounds an actual, live turkey might make. Turns out it was Stacey's sister Nancy (who's home we were living in for the 5 days we were in Boston) was calling us awake with the call of a wild turkey.
Little did any of us know that her wild turkey call would attract actual wild turkeys...
We took our time getting downstairs, but when we did I noticed a family of 4 (three pictured here) live, wild turkeys in the front yard. On Thanksgiving morning. You'd think they'd know to hide on this of all days. How crazy.
Apparently, for the past few years a large group of turkeys has been living around their house in Andover, Massachusettes. They started at 13 or 14, but now they seem to be down to 4. It's no wonder, considering they're out roaming the town on thanksgiving morning.

Thanksgiving Holiday

Well,
today is my first and last day at work - as we're leaving at 8:05 tomorrow morning for Massachusettes. Thanksgiving with the Hallals. This year I get to meet the whole family. Last year there were only 35 or so people to meet, now I'll have over 50. Wish me luck.


this little guy is staying here at puppy camp. We couldn't convince Stacey's folks to let us bring him, as there are already going to be over 50 people there for Thanksgiving, many of them under the age of 10. It's probably best... but we're going to miss his stupid face.

I must be in a modern/classic rock phase because I can't stop listening to Black Mountain.
Uh hu-huh...

Work Day wrap up

on Friday, around 2:30, Arlo was pretty beat.
Needless to say, I got very little "work" done
as I had this to look at all day.

Album this week:
Grizzly Bear - yellow house
I'm still not sure what I think of it 100%... I like it, but I'm not sure why, or for how much longer.
we'll see.

outside

I noticed the majority of my pictures of Arlo are taken inside - so I decided to take my camera along with me outside and capture some images of him in nature. Yesterday, nature consisted of a kiddie playground at a local elementary school that was empty (and fenced in).

Here's his impression of a lion's roar. This helps to keep the children away.

work day

With what happened to this little guy the other night, I gave him the day off from day camp yesterday. He spent the day at home in his crate.

Today is bring Arlo to work day.
He fits in perfectly. Even the coldest, most emotionless woman who works here said "I Love You!" to him... all excited like.

of course.

the day after

This was not only the day after throwing up nine times, but also the first time Arlo has been at home alone in his crate for 7 hours.
From 4 to 5, while at work I was kinda freaking out. I thought he would have to go outside or get some water or something - and there was nothing I could do about it 6 miles away at work.
I got home, opened his crate and took him for a long walk.

I think he's fine.

subQ shot

The oddest part about the sick dog evening I had last night was the subcutaneous (am I even spelling that correctly?) shot they had to give Arlo to keep him hydrated.
Since he spent a good deal of time throwing up, they were afraid he wouldn't be able to stay hydrated, so I okay'ed them shooting him up with some liquids subcutaneously.


Here is an image of the Arlo - and where the liquid was shot up into his body. It gave him some puppy-love handles that drove him crazy for a little while. He couldn't figure out what was on him. Little did he know it was actually IN him.

weird.

My Little Sicky

I had a busy evening planned, what with the 37Foxtrot show closing, a Washington Generals rehearsal and all 3 of my netflix movies arriving tonight - I had a full night while Stacey is working in Portland.
I leave work about 5 minutes early - to see if that could help me get any sort of headway on the traffic I've been stuck in while driving to and from work this week. I got to A Dog's Life (where I've been dropping Arlo off every morning) in 40 minutes. Not too bad, I guess, considering it's almost 7 miles from where I work (yeah)...
So - I get my little guy into the car and home and I put some food in his bowl. He's not interested. That's not like him... so I try to coax him over to his food with a treat. He eats the treat but is still not interested in his food.
A minute later, he throws up his treat.
ick.
This is followed by a half hour of him throwing up bile - both inside and outside.
He threw up a total of 9 times and it scared me. I called the vet, who reffered me to the emergency vet. I called them and they told me to bring him in.
I did.

They took Xrays and didn't really find anything wrong.
They gave him a subcutanious shot of some liquids to keep him hydrated (since he threw up so much) and told me to keep an eye on him.
298 bucks later, where at home and he's sleeping it off.

I think he's fine.

He misses Stacey.

big baby.
He threw up 9 times

Alone

This work week is going by far too slow.
Stacey is in Portland working.
I'm holding down the fort by myself this week.

boo.

I took Arlo to his puppy class yesterday. He was good. Probably because he was tired from spending all day at camp. I will post more pics of him soon.

LIFE

Why am I too lazy to go after what I want?

ugh.

sometimes things are tough.

Music

I have been asked by a few friends for my 'best of' 2006 music compilations.
It's going to be a tough call this year - as I have found a lot of great new music,
but I've decided to break the mixes down into two different groups.

A) Albums. The top 10 albums released this year. simple.

B) Songs.
I have found a lot of great song released this year that don't have the full album to back them up...
but some of those songs are just so good. How am I to pick 20 or so to put on a compilation?
A lot of them are long songs, too.

I wish I new how to post MP3's here. I'll figure it out someday. For now, we're going to have to go with lists.

My list of great songs released in 2006 that didn't have a full album to back up their goodness:
Sound Team - movie monster
White Whale - nine good fingers
Band of Horses - funeral (I know a lot of folks LOVE this album, but it's too hippy for me)
Black Heart Procession - the spell
the Broadway Hus - tonight you belong to me (cover)
DeVotchKa - twenty-six tempations
Eagle*Seagull - your beauty is a knife I turn on my throat
the Elected - sun, sun, sun
the Extraordinaires - hi-five the cactus (short stories is not as strong as Ribbons of War)
the Hidden Cameras - awoo (the rest of the album is really terrible, but I love that song)
Infadels - murder that sound
the Kooks - sofa song
Mates of State - like u crazy
Mew - chinaberry tree
Murder by Death - one more notch
Oh No! Oh My! - walk in the park
the Paper Cranes - I'll love you until my veins explode
Peter Bjorn & John - young folks
Professor Murder - free stress test
Psapp - hi
Rahim - 10,000 horses
the Rapture - get myself into it
Sunset Rubdown - they took a vote and said no
Tap Tap - 100,000 thoughts
Thom Yorke - and it rained all night
Tokyo Police Club - nature of the experiment
TV on the Radio - I was a lover (lots of people love this album too, but it didn't strike me)

that's twenty six songs - and I'm leaving off the 13 or so albums I have in contention for my top 10 of 2006, which are:
Tapes 'N Tapes - the Loon (technically, it was released late 2005 - but more widely in 06)
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Danielson - Ships
the Extraordinaires - Ribbons of War
the Figurines - Skeleton
Midlake - the Trials of Van Occupanther
Man Man - Six Demon Bag
Swan Lake - the Beast Moans
the Shins - Wincing the Night Away
Jeremy Enigk - World Waits
Islands - Return to the Sea
Cold War Kids - Robbers & Cowards
Bears - Bears

Annuals - Be He Me (still not sure how I feel about this one...)
&
Bishop Allen - (the Months of 06 EP collection has got to be worth the weight of an album)

too much good stuff this year.

America's Cutest Puppy