In no particular order, here is what I really liked listening to in 2008!
1 Why? - Alopecia 2 Horse Feathers - House with No Home* 3 Spiritualized - Songs in A&E 4 Bound Stems - The Family Afloat 5 Magnetic Fields - Distortion 6 Marnie Stern - This is it and I am it.... (really long title) 7 No Age - Nouns 8 Damien Jurado - Caught in the Trees 9 Breeders - Mountain Battles 10 Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
And my favorite 2008 albums from bands in Portland, Oregon (my brand new hometown):
This is what I have been telling everyone ever since we moved here, and Portland has made me a liar. Usually people make the logical assumption that since Portland is on the 45th parallel north (which is the same as South Dakota, Minnesota, Maine, and the Canadian border) that it snows all the time and is bitterly cold in the winter. However, because it lies in the marine west coast climate region, it has mild winters and little snow. SO... after explaining this over and over, it goes and snows - for DAYS! So, here are some photos of our beautiful, white Portland.
Seeing as how every other website and blog does some sort of "Best Of" or "Worst Of" list every December, it seems only fitting that I do one too. I'm not going to limit it to specific categories, so if I liked it (or hated it) in 2008, it's going to be on the list.
What Was Good About 2008
#7 VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew This show is trash but I cannot get enough of it. Whenever you feel sorry for yourself and need a pick-me-up, watch this show. These "celebrities" are messed up. Unless your parents sold you into prostitution while stealing all of your money, your life could be worse.
#6 Babies and Karaoke So there's this place in Birmingham called Bourbon Street. It's a ghetto karaoke joint that looks like it used to be a Pizza Hut. In fact, I think it actually was a Pizza Hut at some point. Anyways, I was introduced to this fine establishment towards the end of my time in Birmingham. I had such a good time at this place that we decided to have one of our last hoorah hoorahs there. While the place is intended to be a karaoke bar, the real reason to visit there are the babies. The fine folks at Bourbon Street make a drink out of gin, limes, and sugar water called babies. What makes these babies special is not their ingredients (even though at least 5 whole limes go into the making of each one), but the fact that they are served in full size pickle jars; the size you'd see at Sam's or Costco. The babies are served with the top on the jar so that you can continuously shake them (because shaking is what you do to babies). They also come with their own towel so to give you that extra needed grip when hoisting up the behemoths. Needless to say, the babies lead to some pretty incredible renditions of Boyz II Men's "I'll Make Love to You" and Kansas' "Dust in the Wind". (photos copyright Cary Norton)
A hazy shot of a baby.
Me ripping some bitchin' air guitar with vocals provided by Stephanie and Cary.
#5 The Master Cleanse Never has not eating for two weeks and constantly visiting the bathroom been such a joyous occasion. #4 Riskay Without a doubt, she has the most effective way of makin' sure her boo ain't cheatin' on her. She's keepin' it so real that you can't embed her videos off of YouTube anymore. You'll have to click the link to see it. Trust me, it's worth the extra time.
Vienna, Austria with my brother, Trevor (photo copyright Cary Norton)
Prague, Czech Republic with Cary & John (photo copyright John Yam)
#2 Greg Oden C'mon, how could he not be on the list. He's the reason I moved to Portland. And now that the Blazers are winning games and he's actually playing and hasn't gotten hurt I want to be friends with him even more. Greg, what do you think of making the best of the year list? #1 Samwell No evidence is needed other than this video to prove his claiming the top spot on the list. I don't care when it came out, I discovered him this year. I might just go ahead and give him the top spot in the best of 2009 too.
What Was Bad About 2008
#2 The Chicago Cubs
Alfonso Soriano & Kosuke Fukodome make me sick. I have a feeling that the Cubs will once again be on the list in 2009 unless they win the World Series.
#1 Merlin the Crazy Cab Driver This is the guy that almost killed me, Cary, and John on the way from Albania to Croatia. I never want to wish any harm on anyone, but maybe he can contract a livable lifetime disease; perhaps herpes.
This is Merlin in the background. This was taken before our near death experience but I already seem to be upset at him. Foreshadowing I presume. He's got some beady little devil goat eyes. (photo copyright Cary Norton)
