Everyone else is doing a Top Ten Albums for the Year, so I thought I'd do one too. There are people who will criticize me, but it's not the Blender or the Rolling Stone or the NME Top Ten, it's the Wendy's Top Ten. I like all ten of these albums. I'm not even sure if they're in the right order of greatness, they're just in the order I thought of them. I know what I want my top three to be, but you're welcome to find/listen to all or none of them.
1. The Raconteurs - "Broken Boy Soldiers" - To those who know me, this is no surprise. They're still better live, but I'm sure everyone says that when rationalizing their mild obsessions with a favorite band.
2. Wolfmother - "Wolfmother" - It's just an awesome, raucous good album.
3. Arctic Monkeys - "Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not" - Just listen to the Arctic Monkeys. The accents alone should make you love them.
4. Beck - "The Information" - I'm just a big Beck fan. I saw him on Halloween, and he's just cool.
5. The Strokes - "First Impressions of Earth" - A step down from the prevoius album, but still great.
6. The Killers - "Sam's Town" - I know you've heard "When You Were Young", and no, he doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but you love it anyway.
7. My Chemical Romance - "Welcome to the Black Parade" - I don't subscribe to this take on the afterlife, but it's definitely wonderful and kind of makes me want to wear eyeliner and a band uniform and play the air guitar in my living room.
8. Justin Timberlake - "FutureSex/LoveSounds" - I will not justify this to you. I don't have to. Just shut up. I'm not going to change my mind.
9. The Kooks - "Inside In/Inside Out" - If you haven't heard them, just try it.
10. Okay, I can think of a bunch more than ten, but I guess I have to say, ugh, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Show Your Bones" tied with Christina Aguilera - "Back to Basics" - I really am not a fan of women singers (except for a very minute few), and yes I realize that's a bit weird and self-deprecating, but it's true. These were great albums. independent of my biased opinion.
Just try to tell me she's not. I'll fight you. To the death.
During the holiday season, the magnanimous attorneys in our office (and I say that because they only charge like $300/hr to do work) get equally magnanimous (read: kiss-ass) Christmas gifts from vendors, clients and other attorneys. Usually it's a gift basket (which gets shared among all employees), alcohol (which does not get shared), and the occasional actual gift. Our managing partner got a copy of The New York Time Practical Guide to Practically Everything from someone. I asked if I could have it, and he graciously (laughingly) gave it to me. Now, he might have left it on a shelf to get a layer of dust, but buddy, you know I'm going to read it cover to cover. Here are just a couple of things the book's jacket tells me:
1. It is the essential companion for everyday life.
2. It can tell you how to choose the best insurance policy, get a copy of your FBI file, pick the best vegetables to grow in your garden, cure a hangover, and perform the Heimlich maneuver properly. All of these things sound practical, and I am excited to learn how to do them.
3. The first item I turned to is...the ten films not to be missed from each year from 1975-2005. There are also the top list of DVD's not to be missed by NYTimes critics. That's pretty cool.
Three words: Office. Christmas. Party. It was fabulous. It was at Maggiano's so the food was awesome. I stopped counting after the 6th glass of champagne. The band was actually pretty good, and the guitar player/lead singer was blind, so we're also helping people I guess. As Matt would say, he was clutch. Matt was pretty clutch too. Kudos to him for having more rhythm than your average white guy and actually being able to dance (and for putting up with my drunk self and actually dancing for a long time). On the way out, I grabbed this giant bottle of champagne (like, it was really big). Anyway, this waiter comes by, and while I'm looking very sheepish, he says, in a Puerto Rican accent, "It's not coming out of my paycheck." We get home, and I'm still pretty tipsy (Matt drives, of course.) I'm like, hey, let's get the champagne. He picks up the bottle and starts laughing hysterically because. the. bottle. is. fake. Completely Empty! What a gyp.
Here's what I know about large quantities of champagne:
1. A regular bottle is 750 mL. A magnum is 1.5 L. Anything larger than that is named after biblical folks (don't ask me why). A really, really big one (6 L maybe) is a Melchizedek.
2. A really big bottle of champagne that is empty is called decoration.
It's definitely baby season at our office. My friend Cristina is due any day now, and there are at least 9 other pregnant ladies in our office. Three are having sets of twins! That's thirteen babies. That means 8% of the Atlanta office of Seyfarth Shaw is pregnant. That's also the same percentage of Jews in America (I'm not racist or anything, I just happen to know the percentage of Jews in America. Jews are great.) Here's what I know about pregnancy/gestation of babies:
1. It takes nine months, but obstetricians actually count 40 weeks as full term from the date of your last period (not the date of ovulation, even if you know that's when it happened).
2. I asked one of the women if she knew whether her twins were fraternal or identical and she said she wasn't sure if they knew how to tell. Here's what google tells me: If there's only one amniotic sac (and they're in there together), it's definitely identical. If they are a boy and a girl, they're definitely fraternal. Other than that, you can't tell until they come out.
3. I remember seeing on the Today Show that as many as 1 in 8 pregnancies starts out as twins.
4. Sometimes you crave odd things to eat (i.e. pickles and ice cream). It's called pica (PIE-kuh). When my mom was pregnant, she craved cherries and banana popsicles. Cristina loves to eat cheese constantly! I have to tease her about it because I don't think a day's gone by in the last two weeks where she hasn't eaten some form of cheese. One of my friends wanted cotton candy at odd hours and would sob until someone found her some. Another liked to eat Girl Scout Thin Mints and Sonny's BBQ sauce. Eew.
I was at the grocery store yesterday, and I saw someone wearing a shirt that insinuated that they wanted to kill the President. Now, we all know that the W's probably not the brightest bulb in the box, but that's just rude. I'm sure there are a lot of English people who don't like the Queen very much, but I'm pretty sure they're above wearing t-shirts that say they're going to kill her. Emily Post said social rules are not there to control people but to make sure everyone around you is comfortable. This person's shirt (and overall demeanor) made me feel pretty uncomfortable. Here's what I know about presidential assassinations:
1. In more than 200 years, only 4 folks have succeeded. Here's the list (with name and president killed)
John Wilkes Booth - Lincoln
Charles Guiteau - Garfield
Leon Csolgosz (I probably butchered the last name, but it's pronounced CHOL-gosh) - McKinley
Lee Harvey Oswald (maybe) - Kennedy
2. Nothing good happens to you if you attempt to or succeed in killing the president. Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth (three names, odd) were both shot within the next couple of days. Guiteau (mentally ill anyway) was hanged, and Csolgosz was executed and electrocuted. Out of the (known) attempts, most of the people were executed, imprisoned or institutionalized, and Andrew Jackson actually beat his would-be assassin with a cane until he was unconscious.
3. As bad as the President is, you probably don't want any of the other people in line to be president either. Here's the short list (let's assume this kid doesn't try to kill the president until the congressional new year): Dick Cheney, Nancy Pelosi, Robert Byrd, Condolezza Rice, Henry Paulson, Robert Gates (maybe, if he's approved), and then Alberto Gonzales. I won't list any more than that because it would be pretty horrific if almost any of them became president (except maybe Rice, she speaks five languages and plays the cello, and I respect that).
4. We might want Martin Sheen or Jack Ryan (or Aaron Sorkin or Tom Clancy) to take over if something does happen. I'm not going to lie, fictional president are way better, but maybe if people wouldn't wear such hateful clothing to begin with, it would never be an issue.
Yesterday, in response to my sending an email saying I have a blog, my friend Tomas (also a blogger: www.grabbingsand.com ) sent the following message : HUZZAH!!! I don't believe I've ever used the word "huzzah" in conversation, but here's what I know about it:
HUZZAH
Huzzah is an affirmation that would probably be an interjection if I had to classify it as a part of speech. The only time I recall hearing it actually said was in The Patriot. All the revolutionary folks said Huzzah! every time Mel Gibson said something rousing and morale-inspiring. It seems a bit outdated. I think now we probably substitute "Hooray", "Yay" or "You Go Girl". I think that one of the branches of the military uses it now, probably the Navy, but I could be wrong. The photo below is what I got when I put in Huzzah.
Here's a funny video from YouTube where a bunch of dorky theatre people doing Twelfth Night say "Huzzah". They are not as cool as the NFDC Twelfth Night people by any stretch of the imagination.
My friend Matt is going to buy me a "how-to" book for Christmas, because we joke that I know how to do a lot of bizarre things (henna tattoos, playing the dulcimer), and he teased that it's going to be on bas-reliefs. Weirdly, I already know about bas-reliefs, and I even made a model of one for a project in high school, so he'll have to find something more obscure. I need something to dedicate my blog to, so it's going to be "Stuff I Know About". Send me a note if you have a question about something, and I'll tell you if I know something about it. Maybe my weird nerdiness will pay off for someone someday. Anyway, onward to the topic at hand:
*Note: I'm note quoting anybody, and I'm not necessarily even saying that what I know is factual and correct. It's just what I know.
Bas-Reliefs
Bas Reliefs are an artistic medium (actually not really a medium, the stone or whatever it's made from is the medium), okay a type of art that is a three dimensional sculpture, generally done in hard stone. Pretty much everyone, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Africans, and Asian peoples have all done some kind of bas-reliefs, usually on walls. Georgia's own beloved Stone Mountain, a sculpture of Stonewall Jackson, Robert, E. Lee and Jefferson Davis on the side of a large granite dome (not actually a mountain), is the largest bas-relief in the world. I don't think Mount Rushmore is a bas-relief because it's not a 3D image, it's actual busts on the top of the mountain.
Okay, this is my first post, and I wanted it to be cool and special. I went to Nashville, and I saw the Raconteurs (with the Muldoons opening). I was in spitting distance of Jack Lawrence and Jack White with only one stupid tall guy in front of me. They were freakin' awesome! I love their music (although they are waaaay better live). You can tell they have a lot of fun.
You should find out more about the Muldoons. They're two little kids (with moves like rockstars) and their dad, and they're actually really awesome. The younger one has a sort of lisp (he's like nine), and it took all I could not to yell, "You're so adorable!", but I thought it would wreck his cool vibe.
