Pitchfork and Me: Top Albums of 2000-10
It is going to be 2010 in a little over a month. Time for all the critical glances in the rear-view mirror to begin.
Pitchfork was on the ball: by early October, they had implicitly decided that no new music from 2009 would rock their socks and they presented a list of the top 200 albums of the decade. They have graphs and everything. I guess someone finally figured out how to use Excel!
Looking over their list, there is a lot that I agree on. From their top 10, I would definitely have on my list:
#6 Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica
#4 Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
#2 Arcade Fire Funeral
I am on the fence about #1 Radiohead Kid A and #7 The Strokes Is This It. What I am not on the fence about is bumping up something from Sufjan (#16 Sufjan Stevens Illinois) into the top 10.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be starting to say goodbye to this decade of music by filling in this list to create my own Top 10 and writing a short piece on each album in turn.
What did we call this decade anyways? ~LL
Lessons from NYC #2: Weekend in NYC
I am beginning a coveted weekend in NYC but what type of weekend will it be? Will I be wandering around SoHo beefing up my fall wardrobe? Strolling in Central Park? Searching for the truly original/best NYC *insert food here*?
Honestly, I feel like a “looking after myself” weekend. I need a little me time. This is something I have always felt guilty about in NYC because, after all, what are you paying for except to experience the city? “Sleep when you’re dead” and whatnot.
Fortunately, the weather has decided to co-operate with my plan, for once. This is the best, worst weather luck a girl can have. ~LL
Google weather forecast
Pizza: Of NYC and New Haven
I recently spent an evening in New Haven, CT. My gracious hosts took myself and JTH out for “New Haven Pizza”. When queried about what makes it distinct, one host (previous less than fond of the pizza) said it is “thin and burnt”. The other said “it is thin crust, cooked in a wood oven, you can get it with a white sauce (aka not tomato sauce) and it has weird toppings”. Oh and it is called “apizza and it has it’s own wikipedia page“. To add more credibility, NYC-foodie-blogger Brownie (from Blondie and Brownie) acknowledges being raised on New-Haven pizza.
Not wanting to be rude, I didn’t ask the obvious for someone living in NYC: how is it different from NY pizza? But after going to a fine establishment simply called “The Bar”, I have to acknowledge that it is indeed unique and that I am a fan. In the grand scheme of pizza, I would say that it _is_ indeed like NYC pizza. (Grand scheme of pizza?) We got our pizza with white sauce, cheese, mushrooms, onions, and mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes!! Definitely a yummy combination that I have had foodie day-dreams about ever since. Thanks to my hosts and JTH.
Continuing on the pizza train, I came across a great film tribute to NYC pizza today: entitled “Naturally Risen“. It could be renamed zen and the art of pizza making but I’ll let you form your own opinion of it. ~LL
Dear Bon Iver
Dear Bon Iver (aka Justin Vernon)– How does it feel to have the yogie song de rigeur? Do you think about all those sweaty bodies starting to wind down after their vinyasas listening to you croone? Is this what you envisioned when you wrote “I told you to be balanced”?
Sincerely, Yogi in NYC
P.S. Justin Vernon will be appearing at the New Yorker festival Oct 13th. Come with.
Lessons from NYC: Bagels and Black Beauty
Lesson #1: Don’t take it personally.
In line at Bagel Works, the woman ahead of me misses the counter staff asking for her order … twice ["Next? Miss?"]. After her clear disengagement (did she already order? was it because of her earbuds?), the counter staff asks for my order. About half way through ["Sesame bagel, not toasted, with plain cream cheese; large coffee with milk, no sugar."] the woman turns around to looks at me in total disgust. Jaw agape and various disapproving scoffs, she makes it clear that she thinks I have stepping in front of her in line. People around also chime in. I am a NYC-bagel outcast.
Being the apologizing sort, it was all I could do to not explain what had happened in length and/or slink out of the shop with my brown bag thinking I had done something wrong. Of course, when living in NYC, you encounter this kind of event daily. For example, the sales person who openly sneers at your when you respond “large” after being asked what size of drink you would like. Why does she sneer at you? Who knows? You can’t take it personally.
Echoing this sentiment, this all reminded me of one part of Black Beauty where he is a young horse and is placed in a field with sheep and cows [*scoff* "Live-stock!?!"] and a bordering train track. The purpose is to have him become adjusted to trains. The first time a train appears, Black reacts: “I turned and galloped to the further side of the meadow as fast as I could go, and there I stood snorting with astonishment and fear. … As I found that this terrible creature never came into the field, or did me any harm, I began to disregard it, and very soon I cared as little about the passing of a train as the cows and sheep did.” Apparently this section is entitled “Chapter 3: My Breaking In”. Hilarious? Yes I think so. ~LL
Goodbye to the cynical optimist.
My blog was going to be called something like “Reflections of a Cynical Optimist”, “Adventures of a Cynical Optimist” or some variation on the theme. A good friend of mine pinned this on me last summer and the description rang true enough that it suck.
As every good internet-citizen does before doing something serious like naming a blog, I googled the phrase. I didn’t like what I found. The cynical optimists of the world are a) more numerous than I had hoped and b) not very nice in some cases.
Now my blog is named something entirely different. “Grand Central at Noon”. I once heard that if you asked a random group of people to say where they would meet someone in NYC, an overwhelming percentage would say “Grand Central at Noon”. I feel like there is something intuitive about this phenomenon. I also like the idea that could you naturally converge on meeting someone in a place like NYC without discussing it before or even visiting NYC. I actually haven’t been able to track down the reference to this study but it is also kind of nice that you can find very little reference to it on the internet. ~LL
