This year, I spent Christmas with my dad, stepmother, and two sisters up in Northwest Iowa.  It was technically my mom’s turn to have my sister and I in town, but things worked out that it would be best if we were with her for Thanksgiving instead this time around.  We got there Friday night and spent the days leading up to Christmas just hanging out in between church, going to a movie (We Are Marshall — a decent football flick despite some pretty obvious cliches), and opening presents.  For Christmas, we started the day by celebrating with my step-mom’s side of the family which consisted of my step-uncle, his girlfriend, and my step-cousin.  The lunch was an absolute feast and, after partaking in some pie for desert, I was left feeling completely stuffed.  Dinner was spent at with my dad’s side of the family.  It was good to see everyone again although I still feel like a giant pile of poo after eating so much.

As far as presents are concerned, I pretty much got everything I wanted (which wasn’t much) and then some.  My mom already got me my present (a down comforter and duvet cover) when I was there for Thanksgiving, and it’s been rockin’ my face off ever since.  I used to delay going to bed until I absolutely couldn’t take it any longer.  Now, though, I look forward to nights in my comfortable bed.  I ended up getting both casual and dress clothes, a scale (which showed that I gained 6 pounds in the past week), a SonicComplete toothbrush, cologne, a jacket, and two suits.  Not too shabby, I must say.

There were three pretty memorable quotes from this past weekend that I feel need to be posted on here. 

“What’s Iowa State doing playing all those negroes?  There are no negroes in Iowa.  They need to get some white people in there.  They’d be a lot better than all those negroes they have in there now.”   — My grandpa

“Oh yeah?  Try getting circumcised at 25 like I did.”  — My grandpa when we were talking about my cousin’s newborn getting snipped

“Those cows are silly.  Sometimes they’ll put their front feet up on the back of another one and try walking.  They’re really funny when they do that.”  — my cute, naive seven-year-old half-sister

I’m leaving tomorrow morning for a family trip to Branson.  I think most everyone I’ve told about my Branson trip either responds with laughter or with a sympathetic “I’m sorry”.  I really don’t know what to expect.  I’m kind of looking forward to it, actually.  I mean, the way I see it, it’ll either be really Christmas-y and entertaining or it’ll be really cheesy and tacky which would also entertain me immensely.  I’ll be back on Saturday and will resume blogging then.

My Christmas vacation began earlier than expected this year due to last minute news that the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN wanted to do some tests on my mom to see what was going on.  The original plan was for my sister and I to leave for my dad’s in NW Iowa Friday night or Saturday morning.  Instead, we took Thursday and Friday off of work and drove up to Minnesota late Wednesday to spend a couple nights with our mom.  As I’ve mentioned earlier, my mom’s had some health problems that have gotten progressively worse as of late.  It seems like every time there seems to be a glimmer of hope with a possible solution to the problems, a dead end is reached and everything goes back to square one.  Needless to say, the opportunity to get looked at at Mayo left all of us feeling pretty hopeful.

Without going into too many details, they ran several tests on my mom throughout the week.  Much of the focus was on my mom’s stomach and digestive process to see if things were functioning properly.  We’d been told that my mom had, among a few other things, paralysis of the stomach, and we were thinking that the doctors at Mayo would have an idea how to treat it through surgery or medicine.  When all was said and done, we went into a room where the doctor was to give us the results of the tests along with recommendations for a course of action.  We were each kind of anxious and optimistic that, after a week of testing, there would be some sort of “ah ha!” moment where a clear cut diagnoses would be reached.  Basically, the results were that things were supposedly functioning “normally” with my mom’s system, and they basically told her about an herbal supplement that could help her stomach pain and gave her breathing exercises to try before eating.  It was a huge letdown.  My mom is supposed to return to Mayo to be seen by some autonomic specialists, but it was awfully disheartening to know that, after being told so many different things, my mom didn’t have any problems with the way her insides were functioning.  This leaves the only possibilities to be that the root of the problem lies in her neurological system or it’s flat out some sort of mental thing.  Either way, some help needs to come fast.  My mom has lost over 25 pounds in the past 8 weeks.  She’s almost down to 100 lbs. 

On a positive note, on our way up to Rochester, my sister and I were getting really worn out after having just worked a full day on top of driving for 5 and a half hours.  I turned to my sister and said, “How much do you want to bet that I can ‘raise the roof’ for five minutes straight?”  My sister broke out laughing and told me she didn’t think I could do it.  From there, I proceeded to raise the roof with my arms for an entire five minutes using “Shoop” by Salt ‘n Peppa as my soundtrack.  Let me tell you, five minutes doesn’t sound like much time, but I was definitely feeling the burn by the time I was done.  There’s no way I could have lasted to seven.  It was quite the accomplishment, I must say, and my sister ended up crying she was laughing so hard in the car. 

2006 was an interesting year for music.  I’ve read a lot of “Best of” lists at the end of the year, and it startled me how diverse they all are this year.  In fact, I think you’d have a hard time finding two lists that feature four of the same albums in their respective top tens.  After many, many hours spent listening to to music while traveling and checking out recommendations from other sites, I feel comfortable saying that these twenty albums were my favorite of 2006.

20. 

Lily Allen – Alright, Still

This is one of those rare albums in which half the songs would fit right on on pop radio and actually happens to be deserving of it.  Unfortunately, she didn’t really get too well known to anyone outside of the non-hipster crowd for some reason.  While most female pop artists only sing about how bad they want to sleep with you, Lily sings about why she won’t.  Maybe that’s what’s holding her back, I don’t know.  Either way, this debut from a woman who was discovered off of MySpace is pretty solid.

19.

Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out of the Country

These guys created a really great album of poppy tunes that sound like they deserve to be played on both an indie rock station and an oldies station.  The music is so catchy and the album has a real classic feel to it throughout.

18.

Beck – The Information

Beck is among a very small list of modern day musical “geniuses” who still create quality, relevant material.  The man has covered just about every genre you can think of, and his latest album somehow fuses his past works together to create a really solid album.  If it weren’t for a few sloppy songs in the second half I’d rank this one even higher. 

17.

Band of Horses – Everything All the Time

I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t quite understand the hype behind these guys at first.  People kept saying they were a cross between My Morning Jacket and The Shins yet I just found them to be a little on the bland side.  This one really grew on me, though, and I think I realized after seeing them live just how good so many of the songs on this album are. 

16.

Shearwater – Palo Santo

Shearwater is a side project of Okkervil River’s Will Sheff and, after listening to this album a bunch this year, I think I may like Shearwater even better than Sheff’s original band. 

15.

Destroyer –Rubies

Despite Dan Bejar being my least favorite New Pornographer vocalist, I still pull for his regular band, Destroyer, to succeed.  Though his voice is quirky and quite polarizing, this is one undeniably quality album with lyrics that are second to none.

14.

Regina Spektor – Begin to Hope

Regina Spektor reminds me of what Tori Amos would sound like if you added a little more flavor to her music.  Her latest album, her most accessible to date, is a very diverse collection of songs that will stay in your head for a while.  I’d never really gotten into her stuff much before, but I’m definitely a fan after listening to this one.

13.

Cat Power – The Greatest

There’s not a whole lot to say about Chan Marshall that hasn’t been said before.  Her voice might be one of the most recognizable in music, and I personally love it.  The Greatest finds the artist known as Cat Power, a woman who has battled both personal demons and insecurity, with a new level of confidence.  It’s her most upbeat album yet.

12.

Archie Bronson Outfit – Derdang Derdang

Singer Sam Windett might have one of the worst voices I’ve yet to hear in a rock band.  He tries, though, and when you back his yelping with a band as tight and rocking as this it doesn’t really matter all that much.  It’s pretty powerful stuff.

11.

The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth

It’s funny to me how this is the only album by The Strokes I’ve ever really, really liked even though “true” fans argued that they’ve gone downhill since their first one.  This is the first album where they start showing a little passion with their music instead of sounding like they were able to fall asleep while playing their instruments or singing.  They’ve talked in interviews how they wanted to turn it up a notch, and I am really glad they did.

10.

Built to Spill – You in Reverse

Another solid album from Doug Martsch and company.  It’s not as polished as Keep it Like a Secret  and not as meandering as some of their others.  Instead, they found a middle ground and it sounds great.

9.

Joanna Newsom – Ys

If someone were were tell me that one of my favorite albums of the year would be by a female singer with a quirky voice who sings ten-plus minute songs while playing the harp I would have punched them in the throat.  Lo and behold, it ended up being the case.  Listening to Ms. Newsom is an acquired taste, and I definitely had to listen to it a few times before the melodies began to unfold.  Once they did, the result was very satisfying. 

8.

Snowglobe - Oxytocin

I’m really pretty surprised that not one “best of” list I’ve seen has mentioned this album among their favorites.  These guys sound like a cross between Neutral Milk Hotel, The Boy Least Likely To, and some really catchy pop band.  It’s a great album to listen to on the road, as well. 

7.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones

Some people criticize the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for shifting their sound so dramatically from their debut.  I personally think it was a great move, in many ways for the same reasons I liked the shift The Strokes made in their sound this year.  Frontwoman Karen O pretty much set out to make herself a Blondie record, and it rocks pretty darn hard.

6.

Mew – And the Glass Handed Kites

This album must be played in its entirety from beginning to end to be fully appreciated.  I don’t think there’s a single song that could make it on the radio yet the whole thing is really excellent.  They’ve been categorized as dream pop/post-punk music, but I think their sound is a little too epic and dense to be confined to just that.  Either way, it’s good stuff.

5.

Malajube – Tromp-L’Oeil

This French-Canadian band is easily my favorite new band to break out this year.  The vocals are excellent (even though they’re sung in French) and they really rock out hard.  After hearing “Le Crabe” and “La Monogamie” (songs 4 and 5, respectively) in a row, you can’t help but think that these guys would be incredible live.  Really just an amazing debut.

4.

Neil Young - Living With War

I think it’s impossible to be a music fan and not love Neil.  He’s done a lot in his day, but this time he manages to create a protest album that ends up being a very patriotic statement.  In a time when our president has attempted to brainwash us into thinking that if we disagree then we don’t love our country, it’s impressive to hear Neil plug in his guitar and sing some great songs about the state of our country.  The amazing thing about this album is that, once it’s over, you find yourself loving your country even more than you did before. 

3.

Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit

These guys tried switching up their drab, dreary sound that they’ve been known for by creating an upbeat sound on their last album.  I, for one, loathed their last album, though.  This time around, they’ve perfected the upbeat sound they’ve shifted towards and it works like a charm.  The melodies are great, the music is upbeat, and the band really has never sounded better.  I once preferred their earlier stuff because it all sounded like it could fit perfectly in a Wes Andersen film.  I must say, I think I prefer this version of them more now.

2.

The Decemberists – The Crane Wife

When I first heard that The Decemberists were going to make an album consisting primarily of progressive folk music, I was obviously bracing for something pretty bad.  This is The Decemberists, though.  They’re a band that doesn’t seem to know how to create anything bad.  Although they scaled down some of the grand sound from their previous album, this is still one fantastic collection of songs.  In fact, I think it could be their best yet.

1.

The Frames – The Cost

Technically, I’m cheating a bit by including this on my 2006 list.  This album was released overseas back in October but isn’t scheduled to be released in the U.S. until February of 2007.  Either way, it WAS released this year and I feel obligated to put it at the top of the list.  The new album by The Frames is flat out incredible.  I’m anxious to see if critics agree with me.  My interest in The Frames has been spotty over the years due to the fact that some of their stuff is just too boring and slow.  The new one, though, captures the excitement of their live shows and the result is really quite amazing.  I knew this was the best album I’d heard all year the first time I listened to it, and I still feel the same after listening to it countless numbers of times.

I went to a Christmas party this past Saturday that a couple of coworkers hosted at their place.  While about half of the people there didn’t bother to dress up, the other half more than made up for it.  They even had a six foot tall inflatable snowman in the backyard by the bonfire.  As with most things, the cheesier something is the better.  This was definitely heavy on the cheese.  Good times. 

P.S. I’ll be posting my favorite albums of the year today or tomorrow.  In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures from Saturday.

You know who I kind of feel sorry for?  I feel sorry for the people who wear ugly Christmas sweaters without knowing that the very kind of sweater they’re wearing is being mocked by just about every person my age at parties right now.  I saw a woman at Best Buy today who was wearing a pretty heinous one, and my eyes lit up as I imagined how awesome it would be to own it.  The woman even had on a turtleneck with images of holly and wreaths underneath it.  She was serious about her attire, though, and it was apparent that her costume of sorts was her personal way of spreading Christmas cheer.

I had to visit a call center in Kentucky yesterday for work was struck with disgust within moments of walking into the place.  If I had to guess, I was estimate that a good 80% of the 400 people in the call center were morbidly obese.  It was astonishing.  I was by the break room for most of the day and witnessed every single person sit down with a bag of fast food for lunch.  One after another, I saw people walking in with McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Taco Bell, you name it, and devour it along with a serving of french fries.  Now, I’m not the smartest man in the world, but I would imagine that yesterday wasn’t just some fluke coincidence where everyone ate horrible fast food.  I would imagine it’s a daily thing.  And that both disgusts me and disappoints me.  When people look at you and wonder where Princess Lea is hiding, it’s safe to say that the fatty fast food should be the first thing to go.

I noticed this week that I need to watch myself when I say, “Thanks a lot.”  I say it often, and I say it kind of fast to the point where it could potentially be mistaken as, “Thanks, slut.”  Yeah, I need watch that.

My friends Ryan and Sam made a road trip to Kansas City this past weekend and stayed at my place Friday night.  My flight got in late from San Francisco so I had to meet up with the two of them, my sister, and my roommate at the Granfaloon up north to have dinner and watch the Iowa State/Iowa basketball game.  The game itself was pretty awful to watch.  My Cyclones looked terrible and were beaten soundly by a pretty lousy Hawkeye squad.  As expected, it’s going to be a long season. 

We headed back to the apartment where we had a drink and I was able to introduce Sam and Ryan to Guitar Hero.  I’m happy to say that, while they were skeptical at first, they both found themselves getting into it quite a bit.  We then went to Westport to meet up with another friend of ours for the night.   We grabbed a booth at One80 and mostly sat around, had a few drinks, and chatted with each other.  It was a great environment to be in when you have friends in town and needed a little quality time with them.  Somehow, though, the night ended up much more out of control than planned.

Eventually, we went across the street to Harry’s where we proceeded to get more drinks and chat around a table in the back room of the bar.  For some reason, I got it in my head that we should get some cigars.  Ryan was the only person other than myself who did it.

We somehow ended up staying out until the bars closed and got a cab to take us home.  Once home, I decided to get into a wrestling match with Sam.  It is important to note that Sam isn’t a guy.  Sam is Ryan’s wife, and I’ve known each of them since college.  The wrestling match involved me trying to pin Sam down to sit on her face, me hiding in my shower to later jump out at Sam while she was looking for face wash, and me puffing baby powder all over the place.  Needless to say, the next day wasn’t very pleasant.  I was tired from not getting to bed until 5 despite waking up around noon (I don’t know the last time I’ve been able to sleep in past 9), and on top of still feeling tipsy, my lungs were really mad at me for subjecting them to cigar smoke.  Even though the aftermath wasn’t the best, we still had a great time, and I was glad to have gotten to hang out with them.

As I subscriber to Esquire magazine and fan of Chuck Klosterman, I read the blurb that accompanied his article in the latest issue.  The article was about taking over-the-counter magnesium before going to bed in order to enhance your dreams.  Apparently, it’s supposed to work and your dreams are supposed to be pretty darn nutty.  Well, I decided last weekend to pick up a small bottle of magnesium pills while grocery shopping.  I’ve taken the pills without fail for about 5 nights now, and I’m sad to report that it really hasn’t done much to enhance my dreams.  I was really hoping to have some crazy, mind-blowing experience every night , but I am partially convinced that my mind already creates dreams that are weird enough that any external substances couldn’t do anything to make them crazier than they already are.  I never really realized that until I dated girls and would tell them the next day about what I had dreamt the night before.  They would tell me that they’ve never heard about such things before which, I guess, I was kind of happy about in a way.

The thing is, I almost never have “dreams”.  Instead, I have nightmares.  Most normal people would hate them, but I love feeling that intensity most nights when I go to bed.  If anyone has any suggestions as to what can improve my dreams please let me know.  I’d definitely appreciate it.

I went to see The Black Keys this past Friday at The Granada in Lawrence.  I had seen them only briefly before at Austin City Limits two years ago, but they were playing right before Coldplay so we could only see a couple songs before leaving to get a good spot.  I’ve been a big fan of their style of blues-heavy garage rock for quite some time, and I’m happy to say they didn’t disappoint.  The Akron, Ohio duo blazed through all their more rockin’ songs, and the crowd loved every minute of it.  The only negative thing I would note about the show is that it got a little repetitive at times to hear the same style played out for an extended amount of time.  I actually prefer some of their songs that aren’t quite as fuzzed out like “Just Couldn’t Tie Me Down”.  The frontman is really quite a performer, though, and it was pretty great just watching him play guitar.  He’s definitely an underrated. guitarist.

This was also this first show I’ve been to since getting earplugs to use during concerts.  My parents have preached to me for a while that I need to protect my ears, and I finally decided that it would be a wise thing to do.  With the amount of loud shows I attend, I want to be able to hear by the time I’m 50.

Wednesday was quite the eventful day for me. After working for the majority of the day, I headed over the the Ed Sullivan Theater to meet up with my friend Rommi to see a live taping of David Letterman.  I had gone online to fill out a form a couple months ago to try to win tickets.  Luckily, I got a call last weekend that I’d won and answered the trivia question correctly (”Where does Rupert G work?”) to get on the guest list.  I was given the option to attend Tuesday or Wednesday’s show and had to choose Wednesday because I had a work function late Tuesday night.  I looked online to see that the guests for Tuesday’s show were George Clooney and The Decemberists.  That would have been a great show.  The main guest for Wedneday’s show was Richard Simmons.  Not quite the same caliber, but I knew it would at least be pretty entertaining.

We first waited in line to get our tickets before being lead into the entryway of the theater to show our IDs.  Then, we went inside a little farther to show our passes to a person who asked us a question.  He asked what our favorite part of the show was.  It took both Rommi and I by surprise and we kind of stumbled around for a little bit not knowing what to say.  He then slapped a sticker on our tickets and we had to go wait outside again in another line.  We were sure that our stammering screwed our chances for a good seat and that the sticker was to signal our spot in the last row for the show.  That ended up not being the case, by far. At 4:15, our group went into a room and was coached by some of the staff about various things.  We were told how and how not to cheer, that no matter if jokes are bad to laugh like it’s the funniest thing we’ve ever heard, etc.  We were convinced that we were going to be stuck in the balcony because the people in front of us went up there.  Lo and behold, they opened the doors to the main stage and we were able to get down to the 3rd row.  We couldn’t believe it.  We ended up in the center section against the aisle right in front of where Dave does is monologue.

A comedian came out first to warm up the crowd for a little bit and then the band was introduced.  Paul Shaeffer (Mr. Artie Fufkin himself) lead the band to play a couple of songs before Dave was introduced.  Dave came running out on stage and chatted and joked with the audience.  Despite Conan being my favorite late night host, I’ve been a big Dave fan for most of my life.  I admit that I was pretty shocked to see him standing there just a few rows in front of me.  He then ran back stage quick and the show began.

The show was pretty entertaining to see live.  You can really get a feel for how much most of the show is rehearsed ahead of time.  Even the casual conversation between Dave and Paul is scripted ahead of time.  As expected, Richard Simmons was pretty funny.  He came running out from the back of the theater and down the aisle right next to where we were sitting.  Some people told me that you could clearly see us on T.V. during most of the segment.  It was pretty funny stuff.  The other two guests were a redhead from Grey’s Anatomy and Ciara.  The girl from Grey’s Anatomy was pretty dull in comparison to Mr. Simmons, and Ciara’s performance was akin to a strip tease.  All in all, it was a really fun time.  Here’s a clip of the Richard Simmons segment.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find one of Richard running down the aisle. 

We left the taping at a little after 6:30 and met with my friend Cortney before heading over to Rockerfeller Center to watch the tree lighting and the performers.  The place around there was a complete zoo, though.  There were mobs upon mobs of people trying to get to the tree.  All the roads were blocked off and police officers wouldn’t let anyone get through.  It was really annoying and we almost gave up.  Luckily, we were supposed to go watch the lighting from a suite in a building overlooking the event thanks to my friend Pam who works there.  She had faxed me a form allowing me into the building, and that form ended up serving as our saving grace because some officers let us get past the barricades.

We got there in time to still see the majority of the performers.  Our view was somewhat obstructed so we were only able to see one of the two stages, but we were happy, though, because most people were only able to see what was broadcast over big screens.  We did get to see John Legend, Sting, and Taylor Hicks as well as Al Roker which was kind of cool.  I’ve always kind of thought Taylor Hicks wasn’t very good, but I will admit that the guy is quite the showman.  I never thought I’d say such a thing.  The performers on the other stage were Bette Midler, Enya, Lionel Richie, Martina McBride, and Hall and Oates.  We ended up leaving the ceremony early before the lighting took place and also missed seeing Christina Aguilera.  I think it was a wise move because we were able to beat the insane crowds.  It was still a pretty cool experience.