Top 101 of 2008

101. White Winter Hymnal- Fleet Foxes
100. Between Us & Them- Moving Units
99. Mother Mary- Foxboro Hot Tubs
98. Language City- Wolf Parade
97. Better Things- Passion Pit
96. One Month Off- Bloc Party
95. Let’s Dance To Joy Division
94. Elvis- These New Puritans
93. Sausalito- Conor Oberst
92. You! Me! Dancing!- Los Campesinos!
91. Top Drawer- Man Man
90. GfC- Albert Hammond Jr.
89. California Girls- The Magnetic Fields
88.Cath…- Death Cab For Cutie
87. Futures & Folly- Blitzen Trapper
86. The Age of the Understatement- The Last Shadow Puppets
85. While We Go Dancing- White Rabbit
84. Bathosphere- Smog
83. You Don’t Know Me- Ben Folds w/Regina Spektor
82. Working Part Time- The Henry Clay People
81. Buildings & Mountains- The Republic Tigers
80. For Emma- Bon Iver
79. Rat is Dead- CSS
78. Creeper- Islands
77. Seeing Hands- Dengue Fever
76. The Step & The Walk- The Duke Spirit
75. Alarm Clock- The Rumble Strips
74. Dawn of the Dead- Does it Offend You, Yeah?
73. New Soul- Yael Naim
72. I Will Possess Your Heart- Death Cab For Cutie
71. Shut Up and Let Me Go- The Ting Tings
70. The Kelly Affair- Be Your Own Pet
69. Sax Rohmer #1- The Mountain Goats
68. Fools -The Dodos
67. Get Better- Mates of State
66. Is There a Ghost- A Band of Horses
65. Mirando- Ratatat
64. Highways of Gold- Jaguar Love
63. Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa- Vampire Weekend
62. Keep Your Eyes Ahead- The Helio Sequence
61. Regrets a Paradise- Japanese Motors
60. A & E- Goldfrapp
59. Ghosts- Ladytron
58. Paper Planes- MIA
57. Lights & Music- Cut Copy
56. Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?- She & Him
55. Hummingbird- Born Ruffians
54. Cannibal Queen- Miniature Tigers
53. Oxford Comma- Vampire Weekend
52. Sex on Fire- Kings of Leon
51. The Plot- White Rabbits
50. Take Me To the Riot- Stars
49. No One’s Gonna Love You- A Band of Horses
48. Hang Them All- Tapes ’n’ Tapes
47. Balloons- Foals
46. The Beginning of the Twist- Futureheads
45. The Engine Driver- The Decemberists
44. Veni Vidi Vici- The Black Lips
43. The Nun’s Litany- The Magnetic Fields
42. Sour Cherry- The Kills
41. Lucid Dreams- Franz Ferdinand
40. Do The Panic- Phantom Planet
39. Second, Minute or Hour- Jack Penate
38. Lolita- Throw Me the Statue
37. Grounds For Divorce- Elbow
36. Publish My Love- Rogue Wave
35. My Drive-Thru- Santogold, Julian Casablancas and N.E.R.D.
34. Sentimental Heart- She & Him
33. West Coast- Coconut Records
32. A-Punk- Vampire Weekend
31. I Woke Up Today- Port O’Brien
30. Please Stop Dancing- The Magnetic Fields
29. Skinny Love- Bon Iver
28. Some Are Lakes- Land of Talk
27. Walk it Off- The Breeders
26. Lovely Allen- Holy Fuck
25. Homecoming- The Teenagers
24. Featherbeds- Oxford Collapse
23. Grip Like a Vice- The Go! Team
22. Kids- MGMT
21. Mercury- Bloc Party
20. No Sex For Ben- The Rapture
19. Rich Girls- The Virgins
18. Big Mistake- Tim Fite
17. Good to Sea- Pinback
16. That’s Not My Name- The Ting Tings
15. 2 Atoms in a Molecule- Noah & The Whale
14. Little Bit- Lykke Li
13. Rocky Took a Lover- Bell X1
12. Oh No You Didn’t!- Wojahn Bros
11. Electric Feel- MGMT
10. I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You- Black Kids
9. Handlebars- Flobots
8. Bruises- Chairlift
7. Great DJ- The Ting Tings
6. No Children- The Mountain Goats
5. Bag of Hammers- Thao Nguyen
4. Time To Pretend- MGMT
3. L.E.S. Artistes- Santogold
2. URA Fever- The Kills
1. Five Years Time- Noah and the Whale

Bullet Points

• I am wearing a sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up and a long-sleeved T-shirt without the sleeves rolled up. I've never seen this done and I am going to keep doing it until I see someone else doing it. I invented a style! I think. My wife says I look stupid. She may not have been referring to my clothes, though.
• Regardless of the fact that I don't get NFL Network and can't watch the game anyway, I find Thursday night football utterly annoying. It's oversaturation. We don't need games on Sunday, Monday and Thursday and sometimes Saturday. I like to take all week to think about the games and who I'm going to pick. Now I have to rush my picks in because the deadline got pushed back three days for the sake one of stupid game I can't watch and don't care about! Annoying.
• Yesterday on my way home from work, I saw a house fully decorated for Christmas. Lights, gigantic Santa blow-up- the works. Trying to make Christmas last four months is annoying enough when retail stores do it, but there is no commercial gain for someone to decorate their house 2 months in advance! When I used to say things like, "I can't wait for summer vacation!" my mother used to say, "You're wishing your life away!" And I think to a degree, we all do that. We look forward to things that are going to happen more than we enjoy the things that are happening now. "Why should I have to wait for something? That's boring! I'll just make it Christmas now and put up my decorations!" In that spirit, I'm totally making my Best of 2008 song list and posting it within the next week. Hey, the second week of November is practically the end of the year, right? I'm too excited about it to do any of that stupid waiting stuff.

The Worst Week

My favorite new show of the TV season is "Worst Week". That show has made me LOL literally in three out of four episodes.

Since Hollywood rarely has an original thought, it was no surprise that "Worst Week" is yet another Americanized version of a British show. So out of curiosity, I watched the first season of the BBC's "Worst Week of My Life." Though I haven't seen Season 2 or 3 because they are not yet available here, I am happy to report that the two shows are very different. The US version seems to be only inspired by the original, instead of a word for word remake like The Office was at first. The premise is exactly the same- likeable guy who can't do anything right exasperates his inlaws. But the plotlines have been completely different with almost no stolen gags.

Spoilers ahead...

I was expecting the British version to be even more madcap than America's but it is actually more morbid. The British version has a subplot of Howard being stalked by his ex-lover for the entire week, which eventually builds into the focal point of the last episode. The American version is significantly tamer by comparison. Instead of a co-worker stalking him, Sam had only to deal with a drunk co-worker who he dropped off at her house after she came on to him. Perhaps more will come of that, but for now, she has not been heard from again.

The accidental death of the family pet was toned down from "dog in a cement mixer" to "parakeet being poisoned." I shouldn't even have to tell you which one was funnier- you can probably deduce it from shock value alone.

All in all, both shows have their charm and I like them both equally. I can't pick one over the other- which is, I suppose, a compliment to the version that came second. They are different enough that you don't have to choose.

Worst Week: A The Worst Week of My Life: A

Relaunch

AOL threatening to delete my old journal really bugged me. I may not have written in it anymore, but I still used it for research (like what songs I used to like) or for nostalgia purposes. I'm glad that I was able to keep the archives on Blogger. I'm thinking about starting to write here again. Start over. Maybe make some new friends. I met so many people back in 2004-2005 and now it seems lately like I have nobody left. Of the dozen or so people I befriended, I have 2 left. They are 2 of my very best friends, but still, only 2? Out of all of AOL Journal-land? I want to fix this.