leftovers

2018 was a tough year - full of lots of great moments, but some very difficult ones, as well (see my one previous blog entry from this entire year). Luckily for me, music is one thing I can always turn to in the tough times that helps me focus on the good in the world. Some amazing new music came out this year from some of my old favorites, and there was definitely not a lack of things to listen to at any given time this year. I had some great performance moments of my own, too: playing with Boynanarama at Make Music Hollywood and San Gabriel Valley Pride, to making my debut on guitar playing with Shitting Glitter, the first time we have played songs off our debut album "Post No Bills" in many many years (we plan to re-release it next year). I also ran my first two 10 K races this year, fueled by some of the music on this list. Here are the top 10 songs (plus a couple extra) that kept me going this year. Honorable Mentions "Under the Sun" - Roosevelt Roosevelt i...

On July 4, just as Dylan and I were walking out the door to meet my brother and his wife Angela at a pool party at our friend Jennn's apartment, my phone rang. It was my sister, Adrienne, and I answered with glee - hearing from my little sister is always special and since it was a holiday, I was very excited to hear what her and her husband and kids were doing. But the second I heard her voice, I could tell that something was wrong. She immediately told me that mom had just called her, that she said she thought dad had just had a stroke, and he was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. The sense of dread that invaded every fiber of my being hit me like a semi truck. Adrienne asked if I was going to see Brandon, and I said I was on my way to see him now, so she asked that I relay the message to him. He wasn't answering his phone for either of us so I decided to go and tell him in person. As we left our building, I told Dylan, "I don't think I can handle this if an...

From the beginning, 2017 was not a year I was excited about. It seemed the odds were stacked against us from the beginning, what with the unfathomable and devastating results of the 2016 presidential election casting a dark shadow over the year. It felt at many times that the end could be near, or at least the end of the American Dream. But good people are resilient, and often thrive in bad situations. I am so lucky to be surrounded by good people, whether it's my family, friends, or the people I work with. I am blessed to have removed as much negative energy from my life as could be realistic. And perhaps because of the instability and uncertainty within our country and the world, creative, compassionate people created meaningful art and built important relationships during this year. Here are eleven of the moments that made 2017 worth living for me. "Twin Peaks" The Return premieres on Showtime (May 21) Talk about surreal! The culmination of a three year journey whic...

Here we are in the eleventh year of this annual countdown. Did I ever think I'd be doing it this long? Did I ever not? I'm aiming to continue this into my 100s. And I'll show you crotchedy! For now I'm trying to keep up, to snake through the chaos with a smooth noodle map, and I even feel ready to divulge a couple of guilty pleasures. Spotify does a scarily accurate job of tracking my actual listening habits so I'm not gonna lie about it. Honorable Mentions "Fool's Gold" - Aaron Carter As I said, I'm not gonna lie! I did enjoy Aaron Carter's comeback EP, if that's what it was. It had great, cool songs on it and it made me interested in him, which I'd never been before. Although, admittedly, I had watched most of House of Carters .  "Praying" - Kesha This is more for Dylan, who is just in love with her entire new album, Rainbow, and keeps playing his vinyl proudly so I'm getting into it too. I think it's a g...

SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't seen Twin Peaks: The Return yet, and plan on it, you may not want to read this entire blog! I am probably going to be writing a lot more about this as time goes by, but for now I just feel the need to put a stake in the ground. Twin Peaks is gone. Again. Back in 8th grade, I had become so obsessed with Twin Peaks, that it was almost like I myself had found a portal to another dimension and got sucked up into it. I "lived" in Twin Peaks. No really, I had an ID card (from the official fan club) and everything that included my Twin Peaks address! I watched each new episode religiously, and whenever possible would record the broadcast onto a VHS tape so I could watch it again and again. I even weirdly started keeping a notebook where I tracked how many scenes each character appeared in. Why? Who knows, it made only slightly more sense to me than the show itself! My favorite characters initially were Nadine Hurley, the red-haired housewif...

Last week, I turned 40. This was something that younger versions of me dreaded, but luckily the current version is totally cool with. I do remember when I moved to LA, at the tender age of 22 years, I told myself that if I wasn't a "rich, famous musician" by the time I was 27, I was going to leave LA and just concentrate on having a regular career. Apparently, at that time, I thought 27 was old... and 40 must have been ancient. Turning 30 was a little rough for me, but my thirties ended up being a great decade, and I honestly can't say that I was left wanting for anything, other than that career as a rich, famous musician, of course. The great thing was that I realized the fame and money didn't matter near as much as family, friendship, and happiness; all of which I had plenty of in that ten year span. I remember my parents turning 40 and how we made fun of them for being 'over the hill,' and taunting them with the phrase "lordy, lordy, l...

With one of their best singles in years ("Long Time") out now, and a fantastic new video for recent single "Fun", Blondie is in top form in anticipation of their forthcoming album "Pollinator." So I decided to look back at all their studio albums, which have all played such a big part in the soundtrack to my life. This one was tough and although I followed my new system to rank the albums, I found that it didn't yield completely accurate results. Because Blondie have so many albums, many with over 13 songs on them, over the course of so many years, it's not always easy to remember a song just by the title. So I had the dilemma of either going back and re-listening to all the songs I didn't remember, or just going ahead and ranking any song I didn't remember a 1. I decided to proceed using the latter method, but this ended up with a ranking that I just didn't agree with. With Blondie albums, to me I think the artwork and packaging, as ...

I love it when you unknowingly misunderstand something, and later realizing the truth. Today I had one of these moments when, for whatever reason, I remembered a song that used to truly give me the creeps. The ditty in question is "Take Some Petrol Darling," the closing track from the Sugarcubes' 1988 debut album "Life's Too Good." The song is definitely an oddity, as it's almost more of a long tone poem than an actual song. Apparently it is considered a "hidden track" as its name was not included on the original tracklisting, although I'm pretty sure it was included in the American version, at least on the actual cassette tape. As I said, this song always gave me the heebie-jeebies and I never knew what it was about The song is very dark sounding, with some gothic-type bass and drums, some spooky guitar and organ, atonal rumblings from Einar and whisper-singing from Bjork. I thought that I heard Bjork singing "Doctor Benson is ...