YAY! It's a Wednesday Thread!

[fifteen pieces of flair]

So it's wednesday and it's so damn quiet here! And reading K's board and Scott's comment about quiet traffic here makes me sad.

And I hate facebook!

I have been wondering about all you folk, and hoping everyone is doing okay.

So 3 little questions on the second day of Spring (downunder)

1. How is 2009 treating you?

2. What have you being listening to K or otherwise?

3. What are you looking forward to?

I'll start it off....

1. Started off pretty crap, turned a corner in April, now everything is coming up Millhouse.

2. Neil Young archives (holy shit it is AMAZING)
Pearl Jam old stuff, the new single is disturbing.
Silversun Pickups - Swoon I really wanted to hate this band, but it's a great record.

3. Going to Perth next weekend for a quick family visit. Pearl Jam tour in November,
Faith No More and Jane's Addiction touring in February.
Speedbath - I'm old school and like records fully formed and birthed at full term, have only listened to the tracks a few times!

Looking forward to some familiar names popping up!

Love to you all!

15.

[tim_G6]

here's my 3 answers-worth:

1. How is 2009 treating you? - being a stay at home dad has been the most rewarding experience I could ever hope for; yes it can be stressful with four rugrats 4yrs and under - but it has been great. However, my stay at home dad days are coming to an end as my partner is giving up work to concentrate on her studies.

2. What have you being listening to K or otherwise? - mostly been listening to The Church, especially their recent "Untitled #23" which is simply superb, as well as Steve Kilbey's (it is he of The Church) solo outing "Painkiller" also released earlier this year. And anything by Deerhunter/Atlas Sound; plus revisiting the first 3 albums by The Saints (I'm Stranded; Eternally Yours; Prehistoric Sounds).

3. What are you looking forward to? - The next vacation with the family; Playing with a newly acquired USB turntable so that I can convert my vinyl into MP3. Not looking forward to going back to work - although any work will be easier than looking after our tribe.

[shythylacine]

Hey 15, good to see you surface again.

09 sees me slightly older, maybe proportionally wiser. Niched out, still a bit rough around the edges but comfortable enough for now. Reneged on a new years resolution to install solar hot water, went for retrofit double glazing instead.

Listening habits: systematically worked through my entire K et al collection whilst painting the kitchen a short while back. Speedbath. Folk punk. Most recent itunes purchase was Cream's sunshine of your love (initiated by the household first grader). Ukulele Jake's jaw-droppingly-stunning disproof of the rule ukulele = toy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puSkP3uym5k

After the wettest winter in 50+ years i'm mostly looking forward to sunlight and longer days.

[stevenmanik]

Hello to all
My 2009 has been excessively up and down, working in fits and starts, moved houses, been bouncing back and forth between the coasts, all in all no complaints but i think 2010 might have to be a bit more calm and stable.
I've been back to my music junkie self this year, I am hard pressed to be found without my iPod attached to me on planes, grocery stores, the gym, everywhere. Most played items include St. Vincent (thanks Mikel), Imogen Heap and rediscovering Love and Rockets' entire catalog. mmmm
I am most looking forward to getting back to Cleveland this Christmas to see my family, which will include a much larger 1.5 year old nephew than the one I last saw, and a brand new niece.

[yell0w_Sky]

1. How is 2009 treating you? i'm a bit more underemployed than i'd like to be, but otherwise this has been a good year.

2. What have you being listening to K or otherwise?
delving into 70's-era British rock lately, stuff i hadn't paid much attention to before that i only recently discovered was actually very good (30 years too late LOL!)... especially Wire (Chairs Missing and 154 are amazing. both have great production that has aged very well). also, Roxy Music. I prematurely traded in my small collection of their early albums awhile back, now am in the process of re-acquiring my favorite songs on mp3 and have discovered some great "new" songs along the way such as 'Pyjamarama'. i probably listened to that one 50 times in the past 2 days! 'Both Ends Burning' has got a lot of repeat play too. also, the original Manifesto version of 'Angel Eyes' is way cool. none of their albums as a whole sound all that good today- for every moment of timeless rockn'roll brilliance there's a whole bunch of badly dated crap to wade through (not unlike old Bowie), but their best songs sound better to me than anything else of that era.

3. What are you looking forward to?
my 20 year HS reunion is coming up in October. i'm looking forward to seeing everyone i knew in high school looking old.

[Hooberrydooberry]

1. 2009 has seen the end of my marriage, real doubts about a career I've spent my life building, and today I buried my granddad who died with barely a pot to piss in but was the most loved person I have ever known. This year can be safely described as pivotal.

2. Melt Banana who I fell for at ATP back in May, and they have such a back catalogue to explore. Old TM because it's the soundtrack to a place I'm comfortable with. The Dead Weather and Blood Red Shoes - another find from ATP.

3. Looking forward to the flip side of a pretty crap year. And Eddie Izzard in October.

[Scott Hamilton]

THANK YOU for starting up the Wednesday thread again. I've nearly done so myself numerous times, thinking if we can get that going--and in doing so, giving folks a reason to drop my more often--maybe we can kick some life into this forum, eh?

With that having been said...

1) I'm torn about how to respond to this one. In all honesty, it's been a pretty trying year. I've had several pretty serious family issues, along with continuing financial problems, with no light at the end of the tunnel--at least at this moment. And yet, so many people around us have it SO much worse--friends and neighbors who've lost their homes, ill friends (including one who has what may be terminal cancer), etc., in the end, it's all relative. Kelly and I are together, we're trying to be happy in spite of things, and we have three wonderful kids (even if one is VERY difficult and adds regularly to our challenges), the older two of whom are doing exceptionally well in school (including Zach, who pulled off straight A's four straight quarters in his first year at a college prep charter school). So all told, I have many blessings to count.

2) This has been a very odd summer for me, musically. I've not heard much new music I've liked lately, so I've been going back and rediscovering--and in some cases, discovering, or in others, expanding--old stuff. I've listened to a folk musician named Chuck Brodsky (BRILLIANT!) more than anything. But I've also been listening to Lyle Lovett a great deal (Thanks, Eric!), as well as The Liquor Giants (an offshoot of my friend's old band, The Pontiac Brothers, playing tasty, tasty 60's and 70's influenced power pop), along with a heavy dose of Dave Alvin. I also discovered The Raveonettes this summer (Love 'em!), as well as a NYC-based threesome I LOVE called City Breathing (Thanks, Brad!). And just recently, I've been listening to The Dead Kennedys and various Jello Biafra projects. And, ironically, Neil Young, whose "Rust Never Sleeps" I dug out for the first time in 25 years and whose "Greendale" I'm still trying to figure out. Like I said, a weird summer!

PS to 15--Give in to Silversun Pickups, who I discovered last summer thanks to Brian Ferrin. Ignore the hype and growing popularity, if you can get by the Smashing Pumpkins similarities. And if you like "Swoon," you MUST hunt down "Carnavas," which is far stronger, as well as "Kissing Families," a single from their debut EP, "Pikul."

3) I'm looking forward to some resolution--hopefully--to our financial situation. Sure, I'm glad we've still got our house, but I'm just so tired of being in limbo. Kelly's firm is trying to branch out into new areas of law, and I'm weighing my options, after seven years of being home with the kids, about how I might contribute with no resume left to speak of and living in a rural area with 20% unemployment (and far higher underemployment, where kids can't even get fast food or retail jobs because their parents have taken them). Beyond that, I'm looking forward to the holidays, because even though they'll be lean, I and the rest of the family LOVE the period that includes Halloween (possibly my favorite), Thanksgiving (which gives me warm and fuzzies like a kid), Christmas (even if I am agnostic), and New Year's Day, which just happens to be Zach's birthday (though I can't believe he'll be turning 13 already). And after that. I'm hopeful that the new year will bring a fresh start and perspective on things. We really need it.

Looking forward to others' responses. I know it's not technically a Wednesday thread, but I love these sort of things...

[Wojtek]

Ooh, a Wednesday thread!

So far, 2009 has been, well, weird. Some pretty big stuff happened and, mostly, I'm still waiting to see how it's all going to turn out in the end. Another kind of big stuff happened to some of my family members and I think I can take some sort of comfort in it -- just like me, they're currently trying to work out what to do next with their lives and maybe we can help each other out, especially now that they've moved to my hometown from abroad. An added bonus is getting to see my little cousins aged, if I recall correctly, eight and five, who are completely crazy about me for reasons I cannot comprehend ;)

My best musical discovery of 2009 must be Regina Spektor, I fell completely in love with her music the first time I heard "Fidelity" in the Courage Campaign video. Then there's Amanda Palmer and Marianne Faithfull and others I can't recall at the moment... Oh, and during the last week or so I've been listening to Leonard Cohen a lot. Of all Throwing Music, lately I've been drawn to 50FootWave, especially "Free Music!" -- I can't believe I was only lukewarm towards it when I first heard it!

As for what I'm looking forward to... There's small things and big things ahead of me. The small things are the release of Evangelista's second album, "Prince of Truth", which I'm incredibly stoked about -- I placed my preorder long ago and refuse to listen to any leak until my copy of the album arrives. Around the same time, a Polish translation of J.M. Coetzee's "Dusklands" is coming out. I once tried to find it in English, but to no success. Luckily, Coetzee's Polish translations are usually excellent. He's one of my favourite authors and I'm very excited to read his debut novel! As for the big things, I'm just going to have to wait and see what they actually are. I know they are coming, but I'm not sure what they're going to look like. As I said, I'm kind of trying to work out what my life's going to be like and partially it's going to be shaped by the things soon to come. Uh, cryptic much? Sorry, I seem to be incapable of talking about my life openly. Which is possibly why I've always sucked at blogging.

[fifteen pieces of flair]

Yeah, it is a better record. When I first heard Lazy Eye I loved it, but was a bit snobby about the obvious Pumpkins and Sonic Youth influences. So they were dead to me for a while. But the other half's persistent playing of the two discs has worn me down and now I love both records. The ep is pretty good too.
They will almost certainly be playing The Big Day Out next year in OZ, I hope they are as strong live.
Have you seen them live?


"PS to 15--Give in to Silversun Pickups, who I discovered last summer thanks to Brian Ferrin. Ignore the hype and growing popularity, if you can get by the Smashing Pumpkins similarities. And if you like "Swoon," you MUST hunt down "Carnavas," which is far stronger, as well as "Kissing Families," a single from their debut EP, "Pikul."
"

[Vicky]

1. How is 2009 treating you?

Pretty crappy so far, but you know, that which doesn't kill you only makes your stronger and all that.

2. What have you being listening to K or otherwise?

K, T, Neko Case, Dead Weather, the Matthew Sweet/Susanna Hoffs '70s cover cd, and a bunch of other stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting.

3. What are you looking forward to?

2009 ending and 2010 starting.

[KimC]

Blinding optimism answers from me...

1. 2009 has been wonderful, mostly because of our new addition to the family. I am continually grateful for my amazing husband and kids, and a kickass job that I went back to in June after maternity leave.

2. Not much new, other than disney princess music. bleah. Though I did turn a corner the other day with the older kid - she listened to both a Michael Jackson and a Clash song. I squeeze in TM where I can when it is just me.

3. I look forward to every day. I also look forward to sleeping more than 3.5 hours at a time.

[witchiepoo (sarah)]

1. How is 2009 treating you? - In some ways so awesome. I am working for myself, writing another play, trying to start a theater in Detroit, and freelance personal assistant stuff My kids are a joy. I am in a relationship with the best friend I ever had, and his family is a fantastic group of musicians and actors and really fun people to hang out with.

2. What have you being listening to K or otherwise? - I am loving me some Judy Henske, it's been a non-stop thing for over a year, When the Blues Chase Up a Rabbit is maybe my favorite song, but man, so hard to even pick. And Of Montreal, especially Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer. Kinda poppy but awesome. The Dodo's and Andrew Bird, Soul Coughing. Fionna Apple. And Fred Lane. If you have not heard about him I so recommend it. French Toast man is marvellous.

3. What are you looking forward to? Seeing my sister, my brand new niece, my boyfriend, his family and a boatload of my favorite people this weekend. Getting some more clients who need a freelance personal assistant so I can actually afford my apartment, and be able to buy groceries and have heat and stuff. Looking forward to getting some more writing done. I am also looking forward to every second Mike and I get to stand next to each other for the rest of our lives. I also kind of can't wait until I can afford to neuter my kitten. Jasper is adorable but the nut sack connection is making him insane.

[Roger]

How is 2009 treating you?
Mixed. Job-wise and financially it's been tough. We've scrimped all year to reduce our debts and meet the punitive remortgage we had no choice but to agree to last year, without really making much more than small headway. Then in April I saw my name on a list – a list I wasn't supposed to see - of potential redundancies, and ever since it's been stressful and tense. Some of the names on that list have gone, others (like me) haven't. The company is keeping its head above water, just, but going in every day knowing (and pretending I don't know) that it could be my last has taken a toll. One exacerbated by my decision not to share this with my partner. A worrier at the best of times, she's been pregnant since February, and I felt that the extra worry could be a dangerous burden on her health and happiness. If I AM laid off, we'll deal with that, but the "it might happen" burden is one I wanted to keep off her shoulders. I don't like doing this, I always feel you should share stuff, but as the situation has dragged on for nearly six months now, I feel it was probably the right call. It has made me kinda lonely though.

What are you listening to?
Well, not a lot of new stuff really. I can't really afford music any more! I still absorb friends' recommendations, read Pitchfork and the like, but then just rather lamely add CD after CD to my Amazon wishlist, in the hope that one day I'll be able to afford them. Still, on the plus side, this has meant I've spent time putting old CDs and so on to my iPod, then smiling at the nostalgic quirks the 'shuffle' function can throw up.

What are you looking forward to?
The birth of our first baby next month. I hope - without placing too much expectation on that hope – that it truly will be the kind of event that puts everything else into perspective. I'm hugely looking forward to Becky and I becoming parents, and for devoting ourselves to that joy and love and all it brings, rather than job and money worries. Roll on next year!