2022.March.Albums

I changed the source playlist I'm using to look for albums to listen to, to Rolling Stone's 100 Best Albums of All-Time. After I run thru anything that seems interesting, I'll continue to branch out some more. It's been a fun thing to do as I engym.

I had Covid so I went nearly two weeks without listening to anything, which should give some sense of how quickly I'm moving thru these albums – spending a lot of time at the gym.

The last couple days, post-Covid, I just listened to podcasts as I returned to the gym – this is really just a couple weeks. I didn't have the energy or the oomph to listen to music, so I refrained.

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Who’s Next – The Who (iPhone)
One Fast Move or I’m Gone – Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard (iPhone)
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West (iPhone)
808s & Heartbreak – Kanye West (iPhone)
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy – Kanye West (iPhone)
London Calling – The Clash (iPhone)
Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Rubber Soul – The Beatles (iPhone/HomePod)
Remain in Light – Talking Heads (iPhone)
OK Computer – Radiohead (iPhone)
Ready To Die – The Remaster – The Notorious B.I.G. (iPhone)
Aquemini – Outlast (iPhone)
Ramones – Ramones (iPhone)
The College Dropout – Kanye West (iPhone)
Greatest Hits – NWA (iPhone)
Master of Puppets – Metallica (iPhone)
Exile on Main Street – Rolling Stones (iPhone)
Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends – Coldplay (iPhone)
Blond – Frank Ocean (iPhone)
The Ultimate Collection – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (iPhone)

———

My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is by far the year's MVP so far. It's just a tremendous album. Dude may be having a years-long, very-public mental-health crisis, and he may be a Class-A Asshole, but he's also a brilliant musician.

終

10.Years.Gone

Not with a bang, but with a phone call.

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Walking home yesterday, in a roundabout way, I got a phone call. Surprised to receive a call at all, I answered it without taking my AirPods out. (It annoys me when people speak on the phone in public without using the phone as a phone.) It was my employer asking about my divorce.

Turns out, the work permit I have is tied, not to the visa, but to the marriage – something the lawyers didn't think to mention, and something I surely never considered.

And that was it: my schedule was shut down, and my contract was terminated.

10 years and six weeks and it ends on the street, over the phone.

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As I'm in the process of changing my visa, I should be able to reapply. Hopefully, not much time will have passed in the meanwhile; if rehired, I should be able to slot right back in. I'm good at the job and my performance, especially in recent years, bears that out. But there are no guarantees and who knows what will happen.
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In the meanwhile, I have a lot of time to study, a lot of time to watch basketball, and a lot of time to worry.

終

2022.February.Watched

Here's the stuff I watched all the way thru in February. At the end, I started watching the last five minutes of some games, not that those are listed here.

Yellowstone (S04E05-10) (MacBook)
Grizzlies-Knicks (MacBook)
Warriors-Kings (MacBook)
Clippers-Lakers (MacBook)
The Americans (S01E09)
Mavs-76ers (MacBook)
The Americans (S01E10)
Cavs-Hornets (MacBook)
Bucks-Clippers (MacBook)
Bucks-Lakers (MacBook)
Grizzlies-Clippers (MacBook)
The Americans (S01E11-13) (TV)
Jazz-Warriors (MacBook)
The Americans (S02E01-03) (TV)
Super Bowl LVI (TV)
Warriors-Lakers (MacBook)
Clippers-Warriors (MacBook)
After Life (S01E01) (TV)
Celtics-Sixers (MacBook)
After Life (S01E01) (TV)
The Americans (S02E04-05) (TV)
Nuggets-Warriors (MacBook)
After Life (S01E02) (TV/MacBook)
NBA All-Star Skills Challenge (MacBook)
NBA All-Star 3-Point Contest (MacBook)
NBA All-Star Slam-Dunk Contest (MacBook)
NBA All-Star Game (MacBook)
Nobody (TV)
After Life (S01E03-06) (TV)
After Life (S01E01) (TV)
The Americans (S02E06) (TV)
Timberwolves-Grizzlies (MacBook)

終

2022.February.Albums

Still gyming, still taking in tunes as I do so. Here're February's listens. Same style: album – band, followed by how I listened to it.

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When I Pretend to Fall – The Long Winters (iPhone)
Punisher – Phoebe Bridgers (iPhone)
Lost in the Country – Trace Mountains (iPhone)
Ultimatum EP – The Long Winters (iPhone)
Putting the Days to Bed – The Long Winters (iPhone)
The Slow Rush – Tame Impala (iPhone)
Lament – Touché Amoré (iPhone)
Flower of Devotion – Dehd (iPhone)
Hannah – Lomelda (iPhone)
2020 – Magik Markers (iPhone)
Pith – Melkbelly (iPhone)
The Passion Of – Special Interest) (iPhone)
color theory – Soccer Mommy (iPhone)
Every Bad (Extended Edition) – Porridge Radio (iPhone)
The Bends – Radiohead (iPhone)
OK Computer/In Rainbows mix – Radiohead (iPhone)
Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You – Big Thief (iPhone)
Turtleneck & Chain – The Lonely Island (iPhone)
Incredibad – The Lonely Island (iPhone)
The Wack Album – The Lonely Island (iPhone)
Parallel Lines – Blondie (iPhone)
After the Disco – Broken Bells (iPhone)
Honky Château – Elton John (iPhone)
Tumbleweed Connection – Elton John (iPhone)
The Boatman’s Call – Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (iPhone)
Music from Big Pink – The Band (iPhone)
Automatic For The People – REM (iPhone)

終

2022.January.Watched

Here's my watchlist from January:

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It’s a Sin (S01E02-05) (MacBook Pro/TV)
How To With John Wilson (S01E01) (TV)
Last Boy Scout (MacBook)
Swan Song (TV)
Don’t Look Up (TV)
Sorry – Louis CK (MacBook)
Focus (TV)
Creed (TV/MacBook)
Homecoming Beyoncé (TV)
The Americans (S01E01-02) (TV)
Juice (TV)
Yellowstone (S01E01-09) (MacBook)
Emily in Paris (S01E01-03) (TV)
Yellowstone (S02E01-06) (MacBook)
Warriors-Pistons (MacBook)
Yellowstone (S02E07-10) (MacBook)
Yellowstone (S03E01) (MacBook)
The Americans (S01E03-06) (TV)
Yellowstone (S03E02-10) (MacBook)
The Americans (S01E07-08) (TV)
Yellowstone (S04E01-04) (MacBook)

終

2022.January.Album

I started New Year's Day, as it happens, with a couple full-album listens. (Ended last year and started this year off right by watching Get Back and listening to a buncha Beatles.) So, as is standard for me, I started keeping a list. Here are the full albums, I listened to in January. I've also listened to a bunch of individual songs – and the beginning of some albums that just were not at all for me.

Mid-month, I started going to a gym, which seems like an especially good time to search for new music, and revisit some music I know. So a healthy percentage of the music here was listened to that way.

Standard disclaimer: mere inclusion here does not equal an endorsement. Many of these are just albums I found or saw/heard mentioned, and then listened to. There's a heavy reliance on Pitchfork's Music playlist of the 30 best albums from last year. (Either the playlist is disappointing, or last year was; I'm unsure which is truer.)

Following each album is the way I listened to them.

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Revolver – The Beatles (HomePod)
Rubber Soul – The Beatles (HomePod)
Please, Please Me – The Beatles (HomePod)
With the Beatles – The Beatles (HomePod)
Greatest Showman OST (HomePod)
Midnight Marauders – A Tribe Called Quest (iPhone)
Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (iPhone)
Rough and Rowdy Ways – Bob Dylan (iPhone)
Be Yourself Tonight – Eurythmics (iPhone)
Letter to You – Springsteen (iPhone)
Chubby and The Gang Rule OK? – Chubby and the Gang)
Dogleg – Melee (iPhone)
The Eye – Waxahatchee (iPhone)
Country Westerns – Country Westerns (iPhone)
Lumineers – Lumineers (iPhone)
The Worst You Can Do is Harm – The Long Winters (iPhone)

終

2021.Random.Phrases

As in 2020*, I collected random phrases that, for whatever reason, struck my fancy. This year's list includes one by me; last year's had none. I liked the phrase, so I entered it, but that somehow seems transgressive. We'll see if I add anything of mine this year. Regardless, here are phrases and stuff from 2021 that I liked. There's no point to this other that that.

---

Everyone drinks the same Coke, and everyone buys the same iPhone.
There's always more, and it's always worse. But it's never new.
Services offered, services denied
Aptitude and ingenuity
A poke of gold
Ahistorical narrativizing
Magnificently unprepared (for the long littleness of life)
Died of wounds
The gibbet or the wheel
treated discourteously by the king and queen
Computationally expensive
A crescendo of nices
Liquid piss
Triangular series
Chickenfish
2nd generation toothbrush
Grave wax
Stable table
Himalayan asshole
Time to lean, time to clean
A separate and individual peril
cultivating immortality or going to the temple
The platforms and the possibilities
Promoting communal enmity and creating a riot-like situation
Flub the crop
Cometh the hour, cometh the man
Hitting efficiency = kills-errors-blocks) / attempts
”He may not have been grammatical, but he was eloquent.”
Auspicious cloud bank
Gold medal point
Dairy free peanut butter
The burned out lightbulb of old ideas
A tiny pebble into any pond
Gave one to understand
More decorative than murderous
The circumvallations of a fortification
Fertile in inventions
The armed peace
Peace under hard terms
Awful barricade of dead and wounded
Truck-stop stupid
The German situation
Wore a terrible air
Separate and discrepant
Attractive forces
The butchery of the unknown by the unseen
The great god Pain
A special dose of hate
Kill by category
White gloves and red pants
Stopped by the barrier of the slain
Closely-packed men
The howling wounded
Girls seduced in the back lanes of Wurtemburg and Westphalia
A century of middle-class love
Borderline kinda disrespectful
Light poles in the sidewalk
Unity of heaven and humanity
The natural is more advanced than the artificial
Gallant divisions of heroic human beings
Rear-echelon patriots
Jonnie Walker wisdom
Fine in material and fashionable in pattern
Hospital quiet
The basic mechanics of necklaces
Sharp and endless pain
Breath mints and soap
This land of omnipresent wind

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* Looking now, I can't find the 2020 list, so I seem not to have published it. I'll post it next, I suppose. The hell?

終

2022.Resolutions.Made

My family never made new year's resolutions and so I never thought much of or about them until I was around 18 and hella fat. I decided one year around then to try my own. The only idea I could muster was to avoid eating hamburgers for a year. I did – for three years. (I decided whatever the point was had been proven so I returned to eating hamburgers.)

This year, I'm gonna try again:

  • To read more.

I'm unconcerned with finishing books – or at least a set number of them. I just want to read more – articles, magazines, books, etc.; especially from The New Yorker, which I subscribed to last year and read tragically little of.

  • To draw more.

I'm not great at drawing, but I'm also not terrible. I love it, and I do have a modicum – a hair – of talent. I'd like to explore that more. See if I can turn a little into a bit. And maybe someday a bit into some money....

  • To study Japanese

It's ridiculous that I've been in Japan as long as I have and my level is as low as it is. I'm unconcerned with being fluent, but I'd like to be able to get my fucking point across without getting flustered and embarrased or running away in shame.

  • And to play some ukulele

Music is important to me, but I can't play any instruments. I do own a (cheap) ukulele, tho, that I've touched exceedingly rarely. I wanna change that. It'd be pretty sweet to be able to play a song or two, or ten, or ten-thousand. To see what it's like to know something about music other than the tunes themselves.

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I don't know how these will shake out, and none of them come with any rules or solid goals attached, but each and all would go a long way toward improving my state of mind, and my shitty self-reflections.

When the baby drops in 2023, I'd like to regret a little less. This year is young; it's a good time to start.

終

2021.July.Watched

The NBA playoffs and the Tour and a little Olympics. And a ton of cycling, for me. A good August, this August.

Tour de France Stage 5 (iMac)
Suns-Clippers Game 6 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 6 (iMac)
Bucks-Hawks Game 5 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 7 (iMac)
Medium Cool (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 8 (iMac)
Independence Day (TV)
Bucks-Hawks Game 6 (iMac)
No Sudden Move (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 9 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 10 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 11 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 12 (iMac)
Suns-Bucks Game 2 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 13 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 14 (iMac)
Bucks-Suns Game 3 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 15 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 16 (iMac)
Body of Lies (iMac)
Safe House (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 17 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 18 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 19 (iMac)
Bucks-Suns Game 4 (iMac)
Mythic Quest (S01E09-11) (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 21 (iMac)
Bucks-Suns Game 5 (iMac)
Bucks-Suns Game 6 (iMac)
France-USA (iMac)
USA-Czech (iMac)

34 titles in 31 days.

終

2021.June.Watched

And here’s June’s list. It's nearly all playoff basketball. Was fun.

Wizards-76ers Game 4 (iPhone)
Jazz-Grizzlies Game 4 (iMac)
Nuggets-Blazers Game 5 (iMac)
Nets-Celtics Game 5 (iMac)
Seven Days in May (iMac)
76ers-Wizards Game 5 (iMac)
Mavericks-Clippers Game 5 (iMac)
Suns-Lakers Game 5 (iPhone, MacBook)
Clippers-Mavericks Game 6 (iPhone, iMac)
Nets-Bucks Game 1 (iPhone)
Clippers-Mavericks Game 7 (iMac)
Hawks-76ers Game 1 (iMac)
Suns-Nuggets Game 1 (iMac)
76ers-Hawks Game 2 (iMac)
Jazz-Clippers Game 1 (iMac)
Suns-Nuggets Game 2 (iMac)
Bucks-Nets Game 3 (iMac)
76ers-Hawks Game 3 (iMac)
Suns-Nuggets Game 3 (iMac)
Clippers-Jazz Game 3 (iMac)
Bucks-Nets Game 4 (iMac)
Suns-Nuggets Game 4 (iMac)
Hawks-76ers Game 4 (iPhone)
Clippers-Jazz Game 4 (iPhone)
Mare of Easttown (S01E01) (iMac)
Nets-Bucks Game 5 (iPhone)
Mare of Easttown (S01E02-7) (iMac)
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Last Ark (iMac)
Hawks-76ers Game 5 (iPhone)
Clippers-Jazz Game 5 (iPhone, iMac)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Doom (iMac)
Clippers-Jazz Game 6 (iMac)
Bucks-Nets Game 7 (iMac)
Suns-Clippers Game 1 (iMac)
Hawks-76ers Game 7 (iMac)
The Mosquito Coast (S01E06) (iMac)
Suns-Clippers Game 2 (iMac)
Hacks (S01E01-4) (iMac)
The Mosquito Coast (S01E06) (iMac)
Hawks-Bucks Game 1 (iMac)
The Mosquito Coast (S01E07) (iMac)
Clippers-Suns Game 3 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 1 (iMac)
Bucks-Hawks Game 3 (iMac)
Suns-Clippers Game 4 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 2 (iMac)
Suns-Clippers Game 4 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 3 (iMac)
Clippers-Suns Game 5 (iMac)
Tour de France Stage 4 (iMac)
Hawks-Bucks Game 4 (iMac)

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59 titles in 30 days. Fucking Clippers should’ve won it all.

終

2021.May.Watched

Here’s May’s list. I had a mini film festival of paranoid thrillers and completely enjoyed it. Can’t believe it was nearly six months ago.

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Blazers-Nets (iMac)
Nuggets-Clippers (iMac)
The Mosquito Coast (S01E01-2) (iMac)
Blazers-Celtics (iMac)
Hawks-Blazers (iMac)
Clippers-Raptors (iMac)
Bucks-Nets (iMac)
Blazers-Cavaliers (iMac)
Clippers-Lakers (iMac)
The Mosquito Coast (S01E03) (iMac)
Mythic Quest (S01E01-5) (iMac)
Blazers-Lakers (iMac)
Mythic Quest (S01E06-7) (iMac)
Blazers-Spurs (iMac)
Knicks-Clippers (iMac)
Blazers-Rockets (iMac)
Clippers-Raptors (iMac)
Mythic Quest (S01E08) (iMac)
Blazers-Jazz (iMac, iPhone)
Clippers-Hornets (iPhone)
Suns-Blazers (iPhone, iMac)
Rockets-Clippers (iMac)
Thunder-Clippers (iMac)
Blazers-Nuggets (iMac)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (S01E01) (iMac)
The Mosquito Coast (S01E04) (iMac)
Celtics-Wizards (play-in game) (iMac)
Pacers-Hornets (play-in game) (iMac)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (S01E02-3) (iMac)
Lakers-Warriors (play-in game) (iMac, iPhone)
Grizzlies-Spurs (play-in game) (iMac)
Wizards-Pacers (play-in game) (iMac)
Grizzlies-Warriors (play-in game) (iMac)
Mavericks-Clippers Game 1 (iPhone)
Blazers-Nuggets Game 1 (iPhone, iMac)
Suns-Lakers Game 1 (iMac)
Grizzlies-Jazz Game 1 (iMac)
Bucks-Heat Game 2 (iPhone)
Nuggets-Blazers Game 2 (iMac)
Nets-Celtics Game 2 (iMac)
Mavericks-Clippers Game 2 (iMac)
Jazz-Grizzlies Game 2 (iMac)
76ers-Wizards Game 2 (iMac)
3 Days of the Condor (iMac)
Bucks-Heat Game 3 (iMac)
Nuggets-Blazers Game 3 (iMac)
Clippers-Mavericks Game 3 (iMac)
Blazers-Nuggets Game 3 (iMac, iPhone)
Yesterday (TV)
Bucks-Heat Game 4 (iPhone, iMac)
Jazz-Grizzlies Game 3 (iMac)
Suns-Lakers Game 4 (iMac)
Nets-Celtics Game 4 (iMac)
Clippers-Mavericks Game 4 (iMac)

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69 titles in 31 days. Lotta basketball playoff games.

終

2021.April.Watched

Blazers-Pistons (iMac)
Mavericks-Celtics (iMac)
Thief (iMac)
Nuggets-Clippers (iMac)
Bucks-Blazers (iMac)
Coming to America (TV)
Blazers-Thunder (iMac)
Clippers-Lakers (iMac)
Heat (iMac)
Pretty Poison (iMac)
Mavericks-Jazz (iMac)
Clippers-Blazers (iMac)
Nets-Pelicans (iMac)
Rockets-Mavericks (iMac)
Clippers-Suns (iMac)
Jazz-Blazers (iMac)
Clippers-Rockets (iMac)
Blazers-Pistons (iMac)
Clippers-Pistons (iMac)
For All Mankind (S02E06-7)
Manhunter (iMac)
Clippers-Pacers (iMac)
Celtics-Blazers (iMac)
This is a Robbery (S01E01)
Clippers-Pistons (iMac)
This is a Robbery (S01E02-4)
Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art (iMac)
76ers-Clippers (iMac)
Argo (TV)
Blazers-Spurs (iMac)
Clippers-T’Wolves (iMac)
Warriors-76ers (iMac)
Clippers-Blazers (iMac)
Brenda Dives (iMac)
Fear City: New York vs The Mafia (S01E01) (iMac)
Clippers-Grizzlies (iMac)
Nuggets-Blazers (iMac)
Fear City: New York vs The Mafia (S01E02-3) (iMac)
Murder Among the Mormons (S01E01-3) (iMac)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) (iMac)
Clippers-Rockets (iMac)
Grizzlies-Blazers (iMac)
Coming 2 America (TV)
Bucks-76ers (iMac)
Nets-Suns (iMac)
Grizzlies-Blazers (iMac)
Pelicans-Clippers (iMac)
Predator (iMac)
Blazers-Pacers (iMac)
Suns-Clippers (iMac)
Blazers-Grizzlies (iMac)
The Revenant (iMac)

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That’s 57 titles in 31 days.

終