2010 in review: Live Music

On to the final recap post for 2010 - music.  Here are the numbers:

Total shows (counting each day of multi-day events): 40
A couple notes on this - for the first time, there were a handful of big shows I couldn't count because though they were "shows," they weren't music.  Comedy, book readings, Anthony Bourdain.  Even if I had counted them, though, I'd still be down nearly 20 shows from 2009's total.  Damn!  I think the crazy Spain run of 2009 accounts for half of that discrepancy, though.

Performers seen for the first time (headlining, in this particular incarnation): 6  (Dawes, Jay Farrar + Ben Gibbard, Jakob Dylan, Xalam, Hunstville, the National)


Performers seen for the first time (support or other variety setting): 19  (including Mike Benign, the Low Anthem, the Dodos, the Duchess and the Duke, the Books, Mavis Staples, Outrageous Cherry, Lawrence Arabia, Philip Selway, Owen Pallett, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, J.C. Brooks, Joan of Arc)

Seen most often: Wilco, Martin Rivas, Philip Selway

Favorite concert moments of 2010, in no order:

• My mostly-joking request for "Single Ladies" being granted by Jeff Tweedy, 3/13
• Glenn Kotche beheading a woman during On Fillmore's set, 8/14
• Women dancing in the aisles during Xalam's show at the French Institute in Dakar, 5/28
• Rhett Miller playing "Ray Charles," 3/5
• The Low Anthem's cell-phone-cricket-chirp crowd participation number, 3/6
• Low stage (!!!) at the Orpheum for the New Pornographers, 8/4
• The National performing "Terrible Love" in front of 27,000 people, including President Obama, on Library Mall, 9/28
• The entire audience singing along with the preshow music of "Living on a Prayer" at the Ryman before the Avett Brothers came out dressed as mummies, 10/30
• Viper and his Famous Orchestra's Miley Cyrus cover, 7/9
• The first notes of the acoustic set of my first "evening with" Wilco show, 4/2

Bring it on, 2011.

2010 in review: Books

For the fifth time, here's a list of the books I read over the past year.  Stats follow:

1. Manhood for Amateurs - Michael Chabon

2. Under the Dome - Stephen King

3. Things the Grandchildren Should Know - Mark Oliver Everett

4. Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run - Alton Brown

5. Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable - Bruce M. Hood

6. Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession - Julie Powell

7. You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas - Augusten Burroughs

8. 100 Posters 134 Squirrels - Jay Ryan

9. I Drink For a Reason - David Cross

10. The Crowd Sounds Happy - Nicholas Dawidoff

11. Stealing Buddha's Dinner - Bich Minh Nguyen

12. In Search of Norman Rockwell's America - Kevin Rivoli, Norman Rockwell

13. How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer

14. Somebody Else's Daughter - Elizabeth Brundage

15. Not Becoming My Mother - Ruth Reichl

16. Dead Until Dawn - Charlaine Harris

17. Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris

18. Senegal in Pictures - Tom Streissguth

19. Club Dead - Charlaine Harris

20. Dead to the World - Charlaine Harris

21. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy - Gary D. Schmidt

22. Dead as a Doornail - Charlaine Harris

23. Definitely Dead - Charlaine Harris

24. All Together Dead - Charlaine Harris

25. From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris

26. Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris

27. Committed - Elizabeth Gilbert

28. A Touch of Dead - Charlaine Harris

29. SuperFreakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

30. Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire - Graydon Carter, Ed.

31. Everything is Wrong With Me - Jason Mulgrew

32. The Summer Before - Ann M. Martin
33. A Year in the World - Frances Mayes
34. Children Standing Before a Statue of Hercules - David Sedaris, Ed.
35. Dead in the Family - Charlaine Harris
36. The Poisoner's Handbook - Deborah Blum
37. Born Standing Up - Steve Martin
38. Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
39. The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To - DC Pierson
40. Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
41. Every Patient Tells a Story - Lisa Sanders, M.D.
42. The Emperor's Children - Claire Messud
43. Beatrice and Virgil - Yann Martel
44. Zeitoun - Dave Eggers
45. The Senator's Wife - Sue Miller
46. Holy Fools - Joanne Harris
47. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
48. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
49. The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
50. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
51. Timeriders - Alex Scarrow
52. Educating Esme - Esme Raji Codell
53. Both Sides of Time - Caroline B. Cooney
54. Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
55. Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon
56. Voyager - Diana Gabaldon
57. The Fiery Cross - Diana Gabaldon
58. A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Diana Gabaldon
59. An Echo in the Bone - Diana Gabaldon
60. The Impostor's Daughter - Laurie Sandell
61. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling
62. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling
63. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
64. Emily of New Moon - L.M. Montgomery
65. Emily Climbs - L.M. Montgomery
66. Emily's Quest - L.M. Montgomery
67. Jane of Lantern Hill - L.M. Montgomery
68. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower
69. The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
70. War Dances - Sherman Alexie
71. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk - David Sedaris
72. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
73. Black Swan Green - David Mitchell
74. Birds of North America - Lorrie Moore
75. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
76. The Mind's Eye - Oliver Sacks
77. Ad Boy: Vintage Advertising With Character - Warren Dotz
78. Songs of Love & Death - George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Eds.
79. The Curious Incident of the Dog in Nighttime - Mark Haddon
80. The Road to Yesterday - L.M. Montgomery
81. Empire Falls - Richard Russo
82. The Cat in the Mirror - Mary Stolz

Total books read: 82
That's six more than I read in 2009.

By male authors: 34 (41%)
By female authors: 45 (55%)
By both: 3 (4%)

Previously read: 14 (17% - down from last year's 20%, but has nothing on 2008's impressive 4%)

Marketed for children/teens: 14 (17% - down from 2009's whopping 26%, but still a presence)

Fiction: 52 (63%)
Nonfiction: 30 (37%)

2010 still leaned more heavily toward fiction than nonfiction, but I noticed an interesting breakdown in the list itself.  Aside from Under the Dome, the first fifteen books were all nonfiction.  Then, for awhile, it was about half and half.  But from book forty-five (somewhere around August) on, it's almost 100% fiction.  I think that's because I spent a lot of time rereading series in the second half of the year.  Two of those - the last three Harry Potter books and all of the Diana Gabaldons - can be blamed on my September trip to the U.K.  I was also very busy in autumn, which meant turning to my own bookshelves and those of friends over the library for quick reads.  That increased the numbers for "previously read," and certainly padded my fiction totals.

You should definitely read: The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.  The Poisoner's Handbook is a fascinating account of the rise of forensic medicine around the 1920's.  There are jaw-dropping anecdotes about women who worked in watch factories painting their fingernails with lead paint, and the ways unregulated prohibition-era bootleg liquor killed so many more people than alcohol ever had before.  Cloud Atlas is a unique collection of six stories spanning ... well, space/time/worlds ... I'm not sure how to describe it.  At first each story seems to end without warning and abruptly plunge the reader in the next, leaving you wondering what just happened.  But eventually, you realize there is a method to the madness, and that it is awesome.

Don't bother reading: Cleaving by Julie Powell.  It's not a bad book, really, but my god, Julie Powell is whiny and self-indulgent.  She's honest, which I suppose is admirable (though really, do we have any real clue how honest she is?), but the enthusiastically detailed accounts of her infidelity made me want to punch something.  Possibly Julie Powell.  I felt like I was reading someone's LiveJournal.

2010 in review: Travel

Happy 2011!  Here's the first of three posts looking back at things I did in 2010.  Without further ado, travel:

States visited (not counting layovers): 10
Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New York, Arizona, Massachusetts, Maine, Tennessee

New states: 2
Rhode Island and Maine. With that, the east coast is officially checked off!

States left before I reach 50: 5
Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming.  I could have hit North Dakota for work last year, but it would have meant missing Rhode Island the same weekend.  And since Rhode Island was not for work, Rhode Island won.

Countries visited: 4
England, Scotland, Spain, Senegal.  Two of the countries were new!  (I count Scotland separately, not as part of the UK.) And one of them meant...

New continents: 1
Africa.  I have South America and Antarctica left to conquer.  Somehow one of those seems easier than the other.

What's ahead for 2011?  Aside from a return to the Berkshires in June, it's a blank slate so far.  As always, my goal is at least one new state.  Hopefully a new country, too.

The last of the year

Happy holidays!  I spent Christmas weekend with my family, which somehow entailed my mom's old tap dancing/baton twirling notebook being dragged out.  My mom was a tap dancer and baton twirler as a child, earning billing in various recitals at the age of three as "Baby Tapper."  The notebook kept track of her various routines, sporting a foil star next to each step she mastered.  Based on a quick perusal of that notebook,  I give you:

Tap Dancing or Baton Twirling Moves That Could Be Sex Acts

1. Stir the soup
2. Shuffle ball
3. Slap ball
4. Airplane around knees
5. Coffee grinder

The best soy latte that you ever had

It happened again last week!  The yearly 24-hour Letters to Santa benefit at Second City, featuring all manner of great musicians, wacky comedy, dance routines, field trips, interviews, and  - this year - a little wrestling.  Here's an incomplete photo retrospective:

6:30 p.m.: The 24 hours didn't officially begin until 7:00 p.m., but we got a bonus this year.  These guys came out to play a selection of heartfelt tunes they "wrote" ... which turned out to be four songs by Train.  A painfully hilarious start to the evening.

10:00-ish: I didn't take any pictures during Jeff Tweedy's annual set, but this is his guitar, Bob.

11:01 p.m.: Steve Albini interviews Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon.  Later Andrew played piano for a rollicking set of Billy Joel covers.

12:00 a.m.: J.C. Brooks and the Uptown Sound take the stage and inspire a room full of comedians and comedy fans to shake their groove things.

2:17 a.m.: Joan of Arc plays, loudly

2:42 a.m.: Human caterpillar!

5:03 a.m.: Jeff Parker treats us to some dreamy guitar

5:38 a.m.: TJ tells the instant classic "101 chairs walk into a bar" joke.  For about twenty minutes.

7:07 a.m.: The babies and children come out to don various hats, eat muffins, and charm us all

7:36 a.m.: Jon Langford and Sally Timms drop by to sing some songs and shake a little maraca

9:25 a.m.: Actors are challenged to consume various food items, including a cup of scrambled eggs and a huge muffin, during a scene

1:00 p.m.: Former WWE wrestler Colt Cabana performs his finishing move on one of the actors, not to be let up until he names every U.S. president in order ... and predicts the next six

1:14 p.m.: Robbie Fulks and Gerald Dowd play a poignant "Dancing Queen"

2:59 p.m.: Bill Callahan nearly lulls me to sleep, through no fault of his own

4:44 p.m.: Improv!

5:04 p.m.: Our table.  Clockwise: Starbucks peppermint mocha, napkin, Second City menus, Bible, Boston Market fountain drink, trail mix, brownie wrapper, gum wrapper, broken hair clip

5:18 p.m.: The Blisters rock us for the eighth straight year

And that's the last picture I took.  Things finished up at 7:00 p.m. with the annual game of audience-participation freeze tag and an onstage reprisal of our second choreographed dance routine, "Magpie."  The event raised nearly $100,000 for charity.

Viva la benefit!

See also:
Letters to Santa 2009

Letters to Santa 2008

Letters to Santa 2007

Letters to Santa 2006

Letters to Santa 2005

New York in winter

Last weekend in NYC was the perfect getaway.  Only one vacation day used, and three full days in the city.  We stayed at the Solita Soho (yes, there's a Solita now), with an excellent view of the Museum of Chinese in America ... just plain MOCA for short.

Friday night my flight got in at 8:20, and by 9:15 I was at the Red Lion on Bleecker, enjoying the last hour of the last Friday Night Campfire of 2010 with Martin Rivas and Craig Meyer.  I think I saw at least fifty of the songs they played that night, in medley form.

On Saturday, Paul and I walked around the Lower East Side in search of food, eventually finding some ... but not before being driven from our first two choices by huge crowds.  Memo to self: Christmas weekends in NYC bring the tourists out in droves. (Holla!) I wandered around Little Italy and Chinatown in the afternoon, before heading to the Bowery Ballroom for Jeff Tweedy and the Autumn Defense.  I hadn't seen the AD in awhile, and I enjoyed some of the songs from their newest album.  I also appreciated hearing "A Full Five Paces" live again for the first time in years.

Jeff Tweedy, the night's headliner, played an enjoyable set.  There were plenty of little flubs and mistakes, the kind that make things more entertaining for the crowd - at least, for me - but don't necessarily make a great show for the performer.  However, Jeff didn't seem phased.  I realized I've been spoiled by the marathon solo shows for charity I've seen in recent years - the respectable 1.5 hour set seemed short in comparison.  But whenever I get to hear such songs as "Bob Dylan's Beard," "Chinese Apple," and "Country Disappeared," there's nothing to complain about.  The Bowery is a tiny place, and we were very lucky to get in.

I spent Sunday with Allison, from brunch at Shopsin's to dinner at an Indian restaurant in Park Slope.  In between there was shopping in Soho, a visit to a friend's store in Brooklyn Heights, perusing Christmas trees on the street, and delicious smoothies.  I think I'm nearly as excited about Alli and Olli's impending new arrival as they are!  (Okay, that's totally not true.  But I am very excited.)

Monday, I finally experienced Momofuku.  Paul and I went to the Noodle Bar, and I now get what the fuss is about.  The ramen was amazing, but I think the pork buns were my highlight.  That pork belly!  I wouldn't be surprised if it appears in my dreams.

Sunday afternoon it was off to Tarrytown for Jeff Tweedy and the Autumn Defense again.  I have to admit that one of the most exciting parts of going to Tarrytown, for me, was its proximity to the former home of the fictional Draper family from Mad Men.  If we just stayed on the train, I exclaimed to Paul, we could go to Ossining!  So as you might imagine, my favorite part of Jeff's performance may have been his announcement about wearing a suit to honor Eugene Draper's birthplace of Tarrytown.  I was most impressed because I couldn't even have come up with that particular bit of trivia.  So, Jeff, or the person who told Jeff ... my hat's off to you.  The show itself was good, though shorter than Bowery, and our seats were in the acoustic sweet spot.  "What's the World Got In Store" was a welcome surprise.

Early Tuesday morning I flew home.  I was back at work by mid-morning, and by the end of the day it was hard to believe I'd ever left.  But I had!

For the first time in recent memory, I don't have any future flights scheduled.  I'm not sure how long that will be true, but I'm enjoying it for now.  Still, I'm looking forward to whatever 2011 might bring in the way of trips, concerts, or (my favorite) both.

(Update: the whole "not having any future flights scheduled" thing was true for exactly eight days.)

Now it's December

It's true!  This past weekend, I went to the Badgers' last home game of the year at Camp Randall.  Because I'm one of the biggest cold weather wimps I know, I was a little worried.  As it turns out, though, as long as you wear about four layers of clothing, the 20's aren't so bad.  Seeing Wisconsin crush Northwestern, earn a share of the Big Ten title, and hopefully secure a Rose Bowl bid was definitely worth it.  And at the end, there were fireworks.

This coming weekend, I will be in New York City.  Even though I didn't make it to California this year, at least I'll hit NYC twice!  December is in the danger zone for travel weather ... we've now entered the time of year when I can never count on being able to get anywhere.   (Also see above re: cold weather wimpitude.)  So far the forecast looks okay, so fingers are crossed.