Top 5 CD’s of the Year

I've let my CD collection slip over the last couple of years, but this year I re-dedicated myself to staying atop of the music scene. I'm almost an entirely rock-n-roll and Alternative guy, but I delve a little into the blues as well. So, without further ado, here are my top 5 CD's for 2008.

 

5. Blitzen Trapper: Furr: I just picked this one up the other week, but it's really a good listen. It probably borders on Christian rock, but I really like the bluesy melancholy sound mixed in with some electric guitars and solid lyrics. I play it in the office and get some odd looks, but put the title track on your IPod for a week and try not buying the CD.

4. Weezer: Red Album. I'm not sure why this CD didn't get more hype, but it is a very solid Weezer CD. Now I can understand not liking Weezer since their lyrics are a little childish and they don't have much in the way of range. But if you like fun music that you turn up while driving down the highway, then you like Weezer. This CD fits that mold and will help you push through any gym session.

3. Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Cardinalogy. Ok, I admit it, this is a county CD. Not like Shania Twain country, but like Johnny Cash country. I honestly couldn't pick Ryan Adams out of a lineup, but he consistently puts out CD's that are well written and well produced. This guy is either living a life that is 100 times more interesting than mine or is taking a substantial amount of drugs because he writes more good music than anyone since Bruce Springsteen in the early Eighties.

2. Kings of Leon: Only by the Night. If you don't own KOL first two CD's, you are a dork. Period. They are everything that most people hoped the Killers would be; cool rock studs! This isn't as good as their first two, but they know what works and are anything but full of themselves. If you have your doubts, listen to Closer. It sounds like serious rock and roll.

1. Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago. Without a doubt, the CD I listened to the most often. I first heard Skinny Love on All Songs Considered. I immediately downloaded the CD and listened to it over and over again. If I watched the first 8 months of my daughter's life on video, this CD would be playing in the back ground. The CD is just terrific. It is loaded with tons of emotions and catchy riffs. Pick up the CD and download the live concert from All Songs Considered.

ESPN - Charles Barkley outraged by Auburn Tigers' hiring of Gene Chizik

ESPN - Charles Barkley outraged by Auburn Tigers' hiring of Gene Chizik

I got to say, I agree with chuck. Chiznik won 2 games last season. I don't care about his history with the school, if you can't win 4 games a year in a BCS school, you are a bum.

I know that Syracuse would have hired Gill if it weren't for the fact that Gill was to smart to take the job, but there are some legitimate questions as to why he hasn't gotten any better offers.

Turner Gill

I'm sort of on the fence as far as affirmative action is concerned. I've always thought the best person should get the job, but I also understand what some people will do to identify the 'best man' for the job. In the case of college football head coaches, there needs to be some sort of change in the hiring process. Currently, off the top of my head, I can only name one black head football coach in all of the Football Bowl Subdivision schools and that is Turner Gill at the perennial powerhouse Buffalo. After Tyrone Willingham and Sylvester Croom each moved on, there is only one left.

What Turner Gill has done at Buffalo is simply amazing. It's one thing to take over a school like Kansas or Illinois and win 8 or 9 games a season and work your way into a decent bowl game. But to take over a team that most people have never heard of and one of the 4 or 5 teams of which I don't know the mascot, is incredible. And that is exactly what he has done at Buffalo. He just won the MAC championship last night against a heavily favored Ball St. team and will now play in what is probably their first bowl game.

Unfortunately for Buffalo, Turner Gill needs to move on. I will totally buy into the racial prejudice theory if Turner Gill doesn't get a job offer from a BCS school. First and foremost, if I was the athletic director at Syracuse, I'd have Gill and his agent on speed dial. I couldn't think of a better fit for Syracuse than Gill. He knows the area and would walk into the Big East as the second or third best coach in the conference. Mississippi State and Auburn should at least give him an interview, but Syracuse should give him the keys to the city and a hummer to get him to become the coach of the Big Orange.

 

Ready for an End

I've been on active duty since 2003 and I have been extremely lucky to have not had to travel any further east than Adana Turkey. Brave, crazy and the working poor are headed to austere locations on a daily basis. Some come home earlier than others.

On Tuesday I got a call from an old acquaintance that I'd worked with a few times in the past. We didn't know each other extremely well, but he's one of those guys that everyone gets along with and everyone seems to know. No, not the guy who you see at the smokers lounge telling stories about the boss, but the guy who asks you how you are doing and actually looks like he cares. He called looking for someone else in my office that was out for the week. I asked him if there was something I could do to help, and he said that he really wanted someone to go visit an injured Soldier he was deployed with.

When you get a question like that, there is only one answer. I consider myself to be in the top 10 percent of the world's assholes, but I'd still never say no to a question like that. But the thought of visiting an seriously injured solider made me more than a little nervous especially after I was told that he could only answer yes or no questions.

Arriving to Landstuhl regional medical center and walking through the same doors we walked through for the birth of my daughter didn't make any of my nervousness subside. I walk up to the third floor to find the intensive care unit. Unlike any other part of the hospital I've ever been in, there was medical equipment cluttering up the entire hallway. I initially had thoughts of doctors running around yelling thing like 'stat' and 'code blue'. There was no waiting room or reception desk. This place was for keeping people alive and nothing else.

I was directed to the Private First Classes room and stuck my head into his room, expecting the absolute worst. I locked my gaze directly upon his face simply because I was afraid to notice if he was missing any appendages. I noticed right off, how young he was. He hadn't been shaven for a few days, but he only had a little stubble on his chin. They had a gown covering up his torso and down to his knees and he had some sort of inflatable devices covering each of his feet. He was noticeably groggy, but I'm certain he answered every question with a yes sir.

I felt like I had nothing to say to him. I told him that the guy I worked with asked me to say hi and tell him that everyone was pulling for him. I mentioned that I heard he was a pretty good flag football player because his team rolled over everyone during a thanksgiving tournament. The nurse said they were planning on moving him to Walter Reed tomorrow if everything remained as is.

Walking out of the building after a very short visit all I could think of was his family and what mine would be going through in the same situation. The only updates they'd get would be from the Red Cross and they'd have to just stand by to find out more until I was aero-vaced to the states. I just couldn't think of a worse situation.

So hopefully for young men like the one I met today, we'll see this war come to an end as quick as possible.

The dream is still alive?