My Top 50 Songs Evs

In no particular order, inspired by Radiorhythm. Click on the blue linxx to listen! Duh!!

1. Orange Juice - Rip It Up
2. New Order - Temptation (7" Version)
3. Spunky Onions - How I Lost My Virginity
4. The Lines - Nerve Pylon
5. The Necessaries - More Real
6. The Nerves - Gimme Some Time
7. REM - Time After Time
8. Joy Division - Disorder
9. Can - I'm Hiding My Nightingale
10. Cocteau Twins - Wax And Wane
11. Siouxie And The Banshees - Israel
12. The Fall - The Classical
13. Josef K - Chance Meeting
14. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Thankfully Living In Yorkshire It Doesn't Apply
15. Eddie And The Hotrods - Do Anything You Wanna Do
16. Paul McCartney - Ram On
17. Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
18. The Clean - Anything Could Happen
19. Look Blue Go Purple - Grace
20. The Particles - Apricot's Dream
21. My Bloody Valentine - Cigarette In Your Bed22. Smog - Hit The Ground Running
23. Will Oldham - Rider
24. Red House Painters - Grace Cathedral Park
25. OMD - So In Love
26. Lora Logic - Rat Alley
27. Liliput - Might Is Right
28. Brian Eno - I'll Come Running
29. Caetano Veloso + Gal Costa - Baby
30. Novos Baianos - Preta Pretinha
31. The Records - Starry Eyes
32. Love - Andmoreagain
33. Talking Heads - Seen And Not Seen
34. The Durutti Column - Tomorrow
35. Section 25 - Reflection
36. Psychic TV - The Orchids
37. Stockholm Monsters - Fairy Tales
38. The Wake - Crush The Flowers
39. Television Personalities - Three Wishes
40. The Go-Betweens - Unkind And Unwise
41. Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band - Sunshower
42. Echo And The Bunnymen - Seven Seas
43. Scott Walker - Duchess
44. Aztec Camera - We Could Send Letters
45. The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
46. The Laughing Apple - Wouldn't You?
47. The Zombies - This Will Be Our Year
48. The Left Banke - I've Got Something On My Mind
49. Felt - Sunlight Bathed The Golden Glow
50. Silver Apples - Seagreen Serenade

Honorable mention!

St. Christopher - All Of A Tremble
James - Hymn From A Village
14 Iced Bears - Cut
Close Lobsters - Just Too Bloody Stupid

Cringe List, Part Two

Party Like A Rockstar (thanks Matthew Davis for reminding me. Jerk.)

Using the words "decadent" or "sinful" to describe food. ie, brownies so rich and decadent you'd never know they're Weight Watchers!!!!!!!!!

DEBAUCHERY. This one kills me. There was a club here in SF a few years ago whose tagline was DANCEFLOOR DEBAUCHERY. I'm sorry, but getting wasted, doing a bunch of coke in a bathroom stall and making out with a stranger does not make you fucking Caligula.

Ending a sentence with ",yo."

Tweet. I know I'm gonna get shit for this one, but it just sounds stupid and I still can't bring myself to say it. I will continue to sound out of touch and continue to use "twitter" as a verb. Twitter that!

Using the word "sexy" to describe inanimate objects, i.e. a "sexy car" or "sexy building." Creepy. (Sexy robots are ok though.)



"Spinning" in a dj sense. When people ask me what kind of music I "spin," it makes me cringe. Other "beatmasters" I've talked to have echoed this sentiment. Maybe you can use this word if you're "spinning" deep house or some shit, but don't try to apply it to my fruity indiepop records. It just makes me feel embarrassed.

Overuse of FAIL, WIN or FTW.

"W00t!"

More to come, probably. I'm grumpy today, dudes. SRY.

Words And Phrases That Make Me Cringe

FUNKY (ie, I told my hairdresser...just give me something fun and funky!!!)

SHAG/SNOG/SHITE/CHEERS (or any other anglophile speak used by non-Brits)

NOM (or any other lolcat speak)

"VEGAN TREATS"

"GET MY ___ ON"

"I LOVE ME SOME _____"

"THAT'S HOT"

Calling New Orleans NOLA

YUMMY

FABULOUS

CHAMPERS


So, like...in summation: UGH.

That is all.

Nu House Is The Wave Of The Future

Last night all of us at 651 Kansas had a little housecooling party, since in two weeks we're all moving on to greener pastures. I'm relocating to a super cute studio on 17th and Mission, Patty and Baldur are getting their own place since they're getting married, Jimmy is moving in with some bros in the Panhandle, and Hellyn is leaving us for New York. After a few glasses of wine, Hellyn and I decided it was time to finally make the phat house track that we've been talking about doing the entire time she's lived with us. With Jimmy's help mixxing, we produced the following LIVE HOUSE TRACK on the fly. That's me on diva vocals, singing a bunch of shit I made up on the spot about our awful landlord, apple bongs, PLUR, getting higher than the sun. Listen for Lauren Spiro's cameo somewhere around the 3 minute mark. I guess I should also mention that parts of this are a little nsfw...not sure where the um part about Lauren's sheets came from but uh I had a few glasses of wine last night.

My buddy Jason says that with his lyrical help, TWEET HOUSE (the name of our musical project) can make MILLION$.

Jason
you guys should come up with something tho
like seriously
like, crystal castles like
low fi
play up the sexiness
and have some concept
and make the lyrics really specific to SF.

Melanie Berlin
i mean, i would actually love to do some fucking diva house
i know that sounds funny
but like, its fun to sing
the lyrics would be about the love parade
and tranny prostitues

Jason
yeah...something like...you can poke me in a polk street bathromm.

Melanie Berlin
hahaha
i could write a song about the piss trough at the eagle

Jason
call one song teenage runaway
turning trick in the green poop processing maching, out there in front of safeway, i didnt go in the safeway, barbacking that ass up like a juvenile...
get it
so many layers
backing that ass up like a juvenile
get it
haha
teenage runaway
juvenile the singer
back that ass up the song
i should ghostwrite

Melanie Berlin
seriously you should just be my lyricist

Jason
you send me the tracks..
ill ghostwrite them
you can blow up
we'll make millions

Melanie Berlin
good thinking
we'll play our debut show at la mezcalera (a bar in tijuana that jason frequents)

Jason
yeah
go international before local
send me some tracks
the first sing will be called line up
about doing lines of a dick
imma start brain storming
freestyling

..........

Here's our epic 10-minute house jam, and the video I made to go with it. Sorry I suck so bad at iMovie, but that's the breaks dudes. Also um, the song is what you might call a little "reverb-heavy."

Rainy Dayze

Ugh, I fucking hate this weather. Look what the rain and wind did to my shitty $6 Walgreens umbrella!



Look what it did to my hair!



Not to mention that my coat now smells like wet dog and my shoes are all soggy and cold. Walking around in a hailstorm when the wind is blowing sideways is no fun at all.

Yet still there's the Goth/Folkie/SHUGAZR(Hi Ansh!) side of me that kinda likes the wet, gray weather. It's perfect for staring out the window all wistfully, perfect for hot cocoa and for sleeping, and perfect for staying in and watching movies and snuggling. Plus I have to say, San Francisco on a gray day is actually really pretty. The black storm clouds look kinda rad hovering ominously over the mountains.



With the right soundtrack (and galoshes), it can be kinda awesome to walk around in. Here are some of my favorite songs that make me feel all dreamy and romantic on rainy days, instead of wet and irritated.

Vashti Bunyan - I'd Like To Walk Around In Your Mind



Black Tambourine - For Ex-Lovers Only



The Go-Betweens - Unkind And Unwise



Biff Bang Pow! - She Never Understood



My Bloody Valentine - Cigarette In Your Bed



Felt - Cathedral (from Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty, my fave rainy day album evs)



The Durutti Column - Tomorrow



Echo And The Bunnymen - Seven Seas



Cocteau Twins - Love's Easy Tears



Joy Division - Atmoshpere



REM - Time After Time



Big Star - Thirteen



Espers - Black Is The Color



Jorge Ben - Oba, La Vem Ela



Novos Baianos - Preta Pretinha



Alton And Hortense Ellis - I'm Still In Love WIth You



Love - Andmoreagain



The Left Banke - Shadows Breaking Over My Head



The Zombies - I Love You



Hopkirk And Lee - Free Arthur Lee!



Red House Painters - Grace Cathedral Park



Papercuts - Future Primative



Cass McCombs - What Isn't Nature



SORRY THIS POST IS SO LONG GUYZ! Yikes.

2009: Belated Best

Ok ok, I know I should have written this entry last week when it was still 2009, but I was just too busy doing other things like being hungover and watching Netflix On Demand in my pajamas. Anyway, in case you still care, here are my fave musics, movies, and other things of the last year of the last decade, in no particular order.

Movies

The Road



Drag Me To Hell (The only movie in 2009 that I watched twice in the theater)



Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans



Precious



Second Skin




Albums

My music taste is perpetually stuck in 1981, but here are the 5 albums from last year that ruled me the most.

Brilliant Colors - Introducing



Grass Widow - LP



Washed Out - Life Of Leisure EP (ok, it's an ep but whatevs.)



Espers - III



The Oh Sees - Help (also, best album cover of the year!)



Live Shows

Nodzzz/The Oh Sees/Mayyors at El Rincon

Kurt Vile/The Mantles/English Singles at an about-to-be demolished practice space in the Dogpatch

Mum at the Independent

The Homosexuals at Bottom of the Hill

The Raincoats at Part-Time Punks Fest at Mezzanine

TV Shows

I'm definitely not one of those annoying TV NO THANKS people, but in all honesty I don't watch a lot of TV. I think my attention span is just too short to follow one story line for an entire season. Still, here are 5 shows I was into enough this year to follow.

Eastbound And Down. Hands down, best show of 2009, if not ever.



True Blood. Like the rest of the world, I have vAmPyRe FeVeR!!!1



Tim And Eric Awesome Show Great Job Season 4



Party Down



Jersey Shore. OBVS



Places

New Orleans



Las Vegas



Bass Lake



Tijuana!!!



New York




Funniest Videos of the Internets

Tech Talk



Cat Goes On A Crime Spree



Bangs - Take U To Da Movies



Knives Vs. Cops (Faaackk Yoouuuu)



So Your Cat Wants A Massage?



2009 Gathering Of The Juggalos Infomercial



Video Dating Montage



Guido Beach



Nosferatu Dancing To Lady Gaga



Synth Coke



And one entry from late 2008 that is so awesome that I had to include it:

2009 In Days That Ruled

I'm not gonna lie, 2009 kinda sucked. It was a year of breakups and layoffs and poverty and stress. Eat a D, 2009! On a positive note, all the crappy stuff that happened this year made me take a look at my life and realize that I needed to change things, especially career-wise, so I'm going back to school in 3 weeks to start working on a degree in Social Work. So I guess you could say I'm pretty stoked for 2010 and for like, my future in general.

Of course, bright spots were plenty. Here are some of my favorite days and nights of 2009. Who knows? You're probably mentioned at least once.

1. January 10, 2009 - Leti organizes karaoke at Do Re Mi. Bertie is impressed by my karaoke prowess and our band Wine Club is born.



2. February 13, 2009 - Fell in love with New Orleans. Had an amazing dinner at Commander's Palace in the Garden District, saw a giant Jack-O-Lantern walking around on stilts on Decatur Street, goth bar-hopped in the Faubourg Marigny, then got painted in zombie makeup at One-Eyed Jack's.



3. March 7, 2009 - Hellyn and Sarah's Mexican Party Bus Birthday. Epic levels of fun and wastedness that ended up with karaoke at Do Re Mi that I barely remember.






4. April 17, 2009 - Holly's karaoke birthday party, for which I made this lovely ass cake.



5. May 7, 2009 - Awesome buddies joined me for birthday dinner at Pauline's, then at the Knockout for a special bday edition of All Fall Down. A great way to kick off my 32nd year. The next morning, I caught a plane to NYC with Michael and spent 4 days hanging out with him and Leti and Teva.



6. May 16, 2009 - Baldur and Jessica and I took a series of buses to Baker Beach on one of the first summery days of the year, where we saw some nude dudes and played with a really dumb dog. This was follwed by an amazing dinner at Burma Superstar. Later that night JB and I went to Booty Bassment at the Knockout and a guy showed me a picture of his penis in a hot dog bun on his cellie. Classy shit.



Here's a lovely video of Baldur giving Jess and I Icelandic lessons at the bus stop.

7. July 3, 2009 - Went to the Alameda County Fair with Cimi, Will, Shawn R and Ken T. Petted baby animalz, saw Nite Ranger LIVE and watched fireworks on the roof of Cimi's car. Pretty much any day where I get to go to a fair is an epic day for me.



8. August 8, 2009 - Met Rion, Colin and Cimi at Dolores Park, then watched OBSESSED STARRING BEYONCE at Cimi's. Later we were joined by Bertie and Rahel and went to 1994 at 111 Minna and became bff's with Lady Miss Kier.



9. August 10, 2009 - Colin and I went took a bunch of Monday trips to Bass Lake this summer. Each time was totally amazing, but the best was the day we drove with Neela, Christine and David and sunned ourselves in the company of a sneezing horse, a weird dude who kept swinging from the trees, the horse's letchy owner and the one and only Frances McDormand.



10. August 15, 2009 - Probably my favorite day of the entire year. Drove from Tijuana to Ensenada with Jason (miss u dude!) and his friend Sergio for a wine festival thingie at La Cetto Winery. Saw a bullfight and hobnobbed with fancy rich people and ate amazing food and drank so much wine. Headed back to TJ for another awesome night at La Mezcalera drinking Padrinos. Magical.



10. September 18 - Cimi's Dirty 30 Pajama Jammy Jam. Cimi hosted a karaoke party in her living room and had a cake made of Cinnabons. I'm noticing a theme here with birthdays and karaoke.



11. October 21 - Hellyn and I rode our bikes around Chinatown and took pictures of weird shit. Then I blogged about it.



12. October 24, 2009 - Went to Half Moon Bay to go pumpkin hunting with my good buddy Chris and then ended up eating at some weird English Pub with a fun bus in the back. Later that night went to weird early Halloween party where Jesse put on a shark costume and Lloyd wandered in dressed as bacon. WaCkY.



13. November 14, 2009 - Karaoke with a couple of members of Mum, who are good friends of Baldur and were staying at our house. Baldur and Jesse's rendition of "I Gotta Feeling" still gets stuck in my head whenever I think about this night. So fun.



14. November 15, 2009 - Karaoke Part 2!! Have you guys noticed that I like karaoke? A whole bunch of us went to L'Amour Nightclub in Chinatown and witnessed a dude get a handjob in a well-lit corner of the bar. (I yelped about it here.) Then we cabbed over to Playground Karaoke in Japantown and raged on the mic in one of the upstairs rooms and drank epic amounts of Soju. Being hungover from soju...not exactly an awesome way to spend a shift at the needle exchange.



15. December 12, 2009 - 651 Kansas Holiday Party. Awesome people and lots of lots and lots of booze and snacks up in my house. A very pleasant evening indeed.





16. December 18, 2009 - Rion, Soumeya, Soumeya's friend Leigh and I went to Alcatraz and got the EXTRA SPECIAL TOUR from Rion's friend Ranger John. He took us on the roof and in the creepy basement. Later that night Bertie and Rahel and I went to Blow-Up and soaked in the hilarity.



17. December 23, 2009 - Jessica's birthday party at the Knockout was a Factory Records tribute night with Jess, Josh Yule, John Segura and myself djing. Sarah, Brendan, Bertie and Josh and I put together a special band called FAC32 that covered hitz by New Order, Joy Division, The Wake, Stockholm Monsters and The Happy Mondays. It was ridiculously fun and everyone seemed to really be into it.