nyc garbage

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Boy, I sure wish I could purchase someone's litter"? Yeah, me too. Well, wish no longer - our dreams have finally come true.

Seriously, though, Justin Gignac is a smart guy. He sells small, clear plastic cubes filled with hand selected garbage from the streets of New York City. He started out selling them on the sidewalk for $10 and now sells them online for $50 to $100. Now there are spendthrifts all over the world with cubes of smelly garbage on their coffee tables.

I can imagine some posh magazine executive buying back their own Starbucks litter. That's almost as campy as Brad Pitt selling women their fat asses back to them. Mad props, Justin Gignac.

Favorite Albums of 2007

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker. I'm making an end-of-the-year list of my favorite albums of 2007. It may be I'm egotistical and have strong feelings that my musical taste is superior to everyone else's, or it may be that I want to better know what it is I really liked in music this year, and the process of dissecting albums and ordering them by excellence will reveal something to me. Or it may just be that I fell in love with a few records this year and I want everyone to know about it.

I really try not to think my taste is in any way superior. Who is to say one person really has a better grasp on the concept of "good music" anyway? My brother and I had a five-hour conversation about this issue once. We wondered out loud to each other: Who are we to say the lady at McKay's with the cart full of Danielle Steele novels has poor taste in literature? And who are we to say Toby Keith doesn't write and record beautiful, poignant and artful rock 'n' roll? An argument over the coveted "best band in the world" title could last forever. There is no be-all and end-all.... yet. I think Wilco came so close, but, of course, that's just me.

And who am I to name the best albums of 2007? I'm just one guy. And I'm a college student at that - one with not a lot of money. I hardly have the resources to buy and listen to the hundreds of albums that came out this year. I will surely leave off very excellent and important releases because of my poverty or my ignorance or both, but that's okay. This list must be taken with a grain of salt.

That lengthy introduction may have been unnecessary, though, because I just realized why I'm making this list: I fell in love with a few records this year and I want everyone to know about it.

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15. Of Montreal
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
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14. Wilco
Sky Blue Sky
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13. Okkervil River
The Stage Names
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12. The Field
From Here We Go Sublime
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11. Animal Collective
Strawberry Jam
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10. Phosphorescent
Pride
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9. Beirut
The Flying Club Cup
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8. Ryan Adams
Easy Tiger

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7. Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
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6. LCD Soundsystem
Sound Of Silver
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5. Panda Bear
Person Pitch

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4. Radiohead
In Rainbows

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3. The National
Boxer

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2. the everybodyfields
Nothing Is Okay

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1. Jens Lekman
Night Falls Over Kortedala
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Best records archive:

2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000

5 photos

pitchfork just began their year-end onslaught of "best of" lists with their favorite photos taken in 2007 by their contributing photographers. here are my favorite 5:

jens lekman (because he's my man of the year)



of montreal (because kevin barnes got naked)



grizzly bear guys with patrick wolf and sasquatch (because I can't leave out grizzly bear)



britt daniel of spoon (because.... just look at him)



and finally, justice (because i want to dance)

gawk magazine

My friend Jon Haire started a magazine based out of Nashville. It's only online right now, but it may grace glossy paper soon - depending on how things go with the online version. Over Thanksgiving, I was able to catch up with some old friends and he told us about the magazine. It's a very unique idea for a publication, diving into a different perspective on materialism and opulence. Jon is obviously a very creative person, and I hope it continues to produce fruit like this.

"Gawk is about extravagance, about documenting the process of its creation, exploring the avenues of its pursuit, and changing the stigmas of its indulgence. Gawk is about the good life -- bold, bejeweled, and completely unapologetic."

Everyone should definitely check it out - just click the image below.

a cyber shift

I created this blog for one of my journalism classes this semester and now I have two blogs. I think it might make sense to fuse the two together in some way. I haven't even written anything on my old blog in almost a year anyway, so I can just upload all those old posts on here and make it all ONE. So, I'm going to do that. Done.