Animal Collective - Feels
Beck - Guero
Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
The Caesars - Paper Tigers
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Coldplay - X&Y
David Crowder* Band - A Collision
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
The Decemberists - Picaresque
Doves - Some Cities
Foo Fighters - In Your Honor
Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have it So Much Better
The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
Low - The Great Destroyer
M. Ward - Transistor Radio
My Morning Jacket - Z
Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Ryan Adams - Jacksonville City Nights
Shout Out Louds - Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Super Furry Animals - Love Kraft
Switchfoot - Nothing is Sound
The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
World Leader Pretend - Punches
Youth Group - Skeleton Jar

* Nominees for this personal top 10 list are determined by the following criteria: 1) the album must be a studio release from 2005, and 2) I must have obtained said album in 2005. There are several other albums that I would like to pick up before year's end (specifically, Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine, Oasis' Don't Believe the Truth, Sigur Ros' Takk, and Ryan Adams' Cold Roses), and if I do, they'll get added to this list.

I can already say with about 99.9% certainty that I know what my top 2 albums are going to be. It's picking the other 8 that's proving to be the difficult task.

See also: the 2004 list

(A cookie for anyone who can read through this entire post.)

Yup, it's that time of year. Time to look back on the year and highlight the top 10 experiences of my life in 2005. This is the fourth straight year that I've done this (see also: 2004, 2003, and 2002), and it's always kind of fun. I also like comparing these lists as the years go by; some of the highlights have changed (roadtrips and college-related events dominated the first few lists), while some remain the same (Trojan football, concert-going experiences, and moments shared with good friends).

2005 is a hard year for me to pin down, if you want to know the truth. In many ways, 2005 felt like one of those "grower" years in which things pretty much stayed the same and nothing overly-spectacular happened. This list would suggest otherwise. And yet, some of the top experiences this year aren't so much self-contained moments as they are entry points for experiences to come, roadsigns pointing ahead to the future. 2006 will certainly be an interesting year for me (to say the least), but in the end, 2005--for all of its ups and downs, victories and defeats, times of contentment and joy and times of sadness and confusion--turned out to be a pretty interesting year in and of itself. With many, many things to be thankful for, to boot: some great trips, a few dreams realized, and all along the way, some wonderful, wonderful people to share the journey with.

( Alright. Let's do this thing. )

I found the following quiz while cruising the web tonight, and I decided to do it myself. You'll find my answers are pretty typical and unoriginal, but a) it's late; and b) did you really expect anything different from me? Me neither. OK...here we go:

Your Life: The Soundtrack
Opening credits: "How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us" - R.E.M.
Waking up: "You Get What You Give" - New Radicals
Average day: "Jesus, etc." - Wilco
First date: "City of Blinding Lights" - U2
Falling in love: "Superman" - Five for Fighting / "At My Most Beautiful" - R.E.M.
Love scene: "This Modern Love" - Bloc Party
Fight scene: "Love and Death" - The Stills
Breaking up: "Harder Now That It's Over" - Ryan Adams
Getting back together: "The Scientist" - Coldplay
Secret love: "Take Me Away" - Delirious?
Life's okay: "Stay Where You Are" - Ambulance Ltd.
Mental breakdown: "The Bends" - Radiohead
Driving: "Under the Milky Way" - The Church
Learning a lesson: "Chocolate" - Snow Patrol
Deep thought: "Talk About the Passion" - R.E.M.
Flashback: "White Shadows" - Coldplay
Partying: "Take Me Out" - Franz Ferdinand
Happy dance: "Everything Counts" - Depeche Mode
Regretting: "Motorcycle Drive By" - Third Eye Blind
Long night alone: "Transatlanticism" - Death Cab for Cutie
Death scene: "Casimir Pulaski Day" - Sufjan Stevens
Closing credits: "The Great Beyond" - R.E.M.

According to the questions provided, my life is apparently the subject of an angsty-yet-innocuous teenage chick flick. Yeah, that seems about right.

OK, it's your turn.

(And yes, that's the second survey-type thing I've posted here in a matter of days. Quite frankly, I'm starting to worry myself.)

Tracy tagged me to do this, and seeing Jonathan's list this morning reminded me that I needed to do it myself. Here goes:

Twenty random things about DT that you probably didn't know (and probably could care less about):

1. Every once in a while, I toy with the idea of getting a tattoo.

2. I still sleep with the same USC Trojans comforter that I got at the beginning of my freshman year. And I'll continue to sleep with it until I'm dead or married, whichever comes first.

3. The first song I ever wrote for a girl was a cheesy little number called "Steetlights at Midnight," which I penned back in 1998. I spent hours and hours perfecting every single note using my computer's MIDI software--piano, guitar, bass, drums, strings, trumpet (all computer generated, of course). And since I didn't have a mixer or 4-track or anything, I just recorded myself singing the vocals as the music blared from the computer speakers. We're talking real lo-fi here. I sent it to the girl I was in love with for Valentine's Day. I then found out she was dating someone else.

4. I love making to-do lists, but not normal, daily to-do lists. Rather, I like to make grandiose lists of half-thought out ideas and dreams, and things to do to work towards those dreams and goals. I keep all of these lists in a journal of mine. Generally, 1 out of every 5 things on these lists will actually get accomplished.

5. I scored better on the Math section of the SATs and ACTs then I did on the Verbal...and yet, I chose journalism as a major. Unrelatedly, I didn't score very high on the "Logic" section.

6. I love kiwis, and I will eat them with their skin still on. It was only a few years ago I found out that people think this to be a rather strange practice.

7. I own somewhere in the vicinity of 400 CDs. Of those, I probably should get rid of the 150 or so that I can't stand.

8. Sometimes I really hate myself for being a "nice guy." And by "nice guy," I also mean "a push-over."

9. I currently own but one belt. I've been meaning to change that for quite some time now.

10. Though I've never hiked a *real* mountain in my entire life, one of my secret ambitions is to climb Mt. Everest.

11. Whenever I can, I like to make my own cards instead of buying them. I made something like 50 cards for friends and family this past Christmas--but I never got around to sending any of 'em out (I told you, I'm bad at following through on things like this!). Oh, but when I do buy cards, I will often buy them for people I haven't met yet (i.e. my future wife).

12. I've used a jackhammer before.

13. When I was in first grade, Angela--the lone black girl in my class (and in our school)--moved away. I remember hugging her on the day she left and thinking to myself how neat it was for a white boy and a black girl to share a moment like that. I'm not sure that I was even aware of issues of race in this country or anything like that at such a young age; I probably just thought it was cool to have a friend whose skin was a different color than mine.

14. My dad once threatened to change our last name to Nintendo because I used to play video games constantly. Come to think of it, that probably would've been the coolest thing ever...I should've called his bluff.

15. I don't have any real proof of this, but I think I may have been fired from my one "real" job during college--working at ABC News. At one point, they simply stopped calling to ask me to come in and work the Desk Assistant shift (and, well, I was so busy at that point that it didn't really matter to me).

16. I can count on one hand the number of times in my life that I haven't felt a little out of place in a given situation or group setting. Truth be told, I often feel like I'm a round peg in a square hole (though I recognize that it could just be my perception of things).

17. When back home in Beatty, I like to get in the car and drive around town aimlessly for lengthy periods of time, music blaring through the car stereo. It takes me--at most--10 minutes to drive to every corner of town, so I usually end up driving to the nearby ghost town or even into Death Valley.

18. I don't think I could ever bring myself to try cliff diving.

19. You've seen it parodied on TV and movies and thought, "who would be so lame as to do that?", but yes, I myself once helped a girl study for a French test even though I knew nothing of the language. And no, we did not end up making out, much to my disappointment.

20. I drink a glass of red wine nearly every day.

Who to tag next? Oh geez...uhh, all of you. 20 random things. Go!

WARNING: Obsessed R.E.M. fan posting ahead!

Last week, my favorite band of all time celebrated their 25th anniversary, which is quite a remarkable milestone, especially in the music industry. I read several articles written in light of the band's reaching the quarter-century mark, but namely this article from Flagpole, a list of the 25 best R.E.M. songs of all-time. Inspired by this, I decided to come up with my personal top 25 list--maybe not the "best" R.E.M. songs, per se, but the ones that are most meaningful to me.

I then spent the last week writing a song-by-song commentary for each (kinda like Flagpole's, but more substantial), which was fun, but definitely time-consuming. Here now, for your perusal, is the list, followed by the reflections on each entry. I know this will probably be a wasted post for most of you (my fellow R.E.M. fan phatfhorn excepted), but I hope you might read even a few of my comments. In all seriousness, these guys have written the soundtrack to my life--songs that speak to me and for me in my highest of highs and lowest of lows, and everywhere in between--and for that I am so very grateful to them. Moving right along:

Dave's Top 25 R.E.M. Songs (4/5/05)
25. The Outsiders - Around the Sun
24. Harborcoat – Reckoning
23. Falls to Climb – Up
22. Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars) - Chronic Town
21. Cuyahoga - Life’s Rich Pageant
20. Gardening at Night - Chronic Town/Eponymous
19. Losing My Religion - Out of Time
18. Fall on Me - Life’s Rich Pageant
17. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite - Automatic for the People
16. Country Feedback - Out of Time
15. World Leader Pretend - Green
14. Man on the Moon - Automatic for the People
13. I’ve Been High - Reveal
12. Let Me In - Monster
11. E-Bow the Letter - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
10. Imitation of Life - Reveal
9. So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry) - Reckoning
8. Pilgrimage - Murmur
7. So Fast, So Numb - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
6. Leaving New York - Around the Sun
5. How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
4. Talk About the Passion - Murmur
3. What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? - Monster
2. Driver 8 - Reconstruction of the Fables
1. The Great Beyond - Man on the Moon Soundtrack

( And now, witness my uber-fan praises mixed with aspiring rock journalist tendencies )

One more thing: like Flagpole's writer says, I realize that this list could easily change on any given day, and looking back over it nearly a week after I came up with it, I'm already noticing some glaring omissions (Electrolite, Begin the Begin, and Nightswimming for starters), but such is the case when the band's catalog surpasses well over 150 songs.

Oh, and if you read even a portion of this post, I salute you. And thank you--as weird as it sounds, these songs mean a lot to me.

Well, OK, not quite enlightenment. And I can't quite call it a path just yet, either. But, whatever it is, it's most certainly eightfold (assuming eightfold is sophisticated language for "eight steps"). Lemme explain:

I came up with a list of New Year's Resolutions this year, as much as I hate making resolutions. But a lot of them weren't your typical resolutions--oh sure, I had the perrenial "work out more" resolution that never seems to go anywhere--but I also included fun things like "take at least one semi-epic roadtrip" and "take more pictures than you did in '04."

I won't bore you with every single resolution, as there are like 30--it's very much a "To-Do List for 2005," in a similar vein as my ever-changing To Do List for Life. Instead, I will share what I'm simply calling the Everyday List, eight things that I hope to accomplish every day.

The Everyday List for 2005 is as follows:
1. Worship/commune with God.
2. Speak with at least one loved one.
3. Play music.
4. Read.
5. Write.
6. Help someone (or as the Boy Scouts would say, "Do a good turn daily.").
7. Exercise mind and/or body.
8. Dream.

I've kept them somewhat nebulous, thus allowing myself the "interpret freely" option. For example: well, I read the menu at Wendy's today, so I'm counting it!

OK, so I'll be a little tougher on myself, I suppose, but you get the idea.

In the days since I implemented the DEPE (I kinda like that acronym better than "Everyday List," which sounds too bourgeois, now that I think about it), there have been days where I've gone 7/8 or even 8/8. And then there have been days--like yesterday, for instance--where I acheived a measley 3/8.

But I'm keeping a tally for myself, and maybe at the end of the year I'll give you my final GPA. Right now the under/over is at 5.2. Any takers?

Yes, it's been over a month since I first made mention of this list--I tell you no lie, though, it wasn't until this week that I made the FINAL list. It was hard, especially since I would keep picking up new albums that I really enjoyed.

This, however, is it: DT's Favorite Albums of 2004. You'll notice that I don't say that these are the best albums of the year, only my personal top 10; I certainly didn't listen to enough music this year to determine which were the "best" albums of the year (you might like to read up on which albums were in the running), and even then, I don't think it's possible to say which albums are the best, as it's all a matter of opinion. I recognize that some of the albums on the list aren't the most artistic, groundbreaking, or brilliant releases of 2004, but for whatever reason, they were albums that I enjoyed and appreciated more than others.

So enough with the introductions...( it's time to see me do my best ‘rock journalist’ impression )