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To that end, I’ve come across a really cool project that I’ve decided to co-opt in a way to help me stick to this blogging-on-a-regular-basis plan: “Three Hundred Sixty-Five Ways to Love”. It’s a cool year-long art project where the artist intends to post one thing that she loves about her life every day. I tripped across it at Butternut Squash, one of my new all-time favorite web comics (check it out when you get a chance - the art is phenomenal and the writing hysterical).

I figured that doing such a project myself would be a great motivator for me and hopefully an interesting (entertaining?) ride for all two of my readers - that is, if they’ll come back after my hiatus. I’m hoping that using good ol’ Ecto on a regular basis will get me posting regular (written) updates as well. I can’t even begin to relate how many times over this overly-long hiatus that I thought something would be really great to share on the blog, etc. Heck, the election season is firing back up again, so it’s not like there won’t be plenty of fodder for the virtual presses.

I have to confess that I’m really excited to get things up and running again - and a little anxious as well, as I know how easy it is to fall off the horse (actually, it’s more like not getting back on it than falling off). I’ve got a lot of other things percolating in my head to do in the upcoming year: redesign the site, move it to another (better) domain, maybe get a little snowboarding in, resolve work issues, etc. Clearly, I don’t have a concrete idea what’s going to get done and when, but there are obvious priorities in there and only so many hours in the day…

But enough of my rambling. Stay tuned for my 365 project - #1 is coming up right after I post this. (Funny side note: I was planning on launching this idea on January 1st)

Thanks for stopping by, and Happy New Year!

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Fast forward to 2 weeks ago when Teresa was chatting with Sander at work and he just happened to mention that he was planning on getting a new car, so he needed to sell his R32 - almost completely forgetting that Teresa was one of the few people he knew what it was and what made it unique (as he later told me when I test-drove his our car). Without missing a beat, Teresa blurted out that we would be interested in buying it - much to my surprise when she called me 5 minutes later to tell me the news. Now, to keep things in context, just earlier that week we had made the big decision that we couldn’t move into a larger apartment until next year after having crunched the numbers. Teresa was now planting the thought of buying a (essentially) new car.

We crunched more numbers. We considered how my Passat was showing its age. We considered the appeal of having a small car that not only was much easier to park in the city but whose all-wheel drive would free us from having to suffer through the ordeal of putting on tire chains when heading up to Tahoe in the winter. The decision was made and fast forward a little more, we picked up the car from Sander yesterday afternoon. The car - defying all expectations - looks like it was made last month and came straight off the lot. Sander, despite confessing that it was one of his all-time favorite cars, just didn’t drive it a whole lot (10k miles over 3 years time!). It’s a car that just wants to run. Through slalom courses, on straight-aways, whatever. Kick up the RPM’s and it’s happy. One thing that popped into my head when driving it home from work today was how it didn’t seem completely unreasonable to me to take the car out for a milk run. To Stockton (about 85 miles due east from SF). Instead of doing such a reasonable thing, Sander instead kept the car in his garage and in immaculate condition - I don’t quite sympathize, but I’m extremely thankful.

Once I get the registration all settled and get a parking permit, no more commuting for this car though. We’ve already agreed to keep it as a low-mileage fun car - although the idea of road-tripping it up to Vancouver for the wedding has been seriously discussed more than once.

For those who are interested, here are a couple of reviews:

• Car & Driver
• Motor Trend
• AutoWeek
• Automobile Magazine
• The Truth About Cars

Lastly, it is worth noting that the next revision of the R32 is due out this year - too bad it’s the new Rabbit styling and there’s no way to get a manual transmission on it (at least here in the US).

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In short, it was a great performance. I had never seen Philip Glass Ensemble perform before, nor had I actually seen the film - despite having the soundtrack from Jim’s recommendation so many, many years ago. I was really hoping that they would make good use of the resident Ruffatti pipe organ (largest concert hall organ in the US!), but unfortunately they didn’t and instead relied upon synths for the organ tracks. Speaking of synthesizers, I have to confess some disappointment with some of the patch decisions as there were some definitely “cheesier” choices over the original recording (particularly strange since the film was released in 1983). From what I could tell, only the ominous vocal bellowing the name of the film in the beginning of the performance was pre-recorded - all other vocal performances seem to have been handled by the multitasking Ensemble.

Showing the film in conjunction with the performance really rounded out the experience. I’m not sure if it was a good idea for me to not have seen the film prior to the performance, since the weird “disconnected” feeling I got during the performance (and during my flights the next day) was a little distracting. That’s not to say that it’s something I regret or anything - just that I guess it was something I hadn’t anticipated. If you haven’t seen it before and are open to Glass’s minimalist compositions as well as plotless documentaries (for a laugh, check out Wikipedia’s plot spoiler warning), I definitely recommend it. Just don’t expect a shiny popcorn experience - it’s certainly a thought-provoking (and a bit of a downer, honestly).

Many, many thanks to Jim for not only introducing me to Glass, but for making sure I didn’t miss this performance. It was cutting it a little close with my business trip to Montreal, but I’m really happy that it worked out that the only performance I was able to catch was this one. Admittedly, it would’ve been nice to see the entire trilogy of films, but maybe I’ll get lucky and have the chance to see the whole thing another time.

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While I can readily rattle off a couple without thinking about it, I had to look at my meager CD collection to remind myself what’s in it. It was enlightening and yet pretty depressing given how dated it is - but my moral outrage at the RIAA is to blame for that. As I mentioned to Jim, New Order’s “Waiting for the Sirens’ Call” was the first (and last) new CD I bought for myself in I can’t even remember when, with Crowded House’s “Woodface” and The Finn Brothers’ “Everyone is Here” picked up used at Amoeba a couple of months ago being my last purchase.

Of course, going through my iTunes library is an interesting exercise. Every once and a while I’ll have an overwhelming need for random songs that I’ll buy from the iTunes Music Store - in fact, I just bought Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” last night after watching the latest episode of Supernatural (is anyone else getting into this X-Files-ish show that has arguably the best soundtrack on TV right now?).

So all that said, I’m not sure if the following list is a “Top 10″, rather than a “Weird Nostalgic Top 10 Because I Haven’t Bought New Music In Who Knows When”. In no particular order:

	“The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway” - Genesis To be honest, I’m really just referring to Disc 1. I love it so much, I rarely if ever listen to Disc 2 - heck, if someone played #2 for me, chances are I wouldn’t recognize it. The dexterity - for lack of a better word - of both the lyrics (”The cheerleader waves her cyanide wand, there’s a smell of peach blossom and bitter almond” always gets me, for instance) and the music - hard to beat, especially by today’s standards.
	“Big Generator” - Yes OK, this is a weird one - almost 100% nostalgia here people. Coincidentally, this was a gift from Jim back in middle school. I put my trusty Discman on repeat for the longest time listening to this one. While there are much better examples of Yes music out there, there’s just something about the crispness of the sound to the 90125 follow-up that I continue to find alluring.
	“Berlin Cabaret Songs” - Ute Lemper Yes, another curiosity. I had read about the English version about this in some snooty magazine (no Sean, it wasn’t Keyboard Magazine) back in 2000 I think and tripped over the German version when I was in Dallas both for work and visiting a friend. Pretty cool album - and it’s nice for another reason: I don’t get to hear much German these days…
	“Itaipu • The Canyon” - Philip Glass Lord knows a lot of people would debate that Philip Glass would be the odd duck (I still crack up when thinking of The Simpsons’ gag on Glass). While Jim introduced me to Glass, Chris pointed me to this particular CD if I recall correctly. I don’t have nearly the depth of appreciation either of my friends have for Glass’s work, but I have liked what little I’ve heard. The choral performance always sends chills up my spine. (Jim, I was debating on putting Koyaanisqatsi on the list, with an affectionate nod to your threat to pour molasses into my speakers when I pushed my little Bose 201’s to their limit that night at NMH - but Itaipu won out in the end)
	Eponymous - Peter Gabriel This one was a hard one. I was debating primarily between “So” (yes, it’s pop, but still all-good), “OVO” (a lot of really interesting and funky stuff - although disqualified because of the first track) and “Us” (mostly due to memories of Berlin). “Passion” was also a strong contender, but I guess the strong links to his Genesis roots in his first solo effort somehow won me over.
	“Get Ready” - New Order Honestly, this is a cheat since “Rock the Shack” does have me reaching for the skip forward button, but I listened to the rest of the album incessantly for weeks on end. Still can (with the aforementioned exception).
	“Exit Stage Left” - Rush Maybe a cheat since it’s a live album (I’m thinking we can all agree that a greatest hits collection should not find its way onto a list like this), but classics played really well live should get the respect they deserve.
	“Title of Record” - Filter This is kind of a surprise - well, it’s always been a surprise, I suppose. Maybe it just taps into some wellspring of rage or something, but I always feel a little better after listening to it. Cheap therapy I suppose.
	“Heavier Things” - John Mayer Also a bit of a shocker to be on the list - but no surprise that it was a gift from a female (Teresa). All the same, I have to admit that there isn’t one clunker on there. Maybe the “in touch with your feminine, sensitive side” yin to Filter’s angry yang?
	“Volume 3: Further in Time” - Afro Celt Sound System You know, when having an intellectual conversation about music and my tastes, I would’ve never thought I would include anything that had bagpipes in it. That said, they do a lot of very interesting things - with a funky edge no less. Yes, it was Peter Gabriel’s guest appearance that caused me to buy it, but the rest of the album - including Robert Plant’s contribution - certainly keeps me listening.

Honorable Mentions:

• “Doppelgänger - Curve
• “Fumbling Towards Ecstasy” - Sarah McLachlan
• “The Sensual World” - Kate Bush
• “Life on Planet Groove” - Maceo Parker
• “Achtung Baby” - U2
• “The Soul Cages” - Sting
• “Karma” - Delirium
• “Lemon Parade” - Tonic
• “The Yes Album” - Yes
• “Hell’s Ditch” - The Pogues

Of course, there are always others - for instance, any Led Zeppelin album it seems. Can’t go wrong with The Beatles or Bob Marley (although I have to confess a burn-out on Bob recently). Oh, and I reserve the right to change this list at any time. Especially if I ever do get around to doing a proper “Top 10″.

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The other reason why I’m posting about these articles is that all of this is a bit coincidental in another manner - I’m getting a little bored of my site’s design. So going back to Lea’s series of articles on the art of self-branding, I’m thinking it would be an interesting exercise to go through in preparation of a big change.

And here’s the real point behind this post: I’d like your help in Step 1, the word association game. If you please, email me (first name at this domain) or post a comment with three adjectives that come to mind when you think of me. By all means, honesty is the name of the game here. Some of you know me really well, some are acquaintances, some just happened to trip over my blog as they surfed the internets - it’s all good; getting as broad a range of samples can only help!

Now, of course, the biggest question is at what point am I going to have the time to do the change…

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I hate colds.

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So once they started this show, I switched back to listening to the local classic rock favorite around these parts, KFOG. This morning the big topic of conversation was CBS’s new show, Love Monkey. Apparently, the Chronicle’s TV critic loved it even calling out the show’s secondary focus on music would be up a “Foghead’s” (a listener of KFOG) alley - although I can’t find that particular assertion in the article. The New York Times’ critic, however, didn’t like it.

Contrasting the warm fuzzies of a new show along the lines of “Sex and the City” or “Jerry Maguire” (or something - anything - more entertaining than random non-celebrity people heaping all sorts of abuse on each other) were some acerbic opinions, mostly offered by Alessandra Stanley of the Times. While there was lively discussion about different aspects of the show, the idea that the stereotypical woman does not like Bob Dylan - and that any woman that professes otherwise just pretends to to please men - was an interesting one.

Music is such a funny thing - you either love it or you hate it. And God forbid if you run into anyone who disagrees with you. Now I will freely admit that Dylan is a brilliant songwriter - someone called in to say that a female friend of his has a license plate cover that professes that Dylan is the Shakespeare of our time. I don’t necessarily disagree with that idea, although I find the medium to express such a romantic notion to be a little at odds with the sentiment. But that said, I just cannot fathom how anyone would agree to allow Dylan to sing his own songs (never mind a group of men responsible for investing gobs of money into a recording contract). This opinion was only reinforced when the DJs took a break and played Tangled Up in Blue.

Listening to a song written so beautifully, sung in a fashion that made me cringe made me wish for someone or some group to record the entirety of Dylan’s catalog - so I could listen to and fully appreciate his work (something I haven’t done for obvious reasons). Then it dawned on me - that might not be an improvement, given the industry’s penchant for getting random unknown groups to perform on tribute albums usually resulting in performances that are so unbelievably sub-par that it makes you wonder why they still do tribute albums. What’s with that?

As for “Love Monkey”, I recorded it on my ReplayTV and just watched it tonight. I have to say I like it. It’s not perfect - I agree with Goodman’s assessment of the supporting male characters and kind of cringe at some of the treatment the show gives women, but it’s entertaining and shows promise. And I’m just happy that I can stop racking my brain as to why Judy Greer looked so familiar - she played the goofy roommate Andrea in Kissing a Fool (a guilty pleasure that is interestingly commented as “Not bad for a crappy romantic comedy starring David Schwimmer” by someone on IMDB).

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