spoonfork

no, this was actually my last post for 2005. i'll be off on a long year end holiday starting next week, and won't be back till next year. it's not that i won't have inerdnet connection, it's just that i want to have a break. with this: the most recent blog stat (yeah, another self-indulgent act):

• 1048 posts, 1588 comments, 4 years of self-indulgent blogging.


• average number of visits: 950/day. average hits: 8000/day.


• top visits from: US, Malaysia, Great Britain, Canada and Germany


• google page rank: 5/10


• technorati rank: 115,627 (84 links from 22 sites)
  

top referrer and/or readers?:

• http://myoss.bytebot.net/


• http://lifecasualties.blogspot.com/


• http://leafbug.org/~yus/


• http://princessren.blogspot.com/


• http://jadedpoetry.blogspot.com/

that's it. i'm too lazy to compose SQL queries to glean more info about my blog. with this, i bid everyone a good holiday, stay healthy, eat healthy, drink healthy, be merry, and come back next year in one piece. and oh, don't forget the presents.

listening to: sonic youth - the sprawl

top 10 albums of 2005, with the highly personal obligatory comments, of course:

• the mars volta - frances the mute. nothing, i tell you, can beat the appalling music of the mars volta. and that is why this album is at the top of this list. sometime during this god-forsaken year, i was getting tired of listening to the same crap over and over, namely progressive house, trance and hip-hop. i happen to get to know this band by chance, and they're are just so refreshing. this is one of the most mindbending albums of all time.



• sonic youth - goo (original recording remastered) (deluxe edition). back in the late nineties (yes, goo was a 1990 release) i was too young (or too naive) to appreciate sonic youth. instead, i tuned my ears to nirvana, stone temple pilots, the stone roses, and soundgarden. what a waste it was when there are gems like sonic youth and pixies. i wish that i've really listened to sonic youth back then, else i don't have to wait for too long for this album.



• various artists - solesides greatest bump this is all about hip-hop, baybeh!



• fiona apple - extraordinary machine i've wrote about fiona, and how she's one of my favorite female artists. but no, she's not in this list by virtue of being that, it is just a coincidence that this long awaited album was released this year, and my, what a great album it is.



• deep dish - george is on. after gu toronto i thought that deep dish (one of my favorite progressive house acts) is pretty much, you know, dead and incapable of producing original stuff. i have to listen to george is on over and over again to realize how wrong i was.



• dj shadow - funky skunk. again, this is all about hip-hop. and no, this is not really a official studio album release, but it warrants itself in my top 10 list simply because no matter what dj shadow has been producing (endtroducing, private press, in tune and in time, UNKLE collaboration) he has been able to produce the finest hip-hop using the most influential tunes around.



• clap your hands say yeah - clap your hands say yeah. they remind me so much of violent femmes. nevertheless, one of the best sounds from the highly-tiring indie scene (considering that i'm no big fan of indie pop/rock/whatever).



• the white stripes - get behind me satan. don't underestimate the minimalistic sound of the white stripes, that is all i can say.



• massive attack - danny the dog. this is not unlike any massive attack's previous studio release. first of all, it is the soundtrack to unleashed, yanno, the one with jet li (which is quite a brilliant movie i must say), and second, it probably mark a new path for massive attack in which they completely abandon the sounds and styles that make mezzanine and 100th window a success. in other words, as a massive attack fan i should be dissappointed with this album. but why is it on my list? i want to remember how they sound liked before they finally "decided" on how they are going to sound like in their next studio release.



• wilco - kicking television - live in chicago. it seems like i've been listening to wilco for all my life. the truth is that i've been listening to them since 1996 while i was in college. the first album that captivated me was of course being there. however, i've been having an on-off "relationship" with wilco: there were times i thought that they were too country, times when they were too folksy, and times when they really kick ass and just rock and roll. this album reminds me of those times, and it's kinda kick ass.

listening to: morcheeba - simply everyone takes cocaine

january:	"my name alone can't be denied"
february:	"now, a question of etiquette - as i pass, do i give you the ass or the crotch?"
march:	the one where i failed to score
april:	the one where i failed to score, again
may:	"fortunately, i'm adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug, uh, regimen to keep my mind, you know, uh, limber"
june:	"i was seduced by the smell of your freshly brewed coffee and tempting pastries"
july:	"is it you, or i'm just feeling positively filthy all the time?"
august:	"say dude, is it my body, or all my shirts are shrinking?"
september:	"if you beat your head against the wall, that doesn't make it a drum"
october:	"when life gives you lemon, choke on 'em and die. you. stupid. lemon. eater"
november:	real men don't do backups.
december:	i only get a book?

listening to: depeche mode - personal jesus

i know all of you have been been scratching your heads figuring out what to give me for christmas. well, let me make it easy for you.

• a tivoli audio henry kloss model am/fm table radio, for my non-existent kitchen


• the fall: the complete peel sessions 1978 - 2004, because 50,000 fall fans can't be wrong


• a soekris 4826 board, so i can make something out of it


• a roland mc-303 groovebox, because we are the music makers


• the pursuit of oblivion: a global history of narcotics, for my reading pleasure while entertaining the porcelain goddess. thanks santa! i mean, pickyin


• quannum's spectrum, and no, not the mp3s


• david axelrod's songs of experience and song of innocence and mo' wax 2001, because 3 isn't a crowd


• alias, dvds of seasons 1 - 4, because i'm the fan-overlord of jennifer garner. thanks santa!


• this super thing here, from here, because 3 more letters and it's enigmatic

if you really loved me, get me the above. that, in addition to me being a me supercute furry little bear. contact details is on the left.

listening to: stine j - you are my sunshine

[ this post will do for the moment, till i post my christmas wishlist which i know all of you (yes, the four of you who love me to death) have been scratching your heads over ]



listening to: dj shadow - endtropy