Shooflypie

Seems silly to do one of these today, but music has always been a big part of who I am. Music is something to be shared, something that can bring us together. We need that right now. We are all different, but we should be able to find common ground. Sure, a song is a small thing, but those small things add up. If you listen to this mix, I hope you find a song that you like, that brings you joy. Here are today's ten... 1. Hands Up Baby/Camera Obscura (3) - last played on 3/13/16 2. Loss Leaders/Spoon (12) - last played on 5/22/16 3. Picking Up Too Fast/Centro-Matic (6) - last played on 6/28/15 4. Let It Be/The Beatles (6) - last played on 5/3/15 5. I Won't Back Down/Tom Petty (1) - I've listened to this hundreds of times on CD 6. Summer Is The Champion/Laura Veirs (5) - last played on 12/29/10 7. Maternity Ward/Art Brut (12) - last played on 1/4/15 8. I'll Be Your Key/The Jayhawks (9) - last played on 12/21/16 9. Farewell To the Pressure Kids/Broke...

I still have my weekend house-cleaning chores to do and I need to get some more work done on my schoolwork. Also, the football games start at 2:00, so I'm going to get right to today's ten... 1. When I Was Young/Nada Surf (26) - last played on 4/6/16 2. Some Boys/Death Cab For Cutie (18) - last played on 4/21/15 3. Lines In The Suit/Spoon (5) - last played on 5/21/16 4. Calling All Doctors (alternate version)/Telekinesis (10) - last played on 11/16/14 5. Cowboy Song/Blur (2) - last played on 6/30/13 6. Press/Superchunk (27) - last played on 1/11/17 7. Silver Clouds/Bowerbirds (4) - last played on 2/23/14 8. Wave/Alejandro Escovedo (3) - last played on 2/18/12 9. Thirteen/Big Star (17) - last played on 6/29/16 10. For Annabelle/Band of Horses (30) - last played on 6/19/16

This is the second shuffle I've done today. I tried something new for the first one - using a Spotify playlist I've been adding to since the start of the year of every song or album I chose to play. It was up over 300 songs over more than 20 albums and at least as many single songs. I used shuffle mode for the playlist...and got 5 songs from one album, 3 from another, and 2 from a third. Not what I was looking for, so I scrapped it. I'll have to go back to the drawing board with ways of incorporating Spotify into the Shuffle every week. Alternatively, I may just aim for 450 of these and call it done for a while, maybe combined with trying to make more playlists again. We'll see. For now, let's get to the second version of today's ten... 1. Fleeting One/First Aid Kit (7) - last played on 12/26/15 2. It Was A Beautiful Car/M. Ward (8) - last played on 5/22/16 3. Think For Yourself/The Beatles (5) - last played on 3/9/16 4. Beautiful Beat/Nada Surf (9) - l...

I talked about how I've gotten very behind on my pop culture consumption in the end of year posts I managed to get written. One good thing about a new year is that it wipes my slate clean and I can start counting books and comics and so forth anew. Last year I managed to read only 46 books and 248 comics. I know it sounds absurd to lament that fact, but both totals are way down from 2015. However, I'm currently on pace to read 73 books and 502 comics this year. I'm well aware that won't happen, but it's fun to look at my pace for the year this early on and dream. Anyway, one reason I ran out of steam on my year-end posts was having to come up with new content about most items. To combat that fact, I want to write more about what I'm consuming when I'm doing it. So, here's the first brick in this year's wall (I hope it's not just a pile of bricks)... Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson - Even though I got a half dozen new books at Christmas, I ...

I wish I had "American Girl" in my iTunes, because it would be perfect for today's shuffle. Why? The titular girl stands on the balcony watching cars go by on 441 like waves crashing on the beach. Hi, giant music nerd here. I was talking last Sunday about being unsure of the future of the Sunday Shuffle, but I had a good idea early in the week about how I could start incorporating what I listen to on Spotify. I'm not quite ready to do it today, but next week looks like it will be the day. I know I petered out on the rest of my best of 2016 lists, but I went back to school on Wednesday and that was that. I do want to try to write more about my pop culture intake and was going to yesterday, but my schoolwork and the NFL playoffs got in the way. Maybe I can get something up later today or in the next few days. We'll see. I think that's all the business I needed to talk about, so let's get to today's ten... 1. Embassy Row/The Broken West (10) - las...

I decided today that I did want to put some effort into more 2016 wrap-up posts after all. My music thoughts will be in two parts - this list of my 20 favorite albums and a post that accompanies my best-of playlist that will go up on Spotify. I normally do just a top ten list, but I've listened to so much good music this year that I wanted to expand the list. I love music and I want to share that love; hopefully, my few words on each might encourage you to check some of them out... 1. Drive-By Truckers/American Band - I've been a fan of the DBTs for over a decade, so a new album is a no-brainer. This one, however, is their strongest since Brighter Than Creation's Dark in 2008. I think they were energized by the political writing they did for this album, responding to the seemingly endless shootings of African Americans and other gun violence with some powerful songs like "What It Means" and "Ramon Casiano." Not every song is political; Mike Cooley gi...

I ran out of steam on my 2016 best-of lists and I don't feel like spending today writing them. I do need to do a better job of writing about things in the moment. For example, there were so many albums I loved last year that it would have been impossible to say things about most of them. I did try to write reviews for most of the books I read, but they were posted on my Goodreads account and then linked to my Facebook and Twitter. I'm sure I've said this at the beginning of many years and we'll see how well I do. As for the Sunday Shuffle, I don't know how much longer I'll continue it. #450 sounds like a nice place to stop if I decide to do so. Then again, #500 sounds even cooler. The problem is that my iTunes only represents a fraction of what I listen to in a given week. Maybe I bring back the Sunday Sculpt once or twice a month. Maybe I try to put together a new playlist every month as well. I guess I'll just have to see where I go with all of it. For...