My Ten Favorite Albums of the Decade

I wanted to write a "best of 2009" post, but looking back on the year, I only bought three albums that came out this year. Also, I never wrote top ten lists for any of the other years, so to start now seems silly. I will try to include a wide range of genres and production years, but that may not happen. Here goes:

10) Gorillaz - Gorillaz (2001)
Alternative Rock/Hip-Hop

This is perhaps a strange inclusion in this list because I haven't listened to it for several years. That being said, when my brother Niko discovered this (at the time) unknown album at the local music store, we lost our shit. This was some of the freshest, most original work we had ever heard. The fictional characters and the mysterious real-world musicians behind the work made for an alluring piece of art. We would wake up, put the CD in the player on repeat and turn the volume up to eleven. Not to sound like a hipster, but we were rocking out to this months before anybody else caught wind of it. And then, they did. The ungodly amount of airtime it received killed it. I went slowly from listening to it nonstop to being forced to listen to it nonstop. bummer. All that aside, this album was hugely influential to me early in this decade.
Sample: Starshine

9) Armored Vegetable - Funk Shui (2007)
Funk/Rock

Funk Shui is my favorite local band. Armored Vegetable is their second album after "Giant Sized Masters of...". Every musician in this band is fucking killer. Sean Nowland, the bassist, has been a friend through the kung fu school for over a decade, and introduced me to the band. My friends and I go to nearly every show they preform, and have become well acquainted with the members. The title, "Armored Vegetable" refers to a favorite track of mine about cooking an artichoke with a special person.
Sample: Lockjaw (live)

8) Supermoon - Zap Mama (2007)
R&B/Soul

This album is sweet and smooth and funky and just awesome all over. Marie Daulne, founder and leader of Zap Mama, brings her best blend of African infused polyphonic Soul to this record. Supermoon feels a bit more laid back and gentle than the other albums put out by the group. For fans of vocals, Zap Mama is an absolute must. Marie Doulne has, at times, a challenging voice to listen to, raspy and harsh, but then she will switch to some of the most honeyed vocals imaginable. The woman's talent is awe inspiring, and the singers she draws to her for her albums are equally as impressive.
Sample: Toma Taboo

7) Eyes at Half Mast - Talkdemonic (2008)
Folktronica (ugh, what a terrible genre name)

Another local band. Eyes at Half Mast was recorded in an old empty house in Lake Oswego, the hollow, echoing quality of the bare rooms filling this record with a ghostly sound. I've heard that this album was inspired by the death of one of the members' father, and the emotional struggle of loss. That may be true, but this album is not a downer. The storming drums and swelling viola that characterize Talkdemonic are at their most powerful in this album. This record kicks ass.
Sample: Black Wood Crimson (live)

6) New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) - Erykah Badu (2008)
Nu Soul/R&B/jazz/Hip-Hop/Funk

This amazing album felt like a dramatic departure from Badu's previous work. Dark, complicated, and most of the time, rather serious. From my understanding, Badu created this album from scratch in the free Apple software Garage Band, recorded the vocals through a laptop microphone, and then sent the music to her producer friends to recreate it at studio quality. In interviews, she talks about cooking dinner for her kids and recording tracks in her kitchen at the same time. Tracks like "That Hump" and "Telephone" strike deep, haunting the listener for days; where more uplifting songs like "Soldier" and "Honey" keep the toes tapping and head nodding.
Sample: Telephone

5) Amethyst Rock Star - Saul Williams (2001)
Hip-Hop/Spoken word/Rock

Williams' first album is a beast. A dizzying musical stratum of hip-hop beats, fearsome rock guitar, and Williams' brilliant, no-nonsense lyrics. I first heard Saul Williams while on vacation in Victoria B.C. with my family in late 2001. His sharp insight and unique sound blew my mind. This album has been on heavy rotation on my stereo ever since.
Sample: Tao of Now

4) Radio Retaliation - Thievery Corporation (2008)
Downtempo

Thievery Corporation is a perennial favorite, and choosing one of their many albums that came out this decade to sit on top is not really possible. Radio Retaliation, being their most recent, is a logical choice, but also it is Goddamn good. Radio Retaliation is a rather politically motivated album, speaking up about issues like free-trade and globalization. The album features many guest musicians such as Seu Jorge and Femi Kuti. I went and saw Thievery Corporation while they were on the Radio Retaliation Tour and it was easily one of the better concerts I have ever seen. There is this notion that they are all turntables and beat machines, but there were roughly fifteen musicians, including up to seven vocalists, performing on stage.
Sample: Beautiful Drug

3) Gungle Dungn - Doubledutch (2008)
Indie-ish stuff, Soul(?)

I don't know what kind of music this is. I just know it is so good I want to cry. Gungle Dungn was produced by a pair of youngsters from Portland, Oregon. I had an art class with one of them and learned of the band through her. The album is unbelievably good. Chunky beats and smooth lyrics from Dhanni and Jordan, respectively, make this work so good. It came at a time in my life when I felt rather lonely and the music wrapped me up like a blanket. It didn't cure the loneliness, but made it seem alright. This was easily, for me, the best album of 2008.
Doubledutch myspace page

2) Jay Stay Paid - J Dilla (2009)
Nu Soul/Hip-Hop/Rap

Album of the mother fucking year. I've talked about Jay Stay Paid in this space before, but I will quickly summarize. After J Dilla's death in 2006, he left hours and hours of unreleased and unfinished tracks on old floppy discs, hard drives, and cassette tapes. His mother Maureen, AKA Ma Dukes, wanted to release these gems, and with the help of legendary producer Pete Rock, made this amazing record. J Dilla was a master. This album deserves all of your guys' attention.
Sample: King

1) Xen Cuts - Ninja Tune record label. (2000)
Electronic, Hip-Hop, Nu Jazz, Drum and Bass, Turntablism, etc.

Calling this an "album" is erroneous, but fuck it, this is my list, I'll include what I want. Xen Cuts is a three disc compilation of artists under the Ninja Tune record label, celebrating their tenth year producing music, So yes, most of this music was not created in the 2000s, so what. Again, my list, screw off. Anyway, No other track-list has done more to guide my musical preferences than this release. Xen Cuts introduced me to whole swaths of musical genres that I had never heard previously. Most importantly, I found new pockets of the Hip-Hop world that excited me more than ever. Artists like The Herbaliser, Dynamic Syncopation, and Roots Manuva. This album showed me that I needed to get out there and seek out new music, and not just passively consume what was on the radio.
Sample: Dynamic Syncopation - 2 Tha Left Sample: The Irresistible Force - Nepalese Bliss Sample: Amon Tobin - Down & To The Left

Wow, that was impossible. There are too many good albums out there to limit it to only ten. I pretty much ended up picking at random. I'd like to reiterate that these are not necessarily the best albums of the decade, but rather some of my personal favorites and records that had the most influence on me.

Happy New Year!

The mustache gave me power

I just re-discovered this video of me and my dad doing self defense from July. Note the mustache.

The Chicken Slaughter of 2009

WARNING: This blog post is far from being vegetarian friendly. Those who are squeamish about blood and guts should perhaps find another blog to read for the time being.

Yesterday afternoon, while digging into the Thanksgiving leftovers, I looked at the large turkey carcass on the counter and really tried to look at it for what it was: a big dead animal that used to live and breathe and strut about. I did all the sort of thinking and pondering about the disconnect between source and consumer, and the environmental impact of meat production, and the moral implications of killing an animal, that any good leftie Portland kid should be doing. Then, typically, I shrugged it off and tucked into a hearty helping of dark meat and gravy.


Mere minutes later I got a call from Ida over at the Lazy Onion Urban Farm asking me if I could help slaughter eleven chickens that afternoon. I immediately knew that I would and should say yes, but told her I had to go to the dentist and would think about it and call her back. The largest thing I had ever killed was a trout, and that was over a decade ago. I don't really think of myself as a life taker, and felt conflicted. But I knew I would feel ashamed and hypocritical if I didn't go through with it. Two hours later, I was killing chickens.


There are (or rather, were) over thirty chickens at the farm. Five were enormous broiler chickens who's time had come, and six were elderly laying hens that had stopped producing eggs.

When I arrived, Ida was setting up the "killing cones," which as you can see are just traffic cones (cut wider at the peak so the chickens' heads would fit through) hung over buckets. Also present were some other lovely people named Ben, Kellyn, Kathrine, and later Aaron arrived.

This is me with Harold, the largest of the chickens, Standing high, he came up to my waist. He was one of the first three to be dispatched and the first, and only, chicken I would kill that night.

Here we see Ida lowering the first of the chickens into a killing cone. When chickens are held upside down by their feet they pass out, making it much easier to handle them. We let Ida do all of the steps with the first chicken, learning as we watched and she instructed.

We used the bleed-out method, which consists of cutting their carotid arteries in, hopefully, one swift slice. This is Harold's last moment before I did the deed. I learned quickly that a firm, dedicated stab and slash with a sharp knife was necessary for a quick and humane death. Unfortunately all we had were our pocket knives.

Harold bleeding out. Like humans, Chickens loose consciousness almost immediately upon loss of blood pressure to the brain. Unfortunately the brain stem continues to send innate impulses to the body for some time, resulting in much leg kicking and wing flapping. Harold was an impressive bird and we looked on in silence for a while as he went still. I didn't have any huge emotional event upon my first kill, but it was certainly a moment to be contemplated for some time.


The most bizarre and tedious task was plucking the feathers. First the chickens are submerged in water that is heated to approximately one hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit, and plunged up and down for roughly ninety seconds so the water could seep it's way between the oily feathers to the skin.


We then used a homemade sort-of rubber paddle wheel type contraption attached to an electric drill to quickly remove the feathers. Some birds this worked better than others, and much hand plucking was needed.


Here is the carnage that was the plucking station:




We used a machete to remove the heads and feet. Harold does not look his best here.


Removing the internal organs was highly macabre and rather challenging. Knowing how and where to make the proper incisions took much tutoring on Ida's part. After a good deal of grime and gore and being wrist deep in a dead animal, Harold was ready to be washed, bagged and weighed:

EIGHT POUNDS!!! What a big chicken!

We had killed and processed only three chickens out of eleven and the Sun had long set. We agreed to pick up where we had left it in the morning.

This morning I arrived a bit late and they had already slaughtered three chickens. I brought along some knives that I felt were much more suited for the job. A long, sharp, slim utility knife for the killing; a small but beefy deba bocho for the processing; and my mid range heavy duty Chinese cleaver for removing the head and feet.


One of the organ buckets:

The feathers and feet were all collected for various projects. Here you can see the immense difference in size between the laying hens and the broiler chickens just by comparing their feet side by side:

The blood was used as a fertilizer, the buckets waiting to be washed.


All told, I personally killed six out of eleven chickens. I took Harold home and put him in the freezer for dinner with my family next Sunday.

Dock Ellis & The LSD No-No

I've loved this story ever since I first read about it on boingboing.net a couple years ago. Now I love it even more!

Full disclosure: I lifted this blogpost, lazily, from Blogtown. But such is the way of the blogocube, no?



Song of the Day: Magic Potion, Flunk

Cyclocrossin'

On the invitation of my friend Corin, I went and spectated the annual cyclocross race out at the Portland International Raceway. I knew three of the racers. Below is Trever Spahr in Orange:

For those of you not yet introduces to the sport, let me advise you to go look it up. I know only a little more than you. Basically it's a bunch of crazy people riding their bike at breakneck speeds through a long, muddy, and obstacle-ridden course.


It was raining very wetly, and it was very muddy. Here is Corin in her free Shimano(TM) poncho

The big draw for me was the sweet food karts and the beer.

Waffles! and Beer too!

Here's me and my Waffle! And a crazy hat that I borrowed from Alyssa.
I also ate a taco from Koi Fusion, it was delicious!
The theme was Thunderdome or something so they had this sweet geodesic dome that the course snaked through.


My friends Meghan and Sarah were there too watching my other friend Nissy race

Here's Nissy using a puddle like a giant bird bath after the race:

There was even rock and roll music


It was a lot of fun!



Song of the Day: Damn your eyes, Zap Mama

Panoramica

Kozyndan are/is my favorite artist(s). Check out their latest panorama!




Song of the Day: Roochoo Gumbo , 細野晴臣 (Haruomi Hosono) - I found this song on a play list that Kozyndan released for the purpose of exploring japan during the Summer time. Such a good song!

Teeths

So, my teeth. Effed. I need two extractions, and one cantilevered dental implant supporting two crowns.

It will look like this, but have a forking abutment to support two teeth. This will cost more money than seems reasonable, and will take five months of procedures.

That is all for now.


Song of the Day: Modern Marvel, Mos Def

I went splat

Five days ago on Thursday I spent a lovely evening at my friend Corin's house, eating pizza and drinking beer. I had a very good time. Unfortunately, I had to work the next morning and ducked out early. I went downstairs, unlocked my bike, and set out for home.

I usually cut over to Ankeny st. when biking home from the East, but recently had been making a straight shot down the low traffic of the nighttime Stark st. I did this on Thursday. I had a pleasant, car free ride for ten blocks down Stark, which was half luck of having low traffic, and half my high rate of speed to keep cars from overtaking me. At 25th, alongside Central Catholic High School, I looked back over my shoulder and spotted a car gaining on me from about two blocks away. With the 20th avenue light in my sights, I gunned my speed, desiring to beat the car to the light.

View Larger Map
I stood up on my peddles, and swayed my bike from side to side with my peddle strokes to accelerate. One, two, three quick bursts of power into my gears was as far as I got. Somehow my front tire caught the pavement at an unfriendly angle to the left. The friction overwhelmed my firm hold on the handlebars and instantaneously forced the wheel at a ninety degree angle to the direction I was traveling.

There was nothing to be done. My face impacted the asphalt before I could even consider my situation. A loud crack, and then Blackness.

I have never lost consciousness before. To "black out" is an extremely apt term for this, as Blackness was the overriding sensation; a void total and complete. Yet, somehow this is my most clear memory of the accident.

When I came to I was upside down, still hurtling through space, continuing to my back. I used some unspent momentum to carry myself to a sitting position. Blood fell to the ground between my legs. I quickly explored my visage with my hand and found it ruined. Lacerations, broken teeth, the works. I looked behind me and found my bicycle about six feet away where I had left it. My lights, still flashing, scattered between us.

I scrambled to my feet and dragged my belongings to the curb for fear of being run over by the car that I had initially fled from. It wasn't there. Must have turned off of Stark. At this point I called my Folks at home. My dad received the who, the what, the where, and was speeding towards me in the car before I could groggily relate the why and the how. Two passersby stopped to assist me, did what they could, and I sent them away, assuring them that help was coming.

At this point, I took a picture of my face, wanting to see what caused these people to wrinkle their brow with concern.

Hmm, interesting. I'm not sure what came over me, but I posted it to Facebook while I was waiting for my dad to show up. Almost immediately I was getting calls and text messages.

My dad showed up, gathered me and my things into the car and set out for the hospital. The urgent care was closed at this location, we were sent away to Sunnyside Hospital, seven miles from where we were.

Upon arrival, I was wrapped up like a mummy and almost immediately sent away to get a CT scan.

I was pretty concussed, fading in and out, talking jovially with my dad and the hospital staff.

I was given a bed and a tetanus shot. Then we waited.

A nurse came along and gave me numbing shots directly into my wounds. This was very painful. Then we waited. Another nurse came along and cleaned out my lacerations with saline solution, blasted full power from a special syringe. Then we waited. This is what I looked like at that point.

The Doctor then came along and began to stitch me up. The local anesthetic had worn off while we waited, so it had to be repeated. The stitches were no fun. He finished and left. Then we waited.

I was wheeled into the radiology unit to get X-rays of my shoulder, but my right shoulder was hurting, not my left as it said on my file. They couldn't proceed until the doctor approved so they wheeled me back into my room. Then we waited.
I was certain that I did not need X-rays, having full range of motion in my arm and only muscular soreness. Eventually the Doctor came around and I told him as much. The X-rays were canceled. Then we waited.

Finally a nurse in Portland Trail Blazers scrubs came by to tell us what we needed to know about my Vicodin prescription, and how to watch out for signs of trouble from my concussion. Finally, after hours and hours, we were sent home. I spent the night with my folks so they could keep an eye on me. My poor father had worked a thirteen hour day at his school for open house night and then, upon getting home, promptly set out to pick me up from the side of the road. We got home at 4am. He went and taught school the next day, God bless him.

Now I am recuperating. The Vicodin and Ibuprofen are working wonders. The most trivial of injuries is causing me the most discomfort.

Road rash on my right elbow painfully cracks open every time I move it. My teeth are pretty fucked. I am going to need a root canal, a crown, a filling or cap, and maybe one pulled. None of this can happen for two more weeks as we wait for the swelling to go down.

All and all, I feel much better. Here is how I look today:

Pocket Knife

As you know, I appreciate a good knife. The intersection of function and form (in that order) has always interested me, and knives seem to represent this perfectly. I find a similar beauty in things like chisels or axes, but having very little use for such things in my day to day life disinclines me to them. Thus, it is knives.

I always carry a knife with me. For the past seven years it has been the knife seen above. I bought it at the Shadow House during the 2002 Hawthorne street fair for $20. The design is, in my opinion, beautiful. Unfortunately, the craftsmanship is shoddy, and the steel, shit. Don't get me wrong, I love this knife, I wouldn't have carried it for nearly a third of my life(!) if it didn't serve me well. The last two years or so it has been harder and harder to keep it in good condition; The rivets are popping out and the blade hardly hold an edge. It's time to retire the old guy.

Meet my new knife. It's a Benchmade Shoki. Benchmade is a local knife company that produces some of the finest quality pocket knives available. I'll try not to wax too technical, so I'll say this, the steel and blade design is superior in every way over my old knife, the blade locking mechanism innovative, and the quality of craftsmanship is through the roof. Too, it is wicked sharp.

As you can see, it is smaller than my old knife, which isn't saying much because the old one is pretty large for a pocket knife, coming in just under the legal length for a concealed blade. It's also quite a bit lighter, which is actually a downside; I prefer a more substantial tool in my hand to let me know where it is and what it's doing. It's astonishingly light, about five times lighter than my old knife. I will adjust eventually.




They call it a "gentleman's carry" which is an annoying way of saying it is not particularly rugged, so no screw-drivering or ninja knife throwing for me anytime soon. Which is fine by me.


Song of the Day: Make it Fast, J Dilla feat. Guilty Simpson - This samples heavily from "Make it Fast, Make it Slow" by Di Rob, a Ghanaian funk/rock musician from the 1970's