27 years of favorite albums

Ok, so this is not a list of the best album of each year, rather the album that got stuck in my tape deck/cd player/mp3 player that year and in the case of 1991 this is literal as that tape was stuck all year in the player of my Toyota Cresida til the day I took it to the wrecking yard, I have not listened to "So You Wash Your Face in my Sink" since.

Here we go...

1982 - Michael Jackson - Thriller, my very first cassette & only vinyl I still own, R.I.P.

1983 - Duran Duran - Seven & The Ragged Tiger - cranked this on my ghetto blaster

1984 - Van Halen - 1984 - Jump combined with crazy video play made this easy

1985 - Phil Collins - No Jacket Required - Started to listen to radio & this is what I got

1986 - Beastie Boys - Licenced to Ill -copied this from a friend and drew my own cover

1987 - INXS - Kick - I drank to this album, I made out to this album, I did it all

1988 - Bobby Brown - Don't Be Cruel - pre Whitney back when he wasn't a punchline

1989 - The Beautiful South - Welcome to... - My introduction to Brit Pop

1990 - Stereo Mc's - Supernatural - Saw them open for Happy Mondays, I was sold

1991 - Dream Warriors - And Now the Legacy Begins - and ends

1992 - The Tragically Hip - Fully Completely - Already a huge hip fan, more so after

1993 - The Lowest of the Low - Shakespeare My Butt - University Indie Pop

1994 - The Stone Roses - Second Coming - I was in awe listening to this album

1995 - The Pharcyde - Labcabincalifornia - Just seemed to suit my move to BC

1996 - Sloan - The Good in Everyone - also 1 of my top 5 concerts ever

1997 - The Verve - Urban Hymns - Wow, still a favorite

1998 - Morcheeba - Big Calm - I have some good memories of this album

1999 - BlackStar - BlackStar - The best hip hop album ever released

2000 - Jurassic 5 - Quality Control - I snowboarded with this in my head all winter

2001 - Beta Band - Hot Shots II - Beyond talented and crazy musicians

2002 - Maroon 5 - Songs About Jane - I sang out loud to this every day in my truck

2003 - Norah Jones - Come Away With Me - I was comatose that year

2004 - Mike Clark - Darker Machines - go download this album from iTunes today

2005 - Brendan Benson - The Alternative to Love - Before he met Jack White

2006 - The Strokes - First Impression of Earth - Their 3rd but my first

2007 - Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank - it's stuck in my boat stereo

2008 - Sam Roberts - Love at the End of the World - b/c rock is not dead, it's just Canadian.

2009 - TBA

Blog Soundtrack - My List - The Killers

"Don't tell me what the poets are doing"

The only thing I ever stole was the show

The only lying I ever did was down

The only thing I ever cheated was death

The only thing I ever killed was time

The only heart I ever broke was mine

firebelly 2007

I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me

aagghh, it happened to me, the one thing you know is more about when than if. My computer crashed. My hard drive is completely fried. Gone, are all my files that I was just about to back up, any month now. Now if you're a computer geek you are thinking, alas all is not lost, recovery is always an option. However, I screwed that up to. I sent my laptop away to get repaired and when they put a new hard drive in they failed to notice that I wanted the old hard drive back and is now in some silcone valley land fill. If anybody is reading this...back up all your files right this second...right now...computers have no tolerance for procrastination, there are no extensions available.

Blog Soundtrack - Ok Computer - Radiohead

I told her affection has 2 f's, especially when it deals with me

As I waited for my Grande Latte at one of the hundreds of espresso stops that litter the Pacific Northwest landscape, I couldn't help but notice the hand written signs that adorned the counter and window. The first was a "Karma Cup" sign for those that wish to tip the barrista and the other was a sign that read "Now Hiring... Experiene Perfered". Spelling is one of those things that is so very important to success. Nothing indicates your education level or ambition as much as correct spelling. Why not take the time to re-read what you have written and use spell check or a dictionary, it's so easy and really does go a long way. Now had they written "Need money for school" on the tip jar I may have felt obligated to contribute to the fund.

Blog Soundtrack - Underwhelmed - Sloan

I Read the news today, oh boy

"The message is that there are known knowns, there are things we know that we know, there are known unknowns, that is to say there are things that we know we don't know, but there are also unknown unknowns, there are things we do not know we don't know, and each year we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns."

Donald Rumsfeld - Former US Secretary of Defence

Blog Soundtrack - If You Talk Too Much, My Head Will Explode - People in Planes

Tim Horton's

As a good Canadian should, I love Tim Horton's. I also love going through the drive through window, however, only when it is going to be faster than not going through. Today when I pulled up to Timmy's there was a huge line-up at the drive through, so I parked and went in, and for fun noted the white truck at the end of the line. I went in and ordered the new breakfast sandwich...hmmm... and a large regular coffee. I got my food, sat down at a table, ate my sandwich, enjoyed some coffee and then returned to my truck. The white truck was still in line and hadn't even ordered yet. I wonder, are people that lazy that they would rather sit in line than exit their vehicle, I sure hope he wasn't ordering donuts.

Blog Soundtrack - Hourglass - At the Drive-In

iTunes Album Art

iTunes Album Art

The latest version of iTunes will automatically upload album art for your music as long as you have the original album listed. Seems like a small feature hardly worth mentioning, except for the fact that I'm now addicted to viewing all my music with its coresponding album art. In fact there are many precious hours that I will never re-gain because of my addiction to album art. It has gotten to the point where I will add the name of the EP next to the titletrack just to get more album art. Many soundtracks, compilations and greatest hits albums do not have available album art, so I methodically search out other albums that contain the same track, so that I am not faced with another "Unknown" slide when perusing through the Jukebox view. The Jukebox view is brilliant and even the reflection of the album is captured as if glaring off the jukebox glass. The digital music nayssayers said mp3's would eliminate underated album art, but for me it has rejuvenated the art form.

Blog Soundtrack - Can't Stop Thinking About You - Martin Sexton