Songs/Albums of the Year

In 2006 I probably downloaded and bought more music than ever before. This is partially because of my eMusic subscription, the new amazing Counterpoint amp/pre-amp donated by Ian, my new Monitor Audio speakers and too much spent alone in my office studio. It was also a great year for music. Here are some of my favorites; some of them may have come out before 2006:

Pangea -- Some Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

"We used to be together, why'd we have to drift apart?"

Great album. Highly recommended.

"Music Is My Hot Hot Sex" -- CSS

Super cute Brazilian chick band; this song has a great beat you can dance to. Saw them live at Mezzanine earlier this year. I always admire the bravery crowd surfing in a mini-skirt requires.

"Enough to Get Away -- Joseph Arthur

Great phrasing and feel to this one. He defies categorization but has a nice 70s thing going. I love the 70s; that's when I was born.

"Notice" -- Gomez

Don't care for the whole album but this sad song really gets me everytime.

"Not California" -- Hem

A perfect sad song complete with mention of the state of my pre-occupation. The last two lines and how they're delivered are really stunning.

"Young Folks" -- Peter Bjorn and John

2006 was a very good year for Swedish music. This one is a standout: great bass line, bongos, 60's production and singing with help from the Concretes Victoria Bergsman. You should really check this out along with the perfectly matched video.

Knives Don't Have Your Back -- Emily Haines

Favorites tracks on this one: Our Hell and Reading in Bed.

Novel Bibliographies

NYTimes article on the rise of bibliographies for novels. I think this is great.

The article focuses on historical fiction, but I've always wanted to add a bibliography to my (unpublished) and very not historical novel, The Center of California. My bibliography would have books that inspired me to write it either before or during and music I listened to while writing. I found that I would listen to many of the same CDs during writing time and lyrics from those albums would find their way into the book. I as a reader would love to have this information. This is the kind of stuff that I live for.

I suppose besides a bibliography what might make more sense is this type of information on the author's blog or web site. When (not if!) I publish a novel, I plan on doing this. Anyway, enough nerding out for the day.

Update on vineyard

Vineyard getting done
Originally uploaded by Amanda McPherson.

Here's an updated shot on our mini-vineyard in Dobbins at M's parents place. They're all planted. Now we need to figure out what to do with them.