Top 20 albums

After an unusually quiet week last week I had a exciting and stimulating weekend filled with music, performances and friends. Friday night was my company's annual picnic, but since Puck couldn't make it this year, I didn't stick around for very long. I bid on a few silent auction items, but didn't win anything, and I didn't do the drawing this year (which resulted in a free hair cut and color appointment for Puck two years ago).

Saturday started out cloudy and cool, so I walked over to Ess-a-Bagel for brunch and then took the subway down to The Rack to pick up another dress on which I had alterations done. I walked through the Greenmarket in Union Square and picked up some cider and pickles before heading home for a nap before it was time to meet Kristina to try the Hedwig lottery. Kristina was very optimistic going in, and I was the third name picked! Our tickets were fifth row orchestra left, and a few seats in from the aisle.

We came back to TSMC to chat for the 90 minutes before the show and then headed back down at 7. Such are the advantages of living three blocks from the theater! The show was fun and the music was great, but I had some trouble following the plot as it was difficult to hear some of the dialogue. But it was a solid rock show and I'm glad I got to see it. We went out for dinner at John's Shanghai afterward - our usual adventuresome choices of soup dumplings and beef tongue and tripe in chili oil (Kristina's first time eating beef tongue).

Sunday Liz invited me to Union Square for Diana Oh's "My Lingerie Play" performance that consists of about 30 women wearing undergarments standing in a line on their soapboxes and holding up signs denouncing rape culture and supporting female sexual empowerment. Kacey, Becker and Storm were also there to document the event. Liz performed in a cute (and modest) yellow polka-dot nightgown. I could only stay for about half an hour before I had to leave for Williamsburg to attend Classic Album Sundays, which featured one of my all time favorite albums this month, Jeff Buckley's "Grace."

As a special bonus, the event featured Gary Lucas, the co-writer and guitarist for the first two tracks, "Mojo Pin" and "Grace," who signed my vinyl copy of the album and performed after the listening session with singer Caroline Cotto. They did live acoustic renditions of the two songs from the album, and Gary performed a few additional compositions of his own on guitar. It was such a privilege to listen to the artist that contributed to such an important work as "Grace." Since of course Buckley perished in a swimming accident after recording this singular debut album, this is about as close as we can get to an authentic performance of this work.

CAS this month inspired me to think about making a list of my top all-time favorite/most influential albums. Also, it's been fueled by all the lists of movies and books that have been making the rounds on Facebook recently. So for my album list, I wanted to include those that are more than just a bunch of hits (e.g. Michael Jackson's Thriller) and lean more toward albums that are constructed as a coherent work with an overarching theme, both musically and topically. Not every album on the list is like that, but when it came to choosing one over another, I put more weight on albums that met this criteria. I also tried to limit it to one album per artist (which is why there's only one Beatles album).

So my Top 20, in ascending order, looks like this - it's a pretty even mix from my old and new lives. Comments about each are below the list.

20.  Bridge Across Forever – Transatlantic

19.  Weather Systems – Anathema

18.  Deadwing – Porcupine Tree

17.  Very – Pet Shop Boys

16.  Talk – Yes

15.  Rain – Joe Jackson

14.  Hotel California – The Eagles

13.  Purple Rain – Prince

12.  Paramore – Paramore

11.  Remain in Light – Talking Heads

10. Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd

9.  Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morisette

8.  Ten – Pearl Jam

7.  Synchronicity – The Police

6.  The Beekeeper – Tori Amos

5.  The Joshua Tree – U2

4.  Avalon – Roxy Music

3.  Disintegration – The Cure

2.  Grace – Jeff Buckley

1.  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club – Beatles

20. Transatlantic is kind of an All-Star progressive rock supergroup, featuring big names in the Third Wave of Prog: Neal Morse (keyboards/vocals, Spock's Beard), Roine Stolt (guitarist/vocals, Flower Kings), Mike Portnoy (drummer, Dream Theater), and Pete Trewevas (bassist, Marillion). I love all of these bands, but this album that blends the elements of Spock's Beard, Flower Kings, Dream Theater and Marillion is my favorite complete work among all of them.

19. I discovered Anathema from their label's sampler CD. K-Scope is the same label as Porcupine Tree and lead singer/solo artist Steven Wilson. Here's a great song-by-song review of this remarkable album.

18. The hardest thing to pick is a favorite album from your favorite band, but this one is probably the album I would give to anyone as an introduction to this awesome British prog rock band.

17. I've been a fan of the Pet Shop Boys since they released their first album "Please" in 1986, the year I graduated from high school (yes, I'm that old, biologically speaking). Over the years my interest has waxed and waned, but this album (regrettably, I lost the original pressing in the fire that included an EP called "Relentless" that is out of print and quite valuable as a rarity) has always stuck with me as the group's most fully realized work. Read a great track-by-track review written for the album's 20th anniversary last year.

16. The only Yes album I owned for the longest time was "90125" and that was pretty much all I knew about this timeless prog-rock band. But when I met Tara, she changed that completely by introducing me to "The Yes Album," "The Ladder" and this album that came right after 90125 but didn't do as well commercially. The final 15-minute song is what really sets this album apart, spanning three distinct movements like an symphonic tone poem that echos the rest of the songs on the album.

15. Most people only know piano man Joe Jackson from his 80s hit, "Steppin' Out." But this more recent offering from 2008 is a terrific work that evokes life in New York with irresistible musical hooks.

14. One of the pure concept albums on this list, "Hotel California" tells the familiar story of the new kid in town seeking fame and fortune, being seduced by the perils and perks of rock stardom. It's a uberstatement on celebrity excess drawn with such skill it becomes a surreal grotesque. One of the top all-time sellers in music history as well.

13. "Purple Rain" is arguably the best movie soundtrack of all time. It's too bad the movie is so awful. I wish someone would remake the movie and just use the stage performances to tell a different story that doesn't require the rest of the cast or the plot. Prince is pure energy on stage.

12. Paramore's self-titled latest album is a musical tour-de-force, and a breakup album reminiscent of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors" (a near miss for this list). The band lost its original rhythm section and emerged with its most mature and consistent work, punctuated by short confessional interstials performed on ukelele by lead singer Haley Williams.

11. This was one of the key milestones in last year's musical renaissance for me ("How Mischa got her groove back" - April 25, 2013). It's one of only a handful of albums I have actually purchased on both CD and vinyl (#s 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 12 and 13 are most of the others).

10. This is actually the first and only Pink Floyd album I've ever owned. It covers the same theme as #14 - perhaps even more intensely and subtly.

9. "Jagged Little Pill" has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most successful debut albums ever made. This hugely influential album has a knack for bringing listeners into the center of the storm of the singer's anger. Listen to that bass line in "Hand in My Pocket" - it's one of my favorite moments on this unrelenting album.

8. One of the vanguards of the 90s grunge movement following the path blazed by Nirvana, this rousing debut by Pearl Jam is inspired by Eddie Vedder reflecting on his own life. When he was a teenager, his mother told him that the man he thought was his father was actually his stepfather, and that his biological father had died years before.

7. One of my all-time favorite bands, and one of only three artists that I've owned every commercially released album they've ever made (Paramore and Taylor Swift are the other two), "Synchronicity" marks the apex of a journey that started with the post-punk reggae beats of "Fall Out" and "Roxanne." What's more notable is that after this album and becoming the biggest rock band in the world, the trio concluded it had exhausted the artistic possibilities and they walked away. But they proved that a rock band could pursue challenging, defiantly non-commercial musical ideas and still thrill an awful lot of people.

6. I'm a recently acquired Tori Amos fan, so I didn't grow up on her edgy, angry phase that most of her longtime fans enjoy. This lush, lyrical album was my introduction to her music, and remains a standard for showcasing diverse musical styles on a single cohesive work.

5. "The Joshua Tree" is U2's vision quest of sorts when they outgrew their scrappy underdog image that fueled their early crusading albums like "War" and "The Unforgettable Fire." With this album, U2 redirected its crusade from outrage at external forces to confronting the existential void inside the human spirit.

4. Still the best make-out album for my money, this album recasts the pop song as a realm of lush, never-ending tactile pleasures. Roxy Music's final offering is one of the most sumptuous listening experiences to come out of the 1980s - hypnotically, gorgeously languid and striking for its depth. Listening to my rare, out-of-print Super Audio CD multi-channel copy of the album brings these qualities to even greater depths, although the analog record has its own unique charms.

3. From #4's sounds of love we come to The Cure's paean to loss, possibly the most deliciously depressing album by any singer who didn't commit suicide (e.g. Joy Division). The Cure mastered the formula pioneered by The Smiths of the gloomy lead singer backed by an incongruously breezy band playing catchy, pop-friendly tunes. Despite the overwhelmingly gloomy tone, almost every song is instantly hummable and a perfect balance of pain and musical joy.

2. "Grace" stands alone in 90s rock. It's a showcase for an unforgettably poised singing voice, locating a fertile ground between classic rock and post-grunge. Buckley took the outbursts of Nirvana and surrounded them with the elegant, yearning melodies reminiscent of the late Beatles. Lost to a swimming accident in 1997 at the age of 30, we can only speculate how much more this singular talent could have influenced the musical universe. With only this one full album completed before his untimely death, Buckley showed several generations that profoundly new rock music doesn't have to reject wholesale what came before.

1. This album was probably the first rock album I ever heard as a child because before I actually started collecting music I listened to library records. Most of the records in my local library were classical recordings, and this was probably one of the few popular titles available to check out. Of course the psychedelic cover proved irresistible for my young eyes. Certainly it's hard to listen to this album now with fresh ears, shed of the "All Time Best" estimations and the endless accolades that have attached, like barnacles, to it and encounter it on your own terms. But if you can do it, there's nothing more creative and satisfying in rock music - from its iconic and innovative gatefold jacket to its haunting leadout groove after the final track, "A Day in the Life."

Sound of Musak

One of my least favorite parts about the holiday season is the inescapable holiday music in public spaces, especially in Penn Station. The "background music" in Penn is always bothersome to me, but during the holidays it seems like they turn it up even louder.

What I completely don't understand is what is wrong with having no music at all. It's a train station, not a cocktail party. If anyone wants to listen to music, there are plenty of ways to hear your own through headphones. It's like we have an unnatural aversion to silence, or simply hearing ambient noise.

One thing Evelyn Glennie demonstrates in her documentary ("Touch the Sound" - Oct. 31, 2011) ambient sound can be interesting and beautiful in its own right. It's also so much more authentic than having someone else's music forced through your ears. I imagine it's worse if you are a fan of Baroque music to be hearing it constantly in Penn.

In Milan Kundera's book "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" there's a section about music (starting on page 92 in my version of the book) that describes the character Sabina's dislike of music for similar reasons:

"Noise masked as music had pursued her since early childhood. During her years at the Academy of Fine Arts, students had been required to spend whole summer vacations at a youth camp. They lived in common quarters and worked together on a steelworks construction site. Music roared out of loudspeakers on the site from five in the morning to nine at night. She felt like crying, but the music was cheerful, and there was nowhere to hide, not in the latrine or under the bedclothes: everything was in range of the speakers. The music was like a pack of hounds that had been sicked on her.

At the time, she had thought that only in the Communist world could such musical barbarism reign supreme. Abroad, she discovered that the transformation of music into noise was a planetary process by which mankind was entering the historical phase of total ugliness. The total ugliness to come had made itself felt first as omnipresent acoustical ugliness: cars, motorcycles, electric guitars, drills, loudspeakers, sirens. The omnipresence of visual ugliness would soon follow."

I'm also reminded of the lyrics for Porcupine Tree's song, Sound of Muzak: "Soul gets squeezed out / Edges get blunt / Demographic / Gives what you want"

It's ironic that they could write such a good song about how people don't seem to care about music anymore. If you'd like to hear the song and see my favorite drummer Gavin Harrison at work, check out the video below:

Watching Gavin makes me long to play the drums again, and I've been tempted to buy a small electronic kit (since playing acoustic drums in an apartment isn't very practical). The only thing that stops me is that I don't really have the space for it. I might look at some over at Sam Ash next week and just see if there's a small kit that can easily be stowed away when not in use - we'll see.

Taylor Swift

I’m rather ashamed to admit it, but I’ve been listening to Taylor Swift’s new album a lot lately. It’s so cotton candy fluff, it makes my teeth hurt. But it’s also carefully designed to speak to the inner girl in all her fans. I actually only got the album because I was a few dollars short of a free shipping credit from Amazon when I bought my most recent Y: The Last Man book online.

Speak Now is almost an exact reproduction of the successful formula she established with her last album Fearless, which has sold nearly 10 million copies worldwide and won two Grammys. Both opening tracks (“Fearless” and “Mine”) speak of a perfect love. Both closing tracks (“Change” and “Long Live”) are new generation anthems.

Both have childhood songs (“The Best Day” and “Never Grow Up”); fantasy love songs (“Love Story” and “Enchanted”); songs about longing (“You Belong with Me” and “Speak Now”); reminiscing about lost love (“The Way I Loved You” to “Back to December”); and plenty of breakup songs (“You’re Not Sorry” to “Dear John”, “White Horse” to “The Story of Us” and “Forever & Always” to “Last Kiss”).

Anyway, tonight is the first (hopefully) annual Open Love NY holiday party. We’ve come a long way as an organization since Polina and I planned her 19th birthday party together as the first OLNY public event. I wish she could be here tonight to be a part of it – she deserves as much credit as anyone for getting this train out of the station. Tonight I’m wearing the pendant she gave me for our anniversary, just so I’ll remember that.

The Way I Loved You

Taylor Swift has been in the news a lot lately, and I've been listening non-stop to her album Fearless since I checked it out of the library last week. But while I like all the tracks, the one song that is on my mind at the moment is track 10, "The Way I Loved You."

As you can see from the lyrics if you click on the link, the song is about how someone can have a seemingly perfect relationship and somehow long for a volatile and tumultuous one that develops somewhat equal parts of both pain and passion. And this is interesting to me because both Polina and I have one thing in common - we both recently ended ex-relationships that fit this description. But having gone through them, we've also both realized that we're not the sort who long to have that kind of relationship back.

It remains to be seen for both of us if our aversion to relationship drama will extend into future relationships, since we are both open to dating new people. But for now, I think we both appreciate how our relationship has become one that is stable, nurturing, positive and transparent. We work closely on specific issues together to improve our communication, and we both put forth effort to meet each other's needs.

But I think the big secret to the success of our relationship so far is our ability to enjoy the present, to live in the moment, and not to dwell or obsess over future scenarios or obstacles we have yet to face. If our relationship works well on many different levels over a long period of time, we can eventually overcome a lot of the issues that seem insurmountable right now. But for right now, we focus on loving each other as best we can, and letting the future unfold as it will.

An embarrassing first date

So the job search is ramping up to high gear of late, which is a welcome distraction while Polina is away in Switzerland. However, she has been very good about calling me on Skype and videochatting with me regularly, so I don't miss her too too much.

The interview in Princeton went very well. The company is really in the middle of nowhere, smack dab in a giant corporate complex about 18 miles from the New Jersey Turnpike. They have a big trading floor that you can see behind glass as soon as you walk in the lobby, and the rest of the offices are open desks with no walls whatsoever. Not really my preferred environment, but I can't really be picky about that. My recruiter who set up the interview followed up afterwards and reported this morning that they really liked me, and thought I was a good candidate, but they are just starting their search and they want to see some more people. This is actually okay for me because I have a couple other interviews I want to explore before I'm required to make a decision.

The Midtown PR agency let me know they were not going to offer me a position, so that's a dead end there. I'm waiting to hear more from a phone interview I had last Thursday since the interviewer went on vacation for a week after she talked to me. Then I have another phone interview on Tuesday for a new position being created by an insurance brokerage company, one that reports directly to a CEO. That's a pretty exciting opportunity, so we'll see how that pans out next week.

In other personal news, I had my first date with someone new since I started dating Polina almost a year ago. My friend Vivek, who runs the cricket meetup group I participate in ("My first cricket game" - July 8, 2009) asked me out to Lolita Bar on the Lower East Side near my old burlesque studio. I planned to go directly after my Women's Poly Meetup Group on Tuesday, and I did, but we ran quite long so I turned up almost an hour late. It also started pouring down rain when I was about two blocks away, so I got drenched and showed up looking like a drowned rat. To add to my embarrassment, he was dressed nicely in a suit and dress shirt, and I was wearing just a t-shirt, skirt and sandals. He seemed to take it all in stride and we had a nice time talking about all manner of topics. He lives in Jersey City and runs his own mergers and acquisitions firm with a partner, matching up companies that do IT outsourcing in India. We'll try to get the group together on Tuesday after my phone interview to have another cricket practice, and maybe I can get him to go with me to Brick Lane Curry House, which was recently featured on Man vs. Food, to eat some spicy food.

I've been captivated lately by Regina Spektor's last album, Begin to Hope, which I checked out of the library a few months back and listened to, but wasn't impressed with it at the time. This time, her quirky lyrics and quasi-electronic folk music have caught on with me. Maybe I will find a copy of her latest release, Far, and give that a listen as well. I am also now more than halfway through my collection of Ranma 1/2 DVDs, just starting Season 3 now. Even after all this time, they still make me laugh. Maybe after I'm done with those, I'll finally get to watching the first two seasons of The L Word, which is the only remaining TV series I own on DVD that I haven't watched yet.

All for now. Hopefully I will have some good news on my job search the next time I post.

My life according to U2

Here's a clever little meme that has been going around the Internet that I thought I'd share in case anyone else wants to try it. Polina did one for Red Hot Chili Peppers that made me laugh.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions.

Pick Your Artist:
U2

Are you male or female?
Even Better Than the Real Thing

Describe Yourself:
Can't Help Falling in Love (a cover from the soundtrack to Honeymoon in Vegas)

How do you feel:
Running to Stand Still

Describe where you currently live:
Where the Streets Have No Name

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
The Playboy Mansion

Your favorite form of transportation:
Fast Cars

Your best friend is:
Out of Control

You and your best friends are:
In God's Country

What's the weather like:
Indian Summer Sky

Favorite time of day:
11 O'Clock Tick Tock

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Pride (In the Name of Love)

What is life to you:
Some Days are Better Than Others

Your relationship:
Love is Blindness/Desire

Your fear:
Wake Up Dead Man (i.e. killer zombies)

What is the best advice you have to give:
Peace on Earth

Thought for the Day:
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

How I would like to die:
If God Would Send His Angels

My soul's present condition:
White As Snow

My Motto:
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Buffy vs. Edward Cullen

As a fan of both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight, this has to be the funniest remix I've ever seen! In this brilliantly edited clip by Rebellious Pixels, Edward Cullen shows up at Sunnydale High and tries to put the moves on Buffy Summers, who sees right through his sparkly facade, shutting him down at every opportunity, leading to an epic final battle between Slayer and vampire.

I've been ripping a lot of music from DVD today, taking advantage of an unusually stable computer. I completed two of my favorite Crossroads episodes - Taylor Swift and Def Leppard, and Sara Evans and Maroon 5 - plus the Peter Gabriel's Growing Up Live concert and started on Yes: Live From House of Blues. For those of you who don't know, Crossroads is a show where country music artists pair up with rock or pop bands and do a mash-up of sorts - Robert Plant and Alison Krauss was one of the most well-known and successful pairings. I especially like this song "Love Story" by Taylor Swift which works wonderfully as a duet with Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott. Plus any song channeling Shakespeare can't be all bad, right?

Taylor Swift More CMT Music More CMT Music Videos

Kubrick and Concrete Blonde

Yesterday I watched a documentary on one of my favorite film directors called Stanley Kubrick: A Life In Pictures. It was a fascinating portrait of his life, told through people close to him and those who worked with him - actors such as Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Modine, Malcolm McDowell, Shelley Duvall, and others. I wrote a paper on Kubrick for a film studies class in college, so I've been a fan for a long time. Among great directors, I think only Alfred Hitchcock comes to mind as similarly influential and congruent with my cinematic tastes. Of course modern directors like Steven Spielberg (who collaborated with Kubrick on A.I. Artificial Intelligence), Ridley Scott, Peter Jackson, Woody Allen and David Fincher stand out as auteurs in their own right, but only time will tell if they achieve the immortality that Kubrick will be remembered for.

I went to the record store today and got an old CD I've been thinking about, Bloodletting by Concrete Blonde, a dark, goth-y work that was definitely the high-water mark for this band. Probably most people have heard their hit "Joey" from this album, or their cover of Leonard Cohen's song "Everybody Knows," which was on the soundtrack for the Christian Slater movie "Pump Up the Volume", another CD I used to have. I also used to have a CD single of the song "Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man" that included both "Everybody Knows" and an extended version of "Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)" that included some nice atmospheric effects like a distant clock tower and footsteps on a wet cobblestone street that evoked images of the Whitechapel District of London in Victorian times. Cool stuff.

Today I also went to the Verizon store myself (a day after taking Penny to the one in Staten Island) because my phone was starting to malfunction and it was time for a replacement. I opted for the Samsung Alias 2, which has a cool E-ink keyboard similar to those used on electronic book readers like the Kindle. It allows the phone to display both vertical and horizontal keyboards, depending on which way you open the phone. I like it because it doesn't have an exterior touch screen (which I don't trust to remain undamaged) and the keyboard is easy to use for text messaging. I also finally got a texting package so I don't have to pay for every message like I used to.

All for now - back to watching my collection of Kubrick movies.

Music I-IV

When Tara and I were first starting to get to know each other, she gave me a set of four CDs of music that she called Music I-IV. It was a real-time mix of music from artists such as Michael Franti, Saul Williams, Keith Jarrett, Jan Garbarek & the Hilliard Ensemble, Jon Anderson, King Crimson, Dream Theater, and many others. As I said, she created it in real-time, listening to each track and deciding in the moment what song should come next, until it reached its natural conclusion. I listened to it for the first time in much the same way, playing it non-stop on my iPod during my cross-country drive from Houston to Los Angeles in June 2005.

I sent my friend Linda my own version of Music I-IV this week, a set of four CDs that I've blogged about the past several months - Porcupine Tree, Songs from and inspired by Twilight, Music for a New Life, and Live in Concert. Played in this order, these four mixes represent a musical journey that I've taken in the past year or so. I did update the two older mixes, and customized the third one since Linda went out and bought Jeff Buckley's Grace album already, so those track listings are now as follows:

Porcupine Tree Mix
Nil Recurring
Halo
Blackest Eyes
Trains
Arriving Somewhere But Not Here
Open Car
Anesthetize
Lazarus
Prodigal
Shallow
What Happens Now?

This mix I've given to several people besides Bee, and the updated version shown here includes two tracks from the band's latest EP, Nil Recurring, which I purchased at the Beacon Theater the last time we saw them in concert.

Twilight Mix
Decode by Paramore
Spotlight (Twilight Mix) by Mute Math
Supermassive Black Hole by Muse
Leave Out All the Rest by Linkin Park
Eyes on Fire by Blue Foundation
Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine
The Scientist by Coldplay
Brighter by Paramore
World In My Eyes by Depeche Mode
In the End by Linkin Park
Sweet Sacrifice by Evanescence
Miracle by Paramore
Vicarious by Tool
Assassin by Muse
My Heart by Paramore
Lovesong for a Vampire by Annie Lenox

I've said that the lasting impact of the Twilight phenomenon might be its soundtrack, which introduced many listeners to bands such as Paramore, Linkin Park, Muse and Blue Foundation and revived a genre called alternative/gothic rock epitomized by records like After Dark from Barnes & Noble, and the original soundtrack to Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

A key addition to my mix is the last song by Annie Lenox, a gross oversight considering the title. This track is from the original soundtrack to Bram Stoker's Dracula, but I first came across it on the CD maxi-single of Annie Lenox's song "Little Bird" (now out of print). Aside from being one of the most beautiful songs that no one's ever heard of, this track has extremely strong low bass energy that requires subwoofers to do justice. The "beating heart" pulse extends well below 20hz, as I've discovered from playing it on the various subwoofers I've owned or lived with, including a 2 x 12-inch custom Soundstream box in my old car, a Miller & Kreisel MX-200 2 x 12-incher in my parents' home theater, a Muse 18-incher in a friend's apartment, a pair of Velodyne FSR-12 servo subs in my old house and my current system which includes two Outlaw LFM-1 Plus 12-inch subs (although only one is hooked up). Reproduced properly, the heartbeat can be felt throughout your whole body and adds a visceral dimension to a hauntingly lovely song.

Music for a New Life mix
Everyone Deserves Music - Michael Franti & Spearhead
Three of a Perfect Pair - King Crimson
It Will Be A Good Day (The River) - Yes
Settling - Tara MacLean
Forget Her - Jeff Buckley
Day for Night - Spock's Beard
Let Me Live - Queen
Sleeps With Butterflies - Tori Amos
Between the Wheels - Rush
Between You and Me - Marillion
Growing Up - Peter Gabriel
Remember - Roine Stolt
Bad - U2
Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap

On this mix I swapped out "Dream Brother" and "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley for his track "Forget Her" and "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap because Linda already has the first two Buckley tracks from his album Grace ("Forget Her" is a bonus track that is only available on the Legacy Edition). But for anybody else, I would definitely substitute "Dream Brother" for "Forget Her."

The Live Music Mix is exactly the same as I blogged about a couple weeks ago:

1. Here Comes The Flood by Peter Gabriel (from Growing Up Live DVD)
2. Secret World by Peter Gabriel (from Growing Up Live DVD)
3. Lavender by Marillion (from Strange Bedfellows and Assorted Embarrassments 2)
4. Shadow Of The Day by Linkin Park (from Road to Revolution)
5. Jigga What / Faint by Linkin Park & Jay Z (from Road to Revolution)
6. Head Like A Hole by Nine Inch Nails (from And All That Could Have Been)
7. Open Car by Porcupine Tree (from Arriving Somewhere DVD)
8. Halo by Porcupine Tree (from Arriving Somewhere DVD)
9. One by U2 (from U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle DVD)
10. Hallelujah by Paramore (from The Final RIOT!)
11. Misery Business by Paramore (from The Final RIOT!)
12. Disintegration by The Cure (from Pictures of You CD single)
13. Time Is Running Out by Muse (from Absolution Tour DVD)
14. Take A Bow by Muse (from H.A.A.R.P.)

I've done some nice packaging for these four CDs (Polina and Tara have seen some of them) and to make it a set, I wrapped the four of them up in some handmade paper, tied with string and sealed with wax:



I've had a great time with this musical exploration and playing with the creative design and packaging of my mixes. It's something I will continue to pursue and share with people close to me.

Live music mix

I've been tinkering with my mix of live music for a couple weeks now, and I think I finally have settled on a lineup that works. There's so much good music in my DVD library that I haven't even heard yet that I'm sure this will be a double CD someday, but here's my first disc track listing:

1. Here Comes The Flood by Peter Gabriel (from Growing Up Live DVD)
2. Secret World by Peter Gabriel (from Growing Up Live DVD)
3. Lavender by Marillion (from Strange Bedfellows and Assorted Embarrassments 2)
4. Shadow Of The Day by Linkin Park (from Road to Revolution)
5. Jigga What / Faint by Linkin Park & Jay Z (from Road to Revolution)
6. Head Like A Hole by Nine Inch Nails (from And All That Could Have Been)
7. Open Car by Porcupine Tree (from Arriving Somewhere DVD)
8. Halo by Porcupine Tree (from Arriving Somewhere DVD)
9. One by U2 (from U2 Go Home: Live from Slane Castle DVD)
10. Hallelujah by Paramore (from The Final RIOT!)
11. Misery Business by Paramore (from The Final RIOT!)
12. Disintegration by The Cure (from Pictures of You CD single)
13. Time Is Running Out by Muse (from Absolution Tour DVD)
14. Take A Bow by Muse (from H.A.A.R.P.)

All of these are live tracks by the artists performing them in concert - some of them were taken from CDs, others from DVDs using the setup I described recently ("Dreams, job hunting and poker" - March 25, 2009). Mostly my criteria was picking music where the artist added something special or significant to the performance that wasn't there on the original studio track, which is the hallmark of a good performer. Here are some comments about each one:

1 and 2 - Peter Gabriel puts on rock concerts that resemble Broadway blockbuster shows. His two DVD concerts, Secret World Live and Growing Up Live, are among the best concert videos in my collection. The first song, Here Comes The Flood, opens the later concert with a heartfelt solo voice and piano, while Secret World is my favorite track, with its pulse-pounding dynamics.

3 - This is the only version of this song I've ever heard, and it's one of Marillion's most beautiful ballads which happens to be a live recording. It's a song Tara shared with me when I was still in Houston and more than any other song here, it reminds me of when we were falling in love.

4 and 5 - The Linkin Park CD/DVD is one of the most exciting, visceral concerts I've seen in a while, with a killer set list. Every song is worth hearing, and they even include three hidden bonus tracks that unlock if you watch the whole DVD. Shadow Of The Day is the first song I heard from them that I liked, maybe because it has a cool U2 vibe, and Jigga What / Faint is an encore with rapper Jay Z that has great energy to wrap up the show.

6 - This song I threw in at the last minute. It's an old song from 1989, on an album I used to own, Pretty Hate Machine, the debut album of Nine Inch Nails. But this live version of this classic song hits so much harder than the studio version.

7 and 8 - Taken from Porcupine Tree's only available concert DVD, Open Car includes an extra bridge verse that Tara says makes the album version unlistenable to her now. The live version of Halo showcases more of Gavin Harrison, two-time winner of Modern Drummer's Drummer of the Year award.

9 - The story goes that while recording the album Achtung Baby, Bono and the Edge wanted to go for a more electronic sound, while Adam and Larry wanted to stick to their rock roots. Edge came up with a riff that turned into this song, which saved the band from breaking up. U2's concert filmed at Slane Castle in Ireland is my favorite of the half-dozen U2 concerts in my collection, and with this song they added additional verses at the end that improve on the already-stellar studio version.

10 and 11 - Compared to the other artists on this list Paramore is definitely a lightweight act being so young and inexperienced, but I liked the way they covered Leonard Cohen's classic Hallelujah as an intro to their own song of the same name. But of course, Jeff Buckley's version still reigns supreme. While Misery Business is not one of my favorite tunes, it was one of their better performances, and both songs have not appeared on any of my previous mixes, so I made space for them.

12 - Disintegration is one of my all-time favorite albums, and this title track was taken from a CD single of Pictures of You, a song that reminds me of Agnieszka Prime. By stepping up the tempo and intensity, the band dramatically improves on the album version of this song.

13 and 14 - Time Is Running Out was the first song I ever heard from Muse, and I didn't like it right away, but it grew on me. This was the version I heard, taken from the special edition of the Black Holes and Revelations CD which included a concert DVD filmed in Glastonbury. For this one song, I liked their performance on this DVD, but in every other way, the H.A.A.R.P. concert DVD from Wembley Stadium blows it away. Take A Bow was the show's closing number, and I love the way it crescendos to such a tremendous climax at the end. You've probably heard the song recently used in movie trailers for the film Watchmen, which I thought was very appropriate.

I kissed a girl

Only two weeks until Polina comes back. I like this song so much better than Katy Perry's song of the same title. Click on the link below to hear it.
I Kissed A Girl - Jill Sobule

Cool music

"Love's hard to come by, Edward; you should never throw
it away just because it's a bad idea." - vampire executioner
Anita Blake in The Harlequin

Is it any wonder that with opinions like these, Anita Blake has become my new favorite fictional character? And love is hard to come by, at least for me.

Anyway, it's my second month of true unemployment (where I'm not receiving my salary) and the pressure is starting to wear on me a bit. Unemployment benefits help pay the bills, but I'm finding the job market a lot tougher than it was back in 2006. I just hope something turns up soon. On that note, Bug also lost her job last week, so we are all feeling the pinch together.

We all went to Hartford, Connecticut last Friday for Tara's gig held at a club that used to be a Spaghetti Warehouse. It brought back memories of the one I used to go to in downtown Houston that was in a real, authentic historical building. It was a smaller crowd that I think we were expecting, but the music was good. A girl came up to me while I was watching the band and said it was the first time she'd heard them and she absolutely loved the music. She wanted to know if I followed the band, and I explained that I was a friend of the drummer. Here's a picture of me at the gig, just because I don't often expose cleavage in photos!



Oh, and by Colleen's request, here's a closeup picture of my new ear piercing and my new glasses that I took when I got home that night:



Speaking of catching up on things, I wanted to share my list of cool music that I started building at Imbolc ("Imbolc" - Feb. 3, 2009). I was waiting for Tara to hear it so it would be a surprise, and I got to play it for her on one of our trips to Hartford, so here is the track listing:

1. Everyone Deserves Music - Michael Franti & Spearhead
2. Three of a Perfect Pair - King Crimson
3. It Will Be A Good Day (The River) - Yes
4. Settling - Tara MacLean
5. Dream Brother - Jeff Buckley
6. Day for Night - Spock's Beard
7. Let Me Live - Queen
8. Sleeps With Butterflies - Tori Amos
9. Between the Wheels - Rush
10. Between You and Me - Marillion
11. Growing Up - Peter Gabriel
12. Remember - Roine Stolt
13. Bad - U2
14. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley

Movies and music

I filed my income tax returns for federal, New York and New Jersey today - it's the first time I've done my own returns in decades. Of course, the last couple of years have been a bit complicated due to my shifting life circumstances, so I preferred to get professional help. In 2008, as I've said, my life has been reasonably stable, so I thought it would be nice to save some money on tax filing.

Yesterday I went out to the movies by myself and saw Slumdog Millionaire, the Best Picture Oscar winner this year. The only thing I can say is that it's a good movie, but it reminds me so much of Forrest Gump, but set in India. It's a tale of an extraordinary life, a lifelong love, and overcoming the obstacles set in our path. It's an enjoyable ride, but not really the kind of movie that I'd see over and over again.

I've also made plans to go down to Fort Washington outside of Philadelphia on March 1-2 for the Second National Polyamory Leadership Summit. It's a follow-up to a meeting in New York that I was invited to help moderate back in October following PolyPride, but I couldn't attend because we had plans to visit MOMA that day. We're expecting about 40-50 poly leaders from all around the country to discuss the future of the movement and how we want to move forward with a unified purpose.

I've been listening a lot to my live concerts of Linkin Park and Muse that I got for Christmas, and it's inspired me to think about putting together a mix of live concert music from different bands. Those bands, plus U2, Rush, Porcupine Tree, Peter Gabriel and Jeff Buckley, have incredible performances on DVD that deserve to be heard as much as their studio recordings. The trick is to capture those performances on mp3 so I can put them on a CD. I have the equipment to do it, but wiring it all up is a bit daunting, so it's something I'll let marinate for a bit.

I also pre-ordered the Borders special edition of Twilight on DVD which comes out March 21 which includes a bonus disc and postcards. That will be kind of neat to see again on my home theater.

Imbolc

Today I celebrated Imbolc with a special mention of the Celtic goddess Brigid in my short prayer ritual at my altar. Imbolc has always been my favorite sabbat for some reason, maybe because it's a time to set intentions for new directions in one's life. In honor of Brigid (and other fire spirits in my life), I lit my candles today - the Christianized name for Imbolc is "Candlemass", and the secular celebration for this day that marks the last day of winter and the first day of spring involves groundhogs. Unfortunately I don't have the movie Groundhog Day in my collection anymore, because that is one of the best comedies ever made.

Last night I watched my King Crimson concert video and enjoyed it very much. You might recall that we saw them in concert back in August at the Nokia Theater in Times Square ("King Crimson" - Aug. 18, 2008) and the video was very reminiscent of that concert. Watching the video inspired me to do work on a playlist of cool songs, some of my all time favorites that I'm not ashamed to say I like. A lot of the music I listen to day to day is cotton candy, that I know. But I do know good music when I hear it too.

Speaking of my cotton candy mix, I just finished a mix of music that represents what I'm listening to right now, some of it influenced by my waning Twilight fetish, other bands I'm discovering from checking out random CDs at the library. Combine that with some old favorites that I'm reacquainting myself with, and you get a pretty random mix of tunes. Here it is:

Attack - 30 Seconds to Mars
The Great Escape - Boys Like Girls
Extraordinary - Liz Phair
Crushcrushcrush - Paramore
Right Now - Van Halen
I'm No Ordinary Girl - Anika Paris
Stacy's Mom - Fountains of Wayne
Schism - Tool
Shadow of the Day - Linkin Park
What I've Done - Linkin Park
Was It A Dream? - 30 Seconds to Mars
When It Rains - Paramore
Five Minutes to Midnight - Boys Like Girls
Why Can't I? - Liz Phair
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
The Flame - Cheap Trick
I Wonder - Diffuser
To Turn You On - Roxy Music

Tara and I took a quick trip to the Met on Sunday so she could charge her new amulet, and we spent some time in the Asian wing visiting the Buddhas and Lord Ganesha. Saturday night we watched Enchanted on the big screen, which was delightful and every bit as good as the reviews made it out to be. Plus, the weekend update segment on Saturday Night Live was hysterical because it made fun of New Jersey.

I actually did watch a little bit of the Super Bowl, and saw the 100-yard touchdown play at the end of the first half because I was in the gym working out. I've been working out every day this week, trying to get my cardiovascular health back into shape. The net result is that sometimes I get sleepy early in the evening, but other times I still stay up until 4 a.m. reading my Anita Blake books.

I had a long conversation with one of the Board members of PolyNYC on Saturday, and he said they are considering asking me to join as a member of the Board. We discussed some of my reservations about that, and other positive things, but I still need to find out what the organization is going to be like moving forward before I commit to any kind of official role.

Twilight the movie

I finally went to see Twilight last night with Penny and we had a very nice time, as usual. I’ve been collecting Regal Cinema gift cards at work the past few years because there are no Regal Cinemas in New Jersey where I live, so I have about $60 worth of cards saved up. Agent K gives them out as incentive gifts and for anniversaries, so I was glad to use them.

The movie was good, and extremely faithful to the book. And as a lover of the book, I thought they did a very nice job of capturing almost exactly what the reader would envision when reading the novel. The only issue I have is if I look at the movie as a separate entity, as a person who had not read the book, and if I watched it in that headspace, I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much because there are so many meaningful looks and lines that sound corny out loud if you don't know the depth of emotions and unexplained (in the movie) motivations behind them.

Surprisingly, Penny enjoyed the movie a lot more than she expected to, since she is not a fan of “vampires that glitter” (which underscores somewhat our inverted biological/emotional ages, since she is a lot closer in age to the Young Adult demographic than I am). Her idea of a good book is Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, which she’s currently reading, and we're planning to read Tom Robbins' "Skinny Legs and All" together when she's done with that, a book that Bug got me for my birthday. She thought all the actors who played the paranormals were very sexy though, especially the actor who plays Jacob Black, whom she thought would be a good casting choice for the lead character in the novel she’s writing (she just completed the first 50,000 words during NaNoWriMo last month).

For me, a big part of the fun of watching the movie was hearing how they used the soundtrack, which I’ve been listening to non-stop since it came out a few weeks ago. Hearing Muse’s “Supermassive Black Hole” erupt during the Cullen’s fateful softball game was a blast. In fact, I made my own Twilight-inspired mix on my iPod, since I don’t like every single song on the soundtrack album which incorporates some of Stephenie Meyer’s other picks from the entire series of books and some of my own emo-flavored tracks. My mix goes like this, with non-soundtrack songs marked with an asterisk:

Decode by Paramore
*Stockholm Syndrome by Muse
Spotlight (Twilight Mix) by Mute Math
Leave Out All the Rest by Linkin Park
Go All The Way (In the Twilight) by Perry Farrell
I Caught Myself by Paramore
Eyes on Fire by Blue Foundation
*Starlight by Muse
Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine
*Shadow of the Day by Linkin Park
*The Scientist by Coldplay
*World In My Eyes by Depeche Mode
*In the End by Linkin Park
*Forgiveness by Collective Soul
Decode (Acoustic Version) by Paramore
*I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab for Cutie
*Creep (Acoustic) by Radiohead
*Brighter by Paramore
*Halo by Porcupine Tree
*Sweet Sacrifice by Evanescence
*Time is Running Out by Muse
*Valentine’s Day by Linkin Park
*My Immortal by Evanescence
*Clocks by Coldplay
*Miracle by Paramore
*Vicarious by Tool
*Assassin by Muse
*Born For This by Paramore
*I Melt With You by Sugarcult
*She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5
*My Heart by Paramore

I’m actually going bowling tonight for the first time in years, the first of two company holiday parties this week. The last time I went bowling was also at a company outing, but with my old firm in Houston. I actually do like to bowl, but it’s hard finding the time and companionship to do so, just like playing tennis and basketball and other things I used to do. So we’ll see how well-coordinated I am after such a long layoff and so many changes over the past few years.

Day 23 of South Beach Diet

It's been three and a half weeks since starting my diet on Sept. 15, and I'm pleased that I've lost 10 pounds so far. The results are definitely starting to show. My co-worker commented yesterday that she could tell I'm losing weight - she said I looked sleeker. Today for the first time, I'm having to wear a belt on my "fat" pants to keep them up. But don't worry about my wardrobe, I've got plenty of stuff to wear on my way down the scale.

The attention reminds me of when I did this diet in 2004-2005 when I created quite a stir in my office. My appearance changed so radically - it was like I went from middle-age to college age in a few months. I still chuckle at the time a grocery clerk mistook me for my ex's offspring or younger sibling rather than spouse. Granted, I am younger than her, but by less than a year.

Anyway, I'm still groovin' on Paramore - I bought the album I was looking for yesterday and ripped it to my iPod. I also love this song off their new album, Riot! and I bought it last night on iTunes. I'm pretty sure I've seen this video before somewhere, but I can't remember when. It's hard to miss Hayley's shocking red hair.

That's What You Get


I also love this review of the new album on Amazon:

Ah, youth: the exuberance, the energy, the blistering highs and bottomless depths. It’s an ideal breeding ground for true rock & roll belief. Hence, the youngsters of Paramore unearth geysers of loud, sugary angst on Riot!, their major label debut and follow-up to 2005’s All We Know Is Falling. Small-town musicians who have played together for years, Paramore boasts the appeal of an emo-pop blast developed out of savvy songwriting and musicianship. The sweet spot the band hits--somewhere between Avril Lavigne and All-American Rejects--comes naturally. Lead singer Hayley Williams, barely 18, has big-time vocal depth and genuine charisma besides, and while her singing can sound a little contrived, she delivers with such end-of-the-world conviction that it’s an easy flaw to forgive. Bright and catchy melodies abound, but songs like "Misery Business" and "Miracle" also feature razor-sharp cadences and ultra-clean transitions. Too clean, actually. The production is crystal clear, which accentuates the stumbles (mostly on the ballads) and robs these whippersnappers of the messy highs they surely achieve playing live. But some things can’t be entirely glossed over, and while the more aged among us will sip our Scotch and make fun of their adolescent shenanigans, we’ll also be surreptitiously listening on our iPods after we put the kids to bed. --Matthew Cooke

Also, after much ado yesterday, I found a nice hardback copy of Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris which I've been reading in paperback, but I hate the paperback cover, which is a tie-in to the HBO series True Blood (showing a close-up of a female vampire's lips, fangs and tounge). The hardback cover is so much nicer, a pretty painting of the vampire Bill and heroine Sookie Stackhouse flying over their town, wrapped in a glittering cape together. I'm much more interested in the romance than the blood-sucking, as with the Twilight books.

Twilight music

The track listing for the movie soundtrack to Twilight has been officially announced, as follows:

Muse - "Supermassive Black Hole"
Paramore - "Decode"
The Black Ghosts - "Full Moon"
Linkin Park - "Leave Out All the Rest"
MuteMath - "Spotlight" ("Twilight" mix)
Perry Farrell - "Go All the Way (Into the Twilight)"
Collective Soul - "Tremble for My Beloved"
Paramore - "I Caught Myself "
Blue Foundation - "Eyes on Fire"
Rob Pattinson - "Never Think"
Iron & Wine - "Flightless Bird, American Mouth"
Carter Burwell - "Bella's Lullaby"

I've read in other sources that Muse will re-mix the first track for this release, which is cool because this song is actually my #1 Most Played Song on my iPod right now (in fact the top 3 are all Muse songs, probably fueled in part by Twilight fever).

Also, I've totally in love with the first track by Paramore, another emo band with a 18-year-old lead singer named Hayley Williams who has a really big voice. You can check out the new song, Decode, on their MySpace page or on Stephenie Meyer's Web site, where the song debuted last week. While you're there, you can see the new movie poster for Twilight (which I don't like as much as the first one, but oh well). I might go out at lunchtime and see if I can pick up Paramore's first album, All We Know Is Falling from the bookstore.

The Linkin Park song is already one of my favorites from the Minutes to Midnight album I checked out from the library. And I think we can all agree that Collective Soul is a pretty cool band, even if you've been rolling your eyes at everything else in this post. Hey, at least I know I listen to cotton candy!

Curry recipe

I'm rather proud of the curry chicken and onion dish I made last night. I think it's my best ever, sort of a fusion of Indian, Thai and Malaysian influences.

Here's the recipe that I made up - it's not very exact.

Ingredients:
4-5 large onions, cut into eighths
2 1/2 pounds of chicken, cut into bite-size pieces
16 oz. jar of Indian curry cooking sauce
12 oz. can of chicken stock
4 tablespoons of chopped garlic
6-8 jalapeno peppers, sliced
2 large limes, quartered and squeezed
2 tablespoons of Indian lime pickle (or relish, as it's sometimes called)
1 tablespoon of sambal oelek
1 tablespoon dried red pepper flakes
Coarse sea salt to taste
Olive oil

In a large saucepan on high heat, heat the olive oil and saute the garlic and onions until translucent. In a large pot, heat the curry sauce and chicken stock until simmering, add the chicken and boil for 10-12 minutes until just cooked. Add the onions and garlic, limes and juice of the limes, jalapeno peppers, lime relish, sambal oelek, red pepper flakes and sea salt to taste. Stir over heat until thoroughly mixed and serve over white rice. Serves 8-10.

I'm also enjoying a little renaissance of 80's music, especially of the electronic variety. I downloaded some New Order songs like "Bizarre Love Triangle (remix)" and "Shellshock", and I was lucky to find the Pet Shop Boys' album Very in the used bin at CD World last week. Listen to this glowing review from Amazon.com:

Ask people what their favorite Pet Shop Boys album is, and their answers will vary--but ask people what the most important Pet Shop Boys album is, and 9 out of 10 West End girls will say Very. The snide ambiguities that churned behind prior PSB posturings were ripped away on this release, with Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe finally pulling more than punches. Self-awareness is one of the major themes on Very, with "Yesterday When I Was Mad," showing the band could send up themselves as well as their friends and lovers; meanwhile, "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Type of Thing" both carries one of the Boys' best melody lines and serves as one of their most literal confessions. There's also a more threatening, foreboding tone to the record as set by the opening "Can You Forgive Her" and the closing Village People cover, "Go West." Originally an anthem leading gay men to San Francisco's promised land, the Pet Shop Boys' version is delivered from the beleaguered trenches in the war against AIDS. The results are as ominous as they are brilliant. -- Steve Gdula

This is one seriously fun album, with some of the most melodic electronic music to come out of the 80s, in my opinion. If nothing else, can anyone name another band that has been able to cover a tune by the Village People and not make total fools of themselves? Case closed - it's currently on the heavy rotation list on my iPod.

P-Tree Grammy nomination

This is cool - Porcupine Tree has been nominated for a Grammy Award in Category 95 - Best Surround Sound Album for Fear of a Blank Planet (which I got for Christmas). Time to give that one a listen.

See full list of nominees here

I'm sure someday they will actually be performing at the Grammys, not that they need any of that kind of validation. But it's exciting as a fan to see people slowly come to recognize their talent.

Job interview

I had a job interview this morning with another large PR firm that called me out of the blue last week and said they wanted to meet me. I'm not particularly job hunting, but I'm certainly open to new opportunities, especially if they want to pay me more money. I always feel like I'm paid a bit below my market value because when I got this current job, it was my first job in New York, and there's always skepticism that some people can't handle this city. I guess that's why they say if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere. And this city certainly has it challenges, but I feel after 18 months I've proven it to myself and everybody else that I'm here to stay.

The interview went well, as they usually do when you already have a job - takes a lot of the pressure off. The office is located smack in the middle of Times Square, so if I'm working there by New Year's Eve, I'll have a great view of the ball dropping party. Luckily it's 20-something stories up, so you don't hear the noise. Their lobby is a lot nicer than ours, as it actually has windows that show something interesting, whereas our lobby's window faces another office tower in Midtown. Since it's just the first interview, I'm certainly not packing up my office yet, but I think it would be fun to get familiar with another part of the city, especially since it's so centrally located.

Today is my company's holiday party, which covered the fact that I'm wearing my new black suit and dressy flats for the interview. Like many companies these days, we're having it during working hours starting at 2 p.m. at a nearby Mexican restaurant. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that we're getting time out of the workday to socialize, rather than having it after-hours like last year where I have to give up "my" time. Like I said, I'm not unhappy with my current company - it's a great company - but money talks, and the work lately has been a little dull, so speak the truth.

Speaking of how great my company is, we received the new revisions to the employee handbook yesterday, and sure enough, gender identity has been added to the list of non-discriminatory classes - huzzah! For new readers, this has been a personal quest of mine to get this changed (it wasn't included last year) and I'm pleased to say we're one less Fortune 100 company that allows job discrimination based on gender identity. Another tiny step toward an inclusive ENDA...

Tuesday night I visited the library in New York and found a Dave Grusin CD of Gershwin music that I owned a long time ago, which was a nice find. Afterwards, I had dinner with my family for the first time in a while and we had a great time laughing about interior design in the 1970s (don't ask me how we got on that topic). Afterwards I rushed off to Borders to use a coupon on a Christmas present, even though we haven't circulated our lists yet (hint, hint).

Alright, better get some work done before the party, which starts in about two hours.