Day 44: A Math Blog (NERD ALERT)

During my four years at Luther College I was convinced I was going to be a double-major in Math and Physics. Well as it turns out I'm not so good at the math aspect of this endeavor and I was content to settle with a Minor in Math instead. Anyway, so like I was saying during this time I got to take a few of the more abstract math classes (Group Theory, Discrete Structures) and from time to time would actually understand and appreciate a few nuggets that were taught. I'm going to try and relay one of the more memorable ones, though I didn't learn this in a class this was sort of an observation made and (still) never fully understood, but I'm not going to give it in mathspeak (mostly because I no longer possess the ability to Eigen anyone's Vectors).

Alright so I figured this out one day while I was tutoring physics (uber-nerd, yes) during the day after a test (meaning nobody would show up for tutoring, so I'd sit there for my 3 hours and do homework or whatever). These are a little bit abstract at first, but if you stick with it it'll make some sense (or at least you'll see the pattern) if you can make sense of it let me know.

So I'll try and explain this as best as I can.

Let's start with the number one:

If you take the numbers 1-10, and multiply each of them by the number 1, you'll get what you can see below, obviously. However, if you then add the resulting two digit product (if there is two digits), you'll get what you see after the arrows (-->) below. Clearly it doesn't change anything except for the 10x1=10-->1 case.

1x1=1-->1

1x2=2-->2

1x3=3-->3

1x4=4-->4

1x5=5-->5

1x6=6-->6

1x7=7-->7

1x8=8-->8

1x9=9-->9

1x10=10-->1

So in this case, the input constants (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) nearly matches the resulting output (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,1). If you were to continue past 10 to say 20, you'd see the same repetitive pattern through infinity.Let's look at another case, 2's.

2x1=2-->2

2x2=4-->4

2x3=6-->6

2x4=8-->8

2x5=1-->1

2x6=3-->3

2x7=5-->5

2x8=7-->7

2x9=9-->9

2x10=20-->2

In this case we get a much different pattern than we did with 1's as the input variable. In this case it sort of "filters out" the even numbers in numerical order and then places the odd numbers after it before beginning its pattern again. Rather than going through them all like this I've placed the individual cases in the table shown below.

In a few of the cases, such as say 8x6=48=12, this is continued since its still two digits; accordingly 8x6=48=12=3.

Now, I guess you're probably asking why is this interesting? Well, it may not be at all; however, if you look at some of the patterns that emerge then its at least a little more intriguing. I'll discuss a little bit here, but please weigh in on this because it something I've been wracked with for the past 10 or so years.

1: Already discussed these, it spits out the respective input constants, similar to an identity operator (as one would probably expect since it involves the number 1).

2: Again, discussed this already but its worth mentioning again how this one sorts the even/odd numbers in numerical order. (2/4/6/8/1/3/5/7/9/2/4...)

3: This particular one has a distinct short pattern of repeating 3, 6, 9 to infinity. Here you might expect something along those lines since those are all multiples of the number 3, so nothing too out of the ordinary.

4: Here's where it starts to get weird. Now we have no discernible pattern here, even though 4 is a multiple of 2 and 2 had a fairly obvious pattern, the 4's show no real pattern. There is an even,even,odd,odd pattern as you march through the numbers until you hit 9, so maybe that's something? (E/E/O/O/E/E/O/O/O/E/E)

5: Again, no real pattern emerges here. Here there is an odd/odd/even/even pattern that is somewhat continuous again, (O/O/E/E/O/O/E/E/O/O/O), however it ends with a string of 3 similar just as 4's did.

6: Another similar short repetitive pattern as was seen with 3's (6-3-9).

7: This is an interesting results especially considering which number it is (7). This pattern actually filters out the odd numbers first, then puts them in descending numerical order before doing the same with the even numbers. (7/5/3/1/8/6/4/2/9/7/5/3...)

8: Just as 7 has essentially the opposite effect as 2 does, 8 does the inverse of what 1 does. Here we have the numbers sorted by odd and even in sequential order, descending numerically.

9: The most strange of all the results. All 9's. No matter what happens here you'll always get a 9, it almost carries the same null properties that zero does (i.e. anything x zero = zero, in this "realm" anything x nine = nine; in addition to the zero property which I didn't put in any of the above figures simply because it's too boring).

-----

So why do you always get a 9? This is the part that baffles me, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Its not related to the fact that 9 is a multiple of 3, 3^2, or 3+3+3, or anything like that b/c then by the same logic you'd expect to see a similar result for 2's (as in 2^2 or 2+2+2) but you clearly don't.

One observation that I'm not sure how to explain, though it is slightly interesting is "mirror image" effect seen here. Assume for a moment that the results of the number 9 is the center, let's just say for the sake of argument that in this scenario its the number zero. From here if you descend in order (8,7,6,5) you'll notice that this is the mirror image of the effect that happens if you go up in order from 9, (1,2,3,4). Its a little difficult to explain but maybe this will help. Ive done this two different ways, the first one has the mirror images as the same colors by column. In the second figure I assigned a color spectrum value (according to ROYGBIV) to each of the values 1 through 9, and then filled it in. I thought the colors brought the pattern to light a little better since its easier to notice color patterns than numerical (at least for me). Also I trimmed off the #10 row of the ROYGBIV spectrum only because its essentially a repeat (10=1+0=1).

I've tried to highlight the symmetry lines in the ROYGBIV figure using the bold lines, it seems to help.

Anyway I don't really have a conclusion here, like I said I'm not sure I fully understand it at all, but its something I've observed. I was hoping that this could possibly spark some interesting debate about this, but maybe its a little too boring who knows.

*Also, turns out I don't know what the indigo color in ROYGBIV looks like so I assumed its that color seen on number 8.

Day 43: A Relevant Story (almost)

Well it's been a while since my last actual story on here, so I figure that today is as good as any day for it--since as it turns out there's not a ton to do on a six hour flight when you can't sleep. So i'll warn you ahead of time it'll probably get wordy (believe it or not) and it may or may not include multiple tangents and distractions, but it'll get there eventually.

It was a typical Minnesota winter in late December in the pre-cell phone world. A couple carloads full of friends made the trek up to Minneapolis to partake in the annual New Years Bash at another friend's house (we'll call him Greg for sake of anonymity). Every year Greg had a New Year's Party and this year was no different. This was usually the one time of year when our entire group of friends (which amounted to approximately 63.2% of the population of the city of Caledonia) got together for a bash. There were drinking games, yard games, Tecmo Superbowl games, campfires, hot sauce drinking challenges, gratuitous alcoholic drinking, and the notorious dropping of the Woody (sounds derogatory, but I'll come back to this later). There were games of MOOSE^ that devolved into filling cereal bowls with a few ounces of beer and then proceeding to pour Crispix in said bowl as a penalty to whomever might turn out to be the loser of the game (see Paul). Polish golf was played outside in the dead of winter, as well and Bean Bag Toss/Cornhole (or as is known amongst the members of 1839 Cleveland: Brachtung). This festivity started at about 6pm and continued on into the wee hours of the night (wee hours was intentionally selected for its secondary connotation, but we shall not speak of that here...not now...not ever). At some point around the hour of 10 pm one of the house's residents (Hardy) has decided "To Salute" all of "Those about to Rock" and he comes trouncing in from outside, turns off all the lights in the living room, throws on AC/DC and begins to "mosh" around the living room, solo. In the midst of his moshing, he encounters the only source of light in the living room, a lone candle, and decides (correctly) that the only possible way to extinguish this light is to drink its life. So he tips up the candle and drinks the wax down like a milk shake and quashes the light completely...no joke. Not entirely sure how his digestive tract felt the next day but I think its safe to assume that it was a painful recovery.

One of the more well-documented traditions of this celebration was to find Woody, who was usually shirtless and shitfaced by this point, grab a bunch of markers, and write various New Years Eve related quips on him. Everything from: The Ball to Woody is the Ball to Drop the Woody Ball (mostly ball related), to Happy New Year 200_ (fill in the blank, because this happened every year in the 00's) amongst other indecipherable scribblings. Once the writings were all complete on his belly, bald head, etc. and it was nearly midnight, a group of guys would pick Woody up off of the ground and the countdown would begin.

10..9...8...people would gather in the living room just to see what was going on, to the outside observer this looked like it might just be some sort of ritual sacrifice...7...6...5...Paul comes running over to help lift Woody even higher off of the ground...4....3....2....1! The group simultaneously lets Woody go and he falls from 6 feet or so to the hardwood floor with an enormous thud. "HAPPY NEW YEAR!," the group exclaims as Woody rubs his belly to make sure its still there...sure enough it is. Hijinx continue on through the night and eventually everyone wakes up feeling like crap and slowly make their way back home, just as happened on this particular morning.

Myself, the fiance, and six other friends (Ian, Trina, Matt, Jon, Woody) were leaving the following morning and decided to stop off in Dinkytown (nearby neighborhood of Minneapolis) for some post-drinking, hangover nursing Subway. Its about 9 or 10 am when we leave Greg's house that morning, and given that its Minnesota the sun is shining and the air is a crisp -5 degrees. The snow is so cold that it crunches and squeaks beneath our feet as we walk to the frost-covered car. Matt opens the squeaking Blazer door, climbs in and turns the key. The car lurches to life after a few noticeably difficult engine firings, and Matt proceeds to scrape off the windshield while Woody, Jon, and Mandy climb in the car freezing their asses off. Ian, Trina, myself and Alyssa all proceed to climb into Ian's car to the same frigid experience. The point of this, its f*cking cold out.

Twenty or so minutes later we arrive at our destination in Dinkytown, not sure why we chose this particular location (if anyone reading this can remember fill me in), but nonetheless we arrived ready to eat some Subway sandwich. Matt and Ian pulled into their parking spots, which were located in a relatively sketchy spot behind some businesses, figuring its New Year's Day and we're probably good if we're here for only a few minutes. On our walk to Subway we pass by a homeless man who wishes us a Happy New Year and asked us if we had any spare change, and per usual I actually wasn't carrying any cash and I reluctantly relayed that to the man. Actually as it turned out none of us were and we told him sorry as we passed by him and walked into the Subway. Now usually I'll just say I don't have change whether I do or not, but this was one of those "its a New Year, help a brother out" type of moments, where we all wished we did have some but legitimately had none. As we were standing in line ordering our food at the Subway, Matt suddenly realized that he did have some cash and it was substantial too, ten dollars and some odd amount of change. Deciding that it was time to turn over a new leaf, he trudged back outside, found the homeless man and gave him the little bit of cash he had. Everyone thought that was fairly admirable, especially since at the time we all had relatively zero income since we were all in either high school (see Alyssa) or college, or working part-time jobs, so ten bucks was a pretty big deal.

After we finished eating our food we were feeling pretty good about ourselves, Matt feeling the most happy about himself, and we headed back out into the cold, back to the car giving a tip of the hat (or in this case a tip of the winter stocking cap) to the homeless fellow outside of the Subway on our way. So a few brisk frost-bitten moments later we come upon Matt's blazer and Ian's Sunfire. Ian unlocks his car we all pile in. There is still some residual heat remaining from our drive from Greg's as Ian shuts the door and goes to start the car. A moment later, Matt is still standing outside of his blazer and we all just assume he's smoking a cigarette. And a moment later still...We all kind of sit there silently for a moment, realizing what is happening. He locked his keys in the car. It's deathly cold out and New Year's Day, so nothing is open. No one really knows what to do...we think we should call AAA so we can get in the car, that would be the first logical step.

Matt and I realize that there's a Bruegger's Bagels shop just down the road and we can see a phone booth so we head that way hoping to phone AAA or someone to come and unlock Matt's car. As we approach Bruegger's we realize that this place isn't open, nor will it be for the remainder of the day, after all who wants bagels on New Year's Day, right? Motherf*ckers. We stick to our original plan of looking up the phone number and calling somewhere on this pay phone. Only once we approach the pay phone, we notice that the phone book has been long since removed. Well...what now. We decide to call 411 on the pay phone (remember pre-cell phone), I went to dig in my coat and pants pockets...no change. Matt did the same, with the same result. Of course he didn't have any change, he had given it all to the homeless guy outside of Subway just a few minutes ago. "SHIT!" he yelled, "That's what I get for being nice!"

"Calm your ass down," I told him. I picked up the phone and dialed zero hoping I could get the operator to help. The operator tells me that without us paying the toll (25 cents) that there was no way she could help unless we wanted to be transferred to 9-1-1--and naturally we didn't. So there we were, stranded, in the frigid cold, with no cash (and nowhere to get it from) to call a wrecker to come and unlock the car so we could leave. Happy New Year. Matt and I head back to the cars to relay the "good" news. No one seemed too enthralled by the situation, and in fact Alyssa was getting worried because she hadn't been able to tell her parents that we were going to be so late or that we may in fact freeze to death in this very parking lot. Everyone is standing around Ian's car and Alyssa says, "I've gotta call my parents they're going to be getting worried." As she finishes the sentence she pulls out the cell phone her parents had given her for this very reason from her purse. Everyone stands dumbfounded as she begins dialing. We had just spent the past 25 minutes trying to figure out a way to call the wrecking service for a jump without having any cash while Alyssa had a cell phone the whole time!

Needless to say we're all fairly pissed by now, but its taken on a humorous tone; a sort of, "What Else Could Possibly Happen Now" attitude has fallen over the group. So Alyssa calls her parents to relay the situation, and then I borrow her giant phone and make a call to 4-1-1 in order to get the phone number for a tow truck. I dial the numbers with my thickly gloved fingers and give the voice on the other end my city and state. Then they ask, "What is the name of the company you are looking for?" I say I don't know I'm hoping you'll help with finding me a towing service number. She says, "I'm sorry I can't look that up for you but I can give you the number of a towing service if you know the name of it." This goes back and forth for another ten or so minutes before I give up and realize that we're right back where we were to begin with.

A few of the group take Ian's car and head to Woody's dorm (nearby) to get a phone book, but of course after twenty minutes and some more shivering they return empty handed only to learn that the dorms are completely closed down the day after New Year's Eve. Again, after about ten minutes of freezing and brainstorming, Trina notices there's a sign directly in front of Ian's Car.

GOPHER TOWING

WE DO LOCK OUTS!!!!

612-378-2065

So, needless to say we called them, we all felt a new level of idiocy, and we were able to finally get Matt's blazer unlocked and drive back. It all played out like some first-person episode of Seinfeld, maybe it was a lesson trying to instruct all of use to live a better life by paying more attention to our surroundings or something, needless to say whatever the lesson was we were supposed to learn it was most definitely lost on us.

^MOOSE: A drinking game in which an ice cube tray, a bowl, and quarters are used. The bowl is placed at the end of the ice cube tray, filled with beer (or sometimes beers and breakfast cereals) and the quarters are bounced off of the table in an effort to get them in the ice cube tray. If you bounce a quarter into the bowl, and you're the last person to yell MOOSE and put your hands up near your head like moose antlers you get the lucky job of finishing the bowl of beer. If you bounce the quarter and it lands in the ice cube tray on the right side you give that many drinks out (the number comes from the layout as seen below), conversely, if you land on the left side then you have to drink that many drinks. The game continues until Paul fills the bowl full of cereal and nearly yaks on the table when he's the last person to call moose after landing a quarter in said Crispix filled bowl.

Moose Setup

Day 42: A Lack of Special Interests

This will probably be my only entry this week as I will be out of town, but a smattering of topics are covered today.

EDIT: The Top 5 Pitchfork Songs of the Year were as follows:
5. Raekwon - Only Built for Cuban Linx...Pt. II

4. The Flaming Lips - Embryonic

3. The xx - The xx

2. Dirty Projectors - Orca

1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

So I guess I lose on my Parlay, but I did guess 1/5 correct and their #1 overall in the right spot...that's gotta be worth something right?

*This morning at 1 AM the Senate passed a watered down version of Health Care Reform with a completely partisan split vote (60 Dems YAY, 40 Repubs NAY). Although President Obama is touting this as a victory for the people, I'm not entirely sure I feel the same. I feel as though enough concessions were made to the special interests (specifically with Lieberman) that the bill that passed barely resembles the one that was sold to us during the campaign. Though I have no doubts that this will fix many of the problems that are currently deriding the health care system as it is currently, and it will also make insurance services accessible to millions of people who previously didn't have access; however, I don't feel as though this bill was comprehensive enough. At the time I'm writing this, the Senate bill had just passed and the reconciliation sessions between the House and Senate have yet to happen, so perhaps the bill that gets passed will be more inclusive of some more of the aggressive policies that were originally contended.

The biggest issues with it are already well documented (Where is the public option?) but my biggest issue with it isn't even that. My biggest issue with this reform is, I thought the motivation behind this entire movement was to make health care more cost effective thereby opening it up to more people. The health care movement I supported was the one that would remove the profit of the middle-man (the insurance companies) from the equation putting more money in pockets of the insured and the doctors. I don't see how the reform passed in the Senate does anything to really address this problem, I hope I'm wrong and we see some real Change out of this, but it still wreaks to me of special interests (again see the insurance companies).

*Avatar opened this past weekend to a barrage of outstanding reviews. Of the 33 Top Critics to review it on RottenTomatoes.com, only 2 of them have given it poor reviews. I will readily admit that I've already seen the movie twice, and this was the first movie that I went to by myself (during the second showing I went to a matinee because I had the day off). Additionally I'm ready to declare that it is the best and most memorable movie theater experience of my life. Now, that being said, I'm going to refrain from giving an analytical review at this point for sake of spoiling the movie, but what I will do is examine the two dissenters on RT.com to see what other movies these blowhards thought were bad from this year and last.

J. Hoberman:

Voted the following as Rotten (aka Bad) Movies:

-Up in the Air (8.3/10.0 with 2,249 votes, Best Picture Nomination)

-Where the Wild Things Are (7.8/10.0 with 12,964 votes)

-Watchmen (7.8/10.0 with 112,069 votes)

-The Lives of Others (8.5/10.0 with 64,068 votes and #56 of all time on IMDb.com)

S. Zacharek:

Voted the following as Rotten (aka Bad) Movies:

-Up in the Air (8.3/10.0 with 2,249 votes, Best Picture Nomination)

-Where the Wild Things Are (7.8/10.0 with 12,964 votes)

-Funny People (7.0/10.0 with 22,371 votes)

-Away We Go (7.4/10.0 with 8,962 votes)

-Public Enemies (7.3/10.0 with 49,696 votes)

Now these movies aren't the best of the year, but they're certainly not bad movies. The one I just can't understand is The Lives of Others...what the hell dude. I haven't seen Up in the Air yet, but I really enjoyed Where the Wild Things Are and Funny People, the former I might not watch again but it was interesting and the latter I will own and re-watch. These two are just haters, thats it...wake up guys.

*I'm an avid listener of Bill Simmons' podcast the B.S. Report, and his latest podcast was a two hour discussion with author Chuck Klosterman. One of the highlights of this was them talking about how there is a high school football coach in Arkansas who has mathematically proven that its not advantageous to punt the ball, or rather the benefits of NOT punting outweigh the benefits OF punting. They then reference the 4th and 2 Pats play from earlier this season saying that if this play works for the Pats maybe this type of mentality gets adopted in the NFL...man oh man that would be awesome. I used to be a huge NFL fan, but with the botched handling of Randy Moss and Daunte Culpepper by the Vikings and, specifically, Mike Tice I lost a lot of my interest in it. Now I basically play fantasy football and make the occasional wager on the games (perfectly legal of course). But could you imagine the NFL with a no-punt movement...how damn awesome would that be? I'm all for it and also interested in reading this mathematicians/high school football coach's thesis (assuming it exists) on this theory.

Day 41: Dumping Out Links

I'm going to try and start a tradition of linking to some stories, articles, videos, or other miscellaneous things every week or so as a way of filling space and posting blogs that aren't actually blog entries passing along some of the interesting stuff I've found over the week or so. So anyway, here we go!:

*As an ATT subscriber, and an iPhone user and I've recently become fascinated with the "war" that's taking place between Verizon and ATT. I've never had any sort of loyalty (nor will I ever) on one side or the other; in fact, the only reason I actually got ATT was to eventually get the iPhone, if at some point the exclusivity deal between ATT & Apple expires, so will my interest in renewing my contract with ATT. But I'm sure you've seen those "We've got a Map for that" commercials by Verizon, accurately claiming that their 3G network is much larger and more expansive than ATT's...well the recent ATT rebuttal was to hire Luke Wilson to throw a bunch of post cards on a giant map...awesome. Well, I'm fairly certain they've given up on that and now ATT's latest desperate attempt at redemption is to pass the blame elsewhere, Apple. Riiight so it's Apple's fault that you suck, okay I got it. Good work, so they're going to go from "fewest dropped calls" to most dropped manufacturers. Brilliant work. Hey how about instead of spending millions of dollars on a shitty ad campaign you spend that money retrofitting your network so that I don't have a dropped call every 32 goddamn seconds! Moreover, now Apple's shoddy network and nefarious blame shifting practices has started an actual revolt. This should end well...

*Remember back in 1998 when Bill Clinton "did not have sexual relations with that woman"? Well, we all know what happened and how that whole thing ended up. The Moral Majority, led by the "do as I say not as I do" figurehead Newt Gingrinch and Kenneth Star got President Clinton Impeached, only to have all their efforts spoiled by the Senate. Anyway, the reason I bring this up isn't to tie it into Tiger Woods...because I don't care about that, he's a golfer...its to bring it back to Mark Sanford. Remember him? Governor of South Carolina, went missing for a few days last year, said he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail, ooonly to then have it come out that he was in Brazil having an affair with his "soul mate". Well as it would turn out, him having an affair might upset people, ESPECIALLY, those people in the south who's sworn duty it is to uphold and protect the sanctity of marriage...and as you would expect, Mark Sanford is getting a lot of heat from that same Moral Majority crowd that so despised Clinton, in the latest poll 33% of people described as "values" voters in South Carolina think Sanford should be impeached because of his affair. So thats pretty good, at least their consisten.....wait....33% percent? 1 out of 3 of the "values voters" think Sanford should step down or be impeached...well that must be at least close to the same number that wanted Clinton to be impeaa....whaaaa, in 1998 the same poll was conducted and 88% of the "values voters" wanted Clinton impeached...talk about inconsistency, so only 33% of "values voters" think its immoral for Republicans to have affairs, but 88% of those same voters think its immoral for Democrats to do it....riight talk to me more about not letting politics cloud one's judgement.

*This year's Golden Globe nominations were announced today and of the five Best Picture nominations, I've only seen Inglorious Basterds. What I found most interesting, and exciting, about the list was the presence of the movie Avatar (in theaters this weekend!). So, in theory, what this means is that we've not only got a blockbuster movie on our hands coming up this weekend, but its also a "good" movie. Although given some of the previous Best Picture nominations by the Golden Globes maybe I should temper my excitement because the last time James Cameron had a nominated movie was Titanic...I will say I'm a little disappointed (though still not surprised based on their history) that they left out Star Trek. Say want you want about sci-fi and Trekkies, I've heard it all, but this was an outstanding movie from start to finish. I have a feeling that 10 years from now out of all of the movies that came out (are still coming out) this year Star Trek will be one of the one's with the most rewatch value. Rewatch value is a seriously underrated, though intangible, statistic that should factor into these nomination a bit more. Because seriously, how many times are you going to rewatch a depressing war movie that hits a little too close to home like The Hurt Locker...now I'm sure its a great movie, and have only heard good things, but are you watching it twice or even three times??? Come on.

*Pitchfork.com released their Top 100 Songs of the Year list, and as usual I have quite a few issues with it, I'm not going to wax poetic about all of the issues I have with it, as that would be fairly verbose to say the least, but I would like to address two particular issues. Also one quick note, if Vegas handicapped Pitchfork's list they would have set the line for My Girls being the top song somewhere around 7-5...so damn predictable guys, and so damn wrong. Anyway.

Issue#1

They've got Empire State of Mind ranked #44. Really? You've got 43 BETTER songs than that on the year? Doubtful. My biggest issue with Pitchfork has always been, and still remains, their necessity to make themselves look superior to everyone else. They purposely chose to put this song so far down on the list to help prop up their inflated sense of musical ego.

Issue#2

Where are Chi Don't Dance and Pizza Hut and Taco Bell....really? While they may not be the best songs ever, they're certainly memorable in their own respect and most importantly they HAVE to be among the TOP 100 SONGS RELEASED THIS YEAR. Jesus guys.

Pitchfork's Top 50 Albums of the Year are to be announced later this year, it'll be interesting (and likely disappointing) to see how that pans out.

As for now, here's a prediction on their top 5 albums of the year:

#1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

#2. Girls - Album

#3. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

#4. Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

#5. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

If I could place a 5 song Parlay bet on these 5 albums in this order I'd throw down $20 on it.

Alright that's all for now, if I put too much on here there won't be any other reason for you to visit the other sites on the internets.

Day 40: Top Albums 2009 (#10-#1)

10. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

Though this song has probably already been crowned the Indie Song of the Year (or decade perhaps) by some of the websites that actually hate music, I'm not quite sold. I mean its a good song on a good album, but there are so many better songs to come out this year (9 to be exact). However it is far too good to be ignored. I love its Little Big Planet style "we don't take ourselves too seriously" music video and wacky sound effects. This is definitely one of those "grower" songs that gets better with each listen.

9. Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension

The son of John Casablancas and ex-frontman/current-frontman for The Strokes, Julian Casablancas finally released his solo album in 2009. Having ridden The Strokes popularity (and musical talent) wave for as long as possible, they sort of took a hiatus in 2006, and Julian branched out to form a totally different sounding band. Just kidding, this is basically another The Strokes (I hate typing that...another The Strokes, is it kosher to say another Strokes and omit the extraneous The?) album and in a lot of ways its better than their last effort was. The retro 80s synthesizer (and what I hope is a keytar) and Casablancas voice all mix for one hell of a song and what I hope is a resurgence of The "actual" Strokes.

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll

2009 might just be the year of Karen O. Scoring the Where the Wild Things Are movie trailer with one of the best songs of the past 10 years (Arcade Fire - Wake Up), along with also composing the entire soundtrack for that movie all along with releasing a fantastic YYYs album all while somehow still fitting in a tour shows both her devotion to the music, and just how goddamn talented she is. She has one of the most distinctly recognizable voices in all of music today and her half Punk Rock / half Pop Rock all meshes perfectly with her style.

7. Atlas Sound - Walkabout

Definitely the leading candidate for this year's Indie movie of the year (think Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine, Juno...) all good movies don't get me wrong, but they definitely try and target a certain demographic with their movie trailers (ahem...I'm looking at you Where the Wild Things Are). With Aziz Ansari having recently named this the best song of the year (especially bold considering he didn't even confer with me before doing so) this has all the makings of the indie darling song of the year, and its hard to disagree. As an aside I'm not sleighting Aziz I think he's outstanding, he's just sort of that IT indie comedy act right now, more power to him. As I was saying, its one of those songs that falls into this suddenly very emergent genre of what I'm calling Nrop (there's something there, wait for it...nrop, yup). Noise + Rock + Pop = Nrop...and I'll bet you dollars to donuts (no idea what that actually means) that it's in some indie film at some point this upcoming Oscar season during a quintessential part of the plot...just you wait.

6. Animal Collective - My Girls

Another Nrop All-Star band, Animal Collective's My Girls is one of those songs that took me multiple listens before I finally got it. Its currently one of my most played tracks on the iPhone (along with the entire Veckatimest album), and its really one of those songs you either love or just don't get. If you're not totally on board with it yet give it a few more listens, if that doesn't help go back to listening to Michael Jackson and go on with your life. The intro to this song really sells it for me, the high pitched repetitive three note riff with the hollow distant sounding voices introducing the song before the rest of the instruments get involved is unforgettable.

5. The Decemberists - The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid

The 2000's version of Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit, this epic song is just one part in the orchestra worthy Hazards of Love album (had to drop that video in there, still stands as the best concert experience of my life, still gives me goosebumps, if you can't enjoy that you need to check your pulse). As with any of The Decemberists songs the lyrical context may sound out of place without garnering the back story beforehand (trust me I know it sounds lame, but The Decemberists are essentially incredibly talented musical storytellers; all of their albums tell some overall story through each of their songs). Playing off of the song before it, the organ introduction accompanied by the unforgettable voice of Colin Meloy and his immense vocabulary eventually escalates to a choral harmony before crashing down and transforming into the aforementioned White Rabbit with Shara Worden on lead vocals. Her incredible vocals take over, turning the song into a 60's revivalist rock anthem. Truly epic song.

4. Kevin Devine - Brother's Blood

I'm not sure whether I have a built-in bias when it comes to Kevin Devine because of a highly memorable performance with his former band (Miracle of 86, also awesome stuff) in the coffee shop at Luther College during my Sophomore Year (Marty's for those keeping track at home). Whether I do or not, it shouldn't discredit the ability of this skinny flannel wearing motherFer. The guy gives it his all at every single performance unleashing an assault with his uniquely (and somehow strangely appealing) shrieking voice and barrage of guitar thrashing. Kevin Devine (and the Goddamn Band, as they're called) is probably the most underrated artist out there, and while I'm sure it won't be long before Pitchfork reviews one of his albums (giving him a "truly uninspiring" 4/10, while simultaneously giving Lil' Wayne a 9/10...just ridiculous) I'm trying to enjoy it while I can before it becomes cool to hate on him. Either way this is my list so if you don't like this guy or this song there's nothing I can do about it, if you haven't heard him I HIGHLY suggest checking out his latest album, it is outstanding from start to finish.

3. Discovery - So Insane

The King of the Nrop songs this year comes from a collaborative effort between members of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot. This song is somehow incredibly enhanced by its insistant tempo change, along with incredibly addicting earworm-esque hook. The entire albums is outstanding and warrants a lot more attention than it got upon release, as far as I remember it got exactly zero attention. A must own album and an outstanding track from it.

2. Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind (ft. Alicia Keys)

This needs absolutely no introduction, it'sprobably Jay-Z's best single and it nearly took the top spot on this list. Alicia Keys' belts out her usual outstanding vocals which offer a nice contrast to HOVA's typical monotone rap style. Incredibly great song.

1. Phoenix - 1901

And here we are, the #1 song. "But isn't this that song that's on that Cadillac commercial that's been played to hell for the past 3 months?" Yes, yes it fucking is. I will not apologize for that, they've gotta feed their family. Even regardless of that this was by far the most played song on my iPhone/iTunes with over 75 plays, for me this song epitomizes the best music of the year (notice its place atop my Top 25 Albums of the Year as well). This French Pop/Rock band was unknown to me before their 2009 masterpiece Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Since the discovery of that album, their other three albums have become regular staples in my rotation. The first time I heard 1901, which was way back in February now, I wondered if in fact this was the best song that would come out this year. Turns out it was, at least in my book. And now its probably gained notoriety among elitist bloggers (ahem...), but guess what its a great fucking song.

Agree? Disagree? Don't know any of these songs? Feel free to weigh in on the comments.

Day 39: Top Songs of 2009 (#20-11)

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EDIT: I fixed the link to the Das Racist song, because it was some remixed version and you need to bask in the full glory that is the real version.

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Before I get to the list, I just noticed the Grammy nom's came out for 2009, and there are some incredibly confusing nominations specifically the following:

Best New Artist Nominations for:
Silversun Pickups
The Ting Tings
MGMT

Um...what the hell...pretty sure that these bands have been around for a few years, which (at least in my book) might disqualify them from being considered new...you know b/c of the whole definition of the word new and all...so dumb...anyway...

Since I already did the top albums of the year, the next logical progression would be to list the top singles of 2009. Though many of these songs are not necessarily from the top listed albums, I think they definitely define the year musically. Also I'm sure, actually nearly positive, that I'll surely miss at least one or ten songs by the time this list is over, but whatever that's what the comments section is for, right?

Well there are a few ground rules for this list:
-No country music, because that's an oxymoron
-No repeat artist entries (Meaning I can't list the entire Phoenix album)
-Songs must have garnered at least 20 listenings on the iPhone/iTunes playlist
-Top 20 Songs of the Year


And without futher adieu, here is Part 1 of 2 (20-11):



For such an incredibly stupid and simple song I challenge you to listen to it only once. The first time I listened to it I was more dumbfounded than anything, its like, "Really...really? WTF..." and then a moment later you find yourself singing along to it. Maybe not the best song ever but certainly one of the years best earworms.

19. Girls - Hellhole Ratrace


I will admit I wasn't the first to get on board with this band; in fact, after my first listening it took me over a month and a half to come back to this album. Its like a post-modern Beach Boys album meets Frank Black, or something like that. Album is really one of those albums you can throw on and let run all the way through, but I think this was the highlight

18. BBU - Chi Don't Dance


I don't know a damn thing about this band/group/collective whatever, but damn them for putting out a song that took me two full weeks to cleanse from my head, and is now back in my head after listening to it for this list....DAMN YOU... All they do is juke, motherfuckers...you're damn right that's all they do, all they do, all they do...

17. Lady Gaga - Paparazzi


Tell me I'm wrong.

16. Lonely Island - I'm on a Boat


Just because its not serious doesn't mean its not good. There's no way someone could make a list of the top songs of 2009 and neglect this song. I mean they're basically mocking the relatively little amount of skill that's required to make a great hip-hop hook and chorus, and its chock full of Auto-Tune and T-Pain. If you disagree with me you need to take a good hard look in the mirror, and ask yourself," Self, why am I such a cock?" Proceed to then trim your face/neck/chest stache and go back to bed.

15. Blood Bank - Bon Iver


I've never really been on board with Bon Iver, for whatever reason. I always got that there's talent there, but until now the talent was completely wasted on me. This song has convinced me to give up any preconceived Bon Iver impressions I have had been holding on to and go back to give this band another look. The haunting vocals and quasi-depressing lyrics combined with the stripped down approach to this song have definitely kept me listening. I have a feeling that if I give this band a second chance, I might find myself quickly obsessed...

14. Wilco - One Wing


This is fairly sad considering Wilco is one of my favorite bands of all time (you better believe that's coming later). I didn't (and still don't) really appreciate Wilco's 2009 effort as much as perhaps I should, but I did think this was the highlight of what was an otherwise fairly unremarkable album. Now I say unremarkable, but that's only in the context of Wilco, its certainly remarkable enough compared to other bands; hence its appearance in this.

13. The Rural Alberta Advantage - Don't Haunt This Place


One of my favorite bands of the year, hands down. In this song it sounds like they're doing their best Dismemberment Plan or Pavement impression, but with the backgroundvocals and incessant tinny drumming in the back its a pretty damn awesome. It was hard to narrow this one down to just a single song as the album as a whole is very very solid, but I think this is the right choice. P.S. Run, don't walk, to piratebay or iTunes and get this album (Hometowns) ASAP.

12. Brother Ali - Good Lord


Perhaps I'm a little biased by the Minneapolis rapper's hometown, but with fewer and fewer actual rappers out there, and more and more Auto-tuned R&B tracks becoming mainstream, its refreshing to hear someone who can not just rap, but straight own the genre.

11. Passion Pit - Sleepyhead


Synthesizers, keyboards, and just all out ruckus on this track. Though this song has gotten a lot of play on commercials and movie trailers, especially as of late, its still pretty damn awesome. One of the more original sounding songs to come out this year. If you don't know this band you should.