hellgod_13’s Charts

So here goes the start of my year-end lists.

According to Last.fm, these are my most listened-to songs of the past 12 months.

hellgod_13’s Charts – Users at Last.fm:

1		Mogwai – Summer			13
2		Cynthia Alexander – Comfort in your Strangeness			11
2		The Magic Numbers – I See You, You See Me			11
4		Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah			10
4		Jeff Buckley – Mojo Pin			10
4		Alanis Morissette – You Oughta Know			10
4		Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye			10
4		Regina Spektor – Samson			10
4		Collective Soul – The World I Know			10
4		Cold War Kids – Hospital Beds			10

Not even one song here was released within the last 3 years, LOL... but I'm blaming this on the Last.fm scrobbler plugin not working on my laptop (plus me doing most of my music listening through my trusty, 3.75-year old Creative ZVM)

But if I had to choose a song that really made an impact to me this year, it's this gem by Up Dharma Down. (Alright, I know this song wasn't released this year either, but bear with me)

Something about this song (the *brilliant* lyrics, the smooth melody, Armi's incredible voice, Carlos, Pol and Ean's tight playing, the witty original video) and something about the things that happened the past year just *clicked* in an incredibly affecting way. The above video was taken from Up Dharma Down's live performance during the last few days of NU 107's existence (tear...)

Robbers, Bibles, Rainbows, Machines, Nightmare

So I'm not quite done yet with my year-end lists.

The previous two years, I listed the 20 most played songs from my it's-not-an-iPod-it's-a Creative Zen Vision M, but I'm not gonna do that now (since I wasn't able to reset the songs' play count at the start of '09.) So I'm just gonna list my 10 most listened-to albums (based on last.fm, which probably isn't very accurate either, because my last.fm widget doesn't usually work when I'm in the office, and I had some issues with using the widget on Windows Media Player, but enough side comments.) Here they are:

1. Cold War Kids – Robbers & Cowards

2. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

3. Radiohead – In Rainbows

4. Fiona Apple – Extraordinary Machine

5. Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare

6. Duffy – Rockferry

7. Up dharma Down – Fragmented

8. The Perishers – Let There Be Morning

9. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night

10. Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer

So none of these albums were actually released in 2009, but whatever, I'm wired to be late in many, many ways.

I think CWK's Robbers & Cowards probably made it to #1 on the strength of this brilliant, brilliant song (not to say that the rest of the album isn't great, because it is.) Neon Bible and In Rainbows are two of my favorite albums of the decade. I mean, those CD's are outstanding work, and in the case of In Rainbows, literally priceless.

If Robbers & Cowards was on repeat because of one song, then Extraordinary Machines was probably on repeat solely because of the lines "I was feeding on the need for you to know me, devastated at the rate you fell below me." (you get bonus points from me if you know what song that came from) (without googling it up) (bonus points are irredeemable, btw.)

So that's my music list for 2009. I'd love to see yours :-) (no really, I do. I'm not just being polite.)

Best Of '09... Part 2

Best Viral Videos of 2009:

JK Wedding Entrance Dance

In second place:

Kanye Interrupts Taylor Swift at the VMA's

(worth mentioning: Baby Dancing to Single Ladies, and Susan Boyle's Britain's Got Talent Audition)

Best Weirdly Awesome/Awesomely Weird TV Character:

Sheldon Cooper, The Big Bang Theory

In second place:

Sue Sylvester, Glee

Best Dessert Place of The Year:

Classic Confections (Nono's Chocolate Oblivion cake)

In second place:

Tie: Cafe Breton (Adam and Eve crepe), Wicked Kitchen (Gluttony)

Best Fish Dish I Tasted For The First time This Year:

Cookbook Kitchen's Parmesan Crusted White Fish

In second place:

Fely J's Tilapia with Sweet Plum Sauce

Best Sandwich for Lunch In the Office:

Subway's Italian B.M.T. in Parmesan Oregano Bread with Honey Mustard and Sweet Onion dressing

In second place:

Delifrance's Frech Dip Roast Beef

Most "I don't get it..." Music Trend of 2009:

Justin Bibier being popular (I mean come on, his voice is exactly a quarter of an octave lower than Alvin and the Chipmunks')

In second place:

K-Pop girl bands.

Most Annoying Showbiz Issues of 2009:

Hayden Kho sex tapes. (Seriously, a senate hearing? So you just couldn't find anywhere else to waste our tax money on, Bong Revilla?)

In second place:

Manny Pacquiao's alleged extra-marital affair with Krista Ranillo. (At least he didn't try to beat Tiger Woods' list of hoes.)

Best Starbucks Pastry That I Eat With My Cafe Mocha:

Banoffee Pie

In second place:

Cinnamon Swirl

2009 Pinoy Hero:

Muelmar Magallanes

In second place:

Efren Peñaflorida

Best Of '09... Part 1

Best movie I saw this year:
(500) Days of Summer

In second place:

Up

Most under-appreciated TV shows (because I don't know any friend who watches this show):

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

In second place:

The Soup

Best Trip I Took In 2009:

Coron, April 2-6

In second place:

Caramoan/CWC, Feb 21-24

Best Nickelodeon TV show:

Spongebob Squarepants

In second place:

The Fairly Odd Parents

Best "The Amazing Race" elimination:

Season 15, Dubai Leg Part 2: Mika and Canaan gets eliminated after Mika refuses to go down a 90-foot waterslide, allowing Globetrooters Flight Time and Big Easy to overtake them (this after the GTs fell behind by almost an hour when they couldn't figure out the right sequence that would open the combination lock of a briefcase that holds their next clue)

In second place:

Season 14, Beijing Leg Part 2: Kisha and Jen gets eliminated after Jen insists on taking a bathroom break, allowing Jaime and Cara to overtake them (this after Kisha and Jen gets U-Turned, and Jaime and Cara got lost for 3 hours++ finding a Chinese Opera House)

Most Unwelcome News of the Year:

Typhoons Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma) Flood + Damages. :(

In second place:

Ampatuan Massacre. Grrrr.

Most Addicting Website of the Year:

Facebook

In second place:

Tie: Television Without Pity/Twitter

Best Sporting Event of the Year:

Roger Federer wins a record 15th Grand Slam title in Wimbledon, 16-14 in the 5th set, over Andy Roddick

In second place:

Roger Federer wins his 14th Grand Slam title and 1st ever French Open to complete a career Grand Slam.

Travel and Tunes

To sum up 2008, I'd say this has been a great year for traveling.

The Poland trip at the end of 2007 reignited my wanderlust which continued on to this year. And I had some great, great, great trips this year. There was El Nido with my college friends, and the Boracay teambuilding, and the Hong Kong and Macau trip with some current and former officemates. But the highlight of the year was definitely the awesomely epic SEA backpacking trip from Kuala Lumpur to Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City with the "cliquish" batchmates from the office. Angkor Wat has been my dream desitnation for a few years now, and let me tell you, right from the time I set foot on Siem Reap International Airport, to riding the tuktuk to the hostel, to seeing the temples and walking around the town, every second of that trip was amazing.

Being able to go to a dream destination is an awesome experience. Yep, this was an awesome year of traveling. Machu Picchu, Lalibela and New Zealand, anyone? =D

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I made the same list at the end of 2007 and since I'm all about routines, I thought I should do it again. So here are the 20 most played songs on my ZVM:

1. Machines - Biffy Clyro
2. Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon
3. 3 Libras - A Perfect Circle
4. Missed The Boat - Modest Mouse
5. If You Tolerate This - Manic Street Preachers
6. Little Motel - Modest Mouse
7. Keep The Car Running - Arcade Fire
8. I See You, You See Me - The Magic Numbers
9. The Comeback - Shout Out Louds
10. The Origin of Love - Hedwig and The Angry Inch
11. 9 Crimes - Damien Rice
12. Grace - Jeff Buckley
13. Oasis - Amanda Palmer
14. People As Places As People - Modest Mouse
15. Warwick Avenue - Duffy
16. Weak - Skunk Anansie
17. Dream - Alice Smith
18. Oh Well - Fiona Apple
19. Sway - The Perishers
20. This Year's Love - David Gray

Happy New Year Everyone! May 2009 be great for all of us! (and when I say us, it means me and the people I like...)

Must Saw TV

We're in the first few hours of the last day of the year, and since it looks like this day is supposed to be significant (judging by all the firecrackers and all that noise), I figure why waste it on sleep? So instead of going to bed, I thought I'd spend just a few more minutes blogging while eating some yummy czekolada from Warsaw that my teammate Piotrek gave me for Christmas (although it's not E. Wedel or Wawel, pwede na... Thanks Boss Piotr!)

So as a year capper, and since this is also the season for Top n lists (where n = 10, usually)... I thought I should list down my must-see TV shows in the past year:

1. The Amazing Race - It's travel porn paired with constant adrenaline rush. Of course it's my #1.
   
2. Chuck - It's Alias, but funnier and lighter. And AXN showing back-to-back eps of the first season only added to my addiction.
3. Pushing Daisies - I'm still pissed it's not coming back for another season. I'm really gonna miss this show, just like I still miss Arrested Development.
   
4. Top Chef - A cooking competition featuring great food set on a kitchen filled with competitive egotistical chefs? I'm in.
   
5. Damages - I remember wanting to be a lawyer when I was a kid. This brilliantly twisted show actually makes me happy that I didn't go that route.
6. 30 Rock - Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Kenneth the Page, Elaine and the whole cast is pure comedy gold.
7. House - Hugh Laurie as House is just completely fascinating to watch, even if the show gets too formulaic at times.
8. NCIS - It sort of replaced CSI as my favorite crime show. The plots are always interesting, but what really holds it up is the great chemistry between the cast members.
9. So You Think You Can Dance - Forget Idol (until the new season comes in January, I guess). I'm not one who likes dancing at all, but this show is addicting. srsly.
10. Family Guy - The best thing about Family Guy is that it consisteblgrruhgse.
    

Special Mention:

• How I Met Your Mother- The only problem with this show is I can't catch it often enough on my TV...
• The Office - You know how there are parts of this show that's so damn funny, and then there are those parts that really make you cringe and want to change the channel? Because it might actually be your office they're basing the plot on, and you might actually be a Dwight? Or a Michael?
• Digging for the Truth - This is a show on the History Channel, and the host travels from continent to continent to prove (or disprove) a historical mystery. It's awesome if your a history/geography/travel geek like me.
  
• The Summer Olympics - Hey, it only comes once every leap year.

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Now playing: Pink Floyd - Shine On You Crazy Diamond
via FoxyTunes

Welcome, 2007 + 1

A couple of hours more before the new year comes in...

The year started off with a bang, then mellowed down to below mediocre (there was a point when I felt like our office turned into The Office, without the humor, but with Dwight Schrute), but things started picking up, with the 3-month trip to Poland putting the icing on the cake. (Not everything is on the ups though... One of those things? My bonus.)

So instead using this space to deliberate whether 2007 was a great year or not, I've decided that I will use this post to list down the 20 most played tracks on my Creative ZVM :D

1. A Design For Life - Manic Street Preachers (If I was going on a protest, I'd sing this song on a megaphone, at the top of my lungs)
2. She Ionizes and Atomizes - Modest Mouse (this is a song from one of Modest Mouse's earlier albums, it's actually the first song by the band that I downloaded)
3. Worn Me Down - Rachael Yamagata (She has an awesome voice that I love listening to over and over again.)
   
4. Missed The Boat - Modest Mouse (from their latest album, a standout song. Also, check out the various videos for the song)
   
5. Run - Snow Patrol (Also from their older album. This is an awesome anthemic song)
6. Spitting Venom - Modest Mouse (Another one from the "We Were Dead" album)
7. Last Goodbye - Jeff Buckley (I'm surprised it isn't on any higher, this is my absolute favorite song)
8. Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie - (Another one of my most favorite songs ever)
   
9. Us - Regina Spektor (A great, crazy vocalist)
   
10. Casimir Pulaski Day - Sufjan Stevens (This song gives me goosebumps)
11. Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins
12. Charm Attack - Leona Naess
13. Samson - Regina Spektor
14. Silent All These Years - Tori Amos
    
15. Put Your Records On - Corinne Bailey Rae
16. A Long Walk - Jill Scott
17. Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town - Pearl Jam
    
18. The Shining - Badly Drawn Boy
19. Hedonism - Skunk Anansie
20. Love For Granted - Phoenix
    

Happy New Year, everyone!



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Now playing: Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life
via FoxyTunes