yearend « Lawn With Gnomes

December 4, 2010

December 13, 2009

Top 20 Songs of 2009

Filed under: music,yearend — Brad Ehney @ 1:28 pm

This list is not meant to be perfect, it’s meant to be a list of songs that truly grabbed me this year. They are in no particular order on purpose. Yes, there are some amazing artists out there that aren’t on this list. But they didn’t stick in my consciousness long enough to pop into my head at the time I composed this list. And yes, I know Yeasayer just released Ambling Alp but I absolutely love this song and there will undoubtedly be more songs from this album that end up on my list next year when it is released next year.

I predict next year will be the year La Roux, Florence and The Machine break onto the US scene. Do yourself a favor and experience La Roux visually by viewing her music videos. Her label stupidly doesn’t allow the embedding of her videos from Youtube or I’d post them here.

Send me an @ on twitter or comment below with songs you think should fill in the last 4 to make it a full top 20.

Top 09

Albums/Artists that aren’t on the list but are worth a listen:

Wolfmother
YACHT
Esser
Boy In Static
Ishi (local)

Test out Lala for yourself click here

Other lists worth taking a listen to include @weeklytapedeck & @gorillavsbear

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December 23, 2008

2008 Top 5 Lists

Filed under: concerts,list,music,video,websites,yearend — Brad Ehney @ 9:21 pm

I always like to share what I’ve found each year because it helps others find new things. The only reason I say that is because I am constantly searching the web, or talking my friends virtual or real about the media we are consuming. Quite often I’m at the mercy of my husband and his complete control over the the remote so I just let him take over the recommendations in the home. He’s got great taste, I mean, he found me . But sometimes variety is the spice of life so I look to the web for recommendations outside my little world. Below are my top lists of things that I have fallen in love with over the past year. What did you find out about this year that you feel like sharing with me? Tell me in the comments or @ me on Twitter.

Top 5 Albums of 2008
I pulled these from my play counts compiled by my Last.fm & Zune.net accounts.

Gnarls Barkley – The Odd Couple
Santogold – Santogold
Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping
IAMX – The Alternative
Dead Confederate – Wrecking Ball

Mixtape from http://favtape.com/got80s/top 5 08

Top 5 Movies

The Dark Knight – The last, and a great performance by Heath Ledger, can’t say the same for Christian Bale.
Milk – Great look into GLBT history, Harvey Milk is our MLK.
Wall-E – Simply the MOST stunning Sci-Fi film ever.
Kung Fu Panda- Another out of left field, really funny movie that appeals to adults and children alike.
Hancock – Surprisingly funny, refreshing to finally see Will Smith be a dick.

Top 5 Fun Movies

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay – A must see for those who saw the first, or if you are a current or former pot head.
Wanted – No holds barred action film with the same director that did Night Watch / Day Watch.
Step Brothers- had me ROFLOL in the first 5 mins and for the rest of the film.
House Bunny – Seriously, it will make you laugh.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars), and Russell Brand, who was actually funny in this movie, unlike his appearance on MTV.

Top 5 Software / Tools

Twitter - After having an account for 7 months before I actually started using it, I’ve finally figured out how to use it and now I’m hooked. my account

Launchy - I don’t need icons anymore thanks to this free piece of software.

Digsby - I ditched the bug laden IM program Pidgin for this all in one piece of add free software and now I’m loving it.

Firefox 3 – If you are still using Internet Explorer on your home computer you are an idiot. ( I understand if you can’t use it on your work computer) If you need to be educated on why Firefox is awesome watch this video.
Google Reader – Forget actually visiting sites to see new content, make your own “newspaper” with Google Reader & the RSS feeds from the sites you visit, you’ll get addicted.

Top 5 (nah, just 2) Concerts

Both of these concerts were visually stunning, they will stick in my mind as some of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

Nine Inch Nails – Lights in The Sky Tour

Of Montreal – Skeletal Lamping Tour

Top 5 TV Shows

Little Britian USA – The UK version is just as funny.

The I.T. Crowd – UK is on season 3, but you can catch it on IFC currently showing season 2.

Dexter - I promise, you will be cheering on a serial killer by the time you finish your first episode ( you can rent the first 2 seasons, season 3 just finished airing)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - This show is a little over the top with drama, but the visuals are great for a TV series, plus it’s available to watch in full on Hulu.com

Chuck – Currently on season 2 (you can watch on Hulu.com ), rent season 1. It’s consistently funny and well written.

Until next year, toodles..

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December 29, 2007

Year of Learning; 2006 Looking back

Filed under: yearend — Tags: yearend — Brad Ehney @ 5:30 pm

Year of Learning; 2006 Looking back

What a f’d up year!

January started off with a bang, or should a say smash? While driving home one night after class I was just minding my own business and all of the sudden a woman appears in the road, then my hood, then my windshield and then the ground. While it was incredibly startling and major not funny at the time, it has now been moved to the funny bin of my mind. It took one person to ask if her I knocked her out of her shoes to make me just loose it laughing. Why you ask? Because it was true.

Then comes February, the month Matt and I moved to my mothers house. If moving home weren’t mentally complicated enough, I had the added pleasure of moving back with my 46 year old sister who was beginning cervical cancer treatments. If you don’t know about my sister already from previous blogs, lets just say she’s quite the handful.

March…well, it was a tough month for Matty and I. It was the start of the annual battle Matt has with his hormones and heart over whether or not to end our soon to be X number of years relationship. It was obviously stronger this year due to him living with my nuking futz family. In the end, I decided not to take another fist in the face for the year and instead I stood up and joined the battle. Take a guess at who won?

After a trying start to the year and a great desire to exit my mothers house aka the “House of Ill Repute” spring brought a wishful plan to move to Austin and drop Dallas like a fresh turd out my ass. But alas, after a summer of 8 credit hours and driving back and forth to Austin for tests and a bad ass concert the plan to move there died like an unfed puppy.

The following months were filled with feuds with my sister aka “The Other Sister”. A source of fantastic writing material for that long overdue novel of my life. Even with the stress of pointless family feuds I still had classes to attend. Again after 2005′s unplanned exit from Neiman Marcus, the focus on education continued to be the main point of the year.

And I have to say I had a fairly successful year at school. I weathered 20 hours in one year while working full time. That’s quite the accomplishment I must say!

In the end I won’t say that this year was in my top 10 so far. I did have fun hanging with friends here in Dallas and in Austin. I saw more concerts than I planned on seeing and all were worth the price. I learned a lot in school and on my own. I think the main lesson I learned is that if you plan on moving home and you’re in a relationship, you better have a strong relationship and a strong mind. Another thing is to get everything you can in order before attempting to go to college. It’s so complicated and costly!

I see next year being the year I finally get my associates degree and possibly going permanent at my temp job. I haven’t set any goals for next year. I have ideas, but nothing set in stone. One for sure will be to move away from Myspace and move towards blogging on my own site. Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to let you all know.

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December 18, 2007

Top 5 2008

Filed under: art,concerts,list,music,websites,yearend — Brad Ehney @ 8:00 am

The inevitable end of year list is being produced by every news outlet. So, I felt compelled to share mine. Maybe you’ll find something in one of the lists that becomes a new favorite of yours. If so, comment about it below.

Concerts, as you know, per my pasts posts, I’ve been to quite a few shows and seen a lot of bands this year. I promised myself that I’d just do Austin City Limits. Well, that just didn’t happen. Here’s my top 5 concerts.

1. ACL – Ghostland Observatory, Bjork, Regina Spektor, Muse.

2. Rufus Wainwright & Neko Case

3. Rilo Kiley

4. The Black Angels

5. TOOL

This year has to be the year that too many bands released too many good albums. It was hard to choose, but my number one is my number one because it was just that good. The marketing, the websites, the CD it’s self, the go fuck the music industry attitude of the lead singer just made it that much better.

1. Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero