Haven't Had A Decent Meal. My Brain Is Fried. Haven't Slept a Week For Real.

There are three main things in life that I could do without: eating, bathing and sleeping. It isn't that I hate any of them in particular. I just believe that they should be optional. I have limited time and have to plan around these rituals and they prevent me from a continual cycle of excitement.

Some people live to eat. You eat to live
This is what my mother tells me all the time. My father could pretty much eat everything in sight and would be a huge fatty if left to his own devices. Food just doesn't interest me like that. I'm not trying to be some emaciated fag and I do have a healthy appetite, but food in general does not excite me. I just don't have a favorite meal, which frustrates my mother to no end. I don't gush about food, I just eat it. Sometimes it's good but I would rather hear about someone's life than what they ate. Even if you win an award, I don't want to hear about how much pie you ate. Why do fuckers want to brag about being the biggest hog? it is a defense mechanism? Are they proud that they are pigging out? When it comes down to it, it's JUST food. I mean, I don't mind chicken, but I would rather have...."a rooster" in my mouth.

Cleanliness is next to godliness
God is a dirty bitch. He plays jokes and tells people to sacrifice their sons and then says shit like, "just kidding." He casts plagues and locusts to destroy crops just to let you know he ain't playing. If that isn't playing it dirty, I don't know what is.

I do want to be clean. I would just like to clear that up. I don't hate being clean by any means. It is the act of becoming clean that is tedious. It makes my doubt in the existance in God that much stronger. Why wouldn't he make it so we did not have to bathe and get filthy? We are supposedly his masterpiece, so we should remain immaculate (in body at least...my mind will never be pure). I would love to wake up and not be sweaty and gross. I would love to never have to wash my hair and have it be perfect every day. Baths (who the fuck has time?) and showers should be for recreation and relaxation, not for a purpose. When there is a reason to do something, there is the knowledge that it is a required activity. All semblance of choice is removed and you are soaping up not of your own accord, but because God fucked up. He is a dirty pervert and just wants to see you lather. so much for free will.


NO REST FOR THE WICKED
If that statement is true, it may just be that I want to be wicked. I get minimal amounts of sleep, but there are times where I wish I wasn't tired. Just when I start to have fun, my body shuts down and tells me I have to fucking rest. I doubt that Oprah needs rest and she runs the world. What is stronger than Jesus? Love and Oprah. Those two forces together strike me harder than lightning. "If" Oprah is a lesbian it would explain a lot. ((((Bitches that sleep with other bitches get things done. There is no messing around. They will trample you to get what they want. I suppose they have things to build...in her case, an empire. I would take more time to study lesbians on an anthropological level, but the key to their success is probably tied to cycle synchronicity. Double your pleasure, double your fun...)))) The power of the pussy is not generally lost on me, but I will never be able to tap into it.

Perhaps the key is to be meaner. When I'm mean I probably rest more though. Everyone ends up calling me a cunt and doesn't really want to see me. What I do when I'm bored is sleep. This colloquialism is so fucking flawed. I need to make a new statement that says, "No sleep for the engaging and interesting.....be hot." Both mission statements sound like personal ads anyway. Life is one big fucking classified ad but no one can figure out what they need to advertise for. Say too much and life freaks out and abandons you....say too little and it doesn't know what you want.

Give it a rest!

p.s. I need to give the "quotations" a rest as well.

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I Grew Up Thinking What's Good For One Opresses The Other. It's My Turn! My Life! My Way! Mine! Me! It Made Me Crazy. I Couldn't Fight It.

One thing I have never understood on a logical level as well as a personal level, is the misplacement of blame on a large scale, on a certain race or group of people. Individuals can not logically be held responsible for the actions of everyone that is the same race or group. Individuals can not be held responsible for what their families have done. The only reason we should be pointing out differences is to praise them. The irrational fear of anyone different and how they are sometimes viewed as a threat, instead of a blessing is inexplicable. The results of bigotry can range from downright annoying to absolutely horrifying and disgusting.

All of the hate that has been spewed into the world in the name of religion or for political gain has been somewhat tolerated, mostly because those promoting the hate are not the minorities being targeted and are the people with the influence and power. Leave the judging of people up to me. I am Every Deity you have ever or never heard of. God causes more problems than he is worth as far as I am concerned. I'm not saying that he is a bad guy (or girl) or that I don't believe in him (but I probably don't), but what ever happened to minding your own fucking business? Jesus Christ! Killing in the name of religion would seem to defeat the favorable aspects of religious teachings: tolerance and kindness. That is my problem with religion in a nutshell, but I'm not going to wage a war against ever religious person in the world. There are a lot of really nice people that happen to believe in something that I do not. Why would I even give a shit? through any string of convoluted and illogical suppositions, how could anyone decide to kill an entire race? Religion should be a pick-and-choose part of your life. We should be able to choose parts from one or more religion that apply to our own ideals and implement them into our lives. These fuckers claim it isn't and shouldn't be that way though and that they are just following the entire teachings of whatever "good book" they subscribe to. That's all good and fine, but I don't need to hear how your Bible tells you that I'm going to hell (that troublesome faggot quality) and that I don't deserve to live. No one's belief should infringe on my personal rights or anyone else's for that matter. I don't really give a shit if I'm going to hell...let me, just leave me alone. For the record, it doesn't really even say that if you take cultural context into consideration.

I've always been obsessed with the horror of the holocaust. I have met a few survivors, of which there are fewer and fewer. They were at a Holocaust and anti-racism symposium that I went to when I thought I was going to save the world and hung out with the granola-heads in high school. Regardless of how I ended up at the symposium, the speakers were absolutely heartbreaking. They talked about being separated from their families and not really having any sense of what was really happening to them until it was too late. It deeply affected me and how I view all people, and not just minorities. I often wrote and still do occasionally write to Anne Frank in my personal journal. She was allegedly a bit of a self promoter and a shrewd business woman. There are rampant rumors that she re-wrote large portions of her journals once she found out she might get them published. I held it against her for a long time and chastised her for being inauthentic. Eventually I came to the conclusion that it was all OK. People should be allowed to have complex attributes. She should be allowed to want to be viewed as a victim, a hero and someone that might want a little recognition for it. She deserved to embellish a little and make the story a little better after what she went through. Even if some of the events are changed, the experience as a whole was still true and the most importantly, there is an emotional truth to it. I don't care if she fucked Paul senseless (her boyfriend, if I remember correctly), or if she had done heroin every day she was in hiding (there is no evidence or even speculation that she did....I'm just saying). She was still hiding out and fearing for her life and that's all that really matters to me. We have made our peace and she is not only a testament of hope; she is also an amazing talent. I will always feel a deep connection to Anne.

My family probably wishes that I did, but I don't believe in shaming the family name and try to live according to this belief as often as possible. It is not possible for me to shame anyone but myself, which I do with increasing frequency. The whole idea of family or race shame is completely ridiculous and my name is my own. My refusal to share any accolades or disapproval with my family or ancestry should be wildly apparent. I take credit where credit is due. My actions are my own and I also retain the rights to any accompanying shame. People should be judged on an individual basis. I don't ever feel any real sense of shame anyways, because whatever I do becomes a part of who I am. Being a cantankerous asshole is not very becoming, but neither is dwelling on the past. I always vow to try better next time and for the first time, I feel like I have a chance to do so. I will mine my differences and make them into something positive. I embrace my faults and hope that they present themselves and I can morph them. I will use them in ways that facilitate instead of hinder my well being.

I have been walking around the street and enjoy the summer thickness of the air. I appreciate the comfort of the soft darkness and know that I will probably make it home. I wonder what it would be like to be the last of anything. After the horror of the Holocaust, it amazes me that the genocide in Sudan can actually be happening. Maybe this is all coming out now because I just saw the new J.J Abrams Star Trek movie, which deals with the impending elimination of an entire species. Besides the loss of life, there is a loss of a culture when you eliminate the people practicing the traditions. Cultural diversity is something I am entirely fascinated by because I don't understand a lot of other cultures. I get so bored with my own rhetoric sometimes and North America in general, that I welcome something different. Maybe it is a sucker punch to some people's egos for them to realize that the world does not in fact revolve around them. They lose their shit once they realize that whole other worlds have been going on without their written approval. The woman sitting behind me during Star Trek was shocked and actually gasped when it was revealed that 6 billion people were living on a fictional planet. Would she care if the earth were to be obliterated? Does she not know how many people are alive? I suppose she is just too stupid. That is one judgement that can be made without having to worry about color lines. If there were ever a group of people to be killed, it should be stupid people. We should be killing groups of people based on the arbitrary( if we want to kill people, that is). The reasons people have for killing on a mass scale thus far have been arbitrary anyway. how inconsequential a reason is skin color or calling god a different name or having a different prophecy for the end of the world? Mind your own shit...

here is a list of groups of people that should be killed based on factors far more important than race, religion or sexual orientation:

• Stupid People


• Delinquent Parents


• Ugly People


• Child Molesters and Rapists


• Jon and Kate plus their 8

I sometimes still write to Anne, but I do always write to the deceased in my journal. Sometimes it is a famous person or someone I have personally known or wish that I had. I just want to feel like someone is listening to me and my thoughts are not being released into a vacuum. That should be what we all want. Instead of finding the ways in which we are all different a problem, we should be embracing those differences. I just want to connect to someone and learn from them what I can. Poets have written back to me once or twice... I would just like to state for the record that I don't take the Holocaust or the murder of anyone lightly. My point is that if you are going to kill, kill on an individual basis. Give everyone a chance to prove that they deserve to die.

Perhaps with a little luck they will learn the error of their ways after the fact....and be able to tell you about it.

Keep a journal.

The sun will come up again and if you get scared just hold my hand

"This Afternoon with you was something like a letter
the kind that someone writes but never sends
and when you're good to me
it makes me blue because someday
it's gonna end
and when we pass on
I bet you miss your friends"
-Ryan Adams, Friends

One thing everyone needs, but that I especially need at this point in my life, are good friends. Being alone doesn't have to be, and isn't all that terrifying, but having someone to talk to is essential for anyone to survive with any sense of emotional security. Without friends and without relating experiences and having interactions that are reciprocated in varying degrees and having that support when needed, it would be difficult to get through the day.

I have made friends in unexpected places and certain ones have lasted far longer than I had expected them to. There is no rhyme or reason to friendship that I can see and sometimes no real reason why some friendships work and some don't. I really appreciate that even after not talking to someone for a long period of time, I can call them up or talk to them and nothing has changed. We pick up right where we had left off, whether it be yesterday, or sometimes a year or so. I love being able to, after not having talked in a while, start up a conversation about love life troubles, kelly clarkson and how Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville relates to the city of Chicago and our lives perfectly. Everything is subject to timing, but when it clicks and the personalities work well together, its a beautiful thing.

I've always been a late bloomer with everything that has ever happened in my life. It always seems to take me a little longer to get around to certain things. I was never comfortable enough with who I was until the past few years to even be a good friend. I had emotional residue from my years spent as a young and awkward fag that felt alone within the Catholic School (and to a lesser degree, public school) system. I have been an outsider and still felt like that kid that just didn't fit in. However, much of my personality and sarcasm can be attributed, in large part, to not belonging. Skills were developed to cope with being a freak and being stuck inside my head.

It wasn't that I never had friends, just that I never truly accepted that they truly wanted to be friends with me. There were constant feelings of inadequacy and fears of missing something. I don't really know what bullshit I was hoping to not miss, because none of us did anything particularly exciting. I was, and still am not, into heavy partying or drinking. I really don't understand what I was hoping for....maybe I just don't remember.

My friendships have never been linear, nor should they have to be. I have friends that I lost contact with over years but by chance (or over the internet), I will reconnect with them and the dynamic has changed drastically or we have changed enough to become close again. I find it fascinating that all of a sudden the pieces fit together and it all works. Whatever happened separately in each of our lives made us into different people than we were. Those new people then fit together again based on a connection made in what often times seems like a previous life. Sometimes relationships, romantic or otherwise prevent us from growing in the way that we need to at that point in our lives. If those relationships are lost and can later formed again, they can be much stronger because of the time apart.

Being thrust back into single life has incidentally given me a lot of free time. I have spent much of that time rebuilding relationships with friends that I had lost, making stronger ones with people I wasn't that close to in the beginning, or attempting to make new friends. The internet has facilitated much of this connecting and reconnecting. The thing I miss most about my ex-boyfriend is the companionship and I hope that in time we can again be good friends. I think it is a good sign that we remained civil throughout the whole break up. The whole situation is still strained and painful, but we are really working on keeping in touch. It took years before I could talk to my ex-girlfriend without an underlying weirdness, but we got there eventually. I just hope it doesn't take years this time.

Finally I feel like I am in a place where I can offer something in terms of a solid friendship. No longer are my personal issues and demons a deterrent in getting close to someone. I am pretty much an open book and anything that someone wants to know about me I will tell them. My experiences are worth retelling and hopefully I am able to learn something from other people.

Just know that if we become friends, I am not here to judge you, only to listen and be listened to. Tell me of course, if I am being a complete asshole though.

the walls are caving in as far as i can see. the walls are caving in. the door got locked for sure. there's no one here but me.

I'm not sure what to make of it in the aftermath, but as my relationship was coming to a close, I had been working on another blog posting (part of which has been included in this one), wherein I talk about what a horrible person I am and what a bad friend I can be. Whilst I know I can be a cantankerous asshole, I do truly believe that much of it was a cry for change. Perhaps moving into my parents' house and being essentially without my own space was not exactly what I had in mind, but those problems are hopefully only temporary.

Excerpt from the original self-hate blog:

[In general, I would say that I am a fairly nice person. I
am usually nice to strangers or those I am not close to. The only problem is
that I have a horrible mean streak. I can't let things go, at least in the
moment. I leave people no room to breathe while arguments brew and everyone
becomes increasingly agitated. To the untrained eye, I am quite nice, but those
that know me know that the reality of my friendship is far more complex.
I
am a naturally inclined towards being controversial and psychotic. My tendencies
drive people away more than attract them. When I'm in a bad mood I have been
known to ensure that it affects everyone around me. ]

While this is no longer entirely true and those behaviours increasingly became a cry for help and for a change, I do believe that they need to be addressed and apologized for. I need to move forward and become a whole person as a single entity and not a member of coupledom. I am no longer tied to a relationship and though it is surreal, it is also terrifying. I am vaguely jaded on the whole subject, but only so far as my own life is concerned. I can remain happy for those that can make it work and it may be that it just didn't work in this situation. It is too early for me to reach a definitive conclusion on the subject of my ability to sustain a relationship.

I feel slightly liberated in the sense that I can start over. I can find myself and what it means to know me. I no longer have to be the person I was and barely recognize him. I find a new objectivity in my perception that was largely absent when I was in the middle of it all. I feel intense regret for ending things, even if it was for the best. I don't know why it had to end for me to change, just that it did. The awareness (that every new single probably has) that everything you thought your life would be is now in shambles, is almost too much to take.

It's not as if the other posting I wrote chronicling the relationship was a lie. It was closer to a last attempt to save it; grasping to try and see why it shouldn't be going down the toilet. I don't hate my ex by any means and we had a lot of good times and hopefully still will, albeit interacting with a very different dynamic. We are seeing each other tomorrow for a concert and things will hopefully go smoothly. It is a frighteningly difficult and strained transition, but well worth the trouble. I'm still working out what exactly happenned, but i have a pretty clear picture of our problems. Finding a place of common ground again is a welcome challenge. Losing the relationship and constant companionship is enough to bear without also losing my best friend in the process.

Sometimes things just don't work out. It sad, but unfortunately it happens. I won't get into the specifics of our particular break up out of respect for him (that I thankfully retained), but I am no longer willing to promise that anything is forever. Maybe it has made me into a cynic, but I never thought my life would lead me here; would lead me to any of the good or bad things I got out of this relationship. I guess thats what life is though: a series of unexpected and sometimes unwelcome events that shape who you are. Who am I though? I think I've forgotten. I haven't written in a while, but I hope everyone is willing to join me as I search for the many answers to that question.

[thank you......]

I Watched Far More Than This (of the '08 flicks).... I Would Like To Not Think Of All The Time Wasted On The Shitty Ones

I watch most movies at home which is very far away from the theatre. That is why most of the movies that I thought had come out in 2008, were actually 2007 releases. There are just as many movies that I am anticipating as ones I have seen. Once again, I have trouble quantifying quality, so I will just speak about them rather than tarnish their dignity by organizing a formal, ordered list.


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Burn After Reading
Wall-E
Iron Man
Hancock
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
4 Months, 3 weeks, and 2 days
Tropic Thunder
Stepbrothers
Vicki Christina Barcelona

Do I really like Brad Pitt as an actor that much? Apparently I do. I don't think he gets enough credit for his acting choices, but he has chosen smaller and weirder roles than are necessary given his good looks. He made some good choices early on though, choosing roles that would help solidify a career when his looks started to fade (and lets face it... they are starting to fade). Astonishing special effects aside, he did become the young old man in Benjamin Button as he did the deluded fitness trainer in Burn After Reading. The two movies compliment each other quite well. They are both about the fleetingness of youth, with the latter focusing on the obsession of the chase and the total disregard for what is lost along the way. Frances McDormand is however, the best part of Burn After Reading and does her best work since Fargo in it. John Malkovich is perfectly furious as always and George Clooney continues to please. I am starting to think that most of disappointing work was during his star making role on ER.

Anyone that knows me, knows that for me to like an animated film, it has to be damn good. Wall-E is a love story about two robots on our abandoned earth. It is sweet and endearing even to a cynical fuck like me. Much of the movie is silent, yet compelling and in a strange way a throwback to the old silent movies. As a side note, it is a commentary on both consumer culture and the downside to rapidly advancing technology. The film's message is that our greed and gluttony will ultimately be our demise. It is quite dark subject matter for a cartoon directed at children, making it also enjoyable for adults. There is nothing better than subtext.

The superhero genre has gotten out of control because for every good one, there are a few bad ones and at least one horrible one. I would like to forget most of Spiderman 3, for example, but at least Iron Man also got made. It is more intelligent than most summer blockbusters, yet just as entertaining as any other action movie. I am not at all familiar with the comic book from which it is derived, but do think that Robert Downey Jr. was perfect casting. He is believable as both the businessman that produces and sells firearms and as the man in turmoil afterwards that is regretful about his life's work. The effects are virtually seamless.

Hancock is a strange superhero movie in that it changes tone about midway through the movie. It starts out as a comedy action movie about a superhero with a drinking problem and ends on an apocalyptic vaguely religious tone. In my opinion, the whole thing worked out quite well and the unexpected is welcome, but I can understand how it might have thrown a few people off.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall was humorous because of it's awkwardness. It's a realistic and quirky mix of things and quite an original take on a seemingly tired formula. The parodies of crime scene shows and the vampire opera make the movie something special.

There aren't very many movies that I've seen from Romania, but 3 Weeks, 4 Months and 2 days is pretty fucking good. It is about life in communist Romania, focusing on abortion and it's illegality. It is almost feels like a documentary, but that could be due to the fact that this culture is so foreign to me. The story is told well and filmed beautifully.



Tropic Thunder was a wonderful parody of movie making in general. I am glad that someone finally had the balls to make fun of overblown war movies that sometimes re-write history and are movies that basically give the American Armed Forces one collective blowjob. Robert Downey Jr. continues his rise back to where he always should have been: on the A-list

Step Brothers is just pure stupid fun. Everything doesn't have to have something to say. This one is merely to entertain.



I just watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona a few nights ago and it is the best Woody Allen movie in years. It is more of the offbeat comedy that is more typically his style than his past few movies have been. The characters still talk like versions of him, even when they speak Spanish, but the characters are so hilariously different from each other and well thought out that it all works. I fucking loved it.


I have not seen yet:

Slumdog Millionaire
The Dark Knight

In Bruges
The Fall
Revolutionary Road
The Reader
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Music Listens To Me, Not The Other Way Around (Tunes of '08 edition)

My hesitation to post any sort of top of the year lists was based on my frustration at being unable to establish any sense of order among my personal nominees. Some movies, music, etc. aren't comparable to one other, based on different concepts, not on quality. I have therefore decided to just write about a bunch of shit that I enjoyed that came out this year.

Phantom Planet - Raise the Dead


A band that increased their fame by having their song chosen to be the theme song of the brain-dead-candy show, The O.C., put out their best album just before deciding to kick the bucket. It is a semi-concept album about cult leaders and sounds equally fun and creepy. As expected, there are a ton of group sing-along songs about belonging and listening to the leader. Unexpectedly, it all works and the songs will get stuck in your head so bad you'll swear there must be hidden messages on the album. If I was forced to choose a favorite from last year, this would most likely be it.

"Wear us over where your heart is
Your new life with us has started"

Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst


I had always heard that Bright Eyes was emo, and after actually listening to some of the music, I guess that means Bob Dylan and other folk leaning classic rock influences. Who knew being sad sounded so fucking good? A lot of the songs have a nomadic feel and a sense of uncomfortableness to them.

"I woke up in the age of wires
I fell asleep at the dusk of man"

Beyonce - I Am...Sasha Fierce



Her ego is big enough for two people, but the music is good. I wasn't even going to buy it and now I can't stop singing along to every cross-market promotion of a track. Almost every song is good, even the slow ones which I find to be a rarity in a lot of super commercial pop music.

"It can be a sweet dream
or a beautiful nightmare."


Fall Out Boy - Folie A Duex


Finally, lead singer Patrick Stumph's vocal operatics make sense. They always sounded good, but this is modern rock music with a little soul. There are quite a few guests stars and the whole album seems to be a "life-so-far" exercise as well as a career retrospective. I guess that in our accelerated culture of fast rises and falls, a few years of increasing success is something to look back on.

"I'm not a crybaby
I am THE crybaby"

Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Cardinology



This whole wonderful group of songs reminds me of Tom Petty and one song evokes a youthful Rolling Stones. It plays like a tribute to classic rock in all it's glory, with just enough flourishes of Adam's personal brand of country to make it into something special. I don't quite know if it is his best, but it is certainly equal to the high quality work he has been releasing these past 4 years or so.

"You're like a raincloud
if it rained, Mushroom Cloud"

Pink - Funhouse



Every album of hers is better than the last and increasingly showcases her versatile scratchy voice.Nobody had any bizness making her half rap on her first album. This is the best break-up album in recent years. She even veers very successfully into country on one song and pulls it off with regretful and great sounding results.

"Pictures framing up the past
your taunting smirk behind the glass
this museum full of ash
once a tickle, now a rash"

P.S. Also, her duet on Butch Walker's suprisingly good new album is awesome. It is also about heartbreak. It's title is, "Here comes the..."

Sheryl Crow - Detours

Themes: Break-up; Cancer; The world going to shit. It all sounds good and fun.

"Diamond Ring
Diamond Ring
Just fucks up everything"

Jason Mraz - We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things


Themes: Love; Pain; The World Has Problems. Very good companion to Sheryl Crow's album. A few of the songs have a similar feel. They fool you into thinking you are camping and sitting around the campfire being philosophical.

"I'm a drama abolitionist
damn no opposition
to my proposition
half of a man
half magician
half a politician
holding the mic like ammunition"

Weezer - The Red Album



As strong as the first two albums, but this time Rivers Cuomo let other people write and relinquished some control. Brian Wilson and Axl Rose do not approve.

"After the havoc that I'm gonna wreak
no more words will critics have to speak"

The Cab - Whisper War



More vocal operatics. They are less a baby Fall Out Boy than a pop-punk influenced Maroon 5 though.....without the cheese and schlock of course. I have had the album since it came out, and can not get the melodies out of my head.

"Just give me time to give you a waste of time
one of those nights
when you leave me for no reason
I'll give you a reason"

Aimee Mann - @#%&*! Smilers

While Aimee Mann is mellow most of the time, this album takes it to all time lows. It is stronger material than what was on her last album, but very much a slow burner. There is nothing really rockin' here and it smells like old america and abandonded carnivals. The songs don't really reveal their magic on the first few listens, but the wait is worth it.


"But you sit there in the darkness
and you make plans but they're hopeless
and you blame God when you're lonely
and you'll call it fate
when you show up too late, and it's over"


Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows


The hitmakers album isn't full of radio ready hits. Written in the wake of his house (and most of his possessions within) being burned in the California wild fires, the songs bear the immediacy of a new beginning. They aren't directly about any of that, but he sounds revitalized.

" They say, look at you boy.. You must worship satan
Just because I had the same long hair as the jesus in their paintings"

All-American Rejects - When The World Comes Down


They tried a bit harder with this one and that is why I am giving credit. It sounds like a real band and not just a power-pop band that teens will be into for a while. The lyrics are still vague, banal and stadium oriented at times, but it comes out beautiful. Each song seems to have it's very own character for a change. They try on quite a few moods and styles and it works most of the time.

Some Second Tier Contenders:

Ben Folds - Way To Normal


He's doing an Elton John impression, but it is a good one. It isn't his best work throughout, but there are still a few gems.

Joseph Arthur - Temporary People


He releases far too much material, but this stuff hits the mark on almost every song.

Mariah Carey - E=Mc2


Emancipation was the comeback and this is the album that will keep her here. Still, there is too much of a reliance on "hot" guest stars.