The 2000s: Music, part 2. (single tracks, and top albums)

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TRACKS OF THE DECADE:

(if i wrote for a music magazine that shared my music taste. trying to be objective. based on popular appeal, critical appeal, how influential a song is, how indicative a song is of the general trends in music during the decade, what the 2000s will likely be remembered for, and for GENERAL AWESOMENESS.... etc.)

30. "Heartbeats" - The Knife
29. "Since U Been Gone" - Kelly Clarkson
28. "Chicago" - Sufjan Stevens
27. "Clocks" - Coldplay
26. "Love Story" - Taylor Swift
25. "Clint Eastwood" - Gorillaz
24. "B.O.B." - Outkast
23. "Crazy" - Gnarls Barkley
22. "Maps" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
21. "Toxic" - Britney Spears
20. "My Girls" - Animal Collective

Music of the 2000's: Favorite 25 albums. (#25-1)

Revised (version 2). A little more accurate, I feel. this list sits a little better with me.

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25. Hold On Now, Youngster... - Los Campesinos! (2008)


This is a golden slice of hipster pop that really helped me through some oddly angsty-times in my sophomore year of college. The song "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks" really sticks out in my mind and helped me through that time. It's really weird too, because this album is pure pop goodness, but it was able to help me through some serious angst. It doesn't make sense, but what in life does?

Highlights: Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks, You!Me!Dancing!

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24. Fearless - Taylor Swift (2008)


Taylor Swift may have single-handedly re-established my faith in mainstream pop music. Her music embodies everything I want music to be. It's authentic, there's a real person expressing real emotions, real fears, real hopes behind it. It's catchy, she has the musical maturity of an artist who has been writing pop songs all her life. I may not be a teenage girl, so I can't perfectly relate with everything she expresses here, but when music is done this well, I can't help but sit back and admire. "Love Story" is a contender of song of the decade, in my eyes.

Highlights: Love Story, Fearless, Tell Me Why, Forever & Always

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Music of the 2000's: Honorable Mentions

Maybe it's because I've seen a bunch of "Best of 00's" music lists that I don't agree with, or maybe it's because I've seen those lists at all, and it made me start thinking about it. But, I actually compiled a list of my 25 favorite 00's albums.

Seeing as how these are albums i like, I will write a small tidbit about each of them, detailing something about the music, or how it impacted me/how i related to it. I'm thinking it won't really feel like work, so I should get this done by 2010.

I'll do each of them in 5 album installments, so 5 installments after this.

But, here are the 2000's albums that missed the cut, but I would feel bad to not mention them. Thus, the honorable mentions (30 of them, if i counted correctly).


Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

Fireproof - I soooo want this.

Fireproof is a 2008 Christian movie that's basically just for Christians. I'd find it hard to believe that a non-Christian could get anything out of this movie, to be honest. But enough of that, I already wrote a review of this movie on my Flixster, so I'm not really gonna try to go into the actual movie too much. I'd much rather use this window to write about what this movie is helping me to realize... which is the point, right?

The more and more I learn about the true nature of romantic relationships, the more increasingly blessed I feel about never having been in one (LOL LOSER ATTEMPTING TO JUSTIFY HIS LACK OF GAME). No, but seriously. In the past, whenever someone commented that I was "so lucky" to have never been in a relationship before, I was always uncertain of how to react. But I have a better comprehension of what they're referring to (if they're not straight up calling me a loser, that is.)

Relationships look like scary things: there's so much at stake.

Because I love me my baseball stats

this is to the best of my knowledge, some numbers may be off.

(AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS)

Freshman year (Freshmen)
.120/.363/.120/.483, (3 for 25), 6 Runs, 5 RBI, 9 BB, 15 K

Sophmore year (JV)
.333/.500/.333/.833, (3 for 9), 2 Runs, 0 RBI, 3 BB, 3 K

Junior year (JV)
.314/.407/.392/.799, (16 for 51), 13 Runs, 8 RBI ( very unsure), 8 BB, 10 K, 4 SB (very unsure)

High school career
.259/.400/.306/.706, (22 for 85), 21 Runs, 14 RBI, 20 BB, 28 K, 4 SB

Jackie Robinson is my hero

I touched upon this in my last entry, but yeah. I just realized how true this is. Aside from Jesus Christ, he might be the single most influential person in my life (aside from people i know in real life - family, friends, etc.)

Jackie Robinson's story is the biggest life lessons I've ever had. It includes the values of doing what is right (regardless of it's popularity), sacrificing self for the sake of others, equality of all human beings everywhere, and the belief in the American dream (as Jackie went from poverty to fame). I honestly think Jackie had a big part in my adoption of these values. He wasn't the sole influence, but he certainly helped instill these morals within me. I also just recently realized that he was a hugeee reason that I wanted to attend UCLA. I don't where along the line I forgot that, but it seems to have slipped my mind until realizing it again now.

like Milton Bradley said, "If I could even be half of what Jackie was, I'll be pretty good."

My professional sports team allegiances - and how I got there (aka, overthinking and psychoanalyzing myself meaninglessly)

Okay, so watching that Rockets/Lakers playoff game yesterday reminded me of something I've been my entire life. I've hated the Lakers my entire life, and with quite a passion too. Like, it gives me pleasure to see them fail, and it is basically never about the pleasure of seeing their opponents win. I crave failure from the Lakers, and it gives me joy to see it happen. There is absolutely no positive feelings floating around here.

But I don't think I've really ever noticed why I hate the Lakers so much. It makes little sense, shouldn't I have some town pride? These reasons listed below were some reasons I've always thought were the explanations behind this hatred (and why i now know they're probably not the real reasons behind my animosity).

1. Kobe Bryant was being hailed as the next Michael Jordan - as a kid, Michael Jordan was my basketball idol. His charm and Space Jam made me a Bulls fan in the 1990s, and honestly, who wasn't a Bulls fan in that era? Thus, I assumed that some of animosity towards the Lakers was the hailing of Kobe as the next Michael Jordan. "dude... screw this guy", my elementary-school mind thought. Nobody's like MJ. Nobody.

2. The name "Lakers" is stupid - Even as a kid, i realized where they had gotten this name... but i still thought this was a stupid name. And, at that age, that's really all the only reason i needed to hate them. i also remember thinking their colors were stupid (i don't hold this opinion anymore, i now think purple and yellow/gold is a pretty awesome color combination for a sports team)

3. It was hip to hate the Lakers as a kid, so i did. And it stuck. - I was a kid, and there was peer pressure. Self-explanatory, really.

4. Stupid Shaq/Kobe drama really turned me off - I was a bit of a purist in my interests as a kid, and this stupid sideshow distraction annoyed me greatly, because it constantly overshadowed the actual basketball being played.

Only recently have I realized that the closest answer to why I really dislike the Lakers is reason 4. But it goes beyond that. I realized that the Lakers actually stand for everything I hated about Los Angeles culture. There's always been perpetuation of cult of celebrity on the Lakers, whether we're going from Shaq/Kobe drama, Kobe by himself creating drama, or Phil Jackson/Kobe drama. And I am proud of the place I was raised like anybody else, but that's the thing I hate most about L.A. The artificialness, ego-filled drama aspect of LA culture, and it was being perpetuated by the Lakers.

So, it's actually really obvious to me why I'm a Clipper fan now. There's never been none of that on the Clippers... partly because nobody important wants to be a Clipper, but that is beside the point to my subconscious mind. It helped tremendously that, even while the Clippers sucked when I started adopting them as "my team," they had dynamic, fun-to-watch talent in guys like Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles. With the Clippers, the focus seemed to me to always be on basketball. There is none of that artificial feeling, drama and ego-filled atmosphere around the team, and I really think that's why I'm a Clipper fan over a Laker fan today.

This even ties in with the Dodgers. As a kid who developed my love for baseball in Taiwan, I came over with neutral allegiances, flirting with an allegiance to the Oakland A's (which lasted all of one year, when Jason Giambi left). However, in a way, the Dodgers soon became to me what the Lakers were not. In fact, thinking back on it, it's like they highlighted the good aspects of liberal LA culture to me. It was a sort of LA culture ying and yang, and the Dodgers were the bright side.

As a kid, I grew up reading sports stories here and there. One of the books that I still remember today, however, is a book about Jackie Robinson. It was an illustrated book, but that thing was powerful. Although it was just a child's story book with cute pictures, I learned a lot from that book. I learned about Jackie Robinson and his struggles in the majors because of his skin color. Seriously, I might have even developed the fundamental moral value of racial equality from that book. That's what the liberal culture in LA is sometimes good at, if I can even attribute something like this to a city. And the rest is sort of history. The name across Robinson's chest in that book said "Dodgers." It's hardly any puzzle as to why I'm bleeding blue today.

Los Angeles can be forward looking/progressive/liberal, but also carries that stigmata of being fake, artificial, and full of petty drama fueled by arrogant egos. Like anything in this world, it has it's good and it's bad. Thus, I think I've deciphered why I like the teams that i like. The Dodgers represented the positive aspects of liberal progressivism, the positive aspects of Los Angeles culture. The Lakers represented the artificial, ego-filled LA culture, the negative aspects of Los Angeles culture. And the Clippers represented a rejection of everything the Lakers were, thus making them a natural fit for my basketball team allegiance.

So, if you've actually read through all this, you will finally understand what I mean when I say "the Lakers are a disgrace to Los Angeles." Because, quite literally, to me, they are. I've been saying that all my life, but only now, as I'm approaching my 21st birthday, do I realize that I really, truly meant it, every time.