Top Ten Songs You Probably Never Heard

Inspired by Saturday's music-oriented blog, but not with the intention of turning this blog into a collection of top ten lists, here are the top ten songs that you've probably never heard...

10. MGMT - Kids: OK, so this one is on here for sentimental reasons. Because the members of this band graduated a few years before me from Wesleyan, where they formed MGMT, we heard this song way before too many people outside of campus had even heard of the band. And we came to love this song. ...It was played at just about every party, so we had no choice.

9. Tabitha's Secret - The Only One: I'm kind of cheating with this entry, because this song is pretty much right on par with a lot of unreleased (or in some cases, released very recently if you look hard enough for it) Tabitha's secret songs, such as U Turn Me On; Loss, Strain & Butterflies; and even This Is Not A Love Song.

8. Chumbawamba - Good Ship Lifestyle: I discovered this one after buying a used Tubthumper CD for 49 cents. How quickly we forget about the one-hit wonders of the nineties... Some of their songs are pretty awful though.

7. Dire Straits - Romeo And Juliet: Perhaps this was well-known before my time, because I've heard covers of this song that do what Tonya Harding's posse did to Nancy Kerrigan. Whyyyyy? But the original is great.

6. Dire Straits - On Every Street: I know. Two Dire Straits songs in a row. Lame, right? Check this one out though. My favorite by them. Mellow.

5. The Shins - New Slang: I actually have Mad Dog to thank for introducing me to this one on our road trip to Florida. Great stuff.

4. U2 - Hawkmoon 269: Many U2 songs receive more than their share of play, but I'm not sure I ever heard this gem on the radio. Possibly my favorite U2 song. ...In the heart of the heat of the love...

3. R.E.M. - What's The Frequency, Kenneth?: Although not one of their better-known songs, my personal favorite R.E.M. song, just in front of Turn You Inside-Out. Great lyrics, although perhaps not quite like E-Bow The Letter. Definitely the best song ever written with a title that refers to something that happened to Dan Rather.

2. Mick Jagger - Visions Of Paradise: The guy singing backups on this song isn't bad either. An extremely underrated song from the Rolling Stones front man. This should have been a huge hit.

1. Tabitha's Secret - Forever December (Track Twelve off Don't Play with Matches is the best version, but there are several versions of this): This one was destined to become the band's first big hit, until two members of the band were kicked out and the remaining three formed a new band with two other guys. That band's name? Matchbox Twenty.

Top Ten sports related things that should happen in 2009

10: Barack Obama will force Stephon Marbury to donate 90% of his salary to food banks. If he refuses, he will be locked in a room with the new Secretary of State and a yardstick.
9: The Los Angeles Clippers will forfeit as a franchise, upsetting all three fans.
8: The Yankees will win the World Series, because that's the only way to justify the ridiculous amount of money they spent on CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, and Mark Teixiera.
7: Michael Vick will attempt an early escape from prison, only to be mauled by vicious dogs just outside the premises.
6: John Madden will get an incurable and contagious case of laryngitis. He will infect Joe Buck, and the two of them will be quarantined together somewhere far away from any sporting events.
5: The Pirates will sign Barry Bonds to a mutually-beneficial one-year deal.
4: Everyone will shut the hell up about steroids, because the "Steroids Era" wasn't nearly as bad as the not letting black people play era. It's time to learn from mistakes and move on.
3: I really don't follow college football, but can we get some sort of half legitimate playoffs in place here? Please?
2: Plaxico Burress will be sentenced to at least 3.5 years in prison, just like any non-celebrity in his situation would be.
1: After much consideration, the Giants will sign Rae Carruth to replace Plaxico Burress.

1-20-09

I suppose now is as good a time as any to start a blog.
Not much more than twelve hours ago, Barack Obama took the oath of office to become the first black President of the United States. This, of course, does not mean that racism is dead, but it does mean that we have come a long way in this nation. And I am proud to be an American. Personally, I always thought that there would be a black President before a female one. A man is still a man, regardless of race. There are more obvious differences between men and women though--physically, psychologically, etc. That's not to say that a woman will never be elected president. But if I ever visited a female president at the white house, I probably would not sit down and have a beer with her on the couch while watching a ballgame. I would probably do that if I visited Obama (I would not have done it with Bush though, mostly because he used to be an alcoholic, and things may have gotten even worse for this country had he started drinking again). I would also challenge Obama to a game of bowling if given the chance (I hear he's terrible at bowling, but pretty good at most other sports, and I'm a decent bowler). If I win, he would have to appoint a pro-life supreme court justice when the time came. If he won, I would have to tell Hillary Clinton that she's as beautiful as she is charming.
But let me come clean here before I continue. I did not vote for Barack Obama. I voted for John McCain. Obama ran a better campaign, and the Republicans ran a very negative campaign. Obama chose a better running mate. McCain allowed Sarah Palin to be on his ticket. McCain migrated away from the middle, over to the right, clearly only for the campaign. He was listening to the wrong people, which is unfortunate. Obama migrated toward the middle, from the far left, and it seems like it could be genuine. The thought of Sarah Palin stepping in as President, if necessary, was scarier than Dick Cheney with a grimace and a hunting rifle. Her views on evolution and abstinence only sex education did not make a lot of sense (and I say this as a Christian), and her foreign policy and experience were... lacking... Seems like she could be an intelligent person though. Did a lot of good in Alaska. Would have been the best-looking Vice President of all time, by a landslide. Tina Fey could have stepped in for her whenever necessary too. But Lieberman, Biden, and even Rell would have been better selections. So why did I vote for McCain? Perhaps because of my undying love for him. Actually, it's because he's had a history of reaching across party lines, being middle-of-the-road, and he has a great deal of wisdom and experience serving this nation. I wanted McCain to be President since 2000. Obama, a first-term senator, was someone who seemed like he could be a great President one day, but I wanted to see what he would do for another four years in the Senate. I don't believe he "pals around" with terrorists, but some things in his past scare me, such as his former spiritual advisor and ties to ACORN (no I don't watch Fox News exclusively). And a little more experience couldn't hurt. But he is our President now, and I will support him. So far, I think he has done well since he was elected. He has reached across party lines, and sounded an awful lot like John McCain on the issues of "pork barrel" spending and torture. I do disagree with him on several important issues, but I am willing to give him a chance.
President Obama will be sitting in the Oval Office instead of President Bush, and hopefully some of the mistakes of the Bush administration will be corrected. Our nation is not in a good place right now. Bush is not to blame for everything that went wrong, and he did some things right (National Security, a few good nominees...), but it is difficult to imagine Obama doing a worse job than Bush. And I'm really not sure who else I would vote for in four years if he does even a pretty good job (McCain is probably the only Republican I would have voted for in 2008, unless Hillary had received the Democratic Party nomination).
So, my advice for President Obama (who, to my knowledge, will not be reading this blog) would be to seek God's will in all his decisions, uphold the Constitution, and reach across party lines, hopefully bringing a divided nation a bit closer together (but not pandering to any special interest groups!). I will be praying for Obama and his administration as they will be leading this country, and I am praying that our President will truly seek the will of God.
And yes, I believe in separation of church and state, and I do not believe that Christianity is or should be the official religion of this country, or that all "true Christians" would have voted for McCain (I've heard that said by a few people, and it's simply an inaccurate and divisive statement), but America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles.
So, I plan to write about all sorts of things on this blog. I am a Christian. I am politically moderate (my family will say I'm a Liberal and most of my friends will say I'm a Conservative), but opinionated. I am a huge sports fan. I graduated from Wesleyan University in 2007. I live and work in Connecticut. I enjoy humor. And I enjoy writing. About all sorts of stuff. So read my blog, leave comments, tell me I'm wrong, tell me I'm right, tell me you want to date me, tell me you want me to leave the country... whatever. Like the Obama presidency, we'll see where this goes...