This Blog is Not About School.

2011 ended. I get it. But with the rush of recommendation lists which appeared towards the end there (even Urban Outfitters had something to say), and my mad purchasing of said recommended albums and wishlist-ing of Kindle editions, I am still in the process of sorting through all the good stuff that happened last year. Mostly music, some books. Here's some of the 2011 stuff I liked.


A Lover's Dictionary - David Levithan

This is a bit in the vein of Buechner's Wishful Thinking. Every "chapter" starts out with a word, presented in alphabetical order, and a definition. In the explanations of each word, the plot of the novel comes through - that of two anonymous lovers (their respective genders are also left unspecified...TWIST), and how they come together and break apart. The story is all bundled together by something of a meta-commentary on how words come together and break apart as we do. It's simple, but effective. Art imitating life, indeed.

Zazen - Vanessa Veselka

This is all the post-apocayltpic poetic prose one needs for the year. The novel leaves the specific circumstances of the world a bit vague - all you really know is that things are bad and that they are only getting worse - but amid pseudo-terrorism, vegan restaurants, and minor characters with names like "Mirror," a heartbreaking narrator desperate for truth and significance out there in the harsh, harsh world comes through. Zazen is stream of consciousness meets hipster freedom fighter meets post-modernism's baby sister. If that sentence isn't enough to convince you, nothing will.


Civilian - Wye Oke

There really wasn't anything I didn't like about this album. The title track hit it big there for awhile, and was on numerous compilations and such, but the whole album is definitely worth getting. NPR liked it. You should too.

Zonoscope - Cut Copy

My perusal of the "Best Albums of 2011" lists revealed one main thing to me - that people were really into their ambient rock this year. And Adele. Everybody loves Adele. I mean, I enjoy a good ethereal downbeat (and Adele...although I do think she should appear in photos standing a lot more often) as much as the next person, perhaps even more so, but I can only take so much before I want to scream at the song, Please, sir, I would love some consistency, and maybe even a chorus! Enter Cut Copy. This album was the best I could find that balanced those two things - the ambient rock everyone is so fond of these days, and the comforting structure of a "regular" album. There are choruses, as well as ethereal peals of sound. The best of both worlds.

Of course, there are plenty of other things to say about 2011. It was a good year for me. I graduated college and then moved to Japan. I would say that's substantial. So please enjoy some of my choice art. Let me know what you liked. There is plenty of goodness to be had out there, from this year as well as last.