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Three Unconnected Things

This morning, I woke up and opened up Twitter on my phone to find this tweet already open. (It reads: "In a room with a view in Florence for New Years.")

Which is weird, and I've no idea how this happened (cosmic weirdness? iPhone bug?), since I hadn't even read Twitter since last night, and I certainly hadn't left this tweet open. But there it was, and my immediate thought was--New Years, already!--sadness at another year having passed, quickly and (relatively) quietly.

Then I checked my mail, and upon reading a campaign email from Michelle Obama I--yes--almost teared up at this:

"This time next year, I don't want us to have any regrets."

Totally out of context of the original email, of course. And I wasn't expecting that reaction. But.

A couple minutes later, I opened the Music app, and upon opening it saw Florence + the Machine's "Shake it Out", which, you know, begins, "regrets collect, like old friends", paused and ready to play.

So I played it.

I don't know that it all means anything (other than the magic of random things seeming connected or causally related). But then again, I don't know that any moments are meaningful unless you choose to give them meaning.

2011 was a year. 2012 will be a new one. And if I had a resolution, it'd be that I'll choose the 2012 that I want to have, rather than it choosing me.

Top 40 of 2011

My general approach with (music) best-of lists is to compile a large playlist in iTunes of my favorite stuff, adding to it throughout the year. That usually works out to 40-50 tracks, in total. In past years (2010, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003), I've edited that list down to my top 10-15 tracks.

But this year, I said fuck it, and decided to just throw the whole list up here. I think it's actually a better representation of what I listened to than a top 10 would be, anyway, and I really did love all of these songs.

I put together a Spotify playlist with all of these tracks (modulo the ones that aren't on Spotify), for anyone interested in playing them all together in one place.

Here we go, in alphabetical order. Links link to video/audio clips, and some video clips are embedded. For variety and visual fun.

A$AP Rocky, "Peso"
Adele, "Rolling in the Deep"
Amy Winehouse, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"
Atlas Sound, "Te Amo"
Azealia Banks, "212"

Beyoncé, "Countdown"
Charli XCX, "Stay Away"
Danny Brown, "Monopoly"
Destroyer, "Kaputt"

DJ Shadow, "Scale it Back"
Drake, "Marvins Room"
Dum Dum Girls, "Coming Down"
Eleanor Friedberger, "My Mistakes"
Florence + The Machine, "Shake it Out"

Frank Ocean, "Thinking About You"
Goapele, "Play"
Gotye feat. Kimbra, "Somebody That I Used to Know"
James Blake, "Measurements"
Katy B, "Broken Record"

Lady Gaga, "Yoü and I"
Lana del Rey, "Video Games"
Lloyd feat. Titi Boi & Salo, "Bang!!!!"
Lykke Li, "Made You Move"
M83, "Midnight City"
Mr. Dream, "Croquet"
Ms. Dynamite, "Neva Soft"

Nicola Roberts, "Beat of My Drum"
Patrick Wolf, "Together"
PJ Harvey, "The Last Living Rose"
The Rapture, "How Deep Is Your Love?"
Robin Thicke, "Love After War"
Rye Rye feat. Robyn, "Never Will Be Mine"

Shabazz Palaces, "A Treatease Dedicated To The Avian Airess From North East Nubis (1000 Questions, 1 Answer)"
Slow Club, "Two Cousins"
St. Vincent, "Surgeon"

The-Dream, "Nothing But Love"
tUnE-yArDs, "Powa"
Tyler, The Creator, "Yonkers"
The Weeknd, "The Morning"
Wild Beasts, "Loop the Loop"

And finally, the song that I've played more than any other song in the last month, Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe":

I am listening to The KLF's Chill Out right now, and now, so can you.

Bonus: sheep.

Grant Lee Buffalo: "Mockingbirds"

Oh my god, I totally forgot about this song. (Its presence on Eric Harvey's "This is not Superstition" mix reminded me.)

I wonder how many other amazing songs I've forgotten about.

tUnE-yArDs "Powa" is such an incredible song.

"'Powa' is astonishing not only because it presents the singer as a fully-formed person with body image issues and stress and real world problems, but because it expresses genuine love and gratitude for someone with whom she has true intimacy."—Fluxblog on "Powa"