mike.is.on.the.nets

Team Teamwork, the folks behind last year's "The Ocarina of Rhyme", have just dropped another sublime working of hip-hop and video game scores on the masses. As the title cleverly implies this round the focus is on the much loved (and über hyped) Final Fantasy 7, and features pairings of classic game tunes mixed with the likes of Kool Keith, Tom Waits, MF DOOM, Clipse, and Ghostface Killah.

While projects of this sort are definitely not made for mass appeal, whether or not you find yourself in the target niche it's worth checking out if you're one who enjoys beats or have ever felt the impulse to strike a sword twirling victory pose.

I am certainly of the sort that is currently self consciously grooving and bopping while my lady walks by and shakes her head with a smile in a way that only someone who loves me could. Because...  yeah.

Vinyl Fantasy 7 is available for on-line streaming as well as donation based download. Check it, yo!

[Thanks to @bburbank for the heads up!]

"Interesting" is most certainly how I'd sum up my 2009.  An incredibly full blend of loss, stress, frustration, rebirth, discovery, socializing, karaoke, dipping my toes into the "dating scene", quickly removing aforementioned toes from said scene because the "scene" felt too much like an awkward joke people play on themselves, re-learning to be comfortable with myself and acknowledge my worth, breathing, soul-searching, acknowledging my passions, forging plans to get there, stopping to smell the roses, stumbling upon a true partner, bi-coastal travel, laughter, love, snuggles, driving, and growth.

My foundation was shaken to the core, my eyes re-opened, and I wouldn't change a dang thing about it. :)

To Join the Best of 2009 Challenge Check Out This Link: http://www.gwenbell.com/blog/2009/11/30/the-best-of-2009-blog-challenge.html

I find myself in a bit of a sitch, as I purposely refrained from blogging about my best challenge of this year.  It was quite the maelstrom of suck, as long term relationships that come to a sudden and rocky conclusion can be, and I felt it inappropriate to really wax nostalgic upon it in the open 'verse that is the internet.

HOWEVER...  As I reflect upon my personal best album of '09, not a new discovery mind you, but the one that helped me pull up the proverbial boot straps and carry me through, I realize I can't really talk about this without at some points referring to "that" as they were so heavily entwined at times.  I may indulge in vaguenss from time to time, so please forgive and bear with.

I love to dance.  I love to move... shimmy... shake.

I don't do any of these things well.

But with the proper groove, I just can't help myself.  J-Tim and Tim-bo are my official proprietors of said groove.

Early this year, in my lowest of lows, this album picked me up from the title opening (and wicked hot!) track "FutureSex/LoveSound" right through to the end.  It's damn near impossible to not feel alive, to want to howl at the moon, and/or moonwalk all over one's home.  Perhaps this is not the case for all, but it certainly is for me as I did all of these things several times over.

There was one moment in particular with this album that really caught me off guard.  It was the week after both moving into my spacious new rental, and returning home from a business trip to find out that my very significant other of the previous 4 years was leaving me to be on her own to figure things out... and then finding out she almost immediately re-coupled with a co-worker.  I was in the new pad washing dishes, and dancing around to JT, as I'm wont to do, and then "What Goes Around... Comes Around" (a song I'd heard countless times before) played, and I suddenly realized I was crying.

Crying over a dance-pop track.

It was one of those moments where one never thinks they'll find themselves.  I will state that whatever feelings of momentary embarrassment that were coursing through me were quickly replaced by an even more awkward empowerment... the sort where if I were in possession of a purse I'd tell someone near by to hold it, and where I wearing fancy pumps, I'd imagine they'd be removed and in my right hand as I held them over my head.

... I'm not so certain that such feelings are a good thing, or even smart to share in an open forum... BUT THE POINT IS... I felt great.  I felt alive, and that was what was most important to my new course of movin' up and movin' on.

"If you ain't got socks, you ain't got much... but if you've got 'em you may as well pull 'em up."  - Bruce Campbell?

Through my journey of recovery and rebirth, these tunes kept me going... and when I found myself again the sounds were celebration.  And when I found myself dumbstruck at having discovered love again, but of the variety that I'd long ago discounted as being just a foolish dream of mine, to have a partner so connected and amazing through and through... this album was herald.

But as @levarburton often noted, "don't take my word for it."  

Please, take a listen for yourself.  :)

Without question, my notable favorite read of the year was Jonathan Safran Foer's "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close".  At times whimsical, melancholy, joyful, and then utterly heart breaking, this story had a significant impact on me with it's themes of love and loss set in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, and with significant reference to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima.

There is one passage in particular which takes form as a letter to the main character/9 year old boy, Oskar, from his Grandmother which says this:

"The night before I lost everything was like any other night. Anna and I kept each other awake very late. We laughed. Young sisters in a bed under the roof of their childhood home. Wind on the window. How could anything less deserve to be destroyed? I thought we would be awake all night. Awake for the rest of our lives. The spaces between our words grew. It became difficult to tell when we were talking and when we were silent. The hairs of our arms touched.It was late, and we were tired. We assumed there would be other nights. Anna's breathing started to slow, but I still wanted to talk. She rolled onto her side. I said, I want to tell you something. She said, You can tell me tomorrow. I had never told her how much I loved her. She was my sister. We slept in the same bed. There was never a right time to say it. It was always unnecessary. The sheets were rising and falling around me with Anna's breathing. I thought about waking her. But it was unnecessary. There would be other nights. And how can you say I love you to someone you love? I rolled onto my side and fell asleep next to her. Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you,

It's always necessary."