Goodbye 2006, You Son Of A Bitch

2006, you deceitful bastard. You started with promises of fame and fortune, agents and a manager, new beginnings with a new move... but then you took my money and left me, you selfish asshole.

What have you left me with?

You've left me with mother-f'in New Year's Eve, where I always stand awkwardly at the stroke of midnight as everyone around me couples up for the kiss. 24 New Years under my belt and never a New Year's kiss. This year, my girlfriend's 2000 miles away, so let's make that 25.

Oh 2006, we may have had some good memories together, but you did me wrong.

So come on 2007, shake ya ass, show me what you working with...

Okay, yes, I just had a conversation with a calendar year, what?

Well, here's to a clean slate and a happy new year, my friends! Click on the link below for some tracks from last year's New Year's post, coupled with lots of new goodies. Leave some love in the comments!

THIS IS THE NEW YEAR:
 a Silly Pipe Dreams Mix

1. "Not Your Year" - The Weepies" [buy album]
2. "So Long" - Guster [buy album]
3. "Amateur" - Nada Surf [buy album]
4. "Blankest Year" - Nada Surf [buy album]
5. "New Year's Eve" - The Walkmen [buy album]
6. "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" - Diana Krall (covering Frank Loesser) [buy album]
7. "Good Year For The Roses" - Elvis Costello [buy album]
8. "Last Good Day of the Year" - Cousteau [buy album]
9. "How It Ends" - DeVotchka [buy album]
10. "The End's Not Near" - Band Of Horses (covering The New Year) [buy album]
11. "Exit Music (For A Film)" - Radiohead [buy album]
12. "A New Beginning" - Endochine [buy album]
13. "New Year's Prayer" - Jeff Buckley [buy album]
14. "New Light Of Tomorrow" - Husky Rescue [buy album]
15. "New Day" - Kate Havnevik [buy album]
16. "This Years Love" - David Gray [buy album]
17. "Together We'll Ring In The New Year" - Motion City Soundtrack [buy album]
18. "Resolution" - Motion City Soundtrack [buy album]
19. "In The Morning" - Razorlight [buy album]
20. "Things Can Only Get Better" - Howard Jones [buy album]
*listen to my old college a cappella group's version here
21. "Start Again" - Teenage Fanclub [buy album]
22. "My Life Is Starting Over Again" - Teenage Fanclub w/Jade Fair (covering Daniel Johnston) [buy album]
23. "Happy New Year" - Camera Obscura [buy album]
24. "New Year's Day" - U2 [buy album]
25. "New Year" - The Breeders [buy album]
26. "New Years" - Asobi Seksu [buy album]
27. "The New Year (Studio X Sessions)" - Death Cab for Cutie [buy album]

Tunerrific Tuesday

Hi all, hope your holidays have been mighty merry.

I've moved every 3-4 years of my life, so coming home usually means wishing I had old friends to meet up with and watching an unhealthy amount of movies and TV in a room I've never really lived in. In short, it's not that much different than LA.

One side note, have you guys been to a suburban mall recently? Maybe I'm turning into an old man, but what the hell has happened to the youth of America? A part of me died today at Woodfield Shopping Center. Youth, you may respond in the comments.

Speaking of scary futures, go watch Children of Men (B+) in your nearest theater now! Check out the trailer here. And while you're checking out trailers, also click on Reign Over Me, looks pretty sweet, and Pearl Jam covering The Who at the end is even sweeter.

Anyway, I've spent the last two days on a Friday Night Lights marathon, and sweet heavenly hosts, you MUST watch this show. It is, hands down, the best new drama this season. I usually hate movies/shows about sports, but this show is about so much more than football. NBC has all the episodes online for streaming (until mid-Jan), so catch up now!!

Not much else going on TV-wise, I really loved all the recent OC's, and the Christmas episode of The Office was hilarious as usual. For Christmas, my awesome sister got me an Office mug and "The World of Karl Pilkington".. which all fans of the original Office/Ricky Gervais should pick up. It's basically Gervais' podcasts word-for-word, but they are glorious goodness in print form as well, complete with illustrations. Thanks Jin!

While I'm thanking people for presents, I'd like to continue by saying thanks to Josh Schwartz for The OC Mix 6: Covering Our Tracks, my girlfriend for my very own Captain Oats (the exact same model), and my parents for a Macbook! You all rock my Christmas socks!

Most importantly, thanks to YOU READERS for all the Silly Pipe Dreams love this past year. I'll be ratcheting up on the posts in '07, with a new contributor to the blog, Princess Sparkle, and some more regular features in addition to Musical Mondays. Check back in the next week though for potential "Favorite Songs of '06" and "The Year in Concerts" posts!

Click below for the tunes and leave some lovin'!
How I Met Your Mother - "How Lily Stole Christmas"
"Back Door Santa" - Clarence Carter [buy album]
"The Nutcracker: Overture" - Tchaikovsky [buy album]
"The Nutcracker: Waltz of the Flowers" - Tchaikovsky [buy album]
"The Nutcracker: Trepak (Russian Dance)" - Tchaikovsky [buy album]
"The Nutcracker: Dance of the Mirlitons" - Tchaikovsky [buy album]
"The Nutcracker: Pas de Deux" - Tchaikovsky [buy album]
"The Nutcracker: Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy" - Tchaikovsky [buy album]
*thank my amazing gf, mary, for these nutcracker tracks!

Friday Night Lights - "It's Different For Girls"
"Storm" - Jose Gonzalez [buy album]
"Maneater" - Nelly Furtado [buy album]

Scrubs - "My Coffee"
"All In All" - Lifehouse [buy album]

The Office - "A Benihana Christmas"
"Goodbye My Lover" - James Blunt [buy album]
*as if it wasn't that hard to do already, click here to never take a James Blunt song seriously ever again

The OC - "The Summer Bummer"
"Hot Girls In Good Moods" - Butch Walker [buy album]
"Daisychains" - Youth Group [buy album]
"Good Clean Fun" - Clearlake [buy album]
"Deadwood" - Dirty Pretty Things [buy album]
"Under The Sea" - Digby Jones [buy album]
"Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" - Jet [buy album]
"Inside Your Head" - Eberg [buy album]
"Stay Put!" - The Blood Arm

The OC - "The Chrismukk-huh?"
"California" - Mates of State (covering Phantom Planet) [buy album]
"Paranoid Android" - Sia (covering Radiohead) [buy album]
"Into Dust" - Ashtar Command (covering Mazzy Star) [buy album]

The OC - "The Earth Girls Are Easy"
"Warung Beach" - John Digweed [buy album]
"Smile Like You Mean It" - Tally Hall (covering the Killers) [buy album]
"Dogzilla" - Dogzilla [buy album]
"Something for Cat" - Henry Mancini [buy album]
"Desafinado" - Si Zentner [buy album]

Have A Very Silly Christmas

Hi friends. Merry Christmas!

Again, I apologize for the lack of posts lately, it's been a busy month. But I did manage to upload a few Christmas songs to my server before running out of my apartment yesterday to catch a 6 am flight.

Now, I have way too much Christmas music for someone not named Santa (over 400 songs), but I've narrowed down a few non-Sufjan tracks that weren't on last year's Christmas post, so click on the link below and enjoy!

p.s. I'm still accepting gifts from my wishlist. =)

p.p.s. One of the coolest gifts SPD's received this year: being named by USA Today's Pop Candy as one of the Top Ten Blogs of 2006! (scroll down to picture caption) Thanks Whitney!!

A VERY SILLY CHRISTMAS MIX '06

"Don't Believe In Christmas" - The Sonics

"Christmas Intentions" - Scissors for Lefty

"Here Lies Our Holiday" - A Day at the Fair

"In the Bleak Midwinter" - The Pipettes (covering the Christmas carol)

"Blue Christmas" - Bright Eyes (covering Elvis covering Ernest Tubb covering Billy Hayes/Jay W. Johnson)

"Someday at Christmas" - Pearl Jam (covering Stevie Wonder)

"Just Like Christmas" - Aberdeen City (covering Low in a motel in AL)

"River" - Rachael Yamagata (covering Joni Mitchell)

"Last Christmas (live)" - Manic Street Preachers (covering Wham!)
*Jimmy Eat World's version is still my fav

"Xmas Party" - Middle Distance Runner
*Ian of MDR was kind enough to send me their latest CD, these guys are great, check out their myspace!

"Donna & Blitzen" - Badly Drawn Boy [buy album]

"Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" - Death Cab for Cutie (covering Darlene Love) [buy album]
*I posted this last year too, but I can't get enough of this cover!

"A Great Big Sled" - The Killers [buy album]
*Go buy the song on iTunes, proceeds go to the Red Campaign

And in remembrance of the late "Godfather of Soul"...

"Christmas in Heaven" - James Brown [buy album]
"Soulful Christmas" - James Brown [buy album]
"Let's Make This Christmas Mean Something" - James Brown [buy album]

Merry Christmas

Genius. Looks like I'm gonna have to start recording SNL again.

Tunerrific Thursday

Sorry for the delay in posting, my friends. Thanks to Time Warner, my internet was out of commission for five days. Nice to know the $150/month is going towards top-notch customer service.

My writing partner and I are wrapping up work on three different projects before the holidays, so I promise things will pick up on the blog in the new year. What are we working on? Thank you for asking. We're finishing the final revisions on an independent movie we were hired to write earlier in the year, also in the process of developing a comedy feature with a major studio, and prepping for the upcoming tv staffing season. Busy times. If any of you readers need the services of two brilliant writers, holler at your boy (and by holler, I mean monetarily compensate).

Speaking of brilliant writing (you see that genius transition there, yeah, that's right, you hire us, you're getting your money's worth), there were some splendid episodes this past week. Let's do the rundown:

HIMYM: Nowhere near the hilarity of the prior week's "Robin Sparkles" episode, but still good nonetheless. The flashforward raises some interesting questions. My first reaction was to think that Robin and Ted are still together a year later, but since the episode's titled "Single Stamina," and the entire episode was about couples getting tired early, I would think Ted and Robin's "we're not tired at all" reply implies that they are not together a year later, but still close friends. Thoughts?

The Class: I had completely given up on this show. COMPLETELY. My girlfriend told me to watch two weeks ago, and I still wrote it off. HOWEVER. She told me to watch this past week's episode and promised goodness, and she does come through on her promises. The episode was surprisingly great! I actually laughed out loud! Multiple times! And it was oddly moving. Crazy, I know. If you don't believe me, check for yourself on Innertube. Click on 'All Shows', then 'Comedy', then 'The Class', and lastly 'The Class Runs into a Convenience Store.'

Veronica Mars: Okay, I admit. This recent episode was pretty awesome. But I ask you, did we really need all the shitty episodes to get here? This arc really should've been, at the most, three episodes. And it saddens me that we don't have an overaching mystery payoff to look forward to at the end of the season. Regardless, you guys were right, this episode was splendid.

30 Rock: This show has quietly developed into one of the funnier shows on TV, and hands down, the funniest new sitcom this year (which really isn't a compliment if you think about it). Alec Baldwin makes me laugh with every word, and Jack McBrayer is perfect as the Page. Of course, I may be biased, having been a former Page myself. But for those of you who may have given up early on the show (I'll be the first to admit that I wanted this show cancelled), definitely give this show another chance.

Scrubs: Oh Scrubs, how I missed thee. Definitely my favorite sitcom on air, I think this show best fits my type of humor. My writing partner and I were talking a while back about how much we love the Zucker brothers' movies: all the Naked Guns, Airplane, Hot Shots... you don't see that kind of humor as much anymore. But I think Scrubs is keeping the absurdist comedy alive, especially with their love for puns. My favorite exchange this episode:
TURK: "Yo Elliot, what's your ringtone?"
ELLIOT: "Jesus Take The Wheel by Carrie Underwood."
TODD: "I'm carrying underwood right now."

If you missed the episode, catch it online here.

Also, check out this clip from the upcoming musical episode! Oh, and they moved their blog to this site.

The Office: This was the highly anticipated Gervais-penned episode. And it did not disappoint. I think Ricky Gervais is a God among men, so I'm a bit biased, but I thought this was the best episode so far this season. Team Karen all the way! In it to win it!!

The OC: Josh Schwartz recently said in an email that "episodes 4 through 7 might be the best run [they've] ever had." He is absolutely correct. I take back what I said about "The Metamorphosis" being my favorite, because this past week's, "The Sleeping Beauty," was absolute perfection. I know some of you prefer the show as a drama, but you would be mistaken. The show works best when it doesn't take itself too seriously. I'm here for the comedy. And it definitely delivered with the funnies and the heart. Autumn Reeser for President, she exudes nothing but goodness into the show. (I promise that interview will happen eventually! So keep leaving questions!)

Anyway, make sure you check out "The Summer Bummer" tonight! Grey's is a re-run, so you have no excuse!!

And lastly, the tunes are below. Enjoy and leave a comment!

How I Met Your Mother - "Single Stamina"
"Skyway" - The Replacements [buy album]

Friday Night Lights - "Crossing The Line"
"Glittering Blackness" - Explosions in the Sky [buy album]
"Search and Destroy" - Iggy Pop & The Stooges [buy album]
"Dead Man's Will" - Iron & Wine/Calexico [buy album]

Veronica Mars - "Spit And Eggs"
"Right Here, Right Now" - Fatboy Slim [buy album]
""Sweet Caroline (live)" - The Diamond Smugglers (covering Neil Diamond)
"Have You Never Been Mellow" - Olivia Newton-John
"Thank The Lord For The Night Time" - The Diamond Smugglers (covering Neil Diamond)
*here's the original
"Can't Get Over You" - The Digbees

Scrubs - "My Mirror Image"
"Bye Bye Bye" - 'N Sync [buy album]
"Dancing Queen" - ABBA [buy album]
"Funky Cold Medina" - Tone Loc [buy album]
*another great line from Scrubs: "My brother was killed by a Funky Cold Medina."
"Be Yourself" - Audioslave [buy album]
"Here It Goes Again" - OK Go [buy album]

Grey's Anatomy - "Don't Stand So Close To Me"
"Sociopath" - Anya Marina [buy album]
*thanks to krissi for this week's songs!
"Show Me" - John Legend [buy album]
"World Waits For You" - Son Volt [buy album]

The OC - "The Sleeping Beauty"
"Gubbbish" - Chad VanGaalen [buy album]
*thanks to iva for most of this week's songs!
"Float On" - Goldspot (covering Modest Mouse) [buy album]
*thanks to hernan for this one!
"Waiting To Die" - Zero 7 [buy album]
"While You Were Sleeping" - Elvis Perkins
"Under the Sea" - Digby Jones [buy album]
"Need Music" - Ben Gidsjoy
"Without You" - Brothers and Sisters [buy album]
"Butterfly" - Tom Quick