There will be no best of 2010 lists here at Tangzine.com this year.

I realized this after I had trouble telling the band names and album titles apart on a Best of music list. And I realized it again when I looked over the Golden Globe nomination list and discovered that Mad Men was the only TV show/film on the list that I have actually seen.

Being slow and intentional about the choices I make with my limited budget for movie and music consumption has left me out in the cold when it comes to staying on top of the latest thing.

I can’t say I’m all that sad about it, but please share anything from the past year that has stood the test of time over the past 12 months in the comments below. If it’s on eMusic I’ll give it a spin. If it’s a movie, I may have to wait until May when most of the films being nominated for awards finally show up on Netflix.

In case you haven’t heard of it already, the Advent Conspiracy is a grassroots movement of people and organizations committed to taking the obligation buying and gross consumerism out of Christmas and replacing it with a desire to put the money to much better use. Please join in and do your own small part to help make Christmas more than just a holiday to get lots of stuff.

Philadelphia band The Swimmers have a new record called “People Are Soft” coming out Tuesday, Nov. 3. Their video for the song “What This World Is Coming To” is below and you can download the single “A Hundred Hearts” and listen to the new record HERE.

What This World Is Coming To from the swimmers on Vimeo.

Are you sick of unwatched pots boiling over while you’re trying to cook? Well, has QVC got the product for you. It’s called a Boiling Minder and I’m convinced it’s one of the dumbest inventions ever. I stumbled across a whole shelf of these $19.95 tragedies of the free market while visiting the QVC (junk shop) outlet yesterday with my always entertaining in public father.

It wasn’t until I went to the Web site and watched the YouTube video below that I even understood what usefulness this object resembling a breath-a-lyzer could actually have.

Of course, now I’m even more convinced the product has no real usefulness other than as a sign of an impending apocalypse. But I’d take it over the $87 painting with busted out glass/beat up matting, the $45 manger (My dad: “Anyone who puts the Christ child in that thing deserves to be zapped) or any of the furniture my dad called “the greatest collection of particle board” he’d ever seen in the store any day.

“Not even a Rookie of the Year is ready to be elected to the Hall of Fame. I’m afraid this prize will be bad for Obama. For political reasons and on the merits, he should paraphrase Shakespeare to the Nobel committee: ‘As you shall prove me, praise me.’” – George Packer

Remember Jerome Walton? He was the Cubs centerfielder who leveraged a 30-game hit streak into a Rookie of the Year award 20 years ago. Remember how hot his rookie cards were?

If there was a Hall of Fame for potential, he would have been inducted after the ‘89 season. But there wasn’t, thankfully, or else Cooperstown would have a lot of egg on its face right now. Let’s hope the same doesn’t happen for the Nobel organization, which made the surprise decision to award President Obama with a Nobel Peace Prize.

The haters are going wild with this as they do with anything they can use against the president (Olympic FAIL!!!) and those on the left have probably already noted that the Taliban has taken a similar opposition approach as if to say opposing the award being given to a rookie who hasn’t even made it through one season as president makes one an anti-American terrorist.

I tend to agree with Packer on this one and hope, for the sake of our country and the world, Obama’s premature peace prize doesn’t end up being the equivalent of a bronze plaque of Jerome Walton’s face hanging next to Ernie Banks.

A recap of Saturday night’s nationally televised broadcast of the Ohio State/USC game for those of you who missed it:

“Matt Barkley! Matt Barkley, Matt Barkley. Matt Barkley! Matt Barkley, Matt Barkley. Matt Barkley! [insert endless praise of Matt Barkley here] Matt Barkley! [give a little shout out to the offensive line and Joe McKnight here] Matt Barkley! Matt Barkley! Matt Barkley!”

Some perspective:

15-31, 195 yards, 0 TD, 1 interception: Barkley’s line

53 yards. The yardage accounted for by USC tailback Justin McKnight in the final drive Barkley gets all of the credit in the world for more or less single-handedly orchestrating. 

18 points: The points scored by USC 

27 points: The points scored by Navy against Ohio State last week

This Should Keep Us All Thinking. Perhaps you’ve heard something about a video with this title on the Web lately. I successfully ignored it for a couple days despite the urging of a lot of earnest Christian friends. I should have known better to expect 1. An actual video and 2. Something original.

Back in 1996 there was this new fangled thing called e-mail, which gave birth to the digital chain letter phenomenon known as e-mail forwards. This in turn gave birth to unoriginal pastors and youth pastors everywhere regurgitating as truth everything they read in their e-mail. The “Dropped Chalk” story is an example of this.

I first heard it in a sermon at church camp told as a true story. It was an inspiring story then for me so I can see why it would inspire kids today. I just don’t like the fact that these things so commonly get passed off as truth in the Christian world. Do Christians not know how to use Snopes.com?

Jesus’ best stories were fiction. We readers of the Bible like to call them parables. This is a parable. I just wish it would be presented as such.

Rant over. Add to the 8.3 million views below if you like and see the Snopes entry linking the legend back to 1920s Pennsylvania HERE.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been six years since prolific indie cult hero Daniel Johnston has released a full-length recording of new material. It’s a drought that’s about to change with the release of Is And Always Was on Oct. 6. You can check out an mp3 for one of the songs on the album, “Freedom,” HERE. 

And here’s a brief description:

Is And Always Was is a decided step away from the lo-fi homemade recordings for which Johnston is famous. “Everyone needs to take their demos and go back to the studio,” says Daniel.  

On this album, Daniel allied with the musician and producer Jason Falkner, who is known for his own stellar solo career as well as his work with Beck, Air, and Paul McCartney. With Jason manning the boards, “Is And Always Was” was a project that aimed to take the rock and roll symphonies in Daniel’s prolific musical brain and deliver fully-realized and professionally-produced recorded songs.  “He possesses that rare individuality that makes the listener wonder where this music comes from,” Falkner says of Daniel Johnston. “It was challenging to make our minds work together but I really found myself immersed in his musical world. It’s a unique place to live, that’s for sure!”

While the Beatles may be an obvious touch point – Johnston has often exclaimed his passion for the Fab Four while Falkner has released two acclaimed Bedtime with the Beatles instrumental lullaby albums – the Is And Always Was sessions were frequented by discussions on the shared appreciation for ’70s pop-rock icons such as Queen, Elton John, Wings, and ELO.

All this talk about dining room tables reminded me today of one of my favorite public meeting quotes from my time as a reporter in Millville, N.J.

“It smells like somebody took a dump on my dining room table.” 

This in reference to a so-called farmer who was spreading layer upon layer of liquid chicken manure on a field near several housing developments. The man who spoke those words is now deceased, but I will never forget him. To the politicians at the time, he was kind of like a dining room table. He too wasn’t very much fun with which to converse or argue.

Most gadflies are like this. They’re pesky, inappropriate, unreasonable and often flat-out misinformed. But they make great copy. And even better sound bytes on television or radio. 

Unlike seldom used dining room tables, they aren’t quite so easy to ignore.

The indie-pop darlings of 2009 have decided not to wait until 2010 to release new tunage. Already destined for plenty of year-end lists with their self-titled debut full-length, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have plans to release a two-song single Sept. 8 and a four-song EP Sept. 22. That’s five new songs for those doing the math at home (the single “Come Saturday” is a repeat from the full-length).

Both releases will be coming courtesy of the fine folks at Slumberland, who have been “keeping it foolish since 1989.”

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Higher Than The Stars EP
(Slumberland)
Street date: Sept. 22, 2009
Formats: 7″, 12″, CD and digital

1. Falling Over
2. Twins
3. Higher Than The Stars
4. 103

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Come Saturday Single
(Slumberland)
Street date: Sept. 8, 2009
Formats: 7″ and digital
1. Come Saturday
2. Side Ponytail