Ten Favorite Albums of All Time

I was listening to a great deal of music on the ride back from Baltimore this past week and realized how much music I truly loved. Then I began to wonder -- what were my favorite albums of all time. These aren't necessarily the best albums, the most earth shattering -- just my favorite pieces of music that I could listen to over and over again. I narrowed it down to 10 albums. Here they are in no particular order.

• Beck - Mutations -- Mutations is an album very unlike any other album I have ever heard. It combines elements of electronic, folk, rock, alternative, country, and even classical music into this strange compilation that only Beck could create. I'll be honest, my copy of this CD has started to have frayed edges for how often I used to listen to this music. It may lack the major hits of some of his other albums, like Odelay or Midnight Vultures, but what it lacks in radio play it more than makes up for in amazing music. It's the type of music that could sit in the background as mood music, a soundtrack to your life in almost any mood your in. Mind you, I still don't think I understand any of the lyrics on any of the tracks for this album -- but I think that happens to me no matter which Beck album I'm discussing. It's a great album and it's worth listening to if you like any genre of music, period.
  
• Smash Mouth - Fush Yu Mang -- Despite the fact that the title of the album is a slurred version of the F-you as said by Al Pacino in Scarface, this album still rocks my socks off this many years later. Written at a time before Smash Mouth had become happy-go-lucky in their lives with the success of this album and the insane success of the song All Star, these songs were real about their lives at the times and have elements that are both foreign and relatable to most people. It is upbeat with almost a Beach Boys' feel at times -- and other times somber and reflective, yet always containing these fun, ska and punk tunes making it accessible to anyone. Mind you, I wouldn't allow my children listen to this album with the language and content of the lyrics -- but for those mature enough to hear it, this album can be fun, introspective, and just a pleasure to the ears.
• Jay-Z - The Black Album -- If Extreme Behavior is one of the most perfect rock albums I've heard in a long time, The Black Album is one of the epitome of what a rap album should be. Something most don't realize about Jay-Z is that instead of discussing gang-banging and how great it is today, Jay-Z discusses his life, how great its been since he raised himself up, and his family. This isn't gangsta rap, this is real rap about life and it's amazing. Jay-Z shows himself through in each and every track, with each track produced expertly with really great beats and powerful vocals. It's not often that you hear a rap album that's this good that really makes you say, "Wow, this is great music." This is one of those albums and deserves to be in the top list of any music connoisseur.
• Toby Keith - Greatest Hits 2 -- Now, I didn't think that I would actually be willing to post a greatest hits album in my top list -- but let's be reasonable, this is the best that Toby Keith has to offer. It's got his fun songs like "How Do You Like Me Now" and a live version of "You Ain't Much Fun," while including some of his best slow tunes like "My List" and "You Shouldn't Kiss Me Like That." This album also includes some great original songs, despite what the likes of AllMusic has to say about it -- plus it includes the popular "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" which, when you listen to the lyrics, has NOTHING to do with the Iraqi war and everything to do with September 11th and how each and every one of us as Americans felt after that tragic event happened, "You hurt us, and we will make sure that you pay for your crimes."
• Jack's Mannequin - Everything in Transit -- This is the band and album that makes me wish beyond belief that Andrew McMahon never returns to the band Something Corporate. Jack's Mannequin is basically the Andrew McMahon show -- he wrote and produced this album. The entire album discusses a summer after he returns home from a great deal of touring with Something Corporate and was now on his own. He actually spent some $40,000 of his own money to put this album together before Maverick Records picked it up. This is the story of a man -- and the passion and personal feeling shines through in each and every single track of this album. If you go into it looking for the pop punk of Something Corporate, go away -- this is a piano based rock album more along the lines of Meat Loaf than Something Corporate. Basically, I'd say this is an amazing album and worth every single cent that I spent on it.
• The Beatles - 1 -- Ok, apparently I'm a liar, I put two greatest hits albums on here already. The Beatles' 1 spans decades of number one hits from them to bring only the best and classic hits that you can sing along to even if you didn't know it was The Beatles who sang them to begin with. I don't really know what else to say about this album beyond just that.
• Hinder - Extreme Behavior -- Fastly becoming one of my favorite albums is this, the first major album from Hinder. Ignore what the critics say about this album, as usual the critics are idiots. The album contains everything a rock album needs to be perfect -- hard rocking tunes, a few power ballads, and great music all around. Honestly, it is one of the first major pure rock albums I've heard in a long time, and it's perfectly fit into that genre. I would say this about the album -- it's the perfect breakup album. This band must have had a great many bad relationships, because it shows in some of the lyrics. And yet, the music is able to span the beautifully melodic to the harder rock that many on the radio want to hear. All in all, this is a great album -- if not friendly for the kids.
• Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell -- This is the perfect Meat Loaf album. Written entirely by Jim Steinman, this album contains nothing but amazing music. "You Took The Words Right Out of My Mouth," "For Crying Out Loud," and "Heaven Can Wait" top this groundbreaking album that borderlines on the verge of being a rock opera. It's an amazing album that really should be everyone's musical collection. It's such a classic that I'm really not sure what else to say about this besides get this album and you will not be disappointed.
• OutKast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below -- The second album in the hip-hop category on this list, Speakerboxx/The Love Below is amazing. The album is divided in two, we have the Big Boi half and the Andre 3000 half of the album which allowed each of them to take all manner of musical risks individually while still keeping that OutKast feel. Big Boi's half is perhaps some of the best rap music I've heard of all time; it has amazing beats, great lyrics that flow off the tongue, and varying messages from discussion of love to politics and it never goes stale. Andre 3000's half of the album is insane, ranging from funk rock to hip hop to classical pop hits in line with Michael Jackson, before he became creepy. It's a great album set that makes hip hop accessible to anyone.
• Billy Joel - The Stranger -- If you want to hear some of the best music written by Bill Joel, look no further than The Stranger. It may not contain some of the hits like "Piano Man," but what it does have is amazing -- "The Stranger," "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," and "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." This album can be fun, romantic, introspective, and basically everything you can ask for out of Billy Joel -- it's all here. It's another classic along the lines of Meat Loaf's Bat Out of Hell that I really don't know what else to say about it -- the album is great and well worth the price of admission.
  

On a side note, many of these albums contain lyrics which are not good for children so, before you go running out to pick up some of these great albums -- check them out for yourself or at least make certain there's no parental advisory label before playing them in front of your children. I'm sure you all have different opinions on songs, etc -- and feel free to post them here.

Sigdon Riley

Sigdon Riley is a new character I may be playing in a Dungeon's and Dragons game with BM2, JB. It's set in the world of Greyhawk, of which you can learn more about here. Here's the biography of the character that I've put together --

Sigdon Riley was born of noble parents. Money was his life and it was a good life indeed. He was trained to be a noble fighter by his wealthy father, learning all the niceties of high society. He had it all and at 21, he married the beautiful, 17 year old Mary Ann Crone. Riley loved his rich and fulfilling life, but all that changed in an instant.

On Sigdon's 25th birthday, his father passed away in the middle of the night of unknown causes. Unbeknown to Sigdon, his father carried a great deal of debt which had brought him to his current station in life -- primarily to two notorious underworld bosses, a half Drow named Jarl and a hot-tempered human by the name of Hunter Davis. Upon his father's death, Sigdon's mother disappeared with Jarl -- the two had been holding a secret romantic affair for the past ten years. Along with her went half of Sigdon's family fortune -- all to Jarl and all not enough to finish repaying his father's debt.

Sigdon fled town with his pregnant wife, hoping to find refuge with what little money he could carry a town or so away. Upon reaching the nearby village of Blackstone, Mary Ann gave birth to her first child -- a half-elf. Neither Mary Ann nor Sigdon were elven. Upset, confused, and angry, Sigdon decided he was going to leave his cheating wife and the offspring of that unholy union when suddenly, his father's debt caught up to him. Hunter Davis and his men had caught Sigdon, beat him, and enslaved him. Mary Ann was taken as Davis' own, a new member of his ever growing menagerie of concubines. Sigdon never saw Mary again.


After four years of brutal enslavement in the Underdark, Riley could take no more. He exploded on two slavers one day in an insane, berserk rage slaughtering the two men. Using his chains as a makeshift weapon, Riley fought his way to Davis, freeing any slave he found along the way. Riley and his small band of hungry slaves overpowered Davis, savagely killing him.

Riley could never go back to civilized life after that. He lived on his own in the wilderness, traveling from town to town attacking slavers as he found them. He tracked a certain slaver band to the Shackled City, which is currently where his full story will begin...

Poetry from Class

I wrote this while sitting in Molecular Biology I today. It is an interesting take on my feelings and is barely following a particular rhyming scheme.

Tell me how to feel
Tell me how to heal
How am I to know just what to do
I'm looking for direction
A greater plan for my selection
By the world to get a job like all of you

I want a job
Don't want a career
I need something that keeps me near
To my love
Gives family time
I need a plan that will provide for me and mine.

I sit here in class
Hoping just to pass
And leave all of this behind
I think of my life
Of my family and strife
Of my future and my wife
And so I find

That I want a job
Don't want a career
I need some way to keep me near
To those that I love
Gives that family time
I need a plan for me and mine

I need a plan to let me know
What I need to do so
I can graduate in May...
What to do so I will find
A job that will ease my mind
And help melt my cares away

In the future I will be
A grown man with a family
That for I will need to provide
Yes monetarily
But also lovingly
And the only way to abide

Is to find a job
Not a career
Something which will keep me near
To those I love
Give me family time
I need a plan for me and mine
To find a job
That's all I say
Not a career which takes me away
From my family fun
My beloved ones
With a career I'd be married more than once
Wedding both my wife and job is nuts
I can't imaging loving a job with a larger part
Than the one for othse who occupy my heart.

Chapter One Preview

As I mentioned on my primary blog, I'm in the process of writing a book. It will take me quite some time, especially considering that I don't write on a daily basis, but I hope that it will be completed by the close of 2007. Here is a preview of a section of Chapter 1, which will almost be a biography-esque chapter --

...But what else has happened in the life of Matthew Newman? I was a dork my entire life. While some children yearn to be astronauts, superheroes, or firefighters; I was playing with my “Too Gross” mad scientist set saying that I wanted to be a scientist when I grew up. In elementary and middle school we learned about the sciences in lumps, with little to no rhyme or reason behind anything. We'd talk about dinosaurs and fossils one week, followed by a simple chemical experiment. Throughout that time I learned all about mathematics, I absorbed it and when I began to learn algebra in seventh grade, I was enthralled. To me, math had always been like a puzzle – one which I actually had enjoyed doing, unlike those ridiculous piece puzzles that showed pictures of puppies or famous works of art. With the realization that I loved math combined with the fact that I was really good at it, I decided that I wanted to find a way to merge my love of math into my love of science that I carried on from childhood.

In high school we began to delve more deeply into the specific sciences and continue my diving into mathematics. The first of my high school scientific explorations was earth science, or as I liked to call it “Rocks 101.” We learned about rocks of all shapes and sized, we learned about how the rocks were formed, and so on. It was the most boring class I believe I've ever taken and I've taken years of math courses during my undergraduate career. My sophomore year we learned about biology. I thought this would be interesting, but the memorization was all manner of irritating. It did not feel like a science class as nothing appeared to be quantified; everything was observational with little to no structure. I hated it, despite doing well in the course. Following that came the science I had always dreamed of, chemistry. I became enthralled by chemistry; it was a science that I could understand, that was straightforward and easily accessible to one who could figure out patterns, and it was incredibly quantitative. I loved it, so much so that I took physics the following year merely to build a better foundation for my chemistry knowledge. I knew that this was the type of scientist I wanted to be when I grew up – I wanted to be a chemist.

At seventeen, I began looking into colleges. Being the valedictorian of my class, I knew I could get into most universities, but first I needed to know how I would use my love of chemistry to get a job in the real world beyond my schooling. I looked into the chemistry related fields and found chemical engineering – the application of chemistry, commonly in industrial settings. It sounded magical, perfect even. I said to myself, “I'll take it.” I applied all across New York being accepted into all five of the schools I applied. In the end, my school decision came down to money and name recognition, which led me back to the city I was born, Troy, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).

What If -- No Kennedy Assassination

This idea had originally been posited on a game I used to play entitled US Government Simulator, or USG for short. I developed, in short, what I thought would happen and initially posted it on my primary blog. Here's a repost of that same thought -- a bit tweaked --

1964 - In a wave of popularity surging from his near death experience, Kennedy wins in a strong mandate for President against Barry Goldwater (similar to LBJ's victory). Kennedy dumped Johnson for Governor Pat Brown of California, who recently defeated Nixon for Governor. Kennedy continues to stand by the Vietnam war, but in contrast to Goldwater sounds much less militant.

1965 - Vietnam continues to escalate, Kennedy's popularity starts to drop. Vice President Brown meets with South Vietnamese leaders in Hawaii promising full support for their independence.

1966 - Vietnam war continues to be mismanaged as it was in real life.

1967 - Nixon begins speaking tour of America and talking about Civil Rights. MLK speaks out against Vietnam war. Secretary of Defense admits that Vietnam strategy has been ineffective before Senate.

1968 - Vietcong sweep in surprising American and allied South Vietnamese forces. Support for the war reaches all time low. Nixon meets with MLK. MLK assassinated (no correlation to Nixon meeting). Nixon v. Brown v. Wallace -- Nixon wins by larger margin than in reality -- Wallace gained support in unexpected regions.

Nixon's Term - Nixon pushes for the Civil Rights movement and deescalates Vietnam as he pledged on the campaign trail. Civil Rights movement moves forward later than normal due to Kennedy's initial opposition to the affair, despite popular belief. The Watergate scandal happens as expected only swifter then in reality. Carl Albert becomes President until 1976. Albert finishes the push for Civil Rights reform

1976 election - GOP primary between Ronald Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller. Reagan barely wins in a hotly contested primary, setting the tone for the Republican party for the next 20 years. President Albert is primaried by George Wallace for the nomination. After losing a few early primaries, Albert comes out victorious and eventually takes on Southern Governor Jimmy Carter as a running mate. Reagan barely wins in 1976 with Robert Dole as his running mate. Iran hostage crisis shortens with the hardliner Reagan handling the situation. The OPEC scenario leads to drilling in Alaska and other parts of the US and a renewed effort into alternative fuel sources. The oil found domestically lets the OPEC boycot having a lesser effect on domestic affairs.

1980 election - Ted Kennedy runs against Jimmy Carter in the Democratic primary, as it does in reality Kennedy's skelleton's surface leading to Carter winning the primary. Reagan uses sound bytes from Kennedy in campaign ads against Carter. Reagan defeats Jimmy Carter in 1980 in a campaign similar to the RL 1980 election. Soviet talks were huge in the early 1980s.

Dole wins on the wave of Reagan popularity in 1984 and continues the policies of Reagan. He pickes Howard Baker as a running mate. By 1988 talks with the Soviet Union had been going so well that Dole swept into reelection by a smaller, albeit still large margin. The Soviet Union began to slowly fall apart and taxes were forced to be raised and, without the charisma of Reagan, Dole was unable to sell it to the American people leading to the same problems Bush had in the late 1980s. Dole gets us into the Gulf War and it ends as quickly as it begins. He handles it about as well as Bush does.

In 1992 VP Baker runs into a problem as eccentric millionaire H. Ross Perot decides to run for President. Popular Southern Governor William J. Clinton sweeps through the DNC primary leading to an interesting Presidential race in 1992. Clinton still wins.

1996 leads to a fragmented Republican primary torn between Pat Buchanan and Senator Phil Gramm. Buchanan barely squeaks by with a primary victory. Clinton wins in 1996 as he did in reality with a slightly larger margin.

In 2000, Popular Maverick Senator John McCain faces off against popular Southern Governor George W. Bush in a GOP primary. The Democrats rally behind VP Al Gore. McCain sweeps in the primaries and picks up Alan Keyes as a running mate. Despite questions about the selection of Keyes, McCain sweeps into office in 2000 with his plain talk defeating Al Gore. September 11, 2001 happens as it does in real life. US sweeps into Afghanistan handling it a bit more manageably than in reality. Intelligence is brought to President McCain that Iraq may have weapons of mass destruction - he waits it out while finishing up efforts on Afghanistan.

By 2003, Iraq becomes a threat and invasion becomes eminent. End of 2003 we invade Iraq. McCain as a wartime President defeats peace-hawk Howard Dean in 2004 in a larger margin of victory than George W. Bush did in reality. McCain is currently our President.

American Gods - A Review

I read American Gods a while ago, but haven't gotten a chance to review the book. Since I have a literary blog now -- I figured this was the place to do it.

American Gods is the fourth prose novel written by Neil Gaiman -- the fact that it's his fourth has nothing to do with its content as the book has nothing to do with his previous works. American Gods chronicles the story of a man named Shadow after he leaves jail, discovers his wife's infidelity, and gets picked up for seemingly mob related work by a man who calls himself Wednesday. This leads to all manner of strange adventures involving gods worshiped from all over the world -- and the modern gods we have created through the worship of such things as money, the internet, and television.

The book gives an interesting idea on religion, whereby gods exist merely because we believe they do. It's a concept which is delved deeply in most Dungeons and Dragons campaign worlds, and other fictional, polytheistic worlds, yet not one we discuss in reality.

The book is written beautifully providing wonderful imagery, incredibly interesting characters, and an engrossing plot which makes you want to read more. Anyone looking into a darker book with an engrossing story involving classical myths and religions, look no further; it will not disappoint.

Realization

I have just realized that nearly every single post I've made thus far has somehow pertained to religion.