D.C. day three.

So day three on my own in DC.
I woke up to Heather knocking on the door and cursing her stupid hotel key for not working again, stupid hotel keys. We went to breakfast/lunch at a little place called Cosi. It was very very good. I had a flat-bread sandwich with some chicken, some sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil, mmmmm. Heather went back to work and I did a quick google search to find the exact intersection to tell the taxi driver to take me to.
I hopped in the cab, "Could you take me to the National Art Museum on the corner of G street and 9th?" he responded with something that sounded affirmative. He drove for a lot longer than it looked like it should have taken on google earth and I was just about to say something to him when I saw G street and relaxed a little.
The National Art Museum was huge and it took me all day to go through it. I really liked the old Abraham Lincoln artifacts, they had a huge assortment of Civil War era paintings including a really old painting of Joseph Smith with an interesting blurb about the Mormons rapidly growing and evicting residents from their homes. Weird. Other items I really liked was the photography and portraiture exhibits and the marble sculptures. There was one such sculpture whose robe was sculpted so well I literally had to touch it to see if it was cloth or marble.
There was also a very weird exhibit. I'll try to explain in words as best I can. Imagine a room the size of a 2 car garage tall enough for a camping trailer. On one wall of this room were 16" TV's floor to ceiling; maybe about 10 TV's tall and 40 TV's wide. 2/3rds of these TV's were playing nonsense, no discernible reason to what it was showing, just video clips of very random things. Like men skiing, dancing people, cows, fences, roller skate wheels, bugs. then the other third of the TV's were all playing the same thing, which was also a bunch of randomness, save for the center TV which was playing........well porn. Well I guess it wasn't full on porn, but it was just a bunch of different clips of naked women laying on a couch doing weird things. One would kiss a woden totem-pole statue; Then one would hug a clear glass sculpture. One would try to make a cat lay next to her on the psychiatrist style leather couch, then another would push her boobs together and make a pouty face. Oh but it's okay it's art right? It was supposed to represent our plugged in world that's out of touch with reality. It was just nonsense and weirdness if you ask me. The little TV in the middle on the right up in that picture was the naughty one.

I took the Metro back to the hotel and waited for Heather to come back so we could go to her work dinner with her co-workers.
Bad idea. The dinner was at a Moroccan restaurant whose name I don't recall and it was gross. Heather wanted me to try some new foods, but this was so disgusting. Oh it can't be that bad, you might be thinking to yourself right now, but it was. To start with there was bread that was the consistency of cornbread mixed with a glue stick and the flavor of some carpet-based bread concoction. Next up, soup. The soup wasn't that bad, some tomato basil snap pea soup, which to me tasted exactly like a can of Campbell's vegetable soup, except instead the the familiar shapes and colors of vegetables, this new soup had strange shapes and most things I saw in the soup when I dared to look were white, and last time I checked, neither basil, tomatoes or peas are white right? Then after that they started serving this turnover looking thing which smell absolutely delicious and I was getting hungry after picking at my other food. The little turnover thing looked very good indeed, and then I cut it open. Apples? Honey? Pie Filling in the Center? Nope, chicken. Yep meat was wadded inside of this little turnover that was covered in cinnamon and powdered sugar, I tasted it and I had to swallow my gag.
At this time the belly dancer came out to dance which had a little too much belly and was little too old to still be a dancing, I tried not to make eye contact and told everyone at the table to avert their eyes so as not to lure her over. The main course then came consisting of "free-range" chicken and lamb Currie. I scraped all the weird looking stuff off of my chicken and ate just the meat part, tasted and very much disliked the lamb, it kind of tasted like fridge burned deer meat. I didn't get my hopes up for dessert which was a good thing because it was just honeydew and cantaloupe squares that were too soft and a very hot minty tea. I agree it's good to try new things to get yourself cultured, but I am not going to eat Moroccan again. Oh and also this all took place over a 3 hour time period, very slow service, and everyone else who works with Heather was getting drunk and trying to belly dance and/or arm wrestle anyone who was up for it. It was a fun weird night and dinner.
Long post I know.
-Reluctantly Cultured

D.C. day two.

Today while Heather was in meetings I went to walk the streets in search of some shops to take her to later. After forgetting to grab my umbrella and running back up to the room to get it and tuck it into my backpack side pocket, I started my long walk south toward the Georgetown shops. I was actually walking up to check out Urban outfitters of D.C hoping it had some cooler big city clothes than the clothes at the U.O in S.L.C. Too many acronyms?
There are a ton of people who walk the streets of this city, and surprisingly most were my age. Normally you see a lot of families or old people out, but this neighborhood is strangely young. With the neighborhood so young you'd think that most people would be here for the same reasons as myself, just wandering looking for shops. Of the conversations I heard they were all business conversations, people talking about meetings they had been, what the company needs to be doing, costs, projections, travels and company idiots. It makes me feel like there is hope for young people, such as myself, in the business world. Where I live the business class is so much older and it's very disconcerting to someone who wants to start there business career.After stopping buy some shops and making note of a few I know Heather would like to visit, I walked back towards and past my hotel to grab some lunch at a sandwich shop I noticed the day before. In a crowded intersection there's a small patch of grass and some park benches, in between the benches, on a grassy little knoll stood a women dressed in a tattered overcoat and a winter Russian style hat was screaming at the top of her lungs.
"You're stealing my life! This is my life and your taking it from me!" It was weird and kind of frightening actually. I wonder what this crazy lady would do if I yelled back at her. Do you think you're the only one who has a hard life? Everyone walking on this street is struggling with there own problems, why do you think we owe you anything!? I half considered walking up to her and slapping sense into her and screaming right back in her face.
I made it to my sandwich shop and sat at a table right by the window to watch people scurry by. After I ate and stood up to clear my table I noticed a small sign above. Handicap accessible only. Whoops. I made my way back to my hotel and up to my room, sat down and turned on the TV to the one movie channel we have, Blair Witch project was on. I was just starting to get into it when a tap tap tap came on the door, room cleaners at 3 o clock?! I was just leaving, I lied and went back down to the lobby to start my book. The Road by Cormac Mcarthy. The first twenty pages are great.
That was my second day on my own in D.C.
-Unexpectedly Grateful

D.C. day one.

I'm in Washington DC, waiting for Heather to get back from a business dinner with a few of her co-workers.
DC is great, flying in I sat on the left rear side of the plane giving me an awesome look at the Washington monument. Stupid ridiculous comments about it being a giant penis statue. The huge obelisk was fashioned after the Egyptian obelisks, which now are crumbled and ruined. The monument was originally going to be a pantheon containing statues of many great presidents to come, I think they chose the correct building plan.
The memorial side of DC seems like a different country almost, with such old buildings that look so oddly Un-American, while ironically they are supposed to stand for everything America is.
Sometimes I wish I lived in a very large, multiculturaly diverse city. I find it very refreshing to be around different sorts of people, breathing different air, thinking different thoughts, with there own worries and problems that are so very different from what I'm used to seeing.
As odd as it sounds I took my first taxi ride today, silently noticing the expansive trunk, nice leather seats, cigarette smell and an unusually friendly taxi driver, unusual only because TV tells me they are not.
We have a very nice hotel room that Heather's work is paying for, well all but one night. This nice hotel makes me want a different job more than I have in along time. My wife has an adult realistic job, she goes on business trips and works with real people. This is what I need, this is what I am going to school for. Do you ever feel like you are not where you need to be. You are not using your potential? I wish I could know what job I would be the very best at and I could feel good about working there.
I start school January 5th or 6th I beleive, I am only taking 9 credits until I can get back into the swing of all things school. I'm a little nervous for math, I have a hard time remembering what the instructor has taught me in math when I get home to do my homework. Maybe in highschool my mind was elsewhere, lets hope that's all it is. I 'm excited for my other two classes. Writing is something I usually like doing, and am excited to hone in on some of my writing skills Also I have recently become interested in philosophy. I hope this class is more of a discussion of philosophies rather than a study of philosophers.
I have all of my Christmas presents already purchased and ready to be wrapped and gifted. If you were lucky enough to be one of the few people I am giving presents to you will not be disappointed.
I bought the newest Killer's CD and so far I'm am not the biggest fan, feels like a record executive told The Killers that people were really into the eighties feeling of some of there songs off of Hot Fuss, so they tried to make an entire eighties album. Also I think Brandon Flowers wants to be Chris Martin of Coldplay so he's trying to mimmick him, which is so stupid because Hot Fuss is so much better than anything Coldplay could even try to think about writing. Coldplay sucks.
I'll try to post more frequently.
-Vocationally Dissatisfied

20-11 of 30

Okay part two, here goes:

20. Meteora - Linkin Park

After I had bought and listened to Hybrid Theory a million times, I was so excited for LP's new album to come out, and Meteora didn't disappoint, I think because of that and the earliness of my CD buying obsession I got my hopes up for other bands to always make consistently good albums, I learned quickly not to hope for much, but Meteora was exactly what I wanted, awesome hip hop beats, cool and catchy songs. True Linkin Park is directed at teenage angst, but I was a teenager and you better believe I had angst. Key tracks? Somewhere I Belong, Easier to Run, Faint, Breaking The Habit and Session, check it out!

19. She Wants Revenge (Self Titled)

She Wants Revenge? Sounds stupid. That's exactly what I said when I first heard their name, but this is a really cool album, true it's mostly synthesized sound and monotone melodies, but it's a dancey sex charged album, they're all awesome songs which would be perfect to listen to at work, but with their racy lyrics I unfortunately can't listen to them, such as the song Sister, which is about feeling guilty about taking advantage of a nun who would want nothing more than for you to do just that. This is the only album that has ever made me, yes me Craig, want to dance. Their lyrics paint a picture in your head of exactly what they're talking about. Key tracks: Out Of Control, Monologue, Sister, Tear You Apart and the Bonus Track. Such an good CD, and check out that album art!

18. Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace - Foo Fighters

You've heard about my disappoint already with the Foo Fighters and their stupid, unintelligible CD In Your Honor, this CD came out after In Your Honor and I had already given up all hope for the Foo Fighters so I wasn't expecting anything from this CD, it took me about 3 months before I even started listening to some tracks on, let me just say, they more than made up for In Your Honor, gone is the annoyingly loud songs and the boring slow songs on IYH, and here to stay are the classic Foo that made me fall in love with them in the first place, best songs are The Pretender, Let It Die, Long Road to Ruin, Stranger Things Have Happened and Summer's End, a really good album, Foo Fighters resurrected!

17.Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie

This album, and I think many of you will agree, is what made Death Cab a good band, this CD is why I liked Death Cab in the first place. If you haven't noticed in my countdown already, I only like bands that have their own style, bands that sound like no one else but themselves, no one proves this more that Death Cab, they really are a style unto themselves, there have been copy cats, but none even half as good. The best songs on this CD are as follows, The New Year, Title and Registration, The Sound of Settling, Transatlanticism and We Looked Like Giants.

16. Narrow Stairs - Death Cab for Cutie

Wow! 2 albums by the same artist in a row! Death Cab's bran new album, you may have read my review of the CD a while back, probably not though, but for some reason before this CD came out I got really excited for it, I didn't even like DCFC that much, but when I heard the first single, I Will Possess Your Heart, I was hooked. I have been waiting for a really long epic song since Only In Dreams by Weezer and Come Back by the Foo Fighters, Death Cab didn't disappoint, they also didn't fall into the trap that happens to most indie bands who sign on a label, they make one good CD then wither and die. I skip only 2 songs on this CD when listening to it, every other track on this CD is awesome! Especially Bixby Canyon Bridge, I Will Possess Your Heart, Cath, Grapevine Fires, Long Division and Pity and Fear. Wow that's almost the whole CD right there!

15. Demon Days - Gorillaz

What's not to love about this album, I wish more rap/hip hop/ whatever genre you'd put this in, was like this album. I really like hip hop beats and well put together rhymes, but most hip hop is so f-ing stupid, really just so idiotic and lame. Demon Days though, well Gorillaz are in their own section of hip hop. Feel Good Inc. was such a monster hit, everyone loved that song when it came out and the CD is just as good as that song! Unfortunately Gorillaz are on hiatus indefinitely, which makes me sad, right at their peak they get out of the game. With songs like O Green World, Dirty Harry, Feel Good Inc. El Manana, All Alone, White Light and Dare it really doesn't make sense for them to quit, but I guess they left on a high note. Buy this CD.

14. Hot Fuss - The Killers

If you've never heard of The Killers, well where have you been the last five years, but seriously don't judge them by their name, they sound like they'd be a band like, Taking Back Sunday, or 30 Seconds to Mars, or Panic at the Disco, but they are not anything like them thank goodness. Man those bands suck. Anyways Hot Fuss was the Killers freshmen album and man! This album is so great! The Killers is also an album that's good for the girls and the boys, my wife absolutely loves this album and can't help but sing and snap and dance when it's on. I bought this CD when Somebody Told Me just hit it big as their single, I was taken by another song though, I couldn't get enough of Mr. Brightside, I told everyone to check out Mr. Brightside, but nobody could see past Somebody Told Me, but boy that sure changed in the coming months, the radio and MTV got a hold of Mr. Brightside and that song brought more success for that band than any other track on the CD or any other they have written to date! Best songs on the CD are, Jenny Was A Friend of Mine, Somebody Told Me, Mr. Brightside, Andy You're a Star and Everything Will Be Alright. I love this CD.

13. Icky Thump - The White Stripes

Oh what to say about the White Stripes? Now here really is style unlike anybody in the world. Sure they borrow from blues, they borrow for folk, but they are White Stripes and they know what they are doing, usually. With this album though they got it all right, every song, except that one weird one called St. Andrew, is perfect, they've tried and tried to get a perfect album for many years and this is it, or as close to it as they are going to get, mark my words, this is the album to be remembered. Long list of awesome here, Icky Thump, You Don't Know What Love Is, 300 MPH Torrential Outpoor Blues, Conquest, Bone Broke, Little Cream Soda, Rag and Bone, I'm Slowly Turning Into You, A Martyr for My Love for You, Catch Hell Blues, Effect and Cause and Baby Brother, whew, that's about every single track on the CD, I told you it was good.

12. Songs About Jane - Maroon 5

I bought this CD way back when me and my friends were first starting our band, this band is a band that made feel like I could be successful as a musician, they're really really good, but play simple things that I could make up, but then at the same time I really don't think I could ever make a whole CD as good as this. This CD reminds me of my younger years and all the girls I would play with :) more specifically when I first started hanging out with my current wife. But back to the CD, just awesome, Harder to Breathe when I first heard was a song I so wished I would have written, awesome instrumentation and lyrics, fun and awesome at the same time! These are the best songs, Harder to Breathe, This Love, Shiver, Tangled, The Sun, Must Get Out, Sunday Morning and Not Coming Home. This CD also is fun for a girl and a boy, like a Slinky!

11. American Idiot - Green Day

Topping out the middle ten of the countdown is American Idiot. Now this CD more than any other takes me back to a certain time in my life, what time? The Party Years. Everyone has them, the year or so in their life where they just party and do everything bad you could ever think of. This is the album I was listening to at this time. This CD came out back when I had long dyed black hair and liked to paint my fingernails black. This CD reminds me of partying with my then girlfriend/now wife when we very first started getting serious. The concert to promote this album was the first "date" we went on. But the CD itself. This CD is more to perfect than any other thus far on my countdown, a few songs I skip over sometimes, but mostly I just listen all the way through, well I always skip the first song and title track American Idiot, which is just so off the style of the CD it should not have even been put on it. Jesus of Suburbia is a sprawling epic songs with such awesome lyrics and music it really is a perfect song. Green Day started the whole Bush bashing epidemic that has plagued music ever since this CD came, and I am so sick of it now I refuse to buy any "political" CD AKA (make a CD that complains about the president and country because people will buy those the most) thanks record label exec's who've ruined a lot of bands for me. Green Day started and Green Day was sincere. This really is such a well written CD. This is the only Green Day CD that has even mattered to mention when talking about music, sorry Neal. Green Day didn't really matter until this CD came out, and man they really proved that they do deserve to be mentioned. These are the best tracks: Jesus of Suburbia, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Are We The Waiting, Give Me Novocaine, Extraordinary Girl, Letterbomb, Wake Me Up When September Ends, Homecoming and Whatsername. Seriously if you haven't heard this album or if you don't like Green Day give this CD a chance. I really don't like punk, but as you'll see in my top ten coming up it'll be littered with amazing punk albums, and this is one of the best.

Thanks for reading! Sorry it's so long, I could write forever about these things I'm so passionate about. Later!

30 - 21 of 30

So I originally wanted make of post of the top 20 albums for me, of all time, but that quickly turned into top 25, then just as fast to top 30, so here is the the last ten on the list, we'll break it down into 10 albums at a time so I don't have one mega post that's thirty feet long. Please read and comment, this took forever to figure out and to write and even longer to post these pictures. Thanks Ya'll!

30: MEMORY ALMOST FULL - PAUL McCARTNEY

Starting with the single Dance Tonight this album starts strong, and doesn't disappoint. I was nervous to buy my first Paul McCartney CD, I mean The Beatles are great, but I've been more of a written by Jon Lennon Beatles song fan than a written by Paul fan, but I saw the music video while me and my brand new wife were unpacking in our brand new apartment in a brand new town, it was a catchy song and Natalie Portman was in the video, always a plus. I needed a new CD and there was a Gray Whale just down the street, I ran down there and bought it and have loved it ever since, maybe it just reminds of the beginning of my marriage, but I always feel like listening to it. Key tracks include: Dance Tonight, You Tell Me, Mr. Bellamy, Vintage Clothes and Nod Your Head.

29: UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK - NIRVANA

I think if you could somehow add up all times you've listened to any one album this one would be at the very top, well about 3 years ago I know it would. I put this album in the CD player at the restaurant I worked at back then and listened to it about 4 times a night! It's such an intimate album, it's as if Nirvana were in the same room as you, just playing for you personally. Key tracks: The Man Who Sold The World, Plataea, Oh Me and Where Did You Sleep Last Night.

28: SONGS FOR THE DEAF - QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

When I first heard this CD it was in my first apartment with a stupid roommate of mine and has a man crush on Dave Grohl, he bought this CD only because Dave Grohl drums for them on this disc. I instantly hated this CD, for starters I did not approve of my roommates taste in uh anything really, and I was not going to condone his crush on Dave Grohl and listen to this album. I then saw the music video for No One Knows and that build up ending in a bass solo just grabbed me, I purchased the album and almost every song on it is great, and it is great because of Dave Grohl's drumming, every other QOTSA album is lame and I think it's in a large part to the drumming, don't tell my old roommate that Dave made the CD what it is, he'll have a man-gasm, but this CD is very very good. Key tracks: No One Knows, Song for the Dead, The Sky is Fallin' and Another Love song.

27: HYBRID THEORY - LINKIN PARK

This is actually the very first CD I ever bought, I loved how they mixed hip-hop beats and rock vocals and they didn't rap about loser gangster topics, a lot of these CDs on this last part of the top 30 are the CDs that helped form my opinions about music today, they kind of showed the way to what I'd eventually start liking, this album is an excellent example of that. Key Tracks: Crawling, In The End, A Place For My Head, Forgotten and Cure for the Itch.

26:NEON BIBLE - ARCADE FIRE

When I would tell people the kind of music I like, Arcade Fire was never mentioned by me, but the person I would be telling would ask if I've heard them and they thought I would like them. I checked out their EP and Funeral, they both had a couple okay songs, but nothing that made me love them, then I heard they were releasing a new CD, I wasn't too stoked about it. I heard some tracks, bought a couple on iTunes, but still nothing. I put some on my work playlist and every time on came on I would be turning it up and soon I would just be listening to Arcade Fire, Neon Bible is a very solid CD. Key tracks include: Keep the Car Running, Intervention, Black Wave / Bad Vibrations and No Cars Go.

25:SHOW YOUR BONES - YEAH YEAH YEAHS

This is the only, yep the only band I can stand that the lead singer happens to be a girl. I don't do that intentionally, girl singers in rock/alternative bands just suck! Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is different though, it really seems like this is who she is, while other female singers seem to be trying to hard or pretending to be something else. I really really like this CD, well most tracks, but the tracks that are good are really really good, and these are those tracks, Gold Lion, Way Out, Phenomenon and, my personal favorite, Honeybear.

24: FASHION NUGGET - CAKE

Cake rules, if you don't know about Cake buy this CD. He is the best lyricist and the instrumentation is great! This is another CD that shaped how I look and listen to music now, almost every track on this CD is perfect. Key tracks are: Frank Sinatra, The Distance, Friend Is a Four Letter Word, Open Book, Daria, Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps, It's Coming Down and Italian Leather Sofa, yeah a lot of awesome songs!

23: OK COMPUTER - RADIOHEAD

Radiohead is one of the best bands in the world, and this CD is where they first proved it, with tracks like Airbag, Paranoid Android, Karma Police, Electroneering and No Surprises, there really is no need to say more, listen to these songs and try to tell me Radiohead isn't great.

22: STADIUM ARCADIUM

A year or so before Stadium Arcadium hit the shelves, the Foo Fighters released a double disc album that sucked, In Your Honor probably was THE worst upset for me in music ever. I was so excited for In Your Honor and it just sucked so hard. It taught me not to get too excited for any CD, so when I heard Stadium Arcadium was going to be a double disc I was, needless to say, scared. The first single wasn't that great and I was setting up this disc for failure before I even heard it. I bought it because, well they're the Chili Peppers, and after the first of 2 discs I was hooked. Dani California did no do this CD justice, nor did any of the other single they choose, but all the songs they didn't choose for singles are so well written and just overall great that this double disc album did not disappoint. Best songs are: Desecration Smile, Hard to Concentrate, 21st Century, Hump de Bump, Torture Me, Strip My Mind, Especially In Michigan, We Believe, Wet Sand and Hey. It really is that good.

21: GUERO - BECK

Beck's "come back" album if you ask me. This is such a fun album, that's what I love about the new Beck, the CDs are just so much fun. I love the urban beats and the dance grooves, the lyrics, synthesized sounds and instrumentation's are almost perfect. This is an album you could listen to all day everyday for a week and not get sick of it. Best tracks are: Que' Onda Guero, E-Pro, Girl, Earthquake Weather, Hell Yes, Go It Alone, Farewell Ride, Rental Car, and Emergency Exit. Man this is a great album

Well that's the first ten, it turned out to be a pretty long post after all, but it's still only a quarter of what I could have wrote about these albums, they are all just so amazing! Thanks for reading!