Picks of 2019

2019 was an interesting year for us. The big change is that we took in a young foster child. Without going into the details of the child, this is a life changer. I am enjoying it but I am exhausted. I am also going to the movies less and reading less.  Also, I only posted 21 blog posts this year, while the last few years I was in the 40's. I only completed three books this year but one of them was a huge classic, Middlemarch. I have told myself that I would read one classic a year the rest of my life so I will be lucky if I finish one book a year now.

Favorite Trips:
We had a few destination weddings this year with friends getting married in Chicago and the Bahamas. Chicago was fun as usually. After the wedding we drove to some baseball towns and took in four games in Cleveland and Pittsburgh (to see the Red Sox and the Cubs). We also visited Falling Water in the Pittsburgh suburbs. 

We chose not to stay at a resort on the Bahamas and rented an AirBnB in the Nassau suburbs. This was a good idea since we really don't care for the resort experience. We took the local bus all over the island and really enjoyed the local flare. Of course, the beaches were awesome. 

We also took a road trip to Ottawa to go the Ottawa BluesFest. This was a new experience for me, because of severe thunder storm, they moved the entire crowd into a nearby museum to wait out the storm. Only in Canada.

Best Live shows:
We saw some great shows this year. We saw Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, the Avett Brothers, the Fruit Bats, Greg Brown, Jason Isbell and Rodrigo Y Gabriela. Every show was phenomenal.

For my wife's birthday we went up to Ottawa for the BluesFest because she is a big fan of Jason Isbell.  We lucked out in that Rodrigo Y Gabriela, one of our favorites, was playing on the same day.  This was the best show of the year. I have always been a huge fan of Pink Floyd. I never thought I'd see someone cover "Echoes" but Rodrigo Y Gabriela did it and blew me away.

Media:
Best New Podcast:

I discovered a handful of new podcasts this year: 

• The Al Franken Podcast
• Useful Idiot with Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper
• Against the Rules with Michael Lewis
• The Joe Rogan Experience
• The Femsplainers
• An Arm and a Leg

The best is Al Franken's. He got a raw deal and it is great to see him (hear him) bounce back.

Favorite new TV show: 

We never finished ER but we are close.  We will eventually. It does hold up, but it does jump the shark in the latter seasons. 

In the meantime, I discovered a lot of new shows in 2019:
Cobra Kai, The Morning Show, The Watchmen, His Dark Material,  The Girlfriend Experience, The Terror, Mars, Chernobyl, Killing Eve, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, NOS4A2, Catch 22, The Alienist, Living with Yourself, Another Life, Criminal: UK, Unbelieveable, Tuca and Bertie, Black Summer and Counterpart. 

The surprise of the year was Cobra Kai which I expected to hate. It is a sequel to The Karate Kid which is a movie I liked when it came out 30 years ago, but doesn't really hold up now that I am a discernible adult. But the show is a lot more nuanced than the movie. Daniel is not necessarily the hero and Johnny isn't all bad. Both characters are middle aged and living in the past. It is portrayed by the same actors which is impressive. It still has karate but it is less melo-dramatic than the fairly awful movie from my youth. 

But the best show may be Unbelievable which is a story about a young girl who is raped who believed by no one. The story and the acting are top notch. At times, I didn't believe her story.  

Favorite Albums:
I bought six albums/CDs from 2019.  "Gold Past Life" by The Fruit Bats is my favorite. It reminds me of their performance at the ArtsRiot in Burlington. The Avett Brothers album was a disappointment with the lyrics taking a right turn and The Flaming Lips album is as weird as ever, a bit too weird this time. 

"Closer Than Together" by the Avett Brothers
"The Flood in Color" by Joe Pug
"Gold Past Life" by Fruit Bats
"Come What May" by the Joshua Redman Quartet
"King's Mouth: Music and Songs" by The Flaming Lips
"Mettavolution" by Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Favorite Songs:
I only bought 127 MP3s this year that were new songs from 2019.  These are some of my favorites:

Manifest - Andrew Bird
We Americans - Avett Brothers
World Gone Crazy - Beans on Toast
Mint Condition - Caroline Spence
Special Announcement - The Felice Brothers
The Bottom of It - The Fruit Bats
Go Crazy - G. Love and Special Sauce (featuring Keb Mo)
Overexcited - Guster
The Stranger I've Been - Joe Pug
East October - John Moreland
Unwed Fathers - John Prine with Margo Price
How We Do - Joshua Redman Quartet
Golden Embers - Mandolin Orange
Rikers Island - Raphael Saadiq
Morse Code - Reina del Cid
Echoes - Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Confessions - Sudan Archives
This Life - Vampire Weekend
Alabaster - The Wood Brothers

There are a lot of brothers in there. While Echoes does blow me away, I am so impressed with Sudan Archives and her use of the violin.  My favorite original song of the year is Confessions by Sudan Archives and Echoes is my favorite cover. 

2020 promises to be a great year. We will hopefully get rid of Trump this year, more like by election than removal from office but either one will do for me.