From there, we were off to Devil’s Lake.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be there – low 60s & sunny.  Some nice fall color showing, although from the looks of things the best is still yet to come over the next weekend or two.  We got ambitious and left the lake-level paths for something a bit more challenging: the West-side bluff.  It was fairly high risk as I was almost assuming that at some point I’d have Tess in the backpack while carrying Henry but he was a total champ.  No complaints the whole time — trucked right up those rocks all the way to the top and still had energy at the end (of course) to walk the railroad tracks!  At the start of the trail there was a “Lost Dog” sign, so the whole hike was basically a rescue effort in his eyes.  He made sure I questioned every person we passed to ensure they were also on the lookout.  In the end we decided that the guy we saw with 2 walking sticks (ski poles – whatever they call those things) had probably located & returned the dog already.  Tess did a great job too and didn’t really fuss much about being stuck into the pack until we were almost back to the beach.

In the afternoon we hit up the Sun Prairie Dream Park (which apparently is a Freshman hangout after school??).  The park was a hit but my favorite part was the leaf pile.

… and, of course, when you’re in a foreign country you don’t order the hamburger, right?  So, I figured I’d whip something up that the kids don’t normally get when their Mom’s around: hotdogs in the macaroni!

They’re split into tiers because that’s how I roll. Members of the same tier are often (not always) interchangeable from a ranking standpoint and I will admit that as you move down the tiers much less effort has been put into truly sorting them out.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

1. Arcade Fire :: The Suburbs :: 8/3/10
2. Hot Chip :: One Life Stand :: 2/9/10

3. Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever :: 5/4/10
4. Broken Bells :: Broken Bells :: 3/9/10
5. Apples In Stereo :: Travellers In Space :: 4/20/10
6. Eels :: End Times :: 1/19/10
7. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening :: 5/18/10
8. The National :: High Violet :: 5/11/10
9. Violent Soho :: Violent Soho :: 5/9/10
10. Gorillaz :: Plastic Beach :: 3/3/10
11. Gogol Bordello :: Trans-Continental Hustle :: 5/7/10
12. Against Me! :: White Crosses :: 6/7/10

13. The Radio Dept :: Clinging To A Scheme :: 4/21/10
14. The Roots :: How I Got Over :: 6/21/10
15. Sleigh Bells :: Treats :: 6/1/10
16. Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs :: God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise :: 8/17/10
17. Los Campesinos :: Romance Is Boring :: 1/26/10
18. Frightened Rabbit :: The Winter of Mixed Drinks :: 3/1/10

19. Belle & Sebastian :: Write About Love :: 10/12/10
20. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club :: Beat The Devil’s Tattoo :: 3/9/10
21. Ted Leo :: Brutalist Bricks :: 3/9/10
22. Caribou :: Swim :: 4/20/10
23. Titus Andronicus :: The Monitor :: 3/9/10
24. Black Keys :: Brothers :: 5/18/10
25. Charlotte Gainsbourg::IRM :: 1/26/10
26. She & Him :: Volume Two :: 3/23/10
27. The Weepies :: Be My Thrill :: 8/31/10

28. OK Go:: Of The Blue Colour of the Morning Sky :: 1/12/10
29. Kasey Anderson :: Nowhere Nights :: 2/16/10
30. MGMT :: Congratulations :: 4/13/10
31. Surfer Blood :: Astro Coast :: 1/19/10
32. Ratatat :: LP4 :: 6/8/10
33. Flying Lotus :: Cosmogramma :: 5/3/10

34. Band of Horses :: Infinite Arms :: 5/18/10
35. Blitzen Trapper :: Destroyer of the Void :: 6/8/10
36. Josh Ritter – So Runs The World Away :: 4/17/10
37. The New Pornographers – Together :: 5/4/10
38. Gaslight Anthem :: American Slang :: 6/15/10
39. Yeasayer :: Odd Blood :: 2/8/10
40. Of Montreal :: False Priest :: 9/14/10
41. Beach House :: Teen Dream :: 1/26/10
42. The Magnetic Fields :: Realism :: 1/26/10
43. Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore :: Dear Companion :: 2/16/10
44. Spoon :: Transference :: 1/19/10
45. The Morning Benders :: Big Echo :: 3/9/10

46. Drive By Truckers :: The Big Todo :: 3/16/10
47. Justin Townes Earle :: Harlem River Blues :: 9/14/10
48. Kathryn Calder :: Are You My Mother? :: 8/10/10
49. Midlake :: The Courage of Others :: 2/2/10
50. Eels :: Tomorrow Morning :: 8/17/10

51. Unkle :: Where Did The Night Fall :: 5/10/10
52. Jakob Dylan :: Women and Country :: 4/6/10
53. Murder By Death :: Good Morning Magpie :: 4/6/10
54. Dr.Dog :: Shame Shame :: 4/6/10
55. Janelle Monae :: The Arch Android (Suites II and III) :: 5/18/10
56. Mumford & Sons :: Sign No More :: 2/6/10
57. Tobacco :: Maniac Meat :: 5/25/10
58. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl :: Record Collection :: 9/27/10
59. Kings of Leon :: Come Around Sundown :: 10/15/10
60. Toadies :: Feeler :: 8/10/10
61. Bad Religion :: The Dissent of Man :: 9/28/10

62. The Dead Weather :: Sea of Cowards :: 5/11/10
63. Jeremy Messersmith :: The Reluctant Graveyard :: 5/4/10
64. Morcheeba :: Blood Like Lemonade :: 6/7/10
65. Filter :: The Trouble With Angels :: 8/17/10
66. Cypress Hill :: Rise Up :: 4/20/10
67. Deftones :: Diamond Eyes :: 5/4/10
68. Broken Social Scene:: Forgiveness Rock Record :: 5/4/10
69. Holy Fuck :: Latin :: 5/10/10
70. The Like :: Release Me :: 6/15/10
71. Brandon Flowers :: Flamingo :: 9/3/10
72. Ra Ra Riot :: The Orchard :: 8/24/10
73. Helmet :: Seeing Eye Dog :: 9/7/10
74. Damien Jurado :: Saint Bartlett :: 5/25/10
75. Two Door Cinema Club :: Tourist History :: 3/1/10
76. Joe Pug : Messenger :: 2/16/10
77. Vampire Weekend :: Contra :: 1/11/10
78. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan :: Hawk :: 8/24/10
79. Middle Class Rut :: No Name No Color LP :: 11/22/10

80. Weezer :: Death to False Metal :: 11/2/10
81. Jack Johnson :: To The Sea :: 6/1/10
82. Interpol :: Interpol :: 9/7/10
83. Local Natives :: Gorilla Manor :: 2/16/10
84. The Young Veins :: Take a Vacation! :: 6/8/10
85. Besnard Lakes :: The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night :: 3/9/10
86. Maps & Atlases :: Perch Patchwork EP :: 6/29/10
87. ARMS :: EP :: 3/12/10

88. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals :: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals :: 6/8/10
89. Weezer :: Hurley :: 9/14/10
90. Wolf Parade :: Expo 86 :: 6/29/10
91. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers :: Mojo :: 6/15/10
92. Stone Temple Pilots :: Stone Temple Pilots :: 5/25/10
93. School of Seven Bells :: Disconnect From Desire :: 7/12/10
94. Pernice Brothers :: Goodbye Killer :: 6/15/10
95. Neon Trees :: Habits :: 3/16/10
96. Darker My Love :: Alive As You Are :: 8/17/10
97. Robert Plant :: Band of Joy :: 9/14/10
98. Minus The Bear :: Omni :: 5/4/10
99. Kanye West :: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy :: 11/22/10

100. Surfjan Stevens :: The Age Of Adz :: 10/12/10
101. Juniper Tar :: The Howl Street EP :: 2/2010
102. The Soft Pack :: The Soft Pack :: 2/2010
103. Teenage Fanclub :: Shadows :: 5/31/10
104. Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti :: Before Today :: 6/8/10
105. Ben Folds :: Lonely Avenue :: 9/28/10
106. Jonsi :: Go :: 4/6/10
107. Klaxons :: Surfing The Void :: 8/23/10
108. The Whigs :: In The Dark :: 3/16/10
109. Keane :: Night Train :: 5/11/10
110. Crayon Fields :: Make Peace With Love :: 9/14/10
111. RJD2 :: The Colossus :: 1/19/10
112. Jimmy Eat World :: Invented :: 9/28/10
113. Surfjan Stevens :: All The Delighted People :: 8/2/10
114. Crystal Castles :: Crystal Castles II :: 5/24/10
115. Grinderman :: Grinderman 2 :: 9/13/10
116. John Vanderslice :: Green Grow The Rushes :: 10/4/10
117. Ed Kowalczyk :: Alive :: 7/6/10
118. We Are Scientists :: Barbara :: 6/14/10

~ best of/covers/live/and GirlTalk are not eligible for the real rankings, BUT:

… some are awesome:
Girl Talk :: All Day :: 11/15/10
The Hot Rats :: Turn Ons (Hot Rats is a cover band with the guys from Supergrass)
Various Artists :: Broken Hearts And Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine
Bad Religion :: 30 Years Live :: 5/18/10
… and some old Pixies shows and such that they’ve been giving away (definitely get on their mailing list)

… others are fine:
Pavement :: Quarantine the Past (best of)
The White Stripes :: Under Great White Northern Lights :: 3/16/10
Phoenix :: Live in Sydney
Soundgarden :: Telephantasm
Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Daft Punk :: Tron: Legacy
Nada Surf :: If I Had a Hi-Fi :: 6/8/10

… and 1 I just plain didn’t like:
Various Artists :: Dear New Orleans

Jim’s Best Of 2010

2010 was an incredible year for new music. This year not only had something for everyone; it had 27 somethings for everyone — No self respecting list should get cutoff by an arbitrary number.

Best Disc Hot Chip had a ton of competition for “best of the first half”, while Arcade Fire walked away with the “best of the second half” title with ease.

1. Arcade Fire :: The Suburbs :: 8/3/10
2. Hot Chip :: One Life Stand :: 2/9/10

Must have. I’ve assigned rankings as best I can here but mood could definitely bring any of them in front of any of the others. Loved these.

3. Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever :: 5/4/10
4. Broken Bells :: Broken Bells :: 3/9/10
5. Apples In Stereo :: Travellers In Space :: 4/20/10
6. Eels :: End Times :: 1/19/10
7. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening :: 5/18/10
8. The National :: High Violet :: 5/11/10
9. Violent Soho :: Violent Soho :: 5/9/10
10. Gorillaz :: Plastic Beach :: 3/3/10
11. Gogol Bordello :: Trans-Continental Hustle :: 5/7/10
12. Against Me! :: White Crosses :: 6/7/10

Well worth your money. If you haven’t given them a try… you should. All great must-have discs.

13. The Radio Dept :: Clinging To A Scheme :: 4/21/10
14. The Roots :: How I Got Over :: 6/21/10
15. Sleigh Bells :: Treats :: 6/1/10
16. Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs :: God Willin’ & The Creek Don’t Rise :: 8/17/10
17. Los Campesinos :: Romance Is Boring :: 1/26/10
18. Frightened Rabbit :: The Winter of Mixed Drinks :: 3/1/10

We’re still in “buy them if you haven’t yet” territory here.

19. Belle & Sebastian :: Write About Love :: 10/12/10
20. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club :: Beat The Devil’s Tattoo :: 3/9/10
21. Ted Leo :: Brutalist Bricks :: 3/9/10
22. Caribou :: Swim :: 4/20/10
23. Titus Andronicus :: The Monitor :: 3/9/10
24. Black Keys :: Brothers :: 5/18/10
25. Charlotte Gainsbourg::IRM :: 1/26/10
26. She & Him :: Volume Two :: 3/23/10
27. The Weepies :: Be My Thrill :: 8/31/10

I actually kept a running list of the entire year that I’ll be posting soon, so look for that as well.

…and it would make me feel all warm & fuzzy if you shared your thoughts here via comment.  So… you should.

Pack wins 2x: IN

• They will have beaten the Giants as one of those 2 games. That means the best the Giants could do is 1-1, which would tie both teams at 10-6 and the Packers would get in based on head-to-head.
• The best the Bucs could do is win 2 games to also be 10-6 but the Packers would get in based on strength of victory.

Pack beats Giants and loses to Bears: NEED SOME HELP

• If the Giants lose their other game (@Redskins), we win the head-to-head tie breaker. If they win that game: we’re out.
• Bucs get in in front of us only if they win 2x. If they go 1-1 we win strength of victory.
• They host the Seahawks. Sounds like a win for TB but the Seahawks still have playoff dreams of their own.
• They’re at the Saints to end it. If the Saints have something to play for (playoff spot or bye), seems like TB gets smoked but if they’re resting everyone…

Pack loses to Giants and beat Bears: OUT.

• We haven’t caught the Saints and the Giants would have the head-to-head (at least).

Pack loses 2x: OUTSKI.

• We are disgraced and relocate to LA

How’s that sound?

but, you say, this wasn’t about Democrats v Republicans! This was about the train!

Ah, yes. The train. Wisconsin Democrats support it for a variety of reasons, chief amongst them that liberals support the train. and Republicans, you get yours too: vehemently against the train because that is what Republicans do this year.

More evidence? Well, I won’t get too deep but how about:

Republicans: If you don’t want the train because it represents all that is bad about the tax-and-spend federal government, then trying to take the money but diverted to the roads… which is… you know… still taxing and spending… probably not the way to go.

Democrats: If you want the train soon – because it’s good for the long-term health of the universe – having a “look at all of us liberals who want the train!” rally is about the worst thing you could do. A guy just became governor-elect largely with the understanding that he was shutting down the train. If you want the train to happen in the short-term, which is at least my understanding about what this rally was for, saying to everyone who voted for Scott Walker that “should he go back on his word and let the train happen: we will claim a huge victory” is really not the way to go.

Look, getting the train project on track (<– ahahaha, "on track"!) in the short-term is a very long shot. The democratic leadership knows that — and they also know that while their base wants the train — what politicians on the left side of the aisle need is to be (re)elected. So, while they could drastically change approach on the train to try to make it actually happen (and likely fail), it's way way better for them to let the Republicans stop the train – highlight how they are foolishly throwing away stimulus money that (whether you like it or not) WILL be spent somewhere. Point out that it's yet another case of the right-side favoring gasoline to long-term sustainability. Nobody fights wars for trains. Highways aren't profitable either. Yada yada. It's not that all this stuff isn't true – or maybe it isn’t, I don’t know – the point is: whatever you believe and whatever you want to happen: short-term solutions aren't in the best interest of the party.

Sure the party wants wins, but what they really want is wins at key moments. Wins that they can ride into elections. Now is not the time for such a win for the Democrats. and so, the power is actually on the Republicans side. It would take a huge undertaking for them to approve the train in such a way that they could frame it as a good thing for their base, BUT if they could pull it off they could come off big winners. Not only getting a project done that (in this longshot scenario) they want, but also taking a big future-chip off of the oppositions pile. and this is the reason that the Democrats have to pump it up to the point where it would be such a clear and huge win for the Democrats that even though we're so far from an election, they could STILL claim it as a huge win when the time comes.

Of course, the cloudy picture I paint is still cloudier. Politicians not only make a living by getting elected — at some level, they do it because they want the world to look the way they like it. Which does mean that every once in a while a win's a win and they'd take it even if the timing could be better.

This is why folks shouldn’t be surprised when a rail-backer who has the gall to admit Republican tendencies gets booed at the rally. The rally isn’t for the rail — you don’t point out how many liberals want something in order to convince one conservative to join the gang. The rally is to rebound from a rough year and get the party on the same page so when the rail money officially gets turned away: we’re all ready to elect Democrats to correct the injustice.

Of course, we all know what the biggest injustice with the train project getting shutdown is… they were going to redo my favorite intersection as part of it.

Well, here’s what you didn’t know (and if trunk-punching wasn’t such a 1-way mode of communication, I would have been happy to share with you at the time) — I was setup.

1. Unfortunately, East->West on that heavily travelled bike path is basically blind when emerging from that parking lot.

2. West -> East has limited (but significantly better) visibility, BUT most of that bike traffic is actually stopping to cross the road right there. Causing the driver of the car to have to deduce the biker’s stopping/going intentions based on a complex system of deduction that is more instinct than anything

3. coming out of that parking lot, you never have the right-of-way to pull out into car traffic. 70% of the time, traffic has a green arrow to continue from John Nolen onto Williamson. 25% of the time, traffic has a green to move from Wilson to Williamson. 5% everyone has a red-light. This 5% is the magical time when there is any chance of getting out of the parking lot and onto Williamson in rush hour traffic.

4. there is always some degree of foot traffic moving in God knows what direction, at whatever speed comes to mind

5. did I mention it is completely dark at 5PM now?

So, unfortunately there are really 2 options:

A. Wait until until that magical moment that I mentioned in #3 above has finally come and gun it. If you are unlucky and someone was coming on the bike path (from behind the building, etc) — well, they are hit hard. Most likely that will only happen every 250x or so. Since I leave that lot about 250/yr and have worked there 2 years. I would only have 2 kills thus far. Not bad.

B. Inch out into the bike path BEFORE the magical moment. Since you aren’t worrying about car traffic (because you’ve conceded that you are only going to make it through the bike path and have zero chance of the road yet) you can concentrate on not killing bikers. Once the bike path is out of the equation (because you’re visible from both directions to bikers when you’re in the middle of the path) — you can now shift your attention to not killing car drivers by waiting for the magical seconds where there are no cars and go.

The obvious answer is B. The obvious side effect is that there is a pretty solid period (sometimes 15 seconds) where I am sitting right in the bike path making bikers angry, often to the point of yelling and occasionally to the point of car punching. Of course, some bikers have actually been in my shoes – leaving that parking lot via car… during rush hour… in the dark… they get it and give me a knowing look. Unfortunately, that’s like 40 people in the universe.

So, what’s the point of writing this up? Well, partly I’d appreciate it if you didn’t punch my car and/or flip me off (I have a fragile ego). Partly I want all of the thousands of cars/bikes/walkers moving through that intersection at rush hour every day to be just a little more cognizant of what’s really going on. And mostly, I just like barking at the sky.

but should you ever find yourself pulling out of that parking lot, here is a handy guide to the traffic patterns to keep an eye on.

Lots of fun throwing rocks in the lake, watching some movies, and just generally playing around.  Will it become an annual event…?

I think the only disc I’ve heard since that post I just linked up that may potentially crack the top portion of the list is Violent Soho.  It’s in the same vein as my favorite Nirvana album: Bleach (the only Nirvana disc close for me is “From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah”, which doesn’t count).  Or to give you someone more contemporary, they remind me of Nine Black Alps.

Other than that one, I’ve been liking the Band of Horses and Blitzen Trapper discs a lot… but not enough to track the top group, I don’t think.

Best Songs isn’t something that I normally try to track so I don’t think these will be very well ordered — and there could very easily be something completely omitted — but here goes:

1. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists – The Stick.
This is my favorite song of the year, so far.  I am sure.

2-4. Hot Chip – One Life Stand; I Feel Better; Hand Me Down Your Love
I hate to have one band with three “best songs” in my top 10 but the thing is: I’m sure I like them all more than #5.  I would admit that this album fades a bit as it goes, but the strength of it’s start is enough to easily put it in my top discs of the year.

5. Charlotte Gainsbourg – In The End

6. The Morning Benders – Excuses

7. The National – Anyone’s Ghost

8. Ok Go – Back From Kathmandu.
No, this isn’t the Flaiming Lips

9. tUnE-yArDs – Sunlight

10. Los Campesinos! – Romance Is Boring

This is a disc much better heard in it’s entirety than singling out a song.

There are 15ish songs that could easily be in this top 10 if I redid this tomorrow night but for now: there they are!  My best of 2010 so far!

ANYWAY, the other tidbit in the call was that they wanted to confirm my email address: wowcalralberg@gmail.com.

This is going to come as a shock to you, but: that is not my normal email address (even if it is significantly better than my normal address).  Now I was faced with a dilemma — in order to give the correct address I would need to return a call and talk to another human (something I seldom do), especially when it’s from a commercial entity.

Long story short – I did, for some reason, feel like I wanted to get email from the dealership though so I took the only logical step: I registered wowcalralberg@gmail.com and set it up to redirect mail to my primary account.  Now wowcalralberg not only gets email: he gets email with awesomely informative subject lines and even better sender names:

Oh, and by the way, our best guess on “wowcalralberg” is that it’s a gross misreading of “monicahalberg”… maybe?