Top 50 Albums of 2013: 30-11

Oops, I did it again. I miscounted and you get two number 30's this year.

(See what I did there, with the 'Oops, I did it again?' It's a song.)

30.5 Woe - Withdrawal

30. Action Bronson/Party Supplies - Blue Chips 2

29. The So So Glo's - Blowout

28. Heaven's Gate - Transmuting

27. Andrew Cedermark - Home Life

26. Mouth of the Architect - Dawning

25. Happy Jawbone Family Band - Tastes the Broom/Happy Jawbone Family Band

24. Swearin' - Surfing Strange

23. Majical Cloudz - Impersonator

22. Bill Callahan - Dream River

21. Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

20. Disclosure - Settle

19. Mutual Benefit - Love's Crushing Diamond

18. Courtney Barnett - The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas

17. The Men - New Moon

16. Chastity Belt - No Regerts

Oops. A tie for number 15...

15. Deerhunter - Monomania

15. Milk Music - Cruise Your Illusion

14. El-P and Killer Mike - Run the Jewels 

13. Touche Amore - Is Survived By

12. Aye Nako -Unleash Yourself

11. Radiator Hospital - Something Wild

Top 50 Albums of 2013: 50-31

I don't know why I do this. It feels crazy, all year long it feels crazy. I'm not a music critic, I just enjoy music, so why for the third year in a row am I agonizing over quantifying the thing I enjoy most in life? I guess because, although making this list takes up way more head space than it should (that could be used for, you know, writing) it's something fun. And it's nice to go back through the year and find what I thought made most of an impact, what did something new, and mostly what I enjoyed and spent the most time listening to. So here, without further ado is my top 50 albums of 2013, this year with youtubes to listen to tracks and watch music videos!



50. Drake - Nothing Was the Same

49. Alex Calder - Time

48. Kvelertak - Meir

47. Earl Sweatshirt - Doris

46. Fidlar - Fidlar

45. Joanna Gruesome - Weird Sister

44. Kurt Vile - Wakin On a Pretty Daze

43. Gun Outfit - Hard Coming Down

42. CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe

41. KEN Mode - Entrench

40. Widowspeak - Almanac/The Swamps EP

39. Modern Life is War - Fever Hunting

38. Haim - Days Are Gone

37. Windhand - Soma

36. Julia Holter - Loud City Song

35. Charli XCX - True Romance

34. Foxygen - We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic

33. Pissed Jeans - Honeys

32. Forest Swords - Engravings

31. California X - California X

Year of the Rooster

Alex Borinsky sometimes talks about writing a play for an audience of one.

When I was young, I walked to school with Mitch Howell (not his real name) and my brother David for probably ten or so years. And each day, we’d play this game.

Seven or so houses from me, there was a family with seven kids and an old broken down powder blue VW Bug sitting in their lawn. And on the way to and from school, David, Mitch, and I would race as fast as we could so that we’d be the first to see the Bug. And after we saw it, we would shout “Punch Buggy Blue!” and punch the shit out of one another.

But we had to be careful. Because there was this one obstacle we’d always have to pass to make it to the Punch Bug.

A rooster.

A big fucking rooster.

In the yard of this woman who actually designed Bill Clinton’s Christmas cards.

(This was and is my hometown’s claim to fame.)

If the rooster had a name, I don't know it.

Some years later, Mitch’s brother died. He was my baby-sitter. The family moved out of their house and into another one they built one hundred feet behind it.

I don’t know the full story.

I never talked to Mitch about it.

Mitch is now a real estate broker. I just googled him.

One day, the rooster died too.

This play isn’t for Mitch.

It isn’t for Mitch’s brother.

Maybe it’s sort of for my brother.

Though I didn’t plan to write that.

What I was planning to write was: This play is for the rooster.

Year of the Rooster runs from 10/24 - 11/24

Performances: Thursday - Saturday at 7:00pm and Sunday at 5:00pm
Pick Your Price Performances: 10/24, 10/25 and 10/27

*There is an added performance Monday, October 28, at 7:00pm
*There is no performance Sunday, November 3

General Admission: $25
Student/Senior: $18

https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/134

Summer Reading 2013

Fair enough, it's a little late for a summer reading list. On the other hand, it's never too late to read. Here is a quick list of ten reads (plays and non-plays) that will expand the garden of your mind. Read all ten and it will be like installing a skylight in your living room--impressive and illuminating.  

1. THE PARIS REVIEW INTERVIEWS - These are absolute gems and you can begin reading them immediately at no cost whatsoever. Interviews with Dorothy Parker, William Faulkner, Robert Frost, Lillian Hellman, and hundreds more. Highly informative and totally fascinating to hear these mythic figures simply chatting this and that. 

2. THIS FROM CLOUDLAND by Kristen Kosmas. You're welcome.

3. A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY by Lucas Hnath. Obviously the Soho Rep production was excellent, but the script will make for an interesting reading experience on its own. Know where you can get this play? Right here. Also available at McNally Jackson, along with some other excellent Soho Rep plays.

4. THIS AND OTHER PLAYS by Melissa James Gibson. Go read some MJG published by TCG. Her writing leaps out at you with grace and delicacy like the white swan and then sneaks up on you like the black swan. BTW, not the first time we've blogged about MJG.

5. WAAFRIKA by Nick Mwaluko. Leah Nanako Winkler calls this playwright "the real thing" and I'm inclined to believe her. Dude is legit. Find him. Read him. See him. 

6. K2 by Patrick Meyers. This was on the list last year....I didn't read it, but I've always wanted to. I've never even heard of a production of this being done, though I've been dazzled by the setting since high school: two climbers stranded at 27,000 feet. 

7. MODERN DATING: A Field Guide by Chiara Atik. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shameless, you say. But seriously, it can be easy to forget the complexities of the dating world. So often in plays dating themes can become a general wash of dinner scenes and awkward couch kissing. Read this and spice it up. A great book not only for those in need of dating advice, but also those with characters in need of dating advice.

8. THE GREATER JOURNEY: Americans in Paris by David McCullough. Prepare for an avalanche of writing inspiration. You'll be buried in ideas. They'll need to send search dogs for you. 

9. MOOSE MURDERS by Arthur Bicknell. Say you're feeling down about yourself. Rejection letters pilling up, actors dropping out of your reading...well, cancel your plans for an evening, order Chinese and read this play. You'll realize things could be worse. 

10. A MODEST PROPOSAL by Tony Kushner. Read this last, as you've probably read it or seen people cite it in various posts. Typically folks reference it when discussing theatre education. Regardless of what you majored in, MFA or no MFA, the takeaway is probably the same: we all have more reading to do.