This Is The New Year: The Extended Edition

It's only three weeks into the new year, I think a recap of 2009 is still okay. And if it's not, oh well! :)

2009 was a crazy year! It went by so fast, but I feel like learned a lot about myself and made some great memories. Unfortunately most of my resolutions last year didn't stick past April, so I have nothing to report in that regard . . . But I did plenty of fun things, hence the blogs I wrote. Feel free to review them if you feel the need. I'll just go over a few things that stood out that I didn't take the chance to write about and go over some of my favorites in books, music and movies. :)

Places I visited
-Phoenix (Fun to visit, but I'd never want to live there)
-Gettysburg (creepier than one might think. Bring snacks)
-Philadelphia (3 times and I lived to tell the tale)
-Boston (Driving here was quite the adventure. As was finding the temple. I wish I were smart enough to go to Harvard.)
-Tennessee (3 times to visit the cutest kids on the planet)
-Chincoteague Island (It's kind of magical)
-Salt Lake (2 times)
-Nantucket (Beautiful, even when hurricanes blow by)
-Paris (My favorite place on the planet)
-I also drove through every state from Virgina to Massachusetts. I hated New York. (Never drive there!) I'm hoping to my opinion changes next weekend . . . :)

Favorite books of 2009


Who am I kidding? These are 2 of my favorite books ever! If you haven't read them, get on it! Warning: once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down. And when I say put down, it'll probably be more like a slam. Thanks Al for introducing me to yet another amazing series! :)

Movies
2009 was a great year for movies! Much, much better than 2008 . . . I saw very few movies that I hated. My top picks, in no particular order are:

-Up
-Up In The Air
-The Brothers Bloom
-Adam
-Away We Go
-The Proposal
-Slumdog Millionaire

Music
I tried to keep track of my most played songs, but it gets a whole lot trickier when you throw an extra i pod or two in the mix (I got a touch for Christmas last year and I also bought myself a shuffle to use at the gym). I'm going by my computer because that's as good of a guess as I have. I'm fairly confident that these are the songs I listened to most, the order might be a little off though. Except for #1. There's no question about that.

When You Find Me-Joshua Radin
Are We There Yet-Ingrid Michaelson
The Myth Of Us-Joshua Radin
Bring It On Home To Me-Joshua Radin
They Bring Me To You (Acoustic)-Joshua Radin
Sort Of-Ingrid Michaelson
Off I Go-Greg Laswell
Not Sure-Fiction Family
This Is The New Year-Ian Axel
Mountain and The Sea-Ingrid Michaelson
Maybe-Ingrid Michaelson
Fall Apart Today-Schuyler Fisk
Thinking of You-Greg Holden
Elements Combined-Fiction Family
Hazy-Rosi Golan
Falling Is Like This-Ani DiFranco
Skinny Love-Bon Iver
Abraham-The Kin
Friend To A Stranger-Emerson Hart
War In My Blood-Fiction Family
Serendipity-Greg Holden
What A Day-Greg Laswell
Not Out-Greg Laswell
You’re Scaring Me-Greg Holden
She’s Got Something-Greg Holden

Honorable Mentions:

Goodbye Midnight-The Spring Standards
Can’t Save Yourself-Luke Brindley

Ian Axel fought his way to the top starting on December 27th. He's pretty much guaranteed a spot on the 2010 list. A-ma-zing. There will be more about him in later posts, I'm sure.

Concerts
2009 was an excellent year for live music! I went to 29 shows (that I can remember) and each one of them was incredible. I could list them all out for you, but I won't. I'll just post a few pics of some of my favs.


Had it not been for a friend having an extra ticket, I never would have even known Andrew Bird was in town. I like him, but I didn't love him like a lot of people do. I went his show at the 9:30 Club and it changed my life. Top 5 concerts. Ever.


Mr. Ray LaMontagne with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Wow. He didn't say one word the entire time, other than introducing the other musicians and saying thank you at the end, which would normally bug me, but not this time. He was that good. Of course, the show would have been much better had the couple in front of us not been trying to make a baby. You think I'm joking, but I'm not. I get a little nauseous just thinking about it. Seriously people, stay home and put on a CD, you'd save yourself 100 bucks! *shudders*



These are the lovely ladies I went to the concert with, Melissa and Annie. You should check out Melissa's music here. She's pretty much amazing. These Strums and Thinking of You are my favorites these days.


Fran Healy and Andy Dunlop from the group Travis. You know Travis, before Keane and Coldplay, there was Travis. Friends of Oasis. You'd recognize their stuff. Anyway, I luked out because this show was sold out. I knew it would, I just didn't get my ticket in time. After the 3rd time posting, someone finally responded to my plea on Craigslist. The was an intimate look into the life of Travis. They played 22 or so of their songs, in the order they were written and between songs they brought slides and told stories. Loved it. The picture is Fran talking about their song, Flowers In The Window. It's a picture of the envelope he wrote it on. Super cool.

They were cool enough to stick around for 2+ hours after the show to meet and talk to everyone. I waited in line for over an hour and a half. They were just as nice and friendly to me as I'm sure they were to the people who waited 2 minutes. The coolest part of the whole thing was at the end when they were signing my CD, Fran mentioned that he really liked my eye make up. This launched a conversation about his wife doing make up for Shirley Manson of Garbage. He then asked if he could take a picture of my make up and send it to his wife! Of course I said yes, but when he reached in his pocket to get his phone he realized it wasn't on him. Still, freaking awesome that he even asked! :)

And let's not forget the time I saw Joshua Radin play at a Synagogue . . .
I'll admit, I was a bit skeptical about the show. I'd seen youtube videos of some of his new material and wasn't quite sure I could get behind the rock 'n roll version of Joshua Radin. Well, I am here to tell you that I whole-heartedly support all versions of Josh. I can't wait to get my hands on his new album!

I went with some of my favorite friends from the ward Jen and Sara. While I was waiting for them to get there I met nice girl from the Netherlands, Carolien. We would have had a few more friends with us, had the show not sold out.

We almost didn't get the chance to talk to Josh, but luckily some fans nabbed him outside of the tour bus. We got in line and as soon as he finished talking to the person he was with, he looks through the crowd and says "Hey Lindsie, how's it going?" I nearly peed my pants. I figured he'd remember me, but how the heck does he know my name? Seriously. I wish I would have thought to ask . . . Anyway, he proceeds to sign CD's and take pictures until it's our turn to say hi. He gives me a big hug and asks how I've been. Then he starts telling everyone how much he loves me and how I'm his first fan, which is not exactly true. Biggest fan, without a doubt, but first? I wish. But we'll let him think whatever he wants. Anyway as he's talking about how much he loves me, Jen goes "If you love her so much, why don't you kiss her?" So he does. And Carolien snapped the picture. I love my life!

I can't not mention this:


This would be me meeting Sean Watkins after a show for one of his side projects, WPA. Sean freaking Watkins people! It was extremely difficult, but I was able to keep my cool when talking to him. Of course before and after was a completely different story. P.S. You know this was a big deal for me because I look like crap and still put the picture up.

As much as I want to go on, I'll stop now.

There is just something about experiencing music firsthand and I cannot get enough of it. I'll probably beat my 2009 record in the first 4 months of this year, and I cannot tell you how excited I am about that!

Really this post should have been labeled Lindsie's 2009 music review. Thanks for bearing with me. If you read this whole post, let me know, you deserve a prize. :)