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Best of 2010: Music Discoveries

I'm going to close out 2010 with two more "Best Of" posts, if I can manage.  Part two is a longer one on my favorite productivity workflows on the Mac, but for now, how about one that's a bit more lighthearted and fun?

One of our favorite things to do in the Prince household is rock out to some good tunes.  And every now and then we shove the furniture aside, tidy up the toys and have a good old-fashioned dance party. (For my more conservative readers, what else would you do with energetic kids in the cold of winter?!?!)  Some of the kids' latest moves include stage-diving off the coffee table and incorporating various living-room accessories as dance props. Very cool.

Some of this music is perfect for the family dance nights - others of it is for solitary listening either while on the bus, walking the dog, or relaxing at my desk in between conference calls and project work.  2010 was another year of great music discoveries, so I thought I'd share a few of my faves here!

In random order . . . I'll share music by bands/albums and in some instances reference specific songs.  Links are to iTunes web previews.

1) Owl City

This was probably a late 2009 discovery, but it became the family theme music for much of 2010.  The whole family officially adopted "Fireflies" as the soundtrack for our big road trip across the US South back in April.  The music is catchy, the lyrics clean and creative, and it basically just makes you want to bust a move, even if you've been strapped into a car seat for six hours.  "Ocean Eyes" might be my favorite album of the year in fact.  Interesting side note: the music is basically written and performed by a guy named Adam Young whose work reminds us an awful lot of what our dear friend Todd Kennemer would have produced from his bedroom keyboard.

2) Matt Tinsley

Okay, it's easy to recommend this guy - he's the worship leader at our church!  So aside from being a great guy and a blogger for TUAW he's a terrific songwriter and recording artist in his own right.  His soulful croonings were the soundtrack for a turning point in our year this year: that beautiful moment back in March when the sun came back out, our UKvisa issues were all sorted out, and I finally replaced my stolen bicycle.  (Sorry, a bit off topic there I guess, but you know how music comes to represent a clustered set of memories for a specific era of life?)  Anyway, Matt's music is great and since he was definitely a great 2010 find for our church, I thought I'd nudge a few of you to discover his music as well.

3) Jake Armerding

Here's a fellow Wheaton grad who was a freshman the year we were seniors - but even then his music was stunningly good.  (He opened for David Wilcox when Wilcox came to campus in 1997 - and has since landed on at least one if not two of DW's recordings.)  Jake's got talent for writing country music I can actually tolerate, maybe because it tilts more towards folk than country anyway.  He's creative, witty, and a musical genius.  I fell in love with his 2009 album "Her" and pretty much listened to it on auto-repeat during a solo drive all the way back from North Carolina to Nashville on my way to T4G in April.  That's right - picture me listening to folk/country on a lovely spring-time drive through the Smokey Mountains. Bliss!

4) Mumford and Sons

While I'm talking about folk I'll go ahead and mention these guys: I realize I was kinda late to the party on this one, but they still ended up being one of my favorite music discoveries of 2010.  They're a London-based neo-bluegrass/folk band with some of the most achingly poetic lyrics I've heard this century.  (How's that for a statement!) If anybody can make banjo and mandolin playing sound amazingly hip, it's M&S. They know how to craft a song like nobody's business, and their 2010 album "Sigh No More" is EP storytelling at its best.  Some of their lyrics are not safe for family dance parties, mind you.  And if you want to know how to knock my socks off for my 2011 birthday just find a way to help me see these guys live.  I'm sure they're amazing.

5) Phoenix

It's amazing the music you discover just by following a few culturally savvy friends on Twitter.  I have @lumpyjuice to thank for this one.  Phoenix is the kind of band I never would have come across on my own, but they're just so much fun.  They're a French indie-rock group with immensely singable tunes that are perfect for cycling on a sunny day.  (Hope my mom doesn't read that one - she hates hearing about me riding my bike with earbuds on!)  If you want to get started with them, definitely go for their 2009 release "Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix".  It's a simple recipe: bass, drums, keyboard/guitar, odd lyrics = dance party or bicycle accident, take your pick.

BONUS PICKS:

EMBARRASSING BONUS PICK:

  • While we would never publicly admit to watching Glee, cough-cough, does anyone else agree that sometimes the Glee Cast musical covers are actually better than the originals? Seriously!

Alright that's it for me - what were your best musical discoveries of 2010?

 

Best of 2010: Favorite Books

To those of you who actually still check my blog - or who subscribe to it in some form or another!

I thought I'd close out the year with a few posts highlighting my "best of" lists from 2010.  Nothing fancy - just a few closing thoughts on what overall ended up being a pretty good year!  To get us started - I'll share some of my favorite books from 2010.

In no particular order . . .

1) White Tiger - by Aravind Adiga

A novel set in modern India, told from the perspective of a taxi-cab driver from a rural-poor area trying to make his way in the big city.  It's a fascinating, engaging, horrifying tale all in one.  One of those books where the character (more significantly their voice) becomes so engaging you feel a loss when you finish the story and have to move on.

2) REWORK - by Jason Fried and David Hansson of 37 Signals

I'm not a huge fan of what tends to make it to the management/leadership/business market, but this book is an exception. Imminently readable, lighthearted but surefooted, these guys know how to get you think about how you work (and why you work) from a whole new angle.  It's already left me with a list of over a dozen "I need to think more about this" tasks . . . and I'm not even their primary audience.  Trust me, even if you work in the non-profit sector, if you can reinterpret the business language for your own context this book is of tremendous value, namely for the paradigms it shatters and replaces with wry sensibility for the modern worker.

3) Movements That Change The World - by Steve Addison

Addison has a way of simultaneously analyzing, defining and inspiring action that leads to influencing movements. This is a short, easy to read book full of simple principles illustrated with current and historical examples of movements which propelled the story of God with white-hot fervor.  If you ever wondered whether you were part of something bigger than yourself - or wanted to be but didn't know how to get there - this one's for you.

4) Manhood for Amateurs - by Michael Chabon

When I found out one of my favorite writers had completed a compilation of essays on what it means to be a man (father, brother, son, friend, lover, husband) I had to pick it up.  In short, I laughed, I wept, I read large portions of it out loud to my wife.  Chabon has a way of capturing the ache of lost childhood, the confusion of fatherhood, and the messiness of marriage in a way that is refreshing, uplifting and, well just plain fun to read.  I'll warn you now - Chabon is a great writer, but some of it is stronger than a PG rating, and a few of his stories make you realize how different life is without Christ as a moral anchor.  Totally worth the read though.  Best laugh-out loud book of the year.

5) Collaboration - by Morten T. Hansen

A great recommendation by a friend and colleague that came at just the right time for me personally and professionally.  Hansen digs into the benefits of disciplined collaboration across organizational units, and also offers helpful tools for discerning when collaboration is worth the costs (and more importantly, when it isn't).  One of my biggest take-aways involved thinking through in a more intentional way who it is I network with internally and externally.  Again, there's some technical language here that will need to be reapplied to many people's workflows, but the research is sound and the recommendations are solid and wise.

Other Notable Books I Read And Feel Like Sharing:

  • The Unquenchable Flame - entertaining and at times sobering recounting of the Reformation as it unfolded in Europe.
  • Portrait of Calvin - a very readable thematic biography of an oft-understood Reformer. Turns out Calvin wasn't that bad of a guy after all.
  • The Mission of God - this thing is a hefty volume and a huge undertaking (I'm still not finished!) but well worth it.  In it you'll find an argument for establishing a missional basis for the entire Bible (rather than just a biblical basis for mission.)

BONUS: After the rather disappointing and enigmatic finale of LOST this year I was motivated to re-read C.S. Lewis' fictional (allegorical?) treatment of heaven and hell.  If you haven't read The Great Divorce, it is seriously a good book.

BONUS BONUS: A couple fun tips on the tech side.  This year I started tracking the pace of my reading with ReadMore - an iOS app by Navel Labs. I also got into www.goodreads.com - a social way to share what you're reading with friends, rank books, and get some sweet reading recommendations.  Lastly, you will think I'm a total nerd, but I really appreciated Michael Hyatt's suggested book summarization process on his blog (post is linked here) - and I tried it out for a few of the books listed above!

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