Once again, the power of montage

I give you Sleepless in Seattle, recut as... a horror movie.

(It's like that Shining-recut-as-a-family-comedy trailer, but in reverse.)

James' personal top 5 favorite musical acts from 2006: a special Seattle countdown!

I was excited to find out that remastered classic episodes of American Top 40 with Casey Kasem are being run each week on XM Satellite Radio (which I can pick up through DirecTV). Episodes from the '80s are run on XM's The '80s channel (aka '80s on 8), Thursdays at 10 p.m. and Sundays at noon; The '70s channel (7) runs '70s episodes Wednesdays at 10 p.m. and Saturdays at noon. All times Eastern.

One year after getting an iPod (shhh... don't tell Microsoft or they'll force a Zune on me), I still haven't "ripped" (scare quotes) all the American Top 40s I own. There's still a good full day of ripping left to get them all in the system. It's hard to find people to trade episodes with, so these AT40 "Flashbacks" are the next best thing.

Meanwhile, we're coming up on one year in Seatown, which surely has some of the best radio stations on the planet. KEXP gets a lot of love for hitting me with a ridiculous amount of great indie rock, and C89.5, while repetitive and run by high-school kids, easily fulfills my required "beats per minute" quotient. I went to the trouble of making an "iMix" on "iTunes" of certain Seattle songs I really "iLiked," but then they removed my #1 choice from the store, so I'm forced to tell you, in Furdell.com-standardized top-5 form, what "my favorite musical acts what I learned about in Seattle"... are.

These aren't acts that necessarily debuted in 2006... in fact, chances are I was late to the party. In all cases. But I'll still always think about my first crazy year in Seattle when I hear these songs. (That's the best thing about music... its power over memory, and its ability to draw you back in time to the first time you heard a certain song.)

In honor of Casey Kasem, I'll include the Wikipedia link for each musical act, which will tell you more than you knew you wanted to know about each one... just like Casey did back in the day.

5. M.I.A.

It's the 2000s, and while we don't have flying cars yet (so disappointing), we do finally have Music of the Future: lots of electronic squeals and a robotic-sounding drum machine, fronted by a female rapper of Sri Lankan descent. Sometimes, that's as annoying as it sounds, but it also works to produce some awesome beats every so often.

Favorite songs: "Galang" is the best example of what M.I.A. is about; Andrew and Julia are partial to "10 Dollar", which is definitely her most dance-friendly song (and has the most hilarious fan-made YouTube video of anything on this list).

4. Mylo

Mylo's album Destroy Rock & Roll accomplishes its stated task quite nicely. I guess this is what happens when you force your kids to listen to '70s Gold throughout their childhood; they turn into '00s-era mash-up artists who use "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes, and "Waiting For A Star To Fall" by Boy Meets Girl as their palette.

Favorite songs: Said mash-up "In My Arms" is classic, but best of all is Doctor Pressure, a mix of Mylo's own "Drop the Pressure" with Miami Sound Machine's "Doctor Beat." Sheer lunacy.

3. The Knife

Holy crap, The Knife is weird. It's a Swedish brother-sister duo that puts out strange-sounding, heavily electronic songs. The sister does most of the singing in high-pitched English, with a heavy Swedish accent. But once you get past the weirdness, the melodies really take over your brain and don't let go. I guess they're kind of like Bjork, but good.

Favorite songs: Their newest album is Silent Shout, but so far I prefer Deep Cuts, which I've only been able to find via iTunes. "Heartbeats" is a great song that kicks off that album, and "You Take My Breath Away" is my favorite track of all.

2. Neko Case

Oh, Neko Case... your music is so very sad. It's Veronica Mars-breakup sad, that's how sad it is.

"In the end I was the mean girl, or somebody's in-between girl. Now it's the devil I love; and that's as funny as real love."

Seriously... super-sad.

Neko's stuff has sometimes been labeled as alt-country; her songs have amazing depth, with lush storyscapes. And they might make you want to take a bottle of valium. So be careful.

Favorite songs: "Maybe Sparrow" and "Hold On, Hold On." I need a hug...

1. Blue Scholars

"Blue Scholars in the place to be; we've got one DJ, and one MC. And that's it. (That's it.) That's it. (That's it.) C'mon, put your hands up if you're feelin' this shit."

My musical tastes tend to change every few years, and I think they could easily be skewed toward indie hip-hop, with Seattle's Blue Scholars as a touchstone. They're the antidote for mainstream rap; instead of focusing on wealth/booty/crime/look-how-awesome-I-am, Blue Scholars celebrates life, liberty and the proletariat; MC Geologic's raps are heavily political without being accusatory, and DJ Sabzi's samples are amazing.

And Seattle's not the most... um... urban-feeling city ever. In fact, it's pretty white, especially considering my last two cities were Atlanta and D.C. Seattle is downright Scandinavian in comparison. But when I'm walking around downtown with Geologic rapping on my headphones, I can't help but feel at least a little bit street.

Favorite songs: "The Ave" from their self-titled debut artfully name-checks all the streets off University Way in the U District, instantly recalling what it's like to be a college student; and "Southside Revival" from The Long March focuses on local racial boundaries and politics, with Geologic flawlessly rapping the intelligent and tounge-twisty lyrics ("I've heard a few heads say that hip-hop is dead; not it's not, it's just malnourished and underfed"). You'll have to check out their shit on MySpace to hear that one.

Until next time: Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the booze.

Start buying blue things, and also baseball gloves

Ultrasound provided the crucial visual evidence today: we are having a boy.

Watching football in my pajamas

I'm still not entirely used to Pacific time, in regards to how it affects my sports viewing habits. I've barely had time to make coffee, and the Seahawks-Bears game comes on at 10 a.m. In fact, it's not even 10:15 and the Bears are already up 7-0. This game may be over before I've even had time to enjoy Kimberly's football-shaped waffles. (If footballs were square.)

Oh well, at least last week's game was fun; my office-mate, Emeron, and his two kids, Klaus and Silke, camped out on my couch with me and Kimberly and watched a great game against the Cowboys. It culminated in what some are calling a classic sports blunder: Tony Romo bobbling a hold on a field goal attempt, botching what should have been an easy chip shot. Mr. Romo was Lucy; Martin Gramatica was Charlie Brown.

That led to some fun Internet shenanigans, such as Tony Romo's tears available for sale on the Dallas Craigslist (since removed), and the story on The Onion, "Tony Romo Regrets Eating Greasy Fried Chicken During Crucial Field-Goal Attempt."

It was one of those "jumping up off the couch and yelling at the TV" sports moments. Good times.

Hey, I'm sort of doing it

Skiing, that is!

Over the holidays, Andrew invented a new word while we were all watching the insipid Bob Saget-hosted game-slash-reality show 1 vs. 100.

During the course of the game, each player receives three opportunities to receive assistance from the mob, known as "helps". They are "Poll The Mob", "Ask The Mob", and "Trust The Mob". Each player can choose which of the 3 helps they would like to use at any point in the game.

I noted that "helps" is not actually a word, but merely an attempt to copy lifelines from Who Wants To Be A Millionaire without actually using the word "lifeline". Andrew proposed that "helps" be replaced with the more-trademarkable noun "helpamagoos", which everybody liked better (and, unfortuantely for 1 vs. 100, we invented it first).

I went to Snoqualmie Pass last weekend, and dared to ski on the blue-square (i.e. medium difficulty) trails "Top Traverse" and "Alpine", at a not-very-good weather time (freezing rain made the terrain very slippery). The slope was steep, and I wound up falling and losing a ski, which wouldn't normally be a big deal, except I have trouble getting back up on a slope (blame my poor 31-year-old non-flexibility). Even when I was able to get up, it was super-difficult getting my skis back on. Either the skis would travel downhill without me, or I would slide downhill without my skis. (A helpful snowboarder nicely delivered one of my rogue skis to me.) So, of course, I'm crawling around on the ground like an idiot while more expert skiers are sailing by me with no problem.

It was then that I decided what I need is one helpamagoo per skiing session. Kind of like when you're playing a racing video game, and you crash up and fly off the road, the game helpfully deposits you back on the track, car completely intact. That's what I need while skiing to minimize embarrassment.

In the meantime, I am highly enjoying my birthday present, new skis. I don't think I'll be doing any difficult black diamonds this year... I'm quite content to stick with green circles. Green circles are my friend.

Keep watching the skis!

Let's Rob Mick Jagger

Knights of Prosperity debuts tonight. We have all seen the pilot, and we love it. So don't miss it. (Or, if you do miss it, catch the replay on Friday.)