Lit Lounge Music Faves of 2009

Rolling Stone, NPR, and the AV Club have their lists of the Best of 2009, but the one you've been waiting for is finally here. The Lit Lounge presents the Top 10 recordings of 2009, in no particular order:

Wilco (the Album) - Wilco

Monsters of Folk

Strict Joy - The Swell Season

Actor - St. Vincent

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix

I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers

The List - Rosanne Cash

Oh My God, Charlie Darwin - The Low Anthem

The Latest - Cheap Trick

No Line on the Horizon - U2

And our favorite live CDs:

Anthology - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Live From the Royal Albert Hall - The Killers

And the best reason to reinvest in remastered CDs:

The Beatles - the whole dang collection.

(The above video is a mashup of the top singles of the year, courtesy of DJ Earworm)

Odds are Blitzen was one of them

Don't tell the little ones: Dutch police shot and killed four runaway reindeer who bolted from a Christmas sleigh display. The reindeer were Latvian, probably taking away seasonal jobs from the Dutch deer.

Column of the Season: For the Nonbelievers

From today's Baltimore Sun, Garrison Keillor gets right to the point:

Christmas is a Christian holiday - if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Yule instead or dance around in druid robes for the solstice. Go light a big log, go wassailing and falalaing until you fall down, eat figgy pudding until you puke, but don't mess with the Messiah.

One of these things is not like the others. . .

The Stooges

The Hollies

Genesis

Jimmy Cliff

and ABBA?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2010. Two bands that didn't make the cut this year: KISS and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

ABBA?!? Really? Since when is "Dancing Queen" a rock song?

My next bookshelf

Anyone who's seen my collection of books knows that I'm running out of display space, both at home and in my classroom. But if I could find just a little bit of wall space, I'd like to try this.

Wii wish you a Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to show everyone how wii decorated the house for the holidays. Thought wii'd add the Wii and Guitar Hero to the annual show. Details here.

The Simpsons, Estonian Style

Here's one for my kids, who are one-quarter Estonian. A pitch-perfect parody of The Simpsons opening.

Cutest. Video. Ever.

Getting a closer look at A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens left behind just one manuscript of his holiday classic, and the NY Times has every page available for you to examine. If you'd like your own copy, click here.