Flaming Pablum

Talkin' About a Resolution

About five months ago, after a second year-long contract at my previous gig came to its frustratingly logical conclusion, I was fortunate enough to land another contract as an editor at one of that ol' job's content providers, namely the website for the TODAY Show. As such, I was tasked with overseeing the parenting blog, TODAY Moms (`cos, really .... who better?) While it may seem like an incongruous fit, I am indeed a parent, so I threw myself into the assignment. I had a lot of fun doing it too, for about three months (and even managed to compose a post for same involving the Sex Pistols), before handing the task off to my colleague -- and an actual mom -- Rebecca, who's doing a remarkable job. In any case, Rebecca was piecing together a year-end post for TODAY Moms, and gamely asked me to contribute, citing my parenting resolutions for 2011. Click here to read mine (and scroll down a ways). Happy new year!

Goodbye, 2010

For the last few years, I've been dutifully filling out this survey regarding the events of the closing year. Just to change things up a bit, I thought I'd select a new list of questions. Let's see how this one goes, shall we?

1. Was 2010 a good year for you? Why?
It wasn't a bad year, per se. I'd call it a transitional year. Lots of good things happened.

2. What was your favorite moment of the year?
Hard to pinpoint. Lots of great little memories. Watching my kids thrive at their school. Spending time with my friends and family at the beach this summer. Meeting a team of great new colleagues at the office. Lots of good stuff.

3. What was your least favorite moment of the year?
Finding out a couple of months back that as of January (umm...tomorrow, basically) that because of an unavoidable assessment, the maintenance fees at my building are going up 53%. Yeah, thanks a fuckin' lot.

4. Where were you when 2010 began?
In Brooklyn.

5. Who were you with?
My wife's very large family.

6. Where will you be when 2010 ends?
Brooklyn.

7. Who will you be with when 2010 ends?
My wife's very large family

8. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions of 2010?
I honestly can't remember if I made any. So, I guess that's a no.

9. Do you have (a) New Year's Resolution(s) for 2011?
I do, yeah.

10. Did you fall in love in 2010?
I was already in love. Still am.

11. If yes, with who?
The wife, of course.

12. If yes, do they know? How would they?
She does, and I'm keen on reminding her often.

13. Are you still in love with them?
Of course.

14. You regret it?
Silly question.

15. Did you break up with anyone in 2010?
No.

16. Did you make any new friends in 2010?
Yes, I started working in August in a new office, and made several great new friends.

17. Who are your favorite new friends?
Why play favorites?

18. What was your favorite month of 2010?
Who remembers?

19. Did you travel outside of your country of residence in 2010?
I haven't left the country since 2005.

20. How many different states / provinces did you travel to in 2010?
I don't believe I traveled outside of the tri-state area too much. Connecticut and Pennsylvania were as exotic as it got, I'm afraid.

21. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2010?
The mother of one of my dearest friends passed away quite recently, which has been heartbreaking.

22. Did you miss anybody in the past year?
I've fallen out of touch with a few friends and had more friends move out of NYC. Miss all of those folks.

23. What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2010?
"Exit Through the Gift Shop"

24. What was your favorite song from 2010?
"The Raven King" by Killing Joke and "Dance Yourself Clean" by LCD Soundsystem. Couldn't play either often enough.

25. What was your favorite record from 2010?
Absolute Dissent by Killing Joke

26. How many concerts did you see in 2010?
It was a good year, actually. I saw at least five or six.

27. Did you have a favorite concert in 2010?
Tough to say. Devo were great (despite the new album). The Wedding Present kicked butt. Killing Joke were, of course, mighty. My favorite was probably the Specials at Terminal 5.

28. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2010?
Did I!

29. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2010?
I downed a load of Claritin D. Yeah, what a rush!

30. How many people did you sleep with in 2010?
Other than the wife? None.

31. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year?
Other than that ritual slaying of a deranged, mute hobo in an abandoned gas station in upstate New York, not really.

33. What was the worst lie someone told you in 2010?
"Come to the co-op board meeting! It'll be really fun and hilarious!"

34. Did you treat somebody badly in 2010?
No, but I could probably have treated certain people better, shown more consideration and had more time for them.

35. Did somebody treat you badly in 2010?
Not that I can think of. I invariably deserved it, if so.

36. How much money did you spend in 2010?
I'd rather not think about it.

37. What was your proudest moment of 2010?
Watching my little kids excel and make friends and grow into fantastic little individuals.

38. What was your most embarrassing moment of 2010?
Getting unduly and thornily incredulous at an informal office party when a higher-ranking colleague innocently expressed his failure to recognize a signature KISS tune. I barked and glared at him. What was I thinking?

39. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2010 and change something, what would it be?
I'd have stood up at that co-op board meeting and eloquently stated a convincing case for extending the assessment payments into a more manageable twenty-four month period.

40. What are your plans for 2011?
Full-time employment (no more perma-lancin').

A Yearful's Earful

There are precious few things idiotic music dorks like myself enjoy more than composing lists. That said, you shouldn’t really expect an end-of-the-year list of favorite albums from me. I haven’t done one in years. As I said back in 2006, given my current circumstance as a harried, full-time father of two, I no longer feel especially equipped or informed – let alone hip enough – to have a credible opinion on today’s music. I still hear what I hear and I like what I like, but my music-listening habits aren’t nearly as inclusive, adventurous or as encompassing as they once were. As such, while I truly dug certain new albums this year (for example, I quite liked the third LCD Soundsystem disc, the latest Melvins opus and the new album by The Temper Trap), I don’t feel that a list of what I considered to be the best of this year’s music would be worth reading, being that I invariably didn’t hear vast volumes of the new stuff. Were I to compose such a list, I’d want to feel that I’d heard more of what was on offer.

More to the point, if you’re serious about new music, you probably don’t find much to read here on Flaming Pablum anyway. Let’s face it, I’m an old poop – why pretend otherwise? If you want to read about the cutting edge shit, you're already getting what you need on Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan and several other sites I'm not cool enough to know about, which is probably as it should be.

Anyway, it should come as absolutely no surprise that my favorite album of this year was Absolute Dissent by my beloved Killing Joke. In my defense, I thought their last album, Hosannas from the Basements of Hell was a pile of undercooked dung, so imagine my glee upon hearing the revitalized incarnation of the re-united original foursome release what many are rightly calling one of the best efforts of their storied career.

If you haven't heard it, you're missing out. Herewith my favorite track from same. Go fetch.

More Blizz Biz

Taken from Gothamist. Read more by clicking right here.

The Home of Headless Harry

Here’s a post that would have invariably been better timed to Halloween than to Christmas, but what’cha gonna do? Scouting New York, one of my very favorite NYC/photography/cinephile blogs, recently went on a pilgrimage to Queens to track down the grave of Harry Houdini, and his photographs of the master magician’s gloomily over-the-top final resting place are quite striking (that’s one of them at the top of this post, obviously). Check out the full post here.

A Baron Karza Christmas

Just a quick note to send you vaulting over to a post I composed for The Job this morning about the travails of gift-bestowing, gift-opening and gift-returning, all based on an unfortunate anecdote from my petulant youth. Blame the Micronauts!

Boxing Day Snow Massacre 2010

Right or Wrong, I Sing Either Way

Reviving this ol' chestnut. Here's what I typed about it back in the balmy, carefree days of 2005:

Recorded for a television special on September 11, 1977 -- just a few months prior to Bing's death -- the duet paired the old, martini-swiggin' coot with a somewhat emaciated Bowie with an awkward quasi-mullet for a surprisingly melifluous stroll through a Christmas favorite. I also enjoy the somewhat incongruous fact that at the time of the recording of this cherished chestnut, Bowie was allegedly crawling out from under a pre-occupation with heroin, cocaine, the occult and -- some suggest -- Nazism. I woner how that would've flown with ol' Bing.

Yuletide Oldie But Goodie

Cranking Through Christmas

Ahoy, campers. I've had loads of ideas for thought-provoking posts lately, but it being the holiday season and all, I've been somewhat hard-pressed for time and haven't had a chance to execute them. I'm attempting to be more prolific here, in any event, so please stay tuned. In the interim, please remember to enjoy your holidays, de-amplify your stress levels wherever possible and reach out to your loved ones to inform them of how much they mean to you. I still have a whopping-great amount of gift-shopping to do in a worryingly short amount of time. It's been a very busy, frantic few months for me, but here's hoping better things are up ahead. I'd like to believe they are. In any event, happy holidays from Flaming Pablum.

As it happens, the list of favorite bands of mine who've recorded Christmas songs is exceptionally short (The Ramones, The Pogues and FEAR notwithstanding). In any case, here are the mighty Wedding Present covering Elton John's "Stepping into Christmas," and it rocks. Happy happy.