Species List - Texas and New Mexico Vacation
- Caprock Canyon (May 11, 2013)
Birds:
- American Avocet
- Golden-Fronted Woodpecker
- Ash Throated Flycatcher
- Wilson’s Pharlope
- Lark Sparrow
- Painted Bunting
- American Kestrel
- Red-Winged Blackbird
- Mississippi Kite
- Chipping Sparrow
- House Wren
- House Finch
- Northern Cardinal
- Turkey Vulture
Mammals:
- Bison
Ransom Canyon, TX
Birds:
- Spotted Sandpiper
- Yellow-Headed Blackbird
Lubbock Lake Landmark
Birds:
- Great Horned Owl
- Western Kingbird
- House Finch
- Chipping Sparrow
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
Birds:
- Cave Swallow
- Turkey Vulture
Mammals:
- Mexican Free-tailed Bat
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Birds:
- Canyon Towhee
- Spotted Towhee
- Yellow-Rumped Warbler
- Solitary Vireo
2012 in Music
Top Albums (Artist, Album, Key Track)
- Bob Dylan, Tempest (“Long and Wasted Years”)
- Kendrick Lamar, Good Kid m.A.A.d City (“m.A.A.d. City”)
- Leonard Cohen, Old Ideas (“Crazy to Love You”)
- Frank Ocean, Channel Orange (“Super Rich Kids”)
- Swans, The Seer (“Apostate”)
- Spiritualized, Sweet Heart Sweet Light (“Hey Jane”)
- Liars, WIXIX (“Who is the Hunter”)
- JJ Doom, Keys to the Kuffs (“Retarded Fren”)
- Jack White, Blunderbuss (“Love Interruption”)
- Beach House, Bloom (“Other People”)
- Nas, Life is Good (“Loco-Motive”)
- Burial, Kindred (title track)
- Grizzly Bear, Shields (“Sleeping Ute”)
- Dirty Projectors, Swing Low Magellan (“Impregnable Question”)
- The Tragically Hip, Now For Plan A (title track)
Top Discoveries (Albums not released in 2012 that I first listened to this year).
• Paul Simon: Graceland (“Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”)
• Bruce Springsteen: The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle (“New York City Serenade”)
• Prince: Dirty Mind (“When You Were Mine”)
• Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels On A Gravel Road (title track)
• Gravediggaz: Six Feet Deep (“1-800 Suicide”)
• Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young: Déjà vu (“Our House”)
Red-Tailed Hawk at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA
end of november playlist
- Paul Simon, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
- Kendrick Lamar, m.A.A.d City
- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Scar Tissue
- Prince, Purple Rain
- Bob Marley, Easy Skanking
- Bob Dylan, Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Live at Royal Albert Hall)
- Prince, When You Were Mine
- Lucinda Williams, Passionate Kisses
- The Beatles, I’ll Get You
- Philip Glass & Beck, NYC: 73-78
- Prince, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man
- Paul Simon, Dazzling Blue
if there’s a theme here, I’m certainly not seeing it…
Bob Dylan’s “Tempest” Is Another Instant Classic
This is a tremendously inspired release; easily as good as Love and Theft and perhaps even as good as Time Out Of Mind. The songs on Tempest are Dylan’s most diverse group in years: We’ve got plenty of ramblin’ blues tracks we’ve come to expect on a later-day Dylan release (Duquesne Whistle, Narrow Way, Early Roman Kings). We’ve got short-stories set to music (Tin Angel, Tempest). We’ve got two passive-agressive soul tracks (Soon After Midnight, Long and Wasted Years), the later of which is musically reminiscent of some of Dylan’s work on Infidels.
We’ve got a disarmingly earnest mythologizing of John Lennon (Roll on, John) that is easily Dylan’s best track of the decade, and much stronger than similar tributes from earlier in Dylan’s career (e.g., Joey, Lenny Bruce). And finally, we’ve got two sensational tracks—Pay in Blood--which is as same snide, violent, and bilious as anything Dylan’s done, and Scarlet Town, a sort of mini-Desolation Row.
Every song on here is excellent. The musical arrangements are superb. The lyrics are endlessly quotable and entertaining (e.g., ‘“I’m still hurting from an arrow that pierced my chest/I’m gonna have to take my head and bury it between your breasts;” or “Another politician/Pumpin’ out the piss/Another ragged beggar/Blowin’ you a kiss) and occasionally profound (Roll On, John). Dylan’s singing even sounds pretty good. The legend delivers again.
No Regrets
And the gods are on vacation
And the fire’s burning dimmer
And the voices on the radio
Whine and then they shimmer
And the guardians of Justice
Take up another trade
And the color in your dark eyes
Begins to fade, and fades
And you search for an accomplice
Or maybe just a lover
But you know you could never trust yourself
In the embrace of any other
And the fallen leaves beneath you
Rustle in the wind
And the time for action comes
And then it leaves again
And you never lifted a hand
And with all that is disappearing
And with all that is to come
I just can’t see any reason
To think twice about what I’ve done
I just can’t find solicitude
In the lives of our Great Men
When history will soon eat itself
And repeat itself again
Just Gonna Drink Whiskey - Americana/Alt-Country/Honky Tonk/Trad-Rock Playlist
- I Saw the Light, Hank Williams
- Veteran’s Day, Johnny Cash
- Sweet Virginia, The Rolling Stones
- Going Going Gone, Bob Dylan & The Band
- Casino Queen, Wilco
- Not Fade Away, Buddy Holly
- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, The Band
- Christchurch Woman, Justin Townes Earle
- Pretty Good, John Prine
- Lost Highway, Mekons
- Gallo del Cielo, Tom Russell
- Come Pick Me Up, Ryan Adams
- Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife, Drive-By Truckers
Top 25 Dylan Albums (Official Releases only)
Blood on the Tracks (1975)
Top Track: Tangled Up in Blue
Blonde on Blonde (1966)
Top Track: Visions of Johanna
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
Top Track: Like a Rolling Stone
Bringing It All Back Home (1965)
Top Track: Love Minus Zero/No Limit
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
Top Track: A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Desire (1976)
Top Track: Isis
John Wesley Harding (1967)
Top Track: I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine
The Basement Tapes (1975)
Top Track: This Wheel’s On Fire
Time Out of Mind (1997)
Top Track: Highlands
Oh Mercy (1989)
Top Track: Ring Them Bells
Planet Waves (1974)
Top Track: On a Night Like This
“Love and Theft” (2001)
Top Track: Mississippi
The Times They Are A-Changin’ (1964)
Top Track: The Times They Are A-Changin’
Infidels (1983)
Top Track: Jokerman
New Morning (1970)
Top Track: The Man in Me
Nashville Skyline (1969)
Top Track: Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Top Track: Slow Train
Modern Times (2006)
Top Track: Spirit on the Water
Together Through Life (2009)
Top Track: I Feel A Change Comin’ On
Knocked Out Loaded (1986)
Top Track: Brownsville Girl
Street-Legal (1978)
Top Track: We Better Talk This Over
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
Top Track: Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Empire Burlesque (1985)
Top Track: Tight Connection to My Heart (Has Anybody Seen My Love)
Bob Dylan (1962)
Top Track: Baby Let Me Follow You Down
Shot of Love (1981)
Top Track: Every Grain of Sand
