Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

I first learned about Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson (MBAR henceforth) when Phil gave me a copy of his self titled EP and first album, Summer of Fear. I listened to the EP first and was hooked. The first song Buriedfed is amazing with energy and emotion. The rest of the album is great and carries the emotion, but I guess my small criticism would be I wanted more songs bursting with energy like the opening track.

I finally got a chance to listen to Summer of Fear (both albums are off Saddle Creek By the way) a couple weeks ago in anticipation for seeing him live. I finally got my wish about the energy, as this album rocks out with a lot of energy. My only minor criticism with this album is for some reason MBAR sings at a higher pitch instead of the deeper voice from the EP. It reminds me of Elvis Costello from the Carpetbagger song off of Jenny Lewis' solo album. But no matter, his voice has grown on me.

Phil and I were hoping to attend the show at Le Poisson Rouge on March 10th, but Phil was unable to make it, so I had to go solo. I was really excited because I haven't been to a show in a while. Doors opened at 10:30, which seemed late to me. Most shows I've gone to in Philly would end around 11. The first band was Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers. This was a pretty entertaining band live. I'm not sure if I would enjoy their album though. The lead woman (Shilpa Ray?) had a lot of energy and would often scream while playing her table accordion thing. This is fine live, but I don't know if I would like an album with a lot of screaming. Granted it was energetic, happy screaming and not screamo. Good live band.

The next band was called Suckers I believe. It seemed everybody was there for them. They were also pretty good, but I was starting to loose energy. It was starting to get pretty late and I had to hold my heavy winter coat.

MBAR finally went on 12:45. That's pretty late. The crowd emptied out a lot by then. I was getting tired, so I had to go sit down on a stool for part of the show. Jeez, I used to make fun of people who would sit during shows. I will say in my defense it was 1 in the morning. And I haven't been to a show like 4 months. Anyway, it was just MBAR by himself, playing guitar or keyboard. I guess another guy was supposed to show up, presumably a drummer, but the guy stopped answering his calls and didn't show. I guess this kinda limited him in what he could play, since he couldn't play a lot of the rocking songs. He played a lot of songs I didn't know, which was surprising, but I guess he kinda had to. It was cool to see him in this intimate, acoustic setting. Especially if he becomes more popular. But I hope next time he has a band.

I highly recommend his two albums. Check them out!

2009: Destiny Called

This is really late this year. Meh.

Best Accomplishment:

Finally moving to New York. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this for a while, but I am definitely meant to be here. There are so many opportunities here. Taking the sketch writing class was also pretty helpful. Meeting Tara. And finally driving across the country was great and something I always wanted to do.

Best CD:

This one is pretty tough. Nothing really blew me away this year. I had a conversation with Ron about this back in the Fall how there wasn’t really anything going on musically that was exciting people. I may have to come back to this one some day, but I will say two albums I liked a lot were Fantasies by Metric and Curse Your Branches by David Bazan. They are both pretty great, but I don’t know if I would call them Album of the Year. Maybe after I listen to some other stuff from 2009, I’ll have a better answer.

Worst CD:

I don’t really have an answer for this one.

Best Concert:

Best Concert of oh nine was Bishop Allen at The Williamsburg Music Hall with Jordan. I saw BA 4 times this year and that was the best one. I wish I had seen more shows this year. I also saw, with Jordan, The Get Up Kids, AC Newmen, Human Highway, and a David Bazan house show. Also, I got to see Weezer for free so that was awesome!

Best Movie:

Inglourious Basterds. It lived up to the hype.

Worst Movie:

I didn’t see a lot of movies this year. Tough to say what my worst movie was. I guess I would say Watchmen. Although I didn’t hate the movie, I feel like I don’t remember it too fondly either. I would like to see the director’s cut one day though.

Best Book:

I once again sucked at reading this year. I think I’ve just been reading a lot of bad books I couldn’t finish. My book of the year is A Confederacy of Dunces. I also liked The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao a lot.

Best TV Show:

I guess best new TV show I started watching is Parks and Recreation. Recently I’ve been watching a lot of new stuff, but that’s in 2010.

Favorite New Place:

I really like The Alligator Lounge in Williamsburg. I hate to admit this, but I also like Williamsburg in general. Astoria is kinda nice too.

Best Blog Entry:

Nothing stands out as being my favorite blog entry of the past year. I guess that means I need to write more blogs. It’s a shame I never wrote about my cross country trip.

Person of the Year:

Jordan Mollot! Jordan influenced my life in so many ways this year and traveling across country with him was a blast.

Douche Bag of the Year:

Glen Beck. What an embarrassment to this country.

New Friend Award:

John Krawiec. I’ve gotten to know him pretty well this year at work.

Party of the Year:

Party of the year was Alan Carroll’s birthday. Other parties were St. Patrick’s Day in Hoboken, Brian Small’s party in April, and a Christmas party with Tara in December.

Best Celebrity Encounter:

Jordan and I saw the girl who plays the receptionist on 30 Rock at Best Buy. Jordan and I also Jenny Slate’s show at the UCB. Oh, and Ellie Kemper was in the crowd at a UCB show.

Biggest Disappointment:

I worked a lot and didn’t really get to do too many fun things during the week.

What one thing about the past year would you change:

Probably the same as the above, worked a little less.

Greatest memory of the past year:

The thing I’ll probably remember the most this year was meeting Tara.

Theme of the Year:

The theme of the year was SetUp. I think a lot of things that happened this year are all setting up some big things for 2010.

Quote of the Year:

“I don’t know what to tell you, Chris.”

Biggest wish for 2010:

Keep pursuing my comedy dreams.

Anything to look forward to:

I would like to travel more. I would really like to visit LA. and if Chris moves to Cincinnati soon, I’ll probably go visit him. I would still like to go to Germany soon too, haha. I’m going to try to keep writing. Maybe write one sketch a week. My cousin is getting married in April in Florida and I think I’m going to go down for the wedding.

Roger Ebert

This is a pretty amazing article about Roger Ebert. I knew that he had surgery and oral cancer, but I don't think I was aware that he had had his lower jaw removed.

http://www.esquire.com/print-this/roger-ebert-0310

I'm going to try to update my blog more often. Yeah, I saw that every year. I'm almost done with my 2009 survey, I will post that soon.

Oh Nein

Alright Kids, time to start wrapping this year up. Here is the outline for the 6th annual Dusty Kaster Year in Review Survey Thingy. I added 2 new categories this year. Favorite New Place and Douche Bag of the Year.


Best Accomplishment:

Best CD:

Worst CD:

Best Concert:

Best Movie:

Worst Movie:

Best Book:

Best TV Show:

Favorite New Place:

Best Blog Entry:

Person of the Year:

Douche Bag of the Year:

New Friend Award:

Party of the Year:

Best Celebrity Encounter:

Biggest Disappointment:

What one thing about the past year would you change:

Greatest memory of the past year:

Theme of the Year:

Quote of the Year:

Biggest wish for 2010:

Anything to look forward to:

Thanksgiving is Thanksliving

I have to say, this was one of the best trips home in quite a while. Usually I am so very bored, but not this time.

I spent some time with the family. Friday was my Mem's 83rd birthday, so we went out to eat. It was a good time.

I saw a lot of friends too. Flip, Alex, Maggie (who is recovering), Chris, Sydney, Wolfgang and Kim. I briefly talked to Kelly B. friday night and we left Alan a ridiculous voice mail. Saturday, Kim, Wolfgang and I went to Steve Smith's bar in Pottsville, Trippin Billie. Tomorrow when I'm in Philly I'll probably see Heather too.

It's so nice to be home and relax and see friends and catch up. I feel better and recharged. I guess we can think of this as our 7 1/2 year reunion, ha.

I haven't mentioned it here, but I've been taking a sketch writing class at the UCB. It's going pretty well. I'll hopefully take some more classes next year. and I would like to start posting my sketched here.

I guess this entry had a point. It sounded better in my head.

Bored

I am home for Labour Day weekend. I am so bored right now. With my wacky work schedule and proniess to napping, I am not going to fall asleep anytime soon. Thank God for the internet. How did I live here for 18 years? I don't think I could ever live here again.

sigh.

Confessions of a Shop-a-holic

If there's one thing you need to know about me, it's that I love shopping. In fact, there's nothing I like more then going to a mall. Oh wait, no I don't. I hate going to malls. Why do I bring this up? I have no idea, but I think that Dunkin Donuts coffee I had 2 hours ago has finally started to kick in.

I'm really bad at getting Christmas presents. I don't know why. Maybe it's all the pressure and obligation to have to buy people crap. I would much rather put some thought into getting a person a meaningful gift and surprising them with it. I think that makes it better. I have decided this year, I'm just going to sit down around December 10th and go on to Amazon or something and do all my Christmas shopping there and have it delivered. Screw going to a mall, or even places in general.

Sooo much has changed since I last talked to you, Blogspot. I now have a nice, shinny MacBook Pro! Who would have ever thought I'd have a Macbook? Remember when I used to really hate Macs? But there is so much I can do on this. I wish I had time and/or wasn't lazy so I could really start playing with it. I don't even know where FreeCell is. Actually, it probably doesn't have FreeCell, because those snobby, intellectual types who have Macbooks are too busy reading the Huffington Post and the New Yorker to have time to be playing FreeCell. El Oh El.

Jordan and I recently did America. Which reminds me, I need to finish posting those pictures on facebook, and maybe one day write a series of Blogs about the trip. Blog! Jordan returned home this week because he forgot his tooth brush, so it was almost like he never left.

Earlier this month, my roommate and I moved to Astoria, like I foretold. It is pretty nice there. Muuuuch better then Sunset Park.

I can't believe the summer is winding down already. It feels like it just finally got started. I think September will be pretty warm though. I didn't go to the beach at all. I did go to the Coney Island boardwalk once though. I'm fine with that.

A lot of my friends have birthday's in August. There are like 4 within a span of about a week. That's crazy. I'm really good at remember people's birthday months and usually when in the month their birthday is, like the beginning, middle, or end. Actually, I'm pretty good at remembering things in general. I recently realized I can name more current US senators then I can current professional football players. I can probably name between 50-60 senators, but I could only get about 3 footballers. Michael Vick. Brett Farve, and.... Ben Rothlesburger? Is he a person? That's it.