THE LAST MEAL

The fire has been summoned. The year goes up in ashes.

Last Meal is a personal holy day. And this year we went out in style.

The back of the grill was set up with wet sticks of black walnut and Italian prune, as well as a few sprigs of cedar, to get some smoke into the meat. The fire was provided by charcoal briquets and cowboy charcoal.

The Last Meal for Troy's Work Table: steak that was simultaneously smoked and grilled, seasoned with alder wood smoked sea salt, and then served with a cranberry-rosemary reduction sauce. Heavenly! Paired with Brouwerij St. Bernardus Abt 12 Quadrupel Ale, which was likewise spectacular.

The Last Meal for The Wife: massive legs of Alaskan king crab.

The Last Meal for The Child: homemade carrots-and-peas, pasta-and-cheese "casserole."

Then we played games of Poetry for Neanderthals, Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, and Qwixx.

Nine o'clock New Year was observed.

Then albums were spun on the old turntable.

Farewell to 2020!

ALBUM of the YEAR

ALBUM of the YEAR • 2020

Civic Jams by Darkstar. I've listened to this album nearly every day since I purchased it. It's really a collection of current-day fairy tales disguised as music. We arrive ("Forest") and depart ("Blurred") the world of the album on tracks that are gauzy, ephemeral, otherworldly. The songs found between them inhabit various levels of corporeality and manifestation of modern life. Lyrics are fleeting, cut up, repetitious, ambiguous, and always anchored within the instrumentation. Beautiful, haunting, and exactly what was needed in 2020.

OTHER CONTENDERS

• In the Middle of the Night by Khidja. It's like falling into a slightly sinister yet seductive rabbit hole of dance music.
  
• Getting into Knives by The Mountain Goats. This is a joy-filled and sorrow-filled set of short stories, and the best album since The Sunset Tree.
  
• Made of Rain by The Psychedelic Furs. Seriously the best album of their career and that is saying something. "Ash Wednesday" is now my all-time favorite Furs track.
  
• RTJ4 by Run the Jewels. Intelligent, challenging, sometimes coarse and/or vulgar, but always-on-point hip hop with off-the-charts production. My favorite tracks: "Walking in the Snow" and "Out of Sight."
  
• Mind Hive by Wire. One of Wire's most mature albums, reflecting the foibles and dangers of our age within the lyrics of the songs but wrapping it within absolutely spectacular music.
  

GREAT ALBUMS, but NOT QUITE ALBUM of the YEAR

• Desire by Bob Moses. Six interrelated tracks that are continually mixed into a fulfilling and cohesive whole. I could seriously listen to "Hold Me Up" on repeat for hours upon end.
  
• Alles in Allem by Einstürzende Neubauten. Wildly restrained and wildly surreal songs centered on the city of Berlin. Many of them played on instruments built by the band themselves.
  
• 10:20 by Wire. The second Wire release for 2020, originally intended as a Record Store Day special, but offered as a general release once the global pandemic challenged the music industry.
  

AND SOME NEAR MISSES from 2019

• Creation Is Perfect by Minimal Compact. Re-recorded songs spanning their entire career, which are the best and definitive versions of these songs. Plus one new track, which is worth the price of admission alone.
  
• Purple Mountains by Purple Mountains. David Berman's swan song, filled with melancholy and self-effacement and unflinching self-awareness.
  

LONGEST NIGHT

Tonight is Longest Night, the holiest of holy days in my personal mythos. A winter night. Twilight. A dark night of the soul.

I will observe it in the dim living room in the light of the Christmas tree. With prayer. With the story of Beowulf as my companion this evening.

I will weather this night. Without tradition. Without direction. Without ritual or rite. A pilgrim. A wanderer. A bearer. Carrying the gift of a small spark across the threshold of seasons. Solstice.

DNA DANCE

 

"DNA Dance (after Matisse)," paper collage, 2020, by Troy's Work Table.

A response in paper collage to (and from) my piece "Through a Glass, Darkly (after Jasper Johns)" in The Body Beloved. The Body Betrayed. exhibit at www.byjenn.com/bbbb

This is a beloved response to the (mostly) betrayed nature of my original.

RAIN

Morning walk. Torrential rain. Swelling river. Fallen leaves. Clogged storm drains.

After my walk, I walked around my neighborhood clearing storm drains so that our streets and driveways didn't flood. (Be the change you want to see!)

When I returned home I was drenched. Wet to the bone. But it felt so good and refreshing. A baptism of sorts!

Q: ARE WE NOT MEN?

Considering that it is a seminal album in my musical history, it's amazing that I've never owned a copy of Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (1978) until now.

I've always had a copy of the album for some reason, even though I've owned all of their other albums. I had a cassette tape copied from someone else's album. I had a CD burned from a CD checked out from the library. For that one, I even took a picture of myself for the cover, wearing a hat and posed much like the pseudo-Chi Chi Rodriguez on the album's actual cover.

So, as part of "Rocktober," I picked up the album on its re-release date and started spinning it's golf-ball white vinyl as soon as I got home.

I love every track on the album, but my favorite track is definitely "Praying Hands." It's such a subversively fun song, as well as short and catchy.

BOOJI BOY

My "Devo-lantern" of Booji Boy!

THE SIXTH GLASS

The Sixth Glass, a Quadrupel by Boulevard Brewing Company.

This is one of my all-time favorite ales and I'm glad to see that it's now available in six packs of bottles. It was originally only available in larger single bottles, then smaller single bottles (11 ounces? if I remember correctly), and now six packs. This more accessible format makes sense in a changing beer market. It allows for familiar presentation and a better price point. I'll take it!

WRIG RUG

We bought a new rug for inside the front door. Wrigley has officially claimed it as his own. It is now known as the "Wrig Rug."

GHOSTLY SWIM 3

Ghostly Swim 3 by various artists. Fourteen tracks on two vinyl albums. Marbled neon green and bubblegum pink.

—

You can always find at least one good track on a compilation album. On this collection of (mostly) instrumental electronic music, there is not a bad song; four of the tracks are excellent; and there is one track that, for me, is mind blowing.

The four standout tracks are "ggowwksstane" by Bogdan Raczynski, "Potatoe Salad" by Black Noi$e, "A NUN'S VVET DREAM" by Ouri, and "Fractured" by Gábor Lázár.

The track that I can't quite shake because I can hear it playing in my head even once it ends is "Kabeljau" by LNS. Laura Sparrow is a Vancouver, BC producer, DJ, and musician and this is a crazy, upbeat, jamming tune. It ends and I pick the needle up and place it back at the beginning of the song again.

Spectacular stuff!