Thank you, and Goodbye.

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I've been putting off writing this post for over 3 months now. I've known it was coming, but couldn't bring myself to make the words stay on the page. But here goes.

Listologies, since I started it in 2006 on MySpace (moved to this platform in 2008) has been my shelter. My safeplace. My outlet. And eventually, my connection, to all you wonderful people, the bands, artists, readers, commenters, and stalkers. This has been my greatest accomplishment, you all have. But more than anything, this was my salvation with my best friend Stevie.

Brief history of Addi and Stevie…. Stevie has been my best friend since seventh grade, and as we got older, we only got closer. But one day, I was a supreme asshole, as guys often are, and made the wrong choices and really hurt her. I broke us. We had a falling out. And I lost her. She moved to NYC, and I stayed here in the PNW. And it sucked. And this blog saved us. In my heart I believe that if she had not joined in on this blog, and I have no clue why she agreed to in the first place, we never would have become friends again. This was our lifeline when we were no more and a country apart. So that makes this all the more difficult.

But, the passion that drove Listologies for 7 years now is no longer there.  And it is not something I am willing to force just to get out posts. I know that if my heart is not in it, the posts will suffer, and I will only be letting you down. So, with that said, unfortunately I do have to say goodbye. We are closing the doors here at Listologies.

Stevie and I would like to thank you for reading, following, sharing, liking, tweeting, commenting and voting us into 5^th place in Evening Magazine’s Best of the Northwest. You make this hard.

I do want to take a few mins to thank some individuals and bands that have help make this the place it was.

Sarah from The Oh Wells, you have always been one of the best musicians I have ever interacted with, and it has been a pleasure getting to know you. Please stay in touch and let me know when you come to Seattle, I will come out of retirement for that extravaganza.

Naomi, you are a friend. A friend that without this blog, I never would have made. You have enriched my life, and I thank you for it. Thank you for being so supportive of this blog.

The lovely ladies of Lemolo. A lot of bands keep little bloggers like myself at arm’s length, but you guys always had positive things to say, shared and supported. You guys are the cream of the crop. Keep going.

To Dustin and Brandon from The BGP. You guys have heart and soul. And I am not talking about the music right now. The support you guys have thrown our way has been incredible and too much. I couldn't begin to thank you. I will support whatever you guys do, forever.

Maggie Joy. Out of all the “industry” people that would contact us, sharing music, and imploring posts, you were by far the best. I always looked forward and loved the music you shared. Thank you for doing what you do, getting sounds that need to be heard out there. What you do is important and valued.

The Gundersen Family. The talent in the family alone, whether it’s via Noah and Abby or Le Wrens, has stoked my passions enough to keep this blog alive for well over a year now. When all seemed bleakest, the Gundersen’s gave me light. So thank you.

All the people who have subscribed to our YouTube channel and pushed our uploads over the 1.2 million view mark. Thank you.

All of our Facebook friends/fans and Twitter followers. You were our main distribution system, and you helped us succeed and primarily got us into 5^th place. Thank you.

There are too many others to go into one by one, so thanks to the following. the Head and the Heart.  Chris from moviesandsong365. Lindsey of SSG Music. The Native Sibling Pickwick. Hey Marseilles. Campfire OK. Zach Fleury. BOAT. Bryan John Appleby. Allen Stone. Samantha Crain. The Civil Wars. FM Radio and Schuyler Fisk. The Swell Season. And so many many more.

Thank you all for making these last 7 years the best ever. You have been the soundtrack to my life.

I will not say that this goodbye is forever, but it is goodbye.

Thanks,

Addi

Infinite-Mixtapes Sample: The Ultimate Sad and Mopey, Wallow In Bed Breakup Mixtape

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Here is a taste of what I (Addi) am up to on my side project blog Infinite-Mixtapes. It would be awesome if you popped over to check it out, and maybe follow or something. It's not as commonly updated, but I think the stuff over there is pretty solid. 


I am going to try and convince Stevie to post a sample of her side project blog I Adore Inspiration here soon too. Aren't we impressive.

So, I fail. This blog got real quiet. I got frustrated by my playlists not working, and song being blocked on the site by WMG, but I am over that now. I got an email about a week ago from a lady with a very difficult request. Apparently, she may be dealing with a break up, because she asked me to provide a soundtrack. Not the "I'm over this bullshit, and better off" kind of soundtrack, but the "I am going to cry and eat my weight in Ben & Jerry's" soundtrack. So, I hope you are doing OK lady, and here is the music to hurt too.

If you'd like to make a request of your own, email me here. I will happily post it here, and if you leave me a name and address, I'll send you a copy in the mail.

This is a video Playlist. Hit Play, if you don't like the song, hit the button to the right of the play button and move onto the next. Enjoy

The Ultimate Sad and Mopey, Wallow In Bed Breakup Mixtape

1. Hand On Your Heart - José Gonzalez
2. Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor
3. Litost - Ambassadors
4. Hide And Seek - Imogen Heap
5. I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now) - Otis Redding
6. Sorry - Maria Mena
7. Everytime - Glen Hansard
8. I Don't Believe You - Pink
9. Bulletproof Weeks - Matt Nathanson
10. Don't Speak - No Doubt
11. Baby Don't Go - Dum Dum Girls
12. Grace - Kate Havnevik
13. Dreaming with a Broken Heart - John Mayer
14. It's Not Over - Secondhand Serenade
15. Missing Your Love - Jonny Lang
16. Sadness Is A Blessing - Lykke Li
17. I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You - Colin Hay
18. How Much It Hurts - Just Off Turner
19. Tracks of my Tears - Mary Beth
20. No One To Let You Down - The Head and the Heart

12 in 2012: TV

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The 12 in 2012 Series Continues!

12 in 2012: Best & Worst of What I'm Watching & What Everyone Else is Watching...

In January I took a trip back to my beloved Brooklyn {Shout-out to Becky for letting me crash at her place!} and all everyone was talking about was Downton Abbey. What the hell is Downton Abbey? Only the greatest show ever (according to all my much hipper friends) since, oh wait, the other show(s) I'm not watching that everyone loves. In the back of my mind I was thinking did I DVR Whitney?? Could it be that I have the worst taste in TV or are my friends secretly watching all my favorite shows too? Furthermore I have the same reaction when I hear people aren't watching Portlandia- c'mon! So this blog is a look at what I'm watching from the awesome to the awesomely shameful and what everyone else is watching that I find equally awesome and shameful.

Everyone should be watching...

1. (Tie)

1. (Tie)

Could I have picked more different shows for my number 1 spot? If you need an excuse to watch either of these... Fred Armisen even better than on SNL and, ladies, Jax. Nuff Said.

2. Top Chef

I watch my fair amount of contestant shows but TC is arguable one of the best ones- real talent, the judges aren't annoying, and the challenges are actually exciting to watch.

3. Modern Family

Who doesn't watch Modern Family?

4. How I Met Your Mother

HIMYM to us loyal followers- even though Lilly and Marshall moved to LI I'm still watching.

You May Want to Check Out...

5. Up All Night

I ADORE this show. For those of us heading towards our 30's or already there- this is our show.

6. The New Girl

I wanted to hate this show. I like Zooey okay but it's really the guys on this cast that have me checking in on this show.

7. 90210

Yes I know it's not everyones cup of tea but my BFF and I enjoy the fashion and sometimes the plot lines.

8. Once Upon A Time

I love the premise for this show- fairy tale characters sent to modern times- I keep it on my DVR list but its not my go-to show.

What I'm ashamed of watching (but still do!)...

9. The Bachelor

Yea... there's not much I can say about this except for I love to Watch!

11. Project Runway AllStars

So I'm usually a fan of PR but the All Stars seasons of shows just kind of suck.

12. Whitney

Yes. I know. Judge me. It's my guilty pleasure.

What Everyone Else Is Watching (or so they say)...

1. Downton Abbey

2. The Walking Dead

3.Boardwalk Empire

4. Game of Thrones

5. Breaking Bad

6. Mad Men

7. True Blood

8. Parks and Recreation

9. Glee

10. Smash

11. Homeland

12. The Voice

12 in 2012 Series: Most Anticipated Albums Part 2

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And now we continue our series we're calling the 12 in 2012. Our top 12 books/music/movies/[insert other awesome thing] to look forward to in 2012.

Today: Most Anticipated Albums! Part 2

Addi posted his here yesterday and by request, here's my version. As always we agree on about 2. -Stevie

12. The XX - Title TBD

Listologies has long been a fan of The XX, even when we feared that they had broken up for good. I'm hoping that this next album will A) be awesome B) not have one song played repeatedly over and over on the radio as if the rest of the album doesn't exist- yes I'm talking about "Crystalized" and yes I'm talking to you The End.

"Islands" {acoustic 2010}

11. The Fray - Scars & Stories

Yes I know, everyone and their kid sister listens to The Fray now but I still love them. They're like my guilty pop pleasure. I still love Cable Car and probably always will (and thank god its finally off the radio). By now you've probably heard their first single "Heartbeat" which is just okay for me but I'm digging this track so maybe it'll be promising afterall?

"The Fighter"

10. Ben Kweller - Go Fly a Kite

He rocks. Nuff said. Go listen here to an awesome musical collage of the heads/tails of his new album and enjoy a little cover of Today by the Smashing Pumpkins by BK in BK!

"Today" {Cover: Smashing Pumpkins 2007}

9. Andrew Bird - Break it Yourself

I would be remiss not to include Andrew Birds latest (sure-to-be) masterpiece on my albums to look forward to in 2012. 14 new tracks and the only preview I've seen is 30 seconds and I'm already psyched. This will be one to buy on vinyl and listen to on surround sound.

Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself from Mom+Pop on Vimeo.

8. Damien Jurado - Maraqopa

The first time I saw Damien Jurado was 2001 with Rosie Thomas (what a pair!) then Addi and I saw him again in 2010 with The Head and the Heart. I'm sure you're thinking, wait, Listologies is excited about a Singer/Songwriter?? And yes, I'm still a card carrying Jurado fan, not only is he a Seattlite but the first song I heard from Maraqopa is haunting in that Jim Morrison kind of way that always sweeps me off my feet.

"Nothing is the News"

7. Nelly Furtado - Lifestyle

I've been a fan of Nelly Furtado FOREVER. Seriously, this is one artist that I can honestly say I knew about before all my friends. In fact she kind of said it herself! In late 2000 I fell in love with "I'm Like a Bird" (c'mon, I was a college freshman) and won concert tickets to an acoustic show at Benaroya Hall Symphony Hall- about 100 people max, Nelly Furtado, Sister Hazel and Shawn Mullins (Addi will never let me live it down that I didn't bring him). I get in line WITH Shawn Mullins to have Ms. Furtado sign my CD and after talking she says "you're like my first real big fan!" to which yes, you could dismiss as something you say to everyone, except fast forward to her 2006 release party in NYC and she remembers me! So there you have it, my geek out moment.

"No Hay Igual" {2006}

6. Santigold - Master of My Make Believe

I heard that Santigold was finally making a follow up to her 2008 Santogold album that made LES Artistes the track I played most that summer. Getting info on the new album however was work until literally 24 minutes ago when she released her first single off of Master of My Make Believe "Big Mouth" - going to give it a few more listens before I make up my mind...

"Big Mouth"

5. Fiona Apple - Title TBD

Those of you that are long time Fiona Apple fans know that this is quite possibly just a part of the rumor mill although Metacritic has it listed as a 2012 release (Billboard, MTV, even the New York Times had a release date of 2011 so...) There are at least a half dozen Free Fiona forums, sites, and even the #freefiona #ReleaseFiona on Twitter and yet her website seems untouched by the likes of Fiona herself or her captor, I mean music label, Sony Music. In the mean time, another conspiracy, is this "Elle J" really Fiona? Listen for yourself...

"The Runaway" by Unkle {2010}

4. Temper Trap -Title TBD

As Addi stated on his Most Anticipated Albums list here Temper Trap is very hush hush about their new album set to come out in June. If you've been to some of their live shows it sounds like they may have played you some of the new stuff but haven't gotten down to naming anything yet. I'm hoping that TT 's latest album can stand up to Conditions, as I too am afraid of the sophomore slump. The band working with Tony Hoffer (Beck, Phoenix, Goldfrapp) bodes good things.

"Sweet Disposition" Live from SXSW

3. Regina Spektor - What We Saw From the Cheap Seats

I have come to expect only amazing things from Regina Spektor. Perhaps most famous for that intro to (500) Days of Summer, she's popped up on our site before, here on my Best of the Decade list at #17 and here on the Best Songs of 2009 at #8 & #1(!!!) I can only hope that What We Saw From the Cheap Seats is as good as Far was in 2009.

"Us" {2009}

2. Lana Del Rey - Born to Die

SNL performance aside I die over Lana Del Rey. Her pouty lips, the awkward calamity that is her music videos, her haunting vocals (thanks sound engineers for the awesome reverb work!) I think she's going to have two camps: the ones that love her and the ones that hate her. I'm standing firmly on the love her side. Can't wait to get this on vinyl.

"Videogames"

1. The Shins - Port of Morrow

Admittedly I'm a huge Shins fan. Always have been. One of my biggest regrets in life is leaving for NYC the same weekend The Shins played a free show at my University. Like Addi often says with his favorite bands (see every band that Addi thinks he invented) I'm a little sad about The Shins mainstream blowup particularly after Garden State (Zach Braff is kind of a genius). This is a long anticipated album for me and I'm hoping it will be a grown up return to Oh, Inverted World.

"Simple Song"

Other albums to look forward to...

First Aid Kit

Mumford and Sons

The Decemberists

Neon Trees

Magnetic Fields

Best Coast

Dirty Projectors

12 in 2012 Series: Books

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And now for a new series we'd like to call 12 in 2012. Our top 12 books/music/movies/[insert other awesome thing] to look forward to in 2012.

First up: Books!

12. Arcadia by Lauren Groff (March 2012) {Fiction}
Groff's second book, this one about a 1960's Utopian commune struggle to survive.

11. Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love and Loss by RoseMarie Terenzio (Jan 2012) {Non-Fiction}
Written by John F. Kennedy Jr's personal assistant, they're publicizing this book as an unlikely friendship by a girl from the Bronx and a "vertitable prince." I'm more intrigued by what it must have been like to work for the Kennedy family and the last year in JFK Jr's life.

10. The Gaggle: How the Guys You Know Will Help You Find the Love You Want by Jessica Massa (June 2012) {Non-Fiction}
A real girls guide to the post-dating world, Massa explores your gaggle; the guys in your life you may or may not be romantically linked to and how they can lead you to love. This is not so much self-help as it is the book-form of the all the talks you and your girls have over drinks every weekend.

9. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (April 2012) {Non-Fiction}
Self-proclaimed Bloggess Jenny Lawson recounts revealing and sometimes embarrassing moments from her life. I'm hoping this will be equal parts Chelsea Handler and David Sedaris.

8. The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan by Michael Hastings (Jan 2012- out now) {Non-Fiction}
I'm not usually a war genre reader in fiction or in non-fiction but this novel by the same author that wrote The Runaway General (published in Rolling Stone) was generating fan fare far before its release this week.

7. The Recognitions by William Gaddis (rerelease Feb 2012) {Fiction} Technically I cheated with this one. Previously published in the 50's Gaddis prophetically writes about our current reality in a startlingly correct way.

6. The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus (Jan 2012) {Fiction}
Language as a weapon becomes both metaphoric and literal in this Twilight Zone-esque novel about a family in upstate New York.

5. The Book of Drugs: A Memoir by Mike Doughty (Jan 2012) {Non-Fiction}
As a lover of both Soul Coughing and Doughty's solo works I'm psyched he wrote a novel that will let me in to what makes this guy tick.

4. Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult (Feb 2012) {Fiction}
Those of you that keep up with me know that I've read nearly every Jodi Picoult book so it's only natural that I plod along on to the next one. Early reviews aren't stellar but I'm holding out that this will be a return to her early work.

3. No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (Feb 2012) {Fiction}
A small Romanian village attempts to imagine away the war... intriguing! Let's see how that works out for 'em.

2. Farther Away: Essays by Jonathan Franzen (April 2012) {Non-Fiction}
If you've read Franzen's "Freedom" then you'll understand why I'm anticipating his collection of essays and speeches on both personal and environmental concerns.

1. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (May 2012) {Fiction}
I never thought I'd be enraptured with dystopian YA novels and yet here I am pining after the follow up to last years Divergent. Liked Hunger Games? This is next series to read.

Banned Books: A Book Club

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I've wanted to start a banned books book club for a long time now. Maybe it's the educator in me that appreciates a persons choice to read what they want. Perhaps it's the writer in me that believes that a writer has the choice to express themselves in ways that others might not find appropriate. Or maybe it's that I've always had it in me to challenge the system (insert evil villainous laugh here). Either way I decided to do some research...

Did you know that 48% of challenges sent in to American Library Association for banning books is done by parents? Most of these are due to a sexual nature of a book followed up by offensive language. Other topics that might find a book on the chopping block are violence, being too religious OR not enough ("anti-family"), and not being appropriate for the age group of readers. Fascinating! Now I'm inspired to read them even more! Moving on...

So I looked up the top books that have been Banned or Challenged in this decade (thanks Office for Intellectual Freedom!) and here are the Top 10 contenders for 2010:

1. And Tango Makes Three by Richardson and Parnell

2. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

3. Brave New World

4. Crank

5. The Hunger Games

6. Lush

7. What My Mother Doesn't Know

8. Nickel and Dimed

9. Revolutionary Voices

10. Twilight

Kind of surprising? I thought so too. Other notable banned books from this decades list: The Color Purple, Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, My Sister's Keeper, Harry Potter, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

So a few of these I've already read (Twilight/Hunger Games) and a few I find less interesting so I took a few from this decades other banned books list and created my own Banned Books Book Club To-Read List or the BBBCTRL, hmmm.... maybe I'll need to give that some thought. Here goes:

Banned Books Book Club To Read List

AKA The Listologies Let's Read Banned Books List

And Tango Makes Three

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Brave New World

Crank

Nickle and Dimed

Revolutionary Voices

Olive's Ocean

Go Ask Alice

The Chocolate War

The Kite Runner

Want to join? Email me at listologies@gmail.com and I'll send you the info. Here's to a fight the man kind of 2012.