Albums of 2010

I love music, and its the end of the year, so I'm using that as an excuse to resurrect my blog. These are my favorite albums of 2010. I’m not saying these are the best albums of 2010, but these are the ones I enjoyed the most. I’m putting my favorite song off each one below as well. If you’ve got holiday money and want to buy some music, each of these are worth it.

#1- The Black Keys- Brothers
My favorite album of the year. This duo from the Midwest has yet to make a bad album. If you don’t own Rubber Factory, go buy it too. Just go buy this album now and enjoy every track on it. Tighten Up is one of the best songs and one of my favorite videos of the year.

Tighten Up Video


#2-Arcade Fire- The Suburbs
This band continues to amaze me. I feel like I should be driving through sprawling landscapes while listening to this album. As a kid I used to run down to the mailbox every day to get the mail, excited even if I wasn’t expecting something. I may still do this every day. I think it’s why I love this song so much.

We Used To Wait Video

#3-Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
The man has an ego the size of the moon. His problem is that he is actually as good as the thinks he is. You don’t have to like him, but you can’t deny his talent and this album is the best he’s made yet. From start to finish he has made a solid album and you just need to get over your hatred of the man and enjoy his music. All of the Lights shows he is first and foremost a producer. This song has around 16 guest stars on it and they work seamlessly. Yes, that’s Elton John at the end.

All of the Lights Video

#4-Lady Gaga-The Fame Monster
I don’t always understand what Lady Gaga is doing, but I’m glad she is doing it. This album gave us Bad Romance and that alone earns it a spot on this list. Dance In the Dark is still my favorite off this album though.

Dance In the Dark Video

#5-Vampire Weekend- Contra
I really liked their debut album, but I was skeptical about them as a band. I wasn’t sure if they could deliver a second album that was better than their first. I was wrong. I’ve seen them live a couple of times now and they’ve really developed as performers too. Go see them if you get the chance. Cousins, is just a fun song and I think it shows off their style as a band.

Cousins Video

#6-Eminem-Recovery
His last two albums were crap and I’d written him off as someone with a lot of talent who had just ran out of it. Let those albums serve as a lesson of why hard drugs are bad. He got cleaned up though and put out an album that shows his gift hasn’t left him. Love the Way You Lie, because it really is the best song on the album.

Love the Way You Lie Video

#7-The Dead Weather- Sea of Cowards
Intense. That is the only way to describe Jack White and Alison Mosshart when they are performing together. It certainly comes across in the studio. Their voices are so similar that sometimes you can’t tell which is singing, and that’s okay. I’m a big White Stripes fan and I want another album from them, but I want Jack White to keep doing what he’s doing with The Dead Weather. Here is Die By the Drop.

Die By the Drop Video

#8-LCD Soundsystem- This Is Happening
James Murphy is meticulous when it comes to production. This album is air tight, but it doesn’t feel constricted. Somehow he manages to take elements from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and blend them together in a way that works. Listen to Drunk Girls and try not to like it.

Drunk Girls Video

#9-Local Natives- Gorilla Manor
Voices like this are rare. I’m happy to say it has that same warmth live. Sun Hands shows off everything I like about them as a band.

Sun Hands Video

#10-Ra Ra Riot- The Orchard
I don’t think it’s as strong as The Rhumb Line, their first album, but it shows them growing as a band. They’ve incorporated their cello and violin much more in every song and the band is better for it. They are one of my favorite bands and this album makes me excited for what’s coming next with them. It was hard for me to pick just song song, but I’m going with Too Dramatic.

Too Dramatic Video

The End of Lost

*Do Not Read If You Haven’t Watched the Show and Don’t Want To be Spoiled*

So after six years, Lost has finally come to an end. When I first heard about Lost I thought it was a terrible idea. I was expecting a modern Gilligan’s Island only as a drama instead of a comedy. It sounded like something you could do for one season, maybe two. I tuned in for the Pilot episode and that changed everything. It is still one of the best Pilots I’ve ever watched and it made me believe this show was going to be different than anything else on TV and it would be high quality acting, writing, and production. After watching every episode of every season for six years, I can say that it lived up to the promise of the Pilot and many times even exceeded it.

I want to start with The End. I’ve talked to several people this morning that seemed to think last night’s finale meant that they were all dead from the beginning. I don’t think that is what we were shown. I think everything that happened on the Island was real and it mattered. The flash sideways is where they were dead and didn’t realize it. In some religions/beliefs after death you must first come to terms with the fact that you have died. Then you have to acknowledge and pay respect to all those who impacted your life and who you impacted, good or bad. Once you do that and make peace with it, then you can move on. Clearly some people like Eloise Hawking were aware they were dead and able to move on, but wanted to wait. Her son was not, and she didn’t want to move on without him. The flash sideways was a way for them to all get back together and then pass on with the ones that were most important to them.

As for the issue of them all being there at the same time, Christian said to Jack, there really isn’t a “now” when dealing with the afterlife. Time becomes irrelevant. He told Jack some had come before him and some had come long after. I think this means Kate, Sawyer, Lapidus, Miles, and Richard got off the Island and lived out their lives. Hurley and Ben clearly spent time on the island after Jack died. Their exchange about Ben being a good #2 and Hurley being a great #1 tells us that. I think it also shows us that Ben’s time on the island with Hurley was wells pent and he redeemed himself. Otherwise I don’t think he would have had the option of coming inside and passing on with them. He wanted to stay with Alex though until she remembered and then pass on with his daughter. I can understand Ben not coming inside.

We started the show with Jack and I thought it was fitting to end with Jack. I also thought it was fitting that this season we started off with his death and didn’t even know it. When Jack was laying there dying, he looks up and sees a plane going overhead. We started this season in the flash sideways with Jack on the plane again. There was turbulence and as soon as it was over, Rose looked over to jack and said “It’s okay Jack. You can let go now”. Jack takes his hands off the arms of his seat and a look comes over his face. I think that moment was literally Jack passing on from life on Earth to life in the flash sideways afterlife. That is how I took it at least.

The finale also had some truly great moments. Every scene with Jack and Locke(both the smoke monster and flash sideways Locke) were amazing. Those scenes showed you just how gifted of an actor Terry O’Quinn is and also how great Matthew Fox is as well. If Terry O’Quinn and Michael Emerson don’t get Emmy nominations I’ll be surprised. They brought a level of gravity to the show that few actors could do. The finale was full of great moments. Best line of the night goes to Miles though “I don’t believe in many things, but I do believe in duct tape”.

I could write page after page about this finale. For me, I thought it was a beautiful way to end the show and I’m happy with it. Did we get all the answers, no. I didn’t expect to though. After six years of watching this show and always getting more questions than answers there was no reason to believe the finale would be any different. Where was Walt? What exactly was the light at the heart of the island? Why did the light spit the MiB out as a smoke monster, but it didn’t do the same to Jack? Those and a whole host of other questions that have accumulated over six seasons didn’t get answered and that’s okay. Sure, I would have liked the answers, but not having them doesn’t lessen the show for me. For me, the show has always been about redemption. Last night both the characters and the show itself found it.

I’ll write an overview of the six years later. Also, I watched the finale at The Jimmy Kimmel Show. I’ll post about that whole experience later too.

Okay, so I’m back again. I had to write about the TV history being made today. Two big events are happening in television. The first one is the telethon George Clooney has put together to raise money for the relief effort in Haiti. This is going to be a massive telethon with over 140 entertainers coming just to answer the phones.
The following artists are going to be performing: Wyclef Jean, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Shakira, and Sting in New York City; Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift, Emeline Michel and a group performance by Keith Urban, Kid Rock, and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; and Beyoncé, Coldplay, and a group performance by Bono, The Edge, Jay-Z, and Rihanna in London.

The two hour telethon will air on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1 and CMT. All proceeds will go to Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, United Nations World Food Programme, Yele Haiti Foundation, and the Clinton Bush Haiti Foundation.
So watch and enjoy the music, but please call in and donate what you can.



The second big event happens later tonight. We will watch The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brian for the last time. Yes, tonight will be his last show. I am firmly on Team Conan (I understand he hates the CoCo nickname). Conan labored away at Late Night with the hopes of one day taking the reins from Jay. Then he was offered a hosting job at ABC. Conan wanted The Tonight Show, but this was a great offer. So NBC instead of letting him go, worked out this deal. Leno would retire in five years and Conan would take over. Flash forward five years later to the present. When the time came, Leno didn’t want to go. NBC didn’t want to lose him either, so they put Jay on at 10. Conan takes over The Tonight Show and both shows don’t do what they were expected to numbers wise.

I have to admit, I wanted Leno’s new show to fail. Putting him in the 10:00 time slot meant killing Southland (a great show that thankfully got picked up by TNT). If it had done well, this could have started a trend of having cheap, unscripted TV at 10:00. So jay’s failure hopefully deters any other networks from killing of scripted shows to try saving money at that time slot.

Conan lost a lot of Jay’s viewers though, and that became a problem. What did NBC expect though? Jay’s audience is older. Conan’s humor was never going to go over well with many of them. Plus this is a group that doesn’t want change. They like their comfortable shows that they know every night what they are going to get. These are the same people who tune into Ghost Whisper every week. Leno was comfortable and familiar; they were not up for trying something new.

Leno didn’t help matters either. In an interview several months ago, he was asked if he would be willing to take the show back if the opportunity came up. He said if the network asked him to, of course. What a crap thing to say in an interview while Conan is just starting out. Leno has tried to play the blameless guy in this, but it is passive-aggressive things like that comment that make him just as guilty as Jeffery Zucker and the other suits.

I could go on and on about why I favor Conan over Leno and it would just be a recitation of what you’ve already heard from other commentators. Suffice to say, I think NBC backed the wrong horse. They should have cut Jay loose and given Conan time to build his audience. If Jeffery Zucker at NBC still has a job after the dust clears, I’ll be amazed. He is still in charge at the moment, and he has decided to pull the plug on Conan after tonight. So I encourage everyone to watch Conan tonight and then afterwards tune into anyone but Leno.



I promise to update this by Monday. Tomorrow I am going to the U.S. Men’s National Team’s match against Honduras at the Home Depot Center. I’m talking about soccer, just in case you were unsure. The crazy weather LA has been having is supposed to be cleared up after tonight, so the match should go just fine. I’ll post afterwards with pictures and thoughts about my first professional soccer match.

Crisis in Haiti

So, I had planned on writing about the late night TV wars. I'll save that for later tonight or tomorrow. That whole situation needs to take a backseat in the news to the one story that really matters right now. The situation in Haiti is unimaginable. The devastation goes beyond the number of lives lost. This is a country that had hardly any infrastructure before the earthquake. It now has practically none. Most of the country didn't have proper roads. This means even once supplies arrive, distributing them is going to be a whole other ordeal. If you want to help, and you should, there are several ways you can give. To help the people of Haiti you can go here for UNICEF http://bit.ly/6s4Pd4 and here for the Red Cross http://tinyurl.com/yj6j2f8

You can also make a $10 donation very easily by texting "HAITI" to 90999. It will be charged to your phone bill. Already over 3 million dollars have been raised by Americans texting a donation. It is simple, and has been verified by the State Dept. Your money will go where it is suppose to. So please, give as much as you can. Even if you can only spare $5, it will make a difference. This is a country whose people were suffering under the weight of poverty before the quake. Now they are overwhelmed by death and destruction. When human beings are suffering at the level these people now are, we have a responsibility to help them. So no matter how great or small, every contribution counts. Make yours right now.

Welcome to 2010

So here we are, 2010. Yes, I have ended up again not regularly writing in this. I think I’m just not going to try doing regular updates and maybe I’ll end up doing them. So, as one year ends and a new one begins, it got me thinking about 2009. It wasn’t a bad year for me. I feel I lost my way artistically a bit, but re-kindled my inspirations just as 09’ was coming to a close. So here is my recap of 2009.

I started the year off taking my first international trip. I was off to the land of Israel. It was a free ten day trip called Birthright Israel. It is for Jews 18-27 to go and explore Israel. The trip was amazing. Israel is a beautiful country and I could not have had a better experience. To be able to float in the Dead Sea, trek through the Carmel Mountains, hike to the top of Masada and watch the sunrise, and to walk the streets of Jerusalem. It was an incredible trip and my only disappointment was how fast the trip went. Ten days was just not enough.








Then I got tickets to the Grammys. That was an experience.



The next highlight was my birthday in February. It wasn’t a leap year so I celebrated on the 28th. Ra Ra Riot, a favorite band of mine, was playing that night at the El Rey. So we went to the show. A good friend from college was in town visiting, so it was nice to have a friend from back east out for my birthday as well. Plus she was a great photographer.



There were too many great shows to go through all of them. 2009 brought me Regina Spektor, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, A Fine Frenzy, Green Day (twice), and U2 at the Rose Bowl.


Green Day at the Henry Fonda Theatre.

It was a good sports year. My Yankees finally won the World Series!




Most importantly it was a year for me to get re-focused on my acting career. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming out here. Things are not going as fast as I’d like, but I do feel like I finally have a hold on the lay of the land here. 2010 is beginning with a very clear plan of action for getting things going this year. Plus we are finally back to a normal schedule for “pilot season”. Thank you writer’s strike for messing up last year’s season.
So as 2010 dawns, I have a few hopes for the New Year. This is the year I am finally going to seek representation. I also want to do some theatre. I miss it and it will be a great way to keep in shape acting-wise. I hope the year brings more good friends, good music, and be an all around great year for everyone.