Dec 31 - Cross Record

First day in Hong Kong was a complete success. After staying up drinking and watching youtube videos until 2:30, we had a late start. First stop was of course Dim Sum, at this really traditional place where they spoke no English and you had to fight to get things off of carts that came around. Many elbows were jostled. Many good things were consumed. I did miss out on one of my favorites (cheong fun), but I had maybe the best char siew bao of my life. Then we did a walking tour all over Central Hong Kong, and now it's time to get ready for New Year's Eve. We're going to this fancy dinner with all you can drink over on the Kowloon side, right on the waterfront, so we'll be able to have great views of the Hong Kong skyline and the fireworks at midnight. Should be a great time!

If yesterday was for looking back, today is for looking forward to next year. And there’s a lot to look forward to. There’s already a few old favorites with new music coming out, like Santigold, SZA, Daughter and Lucius. Then there’s newish artists that will hopefully put out debut albums instead of just EPs, like Miya Folick, Junius Meyvant, Anna B Savage, and Kacy Hill. And there’s the new kids, the ones with just a couple of songs but whose albums (or even debut EPs) I can’t wait for, like Anohni, Joon Moon, and Sofi Tukker. But I think chief amongst these is Cross Record. I already posted their one single, Steady Waves, the other day. And now I’ll post their other single, High Rise. Both off of their debut album Wabi-Sabi, which luckily we don’t have to wait too long for. It’s also good cause I’ve noticed this last week or two that I’ve been very into these dark and broody ladies this year, so maybe this will be a new direction of musical obsession for me. For the moment it is, anyway.

So that’s it, kiddos. A year in music. I missed a few days, but overall I’d say I did pretty damn good. Go listen to the Spotify playlist if you like. It doesn’t have everything, but I think it’s a pretty damn good one. I'll keep writing next year. Not every day, but I think more than I did this year. Hope you have a great New Year's Eve, and talk to you in 2016!

Dec 30 - Grimes

My last day at work is done, and I'm now sitting at the airport waiting to go to Hong Kong. I can not wait to be there. You'd think that would have made my last day at work even longer than the previou couple, but it felt like it actually went faster somehow. Which is great.

It's been years since I went to Hong Kong for fun. I've been a couple times for a quick overnight or a quick day trip, but just for work. This time I've got like 4 days to do no work. It should be great. Things to do on my list are: eat. That's it. What else would there be?

Another interesting tidbit. As I was waiting in line for customers, I was super happy. I've been stuck in Shanghai for like 3 months, almost non-stop. I can't even tell you the last time I spent even a single month in one place without moving. It's crazy. And I think that's been part of why I've been feeling down. Now that I'm actually leaving the country and moving and going somewhere, I feel like I'm doing something. Rather than just sitting around. And that makes me extremely happy. So I wonder if this low point I've been stuck in for a while is maybe also, in part, due to that. I hope so, cause with this trip my traveling is starting up in earnest again. I've got almost every week between now and mid-July 2016 planned out, so I'll have no time to feel bored. Which is great.

Being December 30th, I only have two days left on the blog for the year. Obviously I'll keep writing next year, but I get two more songs of the day to finish off the year. So I think one needs to be looking back, and one forward. I guess tomorrow should be looking forward, so today we look back at a song and artist I loved this year. One that hasn't been shared on the blog yet. Well, the artist has, the song hasn't. The artist is Grimes. I'm choosing her because I think this was a big pop year for me. Indie pop, obviously, but there was a lot more dancy, upbeat, close-to-mainstream music in my life, and I started to realize that I actually do like what's considered pop. I just don't like what's actually popular. Because what's actually popular tends to be easy, overplayed and unimaginative. But there are a lot of really great artists out there making what is essentially pop music. And Grimes is one of those. And she blew me away with Art Angels. I thought she was so overrated in the past, but this album is fantastic. So here's a excellent pop song, Belly of the Beat.

Dec 29 - Radiohead

Oh my god my brain is going to melt. That's not the right word. Melting would imply that something is so hot and awesome that it melts my brain. Like a sick guitar solo. That's not the word I want. My brain is going to atrophy. That's better. Work has been so boring these last couple of days, and tomorrow will be no better. I'm dying. Thank God I can leave early tomorrow to go to Hong Kong. Where it's warm. Today was very cold in Shanghai, this morning was probably around 0 degrees. This afternoon Hong Kong was 18. Those are degrees I like. I'm so ready to go. But first I have to get through one more day....

Also today I will be handing off Ozzie (sad face) and eating Sichuan food at a place that has really good reviews online (happy face) which is wonderful because I have yet to find a good Sichuan place in Shanghai and this one is really close to me. So here's hoping.

When I posted Massive Attack the other day, one of the little suggested videos that came up was Lotus Flower by Radiohead. That one where Thom Yorke just dances awkwardly. It's kind of like the original Hotline Bling, if you think about it. Anyway, it made me realize that I did not have Radiohead on my blog this year, which is really unacceptable cause I'm sure at some point in the year I've gone through the entire Radiohead catalogue. Maybe even twice. It happens from time to time. But luckily I have 3 more songs to share this year, so today's will be from Radiohead. I was thinking of sharing Bloom, off of The King Of Limbs, cause I adore that song. But I actually want something more upbeat. So we'll go a little older, back to OK Computer, and play you Airbag. Which actually may be my favorite Radiohead song anyway, so it's perfect.

Dec 28 - Benjamin Clementine

I think I was in a bit of a funk the last week. I haven't really been feeling myself, and I think it's just been after that whole cancer scare I was so busy and didn't have time to decompress and get any time for myself, so was still feeling quite stressed without realizing it. But yesterday, as you read, I did nothing, and today I was feeling great. I feel a lot better than I have been. And I think it was just sitting around and doing nothing and talking to nobody that did it. It was fantastic. And now I'm back on it today. After work my friend Julia came over, we took Ozzie for a long walk, then ordered in and watched Magic Mike XXL. I haven't seen the first one, but as you can imagine that didn't matter. It was a pretty funny movie actually, I rather enjoyed it. More than I expected anyway. And next up is bed.

But luckily I have a great artist to share with you - Benjamin Clementine. He's a British-French poet and singer, and he was this year's winner of the Mercury Prize. I actually don't know how I missed out on the nominees for the Mercury Prize this year and only found the list last week, but somehow I did. And while I don't always agree with the winner (and I'm not sure I do this year, either, but actually maybe), this year's winner is pretty great. Interesting, to say the least. His lyrics are (obviously) very poetic. And his voice is really powerful. And his music is wonderful. Not a bad combination at all. So today's song is London, off of his debut album At Least For Now.

Dec 27 - Massive Attack

I did pretty much nothing today. Pretty much nothing productive, anyway. The only productive thing I did was finally get the name changed on these fapiao that I've been needing to change for a while. And the only reason I did it is because it's almost the end of the year and I'm afraid I won't be able to after New Year. My friend got them for me when he went to a fancy Japanese dinner. So I went to change them and then ended up having a fancy Japanese lunch. It was at this place called Aoki, really nice omakase sushi place that's apparently a branch of a Michelin star place in Tokyo. So it was pretty fantastic. Otherwise I finished the first season of Fargo (fantastic story, and extremely well told. Watch it if you haven't) and I watched the 4th season of Luther. Luther is one of my favorite shows. It's this British cop drama with Idris Elba and it's wonderful. Being British, there's like no episodes even though there's 4 seasons. And it's taken them like 19 years to make 4 seasons. That might not be true, but it feels like it. It's a great show, though, and you can't go wrong with Idris Elba. So go watch it.

Which brings us to today's song, Paradise Circus by Massive Attack, which is the theme song from Luther. I actually heard this song when they put out Heligoland back in 2010 and don't remember it making any big impression. But I guess together with this show that I love, I've heard it more and come to love it. It's a pretty gorgeous song, vocally and orchestrally, plus it's got a great handclap/drum beat thing I love. I am a sucker for a handclap in a song, after all.

Dec 26 - Overcoats

Today was the day I've been waiting for all week. I usually like to have one day in the week where I sit home alone and order in dinner and do nothing, and I feel like I did not have that this week. And because I have Ozzie (did I mention I'm dog sitting?) I basically get home, walk him for a bit, drop him off, go out, come home, walk him, and go to sleep late. So it's been a long week. So today I did absolutely nothing until 4pm. Well, that's not completely true. I did some errands this morning, but mostly nothing. Then there was a pretty shitty Christmas market followed by a couple bars, tacos, and Sharknado. I know I'm way behind on seeing this film, but holy shit it's amazing. Like, my new favorite movie. There is nothing good about it. It is so spectacularly bad it's hard to believe. I absolutely love it.

Overcoats are not spectacularly bad, though. I'm not sure they're spectacularly good, either, though. They sound like a dual female vocalist band (a la Lucius, but really more a la First Aid Kit cause they're more folky, but also kind of like Ibeyi in some ways). They do have this song Smaller Than My Mother which really caught my attention, so they're now on my watchlist for next year. Their other songs I've heard leave something to be desired, but let's wait and see and hope for more.

Dec 25 - The Beatles

I'm writing this at the office, cause after a couple months of actually being in the office and being really busy, I'm back to not being so busy. I have things to do, and I've been doing them, but not enough to keep me busy between now and New Year, so I'm spreading it out, I guess you could say. And it being Christmas and nobody being in the office and all my friends having the day off and me being very tired, I don't care. So I've wasted a lot of time today. In part by writing this blog, as short as it is.

Today is not new music, as you can tell from the title. But I chose The Beatles because their entire library of music, which was never available on streaming services before, became available this week. Which means you can listen to all Beatles songs on pretty much any streaming platform. My platform of choice being Spotify, of course. So we'll listen to Eleanor Rigby, one of my favorite songs by The Beatles.

Dec 24 - Cross Record

Today has turned into an "I-hate-China" day. Mostly because of the rain and traffic and being late and lack of sleep and not wanting to do anything but having to go to a Christmas dinner with someone who's mildly anti-Semitic. I'm actually not upset about having to go to the Christmas party, I'm quite looking forward to it, just not looking forward to seeing this woman I can't stand. I see her from time to time but in large groups, which tonight won't be. I don't think she's actually anti-Semitic, but the first time we met she thought it was a good idea, upon learning I'm Jewish, to tell me the story of how there used to be this parking lot in Riga, where she's from, but then they found out there was a WWII mass grave under it, so they ripped it up and turned it into a memorial, which is soooo annoying because parking in Riga is really difficult to find already, and it's not even like people are allowed to use it and go on the grass, it's just this memorial and it's so annoying. Yeah. So other than that, Christmas should be fun!

The best part of the day today was the weekly Spotify playlist I get from Spotify, which happened to have a lot of good stuff this week. The best of which, by far, was Cross Record. They're this husband and wife duo who got married and moved to a farm in rural Texas and then made this album called Wabi-Sabi which comes out next month and which I'm now really excited for. It's more of this dark, broody female alt rock that I've found a lot of great new artists who make this year (like Anna B Savage and Miya Folick), not to mention the older ones who I love (like Sharon Van Etten). So if you're into that kind of stuff, you'll like this. There are two singles out so far, Steady Waves and High Rise, both of which are fantastic. So now I'm gonna go and pre-order this album cause I'm pretty excited about it now. In the meantime, enjoy Steady Waves, the best new song I heard today.

Dec 23 - My Brightest Diamond

As I mentioned, yesterday was a very good day. For the last 6 weeks or so I had a bit of a cancer scare, so that was pretty freaky. And yesterday I found out I don't have cancer! So yay! Very yay!

Basically, I went in for a physical about 6 weeks ago, and they sent me for a follow-up CT scan, at which point they found something in my lung that should not have been there. It was just this small little circle that they called "ground grass". The doctor who told me about it seemed pretty nervous, and so that also did not put me at ease. He then sent me on to see a pulmonologist. With the pulmonologist, he explained that it could be nothing. Sometimes they see things like this due to just some sort of infection or pneumonia, and that the chances of me having cancer at 31 and a non-smoker were extremely low. That also did not put me at ease, though. He said normally they'd just give me antibiotics and check back a few weeks later, but because of the size (it was 1.8cm), he didn't suggest waiting, but moving on directly to the next steps (under 0.5cm they would have just done antibiotics). So the next steps were to get a blood test to check for cancer cells, and then to get a PET-CT scan. This took about 3 weeks to arrange because my insurance were dicks and didn't want to approve it. Probably cause it's really expensive, but finally they did. Of course in the meantime I had blood test results that I knew existed for 3 weeks but which weren't given to me, so that also had me convinced that it was bad news and the doctor didn't want to give me bad blood results until he had the PET-CT to back it up. With the PET-CT, they scan your entire body to look for high concentrations of glucose, because apparently cancer cells, which grow quickly, need lots of energy and get it from glucose. So we finally got those results last week and set up the appointment yesterday, and the doctor told me I don't have cancer. So finally, my  mind was at ease. It was a pretty stressful month or so. Obviously. I am very glad that it is over and I don't have to worry about it. He is gonna have me go back for another CT scan in 3 months to see if the "ground grass" is still there or not, as a precaution, but at least we know it's not cancer!

So I can be happy and move forward with much less stress. And much happier, because after that it's hard to get me down. And I need an appropriate song, of course. I wanted to pick Feeling Good by Nina Simone, cause it's one of my favorite songs ever, and it's pretty fitting. I've already played it this year, but I thought to myself "who cares? I don't have cancer, I'mma do what I want!" But then I realized I could just play you the amazing version by My Brightest Diamond, who is one of my favorite artists. This was also the first thing I ever heard by her. So I made it work out. Yay for good music, and yay for no cancer!

Dec 22 - Damien Rice

Today probably isn't the day to play Damien Rice, and I'll explain why tomorrow, but skipping the long story and getting to the point, we were discussing my birthday and next year Damien Rice is playing in Shanghai on my birthday and then I realized I had not shared a Damien Rice song on the blog yet this year and that's not ok. It is difficult to choose just one, but I guess it's gotta be Volcano, off of O. But actually, today is a happy day. A very, very happy day. So sad Damien Rice isn't fitting. But it's ok, it's still great.

Dec 21 - Jordan Rakei

I made it back to home an hour earlier than I even should have arrived in Shanghai! My meeting in Beijing this morning went better than expected, and finished up a bit early. I couldn't change my flight, but I could cancel it, run to the train station, run through the train station, and buy literally the last ticket on my train which left 20 minutes later. It was very important I get on that train, because it arrived at 7:56, and the next train would have arrived at 8:45, even though it only left 5 minutes later. I tried to buy online in the cab but couldn't, and by the time I got to the line there were only 19 tickets left. But when I got to the front and asked for a ticket, the guy said there were none. I told him to just put me on whichever got into Shanghai earliest, and as he was looking 1 ticket popped up on my train. So it was all mine! And then for the next 5 hours I had a chat with the very talkative guy next to me, watched a film, and started watching the series Fargo. And now I'm home waiting for my xiaolongbao to arrive, then bed. It's been pretty damn good!

Speaking of good, Jordan Rakei is good. I learned about him in an email from Kacy Hill. She sends her recommendations, mostly for LA things since she's based there, to her mailing list. And this time it included Jordan Rakei and his 2014 EP Groove Curse, which is really damn good. Very chill, soulful sound. Kind of like D'Angelo! Which is always a fantastic thing. I actually can't choose which song to play, but right now I'm listening to it and A Tribe Called Government is playing, so that's what you get today. Great stuff. Now I need to go buy this EP.

Dec 20 - Brazilian Girls

I missed yesterday cause I was super wasted. I went to an all you can drink brunch, and I know how those go, so I probably should have written before going. But instead I thought that I'd be sober enough before bed to at least type something up. Well that was not the case. I was very not sober. In fact I vomited, for the first time in a very long time. But other than that it was a great day! Brunch was around the corner from my place, and then I went back to my place after for an impromptu dance party, which I believe consisted mostly of Grimes and Brazilian Girls. I'm not sure, it's a bit of a blur. I think I maybe also made out with this girl that was at brunch with us, but again not sure. All I do know is there was dancing, the neighbors complained we were too loud, and then I was asleep by 8pm. Then I woke up at 2, went back to sleep at 5, woke up at 8, and now I'm in Beijing. It's been a weird day, though. I spent the morning feeling like I'd woken up from a post-brunch nap, and that it was actually Saturday afternoon and not Sunday morning. It probably wasn't until I was on the plane and woke up after my nap that I finally felt like it was Sunday. But now I've normalized and am ready for work tomorrow. I'm just here for the night, I have a meeting in the morning, then it's back to Shanghai tomorrow. As usual the air is pretty shitty, but at least it's warmer than I expected. I'm gonna go see friends in a bit, which is why I came early.

In honor of yesterday's dance party, it's a Brazilian Girls song today. Good Time. Which has been on my blog before, but not this year. Plus the only Brazilian Girls song on the blog this year is my least favorite of my favorite songs by them, so I should make sure to get one of my most favorite favorites, too.

Dec 18 - Thunderbitch

This was probably the last work from home day of the year. I want to try and take next Tuesday from home also, but I'm out of the office in Beijing on Monday, so I need to go in Tuesday, sadly. I've got a doctor's appointment though, so could totally get away with it otherwise. Anyway, I'll just leave work early. I was actually supposed to be on a date tonight, but it got cancelled. Oh well. I guess it worked out because I forgot to write a blog earlier, and here I am now.

And today's blog is about Thunderbitch, a side project from Brittany Howard of The Alabama Shakes. I found out about them through a year-end best of list on NPR, and I was actually only looking for songs by artists I like, and reading about other things that caught my eye, and with a name like Thunderbitch you can believe this caught my eye. And lucky it did, cause Brittany Howard. This is not Alabama Shakes, though. This is much more straightforward rock and roll. It's not as good as Alabama Shakes, but they put out a solid, fun album. Favorite song on it is probably My Baby Is My Guitar, which just from the title you should be able to guess what kind of music they're making.

Dec 17 - Alice Boman

I just finished watching the second season of Transparent, and god damn that show is amazing. I started it last night, and I finished it tonight. Luckily my plans tonight got cancelled, which was perfect because I wanted to sit here and do nothing but watch that show. And I'm so glad I did. I'm not sure if that or Masters of None was my favorite show of the year, but I guess you could say I love them both for the same reason. They have a ridiculous amount of heart, but in different ways. Masters of None dealt with real issues in a very comedic and nonchalant way, but really got to the heart of things and explained them in a way that I think really connected with the Aziz Ansari aged generation. Then Transparent just kind of rips your heart out every episode, but is also so full of love and family and warmth. Really, really great storytelling for both of them.

And they've both got pretty good soundtracks. There were a few songs I wanted to share from Transparent, but I'm gonna go with Alice Boman. I heard her earlier this year and really liked her song Waiting. Sadly I found the rest of her music a bit boring. But Waiting is beautiful, and it's like the unofficial theme of Transparent or something. It's in like 3 episodes. But they actually use the PAL Remix a lot, and I like how it picks up at the end, so that's the one I'm actually gonna play you. I also considered a little LCD Soundsystem, but I've already done them twice this year, so I decided against it. And The Indigo Girls, cause they also feature prominently in a couple of episodes of Transparent, but not as prominently as Waiting. So off of her Skisser/Remixed EP (which you may have guessed is a remix EP of her original Skisser EP, and which has some great remixes), here Waiting (PAL Remix).

Dec 16 - Nevermen

Today was another work from home and do strategy day. Went really well, and very glad I worked from home because I went to Daliah's last night, stayed until 10:30, then went to the grilled cheese shop and drank for another hour and a half. Whoops. And now I'm off to Daliah's again tonight. Oy. But tonight can't be a late night! I'm promising myself. I have to be up early. I can't do two nights like that and still make it to work, especially when I have a video conference with the CEO that means I have to work late, too.

Other happenings today included making plans for New Years Eve (I'll be in Hong Kong, we're still planning, but things are sounding great so far), and I watched like half of Transparent Season 2. I have no plans tomorrow night (those got moved to Friday), so I may just finish it tomorrow if possible. Such a great show. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor.

Today in new music for next year we have Nevermen. This is a group made up of Tunde Adebimpe from TV On The Radio, rapper Doseone, and some other guy, and they make weird music. Interesting, but very weird. Interesting enough for me to want to hear more. Also any side project from TV On The Radio is something I'll pay attention to. So here's a weird song for the day: Mr. Mistake.

Dec 15 - Anohni

I worked from home today after a doctor's appointment. Basically any excuse I have to work from home, I use. I was out and about most of the morning anyway, first for my appointment and then for lunch, but I did some work this afternoon. And luckily not alone, I had the company of my puppy friend Ozzie! His mom is coming back from America tonight so his dad wants to go and pick her up at the airport, which means he won't be home until 9, so Ozzie needed company and walking. That's where I came in. We walked a bit, then I worked and he chilled, then we cuddled and watched a movie. Victoria. It's been on a couple of "Best of" lists this year, and sounded pretty great. I think the story was a bit lacking, but it's over 2 hours and the entire thing was done in a single take, which in and of itself is an amazing feat. So it is an impressive movie. Still no Birdman, though.

Now that I posted my favorite music of this year, it's time to get into next year. Actually, I've probably already posted a few songs of artists who I should be looking forward to next year without actually saying I'm looking forward to them. Well, today I say it, and the first one to share is Anohni. This is a new project from Antony Hegarty, of Antony and the Johnsons. I'm not a huge fan of hers, but I absolutely love her voice (mostly from stuff she's done with Bjork). And now this new project does sound like it could be pretty great. There's only one song so far, 4 Degrees, and based on this song I will like Anohni much more than Antony and the Johnsons.

Dec 14 - Top 10 Albums of 2015

I finally decided my top 10 albums of the year. It was actually much more difficult than I thought to narrow it down. I almost expanded it to 20, actually. For some reason I didn't remember this year as being too great, but when I went back to listen to my longlist, I realized I was wrong and it was pretty damn good. I actually surprised myself with a few picks as well (and a few that were not picked). So here we go from number 10.

Leon Bridges
Coming Home




Grimes
Art Angels




Joanna Newsom
Divers

Bomba Estéreo 

Amanecer




SEXWITCH
SEXWITCH




Raury
All We Need




Alabama Shakes
Sound & Color




Hiatus Kaiyote
Choose Your Weapon




Other Lives
Rituals




The Arcs
Yours, Dreamily,




So that's 2015, but I can't finish this blog post in good conscience without 1 album from 2014 (and a few other goodies). Last year I put out my top 10 list, and like 3 days later, an amazing album was released. An album I had been waiting over a decade for. And I was not alone in my waiting. So I would be remiss not to tell you that you have to go and listen to this album as well.

D'angelo & The Vanguard
Black Messiah



I'm sure it's going to be on a lot of year end lists. I could have just added it to my Top 10, but that would have required a reshuffle and the exclusion of another album. And it was hard enough not to exclude some albums already. So hard, in fact, that I'm giving you some honorable mentions, which nearly made the 10th spot, but in the end were beaten out by Leon Bridges. Also worth checking out, though, are:

Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Shamir - Ratchet

Of course there are others, but I'm not going to list everything. Anyway you can find the Top 10 on the Spotify playlist I'll be making (minus Joanna Newsom because she's not on Spotify). And you can find a bunch of other good songs on my blog playlist, where I've got my song of the day for every day this year (minus the ones I missed, obviously, but I did pretty damn good!).

And there are a few other honorable mentions that did not come in the form of albums, but in the form of EPs. I've never thought about doing a best of list for EPs, but this year came close, cause there was some great stuff out there. Mostly debut EPs, actually. But I'm not doing an EP list, so instead I'll just list a few here and you can make sure you also go and listen to them.

Anna B Savage - EP
Kacy Hill - Bloo
Tei Shi - Verde

And there we have it. My lists for the year. No more lists will be made, just the one, but I will keep doing my song of the day until the year ends, so hopefully you come and read more.

Dec 13 - The Fugees

Fucking. Daliah's. I've told you about this place before. Well once again I fell into it's trap yesterday. My day started out innocently enough, with Korean BBQ (so way too much food for any single person to consume), which we then walked off on the way to Daliah's. We being my two vegetarian friends and I, who all enjoyed lots of meat at Korean BBQ lunch. It was great. So we walked for like 75 minutes, which was actually a great decision for our stomach's and because the weather was lovely. So we walked all the way to Daliah's in order to do some prep and experimentation for today's Hanukkah party. The plan was to spend a few hours, then go home and watch a movie and do nothing. Well, I eventually got home at 4:30 in the morning. As I was planning to leave, Daliah's boyfriend Daniel showed up. He is often the reason that I stay there much longer than intended. We had dinner. We had beers. Then there was a private birthday party downstairs and so we had more beers and more drinks (this was already at like 10 or 11). Then we went to a big, gay party (my first gay party in Shanghai! I have managed not to make any gay male friends here, which I think is a first for me). Then a failed attempt at finding street food. And then finally home. It was wonderful, and Daniel (Daliah's aforementioned boyfriend) is now officially my best friend/gay lover. We discussed it last night. And we held hands. So it must be official. Jesus Christ I think I'm still a bit drunk. I'm laying in bed, not doing much of anything. The plan was to already on my way to Daliah's to prep for our party tonight. That obviously won't happen for a few hours.

On a music note, I was also inspired at Daliah's yesterday. She had a playlist with some great tracks going, and today's song was inspired by that playlist. It was actually a kind of weird playlist, considering what was in it and how it went together, but great in terms of the songs played. And some of them were classic hip-hop tracks. And I've been thinking about whether or not there are songs I have to get into this list before the year is over. And then the song came on. Which is maybe one of my favorite songs, but which I somehow totally forgot about. I guess that would make you think it can't be one of my favorite songs. But I promise it is. The Fugees. Killing Me Softly. A tune.

Dec 11 - Marcus Marr & Chet Faker

Today was a work from home day. Another strategy thing. Which I mentioned yesterday. Which was really good. Slow going, but really good. That's pretty much all there is to report today. I'm about to watch Iris, a documentary about Iris Apfel, then sushi, then drinks, then bed. Oh, and tonight I won't forget to light the menorah. Definitely not.

So while I've got a minute, here's a song from Marcus Marr, who I probably never would have known about if he didn't put out an EP (called Work) with Chet Faker, who I like very much. It's a pretty good EP. Fun stuff. Much more upbeat than Chet Faker's usual music. The first single, and today's song, is The Trouble With Us. Fun song for a Friday.

Dec 10 - Shura

I thought I'd be having a boring day at the office today, but it was far from it. The morning was pretty slow, but I think that was more due to me not being able to wake up this morning, for some reason. So luckily I got busy and the day went quickly. And now I figured I might as well write a blog before going out on this date, since I don't know when I'll be home. But I actually have no clue what song to share, so I just wrote this paragraph, and then I'm gonna leave and figure it out while I'm gone, and come back and write about the exhibit and date.

Before I go, other fun things that happened today are I got recommendations for a good tailor. Finally! I think I'll try to go this weekend. Actually, I won't have time to go this weekend. I'll probably end up going next week sometime, or next weekend. And also my sister bought her ticket to China for next June, so now that's the whole family. My parents come June 1 - 24, and my sister June 8 - 23. It'll have been 5 years for my sister and 6 for my parents, so I'm excited to have them come!

Ok, I'm back. Date went well. Very well, This was number 2. I guess there'll be a number 3. We went to a show opening at MOCA that I got invited to, although we went up for snacks and wine first, without realizing the gallery itself was going to close, so we missed most of the art. But what we did see was very cool. It was this Korean artist who does hyperealistic paintings. I love that stuff, so I really do wish I got to see more. I'll probably try to go back before the show is over, though. And we met the artist and he was wearing a sparkly silver suit, so that was awesome. Both meeting him and his suit. And I confirmed she is not a Trump supporter, so even if I don't date her, I don't have to cut her out of my life.

I still have no idea what song to play today. Oy. OK. I have some ideas, but the problem is I don't know what song exactly to pick. So I'll pick a mediocre artist who had a song that caught my attention. So today you get to listen to White Light by Shura. Done. I actually wanted to share an artist I like more, but I didn't know which song to share by any of these artists I had in mind. Oh well. Goodnight!

Dec 9 - Flight Facilities

Getting back into the office today was a drag. I really do not enjoy going in there. It's so far... It's really wearing down on me. But I had productive day and finally finished one project I've been "working on" for months, so that was good. But for some reason after work I'm feeling sad. I don't know why, I have no real reason to, I had a perfectly fine day. Better than fine, in fact, because I ate foie gras xiaolongbao at the xiaolongbao place next to my house (which is the best one), and I went to my friend Graeme's houseparty. But for some reason I just have this weird feeling this evening. Maybe it's the rain. Whatever it is, I hope it's gone tomorrow, because I have a date. So that would be good. Speaking of dates (and Graeme's houseparty) turns out the girl I went out on my last date with was a friend of a friend (friend of an acquaintance really, but same same), and she heard about the date afterwards from the girl I went out with, and now might be bringing said girl to my Hanukkah party on Sunday. Which is fine, the girl was perfectly nice, I just didn't want to date her. Too nice, actually, which is a big part of why I didn't want to date her. But anyway, that's not a bad thing for someone I'm not dating.

I've rambled enough about nothing, so now I'll just ramble a bit more about music. Today's song is apparently 3 years old. It's Claire de Lune by Flight Facilities. It was posted on Soundcloud 3 years ago, and according to Spotify was a 2013 single and on a 2014 album. So when it came on at Daliah's last night I knew I recognized it, but couldn't place it. I checked her playlist though, which is how I found out what it is. It is a really beautiful song, and I can only imagine that I must have heard it 2 or 3 years ago, really liked it, listened to the Flight Facilities album after it was released, didn't like that so much, and then forgot about this song. But now it will be my blog song.

Dec 8 - APigeon

Today was a great work day. I mentioned yesterday that we were working on this strategy thing, so today my colleague came over and we worked from my place on starting to put together some real, coherent strategy. It was very exciting and fulfilling. I am looking forward to continuing.

But more exciting than work was that I went over to Daliah's and planned my Hanukkah party with her. I was planning to have something at my house on Saturday night, but instead we're having something much bigger at her restaurant on Sunday. We're now planning on having a latke bar, with regular latkes, sweet potato latkes, cheesy latkes and chili latkes, and like 6 different types of sauces. And the same for a donut bar, where you can fill and/or top your own donut. And of course matzoh ball soup. It's gonna be great, I'm super excited about it. And I haven't even told you the best part. I made a joke about having to find me a nice Jewish girl at the big Jewish party, and so there's a nice, French Jewish girl that Daliah has already found for me and invited! She just has to confirm if this girl is single or not....

Other exciting news today was the announcement of next year's Grammy nominees. It's usually not very exciting, honestly, and this year was no exception, because it's mostly a bunch of people I don't care about. Though I do love watching the show. But it was exciting to see a few great bands/artists/albums/songs up there, like Hiatus Kaiyote, Alabama Shakes, Florence + The Machine and D'Angelo & The Vanguard. I will be watching and hoping for the best for these people.

Someone not nominated for a Grammy is APigeon. She's a producer/singer from Montreal who just put out her debut album, A Pigeon Is Born. It's a bit weird, with a few really good tracks, like today's song, Moon 5, which was also one of her singles. Maybe even her debut single, not sure. But anyway, she's interesting and enjoyable. Most reminds me of Lia Ices (who in turn reminds me of Feist, but APigeon does not remind me of Feist, although she does mention Feist on her own bio). I'll have give the album another listen, because this is not actually my favorite song off of it, but it was the easy choice since I only listened once and wanted to share. But I don't know what my favorite song is yet. But this one is good.

Dec 7 - Whilk & Misky

Today was a hard day on the brain. I had a training course in change management, which was great, but it was a lot of information to take in. And very long. But hopefully very helpful. We'll find out soon(ish). Then I came home and rushed to dinner with Zabrina, and am now home, exhausted, to do some laundry and pass out. Luckily I'm not going into the office tomorrow. I'm having a strategy workshop with my colleague Andy, at my house, so that'll be nice. And important. And useful. And many other things. But also just nice that I don't have to go into the office. We'll be doing the same on Friday.

And since I'm tired, music will be quick. Clap Your Hands by Whilk & Misky immediately caught my attention when I heard it. But then the rest of their music did not even come close to catching my attention. I'd even say I didn't really like it. But this song was really good. Although I do think I'd probably get tired of it very quickly. Luckily I haven't heard it too many times yet. So for now, it gets a spot on the blog on a day when I don't want to write (or think) too much.

Dec 6 - Drake

I sure am glad I came back to Shanghai a day early. I ended up having a great, really busy day. I thought I wouldn't be doing anything until about 2pm, when I was planning to go to one of the Christmas Markets in town. It's a German Christmas Market put on by Paulaner Brewery, and I have a couple of friends who had booths there, so I wanted to go check it out, see them, and of course have some gluhwein. Well turns out I went at like 11:30 with a friend of a friend who's visiting Shanghai, and we had beers and stuff until about 2:30. Then I went to pick up candles for my menorah at shul, because Hannukah started tonight. And when I got there, the rabbi told me that there was a big first night party going on at the historic synagogue tonight from 6-8. So nothing until 2pm turned into that something at 11:30, followed by a long bike ride to get my candles, then another Christmas Market (the cool, young, hip one), and then shul for the Hannukah party. I've been gone like all day, eating and drinking mostly, and I am now exhausted (and very full). So I'm home, my menorahs are lit, and now I'm going to pass out early.

And since it's Hannukah, today's song comes from a nice Jewish boy: Drake. I've been wanting to make Hotline Bling a song of the day for a while, and just haven't. I like it very much, and I'm sure everyone has already heard it, so I kept putting it off. But then it came on at the second Christmas Market, and I was like "oh yeah he's Jewish let's do it!". So here we are. And because the video heavily features what I believe are Drake's bar mitzvah dance moves, I'm putting the video up instead of just the song stream.

Dec 5 - Ings

I ended up coming back to Shanghai a day early. Everyone in Beijing was either busy or sick or out of town, so rather than sit around and feel sorry for myself cause my friends are busy and I wasn't doing anything, I just came back. I did get to see most of my friends, it's not like I wasn't going to see anyone, but I probably wouldn't have done anything tonight and would have felt bad about it. Doing nothing in Shanghai is ok, though, cause at least I can curl up in bed and not feel like my friends can't make time for me (which I'm sure isn't true, but still crosses my mind). So this was probably the right decision, although it's raining here so that's no fun. But I've picked what I think is a good rainy day song. Dog Physics, by Ings. This band isn't great, but I really liked this song when I heard it. And it's at least nominally about dogs, so gotta love that.

Dec 4 - Sofi Tukker

I spent my day going out to Langfang and back. Langfang is an industrial city about 55 kilometers (or 34 miles) from Beijing, so of course it took like an hour and a half to get there. Because Beijing traffic is so fun. One of our agents has a new facility out there, and a new marketing manager working there, so I went to see the facility and meet her. She seems pretty great, I think working with her will be a pleasure. That was pretty much my day. And next, Peking Duck!! I'm super excited, cause I haven't had it in a really long time. And I love it so much. Expect Instagram pictures.

Since there will be dinner and drinks, I better blog now. And today's song is Drinkee, the debut single from Sofi Tukker. It was supposed to be yesterday's song, but then Lucius dropped their new single and album release info, which if you missed yesterday you should probably go listen to now. Don't let the Portuguese lyrics on Drinkee fool you. Sofi Tukker is from Brooklyn. Sofi Tukker is also not a person, but two people, Sophie and Tucker, who put their names together and changed the spelling to make things more interesting. And I guess Portuguese lyrics will also do that. They definitely make it fun. This is a fun song, so also appropriate for a Friday evening.

Dec 3 - Lucius

This cold in Beijing is not fun. And it's made me sick again. And I realized today that when it's this cold, going inside and warming up after being out in the cold makes me really sleepy, so I've also been really sleepy today. Blergh. I'm about to take some Chinese meds and go pass out. But at least there isn't pollution to make it worse.

But before I do, Lucius is back! I didn't intend to share a Lucius song today, I intended to share something else (which will now be shared tomorrow). But they've been counting down on Instagram to a big announcement, and that big announcement was made today. Their new album, Good Grief, will be out next March! Good timing too, cause I had this crazy dream about Lucius last night. They came to China, and I was helping arrange their tour, which consisted of shows in high school auditoriums. Also my sister was their violin player. They don't have a violin player, and my sister does not play violin. It was weird. But I guess it was prescient, because today we also got the first single off of the new album, called Born Again Teen. It's a great track. If this is what we have to look forward to on the new album, I think it's gonna be a good one.

Dec 2 - Childbirth

I made it up to Beijing safe and sound today, and there was luckily no pollution to greet me. In fact, it wasn't even so cold! Pretty great. Of course there was the standard, miserable Beijing traffic. Which reminded me how much this city can suck, even on a day like today. But it also helped that I had amazing sushi for dinner. Maybe the only thing Beijing does better than Shanghai when it comes to food is Japanese food. Actually, also Chinese food. But for all other food, Shanghai is better. But, oh man, this sushi. There was so much of it. It was so delicious. It made me so happy. And it made me very happy to see Rich, my formerly-vegetarian best friend, eating it. Now he's just a pescatarian. Anyway, more food to be had while I'm here, mostly Chinese, and one burger. Mmmm....

Today's song comes from Seattle punk-trio Childbirth, who I never heard of before today and probably won't spend any time listening to. But I heard this song and thought it was fine background music, until I noticed the name and listened to the lyrics. The song is Siri, Open Tinder, off of the band's sophomore album Women's Rights. And it's basically a list of who they swipe left and right on. Amazing!

Dec 1 - Duologue

And just when I thought work wasn't too exciting, something a bit nuts happened today. I really shouldn't say too much, but ask me when you see me and I can tell you all about it. It was a pretty hectic day that ended with something somewhat ridiculous, which made me laugh more than anything else, I guess. But I'm glad it's over, and I definitely need a drink after this one. Good thing I've got a date at one of my favorite bars tonight, so that should be good.

Also good is Duologue, this British band I just found a couple weeks ago. Very Radioheadish. They put out their second album, Never Get Lost, last year, and it's a really good one. Most songs are all kind of the same, but it is a pretty great sound. Best track would probably have to be Forests, so now you get to listen to that today.