iPod Top 100: 2011

OK, I haven’t listened to an “iPod,” per se, for years now, but that’s how this started back with the 2005 list, so I’m not changing it now! (Also available: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.)

1. “Finally Moving” – Pretty Lights
2. “Sex with an X” – The Vaselines
3. “Machine Gun Blues” – Social Distortion
4. “Waterfall” – The Fresh & Onlys
5. “Moneygrabber” – Fitz & The Tantrums
6. “Ten-Twenty-Ten” – Generationals
7. “Resolution” – Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3
8. “Be Your Bro” – Those Darlins
9. “Hard Lesson” – The Burned
10. “The Youth Die Young” – Mad Rad
11. “Girls FM” – Happy Birthday
12. “Damn These Vampires” – The Mountain Goats
13. “Forget That You’re Young” – The Ravenoettes
14. “Street Fighting Man” – The Rolling Stones
15. “How Soon is Now?” – The Smiths
16. “Ace of Spades” – Eli “Paperboy” Reed
17. “Gunfight Epiphany (Theme from Terriers)” – Robert Duncan
18. “The Coming Days” – Hello Echo
19. “It’s a Long Way to the Top” – Lucinda Williams
20. “Blackout Baby” – My Goodness
21. “California (Hustle and Flow)” – Social Distortion
22. “Over the Ocean (iTunes session)” – Best Coast
23. “48 Roses” – Mariachi El Bronx
24. “Rollerblades” – Eliza Doolittle
25. “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” – The Rolling Stones
26. “Fluorescent Adolescent” – Arctic Monkeys
27. “When I’m With You” – Best Coast
28. “Coming Down” – Dum Dum Girls
29. “Mayhem” – Imelda May
30. “Paint It Black” – The Rolling Stones
31. “Cinderella” – The Sonics
32. “Knee Deep (feat. Jimmy Buffett)” – Zac Brown Band
33. “Dream On” – Aerosmith
34. “Sun Was High (So Was I)” – Best Coast
35. “Bad Vibrations” – The Black Angels
36. “Don’t Stop the Music” – Easy Star All-Stars
37. “Sympathy for the Devil” – The Rolling Stones
38. “Marathon” – Tennis
39. “Screws Get Loose” – Those Darlins
40. “Pumped Up Kicks” – Foster the People
41. “Psycho” – Imelda May
42. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” – Jake Shimabukuro
43. “Matador” – Maria Taylor
44. “One Day” – Sharon Van Etten
45. “My Body” – Young the Giant
46. “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” – Arctic Monkeys
47. “Tainted Love” – Imelda May
48. “Revolution Girls” – Mariachi El Bronx
49. “Cuddly Toy” – Roachford
50. “Midnight Rambler (Live)” – The Rolling Stones
51. “Rocket Queen (iTunes Session)” – Slash
52. “Under Cover of Darkness” – The Strokes
53. “Like the Wheel” – The Tallest Man on Earth
54. “Rumour Has It” – Adele
55. “The Beat Goes On” – Beady Eye
56. “Birth of Serpents” – The Mountain Goats
57. “I Learned the Hard Way” – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
58. “Fall to Pieces (iTunes Session)” – Slash
59. “Rock ‘N’ Roll is Free” – Ben Harper
60. “Summer Mood” – Best Coast
61. “Johnny Got a Boom Boom” – Imelda May
62. “Redemption Song” – Playing for Change
63. “Oh My Heart” – R.E.M.
64. “Old Number Seven” – The Devil Makes Three
65. “Ritual Union” – Little Dragon
66. “Hotel California” – The Moog Cookbook
67. “The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie” – Red Hot Chili Peppers
68. “Play with Fire” – The Rolling Stone
69. “Back from Cali (iTunes Session)” – Slash
70. “Simple Love Song” – Anuhea
71. “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” – Bauhaus
72. “JB-Still the Man (feat. Rev. Al Sharpton)” – Bootsy Collins
73. “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)” – Concrete Blonde
74. “Hard Times” – Gillian Welch
75. “Big Wave” – Jenny and Johnny
76. “Banana Republics (Live)” – Jimmy Buffett
77. “So Long & Thanks for All the Fish” – Jody Talbot
78. “Whole Lotta Love” – The Moog Cookbook
79. “Honky Tonk Women” – The Rolling Stone
80. “Sucker Train Blues (iTunes Session)” – Slash
81. “Red Light Love” – Those Darlins
82. “Werewolves of London” – Warren Zevon
83. “Where the Boat Leaves From” – Zac Brown Band
84. “So Long” – Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward
85. “Beggar in the Morning” – The Barr Brothers
86. “Hey Ladies” – Beastie Boys
87. “Hey Yea” – Booker T.
88. “Spectacular Girl” – The Eels
89. “Cryin’ Shame” – Ferocious Few
90. “Cowboy in the Jungle” – Jimmy Buffett
91. “Re: Your Brains” – Jonathan Coulton
92. “Easy” – Liz Phair
93. “I Would Die 4 U” – Mariachi El Bronx
94. “More than a Feeling” – The Moog Cookbook
95. “Ruby Tuesday” – The Rolling Stone
96. “Communication Breakdown (iTunes Session)” – Slash
97. “Take Your Medicine” – Cloud Cult
98. “Young Americans” – David Bowie
99. “Friend of the Devil” – The Grateful Dead
100. “I Hate People” – Jemina Pearl & Iggy Pop

Podcasts I subscribe to, Oct. 2011 edition

Before I totally blow up my iPhone with the iOS 5 update (said demolition is already underway, as I forgot to take screenshots of all my apps before iTunes decided to start uninstalling a bunch of them, oops), here’s the list of what I’m subscribing to. It’s unlikely that this list will get zapped, but never bet against disaster when patching, I always say.

You can find all of these podcasts in the usual places. A list of obscurities, this is not.

(more…)

City council says farewell to Peter Day

RIP, Grandmother Yarbrough

Netty Madden Yarbrough died on 29 July, 2011 at age 87 in Longview, TX.

Born in Columbus, GA, she then went to Atlanta, GA at age 17. She moved to East Point, GA where she raised her two sons while operating several businesses. In 1978, she moved with a close friend and business partner to Bradenton, FL where they ran several other businesses. Before retiring, they created and ran a pet boarding kennel in Myakka City, FL. She moved to Mt. Pleasant, TX in 2011 near one of her sons.

In her twenties, Netty was a highly ranked amateur golfer on the Pro-Am Circuit while a member of Druid Hills Country Club in Decatur, GA. She played with both Babe Zeharias and Louise Suggs. She gave up golf to care for her young family but took the game up again fifty years later. After only a few months of practice, she had played a 6-under-par round and was carrying a consistent 18-handicap. Not bad for an out of practice 75 year old!

During her long life, she endeared herself to many people with her humor, inspired others with her persistence and honesty, and, set an example for all with her loyalty and courage. She will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

She was predeceased by three brothers (James, Clinton and Douglas Madden), two sisters (Margaret Mitchell and Ruby Graves Munday), and her long-time friend and partner Shirley Degraves of Myakka City, FL. She is survived by two sons, Lanier B. Yarbrough of Oakland, CA and Dane Madden Yarbrough of Lone Star, TX, one niece, June Orr Boyd of Atlanta GA, four grandsons, and six great-grandchildren.

There will be no memorial service at her request. Cremation was carried out by the Bates-Cooper-Sloan Funeral Home of Mount Pleasant, TX.

Kid-friendly iPad games

My sister-in-law recently got an iPad 2 and asked me what games we have on our various iOS devices that James likes. Here’s what I recommended:

Apps James likes on the iPad, some of which you probably know of via the iPhone or Android phone:

Angry Birds/Angry Birds Seasons/Angry Birds Rio – You know these. Each continually is updated with more content (Easter was just added to Seasons). Note that Seasons is meant for people who’ve beaten the original game and is tough.

Bugsy the Blue Hamster – A cute cartoon hamster educational game, with counting, colors, etc.

Cut the Rope – A simple game like Angry Birds, but with cutting ropes to let candy get to the mouth of a cute frog-like monster. Like Angry Birds, they keep adding more free content all the time.

Fish School HD – An educational game featuring fish in the ocean.

Headspin: Storybook – A cute timed “spot the difference” game. The look and feel is that of a pop-up book of fairy tales.

Itsy Bitsy Spider HD – Another educational game, set to music. Note that, by default, kids can record their voices (it’s meant to be for the parents singing the song instead of the pros), which can make it an annoying noisemaker until you turn that feature off.

Monkey Preschool Lunchbox – An incredibly polished educational game with colors, matching, learning what’s less and what’s more, learning what’s bigger and what’s smaller, etc.

The Monster at the End of this Book – An iPad version of the classic Sesame Street story book (featuring Grover).

Plants vs. Zombies HD – Possibly the best game of 2009. Cartoon plants protect your home from cartoonish zombies. I don’t think anyone, of any age, doesn’t love this game.

Talesworth Adventures – A puzzle game of helping a hero (styled like an early 1980s videogame character) find his way through mazes. I would have thought this was too hard for James, but once he figured out the basics, he fell in love.

Tiki Towers – Incredibly charming physics game where players build structures out of bamboo to let monkeys get bananas and get to the other side of the level. (Note that it’s possible for the monkeys to have cartoon deaths falling into lava.)

World of Goo – One of the greatest games of the last few years. A physics puzzler where one has to create structures to help balls of goo reach their destination. Impossible to overstate how good this is, but note that the tone can be a tiny bit dark.

I would definitely look at at least one Angry Birds game, Cut the Rope, Plants vs Zombies and either Tiki Towers or the superior but darker World of Goo.

(EDIT: Greetings, Wired readers!)