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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to the final Monday post of 2009!  It’s been quite a year, and certainly a year of changes and improvements here at the best cover song music video blog in the universe.  For starters, we came up with a weekly schedule of new material that did NOT involve each of us recording a video once every three days.

The “session-a-day” concept may not have been the brightest idea I ever had…

I started the year playing a simple, pretty little Big Star song called “Thirteen,” covers of which I had heard performed by Elliott Smith and Wilco.  In much the same way, I wanted to end the year with another simple but catchy song.  I chose the Wilco track “Far, Far Away,” an acoustic song that incorporates harmonica — another definite plus!  Over the past year and a third, I’ve recorded Wilco songs from all of their studio albums (including both Mermaid Avenue releases) except for two.  Since this song was originally on the 1996 double album Being There, I now only have one uncovered album to select from in the future.

Thanks to the Christmas break, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to sit back and play this song over the past five days.  By the time I hit “Record with iSight” on my iMovie earlier today, this song felt like second nature.  It’s one of those songs that is deceptively simple, and I respect the original Wilco version even more now, especially the way Tweedy’s vocals resonate throughout.  I was also fortunate enough to be in the right groove and managed to arrange and record my session for next week.  Because it will be my first session of the new year, I wanted to pick a thematically relevant song.  The track I picked is fairly simple, but I initially had difficulty translating it to an acoustic performance.  Overall, I am very pleased with my recording, and I can’t wait to post it next year.

Um, I mean next week.

Outside of these songs, I’ve been thinking a lot about my top thirty rock albums of the decade list.  I’m due to post it in less than a week now, so the pressure’s on.  I’ve had the list ready for weeks, but I keep listening to more of the albums again and, consequently, the positions of many of them have been fluctuating.  For instance, I’ve been agonizing over my decision to make Maroon number five instead of number four.  So, especially after conversations with Nicole and with Mike and Alb tonight, I’ve decided I need to spend some more time reconsidering my options, and then finalize this thing.  After all, the reason I’m doing this in the first place is to (a) have a reason to revisit some of my favorite albums of the past ten years and think about them all over again, and (b) spark conversation with my friends and share opinions, engage in debates, and explain justifications for the rankings.  Just tonight, Mike made a great argument for Snacktime being one of the best albums of the decade.

One more to consider…

Outside of music, I haven’t been getting any grading done yet this break, but I have been reading.  I’m one chapter into The Wilco Book, a book I’ve been excited about reading since I first got into Wilco over a year ago.  It was the perfect gift, as I could never bring myself to buy it.  I’ve also been reading Revolution in the Air, a book by my favorite “Dylanologist,” Clinton Heylin.  Heylin has somehow managed to compile a list of 600 original Dylan compositions written between 1957 and 2006 and organized them by when they were written (that’s right — when they were written, not recorded).  The story behind each song is explained, and even though I’m only forty pages in, it’s a fascinating read.  Just when I thought I had read all there was of interest about Bob Dylan, this book comes along…

Finally, I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie last night.  Because I teach several Holmes stories to my Mystery class, I was hesitant about enjoying the action-packed previews.  Fortunately, the movie is excellent: Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law perfectly play their parts as Holmes and Watson, and the film manages to balance action and an interesting mystery.  It was so much fun, that I’ve finally set off on a goal I’ve had for some time but never followed through with: to read all 56 Holmes stories penned by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Nicole and I have taken turns reading the first seven “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” to each other, the most recent being “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle.”  If you know what a carbuncle is, then you are probably just as confused by the title as I originally was.  Let’s just say that the story centers around a different kind of carbuncle than the common meaning of the word.

And, on that side note, I’m about ready to get some sleep.  Before I go to bed, I’m going to finish watching Live Free or Die Hard, sort through the rest of my old bills and records (shredding whatever I can before moving), and continue to write and organize the poems I’m compiling for an upcoming poetry collection.  In fact, there’s one poem I’ve had nearly finished in my head since I was washing my hands before dinner yesterday, so I better write that one down before I lose it…

See you next year for my next session!