My favorite music of the past Decade 2000-09

Music is truly an obsession of mine. It fuels my creative ventures, my life more than I can describe in words.

Lately I've been noticing with a great deal of interest music, lifestyle and mainstream publications, web sites, blogs weighing in with their best records of the past decade.

I thought i would also join in and list in no particular order the CDs that inspired me this past decade and helped me get through one of the worst decades in my life. I won't go into that in this post, except to say that I no longer take life for granted anymore. However, music means more to me than it ever has.

Here are my fave recordings of the 2000s. These are limited to the actual CDs I own and realize there are some I may have left out.

GP

My favorite records of 2000-2009

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost is Born, Wilco, Wilco
Seachange, Beck
In Rainbows, Kid A, Hail to the Thief, Radiohead
Love & Theft, Modern Times, Together Through Life, Bob Dylan
The Rising, Magic, The Pete Seeger Sessions, Bruce Springsteen
White Blood Cells, Elephant, Get Behind Me Satan, White Stripes
I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn, Lifted, Bright Eyes
Read English/Speak Spanish, Desaparecidos
All That You Leave Behind, U2
Illinois, Sufjan Stevens
The Greatest, Cat Power
Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers, The Boxer, The National
Transcendental Blues, Jerusalem, Townes, Steve Earle
The Wind, Warren Zevon
Raising Sand, Robert Plant & Alison Kraus
Fever to Tell, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs
Love, The Beatles
Revival, John Fogarty
Children of Men Soundtrack
Entourage Soundtrack
Hustle and Flow Soundtrack
LCD Soundsystem
Gorillaz, Demon Days, Gorillaz
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, War Against the Mystics, Flaming Lips
Yonder is the Clock, Felice Brothers
The College Dropout, Late Registration, Graduation, Kanye West
Stay Positive, Boys and Girls in America, The Hold Steady
Whatever People Say I am, That's What I am Not, Artic Monkeys
Sing, Sing Death House, the Distillers
Veni Vidi Vicious, The Hives
Rabbit Fur Coat, Jenny Lewis
Black Cadillac, Roseanne Cash
Funeral, Neon Bible, Arcade Fire
Gold, Love is Hell, Part 1 & 2, Easy Tiger, Ryan Adams
Arular, Kala, MIA
Be, Common
Kill the Moonlight, Gimme Fiction, Ga Ga Ga Ga, Spoon
Taking the Long Way, Dixie Chicks
Dear Science, TV on the Radio
Murray Street, Rather Ripped, Sonic Youth
St. Elsewhere, The Odd Couple, Gnarls Barkley
Chutes Too Narrow, The Shins
In Search Of, N.E.R.D
Marshall Mathers Project, 8 Mile, Eminem
Chronic 2001, Dr. Dre
Stankonia, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, Outkast
Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2, Billy Bragg and Wilco
Figure 8, From a Basement on a Hill, New Moon, Elliott Smith
Sophtware Slump, Grandaddy
Under Construction, Missy Elliott
American Gangster Soundtrack, Jay Z
Rounds, Four Tet
Original Pirate Material, The Streets
Phrenology, The Roots
Don't Give Up on Me, Solomon Burke
Blood Money, Alice, Tom Waits
A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay
Decoration Day, Dirty South, Brighter Than Creation's Dark, Drive-By Truckers
You Forgot it in People, Broken Social Scene
Welcome Interstate Managers, Fountains of Wayne
Transatlanticism, Plans, Narrow Stairs, Death Cab for Cutie
Up the Bracket, The Libertines
Get Rich or Die Trying, 50 Cent
Van Lear Rose, Loretta Lynn
Hobosapiens, John Cale
Franz Ferdinand
Cee-Lo Green...is the Soul Machine
American Idiot, Green Day
Good News for People Who Love Bad News, Modest Mouse
More Adventurous, Rilo Kiley
Z, Evil Urges, My Morning Jacket
Chavez Ravine, Ry Cooder
Toxicity, Mezmerize, Hyptonize, System of a Down
This is Buck 65
Souljacker, Blinking Lights and Other Revelations, eels
Tha Carter III, Lil Wayne
For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Ever
Conor Oberst
Dig! Lazarus Dig!, Nick Cave
Let's Stay Friends, Les Savy Fav
Vampire Weekend
Real Animal, Alejandro Escovedo
Harps & Angels, Randy Newman
Third, Portishead
Mudcrutch
Sigur Ros
St. Anger, Death Magnetic, Metallica
Electric Dirt, Levon Helm
Highway Companion, Tom Petty
3121, Prince

A blog & Poem: Trick or Treat?

I wrote this poem a couple years ago as I sat in a Starbucks in Belmont Shore...watching the parade of Halloween revelers pass by.

It seemed appropriate this year, too.

I got me thinking about Halloween again....and how I have grown to dislike it...

It has become commercialized like all or most holidays and just another excuse to party...

In this poem, I decided to use Halloween as a jumping off point so to speak for my other concerns about our society.

GP

***

TRICK OR TREAT?

Trick or treat?

Neither is what they seem.

The scary things don't hide in closets
but in our hearts and souls
as we confront our lost dreams
our twisted hopes,
our love turned turned so bitter inside.

Left alone in the darkness of our imaginations.
We are the bogeyman and the bogeyman is us.

Tricked for treats?
Treated to dirty tricks?

The scary stuff?
Your best friend
letting you down over again
Your lover hurting you because they can.

Treats and trickery on All Hallows' Eve.

The real horrors of human nature
to contemplate.

There are zombies, vampires and monsters
everywhere you look tonight.

They are always there.

You work for them.
You try to love them.
You struggle to understand them.
You call them family.
You regard them as good friends
and trusted allies
who are selling you out all the while
with handshakes and smiles.

Trick or treat?

Neither is what they seem.

George Pappas
Copyright 2009

Signs of the Economic Times in Belmont Shore, CA

There are signs of the Great Recession everywhere you look these days in Belmont Shore (Long Beach), Calif. During the 15 or so years I have lived on and off in Belmont Shore, I have never seen so many apartment rental, leasing and home sale signs. While walking through my neighborhood for the past five months, I have tried to capture this change through pictures. Yet amidst the numerous rental and for sale signs there are indications of hope and renewal with new bars and restaurants popping up on the Shore. Like all economic downturns -- this is painful, but also offers new opportunities.

You can check out my photo essay on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=2038238&id=1371962471&ref=mf

GP

RE: Ruminations on the aftermath of Apollo 11: A Child of the Future

On the 40th year anniversary of the first Moon landing, I am still very much in awe of the Apollo 11 mission and what was accomplished.
But I am also saddened that in the ensuing years we didn't build on our Moon explorations.
It seems to me at times that we have lost our wonder and joy of exploration of worlds beyond our own. Space exploration it seems has become mundane to us or too costly.
We'd rather spend billions on weapons than space missions.

We are easily landlocked and lost in petty differences and have times turned our hearts and souls away from the promise of the universe...the stars.

I wrote this following poem about this feeling of lost mystery in our space journeys.
Seems appropriate on this historic day.

GP
--



A CHILD OF THE FUTURE

I am a child of
future shock.

I was stillborn with electronic eyes,
one of the TV lot.
Raised in suburban rot.
Never knowing quite what I've got.

I am infected with a spirit eating disease
for which it seems there is no cure.
Puzzled by an emptiness,
a boredom that haunts.

Once I dreamed along with the astronauts.
The world,
the universe seemed endless
and the possibilities limitless
like the stars.

Now, the astronauts are gone,
just memories floating in the
spaces
of my mind.

Leaving me to deal with
the shock
of a future
where it seems the stars
have dropped from the sky
and disappeared from our eyes.

It is then I realize,
I am beyond shock,
beyond tears.

George Pappas
Copyright 2009

MANAGED CARE -- 2 Poems about the sham of healthcare or Why we need healthcare reform NOW

Will President Obama and Congress have the guts to pass REAL healthcare reform with a public insurance option? I remain hopeful, but I have my doubts. So many others have tried before and failed.

Healthcare should not be a partisan issue -- it reaches all of us regardless of our political views. Disease and illness shows no favorites

Half measures and half-hearted attempts to reform healthcare will leave us with a continued broken system and escalating healthcare costs that takes us beyond the brink of moral and economic bankruptcy.

That will be NO change that we can't believe in.

A public health insurance option is the best way to force insurance companies to lower rates.
Some half-baked co-op non-profit option by the GOP won't work.

Sorry, GOP and blue dog democrats -- we need a sweeping FDR like solution to our health problem involving the government.

It is up to us to hold President Obama, the Democrats and Republicans accountable for delivering healthcare reform that makes a difference. That means a plan where everyone can receive real healthcare services regardless of their insurance or financial situation. Forty-sx million uninsured and many more underinsured in this country deserve better.

The movie "Sicko"....left me with such outrage....at our health system choking on greed while so many of us suffer....
You can't put a price on health, on life...on suffering...on healing...it so crazy..beyond words...
This movie shows healthcare in this country for the sham it is..
While in countries...that are supposed be our inferior (what a joke?!) they take care of their cititzens with no regard to cost. There is no turning back the sick, the injured...the poor...who need care...because of cost...because of greed.

In the late 1990s, I worked as publicist for a firm that specialized in healthcare PR...and now I am realize the tales we were spinning....especially in supporting huge insurance and healthcare institutions...

Why does this country -- especially the politicians -- still think it is OK to profit off people's heath and illness? It is a disgrace.

Now, is the time to truly CHANGE it. Our health and future as a country depends on it.

I wrote these poems a while back about my feelings about our so called modern healthcare system.

GP

*******************************

MANAGED CARE?

Modern medicine
is on the operating table
suffering from heart failure.

Is it too late
to resuscitate?
or has medicine sealed its fate
with rampant greed and lies?

Managed Care.
One of the most insidious phrases
in the English language.
A contradiction in terms.

Care
managed
is no care at all.

Just an excuse to steal hope from
our lives
as the value of each one of
our breaths,
our heartbeats
is measured on a
balance sheet.

Doctor,
take my temperature
my blood is boiling
and spilling over.
My heart is about to burst.

This is one cardiac arrest
you won't be able to manage.

A CHECK UP?

Doctor, I am in need of a check up,
but who checks on you?

What does M.D. really mean?
More dollars?

What does HMO stand for?
How much owed?

Does your stethoscope only hear
the sound of cash registers clanging
instead of hearts beating?

Doctor, you're backed by slick public relations machines
and riding in the back of stretch limousines.

When did the Hippocratic Oath
become only a means to greed?

When did you take a scalpel to the heart of medicine
and let it bleed....
green?

Doctor, doctor,
do you have what I need?

George Pappas
Copyright 2009

A Poem for Father's Day: My Father's Photos

Today is Father's Day and I've been thinking a lot about my father's life. One thing (among many) I've learned from him is how you have to seize your dreams.

He was a great photographer and yet never pursued it. He took the safe route as an accountant for the IRS,

In some ways I am grateful...but then I wonder...

Six and half years ago, when he was just about to get on with his life -- after years of a horrible marriage -- he was hit with an aneurysm that he has never fully recovered from. Even after all this time he is not the same man. It is like a stranger invaded his body. So in a way a large part of him has died -- his former self and personality -- but he is still alive.

I wrote this poem for him a while back to celebrate his talent and sacrifice.

GP

***

MY FATHER'S PHOTOS

My father
was an
accountant
for the
government.

Every day of his working life
he dealt with
cold
hard
figures
and
unbending
numbers.

But I believe deep in his
heart
he wanted
to be a photographer.

His love took seed
during his stint in the Navy.
He served as a photographer on an aircraft carrier
lovingly documenting
plane landings,
life at sea
and the exotic places they visited:
Japan,
Philippines,
Taiwan and
Hawaii.

Later he showed
the same care in documenting
our family's lives with thousand upon thousands
of photos.

Every step we took from the cradle,
every birthday,
every occasion,
my father was there
capturing snapshots.

The documents of our past,
the photos
now sit in boxes in
the closet of my father's den room
like forgotten artifacts
collecting dust.

The other day
I pulled one of the boxes out
and looked at the photos.
Faces of my youth
stared back at me
shot with such care and love.

I wondered why my dad shelved
our photos.
I asked him but he wouldn't say.

He's retired now
but still the photos sit untouched in the boxes.
I even bought him a photo album
but he just put it in one of the boxes.

I think the photos
remind him he put aside his true love
to crunch numbers.
They represent a picture of sadness and regrets.

His dream is languishing
piled in cardboard boxes
captured in pictures of our family's past.

George Pappas
Copyright 2009

A poem about the death of Dr. George Tiller & Religious Intolerance: Holy War?

I don't care whether you support abortion or not, but there's no justification for cowardly murder of Dr. George Tiller.

How can someone defend the rights of the unborn with murder? That shows no logic and reason.

Fortunately, abortion is still legal in this country despite an insidious domestic TERRORIST campaign that has gone on for years.

Yes, terrorism.

How can this campaign by the lunatic fringe of the anti-abortion movement be described as anything else.

If someone of Arab descent had done something like this against our government or individual officials, they would be branded as terrorists by the government and the media.

The definition of terrorism is as follows:

ter⋅ror⋅ism–noun
1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.

These all fit the ongoing violent attacks on women's health physicians, nurses and clinics. The Obama Administration needs to aggressively enforce the law established during the Clinton's Administration making violent threats of intimidation, vandalism and attacks on abortion providers and clinics a felony.

Sure, anti-abortion activists can protest peacefully, but that is not what I am referring to. That kind of protest is protected under the constitution. Violent protest is not.

Yet this problem of religious intolerance is much wider than this issue.

As it is early Sunday morning or the Sabbath, I thought I'd share a poem about my disgust with the misuse of God and religion all over this precious globe we call Earth. So many commit unholy acts in the name of so called holy missions.

What can be holy about killing in the name of God? How can this ever be justified period? But using religion to justify such acts is the height of hypocrisy...and I mean ALL RELIGIONS.

I take no sides...I favor no religion.....I only take the side of the kind and the generous...and those who truly try to improve the lives of those around them..

Remember we are all in this thing together...and no one human is God...no matter how powerful we may think we are

GP

****************************************************


HOLY WAR?

In the name of God,
you
bomb abortion clinics,
shoot doctors,
murder nurses
to protect fetuses
not yet alive.

In the name of God,
you
bomb passenger trains,
down airplanes,
destroy buildings
torch villages,
toss bodies
of innocents
into ditches,
rob souls,
wage
war
after
war.

Using the God's word
like a club,
bludgeoning all your perceived foes,
vanquishing your so-called enemies.

Where's God's forgiveness and compassion in your actions?

You're killing the spirit of God
in the name of religion.

You're killing God
in the name of
smug,
twisted,
spiritual
perversion.

You're killing God
in the name of blind intolerance.

Your war is a holy war
anything but holy,
waged against everyone
except your own
deadened soul.

You're conducting
a modern day
crucifixion
of our souls and dreams
in the name of God.

What's holy about that?

George Pappas
Copyright 2009