I see the memes about people's Spotify Wrap list and what it says of them. Allegedly. Me? I'm always suspect of WASPs who have a lot of rap. It just seems........wrong.
Me? I like what I like, but I also have some solid OCD tendencies so I'm apt to play and replay things a lot. Even back in July (?) I predicted the Tragically Hip would be my most played artist and I wasn't wrong. They topped it for five months in a row!
All of that said, while I have / had a few running playlists, many songs and artists cross over. So here is my Apple Play Lists of 2025. I don't do Spotify.
That's 357.5 hours of music.
Nailed it.
For 357 hours of music this doesn't seem like a lot of songs. But again: repeat
Top song. It wasn't even from this year, but 1989!
Like how there are 42 albums in rotation but they show repeating. C'mon Apple, you're a tech co.
My most played album though was from last year - which says a lot about 2025 releases.
....or again......repetition.
Not a huge shock.
I gotta say, Fleetwood Mac always stumps me. They show every year, but I swear they don't come across my ears all that much.
But now let's get dow to the yearly "favourites".
I have my likes, of course, but usually - especially with albums - I'm a bit dejected by how few stand out now-a-days. I get the intertube has made it all very song-oriented, but I'm a '70s-'80s guy who liked albums, the start to finish. The A and B side. The liner notes. The collective that the artists envisioned.
I found it hard to review 12 disks this last year (I didn't!), let alone find anything that STANDS OUT. I have two this year, both good, but not destined to be classics or my go-to disks.
Albums
Both selections - I have no more than that - are Americana or Bluegrass based.
Jason Isbell hits with a truly solo record. An acoustic guitar, a microphone and a voice. That's it. Well crafted songs - well executed too. As it is so minimal, it is listenable more than play and sing along with type of music. He and his band are coming to the 216 next month. I'd like to see them, but not sure I can convince 710.
Kraus and Union Station never disappoint really. I was just expecting more after a 14 year wait for any record from the band. Technically it is flawless, but artistically it's not quite hitting the mark for me, unlike their other albums. Still, it is great craftsmanship.
Song
Months back I said that Role Model's song "Sally...." was the 'song of the summer'. It turns out it might be the song of the year. At least for me. I haven't tired of it yet, even a little.
A semi-close runner up would be sombr's "undressed". As I stated months ago it is the 30 second section of the break of the verse / chorus thing that is just a stand out vocal and arrangement.
For a while this year, I had predicted - to myself - that this would be my top pick of the year. "Spaceman in Tulsa" is still a great song, it just fell a few notches for me. Still outstanding performance by the Counting Crows.
I am not a Swiftie by a long shot. I have two of her songs on a playlist and that is it. But it was impossible to avoid "the Fate of Ophelia". The 2,093,001,763 TikTok, Instagram and Facebook videos of any - and every - one doing their 45 seconds of dance to the chorus wouldn't allow it.
That said, it is well written and executed......and catchy. No offense to Swift herself, but she co-wrote it with Max Martin who has written the second most #1 singles on Billboard's Hot 100 (ever!) - including songs from Backstreet Boys, 'Nsync, Brittney Spears, Katy Perry, the Weeknd and more. So I don't know what part(s) came from her or him. But it's gotta hook you can't deny.
The video is a lot. Too much, actually.
I figured folks should hear my most played song, the Tragically Hip's "Blow at High Dough". It goes back to their first full length album back in 1989 (!). It is a great running song. It's a great song, period. For no specific reason, I like how Gord Downie sings the word "dough" in a minor key when nothing else is.
Not sure what 2026 has planned. Allegedly new music from Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Squeeze (!!!!), Stevie Nicks, Annie Lennox, Michael Stipe and some others. I won't hold my breath on the last two, as those have been talked about for years at this point.
Anyone else have their 2025 best of they'd like to share?
Apparently I got one more My Music Monday post for 2025............and this is it.
What to do? WHAT to do????
It's been a bad week for death around here and the passing of longtime Cure member Perry Bamonte the other day will be felt, as he was their guitarist for many an album. And a left-handed one at that. He played keyboards for the band as well.
So, I've been in a Cure mode - though that never strays far for me.
Technically Bamonte did not play on the bands last two disks but probably toured with them. Still, I'm pulling something off of Songs of a Lost World, their latest disk.
To be super technical, Mixes of a Lost World, a companion piece to Songs of... is their latest, but the remixes don't really work for me. Maybe inside of a club and if I was high they might.
Still I am pulling what might be a classic Cure style song with "Endsong". Long long musical intro with any lyrics and singing coming later. ''I'm outside in the dark wondering how I got so old'' .
I've been seen.
It's moody for sure, but I love it. And it's a style for which they are known for at least on song per disk.
It clocks in at almost 11 minutes, but it's good music (my opinion, of course). And it's the end....of 2025.
I mean, aren't December holidays about baked goods? Just humour me and say 'yes'.
I know people who are the kind who will take days off of work to bake hundreds of cookies. Sometimes hundreds of dozens of them.
I like these people because sometimes I'm the recipient of their hard work and better yet, I don't have to bake.
But I have been more confident about my baking over the last few years and while I'm not ever going to join a cookie swap (probably) I can stick to one cookie recipe here and there.
I saw a recipe for Peppermint Brownie Cookies.
Even the name has three things I like. And it didn't look horribly complicated. And save for one ingredient, I had everything. I mean who really has candy canes or starlight mints hanging around?
So the other day I got to work. And they're not a lot of that. I say prep first (again) since this one goes fast and I thought I'd have more time between steps.
I did not. Let's get to it.
Ingredients
Yield:
12 cookies (lies - all lies. It made 10 + 1 smaller one)
½ cup/42 grams unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-processed
½ cup/113 grams unsalted butter
2l arge eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup/150 grams granulated sugar
½ packed cup/107 grams dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
1½ teaspoons peppermint extract
¾ cup/90 grams all-purpose flour
¼ cup/41 grams crushed peppermint candy
Preparation
Step 1
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. (easiest step by far)
Before
After
Step 2
Put chocolate and ¼ cup/21 grams cocoa powder in a small heatproof bowl or glass measuring cup. Melt butter in a skillet or saucepan over medium-low heat until bubbly but not browned, and pour over the chocolate. Without stirring, let the mixture sit so the residual heat can melt the chocolate thoroughly while you whip the eggs and sugar.
Step 3
Put the eggs, both sugars and the salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on medium-high speed until the mixture is pillowy and the sugars have begun to dissolve, 6 to 8 minutes.
Step 4
Stir the chocolate mixture until glossy and smooth. If any solid pieces remain, you can microwave the mixture in 10-second bursts until everything is melted.
Step 5
With the mixer on low speed, add the peppermint extract and then the chocolate mixture. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a spatula, then add the flour and remaining ¼ cup/21 grams cocoa, and mix on low until a few streaks of flour and cocoa remain. Use the spatula to finish folding in the dry ingredients to avoid overmixing. The dough will be looser than traditional cookie dough but not as thin as brownie batter.
Step 6
Use a ¼-cup cookie scoop or measuring cup to scoop 12 (2-ounce) balls of batter onto the prepared sheets and bake. After 10 minutes, take the sheets out of the oven and bang them once on the counter to create a craggy surface and dense texture. Sprinkle a bit of crushed peppermint candy in the center of each cookie and return to the oven for another 2 minutes.
Step 7
Let cool completely on the baking sheets. The cookies will keep for 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature. (second easiest step)
The cooking time is so short, I didn't have time to do my entire clean-up in between. The texture is dense, to the bowl, apatula and mixer paddle aren't quick cleans.
It looks decent and not too cow-patty-ish. The size is decent and while I am normally a two cookie guy at dessert time, this calls for one and one only. They are rich - not quite cookie, not quite brownie. The shards on top are decorative at best. The mint flavour comes from the extract that went in.
I wouldn't say these are year round cookies. They seem very seasonal. But good. I'm assuming you can make them smaller to have more than a dozen per batch.
FOX "news" must be apoplectic that CBS and Paramount are now the front-runner for State run media.
FOX did all the leg work and Paramount took it across the finish line - a few times. That's gotta hurt.
First it was Colbert. Then it was a first botched 60 Minutes love fest on BLOTUS. Now it's the cancelling of a 60 Minutes piece that was vetted by Standards and Practices and the CBS legal squad.
60 Minutes new head, ironically coming from the Free Press, 86'd a segment on Venezuelan prisons where the US is deporting folks.
Bari Weiss (purpossefully?) did not watch the five times the segment was reviewed at CBS prior to the show being scheduled to air. Less than 48 hours before go-time, she cancelled it. Well, she 'postponed' it saying it needed more work. Saying "they" - the segment producers and talent - needed to get Stephen Miller's side of the story for it to air.
With that logic, it has been pointed out, the White House could control any narrative on political stories if they opted not to comment at all.
Of course, social media did it's job.
The segment reporter Sharyn Alfonsi and 60 Minutes mainstay and former CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley were publicly vocal about their boss and their broadcaster's take on how this all went down. I expect neither of them to have jobs in the near future - for completely other made up reasons, of course.
Actually, I can see 60 Minutes being closed down. Maybe another network can pick it up and add one minute and call it 61 Minutes just to get around any name infringement.
Weiss, while riding a tsunami of criticism for her handling of this, shouldn't be affected. She's got the new fascist regime at Paramount behind her pulling her strings, so she's good. I'm sure she's got the backing of the White House too.
Cory Booker on the other hand, I expect to be browbeaten by the Senate, the WH and Paramount.
I'm not quite sure, but somehow he seemingly helped in getting that segment to Canadian broadcasters who did air it.
While I didn't see it, but should, 710 did. If nothing else to add to the number of views it keeps tallying. I couldn't find the link (though I didn't look too hard) if you wanted to view the piece.
I feel with this and the Epstein shit and the Kennedy Center, walls seem to be closing in on BLOTUS a little. But he's weathered worse before and come out unscathed. Just once I want to see him pay the price for something.....................anything.
Unlike Dr. Spo, I can take or leave Dickens, but I have never been a huge fan of A Christmas Carol.
Sure, I laughed at Scrooged, but mostly for a 4 second bit of Mary Lou Retton playing Tiny Tim (dropping "his" crutch and doing back flips) and the Solid Gold Dancers. I swear, no one but me laughed at these in the theater.
Family Guy takes on a very short part of a Christmas Carol.
Just the Ghost of Christmas Past part. I don't know about ghosts and their rituals or ability to use an iPhone, but Ebenezer always seemed old to me. I had to look it up but he was only in his mid 50s, which probably was old in the mid 1800s. Still elderly defined by the times, the issues Scrooge has are probably very very accurate.
It's 90 seconds. Make the time.
Anyhoo........have a merry merry. I'll be off to get Chinese fud with my cousin.
I get it's "the day before" and maybe this should be a festive-like post, but..............if you've been reading me at all, you know that it's probably not gonna go that way.
Yesterday I did 93% of my holiday shopping in a two hour period.
For procrastinating to the 10th hour, I gotta say, I'm good. I mean, my selections are decent and somewhat thought out. Usually I'm a little more creative than I was this year, but what are you gonna do?
We all know why I procrastinated. Crowds. People. Mental meltdown. I did try to go on-line route, but I tried too late and the things I wanted weren't amazon related, so nothing in 24-72 hours. I had to go in person - so that's on me.
On my second stop I knew what I wanted and was gonna be in and out. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a guy picking up a Le Creuset pot or pan of some kind. I thought I saw a Marine Corp Marathon patch on his vest.
It's me, so I wasn't actually going to talk to him, but it made me look twice.
It was not MCM. It was a vest with a Pentagon patch. I almost - almost !!! - made a "Department of War" 'joke'.
The joke would have been on me. He moved and his other patch was just that.
I audibly groaned.
The vest and patches looked extremely authentic. I looked on-line to see if there were such vests for sale, but nothing came up leading me to believe he worked with the Evil Overlords. ....the two patches in the title image are either exact or pretty damned close to what he was wearing.
And he ended up right in front of me in line to check out. I was forced to keep looking at it.......at him,
I'd like to think the woman behind me saw what he was wearing, but I'm not sure. Still I turned her way and muttered, "Jesus Fucking Christ". Now that I type that, I hope she didn't think I was talking about her.
Whether a BLOTUS / Hegseth enthusiast or a member of SS, I was just repulsed for hours afterwards. I'm kind of kicking myself now for NOT saying anything.
I'm also kicking myself for not taking a picture of his fit....as the kids say. My new phone takes great pics. I could have done it from a distance and still gotten the shot.
Honestly, this is why you shouldn't let me out of the house. Well.......one of many reasons.
Oh, I've had scheduled posts for the last three days, so I'm a little behind on the Vanity Fair photo spread on the Bad Seeds of 1600 Pennsylvania.
As I don't read news, imagine my surprise to find that the Chief of Staff was a woman! I couldn't have told you a name, let alone a gender. I think by this time in his first term, BLOTUS would have had at least two, if not three, CoS go through a revolving door.
The photos are breathtaking in every regard. Seriously.
They are real. Which is something this administration would rather you not know. They are somewhat ugly, which is a perfect metaphor for this group.
I'm slightly intrigued why only one cabinet member - Rubio. No RFKKKjr ; no Hegseth, no Patel, no Oz or any of the other assorted vermin.
Karoline Levaitt does not come out well at all. Lip filler injections aside, she is 27 or 28 years old. Not 56. Not that you'd know it from that pic. I mean, the way she spews lies, you'd think she'd been doing it since the '60s. But she was brought up in the Mean Girls era, her deceit and venom just comes naturally.
As you expect, the internet is just having a fucking field day with it all - and I'm just talking about the pics, not even the shit the Chief of Staff has spewed (which I'm only picking up bits and pieces in some social media posts).
Here are two of my faves:
The thing with this one is I don't even doubt it.
But it was another media byte that had me way way way way way more intrigued that came out from Christopher Anderson and an interview with the Washington Post.
Honestly, I'm surprised that Bezos allowed it to be published, since his bald head is so far up BLOTUS' asshole.
The problem with the line is that Miller probably never understood what Anderson was saying. And that's why they're so ugly.
Just so I don't forget this holiday treat, I'm actually drafting this on December 31, 2024 !!
I heard today's holiday selection just after I did last year's holiday / December song, and since I couldn't reverse time, and so I wouldn't forget I heard it in the first place, I'm planning this post 356 days ahead of time.
Save Pee Wee's Christmas Special, I don't know I've done a song from a xmas-themed movie / show. And even those were standards fit into Pee Wee's wonderful show.
I'm 99% sure I have not pulled from A Year Without a Santa Claus,Rudolph or Santa Claus is Coming to Town.
So here we go, it's a variation of one of THE worst animated xmas shows: Frosty the Snowman.
I honestly don't remember if that had other songs. Certainly nothing memorable. And the title song is just horrid, no?
But I'm giving it to you a new way. I totally get why people might not like it. But I think it's brilliant.
I mean, we've been experiencing "winter" since Thanksgiving.
At 10:03 EDT, it will officialy be officially winter. Shortest day of the year. ....which is a lie. It's still 24 hours.
Least amount of daylight for most is more accurate. Or longest amount of darkness. It's a glass half empty or full thing, I suppose.
If my dad were still alive, he'd be telling us at dinner that the days start getting longer. I didn't need an app or a calendar for this - I had my father.
While it's anticipated to by chilly here today, it is not nearly as bad as it has been. I can live with upper 20s as the high. Like I have a choice.
Stonehenge is on a list of things I want to see. But like this picture, I don't want anyone else there. The throngs, the tour buses would just kill it for me. I'm sure sunrise is a popular time - drats.
Anyhoo - the "optimist" in me can see the longer daylight hours. The realist in me knows it is going to get colder. Blergh. While I'm not fond of the cold, as for running, I'd rather it be cold than hot, but I just make do, as for whatever reasons, I do not have the ability to control the weather.
I have deemed that next Saturday - December 27th - will be the Annual Blobby's Blog Reader Pet Post.
Thank you for all who have contributed thus far. Looking forward to seeing everyone's pets (along with their names) Just send pics and 4-1-1 to blobbysblog@gmail.com. Danke (I'm practicing for my trip to Berlin next September).
This week it is Shep. Shep. Shep. .....and happy to do so. Oh, there are some daycare dogs too. Many.
He's manipulative when he wants a car ride. He knows what he's doing.
Fuzzball. Don't know their name.
I feel judged. Harshly.
Leah's eyes!!!!
Shep is a weird dude. He loves diving into and rolling on the hard packed snow.
I look up from reading to see him in a chair of which he is not allowed.
Late evening walk.
Well....not late evening. Just like 15:30, but 40 minutes before sunset.
Not Bailey.
One of the more frozen days.
Can I just say how much I love being greeted like this?
I am SURE I'm the only one they do this for.
As close as he got to picking out a holiday tree.
I mean, I don't think the owners would appreciate him lifting his leg on all of them. And he would.
The tree guys loved him. Wanted to pet. I told them he was kind of a dick, but just not to bend down. Shep was all happy - until he wasn't and started yelling at them. They took it well. Everyone had on Carhartt.
