I tried so hard. So hard to cut the fat. But I could not! It’s chock full o’ jams! This week’s mix, the ninth installment in my Odd Pop series of tunes from pop’s hinterlands, brings the ruckus. There’s 38 tracks and dos horas de musica espectacular! Did I go trudging through the lesser solo albums of former Zombies members and ABBA Benny lead songs and ELO album tracks for this? BUT OF COURSE! We’ve also got reggae hard rock post-punk baroque pop prog newwave BruceSpringsteen so stick around!

Read on for track list and links …

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Was a time I oft fantasied of traveling to far away places and learning the ways and customs of exotic peoples. Like most youthful fantasies, this desire was at some point replaced with the ever more pressing urge to just make it through the goddamn day. But I can still travel to these magical places! Yes yes, with the help of music (and crippler hits)! I’ve assembled this week a mix of songs about places. Always a rich topic for a songwriter to explore; whether they’re getting the cuss out of Dodge or partyin’ it up in the streets. Sail away — in your mind!

Read on for track list and links …

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Well it’s been a while. You’d have to travel all the way back to the halcyon days of December 8, 2008, to find my last top 5 list (hey, at least I left you with a good one). But the kid IS BACK! And now, on with the show.

The short con. The long con. The grift. The hustle. The fix. Dirty pool. The sliding sausage. “Ladyfingers”. Call it what you will, but it’s a rough racket and only the cleverest survive. And watching clever, extraordinary folks is one of my big loves on that ol’ big screen. I recently watched a couple fantastic con artist flicks that I had somehow avoided and realized that a lot of my favorite films revolved around the subject. For the list, I narrowed it strictly to films about confidence men and using personality and persuasion rather than force and/or technological know-how (read: heist films). Strictly the con. Sure, my picks aren’t that out of the box — but I stand by this list more than any of those Tops of the Decade lists from a few weeks ago. What do you think; what are your faves?

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So today, celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by waking up at 1pm slightly dazed from a late night of Trader Joe’s baked beans and Arrested Development, I got an instant WTF feeling. As in “WTF I haven’t posted a soul mix in like six months!*” Yeah, here it is, the second MLK Day with our first Black President in office, big occasion still (lay off Obama, he’s working the big angle, nothing’s gonna be fixed overnight. That’s directed straight at liberals; ya’ll conservatives are on some different type shit, right). So there’s stuff here I’ve been dying to hit you up with, loyal readers: Smokey deep cuts, more Ruffin Brothers hits, Ray Parker Jr., BEE GEES.

Oh BTW is it condescending/offensive to celebrate MLK Day with a soul mix? I mean, for all I know, dude might’ve listened to the Clancy Brothers …

Read on for link and track list …

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Wham glam thank you Sam! I haven’t made a glam mix yet? Yowza! Oh hey, and also welcome to Persona Don Dada 2010. There’s going to be some changes around here, as in more bloggings than last year, so reset your bookmarks! Do people still use bookmarks?

Anyways it’s a glamorous mix on the days after New Year’s when I’m feeling a little less than glamorous (ugh puke). Has the velvet goldmine o’ glam already been strafed ‘n’ stripped? Well, I ain’t lookin’ to put up an obscurities mix — this is all some of my own personal faves from the (mostly) heavy hitters.

Who was the first rock dude to wear makeup? Was it Marc Bolan? Roy Wood? Naw, no way, it was Little Richard! And that ties in with some of the vague musical attributes glam rock has (if it has any): a penchant for old-timey rock ‘n’ roll (Wizzard, New York Dolls, Suzi Quatro) arranged oftentimes with boogie-woogie pianos (Mott the Hoople), doo-wop backups (Soho Jets) and honkin’ saxo-maphones (Roxy Music, Dump). Update previous with huge power chords and leads (Alice Cooper, Sweet, Slade) and an operatic pop sophistication (ABBA, David Bowie, Electric Light Orchestra) and you’re kinda getting legs. It also occurred from approximately 1970-1976 predominantly in the UK with some major exceptions (Alice Cooper, the Dolls, Kiss). Like most catch-all rock styles that are specific to a certain period and superficial style, glam has been used to describe bands that have very little to do with one another — so allow me to indulge ABBA, Genesis and the Runaways on the same mix. Turn it up loud and annoy your parents!

Read on for track list and link …

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That’s right folks, I’m giving you an extra special treat to pump as you slip into the new decade’s cold, cold embrace: A sweet podcast of all 50 of my top 50 singles of the decade culled from the list I posted Monday. Relive decade half-remembered in MP3 form! I’ve split the 50 songs into four chunks across my various 8tracks accounts. Remember the good times!

Read on for track list and link …

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The exciting sequel to my best of the decade listing and tomfoolery. Read on for my top TV shows, films and more!

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I always thought I’d feel a little more, I don’t know, poignant facing the end of the 2000s; this is, after all, the end of my first decade as a full-grown adult (hello credit card debt). From a certain perspective culturally the aughts were a breath of fresh air — anyone remember what people were wearing, watching and listening to at the end of the 20th century? In the 2000s, you could turn on the (rapidly dying) FM radio and reasonably expect to hear something good on the mainstream hits station — and it could be a rock song, a country song, a hip-hop song, a dance song …

Personal regrets? Well, I’ve only been overseas twice in the past decade. And I alwaysdid think I would be more World Famous by 2010 … Anyways, enough of the foofaraw, let’s pay homage to the decade that brought us both the completed map of the cow genome and the Snuggie by condensing it into an easily consumed list. Don’t read this as any sort of definitive; although I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear this, I really haven’t listened to every album, watched every film, or smoked every strain of clinically produced medical-grade marijuana produced in the 2000s. And there may be some changes in a year, a month, a day to my feelings about these lists; this is merely how I feel as I stand on the precipice of the decade …

Read on after the jump to read Part I of my top albums, singles, pizza toppings and more! Come back tomorrow for the exciting conclusion!!!

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It’s a Christmas miracle! I’ve actually gotten off my lazy hindquarters and made a new mix! Isn’t this the gift you all wished for? Be honest! This year I’ve gone and outdone myself — I didn’t know it was possible to make a Christmas mix without my old stand-bys; but hey, like they say, there’s more than one way to skin a Christmas cat!!! That’s a pleasant image. Here’s hoping your X-mas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, or other various-denominational excuse to not go to work and get drunk is filled with many wishes. And miracles!!!

Read on for track list and link …

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