Tilby's Top Ten Things (2009) (in no particular order) (subject to change)

Tilby's Top Ten Things (2009) (in no particular order) (subject to change)

1.  Favorite new food:  Onion rings.  Has the world forgotten?  Has the potato finally edged out the onion once and for all?  I protest.  Please, reconsider the onion ring.

2.  Favorite Mexican Place:  Jimmy Johns.  Man, that's a good torta.

3.  Favorite way to find music:  Pandora.  Sometimes, I feel like nobody knows me like Pandora, my dear friend.  I told you never to call me here!  What's that?  I love you too. No, she can never know...

4.  Favorite place to record:  My spare bedroom.  I know, I know - what gear?  What vibe?  What acoustic treatment?  Well, consider this:  playing in your underwear.  Top that.

5.  Favorite instrument:  Givens Mandolin.  This is its seventeenth year with me, and I think we are finally getting each other.  It likes light notes, big intervals, and we finally agree on a pick.

6.  Favorite band:  Karate ('Unsolved' is a good album to start with).  Something to say, a cool way to say it, a trio (bonus points in my book), and Geoff is a helluva guitar player to boot.

7.  Favorite band:  The Bad Plus ('For All I Care [with Wendy Lewis]' is a good album to start with.  Amazing feel, interpretation, killer ideas, and Reid Anderson is a helluva bassist to boot.

8.  Favorite Podcast:  Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.  One of the few things in life that just makes me laugh out loud, now that W. is out of the lime-light.

9.  Favorite New Gear:  D.R. "Jonas Hellborg" signature piano-wound bass strings.  Kinda tough on the fingers, but they sound killer and the tension is perfect on a short-scale bass.  Plus, his name is Hellborg.

10.  Aspirations for 2010:  The photo accompanying this entry is pretty much the happiest thing I could think of.  I think the world will most likely look like this by the end of 2010.