’Tis the season… to make lists. Yeah, we know — you can’t open a magazine (or browser window) without someone telling you about the best this-or-thats of the year. Or the decade. That said, FMC staff are an interesting bunch, so we thought we’d share our faves of 2009 with you. Keep in mind can always email us yours or post ‘em to our blog. ’Cause we’ve decided that 2010 gonna be all about the conversation.
Chhaya Kapadia, Events Organizer
(in no particular order)
1. Summit 09
Very proud of this year’s Summit which was the biggest and bestest of FMC’s Summits (and my baby). Here’s just a few of the photos.
2. Family vacation in Morocco
Enjoyed every minute of the family, extended family, the Mediterranean, the swimming lessons, the beer-sneaking, the crazy driving, the excellent food, the story-telling, and the language lessons.
3. Inauguration
What is there to say? I had no idea that DC could party like that. I *earned* that cold I came down with afterward.
4. Sharon Jones at the 9:30 Club on May 9, 2009
My favorite live show of the year
5. Musicians Bringing Musicians Home V in New Orleans
These trips to New Orleans with artists are always a blast. Photos!
**********
Casey Rae-Hunter, Communications Director
1. Finally taking my honeymoon, two years late
Last December, my wife and I went to Jamaica for our belated honeymoon. Technically the trip was in 2008, but it sure got the new year off to a great start. Wish we were going back to close out 2009!
2. Live interviewing Dan Ek at Policy Summit
My coworkers have heard me blather endlessly about Spotify, so they know how exciting it was for me to talk to the digital music service’s founder Dan Ek as part of the “visionaries” programming at Summit ’09. I tried not to seem like too much of a fanboy, and I think I mostly succeeded.
3. The celestial jukebox
I finally got a Sonos system this year, after lusting after the wireless digital music setup for years. Now I’m streaming music like a madman all over my house — Rhapsody, Pandora, live web radio, my iTunes collection. It’s a great time to be a music junkie.
4. FMC’s new website
Sure, there are still a few things to sort out on the backend, but I’d been waiting for a new FMC website for what seemed like forever. Now that it’s here, I love it. So much more user-friendly and searchable. I like knowing that the stuff I post on our blog shows up on the front page of our site, too. No more burying content! www.futureofmusic.org
5. My latest record
This really isn’t a shameless plug, I swear. My studio “band” (which includes just me), The Contrarian, released an album inspired by the weird fiction of HP Lovecraft, called Eldrich Musicks. I won’t bore you with the details, but you can learn more here.
**********
Kristin Thomson, Education Director
5. Finishing another album
I’ve been in a band in Philly since about 1996 called Ken. We used to play out a lot more, but now that more band members have babies/children/jobs it’s limited to what we can pull off on our collective schedules. But there’s a strong Virgo streak running through the band, which means we’re very deadline oriented. So, we scheduled our record release party on Friday the 13th, 2009, and then got our album done in time. Silky Smooth Destruction.
4. FMC website overhaul
I’m going to second Casey and say how exciting it was to re-launch the FMC website in July 2009 as a more dynamic, relatable site with RSS feeds, and an embedded blog. With almost 1,000 pages of existing content, the overhaul took a long time and a lot of effort, but it was worth it. And look for even more improvements in 2010.
3. Bonerama + Nicole Atkins doing “When the Levee Breaks”
Have you ever heard Led Zeppelin with three trombones? Well, folks who attended the Bonerama show at the FMC Policy Summit heard that and so much more. How about “Kick out the Jams”, with Wayne Kramer from the MC5 on guitar? Or “Ohio” with Mike Mills from R.E.M. on the mic? This show, which also included guest appearances by Erin McKeown and Martin Perna, was an incredible highlight to an already over the top Policy Summit. Check out the photos here.
2. Levon Helms’ Midnight Ramble
January 10, 2009. My husband and I met some friends in the very quaint Kingston, NY on a Friday night. By Saturday night, it was dark and blizzardy, but we struck out for Levon Helms’ barn anyway, set on a rural road outside of Woodstock, NY. We crawled slowly through the snow, unable to see more than ten feet in front of us. As we turned down his driveway through the trees, we half-thought “what if it’s cancelled because of the weather?” but the lit-up barn appeared in front of us, surrounded by a flurry of snowflakes. Just like a postcard. It was an incredible night of music, with special guest Hubert Sumlin joining the Levon Helms Band. If you’ve never been to a ramble, I highly recommend it. Check out the 2009 list of shows!
1. Roots Picnic
The Roots are a phenomenal band, and their annual Roots Picnic down on Philly’s grungy waterfront gets better every year. 2009’s lineup included Antibalas, Black Keys, TV on the Radio, and Santigold, but it was the Roots and Antibalas backing up Public Enemy while they ripped through It Takes A Nation of Millions that was totally off the hook.
**********
Nicole Duffey, Operations Coordinator
1. Video Game: Plants VS Zombies
Simple is built to last, and Popcap is good at simple. PVZ is a tower defense game in which you landscape your back yard in order to prevent the zombie invasion from reaching your house and eating your brains. Every inch of it is dripping with style and humor. The play is easy to pick up but remains challenging play after play. I must have beat this game 5 times already, but still love playing it. They also get extra points for having a cameo from the Thriller zombies before all the MJ hoopla this year.
2. Music / TV show: “Glee” & Glee Soundtrack Vol 1
Yeah, yeah — it’s a pop culture sensation — whatevz. I grew up in the theatre and so this show has entertained the hell out of me on many levels. Its highly stylized Technicolor realism is not unprecedented in TV (“Ugly Betty,” anyone?), but combining it with some of the tropes of musical theatre was an inspired move. Fast paced, high stakes, outrageous gags, more heart than the Care Bear Stare and best of all — those kids can SING! It’s rekindled my love of wallowing in the overblown glory of show tunes, and for that I am grateful.
3. Google Stuff: Tie Between Reader and Google Voice
I’m no jet setter, but having these tools to help manage life (see my blog addictions and voicemail) have really made a difference in 2009.
4. Favorite Celebrity Craft / Show Shwag: Matthew Sweet’s Pottery
I love pottery. It’s a sturdy and useful creative act and appeals to my sense of the practical. I love Matthew Sweet’s music (except his song “girlfriend” which has always offended my feminist sensibilities but is so catchy I forgive it… which offends me even more!) I love knowing that really talented people are creative in more than one medium. I also like cats, and Matthew uses a lot of cat motifs in his pottery work. At his show at the Birchmere (with Susannah Hoffs — it was great!) they were selling them as shwag after the show. So cool. Check it out