Andy Gapin

What a crazy year this has been! I started off with incredibly high hopes and expectations for 2008 and, to be honest, I’d say that it hit almost every one of them. It was easily one of the best years of my life…despite taking a very unexpected turn in the homestretch.

I took trips to San Francisco, Toronto, Chicago, and Florida (I was sick with food poisoning the whole time), as well as a short little weekend trip to Vermont. I tried all kinds of new things and could barely keep up with how busy I was with stuff. I started playing soccer and got active again. I’m in the best shape that I’ve been in in years. It’s great.

I started a new job early in the year doing software development. Something that I didn’t go to school for and had no formal experience doing. My only experience was as a hobbyist. I was insanely scared of taking this job–I wanted to turn it down, actually–and stressed like I can’t even describe when I first started. I stuck with it though, despite putting myself in very uneasy situations–I don’t do well in situations where I feel like I could look like an idiot and I have no idea what I’m doing. But I made it. I’ve been there for almost a year now and while I’m not super crazy about the company, I love what I do and I’m really excited that I have a career path to look forward to. Something that I like doing and that I’m proud of doing. I couldn’t say this a year ago. I was happy at my last job, but it wasn’t going anywhere.

I scaled my role at the radio station back almost entirely to nothing. All I do now is my radio show and I’m happy about that. I’m finally ready to completely leave. I think that by May 2009, I’ll be able to walk away happy.

The biggest thing in 2008 for me, I think, was a relationship that started towards the end of 2007 with an absolutely wonderful girl who was also my best friend. We had a lot of fun together and connected in a crazy way, I won’t go into details. The relationship is over now, but with no hard feelings, just a lot of great memories and the knowledge that it really changed me as a person in a very positive way.

And on top of all of that, my half siblings got in touch with me and I’ve started to develop a relationship with my half-sister. We hadn’t talked in eighteen years, but now, thanks to Facebook–which I no longer hate because of this–we keep in touch often. And I also got back in touch with an old friend that I hadn’t spoken to in years.

Unlike 2008, 2009 is starting off with no plans or expectations. It’s a completely clean slate. I think I have two things on my calendar for the year so far. It’s the first year that I’m starting off single since 2001, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. It’ll be an interesting year, I think. I’m looking forward to it. And I think that I’ll continue trying many more new things in the year to come.

Alright, I’m slightly lying when I say there are no plans or expectations. I would like to move to Chicago, but that’s a bit dependent on the economy. I’m not going to quit a job and move a third of the way across the country when the economy is so crappy. So we’ll see about that one. If it doesn’t happen, that’ll be fine too.

All I have left to say is…BRING ON 2009!!!

I saw a damn lot of movies this year. There were also a ton that I didn’t get to see too, but there’s only so much time. I promised that I would do a post about my favorite movies of the year, so here it is. Below, in no order, are my favorite flicks of 2008.

• WALL-E
• Zack And Miri Make A Porno
• The Dark Knight
• Iron Man
• Hamlet 2

There were a ton more great movies, but I’m limiting myself to a top 5 list here…even though I could easily do a top 10 or a top 15.

I always feel a little weird talking about comic book movies because while I love them, I don’t actually read comic books and didn’t really when I was a kid either. I do it anyway though so here goes…

Generally, I actually liked The Spirit, despite the horrible reviews. The dialogue and story were pretty bad, but visuals were more than an enough to keep me entertained the entire time, and when it comes down to it, isn’t that what’s important?

The whole thing was extremely comic-booky, both in the crazy visual aspect of the film and in the dialogue. Essentially, the movie was pretty much just and hour and a half of eye candy. Between Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Stana Katic (the most attractive, I think, followed closely by Ms. Johansson), Jaime King, and Paz Vega, there was barely a minute in the movie without some beautiful woman on the screen. It was practically like watching softcore porn.

A lot of people were expecting Frank Miller to just throw Sin City at us again and he didn’t…which I was happy about. Sin City was an amazingly excellent movie and The Spirit was just an acceptable movie, but it being more like Sin City wouldn’t have helped it any. I didn’t pay to see Sin City 2 (though I will when it happens).

The bottom line is, if you like comic book movies or any of the above listed actresses, this is worth a trip to the theater…or at least as an addition to your Netflix queue in a few months.

Rating: C

While the word was going around that this was a secret show, I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that it didn’t stay very much a secret. As with most shows at the Court Tavern in New Brunswick, it was late to start and late to end, but since I only had a half day of work the next day, I won’t complain too much. In most ways, this was your typical New Brunswick show. A crowded, sweaty basement with all kinds of assholery and great music. There was a time in my life when I was used to this, but I find that the older I get, the less I feel like dealing with it. Kids crowdsurfing in a bar basement with a ceiling that is about eight feet high–that subsequently was partially pulled down–is not really that amusing to me anymore. Call me a dork, but I really just like to go and enjoy the bands without all the pushing around and roughness.

Still, Gaslight Anthem was amazing…as always. They just aren’t a band that is going to let you down. Whether it’s recorded or live, this band brings it every time. They play music that is just tons of fun live. There are plenty of singalongs and parts to get your finger pointing in and somehow, they always play all of the songs that you want to hear. In the end, I’d say that this show as a whole was barely worth it because of the New Brunswick factor, but I did kind of expect that, so I shouldn’t complain about that.

I guess I should also mention Let Me Run who were, as usual, very excellent.

This one comes from Mitch Clem, the creator of the Nothing Nice To Say and My Stupid Life comic strips. It’s the same shirt that one of his characters wears. I really love it. It just works on so many levels for me. For a long time in high school and college, a lot of people used to openly take note of how I was one of those guys who always wore band t-shirts and hardly anything else. I don’t have too many band shirts left anymore, but this feels like a throwback to those times. That and anyone who recognizes it from Nothing Nice To Say is definitely going to earn some points in my book.

Anyway, head on over to www.mitchclem.com and check out his comics. I think I’ve posted before about how sometimes it feels like My Stupid Life is about my own life and Nothing Nice To Say has a few strips about Jawbreaker that are responsible for getting me hooked on both comics.

This week I counted down my top 10 albums of 2008! If you’re a regular reader here, you already know the list, but here are the songs that I played. As you can see, when I got to the number one and two albums, I played a little extra.

This was easily one of the best shows I’ve ever done. Everything was there and right on. But it’s always easier when your show is more planned out instead of just flying by the seat of your pants like I normally do.

Source: 90.3 The Core

Here it is, I finally made it! Unlike the past few years, I’m only doing ten records instead of twenty-five and this Wednesday, December 17, I’ll do a countdown of them on 90.3 The Core at 10pm!

I should say that this isn’t necessarily a list of what I think the best records were, but these are the records I listened to the most and that stuck with me throughout the year. I mistakenly named Murder By Death’s record as an early pick for album of the year way back in February, but it ended up dropping down to fifth.

At any rate, check back soon as I’ll be doing other top 10 lists for 2008!

1. Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
2. She And Him – Volume One
3. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
4. The Steinways – Gorilla Marketing
5. Murder By Death – Red Of Tooth And Claw
6. The Bridges – Limits Of The Sky
7. Mason Proper – Olly Oxen Free
8. Tom Gabel – Heart Burns
9. Conor Oberst – Conor Oberst
10. Amanda Palmer – Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Awesome show last night. Some of this stuff really segued together great.

Source: 90.3 The Core

Here is probably one of my favorite shirts to date. Just came in the mail the other day.

In other news, sorry I haven’t been updating much lately. It’s been quite busy…and unexpected over the past few weeks. I did go to see Twilight and I wanted to post something about how it was so bad that I literally threw up during it, but I don’t think it really deserved a whole post.

Anyway, I need to start thinking about my top stuff of 2008 list. Since it’s going to be a shorter list of albums this year, I think I’m going to also do movies and random other stuff as well. Look for that soon.

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted anything here. I didn’t even get a chance to post last week’s playlist from The Playlist. With Thanksgiving and going away, I just didn’t really make it to a computer to get it posted.

Last week’s show was another really good show. Better than tonight’s show, but things did pick up a bit tonight. I had a real slow section of the show that I had trouble getting out of, but I think I pulled it off. I was a little out of it still from getting food poisoning over the weekend (more on that tomorrow).

We’re approaching the end of the year now which means that the amount of new music coming out is going to slow down to almost nil for the next month or so. I think there’s enough good stuff that came out in the past few weeks to hold the fort down with, but we’ll see. It also means that it’s time to start working on my top albums of the year list. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do 25 this year like I have for the past few years, but we’ll see. I think I might just keep it to 10 or 15 like most normal people.

Anyway, here are the playlists for this week and last week (in that order)…

Source: 90.3 The Core