A few quick bullets

I was tempted to write a long, likely meandering, certainly controversial post on the Supreme Court's recent ruling on Oregon's assisted suicide law, with larger points about general right-to-die issues. Perhaps I still might, but as of right now, I just wanted to link to a few bullet points. You can also interpret this as me pointing to other people's blog posts because I'm too lazy to write anything myself. And you'd be right.

• Aaron has posted a list of the Top 5 Biggest Musical Surprises of 2005. While this isn't quite a list of top albums, it notes a few of the best '05 efforts. Particularly, I would point my readership to iSOLA's Loud Alarms, which I personally would probably choose as my #1 album of the year. This is a local Houston group that struck me in a big way with their first full-length album. Not much to say beyond what Aaron said, except that hopefully we'll be hearing much more from these guys. (I would also voice agreement on all of his other choices, though their locations on my list would not be quite as high as iSOLA's.)
  
  
• Meredith also recently posted a Best Things of 2005 list. In particular, it has inspired me to check out Foer's new book (I still want to read/see Everything is Illuminated too), and gotten the song Marching Bands of Manhattan stuck in my head, thus making it today's song lyric.
  
  
• Ben posts on the monotony of Christian radio. I claim his views apply equally well to mainstream rock radio as well. There's plenty of music out there, it just needs more exposure. Which reminds me...
  
  
• One final "top of 2005" list. David Barzelay posted his Top 15 Albums of 2005 just before his old server was beset by a denial-of-service attack. Barzelay has always been able, somehow, to discover the independent music albums long before we mere mortals, and here he points to some of the best. I cannot corroborate on all of them, but I can voice agreement on Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Wolf Parade, and Sufjan Stevens (which I just picked up based largely on his recommendation).
  
  
• Jacob, having returned from the depths of the aforementioned denial-of-service attack, posts on recent coffee-related developments. Most particularly, he links to this article, which claims that coffee just may boost sexual desire in females. Unfortunately, it doesn't specify that said desire will be directed toward the male they are drinking coffee with, or to the barista serving them the coffee (sorry Jacob). Still, had I known this, my trips to coffee shops at Vanderbilt would have been even more frequent.
  
  
• Speaking of Vandy, how in the everloving hell did the Lady Dores manage to blow a 14-point lead to Tennessee? What makes it hurt worse is the national exposure the loss has received because it's Pat Summitt's 900th win. Oh well, we still beat them in football this year. Hell yeah baby!
  
  
• And finally, all I can say is, anyone's better than Marge Schott.
  
  

Okay, so that wasn't really that quick at all. Oh well.

Song lyric of the day:
"Sorrow drips into your heart through a pinhole
Just like a faucet that leaks and there is comfort in the sound
But while you debate half empty or half full
It slowly rises: your love is gonna drown"
- Death Cab for Cutie, Marching Bands of Manhattan