Best So Far

Halfway through 2008 and here are my picks for the best albums of the year so far:

Elvis Costello -Momofuku

Bon Iver -For Emma, Forever Ago

Bonnie "Prince" Billy -Lie Down In The Light

The Dodos -Visiter

Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel -Dual Hawks

Shearwater -Rook

Jim Noir -Jim Noir

DeVotchka -A Mad and Faithful Telling

Vampire Weekend -Vampire Weekend

Death Cab For Cutie -Narrow Stairs

Billy Bragg -Mr. Love & Justice

She and Him -Volume One

Fleet Foxes -Fleet Foxes

Stephen Malkmus -Real Emotional Trash

The Magnetic Fields -Distortion

Grand Archives -Grand Archives

Gnarls Barkley -The Odd Couple

For those of you who don't know my regular practice, this list will eventually be a top 25 of 2008. Odds are that Grand Archives and Gnarls Barkley won't make the final cut.

Here's the list from last year and the year before.

What new stuff have you come across so far this year?

Belief and Behavior

We had a great conversation last night about belief and behavior. Why is it that so many people want to make one of these more important than the other? When did we start separating them from one another?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, "Only those who obey can believe and only those who believe can obey."

What do you think?

The Race Is On

So, today we have two official Presidential candidates. Share your thoughts and reserve your attacks for ideas and not people.

Go.

Twain

Be good and you will be lonely.

Wordsworth

Our meddling intellect

Misshapes the beauteous forms of things:

We murder to dissect.