Coming Up Roses

The very best part of my trip to Scotland happened on Saturday, the one sunny day I experienced there, when I took the train to Edinburgh to meet up with the very lovely Joanna (aka RMontalban) and her family. They were the perfect hosts - gracious, fun and willing to show me the very best of their hometown.

We had an incredible day - and I took a ton of pictures that are going to slowly make their way here, but today I'm sharing the photos I took of an art installation at Jupiter Artland. The installation is made up of thousands of roses that were installed in the floor and will be left there throughout the season to go through their life cycle.

Joanna shared her photos of the roses last week and I loved being able to compare our photos. We stood next to each other and took photos of the same things at the same time - and yet came up with very different photos. It was fun for me to see our own styles come out.

I can't thank Joanna and her family enough for a truly magical day. I hope someday I'm able to return the favor!

While the roses were still alive when I saw them, I couldn't help but think in a week or so, they would be a perfect fit for this great Miranda Lambert song: Dead Flowers.


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How did I get so OLD?

Like all of you, I've found myself reading many "best of" lists over the past few weeks.  This weekend I was reading Entertainment Weekly's 2009 Best & Worst issue and one list in particular left me feeling very old and out of touch.  Their picks for The Best Singles of the Year include:

• Jay-Z and Alicia Keys "Empire State of Mind"
• Lady Gaga "Paparazzi"
• Phoenix "Lisztomania"
• Keri Hilson feat Kanya West & Ne-Yo "Knock You Down"
• Grizzly Bear "Two Weeks"
• Gossip "Heavy Cross"
• Green Day "21 Guns"
• Noisettes "Never Forget You"
• Mile Cyrus "Party in the USA"
• Dirty Projectors "Stillness is the Move"

As I read through the list I realized that, while I recognized all of the artists (except Dirty Projectors) the only songs I actually remember hearing were "21 Guns" and "Party in the USA."  Since then I've spent several days feeling old and out of touch.

I've finally decided to blame my lack of knowledge on the fact that I don't listen to the radio anymore and that my taste in music is just a bit outside mainstream pop.  Have I rationalized enough so that I can still consider myself "cool" when it comes to music?

To try and prove my "coolness" here are some of my picks for the top songs of the year (in no particular order):

• The Avett Brothers "I and Love and You"
• Owl City "Fireflies"
• Kings of Leon "Use Somebody"
• Carrie Underwood "I Told You So"
• Miranda Lambert "Dead Flowers"
• Death Cab for Cutie "Meet Me at the Equinox"
• Holly Williams "Alone"
• The Temper Trap "Sweet Disposition"
• Will Hoge "Even if it Breaks Your Heart"
• Dierks Bentley feat. Patty Griffin "Beautiful World"

What were your favorite songs this year?

And because I really do want to know, I've decided to provide a little incentive to get you to comment.  I'm going to give away a mix of my favorite songs to one of you, so leave a comment with you favorite song(s) before Thursday at mid-night and you could be the proud owner of my Best of Mix.

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