The Best & Worst of Jojo Wrinkles’ Year, 2010

Music, books, food, social media; the best and worst of my year, 2010.

By Jojo Wrinkles

I listened to a lot of Harry Nilsson and enjoyed him more than anything else I heard all year.

Prior to that I listened to a lot of Panda Bear, Animal Collective, Belafonte and old Flaming Lips (especially Zaireeka). Also, I dug into old acoustic blues; Blind Willie McTell, Son House, Bukka White, Charlie Patton, so on and so on. Lots of jazz, especially On the Corner/Get Up With It/Cellar Door, all by Miles Davis; Fela Kuti, and every credible African record I could get my hands on, which is to say, not many within walking distance in Denver, CO.  Birkenstocks are still in style here, it affects peoples tastes in music.

I was very sad when LaLa was shut down by Apple – very sad. Poor people cannot buy everything that comes out, nor can they steal it all.

Arcade Fire was good, but not mesmerizing.

What else? Lango Spanish cd’s for kids (they don’t f*ck around and they’re funny!).

Spencer (the eldest of two demon seeds) is a big Beatles fan now, so we listened to the stereo box constantly, especially Please Please Me and Help. Strangely, he is also a big Tom Waits fan. He loves the ‘Nighthawks on the Radio’ bootleg. Tom tells it like it is.

Books I liked: One Ring Circus by Katherine Dunn (who is a national treasure), all 3 Tana French novels, and the big guilty pleasure – all 6 Scott Pilgrim graphic novels.  Soooo much fun and they can all be read within about 3 hours. Buddhism books (because Catholicism is more of a hobby for amateurs) by Robert Thurman;  Essential Tibetan Buddhism and A Buddhist Bible by Dwight Goddard, In The Garden of Our Spines, by local Rockford, IL, poet Susan Porterfield. Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain, American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, and The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. The book that stunned me – Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Other stuff I liked & disliked about living in 2010.

I like Taste of Philly for great Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches and Twist and Shout for music snob atmosphere that keeps away fans of garbage. I also like not working for white people who hire not so white people and make them act like white people who hate themselves. I do not like Campbell’s soup, not even as a cooking aid. I like Peet’s coffee. I do not like how Starbucks will not brew the bold coffee after noon each day. I am tired of Pike Place blend. They embarrass themselves everyday. No need for people who lie to themselves and others and expect the world to drink from their poisoned well. People who buy “coffee” drinks with milk or sugar of any type of kind are lying to themselves. Too expensive and too easy to make at home and too much loss of dignity to purchase in front of others who also have no dignity. Let’s drink it black like our ancestors did, brothers and sisters! I like records, but have no place for the player upstairs. I like the convenience of mp3′s, but do not like their stagnant non-tangible format. Liner notes, anyone? (I like parenthesis and dashes in sentences — They add charisma where there is none!) I liked the Friends area on Netflix, but then they took it away. I don’t believe in Facebook or Twitter or whatever. I don’t even understand that shit or what it could possibly do for me. I don’t understand Kindle. Put the actual work of art in my hands and let me love the papyrus. The mantra of my past and the mantra for my future is: simplify.

JW

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{About the Author: Jojo Wrinkles lives comfortably with his white wife and 2 white sons in the whitest state in N. America, Colorado. He regularly keeps tabs on his roots, Rockford, IL to feel one with people of all backgrounds.  He left Illinois years ago predicting the end was coming for opportunities to survive in a poor city & raise a family simultaneously while rich hillbillies got all the breaks.  He discovered out west that rich hillbillies get the breaks everywhere because at its majority core, America is (unfortunately) a hillbillie country.  He hates the fact he was right because he really loathes the white hippies in Colorado & misses his depressed brothers and sisters fighting it out in the pits of hell, Rockford, IL. He doesn’t wear Birkenstocks or have time for hiking but loves Sock Monkey Sound & wonders why it didn’t exist 10 years ago. – SMS Ed.}

That’s it.