Last Day

So I am leaving for home tonight and am really excited to see how it feels re-adjusting to the US. Last night was classic Ghana; the power and water was off all day and most of the night. Instead of waiting for the power to go on I went to bed at 9pm and slept really well for the first time in a while. There is so much I will miss about being here but I also am looking forward to seeing everyone/everything I have been missing the last 4.5 months. I can only hope that we can all ride off into the sunset and that we all get home safely. Ghana I will miss you. Mekwaaba.

Ryan

Penultimate Post (in Ghana)

So it has come to my attention that I have been a lazy bastard and haven't updated in a very long time. I would like to point out the fact that there are 40 posts now which is a lot more than I thought I would be posting. I know some of those are the unsuccessful album countdown but I hope I explained a little bit of Ghana to the best of my ability in the other posts. When I really sit and think about it, I didn't finish doing the album thing because being here was so much better than waiting around for the internet to work so I could post an album review. The time here went by pretty quickly. I guess overall it seemed to go faster than a semester at home. A few things however I didn't like: Having an uncomfortable stomach for about a month and a half (which really doesn't seem like too long now looking back) and a short hospital visit for three days when I had food poisoning. Those things really frustrated me at the time but they have come to represent what being in Ghana is like for most foreigners. Kudos to those Ghanians who have the strongest stomachs ever. The last few weeks have been boring for most of us in a "we've been in Ghana so long and going home is just around the corner" kind of way. Everyone seems to have ran out of money to do much of anything. I, unlike most of the people here didn't have 5,000 US dollars to spend on traveling. When I went into this I thought that being in Ghana would be good enough because after all, how many people get to stay in Africa for that long? Others traveled to Togo, Mali, and Senegal but I stayed here. I like to think that I got extremely used to the way things work in Ghanian culture and going home is going to be a hard adjustment for a few weeks. All of the things that most of us have gotten used to here like being served food with bare hands, always bringing the toilet paper with you to the toilet, breathing in dust and mold 24/7, crossing your fingers that Malaria doesn't hit you, drinking out of water bags, eating dinner in the pitch dark outside, waiting three hours for a bus to come, weirdos who follow you around for no reason, bootlegged DVDs, crappy Nigerian movies shown on bus trips, screaming radio show hosts speaking in Twi, obsessive soccer fans, bickering in Twi or Pigeon English, damp and worn out Cedis, egg sandwiches for breakfast, jolloff rice for lunch and soup and pasta for dinner, lecturers who don't come to class, broken down buses, Tro-Tros, taxis with no seat belts, 100 degree temperatures daily, sweating while sleeping every night, ants crawling and biting while sleeping, geckos as pets in our room, power outages, water outages for days, only cold showers, "hey oboruni", pick pocketing, being held at gun point and machete while being robbed (not me but some of my friends), workers sleeping on the job, saying something is 'finished' instead of 'we're all out', hissing to get someone's attention, fear of typhoid, fear of cholera, fear of swine flu, slow internet, pollution, massive termite hills, taking you time to get somewhere and no one minding, being able to say hello to a complete stranger and they smile and say hello back, YES PURE WATER, YES PLANTAINS, YES YOGOS, YES MENTOS, YES GRAPES, YES NUTS, YES EGGS, people coming up to you on Tros and trying to sell Bibles, feeling welcomed everywhere, will no longer be a part of my or anyone else's life when we return to the US. Some of those things will be good to leave behind but other parts will be hard to and even those things that sound ridiculous are part of Ghana's charm. Last weekend I taught/played baseball with 10 and 11 year olds and had a great time. I was impressed with how well everyone listened to me and my friend Nobu Hiro. Of course I have pictures of pretty much everything I did. I couldn't just go up to people and take pictures because it is considered rude here so I had to do it at the right times. For all of you waiting, I will have pictures up on Facebook at some point when I get home. I'm sure that I missed out on a lot of things back home while I have been gone, but I would much rather have been able to be here and make the best of this experience. Just recently, I realized that I could stay here if I had a nice house to live in and family and friends because a lot of things take a while to get used to, I'm a little nervous about how well my body adapts to being home again, but I guess it is all just part of the process. The only thing I would change about this trip would be the amount of money I had with me because I don't think I would have ever been able to prevent sicknesses. On these slower days, most of us sit around and watch movies, and I just recently enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine again, and am saving Into the Wild and the Shawshank Redemption for the last two nights that I am here because they mark the end of a long journey as well. I can look towards the future and hope for great senior year but it won't happen unless I take initiative. Having a lot of time to think while I was here made me learn a lot about myself and helped me make some necessary personal changes. I am really excited to test out my new view on life when I get back home. The hardest part will be sticking to it with everything at my finger tips again, but I guess I am up for the challenge, after all, I made it through all of this.

Ryan

Keep the Mexicans out of Africa

Sorry I still haven't posted anything new but I have been without a good internet connection for a week now and I don't really care that much because I will be going home in two weeks to today and looking forward to some home cooked meals. Honestly the food here is delicious it's just that we are always eating the same thing. There is so much to admire about Ghanian culture and I hope I can take some of it home and pass it on to friends and family. Anyways I have taken 4 finals and only have one left and they haven't been very hard at all. The problem is that it just seems like I could have taken them without going to any classes at all which is ridiculous I know but basically true. I will postpone the rest of the album countdown for a little while because I'm not exactly sure of the rest of my list and most people don't read those anyways. The rainy season has started here and every other night or so thousands of flying ants congregate outside my room and come in if I open the door so I mostly keep it closed. I also saw a snail the size of a softball last week and a tarantula. All of the creatures start coming out at this time of year, I can't wait until the locally known 'acid bug' crawls on me and melts my skin. Anyways it's funny because all of the Ghanians are wearing sweatshirts because it is a chilly 75 degrees during the mornings sometimes here now. I have a feeling I will be cold in Massachusetts when I get home because there won't be as much humidity. Ghana is great and I hope some of you will get to visit Africa someday. For all my close friends, there will be good stories to tell that I can't properly communicate through a blog post so just wait. There will be more posts but probably not too many because I won't be doing too much more new stuff in these last weeks. If anything really funny happens I will post however.

-Ryan

All my friends are Rubber Tramps

Sorry for the posting absence, I have been without internet for a little while. The water just went off today, hopefully my floor mates will do their toilet flushing with the well water. I just got a haircut and shaved yesterday and feel like a new man. I think the Ghanians appreciate it. I will return with some light hearted drivel on some new experiences in Ghana and whatnot soon. I'm at an internet cafe right now grooving to some slow jams and the occasional Alicia Keys. Also, strangely enough, Ghanians love country music. The girl next to me has been looking up videos with Shania Twain and Brad Paisley for like an hour now. My time is running out and I'm scared to hear the big voice telling me to get off (actually happens...it says ONE MINUTE LEFT in a low scary robot voice) I will continue posting album reviews as well, even though I don't get comments and just assume that no one reads them. I know Africa is more important. There will be a nice long entry to come...that's what she said.

#29. Kind of Blue

My first introduction to Jazz music came while visiting UVM my senior year of high school. I can’t say that it was this album, but perhaps the other one is somewhere on the list. Anyways, the other one got me into Kind of Blue and from then on I was a definite fan of jazz music. Just remember that Jazz was the most popular form of music in America not all that long ago. This album is like the Sgt. Pepper of Jazz. Everyone knows about this album, but the difference is that I think more people like this one and don’t just agree that it is highly influential and great. Miles Davis is my favorite Jazz player, which seems kind of cliché, but in most respects he really was that good, and I also love all the musicians that he took under his wing throughout the years. There are so many funny stories about Miles especially if you check out his autobiography entitled ‘Miles’, absolutely hilarious stuff. This album for some people represents what Jazz sounds like. The opening riff in ‘So What’ is so cool and precise, perfectly setting the mood for the rest of the album. Since this album doesn’t have any lyrics I basically just want to go over a couple of things before wrapping it up. For the most part, this is best digested on one’s own and doesn’t need a lot of explaining. John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly and Bill Evans play on this. These are some of my favorite Jazz musicians as well and they really play some great stuff throughout. Bill Evans is the perfect player for this album and Cannonball adds some soul to the mix.
‘So What’ is great and deserves all of the praise that it gets. Everyone’s soloing is top notch and that Miles solo is definitely one of his best. ‘Freddie Freeloader’ sounds like an extension to ‘So What’ and really comes alive with Coltrane’s incredible entrance a few minutes in. ‘Blue in Green’ is a nice quiet Miles based piece that kind of floats by and separates the album well. ‘All Blues’ has a great riff and once again good solos from everyone. I have to say that the production on this album is phenomenal. Every time I hear this, I feel like I am actually there. The experience becomes so much more intimate through the use of the full band being recorded at the same time. Finally, ‘Flamenco Sketches’ closes out the album well but I usually kind of space out at this point. Nonetheless, the whole album is solid and every song really deserves to be here for the first time in all of these reviews! I know this one was shorter but it is hard to explain things when it is almost all instrumental. This album is truly a classic and probably where one should start with Jazz and Miles.

Overall Rating: 9/10
Track Based Rating: 5/5
Best Tracks: So What, Freddie Freeloader, All Blues

#30. Odelay

Cracking the top 30 is Odelay. I first picked this one up around Junior year of high school and had been interested in Beck for quite some time. I would drive to baseball practice blasting some of these awesome songs thinking I was hip because how many people really liked Beck in high school?...a few more than I expected. This album is the best introduction to the ‘Beck style’ of his earlier days. The lyrics are a mish mash of concepts put together in a Dylan-like style against a backdrop of really interesting beats and instrumental passages. There are some random parts on here, like how he incorporates acoustic slide guitar and harmonica in places most people never have before as well as abrupt changes throughout. Sometimes this is hard to listen to all the way through but is rewarding when it happens. This is an album where the listener notices something new each time they put it on. Now into the tracks…

‘Devil’s Haircut’ features a really loud guitar line that is backed by some weird tinkling noises that somehow works. I won’t really talk about the lyrics, mainly because I’m lazy and there is really no point in deciphering them (this isn’t saying they are bad by any means…they are really cool just like the lyrics from Loser). I like the funky groove in ‘Hot Wax’ and the genius ending part with the wizard of rhythm thing. The previous part of the song drops out and turns into a spacy trip/hop type of beat. ‘Lord Only Knows’ is a countryish/hip hop kind of rocker that seems to be Beck’s trademark innovation. ‘New Pollution’ is great with an intro that reminds me of some sort of department store/elevator music. It soon kicks into gear with a great beat and cool sax interludes. ‘Derelict’ is one of my least favorite songs but I think that is because I still haven’t really gotten it yet after repeated listens. There is a cool eastern vibe to it however and sometimes I wonder if it is a sort of homage to George Harrison songs. ‘Novacane’ is another loud one that incorporates extremely fuzzy bass and vocals through some sort of device. I like how the grooving intro gives way to the rest of the song. ‘Jack Ass’ is a lighter song than the rest and really breaks the album up well. ‘Where It’s At’ is really cool with a great keyboard part and that funny robot “two turntables and a microphone” part after the chorus. I think ‘Minus’ is trying to be like a Nirvana song and I don’t really like how it sounds against the rest of the album. ‘Sissyneck’ is another good countryish rocker as well is ‘Readymade’. ‘High Five (Rock the Catskills)’ is a good example of the geek/hipster persona Beck displayed in his early days. ‘Ramshackle’ is really just more of the same and leads into the ‘hidden’ last track of ‘Diskobox’ which is one of the better ones on the album and closes it out well.

Obviously I didn’t go into great detail on each song but I think that besides once again being lazy in trying to describe every different part of each song, it is more fun for the listener to hear for themselves. This is definitely the best Beck album, mostly because it is his definitive one. I think some of his newer works have been great too but this one seemed to take so much more thought and planning. How he decides where to place certain instruments is beyond me. There are so many parts that you realize could easily have been forgotten by a lesser artist but were precisely placed by the man himself. This collage of sounds is really something to behold. Please give it a listen soon.

Overall Rating: 8/10
Track Based Rating: 11/14
Best Tracks: Devil’s Haircut, Hotwax, The New Pollution, Novacane, Jack-Ass, Where it’s at, Sissyneck, High 5 (Rock the Catskills), Diskobox

P.S. The lyrics are great by the way…

#31. Abbey Road

There are so many things that can be said about the Beatles, I figure I wouldn’t say too much and just get right to the review. One thing however is that this is such a good final album from such an influential group mostly because the second half has a perfect sequence of songs that feels like the end of something great. Don’t get me wrong, I like the first bunch of songs, but that medley of tracks towards the end is just genius.

Perhaps there are more Beatles albums to come on this list…anyways the reason why this one isn’t my favorite is because it doesn’t have the feel of a group effort like some of their other works, which by the way, it definitely wasn’t. I think almost every song was written solely by John, Paul, George or Ringo. Ringo is still the weakest link in the band in terms of songwriting, but I think his drumming style fits in really well with the band’s sound. The album starts with ‘Come Together’ which is a classic with a bunch of weird John lyrics that were definitely influenced by Bob Dylan in some way or another. I like how the guitar comes in loudest during the chorus; it gives it that extra punch needed. Continuing on we come to ‘Something’ which is probably George’s best song as a Beatle in my opinion. The lyrics are great and the guitar riff is memorable. Paul finally comes in with the hilarious ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’. Just listen to the lyrics and try to not laugh hysterically when the hammer creeps up from behind the judge’s head towards the end. ‘Oh Darling’ is another Paul track that has some good vocals. I think Paul really became the strongest force in the band towards the end because he was still able to write catchy songs and dabble in the experimental (Helter Skeleter, Rocky Raccoon). Ringo’s ‘Octopus’s Garden’ is alright but impressive for Ringo standards (I prefer Don’t Pass Me By from the White Album). ‘I Want You’ is such a long song for Beatles standards and suffers from that in my opinion. There are some cool changes and such but the droning part at the end gets kind of old after a while. The good thing however is that ‘Here Comes the Sun’ is next and is the perfect track to follow ‘I Want You’. Once again George writes a winner. ‘Because’ is one of those dreamy John songs that leads really well into ‘You Never Give me Your Money’. ‘Sun King’ isn’t really great but starts the great string of tracks to finish the album. I thoroughly enjoy all of the short tracks ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’, ‘Polythene Pam’, ‘She Came in Through the Bathroom Window’ etc. Personally I think that besides ‘Come Together’, ‘Polythene Pam’ and “Mean Mr. Mustard’ are John’s best contributions to the album. ‘Golden Slumbers’ is next and then the uplifting ‘Carry That Weight’ which leads into the great closer ‘The End’. There is a cool drum solo, guitar solo and poignant exit lyrics from Paul. Of course there is ‘Her Majesty’ after ‘The End’ but it doesn’t really count because it is so short. It is almost like Paul was trying to get the last say even though he already did. When I listen to this album I always think about how sad it must have been for fans of that time to know that this was it. I really appreciate the Beatles not just because they are the most popular band of all time and have almost no bad songs but because they constantly were progressing their sound from Rubber Soul onward. All of the best bands develop over the years, something a band like Nickleback chooses not to do in order to sell more records. There will be more on the Beatles later in the countdown so I won’t say much more. The Walrus was Paul.

Overall Rating: 9/10
Track Based Rating: 14/17
Best Tracks: Come Together, Something, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, Oh Darling, Here Comes the Sun, You Never Give me your Money, Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam, She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, The End