Cole Wenzel

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Rural Alberta Advantage and In Tall Buildings to showdown at High Noon

Bright Eyed and bushy tailed, Bright Eyes is back

Petty hasn't lost his 'Mojo' yet

From the first twang of electric guitars on the opening track, ""Jefferson Jericho Blues,"" the essence of Petty's early records—and more importantly of his roots, the American South—come through.

Let's embrace America's spirit of independence

Lacking my iPod that I had left behind the last time I was home, I was much more perceptive of my surroundings on my walk home from work on a typically frigid January evening this past week. This heightened level of auditory and visual awareness took my mind away from its normal daydream instead to the attention of a woman. She was pushing a high stack of blue soda containers via cart on the sidewalk outside of the Equinox. Seeing that she was struggling to push the top-heavy cart over a raised slab of concrete, I asked her if I could be of any assistance. Her reply was one of self-determination.

Honorable Mention - St. Vincent - Actor

  poses a doll-like Annie Clark, seemingly frozen in time like on the album's cover art.  This surrealistic photograph seems to embody the same bewilderment one feels when listening to St. Vincent's music. Lost in the foggy wonderland of obscure lyrics, her sweet voice and the ever-evolving background music that surprises with every turn.

Honorable Mention - Dan Auerbach - Keep it Hid

 Dan Auerbach, singer and guitarist of The Black Keys, released his first solo effort this February, titled Keep It Hid.  The album is a nice blend of his signature garagey blues-rock guitar technique and several softer and lighter strummed melodies.

#6 - Girls - Album

The debut from Girls, Album, commences with the retrospective ""Lust for Life,"" which traces singer/songwriter Christopher Owens' reflection of his youth, singing about the lack of a ""loving man"" in his life with a devastating whine, ""And maybe then I woulda turned out right / But now I'm just crazy, I'm totally mad / Yeah I'm just crazy, I'm fucked up in the head.""  One cannot help but draw connections to Owens' obscure youth as a member of the Children of God cult and his straightforward lyrical expression. 

Geithner wrong man for treasury secretary

Timothy Geithner has too many ideological and personal flaws to be a good fit to oversee America's financial crisis.

Government aids wrong people in housing mess

The recent financial woes of the Big Three are their fault, and government should not reward them for their own mistakes.

Phelps drama overdone, marijuana ban should go up in smoke

If we can learn anything from the recent troubles of Michael Phelps, it's that marijuana should not be illegal in the U.S.