I know a few things about the people who stumble onto this site. I know, for one thing, that you’re an elite crew.* I know that most of you are from the United States. And that every now and then someone from Spain or Australia or the Philippines or the UK drops by. I know that some of you come here looking for sweet potato recipes or for Rockford or for Rockford’s sisters or for book reports. I even know some of you in real life.

But I’d like to know more about you.

Who are you? What brought you here? What was the best book you read in 2006?** The best movie?** Do you have a blog? Where is it? Do you like ice cream? (I do.)

It’s National Delurking Week***. Give me a little shout out, will ya?

*that’s just a nice way of saying I don’t get much traffic
**stolen directly and without shame from Sweetney.com
***a thing I saw at Paper Napkin

I don’t care for Roxy Music. Rockford likes them. I do like “More Than This,” though, mostly because of the Bill Murray connection.

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on “Random article” in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it!

“Avalon,” released in 1982, was Roxy Music’s eighth studio album; it is generally regarded as the culmination of the smoother, more adult-oriented sound of the band’s later work. It was a commercial success, reaching number one in the UK and staying on the album charts for over a year; a single, “More Than This,” was also a Top 10 hit in Britain and other European countries. The same song was also a minor hit in the US, especially on the college radio circuit. Avalon is also notable as the band’s only platinum record in the US.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 307 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It is one of four Roxy Music albums that made the list (“Siren,” “For Your Pleasure” and “Country Life” being the others).

The lush arrangements and synthesizer drenched sound of Avalon later found its way onto Bryan Ferry’s solo follow-up album “Boys and Girls” (1985).

“The Main Thing”, an album track from Avalon, was also used in a 2006 television advertisement for the Vauxhall Vectra, which was based around football and featured Pierluigi Collina. Pianos were added to the track in the advertisement version.

Continuing a Roxy Music tradition, Ferry’s girlfriend Lucy Helmore appeared on the cover wearing a medieval helmet and carrying a hawk. The image evoked King Arthur’s last journey to the mysterious land of Avalon.

In 2003, Virgin reissued “Avalon” on Hybrid-SACD with a new 5.1-channel surround sound remix by the original production team of Rhett Davies (the producer) and Bob Clearmountain (the mixing engineer). The original 1982 stereo mix is left intact and is the same for the CD layer and for the HD layer, allegedly being transferred from analogue master tapes to DSD and processed in DSD throughout the process. The surround part of the HD layer includes the full album in the original running order plus the bonus track “Always Unknowing”, whose original stereo mix is only available on CD on the 4-CD boxed set “The Thrill of It All.”

Except for “India,” the short instrumental piece whose original multitrack tape had been lost, all tracks in the surround mix were remixed from multitrack sources, as opposed to two-channel stereo mixes being ‘upmixed’ to 5.1 as in some DVD-Video releases. For “India,” the stereo mix is panned clockwise a few times as the piece is being played, which ends nicely in the rear right channel, from which the saxophone begins the next piece, “While My Heart Is Still Beating,” making up for “India” not being a fully-fledged surround recording. The surround mix has roughly the same running times as the ten tracks present in the stereo mix. The main difference is in the stereo image being 360-degrees wide, as opposed to a front image plus rear ambiance, and the levels at which various tracks from the multitrack are mixed into the multichannel mix. For instance, the guitar parts in “The Main Thing” and “Take a Chance with Me” are noticeably more prominent in the multichannel mix than in the stereo mix. Guitar, saxophone, synthesizer, and percussion parts are often placed in the rear part of the sound field, while lead vocals tend to stick to the front centre, as opposed to being mixed in dual-mono in front left and right like in the somewhat traditional 2.0 stereo mixing.

In the Sofia Coppola-directed classic film “Lost In Translation”, actor Bill Murray sings “More Than This” in a Tokyo bar. An audio version of this is included as a hidden track on the official movie soundtrack.

Wiki Wednesday is a little something started by Verbatim.

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It’s The All & Sundry Annual Year-End Meme Thing!

What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before?
Flew solo with a baby. And then, a few months later, I flew solo with a toddler! It was easier to keep her occupied when she was a baby, but I had to carry more stuff on the later flight. So it’s a toss-up.

Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t like to call them “resolutions” (too much pressure), and I can’t remember whether I made any goals last year. If I did, it was probably much like this year’s: Lose weight. In which case, no I did not keep it.

Did anyone close to you give birth?
Um … I don’t think so. (If you did and I’ve forgotten, I’m so sorry!!)

Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.

What countries did you visit?
Ugh. Holland. It wasn’t fun, and I don’t want to talk about it.

What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006?
Less chaos would be nice.

What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
August 15 was Poppy’s first birthday!

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Coming home.

What was your biggest failure?
Agreeing to go over there in the first place.

Did you suffer illness or injury?
The whole family was leveled by a stomach virus in January. It brought about my first ride in an ambulance. I could’ve skipped that, thank you very much.

What was the best thing you bought?
Plane tickets from Amsterdam to Atlanta.

Where did most of your money go?
Oh gosh. Rent, most likely.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The new season of “Lost.” (Which was/has been pretty disappointing.)

What song will always remind you of 2006?
Really, I have a terrible memory. There’s no way I’ll remember what I was listening to this year.

Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? That last question? Where I said I can’t remember anything? I wasn’t kidding. I don’t remember how I was feeling this time last year.
b) thinner or fatter? About that same. I don’t need to remember that. I have photographic evidence.
c) richer or poorer? Roughly the same, I think.

What do you wish you’d done more of?
Exercising.

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Eating cake.

Did you fall in love in 2006?
Yes. (Cue the sappy, la-la-la music.) With Rockford, all over again. Cheesy but true.

What was your favorite TV program?
I wanted it to be “Lost,” but that didn’t pan out. “The Office” rarely fails to make me laugh.

What was the best book you read?
“Gilead.” “Peace Like a River.” “The Quiet American.”

What was your greatest musical discovery?
Cat Power

What did you want and get?
Contentment. Happiness. A home that feels like home.

What did you want and not get?
A digital SLR camera. Trust me, the what-I-wanted-and-got is so, so much better. I can handle not having the fancy-pants camera.

What was your favorite film of this year?
We didn’t see a lot of movies this year. I enjoyed “Stranger than Fiction” quite a bit.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I spent my birthday with my sister-in-law and her family. We had cake for breakfast, and then some of Chloe’s friends came over for dinner. We had tacos and soup and salad, and it was an all-around lovely day. I was, and remain, 28.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Do I have to answer this? OK, fine. Not moving to Holland. That would’ve helped tremendously. It would have alleviated so much stress.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006?
Ha! Ha ha! My “personal fashion concept”? How ’bout: Things That Fit and Don’t Touch Me Too Much. Oh! And I added bling to my repertoire this year.

What kept you sane?
God’s grace.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Ack. Can I say none of the above? None of the above.

What political issue stirred you the most?
I’ve been too wrapped up in personal issues to get all that stirred over politics.

Who was the best new person you met?
I haven’t met many new people this year.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006.
The events of 2006 have made me determined not to fold in the face of my dear, sweet husband’s ironclad stubborn streak.

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