A Decade in Music, Part 1: 2000 & 2001

As a huge music fan, I feel it’s my obligation to share with people what music is out there besides the mainstream, and give my two cents worth on what rocked my boat over the past year. This year, as 2009 brings us to the close of a decade, I’ve decide to share my best of(s) and favorites from every year, starting with this installment from 2000 and 2001.
Some of it is electronic, some of it is underground indie and alternative, and some of it is pure pop. Sue me, I like what I like. The thing that holds all of these together is that they are solid and have held up over the years. So let us step into the way back machine and revisit the first two years of the 00’s, listed in alphabetical order:

The Top 5 discs from 2000
Madonna, Music
PJ Harvey, Stories from the City Stories from the Sea
Radiohead, Kid A
Underworld, Everything Everything (Live)
Yo La Tengo, And Then Nothing Turn Itself Inside Out

The Best Singles from 2000
Avalanches- Since I Left You
Barcelona- Haunted By The Ghost of Patty
Daft Punk- One More Time
Doves- Here It Comes
Gigi D’Agostino- I’ll Fly With You (L’Amour Toujours)
Lauryn Hill- That Thing You Do (Doo Wop)
Madonna- Don’t Tell Me
Moby w/ Gwen Stefani- South Side
Radiohead- Idioteque
Yo La Tengo- Cherry Chapstick

The 5 Best Discs of 2001
The Avalanches, Since I Left You
Basement Jaxx, Rooty
Daft Punk, Discovery
New Order, Get Ready
Radiohead, Amnesiac

The Best Singles from 2001

!!!- The Feel Good Hit of the Fall
Basement Jaxx- Romeo
Bjork- It’s Not Up To You

Ewan McGregor & Nicole Kidman- Come What May (from Moulin Rouge)
New Order- Slow Jam
Pink- Just Like a Pill
Radiohead- I Might Be Wrong
The Rapture- Out of the Races and Onto the Track
The Stokes- Hard to Explain
Sunscreem- Cover Me
The White Stripes- Fell in Love with a Girl

Part 2 will be coming soon. In the meantime, Happy Halloween!

Marcie Williams, 1975-2009

Marcie Williams was a funny, beautiful and amazing soul who I was very privileged to know for the past 17 years. We met in college, became friends, and luckily kept in contact in our post Bethany days. She always had the widest smile on her face, and the twinkle in her eye was undeniably infectious. From the time I met her, I knew we would be friends for life.
A few years back, in what I have to say is probably the most bitter ironies of life, Marcie was diagnosed with breast cancer. What was stunning is that she refused to let it phase her. She underwent chemotherapy, lost all of her hair, and even had a mastectomy. Amazingly, from the time of her initial diagnosis onward, she never lost her beautiful sense of humor. She always had that wide smile for her friends and family, even when things were tough for her. She kept her sense of humor intact as well, even if it was at her own expense, like the time she retold about her ‘near tragedy’ with a youngster trying to pull off her wig. That was the best thing about Marcie. There was always the bright side to everything.
Marcie never let her cancer get the best of her. She managed to travel all over the US and around the world, from New York to Chicago, from Germany to Tunisia. She and her ‘seester’, Alicia, stood loud and proud as the front runners in the fight against breast cancer, whether it was participating in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk, or just hanging out at the Barnesville Pumpkin Festival. Marcie never missed a day of work during the past year, even when she was on constant chemo after a relapse early this year. And when our friend Billy was losing his fight with colon cancer, Marcie, in the face of adversity, was out there trying to ween herself off of the morphine she was taking for pain, trying to skip a chemo session, just to drive to New Jersey to be with him.
Even in the end, it was a fight, but she made it on her terms. She knew she was running short on time, but regardless, fought and won the chance to make what was her final trip in September to India with Alicia, and traveled that country from end to end. Upon her return, things just happened so fast. She was in and out of the hospital, then there was complications with a blood clot, and on October 2, she was in hospice care. Thankfully, she was in complete peace in her final days, and on October 7, 2009, Marcie passed away in her sleep at the age of 34.
I write this early in the morning after spending a touching and at times emotional evening with friends and family in Barnesville, OH, as we gathered to celebrate her life. We heard her sister Alicia tell us that Marcie passed on smiling. We heard from her long time companion Bob about how she refused to let cancer chase her down, and yet in the end when it had, that she was not afraid at all. It was so moving that people from her life, whether it was family, or friends from growing up, or like me her Bethany College friends, all came together in one single moment to take time and share the joy that she brought to each and every one of our lives. That is what I treasure the most about Marcie. She brought instant joy, even when the odds were against her.
So for my friends, and her friends and family and loved ones, I say thank you to Marcie Williams for making a difference in our lives. Not only were you so special to all of us, but your existence made life special for us as well. Shine on, Sweet Pea. My heart is broken for now, but your enduring love will let it heal.