A Decade of Images and Sounds

MOVIES
Hi-Fidelity
Almost Famous
In the Mood For Love
Royal Tenenbaums
Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind
Before Sunset
No Country for Old Men
The Lives of Others
Ghost World
Punch Drunk Love

Couldn't keep this to 10 so here are 40 more

1Lost In Translation
2Y Tu Mama Tambien
3Amores Perros
4Vibrator
5Talk to Her
6Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter... and Spring
7Oldboy
8Cafe Lumiere
9Dogville
10The Devil and Daniel Johnson
11Elephant
12Donnie Darko
13Half Nelson
14The Good Girl
15The Puffy Chair
16Quiet City
17LOL
18Primer
19Wonder Boys
20Memories of Murder
21The 25th Hour
22Code 46
23The New World
24A Serious Man
25Sex and Lucia
26Children of Men
27The Turning Gate
28Lord of the Rings Trilogy
29The Squid and the Whale
30Mulholland Drive
31The Proposition
32The Assasination of Jesse James
33Morvern Callar
34Millenium Mambo
35Cache
36Time of the Wolf
37You and Me and Everyone We Know
38Red Road
39Waking Life
40Gerry

MUSIC
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
Radiohead - Kid A
Yo La Tengo - and then nothing turned itself inside out
Sparklehorse - it's a wonderful life
Aimee Mann - the forgotten arm
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Cat Power - The Greatest
Elliott Smith - Figure 8
Neko Case - Blacklisted
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow

Best of 2009

The best and worst year of my life. Working at a shitty job coupled with my Mom passing away could have swallowed me up whole. What kept me going was the support of friends and my creative spirit. 2010 will be a great year thanks to the debut of Everything Louder Than Everything Else, which I expect to do great things for me and everyone involved.

Top Ten Movies of 2009

A Serious Man – Experimental jet set, no stars (excuse the Sonic Youth reference). This is everything I love about a Cohen bros. comedy. As weird as Barton Fink and as hilarious as the Big Lebowski. I want to see this movie again and again.

Inglorious Basterds – Tarantino’s love of cinema shines brightly in this WWII masterpiece. After having seen The Last Metro I thought I never wanted to see another German occupied France period piece. This movie proved me wrong. Up there with Lacombe, Lucien and Murmur of the Heart for sure.

Bad Lieutenant- So different from the original, the creep factor is all but gone. The Herzog/Cage team is unstoppable in this film. Loved the scene where he interrogates the old woman.

Fantastic Mr. Fox – Restored my faith in Mr. Anderson (and possibly humanity). In a year that had a lot of great animated kids movies (Coraline, Up) this one really shone. Did not expect to ever have an animated movie in one of my year-end lists. As Larry David would say (or text) in a situation like this: NO I HAVEN’T SEEN IT! I’M AN ADULT! Honestly though, this is witty, intelligent and inspiring filmmaking. Cousin Kristofferson was the biggest surprise for me. I didn’t know it was Wes’ brother till after I saw the film.

Thirst- Another great one from Park Chan Wook. I don’t even like vampire movies.

Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus – Finally another great Terry Gilliam movie. It could have been a disaster after the death of Heath Ledger but Gilliam made it work.

Antichrist – The only director that could make me see a torture porn movie. I shouldn’t be but after seeing this movie I’m smitten with Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Anvil: Story of Anvil – Inspired to tears of joy while watching this. Their story is my story. This is why people make music! This movie is fucking amazing. Thank you for sticking with it Lipps and Robb.

White Ribbon – Very different for Haneke but I still love his use of ambiguity. How the film is framed around the events of WWI really worked for me. The kids in the film essentially grow up to be the Nazis. Some great performances by these kids and adults alike. Still not a fucked up as the Piano Teacher but that is hard to top. In a lot of ways he is the heir to Bergman’s legacy.

Humpday – Mostly because of the two lead performances by Joshua Leonard and Mark Duplass. It felt authentic and not forced like so many films nowadays that are trying to cash in on hipster culture. The best thing in this genre (I won’t use the M word) since Quiet City or even The Puffy Chair.

I still need to see the Girlfriend Experience, Hunger, Che, Moon, A Single Man

Biggest disappointments…

500 days of summer – This years Juno

The Young Victoria – Big disappointment after the stellar C.R.A.Z.Y

Funny People – After 40 year old Virgin, Judd Apatow movies are getting more formulaic and self indulgent. This could have been 45 minutes shorter. I just don’t care about the characters he chooses to put on screen.

Top Ten Albums of 2009

In a lot of ways this is the year of the comeback. So many bands that I’ve loved for over a decade really shone this year.

Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest – Been listening to this album since Dec 2008 and I still love it. This is their breakthrough. Great live act as well.

Bill Callahan , Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle – Most solid album he’s put out since Knock Knock. Best lyric of the year: "I used to be darker/ Then I got lighter/ Then I got dark again." If I were a tattoo person I would have that immortalized on my flesh.

Pink Mountaintops, Outside Love- Enhanced by their live show for sure. Some really great songs on this album. Vampire, greatest song about a film genre I have no patience for.

Chet, Chelsea Silver, Please Come Home - As good as anything they’ve done. Why these guys aren’t huge is beyond me. Hopefully their appearance in ELTEE can help to change that.

Solarists, Coast Spirit- The Sleeper of the year. This album crept up on me and took hold pretty hard. Band leader Cam is one of the nicest guys in music which is great and baffling at the same times. Most great artists I’ve met are elusive jerks.

Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs – Best in a decade for this trio. The variety they are known for is present on this ablum. Similar to the last two releases just more refined.

Sleey Sun, Embrace - This is a last minute addition. I thought I had this on last years list (since I've had a pre-release forever) but alas it was not there. One of the best albums from a non-Canadian band to ever come out of the hive. Inspired by Black Mountain and every bit as good. There are some sweet acid rock jams going down on this platter for sure. Wait till you hear their new one (entitled Super High), it's even better.

Wilco, (The Album)- Probably listened to Wilco (the song) more this year than any other single. Their most consistent album in a long time. Other than aforementioned song the duet with Fiest , You and I, is another stand out. Best Album cover of the year as well.

Neko Case, Middle Cyclone - Just a colossal force of nature. Amazing songwriting and delivery. Even the covers are hard to distinguish as being done by someone else. Neko owns every second of this album. When I saw her live I almost welled up when she performed “Don’t forget me”.

Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career - Finely crafted sixties pop tunes. Just how strong of a document is this ablum? It’s place on my top ten was not jeopardized by their terrible live show. They won’t be playing my wedding, although the DJ may spin the sweetest thing during the garter toss. P.S. I’m not getting married any time soon.

Runner-ups

Lou Barlow, Goodnight Unknown - It’s like having unearthed an lost Sebadoh album. Nice mix of rockers and ballads. Still carrying the lo-fi torch after all these years and not embarrassing himself in the process.

Dinosaur Jr, Farm- as good as anything J Mascis has done. A Great wall of sound accompanied by sweet solos.

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, Know Better, Learn Faster - Great discovery. Half of this album is amazing.

Dark Was the Night, V/A - Some of the best tracks of the year are on here (Beirut, Dirty Projectors, Yeasayer). Worth it for The National's So Far Around the Bend.

Cave Singers - Channeled their inner Zeppelin on this one.

spring

Hey Y'all. Haven't been around the blog for a while. I'm not liking the full time job thing too much but who does. It's a job not a career. I have still been filming Everything Louder than Everything Else. That is going well. I am covering that in another blog though.

I do really like my new-ish place. It has a funny gas stove smell but that is about the only complaint. I've decked out the place to be a media haven. I now have three different boxes to play my audio visual material. Plus I've synced that shit up to my computer so I can watch my videos on my 50" inch plasma.

I had stated earlier that this was going to be my year of TV. That is true and I've already gotten through The entire Entourage series, up to date with Battlestar Galactica, just finished the second series of Heroes and I pvr Flight of the Concords and Eastbound and Down every week. I think i'll be ready for a Lar Von Trier, Louis Malle marathon soon if this keeps up. Speaking of which I saw two trailers for foreign films recently that look pretty great. One by the great Dardenne Bros. (Lorna's Silence)

and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's new one (Tokyo Sonata).

I've been playing some video games as well...




So, that's what I'm up to. There is some private relationship stuff that I'm really happy about but you'll have to ask me in person about that cause that shit ain't goin' public.

Out

What took you so long

I would like to report, once again, that I'm very slow to discover a fucking amazing artist (not totally to blame, more details later in this post). Having been raised in Edmonton I can quite accurately state that nothing good in the realm of the recorded arts hath spawned from this crude oil soiled Province, much less stayed there to flourish.

That is why I am so stunned and awed by the body of work that Chad VanGaalen has produced. This guy lives and records (in his basement) in Calgary. I hate so much of what Canada has offered up for the indie community to consume, so this is as shocking to me as it is for you to hear me gush over an over-achiever in this lazy member of the commonwealth.

Of the three albums (Skelliconnection, Infiniheart and Soft Airplane; all on Subpop no less) I've been listening to over that last three months I've found it hard to find fault in this genre bending wunderkind. He does the acoustic ballad, electro pop and lo-fi rocker all with equal aplomb. I want to know how he has managed to barricade himself from the mediocrity that thrives in Radiant City.

Another musical find this year was Elbow. When I first heard grounds for divorce I thought, wow, this is like a Haruki Murakami novel condensed into 3:39 minutes. After listening to the rest of the album (The Seldom Seen Kid) I was won over by the variety, poetry and ingenuity of this British band. I download the rest of their catalog at that point. Of the 4 studio albums that they have released all of them are uniformly great.

Guy Garvey's voice at times sounds like Peter Gabriel or Sting but the musical accompaniment is something altogether different. They just don't really have a formula. They seem to re-invent themselves with each song yet retain their own identity. I think how can a band like this go largely unnoticed outside of England when the bland-as-fuck Coldplay seems to add a million more fans with ever release. Something is wrong with the music listening public and has been for a while. I'm resigned to the fact that the real good ones will never convince the public of their greatness but will create ten times the adoration in smaller fan bases.

In an era where we have algorithms and AI that collect and process your music listening habits why is it that this band has eluded me? I've been actively searching for a band like this and it's taken me 7 years to gain access to their amazing body of work. What up with all this taste-making technology? I've been fucked over by the machine. It shouldn't be that hard in 2008 to match up the appropriate band with its intended audience. It's not like I'm a casual listener or anything.

Hey technology, get better. I'm warning you.

Having said this, I'm grateful for finally discovering these bands on my own and will be listening to them for years to come.

Year end Music

Top ten in no particular order...

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Fleet Foxes - S/T
Ladyhawk - Shots
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
Portishead - Third
Beach House - Devotion

It's been such a good year I can't come up with just ten...

She and Him - Volume 1
Black Keys - Attack and Release
Black Mountain - In the Future
Stereolab - Chemical Chords
Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

Stay tuned for the top ten movies

Everything Louder Than Everything Else

a new blog following the exploits of our first narrative fiction film...

everythinglouderthan.blogspot.com

VIFF VS. THE SICKNESS

My movie going experience has been pitiful to say the least at this years VIFF. Here is what I managed to see.

Wonderful Town- Slow moving Thai movie about people who smoke and lie on freshly made beds (heavens no, not a the same time, that's a fire hazard) pining for that person they recently met. Oh yeah and the main character gets killed and thrown in the river cause he slept with the help. Note to self: don't sleep with Thai chamber maids in the wake of a Tsunami.

Sweet Food City- The tough hooker at the center of this so-bad-it-made-me-laugh was not quite as interesting when she took off her wig. The wig deserves some type of award. It was the only thing in this movie that I marveled at. Sweet Wig City.

Sparrow- Johnnie To, Pickpockets and heavy handed bird metaphors.

Christmas Tale - If Michael Bay (with Paul W.S Anderson as a consultant) tried to take a stab at the Northern European domestic drama. Employing every stylish trick known to Madison avenue this film had no time or concern for character motivations. That is probably why all the critics love it. They misconstrue this as complex characterization. I just call it "not putting in the work that the audience deserves". Oh, yeah and it's in french so that helps the critics pad a couple of extra stars into the rating of this laughable feces receptacle. I would expect this from Hollywood but from France it's just inconceivable. If you like this, you are not allowed on any of my future film sets.

Still Walking - No, it's not a remake of a 70's exploitation flick. Yasujiro Ozu: Cira 2008. this is how domestic dramas should be done.

Night and Day - Hong Sang Soo epitomizes the director who constantly makes the same film. I liked Turning Gate but I am becoming increasingly bored with his variations on the plight of the Korean manchild.

Three Monkeys - Too close to the screen to really take in the great cinematography on this one. It was well acted and directed but there where a few things that were far too convenient to be taken seriously. In the end though I was mostly pissed off cause I didn't see any primates.

For the last couple of days I've been really sick. If you call really sick being pounded in the head with a ball peen hammer for 12 hours. Seriously I couldn't sleep, read, watch TV, surf the internet, make stupid jokes or play video games. So what I did was prop myself up on the couch in sort of a cross between sitting and lying down position and put my hand on my forehead. I closed my eyes and put on episodes of Dr. Katz, just so I could hear something to take my mind off the sinus headache from Hades.

Mona deserves many kisses, accolades and gold stars for putting up with me and missing a potentially great film. She went to Capers and got me some great organic food. The thing that was the sweetest though was when I ran out of sinus relief pills she drove me to the all night drug store (at 2 am).

The worst is over now.

Unfortunately, I had to cancel plans to run the Victoria Marathon on the 12th. When I'm better I'll run the distance on my own; on a course that I choose. One without an entrance fee.

I am planning something cinematic. News to follow