East Bay View (a blog about several things)

Left Behind

2010-04-30T21:54:00.000-07:00

I'm mostly here now BTW. Farewell post, in the form of a list of course, forthcoming.

Top ten: Lonely hunters

2010-04-02T23:20:00.000-07:00

Alicia Keys, "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart" Ewing
Florence + the Machine, "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" TSJ
Digital Primitives, "Love Truth" Derek Taylor
Royksopp ft. Robyn, "The Girl and the Robot" TSJ
Mini Viva, "I Wish" (Cahill remix) Pop Music Notes
Florence + the Machine, "Dog Days Are Over" Anna Pickard
Sonic Youth, "Antenna" SF/J
M.I.A., "Space Odyssey" Weiner vs Rosen
Dam-Funk, "Brookside Park" Jesse Serwer
Digital Primitives, "Walkabout" [see #3]

200 favourite albums, 2000-2009

2010-02-28T23:05:00.000-08:00

M.I.A., Kala
Franco, Francophonic Vol. 2
King Sunny Ade, The Best of the Classic Years
James Carter, Chasin' the Gypsy
New York Dolls, One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This
Franco, Francophonic
Sleater-Kinney, One Beat
Kanye West, Late Registration
Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP
Taylor Swift, Fearless (Platinum Edition)
Bob Dylan, Love and Theft
Franco, The Very Best of the Rumba Giant of Zaire
PJ Harvey, Stories from the City
Mekons, OOOH!
Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
Buck 65, Talkin' Honky Blues
Gogol Bordello, Super Taranta!
Ghostface Killah, Fishscale
Brian Wilson Presents Smile
M.I.A., Arular
Youssou N'Dour, Nothing's in Vain
The Coup, Party Music
DJ Shadow, The Private Press
Lucinda Williams, Essence
K'naan, The Dusty Foot Philosopher
Ornette Coleman, Sound Grammar
Bob Dylan, Modern Times
OutKast, Stankonia
Mos Def, The Ecstatic
The Best Best of Fela Kuti
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
Rilo Kiley, More Adventurous
Amy Rigby, Little Fugitive
The Best Bootlegs in the World Ever!
Manu Chao, La Radiolina
The Moldy Peaches
Tabu Ley Rochereau, The Voice of Lightness
OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Johnny Cash, American IV: The Man Comes Around
Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock and Roll
Irene Schweizer, Portrait
Daft Punk, Discovery
Kanye West, The College Dropout
Drive-By Truckers, Decoration Day
Orchestra Baobab, Specialist in All Styles
The Streets, Original Pirate Material
Golden Afrique Vol. 2
Mavis Staples, We'll Never Turn Back
Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night
Papa Wemba, 1977-1997
Liz Phair
The Avalanches, Since I Left You
Lily Allen, It's Not Me It's You
Radiohead, Kid A
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane, At Carnegie Hall
Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 4
Nas, Untitled
Sonic Youth, NYC Ghosts & Flowers
Gogol Bordello, Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike
Manu Chao, Proxima Estacion: Esperanza
Leonard Cohen, Live in London
The Rough Guide to the Music of the Sahara
Jimmie Dale Gilmore, One Endless Night
Todd Snider, The Devil You Know
Le Tigre, This Island
Miranda Lambert, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
N*E*R*D, In Search of...
Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak
Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
Loudon Wainwright III, High Wide & Handsome
William Parker, Raining on the Moon
Wussy
Wussy, Funeral Dress
Drive-By Truckers, Brighter Than Creation's Dark
Youssou N'Dour, Egypt
TV on the Radio, Dear Science
Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3
Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped
Sonny Rollins, This Is What I Do
William Parker Violin Trio, Scrapbook
William Parker, Double Sunrise over Neptune
Randy Newman, Harps and Angels
Pat Metheny & Ornette Coleman, Song X
Amy Rigby, Til the Wheels Fall Off
Sonic Youth, Murray Street
Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, MTO Vol. 1
Tricky, Blowback
Imperial Teen, On
Steinski, What Does It All Mean?
Sonic Liberation Front, Ashe a Go-Go
Luomo, Vocalcity
Basement Jaxx, Rooty
Imperial Teen, The Hair the TV the Baby & the Band
Ne-Yo, Year of the Gentleman
Powerhouse Sound, Oslo/Chicago Breaks
Public Enemy, Rebirth of a Nation
Bjork, Vespertine
The Klezmatics, Wonder Wheel
Wu-Tang Clan, The W
William Parker Quartet, Sound Unity
Conor Oberst
Sleater-Kinney, The Woods
Warren Zevon, The Wind
Gothic Archies, The Tragic Treasury
Blackalicious, NIA
Lyrics Born, Later That Day
Atmosphere, Lucy Ford
Rachid Taha, Made in Medina
Orlando Cachaito Lopez, Cachaito
Basement Jaxx, Kish Kash
Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers
The Libertines, Up the Bracket
Serengeti, Dennehy (Lights, Camera, Action!)
Lupe Fiasco, Food and Liquor
New Order, Waiting for the Sirens' Call
The Coup, Pick a Bigger Weapon
Postal Service, Give Up
The Go! Team, Proof of Youth
Strictly Kev, Raiding the 20th Century
Aimee Mann, Bachelor No. 2
Kimya Dawson, I'm Sorry That Sometimes I'm Mean
Mastodon, Crack the Skye
Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Wrens, The Meadowlands
Lifter-Puller, Fiestas + Fiascos
David Murray, Like a Kiss That Never Ends
Kelis, Tasty
Art Pepper, Unreleased Art Vol. 1
Wide Right, Sleeping on the Couch
African Pearls
Cornershop, Handcream for a Generation
Jon Faddis, Teranga
Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
Jon Langford, All the Fame of Lofty Deeds
Jewels and Binoculars, Ships with Tattooed Sails
Willie and the Wheel
Northern State, Dying in Stereo
Old 97's, Satellite Rides
The Go-Betweens, Oceans Apart
The Go-Betweens, The Friends of Rachel Worth
Matthew Shipp, Harmony and Abyss
Les Amazones de Guinee, Wamato
Vijay Iyer, Reimagining
Nellie McKay, Obligatory Villagers
Todd Snider, East Nashville Skyline
Spaceways Inc., Version Soul
The Hives, Veni Vidi Vicious
Lily Allen, Alright Still
Lou Reed, Ecstasy
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
Pink, I'm Not Dead
King Kapisi, Savage Thoughts
The Apples in Stereo, New Magnetic Wonder
Missy Elliott, Miss E.. So Addictive
The Vandermark 5, Elements of Style, Exercises in Surprise
Tune-Yards, Bird-Brains
The White Stripes, White Blood Cells
Holy Modal Rounders, I Make a Wish for a Potato
Mos Def, The New Danger
Golden Afrique Vol. 1
Wussy, Left for Dead
Eminem, Encore
Amadou & Mariam, Dimanche a Bamako
Pink, Try This
Dizzee Rascal, Boy in Da Corner
Festival in the Desert
Marianne Faithfull, Easy Come Easy Go
Common, Finding Forever
Art Brut, Art Brut vs Satan
Primal Scream, XTRMNTR
Missy Elliott, Under Construction
Robyn
Billy Bragg & Wilco, Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2
Leonard Cohen, Ten New Songs
Youssou N'Dour, Rokku Mi Rokka
50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
Craig Harris, Souls within the Veil
Jonatha Brooke, The Works
Rancid, Indestructible
Courtney Love, America's Sweetheart
Nellie McKay, Get Away from Me
The Mountain Goats, Tallahassee
Shelby Lynne, I Am Shelby Lynne
Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight
Joanna Newsom, Ys
Lil Wayne, The Carter 3: The Mixtape
Amadou & Mariam, Welcome to Mali
Buddy Guy, Sweet Tea
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever to Tell
Frank London Klezmer Brass Allstars, Carnival Conspiracy
Franco, Classic Titles
Buck 65, Square
Erykah Badu, Mama's Gun
Britney Spears, My Prerogative
Brakes, The Beatific Visions
The Strokes, Is This It?
Yo La Tengo, Summer Sun
Oumou Sangare, Seya
Barbershop 2: Back in Business

The decade in Claire Denis

2010-01-27T00:10:00.000-08:00

It's obligatory to mention that the career of Denis is difficult to extricate from that of Agnès Godard, her regular cinematographer for two decades (though Godard has worked with other directors); indeed, Beau travail might have the most incisive shots of male bodies ever, and there seems no point in dividing credit between the two of them. But too little attention has been paid to Denis's relationship with the other senses besides sight. Music is part of this – not so much the scores, which are middling, but the use of pop, most famously Corona's "Rhythm of the Night" and Denis Lavant's aberrant dance to it. But Friday Night seems to me to be a pretty straight-up-and-down movie about touch, and this is achieved through sounds – the matching of effects to actions. When we hear masking tape coming off the roll near the beginning we can feel it. Over-amplifying not the background buzz but the personal sounds your brain’s trained to block out – simply being able to hear the characters chew – gives a solidity that’s most notable for allowing the most physical sex I’ve seen on camera. Not sure which sound guy to credit, so I’ll take a stab: Jean-Louis Ughetto, I salute you.

The Intruder is certainly beautiful: most movies don't give us images as warm as Michel Subor drinking with a Pusan local or as vivid as a flashback to a boat's arrival at a French Polynesian island. But from Denis, that's not enough. Subor's character, Louis, is an intruder; various people are intruders in Louis's life (notably Béatrice Dalle); Louis even has an intruder inside his body - his transplanted heart. The heightening of Louis's condition, at first achieved through long looks at his huge chest scar, becomes absurdly literal when we see a bloody organ lying in the snow. All this is meant to make some vague point about rejection, and how communities and their outsiders relate to each other, but except in the Korean section and parts of the Tahitian one, Denis's use of photogenic isolated locations defeats her theme by not giving Louis enough human life to interact with.

35 Shots of Rum is Denis's variation on Ozu's Late Spring, except Ozu never had a chance to hear Lionel Richie. It's approximately as good as Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Ozuist Cafe Lumiere, which is pretty brilliant. Denis has complete confidence in Alex Descas (playing Chishu Ryu), and those of us who hadn't previously noticed he was among the most attentive actors around now wonder how we missed him.

SPOILER AHOY

Brad vs classical music: Hits of the seventeen-aughts

2010-01-23T18:22:00.000-08:00

Bach, Great Organ Favorites (performed by E. Power Biggs)

Early music is something qualitatively different, and the Baroque, aside from one-hit wonders like Pachelbel and Jeremiah Clarke, wasn't up to much before Bach, so 1700 is a convenient time to declare war on classical music (or art music, if you want to be a dick about it). The pieces on this album are believed to be composed by Bach in his twenties, except for the much later "Wachet Auf" and for the "Jig Fugue", which he probably didn't write and is kind of trite anyway. There's also some scholarship suggesting the horror movie staple "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" isn't his: the "Toccata" sounds pretty different from the rest of his organ work, but on the other hand, nobody over the following 250 years wrote organ music of this quality -- maybe besides Mozart's ditties for mechanical organ, but probably not. There's no shortage of recordings; here, Biggs is lively yet precise, without heaviness for its own sake. If you like this, the logical next step would be Bach's Trio Sonatas in an organ version, or in Biggs's pedal harpsichord version.

What would Brakhage have thought of YouTube?

2010-01-20T00:25:00.000-08:00

Or DailyMotion? Or UbuWeb, for that matter?

Mothlight (1963):

What did he think of Kyle Cooper?

The only good part of Se7en:

(btw the Kael-Brakhage conversation doing the rounds is, like you might have expected, just them eloquently talking past each other: like the Kael-Godard except without the passive-aggressive sexual tension)

(BooTube edit: why you should host yr videos yrself)

The decade in Radiohead

2010-01-19T22:25:00.000-08:00

It's as clear that Kid A is not the best album of its decade (or second, or third, or...) as it was that OK Computer was not the best album of its decade (or second, etc.), but shouldn't distract you from the band's achievement. It's difficult to recall how controversial Kid A was upon release: even before a decade of dubstep, its sonics seemed pleasant, not harsh, and the album was scarcely less tonal than their previous work ("What we're doing isn't that radical" -- T. Yorke). Having said that, "National Anthem" is a fun freakout and "Everything in Its Right Place" is a flicker of warmth amidst a freezing soundscape.

The soundscapes in Amnesiac, this time including a higher proportion of guitar, are uglier, and not always in a useful way. Colin Greenwood, as always, manages to hold the album together.

Hail to the Thief refocuses on writing, and Thom Yorke holds up his end of the job, even if his themes are limited (if not his concepts). "Sail to the Moon" is particularly simple and fetching.

The group rejuvenated themselves in public opinion by offering In Rainbows on a pay-what-you-wish download basis. In Rainbows is more of a band album, with Jonny Greenwood in especially fine form. And "I have no idea what you are talking about" is a definitive lyric one way or another.

New Weerasethakul

2010-01-19T13:15:00.000-08:00

I mostly like this for the sound. And the Hello Kitty balloon.

CHounding

2010-01-06T00:25:00.000-08:00

Brad's epickening Vegas thread
Top 10 tastes of 2009

Artist of the year: Michael Jackson

2010-01-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

On reflection, not the death of the monoculture, but an indication that the monoculture is stronger than ever -- it's just a quarter-century behind the times. What some may have considered worth mourning is the loss, during the span of his career, of any necessary connection between artistic talent and quality of output. MJ was the most gifted young singer and dancer of the rock era, so it's hardly surprising he seems like a peak. And sure, Taylor Swift, the most naturally gifted young songwriter since Stevie Wonder, shows that talent still has its uses. But if you look at the other signature musical artists of the year (reckoning Gaga's impact as only peripherally to do with music), Susan Boyle is, on a fairly basic level, more talented than any combination of the Black Eyed Peas, and this matters not a jot. Meanwhile, will.i.am is more talented than Noah Lennox, and that matters, well, a bit. In conclusion, I am glad creativity is valued more than talent these days, but I wish indie dudes would sing better.

99 Lives 2009

2009-12-21T00:27:00.001-08:00

The Black Eyed Peas and Brad Paisley, both (like yours truly) major beneficiaries of liberalism, are hopelessly optimistic about the future. But I'm happy to take the odds that tonight will be a good night. Peas win it on account of their being so 2000 and late.

Drop me a line if you want the MP3 compilation.

Black Eyed Peas, "Boom Boom Pow"
Brad Paisley, "Welcome to the Future" original version/video version/reprise
Mos Def ft. Slick Rick, "Auditorium"
Marianne Faithfull, "Down from Dover"
Maxwell, "Pretty Wings"
Taylor Swift, "Fifteen" (2008)
Leonard Cohen, "Tower of Song" (live)
Sleigh Bells, "Crown on the Ground"
Amadou & Mariam, "Sabali"
The Lonely Island ft. T-Pain, "I'm on a Boat"
Franco, "Marie naboyi" (1970)
Tune-Yards, "News"
Serengeti, "Dennehy" (2008)
16Bit, "Chainsaw Calligraphy"
DJ Quik & Kurupt, "9x Outta 10"
MGMT, "Kids" (2007)
Franco, "Bina na ngai na respect" (1982)
Lone, "Joy Reel"
Taylor Swift, "Forever & Always" (2008)
Shuttle, "Tunnel" (High Rankin remix)
Loudon Wainwright III, "Ramblin' Blues"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Zero"
Sebastien Tellier, "Divine" (2008)
Animal Collective, "My Girls"
DJ Kaos, "Love the Nite Away" (Tiedye mix)
Dizzee Rascal ft. Armand Van Helden, "Bonkers"
The Streets, "Blinded by the Lights" (Nero remix)
Miike Snow, "Animal" (Fake Blood remix)
Major Lazer ft. Nina Sky & Ricky Blaze, "Keep It Goin' Louder"
Beyonce, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring Around It)" (2008)
Mos Def, "Life in Marvelous Times"
Glasvegas, "Flowers and Football Tops" (2008)
Kanye West, "Love Lockdown" (2008)
The Baseball Project, "Harvey Haddix" (2008)
Polvo, "Lucia"
DJ Quik & Kurupt, "Hey Playa! (Moroccan Blues)"
Wussy, "Magic Words"
Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, "Viper Song" (2008)
Franco, "Kimpa kisangameni" (1984)
Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, "Thou Shalt Always Kill" (2007)
Joy Orbison, "Hyph Mngo"
Girls, "Morning Light" (2008)
K'naan, "T.I.A."
Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling"
Lil Wayne ft. Pharrell, "Yes"
Brooke Fraser, "Albertine" (2006)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Heads Will Roll"
Art Brut, "The Replacements"
Kanye West, "Coldest Winter" (2008)
Nirvana, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (live at Reading)
Mos Def, "Quiet Dog Bite Hard"
Drake, "Best I Ever Had"
Art Brut, "What a Rush"
Tanya Morgan ft. Napoleon, "Plan B"
Mastodon, "Divinations"
Sleigh Bells, "Infinity Guitars"
Brad Paisley, "No"
Dum Dum Girls, "Catholicked"
Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"
Leonard Cohen, "Take This Waltz" (live)
Oumou Sangare, "Sounsoumba"
Sonic Youth, "Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)"
Solange, "I Decided" (2008)
Leonard Cohen, "Hallelujah" (live)
Jonatha Brooke, "Sweetest Angel" (2008)
The Whitest Boy Alive, "Golden Cage" (Fred Falke remix) (2008)
Taylor Swift, "You Belong with Me" (2008)
Ghostface Killah ft. Fabolous & Shareefa, "Guest House"
The Fiery Furnaces, "Lost at Sea"
Wussy, "Dreadful Sorry"
Matthew Shipp Trio, "Roe"
Miranda Lambert, "Only Prettier"
Busy Signal, "Da Style Deh"
Jason Derulo, "Whatcha Say"
Kanye West, "Bad News" (2008)
Lee Ann Womack, "Last Call" (2008)
Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys, "Empire State of Mind"
Verckys, "Marcello Tozongana" (1975)
Lily Allen, "The Fear"
Groove Armada, "Song for Mutya (Out of Control)" (2007)
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, "Young Adult Friction"
Zomby, "Spliff Dub (Rustie remix)" (2008)
Clinton Sparks ft. Clipse & Pharrell, "Still Got It 4 Cheap"
Franco, "Princesse Kikou" (1982)
Joker & Ginz, "Purple City"
Brad Paisley, "American Saturday Night"
Pet Shop Boys, "Love, etc."
Willie and the Wheel, "Sweet Jennie Lee"
Glasvegas, "Geraldine" (2008)
Rich Boy, "Drop"
Flo Rida ft. Kesha, "Right Round"
Paleface & Kyla, "Do You Mind" (Crazy Cousinz remix) (2008)
Katy Perry, "Hot N Cold" (2008)
Nellie McKay, "Wonderful Guy"
T-Pain ft. Lil Wayne, "Can't Believe It" (2008)
Wussy, "Trail of Sadness" (2007)
Gallows, "Black Eyes"
New Era, "Pockets on My Pannies"
White Denim, "I Start to Run"

Correlated lists:
Monsen
Matos
Frere-Jones
Rosen
The Singles Jukebox

Favourite video games of the decade

2009-11-08T17:11:00.000-08:00

From the point of view of a casual player with too short an attention span to play all the way through games, and applies to most of the below.

1. Guitar Hero III
The series is good for musicianship, though who knows if it'll be good for music in the long run? Song choices have been pretty lame compared to Rock Band, and anything that prolongs the prog revival is a mixed blessing. What these games do, though, is to lower the barriers to participatory enjoyment to something achievable for people like me who lack hand-eye co-ordination. I can now hear guitar tracks (and not just for songs I've played) in a way I couldn't before. That said, the reason that no. 3 is the classic so far (Beatles Rock Band has the setlist to be the definitive play-along game, but I haven't played it yet) is because it takes single-player as far as it can go, which basically means it's really fucking hard. I am no longer confident that I will pass "Raining Blood" on Hard (forget Expert) at some point in my life, but it could happen.
2. Grand Theft Auto III
We're still waiting for some genius robot to make sandbox narrative something other than a mixed metaphor. No human has yet improved on this.
3. Super Mario Galaxy
Everything you ever wanted to know about gravity but were afraid you'd get beaned with an apple for asking. Coming: Super Mario Relativity!
4. Pac-Man Championship Edition
Toss-up as to whether Ms. Pac-Man or this is the sweetest Pac-game. If you're pressed for time, though, it's probably this.
5. Kingdom of Loathing
The sharpest writing, line-for-line, and just below the maximum tolerance for Monty Python references. Pretty cleverly structured, too.
6. Portal
7. The Sims
8. Wii Sports
9. Sid Meier's Pirates!
10. Desktop Tower Defense 1.5

And I also liked:
No More Heroes
Punch-Out!!
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
Rock Band 2
Burnout: Revenge
The demo for World of Goo
Wii Fit
Fancy Pants Adventure: World 2
The demo for Plants vs Zombies, even though you only get to play for an hour
And why not Cursor*10, which is immensely enjoyable for several minutes

2009 favourites:
Punch-Out!!
Street Fighter IV
Plants vs. Zombies demo
Braid demo
And special mention to Lose/Lose, the best game I'll never play

Best of the decade: Mos Def

2009-11-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

He didn't miss my acting top 25 by much; combine this with being a decade top 10 rapper and he's one of the few genuine monsters of multimedia in this era of specialisation. I still need to acquire True Magic, which Geffen tried to sneak on to the market without anyone noticing. But before that came the harsh words and sounds of The New Danger, refusing the potent accessibility of his verses for Kanye about American life (and later, the role of drunk and hot girls therein). Aided by Dr. Know and Living Colour's best rhythm section, "Ghetto Rock" sounds like it's opening up a whole new genre. And after that came the eclecticism of The Ecstatic, attempting to reconcile his identity as black and Muslim with his US passport. He succeeds, of course: if he could live "Life in Marvelous Times" in Bed-Stuy '82, he can do so now.

Movie stars of the decade, #24-#21

2009-11-04T12:35:00.000-08:00

24. Michelle Williams
Upon emerging from teen stardom, no one would've begrudged her if she had taken the Kirsten Dunst route and charmed big money pictures as the love interest. But from The Station Agent to Brokeback Mountain to Wendy and Lucy, she's made a habit of choosing intriguing roles, and she keeps getting better. partial SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER When Wendy finally finds Lucy, from the moment they make contact you *know* what's going to happen, and I give Williams the majority of the credit for this.
Pro wrestling equivalent: Trish Stratus.

23. Michael Caine
Just talked about him. PWE that will horrify two sets of nationalists: Fit Finlay.

22. Peter O'Toole
Never the busiest guy, in the first half of the decade it seemed he had nearly dried up: he had a neat cameo in Bright Young Things but was reduced to jobbing to Brad Pitt in Troy. Then came Venus, in which he sacrificed any physical (Anton) ego he may have still had, but clung stubbornly to his remaining shreds of dignity. Admirable, but we'll remember him as Lawrence.
PWE: Blue Panther.

21. Viola Davis
They've loved her on Broadway for some time, but meatiest screen role she's been cast in is the goddamn maid in Far from Heaven. More typical are two-minute parts like "mother in hospital" in World Trade Center -- yet she managed to make that movie deep for one scene. She didn't get much more time in Doubt, but it was time enough to give Meryl Streep the schooling of her life. Davis got her Oscar nomination, so you'd think things were looking up for her, right? And yet, even as she was campaigning, she couldn't get her name on the poster of the Tyler Perry picture she was in. Coming in 2010 are roles supporting Julia Roberts and Tom Cruise. Schooling them would be funny, but only up to a point.
PWE: Daisuke Ikeda.

Richard Price, Lush Life

2009-11-03T23:09:00.000-08:00

The grilling of the anti-hero murder suspect at the beginning of the book is fun, but the street crim kids aren't as well drawn as the gentrifiers and the cops. Price isn't mean enough to his teen delinquents, while he might be too mean to his grown-up ones. Nobody hates hipsters more than ex-hipsters, and Price has been there. The mystery is cleared up for us long before the victim's funeral turns into an orgy of point-scoring. When somebody actually wants to mourn, the attention-grabbers turn on the self-loathing. If you don't have anyone else's attention, you might as well have your own.

A poet: Juliana Spahr

2009-11-03T17:19:00.000-08:00

"poem written after September 11, 2001": Two tricks: the old scale 'em up, scale 'em down, and the old length-of-line is length-of-breath. And you know what, she combines them into something absolutely 21st century, about collectivity and how it relates to geography, at a specific historical moment and always.

As everyone with lungs breathes the space between the hands and the space around the hands and the space of the room and the space of the building that surrounds the room and the space of the neighborhoods nearby and the space of the cities and the space of the regions and the space of the cities and the space of the regions and the space of the nations and the space of the continents and islands and the space of the oceans and the space of the troposphere and the space of the stratosphere and the space of the mesosphere in and out. [mp3]

"Gentle Now, Don't Add to Heartache": This one shows us how much language contributes to our shared experience. And how language isn't enough if we destroy the things the words describe.

I replaced what I knew of the stream with Lifestream Total Cholesterol Test Packets, with Snuggle Emerald Stream Fabric Softener Dryer Sheets, with Tisserand Aromatherapy Aroma-Stream Cartridges, with Filter Stream Dust Tamer, and Streamzap PC Remote Control, Acid Stream Launcher, and Viral Data Stream.
I didn't even say goodbye elephant ear, mountain madtorn, butterfly, harelip sucker, white catspaw, rabbitsfoot, monkeyface, speckled chub, wartyback, ebonyshell, pirate perch, ohio pigtoe, clubshell.

"The Incinerator": Illustrates that poetry is a way of thinking, but you knew that. It's what she thinks that matters, and you'd better believe she has thoughts worth hearing about class and race and gender and herself.

As I write this other stories keep popping up and I keep abandoning them: wanting to talk about class, I kept talking only about gender.
As I write this other stories keep popping up and I keep abandoning them: when I sat down to write this piece I began by writing about myself using a series of statements that I stole from working class memoirs by US women and then memoirs by women from the global south.
As I write this other stories keep popping up and I keep abandoning them: the categories were not equal: working class US women and then just any woman from the global south, as if these categories had any relationship between them.

Hit count: Couldn't get no worse

2009-11-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

Brad Paisley, "Welcome to the Future"

The anti-"Born in the U.S.A.". Springsteen tells of dead cities; Paisley is tickled that he can play Pac-Man on an iPhone. One mourns losing family in Vietnam; the other glorifies family who fought in the Second World War. One observes the arrival of mass incarceration, and knows that's it's only going to get worse; the other thinks things are going to be dandy now that we have a black president. So why, then, is "Welcome to the Future" almost, if not quite, as great a song as "Born in the U.S.A."? One of my core beliefs is that rock and roll is, with many exceptions, better when it's joyous than when it's miserable. But optimism has to be justifiable, and it's been a while since a belief that macro-scale things were looking up was distinguishable from delusion. No one has made optimism seem as reasonable as Paisley does here since the time when kids could be born to run -- the time when there was somewhere to run to. Even those who don't believe that Our Barack will deliver us from our sins have got to admit that now, yeah, maybe we can start cleaning up the messes we've made in years and decades past. It's our time. Now make something out of it.

(another take for all you anti-capitalists)

Pitbull, "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)"

The won't-go-away songs of 2009: "Boom Boom Pow" (masterpiece), "Poker Face" (held up for a shockingly long time), "Love Story" (great but enough already), "Halo" (has faded into innocuousness, not unpleasantly), "Use Somebody" (ten months on the radio is too many by nine-and-a-half), "I'm Yours" (please, no more, for the love of Hall and Oates). And this, the only one to significantly benefit from over six months of saturating the airwaves, at least as much as it's only now I've decided it's a pretty good song. Couldn't get over the played "Street Player" sample at first, but the beat eventually got to me -- as Manu Chao knows, a ping is as good a hook as any. Six months have not revealed to me whether the woman in question looks "like King Kong", or if her ass looks like King Kong, or if her ass looks like King Kong's ass, or, for completeness, she looks like King Kong's ass. What I can state with some certainty is that she has a large posterior, and that all concerned parties are pleased about this.

[open letter]

2009-10-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

Dear people on the Internet making best-of-decade music lists,

Many people have made good music past the age of 40. (Not just Wayne Coyne.) Examples include Bob Dylan, David Johansen, Lucinda Williams, Brian Wilson, Amy Rigby, and most or all of the Mekons.

Love,
~br.

P.S. to Uncut: Three Dylan albums in your decade top 100 is a bit much though.

P.P.S. All you guys need to listen to those Coup albums again.

P.P.P.S. And Manu Chao, and Gogol Bordello. And let's not even start on Afropop.

Movie stars of the decade, #25: Meryl Streep

2009-10-23T18:28:00.000-07:00

She has a tendency to make every movie she's in into a Meryl Streep movie. This works swimmingly for pictures that are otherwise middling, or a bit worse, with The Devil Wears Prada and the recent Julie & Julia examples of this these that are among her finest work. Even poorly conceived or staged scenes are entertaining, because you can watch her tics and listen to her funny voice of the moment. The downside is that she's often off doing her own thing, rather than placing herself at the service of the director, or carrying her co-stars (Amy Adams must be glad Streep was kept 50 years away in Julie & Julia after being hung out to dry in Doubt), which sometimes makes it feel like she's keeping her vehicles in arrested development. But when working with a great director of actors, like Demme or Altman, she's willing to stand out a little less, and that goes a long way.

Pro wrestling equivalent: Kurt Angle.

50 favourite fiction books of the decade

2009-10-12T00:20:00.000-07:00

Not a pure response to this, since my working definition of "of the decade" is more flexible. Though the Brits are overrepresented (too much reading of the Guardian) my list is more internationalist than the Millions list, plus I like some picture books a lot. Comics aside, there's very little genre fiction on the list: I find it hard to work out what's worth reading, as recommendations, whether from inside or outside the relevant subcultures, more often than not end up dead ends for me. Leads consistent with the list below welcome.

1. Orhan Pamuk, Snow
2. Richard Powers, The Time of Our Singing
3. Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Francaise
4. Zadie Smith, White Teeth
5. Morrison/Quitely/Grant, All-Star Superman
6. Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
7. Alice Munro, Hateship Friendship Loveship Courtship Marriage
8. Roberto Bolano, 2666
9. Paul Auster, The Book of Illusions
10. Ali Smith, The Accidental
11. Junot Diaz, The Brief Wonderful Life of Oscar Wao
12. Aaron McGruder, The Bookdocks: A Right to Be Hostile
13. Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan
14. W.G. Sebald, Austerlitz
15. Ian McEwan, Atonement
16. Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
17. Per Olov Enquist, The Royal Physician's Visit
18. Mary Gaitskill, Veronica
19. Michel Houellebecq, Platform
20. Sarah Waters, Fingersmith
21. Robert Charles Wilson, Spin
22. Philip Roth, The Human Stain
23. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
24. Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections
25. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wizard of the Crow
26. Caryl Phillips, A Distant Shore
27. Sarah Waters, The Night Watch
28. Monica Ali, Brick Lane
29. Dave Eggers, What Is the What
30. Ian McEwan, Saturday
31. Imre Kertesz, Fatelessness
32. Kate Atkinson, Case Histories
33. Toni Morrison, Love
34. Colson Whitehead, John Henry Days
35. Mikael Niemi, Popular Music from Vittula
36. David Mitchell, number9dream
37. E.L. Doctorow, The March
38. Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners
39. Javier Cercas, Soldiers of Salamis
40. Irina Denezhkina, Give Me (Songs for Lovers)
41. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Purple Hibiscus
42. Edward P. Jones, The Known World
43. Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
44. Carol Shields, Unless
45. Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
46. Brian K. Vaughan & Pia Guerra, Y: The Last Man
47. Julian Barnes, Arthur & George
48. Dubravka Ugresic, The Ministry of Pain
49. Arthur Phillips, Prague
50. Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

The decade in Dylan

2009-10-05T18:28:00.000-07:00

My big three Dylan albums* will forever be The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home and Blood on the Tracks, but Love and Theft is top of the second tier. It's an album about staying in Mississippi a day too long, then finding there's now no reason to leave. On "Po' Boy" he employs the novel concept of playing the Fool for laughs, not tragedy. He sings like an old man, but a sprightly one, and if you don't believe him when he promises love, he's so alluring when declaring attraction you'll fall for him anyway. A major advantage over previous comebacks was the quality of the playing, especially Charlie Sexton's ominous riff on "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum", and Larry Campbell's slide on "Honest with Me".

Modern Times lacks a truly great punchline, but it's one of his most consistent albums. First and foremost it's a band album, and on "Spirit on the Water" it sounds like he has his best band since the Band, though one far more languid. His theft of “Nettie Moore” sounds as justified and ancient as anything on World Gone Wrong. And "Workingman's Blues" might make you forget he hasn't been using the word "proletariat" all his life. (Neither did Chaplin.)

Together Through Life contains multiples duds, though a lower proportion than, say, any of his Eighties albums. Still, "Life Is Hard" and "I Feel a Change Comin' On" (bit late, what) could yet end up on Un-Dylanlike Artist Covers Dylan, Vol 619. More essential Dylan artifacts from this decade are Masked and Anonymous, which is all other the place but has some terrific parts, like Jeff Bridges as a rock scribe so pompous Lester Bangs would've beaten him up, then asked him for beer money; and the memoir Chronicles: Volume One, in which he's telling the truth, he swears!

*You're free to substitute Highway 61 Revisited for one of these. Not Blonde on Blonde, which gets pretty dull on the second LP.

Decadal music notes

2009-10-01T00:19:00.000-07:00

Eminem: If you've forgotten why he was the great white hope, listen to the first two albums again. The Marshall Mathers LP in particular is beyond classic, and was on track to hold back PE's claim to best hip hop album ever until two or three duff tracks in the teens. "Stan" showed he understood that his art had consequences as well as almost anyone; it's just that the consequences of his work were and are far less predictable than those of Renoir's. "The Real Slim Shady" is his cleverest lyric, ninety percent biting lines for the first two verses before claiming not that he is everyman, but everyman is him. "Marshall Mathers" destroys ICP; it's like Vader versus some random Saturday Night guy. I think the controversial "Kim" is as good Stanislavski as you'll get in rock. The next album, The Eminem Show, was a big step down, cameo from his daughter notwithstanding. Encore has its moments, particularly when he was embracing his outer whiteboy and sampling Martika. I put "Mosh" in my 2004 top ten, but on reflection it's clear if the song has anything to other besides "Fuck Bush", admittedly an enduring sentiment (Lily Allen is still making hay out of it). Five years later, only the murder-filled first half of Relapse is godawful; the addiction-fueled second half is merely disappointing.

Amerie: Rich Harrison go-goed up four spectacular bars of Ziggy Modeliste, then he and Amerie wrote an effective song around it that gave her a chance to use her sweet upper register. The result was "1 Thing", a song of the decade contender. The next best thing Amerie has done was "Gotta Work", an accomplished "1 Thing" rip-off.

Decadal movie notes

2009-09-30T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Best of Youth: I'm not going to re-watch this before best-of-decade listmaking, because, you know, six hours. But all of you who are into DVD season sets should note that this kills any American TV series I've seen this decade, scene by scene or as a whole. Should be in the twenties of my movie list.

Michael Caine: The world's greatest butler has picked a pretty good set of roles this decade. The green-thumbed smuggler in Children of Men was the most surprising, but the more typical Hi! I'm a Great English Actor! part in Last Orders was just as good a performance. Not a lot of people know: his turn as the creepy doc in the silly Quills is a ton of fun.

Charlotte Gainsbourg: In her husband's trivial movies it was clear to some that she should be the biggest star in the world. Michel Gondry saw this but boxed her in a little. Todd Haynes saw this and created a muse stronger than any of his male Dylans. Von Trier saw this and apparently hated himself. I might break my Lars moratorium for Antichrist, or I might just read the screenplay.

Mike Leigh: All or Nothing was formula Leigh, not without its pleasures (Timothy Spall) but breaking no new ground. Vera Drake ends up all didactic, but the character moments are first-rate. Then there's Happy-Go-Lucky: Poppy stands with her opposite, Naked's Johnny, as the most intriguing creations of Leigh and his ensembles. I got more out of Poppy, but then I find optimism deeper philosophically than nihilism. Dude, at least it's an ethos.

Nick Nolte: Mugshots aside, Nolte's had a terrific decade. Keeping up with Maggie Cheung in Clean is probably his finest achievement.

Decadal music notes

2009-09-30T00:22:00.000-07:00

Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Smokey doesn't write much anymore, which should be fine as he's as heartugging a ballad singer as we have. The quality of his performances, however, seem strangely uncorrelated with the quality of his material. Who could've guessed he'd pull out more from the ersatz melodrama of "Darcy Farrow" than from "Mack the Knife"? Anyone who doesn't believe in Verfremdungseffekt, for a start.

Kocani Orkestar: Most people watching Borat wouldn't have realised the soundtrack was mostly Balkan and Gypsy music, with nothing to do with Kazakhstan. "Siki, Siki Baba" stands even from the Mahala Rai Banda and Fanfare Ciocarlia peaks, with the most meaningful "oh-oh-oh" chorus ever. Hope they've finally got their royalties.

Northern State: Hey, Lauryn had skills, and what did they get her? Well, recently. Northern State's early enthusiasm has few precedents, and it was enough to make the great lines in "Dying in Stereo" sound great. They never managed to hold up over anything longer than a mini-album, but they seem certain to inspire someone who will.

Liz Phair: If Liz Phair isn't up to Exile in Guyville and whitechocolatespaceegg, that just means it'll be in the middle of best-of-decade list instead of near the top. The critics instead took it as a fuck-you, and Phair responded by telling them to fuck off, so they did, and there went the Capitol deal. Lost in all this was "Little Digger", a terrific piece of writing; fortunately the kids realised "Why Can't I?" was a terrific piece of popcraft, and that song will soundtrack teen crushes for years yet.

Yo La Tengo: By now you know they're going to make good records until their limbs fall off. My favourite this decade is I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, among art's deepest explorations of the upside of monogamy even though I couldn't quote you a sentence of it. Slightly short of Sonic Youth as music, though not as a life project.

Favourite gallery artists of the decade

2009-08-26T00:49:00.000-07:00

The list below is far too white and too, uh, young. Artists whose work looks good in two-dimensional reproduction have an unfair advantage. On the plus side, there's only one Turner Prize winner.

Ten architects whose work I've liked this decade

2009-08-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is very much a list of the usual suspects. The selection is biased towards stuff I've seen in person, not that I've seen everything linked. But this might be of interest to someone too lazy to look up a Pritzker Prize list or something.

Herzog & de Meuron
Frank Gehry
Thom Mayne/Morphosis
Zaha Hadid
Jean Nouvel
Rafael Moneo
Norman Foster
Álvaro Siza
Don Bates & Peter Davidson/Lab Architecture Studio
Rem Koolhaas

Uninformative best TV shows of the decade list

2009-07-31T02:46:00.000-07:00

I think the UK Office is the only show of which I've watched every episode premiered this decade and thought each one worth my time, so that can be number one.

I think Doctor Who and Futurama are the only other shows of which I've been satisfied by at least two-thirds of all the episodes shown, so they can be numbers two and three. (South Park is at about 60%.)

Despite everyone saying that TV wouldn't suck anymore after The Simpsons and Seinfeld and HBO supposedly changing everything, it still mostly sucks. It's still bloody hard to put out a season of 20+ episodes without resorting to filler. 24 and Veronica Mars both did it in their respective first seasons and while their second seasons were so much mountain lion bait.

Maybe The Wire is as good as people say if you watch the whole thing (the few isolated bits I've seen haven't grabbed me). The Sopranos probably isn't though. Don't talk to me about Lost.

This concludes my contractually obligated one blogpost per month.

Hit count: Kicking it live like it ain't no thang

2009-06-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

Black Eyed Peas, "I Gotta Feeling": Where "Boom Boom Pow" was genius-dumb, this is just stupid-stupid. Hey Will, you wouldn't wreck one of your own productions with vocals and lyrics so repetitive that they get boring before the first verse, would you?

Keri Hilson ft. Kanye West & Ne-Yo, "Knock You Down": Enjoyable starpowered trifle most notable for providing most fodder for the "can Kanye actually rap?" debate. He may rhyme "OMG" with "woe is me", but he also rhymes "Michael Jackson" with "Joe Jackson". At some point in history that will be acceptable, but not this one.

Kids of 88, "My House": Yeah, '88 was pretty different in New Zealand. These guys don't quite have the groove, but they should manage a few hits on shamelessness alone.

Not knowing what else to do, man writes Michael Jackson blog post

2009-06-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

Because too many young people of my acquaintance have a limited knowledge of his work, here's a shortlist of the good stuff.

The Jackson 5, Greatest Hits (1971): MJ had the finest preteen voice in the history of recorded music. A fine voice doesn't necessarily make a fine singer, but MJ, since at age eleven he couldn't be reasonably expected to interpret, got by on a mix on commitment and fakery. This alone was sufficient well into his twenties to make him a fine singer, though he never ever topped his performance in "I Want You Back".

"Got to Be There", "Rockin' Robin", "I Wanna Be Where You Are" (1971-1972): The first solo singles, often overlooked, follow the same winning Motown formula as the J5 hits. And then comes "Ben", and you want to break out the rat poison.

Off the Wall (1979): Like most, MJ spent his teenage years trying to find himself, and while this utterly failed in terms of his personal life, musically he struck gold. He wanted to be a superstar, sure, but he also refused to shortchange his listeners on pleasure, and with Quincy Jones he found the ideal svengali for achieving this end. As M. Matos says, "all-the-songs-are-hits meant that all the songs should be great -- and if they aren't, they should sparkle just as brightly as the ones that are."

The Jacksons, "This Place Hotel" (1980): Practically a solo joint, this is intriguing as it's where his paranoia really starts to be expressed. Also, unfortunately, his misogyny.

Thriller (1982): This is what put him up with super-duper stars Bing, Elvis and the Beatles -- the first black face in the constellation, and perhaps only his sometime co-star, the basketball-playing Michael, has joined him there since. Jody Rosen is surely not the first to point out that half the time the record is borderline disturbing. That's the same half the time that the record is great.

"Leave Me Alone" (1987): Thriller is weird, but the Bad album is weird in a bad way: his stunted inner life and self-loathing are rarely fascinating, just sad, and some have argued racially problematic. Still, there are moments of sublime groove, of which "Leave Me Alone" is the most honest. And yet he couldn't stand to be left alone.

Dangerous (1991): This marks MJ's brief recorded interest in hip hop and sex; not coincidentally, it's his last first-rate album. Everyone remembers the car-smashing video to "Black or White", but "In the Closet" has Naomi Campbell in it.

"2000 Watts" (2001): Jackson's last couple of albums had their moments, but no one cared because of, well, all that stuff that happened. Scholars will no doubt re-evaluate the material in years to come, but for now, know that the Invincible album has the hardest beats of his career, and "2000 Watts" features MJ singing like a grown-up.

Favourite hip hop and R&B albums of the decade

2009-05-11T00:45:00.000-07:00

For genre clarity, I'm restricting this to American and Canadian records.

Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP: His usual problem -- his disses are pro forma when he's merely contemptuous -- and his usual solution -- unrivaled vitriol towards those targets he truly hates. Poor ICP. Oh wait, fuck ICP. (What's possibly his new usual problem -- dull beats -- hadn't set in yet; Dre is on fire here.) The first album has fewer deadweight guest spots, but this is his best album more or less because of "Stan", and "Stan" isn't even the best song on the record. The decade's best work of art about the role of the artist, though it helps that he has, or at least had, a more interesting role than, say, any contemporary novelist.

Kanye West, Late Registration
Ghostface Killah, Fishscale
Nas, Untitled
Buck 65, Talkin' Honky Blues
Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak
OutKast, Stankonia
DJ Shadow, The Private Press
Lil Wayne, Tha Carter III
The Coup, Party Music
K'naan, The Dusty Foot Philosopher
OutKast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Kanye West, The College Dropout
N*E*R*D, In Search of...
Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3
Steinski, What Does It All Mean?
Mos Def, The New Danger
OutKast, Idlewild
Ne-Yo, Year of the Gentleman
Public Enemy, Rebirth of a Nation
Kelis, Tasty
Wu-Tang Clan, The W
Atmosphere, Lucy Ford
Blackalicious, NIA
Lupe Fiasco, Food and Liquor
Northern State, Dying in Stereo
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Lyrics Born, Later That Day
The Perceptionists, Black Dialogue
The Coup, Pick a Bigger Weapon
The Roots, Rising Down
Erykah Badu, Mama's Gun
Missy Elliott, This Is Not a Test!
Nas, Street's Disciple
Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It
Kanye West, Graduation

Percolating:
Tanya Morgan, The Bridge
Why?, Alopecia (if it counts)
Black Milk, Tronic
UGK 4 Life

Brad still watches DVDs sometimes

2009-04-20T11:44:00.000-07:00

Slumdog Millionaire: A likeable movie in which the montages are the tastiest parts. Gloopy love story? Sure, but chicken tikka masala was based on butter chicken, or so some believe. The "real India"? It shows up from time to time. "Paper Planes" plays and then they're seven years older? That's the real Bollywood. B

Twilight: Wuthering Heights, yes, but the Kate Bush version. A very teen girl pic, so reviewers used to hyping "four quadrant" flicks (that is, teen boy pics that waste Gwyneth Paltrow) had nothing to say save not-so-biting wordplays. More substantial is the criticism of the movie as anti-sex, touched upon by Dargis. To be clear: waiting a bit isn't the worst thing in the world for many teens, but if you're one of the many parents who let your spawn learn the facts of life from popcult, there's better multimedia than this. The rest of us can choose between breaking out the auteur theory and playing therapist to Stephenie Meyer, or marvelling how well Catherine Hardwicke gets her cast to play together. Best performer: actual teen Kristen Stewart. B PLUS

Let the Right One In: Before this, there were two good vampire art films ever -- both by Northern Europeans, none since 1932. After this: no change. Here, Bergman comes back from the dead, and no one has the decency to send him back. J/K: Bergman knew how to depict outsiders; their portrayal here rings so false that you suspect the filmmakers were never bullied at all. (NB: Watched this with dubbing on. The subtitles were insufficient; a version with decent subtitles is being released and will probably be more enjoyable than what I watched. Not that I'm giving it another chance.) C PLUS

Movies I need to re-watch before making my inevitable favourite X movies of the decade list

2009-03-19T20:10:00.000-07:00

The leaderboard:
Army of Shadows
Before Sunset
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Far from Heaven
Funny Ha Ha
Ghost World
Hamlet
Happy-Go-Lucky
King Kong
Kings and Queen
La Commune
Mulholland Drive
Spellbound
Springtime in a Small Town
The Best of Youth
The New Country
The Return of the King
The Wayward Cloud
Time Out
Yi Yi

Could easily move up on a second viewing:
A History of Violence
Beau travail (really 1999 I suppose)
Elephant
Femme Fatale
Flight of the Red Balloon
Friday Night
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
I'm Not There
Inland Empire
Land of the Dead
Lost in Translation
Persepolis
Spider
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
Three Times
To Be and To Have

For the acting:
Before Night Falls
Iris
Michael Clayton
Sexy Beast
The Last Mistress
The Pianist

Can't be as bad as I first thought it was:
Million Dollar Baby

Haven't yet seen:
A Christmas Tale
Cadillac Records
Che (part 2)

and there are surely other contenders I'm neglecting.

Have already made up my mind about:
In Praise of Love (anti-Yank sentiment less annoying on second viewing, if I make a top 100 it'll be in the bottom half)
In the Mood for Love (have seen it three times, probably top ten but not number one)

Top ten: Teenage kicks

2009-02-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Taylor Swift, "Fifteen": Such a perfect description of what freshman year at high school is like (or at least can be like) that only someone young enough that their memories aren't yet tainted by nostalgia or cynicism could've written it.
Beyonce, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring Around It)": Dangerously in love.
Hercules and Love Affair, "Blind (Frankie Knuckles remix)": The proper use of Antony.
Franco, "Marie naboyi": Each disjoint section would be a career highlight for lesser lights.
Verckys, "Marcello Tozongana": Saxman Verckys here sounds like he belongs in the Congolese pantheon.
Franco, "Lisolo ya Adamo na Nzambe": God and Adam argue, guitar plays peacemaker.
Taylor Swift, "The Best Day": Gooey, but damn, does she understand structure.
Katy Perry, "Hot N Cold": I don't usually have a problem with opportunism: I liked the Fergie album guiltlessly. Still, the likelihood Perry will be around for ten years makes me queasy about liking this.
The Bronx, "Young Bloods": If the song doesn't give you a seizure, the video will.
Grand Kalle & l'African Jazz, "Parafifi": This was on Rumba on the River, but I didn't get into it until I heard it on The Rough Guide to Congo Gold. Either way, great groove.

Ten more:
Bon Iver, "Skinny Love"
Cee-Lo, "Closet Freak" (yes, I'm behind)
Franco, "Ku Kisanto kikwenda ko", "Bato ya mabe batondi mboka" and "Mabele"
Lady GaGa, "Poker Face"
MGMT, "Kids"
Mostly Other People Do the Killing, "Allentown" and "Drainlick"
Taylor Swift, "Forever and Always"

Top ten albums:

Franco, Francophonic
Taylor Swift, Fearless
The Rough Guide to Congo Gold
Mostly Other People Do the Killing, This is Our Moosic
Hercules and Love Affair
Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections
MGMT, Oracular Spectacular
Say Anything, In Defense of the Genre
The Beatles, Love
Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago

Dud of the moment: Fleet Foxes

I expect three of these are worth reading: the most acclaimed books of 2008

2009-02-04T01:20:00.000-08:00

Based on 11 year-end lists I Googled, ranked according to a formula you don't care about:

Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth
Dexter Filkins, The Forever War
Joseph O'Neill, Netherland
Roberto Bolano, 2666
Toni Morrison, A Mercy
David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Richard Price, Lush Life
Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency
Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
Jane Mayer, The Dark Side

Also mentioned multiple times: Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News; Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering; Tana French, The Likeness; Mark Harris, Pictures at a Revolution; Ron Rash, Serena; Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey (eds), State by State; Joan Wickersham, The Suicide Index.

I know no one expects substantive content from this blog

2009-01-25T20:25:00.000-08:00

But just to let you know: no substantive content is planned until I finish my thesis, which should be any decade now.

In the meantime, I put my 2008 lists up here. My top ten movies:

1. Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
2. Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi)
3. Away from Her (Sarah Polley)
4. Milk (Gus Van Sant)
5. WALL-E (Andrew Stanton)
6. Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy)
7. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)
8. Lady Chatterley (Pascale Ferran)
9. In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín)
10. The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin)

99 Lives

2008-12-31T14:52:00.000-08:00

Most of these are actually from 2007 but whatever. If you want a copy of this (or if you still want a copy of last year's, um, if I forgot to send it to you then), give me your address and I'll send you a CD.

1. Robyn & Kleerup, "With Every Heartbeat"
2. Randy Newman, "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country"
3. Mavis Staples, "I'll Be Rested"
4. William Parker, "Morning Mantra"
5. Against Me!, "Thrash Unreal"
6. Lil Wayne, "I'm Me"
7. Nellie McKay, "Identity Theft"
8. Be Your Own Pet, "The Kelly Affair"
9. Ne-Yo, "Mad"
10. Hot Stylz ft. Yung Joc, "Lookin Boy"
11. Nas, "N.I.*.*.E.R. (The Slave and the Master)"
12. Peter, Bjorn & John, "Objects of My Affection"
13. T.I. & Jay-Z ft. Kanye West & Lil Wayne, "Swagga Like Us"
14. Britney Spears, "Piece of Me"
15. Tabu Ley Rochereau, "Karibou Ya Bintou"
16. The Go! Team, "Grip Like a Vice"
17. Dear Jayne, "Rain"
18. Gui Boratto, "Beautiful Life"
19. Colombiafrica: The Mystic Orcestra, "Sambangole/Tres Golpes Na' Mas"
20. Alicia Keys, "Teenage Love Affair"
21. Kronos Quartet, "Golijov: Tenebrae 1"
22. Mavis Staples, "My Own Eyes"
23. No Age, "Brain Burner"
24. The Roy Campbell Ensemble, "Akhenaten (Amenophis, Amenhotep IV)"
25. Kalima Pierre, "Olingi na sala boni"
26. Kate Nash, "Skeleton Song"
27. Erykah Badu, "The Cell"
28. Franco, "Mamou (Tu Vois!)"
29. Kate Nash, "Mariella"
30. Annie, "Songs Remind Me of You"
31. Randy Newman, "A Piece of the Pie"
32. Taylor Swift, "Love Story"
33. TV on the Radio, "Lover's Day"
34. Lil Wayne ft. Robin Thicke, "Tie My Hands"
35. MGMT, "Time to Pretend"
36. TV on the Radio, "Red Dress"
37. DragonForce, "Through the Fire and Flames"
38. Taio Cruz ft. Luciana, "Come On Girl"
39. Juvelen, "Don't Mess"
40. Be My Own Pet, "Heart Throb"
41. Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, "Modul 36"
42. Jean Grae, "My Story"
43. Alphabeat, "Fascination"
44. David Torn, "Miss Place, the Mist"
45. Yo La Tengo, "Daphnia"
46. James McMurtry, "Ruins of the Realm"
47. Toumast, "Ikalane Walegh"
48. Okkervil River, "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe"
49. Easy Star All Stars ft. Toots, "Let Down"
50. Lloyd ft. Lil Wayne, "Girls Around the World"
51. Vampire Weekend, "M79"
52. Les Savy Fav, "The Year Before the Year 2000"
53. Robert Forster, "Let Your Light In, Babe"
54. Blow-Up, "John Travolta"
55. Randy Newman, "Harps and Angels"
56. Los Hijos del Sol, "Si Me Quieres"
57. Les Amazones de Guinee, "Deni Wana"
58. Report Suspicious Activity, "Destroy All Evidence"
59. Big Boi ft. Andre 3000 & Raekwon, "Royal Flush"
60. Ne-Yo, "Closer"
61. Fats Waller, "Star Dust"
62. Fieldwork, "Ghost Time"
63. Matias Aguayo, "Minimal (DJ Koze mix)"
64. The Roots ft. Wale & Chrisette Michele, "Rising Up"
65. Lil Wayne, "A Milli"
66. The Go! Team, "Titanic Vandalism"
67. Silvia Blanco, "Barübana Yagien"
68. Nas ft. Keri Hilson, "Hero"
69. The-Dream ft. Rihanna, "Livin' a Lie"
70. Conor Oberst, "I Don't Want to Die (in the Hospital)"
71. Pink, "So What"
72. Lil Wayne, "Dough Is What I Got"
73. Justice, "DVNO (Radio edit)"
74. Girl Talk, "What It's All About"
75. Vampire Weekend, "One (Blake's Got a New Face)"
76. The National, "Fake Empire"
77. Southern All Stars, "I Am Your Singer"
78. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "More News from Nowhere"
79. Steinski, "It's Up to You (Television mix)"
80. Miley Cyrus, "See You Again (remix)"
81. The Mountain Goats, "So Desperate"
82. Conor Oberst, "Milk Thistle"
83. DJ Khaled ft. Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Birdman & Lil Wayne, "We Takin' Over"
84. Franz Ferdinand, "All My Friends"
85. Amy LaVere, "Pointless Drinking"
86. Mystery Jets, "Two Doors Down"
87. Soulja Boy Tell'em, "Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
88. Ne-Yo, "So You Can Cry"
89. TV on the Radio, "Family Tree"
90. Mark Ronson ft. Santogold, "Pretty Green"
91. Horoya Band National, "Karan-Gbegne"
92. Mavis Staples, "Eyes on the Prize"
93. Wire, "One of Us"
94. Girl Talk, "Like This"
95. Lily Allen, "Knock 'em Out"
96. Estelle ft. Kanye West, "American Boy"
97. Raphael Saadiq ft. the Infamous Young Spodie & the Rebirth Brass Band, "Big Easy"
98. Sugababes, "About You Now"
99. Flo Rida ft. T-Pain, "Low"

Some poems I liked this year, part 2

2008-12-12T03:23:00.000-08:00

Takashi Hiraide (tr. Sawako Nakayasu), For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut 43

The spider is genius. The celerity which moves — leading the air mass — the atmosphere level that falls higher than the clouds connecting the seasons. The spider is genius. The brilliance descending omnidirectionally is not a gravity-evading parachute, but striates the entire sky, guiding drops of light towards the ground. And it just lowers itself down along the way. How can there be such transparent bones — bones that flood over, even as they break. And plus he is a seed. With endurance and imagination as nourishment, the scheme is rather null. Sorcery is rather null. A light-handed evil which admits no glory, not even your own. The spider is simply genius.

Sean O'Brien, Song: Habeas Corpus

Oh lock me in the deepest jail
And throw away the key.
The nation's desperate to be saved
From 'elements' like me.
There's none so blind,
We think you'll find
As those who cannot see.

Heh, kidding of course, that's a terrible poem.

Lynn Pedersen, "How to Speak Nineteeth Century"

Forget about the nomenclature
of the moon: lunar impact craters, rilles; your voice
translated into fiber optics or beamed pinpoint to pinpoint
on the planet. Here, all words are spoken to someone's face.
Earth. Seeds. Thresher. Plow. Timber'd.

- from New England Review (2008) 29:1

Juliana Spahr, "Gentle Now, Don't Add to Heartache"
(this is the poem of the decade or something)

We came into the world at the edge of a stream.

The stream had no name but it began from a spring and
flowed down a hill into the Scioto that then flowed into
the Ohio that then flowed into the Mississippi that
then flowed into the Gulf of Mexico.

The stream was a part of us and we were a part of the
stream and we were thus part of the rivers and thus part
of the gulfs and the oceans.

And we began to learn the stream.

Krisztina Tóth, "Rainy Summer" (tr. Kevin Nolan)

A sentence grew the deepest scar, no memory
below the sweet-skinned sleep said wake now, wake now
sentence, tracking wordless searing hatred
spinning in the flesh and wanting none—
no pause or rest or passing come to birth
a soundless sentence spoke by no one, none to hear,
sounds the cardial nightclock out of time
in empty gravelled courtyards sounds the chained-up dog,
the sentence pulsing like the sea within a scuttled hull
glistens in the berries of a dream to murmur wake now, wake now,
the shoreless stormcry carried off by blinding waters,
the measured tambour threading sea to moon

Susan Wheeler, "The Debtor in the Convex Mirror"

The painter in the mirror wants privacy, not this call that invades
the reading of a book. Your own looked out at us, but mine, Massys—
disingenuous, masquerading, stressed and damp—doesn’t; weightier
things on his mind he’s got not. But he only pretends to absorption.
It’s we who discern the privacy he wants, we who can see
what he lacks. It’s as though we’re instructed to trust the lender,
his own fix being more, well, sequestered.
The last century mined focus as a notion, and even here in Manhattan,
a delirium of sorts swabbing its streets,
we tread with the intensity of hounds,
plugged into our earpiece conjointments, or collecting loose change
off of cuffs. Massys’ grimace under-dramatizes our lot.

Sources. Some of these are from the anthology American Poets in the 21st Century, as fair a flyover look at the field as you could hope for. Other tips come from the Third Factory poll, Jordan Davis's list, and Jonathan Mayhew's 9000 poetry book project. I sort of keep track of who's winning the prizes, and while this occasionally turns up something otherwise under my radar like the Brathwaite, more often the gongs go to the likes of O'Brien. Well, there are worse injustices in the world: the loss of habeas corpus, for instance.

Some poems I liked this year, part 1

2008-12-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

Jasper Bernes, "Two Walts (Whitman Contra Disney)"

It's a small world after all, after the relief-deep wells barf up their prisoners,
after the exhaustion of credible souces, empiricism's
expiration date, a flash of rich, ferocious prose and eroded roses.

Coral Bracho, "Water's Lubricious Edges" (tr. Forrest Gander)

Water of jellyfish,
lacteal, sinuous water,
water of lubricious borders; glassy thickness--Deliquescence
in delectable contours. Water--sumptuous water
of involution, of langour

alternative translation

Kamau Brathwaite, "Kumina"

on the first day
of yr death it is quiet it is dormant like a doormat
no one-foot touch its welcome. its dust on the floor
is not disturb nor are the sleeping spirits of this house

i sit here in this chair trying to unravel Time so that it wouldn't happen twine

Jordan Davis, "Dust"

If you start to imagine
You feel the magnetic fields
The colander and the aluminum
Are in the lower cabinet on the right

This is gravity coming for us

Peter Gizzi, "Untitled Amherst Specter"

a sound of open ground having been taken

now a silver wisp winking on the roof

silver imp waving from a long shaft ago

I am a leaf storm night

I have seen the long file of mule trains and metal

the cavalry

these sounds we live within speaking to you now

sir, I was a soldier in these woods

Ten favourite comics of the year

2008-12-04T21:06:00.000-08:00

10. Ruben Bolling, Tom the Dancing Bug

9. Emily Horne & Joey Comeau, A Softer World

8. Chris Onstad, Achewood

7. Ryan North, Dinosaur Comics

6. Gary Trudeau, Doonesbury

5. David Malki, Wondermark!

4. Randall Monroe, xkcd

3. Darby Conley, Get Fuzzy

2. Kate Beaton

1. Dorothy Gambrell, Cat and Girl/Donation Derby

Ten favourite wrestling matches of the year, part 3

2008-12-03T21:02:00.000-08:00

3. Kenta Kobashi & Yoshihiro Takayama vs Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama, NOAH, December 2nd 2007
It's about the personalities. Kobashi is god of wrestling, and is making his return after beating cancer. Misawa is ex-god of wrestling, who was kind of annoyed at having to play god again while his successor was out. Akiyama is the wannabe god who never quite made it and has a chip on his shoulder as a result. And Takayama is the guy who was repeatedly punched in the face by Don Frye. This has more of a big match feeling than anything else this year, and now that Kobashi is out again with an unrelated injury, this set of personalities may work at the same level again.

Part 2
Part 3

2. Blue Panther vs Villano V, CMLL mask vs mask 2/3 falls, September 19th
Never does there feel like there's more at stake than in a mascara contra mascara match. If you follow lucha libre, you'll already know the result was one of the most shocking ever; if you don't, well, trust me on this.

Second fall
Third fall

1. Nigel McGuinness vs Austin Aries, ROH Rising Above, December 29th 2007
Realists, fantasists: seems everyone agrees on this one. Stiff, thrilling and memorable.

Part 2
Part 3

Worst match: Triple H vs Koslov, WWE Survivor Series: only reddeming feature is Edge's beard
Best women's match: pick one of the Gail Kim-Awesome Kong bouts. Stereotyping for fun and profit!
Best non-fake match: Miguel Torres vs Yoshiro Maeda, WEC 34

Ten favourite wrestling matches of the year, part 2

2008-12-02T23:49:00.000-08:00

6. Chris Jericho vs Shawn Michaels, WWE No Mercy ladder match, October 5th
It's really not that hard to innovate within even the simplest, most seemingly played-out forms, like the sonnet. But it take both talent and discipline to make the innovations meaningful by respecting the conventions you're not subverting, or what's a form for? There'll never be a ladder match that subverts the form like Berrigan's Marilyn Monroe sonnet, but I find this as satisfying.

5. Bryan Danielson vs Tyler Black, ROH New Horizons, July 26th
4. Nigel McGuinness vs Tyler Black, ROH Take No Prisoners, March 16th
Black, though deservedly the breakout star of 2008, still has his limitations: occasionally ineffectual spinny offense and shaky match structure. These problems are solved against McGuinness with a simple storyline: Black as the underdog in survival mode. Against Danielson, the problems are made irrelevant, because Danielson's just that good.

Ten favourite wrestling matches of the year, part 1

2008-12-01T00:18:00.000-08:00

10. Yuki Ishikawa vs Carl Greco, BattlArts, June 1st
Yes, there are schools of wrestling criticism. Let's call the principal axis of disagreement fantasy-realism. Ishikawa and Greco are as far as you can go to the "realism" end, so much so that they disrupt wrestling's usual ideal narrative build to a conclusion. Instead, the logic is moment-to-moment: one submission attempt leads to another. It's not quite Ashberian, though: there are only a finite number of rope breaks (some of which are conceded). And there's a winner.

9. Ric Flair vs Shawn Michaels, WWE Wrestlemania XXIV, March 30th
The realists are not going to give you the benefit of the doubt: they want to see you hurt. The fantasists will suspend their belief as long as you can excite or move them. This is a match for fantasists: whiffed moves are sprinkled throughout, but if you can get past that, you get two masters of character going at it one last time. Flair plays the old GOAT who knows he should hang up his boots, but hubris prevents him; Michaels plays the GOAT in waiting who knows his hero needs to be bumped off. As tragedy, it's basic; but for a wrestling tragedy to be fictional for once is especially cathartic.

Part 2
Part 3

8. Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle, TNA Lockdown, April 13th
Now the realist-fantasist distinction is getting confused. There are a ton of MMA spots, but it soon becomes clear that they're worked into a typical American pro big match structure. Or: we're gonna need another axis.

Part 2

7. Jimmy Jacobs vs B.J. Whitmer, IWA Mid-South I Quit match, March 1st
A more familiar form of realism: the guys make it look like they're really hurting each other by really hurting each other. Not to be confused with the Jacobs-Whitmer no-rope barbed wire match: there's sick, and then there's sick.

Top ten: Scooby-doobie doo! Mike Vick lookin boy

2008-11-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

1. Hot Stylz ft. Yung Joc, "Lookin Boy (clean version)": As far as poetic forms go, The Dozens isn't as versatile as the sonnet but it sure beats the villanelle. The array of references here -- including in the last verse, David Ruffin, Tickle Me Elmo, Pine-Sol and Lamb Chop's Play-Along -- are broader and more compressed than those of Family Guy. Which means this is actually, you know, funny.

2. TV on the Radio, "Lover's Day"; "Family Tree"; "Red Dress": "Lover's Day" has a straightforward sex-longing lyric, except who gets straightforward sex-longing lyrics right these days? The borrowed instrumentation, including an extra drummer and a subset of Antibalas, makes the track ecstatic. "Hanging on the shadow of your family tree" evokes "Strange Fruit" whether they like it or not. Tunde Adebimpe, dueting withing himself in separate octaves - with his baritone taking pride of place - shows he's joined the first rank of rock vocalists. A lover,despite this war. "Red Dress" notes that though "days of white robes have come and gone", we're still living with war. It's not clear whether the person in the red dress is good or evil, but she's surely tame.

3. Ne-Yo, "Mad": Sure, most of the time at least one of a feuding couple remembers exactly what they're fighting about. But that hardly matters when Ne-Yo hits that Learian "nothing, nothing, nothing". The tenderest make-up ballad in many a year, or, it doesn't matter if it's too late to apologise!

4. Report Suspicious Activity, "Destroy All Evidence": Darren Zentek's drumming is the thing, but the lyrics eventually make you sit up and take notice.
5. Miley Cyrus, "See You Again (remix)": "She's just being Miley" should become the standard explanation for everything.

6. Girl Talk, "Shut the Club Down"; "Set It Off"; "No Pause": The album is a piece, but tracks do stand out. Among them:

7. Raphael Saadiq ft. the Infamous Young Spodie & the Rebirth Brass Band, "Big Easy": Hiding said Katrina song in the middle of a retrosoul albums is brilliant.

8. T.I. ft. Alfa Mega & Busta Rhymes, "Hurt": Huh, I missed this one from the last album.

9. Kimya Dawson and Friends, "Wiggle My Tooth": Icky thump.
10. The Hold Steady, "Constructive Summer": Double whiskey Coke no ice.

Ten or so more:
Jorge Lima Barreto, "Zul #4"
Girl Talk, "Like This"
The Hold Steady, "Sequestered in Memphis"
Ne-Yo, "So You Can Cry"
Nik Baertsch's Ronin, "Modul 46"; "Modul 45"
No Age, "Teen Creeps"
Raphael Saadiq, "Oh Girl"
Seun Kuti + Fela's Egypt 80, "Na Oil"
T.I., "Whatever You Like"
TV on the Radio, "Dancing Choose"

Ten albums:
1. Girl Talk, Feed the Animals
2. TV on the Radio, Dear Science
3. Ne-Yo, Year of the Gentleman
4. Nik Baertsch's Ronin, Holon
5. Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It
6. The Soprano Summit in 1975 and More
7. The Hold Steady, Stay Positive
8. Kimya Dawson and Friends, Alphabutt
9. The Gaslight Anthem, The 59 Sound
10. Kanye West, Can't Tell Me Nothing

Reminding me why I don't listen to more mixtapes: DJ Drama, Gangsta Grillz 16. You didn't get the title? It's Gangsta Grillz! Gangsta Grillz! OK can we hear the song nowGangsta Grillz!

NZ election predix

2008-11-06T19:43:00.001-08:00

Thankfully for my cred, no referenda to predict here.

National 58 MPs (46.6%)
Labour 46 (36.3%)
Greens 9 (7.45%)
Maori 5 (2.35%)
Act 3 (2.1%)
United 1 (0.45%)
Progressives 1 (0.25%)
NZ First 0 (3%)
Other 0 (1.5%)
TOTAL 123

NAT + ACT + UNF = 62: bare majority, boo

Changes in electorates:
National wins Botany
Maori pick up Te Tai Tonga
National pick up Hamilton West, Otaki, Rotorua, Taupo, West Coast-Tasman

US election predix

2008-11-03T17:51:00.000-08:00

PRESIDENT
Popular vote: Obama 52.5, McCain 45.5
Electoral college: Obama 375 (Kerry states + CO, FL, IA, IN, MO, NC, NM, NV, OH, VA), McCain 163

SENATE
Dems 59 (pick up AK, CO, MN, NC, NH, NM, OR, VA), GOP 40, runoff in Georgia

HOUSE
Dems 267, GOP 168

GOVERNORS
Dems pick up MO

CALIFORNIA PROPOSITIONS
Pass: 1A, 2, 3, 4 (but I hope not), 5, 10, 11, 12
Fail: 6, 7, 8, 9

Top ten: Stockholm syndromes and a century

2008-10-15T01:32:00.000-07:00

0. Franco, "Tres Impoli"; "Mamou (Tu Vois)": If you've being paying attention you'll know many of the hits on Sheer's African Classics/Cantos' Classic Titles Franco comps already, though not necessarily the same ones I did. New to me is "Mamou (Tu Vois)", the debut of singer Madilu System, though it's mostly Franco chatting over an indelible groove. Less indelible than monumental is the 17-minute version of "Tres Impoli", a grumpy diss which, in its nine-minute edit, has long been one of my all-time faves. Where the edit fades out with the second part of Franco's guitar solo (which is the same as the first part), this just keeps going, returning to choruses and verses, followed by that solo again. When you've hit upon a song this great, more of the same is a gift.

1. Kronos Quartet, "Tenebrae": So, classical music! Argentine Osvaldo Golijov seems to have become its It Dude since his version of St. Mark's Passion, which I thought a not entirely successful fusion, but this! For his first version of "Tenebrae", Golijov nicked some lines from Couperin's setting of Lamentations; for his second, he cut out the clarinet and the soprano chanting the Hebrew alphabet and handed the remains to the Kronos Quartet, who, old pros that they are, wring every last tear out of it.

2. Juvelen, "Don't Mess": It's tremendous fun to hear this Swede sing "I don't give a shit" in his pinched falsetto. His rising rapid-fire "you should know I'm only doing this for you" should shame the guy from Jamiroquai into giving up music and opening a hat shop. If you think this is unlikely because nobody has less shame than the guy from Jamiroquai: meet Juvelen!

3. Jean Grae & 9th Wonder, "My Story"; "iNTRO": Jeanius's "iNTRO" shows that Ms Ibrahim/Benjamin's flow is at the same rarified level as the brief peaks of Sha-Rock and Lauryn Hill; and she comes close to sustaining throughout the album. The heart of the album, "My Story", unsparingly details the experience of an abortion, which, along with a later miscarriage, wrecks her. She still doesn't know if it was the right choice. But don't tell her the choice shouldn't have been hers.

4. Annie, "Songs Remind Me of You": Not fun fun fun like "Chewing Gum", but less chilly than "Heartbeat". Still not sexy. Still awesome.

5. Ne-Yo, "Closer": Michael Jackson normalised, and no, that doesn't mean Janet.

6. Randy Newman, "Piece of the Pie"; "Harps and Angels": The title track of Harps and Angels, about a near-death experience, is as amiable as he's ever been. "Piece of the Pie" is anything but friendly, what with its Serious Artiste dissonance and cheap John Mellencamp diss. Yes, Mellencamp's "Our Country" is overtly patriotic, but it's not just chest beating: it's explicitly small-d democratic (we'll find out if that coincides with the big D over the next four years).

7. Jens Lekman, "Kanske Ar Jag Kar i Dig": Starts with a short shaggy pig tale; ends with a matter-of-fact statement of the romantic effectiveness of self-deprecation. How Scandanavian of him.

8. Pink, "So What": One of the most vituperative fuck-yous to an ex ever recorded. Fight, drink, fight: what does she think this is, a Kusturica movie? Not in real life: her real ex-husband gets cameo time in the video.

9. Horoya Band National, "Karan-Gbegne": Say this for the late Guinean president Sékou Touré's authoritarian socialism: it supported at least one fantastic horn section.

10. Conor Oberst, "Milk Thistle": What's improved is his singing: dig the way he milks his "ow" sounds for pathos. Melisma for the common man.

Ten more or thereabouts:
Matias Aguayo, "Minimal (DJ Koze mix)"
Easy Star All-Stars ft. Toots & the Maytals, "Let Down"
Jean Grae, "Think About It"
Keletigui et ses Tambourinis, "Miri Magnin"
K'naan, "If Rap Gets Jealous"
Randy Newman, "Potholes"
Conor Oberst, "I Don't Want to Die (in the Hospital)" and "Get Well Cards"
Orchestra du Jardin de Guinee, "PDG"
Southern All Stars, "I Am Your Singer"
Dawn Upshaw, "Lua Descolorida"

Ten albums:
1. Randy Newman, Harps and Angels
2. Franco, Classic Titles
3. Authenticite: The Syliphone Years
4. Conor Oberst
5. Jean Grae, Jeanius
6. Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Shamokin!
7. Golijov: Oceana, Tenebrae, 3 Songs
8. Jorge Lima Barreto, Zul Zelub
9. Juliane Banse, Kurtag: Kafka-Fragmente
10. Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, Reich: Music for 18 Musicians

Please go back to scaring the old ladies: Magnus Lindberg.

Top ODI batsmen by Runs Added

2008-09-19T01:28:00.000-07:00

(Those of you who don't care about cricket, which I think is everyone who reads this blog, please ignore.)

At the Cricinfo Stat Blog, there's been much recent discussion of how to rank the top ODI batsmen of all-time. Most of the methods proposed seem arbitrary. One useful post was by Ric Finlay, who gave his top 30 batsmen according to some weird "Bat Quality" index, but more intriguingly also gave runs scored by these batsmen, adjusted "according to batting conditions and the quality of the opposition bowling".

The generally accepted way to compare baseball batters across eras is to look at runs or wins above replacement (please, don't mention Win Shares). So I tried to convert the ODI adjusted runs to "Runs Added" for these 30 batsmen. "Runs Added" is meant to represent the additional runs scored by the player's team when batting due to the presence of that player, compared to a borderline "replacement level" player.

For matches from 1996 onwards, I (arbitrarily) set the replacement player as having an average of 30 and a strike rate of 70; the strike rate was lower for matches prior to 1996. We can think of a top player as adding runs in two ways: by scoring more quickly than a 70 SR, and by averaging over 30 (thereby preserving wickets for the final push). I (arbitrarily) set an extra wicket in hand as worth 10 runs, which I think is close to right for most of an innings.

I then adjusted for schedule, since many more ODIs per team are played nowadays compared to, say, the Eighties. So I weighted the stats of each player so that each would play 30 innings a year (fewer if the player was not always selected for whatever reason).

Finally I made a (really arbitrary) adjustment for the higher SD in performance before 1984: in the early years, there was a much larger gap in ability between the best and worst ODI players, so it would be too generous to give the same credit for Runs Added back then as now. This adjustment should be made (see Dan Rosenheck's arguments for doing so for baseball somewhere on the Baseball Hall of Merit site).

I got:
(Batsman - Projected Runs - Runs Added)
Richards - 17260 - 6780
Tendulkar - 16835 - 4293
Jayasuriya - 14886 - 3042
de Silva - 13556 - 2846
Lara - 13730 - 2801
Gilchrist - 9799 - 2621
Zaheer Abbas - 9547 - 2537
Javed Miandad - 15259 - 2483
D. Jones - 9031 - 2315
M. Waugh - 11169 - 1874
Mohammed Azharuddin - 11949 - 1837
Haynes - 15452 - 1625
Symonds - 6009 - 1611
Bevan - 9102 - 1606
Saeed Anwar - 9024 - 1572
Greenidge - 11621 - 1449
Cronje - 7438 - 1399
Klusener - 4716 - 1305
Inzamam ul-Haq - 12280 - 1271
Pietersen - 3567 - 993
Dhoni - 3567 - 960
Ponting - 12036 - 900
Hayden - 6642 - 900
Hussey - 3153 - 786
Kirsten - 7369 - 717
Mohammad Yousuf - 9458 - 706
Kallis - 10896 - 655
Ganguly - 10822 - 422
Dravid - 9699 - 323
Chanderpaul - 9903 - 246

That's a clear winner. Viv has 68% more Runs Added than Sachin, 123% more than Sanath. (As a comparison, in my dodgy Test match Runs Added calculations, Bradman has 136% and 143% more than Garry Sobers and George Headley, ranked second and third respectively.)

My major, major assumption is that each batsman's ability is constant throughout his career. This is, of course, false, but the ideas I have to fix this would be very hard work.

Does the system undervalue latter-day grinders like Chanderpaul and Dravid? Probably, but for teams that don't get bowled out a lot, it's hard to argue they're anywhere near as valuable as speed demons like Jayasuriya and Gilchrist. Forget replacement level, if your grinder falls down dead before the innings starts, it's only 7.6% of your resources, according to Messrs Duckworth and Lewis.

Does the system undervalue finishers like Bevan and Hussey? I guess it depends on what you're trying to measure. No doubt Bevan and Hussey were/are talented players, but were/are they really that valuable to Australia? With 4 down and 10 overs to go, a wicket is only worth 2.3% of your original resources. Why play for the not out? Hitting another 30 runs and seeing the innings through to the end is probably less valuable than slogging another 20 off 10 balls and trusting the tail to bat out the remaining overs.

Does the system overvalue old-timers like Zaheer Abbas or even Mohammad Azharuddin? Probably, but how much? Should there be an SD adjustment after 1984? (I mean, there should, but will it make that much of a difference?)

Anyway, all of this should be thrown out once David Barry runs his simulations.

The history of the cartoon universe: Bimbo's Initiation (1931)

2008-09-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Not really Kafkaesque, even if the long shot at 1:15 prefigures Welles's version of The Trial. In The Trial, the world is against Josef K. because that's just how the world is; here, the world is against Bimbo because it's fun to scare the crap out of that poor dog, and to smack his ass over and over again. Or maybe it's the knowing that's the pleasure: the same cognisance of undistributed information that lets secret societies and dramatic ironists giggle at the bewildered. Of course, the other difference between Kafka and Grim Natwick is that the latter eventually lets Bimbo in on the secret, leading to a happier ending (in Bimbo's view) than Kafka could've dreamed of. Best bit is at 3:00, when Bimbo, after failing to extinguish the anthropomorphic flames burning the rope suspending spikes above his head, seems to finally crack and, eyelids twitching, suicidally cut the rope himself.

Other 1931 toons of note:

The Ugly Duckling: Disney's starting to over-emphasise cuteness, but the editing in the rescue sequence is worthy of Griffith.

The Birthday Party: Mickey's turned petit bourgeois -- no more prison breaks or unskilled labouring. He even plays his music on instruments now (instead of torturing animals like he used to), like a rollicking piano duet of "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" with Minnie.

Spooks: Yup, Ub can still draw skeletons.

Kitty from Kansas City: Miss Boop takes a train to the station at Rudy Valley, and guess who turns up to sing about his bird-brained overweight love? Pro forma Fleischers, but historically fascinating.

Lady, Play Your Mandolin: The first of the Merrie Melodies. Very derivative of the Silly Symphonies, and even the drunken ersatz Mickey isn't terribly amusing until he does his Jolson impression, but it's interesting to see where Warners started from.

Hit count: Rock and roll? Jesus!

2008-09-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

Kid Rock, "All Summer Long": The music isn't as good as in "Sweet Home Alabama" but is better than in "Werewolves of London"; the lyrics, vice versa. As a whole, the song shows there's some residual value in spending most of your life living in a redneck's paradise. (Not meaning London.)

Ne-Yo, "Closer": Stargate goes mostly electric; where are the "Irreplaceable" fans crying Judas? Right, Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music" preceded it, but it had the advantage of sampling a classic. With no such luxury, Ne-Yo relies on something Rihanna doesn't have: a personality. I hope his first really good solo song turns out to be one of many.

Pussycat Dolls, "When I Grow Up": They haven't really earned the right to self-parody the lust for fame they represent. But it's enough to hold the song together, and it's good to see Rodney Jerkins giving a damn again. And isn't it better to aspire to have groupies rather than be one? Answer: marginally.

Leona Lewis, "Better in Time": Not as daft as "Bleeding Love", but if there's no substance, daft's not the worst option. She does have an export-quality voice, and if Simon gets out of Sir Clive's way, she might prove useful one day. Not yet, though.

Arashi, "One Love": Japan's Oldest Relevant Boyband -- sorry, SMAP -- hit #1 for the twentieth-yes-twentieth time (I'll get to their twenty-first in coming weeks). This one's Boyzone-negligible, with too much unison singing and not even a Sakurap to enliven it.

Top ten: Dirty words and dirty minds

2008-09-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

This month's focus: Jazzbos and their descendants.

1. Nas, "N.I.*.*.E.R. (The Slave and the Master)" and "Hero" (ft. Keri Hilson): Nas's albums, like those of all the usual current and former best rapper alive candidates besides Chuck D, have been frustratingly inconsistent. But this time, finally, one of his concepts has sufficient upside to let you overlook the dumb shit about aliens. "Hero" is the #97 single, with radio-friendly Polow production, a hook from next month's big thing Keri Hilson, and Nas implying they'd never stop Dylan from naming his album Kike, which of course Dylan would never do. "N.I.*.*.E.R" is the centrepiece, with a blistering first verse that begins "We trust no black leaders" (though he'll vote for Obama) and parlays poverty into a statement of African pride and thus a justification of bling. Nas isn't as scholarly as Randall Kennedy, but, on this subject, he's deeper.

2. Lloyd ft. Lil Wayne, "Girls Around the World": Weezy has nothing left to do besides cut the usual current and former best rapper alive candidates. Here, he cops Rakim's "Thinkin' of a master plan", and follows that up with his funniest line ever (which, caveat, the video wrecks). Plz do "99 Problems" next. Oh yeah, Lloyd, I like Lloyd.
3. William Parker, "Morning Mantra", "Lights of Lake George" and "Neptune's Mirror": So maybe it's more like my 20th favourite jazz album since 1970, competing with Scrapbook to be my #2 Parker record. Whatever, it's brilliant: I even enjoy Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay's vocals, despite their (Indian) classicalness. "Morning Mantra" is my pick of the bunch for its concision, but maybe except for the 37-second "O'Neal's Bridge", the entire package is intergalactic planetary.
4. Missy Elliott, "Shake Your Pom Pom": Missy and Timbaland have never been afraid of the literal; here, the shaking noises make the song. Another Missy exclusive, another classic, another top ten... Wait, number 95? Hey record-buying public, what's wrong you?

5. Fieldwork, "Ghost Time": Vijay Iyer, Steve Lehman and Tyshawn Sorey drive around in a van solving mysteries. This one they solve halfway through the song, giving them enough time for a game of hide-and-seek.
6. Silvia Blanco, "Barübana Yagien": Mother and daughter Sonia and Silvia Blanco are the stars among stars on the Ivan Duran-produced Umamali album, on which Garifuna women sing over world pop arrangements. Silvia has the sweetness of youth on her side, while inheriting a hint of her mum's grit.
7. Mystery Jets, "Two Doors Down": At last, some white boys, and boy, are they white!

8. Wire, "One of Us": The grand old wavers decompress sonically, while remaining urgent lyrically, the wordy chorus hook turning iambs into trochees.

9. Fats Waller, "Star Dust": Yeah, I knew that "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Ain't Misbehavin'" were great, and that he was often hilarious, so the revelation of the If You Got to Ask, You Ain't Got It box has been that he played a pretty piano. Of course, it helps that you're playing the prettiest melody ever.
10. Tyshawn Sorey, "Permutations for Solo Piano": Chord. Chord. Chord. Chord. Chord. Chord. ARPEGGIO!!!!11 Chord. Chord. Chord. Chord. Und so weiter for 43 minutes.

Fifteen more: Sofia Blanco, "Nibari (My Daughter)"; Collins Oke Elaiho & His Odoligie Nobles Dance Band, "Simini-yaya"; Fieldwork, "Rai" and "Of"; Al Green, "Just for Me"; K'naan, "Wash It Down"; Seun Kuti + Fela's Egypt 80, "Don't Give That Shit to Me" and "Fire Dance"; Lil Wayne, "A Milli"; Charles Mingus, "Take the 'A' Train" (Cornell 1964); Old 97's, "No Baby I"; Sonny Rollins, "Park Palace Parade"; Bobby Valentino, "Anonymous"; Cassandra Wilson, "Wouldn't It Be Loverly"; Young Jeezy ft. Kanye West, "Put On".

Good but not that good: Abbey Lincoln, "Blue Monk"; Menya, "Ripe"; Lil Wayne, "Prostitute Fling"; M.I.A. ft. Bun B & Rich Boy, "Paper Planes (Diplo Street remix)" The Whitest Boy Alive, "Golden Cage".

Top ten albums of the moment:
1. Fats Waller, If You Got to Ask, You Ain't Got It
2. William Parker, Double Sunrise Over Neptune
3. Nas, Untitled
4. Fieldwork, Door
5. K'naan, The Dusty Foot Philosopher
6. Seun Kuti + Fela's Egypt 80
7. Sonny Rollins, Sonny, Please
8. Cassandra Wilson, Loverly
9. MI3, Free Advice
10. Umalali: The Garifuna Women's Project

Nope, I don't get them: Trio Beyond.

Hit count: You could be a star, it ain't hard

2008-08-26T19:05:00.000-07:00

Katy Perry, "I Kissed a Girl": Yeah, it's a bad song, but don't talk yourself into claiming it's not daring. In about forty states this is sizzling stuff, no matter the singer's commitment to lesbianism, or lack thereof. And the "I Kissed a Boy" gay remakes are endearing. Now, if only Perry weren't a horrible singer.

Chris Brown, "Forever": I can't quite say I like Brown now, but I've gained some, gulp, respect for him: he's at least adequate at what he does. Meanwhile, Polow's bubblegum macrohouse is improving. If someone hands him a Roger Sanchez record, he'll be making top-notch schlock in no time.

Natasha Bedingfield, "Pocketful of Sunshine": A career-saving single, thank goodness. The sunny singer gritting her teeth in a grim minor key is a trick so simple, you'd never think it'd work until you heard it.

David Cook, "The Time of My Life": With Katharine McPhee and Jordin Sparks releasing very good and quite alright debut singles respectively, I'd begun to wonder whether it might be worth finally starting to watch Idol. Ha ha. No.

The history of the cartoon universe: The Chain Gang (1930)

2008-08-25T02:56:00.000-07:00

1930 is an interregnum: Ub Iwerks strikes out on his own and does idiosyncratic, unfocused work. The new Looney Tunes series more or less rips off Disney, except it makes the minstrelry more overt. The Fleischers know they have something in their Clara Bow-lookalike poodle, but they haven't quite worked out what to do with her yet.

So let's say it's still Mickey's year. Of the 1930 Mouse toons I've seen, The Chain Gang edges The Fire Fighters (both are directed by new ace Burt Gillett) through its setting. A group of prisoners trudge in the work yard in ball and chain, while Mickey rides his ball, dragged by an unwitting fellow inmate. There's no hint of false imprisonment here: you know that he's in here because he had a little too much fun at one point, or perhaps for cruelty to animals. He's no tough guy -- he cowers from the prison guard, he can't even break a rock -- but my, that little country boy can play. Then it's the now-standard song-then-chase, with some fun gags involving Mickey escaping with his ball. Also, he gets hit in the crotch, repeatedly. He accidentally ends up back behind bars, and everybody thinks this is fitting.

Next year Mickey would get chained up for good: with his stardom unparalleled and the censors getting tetchy, Walt domesticated him. Mickey would remain an interesting character in his comic strip for many years, but this is the end of the mouse as trickster.

While we're here

2008-08-20T23:55:00.000-07:00

25 favourite albums of jazz predating 1970, in somewhat more arbitrary order than the previous list. Fats Waller and late Armstrong count, Sinatra and Louis Jordan don't for some reason.

Louis Armstrong, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1923-34)
Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners (1956)
Billie Holiday, Lady in Autumn (1946-59)
Billie Holiday + Lester Young, A Musical Romance (1937-57)
John Coltrane, A Love Supreme (1964)
Thelonious Monk, Misterioso (1958)
The Tatum Group Masterpieces, Vol. 8 (1956)
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Rip, Rig and Panic/Now Please Don't You Cry, Beautiful Edith (1965-67)
Louis Armstrong, The California Concerts (1951-55)
Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (1957)
Ornette Coleman, The Shape of Jazz to Come (1959)
Duke Ellington, The Far East Suite (1966)
Ella Fitzgerald, Ken Burns Jazz (1938-63)
Miles Davis, The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel (1965)
Everybody Knows Johnny Hodges (1964-65)
Louis Armstrong, Hot Five and Hot Sevens (JSP, 1926-28)
Billie Holiday, Lady Day (4CD version, 1935-42)
Mingus Ah Um (1959)
Duke Ellington, The Best of Early Ellington (MCA, 1926-31, yeah the RCA recordings are better but there's no available single disc)
Horace Silver, The Very Best (1954-66)
Fats Waller, If You Got to Ask, You Ain't Got It (1926-43, just found this last month, still working through it)
Cecil Taylor, Conquistador (1966)
Duke Ellington, The Blanton-Webster Band (1939-42)
Charlie Parker, Bird of Paradise (Prism cheapo, 1945-48)
Coleman Hawkins, A Retrospective (1929-63)

In lieu of actual content: 25 favourite jazz albums since 1970

2008-08-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

Year given is year of recording. Compilations are kosher if they're entirely recorded since 1970.

James Carter, Chasin' the Gypsy (2000)
Miles Davis, A Tribute to Jack Johnson (1970)
Sonny Rollins, Silver City (1972-95)
Sonny Rollins Plays G-Man (1986)
David Murray, Long Goodbye: A Tribute to Don Pullen (1996)
Irene Schwèizer, Portrait (1984-2004)
The Don Pullen-George Adams Quartet, Breakthrough (1986)
James Carter, The Real Quietstorm (1995)
William Parker, Raining on the Moon (2001)
Sonny Rollins, This Is What I Do (2000)
William Parker, Double Sunrise Over Neptune (2007)
Vandermark 5, Target or Flag (1997)
Pat Metheny & Ornette Coleman, Song X (1985)
David Murray, Like a Kiss That Never Ends (2001)
Art Pepper, Winter Moon (1980)
David Murray, Shakill's Warrior (1991)
Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, MTO Vol. 1 (2005)
Ornette Coleman, Dancing in Your Head (1973)
Pharoah Sanders, Welcome to Love (1990)
William Parker, Scrapbook (2002)
Nils Petter Molvaer, Solid Ether (1999)
Keith Jarrett, The Köln Concert (1975)
Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Inner Mounting Flame (1971)
Jewels and Binoculars, Ships with Tattooed Sails (2006)
Patricia Barber, Modern Cool (1998)

Notes:

Just about all the picks are on Tom Hull's Jazz A List, not surprising because most of the post-1970 jazz I've listened to was picked because it was on that list (apart from more recently when I've listened more widely).
I've only been listening to contemporary jazz for about five years, which isn't really enough time to catch up. Of David Murray's 150 albums, are the three I picked (out of six I've heard) really the best? Probably not. And I've never heard anything by Jan Garbarek or Billy Jenkins or George Coleman. So these are definitely the picks of a dilettante.
There's a bias against music predating 1990 because it's less likely to have been released digitally. I stream most of my music though Rhapsody these days; for jazz, this is supplemented by downloads from my on-again/off-again eMusic membership. If unavailable through these channels, sometimes I'll track down a physical copy and buy it (or, in the case of the well-worn tape of Breakthrough I periodically check out from the Berkeley Public Library, borrow it); more often I'll give up and listen to something easier to find. There's probably also a bias towards the last five years because I've heard more jazz from this era.
Double Sunrise Over Neptune just came out last week, so I'm still digesting it. But it's a contender for the best Parker album I've heard (even though he's the best bassist on the inner planets and he doesn't play bass on it), which makes it a contender for the best avant-whatever record since whatever Ornette album you think should've won the Pulitzer. (Which might be Sound Grammar.) In general, though, the list favours the "progressive" over the "emergent".
Rollins, Murray and Parker each lead three list entries. (Ornette should probably have three as well.) Clifton Anderson and Bob Cranshaw play on G-Man, This Is What I Do and much of Silver City. Hamid Drake drums on all the Parker albums. Don Pullen kind of shows up three times: co-leader on Breakthrough, featured player on Shakill's Warrior; mourned and celebrated on The Long Goodbye.
#25 is a slightly tokenistic pick to show that vocal jazz didn't die with Jimmy Rushing. Since 1970 there have also been first rate vocal records from Helen Humes, Diana Krall, uh, the new Cassandra Wilson is quite good, um, ... Dying, maybe, but not dead.

Top ten: The world's most dangerous places

2008-08-02T22:34:00.000-07:00

1. Lil Wayne, "I'm Me"; "Tie My Hands" (ft. Robin Thicke): Since Obama is also at least as socially responsible as K-Fed, I'm sure he knows it's not enough just to ask like the boss: you have to back it up. Wayne's Tha Carter III sounds about as much like a bestselling classic as any album can in this age, the highlight being the post-Katrina song "Tie My Hands", in which Weezy, Robin Thicke and producer K. West out-Root the Roots. But even that's not as thrilling as "I'm Me", the lead track on The Leak EP (included with some versions of the album). He takes particular pleasure in expressing, in descending syllables, the first word of the first verse, "unfuckingbelieveable": pleasure in polysyllabicity as much as obscenity.

2. Be Your Own Pet, "The Kelly Affair"; "Heart Throb": Right now these adventurers are the most accomplished young band around. "Heart Throb" discovers excitement in temptation itself. Hopefully they understand that not everyone finds that fidelity gets easier with age. In the "The Kelly Affair", a rehash of Meyer/Ebert's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Jemima Pearl makes casual sex and partying all the time seem like something to feel genuinely uneasy about. The gifted Jonas Stein plays garage-punk Honeyman Scott, slinging terse riffs where they fit.

3. Alicia Keys, "Teenage Love Affair": A slightly more grown-up prodigy, Keys's string of hits grows ever more impressive. This particular affair celebrates feeling each other up before going home to Mom. Of extreme importance, though, is the qualifier "my first": long ago she learned there was more than one way to fall.

4. Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, "Modul 36": Pianist Bärtsch's percusses minimally, while the rest of his band wants to be the JB's. I hear there's a lot more where this came from; would Bärtsch and/or ECM please get it on Rhapsody or eMusic? Thanks.

5. Sugababes, "About You Now": Back when they still had two-thirds of their original lineup, they covered the Numan-Adina Howard mash-up "Freak Like Me"; this time they all-but-cover "A Stroke of Genius". The lyrics aren't as good though.

6. Orchestra Baobab, "Beni Baraale": Specialistest in old styles, Orchestra Baobab here covers a Guinean hit from the Sixties. Barthelemy Attisso leads guest Babe Nabe through some high-level guitar.
7. Mavis Staples, "Eyes on the Prize": After a few months, We'll Never Turn Back is sounding more and more like an album of the year (2007, 2008, whatever) to me: even the trad songs motorvate thanks to the dedication of Staples, the second most famous member of Jeremiah Wright's congregation, with major assistance from drummer Jim Keltner -- producer Ry Cooder thankfully condemns his son Joachim to percussion. Not quite a Buena Vista Socialist Club -- but there's an idea.

8. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "More News from Nowhere": Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! is, after 23 years, their first really good album (and I've heard all of them); not coincidentally, it's their funniest.

9. Steinski, "It's Up to You (Television Mix)": Nothing Steinski has done solo has been as epochal as the Lessons he created with Double Dee and a cast of hundreds. Still, this assemblage, first put together around the time of the First Gulf War, lets us retrospectively extends the history of Bushisms. (Please let us snigger: small pleasures, small pleasures.)
10. No Age, "Brain Burner": Sucker for pretty that I am, I liked not loved Weirdo Rippers; I love Nouns.

Thirteen more: King Sunny Ade, "Nibi Lekeleke Gbe Nfosho" and "Ori Mmi Maje N'te" (medleys from Gems from the Classic Years); Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, "Modul 33" and "Modul 38_17"; Björk, "Declare Independence"; Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Lie Down Here (And Be My Girl)" and "We Call Upon the Author"; DJ Khaled ft. a bunch of people, one of whom is Lil Wayne, "We Takin' Over"; Lil Wayne, "Dr Carter" and "Dough Is What I Got"; Orchestra Baobab, "Ami Kita Bay"; Portishead, "Silence"; Santogold, "I'm a Lady".

Does this mark me as a hopeless urbaniser? I prefer Miley Cyrus to Taylor Swift.

Hit count: Listen to my works, ye mighty, and despair

2008-07-25T02:05:00.000-07:00

Rihanna, "Take a Bow": This Stargate production, which Wikipedia alleges is secretly a Prince song, is safely outside Rihanna's interpretive range. That's for the best: a better singer (like Prince) may have made it too bilious to be palatable. Few besides the irreplaceable Beyonce could've got the balance between sorrow and spite right.

KAT-TUN, "Don't U Ever Stop": From the album KAT-TUN III QUEEN OF PIRATES. I'll repeat that: from the album KAT-TUN III QUEEN OF PIRATES. I love these guys, but every time the glass breaks I'm waiting for Steve Austin to come in and stunner them.

Estelle ft. Kanye West, "American Boy": Brits never have and never will understand the U.S., so don't blame Estelle for not realising how far New York and Los Angeles are from each other. Angelenos never have and never will understand New York, so give will.i.am credit for making the misunderstanding interesting. Kanye, like Chicago, seems extraneous, but this is a era for uniting not dividing, or for hope, or something.

Coldplay, "Viva la Vida"; "Violet Hill": The real plagiarism of "Viva la Vida" was from Alizee (since they've probably never heard that Joe Satriani solo). At least Chris Martin had a good idea for a song: Head of State turned street cleaner reflects on life, prefers former career. Martin doesn't exactly spin this into "Ozymandias", but a concept gets you most of the way in pop: it's just not necessarily a better concept than "teen girl in wetsuit gets wet". Still, "Viva la Vida" cuts "Violet Hill". In the latter, Coldplay prove they're a Serious Band by horribly misconstructing the dirge, with a solo that should be a riff, a one-and-a-half bar chorus, and a fizzling ending. If this is conscientious objection, give me "Onward Christian Soldiers".

The history of the cartoon universe: Mickey's Choo-Choo (1929)

2008-07-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

The canonical choice for 1929 would be The Skeleton Dance. But where that cartoon undermines reality the same way as all horror (though it also undermines horror itself through, like, skeleton pogo sticks), Mickey's Choo-Choo undermines (wait for it) perception itself*. Stealing the show from Mickey is his anthropomorphised locomotive: not quite soft architecture, but on the way. Iwerks makes the choo-choo memorably malleable: it moves like an animal, wobbles like a jelly, and generally hams it up. Between this and The Skeleton Dance, Ub and Walt basically achieve what Dali was aiming for, except with more laughs and arguably less kitschiness**.

*yes, I know The Skeleton Dance also undermines perception, just not as much
**though as both Disney and Dali knew, kitsch can be great

Favourite cartoons by year: Steamboat Willie (1928)

2008-07-10T19:13:00.000-07:00

Because these days I don't have time to watch features, let alone blog about them.

Walt: So Pete gets mad at Mickey, Minnie gets on the boat, then what happens?
Ub: They play "Turkey in the Straw".
Walt: Then what?
Ub: Mickey throws a potato at the parrot, and that's the end.
Walt: That's it?
Ub: That it.
Walt: What about the jokes?
Ub: Let's see... we get to look down Minnie's underwear. That's funny, right?
Walt: Um...
Ub: And Mickey grabs a cat and swings it around over his head.
Walt: Uh, Ub...
Ub: Oh yeah, and there are lots of teats and udders, and sometimes Mickey gets to poke them.
Walt: Look, Ub, I don't know if the public will go for sexual violence.
Ub: You look, Walt. You think you can draw this thing?
Walt: ...
Ub: Well, do you?
Walt: No, Ub. Sorry.
Ub: Goodbye Walt, I've got pictures to draw. (Walks out.)
Walt: Goddamn Ub. Doesn't know what real comedy is. (Draws picture of duck in blackface.)

Top ten: Don't bore us, get to the thesaurus

2008-07-01T17:19:00.000-07:00

1. Alphabeat, "Fascination": The "word is on your lips" bridge is so thrilling that it's disappointing that the word in question is the title. Why not "wangle"? "Wangle"'s an awesome word.

2. Nellie McKay, "Identity Theft"/"Mother of Pearl": She nimbly skips from one Broadway-flavoured genre to another: who says formalists don't have a sense of humour? It's all part of her plan to create an unstealable identity. She won't limit identity to data, or even actions: she rages against subversion of characteristics we use to define ourselves, poor Pluto, while making sure she's not so easily pigeonholed. Along the way she might borrow your identity for a bit: it's not stealing if you return it before anyone realises it's gone, right? Very actressy of her, which ought to mean people capable of dealing with irony in real life can nut her out. Maybe. Here's a video with a laugh track, just in case.

3. Blow Up, "John Travolta": Hey now, now: homodance for frat boys.

4. Erykah Badu, "The Cell": The funk is approachably avant without being that hard, something it achieves through sheer weirdness. Then when the accompaniment drops out, she reminds you what a singular singer she is.

5. The Mountain Goats, "So Desperate": Not much of an actor, which means he sounds autobiographical no matter how many swamp creatures he writes about. His feelings feel like fact: he's been around as long as that.

6. Les Amazones de Guinee, "Deni Wana"/"Wamato": The stop-on-a-dime arrangements showcase a crack band, especially lead guitarist Yaya Kouyate. "Wamato" is a posse cut that gives the saxes some. "Deni Wana" is a rumba that Kouyate takes home.

7. Gwen Stefani ft. Akon, "The Sweet Escape": Yeah, turns out this is a good song, and I'm willing to give Akon all the credit. Note, though, that minimising the number of dictionary words Akon writes and sings is crucial.

8. James McMurtry, "Ruins of the Realm": America, year zero.

9. The Roots ft. Wale & Chrisette Michele, "Rising Up": I can't work out why this Roots albums is supposed to be better than all the others, but I hope they do get paper like John Travolta hey now now.

10. Robert Forster, "Let Your Light In, Babe": Victorian hanky-panky set on Silius Farm, which isn't a farm.

Fifteen more: Les Amazones de Guinee, "Meilleurs Voeux"; Apparat, "Birds"; Andrew Bird, "Imitosis"; Mariah Carey, "Touch My Body"; Hayes Carll, "She Left Me for Jesus"; Imperial Teen, "Everything"; Bola Johnson & His Easy Life Top Beats, "Buroda Mase"; The Juan MacLean, "Happy House"; James McMurtry, "Fire Line Road"; The Mountain Goats, "Autoclave"; My Chemical Romance, "Teenagers"; The Roots ft. Mos Def & Styles P, "Rising Down"; Tinariwen, "Imidiwan Winakalin"; Celstine Ukwu & His Philosphers National, "Okwukwe Na Nchekwube"; Albert van Veenendaal/Meinrad Kneer/Yonga Sun, "Posthume Verleumdung".

Good but not that good: The Field, "From Here We Go Sublime"; Girls Aloud, "Call the Shots"; Glen Hansard, "Falling Slowly"; Klaxons, "Golden Skans"; Maximo Park, "Our Velocity"; Roisin Murphy, "Overpowered"; Brad Paisley, "Ticks"; R.E.M., "Houston"; Sally Shapiro, "He Keeps Me Alive"; Rufus Wainwright, "Nobody's Off the Hook".

Must try harder: Editors, "Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors"; Foo Fighters, "The Pretender"; Manic Street Preachers ft. Nina Persson, "Your Love Alone Is Not Enough".

Trying too hard: Patrick Wolf, "The Magic Position".

Hit count: Porn your heart out

2008-06-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

Madonna ft. Justin Timberlake & Timbaland, "4 Minutes": Madonna has been exec-like well before they gave her a vanity label, and on this track, though she's the major draw, the Timbs are evidently doing most of the work. Just as well: you worry about Madge taking the conceit too seriously. George W. thought he was saving the world too.

Mariah Carey, "Touch My Body": She always could sing well, of course, but credit her for electing to so these days. Her delivery of "I will hunt you down" (if you post your mutual sex tape on YouTube) is spot-on: she flirts the line, since you know she'd never do such a thing. She has people to do that.

Lil Wayne ft. Static Major, "Lollipop": That he still sounds pretty good when he's selling out and playing to none of his strengths shows what a roll he's on. The pleasure of the song is ephemeral, but as Static Major's death reminds us, you should enjoy ephemeral pleasures while you can. And at least Weezy's willing to give as well as receive head -- and he'll let her play Hillary.

Ray J ft. Yung Berg, "Sexy Can I": Another overprivileged, testosterone-leaking former child star, except he's an asshole: the sort of guy Mariah's people should hunt down. His idea of pleasing a sexual partner is tipping her well. Maybe Ray'll turn into R. Kelly one day, but I hate to think about how many women he'll piss on before that happens.

Summer movies: Iron Man

2008-05-15T18:23:00.000-07:00

~~Bill Clinton~~ Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr*) begins the movie as your typical neoliberal billionaire playboy-weapons dealer. It's only when, in Afghanistan, he gets blown up by one of his own bombs that he realises the awesome power of Irony. Executing his Second Amendment rights to build a fireball-shooting flight suit, he becomes Irony Man. He fights the evil foreigner ~~the Mandarin~~ Raza (Berkeley grad Faran Tahir) and his crew of henchmen gathered from Hungary, Mongolia and other countries without Second Amendments by using the power of pure Irony. When they shoot at him, their bullets bounce off and hit themselves! One of them tries to catapult a rock at him, but it falls on himself! But the real enemy is bald neoconservative ~~Dick Cheney~~ Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), who builds an even more Ironic suit. They fight, and ironically, because Stane is much more powerful, he loses. He deserves to, because he blows shit up for money. Irony Man only blows shit up for public approval. B PLUS

*Ghostface Killah was busy filming Speed Racer.

Top ten: Hook of the dead

2008-05-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

1. The Roy Campbell Ensemble, "Akhenaten (Amenophis, Amenhotep IV)": This is bookended by some highly melodic, pseudo-Egyptian unison playing between Campbell and Billy Bang. In between, Campbell's flugelhorn solo is distinct yet downhome. Bang, probably the finest jazz violinist ever, is more amped-up. Surprisngly useful: vibe player Bryan Carrott.
2. Colombiafrica: The Mystic Orchestra, "Sambangole/Tres Golpes Na' Mas": Yeah, you know I have a soft spot for out-of-tune vocals. Parisian Lucas Silva mashes up Colombian funeral singers ("The Happy Ambulances") with soukous guitar to which Vampire Weekend can only aspire. Incongruous and maybe unsettling, but it's some kind of celebration.
3. Randy Newman, "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country": Newman would never say "God damn America", not just because he's too ironic, but because he loves the damned country, as much as the current adminstration would disavow the form his love takes. Me, I came here by choice, that's how much I love the place. But respect is pretty much out of the question.

4. Big Boi ft. Andre 3000 & Raekwon, "Royal Flush": Yeah, you know I have a soft spot for Three Stacks. Dre gets most of the airtime, and he responds by staying somewhere near the rhythm for once. He posits a metaphorical hokey pokey ("one foot in and one foot out") as a way of keeping up with the kids with Wiis. Call me a Swede, but I note that a decent student allowance scheme would make this unnecessary.

5. Kleerup ft. Titiyo, "Longing for Lullabies": You can also call him a Swede, because he is. Kleerup's first single was one of the greatest ever recorded, so I can't blame him for making his second the same basic song, only dreamier. The song describes what happens if you don't follow Robyn's example, and look back. The distance may be such that it only hurts with every third or fourth heartbeat, but the pain is still there.

6. Toumast, "Ikalane Walegh (These Countries That Are Not Mine)": Ishumar, the album by these Tuaregs, is coloured by French producer Dan Levy's multi-instrumental contributions, and again, unusally, the Western tinkering helps matters, on this track particularly through Levy's bass funking up the guitar of unrepentant former insurgent Moussa Ag Keyna. US tour schedules for September; good luck with those visas.

7. Amy LaVere, "Pointless Drinking": Yeah, you know I have a soft spot for drinking songs. Of course, even the Eagles knew almost all drinking has a point. Some drink to remember! Some drink to forget!

8. Kate Nash, "Mariella": Loud, weird young woman sings about silent, weirder little girl.

9. Los Campesinos, "You! Me! Dancing!": "If there's one thing that I could never confess, it's that I can't dance a single step" -- identification!

10. Vampire Weekend, "M79": I started the backlash; I might as well be first to call it off. It doesn't matter if they'd be laughed off the stage in Kinshasa if they can write this concisely.

Fifteen more: Mary J. Blige, "Just Fine" and "Grown Woman" (ft. Ludacris); Colombiafrica, "Jaloux Jaloux"; Daft Punk, "Around the World/Harder Better Faster Stronger"; Dear Jayne, "Rain"; Drive-By Truckers, "A Ghost to Most"; Holy Fuck, "Super Inuit"; Amy LaVere, "Killing Him"; Lykke Li, "Little Bit"; Nas ft. Jay-Z, "Black Republican"; Kate Nash, "Foundations" and "Birds"; T2 ft. Jodie Aysha, "Heartbroken"; Vampire Weekend, "One (Blake's Got a New Face)".

The middle of everyone

2008-05-08T01:57:00.000-07:00

I've spent far too much time this week defining and calculating the centre of the world's population. This is my answer; as far as I know I'm the first person in history to get an accurate answer for this (but how accurate?) (and that's assuming I didn't mess up).

This brings me 0.00% closer to completing my thesis.

SFIFF seen

2008-05-01T12:16:00.001-07:00

In the City of Sylvia (José Luis Guerín, 2007): As swoonful a tourist promo for Strasbourg as Before Sunrise was for Vienna: those trams, how kawaii! Our handsome Old Romantic hero stalks a woman across town, as sources of light and sound shift around her (aside: why is subjective lighting inevitably realist, while foley effects are more psychological? Somebody must've thought about this). He glances from face to face -- is that his Sylvie? But something rises to compete with his loneliness: as extras are shot like protagonists, we get to take them in, in a way it's hard to do in real life (because it's rude to stare). Lonely as you are? The city never is. A

The Toe Tactic (Emily Hubley, 2008): Let's hope the New Niceness becomes a movement (humblecore? M. July is lovely, but I never thought of her as humble.) The draw is Hubley's metamorphosing animations, in the spirit of her visualisation of capital-P Platonic soul-mating in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, while the cameo-filled live sequences are just personal and eccentric enough to hold the movie together. Nepotists Yo La Tengo help a lot with a soundtrack that includes, and largely sounds like, "Daphnia". B PLUS

Pitcher of Colored Light (Robert Beavers, 2007): Beavers shoots his mother's house and garden as an extension of herself, his curious camera fading out from one object and into another. Mom's possessions will survive her, as will this film. The best segment of the In a Lonely Place programme of emergent cinema, though I also like Katharin McInnis's Woodward's Gardens, a record of the decarnivalisation of 14th and Mission -- in 3D! B PLUS

Go Go Tales (Abel Ferrera, 2007): For one thing, an Altman flick would have more than one developed character (Willem Dafoe in a generally affable mood as the strip club owner); for another, decent dialogue. But many of the ensemble nail their shining moments, two involving dogs: Asia Argento tongue-kisses hers, while Matthew Modine merely mimes on a toy piano for his. B MINUS

Hit count: Processed cheese

2008-04-20T21:44:00.001-07:00

Arashi, "Step and Go" (#1 Japan): Rickroll'd! Except these guys, for all their talents (hey, it's the guy from Letters from Iwo Jima), don't sing as well as Mr Astley. Well, at least Sakurai Sho is a decent rapper.

Duffy, "Mercy" (#1 UK): She's not the new Dusty Springfield, who was convincing singing soul, and besides, was a great singer. She's more like the new Peggy Lee. Except Peggy Lee was a very good singer.

Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown, "No Air" (#3 US): It would be funny that Chris Freaking Brown outsung an Idol winner, except Sparks has talent, so it's tragic. She can interpret, as on the Stargate-produced "Tattoo", but here there isn't anything worth interpreting. The overprocessing asphyxiates her vocal. The vet Brown knows how to sound cute after overprocessing -- and his cuteness is fine in small doses.

OneRepublic, "Stop and Stare" (#10 US, #4 UK): So your debut single was one of the three or four biggest hits of the decade ("Hips Don't Lie", "You're Beautiful", maybe "Hung Up") -- how do you follow that up? With a trite kiddie-rhythmed chorus melody that can only have been conceived to show off your singer's upper register -- only Chris Martin, let alone Jeff Buckley, would laugh off the competition. They'd also guffaw at the overwrought video: Empty grave! Burning TV! Ryan drowning in bath! Well, Buckley wouldn't laugh at that last part.

Usher, "Love in This Club" (#1 US, #6 UK): Though substandard Polow is still better than anything else on this list, there's still a feeling of "We waited four years for this?". Still, it's admirable as cultural exchange: ecstasy-flavoured lyrics over a trance synth riff, slowed down to reflect the different drug choices of the target demographic.

Top ten: Real time

2008-04-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

1. Peter Bjorn and John, "Objects of My Affection": What do you know, they do have a great song. I'll forgive the odd ESL rhyme for an "In My Life" rewrite that isn't so starry-eyed as to attribute it all to one love -- though love's never far from their minds. Really, they do care about the young folks. But they're glad to have grown up.

2. Okkervil River, "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe": Terrific-sounding lyrics, filled with repetitions and internal rhymes. Also a neat rhythmic pattern which puts notes you expect on the 1 on the 3, which, coupled with his fourth bar windup minimises the dead time without voice (without needing to, you know, hold long notes and stuff). Plus the "bad movie" simile: how literary! I mean cinematic!

3. The Go! Team, "Grip Like a Vice"/"Titanic Vandalism": What's the name of this nation? Is this the Cosmic Force? Is this the Funky 4 + 1? Is this the BBC? I thought it was the U.K.

4. Kalima Pierre, "Olingi na sala boni"/"Bomba na motema": The revelation of the Roots of Rumba Rock compilation. Everything you could want in mid-Fifties Congolese rumba is here - a brass band! Thumping drums! And on "Olingi na sala boni", out-of-tune vocals!

5. Kings of Leon, "Knocked Up": They may have have less than chaste reasons for keeping the car running. But they're still heroic.

6. Wu-Tang Clan, "The Heart Gently Weeps"/"Wolves": The album is a patchwork, like every other Wu albums, so the memorable tracks are the well-hooked. "The Heart Gently Weeps" while "Wolves" is lover-not-widowermaker George Clinton's field guide to canids. Raekwon and Ghost elevate the former, while Meth more surprisingly adds value to both.

7. Alicia Keys, "Like You'll Never See Me Again": With ritual song sacrifice left to Idols these days, big R&B ballads are better sung now than in decades, and Keys sings these as well as anyone save Beyonce.

8. The Vandermark 5, "Speedway (for Max Roach)": This month's Vandermark: psycho-electrocello!

9. Three Tenors of Soul, "All the Way from Philadelphia": I barely know the Stylistics, and had look up Blue Magic and the Delfonics -- but everyone knows Hall & Oates!

10. The National, "Fake Empire": It's hard to have false consciousness if you're not fully conscious.

Twelve more: Gary Allen, "Watching Airplanes"; Band of Horses, "Is There a Ghost"; DJ Khaled ft. Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Baby & Lil Wayne, "We Takin' Over"; The Go! Team, "The Wrath of Marcie"; Happy Apple, "Very Small Rock"; Les Savy Fav, "Patty Lee"; Little Boots, "Stuck on Repeat"; Magnetic Fields, "California Girls"; Kalima Pierre, "Na mokili moko te"; Rich Boy ft. Andre 3000, Jim Jones, Nelly, Murphy Lee & The Game, "Throw Some D's Remix"; Jill Scott, "All I"; Wu-Tang Clan, "Sunlight".

All this group needs to do to be listenable is replace all their members: Klaxons.

Hit count: Within you without you

2008-03-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Chris Brown, "With You" (#2 US): How many times can Stargate get away with recycling "Irreplaceable"? Artistically: none so far, since neither Rihanna nor Chris Brown have half Beyonce's charisma, let alone her chops. Still, at least ballads tend to be faster when they're built around guitars -- and they're harder to oversing: good news for upcoming Stargate project Mariah.

KAT-TUN, "LIPS" (#1 Japan): Japanese TV themes are better than U.S. ones because they're faster and louder. Japanese TV shows are better than U.S. ones because they're more likely to be centred around boxer-nun relationships.

Maroon 5, "Won't Go Home Without You" (US #48): It's "Every Breath You Take" with the stalker guy made sweet. Their best single (until they release "Nothing Lasts Forever"), which of course means it's been comparatively unsuccessful.

Yael Naim, "New Soul" (#2 France, #7 US): Now that I've borrowed a friend's iPod shuffle for my road trip next week, will it be the start of a slippery slope -- and not just in my taste in music? Whatever "New Soul" means in the Old World, here it plays as a disposable song for people with disposable income, people who like to see themselves as babes in the woods, as if guilelessness implies guiltlessness. You guys are pushing 30. Britney realised she was toxic at 22 -- and at 18, that she wasn't that innocent.

Bonus track: Nigga, "Te Quiero" (#1 Mexico for 14 weeks): This clingy-as-fluff piece of Jafakery ("romantic style in da world") features the worst singer (hear him in his pre-pitch corrected days) to have a hit of this magnitude since Victoria Beckham, and at least Posh knew her limits. Also, his name is Nigga.

Exclusive: The ending of the director's cut of There Will Be Blood

2008-03-08T18:29:00.000-08:00

Plainview:

"I'm finished!"

Paul Whiteman-style jazz starts playing. The entire cast enters the bowling alley, forming a chorus line. Paul Dano gets up, with blood coming out of his ears, and starts singing:

"I'm sorry that my acting sucked,
My sucking's undisputed;
If you saw 'Sunshine', you would know
I should've played the mute kid;"

Daniel Day-Lewis:

"I'm sorry that I hammed it up,
That three hours it did cost ya,
But I'd have played the role for free
To get my second Oscar;"

Paul Thomas Anderson enters:

"I'm sorry that the ending sucked,
Took hours to think it up;
Still, I could piss down critics' throats
And they would drink it up;"

Daniel Day-Lewis:

"Like a milkshake!"

All:

"We're sorry that the ending sucked
But imagine you had been us:
It's so much harder to make art
Than to pass off nonsense...
As genius!"

Cheering, fireworks, etc.

Top ten: Welcome to the beautiful south

2008-02-27T01:39:00.000-08:00

I'm glad I've got two, probably three spots in my top ten albums of the year sorted out already, though that necessitates a little squeezing this month.

1. Mavis Staples, "I'll Be Rested"/"99 and 1/2"/"My Own Eyes": At 68, she's taken even longer than her Pops to peak. On We'll Never Turn Back, she draws upon her memories of protests and arrests during the civil rights era. This isn't self-congratulation: "99 and 1/2" (set to LAPD brutality footage below) and "My Own Eyes" and Katrina remind us how far away we are from equality in practice, how much work remains to be done. But while turning back isn't an option for the brave, it's essential to look back and honour past heroes. Her reimagination of "I'll Be Rested" moves from a roll call of civil rights martyrs ecumenical enough to include both Malcolm X and Bobby Kennedy, to a list of passed gospel greats ending with Pops. There's no song that can make me a believer. But that's never stopped me from wishing there were a heaven.

2. Tabu Ley Rochereau, "Karibou Ya Bintou"/"Adeito": I like the more expansive soukous of the Seventies onwards better than the early dance club stuff. So while I find the first disc of the Rochereau comp The Voice of Lightness enjoyable, it's the second, covering his peak Afrisa International period, that sounds great to me. The wah-wah "Aon-Aon" you should know, while "Karibou Ya Bintou" is a gently gorgeous warm welcome. In the live "Adeito", Rochereau lets his supergroup mess around for five minutes, before jumping in to show why he was the great African singer of the era. Next: someone please compile his best post-1977 tracks -- if the best are as good as those of his rival Franco (whom Rochereau dominates on their classic collab Omona Wapi), he goes way up the worldwide all-time list.

3. Taio Cruz ft. Luciana, "Come On Girl": Mostly generic, but at least they're ripping off the best, even if Timbaland would find their attempt to recreate his "My Love" synths laughable. Then there's Luciana, of "Covered in Punk" and "Yeah Yeah" fame, one of the most sexual singers ever (even though she sounds like the not particularly sexual M.I.A.), who flips the song to make it truly dirty. Funny that a song called "Come On Girl" should be most memorable for its invocation of male orgasm, but that's porn for yuuuuuuu.

4. Gui Boratto, "Beautiful Life": Hey Ace of Base, don't jump off that bridge! Just look at that water down there -- it glistens.

5. DragonForce, "Through the Fire and Flames": South African singer. Hong Kong guitarist. New Zealand guitarist. Ukranian keybist. French bassist. Scottish drummer. The official extreme power metal band of the United Nations. Go Planet!

6. Of Montreal, "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal": Break-up as theatre, explosion, implosion, food fight and over-analysis. Maybe it's the last of those that got them back together.

7. The-Dream ft. Rihanna, "Livin' a Lie": Umbrella manufacturer and umbrella wielder find that parasols can't dry your tears, eh, eh, eh.

8. Against Me!, "Thrash Unreal": It's not like you're going to make her kick heroin, so she doesn't want your sympathy -- because it'd be accompanied by your judgement.

9. Imperial Teen, "21st Century"/"Baby and the Band": Fourteen years after they formed Imperial Teen in an attempt to solve the "All My Friends" OMG-I'm-30 problem, 30 for life doesn't seem so bad. As much as they love the hair, the TV etc., and as exhausting as touring is, there's nothing like making noise to remind themselves they matter in the 21st century.

10. Ghostface Killah ft. Raekwon & U-God, "Rec-Room Therapy": Eat your whole grains, else that crack vial up your ass is gonna mess you up.

Eleven more: Burial, "Archangel"; Drive-By Truckers, "Two Daughters and a Beautiful Wife"; Flo Rida ft. T-Pain, "Low"; Franz Ferdinand, "All My Friends"; Imperial Teen, "Room with a View"; Lil Wayne, "Blooded"; The Magnetic Fields, "Too Drunk to Dream"; Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, "Killing the Blues"; Ghislain Poirier, "No More Blood (Megasoid remix)"; Tabu Ley Rochereau, "Likambo Ya Mokanda"; Mavis Staples, "Down in the Mississippi".

Good but not that good: Bloc Party, "I Still Remember"; The Brunettes, "Brunettes Against Bubblegum Youth"; Fucked Up, "Year of the Pig"; Jay-Z, "Roc Boys (And the Winner Is)"; Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, "100 Days, 100 Nights"; R. Kelly ft. T.I. & T-Pain, "I'm a Flirt Remix"; Konono No. 1, "A.E.I.O.U."; Linkin Park, "Bleed It Out"; Kylie Minogue, "The One"; David Murray Black Saint Quartet ft. Cassandra Wilson, "Sacred Ground"; Danuel Tate, "Pushcard".

I still can't work out what people see in her, possibly because I've seen neither the videos nor the iPod ad: Feist.

Under ether: PJ Harvey.

Stone the crows, it's the Fifth Annual Utopian Oscars

2008-02-24T13:33:00.001-08:00

As always, I didn't get to all the likely contenders. This year, I skipped many titles with acclaimed performances when the rest of the movie didn't sound that interesting: Grace Is Gone (Shelan O'Keefe and John Cusack), Starting Out in the Evening (Frank Langella and Lauren Ambrose), The Savages (Philip Bosco, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney), The Iceberg (Fiona Gordon), Sweeney Todd (His Deppness), and The Mist (Marcia Gay Harden, according to Edelstein). Also, I only saw one of the three movies shot by cinematographer of the year by quantity, Roger Deakins; I regret missing Jesse James but not In the Valley of Elah.

Best cinematography:
Charles Burnett, Killer of Sheep
Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood
William Lubchansky, Regular Lovers
Martin Ruhe, Control
Robert Yeoman, The Darjeeling Limited

Black-and-white rules this year. Best of these was Ruhe's Control, which gorgeously adapted director Anton Corbijn's rock photo style to the moving image.

And the Topie goes to... Martin Ruhe

Best adapted screenplay:
Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi, The Bourne Ultimatum
Michael Goldenberg, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Matt Greenhalgh, Control
Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Sarah Polley, Away from Her

A pretty soft category: Goldenberg's Potter work isn't as tight as Steve Kloves's, while the script for Control, though fine, isn't its strength. Persepolis might've won if I hadn't read some of the comics before, whereas Away from Her clearly added to its source material.

And the Topie goes to... Sarah Polley

Best original screenplay:
Judd Apatow, Knocked Up
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Todd Haynes and Oren Moverman, I'm Not There
Richard Kelly, Southland Tales
Tsai Ming-liang, The Wayward Cloud

There are two nominees that might make many say what the hell, but the real contest is between Apatow and Haynes/Moverman. Apatow would've pulled it off if he didn't sidestep around shmashmortion.

And the Topie goes to... Todd Haynes and Oren Moverman.

Best supporting actor:
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Marcus Carl Franklin, I'm Not There
Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Superbad
Gordon Pinsent, Away from Her
Tom Wilkinson, Michael Clayton

Young McLovers vs old men. Let's call it for Wilkinson for making the truth-telling madman type overused in fiction for centuries seem plausible.

And the Topie goes to... Tom Wilkinson

Best supporting actress:
Charlotte Gainsbourg, I'm Not There
Taraji P. Henson, Talk to Me
Valerie Lemercier, Avenue Montaigne
Leslie Mann, Knocked Up
Samantha Morton, Control

A very deep category, with arguably the two should-be gigastars (Gainsbourg and Morton) and the two wittiest character actresses (Henson and Lemercier). Beating them all is an underused talent who finally got the role she deserved by being married to her director.

And the Topie goes to... Leslie Mann

Best actor:
George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Glen Hansard, Once
Lee Kang-sheng, The Wayward Cloud
Henry Gale Sanders, Killer of Sheep
Song Kang-ho, The Host

As much as I've dissed him, Daniel Day-Lewis didn't miss this list by much, but the nominees here all act with a small "a". And there's no greater advantage in small-a acting than preternatural coolness.

And the Topie goes to... George Clooney

Best actress:
Drew Barrymore, Music and Lyrics
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There
Chen Shiang-Shyi, The Wayward Cloud
Julie Christie, Away from Her
Sienna Miller, Interview

My goodness, this is a shitty category, and it would be worse if I didn't draft Blanchett out of the clump of supporting actresses who should be playing leads. Still, the winning performance might be the finest by one of the greatest actresses of all-time, and better than anyone male came up with this year.

And the Topie goes to... Julie Christie

Best director:
Charles Burnett, Killer of Sheep
Todd Haynes, I'm Not There
Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis
Richard Kelly, Southland Tales
Tsai Ming-liang, The Wayward Cloud

There's no way I can't give it to Burnett, thirty years late. Though To Sleep with Anger is a more accomplished work (with an actual budget), Killer of Sheep is an unparalleled ghetto picaresque that one hopes another film student will someday match.

And the Topie goes to... Charles Burnett

Best picture:
Away from Her
I'm Not There
Killer of Sheep
Persepolis
The Wayward Cloud

If I had seen Persepolis before this week, the race might've been closer. But I saw The Wayward Cloud nearly two years ago, and I haven't seen a more memorable new movie since then.

And the Topie goes to... The Wayward Cloud

Seen

2008-02-19T22:31:00.000-08:00

No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers, USA, 2007): A first-rate chase movie until the Coens decide to pander to the crowd that mistakes bleakness for depth (insert swing at Cormac McCarthy readers here). And then you get the crazy cat guy giving the "yes, this really is no country for old(-fashioned) men" speech, and even that's unembarrassing compared to the dreaming-about-daddy closer Tommy Lee Jones has to spout. Before then, we get some excellent button-pushing suspense and Javier Bardem doing the Two-Face gimmick justice. B PLUS

Gone Baby Gone (Ben Affleck, USA, 2007): To turn a Straightforward Choice into a Moral Dilemma, the deck has to be stacked: not only is choosing the Wrong Side made the more elegant solution, choosing the Right Side will lead to Loss of Pussy. But credit Ben Affleck for holding together the implausible narrative for that long, and brother Casey for having the humility to play the lead like a sidekick.B

Jumper (Doug Liman, USA, 2008): To make us feel for a guy with superpowers who doesn't even consider saving people in a flood would require more than Hayden Christensen can offer. Maybe not more than Rachel Bilson can offer, but she's granted no great power and no great responsibility. C

Ridiculousest haircut of the week (just edging out Bardem):

Retards

2008-02-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Overheard on the 9 bus:

"So I told him there's hydrogen dioxide in our water, and he was like 'Oh my god, there's hydrogen dioxide in our water!'"
"He didn't get it?"
"No, he didn't think like, OK, hydrogen is hydrogen, and di means two, so dioxide means..."
"He didn't think like H2O? What a retard."
"What a retard."

Like a catblog, only instead of cats he has rock critics

2008-02-14T13:49:00.001-08:00

Christgau's blog. (Via Perfect Sounds.)

Seen

2008-02-13T22:39:00.000-08:00

There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, USA, 2007): This is a great movie when it's about oil, a good one when it's about capitalism, an OK one when it's about religion, a mediocre one when it's about family, and a terrible one when it's about Daniel Day-Lewis: PTA had to set it in the badlands, otherwise Day-Lewis would've eaten all the scenery. The first hour is fascinating, beautiful stuff: mines and accidents, wheeling and dealing. But when his brother turns up, Danny and the movie go nuts so slowly that you might not notice the descent until the abrupt jump to 1927. Well, if they must piss away two hours of goodwill with a daft ending, credit them for doing so with conviction (unlike No Country for Old Men, but I'll complain about that next week). A MINUS

Interview (Steve Buscemi, USA, 2007): I guess Sienna Miller gets this year's Knightley/Green "when did she learn to act?" award (yes, it's always a she), even though she was never that bad (well, apparently she was in Factory Girl, but I'm not subjecting myself to that). Simple two-hander, journalist and celeb meeting and emotionally manipulating each other, and did I mention neither of them is insane? B MINUS

Michael Clayton (Tony Gilroy, USA, 2007): Cleverly, this gets the implausible climax over with at the beginning, so that all the rest makes sense, especially the twist post-climax that's no less satisfying if you know it must be coming. Tilda Swinton is ticky and panic-stained; Tom Wilkinson is ticky and nuts, but has the decency to not kill anyone. George Clooney does not need to stoop to such "acting"; he needs merely drop hints he's above it all, even when he's up to his neck.A

An American in Paris (Vincente Minnelli, USA, 1951): Sure, the last ballet is kitchy and interminable, and neither the script nor the leads can untangle the love story. Yet Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron are hugely appealing, at least when they're joyful, as they usually are; their sad faces are, well, sad. Anyway, it's all about Oscar Levant, here unencumbered by any romance of his own, the better for his friends' complications to befuddle him and for his own ambitions (below is the third movement of Gershwin's Concerto in F, a better piece of music than "An American in Paris") to enrapture him. He, Kelly and Georges Guetary singing "By Strauss"is enough to warm the hearts of all hams, which apparently is everyone in Paris. A MINUS

Hit count: Blood on the 32-track

2008-02-12T22:35:00.000-08:00

Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love": The new Mariah or Whitney? Nah, more like the new Paula Cole, with a better voice and lesser songs (notwithstanding a cover of "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" that she does nothing with; definitely withstanding "A Moment Like This"). Which means we in the U.S. can hope to ride her out and after three months never hear from again -- unless she gets on a goddamned soundtrack, which seems like just the sort of thing known sadist Simon Cowell would inflict upon us. This is as close as she gets to a good song, but OneRepublican Ryan Tedder and chipmunk Jesse McCartney run the metaphor into the ground: "my heart's crippled by the vein that I keep on closing" indeed.

Mariah Carey, "All I Want for Christmas Is You": After Leona, the real thing seems very good indeed. Now that Mariah's enduring superstardom is finally assured, you'll hear this every December for the rest of your life, and it's better than all the post-Spector secular alternatives. I'll leave it to Tris McCall to determine whether it's better than her "O Holy Night".

Linkin Park, "Shadow of the Day": By now it's clear that this is an above-average radio band when Mike Shinoda gets to rap and a below-average radio band when he doesn't. Their previous single, "Bleed It Out", was one of their best, with Brad Delson building Walls o' Guitar around Shinoda. Sadly in this one, they don't just rip off U2's guitar sound but their song structure as well. Needless to say, the song doesn't go anywhere.

Finger Eleven, "Paralyzer": Franz Ferdinand as Canadian idiots. Not nearly as fun as that sounds. If "it's been sheety and I feel uk-WARD" is their idea of an acceptable lyric, I'll keep my irony, thx.

Seen

2008-02-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg, UK/Canada, 2007): Viggo! He can put on a Russian accent! He can fight naked! He can out-act Naomi Watts if you give her a lame enough role! A MINUS

Dancer in the Dark (Lars von Trier, "America", 2000): Bjork has a weak spot for pretentious jocks, and if Matthew Barney is not nearly as skilled a provocateur as our Lars, he's certainly better for her health. But credit Ms Guomundsdottir's wailing, more than her warbling, for lifting this well clear of worst-of-the-decade territory. It might've even had some good musical numbers if they had got Michael Rooney to choreograph them, and Spike Jones to direct them. Of course, this would've required smashing in Lars's skull with a cash box. C MINUS

MacArthur BART: I wrote two choruses of parody lyrics; they weren't funny

2008-02-05T21:22:00.000-08:00

OK, let's try this format.

Because I have to have an opinion on everything

2008-02-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

Bach's concertos don't seem nearly as interesting as his best choral, keyboard or organ works. I've long had a philosophical preferrence for JSB over decadent smartass Mozart, but closer listening shows that Wolfgang is by far the better orchestrator.

Also, I take back my dis of E. Power Biggs from some months ago. Not only is Great Organ Favorites the greatest Bach organ crib sheet around, he also has the ultimate rock star name.

Remember that "visit every BART station" resolution?

2008-02-01T14:22:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I'm probably not going through with that.

Seen

2008-01-30T01:11:00.000-08:00

Charlie Wilson's War (Mike Nichols, USA, 2007): The movie doesn't state its punchline, which is just as well given that it's 9/11. Aaron Sorkin's interest in politics has always had more to do with process than presentation, or (ha) policy. Election scorecard statheads might think he made the second-best choice, but Citizen Kane would suggest otherwise.B

Bug (William Friedkin, USA, 2006): Quite fascinating until the sex scene, and then everything goes south; by the end, it's pretty hilarious. Michael Shannon devours most of the scenery before Ashley Judd polishes off the rest -- you can't fault their workrate, but you must fault their choice of scripts. Harry Connick Jr is somewhat awesome, though. D PLUS

Top ten: Melodrama mama

2008-01-29T16:38:00.000-08:00

Many of the songs below are tracks that stood out upon end-of-year album relistening. Several are megahits I hadn't seriously thought about until recently. And one probably should've been song of the year last year.

1. Kleerup & Robyn, "With Every Heartbeat": Popjustice has been telling me to get to this hyperballad for a year and a half now; when the second video came out, I watched it once, thought "that's a terrific video", then forgot about it. On second listen, it's a masterpiece. It's the opposite of that other masterpiece, "Go West": the apparent pain, though great, masks a determination that's almost celebratory. "We could keep trying but things will never change" is slightly softened and greatly deepened by "I don't look back". Then, after the terrific synthetic string quartet has its moment: "it hurts with every heartbeat", as if the regular ba-bomp of the "it hurts with" can't be sustained for even a line. But though no longer heard, "I don't look back" still lingers, telling us that yes, I will survive even this.

2. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, "Crank That (Soulja Boy)": For the benefit of you who are not up with the latest "hip hop" slang, I shall explain some related terms:

"Superman dat ho" - Take a young woman on a hot air balloon ride.
"Batman dat ho" - Go spelunking with a young lady.
"Spiderman dat ho" - Support a female friend at her appearance on American Gladiators.
"Yuuuuuuu!" - I am in the process of ejaculating.

3. Britney Spears, "Piece of Me": Once again I worried she wouldn't keep up her streak of one great song every album, but just as "Anticipating" from Britney grew on me, so has "Piece of Me". The songs couldn't be more different: where "Anticipating" was one last hurrah for her kiddie pawn career, "Piece of Me" is grown-up, barely masking its desperation. She knows her value as a commodity, and flaunting that value is the only defence she has.

4. Lily Allen, "Knock 'Em Out": Upon reflection, her funniest is her best. It's incredibly hard to sustain a career in hilarious meanness, with harmlessness or unproductive depression easy traps to fall into. Hope she finds her phone.

5. Yo La Tengo, "Daphnia": Probably no proper album this year, but the last is stretching out a long way. This luscious nine minute instrumental is constructed around a repeating up/down guitar figure, coloured with piano and weird tremolos. Note to Panda Bear: Don't try to copy this, you're not up to it.

6. KAT-TUN, "Keep the faith": After all, the only problem with the Bon Jovi song of the same name is that it's over four minutes. Well, that and Jon sings (though his Not Rap bridge is kind of charming).

7. Taz, "Apna Sangeet": Coventrian chameleon Tarsame Singh rolls the dice, coming up with "bhangra hop" and "anti-racist statement of pride". Taz, I won't dis your roots and rhythm until the next time you roll "Bollywood strings" and "generic love plea".

8. Justice ft. Uffie, "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy": Justice's music is as shallow as Soulja Boy. But at least they know the point of getting hot girls drunk isn't to make them unconscious.

9. Nelly Furtado, "Say It Right": I actually like seven of the United World Chart's top eight songs of 2007, the exception being "The Sweet Escape", which I don't hate that much. (On the other hand, I do hate number nine, "Hey There Delilah", more than enough.) "Say It Right" came in second to "Umbrella", and while few besides Simon Reynolds would prefer them the other way around, its spookiness makes up for the unshapeliness of the lyric.

10. Donald Byrd & 125th St N.Y.C., "Love Has Come Around": I heard this every time I played the Larry Levan comp Journey into Paradise, but it didn't sink in until I heard James Murphy and Pat Mahoney's FabricLive.38 mix. They take out the cheesier bits, push the drums forward, and it sounds like, well, house.

Sixteen more: Bright Eyes, "Soul Singer in a Session Band"; Fountains of Wayne, "Michael and Heather at the Baggage Claim"; Grinderman, "No Pussy Blues"; Jewels and Binoculars, "Jack-A-Roe"; Justice, "DVNO"; Les Savy Fav, "The Year Before the Year 2000" and "What Would Wolves Do"; Sam Mangwana, "Marabenta"; Maria Muldaur, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere"; Youssou N'Dour, "Baay Faal" and "Bajjan"; Lee Scratch Perry, "Perry's Ballad"; Rihanna, "Breakin' Dishes"; Mark Ronson ft. Santogold, "Pretty Green"; Peter Stampfel, "Fucking Sailors in Chinatown"; The White Stripes, "Effect and Cause".

Dude, go back to yr Collective: At twelve and a half minutes, Panda Bear's "Bros" is as long as "When Will I Be Famous?", "Drop the Boy" and "I Owe You Nothing" laid end-to-end and not as good as any of them. The Brothers Goss weren't great singers, but had enough chops to not have to have their vocals treated to the point of incomprehensibility. Plus they understood the concept of a chord change.

Seen

2008-01-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard, USA, 2001): Talk about an insult to the intelligence. The problem isn't that it's unfaithful to John Nash's life, it's that it's not faithful to anyone's life. Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly work their asses off so that it's only the third or fourth least plausible movie romance of all time. C MINUS

Talk to Me (Kasi Lemmons, USA, 2007): Muddled both politically and chronolgically -- the whole thing seems stuck in the Seventies instead of spanning twenty years. That only matters a little, because the performers are Don Cheadle and Chiwetel Ejiofor and the indomitable Taraji P. Henson, who, in total contrast to Hustle & Flow, is louder than her Pam Grier outfits: Tarantino should make her tribute now. B PLUS

Superbad (Greg Mottola, USA, 2007): Pretty funny, but it seems like it was written by teenage boys. What? It was? B PLUS

Hot Rod (Akiva Schaffer, USA, 2007): Yep, another movie where the man-child gets the girl because the man-man is an asshole or a lawyer or something. Funny, I remember my peers when I was fourteen being much dickwadier than my peers now (except you, Mike). C

Away from Her (Sarah Polley, Canada, 2006): Who was the last filmmaker who displayed such a command of narrative first time up -- Charles Laughton? Sure, it helps to be working from an Alice Munro story, but Polley neatly fills out the story of an Alzheimer's suffer (Julie Christie) and her husband (Gordon Pinsent), strengthening Munro's spiralling ironies with some sharp gags (the hockey commentator who can't give up his job, even in the nursing home, lets Polley get a wicked cheap shot in on Pinsent's character), though the movie's ending gnaws at you rather than crushing you. Christie is as exceptional as you've heard: many actresses could get the tics right, and the great ones could stand up to Polley's camera circling their tear-stained faces, but who else could sustain the perfect tone throughout the picture? Wise, frightened and sly, irresistible and unforgettable -- except there's no such thing. A

Office Space (Mike Judge, USA, 1999): Threatens to undermine capitalism for a few minutes. Soon wusses out into fantasies of Jennifer Aniston, but remains funny. B

The Warlords (Peter Chan, China, 2007): Watched it without subtitles and my Mandarin is non-existent, so no rating, but seemed good for what it was -- blood brotherhoods breaking and impalements galore. Jet Li looked strangely like a good actor.

Hit count: Perfect pitch like Randy Johnson

2008-01-22T17:23:00.000-08:00

Part of my continuing battle against early onset cultural irrelevance.

Fergie, "Clumsy": Fifth single, crikey: while this isn't one of the three good ones ("London Bridge", "Fergalicious", and hell, even a ballad -- "Big Girls Don't Cry"), they're all acceptable. In terms of quality-to-talent ratio, she's as high as anyone in recent years. To me, that's something to admire.

Flo Rida ft. T-Pain, "Low": There's no truth to the rumour that daft punk T-Pain is really a robot; I just wish he'd dance like one. But as his takeover of the music industry is all but complete, 2007 may seem to future generations a turning point in the cyborgification of Earth -- at least it will if next-gen femmebots have the gigantic booty as a standard feature. What's digital love got to do with it?

KAT-TUN, "Keep the faith": In the West, the boy band biz is cyclical; in Japan, they never go away -- hell, SMAP are still hitting number one after fifteen years. KAT-TUN might be the biggest at the moment, and "Keep the faith" shows that might be not entirely unjustified. Big drums and a smoked watery riff stay out of the way of the two-parts-and-change harmonies, while getting just enough in the way of the constipated rap bridge.

Rihanna, "Don't Stop the Music"; "Hate That I Love You" (ft. Ne-Yo): The other good song on the album besides "Umbrella" and "Shut Up and Drive" is "Breaking Dishes". Still, as far as time-killing singles to stretch out an album's run go, these are good generics. Of course, "dance floor filler" is a better genre than "not terribly clever romantic duet". They hate! how they love! each other. How terrible for them.

Notes on eating in Auckland

2008-01-21T03:55:00.000-08:00

Over December and January, I went back to Auckland to visit my parents for almost a month. To my taste, Auckland isn't a world-class chow city yet: despite the high average quality of ingredients (especially seafood), there isn't yet the market for high-end small farm products. And chefs either try too hard to be creative, resulting in unfocused menus, or not hard enough, making some restaurants seem two generations behind the times. Nevertheless, the growing immigrant population means there's now a lot more good stuff than I could eat in a month. The highlights detailed below are, in my opinion, very good indeed.

HP8 (49 Nuffield St, Newmarket)
New Sichuanese restaurant, hardcore even in the decor: my mother was happy to go on about the significance of this or that scroll. Mains were generally $18 except for the fish dishes; since everybody else was ordering the $48 water-boiled fish, we decided to shell out for that. Turned out to be the best dish I've had in a Chinese restaurant in years. We got a whole blue cod (including head, yum) chopped into chunks, swimming in a huge bowl of liquid, oily but not as oily as I've heard the dish can be. Incredibly fragrant, Sichuan peppercorn-spicy as well as chili-spicy (though we ordered mild and probably should've had medium), and yet the fish still tasted delicate and fresh.

We also had a cold appetiser plate (excellent), some blanched/stir-fried green bean dish (pretty good) and twice-cooked pork (OK but wouldn't recommend it for a party of 3). With a larger party and someone who knows how to order, you might get the best meal in Auckland here.

Matakana Patisserie (Matakana Valley Road, Matakana)
We got totally lost trying to find Matakana (ending up halfway to Whangarei), and they'd sold most of their stock by the time we got there. But after my parents and I got home and tried our carrot cake and our copyright-challenging "Molengrain" loaf, we agreed this was the best bakery we'd been to in NZ. The carrot cake was moist without being greasy, with great crumb. The bread was so much better than Molenberg (one of the better supermarket loaves) it wasn't funny. Tasty, light interior, but what stood out was the seed-encrusted, firm yet flexible crust. In an average bread town like Auckland, this bakery's worth the occasional drive up north.

Satya (271 K Road, also in Sandringham)
There are quite a few South Indian restaurants around Auckland now; someone interested should catalogue the thalis in probable goldmine Otahuhu. I only had time for an oversized snack at this canonical place. The dahi puri was much better than anything comparable I've had at the highly regarded chaat house I go to in Berkeley. The puris were housemade and fresh, and the presentation was really quite pretty, with the puris well-separated and the chickpea, yoghurt and chutney layers distinct. Sambar was very good, as was the masala tea. I've only scratched the surface: many more things to try here.

KK (463A Manukau Road, Epsom)
My friend Derek, who's tried just about every Malaysian restaurant in town, thinks the best in Bunga Raya, out in New Lynn. We never get out that way, sticking to our old favourite. KK's long since been discovered by non-Malaysians (like me, but unlike my mother), but if it's slipped it's only an inch. The slightly pricy fried asam fish ($30) was especially good, the second-best fish dish I've had in recent months (see above). The KK special chicken, cooked in sort of a salt-and-pepper style, wasn't worth eating twice, but the beef rendang was good and the satay was as excellent as always. Still, I want to try Bunga Raya some time.

Grand Harbour (28 Customs St West) vs Grand Park (Alexandra Park Raceway, Manukau Road, Epsom)
I went to yum cha (term used more than dim sum in NZ Chinese) twice at Grand Harbour and once at Grand Park. Grand Harbour is the more upscale place near the waterfront, more expensive though not by as much as you would think since the servings are reasonably big. Grand Park is less known outside the Chinese community and is thus less crowded, but consequently doesn't have nearly as wide a selection. Quality is similar at both places. The only dish where one restaurant had a significant advantage over the other was tripe: much better at Grand Park. Still, I'd choose Grand Harbour if somebody else paid.

Seen

2008-01-13T04:46:00.000-08:00

The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, USA, 1953): The bonus disc features a 1930 Vitaphone short, Jack Buchanan with the Glee Club Quartet, in which JB's expert mistiming gives you some idea why he was Britain's leading musical comedian of his era, though it's not apparent how he functioned as a romantic lead: surely endearing dithering can only go so far (take note, Hugh Grant). Then again, given the breadth of his performance as Jeffrey Cordova, I wouldn't put anything past him. He does a pretty decent Oedipus, has no trouble talking circles around James Mitchell, and edges Fred Astaire in the all-timer "Triplets" number (it's all in the facial expressions, which you can't really make out in the above YouTube clip), and all this with spinal arthritis. In a fairer world, he'd be remembered like we remember the dark-dancing Astaire: well, maybe ninety percent as much. A PLUS

Hot Fuzz (Edgar Wright, UK, 2007): Not as good as Shaun of the Dead, which had a moral or something, but the small town conspiracy premise provides some good cheap laughs: pistol-packing grandmamas and such. The series of unfortunate events does go on a bit, so you might be worn out by the time they get to the "which Clint flick are they pastiching now?" finale. B PLUS

Stealth (Rob Cohen, USA, 2005): While Michael Bay has now been deemed a fit subject for intellectual contemplation, those of us who actually watch and occasionally enjoy mechanised action movies prefer the company of Cohen. Stealth doesn't flukily crash into good movie territory like The Fast and the Furious did, but it has its awesome ludicrous moments, like Josh Lucas flying away from an airborne ring of flames, and Cohen respects every narrative cliche. By the time the Evil Robot Plane develops feelings and learns that collateral damage is wrong, you'll be wishing our real world storyline progressed so inevitably. C PLUS

Some poems I liked last year

2008-01-13T04:33:00.000-08:00

Alice Notley, "Radical Feminist" (from Alma, or The Dead Women)
I haven't come close to finishing Alma: 300 pages of one-faced gender critique is too much for me. But there's a sequence where the anger crystallises into one of the bitterest rages against violence ever written, and that sequence starts with "Radical Feminist", which deserves its title.

"how will we dead women avenge ourselves now when there will be nothing but vengeance transpiring. oh these distractions says one. we intend that you keep on the subject says another. keeping on the subject is part of our vengeance. i am touched by men's love says the third but it isn't a world. men have died too someone says. they can take care of themselves someone else says but don't let one come near me again in the name of care. i want a chance to care for myself, perhaps i finally have that being a dead woman."

Christopher Middleton, "Orbiana" (from The Tenor on Horseback)
When he's at his best, which is quite often in The Tenor on Horseback, Middleton still writes more prettily than anyone. At other times he just writes pettily (calling Rafael Nadal a baboon; fortunately he's not under the jurisdiction of the ICC). The linked Shearsman 67/68 conveniently features three prime poems. "The First Portrait" and especially "Orbiana" show that historical drama in verse is only as dead as it always was.

"I could never help uttering a light soupir,
Just one, whenever the times
Were hard; today
Just one more, it hardly passed my lips,
But murdered they were, such news,
Murdered near Mayence, those two
Who sent me here, to Leptis Magna."

Tadeuz Rozewicz, "the professor's knife" (tr. Joanna Trzeciak, from Triquarterly 126)
Old Pole and friend recall weaponry/cutlery, war and breakfast.

"'I've thought more about my knife,
the one made from the hoop of a barrel.
It would be carried in the hem
of my death camp clothes
since they might confiscate it
and one could pay dearly...
So it served its purposes,
not just utilitarian
but far more intricate ones...'"

Penelope Shuttle, "Missing You" (from Redgrove's Wife)
Shuttle's mourning sequence obsesses through April and May, China and India, Tesco and Sainsbury.

"I make my home in your absence,
take your smallest hope
and make it grow
I wake to the dusk of everywhere
as if assisting at my own birth
or arriving in a country
where all the rivers settle down to be ice"

Jen Tynes, "Suspension" (from The Hat 7)
The Hat 7 was the best journal issue I read last year, or least the only one I read all the way through. "Suspension" is my fave in there by a whisker from a Rae Armantrout miniture ("One lizard/jammed headfirst//down the throat/of a second.")

"...Everyone looks
into my hollow and hollers
their own names.
I give it all
back in pieces."

Seen

2008-01-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (Miyazaki Hayao, Japan, 1986): One of Miyazaki's best: this is where Ghibli first get their animation style down to a T. It doesn't have the thematic depth of Princess Mononoke: it's definitely a kid's movie, but with a sense of wonder, which if I must choose, I prefer to a sense of weirdness. Unlike Mononoke, better in Japanese. A

Invisible Target (Benny Chan, Hong Kong, 2007): In mid-chase, Nicholas Tse gets hit by a bus. Impressive enough to replay from an alternative angle, not damaging enough to delay him more than a couple of seconds. C PLUS

Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, USA, 1919): The difference Griffith perceives between the Chinaman and the Negro seems to be the comparatively low risk of miscegenation posed by the former, though he sets the action in London to be safe. Still, the movie has as much to say about race and class relations (and domestic violence) today as it did in 1919, which is a little. More than that, it's Lillian Gish's graduation from great presence to great actress, as she incidentally creates the template for every horror movie victim ever. The rest of the time, it's all Richard Bathelmess can do to gaze in wonder. A

Last 15 mins of Flash Point (Wilson Yip, Hong Kong, 2007): Weird to see MMA and worked shoot spots like joint holds and suplexes (there's even a powerbomb counter to an armbar) in the climactic fight scene. In the sequel: Donnie Yen spends five minutes trying to pass half-guard. B MINUS

The Pursuit of Happyness (Gabriele Muccino, USA, 2006): I'll believe the Dem rhetoric about a $9.50 minimum wage when it happens, since liberalism sez it's not slavery if you do it voluntarily. Fortunately for mu opinion of this movie, Will Smith has a more concrete sales pitch than Barack Obama. B PLUS

Resolutions

2008-01-05T00:18:00.000-08:00

1. This might be my last year in the Bay Area, and there are still so many neighbourhoods I've never been to. So this year, I want to visit every BART station. I reserve the right to abandon this resolution if it seems like it'll get me killed.

2. The Hit List: Last year I called out ten movies I should've seen:

Andrei Rublev
Barry Lyndon
The Conformist
Ikiru
The Mirror
The Night of the Hunter
Ordet
Rio Bravo
La Strada
Viridiana

Well, I got three out of ten. Ikiru is tiresome, Rio Bravo is a lot of fun and The Night of the Hunter is a masterpiece. For this year, let's add Letter from a Unknown Woman, Notorious and Sansho the Bailiff to the list.

3. Finish my thesis. This is important too, I suppose.

Seventy-three albums I liked in 2007

2007-12-31T23:38:00.000-08:00

Your mileage may vary, but for me, best year ever.

1. M.I.A., Kala: We are the one who make a brighter day, so let's start giving.
2. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible: Helping us understand why this world-historical moment is emo.
3. Gogol Bordello, Super Taranta!: Helping us understand why we shouldn't be emo in this world-historical moment.
4. Golden Afrique Vol. 2: "The best Congolese album in the world... ever!"
5. Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, MTO Vol. 1: Translated to the present, or, all your Basie are belong to us.
6. Miranda Lambert, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Unlike the Dixie Chicks, she understands the fun of violence is in the anticipation.
7. Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass: Ira should get into a Guitar Hero game any century now.
8. Jewels and Binoculars, Ships with Tattooed Sails: Better than Muldaur's Dylan covers album because it doesn't have any words.
9. Gothic Archies, The Tragic Treasury: Deadpan with a capital "dead".
10. African Pearls: Congo: Rumba on the River: A more coherent Congolese collection, though with lower highs than the Golden Afrique volume.

11. Art Pepper, Unreleased Art Vol. 1
12. Powerhouse Sound, Oslo/Chicago Breaks
13. Lupe Fiasco, Food and Liquor
14. Manu Chao, La Radiolina
15. The Apples in Stereo, New Magnetic Wonder
16. Common, Finding Forever
17. Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3
18. Youssou N'Dour, Rokku Mi Rokka
19. Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight
20. Brakes, The Beatific Visions
21. Justice, Cross
22. Maria Muldaur, Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan
23. Balkan Beat Box, Nu Med
24. Fountains of Wayne, Traffic and Weather
25. Les Savy Fav, Let's Stay Friends
26. The Rough Guide to Astor Piazzolla
27. Lily Allen, Alright, Still
28. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
29. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
30. The White Stripes, Icky Thump
31. Africa Remix: Ah Freak Iya
32. Fats Domino, Alive and Kickin'
33. James McMurtry, Childish Things
34. Fanfare Ciocarlia, Queens and Kings
35. Bebo Valdes, Bebo de Cuba
36. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Panic in Babylon
37. James Murphy & Pat Mahoney, FabricLive.38
38. Vandermark 5, Free Jazz Classics Vols 3 & 4
39. Against Me!, New Wave
40. Public Enemy, How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul
41. The Thermals, The Body, The Blood, The Machine
42. Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat
43. David Murray Black Saint Quartet, Sacred Ground
44. Albert van Veenendaal, Predictable Point of Impact
45. The Sound of Girls Aloud
46. Busdriver, Fear of a Black Tangent
47. Billy Bang Quartet, Above and Beyond
48. Blueprint, 1988
49. Jesus H. Christ & the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse
50. The Knife, Silent Shout
51. John Fogerty, Revival
52. The Ponys, Celebration Castle
53. Kanye West, Graduation
54. The Handsome Family, Last Days of Wonder
55. Wolfgang Muthspiel & Brian Blade, Friendly Travelers
56. Lucinda Williams, West
57. Mariem Hassan con Leyoad
58. Nils Petter Molvaer, An American Compilation
59. Sir Douglas Quintet, Live in Austin, TX
60. Kahil El'Zabar's Infinity Orchestra, Transmigration
61. Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra, New Magical Kingdom
62. Mario Pavone Sextet, Deez to Blues
63. Scritti Politti, White Bread, Black Beer
64. Balkan Beat Box
65. Gerry Hemingway Quartet, The Whimbler
66. Dennis Gonzalez's Spirit Meridian, Idle Wild
67. Bokoor Beats
68. Radiohead, In Rainbows
69. Rachid Taha, Tekitoi
70. Ibrahim Electric Meets Ray Anderson
71. Scott Hamilton, Back in New York
72. Steve Lacy Quartet, Esteem
73. Nils Petter Molvaer, Streamer

For completeness, here's everything I listened to this year.

Thirty (+1) movies I liked in 2007

2007-12-30T01:36:00.000-08:00

1. Inland Empire: Lynch gets grungier than ever before. Laura Dern's is one of the all-time great performances.
2. Children of Men: Two extraordinary tracking shots and Clive Owen: who cares if the plot sucks?
2 1/2. Killer of Sheep: A promising debut. Remember the name: Charles Burnett. Expect big things from this guy.
3. Southland Tales: Visionary and ludicrous, depending on whether it's trying to remake Mulholland Drive or Back to the Future II (or whether Mandy Moore or Sarah Michelle Gellar is on the Rock's arm).
4. Boarding Gate: In any other year, Asia Argento's would be the best performance. Instead it's just the most astonishing.
5. Half Nelson: Ryan Gosling is better when his co-star is flesh and blood; for one thing, a sex doll can't do the Interrupting Cow joke.
6. I'm Not There: Cate Blanchett should get another Oscar. Charlotte Gainsbourg should be the biggest star in the world.
7. The Host: But could it beat Mothra?
8. Pan's Labyrinth: Leave something to me and my imagination.
9. Brand Upon the Brain!: Sentimental suits Maddin.
10. Knocked Up: Doing a public service: discouraging beard growth.

11. Control
12. The Bourne Ultimatum
13. Grindhouse
14. Indigenes
15. The Darjeeling Limited
16. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
17. Letters from Iwo Jima
18. Syndromes and a Century
19. The Lives of Others
20. Talledega Nights
21. Happy Feet
22. Woman on the Beach
23. Once
24. Offside
25. How Is Your Fish Today?
26. Music and Lyrics
27. Ratatouille
28. Idlewild
29. Venus
30. The Departed

Honorable mentions: Avenue Montaigne, The Devil Wears Prada, The Godfather of Disco, Lars and the Real Girl, The Last King of Scotland, No End in Sight (despite the plank in its eye), Ocean's 13, The Simpsons Movie, 16 Blocks, Stardust. Biggest disappointment: I Don't Want to Sleep Alone.

Thirteen books I liked in 2007

2007-12-28T04:45:00.000-08:00

Screw novels. The only recently published novel I managed to get through this year was (i) written during WW2 and (ii) a fucking masterpiece. I do have one sure shot lined up for the near future.

1. Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Francaise: Sharper than Jean Renoir and almost as compassionate.
2. David Shapiro, New and Selected Poems: A concise argument for his inclusion on the New York School's Mt Rushmnore. Sorry Kenneth Koch.
3. Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: Interpreting "you are what you eat" morally.
4. Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want: Shockingly, not heavenly virgins.
5. Elizabeth Willis, Meteoric Flowers: Some biology here, some philosophy there: Erasmus Darwin would be proud. And confused.
6. Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: Crumb's family was just as messed up, but Bechdel managed to turn out nice. But not soft.
7. Irina Denezhkina, Give Me (Songs for Lovers): The New Russia: just as drunk and emo as the Old Russia, but with high-speed internet.
8. Christopher Middleton, The Tenor on Horseback: Old fart still smells better than anyone when he's on his game.
9. Julie Phillips, James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon: Literary drag as liberation.
10. David M. Oshinsky, Polio: An American Story: In the good old days, drug companies profiteered from prevention more than cure.
11. Ed Brubaker, Captain America Omnibus: R.I.P. American democracy.
12. Douglas Wolk, Reading Comics: Sometimes it's hard to do, especially when Dave Sim is writing.
13. Gene Roberts & Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat: Eisenhower/Kennedy-era America was so racist that Negro reporters couldn't cover civil rights stories without getting the shit kicked out of them, or worse.

Might be number one next year: Peter Cole's anthology The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, which I'm three-eights through, might be the most revelatory work of translation of the decade. The few pages of Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao I read in the airport bookstore were the only pages of a new novel I read this year that were anywhere near the level of Suite Francaise.

Bee Movie: In which truck drivers listen to NPR

2007-12-26T19:49:00.000-08:00

A Soviet tractor movie for liberals, the political realignments being (i) working drones are noble and happy with their jobs, but you really don't want to be one of them, and (ii) don't fuck with the market, or the Invisible Hand will lay the smack down on everybody until y'all get back to work. Redeeming feature: normalisation of interspecies romance. B MINUS