A Bookish Favor

I've pretty much finished up my queue of books on the Kindle, so can you guys do me a favor and post some reading recommendations in comments? Here's what I want:

1) A favorite "modern" book
2) A favorite classic
3) A favorite series
4) Best thing you've read recently

I'll post mine as the first comment.

Movie Clearinghouse

I've watched bunches of movies during my recent travels, but haven't had the time/inclination to write bunches of reviews, so here is a sentence or so about each, although, the first movie on this list deserves more.

Hurt Locker - 9.0 - Hands down the best film I've seen this year. Edge-of-your-seat fails to do the atmosphere justice. A must see.

Funny People - 8.0 - Each of his movie's has gotten a little more serious (40 Year Old Virgin < Knocked Up < Funny People), but really, it's standard Apatow, and by standard, I mean really good.

I Love You, Man - 7.5 - I wasn't really expecting to like this as much as I did, but damn, Segel and Rudd are funny dudes. I've actually already re-watched this, which says a ton, I think.

Harry Potter #6 - 7.0 - One of the better movies in a series that will live on for a long looooong time.

Adventureland - 6.0 - And to finish off the stuff I've seen this year, we have a nice 80s coming of age story. It's mostly a comedy, but sometimes the acidic humor is too much acid and not enough humor. Still worth watching though.

Remains of the Day - 5.0 - Not quite as boring as Days of Heaven, but boring. Thompson, Hopkins and Reeve were all stellar, but, yeah, boring.

Sense and Sensibility - 8.0 - Kate Winslet was even scary as a kid. The movie was good though.

Brick - 4.0 - Jumping from Victorian England to present day Noir Los Angeles. This movie didn't do much for me. Too noir-y for it's own good really.

Let the Right One In - 4.0 - Our final stop in the review hodgepodge is in the foreign horror movies section. We have one not so great Vampire love story from Sweden ...

The Host - 7.5 - ... and one pretty damn good Mutant/epidemic action flick from Korea.

Top Albums of the 2000s - #4

Dismemberment Plan - Change (2001)

Dismemberment Plan was my most recent, and probably my last Favorite-with-a-capital-F Band. They were upbeat, quirky and likable. They wrote some catchy songs and some poignant songs, and they were truly great live, and were pretty much the perfect band for my college years. After a pair of more-miss-than-hit albums in the mid 90s, they put out two amazing albums to bookend the changing of the millennium, Emergency and I in 1999 and Change in 2001. Then they broke up, the singer put out a pretty bad solo album, and now, it seems to me, they are kind of forgotten. Change indeed.

Top Albums of the 2000s - #5 and 6

#5 - The Postal Service - Give Up (2003)

#6 - The Notwist - Neon Golden (2002)

I mentioned in the honorable mention section that my interest in Hip Hop has waned in recent years. There are a two main reasons for that. The most obvious reason is that, Trafton, indie dork that he has become, is no longer around to tell me what is good, but the second, and just as important, reason is that I've started listening to a lot of electronic dance-y pop in recent years, and that has become a decent Hip Hop replacement.

Along with LCD Soundsystem*, these two albums were the gateway that led to so much of the indie music that is popular today - both with me and in general. Both are medium paced, somewhat dark pop albums with cheery sounding exteriors. Notwist is a tad less accessible, but they are both absolutely excellent and incredibly versatile albums. You can listen to them while doing pretty much anything: working out, studying, going to sleep, working or just hanging out. While I doubt they will end up on many of the slew of forthcoming best-of-the-decade lists, both were no brainers for me since, along with Wilco and the forthcoming #3 album on this list, they were my defining albums of the first half the 2000s.

(* - LCD Soundsystem's Sounds of Silver probably deserved an honorable mention, by the way. If fact, I've actually thought of 3 or 4 albums I forgot to mention ... Maybe I'll remedy that by cobbling together a Top 25 after I finish the countdown.)

Top Albums of the 2000s - #7

The Decemberists - Picaresque (2005)

The Decemberists win the batting title for the decade. They made 5 albums, and 4 of them are really really good. (The new, operatic, Hazards of Love, is a bust.) Throw in 2 or 3 really good EPs full of original material (The Tain, especially), ignore the silly Stephen Colbert stuff and you've got what is quite possibly the most prolific band of the aughts.

I'm putting the Picaresque as the placeholder here, but consider this spot shared amongst their first 4 albums. In fact, to wrap this up, here is a quick list of my favorite Decemberist albums to date:

1. Picaresque (2005) - This album got me in to the previous two, so they kind of all run together for me, but the second half of Picaresque combines the great long (Mariner's Revenge) and short (Engine Driver, Bus Mall, 16 Military Wives) songs that make them such a great band.
   
2. The Crane Wife (2006) - Might be the least consistent of their first 4 albums, but perfect opening (Crane Wife 3) and closing (Sons and Daughters) songs are amongst my favorites by the band. Those along with 3 or 4 other brilliant tracks more than make up for the duds.
3. Her Majesty (2003) - Man, it is hard to rank these. Very few bad songs on this one. Red Right Ankle was the first Decemberists song I liked and remains one of my favorites. I Was Meant for The Stage is brilliant as well.
   
4. Cast-Aways and Cut Outs (2002) - Very similar to Her Majesty in my book, but the longer songs here don't live up to the 3 albums above. Leslie Anne Levine and Legionarres Lament are among the highlights.
   
5. Hazards of Love (2009) - Blargh, basically a flop. Two songs I like and not much else. I imagine it might be neat to see live though ...
   

Spray

Top Albums of the 2000s - #8

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

I regularly skip songs on pretty much all of the albums I've listed so far, but I honestly don't think I've ever even considered doing so with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. While none of the songs are quite as perfect as something like Chicago, they are all pretty damn close. From the anti-ballad opener (I Am Trying To Break Your Heart), to the perfect pop songs strewn throughout (Kamera, Heavy Metal Drummer), to the sad 9/11 tribue (Ashes of American Flags), to the dreary near-pleading closer (Reservations), there is no filler, no distractions, no throwaway songs, just really good music. This is an album.

Wilco also gets bonus points in a two areas. First, as good as this album is, it's not my favorite by them; that would be Summerteeth (1999). And secondly, I've seen them live twice and the first of those shows was amongst the best I've ever been to.

Top Albums of the 2000s - #9

#9 - Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2005)

With this album we are officially entering the all-of-these-albums-are-great-so-what-is-the-freaking-difference zone. Honestly, if I were making this list tomorrow, I might put this higher, but then something else would have to be lower ... so, well, here we are. I docked Sujfan a few thousandths of a point because, while amazing, the album is the slightest bit uneven. Although, I'll listen to it all the way through on occasion, more often I'll just listen to my favorite songs (of which there are many) and skip the rest. At 22 songs and 80 minutes Sufjan comes across as an emo Outkast sometimes, which isn't all bad, but with lots of little instrumentals and half-finished songs scattered between the fully-realized epics I tend to lose the thread sometimes. On the bright side, at least he hasn't discovered skits yet ...

That minor gripe aside, the good songs here are as good as anything made this decade, or any other. Chicago is the clear standout and I have a hard time imagining it ever leaving the top few spots of my most played songs on iTunes. It is one of those wonderful upbeat happy-sad songs that just couldn't get any better. On the other hand, there is nothing even remotely happy about Casimir Pulaski Day. It is just wonderfully sad.

Sufjan's other state album, Michigan, also deserves a mention. It's been a bit overshadowed by this album, but the highlights there, Vitto's Ordination Song in particular, are every bit as good as the songs mentioned above.

Top Albums of the 2000s - #10 (and 11)

#11 - Frightened Rabbit - Midnight Organ Fight (2008)

#10 - Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)

Yeahyeahyeah, I said Top 10. I lied. I couldn't make myself kick one of these albums off of the list so I'm doing a Top 11. These are my far and away my favorite albums from 2008, and probably of the last 2 or 3 years. Once I have some more time with them, I expect they could move up even further.

Top Albums of the 2000s - Honorable Mentions

I just fiddled with my top 10 albums of the 2000s for an hour, and have a list, but I don't know if it is in the right order, so I'm going to drag this out and count this puppy down one or 2 albums at a time, but first, here are a bunch of honorable mentions.

Honorable Mentions
Modest Mouse - Moon and Antarctica (2000)
I am not unbiased. How I feel about a group today influences how I'm ranking albums here, and today, I don't like Modest Mouse much at all. But I can't deny that I loved this album when it came out back in 2000. I've started listening to it again recently, and it's still pretty damn good.

Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it People (2002)
I decided to only allow one album per band, so a band like Iron and Wine or the Decemberists with 3 or 4 albums that I loved gets bumped up a few spots, while Modest Mouse who only had the one album and then sucked a lot, loses a few spots and ends up in the honorable mentions. Broken Social Scene has two albums that I really like and listen to pretty much interchangeably (this and the self-titled album from 2005). I'm not sure either one of them alone warrants an honorable mention, but as a band they warrant a mention, so here they are.

The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
This album was right up there with Moon and Antarctica on the initial impression scale. Five years ago, I'm pretty sure I would've given it a 10 out of 10 and put it right at the top of the list for the first half of the decade, but the long awaited follow-up album (Wincing the Night Away in 2007) was just so damn painful that it's taken some of the shine off of this album as well.

John Vanderslice - Time Travel is Lonely (2001)
Mountain Goats - Talahassee (2002)
Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha (2007)
I consider these guys to be amongst my favorite artists and listen to absolutely everything they put out, but no single album is strong enough to reach the top 10. Talahassee is damn close though. You can call it #11 if you're so inclined.

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free (2004)
Jay-Z vs Dangermouse - The Grey Album (2004)
Aesop Rock - Labor Days (2001)
Blackalicious - Nia (2000)
Jurrasic 5 - Quality Control (2000)
Kanye West - Late Registration (2005)
As you can see, my hiphop knowledge has faded in recent years, but these albums were a big part of my rotation for the first half of the decade (and beyond for The Streets), and I still listen to at least a few tracks from each regularly.

Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer (2009)
I didn't care for their first few albums, but Dragonslayer has come out of nowhere to become my favorite album of 2009 (so far). No idea how it will hold up down the road, but I still thought I'd give it a quick mention.

OK, I think that is more than enough mentioning honorably. Tomorrow, we head to last year for #10.

Off Again

Just when I was getting used to posting regularly again, I'm off to the middle of the desert with Ben, Joe and Alexa in a few hours, and probably won't have much internet access until I return on Monday. Hopefully I'll have lots of good pictures to share as well. And hopefully, I won't put them on a portable harddrive and then lose it. Anyway, I digress. Have a good weekend everyone. Talk at you next week.

Dog Days

I don't have the brain capacity to write a review after the red-eye flight back to Chile. Maybe tomorrow.

Instead, a video.

Florence And The Machine - Dog Days


Two things:
1) I am a little bit obsessed with this song right now. I think it is great, but ...
2) The video terrifies me more than a little bit. The only thing scarier than clowns is a clown bacchanal wedding in the middle of the woods. Shudder.

The Hangover - 6.0

Ah, silly comedy. The Hangover was a perfectly pleasant, usually amusing and occasionally hilarious dumb comedy. I definitely thought the first half of the movie worked better than the second half, which was just silly and dragged on a bit. So, although I did like the movie, the real laugh-out-loud moments were too few and far between to warrant anything more than the good-but-not-quite-great review that you're reading. The fact that I've seen two superior comedies in the month since I watched The Hangover probably has something to do with that as well, but we'll get to those in the coming days ...

Watchmen - 6.0

I saw this on a plane ride recently, and kind of liked it. I've never read the comic, so I can't speak to how accurate the movie was, and I really don't like this pseudo-animation-with-highly-stylized-violence genre. That said, I thought Watchmen was much better than either 300 or Sin City --- mainly that's because the violence was much less over-the-top. Or maybe the it was just the somewhat edited plane version that I watched. At any rate, I was glad for the censoring, because a) animated violence creeps me out and b) watching sex and violence on a plane is awkward. It's kind of like whipping out a Penthouse and reading it in the Dentist's waiting room. I still remember having to fast forward through parts of (really, most of) Sweeny Todd when I watched it on a flight a few years back. So, yeah, not my favorite movie ever, but a step in the right direction for the genre, and for the next movie, I highly recommend they hire LAN airline's censors to do some edition right off the top.

Persistence

I crossed something off of my (still theoretical) list of things to do before I die today. I waterskiied. I've now succeeded in 2 out of my 273 attempts, about 0.3 seconds per attempt.

In other news, I'm going to start posting here again. Movie reviews coming in the next few days.