So I was trying to think of my favorites for 2007 and I think it's sadly been a bad year for movies. I can't think of too much that I was impressed by, other than Ratatouille, Lust Caution, Sweeney Todd, Darjeeling Limited, and Blades of Glory. But here are my picks for best albums of 2007. (If there are some obviously glaringly obvious omissions it may be that I just haven't gotten around to fully listening to them yet.. like Explosions in the Sky or Radiohead.)
1. The National - Boxer. Ironically this is the one band that I missed seeing live this year. But this album slowly crept up on me and all of a sudden I found myself loving it. The music is pretty good, though at first listen I sort of dismissed them as another Interpol ripoff. But after several more listens I started to enjoy the songs, and after listening to the lyrics I felt like I could relate, and perhaps that explains why I like this album so much. On amazon.com I saw a 1-star review titled: "Never trust anyone over 30." (referring to the other 4- and 5-star reviewers) And perhaps that sort of sums it up. To me it feels like the themes on these songs deal with the disillusionment of growing up and becoming an adult and having to the face the reality that things haven't ended up quite the way you thought they would when you were younger. We're so disarming darling, everything we did believe/ is diving, diving, diving, diving off the balcony. -from "Apartment Story."
2. Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
3. Ming & Ping - Causeway Army
4. Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
5. Sigur Rós - Hvarf/Heim
6. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
7. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
8. DNTEL - Dumb Luck
9. Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
10. Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
Honorable mentions:
11. Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
12. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
13. Blonde Redhead - 23
14. Gruff Rhys - Candylion
15. múm - Go Go Smear the Poison Ivy
16. Siouxsie - Mantaray
17. Menomena - Friend and Foe
18. The Long Blondes - Someone to Drive You Home
19. Interpol - Our Love to Admire
20. Rilo Kiley - Under the Blacklight
Yet another reason why I should be living in the UK:
Here's hoping they hit Coachella next year... even though I'm starting to hate Coachella.
This past week has been quite action-packed, by my standards at least. Caught a lot of good live music: Architecture in Helsinki, Ming & Ping, Stars, and possibly the Moonrats at the Scene (glendale) tonight.
Architecture in Helsinki are a bunch of crazy guys (and one gal) and this was my second time seeing them but they are always so cute and full of positive energy that you can't help but love them all. We managed to work our way up almost to the front of the crowd and I felt really old because I think we were surrounded by a bunch of high school kids, but I think it's great that AiH have such an enthusiastic fan base.
At the Ming & Ping show I danced so hard I couldn't remember the last time I danced. They were a lot of fun and my expectations were exceeded, and their music is really really good. I got to talk to Ming afterwards and he was totally spicy and funny and just plain awesome (he was nice enough to sign a poster for a friend of mine who wasn't able to go to the show), and I got to take advantage of some photo ops with him.
I was on my way to the Stars concert last night when I caused the 5 freeway to stop completely for about.. 10 seconds or so? I was zooming through Burbank when all of a sudden there was a mattress in my lane. I couldn't change lanes because there was a car to my left, and if I went right I would have still hit the mattress. All logical thought left me at that moment, and what happened next is a bit of a blur but I basically ended up swerving across three or four lanes, and when I tried to brake I spun out and when I came to a stop I was facing oncoming traffic. The whole time I was bracing myself for impact, but someone up there must like me because I didn't hit a single thing. I turned myself around and took the streets the rest of the way, and called 911 to report debris in the road.
All I could think of, was how lucky I was, and how close I was to having something really serious happen.
And the Stars concert, well, it was just brilliant. One of the best shows I've ever been to. Lloyd Cole, who I never expected to see perform, opened. The Stars set was just amazing, so amazing that I'm not even going to try to describe it with words. And, at the end, when Torq was singing with all his heart: "I'M ALIVE" it meant a little more to me than it ever did before. All throughout the show the band were throwing flowers out and I managed to catch a few. I've decided to keep them on my dash as a reminder to be a safer driver, and to appreciate the everyday.
A friend of mine sent me a photo of how he organizes his CDs.
I am trying to find a copy of the 1957 Russian animated 'Snow Queen'. I'd actually wanted to rent it before buying it but neither netflix nor rareflix seem to have it. I hear in Japan this winter Studio Ghibli is re-releasing it on the big screen. I wonder if there's any chance it might play here? I guess I won't hold my breath.
I've been running a low fever for the past couple of days and have also had weirdly flu-ish symptoms like body aches, but those have gone away. I'm pretty sure the fever's gone too but I feel strangely headachey. Well, my head only really hurts when I roll my eyeballs around. I wonder if I'm straining my eyes? Anyway, I'm writing this in case I die, someone will at least know what problems I've been having!
I've got 2 shows (Spoon & the Brunettes) on my plate this week so hopefully I will snap out of it soon!
I'm also registering with a temp agency that is "exclusive to the Industry" so I wonder what will be like? At any rate I have been spending too much lately so a little pocket money will be good.
The other day I parked my car in downtown LA and when I got out a guy came up to me holding out a cd, and asked me if I wanted to buy it. I recognized the disc as Green Day's Dookie. I said, "No, thanks" and he then asked me if I could tell him what it was. So I told him it was Green Day, and he asked me what kind of music it was: "Is it black music? is it white music?" So I told him, "It's rock, it's white music." He thanked me and went on his way. I wonder if he stole those cds out of someone's car? They were in one of those visor cd-case things.
