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The Best of 2008

Let's start with the event of the year: Sen. Barack Obama being elected as president! I knew that I'd see this happen during my lifetime, but I was never sure when. It's good to know that it occurred before I became 30. Now I'm 1 for 3 with presidential elections.

I enjoy making and reading these end-of-the-year lists since they often serve multiple purposes. The first is that they are a record of the American cultural zeitgeist. What did the critics enjoy and what did the general public enjoy? Where do I fall in this spectrum? Most hip-hop has been lacking this year. I don't follow the blues, jazz, country, metal, or R&B too closely or at all.

I think back to David Foster Wallace's introduction for the 2007 edition of the Best American Essays. He talked about Total Noise and Deciders (his caps) and what it meant to be a responsibly informed adult in the U.S. nowadays. He argued that it's impossible to read every published essay in the U.S. as a precursor to deciding on what's the "best." All any of us can hope to do is to be intelligent enough to know what we don't know and to approach such personal ignorance with a sense of humility so that we may begin to improve ourselves. Wallace's revelation echoes of Socrates, Mengzi, and the Buddha. I can only hope that I have been able to explore and map my own ignorance with these lists.

Movies
I haven't watched that many movies since August thanks to my job at the Daily Wildcat, but many of the movies I have watched have been great overall. However, there was a clear, definite winner.

Best movie: WALL-E
How brave is it of Pixar to take a chance on starting a movie with a 30-minute opening sequence with no dialogue? And with a big budget, "mainstream," animated film, no less. Beautiful animation, a story full of satire and playfulness, WALL-E boasts some great moments of humanity from characters made of pixels. I would even go so far and say that this movie is near flawless.

Next best movie: The Dark Knight
Another great movie that provides the new standard for superhero movies to come, and a good example of how make a better sequel. Christopher Nolan's version of Batman hits all the right notes: Bruce Wayne's conflict between his civilian life and his life as Batman; supervillains; gadgetry; and so on. Yet the movie transcends previous superhero movies in that the situations are grounded in situations that not only test Batman's sense of morality but also those in Batman's life such as Jim Gordon, Alfred Pennysworth, and Harvey Dent.

Best movie reissued this year: Chungking Express (Criterion Edition)
OK, so the special features aren't all that special, which is surprising since Criterion usually does a great job in this area. But the movie still holds up really well after all these years.

Other notable movies: Iron Man, Hellboy & the Golden Army,

Music
I've been trying to catch up on all the music released since the summer. Thankfully, many of the year's best albums have been spread throughout the seasons rather being unloaded during the fall and winter, which was the norm in recent years.

Albums (in no particular order)
- Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair
- Jamie Lidell - Jim
- Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
- Lykke Li - Youth Novels
- M83 - Saturdays = Youth
- Quiet Village - Silent Movie
- Q-Tip - The Renaissance
- Santogold - Santogold
- She & Him - Volume One
- Sigur Ros - Incredibly Long Title
- Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Songs (in no particular order)
- Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma
- Shelby Lynne - I Only Want To Be With You
- Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
- The Roots - Rising Down
- Portishead - The Rip
- Estelle - American Boy (feat. Kanye West)
- Hercules & Love Affair - Blind
- Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
- The Juan Maclean - Happy House

Happy House - The Juan Maclean

Books
This is somewhat new for me. I've always been lifelong voracious reader and the greater availability of a faster Internet connection has translated to many hours spent reading multiple online publications. Yet reading an article on a computer screen cannot compare to the tactile experience of reading something in my hands. The weight, texture, and even the smell of paper held in my hands is an experience that cannot be replicated with metal and electricity. (Sorry Kindle.) In spite of a shrinking publishing industry, a global economic depression in which we have yet to see the bottom and numerous cultural items that demand our attention, I don't think book reading will see a great decline in my lifetime. What may decline are the venues through which new writing may disappear, a different issue altogether. With that said, here are my book discoveries and delights of the year:

How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman
A great look into how doctors think, how they make mistakes in their thinking, and the consequences of these cognitive errors and assumptions.
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
A companion book to The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan distills nutrition advice into 3 simple tenets while providing the layout of the battle (and collusion) between business and nutrition.
Usagi Yojimbo Volumes 1-8 by Stan Sakai
Following the adventures of a ronin rabbit, Stan Sakai's comic book series is tasty melange of heroism, history, culture, and mythology.
Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland
Bolland's recoloring of his collaboration with Moore adds to the tense, occasional banal atmosphere of the story. Great ending.
Doom Patrol Volumes 1-3 by Grant Morrison and various artists
People have talked about the deconstruction of the superhero, but few have carried it out to the same extent as Grant Morrison. "Fighting" a living painting was the most normal "villain" that the Doom Patrol faced in these volumes.
De/Compositions by W.D. Snodgrass
Speaking of deconstructions, a chance discovery at the university library yielded this collection of poems compiled and reinterpreted by Snodgrass. His versions of poems from renown poets demonstrate that the parts can indeed be greater than the whole. It also reveals the importance of editing.
Modern English Grammar by Bryan A. Gardner
Which brings me to this selection. Less repressive than Fowler but better than Follet, Gardner's approach to usage and grammar makes for a entertaining read, even if you don't care all that much about grammar. The mini-essays sprinkled throughout the text are interesting discussions into what makes English English. This book, and the following, proved invaluable during my time as the Daily Wildcat's copy chief.
On Writing Well (30th Anniversary Edition) by William Zinsser
A man who claims William Strunk and E.B. White as direct influences, Zinsser brings verve to his pages in his ongoing quest to perfect his writing. Reading his prose alone is a lesson well served on how to write simply and carefully.

Tags: music, movies, politics, 2008, books

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How High the Moon, or How These Lists Never Really Work Out

I. Put your iTunes/Ruckus/Napster/etc. on shuffle.
II. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
III. You must write that song name down, no matter how silly it sounds!
IV. Tag friends who might enjoy doing this.

1. If someone says "is this okay" you say?
"Wish I" by Jem
2. What would best describe your personality?
"The Two Lonely People (aka The Man and the Woman)" by Bill Evans
3. What do you like in a guy/gal?
"Groovin'" by Booker T. & The MGs
4. How do you feel today?
"Aunt Hagar's Blues" by Louis Armstrong
5. What is your life purpose?
"Only This Moment" by Royksopp
6. What is your motto?
"Honky Tonk Hiccups" by Neko Case
7. What do your friends think of you?
"Roots Natty" by the Gladiators
8. What do you think of your parents?
"Satisfaction (Live)" by Otis Redding
9. What do you think about very often?
"Africa Centre of the World" by Fela Kuti, remixed by DJ Spooky
10. What is 2+2?
"By the Throat" by Pretty Girls Make Graves
11. What do you think of your best friend?
"Anos Dourados" by Antonio Carlos Jobim
12. What do you think of the person you like?
"The Moon in June Stuff" by The Brunettes
13. What is your life story?
"One to Three" by Les Savy Fav
14. What do you want to be when you grow up?
"Sunshine" by Lupe Fiasco
15. What do you think when you see the person you like?
"Theme From to Kill a Dead Man" by Portishead (?)
16. What do your parents think of you?
"Scientist Ganja" by Dub Scientist
17. What will you dance to at your wedding?
"Sweet Savannah Sue" by Louis Armstrong & the Hot Sevens
18. What will they play at your funeral?
"Flowing Spring on the Rock" by Chinese Plucked Instruments Quartet
19. What is your hobby/interest?
"Dreams and Lies" by Laurel Music
20. What is your biggest secret?
"Best Week Never" by Patton Oswalt
21. What do you think of your friends?
"Destroy Everything You Touch" by Ladytron
22. What's the worst thing that could happen?
"bambi" by advantage Lucy
23. How will you die?
"Ogi no Mato (The Folding Fan as a Target)" by Ensemble Nipponia
24. Does anyone like you?
"Wow" by Kylie Minogue
25. If you could go back in time, what would you change?
"Underwater" by Ghostface Killah
26. What hurts right now?
"Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig" by Jens Lekman
27. What will you post this as?
"How High the Moon" by Art Tatum

Tags to anyone reading this!

Tags: music, lists

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Lykke Li's "Hanging High" (Live)

Some great videos:





Also, new I'm From Barcelona songs, "Paper Planes" and "Music Killed Me" and a Marcus Worgull remix of The Juan MacLean relatively recent, "The Simple Life", of which the original is a B-side to the amazing "Happy House".

Tags: music, video

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Okay, Just One Song

Now back to studying...

(Edit: Fixed the link so it should direct you to the correct website now.)

Tags: music

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Summer and more on the Jamie Lidell concert

There are times I really wish I lived some place cooler, that is, a place where I can cook outside with the aid of fire (and not sunlight) one day and the next be accosted not with a torrential downpour but a gentle breeze to complement the loveliness that surrounds me. So summer has arrived here in Arizona. The weather signaled this shift when there was one day last week that was in the mid 90s and the following day presented itself in the 105-110 F range.

I celebrated this turnabout in climate by going to see Jamie Lidell in concert. As I made my way to the venue, I wasn't sure how well his songs would translate to the stage since they're a blend of soul and electronic-based music. I worried needlessly: the man (and his backing band) was amazing. Jamie was quite the entertainer, even though at times he expressed amazement at how receptive and responsive the crowd was to him. (James Pants opened with an eclectic set of dance music which covered house, soul, R&B, pop, grunge, and straight rock that drew a tepid response from the mostly seated crowd. I loved it despite only recognizing a quarter of the songs.) I was surprised by the crowd as well, at both the size--this is a college town in the summer--and at their willingness to see a relatively unknown performer, as indicated by the mob at the merch table afterwards. The band also fed on the crowd's energy, first with the mustachioed drummer making his way through the crowd, handing his tambourine to a random person while he danced every which way, and then with the guitarist and wind instrument guy (he played the baritone and alto sax--sometimes simultaneously!--and an oboe with a vocoder attached to the reeds) trading riffs between each other and swaying back and forth as if they were at a high school dance as imagined by Steven Spielberg. I had a lot of fun and was out of breath (a first for me) when the concert finally ended.

******

Most recently I've been making my way through some wonderful music: a Stax/Volt singles collection (covering 9 years of singles!), the Otis Redding Sings Soul reissue, a Marshall Crenshaw collection (he's someone who deserves more recognition), some Al Green reissues, and Caetano Veloso's A Foreign Sound. Oh, the curse of recorded music...!

Tags: music, life, concerts

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Jamie Lidell is "Jim"

I just got back from a great concert held by Jamie Lidell. I sweated so much that I stopped sweating. The cause? Me. Dancing.

Yeah. So if Jamie (or "Jim") is heading through your state, go see him and say hello for me:




Tags: music, life, video

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Lucky Soul

Great pop music. It's shame their album hasn't been released in the US yet. But! You can visit them here and at their new blog. Say hello for me.

Tags: music, video

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Santogold

In a rare night of TV watching, I saw Santogold perform on one of the late night shows. (Its name escapes me at the moment.) There's something about "L.E.S. Artistes" that caught my ear immediately. Was it the buzzing sound that forms part of the music's tapestry? The strained voice singing about a desire to leave behind noxious people and metamorphose into someone different, someone better? Either way, the cultural and musical signifiers embedded in this song are very appealing.

Tags: music, video

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Gone

I accidentally erased most of my mp3 music recently. I was in the process of cleaning out my hard drive and didn't realize what had happened until it was too late.

There's not much I can do at this point. Granted, a portion of song titles and artists are saved on my iTunes, but I didn't import all of them and it'll take forever to hunt for them online. (Many of the songs were mp3-only or never saw official release such as the Hunter Sykes Duo.) Well, this is a good opportunity to review my music tastes and see if what I heard 10 years ago still lingers in my mind today.

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Moby's "Last Night"

Been watching the first music video and a few tracks. Haven't heard the whole album yet. Can't see the music working without the video. Reminds me of late night television during the dead hours of the week, those times when you can catch someone local broadcasting whatever they wanted without scrutiny. Obscure cultural ephemera revived only to live within the gaps of a television transmission. Reminds me of a catalogue I received when I was 8 or 9 that promised esoteric skills and newly recovered secrets for the right price. The artwork was similar to the video: the results of drugs, long odd hours, and physiologically altering music distilled into a compact cultural object that you could hold in your hands.

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Yeasayers on La Blogotheque

Great new band:

"No Need to Worry" & "Red Cave"

#87.1 - YEASAYER - No need to worry / Redcave
by lablogotheque

"2080" & "Tightrope"

#87.2 - YEASAYER - 2080
by lablogotheque

Current Media

Books:
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
Best Food Writing 2006 & 2007 edited by Holly Hughes
Food for Fifty by Molly Molt
Best American Magazine Writing 2004

Music:
Goldfrapp's Seventh Tree
Lucky Soul
Jens Lekman - Oh You're So Silent Jens; Night Falls in Kortedala
The Archives

Among the Critical Living

Apologies for the lack of presence; my current semester is slowly solidifying itself.

January is normally a dead month for the music industry. Very few albums that come out this month do well in sales and within the critics' circles. (The Strokes come to mind.) So I've used January as an opportunity to catch up on older music and new music I missed the first time around, and it gives me a chance to look through the "best of" lists that flood December. (Thank you Metacritic.)

I admit to being a regular Pitchfork reader (no need for a url there) for the past 5 or 6 years, a witness to Brent DiCrenscenzo's then ongoing meltdown as a writer. I miss the nonsensical writing littered with inaccuracies and laced with snark, though, but not that much. Thankfully, they've improved in the last few years, both in terms of overall content and with their reviews. This year's lists had some surprises that I'll have to check out. Elsewhere, the Village Voice published their annual Pazz and Jop poll results along with the usual essays commenting on music culture and music criticism. The usual gripes about the commercial appeal of artists from the non-mainstream arena were there (Feist is representative of the present Age of Accessible Hotness? I must be living in a wholly different era and country then.)

Some of their essays did manage to change my mind about certain artists, though; Amy Winehouse and Miranda Lambert will have some attention along with Britney Spears.

My reconsideration of Spears came from Tom Ewing's often brilliant Poptimist monthly column on Pitchfork (no fixed url unfortunately). His comparison of Spears latest album (and possibly her last until the personal life/career reboot) with Twin Peaks' central mystery and off-screen focal point, Laura Palmer, gave me pause in my dismissal of Blackout. The album will get a few listens.

Ewing's recent column addresses something that annoys me occasionally and relates to my friend Matt's question about my "singles vs. album" listening perspective. Matt wanted to know what constituted a single for me. Listening to an album on its own terms can make it difficult for him to separate the potential singles and from just the album songs. I grew into my teen years with the radio and the DJ setlists at school dances (I recall house party DJs or mix CDs played during parties being barely tolerable or being as awful as the music at school dances). I had distinct tastes at the time: mainly hip-hop and R&B with the occasional Top 40 or old rock and pop thrown in. Then, and even now, it's hard for me to say what a good single is. I can break down the common components possibly (strong, clear melodies; good rhythm; discernible lyrics that can be said without music; and so on), but I don't know if others see it the same way. (The Village Voice's pollsters often didn't.) Ewing talks about how people would choose their best song or album based on what would "stand the test of time". He argues that that criterion is functionally useless, especially if you're engaged in pop music and its culture. The best that anyone can say, according to Ewing, is that the music you choose satisfies some present need you have, that it fires up some sort of music-culture dependent pleasure centers residing in your brain for this period of time.

And I agree with him. You and I can't tell if new music will sound dated in the future until the music and us reach that future. The exception to this would be new music that already sounds dated and sounds terrible at its release. (Then again, history and future generations of music critics can change public opinions.) So if you like a song or an album, then great. Enjoy it and pass along your recommendation. Don't worry about whether it will stand the test of time. Let time (and future generations) take care of that. Think about how important the music is to you right now and how it fits into your life.

This may explain why I have an affinity for pop and singles: moments of music intertwined with formations of memory.

Happy New Year!

Am I late? Or not? I like having two new years every year - a good excuse to eat good food each time. I've made resolutions that I won't share here, though they're more like long-term and short-term goals made more concrete. Hope you all have been good to each other over the holidays and that it was abundant with tasty food and lovely company.

I still have irregular access to the Internet so postings will happen whenever I have the opportunity. However, I am working on a few book reviews at the moment, and there is the ever present news.

In the meantime, here's a shortlist in no particular order of singers and bands who put out some great music in 2007:

LCD Soundsystem
Feist
Suzanne Vega
White Shoes & Couples Company
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
M.I.A.
Burial
Roisin Murphy
Jens Lekman
White Stripes
St. Vincent
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Sally Shapiro
The National
Radiohead
Kanye West
Justice
Iron & Wine
Modest Mouse
Electrelane
Dethklok
Arcade Fire
Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale
Blonde Redhead
The Field
Battles
Caribou
New Pornographers
Simian Mobile Disco

Music Discovered in 2007 - Preliminaries

I am not a music critic and I don't see myself as resembling anything like a music critic*. I don't have a very good memory for some names and songs, and I have a rudimentary understanding of music theory from playing the flute during middle school. I can't rattle off the influences and analogs of a band without a lot of research.

*I have some problems with how "music critics" operate nowadays.

I do like a good song even though sometimes I would be hardpressed to say what I like about a song and why. That said, there have been many good songs and albums up to this time of the year. Here are a few:

Albums
Dethklok's The Deth Album - a death metal album that is good technically and doesn't take itself too seriously.
The New Pornographers's Challengers - not as immediately rewarding as their previous albums (haven't heard Electric Version, though) but satisfying nonetheless.
Madlib's Beat Konducta vol. 3-4: India & Oh No's Exodus into Unheard Rhythms/Dr. No's Oxperiment - all of which are hip-hop instrumentals that can stand up as cohesive "albums."
Jens Lekman's Night Falls Over Kortedala - almost perfect.
St. Vincent's Marry Me - like Lekman's album.
Ted Leo & the Pharmacists' Living with the Living - despite some weak songs, there are many outstanding tracks (Sons of Cain, A Bottle of Buckie, Bomb.Repeat.Bomb, La Costa Brava, The Unwanted Things, C.I.A.)
Roisin Murphy's Overpowered - more of a Euro dance pop sheen applied this time around but the eccentricities are intact.
The Clientele's God Save the Clientele - a little better than Strange Geometry but with a much brighter outlook.
Electrelane's No Shouts No Calls - of course, like Sleater-Kinney, they go on indefinite hiatus after releasing their best album of their career thus far.
Feist's The Reminder - if having the songs pop up in Old Navy stores and on iPod commericals aren't enough of an indication, this is a really good album.
LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver - ditto.
Anoushka Shankar & Karsh Kale's Breathing Under Water - even with a guest appearance from Sting, the album is surprisingly addictive.
Blonde Redhead's 23 - some unfortunate timing with the Jim Carrey/Joel Schumacher film but much, much better than the film.

Songs
Waffles' "Need You" - the band and the singer push themselves on this song, and even though they overreach, the results are still wonderful.
Les Savy Fav's "The Equestrian" - because I like mixing horse metaphors and sex?

There will be more but I can't fit it all now...

Downtime

It has been a hectic two weeks. Last weekend I was conducting interviews of family members for an essay about generational diet changes and doing research on beriberi outbreaks in the world for a group oral presentation the entire 3-day weekend and this past week. I'm halfway done with reviewing for a food science exam on Monday and have to finish reading an article from the ADA about aging and nutrition before this weekend ends.

So it's the end of the semester. Fun times.

Thankfully, a few things have been keeping me sane during this period of compressed learning:
Jens Lekman - his new album is just...wow. I can't stop listening to that sweet nectar in my car. Or at home. Or whenever I take a walk. Or when I'm reading. Or...
Sally Shapiro - whose album finally reached the U.S. this past month and just in time for the winter season.
Soap - seriously.
Yotsuba&! - one of the rare books (let alone manga) where reading it causes me to laugh out like I heard a joke from my invisible friend.