Blog is a Mix Tape

2007 Wrap-Up

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 15:50:00 -0800

I had grand plans to do a post a day about my favorite 2007 things starting about 2 weeks ago but life got in the way. It's hard to write when grandma's in town and a Felicia returns and you're stuffing your face all the daggone time.

So, here's what I would've gone into more depth about.

Best Albums of 2007

Untrue - Burial (Yeah, it creeped on up)
Play With The Changes - 4Hero
Version - Mark Ronson
The Reminder - Feist
American Gangster - Jay-Z
Kala - M.I.A.
Our Earthly Pleasures - Maximo Park
Koop Islands - Koop
Writer's Block - Peter, Bjorn & John
Ear Drum - Talib Kweli
Neon Bible - Arcade Fire
Introducing... - Joss Stone
Under The Black Light - Rilo Kiley
The Fragile Army - The Polyphonic Spree
The Undisputed Truth - Brother Ali
Desire - Pharoahe Monch
The Weatherman LP - Evidence
Those Things - Miguel Migs
Proof of Youth - The Go! Team
Volta - Bjork

Best Record Label of 2007 - The Numero Group

Best Hip-Hop Album of 2007 that you probably don't have

Below the Heavens

Blu & Exile

Best Albums of 2007 that didn't come out in 2007

Bees + Things + Flowers - Incognito
Keep Reachin' Up - Nicole Willis & The Soul Investigators
The Only Thing I Ever Wanted - Psapp
Set Yourself On Fire - Stars
Best Kept Secrets: The Best of Lam 1996-2004 - Lamb

Best Compilation Makers of 2007 - Jazzanova

Best Songs of 2007 (based on actual spins)

Innocence - Bjork
Black Mirror - Arcade Fire
Unlike Me - Kate Havnevik
Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You) (featuring Outkast) - UGK
Give It To Me (f/ Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake) - Timbaland
The Show - Talib Kweli & Madlib
Don't Act (F/ Freeway) - Skillz
I Still Love H.E.R. - Kanye West
Ancient Curse - Peter, Bjorn & John
Lookin' At Me Sideways - Brother Ali

Best Songs of 2007 (based completely subjectively)

Innocence - Bjork
Paper Planes - M.I.A.
Int'l Players Anthem (I Choose You) (featuring Outkast) - UGK
I'm A Flirt (Remix ft. T.I & T-Pain) - R.Kelly
He Can Only Hold Her - Amy Winehouse
1 2 3 4 - Feist
Champion - Kanye West
Young Folks - Peter, Bjorn & John
Look Inside - 4Hero
Roc Boys (And The Winner Is...) - Jay-Z

Best Video of 2007

Snoop Dogg - Sensual Seduction

Best Movies of 2007

Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
No Country For Old Men
Superbad
Lars and The Real Girl

Best Documentaries I Saw in 2007

The Heart of the Game
Who Killed The Electric Car?
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing
An Unreasonable Man

Best TV show I Liked that Nobody Else did in 2007 - John From Cincinnati

Best Read of 2007 - The Race Beat: The Press, The Civil Rights Struggle, and The Awakening of a Nation

Best Website of 2007 - Last.fm

Best Website of 2007 to hate to sorta like - Facebook

Best ~~Blog~~ ~~Podcast~~ ~~Vlog~~ Content Site of 2007 - Undercover Black Man

Best New (to me) Content Site of 2007 - Away with Words

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Movies: Lars and the Real Girl

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:08:13 -0700

Lars And The Real Girl - Trailer

Lars and The Real Girl by Nancy Oliver and Craig Gillespie (2007, MGM). Is it ironic that a film that, at its root, is about loneliness, I'd rather have watched it alone? In the midst of a half full theater, instead of being as engrossed into the striking story as I should have been, I found myself questioning the whats and whys of other people's laughter. I should have been thinking about why a small town went willingly with another man's delusion. I should have been challenging myself to consider "Bianca" under these different circumstances. And, to some extent I did but I still wanted to ask people, "Why is this scene funny?"

Was it the absurdity? Because, of course, a Real Doll is absurd. It's offensive and gross. That said, Ryan Gosling's Lars is far from absurd. He's a sweet, gentle soul who takes in the world from a very safe distance. So, theater patrons, is it his curious mental illness that is laughable? I might be able to accept that. I, however, only occasionally got the joke. Most of the time, I was just sad for Lars and his hurt and proud of the simple acts of kindness and honesty that this entire town shows him at the right moments to provide some level of therapy and healing.

But still, that fucking doll. I know we imbue objects with our own feelings and hangups and I'm trying to accept that this creepy sex toy could be anything to anybody in the right context -- something the movie showcases time and again -- but still. There are dudes paying thousands of dollars to hump an inanimate woman (with a backstory like she came from the Cabbage Patch) who won't reject them. Or talk. Or think. Or be.

You'll forgive me if I struggle with accepting her as Lars and his community does.

And yet, even though I squirmed in my seat with my brow furrowed, it is a wonderful film. The acting is spot on. We get to know these people in both their little and big moments. And, I cared.

Real Doll notwithstanding...recommended.

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Movies Meme

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:30:02 -0700

Have I done this before?

AFI's top 100 movies. Bold the ones you have seen. ~~Strike out the ones you couldn't finish.~~ * the ones you have seen more than once.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)

2. Godfather, The

3. Casablanca (1942)

4. Raging Bull (1980)

5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

6. Gone with the Wind (1939)

7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

8. Schindler's List (1993)

9. Vertigo (1958)

10. Wizard of Oz, The (1939)*

11. City Lights (1931)

12. Searchers, The (1956)

13. Star Wars (1977)*

14. Psycho (1960)*

15. Sunset Blvd. (1950)

16. 2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968)

17. Graduate, The (1967)

18. General, The (1927)

19. On the Waterfront (1954)

20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)*

21. Chinatown (1974)

22. Some Like It Hot (1959)

23. Grapes of Wrath, The (1940)

24. E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)*

25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)*

26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)*

27. High Noon (1952)

28. All About Eve (1950)

29. Double Indemnity (1944)

30. Apocalypse Now (1979)

31. Maltese Falcon, The (1941)

32. Godfather Part II, The (1974)

33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

35. Annie Hall (1977)

36. Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)

37. Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946)

38. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)

39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)

40. Sound of Music (1965)

41. King Kong (1933)

42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)

44. Philadelphia Story, The (1940)

45. Shane (1953)

46. It Happened One Night (1934)

47. Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951)

48. Rear Window (1954)*

49. Intolerance (1916)

50. Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)*

51. West Side Story (1961)*

52. Taxi Driver (1976)

53. Deer Hunter, The (1978)

54. M*A*S*H (1970)

55. North by Northwest (1959)

56. Jaws (1975)*

57. Rocky (1976)*

58. Gold Rush, The (1925)

59. Nashville (1975)

60. Duck Soup (1933)*

61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

62. American Graffiti (1973)

63. Cabaret (1972)

64. Network (1976)

65. African Queen, The (1951)

66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)*

67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

68. Unforgiven (1992)

69. Tootsie (1982)*

70. Clockwork Orange, A (1971)*

71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

72. Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)*

73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

74. Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)*

75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)

76. Forrest Gump (1994)*

77. All the President’s Men (1976)

78. Modern Times (1936)

79. Wild Bunch, The (1969)

80. Apartment, The (1960)

81. Spartacus (1960)

82. Sunrise (1927)

83. Titanic (1997)*

84. Easy Rider (1969)

85. Night at the Opera, A (1935)

~~86. Platoon (1986)~~

87. 12 Angry Men (1957)

88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

89. Sixth Sense, The (1999)*

90. Swing Time (1936)

91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)

92. Goodfellas (1990)*

93. French Connection, The (1971)

94. Pulp Fiction (1994)*

95. Last Picture Show, The (1971)

96. Do the Right Thing (1989)*

97. Blade Runner (1982)*

98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

99. Toy Story (1995)*

100. Ben-Hur (1959)

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Movies: Children of Men

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 18:18:21 -0800

Children of Men

Children of Men directed by Alfonso Cuaron (2006, Universal). Alfonso Cuaron is on some next level shit. In all the reviews I read prior to screening the film today, a comparison is made to Blade Runner. They are all correct to do so. Not since Blade Runner have I ever felt so viscerally connected to a future world. When we are dropped into 2027 as the youngest person on the planet is being eulogized and Clive Owen's Theo orders a cup of coffee, you smell this Britain. The stench of desperation, defeatism and life is all over this UK of two decades from now.

This is the most lo-fi sci-fi film I've seen in quite awhile. Cuaron makes no visual flights of fancy to wow the audience. He captures you with the possibility of this time. We aren't so far off from this now he seems to say. Don't sleep or this is your tomorrow. He doesn't leave us caught out there in this dismal time without a life preserver, however. At all times, we are shown characters who cling tightly to their humanity despite how close the world teeters on oblivion.

And, make no mistake, this is our world. Where I noted in my review of V for Vendetta last year,

I know that Alan Moore's source material serves to guide this choice but if they're going to gloss over the big picture concept of fascism vs. anarchism -- the two extremes that are the base of everything within the comic books -- and essentially bring it down to a question of neo-conservatism vs. revolutionary action, then maybe we could have had some brown people on the screen. Modern Day England has roots in the Middle East and Africa and those groups are growing. Surely, a near future UK would be even more culturally mixed.

here, Cuaron makes no such misstep. Having already diverted significantly from the source material, he creates a near-apocalyptic Britain that is as diverse racially as it is today. Perhaps even more so. The anti-immigrant fervor of this UK obviously has racial overtones but isn't as simplistic as Vendetta's white-washing makes it. Dark skinned folks are still a part of the country, although in obviously fewer numbers, and are often relegated to large refugee ghettos where Islamic extremism prospers. The rich whites have the freedom to live high above it all and "not think about it" while even the liberal anti-establishment whites are able to hole up in private enclaves and get high while people of color and whites with foreign dialects are put in cages and whisked away. They may be out of mind but they are never out of sight.

Sci-fi films often create a very white future. Spielberg's futuristic movies all have this conceit. Minority Report's Washington D.C. is the cleanest and most vanilla the chocolate city has ever been. A.I. and Back to the Future, part II have similar issues. Even Will Smith's starring vehicle I, Robot lacks the multicultural casting any version of our soon-to-come years must have.

The world has become more diverse and more connected, not less. That Cuaron remembers this is achievement enough and should get you in the theatre. That it is, also, a spectacular movie that hits on all cylinders, comes in at under 2 hours, and leaves you with grim but hopeful thoughts of the world to come makes it one of the very best films of 2006 and the best sci-fi flick in ages.

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Re-Post: V for Vendetta

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 17:29:01 -0800

This was originally posted on Negro Please on March 26, 2006. I want to reference it in a post I'm creating to talk about Children of Men and have yet to create a proper archive of the soon-to-be gone site, so here it sits.

V for Vendetta's futuristic England is an all caucasian country. Apparently the neo-conservatism masquerading as fascism in the film involved the complete white-washing of what is currently a pretty diverse community. Dark skin is no where to be found. It's odd for me that the Wachowski Brothers would make that choice (or allow that choice to be made by the director). One of the reasons I connect and enjoy the Matrix trilogy so much is that it's a world of many hues with the heroes, to a person, reflecting that multicultural aesthetic. I know that Alan Moore's source material serves to guide this choice but if they're going to gloss over the big picture concept of fascism vs. anarchism -- the two extremes that are the base of everything within the comic books -- and essentially bring it down to a question of neo-conservatism vs. revolutionary action, then maybe we could have had some brown people on the screen. Modern Day England has roots in the Middle East and Africa and those groups are growing. Surely, a near future UK would be even more culturally mixed.

But enough of my race hangups.

Or maybe not. It's interesting when we, as Americans, are confronted with revolutionary images we can sympathize with. After all, our country is built on the overthrow of one government for the creation of our own. Those images don't reconcile well in a post 9-11 America but V is compelling. He's seeking to overthrow a government who lies to its people, who institutes curfew, who seeks to keep order by opression and suppresion and the populace goes along with this very easily. My mind kept going to John Brown. How important were his "terrorist" actions at Harper's Ferry and before in moving the cause of abolition forward? Is he a hero or villain or something in between?

The same can be asked about V who uses violence and destruction to move his cause forward. The film is supposed to be raising the question of whether or not this push towards revolution, which is fueled mostly by vengeance, should be celebrated but doesn't really. Even at the key plot twist, we aren't really left with questions about V's "goodness".

There are some thought provoking elements to the film, however. Afterwards, there was a deep discussion about torture and terror, death penalties and revenge. For that I'll forgive the silly and unnecessary love story elements at the end, the sometimes ridiculous dialogue and the pacing of the flick. It felt longer than it should have and took far long to get to the hook of the story. But, for all its flaws, it's a good film and worth the money.

Just remember 2 things: In the future, the cool guys wear masquerade masks and speak in iambic pentameter and a revolution without dancing is one we don't want.

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