The Big Miscellaneous

2007 in Review

By my count, I saw 203 movies in 2007. 33 were in theaters, 170 were at home, and 6 movies were on both lists having watched them in theaters, then at home. For the record, here were the best movies I saw in theaters:

1) Across the Universe
2) Juno
3) Shoot 'Em Up
4) Live Free or Die Hard
5) Paris Je Taime
6) No Country For Old Men
7) Hot Fuzz
8) Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Children of Men would probably have been in the third spot had I decided it was eligible. I did see it in theaters this year, but it was a 2006 film. The worst movies I saw in theaters were:

31) Borat
32) Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
33) Evan Almighty

And even they were not spectacularly bad, so I guess that 2007 was a rather good year. Ranking the movies I saw on video this year is kind of like a crap shoot so I won't rank them. But here are four movies I saw for the first time (or first time in a long time) and loved: Leon: The Professional, Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Warriors. The movie I probably disliked the most was Night of the Hunter, because I still think its a terrible movie.

Musically, I listened to a lot of Beatles, and though a "single of the year" would be difficult to name, album of the year would be easy: Love by the Beatles. In fact, the majority of my top ten albums would be Beatles' albums. I also dug the new Fountains of Wayne (Traffic and Weather), The Fratellis' "Costello Music" and Volume 1 of the Traveling Willbury's.

Singles I loved (in no particular order) include "Fountains of Wayne Hotline" by Robbie Fulks, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by TV Carpio, "East Nashville Skyline" by Todd Snider, "Candyman" by Christina Aguilera, "Someone to Love" by Fountains of Wayne, "Baby I Love You" by the Yayhoos. "Everybody Knows" by Leonard Cohen, and "I've Just Seen a Face" by the Beatles.

Other than that, 2007 was special as it heralded the release of Cineplexity, saw the birth of two nephews (my first), and brought me to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Canada on one of my favorite trips ever. It was a good year.

2006 in Music

This year saw the end of my top five, and the semi-resurgence of it about eight months later.  The first list will be of top four themes that drove my musical listenings:

Independent/Unknown Artists – The Postal Service, The Magnetic Fields, Brad Sucks and Viva Voce all did or would have held a top spot or two on my charts this year, and most of them I hadn’t heard of prior to 2006.  But even more importantly, the unsigned Jonathan Coulton rocked my musical world this year, and  jumped from someone I had never heard of to one of my top five artists ever, seemingly overnight.  No doubt about, my musical tastes widened.
Country Kick – Readers of my blog may not have been aware of it, but there was a time in the late summer and fall when country music filled my iPod.  Not new country, though.  My childhood days in Tennessee came roaring’ back to life with Jon Andersen, Mel McDaniel and a handful of others. It didn’t hurt that Me First and the Gimme Gimmes put out their country album this year, either.
Haven’t Heard That in a While – You can chalk some of this up to the country kick, some of it up to my new iPod Shuffle and some to a new computer, but all events had me scrambling to find those songs that I just hadn’t heard in years.  They were eclectic too, including kd Lang, The Fat Boys, Mi-Sex and several soundtracks.
Veronica Mars  - Between the Dandy Warhols singing “We Used to be Friends,”  Spoon’s “I Turn My Camera On” and some FoW usage,  I almost like their song choices better than the show, and I like the show.

Artists of the Year:
1.  Jonathan Coulton – No doubt about it, Coulton won the year in a landslide.  There were several months of nothing but JoCo’s music, and there are very few songs he’s done that I don’t actually like.
2.  The Magnetic Fields – I don’t like listening to them mixed with other artists, because they stick out like a sore thumb.  But listening to them by themselves creates a beautiful, almost surrealistic experience.
3.  Max Raabe & the Palast Orchester – They were a fairly recent addition to my collection, but a very welcome one.  Their covers of pop songs can be hit or miss, but when they hit, they really hit.
4.  Weird Al Yankovic – A new album catapulted him into the top ten for the first time, and deservedly so, as the hit was quite good.  It’s great to see an artist you’ve appreciated for years finally get some kind of cultural due.
5.  The Scissor Sisters – Dance-y fun, and a good second album.  First one’s pretty nice too.
6.  The Dandy Warhols – I found them through Veronica Mars, but liked them enough to keep searching them out.
7.  The Postal Service – A lot of their album “Give Up” is forgettable, but they had at least two singles that made the beginning of the year wonderful.
8.  Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Still sporadic, but still as fun as punk can be.
9. XSFAT – In the early part of the year, they were on decent rotation, and although they don’t fit in to most collections, they have a wonderful nostalgia factor.
10. AC/DC – They rocked my car, albeit briefly.

Songs of the Year:

Jonathan Coulton’s biggest enemy in terms of songs was himself.  The whole lot was so good that they kind of divided up amongst themselves, leaving the top spots open for the taking.  Not that the #1 couldn’t have beaten it out anyway, as it has recently become one of my favorite songs of all time.  So, here is the list of my “Songs of the Year,” with some attention paid to the top fives list, although most of it based off of factors such as current likings, overall esteem, and how much I never want to forget it.

1) Such Great Heights – The Postal Service
2) We Used to Be Friends – The Dandy Warhols
3) Re: Your Brains – Jonathan Coulton
4) Ride a White Horse – Goldfrapp
5) Against All Odds – The Postal Service
6) Oops… I Did It Again – Max Raabe & the Palast Orchester
7) Call on Me – Eric Prydz
8) The Presidents – Jonathan Coulton
9) I Don’t Feel Like Dancing – The Scissor Sisters
10) White & Nerdy – Weird Al Yankovic
11) I Turn My Camera On – Spoon
12) Baby Got Back – Jonathan Coulton
13) Pull Shapes – The Pipettes
14) Swingin’ – Jon Andersen
15) Mr. Fancy Pants – Jonathan Coulton
16) Little Rock – Reba McEntire
17) Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On – Mel McDaniel
18) Absolutely Cuckoo – The Magnetic Fields
19) Wizard in Winter – Trans-Siberian Orchestra
20) Bop – Dan Seals

Start Spreading the News

I was gone for a week to New York, and followed that by turning 30 the next day.  Consequently, the time spent enjoying music was limited.  But prior to my trip, I listened toa lot of things, primarily We Used to be Friends again.  During the trip, I jammed the most to New York City by They Might Be Giants for reasons that might be a little obvious. 

Since getting back, I have alternated mostly between the Gothic Archies' (Magnetic Fields, actually) songs from the audio books of the Lemony Snicket series (a birthday present from Sean and Beth - Thanks!) and an album by the Palast Orchester featuring Max Raabe, specifically his terrific cover of Oops... I Did It Again.  So the past two weeks have been filled with punk-ish alternative, a pop favorite, amusingly depressing and hard-to-classify soundtrack tunes, and German big band sounds.  If I could ever get a real taste for basic rap and smooth R&B, my musical tastes would be extremely ecclectic.

Music! Music! Music!

Well, once I finished the Cameo-Parkway box set a few weeks ago, the first other CD track I listened to was Viva Voce's "From the Devil Himself".  In the past two weeks, I also gave long listens to Bowling For Soup's Drunk Enough to Dance and an 80's New Wave CD, but I would pick my song of the last two weeks to be a return to the top by "We Used to be Friends" by the Dandy Warhols.  I really like that song, especially the beginning.

The Last two Weeks in Music...

were spent listening to one of three things:

1) An 8-disk box set of British hits form the 70's that I found cheap at Frugal Muse.  I gave me a few new songs that I like, with the only one I can remember right now being Al Martino's Volare, which is a disco tune.

2) The semi-new 4-disc Cameo-Parkway collection, which is pretty much awesome.

3) My iPod.

This means there isn't really a song that would top my "charts" this week, because the iPod stuff never counts, and the only songs off either collection that I've listened to one more than one occasion were Volare and Don't Hang Up by the Orlons (which is a truly, truly great song).

Hey, John...

What were you listening to last week, you ask?  Well, the album that I heard most often (in a sweep, no less) were husband and wife Viva Voce's Get Yr Blood Sucked Out and specifically the very catchy single, "From the Devil Himself."  The album is only slightly recommendable, as the duo's greatest assett is the wife's angelic voice, which they too often drop in favor of decent, but not great, instrumentals.  But the single is really, really good.  The only other thing I listened to for any length of time was the soundtrack to South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, which is pretty funny, still. So,

1. From the Devil Himself - Viva Voce

2. Uncle F**ka  - Terrence and Phillip (aka: Trey parker and Matt Stone)

It's Back...

At least temporarily.  And reduced to top two songs of the week.  To be fair, all of the following songs were certainly probably number ones at some point over the last six months (and as close to in order as I can guess):

The Fob Song - Toby Turner
Re: Your Brains - Jonathan Coulton
Baby Got Back - Jonathan Coulton
The Presidents - Jonathan Coulton
I Feel Fantastic - Jonathan Coulton
Absolutley Cuckoo - Magnetic Fields
Chicken With It's Head Cut Off - Magnetic Fields
Bop - Dan Seals
Swingin' - John Anderson
I Don't Feel Like Dancing - Scissor Sisters
Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On - Mel McDaniel
White & Nerdy - Weird Al Yankovic
Mr. Fancy Pants - Jonathan Coulton

These 13 songs will be considered the number ones for the "Dark Period" with no number of weeks listed.

However, the current top 2 (running the week of October 9-15) are:
1. We Used to be Friends - Dandy Warhols
2. Mr. Fancy Pants - Jonathan Coulton

The first is the theme from Veronica Mars, and I have been somewhat looking for it for a while. Mr. Fancy Pants is a fun little track off of the latest and last Thing-a-Week by JoCo.  Honorable mention this week goes to Weird Al's White & Nerdy and AC/DC's Highway to Hell and Back in Black.
I'll explain the Dark period songs at a later date.  Maybe.

We Interrupt this Posting

I was going to post my review of The Godfather Part 2, but the imdb page wasn't loading.  So I decided to post these few random thoughts:

1) I saw a trio of geese honking incessantly at the door of a business a few weeks ago.  It was pretty funny.

2) The new Scissor Sisters album is a heck of a lot of fun.  Seriously. 

3) Speaking of music, I'm half-tempted to post my Songs o'the Week again.  It feels odd, because I've stopped for about six months now, and in that time went through huge bouts of several artists and styles including about two to three months of Jonathan Coulton and a few weeks of the Magnetic Fields.  Picking up now seems like a slight to them.  Any opinions?

The Stories of Lemony Snicket

I started reading the Series of Unfortunate Events saga quite some time ago, and just recently got around to reading #12, The Penultimate Peril.  Herewith is the song I wrote about it, to the tune of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  I wrote this quite a few months ago, before Peril even came out, which is pretty interesting because it scanned exactly, if I remember correctly.  That means that the Peril verse doesn’t fit now.  The penultimate verse is the last one listed.  Insert it as you would like.  Hope you like it.  You'll find it is quite accurate.

"The Stories of Lemony Snicket"
Sung to the tune of “The Wrechk of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot
Written by me, with editing help from Sean Weitner

Here follows the tales of those sad Baudelaires
And Count Olaf, who wishes to kill them
Inexpensive to buy, give these orphans a try
If you want to raise sad, morbid children

Olaf risks Sunny's life to make Violet his wife –
Klaus sees it's a scheme for their money
Infanticide terror as lev'rage to marry'er?
For kid's books, these aren't very funny

There's more sorrow and gloom in the reptile room
Where they stayed with their dear Uncle Monty
Stephano arrives (It's Olaf in disguise)
And he does lots of things that are naughty

Then to Aunt Josephine, who was scared of all things
In a house raised high 'bove the beaches
With the Count in disguise, she too meets her demise
And is eaten by Lachrymose leeches

Next the kids had to shill for the mis'rable mill
Earning gum and a couple of coupons
Olaf hypnotized Klaus into breaking some laws
And the adults remained selfish morons

They attend Prufrock Prep, domineered by a schlep
A poor Vice Principal violinist
There's Olaf and Spats, and some toe-biting crabs
But the kids meet two Quagmire triplets

Now off to their in-laws, who take all three in 'cause
It seems like the hip thing to do now
There's Jerome and Esme, who, unfortunately, 
Is working with Count Olaf too, now.

And the stories now change, yet remain quite the same
But with mysteries thick as a thicket
Still the young orphans three will have troubles indeed
In these stories from Lemony Snicket

Next the young trio goes to a town with some crows
To be framed and near torn from each other
They escape from this trap but they can't shake the rap
For killing the narrator's brother

Then they seek out the facts 'mongst the hospital's stacks
To correct the mistaken Punctilio
Which has printed as news all these libelous views
But arson prolongs their ordeal-eo

Next a carnival seeks to showcase them as freaks
And they bunk with a guy ambidextrous
A sham seer almost makes the Baudelaire's toast
'Til instead she is eaten for breakfast

Next the eldest two sneak up a clandestine peak
Grab Sunny and make a toboggan
Down slippery stream, they will die, so it seems
But end up in a lake at the bottom

Then comes a grim grotto, and you know there's a lot ‘o
Bad things that happen to our heroes
A sugar bowl, turncoat, mushrooms and a U-boat
Then we find ourselves back at Ground zero

So far, them's the tales of those sad Baudelaires
and Count Olaf, who wishes to kill them
Inexpensive to buy, give these orphans a try
If you want to raise sad, morbid children

The newest stanza:

Next the young Baudelaires will become concierges
A job rife with confusion and worry
In the end the three children, end up with the villain
But there’s still one more book in the story…

Very little time to post today...

1. Stand – REM
2. Spanish – XSFAT
3. It’s My Party – Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin
4. Little Rock – Reba McEntire
5. Out of Touch – Hall & Oates

Stand was thanks to walking to Definitive 80's.  The XSFAT kick remained.  Party got a listen or two, and all else dropped.