Year end is a good time for the witty, waggish, wry, warm, wasted, wonky, weird, worthy, wondrous, wealthy or wise wordsmiths of the world to neatly wrap it all up in the boxes we've come to know and love as the top ten list. Or a variation on the theme of.
Something I'm partial to myself.
Traditionally I've compiled my ten favourite movies, albums and gigs.
And I see no reason for changing.
Nor can I be arsed to.
So here they are. I may add some 'liner notes' in order to clarify any worries you may still have that I'm losing it big time. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, or to have got these lists badly wrong.
I'll start with movies since that's a long standing conversation with an old school buddy that took place yesterday.
1) Doomsday. Just in case you thought I had any sense left Neil Marshall's homage to the early films of Romero, Miller and Carpenter entertained me no end endlessly.
2) Lars And The Real Girl. Funny. Very funny. Very very funny. And human.
3) The Dark Knight. Those who didn't think The Joker was a tour de force were wrong. Just wrong. Totally, utterly and unequivocally wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. Wrong.
4) Hellboy 2. Imagination at work.
5) Juno. For the Argento.
6) The Mist. Bleak, dark, twisted, fucked up fantastic.
7) Burn After Reading. Like I said, favourite, not best.
8) Persepolis. Even though it's 20 minutes too long.
9) Indiana Jones and the very long title. Not because of LeBeef, Lucas, Spielberg, the CGI or that stupid fucking monkey chase. Actually I don't even know why but it was fun.
10) Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. There's nothing like watching a movie where everything starts off going south and then gets worse.
Honourable mentions should go to No Country For Old Men, The Wackness, Gone Baby Gone, Southland Tales, Iron Man and the first 45 minutes of Wall E. Honourable mentions also for The Mummy 3, The Nines, The Strangers, The Invasion, The Rocker, Wanted, Colverfield, Sweeney Todd and that Shyamalan movie about the trees for being the most Godforsaken turgid vomit-ridden wank I've been unfortunate enough to bother sitting through. Utter fucking garbage each and every one, with all those involved deserving a good waterboarding. Please don't do it again.
As far as gigs go it would be best to assume, even though I avoid that word as often as possible holding to the dictum that assumption is the mother of all fuck ups, it would be good to assume that placing in listing is dependent on quality of sound, performance, set list, and entertainment value (in no particular order). Maybe you were there, maybe you weren't.
1) Okkervil River @ The Scala (February)
2) R.E.M. @ Twickenham (August)
3) Shearwater @ St Giles-in-the-Fields (November)
4) Elbow @ Porchester Hall (March)
5) Iron Maiden @ Twickenham (July)
6) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ Hammersmith (May)
7) Okkervil River @ Shepherd's Bush (November)
8) Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds @ HMV (March)
9) Radiohead @ Victoria Park (June)
10) R.E.M @ The Royal Albert Hall (March)
And as for the albums? How about a one word description, just for the hell of it? That way I don't have to make any seeming sense at all, and I can publish this post and get off to buy some food for the beastie.
1) R.E.M. - Accelerate. Return
2) Shearwater - Rooks. Finally
3) AC/DC - Black Ice. Different
4) Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid. Curtains
5) The Wildhearts - Stop Us If You've Heard This One before Vol 1. Remembering
6) Imperfect - Tales From The Caravan Of Experience. Learning
7) Death Cab For Cutie - Narow Stairs. Random
8) The Hold Steady - Stay Positive. Springsteen
9) The Duke Spirit - Neptune. Boots
10) Okkervil River - The Stand Ins. YouTube
Done. See ya.
3 comments:
I've seen Wall E! Other than that, exactly none of these. Sigh. Surprised not to see There Will Be Blood - not that I've seen that either, mind, but it sounds tremendous.
Obviously all highly recommended - and I have a degree to prove I'm right! Blood didn't get on the list because I haven't seen it yet. I have a real problem with Anderson's films, and I just haven't made it round to it yet. Watching more highbrow material like The Abominable Dr Phibes and Dr Phibes Rises Again.
Well, I fanally saw Doomsday, and it is an absolute cracker - all the good things that go with this kind of movie and more, and managing to avoid all the common pitfalls. It succeeds in aa manner rather like the theory behind Grindhouse (please note, I did say the theory), i.e. make a movie that's as good as you remember this kind of movie being/ wish this kind of movie had been. There is one thing though that is rather damaging to the old suspension of disbelief, and reminds you that this is all a bunch of actors acting. There is no way, even by 2030 whatever, that this country is ready for a Prime Minister with a beard. Never happen.
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