2009 Davie Awards

This year's annual Davie Awards ended being such a source of frustration, I was about to just scrap them entirely.  Every year I run into the same problem:  since I have to watch, listen, play, and read everything on this list on my own time and with my own money, I always reach a point around the end of the year where I'm cramming to fit everything in before I publish the awards.  This inevitably means the awards are pushed back at least into late January, and I still end up missing things that in all likelihood would make the list (for example, the critically acclaimed film Crazy Heart).  This year things ended up getting so delayed that I thought long and hard about just abandoning the awards all together. 

In the end, I decided I might as well just post what I have and been done with it.  I did spend a significant amount of time getting everything together, so it seems a waste to throw everything away.  Instead, I've decided to go ahead and just post what I have now in mid-February, when it's far too late for anyone to still care about last year (as if anyone cared about these awards before they were over a month late).

Favorite Album

1. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm:  This marks their second masterpiece since the band reformed with the original lineup in the mid-2000s, proving that their new material might be their best yet.
2. The Horrors - Primary Colours
3. A Place to Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
4.  The Flaming Lips - Embryonic: This albums sees the Flaming Lips channeling early psydeclic-era Pink Floyd.  Not a bad combination. 
5. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest 
6. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures: I'm worried I might be ranking this too high just because I want it to be this good (at one point I had this ranked as high as 2nd). With Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones, the end result isn't quite equal to the some of it's parts, but still a solid rock album.
7. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
8. Royksopp - Junior: This record is just plain fun.
9. Sonic Youth - The Eternal
10. Built to Spill - There Is No Enemy
11. Soulsavers - Broken: Another great collaboration with singer Mark Lanegan.
12. Atlas Sound - Logos
13. Meat Puppets - Sewn Together
14. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
15. The Dead Weather - Horehound:  Another year, another enjoyable release from Jack White.
16. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion:  I bought into the hype about this record at first, but in reality it’s two or three really good songs, with lots of mediocre filler. Not bad, but extremely overrated (though not nearly as overrated as that awful Dirty Projectors album).  Although now I wonder if I'm punishing it too severely by pushing it so far down on the list, but lately I can't listen to the whole album without getting bored.
17. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
18. Deerhunter - Rainwater Cassette Exchange EP
19. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
20. The Field - Yesterday and Today:  Best techno/electronica album I've heard in awhile.

Honorable Mention:  The xx - xx; HEALTH - GET COLOR; Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Beware; White Rabbits - It's Frightening

Favorite Live Album

1. Nirvana - Live at Reading - The DVD version of this album is essential.
2. Tom Waits - Glitter and Doom Live
3. Bonny Billy and the Picket Line - Happytown Comedown
4. Leonard Cohen - Live in London / Leonard Cohen - Live at the Isle of Wight
5. Neil Young - Dreaming Man: Live '92

Favorite Box Set

1. The Beatles Stereo Box Set
2. Neil Young Archive

Favorite Movie

1. The Hurt Locker - One of the best--and least political--war movies I've ever seen.
2. Up in the Air
3. Food, Inc. - Probably the most important movie of the year.  If you only see one, make it this documentary.
4. Ponyo on the Cliff By the Sea - H. Miyazki strikes again with another fantastic anime epic.  The lack of nomination for the Best Animated Feature Academy Award is criminal.
5. (500) Days of Summer
6. Zombieland - Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson are hilarious together in this movie, and it features one of the best surprise cameos, ever.
7. Up
8. A Serious Man - The second under-the-radar black comedy by the Coen Brothers since the phenomenal No Country For Old Men.
9. District 9
10. The Cove
11. Avatar - I have a feeling I’m going to look back in a couple years and see that all the praise for Avatar was greatly exaggerated. It was an unbelievable experience in theater to see thr film in I-Max 3D, but the whole thing was so overwhelming, and I believe repeated viewings on DVD will expose a lot more flaws.  I've already been dropping it down this the list the more I've thought about it.
12. Moon - Sam Rockwell turns in two of my favorite performances of the year
13. Inglourious Basterds
14. Anvil! The Story of Anvil - Like a real-life version of This is Spinal Tap, but with a heart.  Another movie the deserved an Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Documentary.
15. Adventureland - This movie was criminally misrepresented in the trailers to look like a raunchy teen comedy.
16. The Road - Loved the book, but the movie was something of a let down in comparison.  Still moving, but it felt like the studio chopped it up to make it more palatable for the mainstream.
17. Fantastic Mr. Fox
18. The Damned United
19. It Might Get Loud
20. Public Enemies - Not sure why this movie only got mixed critical reviews.

Honorable Mention:  In the Loop, Star Trek, Big Fan, Funny People, The Hangover, I Love You Man

Favorite Books

1. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
2. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
3. The Power of Less by Leo Babauta
4. Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields

(yes, I read a lot more than four books last year, these are just the only ones published in 2009)

Video Games

1. Rock Band: The Beatles
2. Left 4 Dead 2
3. Plants vs. Zombies

Sadly I don't have much time to play games anymore, but these were my favorites from last year.

 And that, as they say, is that.  Come back next year, folks.  I might still be here.

nothing's shocking

As expected, the trailer for the G. I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie looks downright awful. This doesn't even look like an entertaining mindless action movie; it looks like pure crap. Another fond childhood icon is taken out back and beaten to death by Hollywood.



Edit: For some reason the right side of the video cuts off on my blog, so if you really want to see how bad the trailer is, go here.

The 2008 Davie Awards

We are now a month into 2009, and I still haven't gotten around to posting the annual Davie Awards for 2008. I wanted to write up some good summaries for everything, but I've put that off for so long that I decided just to throw the lists online and be done with it.


Favorite Album

1. Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
2. The Gutter Twins - Saturnalia
3. Boris - Smile
4. Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
5. Portishead - Third
6. Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On
7. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
8. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
9. Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Lie Down in the Light
10. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
11. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
12. Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Sunday at Devil Dirt
13. Sigur Rós - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
14. Beck - Modern Guilt
15. TV on the Radio - Dear Science

Honorable Mention: Earth - The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull; Lindstrøm - Where You Go I Go Too; Brian Eno & David Byrne - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today; Squarepusher - Just a Souvenir; Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul; Deerhunter - Microcastle; Kings of Leon - Only By the Night

Favorite Concert:
Nine Inch Nails in Cleveland, OH

Runners-up: Nine Inch Nails in Lexington, KY; Radiohead in Indianapolis, IN;
NIN in Columbus, OH; The Gutter Twins in Newport, KY.

Favorite Movie

1. The Wrestler
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. WALL-E
4. The Dark Knight
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
6. Taken
   
7. Frost/Nixon
8. Kung-Fu Panda
9. Defiance
10. Gran Torino

Honorable Mention: In Bruges, Burn After Reading, Revolutionary Road, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Pineapple Express, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Iron Man, Bank Job

Favorite TV Show
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Runners-up: Top Gear, The Office, South Park

Favorite Game
Left 4 Dead

Runners-up: Rock Band 2, STALKER: Clear Sky, Peggle 2: Peggle Nights, Civilization IV: Colonization

a change of scene with no regrets

WALL-E was everything I hoped it would be last night. The film covered all the bases with romance, comedy, action, and a socially-responsible moral to boot. Bringing Ben Burtt--Skywalker Sound's guru behind the Star Wars sound effects, among other films--was a brilliant move, as the robot characters in WALL-E were filled with life despite never really speaking more than a few lines of dialogue. It usually goes without saying that a Pixar film is visually stunning, but WALL-E was probably one of the most beautifully shot films I've seen. Not only was the animation jaw-dropping, but the cinemetography was on par with the best live-action films. The movie is an instant classic, ranking up with the Toy Story movies and The Incredibles as the best Pixar films. A must see.

5 out of 5 Davies. *****

feed me weird things

In anticipation of seeing WALL-E tonight at midnight, I thought I would take a look at what other movies are coming out--or maybe are already out, in a few cases--this year that look at least somewhat promising.

The Top 2:

• WALL-E
• The Dark Knight
  

If these aren't the two best movies of the year, I will be greatly shocked.


The Highly Anticipated:

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - David Fincher has some awesome movies. The trailer looks great.
  
• Gonzo - Hunter S. Thompson is one of my favorite authors, and this looks like an excellent documentary on him.
  
• Burn After Reading - From the looks of the trailer, this should be another classic from the Cohen Brothers.
• Choke - A good book from Chuck Palahuniuk (author of Fight Club) and the movie looks promising.
  
• Pineapple Express - Looks hilarious. [Red band trailer, probably NSFW]
  
• Tropic Thunder - Ben Stiller has been stale lately but this film looks like it might change that.

Looks Promising:

• The Admiral - The trailer is very impressive, despite the fact it's entirely in Russian with no subtitles. I'm sure the American release of the movie won't have that problem.
• War, Inc. - Looks like it could be a funny satire.
• Quantum of Solace - The newest James Bond film will hopefully improve upon the success of Casino Royale.
• Miracle at St. Anna - It looks like there is more to this movie than simply a World War II film but it looks good from the trailer.
• The X-Files 2: I Want to Believe - Looks like it could be a solid second installment in the X-Files movie franchise.
• The Good, the Bad, and the Weird - This ridiculous-looking Korean spaghetti-western looks like it could be hilarious.
• Traitor - An interesting action/political thriller starring Don Cheadle.
• OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies - This should be a funny French spoof on the 1960s spy genre.

Might Not Be Bad?:

• The Mummy 3 - The first two movies weren't terrible, so this might be a decent action movie.
• The Clone Wars - You would think I would be more excited about this, seeing as it is Star Wars related but I have no faith in George Lucas anymore.
• The Rocker - Could be funny.
• Righteous Kill - Normally a film starring both Robert De Niro and Al Pacino would look awesome, and this but could be good, but the trailer didn't blow me off my feet.
• RocknRolla - Another British crime film by Guy Ritchie.
• Taken - Looks like a decent action movie starring Liam Neeson.

No doubt there are some I've missed, but that's all for now.

the dogs of doom are howling

I entered the theater to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull bracing myself for the worst and instead I exited the movie feeling only slightly disappointed. I guess that's something to be happy about?

Most satisfying--surprisingly--was Harrison Ford's performance. His last few films have been pretty abysmal, but he managed to bring back much of Indiana Jones' old spark, while throwing in some of the grumpy-and-wise-old-man act when appropriate. The story wasn't bad, although the crystal skulls are no where near as cool of a plot device as the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail. Nor do the Soviets come across as menacing as the Nazis did in two of the three previous films. But a lot of the same adventure is back, especially when it comes to the fist fights and car chases (although the jungle chase went on a little too long). I'm normally not a huge fan of car chases, but Indiana Jones movies always feature exceptional ones, and the chases in Crystal Skull were fairly entertaining.

What really brings the film down are some absolutely ridiculous scenes that take the film from a semi-realistic action movie to a downright ludicrous B-movie at times. The most offensive such scenes (minor spoilers follow) are ones such as Indy surviving a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator, the super-intelligent army ants, ramping an aquatic car off a cliff onto a tree that bends and drops the care safely into a river, and Shia LeBeouf swinging through the trees like Tarzan with his squad of monkeys. Speaking of LeBeouf, I was disappointed when I heard he was in the film, and my fears were justified as his character was one dimensional and the acting was stale. Whether LaBeouf or the writing and directing is to blame for that is debatable, but I have yet to be blown away by any of his performances. Cate Blanchett was passable as Indy's Soviet nemesis, but Karen Allen was disappointing. While Ford seems to have aged well, time has not been kind to Allen, and there was little of the spunk left in her character from Raiders of the Lost Ark. I also agree with Justin Hall that nearly all of the CGI in the film looks awful. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both said they used as few special effects as possible to retain the feel of the original films, but when CGI is used it is glaringly obvious and distracts from the events unfolding in the scene.

I'm still unsure how I feel about the ending or the whole X-Files feeling of the plot. On the one hand it fits with the whole 1950s B-movie setting of the film, but on the other hand the climax felt a little too science fiction for an Indiana Jones movie.

Jess, who has never seen all of the other films (I guess that means I'm failing as a boyfriend) said she thought the movie was entertaining. I suppose that means on its own, to people less familiar with Indiana Jones it is a decent action flick. Fans of the series will be a little more disappointed.

Two and a half out of Five Davies. **1/2


On a side note, did you know Newport on the Levee's AMC theater only does student ticket prices on Thursday nights now? A mediocre theater just got even worse. All the more reason for me to go to Springdale from now on.

ghosts

After a couple weeks of cryptic messages via the Nine Inch Nails website, the announcement was made last night that the newest NIN record--a thirty-six track instrumental double album entitled Ghosts I-IV--was available now online, by way of a high-quality digital download, along with a number of different purchasing options for a physical product (ranging from $5 to $300). The music is copyrighted under a non-commercial Creative Commons license, meaning individuals are free to use the music for anything they want as long as there is no profit involved. So far the record sounds amazing; a combination of previous NIN efforts like The Fragile, Still, and Year Zero. Yet again Trent Reznor has proven himself to be the most innovative figure in the music industry.

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I've been trying to keep my expectations low for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but the new trailer actually looks promising. Normally that would be good news, but it's probably just getting my hopes up so they can be let down when Shia LaBeouf ruins the movie. Either way, I know The Dark Knight and WALL-E will make up for it.