Some of you have been asking about my end of the year list tradition. Well, better late than never, eh?
Once again I watched way too many movies, bought too many cds, and went to too many shows. Here's what made it all worthwhile for me.
Music-
1)Tom Waits- Orphans 2)TV On The Radio- Return to Cookie Mountain 3)Yo La Tengo- I'm Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass 4)Thom Yorke- The Eraser 5)Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins- Rabbit Furcoat 6)Midlake- The Trials of Van Occupanther 7)Camera Obscura- Let's Get Out Of This Country 8)Cat Power- The Greatest 9)Neko Case- Fox Confessor Brings The Flood 10)Belle And Sebastian- The Life Pursuit
Film-
1)Little Miss Sunshine 2)Borat 3)Babel 4)The Science of Sleep 5)Talladega Nights-The Ballad of Ricky Bobby 6)Half Nelson 7)Old Joy 8)Marie Antoinette 9)The Proposition 10)Pirates Of The Caribean 2- Dead Man's Chest
Shows-
1)Sufjan Stevens @ Saint Andrews Wesley 2)Fiona Apple & Damien Rice @ Chateau St. Michelle 3)Over The Rhine @ Regent College 4)TV On The Radio & Grizzly Bear @ Commodore 5)Chad VanGaalen @ Media Club
posted by roger 9:29 PM
Friday, March 31, 2006
Normally I wouldn't do this, but I figure, I haven't posted in a while, I probably owe you, and this is an easy cop out:
FOUR JOBS I’VE HAD 1. painting and general labour at houses my parents rent out 2. delivery, dishwashing, and food prep @ dominos pizza 3. delivery, dishwashing, and food prep @ dorion greek taverna 4. worship and youth leader @ Burnaby North Baptist Church
FOUR MOVIES/SHOWS I’VE BEEN ADDICTED TO: 1. The Simpsons (4-EVA) 2. 24 (though my interest is starting to wane) 3. Magnolia 4. The Royal Tenenbaums
FOUR PLACES I’VE LIVED: 1. Some place in South Van I don't remember 2. Gary Street in Richmond 3. Swansea Dr in Richmond 4. Dive on the Drive, yo!
FOUR COUNTRIES I WOULD LIKE TO VISIT: 1. The UK 2. Iceland 3. Thailand (yummy green coconut milk curry) then hit Indonesia (live in a hut on a beach) 4. Argentina/Brazil
FOUR POPULAR FALSE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT ME: 1. That I'm the same age as the people I hang out with (generally they're younger) 2. That I'm a pastor 3. That I'm in a band 4. That I don't update my blog
FOUR PEOPLE I LOOK LIKE (according to some people): 1. My dad 2. That guy from "OMD" (how bizzare) 3. I'm "unique"
FOUR THINGS (I HOPE) TO DO BEFORE I DIE: 1. Own a house so I can pimp it out. 2. Marry Miss Ebbie Chang 3. Have 2.3 kids 4. another blog update
posted by roger 12:37 PM
Friday, January 06, 2006
The New Year Smells Funky
Well, here's what you've been waiting for: A numericized distillation of my years listening:
1) Sufjan Stevens- Come On Feel The Illinoise Sure everyone loves Sufjan now, but who could resist?
2) Chad Vangaalan- Infiniheart Bedroom pop masterwork from the streets of Cowtown, y'all!
3) Eisley- Room Noises More addictive than crack! More hooks than a tacklebox! Cuter than...well...nevermind
4) Half-Handed Cloud- Thy Is a Word And Feet Need Lamps Sufjan's compadre is more quirky. His songs are psychedellic Bible stories they never told you in Sunday School.
5) Autolux- Future Perfect Comes across like some post-shoegaze act, or something that could have fit in on Tooth and Nail's late '90 roster. Think that, but cooler.
6) Bright Eyes- I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning I'm generally not a Bright Eyes kinda guy, but this one won me over. I actually think he's a good songwriter now.
7) Low- The Great Destroyer Low rocks out, finally. Me likey.
8) Wolf Parade- Apologies To The Queen Mary It took me a while to warm up to this (maybe on account of the hype) but who could deny songs like "Shine A Light" and "This Hearts On Fire"?
9) Raveonettes- Pretty In Black Apparently they're Sweedish, or something. Apparenly they're cool. Apparently Buddy Holly was a major influence on them, which is all good in my books.
10) Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene I wasn't sure about putting this one on the list. I was hoping for another "I Forgot It In People". We got something less accessible and less scrutible. Still, some amazing moments.
Finally, my favorite single of the year (I'm not too ashamed to admit it): "All These Things That I've Done" by The Killers
Um...oh yes....anticipating a move to"The Drive" in the near future. Hopefully more on that soon. _______________________________________________________
Tunes: Yer Favorites- The Tragically Hip
posted by roger 4:35 PM
Saturday, December 31, 2005
'05 In View
You didn't think I'd finish the year without imposing my unassailable opinions on the public, did you?
Here's some movies that didn't completely suck:
1)Crash This movie could have easily come across as moralistic if it didn't ring so true...
2)Wallace & Grommit and the Curse of the Were Rabbit My only familiarity with this cartoon duo was a video my animator friend showed my years ago. Nonetheless I was drawn in by the gentle british humor, and lively visuals.
3)Walk The Line To me, this felt a lot like last years biopic "Ray", but I felt this one was better, having more heart, and a stronger central relationship to anchor the story of the iconoclastic musician.
4)Sin City I've never seen a movie quite like this. This movie pretty much exists to look amazing, and it certainly does.
5)Kung Fu Hustle Without a doubt, watching this was the most fun I had in a theatre all year.
6)Broken Flowers Another winning role by Bill Murray, who's been having one heckuva late-career streak. Charming and low-key.
7)Charlie and the Chocolate Factory No one can make creepy quite as cool as Johnny Depp. Also, probably one of the better Tim Burton films in a while.
8)A History of Violence Asks the important question "what evil lurks in the hearts of man?" without being condescending.
9)King Kong If Jackson had cut out about 20 minutes of rediculous T-Rex chases and monster cockroaches he might have had a great film instead of a nearly great one.
10)The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe The title is so long, I don't care to add any comment to it.
Soo...there you have it! Thoughts?
Stay tuned for musical goodness!
posted by roger 12:39 AM
Friday, November 18, 2005
Don't Call it A Comeback...I've Been Here For Years
Well, lookee who's back with another blog posting...
So the main point of this is to introduce you to some new friends (and to alleviate Leigh's angst):
my circa 1990 Japanese made, '69 thinline tele reissue + fender blues jr. amp. (thanks leigh and joe nanderson for helping me with my selections!)
I got the pair for under $1000, including tax. I was expecting to pay at least $500 more.
You are jealous, admit it.
now to find some effects...
___________________________________________________________________________ tunes: dusty springfield- dusty in memphis
posted by roger 1:31 PM
Saturday, August 06, 2005
Say "What" again. I dare you.
So, yesterday as Ev and I are walking north across the intersection of Robson and Hornby, there's this black SUV beside us stopped at the light. I look through the window, and who do I spy at the wheel but Mr. Samuel L. Jackson. True story. He sees me seeing him, and he pulls up the sunglasses, being all cool.
Black dude. Black SUV. Black ballcap. Black sunglasses.
The dude is just so bad-ass. BAAAAAADAAAAASSSSSS!
I kinda wish I had said something. I think there's actually a bit of a racial barrier, or something. Like, if I were black I probably would have been all like "SAMMY J., MA MAAAAAN! WHAA'S GOIN' DOWN?!?!?! SHIIIIIIIIT!"
But being that I'm not, I totally can't say things like that.
I wish Ash was there. He probably would have said something totally awesome, like, "Mmmm, this is a TASTY burger!" or "Where is my super suit?", or "Mace Windu is gay".
Something like that? Meh. ________________________________________________________________________
More ten word movie reviews (for Ev):
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -Burton+Depp+Dahl= As good as you would expect.
Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb -Cold War paranoia satire-compelling. But why so highly regarded?
I guess that's about it for now. Is anybody going to this tomorrow?
Oh yeah... Here's another movie that looks really interesting. Gus Van Sant's new one "based loosely" on the last days of Kurt Cobain's life. (In the same way that "Elephant" was "based loosely" on the Columbine killings. What's next? Is Sant gonna make a movie about Muslim extremists crashing planes into twin towers "based loosely" on 9/11?). At any rate, I think the movie looks interesting, and Micheal Pitt looks like he does a really good Kurt impersonation, and the movie site itself is really cool, so you should check it out.
posted by roger 5:55 PM
Friday, August 05, 2005
Wow, this movie seems to have come out of nowhere. Well I guess not, apparently it just won the Grand Prix of the Jury at Cannes. (Did Cannes just happen recently?) But, still I'm suprised I haven't heard about it...I mean it's a project involving one of my favorite actors (Bill Murray) and one of my favorite directors (Jim Jarmusch -Coffee and Cigarettes notwithstanding- Dead Man and Ghost Dog are still pretty frikkin' sweet).
So, this film is getting some pretty good reviews. I think it's been a while since I've been really excited about a movie, so it's nice to have something to look forward to seeing.
That's not to say that I haven't been seeing any good movies of late. In fact my visual cortex has been stimulated by a number of excellent ones of late, on both big and small screen. In order to conserve space I will review each in exactly 10 words. No more, no less. (some of these I had seen before...just happened to catch them on TV and whatnot.)
A Very Long Engagement- Kinda slow, but pretty. It's no Amelie, but oh well.
Born Into Brothels- Of prostitutes and thier photograhy-loving children. Sad but hopeful.
The Jerk- "I was born a poor black child." Steve Martin= genius
Top Gun- When Goose died... saddest movie moment ever. Ok, not really.
The Saddest Music in the World- Could very well be the weirdest movie I've ever seen.
Well, what else have I been up to?
Oh! I saw the fireworks three time (all of them so far this year) from three different angles (English Bay, Locarno Beach, and Kits Beach). They weren't really that interesting from any angle. For what it's worth, I guess i liked China's the best.
Summer Tunes:
Otis Redding- Various The Rentals- Return of the Rentals Iron & Wine- The Creek Drank the Cradle Getz/Gilberto- Getz/Gilberto Autolux- Future Perfect Yo La Tengo- Prisoners of Love Various '80s mixes
posted by roger 12:34 AM
