Random Oscar thoughts

- glad the academy, despite having a film that made more money than it knows what to do with, didn’t shy away from an indie darling for the major awards. Funny though how people don’t seem to be complaining about never having seen the Hurt Locker though, like they did with No Country. Maybe because Hurt Locker is about war?

- I have no real issues with the Hurt Locker’s best picture win, but I wonder how it will stand the test of time along with the other great war movies.

- The one award the Hurt Locker didn't deserve was original screenplay. Inglorious Basterds and A Serious Man were much better from a writing standpoint.

- Avatar got what it deserved, which was the technical awards. Sometime soon, someone will use this tech and make an unforgettable film, Avatar was just the first step.

- Admittedly, I did not see any of the performances in the lead actress category. But I still have a hard time wrapping my head around Sandra Bullock as a winner from a movie that looked like it belonged on Lifetime.

- I still hate the fellating of the lead actors and actresses. I get it, everyone thinks you’re great. I just don’t care.

- The best picture award seemed like an after thought. Cut out some of the filler so there’s not more suspense before sound editing than there is for best picture.

- Bring back Jon Stewart. Or Whoopi Goldberg. Or Ben Stiller as a Navi. The two host thing was garbage.

2009-the albums

Following up last week’s best tracks of the year, I present to you my favorite albums of the year. Granted, I don’t have enough time to listen to everything that gets released, but I think this is a pretty good cross section of some great albums.


10. Sonic Youth – The Eternal
SY’s first album after leaving Geffen, The Eternal fits squarely in the middle of their catalogue. It’s not up to par with their classic albums, but is solid from front to back, ending with one of the most dreamy songs they have ever done, “Massage the History.” The Eternal isn’t much of a departure for the band, but a solid Sonic Youth album is still better than a lot of what’s out there.


9. The Horrors – Primary Colours
More accessible than Strange House, Primary Colours is the album that got the Horrors opening for Nine Inch Nails and a guest spot on the next Gorillaz record. Part goth, part shoegaze, Primary Colours is a moody, atmospheric gem of an album.


8. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
Between this and 2007’s Beyond, Dino Jr. is enjoying quite the renaissance more than twenty years after their debut record. Catchy while remaining gritty, some of Farm’s best moments come when they decide to take the listener for a ride (see the superb “I Don’t Wanna Go There”). Much like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr. have aged much better than many of their more famous contemporaries. Maybe that lack of mainstream fame is what have kept them sounding good all these years.


7. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
While not as immediately intimidating or dense as last year’s Street Horrsing, Tarot Sport is equally as impressive. That’s not to say that this is an easy listen, because it’s not. But Tarot Sport had me doing something that I never thought I would listening to a Fuck Buttons album: nodding my head and wanting to dance.


6. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
What’s left to say about this that hasn’t already been said? This is Animal Collective’s game changer, by far their most accessible, but at the same time, best, album. While I don’t agree with all of the “second coming” type praise that has been bestowed upon it, Merriweather is a damn good album and begins to solidify Animal Collective’s legacy as one of the most interesting and unique bands of the last decade.


5. P.O.S. – Never Better
Promise of Skill. Piece of Shit. Whatever you think P.O.S. may stand for, his raw talent isn’t up for debate. For someone who started off as a member of a punk collective, it really says something that he is in the upper echelon of rappers this decade. While his punk rock roots come out strong on this, his third album, but they never take away from what Never Better is at it’s core—the heartfelt musings of a man who may not have all the answers, but knows who he is.


4. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Pop rock gets a bad rap. At times it can be dreadful, but when everything goes right, it can be a hell of a lot of fun. Fortunately, Phoenix fall into the later category and sound what the Strokes should have sounded like if they didn’t seem so bored.


3. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…pt. II
Arguably the most anticipated hip hop album of the year delivered in spades. This is classic Wu right from the get go. All of the members shine, and Ghost more than makes up for the shortcomings of his recent R&B experiment. If you are into hip hop at all, you need to hear this album, end of story.


2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!
From the iconic cover to the complete, yet natural feeling, change of sound, It’s Blitz! Is the sound of a band reinvigorated. While some may have worried about where the band was heading (after all, their last EP sounded more like Show Your Bones leftovers than new material), but all fears were unfounded. While the sound itself is nothing revolutionary, other bands don’t have the one thing that makes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs so great: Karen O. She’s able to run the gamut from danceable synth-pop (“Zero”) to the most heartfelt song she’s done since “Maps” (“Hysteric”) with ease. Of all the recent indie rock stars, Karen is heads and shoulders above them all.


1. Mos Def – The Estatic
What amazes me so much about this album is how natural it sounds. You know you’re listening to a great talent when it doesn’t even sound like they’re trying, which is the exact sensation you get over each of the sixteen tracks. Talbi Kweli described Mos Def as the most naturally talented person he’s ever known and The Estatic showcases that brilliantly. Mos needed a comeback after the abysmal True Magic, but I hesitate to call it a comeback because Mos has always been here. He’s just having more fun now, and it show

2009-the songs

Despite not posting on here for a year, I like to keep track of what I've been listening to over the last twelve months. These are the fifteen songs that I felt were the best that 2009 had to offer, and unless you get down to Nickelback and Jessica Simpson, I'm sure you'll enjoy at least a few of these.

15. JJ-Ecstasy




Dreamy Swedish pop that bites Lil Wayne's "Lollipop?" Yes, please.

14. Art Brut - DC Comic and Chocolate Milkshakes



A nice reminder that no matter how bad things get or how old we are, there are somethings that will always make us happy.

13. Sage Francis - Conspiracy to Riot


OK, so he was performing this song live last year, but "released" it on a mix-tape this year, so that counts dammit!

12. Raekwon - House of Flying Daggers


This unofficial Wu-Tang reunion on Raekwon's latest record is better than everything on Wu's last official album.

11. Mos Def - Life in Marvelous Times


Want to dance to how bad Brooklyn was in the 80's? Here's your joint.

10. Wavves - Gun in the Sun


Cali skater rock meets Brooklyn lo-fi. All you need to know is that it works.

9. The XX - Crystalized


Minimalist pop from the same South London area that brought us Air. The aesthetic is familiar, but fresh.

8. Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls


Franz seem to always be one step behind the trends, but catchy tunes are their fortay and this is no exception.

7. Brother Ali - Philistine David


What seems like a leftover from The Undisputed Truth sessions, it was released this year on an EP and it bangs with Ali's best.

6. Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind


I'm as sick of this as you are, but a good song is a good song. This is the best love letter to NYC in years.

5. P.O.S. - Goodbye


This is best played at exceptionally loud volumes, trust me.

4. Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire


It's the lo-fi love anthem of 2009. If you're at that awkward age where responsibility starts to really call, this one's for you

3. Animal Collective - Summertime Clothes


One of many deserving songs off of their latest album, this year saw Animal Collective at their absolute best. Along with "My Girls," "Summertime Clothes" best personifies their new direction.

2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero


Karen O and company switched from their post riot grrl antics to straight on synth pop. Totally unexpected, but as it turns out, completely awesome.

1. Phoenix - 1901/Liztomania



These guys are so damn catchy, I couldn't pick just one. If one of these don't get stuck in your head for at least a week, check to see if you still have a pulse.

Money and the Oscars

The nominees have been announced and the time is near when we will find out what Hollywood considered the best of the best from last year. And inevitably, the complaining has already started, from who got snubbed to what isn’t deserving of a nominee in the first place. But one cry seems to resonate louder than the rest; that the Oscars have gotten to independent, that they don’t take into account what people actually go to see. These cries seemed to reach pinnacle mass last year when only one of the best picture nominees made more than $100 million in US box office receipts (Juno), while three of the remaining four netted just fifty million or less domestically (the winner, No Country for Old Men, finished up with just over $74).

Fast forward a year and we’re hearing the same things again with this year’s crop of best picture nominees. Now I know that monetary return does not equate to great art, but what if these critics are right? Has the Academy forgotten the average film goer? Are they trying to dictate what we should like instead of what we pay to see? To find out, I’ve looked at the last few years of best picture winners and nominees (going back to 2000, including this years crop) to see if there is any truth behind this claim. All numbers are from boxofficemojo.com and I’ve used the benchmark of $100 million domestic as the number for a “runaway hit.”

As I briefly went over the numbers for last year’s ceremony before, let’s start off with 2006, when The Departed took the award. Grossing over $130 million that year and finishing up just below Mission Impossible 3 in total gross that year (and ahead of Borat), this was hardly the little critical darling that could. It’s closest best picture competition? Little Miss Sunshine at $59 million. Ok, while the best picture that year was both a critical and commercial success, the other four weren’t exactly box office smashes. One film out of five is hardly keeping in line with the public, you might say. Fair enough, so let’s go back another year with Crash’s controversial victory.

The Oscars for the year 2005 might be the best case that the box office folks have, as none of the best picture nominees cracked the one hundred million dollar mark (the closest, Brokeback Mountain, pulled in $83). But like most entertainment these days, success is not just measured in how much one makes, but the buzz created by it, and the buzz created by Crash and Brokeback was immense. Crash, filmed on a budget of just $6.5 million, managed to pull in over $54 million here in the States. And other films, such as Munich, more than made up for their domestic shortcomings with very strong overseas performances (63.6% of Munich’s gross came from outside the US). Still, none of the nominees that year seemed to capture the attention of US audiences. Fair enough, a point which I’m willing to concede (the crop of films nominated that year, minus Crash and Brokeback, was also subject at best, but that’s an argument for another time).

However, going back any further on the Oscar timeline basically ruins this argument. Going back to 2000, when Gladiator won, every movie winning best picture has grossed over $100 million domestically, and there have been at least two $100+ pictures nominated each year. Not to mention that the Return of the King was the number one grossing movie that year. So is Hollywood becoming increasingly insular with its picks? The last two years of data seem to support that. So how do this year’s nominees fare?

As of this writing, only one of the best picture nominees this year has passed the $100 million mark, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The only other one that comes close is Slumdog Millionaire, with a current take of ~$61 million. Neither of the other three nominees have yet breached the $25 million mark, which would be a first in recent Oscar memory (the previous domestic low was Capote which pulled in $28 million, this year the Reader sits at $11 million). This seems pretty damning evidence. No one really cared about the movies that Hollywood thought were the best this year, making the ceremony mostly irrelevant. But my question is, what commercially successful movie would have replaced any of these films? Looking at the top twenty grossing films released last year (Benjamin Button is currently nineteenth and Gran Turino is sitting at 23rd but with a nine figure gross as well), only two pictures, The Dark Night and Wall-e really stand out to me. Is Se and the City deserving of a best picture nominee? Quantum of Solace? Four Christmases? And of the two that I mentioned, I can only make a serious case for Wall-e, which I blame the Academy’s arcane rule for not allowing animated films to garner a best picture nod.

So does this put us at odds with the Academy’s picks? I don’t think it does, or at least it shouldn’t. We don’t need anyone to tell us to go see the Dark Night or Sex and the City, those are mainstream projets that you couldn’t help not hear about. While they still may have been good films, there are ones that slip through the cracks and picking those films up and getting them recognition, I believe is the Academy’s job. If these movies are truly deserving of a best picture nomination (I have only seen tow of the five this year), then they deserve the nomination, regardless of how much they make at the box office. Good films will get the recognition they deserve, sometimes through box office returns and sometimes through nominations from their peers. While some people see the Academy as shutting out mainstream audiences, I see them as trying to expand horizons. That, and there is already an wards show that listens to the people and it’s called the People’s Choice Awards, whose favorite movie category was exactly the same as the favorite action movie category. As for my pick this year? My money’s on Slumdog, you can take that to the bank.

2008 - The tracks

It's that time o year again, when everyone tries to tell you what the best songs from this past year were, usually with varying results. Make no mistake, I haven't heard everything that has been put out this year, but I've listened to enough to add my worthless opinion to the countless others. So here they are, my fifteen favorite songs of 2008 (with video goodness!)

15. Chairlift - Bruises

Also known as that iPod song.

14. Q-Tip - Gettin' Up

Because everyone needs more old school hip-hop in their life.

13. Beck - Chemtrails

The beginning of this track is just haunting.

12. Fuck Buttons - Sweet Love for Planet Earth

In the almost ten minutes that this song lasts, you still don't have enough time to fully get your head around it.

11. Deerhunter - Nothing Ever Happened

A repetitive chorus never sounded so indie.

10. Vampire Weekend - Walcott

Come for the piano. Stay for the New Jersey line.

9. Nas - Hero

It's a sad state of affairs when your first single is the best track on the album, but Hero just bangs.

8. Hercules and Love Affair - Blind

Disco lives! Pitchfork's song of the year fills our James Murphy need for the year nicely.

7. One Day as a Lion - One Day as a Lion

File this under albums I never thought would see the light of day. It's like Rage, but in lo-fi goodness.

6. Portishead - Machine Gun

They used to do trip hop you say? The return of Portishead is a cerebral mind fuck.

5. Wolf Parade - California Dreamer

The hook, it stays with you.

4. MGMT - Time to Pretend

The catchiest tune on an album of catchy tunes. I think everyone liked this one.

3. M83 - Kim & Jessie

1980 lives!!! This would feel right at home in your 80's teen movie of choice. Mine would be Gremlins.

2. Nine Inch Nails - 1,000,000

Man crush aside, Trent's still got it. This murders live.

1. The Roots - Rising Down/Rising Up

From the head nodding opening notes (and the best Mos Def guest spot in some time), Rising Down is how you open an album. It opens the dark journey of the Root's latest album, culminating in the upbeat Rising Up, bringing the band full circle in the course of one album. This is that real hip hop.

The next coming out party

This has been an interesting time for civil rights and our perceptions of the people still fighting for them. We’ve seen a (half) black man elected President of the United States but we’ve also seen a major civil rights setback in, of all places, California, one of the most liberal places in the union. So what gives? How are some groups overcoming large hurdles while others are struggling to clear even small ones? How is it that when one group makes significant gains, another just takes it’s spot in line, asking for the same things that we’ve just given to others? Where does this cycle end (before we get down to Furries, I hope)? And why am I asking so many damn questions?

Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: just because Obama has been elected President, the problems of blacks are far from over. Racism will not just up and disappear, poverty and crime in our nation’s poorer minority areas will still be rampant. But that’s not to say that this isn’t a significant victory, not just for blacks, but for everyone who has ever been held down because of outdated prejudices, because it is. What we see here is the embodiment of the American dream, yes you can come from any background and aspire to be what you want, as long as you put in the work and have a good head upon your shoulders. In Obama, we see people looking past skin color and seeing just a man, a man that we hope can turn things in this country around for the better. So why is it, that in the same year we have this historical and monumental event in which we look beyond a man’s race, can we not look past something else that is a substantial cause for division: one’s sexuality.

It came as a shock to many that one of the most nationally talked about ballot measures, California’s Proposition Eight to ban gay marriage, had passed. I mean, this was California, the state that has made medical marijuana readily available, the home of Hollywood and the porn industry! What the fuck were they thinking? It seems to me, that as willing as we are to except some new change in regards to treating others equally, there are still a few groups we, as a mass, somehow deem unworthy of equal rights. Right now, in the middle of our crosshairs, are gays. Gays are now fighting the same bigotry that other groups (women, racial minorities) have fought successfully in the past. No, they don’t have to use different drinking fountains and their sexual preference does not inhibit their right to vote, but they are the new targets of nonsensical legislation aimed at denying them the same rights that straight people have. Of course, we are talking about the interpretive definition of one word. Marriage.

The argument is tired at this point; if gays are allowed to marry, then dogs and cats will live in harmony, men will start marrying their toasters, and the whole fabric of the space/time continuum will break apart and we will be sucked into another dimension where we will all be forced to do slave labor for Jabba the Hutt while listening to Nickelback. While this makes no sense whatsoever to any reasonable minded person, I am almost happy that this is the problem that many gays are now facing. The fact that the passing of Prop 8 has become such a cultural hot button issue, attest to the fact that gays have become a much more noticeable and voiced segment of our population, which is only a good thing. While coming out is still a huge step in any gay’s life, one that is still subject to ridicule and scorn from peers and family members alike, the fact that they are able to lobby, this intensely, for equal rights in the realm of marriage is a huge step forward and one that brings along with it, a sense of hope. Yes, people may not be comfortable enough with you getting married to someone of the same sex, but they seem to be getting more comfortable about the fact that you are gay in general.

So if, in fact, gays have started to move on to larger battles, who is next in line? What group of people has a “personality quirk,” which despite not being of any real damage to society, finds it hard to divulge such information to the general public in fear of ridicule and shunning by their peers? The answer: atheists. The “A-word” is still very taboo, especially here in the United States. A disturbingly large number of people equate a lack of belief in a higher power with a general lack of morals, regularly using non-believers as scapegoats for society’s ills (“If he had just been a good church going boy, this never would have happened!). You see it everywhere you look, in churches, on TV, “boycotts” of films with atheist themes (boycotts only in parenthesis because they’re never really successful). Having all these things thrown at you at once, and you can be put in a very precarious position, and that’s just from people you don’t know. The real damage, like it is with homosexuals, comes from the people close to you.

One of the striking similarities I find between gays and atheists, is that other people (usually religious), tend to look at a person’s admission of either as a failure of the parents. If they had just worked harder, done something different, little Johnny wouldn’t have turned into a heathen (just imagine if he was gay as well! They just might call a priest over right then and there to perform some sort of emergency cleansing!). Now, your parents may not mind the ridicule, and if they are well reasoned people, they shouldn’t. But it is unfair to us, for others around us to have to suffer such ridicule for a something that they had no control over. Let into us all you want (in a perverse way, I’d actually enjoy it), but holding our loved ones responsible for what you deem our moral failures is downright reprehensible. It’s bad enough that we have to worry about what our parents will think when we tell them the news, the last thing we need is for some self-righteous douchebag to kick them if they’re down.

Some will make the argument that I really cannot compare the coming out processes of gays and atheists, as one is come upon by research while the other does not occur by choice. And yes, while that may be true, us atheists are not born believing what we do (nor, for the record is anyone else), when you hold a position that goes against “proper society,” you begin to sympathize with others who have had, and eventually had the strength to overcome, such plights. And if that view (or trait) des not hold any real threat to society, then the sense of hatred hat society feels towards these individuals is not only unwarranted, but it is unnecessary. As we become a more tolerant society, just like we have many times in the past, we will learn to accept not only atheism as a normal and (dare I say) healthy viewpoint, but whatever comes up next will become accepted as well. There are no atheists in the foxholes, we’re not out to corrupt society, we just want to be able to be open about our beliefs without having to deal with constant ridicule and demeaning. And if we can convert some of you in the process, well that would just be icing on the cake.

How McCain lost

It wasn’t just the economy, stupid.

It’s been a week since a Senator from Illinois made history by becoming the first African American President elect in our nation’s history. In that time there has been much celebrating, his first briefings and the looming task of choosing a staff to help guide our next four years. But what of the other guy, you know, the loser (or first runner up for all you “everybody’s a winner” types). There has been much finger pointing in both the McCain camp and the media. So what really went wrong? Many people blame the economy. While that is certainly a large part of it, it’s not nearly the only reason. As I see it, there were a series of missteps that, even if the stock market hadn’t crashed, would have been tough for McCain to overcome.

You’re doing it wrong (er, backwards)
There are two camps you need to energize in order to win an election: your base and the “independents.” After securing his party’s nomination, while Obama and Clinton were still battling it out, McCain did the unthinkable; he went after the independents. Instead of dragging the Dems through the mud, he tried to play off his reformer image. Then, after Gov. Palin burst onto the scene, that’s when they energized their base. Only problem was, they did the whole thing backwards. Voters have short memories (Hillary supporters for McCain anyone?) and the people the Republicans needed to win the election weren’t being catered to with talk of “crossing the aisle.” Instead, what they were hearing were Palin’s remarks about the “real America” and how she was going to eat the babies of all non-Christians. Not the best way to get undecideds on your side. Speaking of Palin…

Sarah Palin: redneck rock star!
When your VP candidate overshadows almost your every move, getting most of the attention, you’re not only doing it wrong, but someone should take away your privileges of ever doing it again. The VP pick should complement your weaknesses and play a strong, but largely invisible role behind the scenes, drumming up support for you, not themselves. McCain at times was playing second fiddle to Palin, not good.

His dick fingers
Those air quotes that he was using for about a week? The ones that infamously dismissed the “health” of “women?” They helped him “lose” the women “vote.”

Control, you must learn control!
One gets the feeling that somewhere along the way, McCain didn’t seem to agree with how his campaign was managing his image. Whether is was not wanting to bring up Ayers but then doing so anyway, or letting Sarah speak out of turn, if McCain didn’t like how things were being handled, he should have fired them. After all Senator, they worked for YOU. If you can’t manage your campaign, how will you manage a country?

It’s all about the message
Consistency is key. All throughout his campaign (both in the primaries and general), Obama stuck with one mantra: Change. His message stayed constant and by doing so people were easily able to identify what (if not wholly) he wanted to bring to the table. McCain, did not learn from Hilary’s mistake of changing her message whenever there was a change in the polls. One week he was a reformer, the next he was calling Obama a socialist. If something didn’t stick, he went on to the next thing, ad nauseum Keep chning your mind and people get confused.

The great divide
The GOP has basically fractured into two parties: the super social conservative bible thumping values voters and the fiscally minded folks that enjoyed presidents such as Ronald Reagan and Robot Nixon. As always, the nut jobs are louder and as a result demand more of your time. The true conservatives got fed up and some of them jumped ship. Where they’ll land, who knows, keep an eye on what happens to the GOP in the next few years, it should be interesting to see which direction they take.

Mr. 24%
This is perhaps the one obstacle that no Republican could overcome, President Bush. When the incumbent President’s approval rating has been hovering in the mid to low twenties, you can promise unicorns and pots of gold to everyone and still lose. The Dems could have run just about anyone this year and probably have won (though most likely a much smaller margin than what Obama won by).

The monies
And yes, it was also the economy. Calling the fundamentals of our economy strong the day before one of the biggest collapses in the history of our financial sector is not the best way t win over those fiscal conservatives. Just sayin’.

And finally,

He just wasn’t that great of a candidate.
Sorry.