Let me try this again.
| So I think I just sent you a partial email. Stupid technology. I can't remember if this is what I wrote before, but I'll try. Jessica's Top Nine Songs of 2008 to Listen to On Repeat During the Wee Hours of the Morning. 1. The Virgins - "Rich Girls" Best super-hipster dance song of 2008. I didn't want to like it, but I couldn't help myself. 2. Fleet Foxes - "He Doesn't Know Why" Sometimes I dislike (or ignore) the things that everybody else likes, simply out of principle. But I really like this entire album. And this song? "I was looking at you there and your face looked wrong"? Come on. It's good. You want to sing along; so do it. 3. The Dodos - "Eyelids" Yes, it's only 57 seconds long, but it's the best song on the album. 4. Bon Iver - "Re: Stacks" Again, I can understand if you're sick of hearing about this album, or if you think it's overrated. My initial attraction to the whole project was how and where it was recorded. I've been in Boston for three and a half years now, and although I know dozens and dozens of people from New York, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, even Florida, (etc.) my interactions with other Midwesterners (particularly Plains States Midwesterners) is limited and rare. People have no idea where Iowa is. Or, they say the name of the state (or the Midwest) like it's in quotes. Seriously. So when I stumbled across this album and read about the whole Wisconsin/hunting cabin thing, I was intrigued. And then the music was utterly sad-bastard. Perfect. I don't know what he's saying during the chorus, something about stacks and racks and backs and something-something-low/load... The point is, "Skinny Love" is a good song; "Re: Stacks" is a great one. It's sad and leisurely in that movie soundtrack kinda way. 5. French Kicks - "Said So What" You should listen to this band. On the surface, it might be easy to mistake them for just another super-trendy-hipster-fashionista band, but they consistently put out excellent music. I saw these guys open for Ladytron a few years ago, and they rock live. (Even though all the cool kids in the crowd were too anxious to hear "Seventeen" to appreciate them.) 6. Panda Bear - "I'm Not" I'm cheating with this one - the album was out in 2007, but I didn't hear it until 2008. "Comfy in Nautica" is a great song, sure, but "I'm Not" is more distinctive. But seriously, what's with all the animal name bands? I tried to explain this to a friend of mine, but he seemed to think I was crazy. There are a lot of animal band names, right? Or did I just not notice until this year? 7. Atmosphere - "Shoulda Known" Yes, I realize this is the song from the album that all the stiletto and halter top wearing nineteen year old girls with fake id's will "woo" at and dance to. "Woooo! Ohmahgawd I luv this song! Woooo!" But don't let those squealing, Red Bull-and-vodka'd-up idiots prevent you from shaking your own ass when you hear it, 'cause you should. It's a baby-making song (just don't listen to closely to the lyrics if you're actually making babies and not just, you know, practicing). 8. MGMT - "Electric Feel" (Hangs head in shame.) 9. Wolf Parade - "Call It a Ritual" I don't like the second album as much as the first and I wasn't, initially, particularly impressed by this song. Then I saw them live. Spencer Krug was wearing capri pants - and he was still a million times cooler than everyone else. Best show I saw all year; quite possibly the best show I've ever been to, actually. Anyrate, good tune. Top Eight Movies of 2008 Keep in mind that I have yet to see some of the later-released films of 2008. But so far and in no particular order... 1. In Bruges. Hilarious. 2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall. 3. Reprise. Watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it, watch it. 4. WALL-E. No kidding. 5. The Wackness. 6. The Dark Knight. 7. Tropic Thunder. So funny I almost peed. 8. Frost/Nixon. Top Nine WORST Movies of 2008 Hyun and I see a lot of movies. Two (sometimes three) a week. Yes, that's a lot and no, I don't have kids. Also? Grad school. I don't have the money to travel or buy things, so movies it is. 1. Charlie Bartlett. What a truly awful movie. What was Robert Downey, Jr. doing in this? 2. Vantage Point. In general, I don't usually agree with the broader public's taste in movies, but in this case I do. We saw this in a packed theater on a Friday night and it was excruciatingly heavy-handed, and everyone knew it. It's an action/drama film, but the audience couldn't stop laughing. Kind of restored my faith in humanity. 3. 10,000 B.C. You may be asking, Jessica, why do you see such shitty movies? My answer is that we see a lot of movies - not everything that comes through the theater, but pretty close. And so when it's a Friday afternoon and you've seen everything else you might decide to see the big, shiny, CG action-packed piece of crap, okay? 4. Wanted. Angelina Jolie sucks. Sorry. James McAvoy is lovely, but the ideology of this movie stinks. It is, essentially, a flashy, exploding, blood and guts advertisement for fascistic (is that a word? it is now) monarchy. This movie is so frighteningly unaware of its own ridiculousness. 5. Speed Racer. I wanted to punch that kid and that monkey. 6. Sex and the City. I know it's a guilty pleasure for a lot of people (for me as well, I guess; I did see the movie after all), but it exemplifies pretty much everything that's wrong with our society. Sorry. 7. Star Wars: The Clone Wars. So bad we walked out (we NEVER walk out of movies) and watched the last half of Tropic Thunder again. 8. Righteous Kill. Who continues to let Pacino and De Niro "act"? Can they be put out to pasture already? 9. 88 Minutes. Absolutely, hands down the worst movie I saw this year. Maybe the worst movie I have ever seen. We walked out of this one as well. Opening serial killer scene with two female, Asian roommates (who may or may not have been sisters) that totally fetishizes both women. They're strung up and killed (well, one of them is) in a fashion that I can only describe as pornographic. Jump to Al Pacino's 18 year old girlfriend doing naked yoga in their apartment. And that's when we left. What a steaming pile of shit, pardon my French. |
