JaNYEuary

The longer I live in a mid-tier American rustcity the larger my Sundance envy grows.

True Top Forty 2017

shoulders only get broader

Terror Jr BOP CITY 2: TERRORISING (2017)

Of the new genre of 'bops' these stand-out with sly lyrics that mean as much as you want, Snapchat koans of heartache and spite. Death Wish and Appreciation are confections and Sweatpants is a trap-referencing flex, as if every con is a long con, underestimation is real-life judo and having dull ears will kill.

Harold Budd/Robin Guthrie/Eraldo Bernocchi WINTER'S GARDEN (2011)

Life changes when you realize you're a servant not a savior.

Herb Alpert /Hugh Masekela HERB ALPERT/HUGH MASEKELA (1978)

Holy smokes this album is liquid joy. Rest in peace, Mr. Masekela.

Harold Budd THE PAVILION OF DREAMS (1978)

Eno compatriot raised in the Mojave taught composition at CalArts, and it sounds like Blade Runner meets X-Files meets Twins Peaks meets blissful apathy.

ps

I think The Room is my favorite but this is a treasure trove I've just discovered.

Purple Hill Witch CELESTIAL CEMETERY (2017)

A bargain at 43 kroner! Or you could stream it at Spotify, where they've spelled Cemetery "Cemetry."  Swedes sabotaging their Norwegian rivals? I think you can probably guess what the album sounds like from that righteous artwork.

I, TONYA dir. Craig Gillespie (2017)

A tale of class struggle and a modern Cain and Abel, set very authentically in the grey-oir of seedy Eastside Portland, overcast days and thick damp nights, and then the dim fluorescence of artificial ice rinks reflecting pale blue light back up.  Funny and fast and mostly honest, telling a fuller picture by including the versions from her dim-witted hangers-on.  We had family friends, two sisters, who skated with Tonya and said she was just unkind. Margot Robbie is going to cast you in better light by virtue of being Margot Robbie, as close to exoneration as Tonya is going to get.

mother! dir. Darren Aronofsky (2017)

Phenomenally passionate, featuring Jennifer Lawrence's best work and a terrific unintentional foil from Javier Bardem, the vacuum of a poet who destroys their paradise with his all-too-human need for attention and praise. What begins as the spare pastoral dream life à la Edward Hopper descends into the chaotic, unhinged vision of Hieronymus Bosch.  Creation needs a lack of some kind, but does the Creator? Could God not make a better god?

Buongiorno!

All the Gravy visitors seem to be in Italy these days... possibly because the Italians are a majestic people and the only ones who understand the true glory of a great gravy.

Benvenuto from Ben V, you beautiful people of the boot!



No one knows how to live like the Italians, not even the French.

Favorite Albums of 2017

20. Slowdive SLOWDIVE

19. Brian Eno REFLECTION

18. Spoon HOT THOUGHTS

17. Jessie Ware GLASSHOUSE

16. Lorde MELODRAMA

15. Sheer Mag NEED TO FEEL YOUR LOVE

14. Wolf Parade CRY CRY CRY

13. Hey Violet FROM THE OUTSIDE

12. Visible Cloaks ASSEMBLAGE

11. Mount Eerie A CROW LOOKED AT ME

10. Futures Islands THE FAR FIELD

9. Japandroids NEAR THE WILD HEART OF HEAVEN

8. Gas NARKOPOP

7. Tom Rogerson/Brian Eno FINDING SHORE

6. Alexis Georgeopolous/Jefre Cantu-Ledesma FRAGMENTS OF A SEASON

5. San Fermin BELONG

4. Mark McGuire VISION UPON PURPOSE

3. HAIM SOMETHING TO TELL YOU

2. Pallbearer HEARTLESS

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1. Lana Del Rey LUST FOR LIFE

Secret contender for song of the year:

PHANTOM THREAD dir. Paul Thomas Anderson (2017)

Lush, tactile and funny.  The neuropathologist I worked for was an older English gentleman (Northumberland born) who shared many traits with Reynolds Woodcock.  His preferred mode of operation was to move in kindness; extremely polite and cleverly, quietly absurdist.  But he was very easily nudged out of that, when situations didn't accommodate him exactly, and he'd become flustered and condescending. Daniel Day-Lewis is delightful and Vicky Krieps exudes thoughtful poise as someone who methodically lives each day, puzzling together the way to achieve her dream.  Caregivers want attention too, maybe more than the children do.

Scott digs it toooooooo! If you want a tremendously well-written synopsis + analysis rather than rambling anecdotes.

Mark McGuire AUTOMATIC WRITING (2018)

If we lived in the coolest timeline, Mark McGuire would have a Deadhead-esque following and I would be an itinerant caravaner, living off my pot ball sales, so I guess it is good we don't live in the coolest timeline. Throw this ascended friend some shekels.

YOB CLEARING THE PATH TO ASCEND (2014)

Portland knows.  This is now a Cascadian separatist blog.

Lana Del Rey LUST FOR LIFE (2017)

Five of my top ten songs of the year. A transformation, a suddenly hectare-wide soul -with the style of Samantha from Bewitched-making the only great political album of a year that sorely needed one. I think her hex is working.

PS Fuck you Radiohead (and we know it's just you Thom) you weenies never got shine from DISSENT

Lawrence English A COLOUR FOR AUTUMN (2009)

A resonant ambient more refined than famous contemporaries Stars of the Lid, who got often go theatrical (and end up trite) to justify their bloated album lengths.  A museum full of Rothkos and Newmans and windows. Mr. English had a solid album last year- CRUEL OPTIMISM (2017)- which feels more immediate and Hecker-ian, but right now I'd prefer an escape hatch to a gondola ride over the ruins.

Scott's Top Ten of 2017

In case you wanted the opinion of, y'know, an expert. And he wrote it up as well.  Because Scott hustles.

Scott was in a few other great episodes at the end of the year including an AFI fest wrap-up, a two-hander with David on the film-lovers' work on how to see something (testify!), and a pair with excellent comedians Jackie Kashian and Susan Burke.

Favorite Films of 2017

***Trip To Spain***
***Avengers: Civil War***
***Thor***
***The Disaster Artist***
20. Song to Song

19. Better Watch Out

18. Atomic Blonde

17. Logan

16. Landline

15. The Last Jedi

14. Person to Person
13. Baby Driver
***THE DISASTER ARTIST***
***GOOD TIME***
***Ingrid Goes West***

12. Dunkirk

11. Personal Shopper

10. Blade Runner 2049
***mother!***

9. The Shape of Water

8. Spider-man: Homecoming

7. I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore

6. The Little Hours

5. Colossal
***I, Tonya***

4. The Big Sick
***The Florida Project***
3. Lady Bird

2. Get Out
*** Phantom Thread***
1. Call Me By Your Name

Have a few left I can't wait to see, but St. Louis is a little undergunned when it comes to premieres. For what it's worth, Wind River was the dumbest movie I saw this year. 

Lady Gaga JOANNE Tour

We were concerned all year, and especially after seeing the documentary, that her fibromyalgia would flare up and she'd have to cancel, but Gaga pushed through and put on the best arena show I've ever seen.  It is still weird that we have a superempath pop star from Juilliard making art for us. The Cure did finish as the song of the year, btw, and it was just as effervescent and restorative in person, like Coke with the original coke in it.

Ron Funches FUNCH-A-MANIA Tour

He and opener Ramon Rivas II were such on-point, technically precise wordsmiths and crafty stand-ups it is hard to believe they're really stoners.  They had gentle, goofy, generous spirits so I think if they could hotbox with Jeff Sessions for an hour it would be like a baptism in the Jordan and he might come out no longer an elf of hate. That is the movie America needs.

Slowdive SLOWDIVE (2017)

I don't think I've ever had as broad a heart for as much art as I did in 2017.  Suddenly, the persistence of artists seemed magical, the effects more than metaphorical.  Slowdive coming out of a twenty-two year retirement with this generous slice of shoegaze grace was unexpected and comforting and encouraging. Start from the end: Falling Ashes is as dreamy, magnetic and propulsive as anything I've heard all year.  Like leaving vespers just as the rain cleared up and the clouds ran off. You'll be humming the chord changes and cheery for the rest of the day.

Bell Witch MIRROR REAPER (2017)

1 song on 4 sides of vinyl. Doom metal and hope metal.  The griever and the grieved have space to be heard.  If you need to clear your unfinished business with two thousand seventeen, ritual this.

Mike Birbiglia THE NEW ONE Tour

His funniest work yet, comedians age better than rock stars imo.