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.