For 2010 I’m ordering pizza and watching this. You should too.

Play it loud and imagine the great echoes from banging on the doors of tomorrow. Happy solstice.

END OF THE DECADE DELIGHTS

1. Lesson No. 1 – Glenn Branca

2. Susan When She Tried – Elvis Presley

3. Graze – Animal Collective

4. Poison Arrow – Sonic Youth

5. Must Be Santa – Bob Dylan

6. My Friend – Bill Callahan

7. Velvet – The Big Pink

8. The Afterlife – YACHT

9. Failure – A Sunny Day in Glasgow

10. Morning Light – Girls

11. Everybody’s Talkin’ – Harry Nilsson

12. Half Asleep (Alt. Version) – School of Seven Bells

13. Red F – Dan Deacon

14. New Generation – Suede

15. Altar Boy – Tom Waits

16. Quick Canal (w/ Laetitia Sadier) – Atlas Sound

Yo Hipsters,

Via Flavorwire, Stereotyping People by Their Fav. Indie Bans, none really worked for me–still humorous and.  . . Shiv, It’s not necessarily a bad thing that it’s so right on:

“Animal Collective
Guys who make “Best of the Year” lists in January based predominantly on “feeling.”“

We just aren’t happy. Is restless the new happy?

All the more incentive for none of you to move here and keep my rent down.

Here’s Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti’s tour-only CD-R from earlier this year. It compiles their “Greatest Hits” and they’ve done a stellar job. I’m a huge fan although I can understand why people don’t like [them] very much. I can’t decide whether Pink wants to purposefully make really bad music appealing or make really structured, complex pop songs sound accidental and just ugly as shit. Either way, I love the stuff. Enjoy!

Part 1 / Part 2

Not my links so if your download fails, let me know.

These movies are spectacular. I too don’t have much to say.

10. Bad Education (Almodovar, 2004)

9. Matchpoint (Allen, 2005)

8. Far From Heaven (Haynes, 2002)

7. There Will Be Blood (Anderson, 2008)

6. Inland Empire (Lynch, 2006)

5. Let The Right One In (Alfredson, 2008)

4. O Brother, Where Art Thou (Coens, 2000)

3. Mullholland Dr. (Lynch, 2001)

2. 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (Mungiu, 2007)

1. 2046 (Kar-Wai, 2005)

This movie is unreal. Shaking Wong Kar-Wai’s hand just after discovering his genius was also pretty cool. Here are a few more favorites:

-What Time is it There? by Ming-Liang Tsai
-The Dark Knight by Christopher Nolan
-Elephant by Gus Van Sant
-I’m Not There by Todd Haynes
-Superbad by Greg Mottola

- Howl’s Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki

- The Cat Returns by Hiroyuki Morita

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Elsewhere: Music lists? I’d love to see your guys’. Are there any 09 (formidably formal) festivities planned for things like this? I’ll see you soon John

I don’t have the time, breath, intelligence or energy to give any explination for this list. Images and your collective imagination will suffice. Off we go:

10. Cache (Haneke, 2005)

9. George Washington (Green, 2000)

8. Inland Empire (Lynch, 2006)

7. In Praise of Love (Godard, 2001)

6. Yi Yi (Yang, 2000)

5. Dogville (Von Trier, 2003)

4. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai, 2006)

3. Mulholland Drive (Lynch, 2001)

‘

2. What Time is it There (Tsai, 2001)

1. 2046 (Kar-Wai, 2004)

#1 Gomorrah-

Powerful from the first shot. There’s lots of beauty in this film’s ugly. The plot reminds me of Italian film at its best. Meticulous mese en scene.

A SCENE

#2 2046-

An entrancing dream. Wong Kar Wai makes some of my favorite fantasies in cinema, and this is his best. He has a shocking command of visual and music. Tony Leung…

A SCENE

#3 The New World-

The cinematography is so engrossing and poetic you almost forget about the story. The drama more than lives up to it though.

A SCENE

#4 Syriana-

So underrated. The best thriller of the decade. So multi-layered it puts you off-balance. Intelligent in all the best ways, and ahead of the curve politically. And it’s brave enough to have scenes in mall parking lots where nothing explodes.

A SCENE

#5 American Psycho-

It creates it’s own bizarre world that makes so much sense. Hilarious and terrible. So many classic scenes. And C. Bale might have created the decade’s best character.

A SCENE

#6 The Royal Tenenbaums-

Anderson at his peak. No self-doubting here. The soundtrack is simply perfect, the jokes rattle off, and the family melodrama comes off organic, even with all the beautiful artifice.

#7 Wall-E-

Pixar with swagger. Bold and beautiful. A sad film. Much love to Chaplin and Keaton (there’s a ton of old Hollywood in here I don’t know too). And when Wall-E’s flying through space, you’re a sucker for the special effects too.

#8 There Will Be Blood-

Looks incredible, sounds incredible, acted incredibly. You watch it and feel like it’s film at it’s fullest potential.

#9 Talk To Her-

Almadovar has a way of making the simple so layered and make the difficult things in life so airy. A joy to watch every time.

#10 Paranoid Park-

Uses a completely different language. With so many films so bad at depicting the life of a teenager, this film is almost shocking to watch. The beautifully simple plot structure orbits around the crime at the center of the story.

10 more.#11 A Serious Man-

“Accept the mystery” The film knows what to explain and what not to, and I love the Cohens for that. Human because it’s so weird. Much like Fargo in that regard. Their best since it?

#12 Howl’s Moving Castle-

Feels timeless and just so out there. I might have made this story up when I was seven. My favorite Miyazaki because it’s so silly.

#13 The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford-

Drama that leaves you breathless. A perfect masculinity play. There are only a couple John Wayne films better than this movie.

#14 Adaptation-

Nick Cage. Adaptation is so post-modern that it hurts, but the film saves itself by going all out in the third act. Dark bizarre and funny, but ultimately, a movie with heart.

#15  Lost in Translation-

Pace and subtlety are what make this film great and apparently underrated. It’s nice to see a film both capture moments and work well as a narrative.

#16 I’m Not Scared

#17 Mulholland Dr.

#18 Pineapple Express

#19 No Country For Old Men

#20 The Dark Knight

Here’s a great site Beth showed us last night. It’s a bunch of recorded acts from artists like fleet foxes, sonic youth, gnarles barkley (“blown away”-shiv), ad nauseam and i’ve pasted a link below for all you white denims fans.

http://www.fromthebasement.tv/artists/white-denim/gallery