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2008 Recommendations:To scope out last year's recommendations, click here. For 2006 recommendations click here.December (4th Week)Fitting that the last recommendation for the year is something I received as a xmas gift. "The Basement Tapes" sounds like a few guys sitting around making music to pass the time... and from what I've read, that's not too far from the truth. This session's got soul, it's fun, it's not overly pointed. There aren't any tracks to skip over in the bunch. Just solid catchy tunes from beginning to end. It's the only place where I've heard The Band playing with Dylan where they're not overshadowed by him. Great stuff.
December (3rd Week)I had been jacked to see "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" for quite a while. A Story by F. Scott Fitzgerald that's directed by David Fincher and Stars Brad Pitt... all three are some of my favorites. Well, it didn't disappoint. Only once in the movie did I feel like Kate Blanchett and Brad Pitt were trying to out act each other (a problem that plagued the film "Babel" from beginning to end). But a very well done movie all the way around, and although it is almost 3 hours long, it didn't drag a bit.
December (2nd Week)This week's recommendation is also a prediction. James Franco is a solid actor, but over coffee with friends the other day, it occurred to me that he is in the best position fill the void left by Heath Ledger. Now, those are some might big shoes to fill, and some might balk at anyone being able to fill them. But there are striking similarities. Both started out as tiger beat leading men. Ledger started taking roles in smaller, less mainstream movies... and Franco has started doing that, most notably in "Milk." Both have very strong jaw lines... I'm just saying, wait a couple years and see if I'm right.
December (1st Week)I'm not an Elton John fan, which is why I love his song "This Train Don't Stop There Anymore." The video for this song is a winner, too. It features a young Justin Timberlake (I kept telling everyone that The Beatles were a boy-band too, and they made some great stuff later on. I'm not a Justin Timberlake fan yet, but once he sits down to smoke with Bob Dylan and Alan Ginsburg, I'll start buying his albums.)
November (4th Week)Since their inception, even the best video games are nerdy, often violent, and generally, just a waste of time-- not to say I don't go on a video game bender from time to time though. Braid, recently published for Xbox live, changes all of that. The game play is very easy (it uses just two of the eight available buttons). The puzzles are very challenging, but in a mind-blowing way... no tedium here. The art is fantastic. And the storyline is absolutely lovely. So far Braid is only available for Xbox 360, but I'm sure it will be available for PCs in the near future.
November (3rd Week)Well, the here's final installment into the self-portrait series (for now). As promised it's one of mine:
November (2nd Week)A break from the self-portraits to lay some Bob Dylan on you. This track below is from the life-changing concert I was at on election night here in MN. The picture below is of the raucous crowd dancing and chanting "Obama!" and "USA!" after the show. (Bob Dylan) - The Times They are a Changin' (Live, Election Night '08)
November (1st Week)Egon Scheile is a new discovery for me, and his self-portraits are some of my favorites:
October (4th Week)A van Gogh Self Portrait:
October (3rd Week)What discussion of great self-portraits would be complete without this Escher?
That's one you may have seen, but check out this self-portrait etching of his:
October (2nd Week)Another perfect self-portrait: Edvard Munch's "Self-Portrait in Bergen"
October (1st Week)Let's make this self-portrait thing a series, eh? I've never seen a picture that puts me into the place I am taken to when I draw/paint/write as well as this picture: Kathe Kollwitz's "Self-Portrait 1924"
And here's a tremendous quote by Kathe Kollwitz about why she chose the poor so often as the subjects of her art: "But what I would like to emphasize once more is that compassion and commiseration were at first of very little importance in attracting me to the representation of proletarian life; what mattered was simply that I found it beautiful." September (4th Week)The only self-portrait I've done to date... hopefully my new drawing class will lead to another one:
September (3rd Week)Very rarely does something truly amazing just drop out of the sky anymore. In today's information age you know what movies are all about before they're released, you can see a band's live performances on the net before you go see them, and you can read endless reviews of restaurants, hotels, and whole cites before visiting them. But here's one I never saw coming: the sixties band, The Velvet Underground, has some truly innovative studio albums, but people weren't so into recording live concerts at that time. In fact, the only live VU shows available to us fans have been from 1969 and after. And while those shows are great, the real shame has always been that there aren't any shows from the '65-'67 period when the Velvets were so explosively creative. John Cale has eluded in the past to some tapes that he recorded of them that kind of got lost in the shuffle at some point, but it's never come to anything more than a tease for the Velvets' faithful. Well, out of nowhere, someone has posted a fantastic live show of the Velvet Underground from 1967. And in it they perform a totally unreleased song! Click on the link below to go to the "Dead Flowers" blog that is hosting the MP3s.
September (2nd Week)Along with Black Mountain's In the Future, this disc is a leading candidate for my favorite album of 2008. The War on Drugs have a great sound that evokes Bob Dylan right away, but leans a little more to the stoner-rock vocals of Vietnam. They don't overstep themselves on this album, which is very respectable in my book. Pay attention to the lyrics too; there are some gems in there. Below is the first track from their new album "Wagonwheel Blues" (The War on Drugs) - Arms Like Boulders
September (1st Week)Comac McCarthy this, Cormac McCarthy that, Cormac McCarthy, Cormac McCarthy!!! I feel like I can't walk down the street without someone asking about some Cormac McCarthy book or telling me how they just can't stop reading his stuff. Yuck! Given my proclivity to look dubiously on all thing popular, you can imagine my discomfort going in to the bookstore and taking a book (McCarthy's "The Road") off the table by the entrance and walking directly to the cashier. I told myself I was going to read it, even if it was just to supply myself with a bit of fodder to defend myself against the Cormac loving public. Luckily, I was able to find one lonely copy on the table that didn't have the "Soon to be a major motion picture!" sticker on the cover. It's a very quick read. I'm not going to call it a must-read or anything, but his sentence structures and vocabulary are enough to keep a reader interested even if you don't love the plot. This story comes off as almost allegorical and therefore seems to be comparable to "The Old Man and the Sea" in that it might not be McCarthy's strongest work, but it might find its way onto more shelves fifty years from now than his other books.
August (4th Week)In honor of Beck's upcoming return to the Twin Cities, I'm passing along his lovely "Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime." This track is found on the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack, just another gem of Beck's that isn't found on his studio albums. (Beck) - Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime
August (3rd Week)Don't know about you, but I get sick of all these contrived TV dramas, I've tried the ones that people recommend a couple times and they just seem to fall short. Well, here's one show that never disappoints: Soul Train! The music is great, the guests are often fantastic (and even if they're performance is lack-luster, their conversation with Don Cornelius is always a hoot). My personal favorite part of the show is the segment in which two dancers have to unscramble a name on a board... their reward? When they're done they get to return to dancing with everyone else! A few stations seem to be running "Soul Train" at 3 or 4 in the morning, so set your DVR.
August (2nd Week)If you ask someone "What song would you like to be listening to when you die?" and he/she answers Talking Heads' "This Must Be the Place," you must trust that person for life. It's a cosmic rule. On the extras for the Stop Making Sense concert that this footage comes from, there's a faux interview where David Byrne says that he doesn't like to write about big things like love, that he'd rather write about paper and animals. He does confess he wrote a love song once, but that in this he sings to to a lamp, so it's okay. I'd tend to agree with him.
August (1st Week)Here's a fantastic track by Gogol Bordello. It's featured in the film Wristcutters: A Love Story which is a charming movie and definitely worth a watch. (Gogol Bordello) - Through the Roof 'n Underground
July (4th Week)Here's the best summer album I've run across this year. Their sound is similar to Outkast, though I'd say their sound has a little more funk and a little less hip-hop.
July (3rd Week)This scene, specifically when The Joker says "Six," is the scene that seals Heath Ledger's performance into my top five performances off all time. Commence Hamlet-like speculation about the sanity of the Joker in The Dark Knight.
July (2nd Week)Okay, okay, I am on a Hunter S. Thompson kick. Well, who wouldn't be after reading these quotes? “The Edge…There is no honest way to explain it because the only people
who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others -
the living - are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they
could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they
had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later. But the edge is
still Out there.”
July (1st Week)Well, they didn't have a cheep used copy of "The Great Shark Hunt" at the bookstore, so I had to buy the first edition one. What the hell, it was only 30 bucks, and the cover of the newer editions are hideous. I've only read a couple articles from it so far, but they're mind-blowing.
June (4th Week)I tagged along with a friend to a screening of the new Hunter S. Thompson movie, Gonzo. I've done my Hunter homework before, but it was still a pretty enjoyable flick. I'd recommend it to HST fans, but it's really the casual Hunter reader who will get the most out of this one.
June (3rd Week)Hey, hey. Check out the June 23rd issue of Sports Illustrated:
June (2nd Week)I've enjoyed Blur's Think Tank album for a few years now. Now, admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of their earlier stuff, but a few of the songs on this album just grate on me. It's rare that I find myself always skipping through certain tracks on an album. Well, I decided to take action, and against my snobby musical instincts, I went ahead and burned a copy without the tracks that get on my nerves. I also added a few other Blur/Gorrilaz tracks. Here's how the two albums compare: Blur's Think Tank (original track list): 1. "Ambulance" 2. "Out of Time" 3. "Crazy Beat" 4. "Good Song" 5. "On the Way to the Club" 6. "Brothers and Sisters" 7. "Caravan" 8. "We've Got a File on You" 9. "Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club" 10. "Sweet Song" 11. "Jets" 12. "Gene by Gene" 13. "Battery in Your Leg" An here's my revised version of the album: 1. "Ambulance" 2. "Out of Time" 3. “O, Green World” from Demon Days 4. "Crazy Beat" 5. "Good Song" 6. "On the Way to the Club" 7. "Brothers and Sisters" 8. "Caravan" 9. “Me, White Noise” track “0” from Think Tank 10. "Moroccan Peoples Revolutionary Bowls Club" 11. "Sweet Song" 12. “Starshine” from Gorillaz 13. “Every Living Planet We Reach is Dead” from Demon Days 14. "Battery in Your Leg" 15. “Tomorrow Comes Today” from Gorillaz
June (1st Week)If you get to the Minneapolis area, this is my favorite sushi place-- and just one of my favorite spots in general. I love their spicy tuna rolls; they make them with radish sprouts and they don't use spicy mayo on them like most sushi restaurants. The atmosphere is pretty laid back, with great music, and a cool - long, skinny layout. Hmm... skinny, good music, laid back - just like me!
May (4th Week)It's done! Click here to scope out my font that mimics Van Gogh's handwriting.
May (3rd Week)Not one of Van Gogh's more skilled paintings - but I feel him as much or more in this painting than any other:
May (2nd Week)A stunning Van Gogh landscape:
May (1st Week)Here's a Van Gogh Biography that tries to figure out how he turned his psychoses into creative energy rather than just focusing on the shocking details of his life. There are some real insights into how his mind was operating and why. Lubin comes closer to empathizing with Van Gogh than any other biographer has.
April (4th Week)I stumbled onto this cover of one of my favorite Velvet Underground songs on The Current blog. Not too shabby, DeVotchKa! (DeVotchKa) - Venus in Furs
April (3rd Week)Oh, the glorious days of making mixes for friends. On Mixwit you can create and share mixes and even customize the appearance of your tapes. 
April (2nd Week)This song's definitely got soul... some kind of west coast-like soul... some kind of... California Soul (Marlena Shaw)
April (1st Week)Check out the intro to "Les Chants de Maldoror": "God grant that the reader, emboldened and having become at present as fierce as what he is reading, find, without loss of bearings, his way, his wild and treacherous passage through the desolate swamps of these sombre, poison-soaked pages; for, unless he should bring to his reading a rigorous logic and a sustained mental effort at least as strong as his distrust, the lethal fumes of this book shall dissolve his soul as water does sugar. It is not right that everyone read the pages that follow: a sole few will savour this bitter fruit without danger. As a result, wavering soul, before penetrating further into such uncharted barrens, draw back, step no deeper. Mark my words: draw back, step no deeper, like the eyes of a son respectfully flinching away from his mother's august contemplation, or rather, like an acute angle formation of cold-sensitive cranes stretching beyond the eye can reach, soaring through the winter silence in deep meditation, under tight sail towards a focal point on the horizon, from where there suddenly rises a peculiar gust of wind, omen of a storm. The oldest crane, alone at the forefront, on seeing this, shakes his head like a rational person and consequently his beak too, which he clicks, as he is uneasy (and so would I be, in his shoes); whilst his old, feather-stripped neck, contemporary of three generations of cranes, sways in irritated undulations that foreshadow the oncoming thunderstorm. After looking with composure several times in every direction with eyes that bespeak experience, the first crane (for he is the privileged one to show his tail feathers to the other, intellectually inferior cranes) vigilantly cries out like a melancholy sentinel driving back the common enemy, and then carefully steers the nose of the geometric figure (it would be a triangle, but the third side, formed in space by these curious avian wayfarers, is invisible), be it to port, or to starboard, like a skilful captain; and, manoeuvring with wings that seem no larger than those of a sparrow, he thus adopts, since he is no dumb creature, a different and safer philosophical course."
March (4th Week)Portishead is coming out with their first studio album in what seems like forever. So far, this is the track that's got me excited to hear the whole thing: (Portishead) - Threads
March (3rd Week)Three great literary quotes that are actually improved upon by movies: Quote 1: "So shines a good deed in a naughty world" (Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare) Movie: Willy Wonka gently moves his hand over the everlasting gobstopper that Charlie has just returned. Keep in mind, the candy maker has just lost his faith in the innocence of children: "So shines a good deed in a weary world." It's a very subtle change, but it makes for my favorite movie quote of all time. (Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory - Not to be confused with the new, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
Quote 2: "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for and I hate very much to leave it." (For Whom the Bell Tolls - E. Hemingway) Movie: After the shocking end of Se7en, and the best five minutes of acting ever (Brad Pitt) in my opinion, Morgan Freeman delivers this peach: "Ernest Hemingway once wrote 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for,' I agree with the second part."
Quote 3: Not a direct quote, but the Kafka novel which has Gregor Samsa going to sleep and waking up to find himself changed into an insect shows us the fear of suddenly being seen not as we know ourselves. Movie: In Cronenberg's The Fly, we get the even deeper fear that we've always been hideous, and have just hidden it from the world all our lives. Here's the quote that seals the deal: "I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake." This is one of the most underrated movies around in my opinion.
March (2nd Week)When I first saw the trailer for "There Will Be Blood" with one of my favorite songs of the last year or so, "Young Men Dead," by The Black Angels, I was hooked. Somehow it took me this long to actually go out and see the movie. As you've probably heard, Daniel Day-Lewis' performance is top-notch. But, the rest of the cast is great, the script is very well done (it walks many a subtle line), it invokes some cool cinematography, and Jonny Greenwood's score is interesting and fantastic. It showed how a person can feel one way about their place in the world, but can be swung radically in different directions by the not-so-patient-or-quiet forces around us better than any other movie I've seen. **Notice the cross made by the awards on the movie poster... cool.**
March (1st Week)Lyrically insightful, psychedelic, strong vocals, and blusey as hell... L.A. Woman is hands down my favorite Doors album. If you dig their self-titled debut album that makes just about every top 50 list of best albums out there - pick this one up. I'll take the Pepsi challenge with that first album any day.
February (4th Week)This website has a great thing going. They get great bands to film a song in an intimate setting, then they post these videos on their site. The Arcade Fire in an elevator tearing magazine pages for percussion... The National around a dining table... We're From Barcelona walking the street with their huge band... Sufjan belting it out from the rooftops (literally)... some really great stuff. La Blogotheque - Take Away Shows
February (3rd Week)Have you ever wished you could relive the late sixties / early seventies' infusion of garage rock and art pop? Do you long to go back and chill out in Warhol's factory? Well, the new Raveonettes album is about as close as modern music comes to that era. Check out the Velvet Undergroundesque stylings on this first track off their new album, Lust, Lust, Lust. The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk with Me
February (2nd Week)Essentially a basement tape album, Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago was released in limited run last year and is being re-released on Feb. 19th. Bon Iver played a spectacular sold out show at the Turf Club in St. Paul about a month ago and I was lucky enough to have a copy of the show passed on to me. The most humble show I've been to was helped by an amazingly quiet bar crowd. Help yourself to a copy of the show by right-clicking and choosing 'save target as' for any tracks you'd like to score. Many thanks again to Eric for putting this recording together and if you like what you hear, don't forget to grab Bon Iver's disc from your local record shop! (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 01 - Flume (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 02 - Lump Sum (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 03 - Skinny Love (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 04 - Wolves (Act I and II) (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 05 - (Chatter) (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 06 - Blindsided (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 07 - Creature Fear (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 08 - For Emma (Bon Iver) - Live 2008-01-17 - 09 - Re Stacks
February (1st Week)Can one perfect word a poem make? Well, I'm not sure about that but if ever a word could carry a whole poem, this one would do it: Flâneur Click here to visit the Wiki page on "Flâneur"
January (4th Week)Here's a song that Heath Ledger was obsessed with. It was the last song Nick Drake recorded before he committed suicide, and is one of the most touching songs you will ever here. He captures the all those things that people seem to attribute to a suicidal person (depression, guilt, numbness) as both a burden and a friend. (Nick Drake) - Black Eyed Dog
January (3rd Week)"Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" was described to me as the bible of artificial intelligence. In trying to suss out what makes a computer think, and how to make it think like a person, Hofstadter quickly runs into the need to answer questions about how a human thinks. An interesting read for techies to be sure, but also interesting for say, someone who knows Bach's music well - they'll find themselves being interested in logic theory before they know it.
January (2nd Week)The Wikipedia page for "Black Mountain" cites them as: "The band is a psychedelic amalgamation of Neil Young and Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, and Black Sabbath." Not bad company. Their self-titled debut received good reviews, but their new disc "In the Future" is quite a step up from it in my book.
January (1st Week)A poem by Nick Drake's mother: --The Shell--
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