Sunday, March 2
It seems like a good time for a couple of Top Ten lists. I always liked those lists as a kid, as they always gave me good ideas for movies or books or (especially) albums. I really don't like the idea of writing top ten lists for a single year, however, as well over half the music I listen to in a given year wasn't released in that year and I can't count it (hence, it's not an accurate list of my actual listening interests). Ah, but favorites of all time? Well, I can just about throw a list like that together. Here's two--one for albums, one for movies.
Ten Favorite Albums
[Note: I'm numbering these, though this order probably changes depending upon what I'm listening to. And note I said "favorite," not best. This is the music I personally favor over all other music.]
1. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Arkology
2. The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
3. Pan Sonic, Aaltopiiri
4. Random Inc., Jerusalem: Tales from Outside the Framework of Orthodoxy
5. Various Artists, Inflation (*0 0.000 Remix)
6. The Congos, Heart of the Congos
7. Richard and Linda Thompson, Shoot out the Lights
8. Hiyao Miyazaki & Azumi Inuome, My Neighbor Totoro (soundtrack)
9. Various Artists, Clicks_+_Cuts
10. Sogar, Apikal Blend, Basal, and Stengel
Comments: I put all three Sogar albums at #10 because I couldn't pick one. So kill me. I picked The Congos album because it IS one of the great albums of all time, but I'm starting to listen less to it and more to other reggae/dub works like The Abyssinians Satta Massagana, Augustus Pablo's East of the River Nile, King Tubby's many wonderful disks like Dub Gone Crazy, Freedom Sounds in Dub, and the Tubby/Pablo collaboration King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown. Oh, and the Clicks_+_Cuts disk is still the best compilation of its kind, though there have been a few new releases--especially Lowercase Sound 2002--that might eventually supplant it. What else? Yes, the Totoro. Well, have you ever heard that soundtrack? Do you know how rare it is to come across music that is happy without being sentimental, joyous without banality? This soundtrack is simply a gem (though the title song is a bit scary, I'll give you that).
Ten Favorite Movies
[Note: see note to previous list.]
1. Stalker (Tarkovsky)
2. Come and See (Klimov)
3. The Decalogue (Kieslowski)
4. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog)
5. Ikiru (Kurosawa)
6. My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki)
7. Monty Python's Life of Brian
8. Ivan the Terrible (I & II) (Eisenstein)
9. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
10. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
Comment: Two Tarkovsky, yes, but I'm not apologizing. His films move me unlike any other filmmaker's. His films are unique because they are entirely his own creation--no one else could have or would have made his films. He is the closest thing film has to an artist in the traditional sense, in that he is one of the few directors capable of making films (an act requiring the labor of hundreds or thousands of other people) entirely expressing his own thoughts, ideas, feelings, beliefs, and (yes) delusions. The other films? Well, these are all incredible films that continue to move me--intellectually, emotionally, aesthetically--each time I watch them. I must have watched Life of Brian at least 50 times, but it's still as fresh today as it was that first time (when I was about 11). The only one of these films that isn't available on DVD is Ikiru, which is Kurosawa's best film hands-down. I don't care how many people tell me that The Seven Samuari is better; they're wrong. It's easy to make a samuari film about courage, but it's almost impossible to make a film about a courageous bureaucrat. That's Ikiru. I could easily put every single Miyazaki film on this list--even Whisper of the Heart--but I picked my favorite of his, though you should be aware that Disney is finally releasing all of Miyazaki's films on DVD this year, so if you haven't seen Kiki's Delivery Service, Laputa (Castle in the Sky), Nausicaa, or Spirited Away, you'll have your chance. Finally, the least well known film on this list is Klimov's Come and See, but it is the finest film about World War II I have ever seen. It is an unmerciful look at the atrocities of the German invasion of Byelorussia through the eyes of a young boy--a boy who ages about 50 years in the course of the film's 2.5 hours. If you have any way of getting your hands on a copy of that film, I urge you to do so. Watching it will be an experience you'll remember forever.
Ten Favorite Albums
[Note: I'm numbering these, though this order probably changes depending upon what I'm listening to. And note I said "favorite," not best. This is the music I personally favor over all other music.]
1. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Arkology
2. The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
3. Pan Sonic, Aaltopiiri
4. Random Inc., Jerusalem: Tales from Outside the Framework of Orthodoxy
5. Various Artists, Inflation (*0 0.000 Remix)
6. The Congos, Heart of the Congos
7. Richard and Linda Thompson, Shoot out the Lights
8. Hiyao Miyazaki & Azumi Inuome, My Neighbor Totoro (soundtrack)
9. Various Artists, Clicks_+_Cuts
10. Sogar, Apikal Blend, Basal, and Stengel
Comments: I put all three Sogar albums at #10 because I couldn't pick one. So kill me. I picked The Congos album because it IS one of the great albums of all time, but I'm starting to listen less to it and more to other reggae/dub works like The Abyssinians Satta Massagana, Augustus Pablo's East of the River Nile, King Tubby's many wonderful disks like Dub Gone Crazy, Freedom Sounds in Dub, and the Tubby/Pablo collaboration King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown. Oh, and the Clicks_+_Cuts disk is still the best compilation of its kind, though there have been a few new releases--especially Lowercase Sound 2002--that might eventually supplant it. What else? Yes, the Totoro. Well, have you ever heard that soundtrack? Do you know how rare it is to come across music that is happy without being sentimental, joyous without banality? This soundtrack is simply a gem (though the title song is a bit scary, I'll give you that).
Ten Favorite Movies
[Note: see note to previous list.]
1. Stalker (Tarkovsky)
2. Come and See (Klimov)
3. The Decalogue (Kieslowski)
4. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Herzog)
5. Ikiru (Kurosawa)
6. My Neighbor Totoro (Miyazaki)
7. Monty Python's Life of Brian
8. Ivan the Terrible (I & II) (Eisenstein)
9. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky)
10. Lawrence of Arabia (Lean)
Comment: Two Tarkovsky, yes, but I'm not apologizing. His films move me unlike any other filmmaker's. His films are unique because they are entirely his own creation--no one else could have or would have made his films. He is the closest thing film has to an artist in the traditional sense, in that he is one of the few directors capable of making films (an act requiring the labor of hundreds or thousands of other people) entirely expressing his own thoughts, ideas, feelings, beliefs, and (yes) delusions. The other films? Well, these are all incredible films that continue to move me--intellectually, emotionally, aesthetically--each time I watch them. I must have watched Life of Brian at least 50 times, but it's still as fresh today as it was that first time (when I was about 11). The only one of these films that isn't available on DVD is Ikiru, which is Kurosawa's best film hands-down. I don't care how many people tell me that The Seven Samuari is better; they're wrong. It's easy to make a samuari film about courage, but it's almost impossible to make a film about a courageous bureaucrat. That's Ikiru. I could easily put every single Miyazaki film on this list--even Whisper of the Heart--but I picked my favorite of his, though you should be aware that Disney is finally releasing all of Miyazaki's films on DVD this year, so if you haven't seen Kiki's Delivery Service, Laputa (Castle in the Sky), Nausicaa, or Spirited Away, you'll have your chance. Finally, the least well known film on this list is Klimov's Come and See, but it is the finest film about World War II I have ever seen. It is an unmerciful look at the atrocities of the German invasion of Byelorussia through the eyes of a young boy--a boy who ages about 50 years in the course of the film's 2.5 hours. If you have any way of getting your hands on a copy of that film, I urge you to do so. Watching it will be an experience you'll remember forever.
