It is your old pal

What do I have in common with Grover?

We are both lovable, furry and OLD.

Well, happy 30th birthday to me.

Yakkin' about music

I know I've talked about my musical explorations a few times in this forum. My musical musings are usually met with stunning indifference - as opposed to when I post an amusing picture of myself (you guys seem to like that). Be that as it may, I'd still like to take some time to run down some of my favorite music produced this year. This has been a pretty good year. No fewer than 16 new full-length albums came to my attention (that's quite a bit for me in terms of new music). Here are my favorites and my comments for 2006 - the first annual Romie Awards, if you will. I may post about movies I liked from this year in the near future, but that remains to be seen (mostly because I haven't thought about it as much). Here we go:

Best thing to happen to music in a while:

eMusic. It's economical (at $10 a month for 30 downloads) and has a great selection. If you aren't on eMusic, I highly recommend signing up. If you've never downloaded before, this is an easy way to get into it. If you've been downloading music, well, get legal, suckers! For $10 a month and a little patience, you'll get most of what you want, which makes eMusic a better buy than cable TV. If you do sign up, let me know, because I can get free downloads for referring you! Downside: you may end up with more music than you want. Which leads me to...

Most disappointing album of 2006:

The Raconteurs, "Broken Boy Soldiers." I only listened to this once, I think. Meh.

Best surprise I found while poking around on eMusic:

Billy Childish and Dan Melchior, "Devil in the Flesh." Awesome lo-fi garage blues set originally released in one of my favorite years, 1998.

Best CD I bought for five bucks:

The Dreamland Faces, "Dreamland Faces" EP. An accordian and musical saw duo, the Dreamland Faces play 1920s style tunes with flair and more than a little menace. They recently relocated to Wisconsin from Rochester, so they aren't really local any more, but they do return to perform here often. I bought this at their performance in August at the Dryden Theater, where they provided spot-on accompaniment to two of Lon Chaney's silent films.

Best album by an old guy:

Ramblin' Jack Elliott, "I Stand Alone." I think this is an appropriate category for a year in which I face my own aging head-on. Yes, yes, I know, Bob Dylan released "Modern Times" this year. And it's very good, don't get me wrong. But Ramblin' Jack influenced Bob back when Bob was a young rambler, and "I Stand Alone" is worth it, even though Jack's voice is going.

Best rediscovery of a classic rock band:

Creedence Clearwater Revival. I downloaded "Green River" and "Bayou Country" from the aforementioned eMusic. Another plus for downloading - getting reacquainted with the catalog of the greatest rock band of the late 60s/early 70s.

Best new album I've yet to hear:

Joanna Newsom, "Ys." I've been told it's very, very good. We shall see.

Best excuse to spend too much money on music:

Tom Waits, "Orphans." Just have a look at the track listing. I wasn't going to buy this, because I thought it would just recapitulate stuff he's already done, but it appears I'm wrong. And that's gotten me excited. Incidentally, did I mention that my birthday is this coming Sunday?

And now, here they are,

My Five Favorites from 2006 (in alpha order):

Belle and Sebastian, "The Life Pursuit"
Neko Case, "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood"
The Decemberists, "The Crane Wife"
Sonic Youth, "Rather Ripped"
Bruce Springsteen, "We Shall Overcome: The Pete Seeger Sessions"

Of cranes and spies

Wow, kids - I am really impressed with the latest album by the Decemberists, "The Crane Wife." I bought it only a few weeks ago, and I only now listened to it for the second time. Though I think I need to listen to it more to get a better sense of the overall story (because I think there is at least a loose story connecting the songs on the album), I can honestly say that "O Valencia," "Yankee Bayonet" and "Sons and Daughters" are great, shimmering folk-rock songs - all three are near-classics. If you've never heard this band, give it a listen. I know all those indier-than-thou kids out there insist that the Decemberists have lost a step since "their early stuff," but it's mere snobbery. They've only improved over time, and they've especially improved since the great but not necessarily classic "Picaresque."

Now if only they would play live somewhere near Rochester.

Incidentally, I found this photo online - what the Decemberists would look like as Lego mini-figures. Check out the source site for more (my personal favorite Lego rockers - the White Stripes. Sonic Youth as Lego figures is just confusing - which one is Thurston, and which one is Lee? And who's the fifth Youth? They've been a four-piece for a while, right?).

In other news - last night I once again got to see a free movie in advance of its opening. This time, it was "Casino Royale." I'm not a die-hard Bond fan, but I was looking forward to this movie. And it's good, it really is. It's just too darn long. I was shifting in my seat during what I thought were two or three climactic scenes, only to be presented with a new twist. However, some judicious pruning would have helped earlier in the film, not at the end. Have no idea what I'm talking about? You'll probably just have to go see it.

D > B

Happy November, from gray and wet Rochester.

So, we finally get some funny comedies playing in the multiplexes. Last Saturday I attempted to see "Borat" on its opening night. I think every college student in town showed up to see it. The line extended out to the sidewalk. Also, it opened at only two theaters in town. So, now that "Borat" has expanded to a few other theaters, I went to see it yesterday. And yes, it's funny. The stereotypes Borat is playing to are Eastern European stereotypes, rather than Central Asian ones, but other than riding horses across the steppes, what other Central Asian stereotypes do people know? It was as wild as people say. However, I can't call it the funniest movie of the year.

Reason being: I saw a sneak preview of "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny" back on Thursday night. This is your funniest movie of the year, people. It's so over the top, so un-self-conscious (Borat, meanwhile, is all self-conscious, all affectation) - I loved it. I've been a fan of The D for a while now, though. Explosivo!

But wait! I'm back again, just to say that "Little Miss Sunshine" was pretty darn hilarious too, and that came out this year. Darn superlatives, so subjective. I guess "Little Miss Sunshine" is a little different class of picture.