Tag: lists
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Favorite Books of 2014
My favorite books from 2014 are all nonfiction, a thoroughly unsurprising result of it being way easier for me to get through a 700-page historical tome than a 200-page novel. Sorry, novels: this year it was especially true that the truth is stranger and more fascinating than fiction. Deep: Freediving, Renegade Science, and What the Ocean Tells Us…
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Favorite Films of 2014
Because synchronicity has been on my mind recently, I wondered while considering my favorite films of 2014 if any of them were thematically aligned, explicitly or otherwise. Turns out they are. The ten-ish films that lodged themselves into my brain this year naturally arranged themselves into pairs or groups—some odd ones, to be sure, but nevertheless interesting. I…
# best of, Boyhood, Calvary, film, Ida, Interstellar, Life Itself, lists, Locke, movies, Noah, review, Snowpiercer, The LEGO Movie, They Came Together, Whiplash -
Ten Books
In the Filmspotting tradition of naming lists after what you know will be on everyone’s list so should be removed from consideration, I’m going to name this the To Kill A Mockingbird Memorial List of Ten Books That Have Stuck With Me For Some Reason. Acknowledging the usual disclaimers of making lists (it’s not binding, it could…
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2013 In Film: The Best Of The Rest
I tried something different with my recent 2013 Omnilist, naming 13(ish) of my favorite films, books, TV shows, and albums from the last year instead of a traditional top-10 list for each medium. But in that process I had to cut out a lot of films from the final list I otherwise would have loved…
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13 In ’13: A Pop Culture Omnilist
Standard operating procedure for making year-end culture lists says to rank your ten favorite films/albums/books, but I’ve recently soured against this convention. Choosing a pre-determined number of “the best” among many great works, as all award shows do, is great entertainment but entirely arbitrary. So this time around, I decided to institute my own arbitrary…
# 12 Years A Slave, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Before Midnight, best of, books, Chris Hadfield, film, Francis Spufford, Gravity, Haim, Her, House of Cards, Like Someone in Love, lists, Lucius, movies, music, Neil Gaiman, review, Rod Dreher, Short Term 12, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, This Is Martin Bonner -
Ringo Starr Beatles Songs, Ranked
Because the Internet needs more lists. “Octopus’s Garden” — Abbey Road (1969) “With a Little Help From My Friends” — Sgt. Pepper’s (1967) “Good Night” — The White Album (1968) “What Goes On” — Rubber Soul (1965) “Don’t Pass Me By” — The White Album (1968) “Yellow Submarine” — Revolver (1966) “I Wanna Be Your Man” — With the Beatles (1963) “Act Naturally” — Help! (1965) “Honey Don’t” — Beatles…
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Favorite Music of 2012
To me, music is blood. It runs through me, providing life and warmth in even the coldest and loneliest times. Here are a few albums from the last year, with a song from each, that gave me life and color in 2012. Lord Huron, Lonesome Dreams (Song: “Ends of the Earth”) First Aid Kit, Lion’s Roar (Song: “Emmylou”) Good…
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Favorite Films of 2012
With a fortnight now between us and 2012, I’ve had time to consider which films I liked in what I think was overall a weaker year for films than previous ones. Keeping in mind I’ve yet to see a few key films, here (in alphabetical order) are seven movies from last year that grabbed hold of…
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Favorite Films of 2011
I saw a number of fine films in 2011. Here, I talk about the great ones and what I thank them for. Beginners, for Christopher Plummer’s exuberance as a recently-out elderly gay man; for Ewan McGregor’s hopeful melancholia as his perpetual bachelor son, and for this exchange between them: “HAL: Well, let’s say that since…
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My Favorite Albums of 2011
Happy List-Making Month everybody! It’s my favorite of the year. To celebrate, I present my list of albums that I love from 2011. There was a lot of good stuff, but these top few were the ones that kept me coming back. The Book of Mormon by Trey Parker, Matt Stone & Bobby Lopez Admittedly, I…
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Hark Noel! My 2011 Advent Playlist
It’s simple: no Christmas music until December. That’s my rule. So every year after Thanksgiving ends and the Advent season approaches, I’m thinking about three things: snow, eggnog, and what music will help me enjoy them. Some songs here are old classics, others modern takes. Heard as a whole, they’re but a slice of my…
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7 Beautiful Movie Music Moments
Sometimes we as moviegoers have to let movies affect us in ways we cannot explain or control. One of those ways is through music. Whether it is an epic orchestral theme or a lone piano suite, music in the movies can make the difference in how I respond to the story. Listening to a CD…
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Best Films of 2010
Toy Story 3How great was the epic Western opening sequence? (It was actually a recreation of the original film’s opener.) I couldn’t stop smiling throughout this movie. It does a remarkable job of marrying old characters with new challenges. But the reason this is the best of the year is its ending. Andy decides to…
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Best Films of the 2000s
The Lives of Others (2006) – A German film about a surveillance expert who spies on a playwright in Communist Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, The Lives of Others won the Best Foreign film at the Oscars and for good reason. Unbearably suspenseful and surprisingly moving, The Lives of Others shows that…
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Best Films of 2008
1. WALL-E By far the boldest movie of the year. The wordless first half-hour is delectably good and a bit subversive too. The plot sags once the robots leave Earth, but it remains a beauty to behold. I was surprised at how emotionally invested I was in those cute little robots. It’s certainly a better…
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The Best Albums Of 2008
There was a lot of music released in 2008. I didn’t listen to most of it because I was too busy listening to the following albums to listen to much of anything else. I don’t expect to see any of these albums honored at the Grammys, but I still love them like my own hypothetical…
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Best Films of 2007
Note: See an updated version of this list. 1) The Lives of OthersThis German film won Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars last year, and boy, did it deserve it. Set in East Berlin during the Cold War, involving a member of the German secret police who spies on a dissident writer and soon finds…
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A Loathsome List
I linked to a list of the Most Loathsome People in 2007 in an earlier post, but I want to repost a part from that list because it’s so freaking true. Check out the rest of the list for a gut-shot of truth. The Founding Fathers Charges: Lionized as moral pillars and demigods ad nauseam…