Tag: lists

• 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…

  Dec 5, 2011

  # Advent, Christmas, Christmas music, lists, music, playlist

• 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…

  Dec 4, 2011

  # Alan Silvestri, Cast Away, film, Glen Hansard, Howard Shore, lists, Lord of the Rings, movies, music, Once, Philip Glass, Remember the Titans, The Truman Show, Trevor Rabin, WALL-E

• 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…

  Dec 28, 2010

  # best of, Black Swan, film, Inception, lists, movies, review, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit

• 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…

  Dec 30, 2009

  # best of, Children of Men, film, High Fidelity, In America, lists, Memento, movies, Once, review, The Lives of Others, Unbreakable, WALL-E, Zodiac

• 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…

  Jan 3, 2009

  # best of, film, Happy Go Lucky, In Bruges, lists, Man On Wire, movies, NCC Chronicle, review, Shotgun Stories, The Dark Knight, WALL-E

• 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…

  Dec 31, 2008

  # Anathallo, Beach Boys, best of, Coldplay, lists, music, NCC Chronicle, Randy Newman, She & Him

• 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…

  Feb 1, 2008

  # best of, film, Juno, lists, movies, NCC Chronicle, No Country For Old Men, Once, Ratatouille, review, The Lives of Others, Waitress, Zodiac

• 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…

  Jan 13, 2008

  # America, Founding Fathers, history, lists, politics