As much as I struggled ordering my top albums list, the films list was even more difficult.*  This is despite being assisted by Netflix’s rating system.  Basically, I came up with a list of movies I rated 5 stars from this decade – somewhere from 35 to 45 films – and narrowed it down from there.  I felt that ranking them from 1-25 was a bit disingenuous as I could move almost all of them five spots or so and not feel like the list was worse.  So, instead of coming up with a definitive list, I’m breaking up my top 25 into three different pyramid tiers, plus my number one film.

* Despite films being longer than albums on average, I still feel that you can absorb a higher percentage of what a film has to offer on its first viewing.  Is this because I watch more films?  Is it because I am not a filmmaker, whereas I do, in fact, write music?  Am I not watching enough Alejandro Jodorowsky films and too many Jason Statham films?**

** That question was facetious – you cannot watch too many Jason Statham films.

Below is the list, starting with the bottom tier.  Each tier is in alphabetical order.
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Tier 3 (15-25)

Borat (2006)
Grindhouse: Planet Terror (2007)
Knocked Up (2007)
Kontroll (2003)
Memento (2000)
Millennium Actress (2001)
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
The Prestige (2006)
The Savages (2007)
The Science of Sleep (2006)
Sin City (2005)
Talladega Nights (2006)
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Tier 2 (8-14)

The Dark Knight (2008)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)
Gladiator (2000)
In Bruges (2008)
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Spirited Away (2001)
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Tier 1 (2-7)

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
Primer (2004)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Snatch (2000)
Superbad (2007)
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#1 Film

–> Amélie <–

Most unknown from top 25: Kontroll - a Hungarian comedy-thriller that you really should see

Most critically derided from top 25: probably The Life Aquatic, though I don’t think any of these movies scored below 50% on Rotten Tomatoes

Barely missing the cutoff date: Kikujiro - this was definitely a Tier 1 film and probably one of my all-time top 10.  Netflix actually had this listed as being released in 2000, but that must have been the US release date or something.

Wanted to include in top 50 but could in no way justify it: 2 Days in Paris, The Darjeeling Limited, Dan in Real Life, Last Life in the Universe

Worst film that I saw: Radio (2003) – This cliche of a film just made me angry all the way through (I was on a bus, so it was still better than the alternative of staring at my seat for 1.5 hours… barely).  Also, Die Another Day (2002) and The Family Man (2000).

Worst film that I didn’t see: Epic Movie – It’s so frustrating that these humorless, phoned-in movies make money.  Read Cracked’s takedown on this terrible series.

Most overrated: Idiocracy (2006) – While perfectly geared towards the kind of people who love to post messages about Ron Paul on Digg, this film’s premise wore out its welcome extremely quickly and was hyperbolic to the point that I found it irritating instead of funny.

Decade winner: Wes Anderson

There wasn’t too much of a contest for #1.  Since I saw Amélie years ago, it’s been in the back of my mind as my favorite film of the decade.  The Royal Tenenbaums made a late run up the chart, but nothing could top the wit and charm of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s masterpiece.

I was pretty surprised that Gladiator was released this decade, as it feels like it has been out for ages.  For some reason, I pictured it coming out around the same time as The Matrix.  Out of all of the films on this list, Gladiator is probably the one I’ve seen the most times – mostly on lazy days in high school for some reason.

Arbitrary song of the day: Major Lazer – Pon De Floor

I’m probably going to be doing a top 25 movies of the 2000s, so keep an eye out for that.  For now, I suggest you follow this Twitter feed from everyone’s favorite SimCity 2000 advisor.

I’ve also been creating some quizzes on Sporcle.  Do you know your classic newspaper cartoons?  Try the original here and the sequel here.  Also, try a tough one about oddly named TV show characters here.

Arbitrary song of the day: Wagon Christ – Rendleshack

1. Faded Paper Figures – Metropolis
2. Passion Pit – Live to Tell the Tale
3. Sonny & The Sunsets – Love Among Social Animals
4. The Ruby Suns – There Are Birds
5. Animal Collective – Peacebone
6. Vampire Weekend – Oxford Comma
7. Marmoset – Hallway
8. Tokyo Police Club – Your English is Good
9. Digital Leather – Your Hand, My Glove
10. Faded Paper Figures – Polaroid Solution
11. Glasnost – Come Alone
12. The Knife – One Hit
13. Roll Deep – Badman
14. Eskiboy – Music Money
15. Moby – Shot in the Back of the Head
16. The Knife – Silent Shout
17. The Smiths – How Soon is Now?
18. M83 – We Own the Sky
19. Nick Drake – River Man
20. Colourmusic – Yes!

Arbitrary song of the day: µ-Ziq – Sick Porter

After reading Pitchfork’s Pitchfork’s top albums and songs lists, I was inspired to come up with my top albums list.*  If you have a couple spare hours, click through the songs list for awhile and listen to some of the embedded songs.  Maybe you missed something; a decade is a long time.

*I can’t imagine coming up with a top X songs list.  Comparing albums is difficult but at least you can come up with some basic metrics (album depth, how much you want to listen through a whole album at once, etc.), but for songs I got nothing.  Is “Destroy Everything You Touch” better than “Mein Herz Brennt”?  I have no idea!

Sure, my list isn’t as authoritative and I haven’t heard every culturally relevant album of the decade.  A year from now my ordering could be completely different or I might have entirely new entries from albums that I just haven’t heard yet.

My first attempt started with a goal of my top 25 albums, but this ballooned up to 30 albums that I found I just had to include on a decade-long list.  Then 35, then 50.  But for me, there really wasn’t a huge difference between, say, the #32 album (Röyksopp – Melody AM) and the #49 album (Space Manoeuvres – Oid).  So we’re down to 25 albums for the purpose of brevity.

Note that I ruled compilations ineligible for this, which disqualifies albums like Nick Warren’s Reykjavik mix (almost certainly a top 25 entry).  Ok, well, technically Nah Und Fern is a compilation, but I’m using it as a stand-in for the four albums that comprise it.  The albums are so interconnected in theme and aesthetic, I don’t think I could choose a distinct favorite.

1. Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
2. The National – Boxer (2007)
3. Aphex Twin – Drukqs (2001)
4. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (2003)
5. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007)
6. The Smashing Pumpkins – Machina/The Machines of God (2000)
7. Editors - The Back Room (2005)
8. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (2002)
9. Asobi Seksu – Citrus (2006)
10. Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase (2005)
11. Thom Yorke - The Eraser (2006)
12. Mindless Self Indulgence – Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy (2000)
13. Ulrich Schnauss – Far Away Trains Passing By (2001)
14. Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)
15. The Orb – Okie Dokie It’s The Orb on Kompakt (2005)
16. Beck - Guero (2005)
17. The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2000)
18. Ulrich Schnauss – A Strangely Isolated Place (2003)
19. Boards of Canada – Geogaddi (2002)
20. Faded Paper Figures – Dynamo (2008)
21. The Orb - Cydonia (2001)
22. Gas - Nah Und Fern (2008)
23. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (2007)
24. The Knife - Silent Shout (2006)
25. Gorillaz - Demon Days (2005)

Just missing the cut (in no particular order): Electric Six – Fire, Manitoba – Up in Flames, DJ Shadow – The Private Press, Dan Deacon – Spiderman of the Rings, Passion Pit – Manners, Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere, Kid Koala – Some of My Best Friends Are DJs, The Shins – Wincing the Night Away, Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion, The (International) Noise Conspiracy – Survival Sickness

Most unknown from top 25: Faded Paper Figures – Dynamo

Most critically derided from top 25: The Orb – Cydonia

Barely missing the cutoff date: Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (released at the end of 1999, this would have been a contender for #1)

Wanted to include in top 25 but could in no way justify it: The Bug - London Zoo, Nobukazu Takemura – Hoshi no Koe, Deepchord Present Echospace – The Coldest Season

Wouldn’t be surprised if they entered the top 25 in the future: The Dead Weather – Horehound, Asobi Seksu – Hush, Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Decade winner: Thom Yorke

Coming up with this list was a little strange, as it mixed albums like Machina that I was essentially raised on almost ten years ago with albums I didn’t discover until this year like Faded Paper Figures’ Dynamo.  I swear I could change this list around a dozen times be no less satisfied or dissatisfied with it.

Picking the #1 album was pretty difficult.  For a long time I had Boxer as the top entry.  Plus, I didn’t really want to pick Kid A, as it’s #1 on almost every top albums list I’ve read.  Kid A really is a great album, but I think I view it differently than a lot of people.  For many, they viewed it as an avante-garde step for rock and a musical revolution.  Coming from an electronic music background, I viewed it more as a natural progression of electronic and rock music.  Kid A takes a lot of cues from “IDM” artists like Aphex Twin, but Radiohead just did it so damn well.

Arbitrary song of the day: Nina Simone – Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat’s Heavenly House Mix)

1. The Bug – Warning
2. Glasnost – [Hidden track]
3. M.I.A.-  Paper Planes (Diplo Remix)
4. Fischerspooner – Emerge
5. The Knife – We Share Our Mother’s Health
6. Les Savy Fav – The Sweat Descends
7. Pixies – Where is My Mind?
8. Stellastarr* – My Coco
9. Tokyo Police Club – Juno
10. Sleater-Kinney – You’re No Rock N’ Roll Fun
11. The Strokes – Reptilia
12. Animal Collective – Fireworks
13. Faded Paper Figures – B Film
14. David Byrne & Brian Eno – Strange Overtones
15. Cut Copy – Hearts on Fire
16. M83 – Kim & Jessie
17. Sonic Youth – Shadow of a Doubt
18. The Shins – Those to Come
19. Passion Pit – Eyes as Candles

Arbitrary song of the day: Kanye West – Heartless

Ok, well, maybe not for all players.  But for certain players, such as John Grabow (who is a type A middle reliever), they will not be able to find another team willing to give up a 1st round draft pick in order to sign them.  In Buster Olney’s blog, he has a quote from an AL GM who says, “If they offered [Grabow] arbitration, there’s no chance another team would sign him. You’re not going to give up a No. 1 pick for a middle reliever.”  This is a fairly recent phenomenon, as teams have just started figuring out the value of Rule 4 picks.

We saw this happen last year when players like Orlando Hudson, Juan Cruz, and Orlando Cabrera were offered arbitration which drove their prices and bargaining position way down in the free agency market.  For players like Grabow, clubs won’t be willing to give up a first round draft pick to sign them.  This essentially forces the player to either go to arbitration (which typically won’t give the player the raise they would get on the FA market) or try to negotiate a new contract with the same club from a weak bargaining position.  Players can get a clause on their next contract that forbids teams from offering them arbitration (as Orlando Cabrera did), but, again, this drives down their value.

So for players in a certain strata (lower-end type A and lower-end type B) to stay in MLB, they are essentially forced to re-sign with their current team.  In effect, compensation picks allow teams to perpetually renew contracts for certain players, aka. the reserve clause.

For who say that compensation picks help lower-end teams like the Pirates, I would say that their supposed goal to compensate lower-end teams for losing players to free agency has failed.  Good players going to free agency typically come from good teams, so better clubs get more compensation picks.  Additionally, as the Yankees showed last year, if you have more spending power, you can get more type A free agents while giving up less.  They signed CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, and Mark Teixeira, but only had one first round pick to forfeit.

Hopefully, the MLBPA will manage to eliminate compensation picks during their next negotiations with ownership.

Arbitrary song of the day: Faded Paper Figures – B Film

Let’s try a slightly different format this month…

1. The Dead Weather – Treat Me Like Your Mother
2. The Strokes – Juicebox
3. Mindless Self Indulgence – Mark David Chapman
4. The Bug – Poison Dart (Stampin feat. Flowdan)
5. Beastie Boys – Alive
6. The Prodigy – Run With the Wolves
7. Muse – Supermassive Black Hole
8. Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses
   
9. Beck – Profanity Prayers
10. The Strokes – Red Light
11. Shout Out Louds – Impossible
12. Four Tet – Smile Around the Face
13. Beck – Sexx Laws
14. Peter Bjorn and John – Young Folks
15. The Knife – Heartbeats
16. Faded Paper Figures – The Persuaded
17. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
    
18. Animal Collective – My Girls
19. Passion Pit – Little Secrets

I actually preferred to put The Dead Weather’s cover of “Forever My Queen”, but I think they’ve only performed that live, and I usually don’t put live tracks on mix discs.  How many super-groups can Jack White form during his musical career?  Is he like Johnny Appleseed but with rock groups instead of apple trees?

The Stampin feat. Flowdan version of “Poison Dart” is far superior to the original due mainly to Flowdan’s deep, growling vocals.  The lyrics for “Poison Dart” are equally incomprehensible to my lyrical-understanding sensibilities to “Skeng”, but they seem to have a little more depth.  Basically, “Poison Dart” seems to mention a wider variety of weapons and “military headgear, gloves, and a mask” than “Skeng”.  We follow that up with the best Jewish rappers from Brooklyn.  I like how they still rap about who they are and the fact that they are, indeed, rapping.  Very old skool hip hop.

I may have mentioned it before, but I don’t “get” Muse.  I’m not taking the “they ripped off early Radiohead” thing, no.  I just don’t understand their wide appeal.  I mean, they aren’t bad or anything.  They’re technically competent, they come up with decent melodies and such, but I still feel like I’m missing some key ingredient.

I have decided that I like The Strokes.  I’m a bit late to that party, but I’ll deal with it.

The Studio remix of Shout Out Louds’ “Impossible” is still better, but the original still has some fun hooks and interesting composition.  Surprisingly, the original clocks in at almost 7 minutes, longer than the danceable remix.  Not usually the way it works.  This fades into “Smile Around the Face”, which I think I like mostly because it sounds like Passion Pit.

I need to listen to more of The Knife.  They are special.  Another special band?  Faded Paper Figures.  I found them on Pandora and bought them on CDBaby.  This is the internet music scene in action.

I appreciate “Such Great Heights” more with every listen.  The interplay between all of the tinkly melodies is entrancing.  Similarly hypnotic are the arpeggios on “My Girls”.  The unrelenting chants, the sparse percussion, the perpetual build-up, the urgency in tone, and the patience in composition.  There’s a lot going on here, and I can see why it took Paul Shirley so many listens.

Arbitrary song of the day: Circulation – Turquoise (differentGear Mix)

Garrett Jones has to start sucking at some point, right?  Players don’t suddenly become better moving from the minors to the majors.  Anyway…

1. Coal Chamber – Big Truck >> If I was still 9 years old, I, too, would write a song about a big truck.  There’s something you have to admire about a band who screams “big truck” and makes that a song.  I love it.
2. White Zombie – Creature of the Wheel >> One of the few non-singles from Astro Creep: 2000, but it very well could have been.  People forget just how good this album was, with over half of the album being singles.  There will be a metal post in the relatively near future discussing such matters.
3. The Presets – Down Down Down
4. The Rapture – House of Jealous Lovers >> Even though I know the title of the song, it still sounds like “Hot souls!  Chinese lovers!” to me.
5. Franz Ferdinand – No You Girls
6. Beck – Mixed Bizness >> Beck is the funk.  He wants to be it, and he is it.  No part of this song is not the funk.  This cannot be denied.
7. Muse – Starlight >> I’ve never been a Muse fan.  I don’t have anything against them.  I remember thoroughly enjoying (and still enjoying) “Muscle Museum” in 1999.  But, really, I only like this one for the nice keyboardy bits.  Does that make me a bad person?
8. Giant Drag – Kevin is Gay >> Actually found this one via Bill Simmons’ tweet.  Simple lyrics, simple melodies, gorgeous post-grunge sounds.  I wish there were more “meows” here, though.  Also, the first sounds in the song are apparently lead singer Annie Hardy imitating the “shoryuken” sound from Street Fighter.
9. Blonde Redhead – 23
10. Shout Out Louds – Impossible (Possible Version by Studio) >> Swedish indie pop transformed into Balearic house.  It works so incredibly well, you wouldn’t know it’s a remix.  Sunny and warm enough that it works even in the dead of winter.
11. Stereolab – Good is Me >> Not just an experiment in music, but in logic.  “I am good therefore good is me,” “He’s not me therefore he is not good.”  While not logically sound (maybe that’s the point?), it is hella hypnotic.  “Good is Me” plays out in a bizarre ABAC featuring twangy guitar sounds and Americana organ before shifting to a ’70s prog rock outro.  I will need to investigate further Stereolab material…
12. Mute Math – Typical >> I’m a sucker for big crunchy distortion and “Typical” delivers.
13. Interpol – Roland >> I’ve explained before why Turn on the Bright Lights is a great album and Interpol’s other albums are not, so I don’t think we need to do that again.
14. Joy Division – Dead Souls >> The first lyrics don’t appear until almost 2 minutes in.  Of all Joy Division songs, I can see this one being most ferociously performed live.  Joy Division was supposedly a lot more aggressive live and this would have been a great window.
15. Bloc Party – I Still Remember >> The main guitar riff is a brilliant post-punk revival take on new wave.
16. The Shins – Sea Legs >> One of the more distinctive Shins songs.  It could have only been off of Wincing the Night Away.
17. Beck – Sunday Sun
18. Nick Drake – Fly >> The interplay of all the plucked, strummed, and bowed strings is dreamy.  Drake as always brings otherwordly qualities to simple lyrics.
19. The Smashing Pumpkins – Zeitgeist >> I hadn’t really listened to this song ever.  It was just kind of “that acoustic track at the end of Zeitgeist.”  It really is a special acoustic work by Billy Corgan on par with anything from the Mellon Collie demos.

Arbitrary song of the day: Tears for Fears – Head Over Heels

Most British TV shows suck.  This shouldn’t be a revelation.  Not everything can be Monty Python or The Office.  Most American television sucks, too, but I think that’s easier to realize for American viewers like me.  We generally don’t see most terrible foreign shows; the ones we get have been vetted by the local critics and audiences.  Because of this, I think greater leeway is given to foreign shows from critics.  Stuff like Dr. Who and The Black Adder are respected critically and have sizable fan bases, though the former is at best campy with Sci-Fi Channel made-for-tv-level special effects and the latter is, well, not funny (or maybe it used to be and hasn’t held up in the slightest).

This is closer to the state of British television than I'm comfortable with.

In this biased, prejudiced mindset, I set out to see a few episodes of a couple shows I knew I wouldn’t like: The IT Crowd and Coupling.  I went into The IT Crowd expecting The Big Bang Theory, the biggest television abomination.*  It wasn’t that bad.  Now, it was still bad, just not eye-stabbingly terrible.  Richard Ayoade is decent, but his intentionally bad presentation isn’t nearly as effective here as in the fun romp that is Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.

I must concede that it does have a pretty slick title sequence.  However, most everything else about the show is bad, standard sitcom fair.  It’s close to When the Whistle Blows, the show within a show from Extras.  With all of the geeky tech stuff around, you can tell it’s written by passionate geeks.  Unfortunately, they are passionate geeks with terrible taste in television.

*The Big Bang Theory offends me not so much as a geek, but as a television viewer.  Really, CBS’s entire Monday night lineup is an affront to humanity. How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement (I haven’t seen it, but it’s at an impressively terrible “28″ on Metacritic), Two and Half Men, The Big Bang Theory, CSI: Miami – that is an All-Star team of terrible television.  My god.  CBS in general has terrible programming though.  The only thing I ever watch from CBS are AFC football games.  That is it.  I can’t say enough about how bad CBS’s programming is.

Coupling seems to be a sexed-up version of Friends.  The jokes are juvenile (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and predictable with storylines and hijinks that were stale fifteen years ago.  The laugh track is horribly out of place, as it always is in single-camera sitcoms.  The inappropriateness is somewhere in between The Flintstones and the first season of Sports Night.

Also, I’d like to point out that my suggestion for Aaron Sorkin’s next show wasn’t too far off from this.

Arbitrary song of the day: Shout Out Louds – Impossible (Possible Version by Studio)

Upon hearing of JCVD, I thought my plot for a film called "Jason Statham Will Shoot You" had been taken. But no.

Never trust Netflix “At A Glance” descriptions.  I thought I had learned that, but I guess I didn’t.  Netflix described JCVD thusly: “Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself in this comic action film.”  Because of this, I went in with expectations of seeing something similar to Shoot ‘Em Up, which I can’t recommend enough.  This was reinforced before the film even started as the production company’s intro sequence and logo (which is normally a silhoutted boy pulling a daisy from the ground) featured Van Damme attempting to take a flower from a child and subsequently performing a roundhouse kick on him.

The opening sequence is an impressive single take of Van Damme beating the crap out of a couple platoons of soldiers.  While the scene is full of awesome, its primary purpose is to provide contrast to Van Damme’s down-and-out persona.  As the film unfolds, we learn in a non-linear manner that he’s losing his daughter in a custody battle, is short on cash, and has wound up as a key figure in a post office robbery.

The directorial techniques are a mixed bag in terms of success.  The washed-up tone and washed-out colors of JCVD are similar to that of The Wrestler and add a gloominess.  We are essentially presented with the first events of the film twice: once from outside of the post office and once from Van Damme’s view inside the post office.  The second run through of the plot quickly becomes tiring though, as its pretty easy to figure out what has happened only a few minutes into it.  Some of the more effective devices include a dramatic (and well-acted!) fourth-wall breaking monologue and a fake “rewound” ending.  Not what I was expecting going in, but there’s some interesting stuff here nonetheless.

Arbitrary song of the day: Giant Drag – Kevin is Gay