It's APRIL!

Well, I suppose it's technically still March...but it's almost April. And it snowed, last week. What's up with that? I love the snow, I always have, however, frankly, this is a little ridiculous. I don't really want snow in April. I'm ready for the sun! Spring! Flowers blooming, love is in the air- and all that crap. Instead we get freezing rain and snow showers. Sheesh.

Plus, it's not like there was any hope of it sticking and shutting down the city-if that had happened we would have at least had a chance of not having to work.

Well, despite the weather, art goes on. We are having another exciting opening this week at Fat Tiger. The artist Jess Rees will be showing and playing music in her band, The Western Cup. Check out www.myspace/fattigergallery for details. The above photo is a few of her sculptures next to one my paintings that will be hanging on Thursday as well.


Moving on...

I'm 31 now, and one might thing that I'm beyond the days of drinking too much. Well, the events of Saturday night would sure indicate that that is not the case at all. I will not go into too much detail, except to say that the old saying of "beer before liquor-never sicker" still holds true. I do remember all the embarrassing details, so don't worry, it wasn't bad. I did find myself at the WarRoom for Hip Hop night. Late. Quite the meat market-exactly the opposite of bars I normally frequent. The insanity of the whole "why am I here" problem may have led to my last couple unnecessary drinks....social awkwardness and all. To avoid having to talk to any of the idiots in the place I mostly hung out on the rather pleasant deck. Then, to cap off the evening, I slipped on the stairs on the way out of the place.

You might say that the slippage was due to a slight intoxication level...I shall not argue the point, however you might also note that I was wearing very slick shoes, and I think that people had spilled beer all over those rubber stair, thus creating a trap!

Well, I got out of there and headed right home, but decided to stay up and watch a flick, in a feeble attempt to drink a lot of water and eat before bed. the flick, well my dear readers, let us move on to the reviews:


Rocky Balboa on dvd. COMPLETELY UNWATCHABLE, unless you are drunk, then it's only semi-unwatchable. 1 Molo

Nada Surf at the Showbox Excellent show! Nada Surf have really turned out to be a wonderful band. They played a great set, very enjoyable. They even played "Popular" dedicating it to the owner of Barsuk, which was quite amusing. (Popular was Nada Surf big hit song from their first album-the song was a #1 single I think, made 'em lots of money and they were on a major label because of it...then were dropped because they didn't make any other hits-hence being on Barsuk for their last 4 albums-and that's why it's funny-if you care) Great show though! 4 Molos

The King of Kong on DVD. You have to watch this fascinating documentary about 2 men and the high score in old school Donkey Kong. Trust me it's way better than it sounds. Completely hilarious and touching as well. Make sure and catch all the extras too. It's a compelling story and one of the best films that was released in 2007. 4 Molos

A bit of a snowy view from my window. Not really a good shot-the stuff was coming down impressively.

The New Ballard Target, opening in 2008!

I remember when I was a kid seeing some cartoon about a lady who refused to ever sell her little house to big corporations and they just built these huge tall buildings around her...I'm really glad that sort of thing never happens in real life. (thanks new Ballard Target!)


Do take note of the blue handicap street parking sign.


Well dear readers, it has been a while, hasn't it? I'm still not entirely certain if more than say 5 of you ever read this blog, but I do take it seriously and I feel as though I have let you down by not posting for a couple weeks.


Sorry about that. Perhaps it's just that February has been a dreary month and my writing has suffered because of it. I admit to being a little SAD, even if i don't actually believe in such things. (Seasonal Affective...please...) Of course it is hard to argue with the suicide numbers from Norway, right? But that could be more the isolation and cold then the darkness. Shoot in any case don’t worry, I'm not that SAD, I have just been tired/sick and had plenty of post big show let down kind of stuff. OH woe is me! Okay, enough of this tripe, I apologize.


Let me get to the reviews, as I am not sure what else I have to talk about today....


In film:


10,000 BC Dear god do not see this movie. Sean and I went, as we hold strong to the rule that we will see anything at the Cinerama. Anything. This movie was laughable. Absolutely ripped off Spartacus, Braveheart, Apocalyptico, and Conan the Barbarian...and none of those movies are exactly full of originality in the first place. The mammoth sequence in the beginning was okay, that's about the only compliment I can give it. 1 Molo


The Simpsons Movie (on DVD) Take any 3 random episodes and watch them and they will be better. Far better. I'd like to slap the writers and the people who said that this was actually good. Okay, maybe not slap, but you get the idea. It was a really long boring episode. 1 Molo


The Bourne Ultimatum (dvd) Better than I expected-basically the action romp that Bourne delivered in the previous 2 flicks, but taken up a small notch from the last one. I can't say that secret CIA black ops training stuff is all that intriguing anymore, there have been too many stories along those lines, but bourne is light and fun and has good action sequences and enough solid acting to keep on paying attention, even if 2 days later you don't remember ever watching the film. 3 molos


The Darjeeling Limited (dvd) Lovely garbage. Poor Wes seems to just want to be a fashion photographer these days. He creates great setting and lovely stylized sequences, but has no story left to tell. In fact, every single movie he has done since Rushmore has had less and less story. Less dialog even. Lots of shots of woeful looking but happy/successful bourgeois people. Oh how this movie made me sad. The characters are so poorly developed it's like we are expected to love them simply because they are interesting looking people. Or because they are famous actors maybe. The reason that everyone said that short at the beginning of the film was better (Hotel Che...something) than the feature is simply that the characters actually interact with each other and have clear motives and there is drama there. I think Wes drastically needs to start working with writers outside of his circle or do a good book adaptation. He clearly has run out of stories to sell and cant get by on quirky. 2 molos


In Music:


Vampire Weekend Self-titled These young Columbia University kids are undeniably the official certified Next Big Thing of the moment. There have appeared on the cover of all sorts of mags already and are in extreme danger of blowing their own popularity up before they even get to that successful level. I was reluctant to pick up this album...but then i listened to it at the store and golly if it wasn't just too light, fun, fluffy and originally enough sounding that I had to join the hipster masses. It's young, thin but pretty indie rock at it's best. Kind of a good follow-up to Clay Your Hands Say Yeah's first record, but less groovy. My main complaint is that they have a song about a girl who happens to be named Bryn, who is from Kansas as well. Clearly not the same B of my distant past, but I little unfortunate all the same. Oh well. 4 Molos


Ghostland Observatory Robotique Mystique (or Boutique or whatever it's called) The new one from these guys, who are amazing in concert, sounds just weird and boring. Doesn't have that energy they really need in their music. I only listened to some of it, but I was not interested. 2 Molos


Nada Surf Lucky Still one of my favorite traditional and dare-I-say formulaic pop/rock bands, the new Nada Surf does not disappoint. It's good, solid all the way through, and there are even some gems on the bonus EP. Better than their last effort I'd say. Nada Surf does sincere earnest rock so well. I enjoy it. 3.5 molos


Early Best of lists:


Best film I have seen, released in 2008:

1. Cloverfield
2. The Bank Job


Best records of 2008:

1 Grand Archives Grand Archives
2 Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
3 Nada Surf Lucky
4 MGMT Electric Feel

5 Stephen Malkimus and the Jicks Real Emotional Trash

6 Throw me the Statue Moonbeams

7 The Supreme Beings of Leisure 11i

Good old SLOG

A dear friend of mine helped me to get me a delightful mention in The Stranger's web blog, SLOG, under the Visual Arts section-Currently Hanging-posted by Jen Graves. This is a great thing! I'm very grateful for this. If you want to check it out (although, dear readers, I suspect you have already seen it if you are seeing this post) it's on www.thestranger.com. Find the SLOG, and the visual arts section, and scroll down past the picture of the naked pregnant punk-rock lady. Which has created a bit of an online stir according to Jen.

This happening just reminds me how happy I am to have a lot of wonderful supportive friends in this town (and around the world). Trying to make it as an artist is an exasperating process, one that leans heavily on networking and connections and constant promotion and to have such a wonderful group of people out there helping me along here and there when they can just tickles me pink. Thank you all so much, always! And I hope I can always return the favor, or at least buy y'all a beer.

Moving on...the Form/Space show is almost down, one more week to go. Next week I will be hanging and prepping for the bit Portrait Challenge show at Fat Tiger, and hang a few new works of my own as well. I'm moving out of my post-big-show letdown period and getting productive as well. I'm not sure why I just mentioned that. Maybe to remind myself to never slack off.

Any who, I did slack off a bit and now have a few reviews for you:

Grand Archives -The Grand Archives Mat Brooke and friends have released what may prove to be the best album of the year on Sub Pop. It's so pretty and polished and lovely. It's almost too pure. A bit CSNY, a bit Beach Boys, and of course a bit Carissa's Wierd. They only thing I'm not entirely sold on with this album is that some of the extra instrumentation, the horns, the steel guitar, seems a little superfluous. But maybe I just wanted to hear nothing but guitar and violin (as in I just want to hear new Carissas Wierd) and likely it's simply a personal taste issue. Pretty damn great though! 4.5 Molos

S, Sera Cahoone, and Grand Archives at the Triple Door - I was quite ill when I saw this show, but I had a few whiskeys and sucked it up because how could I pass on this! Jen Ghetto, aka S, Sera, and Mat were all in Carissa's Wierd, so maybe, just maybe they might play some CW songs?? Well, they did play one, it was just Jenn and Matt playing, and it was worth the ticket price all on it's own. (Actually, S played a CW song right before Mat came on stage which was great too!) In fact, S was worth it all on it's own. I love Jenn's shy, lovely stage presence and simple, rough, precious songs. Sera Cahoone was excellent as well...and by the time GA came onstage I was getting really tired...but they played through their entire album and were masterful. Great show! 4.5 Molos

The Fountain - On DVD. The last picture by Daren Aronofsky (Pi, Requim For a Dream). Came out in 2006 to a sea of baffled reviewers. This movie is far better than everyone said it was. It's essentially 3 stories in one, all related to each other and can be taken a few different ways. It's not a happy picture, being about life and the stuggle against death-Fountain of youth kind of stuff-hence the name. And I shall not try to explain the plot to you. But if you rent it don't try to super analyze it too much. Enjoy the lush imagery and really strong middle (chronologically within the plot) story. Hugh Jackman is surprisingly strong in this film. 3.5 Molos

Days of Heaven - I rented this classic Terrence Malick feature as well. 1976 I think. A young Richard Gere. Great movie. Very very Malick in story and setting. Which means the characters all are dealing with heavy, harsh realities of life-struggling against man's own violent nature and doing so in a very wonderful environments full of beauty and promise even. Man vs Nature is not quite what Malick is about-it's more about Man fighting his own nature and the natural world is very much telling us things about the characters....any who, i'm getting off track. Gere is great, the film is lovely, painful, really painful, quirky, pretty and sensual. With a young and strong Sam Shepard too. Malick is a master. 4 Molos

The Goldenrods

I just finished watching the Oscars. Which I did not intend to do, but having been sick all last week, then recovering just enough for a trip to Portland and a fair amount of um...consumption-not terrible, but enough to keep me pretty exhausted after driving back up here-I found myself not having the energy, or motivation, to do much but vegitate....

So there I sat, mildly interested.

And I recalled, that I had promised you, dear readers (all 5 of you?) that I would recount my favorite films when the Oscars had come around, under the assumption that I might have gotten around to seeing a few more of the better heralded pictures.

SO here is an update of the best films I saw in 2007:

1. There Will Be Blood
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
3. No Country For Old Men
4. Before the Devil Knows You Are Dead
5. Eastern Promises
6. Grindhouse
7. Superbad

With There Will Be Blood way ahead of the pack. It's Citizen Kane on Steriods. See a review in a previous blog.

The awards themselves provided no surprizes-with the execption of the French(?) actress wining-which was a surprize, for me anyhow, as I have not even heard much if anything about the picture-which probably is a bigger sign that I don't nearly have my finger on the pulse of Hollywood as much as I claim to.

But then again, how come I knew that No Country would win picture and director(s), and Diablo Cody would for original script? Very easy to predict.

Nice to see Tilda Swinton win a goldenrod-she should have won for The Deep End a few years ago.

Glad Daniel Day Lewis won. Have I mentioned that movis is excellent?

OH, speaking of TWBB, the amazing score of that film, didn't qualify for best original score, because not enough of Greenwood's music was written specifically for the film. Otherwise i'm sure he would have won it. He's the guy from Radiohead, by the way. Great music in that movie.

I wish they had the balls to give Julian Schnabel the prize for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly...such a powerfil film which so clearly was due to the direction.

Oh well.


Oh, kind of funny when they listed a lot of the best pictures-a lot os blah, boring movies that no one cares about anymore on that list, eh?

Chicago? Really? Chicago won? yikes. A Beautiful Mind? wow...Crash? dont get me started on that one...Shakespeare in Love?

that's got to be the worst of recent memory. Shakespeare in love beat Saving Private Ryan, and The Thin Red Line (one of the most gorgeous films of recent memory). Likely the two WWII films split votes, allowing Shakespeare win, but still...just silly.

Then Forest Gump did beat Pulp Fiction back in the day.


Well, enough.

Back-to-Back

Thursday brought another successful opening at Fat Tiger. This time we kept it a little more laid-back as both Cait and I both had big openings on Friday in Belltown to worry about. Both of our shows were very successful and went off without a hitch.

If you haven't been to the McLeod Residence, you should go check it out-it's a great multi-use arts focused venue right across from the Crocodile Cafe (RIP). Cait's work is perhaps too big for the space, but still fills it in a very fun and energetic way.

My show at Form/Space has left me very exhausted. I'm not sure if it's the stress from the show, or the late night from having a bunch of friends in town that really did me in, but I'm still feeling beat. Also there's the dreaded post-show depression.

It sounds silly, but it's real. Doesn't matter if you sell all your work or get a bunch of attention (press, what-not) but there is always a major let down after any large show. Maybe it's just about the process of doing all this work and throwing it out to the world for this reception party and going there and having all these disjointed conversations with really great and smart people, but how can you really talk about work, let alone your work, in any serious way, at an art reception with the crowds and the wine and the whole scene. (sorry for the run-on)
Perhaps that leads to it. Or it's just that it takes time for these shows to really sink in...like how sometimes I dont really know if I like a piece I made till 6 months later. You need to let it stew.

Any who, I didn't sit down to write a rambling self-indulgent blog and I have. I apologize. Let me just give ya'll a couple film reviews and leave the journal alone.

Oh, but don't worry, i'm used to Post-Show depression and I have a lot of big, new ideas for work...to many actually, that I have to get cranking on. Stay tuned...


So I saw There Will Be Blood a few days ago. Spoiler alert! This is one of those films that I feel like any review of it will only cloud your judgement going into the film...so I suggest this to you, dear reader, stop reading, skip down to the next paragraph, and go see this movie. But if you need more convincing, I shall share a few things with you. The movie is wonderful. PT Anderson is one of, if not the, best young directors working. Between this and the wildly underrated Punch Drunk Love (probably wasn't as heralded due to naive Adam Sandler backlash-Sandler is amazing in that film-truelly a talented actor, even for all the shit he has done) PT has made 2 of the best films of the last 5 years. The acting, the music, the filming, the story of this movie is brash and powerful and hyper-cinematic. It's over-the-top in ways so delightful it's hard to describe. The dialog of Daniel Day Lewis' character is so wonderful and demented. This is a movie that is not afraid to be a movie, that is it is both extremely realistic and historically accurate, while creating these characters that are both complex, real, and at the same time, very...extreme. 4.5 Molos. Best film I saw from 2007.


Net Flix brought me 3:10 to Yuma which is kind of the anti-There Will be Blood. It was stupid. While the acting was solid, and the direction was okay, and scene-by-scene it was fun to watch, I didnt' buy the character's motivations for one minute. Way too over the top- look at how the bad man has changed and how this other broken man is staying good despite the chance to make a lot of money...etc...just didn't make any sense. Perhaps the original worked better due to the naive attitude of the 50s or something. 2 Molos.




Everyone's favorite Canadian throwback to 70's heavy psychedelic rock band, Black Mountain, has released a new CD, In The Future. Ironically titled since it sounds so tied into the past, but it's pretty good. I enjoy it, a couple of really good songs but it's not all that amazing sounding anymore-Black Mountain. Maybe because too many other bands are doing a similar thing, maybe because they just dont have that much great music to make. I'm not sure. But if you haven't heard them before, this album is probably a great one to pick up. Think kind of Jefferson Airplane but darker, heavier, and slightly more folkly at the same time. No doubt you can hear some on myspace. 3 Molos

I haven't picked up a lot of new music lately other than that. I'm looking forward to the full-length Grand Archives coming out on the 19th. I have been listening to an older 764-HERO record, Weekends of Sound (3.5 Molos) a great deal. It's really pretty great...i'll have to pick up some of their other stuff. They are very much in the vein of Built to Spill, but a little more of an rock-atmospheric band, a lo Kinski I guess. Very PNW, very late 90s PNW and very tight. They did an EP with Modest Mouse, Wherever you see fit, that is wonderful.

That's all for now folks.

A Place to call your own

The last couple weeks when not dealing with the masses flocking to the R Crumb show I have been hard at work finishing up my paintings for my show A Place to call your own at Form/Space Atelier this Friday. The work is up on the wall, and needs only some lighting and labels and come Friday the wine will flow and hopefully folks will enjoy.

I really don't have any other things to share-I've been on a cultural hiatus while holed up in the studio so I'm afraid that I have zero reviews for this week. Until next time...

-molo

Snow Tease

I would love to have a good 3 day snow storm just shut down Seattle-not too long, just three days, solid of snow and cold. None of this snowing overnight just enough to make everyone complain about their commute (“we had 3.5 inches in Kent!”) but turning to rain by 11am teaser crap. Where’s the solid foot of fresh powder blanketing the town. Think of the quiet, the peace that would befall.

Today, I woke up to a good half inch on First Hill, with patches of ice. Man I’ll tell you it was rough walking the 4 blocks to get here.

However, as the employees trickle in (“Bothell-2”!), I have plenty of time to round up some thoughts on some of the recent arts activities I’ve partook in around this town.

I saw novelist Colson Whitehead (The Intuitionist, Apex Hides the Hurt, John Henry Days) read at Benaroya Hall 2 weeks ago. My mother was generous enough to invite me to join her in the patron section, which means you are close enough to really notice all the nervous ticks and grooming issues of the fiction writers speaking on the Seattle Arts and Lectures circuit. Not that Colson has any of these issues, it’s just that I always expect writers to be these social outcasts. Turns out that a lot of them are quite respectable, good lookin’ even. Hell Colson can even speak-I mean he entertained the crowd. This was not just a reading, it was a fun talk. Mostly about how he got started writing. There was a fun chart involving “inverbs” that he broke out….inverbs like “wearin” and “lookin”. It all had to do with a semi-autobiographical novel he is writing that takes place in the early/mid eighties and the vernacular of the time involved a lot of insults, slung with in phrases that with the inverbs…so like a descriptor, such as Benson, and inverb, and an object…you can basically choose from a list of descriptors and objects and just plug ‘em in a random to make the insult work. For example, “You Benson lookin’ Motherfucker”. That is a bad example and not very funny- his were all funny-but you get the idea.

I better just move on….so Colson was great, his talk was a 4 Molo talk, not that I review talks, but if I were to review it, I’d give it 4. So I guess I just did.

One of the other interesting points he brought up had to do with Baby Boomers…with how basically, the BB still control culture in this country. Because they control the money I suppose now, or a good deal of it. That’s why there’s still all this reverence for the summer of love and all the hippy crap associated with it. I mean don’t get me wrong, I love the Baby Boomers, my parents are awesome, a lot of cool ideas and culture have come from that culture, but like Colson, I wonder why is this still such a big deal? I mean hasn’t anything important happened since ’69? Or do we still have to “Keep on Truckin’”?

If you did not get my reference there, it’s from the famous cartoon by R. Crumb. The long-haired old guy in exaggerated mid-stride keeping on trucking. If you still can’t picture it, think the Coen Brother’s Dude’s attitude (“take ‘er easy Dude”). The deadbeat Lebowski is one of our most famous heros to embody that era’s attitude, a hippy who never got serious with life while his peers all went on to become tax consultants and brokers.

R Crumb is like the Dude, if the Dude were a really insane, creative, perverted weirdo. Self-proclaimed as such. Crumb has made a living at self-deprecation. An enormous living. Why do I bring him up? Because the Baby Boomers and their cultural liaisons, have seen fit to bring R. Crumb to the Frye Art Museum, for a big retrospective. 40 years of Crumb. Comic book nerds everywhere. It smells like certain neighborhoods in San Francisco in this exhibition. Like a couch that had a thousand joints ashed on it.

The work though, the work is actually pretty fun to take in. I could debate for you, if you want, the merits of a comic book artist show in a museum…I have reservations as to what the point is-I mean what do you gain by looking at these drawing in person, these artifacts and comics that you don’t get from them in print form…but I’ll just leave it at that. There is a ton of work, and if you don’t mind rubbing shoulders with a lot of ZZ Top beards, you might enjoy it. Especially if you are a Baby Boomer, because it is, nostalgic. 3.5 Molos I guess-it’s worth that much just to see the expressions on certain patrons faces when the see some of these comically vulgar images.

So does this mean that in 20 years, when the Baby Boomers children have finally inherited culture, that the old folks will be talking about the 60’s and free love and rock’n roll as the “good ol’ days?”


In mainstream pop-culture:

Cloverfield – Caught this intense flick at the Cinerama the other day. I enjoyed it-very well done….yes the novelty of a shaky cam DV-only picture is a little tired, and yes we have all seen Godzilla before, and yes, it is apparently now okay to play off the fears of Manhattanites for their island to be under extreme duress…but all those interesting things aside, this movie was fun and exciting. It’s stupid fun. Oh and by now you have heard about people getting sick in the movie…yeah the first 15 minutes were rough, but I held it together and once the action started it seemed to be fine. 3.5 Molos

No I haven’t seen Rambo yet.

RIP Joker

RIP Heath Ledger. Dead at 28. “possible drug related death” I guess his cinematic swan song will be at the Joker, in this summer’s eagerly anticipated Batman, the Dark Knight. I predict a posthumous Oscar. I also predict a lot of tasteless gay dead cowboy jokes.

(I hope my talk of fellow Australian Micheal Hutchence's tragic drug related suicide death didn't somehow jinx Heath Ledger, but it is an eerie coincidence)

The Fire Dragon turns 31

January 22, 2008.

It’s the 31st anniversary of the morning after my mother saw the film, “Silver Streak”, which was, apparently, very funny. Funny enough to induce. Labor. Which was great for her, especially since I was due on January 1st. As you can imagine, I was a fairly large baby, something like 9lbs, 6 oz or maybe a little bigger. Had to have my fingernails cut right away. A lot of theories abound as to why I stayed in the womb so long. I can’t rightly say, except that I really enjoy sleeping in.

Thanks for not waking me up, Mom!

Any who, I am an Aquarius, like John Belushi and Michael Hutchence, were also born on Jan 22. I am also year of the Dragon…Fire Dragon. Which I think is pretty badass. I don’t know what it means but I’m sure that I’m destined to rule the world. Wouldn’t you agree? I think the first step to ruling the world is writing a blog.

Speaking of Michael Hutchence. Every time I hear INXS now, I think, “how tragic”. Poor troubled guy killed himself in ’97. He wrote some of the best pop/rock songs of the 80s, and really early 90s. Somehow he was able perfect a kind of ambiguous sincerity that was fun and moving. And made you move. Then, 8 or so years later, his band destroys whatever class they may have still had by doing that stupid ass reality show. I mean I have no idea if INXS would have stood the test of time, or would have remained too much an 80s pop band to speak to future generations, but I still did not need to see that shit go down. I know those wanted to make a buck, but please. Hopefully folks will have forgotten about that sad program, and when I play INXS at my next dance party, they get down.

You have probably guessed by now, that this post has no theme. Sorry about that.

But I do want to thank everyone for coming to my birthday celebrations! I can’t regale you with tales of debauchery and mayhem, because of the Feds. But I can say that highlights included a delicious lemon cake, wonderfully silly drawings by a young budding street artist, and lots of great friends. Oh, and scotch.

Okay, sorry the wit and whit is lacking today.
Let me get in one review:

Diving Bell and the Butterfly the new film by painter/filmmaker Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls). Great movie, top 3 from 2007 for sure, maybe the best. Painfully beautiful. I wish to speak about it in the most vague terms as I feel like you have to experience this one for yourself. You should know that it concerns a man who has “locked-in syndrome” and can only move his left eye, but retains full mental capacity. Needles-to-say, it is not light fare. But great movie, stellar direction (Julian won the best director at Cannes), and superb acting. 4 Molos

I am still dying to see There Will Be Blood.

Best of 2007

2007 was...

love, loss, growth and frustration. Here's some highlights from pop culture and personal experience:


Best New Gallery: Canvas Gallery. 617 Western. Just happens to have 3 paintings by yours truly on display right now!

Best netflix discovery: Freaks and Geeks-this show is great! I've only seen the first 6 episodes so far, but I'm loving it.

Best Vacation: Camping at the various State Parks in Oregon and California on my way to Berkeley.

Best Party: Crows Eat People III! Not to tute my own horn, but it was the best.

Best Injury: Splitting open my palm in a fall while hiking off the Mountain Loop Highway

Best pet: Crouton the kitten, despite her tendency to drive me insane when I kitten sat her for a week. No one chases the lazer point dot with greater zeal and reckless abandon.

Best novel I read: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Best Song: "Someone Great" LCD Soundsystem. Just too lovely. Even with the vocals that are almost superfulous.

Best surprize album: Busdriver - freaky acid arthouse hip-hop. Stuff on this album unlike anything I've ever heard.

Best big concert: Arcade Fire at Sasquaatch. Built at the showbox.

Best little concert: Shenandoah Davis at Fat Tiger Gallery

Best 10 albums I heard:

1. Kings of Leon Because of the Times
2. Radiohead In Rainbows
3. The Cave Singers Invitation Songs
4. LCD Sound System Sound of Silver
5. Sigur Ros Hvarf/Heim
6. Silversun Pickups Carnavas
7. The White Stripes Icky Thump
8. Busdriver Road Kill Overcoat
9. Arcade Fire Neon Bible
10. MIA Kala

Best 4 albums you may not have heard: Imperial Teen, Grinderman, Two Gallants, Memonia.

Best films I have not Seen but I suspect are good:

1. There Will Be Blood
2. The Divining Bell and the Butterfly
3. Rescue Dawn
4. Juno
5. Sweeny Todd

(and i'm sure a host of indie and foreign films I need to see)

Best films I did see in 2007:

1. No Country for Old Men
2. Grindhouse
3. Superbad
4. Eastern Promises
5. Before the Devil Knows You are Dead
6. American Gangster
7. Zodiac