Filed under: design of a decade, lists, music, people from rhode island | Tags: 2002, delphine, design of a decade, emily sparks
[My top 10 pairs of songs from 2002 continues with a pair of artists from Rhode Island, neither of whose album covers exist on the internet in a size large enough to fit my formatting style.]
7. Emily Sparks, Down In Virginia, and Delphine, Moderate Acoustic Rock Song
The release party for Emily Sparks’ What Could Not Be Buried album took place at the restaurant I always went to for lunch between classes. Enthusiastically I attended, sat about ten feet away from the singer (real name Bridget Mullen), and couldn’t hear a thing. She is quiet. So, so quiet. And a terrible, terribly shy live performer.
I bought her album anyway, though, and loved it. I still do. Much like this year’s album by Joker’s Daughter, unassuming folk songs are elevated to near-perfection by subtle, intricate production, with bloops and strange noises and guitars that are sometimes mixed louder than the vocals. It was produced by Dave Auchenbach from Wheat, another quietish band from the area.
Filed under: lists, movies, Uncategorized | Tags: excellent movies, lists, movies
So, as you know I plan on spending the fall catching up on movies from this decade that I somehow missed the first time around. In the meantime, here’s a preliminary rundown of my top 40 movies of the decade (at least, the ones I’ve actually seen.) Obviously I have certain preferences–depressing and British is the easiest key to my heart if you’re a movie, though I also love most everything to come out of the House of Soderbergh. (Other genres I like, particularly the Movie Where A Bunch Of Women Gather For A Period Of Time And Each Talk About Their Dramatic Life Issues One By One, were underrepresented this decade.) But the gays, the musicals, and movies starring hunky George Clooney/Clive Owen types are also very well-represented here.
1. Morvern Callar (dir. Lynne Ramsay, 2002)
2. Hedwig and the Angry Inch (dir. John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)
3. The Royal Tenenbaums (dir. Wes Anderson, 2001)
4. The Filth and the Fury (dir. Julien Temple, 2000)
5. Persepolis (dir. Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, 2007)
6. Laurel Canyon (dir. Lisa Cholodenko, 2001)
7. Kill Bill (both of them) (dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2004/2005)
8. Mean Girls (dir. Mark Waters, 2004)
9. The Queen (dir. Stephen Frears, 2006)
10. There Will Be Blood (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
(more…)
Tropical Storm Danny is on his way, and it’s supposed to rain all day and all night. Boring. Although due to whatever crazy meteorological turbulence has ruined most of this summer, it’s actually cold, and only supposed to go up to 71 today. I’m wearing a sweater right now. A sweater, for a tropical storm. Jesus.
[nb: despite the fact that the lyrics are basically indecipherable and the ballad-y production is incredibly dated, Danny is still by far my favorite Tiffany single. It was her first, before I Think We're Alone Now, and for whatever reason a video was never shot for it.]
