we can walk to the curb from here: December 2005

top 10

here we go:
top 10 albums of 2005 (my top 10, not necessarily released in 2005)
broken social scene: you forgot it in people
sufjan stevens: illinois
arcade fire: funeral
the mix cd i made for drew. i'm serious. it's righteous.
neutral milk hotel: in the aeroplane over the sea. i'm serious. i just got it this year.
ted leo: the tyranny of distance
nick drake: pink moon
clap your hands say yeah: clap your hands say yeah
death cab for cutie: plans
iron & wine: creek drank the cradle

top 10 songs
looks just like the sun - broken social scene
i'm still your fag - broken social scene
(i'm tempted to put cause=time, stars & sons, and almost crimes here, but it can't be an all-broken-social-scene top 10)
biomusicology - ted leo + pharmacists
he means nothing, dear - matson jones
casimir pulaski day - sufjan stevens
brothers on a hotel bed - death cab for cutie
crown of love - arcade fire
dead man's will - iron & wine/calexico
over and over again (lost and found) - clap your hands say yeah
tallahassee - the mountain goats

top 10 films
brokeback mountain
jarhead
the squid and the whale
happy endings
capote
lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events
heartburn
the constant gardener
thumbsucker
enron: the smartest guys in the room

goodbye, 2005! i'm getting old.

pimp my nutcracker

brokeback mountain

i saw brokeback mountain yesterday, and i am practically speechless. it was absolutely, achingly, hauntingly beautiful. it's beautiful, and i think heath ledger should win an oscar. i never thought i would say that. he absolutely shocked me.

it's typically referred to as the gay cowboy movie, but it's obviously so much more than that. it's about love and longing, and that transcends gender. i'm really happy to see though that people aren't really picketing outside theaters or anything...frank rich wrote a really great review about this in sunday's new york times - it begins with "What if they held a culture war and no one fired a shot?"

here's more of that article - i would link to it, but new york times is an asshole:

Though "Brokeback Mountain" is not a western, it's been directed by Ang Lee with the austerity and languorous gait of a John Ford epic. These aesthetics couldn't be more country miles removed from "The Birdcage" or "Will & Grace." The audience is forced to recognize that gay people were fixtures in the red state of Wyoming (and every other corner of the country, too) long before Matthew Shepard and Mary Cheney were born. Without a single polemical speech, this laconic film dramatizes homosexuality as an inherent and immutable identity, rather than some aberrant and elective "agenda" concocted by conspiratorial "elites" in Chelsea, the Castro and South Beach, as anti-gay proselytizers would have it. Ennis and Jack long for a life together, not for what gay baiters pejoratively label a "lifestyle."

But in truth the audience doesn't have to be coerced to get it. This is where the country has been steadily moving of late. "Brokeback Mountain," a Hollywood product after all, is not leading a revolution but ratifying one, fleshing out - quite literally - what most Americans now believe. It's not for nothing that the proposed constitutional ban on same-sex marriage vanished as soon as the election was over. Polls show that a large American majority support equal rights for gay couples as long as the unions aren't labeled "marriage" - and given the current swift pace of change, that reservation, too, will probably fade in the next 5 to 10 years.

The history of "Brokeback Mountain" as a film project in itself crystallizes how fast the climate has shifted. Mr. McMurtry and Ms. Ossana bought the screen rights to the Proulx story after it was published in The New Yorker in 1997. That was the same year the religious right declared a fatwa on Disney because Ellen DeGeneres came out of the closet in her ABC prime-time sitcom. In the eight years it took "Brokeback Mountain" to overcome Hollywood's shilly-shallying and at last be made, the Disney boycott collapsed and Ms. DeGeneres's star rose. She's now a mainstream daytime talk-show host competing with Oprah. No one has forgotten she's a lesbian. No one cares.

king kong = 2 hours too long

so, against my better judgment, i went to see king kong tonight. when i first saw the previews, i thought, okay, this looks awful. then i read a bunch of good reviews, and decided to see it anyway, mostly because it's playing at this wicked cool theater in dc called the uptown - it has a huge screen that's kind of curved and it's fantastic. anyway, i went to see the movie tonight with chris and priya, and man, it was 3 hours of my life i'll never get back.

i guess my chief complaint is that it was 20 minutes of plot stretched out over almost 3.5 hours. literally every scene could have easily been cut in half, and it would have been to the film's great benefit. this led to a complete lack of momentum, and as a consequence, scenes that should have been fraught with tension ended up falling completely flat. i mean, the CG was impressive, but really, it wasn't enough.

so, thumbs down.

also a thumbsdown to the show undeclared, which everyone on netflix said was just as good as freaks and geeks, but really is just awful.

and, ruth suggested that i update my "what i'm listening to" section and i realized that over a month after my last update, i'm still listening to the same albums. but in the spirit of variety, i replaced iron & wine with clap your hands say yeah, but the orange and pink totally ruins my color scheme. i'll have to put some thought into this.

goodbye, leo mcgarry

i had an interview today!

yes kids, that's right. i had an interview today at NOW and man, it went really well. like, really well! here's the job listing: Intern/Volunteer Coordinator.

i met with the VP for action and the VP for membership, and i already knew both of them because i've been volunteering there for a few months. i also have the endorsement of the outgoing volunteer coordinator, who is really great, but she's leaving to get her PhD. anyway, i totally aced that freaking interview. i was totally prepared - what are your strengths and weaknesses, what's an example of a success in your current position, why do you want to work for NOW. man, i was an animal!

man, i have been dreaming about quitting my horrible job for...what, 9 months? a year? if i finally get to quit, i will throw myself a fucking parade.