*SPOILERS BELOW*
Calling it now: Before Midnight is my favourite film of 2013.
Although I’m intrigued by upcoming technical masteries (Gravity) and festival darlings (12 Years A Slave, Inside Llewyn Davis), I just cannot imagine a film coming along this year that is able to capture the truth of human existence and relationships in all their beauty and ugliness as effortlessly and simply as Before Midnight.
*Spoilers ahead. Although I’ve seen the first three seasons in their entirety I try to avoid any spoilers from beyond season 2. But if you’re super risk averse, I’d avoid reading this until you’ve completed season 3*
I ploughed through Game of Thrones‘ second season in roughly 5 days. I’ve realised that this is a good way for me to watch the show. The faster I watch, the less time I have to build things up in my head, the less disappointed I feel when certain plotlines don’t go anywhere or progress fast enough for my liking. For all the moaning that the show is all table setting that I did in my review of season 1, I do very much enjoy GoT. Purely from a production standpoint, the series represents the pinnacle in TV craftsmanship and polish, and the storytelling choices are often quite bold and outside of what is expected in TV, as per its source material. My main issue with season 1 was its lack of pay off.
Part 2 covers songs starting with the letter ‘S’ from artists starting with letters from ‘N to Z’. Why? Cos it’s spring……..see Part. 1 for songs by artists from the beginning of the alphabet.
All the songs are individually linked but I’ve compiled a YouTube Playlist for your benefit.
1. Son Of A Gun – The Vaselines
2. Shadow – Wild Nothing
3. Silly Crimes – The Tough Alliance
4. So Begins Our Alabee – Of Montreal
5. Sing Me Spanish Techno – The New Pornographers
Yes! Spring has sprung (for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere or SoHem). Now what does this playlist have to do with spring? Nothing. It’s just a bunch a songs starting with ‘S’. I assure you this will not be my worst conceit for a playlist by a long shot. There are far too many great songs starting with S, so I’ve split this conceit into two playlists. Part 1 covers songs from artists starting with letters between A and M. Enjoy…..
See Part 2 here
All the songs are individually linked but I’ve compiled a YouTube Playlist for all the songs
1. Slow Motion – The Flaming Lips
2. Setting Sun – Howling Bells
3. Scandinavian Love – Efterklang
4. Secretarial – A.C. Newman
5. Sandy – Caribou
As I mentioned in my previous Top Simpsons Episode List (up to season 8), I am a lot kinder to the Mike Scully (9-12) and Al Jean (13+) seasons of The Simpsons than many others because I grew up with these episodes. Sure they were muddled in with the re-runs of classic era episodes, but at the time I couldn’t see much of a differentiation, funny was funny and The Simpsons continued to make me laugh, with season 9 and onwards providing me many hours of enjoyment. Having said that, it’s easy to now see a differentiation in the quality and tone of the show. The laughs were still there, but they came from a sillier place. The show became broader, cruder and targeted towards a younger audience. The satire was blunted in favour of Stupid Homer, or worse, Jerkass Homer as he came to be not-so-affectionately titled.
This is a playlist of songs which reference California and/or locations within California. To narrow down the list, I’ve only chosen songs that explicitly reference Californian locations in the title. Essentially the playlist moves from Los Angeles to San Francisco with a couple of detours. Where possible I’ve tried to find video links that are audio only because I feel MVs can often distract from the songs. I also tried to find songs that evoke California, rather than just have my favourite songs with California in the title (alright, there’s a lot of those too)
I have made a YouTube playlist of all these videos for your convenience. However I can only find a live version for ‘The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco’ so I would recommend using the the vimeo link that I put up for that vid.
This list represents a ranking of the Studio Ghibli films that I have seen between 1984’s ‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ and 2010’s ‘Arriety’. This list is to somewhat celebrate the arrival of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film ‘The Wind Rises‘ which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival. I’ve still yet to see ‘From Up On Poppy Hill’. See my updated 2021 list.
Studio Ghibli has made some of the greatest animated films of all time. Almost every film is beautifully textured and thoughtfully written. This list is ranked purely in terms of how much I enjoy these films; it’s not necessarily a reflection of how well made they are but rather how much I enjoy revisiting them, so there may be some controversial choices here.
*SPOILERS for the entirety of season 1, but not beyond*
Ok I’m going to be completely honest: Game of Thrones is a beautifully shot and designed show that is smartly written, with many bold storytelling twists and turns that successfully juggle an improbably large cast of characters all of whom are finely cast and embodied. But ultimately it creates a world that I’m not sure I’m completely invested in. In fact, I watched the season finale a good week or two ago and I’ve felt no great urge to continue (I will of course, it’s just not a top priority)
There are a number of reasons for this lack of devotion and because I’m lazy, I shall list them in point form. {Ok I realised all my below arguments are exactly the same and stem for my impatience and the desire for more resolution. But please continue, because I believe some of my points are almost valid}
Full Disclosure: I still have, to this day, 40+ VHS tapes of The Simpsons episodes that I taped off the TV (that’s right, I’m bad) as a young lad. I have all the DVDs up until season 11 where the horrible packaging made it impossible to remove the discs. Most embarrassingly, I have an entire folder full of sheets (almost 100 in total) which perfectly document which episodes are on which tapes (and a brief description), whether or not the episode exists in its entirety or was only half taped, and a grade out of 10 for each. So this list is in honour of that boy who had (and clearly still has) way too much time on his hands.
Playlist featuring the music from artists that start with A. I’m not going alphabetically (and it won’t always be grouped by artist) but I think ‘A’ would be a good place to start.
1. Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire – Two Way Action
The Swimming Hour (2001)
2. Akron/Family – I’ve Got Some Friends
Love Is Simple (2007)
3. Avi Buffalo – One Last
Avi Buffalo (2010)
4. Adam Green – Novotel
Jacket Full of Danger (2006)
5. Architecture In Helsinki – The Cemetery
In Case We Die (2005)
I Likes What I Likes 