Hello,
Don't have much time to get into too much detail, but here's my top ten music albums of 2010.
10. Kate Nash - My Best Friend Is You. Kind of a British version of Regina Spektor, but a little more upbeat.
Download - "Do-Wah-Doo""Take Me To A Higher Plane"
9. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Up From Below. The most overplayed song of the year was "Home." But they are much better than a one hit wonder.
Download - "40 Day Dream""I Come In Please"
8. Matt & Kim - Sidewalks. Not the most talented duo, but make up for it with a lot of energy and catchy tunes.
Download - "AM/FM Sound""Where You're Coming From"
7. Spoon - Transference. Not the best Spoon album, but still solid work from one of my favorite bands.
Download - "Got Nuffin'""Written In Reverse"
6. Broken Bells - Broken Bells. Danger Mouse and James Mercer make an album. It's good.
Download - "The High Road""The Ghost Inside"
5. Shout Out Louds - Work. If you liked their previous albums, you'll like this. If not, probably not.
Download - "Walls""The Candle Burned Out"
4. The New Pornographers - Together. AC Newman and Neko Case are my favorite Canadians.
Download - "Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk""We End Up Together"
3. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs. Better than Neon Bible, but still not on the level of Funeral.
Download - "We Used To Wait""Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)"
2. Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame. Don't see why everybody loves Mumford & Sons, and Dr. Dog is only moderately successful.
Download - "Where'd All The Time Go?""Shadow People"
1. LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening. The best single, and the best album.
Download - "I Can Change""Dance Yrself Clean"
That's my list, bash it.
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
And the nominees are...
Hi Terry, Athena, Joe, Darrell, and Will,
The Oscar nominees were announced today, and I thought I'd give my two cents. If there's *, then I haven't seen it yet.
Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter - It was a pretty good sports movie, but best picture? Come on, man.
Inception - This is making up for snubbing The Dark Knight.
The Kids Are All Right - When did they start nominating Lifetime movies? That's all this movie really is, a Lifetime movie with A-List stars.
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3 - Not even the best animated movie this year.
True Grit - Far superior to No Country For Old Men in my opinion.
Winter's Bone - You gotta have that small independent movie that nobody knows about.
My pick: Black Swan
Best Director
Darren Aronofsky "Black Swan" - Fantastic movie, and he got a great performance out of Natalie Portman.
David O. Russell "The Fighter" - Always thought his movies were overrated(Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees).
Tom Hooper "The King's Speech" - This is an Awards movie that will be forgotten in a year, but it is good though. It just doesn't deserve all the accolades it's getting.
David Fincher "The Social Network"
Joel and Ethan Coen "True Grit"
My pick: Darren Aronofsky
Best Actor in a Leading Role
*Javier Bardem "Biutiful"
Jeff Bridges "True Grit" - I had my doubts about him in a Western, but he was great.
Jesse Eisenberg "The Social Network" - Probably my favorite up and coming actor.
Colin Firth "The King's Speech"
James Franco "127 Hours"
My pick: Jesse Eisenberg
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening "The Kids Are All Right" - Just wasn't that good.
*Nicole Kidman "Rabbit Hole"
Jennifer Lawrence "Winter's Bone" - My runner up. Not a great movie, but she and John Hawkes were excellent in this.
Natalie Portman "Black Swan" - Might be the best performance in a decade.
*Michelle Williams "Blue Valentine"
My pick: Natalie Portman
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams "The Fighter" - Just because you do a Boston accent shouldn't mean you get nominated.
Melissa Leo "The Fighter" - See above
Helena Bonham Carter "The King's Speech"
Hailee Steinfeld "True Grit" - It helps when you have the Coen brothers directing you.
*Jacki Weaver "Animal Kingdom"
My pick: Hailee Steinfeld
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale "The Fighter" - Didn't care for the movie all that much, but he was good.
John Hawkes "Winter's Bone" - Nice to see a character actor get a nomination.
Jeremy Renner "The Town" - Hollywood needs to stop making Boston movies. Getting a little old.
Mark Ruffalo "The Kids Are All Right"
Geoffrey Rush "The King's Speech" - I think they've blown enough smoke up this movie's ass. I liked it, but this is getting ridiculous.
My pick: John Hawkes
Best Animated Feature
How to Train Your Dragon - Very surprised at how good this was.
Toy Story 3
*The Illusionist
My pick: How to Train Your Dragon
Original Score
John Powell "How to Train Your Dragon"
Hans Zimmer "Inception" - Apart from the effects, probably the best part of the movie.
Alexandre Desplat "The King's Speech"
AR Rahman "127 Hours" - Danny Boyle movies always have good soundtracks.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross "The Social Network" - Fit the movie perfectly, and didn't stand out in a good way.
My pick: The Social Network
Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Ever since Prisoner of Azkaban, the Harry Potter series has had fantastic special effects.
*Hereafter
Inception - The first trailer with the city folding over on itself got my money right away.
Iron Man 2 - Sequels usually don't win.
My pick - Inception
Those categories are the only ones that I feel like I have a good opinion on. I don't get to read the screenplays, so I don't really know how good they are, or if a director or actor made it better. Cinematography, Art Direction, and Makeup I don't know enough about to give a knowledgeable opinion. I'd just be picking my favorite move out of the nominees. And what is the difference between sound editing and sound mixing?
I saw all best picture nominees, and feel that it's a three horse race between Black Swan, True Grit, and The Social Network. I liked The King's Speech, but 12 nominations is a bit much.
I still need to see a couple movies before I do my Top Ten, so that will be up in a couple weeks.
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
The Oscar nominees were announced today, and I thought I'd give my two cents. If there's *, then I haven't seen it yet.
Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter - It was a pretty good sports movie, but best picture? Come on, man.
Inception - This is making up for snubbing The Dark Knight.
The Kids Are All Right - When did they start nominating Lifetime movies? That's all this movie really is, a Lifetime movie with A-List stars.
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3 - Not even the best animated movie this year.
True Grit - Far superior to No Country For Old Men in my opinion.
Winter's Bone - You gotta have that small independent movie that nobody knows about.
My pick: Black Swan
Best Director
Darren Aronofsky "Black Swan" - Fantastic movie, and he got a great performance out of Natalie Portman.
David O. Russell "The Fighter" - Always thought his movies were overrated(Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees).
Tom Hooper "The King's Speech" - This is an Awards movie that will be forgotten in a year, but it is good though. It just doesn't deserve all the accolades it's getting.
David Fincher "The Social Network"
Joel and Ethan Coen "True Grit"
My pick: Darren Aronofsky
Best Actor in a Leading Role
*Javier Bardem "Biutiful"
Jeff Bridges "True Grit" - I had my doubts about him in a Western, but he was great.
Jesse Eisenberg "The Social Network" - Probably my favorite up and coming actor.
Colin Firth "The King's Speech"
James Franco "127 Hours"
My pick: Jesse Eisenberg
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening "The Kids Are All Right" - Just wasn't that good.
*Nicole Kidman "Rabbit Hole"
Jennifer Lawrence "Winter's Bone" - My runner up. Not a great movie, but she and John Hawkes were excellent in this.
Natalie Portman "Black Swan" - Might be the best performance in a decade.
*Michelle Williams "Blue Valentine"
My pick: Natalie Portman
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams "The Fighter" - Just because you do a Boston accent shouldn't mean you get nominated.
Melissa Leo "The Fighter" - See above
Helena Bonham Carter "The King's Speech"
Hailee Steinfeld "True Grit" - It helps when you have the Coen brothers directing you.
*Jacki Weaver "Animal Kingdom"
My pick: Hailee Steinfeld
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale "The Fighter" - Didn't care for the movie all that much, but he was good.
John Hawkes "Winter's Bone" - Nice to see a character actor get a nomination.
Jeremy Renner "The Town" - Hollywood needs to stop making Boston movies. Getting a little old.
Mark Ruffalo "The Kids Are All Right"
Geoffrey Rush "The King's Speech" - I think they've blown enough smoke up this movie's ass. I liked it, but this is getting ridiculous.
My pick: John Hawkes
Best Animated Feature
How to Train Your Dragon - Very surprised at how good this was.
Toy Story 3
*The Illusionist
My pick: How to Train Your Dragon
Original Score
John Powell "How to Train Your Dragon"
Hans Zimmer "Inception" - Apart from the effects, probably the best part of the movie.
Alexandre Desplat "The King's Speech"
AR Rahman "127 Hours" - Danny Boyle movies always have good soundtracks.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross "The Social Network" - Fit the movie perfectly, and didn't stand out in a good way.
My pick: The Social Network
Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Ever since Prisoner of Azkaban, the Harry Potter series has had fantastic special effects.
*Hereafter
Inception - The first trailer with the city folding over on itself got my money right away.
Iron Man 2 - Sequels usually don't win.
My pick - Inception
Those categories are the only ones that I feel like I have a good opinion on. I don't get to read the screenplays, so I don't really know how good they are, or if a director or actor made it better. Cinematography, Art Direction, and Makeup I don't know enough about to give a knowledgeable opinion. I'd just be picking my favorite move out of the nominees. And what is the difference between sound editing and sound mixing?
I saw all best picture nominees, and feel that it's a three horse race between Black Swan, True Grit, and The Social Network. I liked The King's Speech, but 12 nominations is a bit much.
I still need to see a couple movies before I do my Top Ten, so that will be up in a couple weeks.
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
January Schedule
Hi Terry, Athena, Joe, and Darrell,
In my last post I made a goal of seeing 100 movies in 2011. That's about 2 every week, and 9 a month. Maybe I aimed a little high. Regardless, I'm going to try and do it. I already saw Season of the Witch, and here's the rest of what I have on tap.
The King's Speech - An academy award hopeful starring Colin Firth. I know this technically came out in 2010, but it didn't get released in my area until this week. I'm still going to count it for my tally this year.
The Green Hornet - A superhero comedy written by and starring Seth Rogen. Michel Gondry directed so I'm going to give this a chance, although the trailers have looked terrible and Seth Rogen doesn't seem to fit the part. Also, I watched a Mythbusters episode dedicated to the Green Hornet, and found it amusing when every action scene in the movie was busted.
The Dilemma - Buddy comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Ron Howard movies usually come out a month earlier in time for awards season, so I'm pretty sure this was pushed back into January because it's terrible. I know gay rights activists were upset about the first trailer's use of the word gay. I saw it before the line was removed, and I can see why they were upset about it. Maybe they should watch some Louis CK standup to cool off.
No Strings Attached - Romantic comedy starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. This is going to be painful going up to the box office and buying the ticket. Natalie Portman is great when she gives great effort on the project, but she does like to collect a paycheck(see Star Wars). And Ashton Kutcher can suck it.
The Mechanic - Remake of a Charles Bronson movie starring Jason Statham. Jason Statham is this generations Jean Claude Van Damme. He doesn't get the big budget action movies like The Rock or Sam Worthington, but he is in twice as many B grade action pictures. Sometimes he gets a hit like The Transporter, and sometimes he's in Death Race. Flip a coin, and hopefully it's heads.
The Rite - Exorcism movie starring Anthony Hopkins. Meh.
I'll definitely see all of these movies which will put me at 7 for the month. I'm a little off pace, but it's January and there's not much coming out. Hopefully I Love You, Philip Morris will open close by, or another movie worth seeing.
Looking at this list though is somewhat depressing. Honestly, there's not a single movie on here that I would make any real effort in seeing any other year, but I can't quit before I start. It's just sad that I'm going to give money the people that made No Strings Attached, blech. Anyway, I'll go see all of these and report back at the beginning of February.
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
In my last post I made a goal of seeing 100 movies in 2011. That's about 2 every week, and 9 a month. Maybe I aimed a little high. Regardless, I'm going to try and do it. I already saw Season of the Witch, and here's the rest of what I have on tap.
The King's Speech - An academy award hopeful starring Colin Firth. I know this technically came out in 2010, but it didn't get released in my area until this week. I'm still going to count it for my tally this year.
The Green Hornet - A superhero comedy written by and starring Seth Rogen. Michel Gondry directed so I'm going to give this a chance, although the trailers have looked terrible and Seth Rogen doesn't seem to fit the part. Also, I watched a Mythbusters episode dedicated to the Green Hornet, and found it amusing when every action scene in the movie was busted.
The Dilemma - Buddy comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Kevin James. Ron Howard movies usually come out a month earlier in time for awards season, so I'm pretty sure this was pushed back into January because it's terrible. I know gay rights activists were upset about the first trailer's use of the word gay. I saw it before the line was removed, and I can see why they were upset about it. Maybe they should watch some Louis CK standup to cool off.
No Strings Attached - Romantic comedy starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. This is going to be painful going up to the box office and buying the ticket. Natalie Portman is great when she gives great effort on the project, but she does like to collect a paycheck(see Star Wars). And Ashton Kutcher can suck it.
The Mechanic - Remake of a Charles Bronson movie starring Jason Statham. Jason Statham is this generations Jean Claude Van Damme. He doesn't get the big budget action movies like The Rock or Sam Worthington, but he is in twice as many B grade action pictures. Sometimes he gets a hit like The Transporter, and sometimes he's in Death Race. Flip a coin, and hopefully it's heads.
The Rite - Exorcism movie starring Anthony Hopkins. Meh.
I'll definitely see all of these movies which will put me at 7 for the month. I'm a little off pace, but it's January and there's not much coming out. Hopefully I Love You, Philip Morris will open close by, or another movie worth seeing.
Looking at this list though is somewhat depressing. Honestly, there's not a single movie on here that I would make any real effort in seeing any other year, but I can't quit before I start. It's just sad that I'm going to give money the people that made No Strings Attached, blech. Anyway, I'll go see all of these and report back at the beginning of February.
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
Saturday, January 8, 2011
2011 @ The Movies
Hi Terry, Joe, Athena, and Darrell,
I've been trying to think of something that I could regularly write about on the blog, and I think I just may have something. I saw 11 movies in the theater since Thanksgiving.
They were:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 -- twice
The Next Three Days
The Tourist
Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Black Swan
True Grit -- twice
Tron Legacy
How Do You Know
The Fighter
The Warrior's Way
Tangled
Not bad, don't you think? Harry Potter and Narnia are pretty much par for the course. Black Swan and True Grit are cinches to make my top ten for the year, while The Tourist and The Warrior's Way could make my ten worst. The rest are fairly middle of the road. Tron had good special fx, The Fighter had a good story and a good performance from Christian Bale, and Tangled was a step in the right direction for Disney Animation(not named Pixar).
I don't really want to do a review for all eleven, so I figure I'll start doing reviews for the 2011 releases. What do you think? Can I make it 52 straight weeks without missing a movie in the theater? My plan is to see at least one new release every week for all of 2011. Sometimes seeing two or three movies, too. My goal is 100 movies by the end of the year. Can I do it? Let me know.
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
PS- First up is Nicolas Cage in Season of the Witch.
I've been trying to think of something that I could regularly write about on the blog, and I think I just may have something. I saw 11 movies in the theater since Thanksgiving.
They were:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 -- twice
The Next Three Days
The Tourist
Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Black Swan
True Grit -- twice
Tron Legacy
How Do You Know
The Fighter
The Warrior's Way
Tangled
Not bad, don't you think? Harry Potter and Narnia are pretty much par for the course. Black Swan and True Grit are cinches to make my top ten for the year, while The Tourist and The Warrior's Way could make my ten worst. The rest are fairly middle of the road. Tron had good special fx, The Fighter had a good story and a good performance from Christian Bale, and Tangled was a step in the right direction for Disney Animation(not named Pixar).
I don't really want to do a review for all eleven, so I figure I'll start doing reviews for the 2011 releases. What do you think? Can I make it 52 straight weeks without missing a movie in the theater? My plan is to see at least one new release every week for all of 2011. Sometimes seeing two or three movies, too. My goal is 100 movies by the end of the year. Can I do it? Let me know.
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
PS- First up is Nicolas Cage in Season of the Witch.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Lost a night to Civ 5
Hi Terry, Athena, and Joe B,
I played a Civilization 5 for 15 hours last night. Booya! Started at about 4 and didn't stop until 8 in the morning. Just like Snoop Dogg. Took an hour break for some healthy pizza (buffalo chicken). So, I felt pretty awesome today.
I had no idea that I had been playing for that long. I thought it was like 2 or 3 in the morning. Late, but not that bad. Damn that Julius Caesar! He won't trade sugar for fucking anything. I had a kingdom of a bunch children with a sweet tooth, while he's eating lollipops and cotton candy. What an asshole, he deserved to be stabbed in the back. I took my revenge later in the game though, with an airstrike with my stealth bombers against his crossbowman, knights, and Renaissance Aged Rome. Then my armored infantry and tanks rolled in, and made it a puppet city for the Arabian empire. Then I drank his milkshake, along with world domination. Victory!!!!
Staying up this late shouldn't have really come as a surprise to me. My friend Tom told me this was going to happen, and I should have heeded his advice. But it was cold out, and I had nothing to do, and no place to go, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. (We only got about an inch.)
It's been a really long time since I pulled an all nighter playing a videogame. I think the last one was the Final Fantasy 12, so 3 or 4 years ago. I used to do it all the time when I was younger, but I just don't have the time anymore. (Sad face.) Of course, there just doesn't seem to be as many games worth staying up all night for either.
Maybe my interests have changed quite a bit, or I'm just growing up. Instead of losing nights playing games, now I lose them reading books. I'll start reading at 8 and look at the clock and see it's past midnight more often now, than a playing a videogame.
I think it's my interests have changed. My favorite books are Harry Potter and scifi/fantasy novels. Nerd.
I was very excited when I got Civ 5 for Christmas. The only one I owned before was the first Civ, and the last one I played was Civ 3. It's not that I didn't want 2-4, but I didn't have a nice enough computer to run it. And I wasn't going to spend $150 on a new videocard, and another $40 for the game. It's amazing how much this series has changed, and how similar it still is to the very first game. I picked it up right away and started playing it. The basic premise is still the same. You can win by world domination, science, culture, or world peace. All the commands are the same, or just slightly different. The small changes are welcome, as they make the game run smoother. But the graphics, presentation, and number of choices are so much better than the first few. So, if you like the series, go pick this up and we'll throw a LAN party. Woohoo! (Since everybody plays online now, do people still get together for LAN parties?)
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
I played a Civilization 5 for 15 hours last night. Booya! Started at about 4 and didn't stop until 8 in the morning. Just like Snoop Dogg. Took an hour break for some healthy pizza (buffalo chicken). So, I felt pretty awesome today.
I had no idea that I had been playing for that long. I thought it was like 2 or 3 in the morning. Late, but not that bad. Damn that Julius Caesar! He won't trade sugar for fucking anything. I had a kingdom of a bunch children with a sweet tooth, while he's eating lollipops and cotton candy. What an asshole, he deserved to be stabbed in the back. I took my revenge later in the game though, with an airstrike with my stealth bombers against his crossbowman, knights, and Renaissance Aged Rome. Then my armored infantry and tanks rolled in, and made it a puppet city for the Arabian empire. Then I drank his milkshake, along with world domination. Victory!!!!
Staying up this late shouldn't have really come as a surprise to me. My friend Tom told me this was going to happen, and I should have heeded his advice. But it was cold out, and I had nothing to do, and no place to go, so let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. (We only got about an inch.)
It's been a really long time since I pulled an all nighter playing a videogame. I think the last one was the Final Fantasy 12, so 3 or 4 years ago. I used to do it all the time when I was younger, but I just don't have the time anymore. (Sad face.) Of course, there just doesn't seem to be as many games worth staying up all night for either.
Maybe my interests have changed quite a bit, or I'm just growing up. Instead of losing nights playing games, now I lose them reading books. I'll start reading at 8 and look at the clock and see it's past midnight more often now, than a playing a videogame.
I think it's my interests have changed. My favorite books are Harry Potter and scifi/fantasy novels. Nerd.
I was very excited when I got Civ 5 for Christmas. The only one I owned before was the first Civ, and the last one I played was Civ 3. It's not that I didn't want 2-4, but I didn't have a nice enough computer to run it. And I wasn't going to spend $150 on a new videocard, and another $40 for the game. It's amazing how much this series has changed, and how similar it still is to the very first game. I picked it up right away and started playing it. The basic premise is still the same. You can win by world domination, science, culture, or world peace. All the commands are the same, or just slightly different. The small changes are welcome, as they make the game run smoother. But the graphics, presentation, and number of choices are so much better than the first few. So, if you like the series, go pick this up and we'll throw a LAN party. Woohoo! (Since everybody plays online now, do people still get together for LAN parties?)
May the Force be with you,
CHUD
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