For now I will give you the wrap up for 2009.  I may have some words on the last decade later.

This year in live music: Broken Social Scene, Lymbyc Systym, The Submarines,  SXSW (Flosstradamus, Asobi Seksu, Titus Andronicus, Chairlift, the DJs from the Hood Internet, Kanye West, Big Sean, GLC Consequence, Really Do, Tony Williams, Mr. Hudson, Kid Cudi, Common, Erykah Badu, Buck65, B.Dolan, Sleep, Sage Francis, the Obits, Handsome Furs, American Analog Set, the Rosebuds, Bishop Allen, Au Revoir Simone, These Arms are Snakes, Cursive,  Passion Pit,  the Soft Pack, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Matt and Kim, Amplive, Franki Chan and Curt from Flosstradamus, and Echo and the Bunnymen),  Crystal Castles, Loxsly, the Dears, Great Northern, Passion Pit, Harlem Shakes, Clues, Explosions in the Sky , De La Soul, El Ten Eleven , Free Press Summerfest (Broken Social Scene, Explosions in the Sky, Prince Paul, Voxtrot), Los Campesinos!, Broken Social Scene,   FFF Fest (Royal Bangs, Crystal Antlers, Foot Patrol, Sugar and Gold, Vega, MC Chris, Neon Indian, Yeasayer, Les Savy Fav, Pharcyde, Atlas Sound, Why?, Broadcast, Dj Numark,  Lucero, MIssion of Burma, Buraka Som Sistema, GZA, Kid Sister ) Regina Spektor, Hockey, and Pheonix.

This year in non-live music: I am still having Last.fm iPod scrobbling issues.  Here’s to this year’s new albums that kept me awake at my desk. NASA, Mos Def, Amanda Blank, Del tha Funky Homosapien, Discovery, Walkmen, Headlights, Passion Pit, Yo La Tengo, Heartless Bastards, Animal Collective,…

This year in Sewing: I entered the Little Black Dress Contest and helped a friend who is writing a book on green clothing design.

This year on the interwebs: I am still bad about updating Twitter.  I have fallen in love with hulu and the hood internet.

This year in Movies: (theater) SXSW (RIP: A Remix Manifesto,  500 days of Summer,  Died Young, Stayed Pretty, The Time of Their Lives, Yes Men Fix the World,  Alexander the Last, and  I Love You, Man), Inglorious Basterds, Up in the Air, (dvd)Persepolis,  Thank You for Smoking, Fast Food Nation, The Yes Men.

This year in Books: Goodreads This is what I read: Story of the Eye-Georges, Bataille, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper- Diablo Cody, He’s Just not that into You- Greg Behrendt, Fast Food Nation- Eric Schlosser, The Other Side of Thirty- M.A. Thakor, The Manual- Steve Santagati, Another Roadside Attraction- Tom Robbins, Love is a Mix Tape- Rob Sheffield, Even Cowgirls get the Blues- Tom Robbins, Choke- Chuck Palahniuk, High Fidelity- Nick Hornby,

Here is the list of things I neglected to do in 2009 along with excuses for not doing them:

1. More bike rides (and maybe a bike with gears). No new bikes.  I did go on a few long rides though. I would bike more if I weren’t allergic to outside.
   
2. A jumble of personal goals: tolerance, being a better person, being more trusting, baggage reduction, etc… I haven’t made things worse (At least I don’t think I did).
3. Design for another fashion show.  Hopefully Stitch, when it returns. Stitch did not return this year.
4. Demolish the back porch and fix the fence. Those are still there.  The plan is to ditch the whole house.
5. Road trip. Didn’t happen.  I flew to Seattle instead.

2010 will be my 33rd year.   My Yenta says it should be one of the best.

The topic of baggage has been brought up on several occasions.  I am working on the train case and M is working on the backpack. Neither of us what the 23 piece luggage set from Darjeeling Limited.

I recently saw Up in the Air with my Yenta (yes, I have a Yenta now).  I will save you from the details since I don’t want to clog this post up with spoiler alert warnings.  I will say that the film was brilliant.  But what else would you expect from the man that gave us Juno and Thank You for Smoking.

Back to the backpack…

George Clooney’s character (the lovable asshole), is a motivational speaker.  His pitch is about a backpack (I am still trying to figure out if the backpack speech has anything to do with the book by John Bytheway.)

How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you’re carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life… (more…)

• 

If you hadn’t guessed from the title, I just saw the latest installment from Tarantino.  Inglourious Basterds.  I have been waiting several years for this movie to come out.  Tarantino promised a war epic when Kill Bill was released.  Unfortunately, there were many distractions in the way (Rodriguez , Hostel, killer episode of CSI, parties in Iceland, etc… ).  Five years later, I get my movie.  Yet another classic tale of revenge.

Does anyone remember the ridiculous fight against the Nazi Invaders in Bedknobs in Broomsticks.  I thought nothing of it as a child.  But seeing the movie as an adult, it is a little disturbing.

Somehow I didn’t feel the same about Tarantino’s portrayal.  The absence of magic helped (Why would invisible knights need armour?  Couldn’t you just make them invincible and call it a day?).  Mostly it was the fact that he had the Basterds do unto the Nazis what they did to everyone else.  They had it comin’ to ‘em. Oh, and did anyone notice that Pitt has become more Clooney?

I highly suggest seeing this film on the big screen while you can.  Better yet, see it at the Alamo Drafthouse.  We all know how long it takes for the full director’s cut version of a Tarantino film to be released.  It took 10 years for Pulp Fiction.  I am still waiting for Kill Bill uncut (I saw it at the Drafthouse and it was phenomenal).  If anything, you should see the movie to find out who wins.

Thank you Tim Burton.  I know this will be the real deal.  Lewis had a very dark mind, much like your own.

Today was a mildly lazy Sunday.  In order to upgrade to a fully lazy Sunday, I would have had to sleep in to about 11.  There would have been less household chores. Pants would have been optional, and the litter box would have waited one more day.

Although it could have gone down like this:

I did have a much needed date with my sofa (those of you who have seen my couch understand).  I watched 3 movies from the library:  (I am hoping that major companies don’t put this service to an end.  I don’t have the time to merit a subscription to Netflix.)

Thank you for Smoking:  I really don’t like Katie Holmes.  I didn’t like her so much that I didn’t catch this movie when it was at SXSW in 2006.  I could have seen it for free.  Anyways, I kept hearing good things about this movie so I finally broke down and watched it.  Thanks to the all-star cast I barely recall the scenes with Tom’s beard.   Anyways,  the moral of this tale was that people should make informed decisions. Question everything.  Don’t let other people do the thinking for you.

Fast Food Nation: I read the book and was amazed, and shocked, and thankful that I don’t eat meat (I’ve  been vegetarian for 10 years) and I avoid products with unpronouceable incredients.  The film fell short of the book.  From watching the behind-the-scenes stuff I know that they didn’t want to remake the book.   They just wanted to get the message accross.  I think they could have done better.  I know that   Linklater’s thing is to do character work but I think that the film would have been better shot as a documentary.

The Yes Men: I caught “The Yes Men Fix the World” at SXSW and wanted to see these guys on their journey to take out the WTO.  The film was great.  Unfortunately the DVD scratched.   I may have to see about borrowing a different copy because I missed a few key parts.

Of the 3 movies, I think that Thank You for Smoking was my favorite.  I liked the 2nd Yes Men film better than the first (although my opinion was likely swayed by the fact that the DVD was scratched and the film was interrupted many times).

is where it’s at.  I’ve been watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report on hulu.com for the last few years.  More recently they have movies.  Granted the movie selection isn’t that big, but hey, it’s just as random as watching what pops up on the cable. The downside about the movies is that they are only up for a limited amount of time.

This past weekend I was feeling kinda crappy, damn allergies.  I caught up on the Office and the Daily Show.  I also watched Super Size Me (so disturbing) and Head Over Heels (No judging,  I was sick.).

RIP!: A Eemix Manifesto movie poster

So SXSW Day 9 was pretty f-ing awesome (and it wasn’t because I started the day with a free beer).  I saw Remix first. Then I watched Flossy remix several of the artists that I heard later in the day (Chairlift and Kid Cudi).  As I’ve mentioned before, the MAN is not to keen on this whole “borrowing” of content for use in bigger and better things.

I went into the movie thinking it was about M’s boyfriend Girl Talk before he became the Unibomber (Sorry Gregg, the mountain man look doesn’t suit you.)  The movie was actually about more than Mr. Gillis.  It started there, then moved on to talk about the MAN.  Then it took a surprising turn.  It went after Disney.  Yes, the creator of happily ever after was a remix artist.  He borrowed the dark and often gruesome tales of Grimms,  Andersen, and a few others.  Then he sugar coated them, tossed in some song and dance numbers, some woodand creatures, etc… and BOOM!  He made millions.  Not only did Disney make millions but the megacorp made sure that there would be no further remixing of those works.  Just try using the likeness of that famous mouse or sing that popular birthday song.  You will pay.

There was some filler about Napster, illegal downloading, etc.. (It merely reminded me that I was supposed to hate Metallica.  I know first hand that artists make the real money on gigs and merch.  Not on record sales).  Blah, blah, blah…

The most informative section of the film for me was the part on Brazil.  The ultimate remix nation.   It’s not just about the music.  It was about intellectual property.  It was their renegade effort to offer cheaper medications to prevent the spread of HIV that impressed me.  What is more important to the MAN?  Making a buck or saving lives?  Sadly, it’s making a buck. Watch the clip… (if you are low on time skip to 5:50).

I am still researching bits and pieces of the ever morphing film. (more…)

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) falls for Summer (Zooey Deschanel). I think she wants to eat his face.

I caught this film during SXSW.  They had one viewing at the Paramount and I made sure that I was there (even though it was day 9 and I was beyond tired).

This film not only had me swooning for JGL but it also reinforced my plan for the year.  Enjoy EVERY moment and when it’s gone, it’s gone. I would also like to revise that plan based on viewing the film.  I would like to only remember the good parts of past relationships.  Because I have documented all of the bad shit somewhere on this blog I can use that as a reference for later use.  It’s not healthy to keep replaying all of that stuff in your head.

The film is a romantic comedy that was actually believable.  Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl can’t commit, boy and girl fight a lot, boy has his heart broken (Zooey you made me hate you),  girl finally commits (but there is a twist there).  The part that makes this movie different from the standard love story is that the story is told out of order (but not in the way Memento did it).  We start during a time of breakup.  Flash back. Flash forward. Repeat. The filmmaker does a favor throughout the film and lets the viewer know what day they are on.  Without that it would have been a little hard to follow.  Even better, the movie was filmed by Marc Webb, a director with a music video background.  The colors popped and the scenes were just the right size for the short attention span generation.

I got to stick around for the Q&A after the film.  Most of the cast was there along with the writer and director.  The usual questions about what type of camera  came out.  The best question was if any of this had happened in real life.  Apparently the story is stitched together from a few relationships the writer had.  Slightly frightening but, It made me think that I should do more with the stuff that I put out for you, little readers.

The movie should be coming out in July.  You should check it out for yourself.   The soundtrack is phenomenal.  Regina Spektor, the Smiths (very important to this love story), the Pixies, Belle and Sabastain, etc… and somewhere near the middle of the film there is a dance number set to Hall and Oates’ You Make My Dreams Come True.

In my stalking of JGL yesterday I discovered another hidden gem on the interwebs (or tubes as we call them).  hitRECord.org is a little project that JGL has been working on for a few years.  Here’s the description of what can be done on the site

What does it mean, hit record?
Different things… It can be an object, a musical recording that sold a lot of copies. But it can also be an action, to hit record, to start recording, to make a record, be it musical, visual, textual, or anything else. That moment when you hit the REC button, when the tape starts rolling, or the camera clicks, or even when somebody writes something down, it always makes my heart beat a bit harder.

Hit record. A complete sentence in the imperative tense, it’s something I’ve been telling myself a lot lately. When I was younger, my life’s work was to be recorded, but not to hit record. That’s changing.

What do you suppose could change if we all started to hit RECord?

In other words it is a place for collaborations (or mashups, if you prefer).  Everything that the MAN doesn’t want us to do.  But, if enough of us out there are regenerating content, and hopefully breathing new life and perspectives into it on the way,  maybe we can defeat the man one day.

If you haven’t already checked it out, take a peek at the site for RIP: A Remix Manifesto (a documentary created to expose the MANs efforts at stifling the creatives, and perhaps to flip him off.).  The film is undergoing a series of remixes as we speak.  Since day one the filmmaker, Brett Gaylor, has shared his raw footage at opensourcecinema.org, for anyone to remix.

As always, little readers, stay tuned for a full review of the movie.  Until then I give you the definition of hitRECord. If you’ve got time, go make a little something that will move us a step closer to defeating the MAN.

M and I heart the Pixies.  I am still torn on my favorite Pixies album.  Doolittle or Surfer Rosa?

I was listening to the Pixies at work today and I was reminded that I forgot to post one of my favorite 500 Days of Summer moments. (I know, I promised a full review but I don’t want to write all those spoiler alert disclaimers). Joseph Gordon-Levitt singing “Here comes your man” at a Karaoke bar (My other favorite moment was the dance number.).  He’s so dreamy (He is also 5′10″ and Jewish). If that clip were available I would play it as much as I play On a Boat.

Since there aren’t clips available of JGL, I give you  the Pixies…