The Blogulator Presents: Episode of the Month, May 2012

It's been a crazy TV month in May, what with a month chock-full of cliffhangers, season-enders, and all-out balls-to-the-walls craziness. The Blogulator crew is here to discuss their favorite of that batch of individual episodes of the month. Bring it, gang.




Game of Thrones, "Blackwater", Aired 5/27/12 on HBO

We're now two seasons into this show and, much like how the novels are structured the penultimate episode of each season ends up being a total gutpunch. Whereas last season's "Baelor" was a gutpunch on a purely "holy @#$%, they just killed the show's biggest star!" level, the masterful "Blackwater", scripted by book author George R.R. Martin and directed by Neil Marshall, director of The Blogulator's favorite film of 2005 The Descent, is a gutpunch on an epic scale. And as we know from The Descent, few directors are as good at directing action sequences in the dark as Marshall is. Yet, it's the small scenes between just a few of the major characters that keep the episode grounded. Tyrion and Joffrey's banter before executing their plan is hilarious and true to both of their characters, while Cersei's downward spiral aided by a whole lotta wine gives her character an added layer of sadness, even though we also know she's pretty much a bad person. All of this makes the emotional devastation on Tyrion Lannister's face when he executes the "wildfire" plan as epic as the physical devastation of A Crapload Of Boats And People On Fire And Lit All Green. [Qualler]

Smash, "Bombshell", Aired 5/14/12 on NBC

 You guys probably realize by now that I don’t watch a lot of TV when it airs (why would I watch real TV when Netflix offers all 7 seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space 9??), so my choices for best episode of May were limited to two episodes of Smash.  Whoops.  So the Smash season finale, “Bombshell” it is!  And, really, if you remove all the stupid personal drama, all the cheating and the breaking up and the dating of celibate baseball fans, and just leave the professional drama of the musical itself, this episode is pretty good.  This is the first time we’ve been able to see the songs of Bombshell in succession, which mostly makes me want to see the fictional musical Bombshell. (So much tap dancing!) Plus, Karen’s performance gives at least a whiff of justification for her apparent inbred talent, something which has been self-evident to everyone involved in the show except its audience.  (Ivy is still way better, though.) (Can Meghan Hilty just have her own show?) (Can it also star Kristen Chenoweth?) (Can it take place in my apartment so that we can all be friends?)  Millennial Ellis has finally been fired, Dev is gone (sadly), and the show faces a second season of new creative direction and writing.  The rapidly-put-together final song, “Don’t Forget Me”, was beautiful and wonderfully sung, giving promise to a much-improved second season.  That Ivy swallowed a handful of pills in the last shot of the episode is something that I’ll willfully choose to ignore. [Sam]

Don't Trust The B---- In Apartment 23, "The Wedding...", Aired 5/2/12 on ABC

Comedies usually take a while to get going. Much like The Office and Parks & Recreation, Apartment 23 premiered mid-season and only a few episodes to make an impression (only 7 episodes this first season). But, much like Happy Endings before it, Apartment 23 has quickly developed into a hang-out show with characters that bounce off of one another interestingly and entertainingly. I'm not sure how far into production this episode was made(it's common practice for networks to shuffle eps around to put the best foot forward), but it can't have been too late as it includes James Van Der Beek's plotline of becoming a contestant on Dancing With The Stars (which is one of the many wonderful ideas this show has had). Whatever the case, this was one of the funniest episodes of television I've seen this season and it's also a great entry point for anyone that hasn't watched the show yet. In this episode, June is feeling depressed and decides to let loose, letting Chloe mold her into a fun-having machine. It turns into a Single White Female thing wherein June becomes so fun, JVDB starts hanging out with her more than Chloe. This all leads to a lot of great stuff for both Dreama Walker ("June") and Krysten Ritter ("Chloe") to play. There's also JVDB dancing and clips of him in a fake Guy Ritchie movie. All terrific stuff that shows what this now up-to-snuff series can do. This ep raised Apartment 23 to the ranks of Happy Endings, Community, Cougar Town and Parks & Rec as one of the funniest network comedies. [sarCCastro]

Mad Men "The Other Woman" Aired 5/27/12 on AMC

Everyone that knows who Joan Harris (née Holloway) is will likely be talking about this episode for years. We'll be at the senior center for our pancake feed, complaining about the haircuts the kids have these days, and one of the volunteers pouring us pulp-free orange juice will have crimson red hair. One of us will say to the other, "whoa, she looks like Joan fromMad Men L-O-L." And then the other one will say, "awww I miss having Don Draper on my TV every week." And then the first one will respond with, "oh man, remember when Pete pimped out Joan to that Jaguar guy?" The conversation will then drown in a flood of nostalgia that the kids with the bad haircuts and the redheaded juice pourer will not understand one iota. It may not be the most powerful episode of the vanguard series, and it's certainly not my favorite episode of Mad Men (it's not even my favorite of this season), but it needs to be noted here because it's a touchstone for its ballsy "it-went-there" storytelling, officially placing the series in a pantheon of not only great dramas, but fantastic conversation starters. I still feel weird about it, and am not sure I want to be having this conversation about our dear beloved Joan, but it's a hell of a conversation nonetheless. And that's why we write about television dammit. [Chris]

Revenge "Reckoning" Aired 5/23/12 on ABC

O. M. G. Revenge knows what a season finale should be.  Holy Hamptons. As soon as the episode begins, you can feel it.  The plot points quickly become infinitely more absurd, the dialogue more stilted, the facial expressions more overly-wrought.  In fact, I would bet that if you cut out all the moments in this episode where a character was just looking at something or someone silently with anger, shocked recognition, or despair, the show would run just ten or fifteen minutes. Without providing too many spoilers, "Reckoning" kills characters (at least two, maybe more!) and relationships, and sets up a hellva season two (long-lost parents! a love triangle, with pregnancy!). The waves of sheer delight and deliciously frothy over-the-topness will inspire many a dream for me until the waves of the Hamptons once again grace my television screen. [Jerksica]

The Best Episodes of the Month: April 2012

As you may know by now, our opinions (about television) here at The Blogulator are valid. And as such as is true, we'd like to start helping you keep track of when the shows we love churn out particularly spellbinding and/or hilarious episodes. Below you will find five different opinions from five different Blogulator contributors as to what were the most successful episodes that aired (or were seen) in April of 2012. If there's one you've missed, get to Hulu, iTunes, Amazon, or your local cable On Demand menu stat!

Mad Men - "Mystery Date" (buy on iTunes or Amazon)

For as many gripes as I've had about the new season of Mad Men, I realize after every episode that my gripes don't really make a whole lotta sense, because this show is still one of the best shows on TV. And, specifically, outside of the somewhat bloated two-hour premiere, this season is knocking every episode out of the park in its own subtle way. Although, "Mystery Date" is perhaps one of Mad Men's least subtle episodes ever. Joan tells Greg to get the eff out of her house, poor little Sally learns about the nightmarish things going on in society, and Don has a literal fever dream nightmare where he freakin' strangles Madchen Amick to death and pushes her under her bed. It's an episode shrouded in darkness, so much so that this fake horror movie trailer made out of the episode actually isn't so far off from the overall tone. It certainly seems to be a harbinger of things to come as the season progresses. [Qualler]

Justified - "Slaughterhouse" (buy on iTunes or Amazon)

A lot rested on the third season finale of Justified. This season was more serialized than the two that preceded it. And with two new adversaries competing with Boyd Crowder for Marshal Raylan Givens' scornful looks, some have said this season tried to do too much in a short amount of time and paled in comparison to Season 2. While it did take a few episodes for Robert Quarles to gain some depth beyond being a wacky, volatile villain, once he did give us a peak into his disturbing past, steely-eyed Neal McDonough's performance jumped into Emmy-worthy status. And every episode subtly layered Mykelti Williamson's performance as Limehouse, a sort of down-home Wizard of Oz, smart enough to know when to strike, be even wiser to know when to just sit back and watch everything play out. And, for the most part, as exceptionally entertaining as this season was, the audience was also forced to sit back and watch how everything played out as well. Luckily, "Slaughterhouse" more than rewarded viewer patience a brutal final confrontation between Quarles, Limehouse and Givens. We were also given the extra payoff of Raylan realizing that, over the course of events spanning the entire series, his father had developed a deeper relationship with Boyd Crowder than he ever did with his own flesh and blood. So deep that to keep Boyd out of jail, Arlo took the fall for killing a man that betrayed Boyd in addition to confessing to shooting a State Trooper. Even just thinking about Raylan saying that Arlo "saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at Boyd" still gives me chills. What a way to cap off a ridiculously enjoyable season while adding one more thing to boil under that hat of our favorite US Marshal. [Sarc]

Revenge - "Scandal" (watch for free on Hulu)

God, this show. I started watching it at the beginning of the season with eyes narrowed in suspicion. The ubiquitous ad campaign and huge hype made me think that, like most things that networks (and studios and publishers) push heavily, it was expensive, but absolutely no good. I didn't think the sweet girl from Everwood could pull off being a cold-hearted vengeance machine, and figured that even if she could, she wouldn't be compelling because she was too inhuman and unlikeable. I didn't like the guy who plays Daniel when he was Max on Make It or Break It (yeah, that's a thing that happened), and don't even get me started on how much I dislike Madeleine Stowe. Nevertheless, I started watching--AND COULDN'T STOP. "Revenge" is probably one of the best shows on television, and for the most part lives up to its hype. Every time you think that the story is about to devolve, that Emily can't possibly lie her way out of this one, the show turns everything around, just to show you how wrong you are. "Revenge" is an intricate dance, a complex perpetual motion machine that defies prediction, and multiple satisfying surprises and twists give the impression that the show has so much more up its sleeve. I picked "Scandal" as my favorite ep of the month, but they're all good; "Scandal" does contain a couple of nice reveals, however--what really happened between Daniel and Tyler on the beach, Emily's emerging, genuine feelings for her ersatz fiance, the unsettlingly obtuse machinations of Emily's revenge master, Takeda (how awesome is it that she has a revenge master?), and heretofore uninteresting Ashley's attempt to leverage the Grayson family tragedy for her own gain by releasing bloody pictures of Daniel at the crime scene to the tabloids. I'm glad the show has another bit of scandal to chew on besides the David Clarke/terrorist/plane crash thing, which has always felt like a wrong note in the show, both because of its "too soon" element (anything that smacks of using a 9/11-ish event as a subplot in what is basically a really good soap opera is, I think, kind of cheap) and its general weird unbelievability. Not that I think it's going away--it's integral to the premise of the show--but the fact that other fucked up things are happening keeps it from turning into a stale old chestnut. Now if someone would just actually straight up kill Amanda, that would be super. [Anna]

Community - "Basic Lupine Urology" (watch for free on Hulu)

It's no secret how much I and 90% of the rest of the nerd contingent of the internet adores the Greendale gang, but upon returning after the dark nightmare that was its third season hiatus, every episode of this show just kept punching me in the groin more than the last - in a good way. And in particular, it took me a few minutes to realize why I loved "Basic Lupine Urology" (AKA the Law & Order ep) even more than the two other perfect episodes the show did this month (the Dr. Who/dreamatorium ep and the Ken Burns/pillow fort ep): because while I maybe wish I had a much deeper understanding of Dr. Who and/or Ken Burns documentaries, I am far more familiar with the tropes and minutiae of Dick Wolf's franchise. Just like great homage/parody Community eps of yore, such as the chicken fingers/GoodFellas one or the Charlie Kaufman/Abed is the Messiah one, every beat is played pitch-perfectly, a couple of my favorite details being the abundance of Greek NYC coffee cups suddenly on campus and Britta's role as the photograph analyzer (which in this case just means she can Instagram it to make it look old-timey). The biggest complaint that many have already hobbled at this twelve-jokes-a-second romp is that it lacks that tender center that deepens our love for the characters like so many forays into the study group's world has before, but I say they just had their cake and ate it too. The episode ends with yet another classic L&O bit, where the climax of solving the case is undercut with an out-of-left-field development that one of the case's primary constituents has died in the most horrifically tragic way possible, and here we got the off-screen death of one of the show's longest-running minor characters: Starburns. It's not huge, but it's a joke and a morbidly hefty moment at once, as we'll now always remember that the weird guy with the top hat and the cosmic facial hair died at the end of the Law & Order episode of Community. [Chris]

30 Rock - "Live From Studio 6H" (watch for free on Hulu)

"...because they thought two black people on the same show would make people nervous. A rule that NBC still follows today!"

Now, I wasn't the biggest fan of the initial foray of 30 Rock into a live episode.  Don't get me wrong- I LOVE a good gimmick.  Can't. Get. Enough. Gimmicks.  This is why I'm one of the only Blogulator crew that unabashedly watches competitive reality television (and not the high-rated shows either).  However, the previous live episode of 30 Rock just fell flat; it was live for the kitsch of being live without any, what do you call those?  Oh yeah, jokes.  Flash forward to the 2012 episode and it's genius.  All the gimmick, plus hilarious jokes and guest stars.  The live episode actually seemed like watching TGS. There were sketches, and funny ones at that.  I love the "flashbacks" to television past narrated by Kenneth, inserted for the purpose of "saving" TGS as a live show.  I watched several television parodies repeatedly, including the sketch of news reporters befuddled by Tina Fey's sex, and the Amos n' Andy spoof Alfie and Abner. Dr. Spaceman got some much needed play, Jon Hamm was in my two favorite sketches, and Paul proposed to Jenna after singing "Zou Bisou Bisou" from Mad Men - "A Little Kiss."  Perfection? Maybe not.  But consider my funny bone satisfied. [Jerksica]

Top 10 Top 40 Songs of 2011

10. Adele - "Someone Like You" 
Hey, remember when Adele was just that British lady who sang that “Chasing Pavement” song that they used in all those Lifetime Original Movies? The unanimously-adored 21 changed all that. I was recently in a hunting bar in rural Wisconsin that had been somewhat overrun by city-folk visiting for the holidays, and when “Someone Like You” came on, all the women threw their arms around each other and started belting along. Everyone knows and loves this song. “Someone Like You” is the ultimate torch song because it so effectively masks its vulnerability as bravery. She’s totally keeping it together enough to have faith that she’ll find love despite being devastatingly hurt, but still gives into her overwhelming pain to deliver this soul-crushing gem: “’Don’t forget me,’ I beg/ ‘I’ll remember,’ you say / sometimes it lasts in love / sometimes it hurts instead.” ARE YOU KIDDING ME? SO TRAGIC. SO BRAVE. [Sam]
 
9. Lupe Fiasco - "The Show Goes On"
It always warms my heart a little when a socially conscientious musician can also make it rain on the mainstream charts (no, I'm not talking about Bono.) Lupe Fiasco's stellar "The Show Goes On" is at once hipster-baiting (y'know, cuz of the Modest Mouse sample), a solid "message" song, and catchy-as-all-get-out. The catchy-as-all-get-out part is probably what wins everybody over the most, and it is definitely catchy the way Mouse's "Float On" was an earworm for the masses. It's good trickery, because the track works both as an offshoot of post-pop with its mash-up roots, and a subtle positive message for the masses, while still allowing the masses to raise their hands in the air. [Qualler]

 
8. DEV - "In the Dark" 
"In the Dark" does reek of sex in a number of overt and obvious ways, but somehow manages to still be sexy. I don't even find Dev particularly attractive, and in fact I prefer just listening to this song in my car to watching the video on a computer (the venues of consumption may have something to do with it), but damn if I don't get kind of bothered whenever I hear that saxophone riff. By now I think we can all agree that Kenny G's instrument of choice became overused in 2011, to the point where the man himself even guested on a Katy Perry bridge to complete the ouroboros, but it's pretty tough to argue that it doesn't hit hard when it's used correctly. And here it's all smoke and shadows, complementing the vocals as much as it enhances them, but in such a way that it never feels like the usual Top 40 calculated balance of computerized effects and sugary melodies. It may not be gritty like a lo-fi dubstep dance floor banger, but it still bangs; it's just that it slithers on the off-beats. [Chris]

 
7. Beyoncé - "Love on Top" 
After separating professionally from her manager/father at the beginning of this year, Beyoncé released 4, which, although not a fan favorite, is where we see Beyoncé shucking the pop princess persona and really being Beyoncé. While none of the songs on the album are ever going to be top-charting radio singles (besides “Run the World (Girls)”, which I like to pretend just never happened), Beyoncé exhibits maturity, variety of sound, and one of the greatest singing voices around. And nowhere is this more evident that in “Love on Top”. This song is not about sellability or pop music or about making vocals subservient to a dance-able beat; everything about this song, including the four key-changes and the amazing music video, is about Beyoncé singing, loudly and strongly, and not because a man broke her heart, but because she’s so impossibly happy. In a year dominated by the powerful tragedy of Adele, the weird angst of Rihanna, and the synth-dance of everyone else, this song stands out like as a reminder that things really do get better. Plus, listening to it when you get ready in the morning is pretty life-affirming. [Sam]
 
6. Lady Gaga - "The Edge of Glory"
The Gagster has had an up-and-down relationship with The Blogulator (cuz, obviously she is a big time reader) and, while I have been on the mostly-positive liking-most-everything-she-does side of things (except for that horrible album cover for Born This Way and the fact that every one of her videos is like a million effin' minutes long, and, as I told somebody in a convoluted way recently, "if they're all long, then none of them are long"), she really hit her stride with "The Edge of Glory". In my eternal search for The Perfect Song To Cross A Marathon Finish Line To (hey, new Blog feature in 2012? Mayhaps!), The Good Lady of Gaga  crafted a perfect upbeat, positive, emotional song about, well, big themes like being on "the edge of glory" and "hanging on a moment with you" (the best use of that phrase since Lifehouse used it?). And while I agree with Chris that the saxophone was an overused element of pop music in 2011, none of the other pop songs featuring sax had Clarence Effin' Clemons (rest in peace) playing their songs home. So when that final blast of the final run through the chorus, plus the soulful sounds of Clemons' sax bursts through your speakers/headphones, it's truly glorious. [Qualler]

 
5. Wiz Khalifa - "Roll Up" 
"Roll Up" does so much to convince the "Black & Yellow" naysayers (and I like to think there are many of us) with seemingly so little. Khalifa worked so hard to annoy millions with that oppressive synthetic xylophone (or whatever it was) and yet it sounds like he's barely putting in any effort to write about an otherwise self-aggrandizing subject here: the significance of self-arrival. It should be skeezy, it should be smarmy, and it should definitely be arrogant, but he manages to eschew all of these negative stereotypes of the rapper that just wants his girl to know how great it will be once he shows up in his expensive car. Speaking of his rapping, the man's downright charming in his laid back and yet playful delivery, suggesting that not only is he just doing this for kicks, but it's also some kind of grand stress reliever rather than heavy emotion conduit. Whodathunk - effortless pop music that doesn't smack of slackerism. [Chris]

 
4. Britney Spears - "Til the World Ends"
Alright, Britney, here I thought that you were being metaphorical when you sung about dancing until the world ends, but your video proves me wrong. You LITERALLY want us to continue to dance UNTIL the WORLD actually ENDS. Which, according to your video, will happen on December 21, 2012. (Very specific.) Well, the good news is, after a few years of blah music from the Britster, her 2011 record Femme Fatale was a step in the right direction in forward-thinking pop music, while bringing back a little "classic Britney" sound from the late 90s / early 00s. Something about the way the main drum beat keeps the sixteenth-notes humming and building while the synth wobbles around and Britney sings with so many vocal tracks until it builds to that great conclusion where everything's just going nuts makes this song special. It's another entry in my "Perfect Song To Cross A Marathon Finish Line To" feature that I'm now developing even more in my head. ("Maybe work on the title a little, ya jerk?" say the masses. The masses are really mean in my head.) And don't you feel like, after all Britney's been through in the past decade, and all the growing up she (and in turn, we) have done, she deserves to have a little bit of happiness? Anyway, Britney Spears, so glad you're back making interesting-but-not-too-adventurous-but-just-adventurous-enough pop music. [Qualler]

 
3. LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett, GoonRock - "Party Rock Anthem"
I honestly don’t think I’ve gone to a party or bar this year without hearing “Party Rock Anthem”; I even have a coworker who greets the office every morning by walking in and saying, “Everyday we shuffling.” (He’s referring to paper. That’s why it’s funny, I guess.) When VH1 produces I Love the Teens, they will talk about this song as being quintessentially 2011. You see, LMFAO is embodying this weird sort of totally 2011 meta-irony, where their hipstery self-mockery is actually just a ruse for post-hipster self-mockery mockery. At least that’s how a Cultural Studies minor looks at it. In any case, Party Rock Anthem is exactly what it says it is: an anthem for party rocking, whether at a club, at a party, at home, or in your car. Like the zombified dancers in their music video, just hearing “Party Rock Anthem” makes us all want to dance in an unflattering hipster ironic way with lots of little jumps and fist pumping. That weird synthesized chorus line triggers some weird fluke in our physiology, and we just can’t help but party rock. [Sam]

 
2. Nicki Minaj - "Super Bass"
I admit that I'm somewhat of a Nicki Minaj hater, so it pains me somewhat to say that "Super Bass" is just an unbelievably catchy, clever song. Her fast-pace rapping, which, I also admit, sounds very good, works really well with the slow-ish backing synths and driving beats. COMPLAINT TIME! (And if you don't come to The Blogulator at least partially for allowing us to validate our opinions, then you're not here for the right reason.) Why does Nicki, whose "real life" persona exhibits a predilection toward at least bisexuality, have to be rapping about how much this one dude is really handsome and how she wants to do it with the dude? Okay, that's not really a fair complaint to lob her direction, because, the fact is that a song this catchy wouldn't be as popular if it had a less hetero-normative core to it, and pop stars gotta get paid. Regardless of all that, there's no doubt "I mean, you're so shy and I'm loving your tie / you're like, slicker than the guy with the thing on his eye" is one of my favorite lyric lines of 2011. So, Nicki, don't be afraid to bust out of the misogynistic Young Money label you're tied to and say something that's true to you, please, and maybe then I won't be a Nicki Minaj hater anymore. [Qualler]

 
1. T-Pain feat. Chris Brown - "Best Love Song"
"Best Love Song" is so anthemic it hurts. T-Pain takes adoration to a level potentially not yet seen in pop music until now, imbuing his usual wacky mentality into a topic that nevertheless feels 100% serious and universal, thus making it wholly original all over again. It's a magnanimous feat, yet because he goes all out without reserve or embarrassment, he nails it. Chris Brown's presence may mar this effect on the surface, but ultimately he's just a pawn in T-Pain's game, playing the side character for a maximum arena-level battle scene in which the winner is not a persona nor a celebrity but rather the listener's hands, which invariably raise involuntarily into the air, conveying their agreement in the notion that yes, they could hypothetically hold a pen that could write the best love song she has ever heard in her life. [Chris]

Top 10 Albums of 2011

10. Cults, Cults, [In the Name Of]

I think I heard somewhere that the random voice samples on this album are from real life cult leaders. Isn't that crazy? So what if you can't understand them; it's neat. This band is some art school duo. I think it's a dude and a lady so I'm going to pretend there's love. For romance, duh. Oh! The album! It's rad. Plenty of catchy oldies-style tracks about love and relationships and stuff (romance, the good sides and bad). "Go Outside" is a rocking time. Ditto for "Bad Things." "Bumper" has some male/female call and response going on and you know that's good. The band has simple percussion, spacey bells, and the catchiest melodies. You'll be tapping your toes. [Sean]

9. Gillian Welch, The Harrow and the Harvest [Acony]

I'm getting older. And with getting older comes the more and more willing admission that I like music that I used to ignore for being "too boring." Folk/bluegrass singer Gillian Welch released her first new album in seven years with The Harrow & The Harvest and it reminds me of the grassy Appalachian mountains featured in FX's Justified. Welch and songwriting/performing/life partner David Rawlings craft gorgeous, sad melodies about sad, dark stuff. Sadsies abound! Songs like "Scarlett Town", "Tennessee" and "The Way It Will Be" sound like they have existed for eternity, and will continue to exist for eternity. [Qualler]

8. Real Estate, Days [Domino]

 I am a simple person with simple needs. Give me sparkly guitars and hummable vocals and call it a day. I didn't even like Real Estate's first album, but the tunes on Days are just so far and above the humdrum acoustic lo-fi wanker that was wildly popular for some reason two days ago. I'm glad they've changed with the times, because half a decade ago there was this band called Human Television that I thought for sure was the second coming of jangle pop, but then they faded away and I got sad. Luckily this hipster band is filling the void and making the sound come alive again. But what makes me most happy about this record is that not every song is just the obligatory mid-tempo slacker anthem with pretty guitar lines. There's the hyper side ("It's Real"), there's the languorous side ("Green Aisles"), and the off-kilter quirky side ("Out of Tune") too. But okay, mostly it's just a lot of insanely pretty guitars. [Chris]

7. The Roots, Undun [Def Jam]

I'm a sucker for concept albums, so when The Roots released one late in 2011, I was all over it. Their record Undun does not disappoint in that regard. The album follows a man named Redford Stephens (named after Sufjan Stevens' Michigan record song "Redford" and, assumingly, Stevens himself), a man who has to choose between a life of crime and a life of legitimacy. Of course, it wouldn't be compelling if the music wasn't great, and it is. Both slinky and cool, upbeat and dark, Jimmy Fallon's house band crafts great beats throughout. Ever since The Roots got their gig on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, they seem even more willing to explore new facets of their abilities. [Qualler]

6. Julianna Barwick, The Magic Place [Asthmatic Kitty]

Blogulator co-writer DoktorPeace vehemently disagrees with the praise given to this album by Qualler and yours truly. He says it gives him a "headache." And yet to me it's a collection of some of the most peaceful sounds ever created by a human being. Another Blogulator co-writer, Sean, went so far as to make fun of Barwick by recording his voice emulating her airy ambient coos and layering it a bunch of times while trying to stifle his own laughter. Well poo on them I say. While I can sympathize with the argument that if a bunch of effects and reverb need to be slathered on top of a voice or instrument then there's a minimal amount of musical proficiency at the artist's outset, I don't think that's what's necessary to make profound sounds or more frankly, good art. Barwick takes a very simple yet wholly original approach to making angelic choral solo music and it soars. You can't argue that it doesn't soar. If it soars so much it induces pain in your brain, then I guess you were meant for her grandeur. But I was, dammit, and it's effing gorgeous. [Chris]

5. Katy B, On a Mission [Columbia]

The British dubstep-y (or, at least, her producers dabble in dubstep, I think?) pop chanteuse Katy B released an album full of songs that, in my dreams, are popular enough to get the whole floor of a future wedding party going like crazy on the dance floor. Of course, the secret to a great dance pop record, as is the secret with all albums, is good songwriting, and On a Mission delivers in that regard. From the slinky-sexy beats of "Witches Brew" and "Movement" to the Toni Braxton-esque sad-breakup song "Go Away" (listen to the chorus where the multi-tracked vox in the chorus!), the record is full of straight up great songs with melodies that creep into your head. And it's a great alternative to the Ke$has and Katy Perrys for quality pop music good for running. The best part? She thanks all of us for listening with a long thank-you section at the end of final song "Hard to Get". You're welcome, Katy B. [Qualler]

4. R.E.M., Collapse Into Now [Warner Bros.]

R.E.M.'s swan song probably wouldn't be on my list of favorite albums of 2011 if it weren't their swan song, but my Favorite Band of All Time dropped the swan song bomb on us in September, months after the release of their fifteenth studio album with their breakup announcement. In typical understated R.E.M. fashion, the signs of imminent breakup are all over the album, from the epic opening track "Discoverer" to the even-more-obvious-"we're-gonna-break-up-now" track "All the Best" (lyrics like "I'll give it one more time / I'll show the kids how to do it fine") to the maybe-the-moment-they-decided-it-was-over "It Happened Today" (probably in my top 20 R.E.M. tracks of all time), to the Patti Smith-guesting funeral dirge "Blue" that gives way to one more blast of "Discoverer". Context is everything, so putting this record in the context of their swan song makes the musical content all the more immediate and bittersweet. [Qualler]

3. M83, Hurry Up We're Dreaming [Mute]

First things first: I hate the talking kid on "Raconte-Moi Une Histoire." It's the worst part of an otherwise solid album. No I don't think it's cute. No it's not charming or inspirational. It's dumb and ruins the mood right after my second favorite track ("Wait"). With all that out of the way, I can say that Hurry Up We're Dreaming is a super awesome M83 album. It follows the sonic themes of Saturdays = Youth and at 22 songs in length it provides plenty on sweet Jams to groove to. "Midnight City" is my personal favorite track even if I can't understand half the lyrics. "Waiting For a call"? "Waiting for a cab"?* It's like how I thought "Kim and Jessie" was about somebody muslim shouting and drowning your towel with voices. Hey! You like Zola Jesus? She's in the intro song. Bonus! [Sean]

* "Waiting in a car" makes way more sense (holy cow! Saxophone solo!)

2. Fucked Up, David Comes to Life [Matador]

Qualler talked above about his love for concept albums. I personally can't stand them. I like that Roots album a lot, but not because of the story it tells, though I can appreciate its sentiments. I also like that Janelle Monae record about the spider robot queen or whatever, but again, I honestly just can't listen straight through imagining this strange abstract movie in my head, though that seems like something on paper that I'd love to do. It feels too bloated or self-important when I concentrate that much, which is why David Comes to Life is a concept record I can get behind. Sure, if you want to, you can go deep with it and follow the tale of revolution it tells, but really, I'm just listening to the songs. Even at an epic eighteen tracks long, I am amazed at how easy it is to listen to each individual track as its own barn-burning melodic hardcore (or whatever) pop song. Every single riff melts my face off in a way that I feel okay using that phrase four or so years after its expiration date. I could care less about the politics of it as long as I can feel its fury and potency. [Chris]

1. Geotic, Mend [Self-Released]

I'm glad that DoktorPeace can agree with me on this one, if not Julianna Barwick (see above). He said he would often listen to it when he was writing his next magnum opus screenplay and I find that offhand fact very telling. Will Wiesenfeld also records as Baths, a project that got big last year with the record Cerulean, which is also definitely worth checking out, but it's so much more spastic and involved than Geotic that it makes a lot of sense that he has a completely different moniker for his more reserved and introspective side. It's so inward, in fact, that he only self-releases material under the Geotic name for free on his Angelfire (I know, right?) page. (You can download Mend and other beautiful recordings gratis here.) And sure, his loopy guitar meditations with static edges are nothing revolutionary or even necessarily ear-catching, but the more time you spend with them, like DoktorPeace did, the more they unfold into something singularly cathartic and addictive. It's music that exhilarates as much as it soothes, and through the instrumental and therefore multi-interpretational theme of amelioration, it becomes therapeutic as well. Sometimes that kind of small genius is what deserves the most attention, but it rarely gets its proper due. [Chris]

Top 10 Movies of 2011

10. Contagion [wr. Scott Z. Burns, dir. Steven Soderberg]

Contagion might not stand the test of time, but it’s the best high-quality, high-budget thriller of the year.  The film is great because it answers the simple question What would happen if a deadly pandemic actually struck the world? without devolving into the disgusting or the ridiculous.  The disease, Meningoencephalitis Virus One, takes its victims quietly without zombie-like symptoms or disgusting face lesions, and its silence is what makes it so effectively terrifying.  Contagion examines every facet of the outbreak—from the CDC and US government response with Kate Winslet to the third-world repercussions with Marion Cotillard, from the conspiracy bloggers with Jude Law to the implications for a middle class family with Matt Damon—with precision and intelligence.  The cast is star-studded (my comment every 30 seconds: “Oh wow, s/he’s in this too?!”) but full of excellent actors that add gravitas without sensationalizing.  In terms of Hollywood blockbusters, Contagion is definitely a winner.  [Sam]

9.  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 [wr. Steve Kloves, J.K. Rowling (Book), dir. David Yates]
Whereas I heralded The Muppets for its lack of CGI, the  Harry Potter series pretty much justifies its existence.  As somebody with very little investment in a story to which he already knows the ending - and one who prefers Harry Potter when he’s in school, winning and losing points for his house and attending dances, as opposed to embarking on yet another epic fantasy quest - the visuals inherit a lot of responsibility.  And I gotta say, Emma Watson delivers, albeit less so than in the topless kissing scene of Part 1...  I semi-jest, but seriously:  These are kids’ movies?  Well I guess, because as my 8-year old friend Billy told me:  “At the very least, this film was a fitting, populist swansong for some of Britain’s greatest thespians.  Kudos, Maggie Smith.”  Billy’s a square. [DoktorPeace]




8. Martha Marcy May Marlene [wr. & dir. Sean Durkin]
Martha Marcy May Marlene is, for one, a genre flick, a creepy psychological thriller about a woman who is struggling with her sanity after a traumatic stint in a cult. But, it's also a lot more than that. It's also about how women can be victimized by the patriarchy, regardless of whether it's in a culty cult cult or in "mainstream" society. And it's also about the dangers of our society wholly rejecting any standard way of living outside of the accepted form of living. It's about all of these things, and it's hauntingly shot in bright, 35mm-style colors. While the overall "maybe our normal society can be bad like cults are bad" message is occasionally a bit too on-the-nose for my taste, the overall method of delivery is a truly creepy, frightening, get-under-your-skin powerhouse. And who knew Elizabeth Olson, younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley, could act? She is a powerhouse, as is John Hawkes (as usual), the magnetic and truly bad cult leader. [Qualler]




7. Midnight in Paris [wr. & dir. Woody Allen]
Midnight in Paris is enchanting in every way you'd never expect a Woody Allen film to be enchanting. For months and months I'd heard and read about people being left dizzy with the magical comedic aspect of this movie and while I didn't dismiss the notion, I thought it would be mildly pleasant at best and nauseatingly precious at worst. But I was wowed with the rest of 'em, convinced that Owen Wilson is a better Woody Allen than Woody Allen is (his anxious charm is more effervescent and effortless than his author's to the nth degree), convinced that Paris was photographed more vividly and joyously here than in nearly any other movie save for maybe Before Sunset, and convinced that the nostalgic ride through literary and cultural figures of the early 1900s was not only sweet nerdy fun but also downright brilliant. This wasn't the forced esoteric Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure that I was half-expecting at all. And despite all this general warm fuzziness that I felt throughout the film, it was the meaty center of it all that most and best surprised me. The commentary about the nature of the creative mind and nostalgia is one most near and dear to my heart, especially in this period of growing older and further away from "the good ol' days" (which I guess is something that could be applied to everyone), and certainly made me wonder and question my own pop desires as much as it allowed me to revel in them. [Chris]




6. Melancholia [wr. & dir. Lars von Trier]
"Life is only on Earth...and not for long." Melancholia is the latest disaster/melodrama/character piece/sci-fi film from writer/director Lars von Trier, and it is also the first movie I've been to see three times in the theater since Titanic.  Like Titanic, we all know the ending before the story begins: the world will end when hit by a rogue planet, and life on Earth is going to end.  Don't worry about the physics of how that would work, that's beside the point.  There's no trying to stop the planet from hitting ours, just like there's no hope of steering that ship around the ice burg.  When a disaster movie doesn't center on heroes figuring out how to save the day we're left with our heroes (or anti heroes? it's always hard to tell with Von Trier) will cope with the knowledge that their lives are about to end, and there's nothing they can do to stop that.  The story is told in three parts, a prologue, which is a beautifully filmed sequence of slow moving images set to glorious music, reminiscent of the prologue to von Trier's last film, Antichrist.  The second part (Part One: Justine) tells the story of a melancholic bride (Kirsten Dunst) on her wedding night.  She has to deal with a sister (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law (Keifer Sutherland) who just want her to "be happy."  She also deals with pressures from her boss (Stellan Skarsgard) who I think represents American greed--cause you know how von Trier feels about American--and maybe even petty preoccupation with concerns that quickly become insignificant when the end of the world is neigh.  Even groom (Alexander Skarsgard) seems at first to really love her, but is really only concerned with his own needs.  The wedding falls apart bit by bit, ending in the groom and his parents leaving while he tells Justine that "thinks could have been different."  Lines like this one underline the theme of free will versus destiny and even while absorbed in the story of the doomed wedding we remember that planet...the last part is titled Part Two: Claire and it takes place some span of time after the wedding and involves only Justine, Claire, and John (Dunst, Gainsbourg, and Sutherland) and young Leo in their secluded estate while we all wait for that planet to hit.  Von Trier shows us how difference character types deal with the end of the world, and as much as I enjoyed part one, I think it was in part two that I really fell in love with this film.  The slow realization that there's nothing to be done leads Sutherland (whom I think von Trier also uses as metaphor for patriarchal blind faith in "science" and "reason", maybe another dig on American ideals?) to suicide, Gainsbourg to panic and attempted flight, and on Dunst, who couldn't handle "regular" things like a marriage, to become the strong, calm leader and to look out for Leo.  The entire thing is beautifully shot and set to a grand, moving score.  I could talk about it for hours, but I also recall people leaving the theater half way through, so again if nothing else Von Trier is giving us something that creates controversy and it's worth experiencing it and forming your own opinion.  And of course ask yourself: how would you cope with the end of the world?  Or maybe Von Trier would have us ask: how ARE you coping with the end of the world? [Brigitte]




5. The Muppets [wr. Jason Segal, Nicholas Stoller, dir. James Bobin] 
The only Judd Apatow movie I’ve enjoyed is Forgetting Sarah Marshall, so I had no qualms about Jason Segel helming this Muppets revival.  What did worry me was that this franchise I enjoyed so much as a child would be smothered by modern metasociety.  True, playing off popular culture has always been a Muppet touchstone, with classic skits like "Pigs in Space" reliant on the then sci-fi fad, but it’s the pork puns that truly make it timeless.  Aside from a blah rap sequence and a somewhat-misplaced chicken cover of Cee Lo’s “F*** You,” The Muppets pretty expertly cherishes the innocence of its own nostalgia, with purposely vanilla human characters and simple story (aptly focused on nostalgia preservation) emphasizing the uniqueness of Kermit and the gang.   Celebrities like Jack Black are featured to be sure, but the story is never about the celebrity.  It’s about life being a happier song with talking frogs and pigs that are by no means computer-generated in it. [DoktorPeace]




4. Drive [wr. Hossein Amini, James Sallis (Book), dir. Nicolas Winding Refn]
Drive begins as the most wonderful Sofia-Coppola-esque portrait of the nameless Driver (Ryan Gosling), the calmest, dopiest, and hottest getaway driver, and Irene (Carey Mulligan), a hardworking mother whose husband is in prison.  It’s beautiful, plodding, suspenseful, and ambiguously romantic, portraying its characters and setting (Los Angeles) with gritty, tragic emotionalism.  That is until the film rips that all out from under us in the second half, dissolving into stylized and graphic violence that disrupts the complacency of the film as much as it upsets the characters’ lives as the world of Los Angeles organized crime begins to destroy its victims.  The violence is shocking but not illogical, and the film’s escalation from one type of stylization into the next is not a mark of inconsistency, but the intentional breaking-down of the character’s overly-romanticized world.  I’ll admit that the violence is sometimes off-putting and possibly too sensational, but the soundtrack, the acting, and the stylization makes this the one of the best films of 2011. [Sam]




3. Meek's Cutoff [wr. Jonathan Raymond, dir. Kelly Reichardt]
Do you like slow-moving old clothes movies that seemingly don't have much of a plot and that ultimately leave you hanging?  I do.  And if you do, too, then you'll love Meek's Cutoff, starring my personal favorite, Michelle Williams, and directed by Kelly Reichardt (director of 2008's Wendy and Lucy, also starring Williams).  In similar narrative style to Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff features little dialogue but plenty of intriguing (in)action and character development as we follow three families traveling west on the Oregon trail in 1845.  The film takes its name from character Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood) whom the families hire to lead them through the Cascade Mountains.  Of course, he knows a special route, and of course, they become lost and end up wandering through seemingly endless desert, getting into minor adventures along the way.  Sort of a spin on the exodus narrative, the families run into one trouble after another and seem to become more and more lost and become more and more hopeless as their journey to nowhere progresses.  The film ends abruptly and we are left to wonder whether they ever reach their destination, and are also reminded that the story was never about reaching the destination.  It's more about how individuals develop trust or overcome mistrust and how they manage to maintain relationships when survival is at stake. [Brigitte]




2. Moneyball [wr. Steven Zallian, Aaron Sorkin, Stan Chervin, Michael Lewis (Book), dir. Bennett Miller]
Moneyball holds the esteemed distinction of being a sports movie that doesn't just eschew sports movie cliches but also manages to be very much about the sport in question, and not just a sports movie only in name. And all of this is coming from someone that has never been able to become a sports fan. The beauty of the film, apart from the obvious things like Bennett Miller's austere yet always glistening direction or Aaron Sorkin's quippy bon mots (which don't come a mile a minute like your usual Sorkin fare, thus giving each more space to breathe, which is a welcome change of pace ), is that it's a character piece in which baseball is the end-all be-all of that character. Brad Pitt plays Billy Bean with an odd kind of steely diffidence, which makes his obsession with the game that much more magnetic, like we're constantly trying to both figure him out and figure his team out along with him for the whole ride. It's a quiet yet involving journey and potentially the most curious film of 2011. [Chris]




1. The Tree of Life [wr. & dir. Terrence Malick]
For as much of a big deal that was made about Malick's masterpiece to end all masterpieces being narratively impenetrable, The Tree of Life is actually a remarkably simple film with a simple thesis, beautifully depicted in the poetic, meditative opening sequence. As delivered by Jessica Chastain's character: "The nuns taught us there are two ways through life. The way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one you will follow... They taught us that no one who loves the way of grace ever comes to a bad end." Actually, the entire film is extremely meditative, which makes sense given Malick's overall approach to filmmaking. He wrote the script in a nontraditional way, reportedly with words, sketches, and pictures included. And, he told his cast that they were his "co-directors" (ha!) so as to make the completed film a truly cohesive, collaborative piece of work. Okay, so the film is a brilliantly dense, (sometimes somewhat) impenetrable quasi-narrative that reveals itself best over multiple re-viewings and over coffee with a group of friends. But, that is what I believe Malick is getting at - our Earthly problems, miracles, joys, and sorrows are just a microcosm of the vastness of the entire universe. What happens to us when we are born, when we die, and how we exist within that framework is an enormous, mind-bending question that cannot be answered, but if we live a life following grace, we cannot come to a bad end. That this overall thesis is presented over some of the most gorgeous cinematography, music scoring, directing, and acting of the year is a fantastic bonus. [Qualler]

Coming Soon: The Blogulator's Best of 2011 Listgasm!

Heads up! Starting this Monday you will finally be subjected to The Blogulator's Best of 2011 Listgasm. You may be overdosing on this kind of stuff by now, but us normal people who like to relax around the holidays and new year's are back and now want to reflect on the pop culture of the previous calendar year. Here's the schedule you can look forward to:

Monday - Blogulator Radio presents...The Top 20 TV Shows of 2011

Tuesday - The Top 10 Movies of 2011

Wednesday - The Top 10 Albums of 2011

Thursday - The Top 10 Top 40 Jams of 2011

Friday - DoktorPeace presents...The Top 10 Video Games of 2011

Saturday - OHD presents...The Top 10 Books of 2011

Check the hints in the Blogulator TV set above if you want to predict some of the entries on the lists! Can you name all 10?

Top 10 Movies of 2010

Something that must be known about our final collaborative (stay tuned for OHD's personal rundown of the top books of 2010) list here at The Blogulator: we don't seem to make it to the cinema as much as we used to. Every year we all tend to kick ourselves just a little bit for missing this or that, but largely we (like the average American movie-lover) simply have to accept that unless you're a major loner and/or professional critic, you just can't make it out to every movie that might be the second coming. Add to this the fact that so many of the best movies of the current year aren't actually released in most markets until the following year and you can understand the absence of many films ogled on other even nerdier sites. Regardless, there were still 10 films that two or more of us all saw and agreed were awesome, so here ye be, the grand final ten...our favorite movies of 2010 (that we saw)...

10. Toy Story 3 [wr. Michael Arndt, dir. Lee Unkrich] - Another Blogulator Top 10 Movies list, another Pixar flick. The funny thing is that this should feel monopolistic and wrong, but it doesn't. By hiring screenwriter Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) to close the final chapter in the Woody, Buzz, and Co. trilogy was quite possibly the smartest franchise-related move they've made thus far. And while Cars 2 might bring the otherwise still-on-a-streak company to a halt, I can't articulate just how nice of a surprise it was that TS3 held its own, not trying too much new visually or acting-wise, but simply gambling on the talents of a scriptwriter with only one critical hit on his hands. If you go back and watch Little Miss Sunshine, however, or even just reflect now, you'll notice that it basically is a Pixar movie with some swears and Nietzsche/Proust references thrown in. He knows how to be warm yet brutally heartbreaking, and if that doesn't get your goat, Mr. Tortilla Head certainly should have.

9. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work [dir. Ricki Stern & Anne Sundberg] - (Qualler) How much do you know about Joan Rivers? Well, okay, how much do "millennials" know about Joan Rivers? I for one had only a vague idea of her purpose in her career. I remember seeing her on some award show pre-shows, dissin' other celebs. As it turns out, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work not only educated me about Rivers career that started in the 50s and continued for decades, but it was also the most sublime film I saw this year about aging. While a documentary "starring" the subject can always be looked at as a little biased in favor of the subject, Rivers is unquestionably someone to cheer for and, perhaps, someone to keep in mind while we plucky, annoying millenials try to force our elders out of their roles.

8. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 1 [wr. Steve Kloves, dir. David Yates] - (OHD) As Boys II Men once said, "Although we've come to the end of the road, I still can't let you go." And thanks to the fact that the seventh Harry Potter book is 8 glockjillion pages long (okay, so it's actually not the longest book in the series, but whatever) and the Hollywood corporate machine is always looking for a way to squeeze $14 extra out of our pockets, we don't have to let go just yet--this is just one installment of two, with Part II gracing theaters in July 2011. Sometime around the movie for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4, and by far the WORST movie of the franchise), they stopped pandering to people who haven't read the books, so if you've seen all the movies but haven't read Book 7, you might get lost pretty fast. I saw the movie with people who have all read the books and love Harry Potter and there were still things (like the fact that Harry was carrying around a shard of glass with him the entire time without explanation) that they didn't remember or understand. That said, and despite the fact that the first part of the movie (and the book) consists mostly of Harry, Hermione, and Ron wandering the English countryside looking for (and failing to find) the Horcruxes that contain bits of Voldemort's soul (and which maintain his immortality) and fighting with each other, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I is such a fun movie to watch, so visually lush and yet at the same time as bleak as the characters' moods, so gut-wrenchingly poignant, that I would see it over and over and over again without pause. It's especially lovely when you think about how much the characters/actors have grown, what mature and interesting adults they have become, and how their relationships have grown and evolved over time. The depth of emotion and detail the movies and the actors have brought to these one-of-a-kind literary characters is almost unprecedented, as far as adaptation from YA/children's novels goes, and even if you haven't read the books and do get a little lost in the apocryphal minutia of Deathly Hallows, it's worth watching just to appreciate how much great work has been done on one of the biggest commercial franchises of all time. Accio July already!

7. My Son My Son What Have Ye Done [wr./dir. Werner Herzog] - I think everyone else in the blogosphere forgot about this movie because they're pretending it was a 2009 movie and thus doesn't count. Well, you know what? I'll give many of the Oscar baiters a break because they at least finally arrive in Minneapolis in January, but though MSMSWHYD technically came out in NYC in December of 2009, it didn't arrive anywhere else until spring of 2010, and dammit, it's just too good to leave lost in the fog of limited art house release dates. I mean, c'mon, it's Herzog & Lynch (billed only as producer, but allegedly very involved with the filmmaking)...together! At last! Plus Michael Shannon is seventy shades of creepy and affecting as a troubled soul dealing with thoughts of matricide and more. It's sparse, yes, but also haunting and darkly comic at the most opportune times. These are the only two guys that can pull this kind of abstract nightmare off and together, they amp it up without ever going overboard. It's a glorious thing.
6. True Grit [wr./dir. Joel & Ethan Coen] - (Brigitte) I can never get enough of of the modern day western, and I think that Jeff Bridges is every bit as gritty as John Wayne was in the original cinematic adaptation. The Coen brothers know how to deliver a good film. This grungy western manages to balance some gruesome scenes with a quiet sort of beauty that drew me in as soon as the movie started and lasted through the final scene. The plot is fairly simple--a young girl seeks revenge for her father's murder--but it managed to keep my attention. The real heart of the story, I thought, was how that young girl managed to win over the gritty old bounty hunter and the hardened Texas ranger in a sort of Heidi-esque fashion. Except Heidi is a lot less sunshine and flowers and a lot more fast-talk and pistols. But like the little mountain girl who brought laughter back into her grandfather's life, this little girl won over the hearts of the old cowboys and our hearts, as well. The end of the movie made me feel sad without really understanding why I felt sad, and I liked that. I did have to cover my eyes during a few of the ickier scenes, but the acting and directing made up for that. And I really would like to see one fantastic western each year. This one will definitely have you reaching for your pistols and talkin' all old-timey for awhile.

5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World [wr./dir. Edgar Wright] - (DoktorPeace) This movie was made for me. I love video games, love Edgar Wright, and don't hate (or even understand the hate for) Michael Cera (most successful actors excel in one archetype, and Arrested Development is fine as it is). Nevertheless, I felt a bit hesitant putting this at the top of my (admittedly anemic) list (parentheticals are fun (Editor's Note: I agree!)). The delusional, video game aesthetic through which Scott views his world peaks around minute 10, after which key elements are very slowly forgotten and dissolved into what is by the end relatively standard action fare. Blame seems to lie with crunching 6 graphic novels into a single film, forcing emphasis on the clever yet simple plot as opposed to the meta-world and its characters. Yes, of course the books and their extended narrative are better (I read them after), but Scott Pilgrim still stands on its own as the film that made me smile more than anything since Hot Fuzz. It is, despite being based on literature, the best “video game" movie ever made. And thanks to an unfortunate box office turnout, it’s likely to remain that way until becoming as retro as the beat-‘em-ups it celebrates.

4. The Social Network [wr. Aaron Sorkin, dir. David Fincher] - Believe it or not, I used to think it mattered how closely a based-on-true-events movie followed the real life facts from which it stemmed. And I especially thought this when it was about figures particularly prominent and current in society. This previously thought notion was as recent as seeing United 93, a film whose authenticity I praised and called for more of in an industry obsessed with entertainment more than truth. But I don't think anyone can ever quite think that way again after seeing the Facebook movie. Everything is so tightly interlaced, intensely acted, and swiftly directed that you really aren't given a chance to think about the "real" Zuckerberg or anyone else for that matter. What matters is that even with Sorkin's semi-absurdist quickfire writing style, you are sucked into the souls of these characters through and through, the moral grayness even more palpable and believable than any fly-on-the-wall documentary style, no matter how gritty or shaky. This is filmmaking at its most classic and, in my opinion, finest. No questions asked, smug face tilted, and status update published.

3. Winter's Bone [wr./dir. Debra Granik] - (Brigitte) You know those movies where very little happens, but you don't really care? This is that kind of movie. This movie creates a real feeling that is consistent and heart-breaking, and after it ended I left the theater feeling...something. And I mean that in the best way possible. Jennifer Lawrence manages to reveal so much about her character, about life in the Ozark Mountains surviving on very little, and really about life and family in general without a whole lot of dialogue. The scenery is brilliant, and the violence is sometimes shocking as this story unfolds. I'm still not totally sure what this movie was "about," but it's worth several viewings to figure that out. Or maybe it's just about life, with all its cruelness and injustice, and managing to survive and find some joy in the cruelty. The music and cinematography stood out as well as the acting, and the simple plot was actually pretty profound. I love me a movie with little plot and lots of character, and plenty of bittersweet semi-uplifting at the same time as totally depressing scenes.

2. Inception [wr./dir. Christopher Nolan] - (Sean) There's some old saying about all great art being controversial. The modern equivalent is art that you can blog about a shit-load. Inception is exactly that kind of great art. Search Google for Inception "what does it all mean?" theories and you'll find half a dozen. And each one will actually seem plausible. Did you see that blog post about how the Hans Zimmer score featured an orchestrated version of the featured Edith Piaf song slowed way, way down? Slowed down the way time is slowed down in each successive level of the dreams within the film. It's stuff like that. Yes, of course the film itself is entertaining and beautifully shot and well-paced (and has Ellen Page who is a cutie; Marion Cotillard is okay, too). But the real impressive, lasting impact of this film is in the way it was all anyone could blog about online for a few weeks in the summer of 2010. And that is pretty awesome. You might even say for Christopher Nolan, the film's director, it was a dream come true. I N C E P T I O N.

1. Black Swan [wr. Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, & John McLaughlin, dir. Darren Aronofsky] - (Qualler) Is Black Swan the biggest feminist statement on film of the year, or is the most wildly exploitative film of the year? Both are valid questions, and both questions could be answered "yes." Director Darren Aronofsky has never been afraid to provoke the audience with the wickedly disturbing (Requiem for a Dream), the wildly pretentious (The Fountain), or the deeply gritty and real (The Wrestler). For Black Swan, Aronofsky directs the film like a greatest hits record -- hitting similar disturbing notes to Requiem (without going too far into the plain old hard to watch category) and the "real" feeling of The Wrestler, with a touch of the wildly pretentious mixed in for good measure. Most amazingly, Natalie Portman delivered her best performance of her career, a career-redefining role akin to Anne Hathaway's role in Rachel Getting Married, depicting the inner turmoil of her character with incredible range. And it is doubtless the only movie of the year to make over $50 million in box office receipts which depicts the imagined (or is it?) growing of feathers through one's skin.

Top 10 Albums of 2010

Every January we here at The Blogulator compile this list (though this is the first year without our dearly departed Lady Amy's input - cue sad emoticon) and every January since Qualler and I wrote those first two posts about Nada Surf and Death Cab for Cutie we tend to offer up some variation on the same preliminary disclosure: we rarely talk about the music that matters most to us in this here blog space. It's not because we don't have anything to say about it (check Qualler's Twitter space or Chris's work on Audiosuede), but rather simply because the universality of the populist stuff of TV, movies, Top 40 pop music, and well, more TV typically ends up being more ripe for discussion and debate. Deep music loves, on the other hand, seem to always be more personal and intimate and find themselves cloistered around a different subsect of geek if not just simply glowing from a soft nestled spot within the listener's heart. Also, we're emo, in case you couldn't tell by that last sentence. Regardless, we love sharing what we love, so here's ours. Written by yours truly except when indicated otherwise.


10. Pyramid of the Sun by Maserati - Whether we like to admit it or not, the death of a celebrity, whether revered en masse or only in our elite circle of the indie music kingdom, colors how we view their art, and especially how we view their last remaining vestige of talent. Cobain and Ledger proved this with Unplugged in New York and The Dark Knight respectively with a contingent so large it may not seem possibly in a microcosmic scenario, but the passing of drummer extraordinaire Gehrardt Fuchs and the posthumous release of his band's latest record certainly does so, even if not to the point of universal accolades and awards. And even if there wasn't a deeply caring and passionate underground post-rock following that mourned him and his unyielding prowess on the skins and cymbals, it would only take my good friend and blogmate Qualler to come to band practice last night with drumsticks in hand and tell me, "I was listening to that Maserati record and I was just like...why even try?" Arguably, it's even more affecting when it gets that close, that personal, that the passing of a true unsung legend can cut so deep.


9. Have One on Me by Joanna Newsom - (Qualler) Joanna Newsom is an acquired taste. I totally get that. Her first record The Milk-Eyed Mender coulda been called The Milk-Eyed Meanderer (zing!) (aside from the instant classic "Bridges and Balloons") while her follow-up Ys demonstrated a growth in her songwriting abilities, albeit with that same warbly voice that so instantly turns many people off. Have One On Me, then, is her biggest step forward yet, dropping an album that immediately feels timeless. The triple(!!) album is full of nine-minute magnum opuses, like the title-track that concludes with a final movement that still raises the hairs on the back of my neck, or the orchestral penultimate track "Kingfisher". Giving her listeners an ambition break, though, are straight-up folk tracks like "'81" or the gorgeous lullaby "On a Good Day". Better yet, Newsom eases back on the quirkiness in her voice and delivers a mature, perfect vocal performance. Haters should hate a little less after this record.


8. The Five Ghosts by Stars - Honestly, when I heard 2007's In Our Bedroom After the War, I simply didn't think I'd every give accolades to the once-loved Canadian troupe Stars, much less offer them a spot on a Blogulator year-end Top 10. But alas, such is the great gift of the passage of time. It can allow things like an ego-driven non-pop-star (Torq may have helped craft a beautiful album this year, but he's still an Internet troll) to thrive and dash my hopes for another great Stars record, but it can also completely floor me despite any past evidences of crapification. And that's exactly what The Five Ghosts did. Not only does it largely make up for past misgivings, it also is basically an aurally constructed Broadway musical about dead and/or resurrected love, something that just yearns to be manifested into a stage production either in real life or at least in the listener's imagination. It's vivid, vital, and aching all at once, and it's more than cause enough to hope for a new streak for the band in the future.


7. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West - (Sean) If you find yourself at a party this January and someone asks you which album you loved best in 2010 and you don't really have an answer just say this one. All those critics and compilation lists cannot be wrong.. No, you won't impress anyone with your individuality or unique opinions, but who tries to express their self by the obscure music they listen to anyway? No one. Tracks to know are the following: "Power", the one with the music video like a painting. "Monster", the controversial one? And opening track, "Dark Fantasy", the one with the hilarious line about "too many Urkels on your team, that's why your wins low." If for some crazy reason you are judged harshly for naming this album your 2010 number one, just remind people that Pitchfork gave it a 10.0. Then tell them to kiss your asshole and/or black balls. Respectfully, of course.


6. Teen Dream by Beach House - (Sean) "I'm a sensitive guy; I listen to Beach House!"
-Some douchebag at a bar trying to seem like less of an asshole. Baltimore, Maryland's own Beach House have become the darling duo of indie rock's Dream Pop sub-genre. With catchy guitar melodies, soaring foreignish-sounding vocals, and sweet-albeit-bizarre lyrics, their third album is a rad one. The first three tracks are excellent: blending strange concepts with lovely, feminine soundscapes. What exactly is "happening again" in Silver Soul? Who is the "hunter for a lonely heart" in Norway? I don't know, but the songs are still great. Btdubs, I call dibs on playing album-closer "Take Care" at the first dance of an indie wedding.


5. Fang Island by Fang Island - Do you remember running through the wet grass, falling a step behind? No, that's not just a Better Than Ezra reference, it's also seriously what I think to myself every time I think about this record. And it's not because Fang Island sounds anything like the semi-forgotten New Orleans alterna-dorks. It's because it's one of the most youthful albums that I've fallen in love with in recent times, harking back to a past that was boisterous and just not quite caught up with the pack, but completely in love with the world (and the slippery grasp thereof) all the same. The above video (my favorite of the year) only emphasizes this further, and while its tone and timbre may merely be a conglomeration of nostalgic obsessions for the Rhode Island rockers (pop metal, first/second wave emo, math rock), there's just enough disregard for verse-chorus convention that it sounds as brazenly truthful and adventurous as it does familiar and warm.


4. Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty by Big Boi - (Qualler) This summer, I needed a record to fuel my runs training for the Twin Cities Marathon. Big Boi became my go-to record when I was in the middle of slogging through mile four of ten and I needed a jolt. Then, the more I listened to it, the more Boi's wicked rapping style, outrageous beats, and jaw-dropping production value became perfectly clear to me. By the end of the year, Boi's record was the one I listened to the most and has become a sparkplug in my further interest in the genre of hip-hop. Unlike other slightly more noteworthy hip-hop artists (Kanye, duh), Boi never gets into any woe-is-me-cuz-I'm-rich-and-

lonely stories. He's all about the love.


3. Stuck on Nothing by Free Energy - (Sean) Remember those bands in the 80s and 90s that were just bands? Like, when someone asks you to describe them you go, "Oh, they're this band with guitars and drums and stuff, and they're good. Yeah, you should listen." Free Energy is that band for 2010. Stuck on Nothing is a most excellent set of rocking guitar-driven tunes. Crunchy riffs and crisp fills: yes. Popping drums: for sure. Reminding you of The Cars in all the right ways?: Totally. Stand-out tracks include the opener "Free Energy", second track "Dream City", and mid-album groover "Dark Trance." If you are not in love with this band by track 5 there is no hope for your soul. Nahh, j/k. Have a listen anyway. Not convinced yet? The genre-listing on my mp3s in iTunes for this one is in a bunch of Japanese characters. Whoa. Seriously.


2. Periphery by The Seven Fields of Aphelion - Ever since I fell in love with ambient music I have waited for an ambient album I've truly loved as much as the genre itself. How does that make sense? Well when you have a genre that's based as much around its ability to be ignorable as much as its uniquely minimal textural and melodic qualities, you're often going to end up with your Stars of the Lid (whose mastery of the genre provides the listener with many brilliant short pieces but mostly just fragmented compilations for albums) and Brian Enos (whose founding and expertise led to near-flawless whole meditative works but nary a standout song) of the world. But what Maux Boyle does with her debut solo LP is craft is a game-changer, even if it's one of the quietest game-changers ever: grab our attention with the very first track and never let go, but also allow us space to breathe and just soak it all in with our eyes closed and our stresses launched into outer space.


1. Body Talk by Robyn - (Qualler) What gives Robyn the edge over her other Europop counterparts is the way she wears her heart on her sleeve. Sure, her songs are impeccably produced, her dance beats immensely danceable. But in singles "Dancing On My Own" and "Hang With Me", the Swedish star utilizes raw emotion (and, dammit, great songwriting) to make you want to dance all night. The Body Talk I and II EPs she released this Summer and Fall featured naked acoustic versions of "Hang With Me" and "Indestructible", but when the third record dropped, she threw us all for a loop and released a full-length. For a year of digging Robyn's tunes, this move was most appropriate.