2009: Notable Artistic Achievements

So, some arbitrary preferences I would like to express. I will probably forget some very notable things and be ridiculed for it, as I should.

COMICS
I've had some scarce comic habits this year. I'd like to say I'm getting cooler but it really just that a lot of the writers and artists I enjoyed in the past are taking on commercial gigs that don't interest me. Whence Casanova, Matt Fraction? Like that writer, Grant Morrison has also migrated from exciting projects (The Filth, All Star Superman) to ones slightly less inspiring (Batman & Robin). We did manage a Seaguy follow-up, which is pretty great.

Even Brian K. Vaughn & Tony Harris' otherwise enjoyable series Ex Machina was barely published this year; still, its wrapping up and I like where's its headed.

Also finished: Warren Ellis & John Cassiday's Planetary, which inspired awe to the very end. I am looking forward to the second volume of the Absolute Edition.

Elsewhere, the recent Muppets comics have been really fun. I didn't read many, but what I did captured the manic spirit of the television series perfectly.

BOOKS
My book habits are also problematic. I tend to read a spate of good reviews, pick up the book, and then, let it marinate on the shelf. Still, we're seeing a couple Haroki Murakami translations every year now; After Dark was published in softcover this year and I loved it, so maybe I can fairly include that here. Another paperback cheat or two I can include: Henri Bernard Levi's The Left in Dark Times and Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great, which give me hope for the continuing tradition of public intellectuals.

Books published is 2009 I would like to have read but have not yet had the opportunity: 2666, Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American Century, Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid. (Excerpts from the latter two in Foreign Affairs and the like have given me hope for the new generation of public intellectual, too.) I also look forward to trying out a few recipes from the Momofuku cookbook; xo sauce, here I come.

Books published in previous years which I have read this year: I will not bore you with this list. Let us keep things relevant, yes?

MUSIC
Apple is brilliant. Their iTunes program is the perfect means of generating conspicuous musical consumption. The algorithms they use to generate music recommendations for me have been better than Netflix (movies) or Amazon (everything) at the same task.

So, what are the great releases I've stumbled across? My top eleven, in no particular order:

Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures (John Paul Jones + Josh Homme + Dave Grohl)

*Langhorne Slim, Be Set Free (not even close to tired of the shtick yet... and he's a local boy!)

*The Mountain Goats, The Life of the World to Come (contains some of the best song writing of his career)

Jay Farrar & Ben Gibbard, One Fast Move Or I'm Gone (evokes Kerouac perfectly)

*Beirut, March of the Zapotec (more interesting musical explorations)

Avett Brothers, I And Love And You (the first time I heard the title track on WXPN I sat in my car until the very end)

*Blk Jks, After Robots (thanks for "discovering" these guys Diplo!)

*A.A. Bondy, When The Devil's Loose (bad ass wordsmith in the mold of Tom Waits/Leonard Cohen/etc.)

Kanye West, Welcome to Heartbreak (you're just tired of Kanye's antics, don't dis the album, too)

Mos Def, The Ecstatic (we're agreed that Mos is a legitimate hip hop genius, right?)

TV on the Radio, Dear Science (ditto these guys for, what might you call this, prog rock?)

The Flaming Lips, Embryonic (nearly as good as Yoshimi and with some individual tracks I like even better than anything on that earlier album)

Honorable mention for re-releases:

Death, ...For The Whole World To See (MC5-esque hotness)
Fela Kuti, The Best of the Black President (best Fela Kuti compilation I've come across)

(* Denotes live performance seen in this calendar year.)

MOVIES
I will definitely forget many that merit a mention but I will make an effort.

Big Fan (Patton Oswalt acted the shit out of this Taxi Driver-riff)
Antichrist (see below)
Bronson (see below)
Where the Wild Things Are (see below)
Inglorious Basterds (Tarantino's best movie yet--the Platonic ideal of one of his films)
Ong Bak 2 (see below)
The Road (bleak and beautiful)
The Box (better than Donnie Darko and very promising for Richard Kelly's filmmaking future)

That was eight. Pauly will no doubt have a few to supplement this poor showing.