2007 lists

 

Albums

 

1. M.I.A., Kala: We are the one who make a brighter day, so let's start giving.

2. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible: Helping us understand why this world-historical moment is emo.

3. Gogol Bordello, Super Taranta!: Helping us understand why we shouldn't be emo in this world-historical moment.

4. Golden Afrique Vol. 2: "The best Congolese album in the world... ever!"

5. Steven Bernstein's Millennial Territory Orchestra, MTO Vol. 1: Translated to the present, or, all your Basie are belong to us.

6. Miranda Lambert, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Unlike the Dixie Chicks or Al-Qaeda, she knows the fun isn't in the murder but in the scaring the shit out of people.

7. Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass:

Ira should get into a Guitar Hero game any century now.

8. Jewels and Binoculars, Ships with Tattooed Sails: Better than Muldaur's Dylan covers album because it doesn't have any words.

9. Gothic Archies, The Tragic Treasury: Deadpan with a capital "dead".

10. African Pearls: Congo: Rumba on the River: A more coherent Congolese collection, though with lower highs than the Golden Afrique volume.

 

11. Art Pepper, Unreleased Art Vol. 1

12. Powerhouse Sound, Oslo/Chicago Breaks

13. Lupe Fiasco, Food and Liquor

14. Manu Chao, La Radiolina

15. The Apples in Stereo, New Magnetic Wonder

16. Common, Finding Forever

17. Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3

18. Youssou N'Dour, Rokku Mi Rokka

19. Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight

20. Brakes, The Beatific Visions

21. Justice, Cross

22. Maria Muldaur, Heart of Mine: Love Songs of Bob Dylan

23. Balkan Beat Box, Nu Med

24. Fountains of Wayne, Traffic and Weather

25. Les Savy Fav, Let's Stay Friends

26. The Rough Guide to Astor Piazzolla

27. Lily Allen, Alright, Still

28. Spoon, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

29. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver

30. The White Stripes, Icky Thump

31. Africa Remix: Ah Freak Iya

32. Fats Domino, Alive and Kickin'

33. James McMurtry, Childish Things

34. Fanfare Ciocarlia, Queens and Kings

35. Bebo Valdes, Bebo de Cuba

36. Lee "Scratch" Perry, Panic in Babylon

37. James Murphy & Pat Mahoney, FabricLive.38

38. Vandermark 5, Free Jazz Classics Vols 3 & 4

39. Against Me!, New Wave

40. Public Enemy, How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul

41. The Thermals, The Body, The Blood, The Machine

42. Jenny Lewis & the Watson Twins, Rabbit Fur Coat

43. David Murray Black Saint Quartet, Sacred Ground

44. Albert van Veenendaal, Predictable Point of Impact

45. The Sound of Girls Aloud

46. Busdriver, Fear of a Black Tangent

47. Billy Bang Quartet, Above and Beyond

48. Blueprint, 1988

49. Jesus H. Christ & the Four Hornsmen of the Apocalypse

50. The Knife, Silent Shout

51. John Fogerty, Revival

52. The Ponys, Celebration Castle

53. Kanye West, Graduation

54. The Handsome Family, Last Days of Wonder

55. Wolfgang Muthspiel & Brian Blade, Friendly Travelers

56. Lucinda Williams, West

57. Mariem Hassan con Leyoad

58. Nils Petter Molvaer, An American Compilation

59. Sir Douglas Quintet, Live in Austin, TX

60. Kahil El'Zabar's Infinity Orchestra, Transmigration

61. Adam Lane's Full Throttle Orchestra, New Magical Kingdom

62. Mario Pavone Sextet, Deez to Blues

63. Scritti Politti, White Bread, Black Beer

64. Balkan Beat Box

65. Gerry Hemingway Quartet, The Whimbler

66. Dennis Gonzalez's Spirit Meridian, Idle Wild

67. Bokoor Beats

68. Radiohead, In Rainbows

69. Rachid Taha, Tekitoi

70. Ibrahim Electric Meets Ray Anderson

71. Scott Hamilton, Back in New York

72. Steve Lacy Quartet, Esteem

73. Nils Petter Molvaer, Streamer

 

B PLUS

Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare

Art Brut, It's a Bit Complicated

Introducing Daby Balde

Beyonce, B'Day

Bright Eyes, Cassadaga

Chris Byars, Photos in Black, White and Gray

Los Campesinos!, Sticking Fingers into Sockets

Neko Case, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Some Loud Thunder

CSS, Cansei de Ser Sexy

The Ex, Singles. Period.

From Bakabush: The First Ten Years of Stonetree

Fujiya & Miyagi, Transparent Things

Gang of Four, Return the Favour

Ghostface Killah, More Fish

Golem, Fresh Off Boat

Hyphy Hitz

Jewface

Journey into Paradise: The Larry Levan Story

The Ultimate Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The Early Years, Vol. 2

Konono No. 1, Live at Couleur Cafe

Diana Krall, From This Moment On

Los de Abajo, LDA V The Lunatics

Joe Lovano & Hank Jones, Kids: Duets Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

Nils Petter Molvaer, ER

Ravish Momin's Trio Tarana, Climbing the Banyan Tree

Wolfgang Muthspiel, Bright Side

Papa Noel, Cafe Noir

Mark Ronson, Version

The Roots of Chicha

The Rough Guide to Bhangra Dance

Saffire: The Uppity Blues Women, Deluxe Edition

Thione Seck, Orientissime

Bruce Springsteen, Magic

Peter Stampfel, Antonia's 11

Ion Petre Stoican, Sounds from a Bygone Age Vol. 1

Tartit, Abacabok

Thunderbirds Are Now, Make History

Timbaland, Shock Value

Tokyo Police Club, A Lesson in Crime

David Torn, Prezens

Assif Tsahar, Digital Primitives

Vandermark 5, A Discontinuous Line

David S. Ware Quartet, Renunciation

Hank Williams III, Straight to Hell

Amy Winehouse, Back to Black

Tom Ze, Danc-Eh-Sa

 

B

The Decemberists, The Crane Wife

Field Music, Tones of Town

Junior Boys, So This Is It

Madonna, I'm Going to Tell You a Secret

Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

My Chemical Romance, Welcome to the Black Parade

The Raconteurs, Broken Boy Soldiers

The Shins, Wincing the Night Away

Slavic Soul Party, Teknochek Collision

Sloan, Never Hear the End of It

Bruce Springsteen, The Seeger Sessions

Wilco, Sky Blue Sky

 

B MINUS

Band of Horses, Everything All the Time

Belle and Sebastian, The Life Pursuit

J. Dilla, Donuts

Bela Fleck, The Hidden Land

Los Lobos, The Town and the City

The National, Boxer

Elliott Smith, New Moon

Teddy Thompson, Up Front and Down Low

Ali Farka Toure, Savane

M. Ward, Post-War

Thom Yorke, The Eraser

 

C PLUS

Destroyer, Destroyer's Rubies

Flaming Lips, At War with the Mystics

Liars, Drum's Not Dead

Wolfmother

 

C

Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupantner

Scott Walker, The Drift

 

Movies

 

A PLUS

Inland Empire (David Lynch)

 

A

Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff)

Boarding Gate (Olivier Assayas)

Brand Upon the Brain (Guy Maddin)

Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron)

Half Nelson (Ryan Fleck)

The Host (Bong Joon-ho)

Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro)

Southland Tales (Richard Kelly)

 

A MINUS

The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson)

The Departed (Martin Scorsese)

Grindhouse (Robert Rodriguez & Quentin Tarantino)

Happy Feet (George Miller)

Idlewild (Bryan Barber)

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead (Mike Hodges)

Indigènes (Rachid Bouchareb)

Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint Eastwood)

The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

Offside (Jafar Panahi)

Once (John Carney)

Sir! No Sir! (David Zeiger)

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (Stephen Hillenberg)

Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

Talledega Nights (Adam McKay)

Venus (Roger Michell)

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Shohei Imamura)

Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo)

 

B PLUS

Colossal Youth (Pedro Costa)

How Is Your Fish Today? (Xiaolu Guo)

Lars and the Real Girl

The Last King of Scotland (Kevin Macdonald)

Music and Lyrics (Marc Lawrence)

My Life as McDull (Toe Yuen)

Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki)

No End in Sight (Charles Ferguson)

Ocean's Thirteen (Steven Soderbergh)

16 Blocks (Richard Donner)

 

B

Avenue Montaigne (Daniele Thompson)

The Devil Wears Prada (Lauren Weisberger)

Fantastic Four (Tim Story)

The Godfather of Disco (Gene Graham)

Legally Blonde (Robert Luketic)

Opera Jawa (Garin Nugroho)

Surf's Up (Ash Brannon & Chris Buck)

Vanity Fair (Mira Nair)

 

B MINUS

I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-Liang)

The Old Weird America: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music (Rani Singh)

Paprika (Satoshi Kon)

Rush Hour 2 (Brett Ratner)

 

C PLUS

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Tim Story)

Rush Hour 3 (Brett Ratner)

Sweet Home Alabama (Andy Tennant)

 

C

Zodiac (David Fincher)

 

C MINUS

Flightplan (Robert Schwentke)

 

D PLUS

Ghost Rider (Mark Steven Johnson)

 

To see

Angel-A

Away from Her

Black Snake Moan

The Bourne Ultimatum

Eastern Promises

Exiled

Flags of Our Fathers

Harry Potter 5

Knocked Up

Lady Chatterley

Michael Clayton

Ratatouille

Shut Up and Sing

The Simpsons Movie

Southland Tales

Stardust

This Is England

28 Weeks Later

When the Levees Broke

 

Books

 

A PLUS

Irene Nemirovsky, Suite Francaise

 

A

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home

Carlos Fuentes, The Years with Laura Diaz

Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma

Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want

 

A MINUS

Irina Denezhkina, Give Me (Songs for Lovers)

Fanny Howe, Selected Poems

Douglas Wolk, Reading Comics

 

B PLUS

Nathaniel Mackey, Splay Anthem

 

B

Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers

 

Currently reading

David M. Oshinsky, Polio

Julie Phillips, James Tiptree Jr.

Gene Roberts & Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat

 

Stalled

Jose Eduardo Agualusa, The Book of Chameleons

Ken Kalfus, A Disorder Peculiar to the Country

 

To read

Michael Ayres, Poems 1987-1992

Robert Brenner, The Economics of Global Turbulence

Ed Brubaker, Captain America Omnibus

Paul Chadwick, Concrete: The Human Dilemma

Peter Cole, The Dream of the Poem

Peter Cole, What Is Doubled

Geof Darrow, Shaolin Cowboy

Dave Eggers, What Is the What

Linda Grant, The People on the Street

Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip

Dennis Lim (ed.), The Village Voice Film Guide

Alan Moore, Promethea v. 4+

Brian K. Vaughan, Y: The Last Man v. 4+

 

Poems

 

(most picks ripped off from Jordan Davis)

 

Dawn-Michelle Baude, "Once Upon a Train Station (A Museum)"

Tadeuz Rozewicz, "the professor's knife" (tr. Joanna Trzeciak)

Brandon Brown, "Administrative Assistant"

Mathias Svalina, "She Uses Her Pinky Finger When She Types"

Bob Hicok, "So I know"

Heather Salus, "How We're Moved"

Marie Buck, "Ses Purs Ongles"

Damir Sodan, "After Brueghel" (tr. Stephen M. Dickey)

Melanie Faith, "Cute: A Prose Poetic"

Tony Hoagland, "In Praise of Their Divorce"

Matthew Jarvis, "and so with bodiless eyes"

Kelvin Corcoran, "Basil Bunting and Dylan Thomas in Tehran"

Christopher Middleton, Three poems

Jenny Bornholdt, "Medical"

Murray Edmond, "Setting the Seal on NZ Poetry"

D.S. Marriott, "the levees"

Sarah Law, "Spare Part"

 

Wrestling

 

(most picks ripped off from Dave Meltzer)

 

11/19/06 Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle

12/10/06 Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle

12/17/06 London/Kendrick vs Mercury/Nitro vs Hardy/Hardy vs Taylor/Regal (ladder)

1/20/07 Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Ricky Marvin/Kotaru Suzuki (GHC Jr)

 

To see

12/23 Bryan Danielson vs Homicide

2/16 Samoa Joe vs Takeshi Morishima

4/1 Kennedy vs Edge vs Jeff Hardy vs Booker vs Orton vs Matt Hardy vs Punk vs Finlay (ladder)

4/23 John Cena vs Shawn Michaels

4/28 Takeshi Rikio/Jun Akiyama vs Takashi Suguira/Yoshihiro Takayama (GHC)

4/29 John Cena vs Randy Orton vs Shawn Michaels vs Edge

4/30 Edge vs Randy Orton

5/12 Jay Briscoe/Mark Briscoe vs Matt Sydal/Claudio Castagnoli

5/12 Takeshi Morishima/Bryan Danielson vs Nigel McGuinness/KENTA

5/13 Chris Harris vs James Storm (Texas Death)

6/9 Nigel McGuinness vs Bryan Danielson

6/17 Joe vs Styles vs Harris vs Cage vs Angle (KotM)

7/15 Naomichi Marufuji/Kota Ibushi vs KENTA/Taiji Ishimori

10/6 Randy Orton vs Triple H (Last Man Standing)

 

Wii games

 

A MINUS

Wii Sports

 

B PLUS

Guitar Hero

WarioWare

 

B

Rayman

Monkey Ball

 

B MINUS

Mario & Sonic

Mario Party

 

C

Wii Play