Favorites, 2016

Back in the old days of the Notes, I used to write a lot more about music, movies, and books, and I would every so often post updated lists of my absolute favorites of things.  Not due to any pressing interest from the public, of course–mostly just because it’s fun for me, and also because having such a blog post can be quite handy during discussions online; I can just link someone to the entry to aid in a discussion of favorites.

Of course this is not to be confused with my annual “Favorite Music” list, where I detail my favorite music released in the previous calendar year; these lists detail my current all-time favorites, which are (like yours, of course) constantly changing.

Looking back at my entries, it appears as though I haven’t done a big posting of lists since 2012, so I’ll make this one fairly comprehensive.  All of these lists have changed since 2012–some very little, some quite dramatically:

My top ten favorite poets

10.  Jane Kenyon
9.   Robert Creeley
8.  William Carlos Williams
7.   Sylvia Plath
6.  Billy Collins
5.  Denise Levertov
4.  E.E. Cummings
3.  Philip Levine
2.  John Updike
1.  Philip Larkin

My top 10 favorite film directors

10.  Federico Fellini
9.  Sidney Lumet
8.  Alejandro Inarritu
7.  Christopher Nolan
6.  Paul Thomas Anderson
5.  Alfonso Cuaron
4.  Stanley Kubrick
3.  Werner Herzog
2.  Alfred Hitchcock
1.  Terrence Malick

My top ten bands

10. This Will Destroy You
9.  My Morning Jacket
8.  Godspeed You! Black Emperor
7.  Radiohead
6.  Seven Mary Three
5.  Hey Rosetta!
4.   The National
3.  Band of Horses
2.  Modest Mouse
1.  Arcade Fire

 

My top ten music solo artists

10.  Tracy Chapman
9.  Ray LaMontagne
8.  Father John Misty
7.  Leonard Cohen
6.  Jim James
5.  Nina Simone
4.  Willis Earl Beal
3.  Emily Wells
2.  Paul Simon
1.  Neil Young

My top ten favorite (non-documentary) movies

10.  Citizen Kane
9.  Night of the Hunter
8.  Fitzcarraldo
7.  Magnolia
6.  The Trouble with Harry
5.  Children of Men
4.  Where the Wild Things Are
3.  The Thin Red Line
2.  I’m Still Here
1.  The Tree of Life

My ten favorite novelists

10.  Malcolm Lowry
9.  John Steinbeck
8.  Isaac Asimov
7.  Ernest Hemingway
6. Oscar Wilde
5.  Kurt Vonnegut
4.  Mark Twain
3.  David Mitchell
2.  Don DeLillo
1.  Dave Eggers

My top twenty favorite books (any genre, fiction or nonfiction)

20.  “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Kennedy Toole
19.  “Slade House” by David Mitchell
18.  “The Terror” by Dan Simmons
17.  “You Shall Know Our Velocity” by Dave Eggers
16.  “Point Omega” by Don DeLillo
15.  “Cloud Atlas” by David Mitchell
14.  “Fallen Founder” by Nancy Isenberg
13.  “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde
12.  “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding
11.  “Under the Volcano” by Malcolm Lowry
10.  “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” by Dave Eggers
9.  “The Sun Also Rises” by Ernest Hemingway
8.  “Cat’s Cradle” by Kurt Vonnegut
7.  “Dubliners” by James Joyce
6.  “Letters From the Earth” by Mark Twain
5.  “White Noise” by Don DeLillo
4.  “Endurance” by Alfred Lansing
3.  “Your Fathers, Where Are They?  And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?” by Dave Eggers
2.  “Into the Wild” by John Krakauer
1.  “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck

My top twenty favorite albums

20.  “Funeral” by Arcade Fire
19.  “Nobody Knows” by Willis Earl Beal
18.  “High Violet” by The National
17.  “The Battle of Los Angeles” by Rage Against the Machine
16.  “Swamp Ophelia” by Indigo Girls
15.  “Mirrorball” by Neil Young
14.  “Dis/Location” by Seven Mary Three
13.  “Abbey Road” by The Beatles
12.  “Graceland” by Paul Simon
11.  “Bitches Brew” by Miles Davis
10.  “‘Allelujah!  Don’t Bend!  Ascend!” by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
9.    “Kid A” by Radiohead
8.   “Strangers to Ourselves” by Modest Mouse
7.   “This Will Destroy You” by This Will Destroy You
6.   “Time Out” by the Dave Brubeck Quartet
5.   “Secret Samadhi” by LIVE
4.   “Infinite Arms” by Band of Horses
3.   “The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire
2.   “RockCrown” by Seven Mary Three
1.  “Into Your Lungs (and Around in Your Heart and On Through Your Blood)” by Hey Rosetta!

 

My top five composers

5.  Philip Glass
4.  Cliff Martinez
3.  Hans Zimmer
2.  Felix Mendelssohn
1.  Carl Nielsen

My top ten painters

10.  Edgar Degas
9.  George Bellows
8.  Mark Rothko
7.  Johannes Vermeer
6.  Mary Cassatt
5.  Maurice Prendergast
4.  Thomas Eakins
3.  Henri Rousseau
2.  Andrew Wyeth
1.  John Sloan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can It Be True? I’m Getting Rid of My DVDs.

Last night I went out into our garage and brought in three large boxes.  In those boxes were hundreds–maybe close to six hundred–DVDs and Blu-ray discs.  I sat down with the contents of these boxes and divided them into two piles–“sell” and “keep”.  About two-thirds ended up in the “sell” pile.  Now, I didn’t do this because we are destitute and hard-up for cash.  I had just finally come to the realization that carting around that much physical baggage, representing movies that would be practically impossible for me to watch, was no longer a viable act.  (of note, these were simply the “garage” DVDs, the ones we couldn’t fit in the house.  I currently have no plans to get rid of the “house DVDs”).

I bring this up mainly because some of you may know I have continued to be a staunch advocate of physical media well into the digital age (I am a heavy user of digital media but have not abandoned the physical product like many have) and it feels significant to purge myself of all these DVDs.  The fact is, even without options like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and cable television, I would still be hard pressed to find the time to watch even a fraction of these movies.  Many of them are movies I truly love dearly, but when one has hundreds and hundreds of movies they love dearly, well…reality must be faced at some point.  Also, from a practical standpoint, these movies are tucked away in huge boxes in a garage.  The few times I’ve had a desire to watch one of them, the desire left after considering it for about ten seconds.  They’re just too difficult to get to.

Like many people, as the DVD age dawned, I delighted at the prospect of building a “film library”, and spent the next decade feverishly spending all my extra cash to own every movie I liked more than just a little bit.  Collecting DVDs became almost its own, separate pastime, mildly divorced from the pure love of film.  As I was single and childless most of this time, the extra room in my apartments made a perfect storage space for expanding Wal-Mart bookshelves full of DVDs, which I organized in many different ways over the years–sometimes alphabetically, sometimes by genre, with special sections for my favorite filmmakers and TV shows on DVD.  I kept going and going well beyond what was practical–I long ago lost the ability to even watch a tiny fraction of what I owned, often not even knowing for sure if I did own a certain film.

I became a completist of the highest order.  I loved the first three Todd Solondz films (I don’t love them anymore) and when I disliked his fourth and fifth films, I bought the DVDs anyway, to round out the Solondz section on my shelf (I can’t wait to not own “Palindromes” anymore!).  I bought every Stanley Kubrick film (these went in the “keep” pile) then had to buy “Eyes Wide Shut” again after they put out an unrated version.  At some point I began buying every movie made about a comic book superhero, because when I was REALLY into comic books as a young kid, I would have killed to see these movies–nevermind that I only liked about a quarter of them.  My superhero DVD collection grew to over 50, despite my actual ambivalence to the genre, out of some misguided favor to my younger self.  I mean, I own “Barb Wire” and BOTH “Judge Dredd” films.  But not for much longer.

It is, in plenty of ways, sad to see them go.  It was an impressive collection (people often say the DVDs in our living room are a lot of DVDs, which always makes me smile, as they’re about ten percent of the collection) and represented not just tons of money, but plenty of time and effort.  I’m also sad to, in some small way, be throwing in the towel on DVDs.  But I am definitely not abandoning them completely–with the “keep” pile from last night and the discs that were already inside the house, I’m sure we still have close to 300 movies in a physical format–and it’s hard to imagine saying goodbye to those.  And although purchasing new discs will be rare, I have no plans to stop for good.  My addiction to the Criterion Collection continues, and after seeing their slate for 2016, I anticipate buying three or four new ones this year.  I bought “Room” on Bu-Ray last month and have “The Revenant” pre-ordered.  As I get passionate about new movies, some will be added to the collection, but much slower than before, of course.

As far as other media: I stream a lot of music (but I use Tidal, which pays artists more than other streaming services.  I also use Pandora, but mostly to stream classical and jazz by people who are dead) but I still buy CDs, albeit at about 10% of the rate I did even three years ago.  I’ll probably buy nine or ten CDs in 2016.  I buy lots of vinyl–a combination of old music that’s freshly pressed (think brand-new factory sealed Beatles records), brand new music (the new Emily Wells album) and used vinyl out of dusty bins (just got The Dave Brubeck Quartet’s “Jazz Impressions of New York” at the local used record joint).

I read all my books, magazines, and newspapers on paper, although the Kindle ads in the New York Times Book Review make me a little itchy for one.

We currently have active subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, as well as Comcast cable…it’s an embarrassment of riches, to be sure, especially since our available TV-watching time is pretty low.  And most nights I just watch re-runs of “Shark Tank” on CNBC, anyway.  Can’t get enough Mark Cuban, I guess.

 

My 50 Favorite Directors, in order

Taking a page from my buddy Kyle‘s blog, I have decided to rank my favorite film directors (see Kyle’s list here.)  However, while Kyle blessedly knows the virtue of restraint, I know only overkill.  So I have ranked my top 50 directors, in order.  After #25, I also rank my top 3 favorite of each of their films, and for the top 10 directors, I rank my five favorite of their films.

Notes on the rankings

To rank the directors, I considered the whole of their filmography that I have seen.  I did not consider the reputations of films I have not seen.  It is also important to note that all rankings—both the director rankings and the films within those rankings–are rankings of my favorites; these are not “best” rankings.  In essence, this is a subjective, not objective, excercise.  Additionally, for directors who also write many or all of their films, I weighted their screenwriting skills the least in my decision-making process, as screenwriting and directing are two different arts, but it is impossible to fully seperate a writer-director’s scripts from their finished products.  I also did not rank any directors who may have made one of my favorite films, but have only made one film.  Directors had to have two or more directing credits to make the list (sorry, Zach Braff). Directors who make fictional films as well as documentaries: I did not consider their documentaries; documentarians would be a seperate list.  The truth is, the ranking is mainly in answer to the very unscientific question, “Who do I get most excited by hearing they have a new film coming out?” (and if they’re dead…how excited would I be to hear that a long-lost film of theirs had been unearthed?)  Also, following Kyle’s lead, I did not rank Steven Speilberg.  He is a fantastic director, but his body of work is so varied and vast that it is impossible to figure out where he lands on this list.  And now, the list:

50.  Michael Haneke
49.  Guilermo del Toro
48.  Tom Tykwer
47.  Bob Rafelson
46.  Philip Kaufman
45.  Tobe Hooper
44.  John Hillcoat
43.  Joe Swanberg
42.  Spike Jonze
41.  Cameron Crowe
40.  Alexander Payne
39.  Michael Mann
38.  Milos Foreman
37.  Ridley Scott
36.  Richard Linklater
35.  John Huston
34.  M. Night Shyamalan
33.  Frank Darabont
32.  Todd Haynes
31.  Terry Gilliam
30.  Sofia Coppola
29.  Rob Reiner
28.  Orson Welles
27.  Elia Kazan
26.  Todd Field

25.  Joel and Ethan Coen
          3.  The Big Lebowski
          2.  Barton Fink
          1.  No Country For Old Men

24.  Sam Peckinpah
          3.  Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
          2.  The Wild Bunch
          1.  Straw Dogs

23.  Ang Lee
          3.  Lust, Caution
          2.  Brokeback Mountain
          1.  The Ice Storm

22.  Billy Wilder
          3.  The Seven Year Itch
          2.  Sabrina
          1.  Sunset Blvd.

21.  Woody Allen
          3.  What’s Up, Tiger Lilly?
          2.  Annie Hall
          1.  Husbands and Wives

20.  Robert Altman
          3.  A Praire Home Companion
          2.  Brewster McCloud
          1.  The Long Goodbye

19.  Robert Redford
          3.  The Milagro Beanfield War
          2.  Ordinary People
          1.  A River Runs Through It

18.  Sam Mendes
          3.  Away We Go
          2.  Revolutionary Road
          1.  American Beauty

17.  Quentin Tarantino
          3.  Death Proof
          2.  Reservoir Dogs
          1.  Pulp Fiction

16.  Kevin Smith
          3.  Mallrats
          2.  Chasing Amy
          1.  Clerks 2

15.  Roman Polanski
          3.  Chinatown
          2.  Knife in the Water
          1.  Repulsion

14.  David O. Russell
          3.  Three Kings
          2.  The Fighter
          1.  I Heart Huckabees

13.  Terrence Malick
          3.  The New World
          2.  Days of Heaven
          1.  Badlands

12.  Noah Baumbach
          3.  Kicking and Screaming
          2.  Greenberg
          1.  The Squid and the Whale

11.  Lars von Trier
          3.  Antichrist
          2.  Breaking the Waves
          1.  Dogville

10.  Todd Solondz
          5.  Life During Wartime
          4.  Palindromes
          3.  Storytelling
          2.  Welcome to the Dollhouse
           1.  Happiness

9.  Sidney Lumet
          5.  Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
          4.  Dog Day Afternoon
          3.  Network
          2.  Equus
          1.  12 Angry Men

8.  David Fincher
          5.  The Game
          4.  Zodiac
          3.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
          2.  Seven
          1.  Fight Club

7.  Christopher Nolan
          5.  Insomnia
          4.  The Prestige
          3.  The Dark Knight
          2.  Memento
          1.  Inception

6.  Darren Aronofsky
          5.  Pi
          4.  Requiem for a Dream
          3.  The Wrestler
          2.  Black Swan
          1.  The Fountain

5.  Danny Boyle
          5.  Trainspotting
          4.  Slumdog Millionaire
          3.  127 Hours
          2.  28 Days Later…
          1.  Millions

4.  Stanley Kubrick
          5.  Barry Lyndon
          4.  The Shining
          3.  A Clockwork Orange
          2.  Eyes Wide Shut
          1.  2001: A Space Odyssey

3.  Alfred Hitchcock
          5.  The 39 Steps
          4.  Psycho
          3.  The Lady Vanishes
          2.  I Confess
          1.  Rope

2.  Werner Herzog
          5.  Cobra Verde
          4.  Stroszek
          3.  The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
          2.  Aguirre: The Wrath of God
           1.  Fitzcarraldo

1.  Paul Thomas Anderson
          5.  Boogie Nights
          4.  Hard Eight
          3.  Punch-Drunk Love
          2.  There Will Be Blood
          1.  Magnolia

Friday’s Film Clip: “2001: A Space Odyssey”