Rewind 2008

So, I do this thing every year where I look back on the music and movies that I heard and saw the previous year and count down those that managed to climb down beneath my skin. I do the best that I can to focus on the ones that are related to the year in question but this isn't my job so, unfortunately, I don't attend many movie premieres or advance screenings. Thus I tend to lag behind when it comes to the current gems found upon the golden screen, but I'm constantly devouring the wonders of cinema and we all know that a masterpiece stands tall with the best films of any era. And with the music, well, it's close enough.

I usually start my countdown in the new year but since I connect with the natural cycle of the solstice, along with the fact that every year I manage to expand the list, I decided to begin by following the tones of the universal clock.

I'll just give a brief preview of what to expect and then each day will reveal a new wonder in the world of film and the promise of good music. I present this preview because I was too embarrassed to admit that I liked these examples enough to include them on my final list. Enjoy!

The Sounds: Dying To Say This To You (2007)

I remember a fundamental part of my youth, when I became aware of the nature of music; the way that it seemed to sense my emotions, a raw tug-o-war against the ragged currents of my tweens. It was a time when ska horns rang through my head with Madness and the frenetic jolt of pop music turned me into a Missing Person before my parent's eyes. Those years were also filled with sex-charged rock flung from painted lips to tease a young boy's dreams of discovery; Terri Nunn, Debbie Harry, Ann & Nancy, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett. Music that thrummed with the type of energy that washed the day from the night, heated and pulsing, aching and yearning, all of it designed to illuminate a strange uncharted journey that I knew absolutely nothing about. Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds is the modern day version of those beautiful and wonderful women of rock. I don't mean that the music is the same but when I listen to The Sounds, there's this small part of me that is so awkwardly familiar that I suddenly cannot stop myself from loving everything that I hear storming out of the speakers. I know that there's some eleven-year-old boy out there right now discovering the wonders of life with this album as his soundtrack.



Cloverfield: Matt Reeves (2007)

I have this thing with movies carrying around a semblance of an honest heart. I also grew up watching movies like Friday the 13th and Alien at the drive-in with my dad (uh, yeah). So this movie really seemed to click with me for some reason. I could expound endlessly about how much I hate hollywood schlock and the LCD factor of most studio productions and how independent productions are true to the core of art or whatever bullshit might sound good at the moment, but we all understand the reasons a movie grabs us. And if you don't then you probably don't like the same movies as me and you probably didn't like Cloverfield for all of the reasons that I liked it. I liked how it stuck to its gimmicky-video-of-the-moment concept, stuttering camera and all. I liked that they didn't reveal anything about the monster until it ate the cinematographer at the end. I like that it didn't really let you know what happened to all the pretty people we chased around with for two hours. I liked that I didn't recognize any of those pretty people. And I mostly liked it because it made me feel like I was almost there, in the film, running and screaming and dying along with them, which is why we go and see these types of movies in the first place.