The Best of 2011

Wow, it's been a year already... Can't believe I haven't blogged at all since last year. Two months were spent travelling the Andes in South America and the rest has been mostly work, work and more work...
So yeah, 2011 flew by and although I'm still not too sure about movies, this has been an awesome year musically speaking. Here goes.

Best Albums
1-REM - Collapse into now
2-Kassidy - Hope St.
3-Declan DeBarra - Fragments, Footprints and the Forgotten
4-The Head and the Heart - The Head and the Heart
5-Bonny Prince Billy - Wolfroy Goes to Town/Gillian Welch - The Harrow & the Harvest

(I put them in that order, but really, depending on the week, they could all be shuffled. Love them all to bits.)


Best Songs
1-Declan de Barra - Black Craw Call
2-Bonnie Prince Billy - Quails and dumplings
3-Josh Ritter - Galahad
4-Noel Gallagher - Everybody's on the run
5-Americo - Te Vas/Adele - Someone like you (Cause what's best than break up songs to fool around :p)

Best Concerts
1-Camille @Café de la Danse Dec. 11
2-Gillian Welch @Maroquinerie Nov. 11
3-Patti Smith plays Horses @Salle Pleyel Jan. 11
4-Moriarty - Memories from the Missing Room @Ferme du Buisson Oct.11
5-Declan de Barra @Magic Mirror Mar.11

Best Movies
1-Polisse (France)
2-A separation (Iran)
3-Where do we go now? (Lebanon)
4-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (UK-USA)
5-Warrior (USA)/Exit through the Gift Shop (USA/UK)/ The King's Speech (UK)

The Best of 2010

So 2010 is drawing to an end and here I am reporting back with what struck me as the good stuff of this year.
Not a lot to say about 2010, except that the good old heroes of yore might be going different ways and don't do it for me as much as before.
Not a very "Meline" year, culture wise, that's for sure. But hey, the more you grow old, the more you tend to expect from people... And sometimes, the most enjoyable stuff comes from a totally unexpected direction...


Best Albums
1-J Roddy Walston and the Business: J Roddy Walston and the Business
2-Johnny Cash: American IV Ain't no grave
3-Laura Marling: I Speak Because I Can
4-Brian Wright: House on Fire
5-Yules: Strike a balance

Best Songs
1-Josh Ritter - The Curse
2-Tom McRae - Me & Stetson
3-Xavier Rudd - Reasons we were blessed
4-J Roddy Walston and the Business - Brave man's death
5-Cee-Lo - Fuck you/Lady Gaga - Bad Romance/Aloe Blacc - I need a dollar

Best Concerts
1- Mumford and Sons@Trabendo - Sept. 2010 (For the energy)
2-The Swell Season @ Cigale - Oct. 2010 (For the emotion)
3-Gillian Welch@Café de la danse - Sept. 2010 (For Dave Rawlings)
4-Tom McRae@Maroquinerie - Mar. 2010 (For Brian Wright)
5-Fisftful of Mercy@Cigale - Dec. 2010 (For Joseph Arthur)
Special bonus: Evelyn Evelyn@Européen Apr. 2010 (For the craziness)

Best Movies
1-Biutiful (Biutiful Javier)
2-Precious (Precious actresses)
3-Benda Bilili! ("Très Très Fort")
4-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (the best adapted HP book so far)
5-Sumo (cos' it became mine at some point :p)

Tom, Glen and the Charret Brothers

It's the silence after the song has ended
It's the bruise left on my heart by a particular lyric
It's a jealous crave to be there as well
It's the void of the cold morning after
It's the need to do it all over again
It's the memory of a sweet encounter
It's the glimmer in their eyes

It's the silence after the song has ended
It's sad and it's pretty
It hurts and it feels good

It's the silence after the song has ended

Friday Afternoon

I see the trees swaying like creaking rocking chairs in the wind
I see the windows, weeping and crying and melting
I feel my brain pounding, screaming, reminiscing about a dream
I hear the driving, the honking and the ticking of time passing

The best of 2009

Best album(s) : Mumford and Sons: Sigh no more ; Bonnie Prince Billy: Beware ; Declan de Barra: A fire to scare the sun

Best song : Little Lion Man, Mumford and Sons

Best concert(s): Paul McCartney, Nick Cave, Vic Chestnutt, Camille, Declan de Barra, Leonard Cohen.

Best movie : Lots of expectations and as many disappointments. Best surprise : Das weisse Band - Michael Haneke

Best tv show(s): Flash forward, Capadocia

This is it

So last night, I went to see This is it, expecting it to be a nice overview of what had happened during the rehearsals of the shows Michael Jackson was supposed to do in London last summer.
And what I got... was exactly that. For once, no disapointment, just the man himself rehearsing what he wanted to be his big come back and final farewell to the fans.

What I hadn't known is that some people misunderstood the publicity stunt of the producers and thought that the documentary was going to be some kind of tribute to the myth and was going to talk about the impact of the man's death on our society.

But no. No pretty images, just the raw footage of a fifty year old veteran performer who thought he could still make a difference in the world.
His megalomania was sometimes laughable, sometimes honorable, and even sometimes a bit impressive. But most of all, it was quite cool to see the guy trying to have his old songs come back from the ashes, especially the ones that we hadn't heard 12 548 times since his death.

As I type this, I'm listening to Dangerous. Something I haven't done in about 15 years. All of a sudden, so many pictures of my teen years rush through my mind and make me realise how much I've missed these songs... Give it to me... In the closet... Who is it... Damn... I love this album.

Huh hum, sorry. Sweet old memories over.
Back to This is it...

So yeah, we all knew Michael had a very debatable taste in clothing and these images were the confirmation that it never got better over the years...
We also knew all his shows as "Michael Jackson" were 60% lip-synched (if not more) and the producers didn't have any problem showing it in the documentary. I'm pretty sure any regular spectator wouldn't even notice but when you're a fan and you know the songs by heart, you realize quite easily when 50 year-old Michael does an incredibly perfect impression of his 30 year-old recorded song version...
I mean, ok if it's all about the show and dance... who cares if he sings live or not? But the part where he apparently lets himself go and starts improvising on The way you make me feel and later tells the staff he shouldn't have done that because he needs to keep his voice intact till the real shows... come on, Michael... You probably would have sung 5 songs out of the 20 on the setlist that night. Can't you try and rehearse them all properly, for god's sake?

The most revealing and actually most interesting part of the whole film was when Michael admitted he never wore earpieces ever before and was disturbed because "he was used to hearing the instruments live"... (I guess he was talking about the era when he was 8 and his voice had actually a lower pitch...) Then we heard producer Kenny Ortega asking what kind of mix he wanted to hear in his earpieces - something any musician, used to performing live, would have been a pain in the ass with - and Michael's answer was the most naive and unprofessional of all... "I don't know... Not so loud"...

I smiled and thought to myself, it was so cool and at the same time so weird that a guy that innocent had succeded in making it so big in music history.

Anyway whatever we say about him, he'll always be the guy who wrote the song Man in the Mirror in 1988. A song which lyrics could have been Al Gore or Nicolas Hulot's anthem 20 years later without any problem.

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself,
And Then Make A Change

This is all there is to say.
The King is dead.
This is it.

Warm shivers

there are those moments when it seems like all around you, everything has stopped moving, everyone has stopped breathing, the whole universe has decided to briefly align itself for your own personal well-being.

you feel a shiver at the back of your neck, bringing weird warmth to your whole body.

a magic moment. a minute. maybe three. never more.

a song. "orange sky" while watching the sunset. "exit music" while watching the wall paper of your empty apartment. "airport man" while trying to get some sleep in a jetlagged american night. "i eat dinner" while waiting patienly for your loved one to come home.

a kid. a laugh. a geography lesson. a book that makes you cry. a comfortable night by the fireplace with all of your loved ones silently busy with what they enjoy doing in a quiet time.

precious, precious moments.

me loves them...