Discoveries of 2008

2008 was a very low key year as far as music & movies goes in my life. Esp after last 2 years of marathon movie watching & discovering music. But I would still go ahead & write a diary similar to last years Discoveries of 2007.

Books -
I read a lot of books this year. I tried to read of lot from the Random's 100 list.

1) Animal Farm - George Orwell
This was probably the most satisfying book I read last year. What happens to Boxer brought tears to my eyes. Thats very rare in my life. I can't believe I had not read this book till now.

2) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
A year when Hollywood got curious about Fitzgerald, I finally read his classic. Loved it.

3) Bend in the River - V S Naipaul
Naipaul at his detached cynical best.

4) GUNS GERMS & STEEL - Jared Diamond
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns%2C_Germs%2C_and_Steel
Pulitzer winning work. The story of civilization from a Biologists perspective. Highly reccomended.
Why Eurasians conquered the world? And How?(The answer is diseases).
Why Man could not domesticate Leopards(My fav part of the book). Etc etc

5) Spike, Mike, Slackers and Dykes: John Pierson
Of all the filmy books I read this year, this was the one I enjoyed most this year.

MUSIC -

I'm gonna list the songs that played on my car/laptop more than anything.

MGMT - Electric Feel (Justice Remix)
Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris - Dance Wiv Me
Friendly Fires - Paris (ft. Au Revoir Simone) (Aeroplane Remix)
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want (2008 Soulwax Remix)
Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Sam Sparro - Black and Gold
Mark Farina - Dream Machine
Death Cab for Cutie - I will posses your heart
Amadou & Mariam - Sabali


Albums I liked

Sneha Khanwalkar - Oye Lucky Lucky Oye (Soundtrack)
I think Oye Lucky Soundtrack was the best album made in 2008 anywhere in the world.

MGMT - Oracular Spectacular definitely was the album of the year for me. It was the sound of 2008. It pushed Electronic music into the living rooms of American kids. The JUSTICE REMIX of Electric feel is the most played song on radio in LA. And it just keeps growing on me.

Moby - Last Night
A long awaited album. Although the magic of Moby is gone, this album had quite a good songs. Ooh Yeah & I Love to Move in here are my fav so far.

Gnarles Barkley - The Odd Couple
A Great second is so rare these days. Also the only big live show I went too. Gnarles Barkley to me is the best thing in Pop Music right now.

Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
My Hip-hop artist of 2008. His SNL version of Lollilop just blew me away.

But most importantly I loved a britney Spears song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4NayXtzsBo
Piece of Me is the song. If you had told me that I wouldn't be able to stop listening to a Britney song I would have laughed at you. Also I also think this is the best & most personal lyrics a Britney songs can get.


FILMS -

I watched very few films this year. One film that stands out for recommendation would be Everything Is Illuminated.
It was the best film I saw in 2008.


Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye was my fav film of 2008. Mainly because of how Dibankar showed us Lucky's life. My friend after watching the film said, there was something lacking in the film. My 1st thought was that it didn't have the standard "Arc" type 3 act story. And thats why it felt odd sometimes. As if questioning how this scene is moving the film. Because we are so conditioned of the standard stuff. It took some time to realize what Dibankar had created. And the music was amazing. After watching the documentary of how Sneha did the music, there was no question in my mind that this was the album of the year also.

I also liked DASVIDANYA a lot. The movie had the most heart of all the movies of 2008. This year again belonged to Vinay.
ROCK ON was something that exceeded my expectation. Is Farhan Akhtar the most talented man in Bollywood right now? He might not be the best singer, best actor, best director, but he is good at everything he does.

HELLBOY II was my fav film of the year so far. This was the year when I watched a lot of SuperHero film. Even THE FANTASTIC FOUR. This was the year of Superhero films.

The best scene of the year so far also goes to Hellboy. Those were the best moments inside the theater this year. Even more so than Jokers presence in Dark Knight.



2008 movies that I missed and will watch this month would be -
The Class ,Man on Wire, Waltz with Basir, Gomorrah, Che, Wendy & Lucy, Happy Go Lucky, The Wrestler & WALL-E.


TELEVISION

I watched the 2nd best show on Cable TV ever -
THE WIRE
Now that the show is over, I urge you guys to watch this series. Also you cannot call yourself a cinema lover & not know who OMAR is.


I also discovered what was the big deal about SIX FEET UNDER. Probably the best Pilot of a TV show I have seen. Alan Ball is one of my favorite writer/director right now.

2008 was also the year of SNL. Esp Tina Hey & Amy Poehler.
My fav SNL video of last year
Dick in a Box -



One of the major discoveries for me was Stop Motion Graffiti films. Check out this artist Blu from Buenos Aires


Like last year there are so much i probably don't remember right now. I will add them as we go along.

What did you like & discover in 2008?

School of Rock

I never thought I would include this film in my all time favs. And that also is the reason why I never bothered to watch it. But last week I saw the trailer of this film in the DVD of another film. So I got this film from the library & started watching it. I had a blast. You know the movie worked its magic if you are laughing out loudly with nobody around you. That I think should be the test for comedies.
Last film I laughed so much was Superbad. And just like Superbad, when i was at the last part of the film I realised that i'm so much fun, I was having this conversation with myself.

Me- wow i'm really enjoying this film.
Mainak - Yes you are
Me - So does that mean Its one of my fav comedies ever?

Then I think of some of my fav comedies like Office Space, Superbad for comparisons.

Mainak - Yes it can be one of your fav comedies....

10 minutes later -

Me - Man this movie rocks, I wish I had a Rock n Roll Teacher. I think I might go as far as calling it "One of my fav films ever".
Mainak - hmmmm
Me - Its not some high art for sure. Nowhere near some great films thats in my top 10, but this film has touched my heart.
Mainak- I think you are right.

And since then SCHOOL OF ROCK has become "One of my fav films....ever".
And if you love Hard Rock music of the 70s, man this movie is "Redonkulous". It took me back to my college days when Led Zep was all I was listening to. It made me wish I had a teacher like Jack Black in school. It brought tears & goosebumps at the same time when the band finally plays their song in the climax. I watched that song 10 times since last night.
I'm going to post the Music Video of that song. The actual song in the film should be seen only after knowing all the kids in the film.


And the kids are so amazing. My fav was the Japanese kid who is a Classical Piano Player - Robert Tsai. His Solo in the finale is priceless. Joan Cusack is as usual - amazing. The amazing acting among kids has to be by Joey Gaydos Jr. He plays a very stiff & shy guitar player who is chosen to play the lead. He was perfect. I thought maybe thats how he is in real life since all the kids were musicians 1st & not actors. But when I saw the special features it turned out that he is a total rockstar. But this film belongs to Jack Black. He runs over everything in this film. I think every kid should be shown this film.

In the special Features of the DVD was this video of Jack Black begging Led Zeppelin to let them use "IMMIGRANT SONG". Its hilarious. Check it out.


ROCK ON!