Best of 2007: Music

There were a lot of great songs that came out in 2007, and a few really great albums too. Most of these were actually released in 2007, a couple were just “new to me” in 2007. Here are some of my favorites:

Albums:

Once: Motion Picture Soundtrack – Featuring all the best original songs from the movie, this album is my #1 must have of 2007. No need to describe it…just go buy it. If you’re down to your very last dollar, then download “Falling Slowly” and enjoy my favorite song of 2007.

Between the Trees: The Story and the Song – An awesome “emo” rock album that I enjoy immensely. These guys are barely out of high school, but they write and play well beyond their years. I would LOVE to get them to a Stuck in the Middle event…I think the middle school crowd would really love them. Songs to download: “White Lines & Red Lights”, “The Way She Feels”, “Words” and “Darlin”

Arcade Fire: Neon Bible – Simply awesome! I was late to this party, but am glad that I finally showed up. If you haven’t already added them to your iPod, then go pick up this whole album. Songs to download: “No Cars Go”, “Ocean of Noise”.

Radiohead: In Rainbows – What’s there to say? It’s Radiohead, and it’s awesome…my favorite Radiohead album since “The Bends”. Songs to download: “Weird Fishes / Arpeggi”, “Reckoner”.

Jackson Waters: Come Undone – Yeah, these guys played at Stuck this year and are friends, but this is still a really amazing album. Their songs have been featured on One Tree Hill, and they’re gaining popularity pretty fast. They have an amazing, unique live sound, which led me to feel that this album was maybe a little over-produced, and it didn’t do justice to their raw, natural sound. Anyway, what do I know? Songs to download: “One More Day”, “Center of Attention”.

Jeff Johnson: Standing Still – I hadn’t heard of Jeff before this year’s Youth Specialties convention. He led worship during one of the general sessions and absolutely blew me away. This album is beautiful. Songs to download: “Alleluia/Behold the Lamb of God”, “Kyrie/I Call to You”.

Songs that I liked in 2007:

Blue October: Calling You to See
Jon Foreman: The Cure for Pain
Green River Ordinance: Piece It Together
Iron and Wine: Boy With a Coin
Plain White T’s: Hey There Delilah
The Fold: Hey Rebekah
Kanye West: Stronger
Colbie Caillat: Bubbly

Don’t look at this before bedtime…

It’s about time somebody figured this out…I’ve been preaching this for years.

h/t to TV’s Craig Ferguson.

Best of 2007: Movies

My Favorites:

Once- The BEST movie of 2007, and now one of my all time favorite movies. I can’t believe that I waited until it was out on DVD to watch this one. If you love music and are cool with a good love story, you’re going to flip over this movie. This is a musical, but it’s the first musical I’ve ever seen where I was literally blown away by every song. This movie is beautiful in the way that it captures the non-traditional romance between its amazing lead characters, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Both deliver flawless acting performances, and they also wrote and performed all but one of the songs in the movie. Every exchange between them feels like an intimate look into a life and situation that you’d actually give a care about. Without giving it away, the ending of the movie is unexpected, non-traditional and (what’s the word I’m looking for here) … blissful. As a wannabe musician, I loved a scene in the movie where the band and engineer take their near finished product out to car test it through crappy speakers. It brought back memories of driving around town eating Taco Bell and car testing the only CD I’ve ever been a part of. Fun times: and an incredible, beautiful, meaningful movie.

Stardust- My second favorite movie of the year. A great story with lots of fun, and it’s pretty kid friendly.

Simpson’s Movie- 100% pure guilty pleasure, and worth every second of it. Now if I could just stop singing “spider-pig, spider-pig, does whatever a spider-pig does.”

Hot Fuzz- Anything with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead) is a must-see in my books, and this one was no different. A little slow in the middle, but the third act shoot-out made it all worth it.

Runners Up:

August Rush- Beautiful but a tad too much at times.

300- Amazing visual effects, but a tad too much at times.

I Am Legend- The visual effects actually turned me off to this movie, and the ending wasn’t my favorite, but it makes the list on the strength of an amazing performance by Will Smith.

Shoot Em Up- Guilty pleasure #1

Knocked Up- Hilarious, but also a tad too much at times.

Haven’t seen yet but really want to:

Lars and the Real Girl
Black Sheep (not the Chris Farley movie)
Juno
Across the Universe
No Country for Old Men

Disappointments:

Pirates 3, Shrek 3 and Spiderman 3- none of them were totally awful, but none seemed to live up to the hype or to the standard set by the previous movies. Though Pinoccio and Gingerbread Man were awesome in Shrek.

1408- Great setup, horrible ending.

Ocean’s 13- I LOVED the first one, thought #2 was ok, but this one just lost me. It felt like the cast was having a great time with the movie, but I wasn’t feeling it.

28 Weeks Later- Not anywhere near as good as 28 Days Later was, but it was a blast seeing this with some junior high ministry friends (and watching some jump more than others!). Oh yeah, and there was a cool manhunt going on outside of the theatre after we left…but it was still a pretty lame movie.

HuckChuck

I’m not endorsing anyone here, I just thought this was the best campaign ad I’d ever seen.

Did the Writers Guild take out Jack Bauer??

According to this article, 24 has been postponed indefinitely. The writer’s guild strike has a lot to do with it, and I’m guessing that the wildfires and Keifer’s legal issues aren’t helping either. Or possibly they’ve read my blog and are using this as an excuse to do a rewrite so they can add in the cougar from season 2. We’ll see.

I know, I know…

Yeah, this is from a Heineken website, but it’s too funny not to post it. Here’s the Meade family doing their thing…

You can view it full screen or create your own dance party by going here.

Middle School birth control

I’m not sure what to say about this, other than the fact that it really scares me. I’m mainly worried that this is seen by the students as condoning sexual activity at their age.

King Middle School will become the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available, including birth control pills and patches. Condoms have been available at King’s health center since 2000.

Students need parental permission to access the school’s health center. But treatment is confidential under state law, which allows the students to decide whether to inform their parents about the services they receive.

Read the full article HERE.

h/t to Riddle