Jack's 2011

Films

Bridesmaids

Drive (trashy, hypnotic, and tense)

Hanna

Julia

Me and Orson Welles

Midnight in Paris

Persona

Something Wild (trashy, hypnotic, and tense)

David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (trashy, hypnotic, and tense)

Topkaki

I think I might start this piece by juxtaposing my status as a frustrated moviegoer with the plight of the dinosaurs. Wait. I just did.

Wha?

I have yet to see the Scorsese and the two Spielbergs. Still, like a mind-blowing wine, Drive is a movie you dream of — and, once seen, know you’d have waited years to see. That any other title from 2011 could dethrone it for my favorite flick of the year is unlikely.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a close second. Both films pack a wallop. Only Drive runs on WOW juice.

I don’t get the flak TGWTDT has gotten. Paced expertly, inhabited completely by actors who are cast well, and mooded the f*ck out, the film is winter-gorgeous. Even the end, slightly changed for the film, feels right. Some critics find the movie unnecessary; think the Swedish adaptation is sufficient. My take? There are any number of directors I’d like to see try their hands at this or that story. David Fincher nails this version. It’s a tribute to the novel and the Swedish film. And I don’t much like The Social Network, anyway — his so-called masterpiece with nary a character to root for.

Oh, and The Tree of Life? The Aid to Sleep.

Terrence Malick made a good movie in 1973. He himself may have wanted to see The Tree of Life; I’m sure it means a lot to him. The camerawork is pretty.

But dude. Stop reminding me you’re a poet!

Albums

Ash Ra Tempel

Less Than Zero (the orchestral score by Thomas Newton, never officially released)

Oxygene (Jean Michel Jarre)

Secret Treaties (Blue Oyster Cult)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross)

Albums newly expanded and remastered

Quadrophenia (The Who)

Raw Power (The Stooges — the original David Bowie mix)

The Smile Sessions (The Beach Boys)

Tracks

“Baby Blue” (Badfinger)

“Black Summer Rain” (Eric Clapton)

“Cruel to Be Kind” (Nick Lowe)

“Dawned on Me” (Wilco)

“Down Payment Blues” (AC/DC)

“Heard From Telegraph Lines” (Boards of Canada)

“I Can’t Let Go” (The Hollies)

“Kidney Bingos” (Wire)

“Mother Sky” (Can)

“Running Out” (Scissor Sisters)

“Say Man” (Bo Diddley)

“Showstopper” (Iron Knowledge)

“Soul Clap” (Booker T. & the MGs)

“Staircase” (Radiohead — the best thing they’ve done in ages)

“Starry Eyes” (The Records)

“The Electrician” (The Walker Brothers)

“The Marquee and the Moon” (Sloan)

“Tried So Hard” (Gene Clark)

“When the Wind is Blowing” (Paul McCartney — a great lost solo track)

“Who Knows Where the Time Goes” (Fairport Convention)

Reads

2 essays by Raymond Chandler

3 short stories by Robert E. Howard

A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick)

Black Dossier (Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill)

Blood on the Moon (James Ellroy)

Cannery Row (John Steinbeck)

Cujo; Cycle of the Werewolf; The Mist; The Shining (Stephen King)

Goodbye to Berlin (Christopher Isherwood)

Only Apparently Real (Paul Williams)

Robert Altman: The Oral Biography (Mitchell Zukoff)

Scott Pilgrim’s Precious Little Life (Bryan Lee O’Malley)

Sliver (Ira Levin)

Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert Heinlein)

Swag (Elmore Leonard)

The Bride Wore Black (Cornell Woolrich)

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Stieg Larsson)

The Weiser Concise Guide to Aleister Crowley (Richard Kaczynski)

A word about Stephen King.

Two seminal creative works that influenced me greatly are the film and the book of The Shining. When I saw Kubrick's movie, I was about ten years old. Soon after, I read most of the novel. Only recently did I finish it — and boy, is Stephen King the boss. Two of the biggest books I’ve read, he wrote. Some of the slimmest, too: The Body, The Mist, and Misery are among my favorite Kings. He's a pro.

Compared to most living popular writers, his gift for character and forward momentum is almost unparalleled. He glides through his words. If his stock has diminished (Christ, after quitting coke), I don’t begrudge him the millions of dollars he's made. So good are his first two decades of output — as far as I'm concerned, he's earned every penny.

This year I tried two of his Bachman Books: Rage (pinned to an antihero I couldn’t stomach) and The Long Walk (pinned to a premise I found inherently dull). Published long after they were written, both are cash-ins that prove a young, untested writer’s work should not see the light of day.

I say that mostly as a memo to self.

Websites

Michael Whelan

Songsterr

Proudest accomplishments

I made strides on the novel I’ve been writing.

I saved a lot of money.

JC - 2011-12-30 - 16:18:48
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