Sunday Sierrablogging

Meadow below Lake 10,200, LeConte Divide, John Muir Wilderness.

Friday Random 10

Shriekback - Bastard Sons of Enoch
Thin White Rope - Some Velvet Morning
Siouxsie & the Banshees - Hong Kong Garden
Sparks - I Predict
Hüsker Dü - Sorry Somehow
Gang of 4: We Live As We Dream, Alone
Mac Rebennack - Storm Warning
Flipper - The Lights, the Sound, the Rhythm, the Noise
Buttersprites - Fresh Mochi
Minutemen - Shit from an Old Notebook

Bonus track:
Gang of 4: Capital (It Fails Us Now)

What are y'all listening to this morning? Bonus video below the fold...
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Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Dune Tansy (Tanacetum camphoratum) at Lobos Creek Dunes in the Presidio.

Sunday Sierrablogging

Monarch Divide from a little east of Crown Valley, John Muir Wilderness.

Friday Random 10 (Pandora Edition)

Dave Alvin - Black Sky
Wax Tailor - Ungodly Fruit
Arkestra One - Seu Pariso
Damned - Noise Noise Noise (live)
Mekons - Country
Eleventh Dream Day - Among the Pines
Kinks - (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman
Eliot Lipp - Tic Tac
Bob Mould - Black Sheets of Rain
Roxy Music - Re-Make/Re-Model

Forgot my iPod again, so this is from Pandora. What are y'all listening to?

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Gold Nuggets (Calochortus luteus) in Edgewood Park, San Mateo County.

Sunday Sierrablogging

The Clark Range from Lower Merced Pass Lake, Yosemite National Park.

Friday Random 10

Siouxsie & the Banshees - Dear Prudence
Dengue Fever - New Year's Eve
Joy Division - Wilderness
Velvet Underground - Black Angel's Death Song
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Sinister Purpose
Laika & the Cosmonauts - Rough Ground
Feelies - Everybody's Got Something to Hide (Except Me and My Monkey)
Sweet Talks - Akampanye
13th Floor Elevators - Slip Inside This House
Doom - Gazzillion Ear

Kind of a Beatles-cover mini theme there.

I got some headphones (Sennheiser PX-100, great bargain) to replace those awful earbuds, so listening on my way to work is now a much more pleasant experience.

Descent of Goose

[cross-posted]

The Founders Made a Pact with the Devil to Gain Independence from Britain

And that's why, to this day, America is cursed with lunatics like Pat Robertson.

Sunday Sierrablogging

"Iceridge Lake" (unnamed tarn between Ridge and Iceland Lakes) north of Granite Dome, Emigrant Wilderness.

Live from New York it's Friday Random Ten

1. My Father—Judy Collins (The Best of Judy Collins)
2. Which Way Does That Old Pony Run—Lyle Lovett (Lyle Lovett & His Large Band)
3. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood—Yusef (An Other Cup)
4. Innocent Not Guilty—Garland Jeffreys (Times Square: Soundtrack)
5. Know Now Then—Ani DiFranco (Up Up Up Up Up Up)
6. Sweet Toxic Love-Deliverance—Culture Club (At Worse...The Best of Boy George & Culture Club)
7. Sweet Baby James—James Taylor (Sweet Baby James)
8. Turn Turn Turn—Judy Collins (The Best of Judy Collins)
9. Sunny Skies—James Taylor (Sweet Baby James)
10. Under the Milky Way—The Church (Living in Oblivion: The 80s Greatest Hits, Volume 1)

Bonus: Manhattan—Ella Fitzgerald (Kissing Jessica Stein: Soundtrack)

Bizarrely repetitive day.

(Sweet Baby Cross-post)

Wednesday Wildflowerblogging

Dwarf Alpine Paintbrush (Castilleja nana) below Lower Ottoway Lake, Yosemite National Park.

Movies of the Decade

I've been working on this list for over a week! It's totally personal and utterly not comprehensive, since I've missed more movies than I've seen, hated movies everybody loved, and loved movies despite themselves. But that's me. Original reviews are linked where available. Boy THAT took time.

The movie of the decade:
Brokeback Mountain: Structurally, visually, emotionally; in every way, a perfect movie, with a wrenching romantic ache and a deep understanding of what it's like to have no place and seek to find one. Few movies have moved me more. And really, this has got to typify the decade, doesn't it? The great acting, the emergence of amazing young talent, including the loss of that talent, the internationalism of the production (a Chinese director and an Australian star) in a quintessentially American milieu, and of course, the importance of gay themes in this decade.

Top ten (with two cheats) favorites of the decade—here are movies that don't need a decade-end list for me to list them as favorites; they've moved to my permanent favorites list (long though it is):
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Casino Royale—a phenomenal "reboot" that surprised everyone. Especially me. Do we even *remember* the anti-Craig blowback?
Adaptation—one of the most brilliant examinations of a writer's process, and the heart of creativity. Great performances all around too.
49 Up—The only "Up" entry of the decade, this is the most compelling documentary series ever conceived, and 49 was a particularly fascinating and surprising entry.
Murderball & Trembling Before G-d—Perhaps the biggest impact Netflix has made in my life (and the lives of many movie viewers) is the accessibility of documentaries. These two stand side-by-side as my personal favorite documentaries; I am deeply moved by both.
Once—I cannot explain this movie, it is glorious for reasons that elude words.
Brick—Whereas this one is all about words; the extraordinarily clever language and brilliant conceit of having noir take place in a high school, and a breathtaking performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I've seen it again and again and it loses none of its power.
Kissing Jessica Stein—Of all of these movies, perhaps KSJ is the most precious and personal to me. Like Wendy Wasserstein's work, this explores the gray place between love and friendship, between love and "love," and it's full of heart. Another one I've seen again and again.
Monsoon Wedding—Joyous, full of life, love, pain, loyalty, betrayal, beauty, and family.
The Station Agent—I kind of fell in love with Peter Dinklage in this movie about misfits finding one another. Plus movies set in New Jersey have a special place in my heart.
The Incredibles & Monsters, Inc.—The aughts were definitely the decade of Pixar. These are the ones I find flawless.

Other favorite movies of the decade:

Mainstream movies or huge indies that everyone loved & got awards and DUH of course they're movies of the decade
Milk
Little Miss Sunshine
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Garden State
Chicago
Gangs of New York
Spider-Man
The Hours
Mulholland Dr.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Royal Tenenbaums
Memento
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Wonder Boys
X-Men
You Can Count on Me

Documentaries
Man on Wire
This Film Is Not Yet Rated >
Inside Deep Throat
Capturing the Friedmans
Devil's Playground
Spellbound

Tragically unsung and/or unwatched
In Bruges
3:10 to Yuma
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Marie Antoinette
Shortbus
Bubble
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Mozart and the Whale
Serenity
Before Sunset
Stage Beauty
Auto Focus
Secretary
The Secret Lives of Dentists
Bandits
Series 7: The Contenders

Not really guilty about these pleasures
Inside Man
Sin City
The Family Stone
Bridget Jones's Diary
Legally Blonde
Return to Me
The Whole Nine Yards

Animation
Spirited Away
Howl's Moving Castle

(Cross-post Forever!)

Monday Movie Review: Up in the Air

Up in the Air (2009) 9/10
Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) travels over 300 days a year on business, and is most at home in airports and hotels. He considers his unattached life a virtue that he is teaching to Natalie (Anna Kendrick) a newcomer to his company. Directed by Jason Reitman.
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It is obvious that Up in the Air is about connection. Hell, it's in the tagline (The story of a man ready to make a connection. Haha, get it?) Ryan Bingham is deeply disconnected, and doesn't see the problem with that. He has no connection to any kind of home, he is more comfortable using a suitcase than a closet, and his family relationships are as minimal as he can keep them. And surely there are dozens of movies about disconnected people finding that they need love after all, although perhaps the movies have never seen a character as committed to his disconnect as Bingham. Hell, he's a motivational speaker on the subject! Bingham isn't a creep or a cheat, he's utterly honest about who and what he is, and apparently at peace with it.

I'm drawn to a comparison with Alfie, but Michael Caine's Alfie is a scumbag and a cad from the get-go, and he lies about who and what he is as often as possible, except to the fourth wall.

At another level, Up in the Air is not just about connection but efficiency, and that has more subtlety. It's easy, even facile to say, we all need connection, even loners like Ryan Bingham. It's quite another to notice that the quest for efficiency; faster, easier, smarter, better-packaged, more-streamlined, and less-painful, is itself disconnected and leads to disconnection. Bingham's life is perfectly streamlined, his suitcase is perfectly packed, its wheels do not stick. He may be racist in choosing who to stand behind at airport security, but the fact is he gets through security quite easily. And if you've been to an airport lately, well, that's not nothing.

But can we have this efficiency and connection? Up in the Air sees a dotted line between them, as a life without friends and loved ones is obviously more streamlined, and the explicit way in which caring "weighs you down" is a motif. This is smarter and deeper than it sounds, because it is presented with wit and gentle humor, and also because we really want both; we really want our love but also to get the fuck through airport security. So Bingham is truly speaking to us in a way that, at first, we listen to.

This may well be George Clooney's finest moment. He is incredibly nuanced, and every line has layers and layers of presence and personality. There's a scene, late in the film, in which he gives a speech he's given before, and I had no doubt that it was time for A Movie Thing to happen, but I also knew that it didn't need to happen, because just the subtle shift in his tone of voice told the whole tale. It was exquisite.

At the beginning of the movie, Bingham meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), a woman apparently as unfettered as himself. It's one of the film's best scenes, as they heat each other up talking about car rental upgrades and mileage rewards. She's absolutely perfect in this film as well, warm and real despite having very little character on which to hang her hat.

The whole cast is solid, the film looks just right, the script is a dream of humor and pathos and poignancy, flowing with enormous grace, and hey, did I mention Clooney? No really, Clooney's performance is everything any actor can hope for. There are no big gut-wrenching moments here, no tearing your hair out for the Academy, just subtle, deep, honest work from beginning to end.

The previews sell this film as an adorable sort of thing, but it's not The Bucket List. Up in the Air is truthful about the cost of an efficient life, and is not interested in pulling punches.

(This cross-post earns frequent flier miles)

Sunday Sierrablogging

Mt. Hooper from the drainage south of First Recess, Mono Divide, John Muir Wilderness.