Beltmann

I don't know enough about Afropop to say whether Vampire Weekend is a success or failure at appropriating bits of it. But I do know that I find the record tuneful and much more enjoyable than just about any other well-known pop record of last year, so the band is at least successful at something.

Welcome! This is a great place.

It had been a while. My son, who is 11 months old, seemed to love it.

I strongly disliked this song for a very long time, but hearing it live unlocked the sincerity and emotion for me. I'm still not crazy about the melody, but overall I've come around; at this point, I'd say it's one of Jeff's most moving songs.

I do that sometimes, too. I always find reviews more interesting after I've seen a film and have my own set of opinions ready to be challenged or confirmed.

Rourke's acceptance speech was quite touching--although the best part may have been NBC's closeup of Aronofsky giving him the finger. Some classic TV right there.

I don't like Wendy & Lucy as much as Old Joy--Kelly Reichardt's last movie, and one of my favorites of 2006--but it's still pretty groovy.

Saw The Wrestler today, and it feels churlish to quibble when the movie has so many terrific qualities. Like everyone else, I found Rourke's great performance emotionally engaging, and I also very much enjoyed Aronofsky's visual style and light touch. Still, I couldn't help but feel that the script was merely a compendium of cliches. Stripper with a heart of gold? Alienated daughter who never wants to see him again? Missed dinner that reminds daughter why she hates dad? Washed-up athlete ignoring doctor's orders? And so on down the checklist. It felt like watching the Dardenne brothers

Those Bergman/Rossellini films are really underappreciated. For the uninitiated, Stromboli concerns a woman stuck on a volcanic island, trapped in a hopeless marriage (which seems ironic since during the film's making Bergman left her own husband for Rossellini, leading to the same moral dilemmas and public condemnation that her character faces.) In Europa '51, Bergman plays a high-society woman who discovers a surprising compassion for the plight of the working class. Clearly advocating the principles of socialism, the movie also takes a sharp swipe at how the advantaged fear any kind of cha

Nick Broomfield's Battle for Haditha.

Of course it is. It's a fairy tale, after all.

Besides better exercise and nutrition, I'm resolved to acquire fewer books and movies--and aggressively purge the home library. The collection is embarrassingly large, and I'm running out of space. To start, I'm making a trip to a resale shop this morning, and I'm taking with me about 200 DVDs and 200 books.

I liked it, too. Despite all the bleakness, it's still a movie that rejects realism--it's a strange balance that pays off, I think.

Chungking Express is one of my all-time favorite flicks. Are you going to catch the new cut of Ashes of Time? I'm very curious to see it, as the only version I've seen was a muddy VHS. That was years ago, and all I really remember is that the subtitles were off by a line or two the whole way through. I still liked it, though.

Missed this yesterday... HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Edie!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Trafic (1970) is not the best Hulot comedy, perhaps because Jacques Tati's main proposal--that automobiles are a convenience not worth the hassle and social cost--comes off as facile and out of date. There are brilliant bits, but I much prefer Playtime and M. Hulot's Holiday.

Brewers Owner Suggests Salary Cap After Yankees Spree

I've been avoiding that one, on the grounds that "enjoying" something on a purely ironic level--so bad it's good!--usually isn't all that enjoyable for me... but then again, for every ten lousy Surf Nazis Must Die!s, there's one blissful Plan 9 from Outer Space. Should I give in to The Room?

Dong (2006) is Jia Zhang-Ke's brief documentary about Chinese painter Liu Xiao-Dong.

The short film, produced by Coppola. I saw this 15 years ago and never forgot it.

I thought very highly of Milk--but it did not kick me in the gut the way The Times of Harvey Milk did all those years ago.

Awesome.

Sometimes these things are black-and-white, sometimes there's wiggle room. If there's any gray area--and there certainly is in the case of Bon Iver--then there's no such thing as "correct correct." For you, his record was part of your 2007 listening experience. For most people, his record was part of their 2008 listening experience, and there's no reason why that reality shouldn't be reflected in their year-end choices. Of course, this is not the same as arguing that I should get to include, say, Abbey Road because I first heard it this year. There were legitimate, extenuating reasons fo