Movies for Music Lovers: 2008 EditionPart two (click here for part one)Though I compile a top 30 every year, I find positions 21-30 the most difficult to compile. Simply put, they're films I liked. A lot. But with reservations. But I still liked them. A lot.Second runners-up:21. Tell No One (Guillaume Canet)22. Ballast (Lance Hammer)23. Doubt (John Patrick Shanley)24. Burn After Reading (Joel and Ethan Coen)25. Mister Foe (David Mackenzie)26. Synechdoche, NY (Charlie Kaufman)27. Baghead (Jay and Mark Duplass)28. Cadillac Records (Darnell Martin)29. Jellyfish (Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret)30. The Visitor (Tom McCarthy)Note: The stunning chase sequence

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Songs for Swingin' Cin-eastes: 2008 EditionClick here for 2007's Songs forSwingin' Cineastes and here for2008's Movies for Music LoversAs ever, I like to rock, butwith the '80s revival in fullswing, I decided to give in andembrace the synth-pop I usedto resist. It never seemed particularly cool or edgy, but rather safe, sanitized, and incredibly bourgeois. And maybe it is. May-be I am, but I like what I like, and 2008 was a better year forkeyboards than guitars, so I went, willingly, with the flow.In the end, though, it's still about the voice. My Spanish may berusty, but that doesn't matter when it comes to Argentinian TVstar-turned-indie sensation J

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Movies for Music Lovers: 2008 EditionClick here for the 2007 edition and herefor 2008's Songs for Swingin' Cineastes.I'm still working on a complete list, i.e. positions 21-30, top re-issues, and other notable titles (I also look forward to catching up with Wendy and Lucy and The Wrestler before the end of 2008). In the meantime, here's the gist of my film year. Click the links be-low for my Amazon and Siffblog reviews and/or interviews, plus Steven Fried's post on My Winnipeg. Where my pieces aren't avail-able online, I've used excerpts from my Video Librarian reviews.The Tops:1. Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski)2. Milk (Gus Van Sant)3. Man on Wire (James

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Welcome to My RecordDent May, The Good Feeling Music of Dent May and His Magnif-icent Ukulele, Paw Tracks [2/3/09]Joyce and Camus, you know I've never read them / I'm here just for the booze.-- "At the Academ-ic Conference"Take Dent May's wordfor it: His music will, in-deed, make you feel good...assuming you like crooners with a sense of humor, not about his music or "the girls on the square" who make him "feel blue," but about modern life and its myriad idiosyncrasies.On The Good Feeling Music of Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele, the singer/songwriter/uke-pluckeravoids irony like the plague. And if his accomplished debut doesn't improve your mood

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Keen Melodic SenseThe Bird and the Bee, Ray Guns Are Not Just the Fut-ure, Blue Note/EMI [1/27/09]Worry not. Though Los Angeles duo Inara George and Greg Kurstin offer a more expansive, experimental version of their patented lounge-pop on Ray Guns Are Not Just the Fut-ure, their keen melodic sense remains fully intact.While their first long-player took cues from bossa nova and sunshine pop, their second recalls John Barry's James Bond themes (with Inara sounding more like Phoebe Snow than Shir-ley Bassey), the softer side of glam-rock (see handclap-driven opener "Fanfare"), and Air's Moon Safari—with dance beats.While Air and Stereolab are also often

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Smarter and SaltierRoger Joseph Manning Jr., CatnipDynamite, Oglio Records [2/3/09]By the name, I assumed that Roger Manning was the samegent who recorded for SST and Shimmy Disc in the 1980s. Aucontraire! And I suppose that's partly why this arranger/sessionmusician/Jellyfish co-founder uses his middle name plus "Jr."Manning's glam power-pop exists a solar system away fromthat other fellow's antifolk tunes. Instead, he recalls ELO, Cheap Trick, and Sweet—three of my favorite bands. Better yet, heevokes the era of teenyboppers and shiny shirts without fallinginto the tribute-artist trap. Manning comes close, but I'd rath-er listen to a man who takes i

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World of Echoes: RepriseI recently reviewed the following for Video Librarian, and thought it was worth sharing. Click here for my review of the theatrical feature.Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (***1/2) It's hard to be ahead of your time, even if, in retrospect, Charl-es "Arthur" Russell wasn't doing anything all that unusual. Hesang, produced, and played the cello. There's nothing overtlystrange about his music, except that it's ethereal without everentering the more recognizable realms of psychedelia or new age.And there you have the makings of a cult artist, which iswhere Wild Combination begins, when Russell was justanother Iowa k

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December Reviews: A Double Dose of Wu These are the reviews, interviews, and other ephemera I'm work-ing on this mon-th.Amazon DVDs: Poor Little Rich Girl - The Barbara Hut-ton Story [two-disc set] (with Farrah Fawcett), Patti Smith -Dream of Life, Wu - The Story of the Wu-Tang Clan,and Saxondale - Complete Seasons 1 & 2 [three-disc set].Amazon Theatricals: Doubt (Oscar bait with MerylStreep, Amy Adams, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman), Noth-ing Like the Holidays (Latino dramedy with Alfred Molinaand Freddy Rodríguez), and Timecrimes (Spanish time-travel thriller to be remade by David Cronenberg).Still playing or yet to open: Breakfast with Scot, Burn

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