Song list

Most frequently played, from itunes:

1. (12 months ago: #1) Different Worlds - Brittany Cairns (213 plays)
2. (2) This World Can Make You Happy - Amaya Laucirica (133)
3. (3) 100 Million Little Bombs - Buddy Miller (132)
4. (6) State of Grace - Taylor Swift (120)
5. (5) New Year - Beach House (118)
6. (4) It Must Come Through - Jen Cloher and the Endless Sea (116)
7. (7) 23 - Blonde Redhead (109)
8. (9) Useless Desires - Patty Griffin (106)
9. (=10) The Mother We Share - Chvrches (103)
10. (=10) Starry Skies - Laura Cantrell (95)
11. (8) Out Loud - Mindy Smith (93)
12. (12) Aeroplane - The Everybodyfields (91)
13. (13) Coming Home To Me - Patty Griffin feat Julie Miller (90)
14. (=14) Sweet Talk - Jessie Ware (87)
=15. (=20) Don't Tell Me - Buddy Miller (85)
=15. (16) Godspell - The Cardigans (85)
=15. (=14) Slow Show - The National (85)
=15. (=17) No Bad News - Patty Griffin (85)
19. (=29) Red - Taylor Swift (80)
=20. (=26) You Keep Me Hangin' On - Janelle Arthur (79)
=20. (19) Blue Lips - Regina Spektor (79)
=20. (=17) Even Though I'm A Woman - Seeker Lover Keeper (79)
=23. (=20) Ode to LRC - Band of Horses (78)
=23. (=23) Manchester - Kishi Bashi (78)
=25. (=26) The Bleeding Heart Show - The New Pornographers (77)
=25. (=36) From This Moment On - Shania Twain (77)
=25. (new) Afraid of Nothing - Sharon Van Etten (77)
=28. (=23) Circumambient - Grimes (76)
=28. (=23) Hey, Snow White - The New Pornographers (76)
=28. (=36) Wild Old Dog - Patty Griffin (76)
=28. (=26) I Don't Ever Give Up - Patty Griffin (76)
=28. (22) All I Can - Sharon Van Etten (76)
=28. (=29) I Couldn't Be Your Friend - Tegan and Sara (76)
34. (=36) Don't Let Me Die in Florida - Patty Griffin (75)
=35. (=29) I Think I Broke Something - Dan Rohmer and Benh Zeitlin (74)
=35. (=29) I Got Nothing - Dum Dum Girls (74)
=37. (35) Mexico City - Jolie Holland (72)
=37. (=45) Bloodbuzz Ohio - The National (72)
=39. (=33) Modern Love - The Last Town Chorus (70)
=39. (=45) Burgundy Shoes - Patty Griffin (70)
=39. (=33) Lie in the Sound - Trespassers William (70)
=42. (=40) With God On Our Side - Buddy Miller (69)
=42. (new) Strong Enough - Haim (69)
=42. (new) Red Eyes - The War on Drugs (69)
=45. (=49) Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura (68)
=45. (new) Abducted - Cults (68)
=45. (=43) Alex - Girls (68)
=45. (=40) Joints - Holly Miranda (68)
=45. (=36) Perfectly - Natalie Imbruglia (68)
=50. (=43) What I Thought Of You - Holly Throsby (67)
=50. (42) Fake Empire - The National (67)

Borgen season 1

Maybe the most realistic political tv show that I've come to yet - allowing that 'realistic' remains a relative term when we're talking about television (and, also, that my whole knowledge of the Danish system of government has been gathered from watching the show itself).

Initially, the more personal elements of the human drama were less compelling than the political, but over the season, the two increasingly come together, as the dramatic logic of the narrative aligns with the theme of the increasing toll taken by the positions of power and influence held by all of the principals, and especially on Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg (who reminds me of someone I know - an apt person at that), as the demands of her office successively strip every single source of support and comfort from her, both internal and external. Nyborg herself is a terrific central figure - smart, idealistic, decisive and tough, and (in one of the show's strengths) not above the political calculation that requires her to put aside her scruples at regular intervals.

Also, even though he's an unlikeable character, I enjoy the appearances of Michael Laugesen aka the Danish Hugh Grant.

Aernoud Bourdrez - Think Like A Lawyer Don't Act Like One

Pithy negotiation tips, amusingly illustrated. Obviously, I am all over this stuff but it doesn't hurt to be reminded.

Moviegoing

I said off-handedly today that I thought watching The Babadook from the front row might be one of those memorable moviegoing experiences. I'm not sure whether that'll really prove the case, but it made me think about which are the ones that have really stuck with me, for whatever reason, so here's a list in the order that they occurred to me (avoiding ones from the last couple of years, since they're likely to have stuck in my head more through recency):

• Moulin Rouge, with a girl who I'd decided to break up with but hadn't quite managed to do so yet (2001)
• Memento, without having known anything at all about it before going in (Nova, 2000 - with Kim)
• Species, which had a remarkable amount of nudity, sex and violence for a movie that we saw for someone's (Tim Gregson's?) 13th birthday party or whatever it was (1995)
• The Last Winter, for a bunch of reasons (MIFF, 2007)
• Camino, for the sheer emotional ruin that it wreaked on all concerned (La Mirada, 2009)
• Love Exposure, all four hours of it and associated planning and snacking - turned out to be a great movie too (MIFF, 2009)
• Dancer in the Dark, mainly for the intense nausea caused by the combination of shaky camera and watching from close to the front and right at the side (2000 - with various around at uni during first year, so probably at Nova)
• Fight Club, because of the film it was and right during that period between school and university when all was possibility (1999/2000 - with Nenad and David I think)
• The Wall, for similar reasons to the above (Astor, 1999/2000 - as above)
• Marie Antoinette, following huge Coppola-related anticipation shared with Kelly (Nova, 2008)
• Brideshead Revisited, because of the massive troupe that we put together to watch it with - all 17 of us (Nova, 2008)
• Enter the Void, for the sheer endurance test that it represented (MIFF, 2010)
• Don't Come Knocking, which was the right film at the right time - true memory or not, it feels like I still have a sense-recollection of how I was feeling when I saw it, and how that meshed with the mood of the film itself (Nova, 2006)

No doubt many others that haven't sprung straight to mind...plus numerous 'in and around' memories - too many to list, and most Nova-related.

The Babadook

The Babadook literally gave me chills at several points - very creepy (and good).

(w/ Meribah)

Death Proof

Only for Tarantino would I have watched a film described in the terms that this one was - but it's pretty disposable despite his involvement as director.

The Thick of It

Much of the joy's that we all want to act like Malcolm sometimes.

(previously)

"Emily Floyd: The Dawn" (NGV Australia)

Colourful, engaging and socially engaged, and in a couple of rooms pleasingly interactive. Turns out I saw (and liked) one of Floyd's at GOMA a few months ago - it reappeared here, although laid out differently (and less interestingly). I was also particularly taken with the Crime and Punishment one, black letters piled in a heap with a few punctuated sentence fragments spelled out in front, and the various large wooden sculptural toy-like arrangements.

Nico - Chelsea Girl

Haven't greatly taken to this one, though the folk + Velvet Underground connection makes it at least a worthwhile museum piece for me.

Noah

Darren Aronofsky has always been a visionary, and all of his films that I've seen have been at least interesting (Pi, The Fountain) and in a couple of cases quite outstanding (Requiem for a Dream, though it's been a long time since I watched that one, Black Swan); I still need to get round to The Wrestler. And there certainly is a vision to his take on the story of Noah and the flood, apparent from the first, technicolour images of snake, apple &c, and even more so in the blasted, apocalyptic (and gorgeous) rendition of the lands through which Moses and his family travel, claimed by the descendants of Cain, not to mention the 'watchers', giant stone-ossified fallen angels, as well as in the human drama that he stages within Noah and across the others.

It holds the attention; I thought it was good, and while obviously I come at it from a particular perspective, it didn't seem to me to be disrespectful of its religious source material, and if anything, while obviously not seeking to be a literal depiction of the Biblical text (whatever that would mean), it struck me as very sincere and earnest in the way it grapples with the core of the questions at its heart.

Also, at 44 - I looked it up - Jennifer Connelly is still strikingly beautiful; at 24, Emma Watson seems oddly young-looking (or maybe I've just lost perspective on ages) ... and, surprisingly, only 4 cm shorter than Connelly. Russell Crowe works, too.

Arvo Part / Polyphony (Stephen Layton)

Choral music by Part. Good, of course.