Sight and Sound Movie List - La Rahman

Not favorites, but movies I have happily watched multiple times...

1)      Bottle Rocket (Wes Anderson, 1996): It’s best if you watch this alone the first time around, or maybe with a friend or two who know not to talk a whole lot during movies, because the jokes are quiet and disguised as throwaway lines. If you root for the underdog you will love this movie. Also has one of the cutest love scenes ever.

2)      Bhaji on the Beach (Gurinder Chadha, 1993): A movie about a bunch of multigenerational South Asian women going on a day trip to a Blackpool beach resort. The fight, they laugh, they cry, they flirt, they lament. This movie is smart, funny, touching, and on point. I relate to every character in this movie.

3)      Devdas (1955 and 2002 remake): The 1955 version is dark and devastating. So much pain, so little joy.  The 2002 remake is absolutely gorgeous—the music, the costuming, the colors, the scenery. I want to live inside of it forever. But the glitzy Bollywood treatment takes away from the story a little, I think.  Also, I find Sharukh Khan to be SO irritating and hate his trembly scrunched-up crying face. Ugh, annoying. Really, though, both versions are classics.

4)      Mississippi Masala (Mira Nair, 1991): South Asia in the Deep South. This one is about a woman working in her family’s crappy motel in South Mississippi, the political circumstances that brought her family there, and her romance with a Black man. Sarita Choudhury and Denzel Washington are SUPER HOT together. I love the juxtaposition of two cultures that are fiercely loyal to their roots and their ways of being.

5)      Hype! (Doug Pray, 1996): I wasn’t even that into grunge music and don’t even necessarily like all the music in this film (although it did introduce me to “Second Skin” by The Gits, which is one of my favorite songs ever), but it’s a really well-made documentary and I’ve seen it way more times that I can count.  Good examination of how artistic communities grow, get talked up, get exploited, and then become “forgotten”.

6)      The Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee, 1993): I seem to gravitate towards movies involving cultural norms and the ways children and parents negotiate their way around them, I guess? Great movie about a gay man who not only feels that he cannot be honest about his sexuality with his Taiwanese parents, but who also goes through a traditional wedding ceremony to avoid hurting them with the truth.  Ultimately it’s about the lies families tell to protect one another. Warning: the trailer is TERRIBLE, so misleading and super corny, if I hadn’t already seen the movie it would have made me want to pass on it.

Sight and Sound Movie List - Eta Boris's Contribution

Well, the usual disclaimer that the list is not especially ordered. 

1. Pulp Fiction (1994, dir. Quentin Tarantino)
I consider this movie one of the perfect expressions of American Cool. For this reason, everyone loves to love this movie. But I don't care. This movie change the way I look at storytelling, dialog, and cinematography. It did with negative spaces and silences what many movies can't do with pages of words and action. During the diner scene at Jack Rabbit Slim's, there is a moment when both John Travolta and Uma Thurman are silent. They just smoke, and look off into the distance. It's not awkward, or strange, or forced. It's just one of the coolest shots in American movie history.

2. Amelie (2001, dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Right? This is the perfect romantic comedy. I assume that upon finishing this movie, Jean-Pierre Jeunet dropped the mic and walked off the stage. On top of that, it's gorgeously shot, meticulously written, and superbly acted. 

3. Animal House (1978, dir. John Landis)
This movie is such a legend, every college comedy since then has tried to be it (and failed utterly). It is juvenile a thousand times over, which is why it's so brilliant. It is always immensely gratifying to watch a group of extraordinarily talented people do their best and just not give a fuck. Best of all, instead of insightfully addressing the subtleties of human condition, or whatever, they do this.

4. Predator  (1987, dir. John McTiernan)
The first one - accept no imitations. It's Arnold doing what he does best - wearing makeup and punching things with bullets - and so much more. It is also a surprisingly (*) intelligent examination of militant masculinity and the hunter / prey duality. Both the soldiers and the Predator go through the hunter-to-prey transformation. What's more, they actually have clear and interesting psychological responses. All of this - in an 80s Arnold movie.

(*) I'm pretty sure it was surprising even to the writers, as they are the brains behind such incredible follow ups as Wild Wild West and AVP.

5. Requiem for a Dream (2000, dir. Darren Aronofsky)
It is such a brutally beautiful examination of life's downward spiral, it left me in a deep depression for several days. Then someone told me that Trainspotting was even heavier, and today, ten years later, I still can't bring myself to watch Trainspotting. This movie is simply flawless.

6. Ink (2009, dir. Jamin Winans)
This is an obscure indie that seems to have started out when someone wanted to make a mediocre martial arts demo tape. Then this somehow snowballed into an amazing concept and a final reveal that - even though you can probably see it coming - leaves you sobbing like a goddamned child.

7. The Dead Poets Society (1989, dir. Peter Weir)
Maybe my love of stories about alienation and self-discovery are a commentary on who I am. The first time I saw this movie was in English class, just a couple months after moving to the States. I'm sure I didn't actually understand much of it, but it hooked me. There's a measure of great acting and directing. 

8. Funny People (2009, dir. Judd Apatow)
Maybe this movie doesn't mean as much if you've never done live comedy. It's a good, honest, true portrayal of what it's like. 

9. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990, dir. Tom Stoppard)
Alright, Tim Roth and Gary Oldman are two of the best, easy. Tom Stoppard's intelligence, however, is frightening in its reach and depth. This is surely one of the smartest plays there is. It simultaneously filled me with wonder and made me feel like the least dullard.

10. Ghost in the Shell (1995, dir. Mamoru Oshii)
The first time I saw it, I was going through some particularly low and difficult times. It was a bizarre and exhilarating experience to see my mood so perfectly expressed on the screen. I think to this day the effect hasn't really lessened on me.

Sight and Sound Movie List - Die Steggy

Here you go. I just picked some films at random from my collection and gushed some thoughts.

Jurassic Park (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg)

My love for this movie is no secret. It is the only good film made about dinosaurs. It's also just great from beginning to end, not a scene wasted. The special effects, largely not CG, still hold up even after a decade has passed. I still find it hard to believe that the raptors are actually people in suits (also where do I get one of those suits). That first scene where Dr. Alan Grant sees the dinosaur just perfectly captures the magic of the park before it all goes to hell. 

Brazil (1985, dir. Terry Gilliam)

Oh what Terry Gilliam film to include? Brazil is my personal favorite, it's also my first so maybe I'm biased. Jonathan Pryce is the perfect protagonist for the film and Michael Palin is wonderfully cast as the mild manner torturer. Brazil doesn't take you to new worlds like its informal trilogy (The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Time Bandits) but makes a bizarre world out of the reality we live in.

Spirited Away (2002, dir. Hideo Miyazaki)

I admit I'm torn about which Miyazaki film to include here. I enjoy Howl's Moving Castle more (I chose dubbed which I know is controversial but Christian Bale and Billy Crystal do a great job) but I think Spirited Away is a better movie. Miyazaki creates these entire worlds that are just fantastical. Spirited Away is the most robust and fascinating of those worlds and the animation is astounding. It is a little darker than most of his movies (not Princess Mononoke dark, but no cute and fluffy Totoro either) at times scary without losing that warmth that is so characteristic of Studio Ghibli films. 

The King and I (1956, dir. Walter Lang)

When I was a kid, I thought the scene where the King swirls Anna around the ballroom in "Shall Me Dance" was the pinnacle of romance. Scratch that, I still think that to this day. Oh yes, it is grossly stereotypical, but my sheer delight every time I watch that can almost make me forget that, if only for a few hours. This is the crown jewel of my emergency kit of VHSs I reach for when I've reached my all time low. Joining it (and thus receiving an honorable mention to this list) are Singing in the Rain and The Pirate which is this obscure Cole Porter musical with Gene Kelly and Judy Garland that one of my contains my favorite songs "Be a Clown." I'm not sure you can find the latter of films but if you love old time musicals it is worth hunting around for. 

The Lord of the Rings (2001-3, dir. Peter Jackson)

Lord of the Rings will never reach a higher pinnacle than Peter Jackson's trilogy. Thanks to the magic of New Zealand and the folks at WETA workshop it is stunning and about as entertaining as you can ever wrought out of Tolkien. If you want an example of the epic crap those movies could have been in the wrong hands just watch The Hobbit movies. Lord of the Rings was a labor of love and it shines. I'm not sure how the fates aligned to allow PJ to create such a spectacle but his films but I thank him for introducing a whole new generation, including myself, to Middle Earth. 

Big Fish (2003, dir. Tim Burton)

Some people have a movie they love for the sheer fact it is able to encapsulate a spirit so remarkably akin to their own family. Big Fish is that movie for me. The tall tales are right out of my own childhood growing up with the Stegmans, a family heralding from a circus town and forever emulating that big top spirit. It's also the last decent movie Tim Burton ever did, before he kept making the same movie over and over again with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter *shudder*. 

O Brother Where Out Thou  (1999, dir. Joel Coen)

Hands down my favorite Coen Brothers film. A) I've been a fan of the Odyssey since I was in elementary school thanks to Wishbone B) It is responsible for many modern American's affinity for bluegrass C) It's just a great movie, an amazing adventure, a visual thrill ride. 

Om Shanti Om  (2007, dir. Farah Khan)

This should be everyone's introduction to Bollywood. Then they should spend the next year of their life devouring other great films of the Indian cinema and then they should watch it again so they can get all the jokes the missed and love it all the more. It is so much fun that it worms its way even into the most skeptical of hearts. 

Life and Death of Peter Sellers  (2004, dir. Stephen Hopkins)

Geoffrey Rush is an incredible actor and it is nowhere more apparent than this movie. The movie is as zany as the man himself while dealing with some hard truths of the man's life. Peter Sellers considered himself a vessel for his characters, empty except for the fictional beings he embodied. In the same vein Geoffrey Rush becomes a vessel not just for Sellers but for everyone around him. It's a fantastic film. 

Hotel Rwanda (2004, dir. Terry George)

I have to put this on the list because it inspired me to want to join the United Nations. It was a misguided path I know but it someways you have to admire a movie with such an inspirational ability. It is heartbreaking but it is effective. 

Cashback (2006, dir. Sean Ellis)

I first saw Cashback when it was a Academy-Award nominated short because I had a crush on Sean Biggerstaff (most will know him as Oliver Wood from Harry Potter), who plays the lead. However I ended up like the short for its own merits. Basically about a art student working at a grocery store who has the ability to stop time. What follows is beautiful and the love story that dominates full length film is pretty good. Oh and lots of naked women...if you're into that sort of thing. 

The Matador (2005, dir. Richard Sheperd)

This is is an odd and final pick for my random list of movies that strike my fancy. I always say people have two favorite Bonds: their first Bond, the first actor they ever saw in a Bond movie who makes an imprint on you like a little chick to its mother and their favorite Bond, the one that after seeing far more Bond movies becomes their favorite through merit. Pierce Brosnan was my first Bond and so perhaps I have that strange chicky imprint to blame for why I like this film that if I were honest to myself, is not that great. However I find Brosnan as an aging assassin just perfect and a trainwreck I want to watch over and over. 

Sight and Sound Movie List - The Decker

I'm not sure if I'm qualified to list the ten best movies of all time, but I can list my ten personal favorites.  Even that's hard, I narrowed it down to thirty or so and had a tough time crossing anything off.  These ten, though, I can watch at anytime and have repeatedly:

1. Logan's Run (1976, dir. Michael Anderson) - My first favorite movie, I made my mom rent the vhs multiple times back in the day.  Great 70's analog synthesizer sound effects and silly miniature future-scapes, and the acting is actually not bad...well, with the exception of Farrah Fawcett. Renew!!!

2. Dune (1984, dir. David Lynch) - My other favorite movie, tied with Logan's Run, and also my favorite book.  More great actors in a cheesy sci-fi setting, and I love every bit of it.  Not very true to the book, but fun anyway.

3. Singles (1992, dir. Cameron Crowe) -  Set in early 90's Seattle, lots of cameos by grunge icons.  Probably my favorite soundtrack of all time and a good story.  Sometimes it feels like I'm living in this movie, which is pretty cool :)

4. Amelie (2001, dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet) - Just simply beautiful and warms my heart.

5. The Shawshank Redemption (1995, dir. Frank Darabont) - Kind of brutal but uplifting at the same time. 

6. The Princess Bride (1987, dir. Rob Reiner) - I don't see how anyone could not love this movie, awesome cast including Andre the Giant!  Yes, Fred Savage is annoying as hell, but at least you can focus on the awesomeness of Peter Falk in those scenes. A great one for an all ages crowd.

7.  Poltergeist (1983, dir. Tobe Hooper) - I saw this movie when I was way too young, so it made a big impression! It's holds up really well for an 80's film, still freaks me out.

8. The Empire Strikes Back (1980, dir. Irvin Kershner) - My favorite of the original trilogy, although I absolutely love all three.

9. The Fellowship of the Ring (2001, dir. Peter Jackson) - Again, I love all three but have watched this one many more times.

10. That's the Way of the World (1975, dir. Sig Shore) Starring Harvey Keitel as a music producer and Earth, Wind, and Fire as "The Group."  A cool drama set in the ugly recording industry of the 70's, great soundtrack and a satisfying ending.  There's a scene with Earth, Wind, and Fire playing at a roller disco, worth watching for that reason alone!

It pained me to cross some movies off the list, so here's a list of runners-up which I love just as much:  Idiocracy, Festival Express, The Thing(1982), The Big Lebowski, The Joy Luck Club, Napoleon Dynamite, The Evil Dead I&II, The Never Ending Story, Bloodsport, Amadeus, Jurassic Park, Clash of the Titans(1981), Akira, The Color Purple, and Spaceballs.

Sight and Sound Movie List - The Goodell

 I’m not saying best because I’m just a guy who’s seen a couple of films; I don’t qualify as a cinephile or cineaste or whatever.

Favorite Science Fiction Movie: Blade Runner. (1982, dir. Ridley Scott) The problem with sci-fi is the ones that I’ve seen tend to be either/or: either they have good special effects story or they have an interesting concept. This is one of the few that had both and more impressively, it’s pre-CGI.

Runners-Up: 2001, The Terminator. The former is obvious I suppose but the latter may be a surprise. That being said, think about it. The story is simple but it works. The concept isn’t that crazy. The only things that the film suffers from are very dated special effects and bad 80s haircuts. I’m willing to overlook both of that.

Favorite Western Movie: Unforgiven. (1992, dir. Clint Eastwood) Good story, good acting and also, I’ve never seen Shane, The Searchers, How The West Was Won, or High Noon.

Favorite Action Movie: Road Warrior. (1981, dir. George Miller) All three of the Mad Max films are good. I actually like Thunderdome a little bit better but I don’t really think of that as an action film. I may not want Mel Gibson as a neighbor or as an explainer of Scottish or American Revolutionary history but he’s great as a post-apocalyptic anti-hero. Also, as long as there’d be a designated driver, I bet he’d be fun to grab a drink with.

Favorite Historical Movie: The Baader-Meinhof Complex. (2008, dir. Uli Edel) At best, a historical film is often only good at showing historic atmosphere in Technicolor. Usually the history is totally off or it doesn’t even bother trying to be anything than a costume drama to serve as a vehicle for some actor to get an Academy award. This one is different, and it wasn’t made by Ken Burns.

Favorite Ahistorical Movie: Amadeus. (1984, dir. Milos Forman) Nope. Mozart wasn’t indirectly killed by Salieri or buried in a mass grave (the last one makes no sense; he was the most famous musician in Europe!). Nonetheless, this film is very entertaining and has a great soundtrack. I like that one of the guys from Animal House got to play possibly the greatest musical talent in history.

Favorite Gangster Movie: Casino. (1995, dir. Martin Scorsese) No, this is not as good as The Godfather, Goodfellas, Godfather II, or whatever, but I like it better, because a) it moves faster than The Godfather, and b) the story is much more tightly told than Goodfellas. Also, I’m always interested in the intersection between legitimate and illegitimate business (“Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.” Honore de Balzac), which Casino has much more of than the other films.

Favorite Romance: Amélie. (2001, dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet) I like the main character. I like the story. I like how she turns to water. I like a happy ending. Maybe Jonathan Richman was right when he asserted Paris was made for love.

Favorite Film About Teenagers: Dazed & Confused. (1993, dir. Richard Linklater) Most teenage films are vapid wastes of time. This one I like because all of the characters were to some extent believable. Also, it’s set in the South but there’s very little caricature. And it looks it was shot in the town I was a teenager in.

Honorable Mention: Wargames. (1983, dir. John Badham) my all-time nerdiest moment? I don't know if this qualifies but it's up there. Remember Wargames? I loved that movie as a child. Matthew Broderick's greatest role. Still relevant seeing as nukes are still being pointed at each other. Anyway, one day I watched it and I was totally fascinated by the different strategies listed in this scene: http://youtu.be/NHWjlCaIrQo

I wrote down as many of them as I could read for purposes of further research (which didn't happen, so I guess I never reached my apotheosis of nerdery.) I watched it again and decided some of them wouldn't be bad as a down-tempo or lounge fusion band or something like a cheap Thievery Corporation knock-off.

Possible candidates include:

Far East Strategy

Iceland Maximum

Atlantic Heavy

Arctic Minimal

Denmark Massive

Pacific Defense

Spain Counter

English Thrust (also a possible swash-buckling themed porn title)

Venezuela Sudden

My Favorite Album: The Purdy's Contribution

Frank Zappa's Apostrophe. 

wise words in my most formative years: "Watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow"

The Purdy is a music professor and virtuoso percussionist in the Baltimore area.

Click here for Der Kaurich's Contribution

Click here for La Magram's Contribution

Click here for Die Myhre's Contribution

Click here for Der Mazur's Contribution

Click here for La Cohen's Contribution

Click here for Il Greenwood's Contribution

Click here for Der Thobaben's Contribution

Click here for Doundou Tchil's Contribution
Click here for Eta Boris's Contribution
Click here for HaWinograd's Contribution
Click here for Le Malon's Contribution
Click here for Atomic Sam's Contribution

Click here for La Swaynos's Contribution
Click here for Boulezian's Contribution
Click here for HaZmora's Contribution
Click here for The McBee's Contribution
Click here for Le Drgon's Contribution
Click here for The Brannock's Contribution
Click here for The Danny's Contribution
Click here for The Drioux's contribution
Click here for El Reyes's contribution
Click here for My contribtuion

My Favorite Album - Der Kaurich

Album: Love is Hell Artist: Ryan Adams Release: May 3, 2004

Track Listing:

1."Political Scientist" 4:33

2."Afraid Not Scared" 4:13

3."This House Is Not for Sale" 3:53

4."Anybody Wanna Take Me Home" 5:31

5."Love Is Hell" 3:19

6."Wonderwall" Noel Gallagher 4:09

7."The Shadowlands" 5:18

8."World War 24" 4:17

9."Avalanche" 5:09

10."My Blue Manhattan" 2:23

11."Please Do Not Let Me Go" 3:37

12."City Rain, City Streets" 3:49

13."I See Monsters" 3:57

14."English Girls Approximately" 5:42

15."Thank You Louise" 2:52

16."Hotel Chelsea Nights" 5:10

“An utterly gloomungous affair with barely a crack of light piercing the lowering clouds of misery.” - Uncut 2004. 

This is a pretty apt description of the album, which is part of the reason I love it so.

It is almost Love is Hell season. Music, for me, is tied to a time and place. Love is Hell is a winter album saved for the first big snow in Michigan. Still to this day I can remember listening to Political Scientist while walking to the bus stop. Sight lines are barely 3 feet in front of you as the swirling greyish white that is Michigan winter surrounds you. The sun is barely breaking through the clouds. The wind is blowing just enough to remind you it is bone chilling cold. The album meets the weather realities of winter with tales of how love does not work out. It meets harsh weather with the one of the harsh realities of life, that relationships do not typically work. So give the album a spin as the temperature drops and your heart starts to cool on love.



Der Kaurich is a political activist, music lover, and Tigers fan living in Baltimore.



Click here for La Magram's Contribution
Click here for Die Myhre's Contribution
Click here for Der Mazur's Contribution
Click here for La Cohen's Contribution

Click here for Il Greenwood's Contribution

Click here for Der Thobaben's Contribution

Click here for Doundou Tchil's Contribution
Click here for Eta Boris's Contribution
Click here for HaWinograd's Contribution
Click here for Le Malon's Contribution
Click here for Atomic Sam's Contribution

Click here for La Swaynos's Contribution
Click here for Boulezian's Contribution
Click here for HaZmora's Contribution
Click here for The McBee's Contribution
Click here for Le Drgon's Contribution
Click here for The Brannock's Contribution
Click here for The Danny's Contribution
Click here for The Drioux's contribution
Click here for El Reyes's contribution
Click here for My contribtuion

My Favorite Album - La Magram's Contribution

Chopin: Complete Edition.  Who but Chopin can sound deliriously happy in a minor key?  Don't answer that--probably lots of other composers I've never heard of. (editor's note: not that many actually...)

Click here for Die Myhre's Contribution
Click here for Der Mazur's Contribution
Click here for La Cohen's Contribution

Click here for Il Greenwood's Contribution

Click here for Der Thobaben's Contribution

Click here for Doundou Tchil's Contribution
Click here for Eta Boris's Contribution
Click here for HaWinograd's Contribution
Click here for Le Malon's Contribution
Click here for Atomic Sam's Contribution

Click here for La Swaynos's Contribution
Click here for Boulezian's Contribution
Click here for HaZmora's Contribution
Click here for The McBee's Contribution
Click here for Le Drgon's Contribution
Click here for The Brannock's Contribution
Click here for The Danny's Contribution
Click here for The Drioux's contribution
Click here for El Reyes's contribution
Click here for My contribtuion

La Magram is an economist, pianist, and violist living in New York City

My Favorite Album - Die Myhre

I don't have a favorite album. But one that I like a lot and meant a lot to me in college is Sufjan Steven's "Illinoise."

For my freshman year orientation class, I took a course called "Music, Politics, and Identity." One of my tasks was to analyze two songs from Sufjan Stevens' album "Illinoise." My first listening made me think, "is this a circus?" Second, "Oh my God, what a drama queen. Is everything hard in his life?" Third, "Hmm, wow." Fourth, "Holy shit." Fifth - bazillionth = "please move me again, and make me think, reflect." This is great music for transition, movement.

For my college professor, I wrote a paper about Sufjan Steven's tune "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." It made me think of the ramifications of mental illness. It made me talk with people about whether true "evil" exists in the world. It made me think about the own terrible secrets I hide, you hide, and everyone hides, and what cruelty every being may be capable of. But also the joy and love that people are capable of, if that's their choice. And it is a choice. A hard one, but still a choice.

Now, I listen to "Illinoise" on long road trips on tour, especially when it's late, to reflect, and think about how I've evolved since I was introduced to Mr. Sufjan Stevens.

Die Myhre is a singer, jazz clarinetist, and bluegrass bassist extraordinaire in the Baltimore/DC area.

Click here for Der Mazur's Contribution
Click here for La Cohen's Contribution

Click here for Il Greenwood's Contribution

Click here for Der Thobaben's Contribution

Click here for Doundou Tchil's Contribution
Click here for Eta Boris's Contribution
Click here for HaWinograd's Contribution
Click here for Le Malon's Contribution
Click here for Atomic Sam's Contribution

Click here for La Swaynos's Contribution
Click here for Boulezian's Contribution
Click here for HaZmora's Contribution
Click here for The McBee's Contribution
Click here for Le Drgon's Contribution
Click here for The Brannock's Contribution
Click here for The Danny's Contribution
Click here for The Drioux's contribution
Click here for El Reyes's contribution
Click here for My contribtuion

My Favorite Album - Der Mazur's Contribution

So here we are almost exactly a year after my contribution to Evan's Sight and Sound movie list, and this was far more difficult for me. There are 2 reasons I feel uniquely unqualified to talk about "My Favorite Album." First, although I love to rate, and rant, and criticize artistic endeavors, when it comes to picking favorites, my tastes change and shift too rapidly. My top 5 favorite movies list probably has 20+ films on it, and if you asked me a week from now, it wouldn't be the same 20 movies. Secondly, I love music and revel in my own musical tastes, but by and large I hate albums. For most of my life, albums were formulaic things made by music industry executives. 12 to 15 tracks long; the first track is good but never the best song, or the one with the most radio play; track 4 is the big hit single that's on the radio all the time; track 7 is the single fans like more than track 4, but is less popular in the mainstream; track 10 is something the artist really loves, but it isn't that great; the last track is usually the worst on the album, and everything else is just filler. Sometimes there's a "secret track" but it's always something funny or a demo version, only for the hardcore fans (all track numbers ±1). There are only 3 types of albums I like: 1) the mix-CD - not a best-of album, a mix made by a friend who thought not just about what songs to include, but the order which would elicit the strongest emotional reaction. 2) the concept album - it's like a mix-CD made by the band, less personal, but just as well thought out. 3) the live show recording - some artists are just as good, if not better, heard live. So I'm going to go with Evan's instructions, and choose an album "which means more to [me] than any other in the world."

Sinatra at the Sands [With Count Basie & the Orchestra]

I developed a love of Count Basie many years after first seeing his cameo in my favorite Western film, Blazing Saddles. I loved the way his orchestra swung hard, but still retained an ease about it. Basie's piano always seemed to twinkle over top the band filling the dead spaces with elaborate riffs, making it seem simple and obvious. While I can't pinpoint exactly when I first started to listen to Frank Sinatra, I shouldn't need to tell anyone why you should listen to Frank Sinatra.

As for the album, it was Sinatra's first live album to be released commercially. It's got most of Sinatra's best songs, a few charming monologues, and Basie's band has a big enough sound to stand up to Sinatra without being overpowered, or overpowering. Highlights include Come Fly with Me, Fly Me to the Moon, amazing instrumental versions of All of Me, and Makin' Whoopee, and Luck Be a Lady (which wasn't on the original LP). If you are a fan of either Sinatra or Basie, the original Ocean's 11, the movie Swingers, cocktail culture, 90s swing revival bands, or AMC's Mad Men, I highly recommend this album.

Around 1999, I bought the CD of Sinatra at the Sands, and thought it was a great album. The music swings in a way that is tight, without sounding overly rehearsed, a difficult accomplishment for a show that ran for 4 months. The It enjoyed a place in my CD wallet when I started driving, I took it with me to DC when I came up for college, as I didn't have an iPod, and often grabbed it and 1 or 2 other discs when I would visit my grandfather, aunt, uncle, and cousins, in Maryland for holidays. Freshman year, I think it was second seder at my aunt and uncle's house, after dinner I put on my headphones and my grandfather asked me what I was listening to. I said, "Sinatra and Count Basie at the Sands" and he told me that was one of my grandmother's favorite albums. He bought it on vinyl for her when it was released in 1966, and somewhere along the years it got lost, or sold, or just plum worn out. He smiled, and his eyes had a far-away look about them. I never knew my grandmother, she died 4 years before I was born. We always lit her yahrtzeit candle, but for whatever reason we didn't talk about her much. We had a few pictures of her from my parents wedding, but I never heard stories about what she was actually like. I didn't know if I had her ears, or her sense of humor, but for the first time in my life I felt a connection to her. My grandfather died a few months later, a couple of weeks before the start of sophomore year. Whenever I want to think of him, I listen to songs off this album, and whenever I listen to songs off this album, I think of him, and smile.

While I think everyone should hear this album, I don't expect it to show up on anyone else's favorites list. I know I wasn't the first to get overly sentimental thinking of an album, and I'm sure I won't be the last… unless I just took the longest to get around to writing my post, in which case, sorry, Evan.

Der Mazur is a saxophonist, encyclopedic pop culture connoisseur, and occasional guest blogger for Atomic Sam who lives in DC. The editor is also truly, truly shocked at seeing Der Mazur vulnerable for the first time in their ten year friendship. He likes it...

Click here for La Cohen's Contribution

Click here for Il Greenwood's Contribution

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Click here for My contribtuion

My Favorite Album - La Cohen's Contribution

Works of art, music, songs and albums are for me intimately linked to personal moments of learning and growth from love and relationships with others, friendship or romantic, joyful and painful. From these experiences I embrace a strength in vulnerability, having learned to be present and choosing everyday to grow from love. 

The albums that mean more to be than any else embody a raw, visceral, sincere and sweetly honest existence without being apologetic. They encompass love’s process in its joy, ache, sweetness, spirituality, pain and chest-opening catharsis. 

The album I chose to highlight encourages this sentiment and has absolutely lovely harmonies with an acoustic guitar to boot. It’s meditative, sad, sweet, eerie, calm and anxious, all at the same time. I shake it to How’m I doin’, cry to “Loon Song” and feel at peace to “”Buffalo”. For me this album is a soul cleanser and reminds me of the importance and strength of being able to love. 

Artist: Mountain Man
Album: Made in the Harbor

Some tracks to point out:
Animal Tracks 
How’m I doin’ (Mills Brothers cover)
Sewee Sewee
Honeybee
Bathtub

La Cohen is a visual artist, guitarist, ukulalist, singer, kazoo-player, and opera lover in the Baltimore area.

Click here for Il Greenwood's Contribution
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Click here for La Swaynos's Contribution
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My Favorite Album - Il Greenwood's Contribution

Alan Lomax: Songs of the South Collection

A bit of a con in that this title is a four CD box set, initially a six LP series, compiled from the performances of various artists. Well, I’m going anyway.  Let’s talk about something important.

This is the music of history and ritual tradition, recorded at a certain point in time, frozen for posterity.  A collection of striking field recordings put down by Alan Lomax in the American south of 1959, over two summer months of travel from Virginia to the Ozarks to the Delta to the Georgia Sea Islands.

The music he captured is naked humanity.  It is simultaneously raw tradition and raw expression.  Simultaneously completely relatable and totally alien (at least to this yankee), it has many qualities of history/anthropology injected into the music. 

Mostly small scale performances that would fall into the folk and blues idioms, the music is drawn from traditions in the mountains, bayou, prisons, fields and elsewhere.  The original disc titles are:  Sounds of the South, Blue Ridge Mountain Music, Roots of the Blues, Blues Roll On, Negro Church Music, White Spirituals, and American Folk Songs for Children. 

The massed hymns of the Negro Church Music/White Spirituals disc are likely my favorite by a slim margin.  Perhaps due to their disembodied, communal character and borderline creepiness, they are unironic and rawly heartfelt.  The children’s folks songs disc is unique, with rarely recognizable songs.  Anecdotally, much of this music was sampled by Moby, most prominently “Trouble So Hard”, for his “Play” album.

Certain elements are under/unrepresented (native songs, dance songs) but this remains the finest collection of American music on record, easily surpassing the justly famous Anthology of American Folk Music compiled by Harry Smith.  The fact that it remains out of print is purely criminal.  The humanity in this music reveals itself completely and transparently.  When Mrs. Mary Lee and her congregation intone “Jesus Is Real to Me”, the power of their beliefs is apparent and astounding.

Il Greenwood is a music lover, opera lover, and guitarist extraordinaire residing in Baltimore.

Click here for Der Thobaben's Contribution
Click here for Doundou Tchil's Contribution
Click here for Eta Boris's Contribution
Click here for HaWinograd's Contribution
Click here for Le Malon's Contribution
Click here for Atomic Sam's Contribution

Click here for La Swaynos's Contribution
Click here for Boulezian's Contribution
Click here for HaZmora's Contribution
Click here for The McBee's Contribution
Click here for Le Drgon's Contribution
Click here for The Brannock's Contribution
Click here for The Danny's Contribution
Click here for The Drioux's contribution
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Click here for My contribtuion