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The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com I Thursday, January 7, 2009
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weekend
essentials
Jan. 7 to Jan. 10
AT THE MIC
If you've experienced
a Motown withdrawal
over winter break,
never fear! Ann Arbor
Soul Club is back in its
usual first-Friday-of-
the-month time slot
at the Blind Pig. This
week, patrons will
be treated to tunes
spun by DJs Robert
Wells and Brad Hales.
Come groove to the
legends and bask in
the sheer coolness of
vinyl LPs. Doors open
at 9:30 with a cover
charge of $5, and $8
for those under 21.
COUNTLESS MEDIA OFFERINGS OF THE PA
YEAR SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO
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ST
CELEBRATE
O e The Center for Japa-
nese Studies's sixth
annual Japanese New
* Year celebration,
Mochitsuki, will be in
* full swing Saturday
from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The festivities will
* * * * include making and
taste-testing mochi;
performances with the
Aaikodrumand..ko
* and more crafty fare
like origami, manga-
initely not wear- drawing and Japanese
ring their signa- calligraphy. The whole
als haven't been shebang is free, so cel-
ental pop record ebrate two New Years
s the ears with- for the price of one.
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04
What's that, you say? Our pick for the best film of 2009 is flawed? Why yes, it
is. "Inglourious Basterds" is as flawed as those cheeky misspellings in the title.
It's as flawed as Brad Pitt's Italian. And it's as flawed as the historical accuracy of
that final whiz-bang, shoot-em-up climax that plays out like John Wayne's wet
dream. But the greater flaw would be our inability to recognize Quentin Taran-
tino's absurd, gleeful propaganda riff for the work of sheer filmmaking bravado
that it is. And that, my friends, is a bingo.
-ANDREW LAPIN
The Animal Collective gang may have grown up, but they're def
ing ties. While Merriweather finds the indie iconoclasts tempe
ture banshee wails and zero-gravity space jams, these Animz
neutered. The album is an irrefutable crackerjack, an experim
of startling maturity and immediacy that consistently shimmie
out ever spilling over into the noodly realm of overindulgenc
polyrhythms and mind-dripping textures grace wedding-cake
walking the fine line between airtight and twisty. Put simply,
the decade's definitive electro-pop album (but to simply call
would be utter sacrilege). It uncannily melds the warmthc
mouth sunshine pop with the coldness of electronic cyborg
with any pop masterpiece, the melodies are guaranteed to in
the warm kind, of course.
It looked stupid. It looked obvious. It
was going to flop. Or so we thought.
With "Avatar," James Cameron, the
grandest showman in Hollywood,
once again proved he can deliver a
blockbuster of incomparable scale.
Already one of film history's most
remarkable aesthetic accomplish-
ments, "Avatar" sends the audience
light years away from Earth to the
o planet of Pandora, where the local
Na'vi people attempt to defend their
0 sacred homeland from invasive, mon-
ey-grubbing humans. Maybe you've
O seen "Avatar" ten times already;
maybe you haven't seen it at all yet.
0 But you will see it. And when you do,
you'll never forget the astounding
0 journey on which Cameron leads you.
-NICK COSTON
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ce. uoubme-neiix
song structures,
Merriweather is
it "electro-pop"
of melt-in-your-
drones. And, as
iduce shivers -
-JOSH BAYER
w - cm ML
Grizzly Bear just Gets It. The band has one of today's most complete and
attuned rhythm sections, two phenomenally gifted vocalists in Ed Droste and
Dan Rossen - the latter also being a vastly inventive (and underrated) guitar-
ist - and, most importantly, the maturity to keep from collapsing under the
immense sum of its parts. Veckatimest is a paradox, somehow displaying the
scrupulous, detail-obsessed work that went into it while still seeming trans-
parently effortless. The shipwrecked beauty of "Dory" and "Ready, Able," the
layered intensity of "Fine For Now" and "I Live With You" and the pop mastery
of "Two Weeks" all sound calculated down to the core, yet remain unbridledly
emotional and human. But Veckatimest's greatest gift is something that, in a
culture of irony and detachment, is becoming a rare and under-appreciated
commodity: simply, an occasion to feel.
-JEFF SANFORD
While artsy contemporaries Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear obscured their
so-called masterpieces behind dense clouds of reverb and harmony, Dirty Pro-
jectors had no shame in flaunting the naked, waif-like sexiness of its songs on
Bitte Orco. Delicate, sensitive, feisty and cerebral, the record is a career achieve-
ment from notoriously eclectic frontman David Longstreth, who finally decided
to zero in on songwriting and style. Though the album's pacing benefits from a
few song-length detours into acoustica, the temperature peaks with "Stillness is
the Move," a featherweight R&B titan on which singer Amber Coffman unapolo-
getically gets her falsetto rocks off.
-DAVE WATNICK
FILM
"The Imaginarium of
Doctor Parnassus,"
opening Friday at the
State, may always be
known as the final per-
formance of the late,
talented Heath Ledger.
But it's also a return
to form for director
Terry Gilliam ("Bra-
zil"), whose dazzling
production design, fan-
tastical characters and
inventive narratives
make him of one of
our generation's most
gifted filmmakers.
Plus, it has Tom Waits
as the Devil - just
the icing on the cake.
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A director's prowess in filmmaking is gauged, among many other criteria, by
what he can do with the resources he's given. "District 9" director Neill Blom-
kamp made his $30-million budget look like a $100-million one. The result is
one of the most hauntingly beautiful movies of the year, melding South African
apartheid allegory with stunning visual effects and quirky humor. By seamlessly
combining documentary-style footage with spectacular CGI, "District 9" deliv-
ers an out-of-this-world story that hits close to home. By the way, this movie is
for humans only.
-HANS YADAV
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See BEST FILMS '09, Page 3B
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SEE INSIDE:
DESIGN BY ANNA LEIN-ZIELINSKI
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS
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See BEST ALBUMS'09, Page 4B
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CONCERT
Need some Appa-
lachian stomp to
brighten your week-
end? Mountain Heart,
a soulful sextet of
virtuosic musicians,
will be showcasing its
amped-up bluegrass
tunes Friday at The
Ark. The storied Ann
Arbor venue is cel-
ebrating its 45th year
of bringing famous
and not-so-famous
acts to our humble
little college town.
Starts at 8 p.m. and
tickets are $25.
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. TELEVISION: We're absolutely gleeful to present this sunny set of selections.
* VIDEO GAMES: We have risen to our call of duty to present you this list.
. YOUTUBE VIDEOS: Is this real life? Yes, but it's also a list of YouTube videos.
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. PERFORMANCES: From rude to nude, 2009 took the stage.
. SONGS: Because an ahlbum without songs is just a frisbee.
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