I know, I know, we're all sick of end-of-the-year blog lists. But I've been looking at best-of and worst-of music lists for 2009 and I haven't seen my picks represented. Pitchfork elected the worse album covers of 2009, but among them there are some I thought were pretty good (even though Dark Meat's When the shelter came probably is the worst album cover of the decade.)
Without getting too much into the merit of the music, here are some of the album covers that made me excited this year. And the ones that didn't.
The best
Madonna - Celebration
Iconic as the songs in this collection.
Basement Jaxx - Scars
I like how the Jaxx always incorporate some animal elements in their cover art.
Pet Shop Boys - Yes
Pet Shop Boys + white background = great album! A clever cover, as Neil puts it.
Tori Amos - Midwinter Graces
Pitchfork crapped on it, but I actually like how she looks like a superhero.
CFCF - Continent
A simple cover, but very evocative.
Céu - Vagarosa
Beautiful light.
Secos & Molhados - Sempre
This is an old picture for a greatest hits collection, but what a great shot of Ney Matogrosso.
The worst
MSTRKRFT - Fist of God
The album is pretty good -- Toronto's own Daft Punk -- but the graphics look cheap and amateurish.
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight
Weak album, uninspired cover.
Joss Stone - Colour Me Free
What a mess. Who is managing this girl? I'd be trying to escape too.
David Guetta - One Love
That's what happens when you spend too much on guest appearances: no money left for album art. Dude looks like Adrien Brody on a bad hair day.
Flaming Lips - Embryonic
Is this what I think it is?
Air - Love 2
I used to like Air more when they were behind the scenes and we didn't see them so much. They look so tired in this unimaginative cover.
Adam Lambert - For Your Entertainment
Is it Rihanna gone white? Simon Lebon circa 1984? David Bowie in Labyrinth?
The Olympic torch is coming through Toronto tonight and people are actually outside City Hall in the cold waiting for it and drinking cold Cokes. I guess it's appropriate for the Winter Olympics. I passed by and grabbed me this nifty glow-in-the-dark bottle. (Thanks Ash!)
I usually find Wes Anderson's movies a little hit and miss, his highbrow irony too contrived, his offbeat humor often not funny, but I think he finally found the perfect medium for his style: animation. The Fantastic Mr. Fox, based on the Roald Dahl book and voiced with great pizzazz by George Clooney, was a totally engrossing and satisfying movie. The action never lets down, the non-sequiturs work and the art is so detailed that only repeated viewings can do it justice. There's humor and heart and just enough quirkyness to make it enjoyable for adults and kids. And even as a fox, Meryl Streep steals the show (what the cuss, can this woman do no wrong?).
I finally got around to watching Querelle, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's last movie before dying of a drug overdose. When it came out in 1982, it was received with mixed reviews (Fassbinder's style was usually misunderstood by critics and this was no exception) but there's a certain poetry and beauty to the movie that elevates it from being just a homoerotic movie about seamen.
Based on Jean Genet's 1953 novel, it's staged and lit beautifully by Fassbinder (who overdoes it a little with the phallic imagery) and it turns out to be more than a tale of murder and gayness -- it's a surreal and poetic commentary on masculinity, love and death. Plus, it features Jeanne Moreau singing "Each man kills the thing he loves," an excerpt from Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol set to music. And damn, Brad Davis was hunky! And his performance isn't half bad.
The Pet Shop Boys just sent out their Christmas cards, simple and festive at the same time as one would expect.
They're celebrating the end of a successful Yes year with the launch of their own Youtube channel featuring their videos and an interactive Advent Calendar where you can get previews of the songs on their Christmas EP.
(They're sure getting a lot out of those balloons. Check out the cover of their Brazil-only compilation Party.)
Unfortunately, the channel gives too much space for fan comments (lots of "great!", "fantastic!", "the best!" -- which we already know. Does everything today have to have a commentary section? Please leave a comment about it.) and doesn't feature all of their official video releases. Also missing are live performances and TV appearances. And homage videos like the one below, which make for interesting music videos on their own right.
Holt Renfrew decided it’s Christmas time here in Toronto. They had Kristin Chenoweth scheduled to come unveil their window dressings for the season (penguins in winter coats), but she got sick and replaced last minute by… Feist!
I must say I was a bit disappointed at Feist for selling out, but what was I expecting? She did sell 1234 to Apple after all. But now, department stores! At least she didn’t play Christmas songs. I was even more disappointed at not having seen Kristin, whom I believe would have been a more uplifting performer. Having said that, I did move to Sealion. And these kids were pretty good too.
The Rio Pride Parade brought in more than a million people to Copacabana last weekend, and the rain was no deterrent to revelers.
Even Spider-Man turned up, ‘cause he’s an upstanding guy and totally for civil rights for everyone. Spidey was in town to receive the key to the city (something related to a live action show next weekend) and I don’t really know if he attended the parade or not, but the crime rate in Rio was very low this weekend.
Rio just won best gay destination in the world. It seems like they're winning everything these days. Things are changing really fast in the WonderfulCity. I don’t even think there was a parade when I left Brazil, a little over ten years ago. I’m not exactly fan of pride parades, but it works as a symbol and the cause needs all the help it can get down there.
Speaking of gay and Brazil, some new movie productions seem to be pushing the envelope in Brazil, while Hollywood is still doing the funny gay movie. Out of Brazil comes Do Começo Ao Fim (From Beginning To End), the story of two step-brothers who fall in love. Hot!
Meanwhile, Rodrigo Santoro is Jim Carrey’s lover in I Love you Phillip Morris, which looks pretty bad. No wonder they’re having a hard time finding distribution in the US. It's got distribution guaranteed in Brazil, though.
On an gay-unrelated note, what looks really good is Dobro de Cinco, a movie based on a Brazilian graphic novel by Lourenço Mutarelli. The production uses live action and 3D animation.
Posthumous homage or cash grab? A bit of both, of course. This Is It leaves you wishing that this concert would have come true -- it was going to be quite a spectacle. Even though this is more a documentary than a concert video, we are still only allowed very few glimpses into the mind of the man in the mirror. Even in his last days, very little of the real person behind the shades comes through. We never see Michael sweat. Or suffer. We just see him sing and dance.
It seems that Jackson was born to be an enigma, a mythological creature we will never really understand -- a fiercely human person who ended up looking almost not human. But damn, the guy was good! Thanks, MJ! I hope they let you go in peace now (fat chance...)
Of the two Brazilian film festivals in Toronto, the Brazil Film Fest is the one with the biggest budget – and the one officially supported by the Brazilian embassy. I wonder why their selection doesn’t feature more contemporary movies. Regardless, their musical theme this year brought in some great documentaries.
An incredible documentary about the incredible story of Humberto Teixeira, the man who popularized Baião in Brazil. Turns out actress Denise Dummont (who I grew up watching in soap operas) is the man’s daughter. She goes on a quest to find her father and, along with director Lírio Ferreira, ends up also finding Baião and how it has influenced Brazilian culture. The soundtrack is amazing, the animated vignettes add a great touch, and the research was extremely well-done. There is some priceless historic footage of Rio in the 50s and folklore traditions from the desert lands of Brazil, besides some illustrious talking heads including Bethânia, Gil & Caetano (naturally,) and David Byrne himself, who’s shown riding his bike through NY and performing Baião’s classic Asa Branca. (Funny enough, Byrne was in town that same night, reading from his new book Bicycle Diaries, in which he discusses the role of bikes in creating better communities around the world.)
I also watched The mystery of samba, which is Marisa Monte turning the Velha Guarda da Portela into the Buena Vista Social Club. Lots of samba in this one, for sure.
Festival closer was Enchanted Word, a very lyrical and dynamic documentary about the relationship between music and poetry in Brazilian music. Incredible performances by some of my MPB favorites.
Speaking of my MPB favorites, Adriana Calcanhotto was also in attendance to perform at the festival closer. I became a babbling fool looking at her eyes, but she's very personable.
For a documentary done by a comedian, Good Hair is neither particularly probing nor funny (even though it has some amusing moments). The subject matter (how Black women do their hair) is mysterious and controversial, but Chris Rock misses the point and goes for the easy jokes. Stereotypes abound, but he's Black, so I guess it's ok.
True Love Lies
Despite the great title, Brad Fraser's latest play left much to be desired in this production at the Factory Theatre. The plot lacked depth and the acting was merely serviceable, giving the script a rushed delivery that only made the dialogue seem even more artificial. Not my favorite of Fraser's scripts.
Body Worlds
The exhibit of desiccated real bodies in athletic poses at the OntarioScienceCenter focuses on the heart and all that is related to it. But it goes beyond just bones and muscles -- it also features fetuses in different degrees of development, a sci-fi looking artificial heart, the 3D vascular systems of a chicken and a lamb, and a giraffe thinly sliced in dozens of layers. Totally fascinating.
Cirque du Soleil’s latest installment -- and my first time under their tent -- adds a Brazilian flavour to the Cirque’s antics, courtesy of celebrated Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker who conceptualized and directed the show (it even features a live band playing Brazilian music as the soundtrack for the acrobatic acts). The action revolves around the life of insects and the costumes and make-up are amazing, as expected from a Cirque du Soleil productions.
Unfortunately, the titular egg is more of a backdrop than an essential part of the show. The stars are the variety of bugs that come out to do stuff with their bodies. There are red ants that spin kiwi slices with their feet, rock-climbing grasshoppers, spiders that can fold their bodies in half backwards, flying cockroaches on the trapeze and a horny ladybug for comic relief. In a specially great aerial rope sequence, a human butterfly leaves its cocoon and spreads its wings. Above it all, giant tropical flowers blossom.
OVO does what the Cirque does best: Bending backwards to illustrate a concept through contortionism, juggling, high-wiring and pantomime. And this time, with a Brazilian twist. Overall, great art as entertainment. And a great way to celebrate a birthday.
It took her 20 years, but Kylie Minogue finally arrived in North America.
She paraded her hits to an almost full Air Canada Centre Friday night, with an uneven but highly entertaining show that marked her first performance ever in a Canadian venue. Kylie was very personable and made a point to connect with the audience. After all, all she wants is to be loved by Canada -- and the US, naturally -- and she worked very hard for it.
Our Lady of America
At its best, Kylie’s concert was a high-energy spectacle of lasers beams and dance beats that got us on our feet for almost the entire time. Even thought there were some cheesy Euro-trash moments and an awkward beginning, Kylie shone through with flawless make-up, toothy smiles, some well-rehearsed moves and lots of costumes changes -- not all of them very wise, alas…
Some costumes seemed a little dated. Is it still the 90s in Australia?
Does this outfit make my hips look huge?
But songs like Spinning Around, Love At First Sight, Wow, The One, Slow and of course Can't Get You Out of My Head exempted Kylie from any wardrobe faux-pas and kept us burning up and dancing. Unfortunately, she didn't sing I Should Be So Lucky, but she salvaged Locomotion from being an embarrassing moment with a sexy burlesque version of it.
Kylie was also happy to indulge her sizeable gay audience with plenty of male-on-male action throughout the show.
Apart from the outfits, the tackiest parts of the show were when Kylie tried to openly emulate Madonna, like when she comes down from the ceiling in a cheesy disco skull or when she pretty much re-enacts Justify My Love and sings Vogue. Kylie doesn’t need to bow to Madonna -- she’s a pop music force in her own right, and this concert certainly reminds us of why. Feel-good music at its best!
Akash from Bangladesh, 2009 winner.
Poras Chaudhary, India, winner of Homeland Portfolio category.
Craig Easton, UK, highly commended.
Johan Ensing, Netherlands, Best Single Image, People of the World category.
Kym Morris, Australia, A Traveller's Tale category.
Jonathan Banks, UK, runner up in the Festival, Fiesta & Celebration category
Sue Flood, UK, winner of Best Single Image, Natural Wonders
Louis Montrose, US, commended in Natural Wonders category.
Louis Montrose, US, winner in the Festival, Fiesta & Celebration category.
Kevin Ummel, US, runner up in Postcards from Anywhere.
