2009 pictures

Incredible images from the Travel Photographer of the Year competition.

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.

Covers

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?

I don't know, but the graffiti font is classy.

Looking forward to 2010.

The Olympic Doobie

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!)

Madonna vs. Depp

Is it just me, or does Johnny Depps' Mad Hatter owe more than a little to Madonna?

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

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?).

Querelle

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.

PSB Channel

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.