Tony Cordova

I’m trying to put together a mix CD to give away at our wedding, a collection of songs that Melanie and I have really enjoyed together or have some kind of special meaning to us. It has proven to be a very difficult task because there is so much I want to put into it but there are a few problems:

1. There are some songs that were influential to us that we don’t particularly like anymore
2. I want there to be 6 MGMT songs
3. Some songs are particularly good when looked at from the perspective of the entire album they are on, not necessarily the single song.
4. There are just too many songs from too many artists that we want to represent.

So here is a list of what we have so far. This is very close to the final playlist, but the order will likely be different:

Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
Arctic Monkeys – Teddy Picker
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – The Sun Ain’t Shining No More
The Beatles – Octopus’s Garden
David Bowie – Moonage Daydream
The Decemberists – The Legionnaire’s Lament
Five Iron Frenzy – On Distant Shores
Gogol Bordello – Ultimate
The Last Shadow Puppets – Meeting Place
MGMT – Electric Feel
The New Pornographers – Go Places
Pink Floyd – Us and Them (Symphonic)
Queen – You’re My Best Friend
The Raconteurs – The Switch and the Spur
Ratatat – Montanita
Sigur Ros – Staralfur
Super Furry Animals – Presidential Suite
Wolf Parade – Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts

I have reached another milestone when it comes to my music collection. Here are the current statistics:

240 Artists
800 Albums
10,028 Songs
28.5 Days
68.49 GB (Most songs are encoded at 320 kbps m4a)

The 800th album was Dream Theater: Systematic Chaos

Averages:
3.33 Albums per artist
12.535 Songs per album
6.99 MB per song
4:05 minutes per song

Noteworthy Collections:
Pink Floyd (Missing “Relics”)
Nine Inch Nails (Missing “Halo 12: Closure” [Closure is actually a VHS video that I don't think is even on DVD yet] “Halo 18: The Hand That feeds”, and “Halo 20: Only”)
Muse
At The Drive In
The Mars Volta
The Beatles (Missing “Yellow Submarine”)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
The Cure
Dream Theater
David Bowie (Missing “The Buddha of Suburbia”)
Radiohead (Missing EPs)
Placebo

February 13th, 2007

Velvet Goldmine

Velvet Goldmine (1998) is a story that is based very loosely on the relationship between David Bowie and Iggy Pop back in the 70s/80s. It’s almost like the story of Ziggy Stardust himself; Brian Slade and Curt Wilde become good friends (as well as lovers) who invent and personify the glam-rock scene. When drama splits them apart, the scene begins to die and a publicity stunt by Slade effectively deals the final blow, causing both of the artists to try different things that tear them apart for good. The movie features all kinds of great music by Brian Eno, Shudder to Think, and even the voice of Thom Yorke. Great costumes, good acting, and an excellent story makes Velvet Goldmine definitely worth watching.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is fairly new, and shows off how good of an actor Jim Carey really is. About 15 minutes into the movie, I was afraid I would be confused most of the time and that the story would be explained in the last 5 minutes. Fortunately, the movie allowed you to realize what was going on without letting you guess what would happen next. The moral, to me, was not to let bad experiences overshadow the good experiences in your life. The film conveyed this moral by the characters’ use of memory-erasing, the after-effects of such a science, and the emotions that surround the people who use it. Michael Gondry’s direction of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind complements and enhances the somewhat complicated plot, and makes it an interesting film to watch.

Brazil

Brazil (1985) is a movie by Terry Gilliam that really exemplifies the former Monty Python actor’s interesting storytelling and film making style. The story is loosely based on the novel 1984 by George Orwell, but with a “Python” zing to it. Not only is the story fascinating, but the way Gilliam satirizes a bureaucratic future and incorporates certain motifs, such as the mess of “ducts” cluttering up the film, makes you see how much of a masterpiece this film really is.