As we round out our week of favorite lists and recaps of the last year and decade, I have to share one last highlight from 2009. We all have one video from the last year that we keep going back to when we're feeling down or to start a thread amongst our friends. My go-to clip of 2009 came courtesy of Halloween and the Today show. The entire video is a gem (mayhem on the set!), but if you want to jump to the 3.50 mark to see some fancy moonwalking and the 4.10 mark, just watching an ewok have his way Al Roker's leg. There are also some great tips on how to decorate a pumpkin. Share links to your favorite 2009 videos and we can make it the first video Friday of 2010!

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{Jens Lekman photo by Trickshot Photography}

Here's a group of songs that have pretty much changed my life in the last 10 years. I don't know what I would have done without these songs, but I certainly wouldn't have been as happy. Some of them fit into amazing albums, as a perfect little puzzle piece completing a work of art, and some are just amazing stand out tracks. I have probably listened to each of these at least several hundred times. Each song has either a video, an MP3, or a streamable file, so listen along with me! I hope I help create a new obsession, or remind you how much you love a song. Enjoy, and please feel free to post your own lists in the comments!

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{stylish photo by nancyo23}

I hope I'm not getting too granular with my listage, but given the empowering nature of  turning the page on the decade, I can't help myself--I wanted to make sure that that certain song gems didn't go unrewarded for their brilliance.

Thusly, I compiled the below list of songs released in the last decade that are total A+++, but who's album didn't make it on my favs of the decade list... either because the song is from an EP or single; the album is good, but not as solid as the 75 albums that made my list; a bunch of other albums by the band/artists appeared on the list; or I just was bad with tabulating and this should have been on the list based on the strength of said song alone.

Please enjoy the below a recap of the top 10 songs from the last decade that amaze me beyond belief (and didn't make my favorite albums of the decade list). What amazing splashes of song brilliance rocked your 2000-2009? I bet between all of us we could make the most amazing quad-mix cd ever!

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{Long Winters photo by Trickshot Photography}

Because I'm some kind of masochist and a total nerd, I've been slaving over this list, keeping it brief (harder than you'd think!) at my favorite 20 albums of the decade without duplicating a band (even harder). Side note: I've probably forgotten something I really, really love, so let's just call this how I feel right this minute. These are the albums I know every note and breath of by heart and I love as complete albums with all of my soul. These are albums that in my humble opinion have no skipable track and are works of beauty in their entirety. I'd also like to point out that these are my favorite albums, as I tend to shy away from calling them "the best", as really, it's just my opinion, and who am I to tell you that you're wrong for not liking these records? (Though, if you catch me in a potentially altered state, I may completely negate that and call any number of these THE GREATEST of all time and call you wrong to your face if you disagree.) I digress. Here they are!

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Yesterday I divulged my favorite albums of the year. Today I am ready to let go of my latest obsession: My album recap of how I spent my 00's.

The below listage rant is my own little time capsule to remind myself why 2000-2009 musically ruled. As with my other list posts, I'm certain I totally forgot to add something really important to my end-all-be-all-recap. It's up to you to remind me by posting your favs of the 00's below.

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For some reason as stressful as it is sometimes to do, I found myself compiling a bunch of year end and decade end lists over the holiday weekend. So many so, I decided to spread out all my lists throughout the week. Today we'll start with the meat of the list -- my favorite releases of 2009.

As long as I've been making lists, it's always been apparent that I'm partial to Pacific Northwest bands... and this year it's especially so. I'm sure I've forgotten something that I love beyond belief.. but here is the list as of *right now*. What are your favorite local and non-local releases of 2009?

 

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I've made lists before, sure, but deciding to make a Top 10 list for a year FULL of great films and then trying to put together a Best of the Decade nearly killed me. The top 10 was a teensy bit easier - but I hadn't limited my decade list to 25, it would have been 183 in total. But, I digress.

Here's what I liked:

Top 10 movies of 2009
1.  Inglourious Basterds
2.  The Hurt Locker
3.  District 9
4.  UP
5.  Cold Souls
6.  Away We Go
7.  A Serious Man
8.  Public Enemies
9.  Up in the Air
10. Coraline

(Runner-ups: Precious, Where the Wild Things Are, (500) Days of Summer)

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I guessing that you, like those of us at imaginary headquarters, have spent the last few weeks calculating your favorites of the year... and possibly the decade.  It's fun, it's grueling, and it all ends with a really good mix tape.

This morning I am honored to to join Seattle's very own Larry Mizell Jr. of The Stranger, Josh Powell, Vera Project Programming Co-Director, and KUOW's Steve Scher in an end of the year look at our favorite releases to come out of Seattle at the lovely KUOW, 94.9 FM studios from 9a-10a.

Call in and let us know your thoughts on what were the best albums to come out of Seattle in 2009! The phone number is 206.543.KUOW (800.289.KUOW). For those outside of Seattle, you can listen online.

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She just spent Christmas in Vientiane, Laos, teaching English and helping a village raise many children. She sings a lot with fellow blazing-heart redhead Neko Case, including on noteworthy national television like on David Letterman's show. She spent the past several years nursing her New Jersey dad, taking him into her Seattle home and caring for him, till he recently passed away. There's probably a lot else that was done by and happened to Rachel Flotard, Visqueen's vocalist-singer-songwriter in the past twelve months, but ten years from now most of us will remember this as the year of the band's album Message To Garcia.

The formed-in-2001 group's name is well known now as the material created to protect levees from erosion and our country from biochemical terrorist attack, and Message To Garcia is also the title of Elbert Hubbard's motivational tome used to inspire the military and other people fighting their way out of foxholes. It's been that kind of time for Flotard, with so much hard work and loss since Visqueen's two earlier, very fondly remembered albums, King Me (2003) and Sunset On Dateland (2004). (If Three Imaginary Girls had a Record Guide, it's certainly possible these would be perfectly-scored aesthetic-defining works.)

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As I was picking out my favorite shots from this past year, it quickly became apparent that I couldn't just leave it at ten.  I've posted my top picks below (in no particular order), but you can check out the rest here.

Huge thanks to the TIG crew, especially Chris and Keenan, for giving me the opportunity to share these amazing moments with all you lovely people! And thanks to all my fellow photographers, both in Seattle and elsewhere, for giving me inspiration every day. Hope you all have a safe, prosperous, and Happy New Year! Here's to an even bigger and better 2010!

2009-09-05: Hotels @ Bumbershoot - EMP | SFM's Sky Church

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