Lee Nau

I wrote 192 reviews on 50 Words in 2009. Of these, only 30 were reviews of things I saw, read, or listened to before 2009.

I’ll recap the year with four top ten lists, one bottom ten list, and a Nominee Project status. The books, TV series, and music I reviewed were all decent.

The Best Movies

1. Once (2006) – Grade: A+
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) – Grade: A+
3. Milk (2008) – Grade: A+
4. No Country for Old Men (2007) – Grade: A+
5. The Double Life of Veronique (1991) – Grade: A+
6. The Dark Knight (2008) – Grade: A+
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) – Grade: A+
8. The Spanish Apartment (2002) – Grade: A
9. Before Sunrise (1995) – Grade: A
10. Juno (2007) – Grade: A

The Best Music

1. India.Arie — Acoustic Soul (2001) – Grade: A+
2. Sonny Stitt — The Good Life (1980) – Grade: A
3. Norah Jones — Come Away With Me (2002) – Grade: A
4. Dizzy Gillespie — Dizzy Gillespie Jam: Montreux ‘77 (1992) – Grade: A
5. DJ Sake1 — Fania Live 03 (2008) – Grade: A
6. Antonio Carlos Jobim — Live at Minas (2004) – Grade: A
7. Norah Jones — Feels Like Home (2004) – Grade: A
8. Take 6 — The Standard (2008) – Grade: A
9. Andy Caldwell — Late Night with Andy Caldwell (2005) – Grade: A
10. Aya — Strange Flower (2004) – Grade: A-

The Best Books

1. Daniel Coyle — The Talent Code (2009) – Grade: A+
2. Twyla Tharp — The Creative Habit (2005) – Grade: A+
3. Richard Bode — First You Have to Row a Little Boat (1993) – Grade: A+
4. Cormac McCarthy — The Road (2006) – Grade: A
5. Steven Pressfield — The War of Art (2003) – Grade: A
6. Pavel Tsatsouline — Enter the Kettlebell (2006) – Grade: A
7. Jim Johnson — The Sixty Second Motivator (2006) – Grade: A
8. Josh Waitzkin — The Art of Learning (2008) – Grade: A-
9. Karen Salmansohn — The Bounce Back Book (2008) – Grade: A-
10. Pavel Tsatsouline — Power to the People (1999) – Grade: A-

The Best TV on DVD

1. John Adams (2008) – Grade: A+
2. Carnivàle, Season 1 (2003) – Grade: A+
3. Roswell, Season 1 (1999) – Grade: A
4. Long Way Round (2004) – Grade: A
5. Roswell, Season 2 (2000) – Grade: A
6. Heroes, Season 1 (2006) – Grade: A
7. Californication, Season 1 (2007) – Grade: A
8. Long Way Down (2007) – Grade: A
9. Heroes, Season 2 (2007) – Grade: A
10. Roswell, Season 3 (2001) – Grade: A

The Worst Movies

1. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2008) – Grade: F
2. Treasure Island (1999) – Grade: D-
3. A Delicate Balance (1973) – Grade: D-
4. A Boy and His Dog (1975) – Grade: D
5. Nowhere (1997) – Grade: D
6. Darkon (2006) – Grade: C-
7. Timeline (2003) – Grade: C-
8. True Stories (1986) – Grade: C-
9. 10 (1979) – Grade: C-
10. Pizza (2005) – Grade: C

Nominee Project Status

• Total films: 2512
• Viewed: 740 (29.46%)
• Unavailable: 312 (12.42%)
• Left to see: 1460 (58.12%)

Review Stats

• Movies: 138 (GPA: 3.21 – B+)
• Music: 24 (GPA: 3.65 – A-)
• Books: 13 (GPA: 3.77 – A-)
• TV: 17 (GPA: 3.76 – A-)

• Total: 192 (GPA: 3.35 – B+)

Between January 1 and August 1, I wrote 128 reviews on 50 Words. Most of them are things I’ve seen, listened to, or read for the first time. Here are the highlights:

The Best Movies

1. Once (2006) – Grade: A+
2. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) – Grade: A+
3. Milk (2008) – Grade: A+
4. No Country for Old Men (2007) – Grade: A+
5. The Dark Knight (2008) – Grade: A+
6. The Spanish Apartment (2002) – Grade: A
7. Before Sunrise (1995) – Grade: A
8. Juno (2007) – Grade: A
9. Cloverfield (2008) – Grade: A
10. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) – Grade: A

The Best Music

1. India.Arie — Acoustic Soul (2001) – Grade: A+
2. Sonny Stitt — The Good Life (1980) – Grade: A
3. Norah Jones — Come Away With Me (2002) – Grade: A
4. Dizzy Gillespie — Dizzy Gillespie Jam: Montreux ‘77 (1992) – Grade: A
5. DJ Sake1 — Fania Live 03 (2008) – Grade: A
6. Norah Jones — Feels Like Home (2004) – Grade: A
7. Take 6 — The Standard (2008) – Grade: A
8. Aya — Strange Flower (2004) – Grade: B+
9. DJ Rumor — Fania Live 01 (2007) – Grade: B+
10. John Tejada & Arian Leviste — The Dot and the Line (2004) – Grade: B+

The Worst Movies

1. You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2008) – Grade: F
2. Treasure Island (1999) – Grade: D-
3. A Delicate Balance (1973) – Grade: D-
4. A Boy and His Dog (1975) – Grade: D
5. Nowhere (1997) – Grade: D
6. 28 Up (1985) – Grade: C-
7. Darkon (2006) – Grade: C-
8. True Stories (1986) – Grade: C-
9. 10 (1979) – Grade: C-
10. Pizza (2005) – Grade: C

A little over 18 months ago, I posted here about The Nominee Project. Recently, I finally got around to adding the nominated movies of the 2009 Awards shows to the database.

Since that post a while back, I’ve added two years worth of nominees to the database. As is obvious from the frequency I post here, I’m not Johnny-on-the-spot with updates. I’m trying to rectify that in the future.

Today, the tally stands as follows:

• Total films: 2512
• Viewed: 723 (28.78%)
• Unavailable: 316 (12.58%)
• Left to see: 1473 (58.64%)

Since last time, I’ve seen 104 nominees. That’s about 1.3 per week. I’m never going to knock out the back log at that pace. Thankfully, the nearby public library supplements my Netflix queue. Check your local public library. They probably let you check out DVDs. Just watch the due date.

This weekend is my 20 year high school reunion (Class of 1989 – Payette High School, Payette, Idaho). I only have regular contact with one of my former classmates, who has been my best friend for the better part of three decades. Apparently, I’ve been missed, although I haven’t spoken a word to more than three people I went to school with since we flung our red and white tassels to the other side of our caps (yeah, because they banned throwing the caps that year).

What have I done since high school?

1. Joined the US Army. Got out early.
2. Got married. Got out early.
3. Fathered twice. A son and a daughter. Geniuses both.
4. Went to the University of Idaho. Studied music and foreign languages. Got out late without a degree.
5. Moved to the Silicon Valley. Still here.
6. Started building web sites in 1993. Still doing it.
7. Joined a company. Built some cool stuff. Got laid off. Rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat.
8. Started a few web sites. Some of them are still around.
9. Traveled a little. Should have traveled more.
10. Experienced triumphs, setbacks, bliss, and heartbreak. Still marching along.

What am I doing next?

1. Turn 50 Words into something amazing.
2. Craft some of my ideas into fun, useless web applications.
3. Take my writing more seriously and do it consistently.
4. Get my passport stamped—one country for each birthday I passed in the US.
5. Add more characters to the story of my life.
6. Finish some of the songs I started years ago.
7. Make every effort to smack ninjas around as much as possible—my obligation as a Pirate.
8. Keep learning cool stuff—like the tango, acoustic guitar, sea kayaking, and photography.
9. Stay in touch with people I used to know, whether they’re long lost friends like some of you or they’re more recent fadeouts.
10. Take big risks and find out what’s on the other side of yonder hill.

So, Class of 1989, what have you been up to? What’s your story? How much is your life now like you thought it would be then? How is it different? What’s over the horizon for you?

Thanks, Larry Pruett. I think I’m starting to understand Design Patterns from the perspective of PHP. A lot of this is still kind of cryptic to me, but if I enter in the source code manually and examine it over and over again, perhaps it will prepare me for my project to read Design Patterns(book) by the Gang of Four. I want to see if I can figure out how to use the design patterns in Ruby and JavaScript as well.

The source examples in PHP, though, are great. I’m learning a lot, even just by typing the examples in and getting them to run. If only the left shift key worked better on this keyboard. Maybe I’d better dig around and find a better one.

I wrote 122 reviews on 50 Words. Most of them were things I listened to or saw for the first time. I’ll round up the year with three top 10 lists: the best movies, the worst movies, and the best music. I’ll skip the worst music list, since none of the music I reviewed on 50 words rated a grade lower than C+. As for the books and TV categories, top 10 lists are useless if there aren’t more than 10 items in those categories. I’ll try harder in 2009.

The Best Movies

1. Unforgiven – Grade: A+
2. Mongol – Grade: A+
3. Downfall – Grade: A+
4. There Will Be Blood – Grade: A
5. Iron Man – Grade: A
6. Zodiac – Grade: A
7. The 40 Year Old Virgin – Grade: A
8. 3:10 to Yuma – Grade: A
9. The Good Shepherd – Grade: A
10. Into the Wild – Grade: A

The Best Music

1. Eva Cassidy – Songbird – Grade: A++
2. Bill Evans – Waltz for Debby – Grade: A++
3. Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um – Grade: A++
4. Jim Croce – Photographs and Memories – Grade: A+
5. John Coltrane – Live at Birdland – Grade: A+
6. Jim Croce – Have You Heard – Grade: A+
7. Tina Dico – In the Red – Grade: A
8. Om: Summer Sessions – Grade: A
9. San Francisco Sessions, vol. 6: Inland Knights & Olivier Desmet – Grade: A
10. Bargrooves: Members Only – Grade: A

The Worst Movies

1. September Dawn – Grade: F
2. Dahmer – Grade: D-
3. The Love Machine – Grade: D-
4. Mad Dog Morgan – Grade: D-
5. The Children of Sanchez – Grade: D-
6. Fellini’s Roma – Grade: D
7. Moonraker – Grade: D
8. Federal Hill – Grade: D
9. Square Dance – Grade: D
10. Balls of Fury – Grade: D

I seem to be superb at neglecting this blog. I haven’t written anything here in six months. I’ve still been posting, just mostly on 50 Words. We’ve now passed 550 posts over there. Here are the bests so far in 2008 (at least the ones I’ve seen/heard for the first time in 2008).

Top Ten Movies

1. Downfall – Grade: A+
2. There Will Be Blood – Grade: A
3. Iron Man – Grade: A
4. Zodiac – Grade: A
5. 3:10 to Yuma – Grade: A
6. The Good Shepherd – Grade: A
7. Into the Wild – Grade: A
8. I Am Legend – Grade: A-
9. The Savages – Grade: A-
10. Charlie Wilson’s War – Grade: A-

Top Ten Albums

1. Eva Cassidy – Songbird – Grade: A++
2. Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um – Grade: A++
3. Jim Croce – Photographs and Memories – Grade: A+
4. John Coltrane – Live at Birdland – Grade: A+
5. Tina Dico – In the Red – Grade: A
6. Om: Summer Sessions – Grade: A
7. San Francisco Sessions, vol. 6: Inland Knights & Olivier Desmet – Grade: A
8. Bargrooves: Members Only 2 – Grade: A
9. Chuck Love – Bring Enough to Spill Some – Grade: A-
10. Bliss – Quiet Letters – Grade: A-

Nearly two years ago, I decided to undertake a monumental task to diversify my cinematic literacy (to coin a phrase). I haven’t written about it here before. As awards season for the 2007 films approaches, it is a good time to review my Nominee Project, which I originally mentioned on my old blog.

The Nominee Project

My goal is to watch every movie nominated for an Oscar, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award — during the course of my life. I was born in 1971, just before the Oscar ceremony. So, this list includes any film nominated for one of those three awards from 1971 until now (no matter when it was filmed or released).

Not every movie gets to be on my master list, though. I decided I could exclude movies for one of three reasons. I think this is a fair exclusions list.

Exclusion Reasons

1. Best Original Song — If a movie was nominated only for “Best Original Song”, it’s excluded. I don’t need to see a Disney sequel because Phil Collins won a Grammy.
2. Short Subjects — I’m not going to go running around trying to find nominees of “Best Documentary Short”, “Best Live Action Short”, or “Best Animated Short” categories on 8mm. Short subject films are really difficult to find, especially old ones.
3. Unavailable on DVD — I don’t currently own a VHS or have access to a sufficiently diverse video cassette rental place. DVDs that are likely to be released in the future are generally savable on Netflix. I’m not going to track down movies on weird formats.

How many is that, anyway?

Not including the recently announced Golden Globes, Academy Awards, or Independent Spirit Awards, my database says:

• Total Films: 2344
• Total Viewed: 619 (26.41%)
• Unavailable: 319 (13.61%)
• Left to See: 1406 (59.98%)

How long will it take?

I suspect that I will be working on this list for a very long time. There are currently 477 movies in my Netflix queue, but the four at my house right now have been sitting here for a few weeks. I am hoping to be all caught up with the current year by the time I turn 50. That’s 13 years from now. It’s not a full-time project, though.

How to follow along

Since I decided to undertake this project a while ago, I’ve been writing reviews of everything I watch, whether it’s new or not, as well as everything I listen to, on 50 Words — my blog of reviews, each of which is exactly 50 words long (no more and no less). 50 Words started before I came up with this project, but it has helped me focus and track my progress.

Yesterday, Brent Simmons announced that NetNewsWire, my favorite RSS Reader, is being released for free download. Along with NetNewsWire, which won my RSS reader roundup a couple of months ago, NewsGator has released all their RSS readers for free.

It seems like an excellent time to update to NetNewsWire 3.1. Congratulations to Brent, Greg, and Nick. Well done, gentlemen.

I listened to a lot of really great music in 2007 and reviewed 97 albums, almost all of them jazz, on 50 Words. Ignoring albums I’d heard before, but never reviewed, that still leaves a whole lot of really phenomenal music that came through my headphones in 2007. Many of these albums I’d heard excerpts of, but never listened to the album all the way through. While very few of them were horrible, a few of them were just not that great (although some of the albums in the “worst” list were still albums I graded above a C). A lot of them, in contrast, were superb.

I guess I have a higher tolerance for bad movies than I do for bad music.

The Best

1. Dizzy Gillespie & Charlie Parker — Town Hall, New York City, June 22, 1945 (2005) – A++
2. Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane — At Carnegie Hall (2005) – A++
3. Bill Evans — Complete February 1972 Paris ORTF Performance (2006) – A++
4. John Coltrane — A Love Supreme (1964) – A++
5. Miles Davis — Kind of Blue (1959) – A++
6. Clifford Brown — Clifford Brown Memorial Album (1953) – A++
7. Dave Brubeck — Time Out (1959) – A++
8. John Coltrane — Live European Tours (2001) – A++
9. Sonny Stitt — Personal Appearance (1957) – A+
10. Eric Dolphy — The Illinois Concert (1999) – A+

The Worst

1. Eric Dolphy — Wherever I Go (2000) – D-
2. Dave Valentin — Come Fly With Me (2006) – C
3. Andy LaVerne — Double Standard (1993) – C
4. Oscar Peterson — A Jazz Portrait of Frank Sinatra (1959) – C
5. Bill Evans — Eloquence (1982) – C
6. Ella Fitzgerald — Ella By Starlight (1993) – C+
7. Charlie Parker — Congo Blues (1993) – C+
8. Stan Getz — At the Shrine (1955) – C+
9. Stanley Jordan — Stolen Moments (1991) – B-
10. Various Artists — Spike & Co: Do It A Cappella (1988) – B-