The 2007 Bandito Awards

I've put this off for too long. Two weeks into the new year and I still haven't published my "Bests" of 2007. How shameful. It's not even like I have a good excuse. Well, unless you count reading. I've been doing a lot of that. Anyway, 2007 was a pretty good year for me. I made quite a few perception-altering changes last year, and I feel that my life has improved substantially as a result of them. It would be fair to say that these changes are reflected in my favorite media releases of the year. So, without any further adieu, here we go.

Top Ten Albums of the Year

10. Pocket Symphony - Air

9. Pride - Phosphoresecnt

8. Tim's House - Kate Walsh

7. Ma Fleur - The Cinematic Orchestra

6. All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone - Explosions in the Sky

5. Bayani - Blue Scholars

4. My Heart Has a Wish That You Would Not Go - Aereogramme

3. One Man Revolution - The Nightwatchman

2. How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? - Public Enemy

1. Music for the Motion Picture Into the Wild - Eddie Vedder

Hon. Mention
Ongiara - Great Lake Swimmers
Iller Than Theirs - Iller Than Theirs
Ghost - Radical Face
White Moth - Xavier Rudd
The Brag & Cuss - Rocky Votolato

Song of the Year
"Society" by Eddie Vedder

Runners-up:
"Guaranteed" by Eddie Vedder, "The Road I Must Travel" by The Nightwatchman, "Far Behind" by Eddie Vedder, "Barriers" by Aereogramme, "Sunshine" by Atmosphere

Song Lyric of the Year
"Everyone I come across in cages they bought/They think of me and my wandering but I'm never what they thought/I've got my indignation but I'm pure in all my thoughts/I'm alive..."
- from "Guaranteed" by Eddie Vedder

Runners-up:
"I read in the newspaper/They questioned all my friends/They hoped that they could find my ass/Before I struck again."
- from "The Road I Must Travel" by The Nightwatchman

"They tried to blame it on the anarchists; garbage/I was there, I'll tell you right now: the pigs started it."

- from "50K Deep" by Blue Scholars

"Empty pockets will allow a greater sense of wealth/Why contain yourself like any other book on the shelf?"
- from "Far Behind" by Eddie Vedder

"Peace to my Third World equivalent/Even though I can't fight besides you, I write what I can/To get our fam in other lands to understand your pain/Because your beef is mine and we're one and the same."
- from "Opening Salvo" by Blue Scholars

Top Ten Films of the Year

10. 3:10 To Yuma

9. Michael Clayton

8. Reign Over Me

7. War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death

6. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

(No poster available)

5. Exhibit A: Leary Vs. Hicks

4. Juno

3. An Unreasonable Man

2. Year of the Dog

1. Into the Wild

All in all, a fairly productive year (at least by my standards). I think my 2007 would be best summed up, and appropriately so, by a quote from Kurt Vonnegut:

"I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all the kinds of things you can't see from the center."

1922-2007

So it goes.

Peace.