Sam's Favorite Albums of 2008

I haven't had the chance to listen to a lot of new music of 2008, I catch myself listening to a lot of last years albums. But here are my fav's of this year. I'll keep the reviews short. Stole this idea from Revision (thanks man). The albums are in no paticular order. These are the albums I can't seem to stop listening to.

Duffy - Rockferry
This girl has an amazing and distinct voice, my cousin played it at work one day...and Warwick Ave just captured me. She has a sweet bluesy sound. My 2008 version of Corinne Bailey Rae.
Favorite track: Scared

Adele - 19
Another great singer. Yet again heard of her thru my cousin.
Favorite Track: Melt my Heart to Stone

Estelle - Shine
What can I say? All together good album.
Favorite Track: You Are (Featuring John Legend)

John Legend - Evolver
A different sound from John Legend. Green Light blew me away when I first heard it. He still takes it back to the old JL for the track "This Time".
Favorite Track(s): Quickly (Featuring Brandy), No Other Love (Featuring Estelle)

Inverse - So Far
Dopest street album man. These guys are dope, introduced to me by the homie Romeo.
Favorite Track - One Step

Common Market - Tobacco Road
Seattle's hip hop scene is the real deal. Massline. Sabzi is just a genius man. Scion is a wordsmith.
Favorite Track(s): Gol'Dust, Crucible (Featuring Geologic)

Revision - Forward Progress Mixtape
As soon as I put this album in, I couldn't take it out of my car. A true emcee. Keeps it real, down to earth.
Favorite Track(s): All of them!!! haha, if I have to choose: Represent, Pushin', and Myspace.

Bambu - Exact Change
Truly my favorite album of the year. You can see the progress from "Self Untitled". Amazing beats by many producers; Fatgums, Amplive, Sabzi. Someone once told me "If you wanna make a real music, you gotta know who you are first"...this guy knows who he is...therefore real music. Bam is on top of his game, lyrically, on politics, on swagger, everything. Everyone must cop this.
Favorite Track(s): Spare Change, Swing (Featuring Zion-I), Like Us, Misused.

Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li.

WTF?! NOOOOO!!!!!!

Crows Zero

(taken from wikipedia) is a film based on the comic book Crows by Hiroshi Takahashi. The film was directed by Takashi Miike, written by Shogo Muto and stars Oguri Shun. The movie is the untold story behind the characters in a feuding high school

My thoughts: Good ol' Japanese school gang action. Cool cast and characters, simple story, nice execution. Can't wait for the sequel. The finale could have been a little shorter, and more creative.

-Sam
FE

Death Bell (2008)

Death Bell (2008) (Korean w/ English Subs)

Cast:

• Lee Beom-soo ... Hwang Chan-wook
• Yoon Jeong-hee ... Choi So-yeong
• Nam Gyu-ri ... Kang Yi-na
• Han Na-yeon ... Yoon Myong-hyo
• Kim Beom ... Kang Hyeon

Plot

The film is set in a high school, where an elite group of twenty students—including rebelious heroine Kang Yi-na, her timid best friend Yoon Myong-hyo, and her would-be boyfriend Kang Hyeon—are taking a special class for their college entrance exam. After Kang Hyeon is nearly strangled and another student throttled in the restroom, the classroom TV screen switches to an image of top-ranking student Hye-yeong trapped inside a fish tank that is slowly filling with water. A disembodied voice announces that her life depends on the exam questions he will set for them, and that a student will die for every question the class gets wrong. Trapped with the students are head teacher Hwang Chan-wook and English teacher Choi So-yeong. Yi-na realises that the students are being killed in order of their rank in the class, and she is ranked fifth.

My thoughts: Supposedly this was claimed to be the new genre of horror...it's pretty much a SAW clone...let me sum it up:

Predictible. Cheap thrills. Wack.

10 Promises To My Dog (Japan) (2008)

10 Promises to My Dog
IN JAPANESE WITH ENGLISH AND CHINESE SUBTITLES
Genre: Drama
Director: Katsuhide Motoki
Cast: Lena Tanaka, Ryo Kase, Mayuko Fukuda, Chizuru Ikewaki, Akira Fuse, Reiko Takashima, Etsushi Toyokawa
RunTime: 1 hr 57 mins

Synopsis:

Akari is a 14-year-old schoolgirl living in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. One day, a puppy wanders into her yard, looking lost and frightened. She is a Golden Retriever with white paw markings. Akari names her Socks. Akari's mother consents to her keeping the dog but only after she agrees to keep 10 Promises to Socks . Akari enthusiastically assents and the two begin their journey of growing up together. Akari finds herself having to overcome many changes and challenges: the tragedy of her mother's death, father's sudden resignation, coming-of-age, first romantic feelings, career ambitions and her independence. But at every step, Socks is there to provide unquestioning love and support.



My thoughts: This movie brings it back to the basics. Great soundtrack, great cast, sweet story, good dog haha. Heartwarming, and tear jerking, this is a reccomended family movie.

Socks steals the show, whoever trained this dog, kudos. It's hard not to go "awww", in every single shot the dog is in. Another honorable mention is the father. I thought his acting was perfect as a supporting role. You can see an intense love for his daughter Akari, so sincere.

The social issues presented in this film are interesting, I feel everyone can relate to most of it. Such as having to ignore family for a while to pursue a career, relationships, broken homes, death.


As a whole, this film is worth the money, and you should all see it.

-Sam
FE

Please Vote for Me

Please Vote for Me
Directed by Weijun Chen

(taken from pleasevoteforme.org)

Is democracy a universal value that suits human nature? Do elections inevitably lead
to manipulation? Please Vote for Me is a portrait of a society and a town in through
a school, its children and its families.

Wuhan is a city about the size of London located in central China. It is here that director Weijun Chen has conducted an experiment in democracy. A Grade 3 class
at Evergreen Primary School has their first encounter with democracy by holding an election to select a Class Monitor.
Eight-year-olds compete against each
other for the coveted position, abetted and egged on by teachers and doting parents.

Elections in China take place only within
the Communist Party, but recently millions
of Chinese voted in their version of Pop
Idol. The purpose of Weijun Chen's experiment is to determine how
democracy would be received if it
came to China.

The film is one of ten selected as part of the Why Democracy? project, which saw interpretations of democracy by 10 film makers from around the world broadcast on 42 television networks in October, 2007, to audiences of more than 300 million people in nearly every country in the world.

The poster alone made me really wanna see it. And the hype around it made me quite eager. It won several awards last year several film festivals. My Thoughts? It lives up to the hype. Very very entertaining. Just under an hour, it was fun to see how the kids would handle this type of pressure...I couldn't have handled that ish when I was that age, forget about it. Some good twists in it actually, and I ended up rooting for one of them (the underdog of course) All in all, good watch, everyone should see it.

-Sam
FE

New Bambu Video - Crooks and Rooks

Bambu "Crooks & Rooks" Music Video (Broadcast Version) from Xylophone Films on Vimeo.