Image source: Wikipedia entries Diva, She’s The Man, and Safe.

There is a music album meme circulating blogs where people cite the best album for every year they were born. I took a different tack and did movies. Some of it is an exercise is citing the obscure which bloggers love to do, but I think a big part its popularity is for pure nostalgia.

The list is pretty random, spanning high brow and low brow and just about everything in between.  The selection process combination of movies that influenced me when they came out and great movies I saw years later. One big factor is if I rewatch a movie, and more importantly, how often I reference in general conversation.  This sort of explains why Logan’s Run (1976) which I refer to all the time, beats out Taxi Driver and All the President’s Men (I’m sure to most cinemaphiles’ horror.)

In any event, this list is something you can tweak endlessly. I was really sad not to be able to include Bring It On because I really love teen competition movies. The 80s and 90s were particularly hard to narrow down. High school, college, post college are influential years in someone’s life in general. Ideas are discovered for the first time and tastes are refined. Some years were particularly loaded with great films.  1985 saw the release of the Goonies, Tampopo, and The Breakfast Club, but Brazil won out because I still reference that movie the most. The current decade is, I’ll admit, a little uneven. Honestly, I don’t see many movies these days, so it takes a while for to catch up and also to see which films maintain their relevance.

Please enjoy and write up your own. Also final note, the release date is a bit subjective, because it used to over a year for some international film to get distribution in the US. Nevertheless, I used to the domestic release date given by imdb, which continually has been one of my favorite and most used websites since I found it in 1995.

Paper Chase, The (1973)
Female Trouble (1974)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Logan’s Run (1976)
Le Diable Probablement (1977)
Midnight Express (1978)
Warriors (1979)

Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Diva (1981)
Blade Runner (1982)
War Games (1983)
Another Country (1984)
Brazil (1985)
Parting Glances (1986)
Withnail & I (1987)
Big Top Pee-wee (1988)
Say Anything… (1989)

The Grifters (1990)
Edward II (1991)
Minbo no onna (1992)
Wedding Banquet (1993)
Vanya on 42nd Street (1994)
Safe  (1995)
Pillow Book (1996)
The River (1997)
Rushmore (1998)
Cruel Intentions (1999)

In the Mood For Love (2000)
Spirited Away (2001)
24 Hour Party People (2002)
Lost in Translation (2003)
The Incredibles (2004)
Linda Linda Linda (2005)
She’s The Man (2006)
Hot Fuzz (2007)

Image sources: nymag.com, nytimes.

Not the freshest topic, but worth recording, Vogue India’s August’s spread has a 16 page of photo editorial with average India people wearing luxury accessories. What’s the issue with average?  When 465 million of 1.1 billion Indians survive on US$1.25 a day (according to the World Bank,) having them wear US$10,000 Hermes bags and US$200 Burberry umbrellas, came off, at best, a little tacky.

New York Times quotes the Vogue India editor Priya Tanna: “Lighten up… fashion is no longer a rich man’s privilege. Anyone can carry it off and make it look beautiful… You have to remember with fashion, you can’t take it that seriously… We weren’t trying to make a political statement or save the world.”

The quote is most interesting in comparison to Vogue Italy’s July issue, dubbed the Black Issue, whose editorial was shot by Steve Meisel and only featured black models. The issue included established models such as, Alek Wek, as well as new comers, like  Jourdan Dunn. The issues sold out quickly and required an unprecedented second printing. Although, I wonder if other people had my first reaction flipping through the magazine: the first half of the magazine, were mostly ads, featuring white models. The difference was striking and adds poignancy to the statement made by the Vogue Italy editors.

The problem is that the fashion industry is itself an agent of fashion, trends, and the new. 2006 was the year of eco-fashion, when Elle’s green fashion issue was the fashion magazine that made mainstream headlines. The next green issues were yesterday’s news, even if the importance of sustainability is ever present. These magazine and luxury brands are trying to sell aspiration. Clearly, magazines such as Vogue need to clarify the messages they are hoping people to aspire towards achieving. This point is especially important in a country such as India, whose struggles with balancing their raising middle and upper class with highly visible poverty. As luxury continues to grow as a global obsession, fashion and fashion publishing obviously has an obligation to consider its social responsibility, in a way that exists beyond the realm of “the moment.”

Last weekend, I caught up with Brian, an architect, for breakfast and our usual discussion of Japanese design and culture v. the US. Japan usual wins, and I end up with an urge to visit Tokyo. Afterward, we were both off to our respective offices on the ACE subway line. Brian was going uptown and I was heading downtown. We said good byes and walked down our different platforms, which led to the inevitable awkward sighting across the tracks. I’m never sure what the correct protocol is in the instances, as we already said good bye. If this were Seoul or Tokyo, I’d send an ironic SMS. No such luck. We nodded (but not quite waved) and simultaneously inserted our white earphone to erect our iPod bubbles.

As part of a public art project, vintage cartoonish bronze sculptures by Tom Otterness were installed throughout the 14th Street ACE station. I’m not often in this station these days, moving out of the area right before these sculptures moved in. These admittedly cute, yet slightly deviant, works are beloved by New Yorkers and tourists alike. They are constantly photographed via camera phones and more sophisticated equipment by passers-by. As I stared at this one particular piece “Life Underground,” all I could think about is how I really don’t care for them. And this particular Sunday, I didn’t care for them enough to take our my camera and take a quick snapshot.

I’ve found that the fans of these sculptures (which far out number me) run across education levels and where people live. When I share my opinion with them, I feel like I telling them I hate Santa, bunnies, and spring because the basic reaction is, “how you could not like sometime so cute and fun?” And they do have a point, because I do like some of work of Takashi Murakami. (Is it just because the artist is Japanese, making the work inherently cooler?)

I was going to continue and try to explain in length why they don’t do anything for me. However, the more interesting question is, why is there this (my?) need to constantly defend and formulate critical arguments for what amounts to personal taste?