Top Ten of 2008!

Everyone cool (or, at least, everyone cool at RMC) does a top ten albums, books, or movies list at the end of the year. Since I desperately seek acceptance by higher strata of society, I have been thinking about doing one too. Then I realized that I only bought four albums this year, only read books published before 1990, and only saw a few new movies, mostly at the dollar theatre. So, I've revised the theme of these lists to "Patrick's favorites this year, regardless of year of publication." Please contact me for ISBNs and SKUs.

Top four albums I bought this year!
1. Astral Weeks, by Van Morrison (published 1968). I mean, it's a mystical document.
There you go
Starin' with a look of avarice
Talking to Huddie Leadbetter
Showin' pictures on the walls
And whisperin' in the halls
And pointin' a finger at me

2. The Triceratops vs. the K-T Boundary, by the Triceratops (2007). I picked this one up late. The Triceratops and other bands have been really doing creative work in the Birmingham music scene.

3. The Garden EP by Handwritten Letters (2008). I really like this Birmingham folk band. They use a lot of flute, and as anyone who has seen me dance to Jethro Tull will acknowledge, I like flute. Unfortunately, the album doesn't sound nearly as good as their live show.

4. We Have Cause to Be Uneasy, by Wild Sweet Orange (2008). Not a bad album, but I was turned off by the way they screamed all of their songs at the concert.

Top 3 Old Books I read this year!
1. City Economics, by Jane Jacobs. Jane explains how cities are the source of all economic growth and how complex, diverse cities produce the most economic development work.
2. Community and the Politics of Place, by Daniel Kemmis. Kemmis encourages us to live public lives, cooperating with our fellow citizens.
3. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I started these last year, but I finished them this year. What makes these books outstanding is the depth of the mythology Tolkein creates as background for the story. It may seem superfluous, but I think it gives us better context for understanding the characters and the plot. Reading these books encourages me to see more mythology in my own life, to see the history and context of the people and places I experience everyday.

Top 2 Movies I saw this year!
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm glad I live in a world where movies as significant as this are made. It's a cultural document.
2. WALL-E. Also cool. Also about space.

Top 1 Poems I read this year!
1. Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, by Walt Whitman.
I loved well those cities;
I loved well the stately and rapid river;
The men and women I saw were all near to me;
Others the same—others who look back on me, because I look’d forward to them;
(The time will come, though I stop here to-day and to-night.)

What is it, then, between us?
What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?

Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not.

The count of years is a 153, but Whitman still manages to humanize even the most mundane aspect of city life. And certainly I can relate to this:

It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,
The dark threw patches down upon me also;

This year has had its share of dark patches. But these dark patches have provided fodder for the mythology of our lives. In the dark patches we find a faith which orients us toward the end God has prepared for us.

We are developing a robust community only because we have collectively experienced dark patches. This doesn't justify our mistakes, but these mistakes and difficulties give us a shared experience which is the root of the mythology we need.

To 2009, to robust communities, to our mythology.