There used to be a time when I would have a nice long list of favorite books and films as well, but I barely got to read or watch anything. (So if you’re wondering where The Station Agent or Mystic River or 21 Grams or The Triplets of Belleville or Lost in Translation or Swimming Pool or even Kill Bill Vol. 1 is, I haven’t seen them, unfortunately.) So, here we go: my favorite music of 2003, a couple of movies, and a trio of books. (As usual, as it includes new discoveries, so not everything came out this year.)

Top 7 Titles:
(actually, 59 albums all told)

Dengue Fever, Dengue Fever (2003)

The concept goes like this: indie supergroup does covers of ’70s Cambodian rock songs (and one Ethiopian song), complete with the amazing Chhom Nimol, a Cambodian pop star now residing in Long Beach. Whether an object lesson in cultural appropriation, loving homage, or testament to the universal power of rock ‘n roll, this album is one of my best listens of the year. (Ros Serey Sothea’s “I’m Sixteen,” which some of you may be familiar with from the Cambodian Rocks or Love, Peace and Poetry compilations as the mystery “A2″ track, is given, at first listen, a disappointingly polished reading, but it ends with an appealing coda that deftly evokes cheap-Siem-Reap-bar ambience.)

Easy Star All-Stars, Dub Side of the Moon (2003)

It sounds gimmicky — a dub version of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon — but quite simply, it works, being both faithful to the material (practically every solo and background sound effect is remade and accounted for) and irreverent at the same time (the sound of cash registers and change at the beginning of “Money” is replaced by bong hits, though it’s not as jokey as the Squirrels’ The Not-So-Bright Side of the Moon). Fans of either dub and Floyd (and I am one of the millions out there who knows the album inside and out) would enjoy this. Okay, it’s not Scientist’s Scientist Rids The World Of The Evil Curse Of The Vampires (a couple of friends were hoping for brain-frying, universe-cracking-open dub, but not here), but it sure makes “Us and Them” a lot more palatable.

Guided By Voices, Hardcore UFOs (2003)

In which the second greatest band in America continues to reward us with its largesse: in its third box set in eight years, we get a DVD (complete with documentary and almost every GBV video ever made), a greatest-hits disc, a cd of live tracks, a rarities and demos disc, and their long out-of-print debut album from 1986. Considering the set is Robert Pollard’s sixth or seventh release of the year, are GBV fans spoiled or what?

Merzbow, Merzbox (2000)

More proof of the obsessive, acquisitive consumerist impulse than musical genius, this 50-disc limited-edition boxset (including a Merzshirt, Merzstickers, Merzdallion, Merzposter, MerzCD-ROM and a full-length Merzbook in a black rubber case) is the end-all and be-all of Merzmania: the Merzstar collapsing into itself out of sheer Merzdensity.

Elvis Presley, 30 No. 1 Hits (2002)

I never really got Elvis until I saw my daughter jumping around to “Stuck on You.” Since then I’ve enjoyed the sheer exuberance of the music, racial politics be temporarily damned: this is vital, fearless and elemental.

Wing, Wing Sings The Carpenters (2003)

I hadn’t derived so much entertainment from an album this dismal year as I did from this one. This, too, is music that’s vital, fearless and elemental, but in a slightly different fashion.

Yo La Tengo, Today Is The Day (2003)

Their full-length release this year, Summer Sun, seemed a little loose and lazy — which, I suppose, was appropriate to the title, but this more cohesive EP benefits from a surer sense of purpose: to get six short and sweet songs out there. And being the greatest band in America helps. Highlights: a breakneck “Today Is The Day,” a gloriously chaotic “Outsmartener,” and a forlorn reading of Bert Jansch’s bleak “Needle of Death.” (One bit of disappointment, particularly if you were looking for something Ornette-like inside: when are Susie Ibarra and William Parker really going to jam with them?)

Runners-up:

Komet, Gold (2003)
The most organic-sounding electronic music since Aphex Twin’s Richard D. James Album: surface noise you can dance to.

Lifeguards, Mist King Urth (2003)
Here Robert Pollard (and Doug Gillard) exercises a more expansive, hard-rock side of his songwriting.

The Sea And Cake, One Bedroom (2002)
Angular lounge music for indie rockers.

Whitehouse, Cruise (2001)
Some of the most fascinatingly repellent music ever put to record.

Earworms:
(songs that rattled around in my head this year, some of which have shown up as “Your New Favorite Song” selections before)

The Angels Of Light’s “Evangeline”
Chingy’s “Right Thurr”
Deerhoof’s ”Panda Panda”
Mark Eitzel’s “No Easy Way Down”
50 Cent’s “In da Club”
Guided By Voices’ “When She Turns 50″
Thee Headcoatees’ ”Teenage Kicks”
Kylie Minogue’s “Come Into My World”
My Morning Jacket’s “Mahgeetah”
The Pebbles’ “Twist And Shout”
Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham’s ”Your Baby”
The Pinoy Beatles’s “Day Tripper”
Elvis Presley’s “Stuck on You”
The Sea And Cake’s ”Interiors”
The Shins’ “Know Your Onion!”
Shonen Knife’s “Strawberry Cream Puff”
Stereo Total’s “Beautycase”
Matthew Sweet’s “The Ocean In-Between”
Velvet Crush’s “Time Wraps Around You”
Gillian Welch’s “Look At Miss Ohio”
Whitehouse’s “Cruise (Force The Truth)”
Yo La Tengo’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love And Understanding”

Two Movies:

Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (2000)

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Three Books:

Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace

Lyn Hejinian’s My Life

Nick Hornby’s Songbook

Popularity: 1% [?]

A little item on the First Lady buried in the Times yesterday caught my attention:

The first lady also said that the “Roses are red, violets are blue” poem she read at a National Book Festival gala in October was not actually written by her husband even though it has been attributed to him. She did not say who wrote the poem.

“But a lot of people really believed that he did,” she said. “Some woman from across the table said, ‘You just don’t know how great it is to have a husband who would write a poem for you.’ “

Let’s look at this closely: what is she saying about those people who “really believed” it?

Compare that with the officlal White House press release of her remarks at the National Book Festival Gala last October:

We delight in great works of literature and especially in the works of budding new artists. President Bush is a great leader and husband — but I bet you didn’t know, he is also quite the poet. Upon returning home last night from my long trip, I found a lovely poem waiting for me. Normally, I wouldn’t share something so personal, but since we’re celebrating great writers, I can’t resist.

Dear Laura,

Roses are red, violets are blue, oh my lump in the bed, how I’ve missed you.

Roses are redder, bluer am I, seeing you kissed by that charming French guy.

The dogs and the cat they miss you too, Barney’s still mad you dropped him, he ate your shoe.

The distance my dear has been such a barrier, next time you want an adventure, just land on a carrier.

I’m happy to be the inspiration behind this poem.

Hmm. Maybe people believed it because she said so?

This proves a simple point: No one from that administration can be trusted.

It sounds an awful, awful lot like this exchange between Tim Russert and Dick Cheney on “Meet The Press ” last September:

MR. RUSSERT: The Washington Post asked the American people about Saddam Hussein, and this is what they said: 69 percent said he was involved in the September 11 attacks. Are you surprised by that?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: No. I think it’s not surprising that people make that connection.

MR. RUSSERT: But is there a connection?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: We don’t know.

To shift gears abruptly, here’s a quick unorganized response to Rhett’s recent post on political correctness.

Okay, there are two separate points here: It’s probably just me, but I always separated “the PC movement” from “the multicultural movement” because they seemed to have different functions and aims. Though obviously part of the same package, the desire to include someone other than a dead white men into curricula seemed to me part of a multicultural agenda rather than the primarily gatekeeping-function of being “politically correct” (see below). When a public library celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and sets up a display of Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat in its front window (for instance), it seems prompted more by an effort to be more “multicultural” rather than it being “politically correct.” I don’t know if that makes sense.

Rhett’s gay lit vs. Roman history example is a little misleading, because I don’t think advocates of multiculturalism all saw it that way — i.e., with emphasis on the “versus.” While I’m quite sold on the idea that, say, the model of ethnic studies is the site of oppositional politics against a white, heteronormative mainstream (and that multiculturalist discourse is simply a fancy reworking of the old melting-pot narrative), I don’t think gay lit was supposed to supplant Roman history. The last time I checked, students were still quite free to take Western Civ classes.

Conservative groups started using “political correctness” as a cudgel against the left, which is no wonder Rhett’s Google search turned up right-wing websites. But there is a separate use of the term “PC” — one that has trickled into popular discourse — and one that specifically pertained to language and semantics, which is the way the phrase mostly survives now.

Its legacy, I think, has been somewhat more important than it’s given credit for: a lot of my students, coming straight from high school, use “she” or “s/he” or “Dear Madam/Sir” way more often now. Despite the intricate idiocies of PC run amok (“waitron,” “vertically challenged”), people (at least around here) do use “mail carrier” and “flight attendant” and “chair” more often as well. Does this mark a change in people’s consciousness about gender? Maybe. (Or is it still the same sexism, but cloaked in a more polite disguise?)

And I can imagine that it has done much more for the workforce as well, particularly in terms of bringing issues of sexual harassment to the surface. Do people say less homophobic / sexist / racist jokes in public now? (Or am I being completely naive, considering where I work?)

Having said that, the term “PC” is also often used as a prefatory warning to something un-PC, e.g., “I don’t know this isn’t going to sound PC, but…” Kind of like “Look, I’m not a racist, but…”

Popularity: 1% [?]

Yesterday was our anniversary, so Madeline and I finally got to go out and see The Return of the King. (No, that wasn’t all we did; we did go to Masa’s the night before.) When one’s expectations are so high, the movie is bound to disappoint — which it didn’t, as it exceeded them and more. Absolutely amazing. (I read the books when I was in high school and all I could remember from the last book was the spider — couldn’t even remember whether Frodo made it out alive.)

Favorite moments off the top of my head:

- Andy Serkis in the flesh.

- The “helicopter shot” of Gandalf, Pippin and Shadowfax riding up the levels of Minas Tirith.

- “Sneaking? Sneaking?”

- The lighting of the beacons.

- The scene when Hugo Weaving presents Aragorn with the reforged sword. (Madeline had to chuckle, though, when the camera pans lovingly up and down the blade.)

- Eowyn pulling off her helmet.

- Legolas surfing down the elephant trunk.

- Shelob wrapping up Frodo in a cocoon. (I honestly thought he was dead.)

- “Don’t go where I can’t follow.” (Sentimental fool that I am, I almost lost it on that one.)

- Frodo and Sam, holding each other on the rock surrounded by lava, “at the end of all things.”

- “My friends, you bow to no one.”

- Elijah Wood, looking like he stepped out of a Caravaggio painting, boarding the ship.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Here’s Elaine Showalter on one of 2003′s “most overrated ideas”:

Intellectuals and professors who write for a general audience are always valuable, but the idea of the “public intellectual” as a specific role is now well past its sell-by date. Being a public intellectual has degenerated from a calling to a career. Aspiring public intellectuals can now get a Ph.D. to prepare them for this academic market niche, and some enterprising professors have already added the term “public intellectual” to Web sites. In theory, the public intellectual could address any subject, even — imagine! — teaching and higher education; but public intellectual purists reserve the title for social critics who take an exclusively oppositional stance to political policies in general, and American foreign policy in particular. The public intellectuals’ lack of accountability — no bucks stop at their desks — and their remoteness from the world of difficult, flawed, risky, but necessary decision-making (the “tenured gadfly,” as Richard Posner says in his updated “Public Intellectuals,” is an oxymoron), makes their critical posture seem self-indulgent despite its virtue. Anybody can complain, blog and find fault; the real intellectual might try to solve problems.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Georges Bataille, in The Accursed Share (1967):

We need to give away, lose or destroy. But the gift would be senseless (and so we would never decide to give) if it did not take on the meaning of an acquisition. Hence giving must become acquiring of power. Gift-giving has the virtue of surpassing of the subject who gives, but in exchange for the object given, the subject appropriates the surpassing: he regards his virtue, that which he had the capacity for, as an asset, as a power that he now possesses. He enriches himself with a contempt for riches, and what he proves to be miserly of is in fact his generosity.

May you all participate in the ecstatic consumption of the surplus this holiday season.

Popularity: 1% [?]