Old sounds are new to me

I love music.

I love music, but I also realize I’ve had somewhat of a limited scope in terms of some musicians. While I’m overly familiar with the works of Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles and Wilco, there are quite a few classic albums I’ve never listened to from start to finish.

Pending Lent

Last year, I gave up desserts and shaving.

This year, though, nothing is immediately springing to mind.

Star Wars Dance-Off!

Star Wars has given us many great things.

The Mystery of the Mischievous Cohen

Today I saw a couple of interesting signs at an elementary school in Lexington.

Helping Haiti

You truly can’t imagine the poverty.

Inside Port-au-Prince, buildings seem to be stacked upon buildings, all of them almost architectural marvels as you wonder how they stay standing. People flood the streets, begging for change, trying everything they can for a dollar, a quarter, anything.

This is why I don’t gamble

To the best of my knowledge, there was only one interesting NFL game this past weekend.

What the Cats dragged in

(Note: This article originally appeared in the Dec. 29 edition of Georgetown News-Graphic.)

NASHVILLE — The road from Lexington to Nashville?

A mere hop, skip and jump.

Clemson, S.C., to Nashville?

He scoffs at the trip.

No, University of Kentucky fan Matt Durham had a bit more of a roundabout route in reaching Sunday night’s Music City Bowl matchup between the Clemson Tigers and the Wildcats.

Try crossing an ocean, two countries, at least three states, more than 10 time zones, about 18 hours and 6,700-plus miles.

Big Blue Nation has gone international.

Friends in blog places

I have, as of 7 a.m. Dec. 22, 482 friends on Facebook. Many of them are childhood and high school friends, some of them are new friends I’ve made over the past few years and a few of them are people I know only through Facebook.

Kevin’s Best Movies of the Decade, a recap

I’ve been unveiling my favorite movies of the 2000s in this spot over the past week, providing some brief thoughts as to why each one earned a spot on my list. Here they are, 1-50, in pure list form. I’ll include some that almost made the cut at the end.

1. Lord of the Rings
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Almost Famous
4. The Royal Tennenbaums
5. Dark Knight
6. Up
7. Kill Bill
8. City of God
9. Letters from Iwo Jima
10. Anchorman
11. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
12. Black Hawk Down
13. Munich
14. Gladiator
15. Shrek 2
16. Spider-Man 2
17. Minority Report
18. No Country for Old Men
19. Mystic River
20. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
21. About Schmidt
22. The Incredibles
23. Children of Men
24. Memento
25. The Departed
26. Amelie
27. Goodnight and Good Luck
28. Batman Begins
29. Lost in Translation
30. Million Dollar Baby
31. Pan’s Labyrinth
32. A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
33. Punch-Drunk Love
34. King Kong
35. Into the Wild
36. Gangs of New York
37. Y Tu Mama Tambien
38. Wall-E
39. Love Actually
40. Master and Commander
41. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
42. In the Bedroom
43. Finding Nemo
44. The Wrestler
45. Moulin Rouge!
46. The Aviator
47. Chicago
48. Shaun of the Dead
49. Unbreakable
50. (tie) Murderball
(tie) Young @ Heart

Looking at the list, some directors make repeated appearances: Christopher Nolan (Nos. 5, 24, 28), Clint Eastwood (9, 19, 30), Steven Spielberg (13, 17, 32), Martin Scorsese (25, 36, 46), Peter Jackson (1, 34), Paul Thomas Anderson (2, 33) and Ridley Scott (12 and 14).

The decade also had many movies that could have been on this list, but for one reason or another didn’t quite make the final cut. Keep in mind that I’m constantly making lists, and these lists often see the order change, so it’s not like this is the definitive look at my top 50 movies (other than the top 10 – those are pretty solid). Here are a few movies that also excelled during the Aughts:

Superbad
The Devil’s Backbone
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Monsters Inc.
The Darjeeling Limited
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Zodiac
Inglourious Basterds
The Fountain
Grindhouse
The Squid and the Whale
Observe and Report
The Original Kings of Comedy

Kevin’s Best Movies of the Decade, Nos. 1-10

Note: This is the fifth and final part of a look at my favorite films of the past 10 years.