I wanted to make a list of my current favorite bands, and I found no other place to write it but here, so here it goes:

10. The Velvet Underground -- A great band that with just so few albums manages to kick some serious ass in an old-fashioned way. It's a perfectly well made band, all the members of the band are geniuses in a way, when they're together they make magic, and separately they also kick ARSE. Lou Reed is really one of the few jems in today's music. John Cale is one of the best bassists out there, and his solo work is amazing. Maureen Tucker is a crazy ass bitch. And Sterling Morrison is a great guitarist, although he didn't manage to make a succesful solo career as the other three.
9. The Doors -- Well, this strange attraction for Jim Morrison started some days ago. I was listening to him sing, listening to his lyrics, his words, his poetry, and I found out something: He really is insane. Really FUCKING insane. Someone that nobody could truly understand. Probably the most unique person to ever have lived (to my eyes at least). He has some special vibe, something entirely different, something so magic, so bizarre, and yet so pleasant. His songwriting along with Ray Manzarek musical mastermind made The Doors, one of the best (and most unique) bands to ever touch the Earth.
8. Boards of Canada -- This band carries some sort of highly subliminal attraction. When I listen to Geogaddi, I feel as if I was entering a whole new landscape. BOC's music is like listening to MATH. Perfectly arranged soundscapes, sounds that remind me of many, many things. So interesting, yet so subliminal, so trippy, so moving. This is what I would call PERFECTLY WELL-MADE MINDFUCKING MUSIC.
7. Devendra Banhart -- He makes me feel so good inside. I feel freedom in my heart when I listen to this fully blown hippie. His freakiness, his bizarre lyrics, his look, and his vibe. He has some sort of feel-good vibe that brings a smile into my face when I listen to Cripple Crow. It's a combination of happiness and psychedelia: the best combination, of course. Folky psychedelia at it's best, kaleidoscopic craziness.
6. Six Organs of Admittance - Talking about psychedelia, I think there's no better synonym for psych than Ben Chasny. He is truly an amazing guitarist, his arrangements make me think of faraway lands at some points, and at other points, of a day-like dream which I never had. It makes me go deep into the corners of my mind, my memory, and makes me remember so many things that I can't truly understand. A trademark. Another gem in today's music. Out of this world psych folk. Lovely.
5. Björk - Björk. There aren't many ways to describe her music, or what she makes me feel. Her voice may be the sweetest voice to ever grace this Earth, or at other times, it may be the most depressing chorus to death. Her lyrics, outworldy, magic, cold, and bizarre. Nothing could get any better. The arrangements in the music, the wide variety of instruments played along her songs. Her heavenly voice is one of the best things to ever grace music, that's for sure.
4. Sonic Youth - A band that took all the influences of so many years of music and put it only into one word: chaos. I'd describe their music as music for teenagers, lovely. So 90s, so 80s at times, so punk, so mellow, so post-punk, so no wave. What could ever get better? It's beautiful. Merry. Depressing. Attacking. Killer. Killer music for strange minds. Music from fucked up children for fucked up people. I think it's amazing. This band really got me into so many genres/bands: no wave, post-punk, and most of the experimental stuff I listen to. Glenn Branca, one of the greatest guitarists of our times, is responsible for Thurston Moore's skill, which is best applied when destruction comes in. Thurston Moore is a good person, too! A contemporary of Yamantaka Eye, one of the best in the Japanese experimental scene, he has made lots of friends, and he likes to help underground, experimental bands whose talent cannot be bought with money by corporate assholes. Sonic Youth is really a talenthole.
3. The Microphones - The Microphones. I never really put much attention into Phil Elvrum's music, until lately. I had only heard The Glow, Pt. 2, but I started listening to all of his albums (as well as Mount Eerie's) and all I can say is that he is a talentful bastard. He manages to make simple music into complicated and beautiful shit. When I listen to him, sometimes I feel an empty whole inside of me, while other times I feel like the happiest person alive. All these mixed feelings surrounding Phil Elvrum makes me see him as a real artist. Phil Elvrum's music is full of art, beautiful art.
2. Animal Collective - Crazy. JUST PLAIN FUCKING INSANE. AC's craziness makes my feelings want to burst out of me. They're unique in every aspect. Panda Bear is a genius, and so is Avey Tare. I see AC's albums as if each of them were made by a different band. That's why I enjoy them so much. Merriweather Post Pavillion is the best CD of 2009 (so far, although I've only heard that and Andrew Bird's new album, which is just plain shit in my humble opinion). I love their way of combining so many sounds. Contemporary music could not get any better than Animal Collective. Their craziness fits just right in with their name, a bunch of animals playing music. Playing synths, playing drums, singing, screaming, dancing. Beautiful. It makes me think of flowers, it's seriously music that tickles my body and makes me laugh every time.
1. Sigur Rós - I can't describe my feelings for Sigur Rós. It's something really strange. I see their music as my lover, since everytime I hear it, I still feel the vibe from their music going right into my head. The beautiful nature that their music inspires in my mind comes back every time. I never felt so free as when I listen to Sigur Rós. So happy. So artful. So mellow and at the same time melancholic in some songs. It evokes the coldest winter, and the hottest summer, it evokes the leaves of autumn falling down into my toes. Sigur Rós is nature.

Yes, yes. It came out fluently. Way more fluently that I thought. It's nice, though. I like it. Small but nice.

So now I want a list of my favorite flicks, here it goes.

10. Permanent Vacation - This movie is extremely fun to watch. Such nonsense altogether makes me think of how empty things really are, and how life can be made happier with such simple things. I have always thought of Jim Jarmusch as an amazing director, one of the best of his kind, and after seeing all his filmography, Permanent Vacation remains the best to my eyes. You can see with this film how an extremely low budget film can hold so much feelings altogether, and how nonsense really ends up making sense in the end. Sonic Youth once said, "Society is a hole", and I think this film perfectly resembles this sentence. It may be hard to understand, disturbing, and slow at times, but it ends up being some crazy arrangement open to the viewer's interpretation on life, society, and the endless void we all end up being part of.
9. The Big Lebowski - The Coen brothers are excellent artists, but I wouldn't ever consider them to be on my top ten. The Big Lebowski, however, ends up being one of the most fulfilling masterpieces I have ever known. Fun, dramatic, sarcastic, and full of a certain humour which only belongs to Joel and Ethan Coen. Jeff Bridges gives us a tremendous role as a slacker who lives his simple yet well-lived life which consists of bowling, marihuana and booze to perfection. Steve Buscemi's role is also impressive (as always), and the overall cast was well chosen and ended up in one of the best (if not the best) comedy films I've ever seen. I've never laughed so hard as the first time I saw this, and when art meets expression is when art is truly made, which is why I consider this a masterpiece.
8. A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick is a genius. I don't think any other director will ever cope with what Kubrick did during his career, a couple of adaptations from genius novelists who didn't receive much appraise but were still geniuses. After a while of thinking about his films, I decided A Clockwork Orange is my favourite Kubrick film. It is a fabulous dystopic novel by Anthony Burgess (I'll admit I had never heard of it before I saw the movie) which was more than perfectly adapted on the big screen starring Malcolm McDowell along with a wide arrange of great actors and actresses which I don't know much about. I've never considered Malcolm McDowell's career to be great, I mean he did make a couple of great films (A Clockwork Orange, If..., and probably Caligula), but I'd say his acting went down the drain in his later career. His acting in A Clockwork Orange, however, is exceptional. He completely takes the role of Alex and the rage and violence of this character is perfectly reflected in the actor's attitude. Kubrick has managed to make many great films, all of which are all of a completely different thematic, but A Clockwork Orange manages to give you a complete feeling of desolation and rejection towards the violence and inhumanity shown in this film. So much feelings put together into a two hour experience of the most terrible acts of violence. All that done in the year 1971, a year when it wasn't common to see such explicit content in a film. Truly one of the most controversial yet well made films in the history of cinema.
7. The Darjeeling Limited - People talk about E.T. being the best "feel-good" movie ever. What the fuck? Wes Anderson's films make me feel better than ever, better than E.T. and whatnot. His movies make me laugh, have a good time, feel happy, and in the end they manage to put me to think. These are the films people should feel proud about when they see them, contemporary films like these never get so beautiful, they should definitely get more praise from the media, when the only films they praise are those that have the best special effects, the highest budget, and the most expensive actors (which doesn't make them bad, though). Anderson picks the best actors for his films. I've never really liked Owen Wilson's acting, but I love it in The Life Aquatic and The Darjeeling Limited. Bill Murray is an exceptional actor, and he's also very frequent in his films. In this case Adrien Brody makes an exceptional role as he travels through the Indian planes with his two brothers, personified by Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman (which is as well a very good actor). The story for the film was excellent in my opinion, the way it evolves into something completely different as the minutes go by is amazing. The soundtrack is also great (as always with Anderson's films), featuring The Kinks and The Rolling Stones, along with some other great Indian musicians whose names I can't remember that give the film an excellent vibe and feel in overall, and sometimes made me feel as if I was in India. I think the part that captivates me the most from Wes Anderson's films is the feel that they transmit. It's always a feeling of happiness all around, with the occasional melancholy and most importantly the thoughtfulness that was put into them. Hotel Chevalier is also worth the mention. It is a short film which works as a prequel to The Darjeeling Limited starring Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman. Beautifully well made, relatively short but extremely fulfilling. Wes Anderson is one of those directors/writers that can't go wrong with their stories. I'd also like to mention in this list (as number 7.1) the film The Squid and the Whale. A film written and directed by Noah Baumbach (who co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) and produced by Wes Anderson. It's a beautiful film. I loved it from start to finish. I sometimes wish there were more films like this, but when I think about it I end up saying that we are completely fine with the few beautiful things we have. Now I'm really looking forward to Anderson's next film: an adaptation of Roald Dahl's famous children novel Fantastic Mr. Fox. Good times.
6. Breathless - Jean-Luc Godard is the French director by excellence. He evolved what cinema in France was, along with many other directors which were part of the Nouvelle Vague. I haven't seen all of his films, but out of the ones I've seen, I'd say Breathless is definitely one of the most beautiful films ever made. French art has always been a favourite for me: music, literature and cinema. I find them to have a special sensitivity to art, allowing them to make things beautiful, they work magic, they put great passion in what they do, and this case is no different. Breathless made me understand so many things, made me see things from a different point of view. Love, life, death and whatnot. Jean-Paul Belmondo is genius, and Jean Seberg's role made me instantly fall in love with her, and I could consider her among the most beautiful (and dangerous) women ever. A film so simply made that resembles New Wave cinema with a light touch of liveness and color. I've never thought of it as a 1960s film, since for me it seems pretty "avant-garde" to me, the way they talk, the way they live. I could simply describe it as an intensely beautiful film which can turn you round.
5. Hollywood Ending - I've always liked Woody Allen's cheesy humour. I loved Manhattan (the first film I saw from him), I loved Love and Death (which also made me laugh, hard), Annie Hall was kind of a disappointment to me after seeing those masterpieces, but was not that bad, Bananas was great, and last but not least there was Zelig, another excellent film. So the other day I went to this cinema where they play films for a fairly cheap price and I saw Hollywood Ending. I don't know if it was because it was the first Woody Allen film I ever saw on the movies, but it was completely hilarious. I think I've never had so much fun at the movies like I did this time. It was fun, it was interesting, and after I saw it it came clear to me that Woody Allen hadn't lost his talent at all.
4. Rashomon
3. Elephant
2. Dogville
1. Julien Donkey-Boy

I'll give my reasons for the films later on, yes. Yes.