Music and Magic

Okay, so does anyone else but me realize that in about 2 months, the end of the decade is upon us? Like, the actual end of a ten year period, that happening where not only do we change the last digit in the year, but the third as well... and no one is talking about this!

At Starbucks the other evening, my shift, Tracy, made the point that ten years ago at this time, we were all preparing for the end of the world with Y2K coming up, and everyone was stocking up on beans and rice and water and batteries... but in 2009? Nothing. Haven't heard a single "Best of the Decade" show on the radio, haven't seen a "Top ## of the Decade" show on TV. But, this is Clouds in My Coffee, and since you are all aware about how much I loves me some countdowns, I figured I would start the ball rolling.

I put a call out to a couple of friends of mine discussing the best movies of the decade, so hopefully, they'll get in on that topic. I've got a spreadsheet open right as I type with a list of my favorite songs of the decade. As far as TV goes, I'll probably pick my five or seven favorite shows... but I figured I'd start tonight with my favorite videos of the decade...

BUT FIRST...

...The NBA season has started (I just completely jumped topics, but I will return to "...of the decade" in a moment). Back in March, I discussed my sports affections (and listed my absolute failure of a March Madness Bracket) and mentioned my love for both the San Antonio Spurs and the Orlando Magic, loves that date back to high school. Don't believe me? I've got pics where I'm wearing hats for both. Just ask Wookiee. He'll tell you.

I mentioned that I thought I'd try just tossing myself into the NBA season, following it some as long as the NFL and college football was going on, then really follow it when that's all over. As of right now, both teams are 1-0, and both teams are expected to win their divisions (Orlando in the Eastern Southeast and San Antonio in the Western Southwest... though asking me who is in what division beyond that is like asking me, or anyone else for that matter, to tell you who is in the Atlantic and who in the Coastal in the ACC. It can't be done.) and from all I'm hearing, there are five teams that are expected to make serious runs at the NBA title this year...

That would be The Lakers, the Celtics, the Magic, the Spurs and the Cavaliers. The Spurs have another good season or two with Tim Duncan before he falls completely apart, and they are a team that typically has the Lakers number... the Magic acquired Vince Carter, someone who hasn't played very well in his entire career, but has been on mediocre teams for his entire career with no supporting cast. Now he's got Dwight Howard, among others, so hopefully he'll make a difference, because the Celtics, while great, have a Big-Three combined age of something like 344, and have a Big-Three combined games played of about 17,877... and the Cavs? I think Shaq is going to kill them this year. Terrible trade.

Anyway, I really don't know much about what I'm talking about and... hey... who said, "how is that different?" I heard that!... so we'll see how the season goes. I plan on even watching a few games here and there when I can find them.

Alright, back to the Decade stuff.

By the way, how many of you could have sworn that the title of this blog was about The Happiest Place in the Mall when you saw the word "magic"? See, you can never assume what we'll be talking about here on Clouds, can ya?

I have compiled my own list of the Top 20 Music Videos of the Decade. Now, let me be clear... this is a list of my own favorite videos. My. Own. Favorite. Videos. I did some Googling around, and I found that crazy White Stripes song where the entire video is done in Legos and such, and I thought the video was awesome... but the song is... well, its pretty terrible. Crappy song plus cool video doesn't make a cool video. It makes it a cool video with a crappy song. Make sense?

Conversely (I love that word. I feel so algebraic when I say it) a good song can be made better with a good video... and I found 2o songs that I liked, who's videos made the songs just that much better.

Music videos are such a lost art... my favorites of all time include "Sledgehammer" by Peter Gabriel, "Take on Me" by a-ha and "Sabotage" by The Beastie Boys, but all were pre-2000, so they didn't make our list.

Oh, don't worry, I'm not listing 20 videos on a single blog post... I'll break it up. And for #20, its a cute little song that was actually from this year--I would almost be willing to call the video "Dorks Win", because it gives hope to dorks everywhere. The 20th favorite video of the decade is "Fallin' For You" by Colbie Caillat, from her latest album "Breakthrough".



Here's what I love about this video... its just fun. And sweet. And nice. She's pretty, he's a nerd, yet she totally digs him. Its like The Lovely Steph Leann falling for me all over again, only without the surfing and the trailer. And the ending of the video is just precious. Yep, I said precious.

#19 video of the decade to be included in an upcoming post.