The 2000s: Hindsight is 10/10 (My Number 10s)

“The 2000s: Hindsight is 10/10” is my lame attempt at end-of-the-decade lists for both music and film; the epiphany that led to which was chronicled on this post. Today we finally get the ball rolling with my two numbers 10s.

# 10 Album: “Chasing Dorotea” by Chasing Dorotea (2002)

Why is it good?
I’ve been listening to cutesy post-punk pop since Grade School but it was just this decade that I came across the term “Twee Pop”. Along with the discovery of this label came the discovery of bands of the genre: Club 8, Brittle Stars, The Lucksmiths, Le Coupe, The Majestic, etc. The problem of course with things being labeled is that it usually portends the moment when things start to get homogenized. As a result, the aforementioned bands sound as if they came out of the same musical cookie-cutter (with some exceptions from Club 8, especially the song “Before I Came”, which is just outstanding).

One of the great exceptions of this (secretly) Twee Pop-rich decade is Chasing Dorotea’s eponymous album. It has several elements that other bands of the genre shun almost by principle: acoustic folksiness, brooding melancholy (as opposed to cute melancholy), and most noticeably, an unironic alt-country sadness. In other words, this is a Twee Pop album with soul – a rare distinction that already makes this remarkable by default.

Then, you find gems in the individual songs. The quiet romanticism of “The Anchor Song” (“You’re the parachute that saves me when I feel the need to jump”). The swooning pedal steel in “Memory”, which makes you imagine it as the song Wilco might have made had they listened to too many Kings of Convenience CDs. The afternoon after-school innocence of “Crackin’ Up” that jumps off right away with “Oh girl you pick me up when I’m down”. The beautiful simplistic breeziness of “All I Want”. The list goes on and on.

What memories (fake or real) does it inspire?
Of the last few remnants of romanticism, angst-free love, pre-Greenbelt 3 Legaspi Village, and unconscious failure.

# 10 Movie: “Anchorman” (2004)

Why is it good?
Generally, there are two types of comedies: the goofy story with a “moral” twist in the end (i.e., all post-Dumb and Dumber Jim Carrey movies) and the just flat-out ridiculous and absurd “stories” with no pretensions for “moral lessons” whatsoever (i.e. all pre-Waterboy Adam Sandler movies). I’ve always leaned more towards the latter. They just hold so much more promise for some reason.

The perfect case in point would be “Anchorman”. It’s not even your typical absurd comedy with no moral lesson; it’s better. It’s an absurdly fake biopic complete with gloriously faux rise-and-fall struggles and faux moral lessons. Yes, it’s a parody of mainstream film conventions but not in the lazy “Scary Movie” or “Epic Movie” look-ma-we-are-making-fun-of-them way. In portraying the fake news anchor Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell is not trying to be funny; he’s trying to be Ron Burgundy in the same way Al Pacino tried to be Michael Corleone, and therefore he becomes unbelievably funny. By acting earnestly he achieves comedy at the highest possible level. It’s basically method-comedy, if there is such a thing. And it’s absolutely breathtaking to watch.

The same can be said about Steve Carrell (“loud voices!”), David Koechner (“I miss being around you…I miss your smell...”), and Paul Rudd (“I think I was in love once…she was Brazilian…or Chinese, or something weird"), who make up one of the greatest ensembles in comedy movie history. The only way the movie could’ve been better is if Kristen Wiig were already around at the time so she could play Veronica Corningstone instead of Christina Applegate. But even the ’86 Celtics had Jerry Sichting, so whatever.

What memories (fake or real) does it inspire?
Of laughing out loud for a solid hour and a half while on the throes of a not-so-recent break-up and of weekends plowing through bags of Lay’s/Ruffles/Cheetos that led to the 25-pound weight gain that inspired the first ever fitness phase of my life (which is still going strong, by the way).

What does this list say so far?

Nothing much, apart from the fact that I was apparently into genre stuff that consciously tried to rise above its own genre; Chasing Dorotea becoming the Wilco of Twee Pop and Will Ferrell becoming the Al Pacino of absurd comedy. So does this mean that, though I still have an affinity towards mediocrity, I have decided for this decade to go for only exceptional mediocrity?

No, it’s still too early on the list for conclusions.

Album cover and movie poster from amazon.com and movieposters.com, respectively