Best Ever Albums

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Mon, 1 Jan 2018 16:29:06 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 01/01/2018 21:29

Year end updates -- final update of 2017 ... "Top 50 works of 2017" (final version) + a listing of yearly top selections from 1995 - 2016.

Will be starting a 2018 log soon...

Hell of a year, in many respects... dominated by Classical, for the most part

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 17:37:40 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 12/28/2017 22:37

Been studying/evaluating Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel (Ceiling + Last Judgment) pretty extensively over the last week or so. I do this about 2-3 times a year on average (in a more extensive sense). It reminds me of what art is truly capable of. To say this work is incredible is a major understatement. Even its (minor) supposed "flaws?" are compelling and can be considered from multiple points of view and add to the work because the conviction, creativity and artistry is on such a high plane regardless. Its rewards never seem to end. The emotional/conceptual/creative depths of the work never seem to wane. No positive adjectives are hyperbole in the face of Michelangelo's incredible, monumental achievement -- the highest achievement in all of art?

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Tue, 26 Dec 2017 21:47:36 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 12/27/2017 02:47

Following this "week" through to the very end of the year, Dec 31st ... Recent updates include a rating for the new Star Wars movie which I saw on Christmas, and a brand new Classical work (to me) from 2009 (but finally released on recording this year) -- the astonishing "Azul" ... among various other updates -- which will be consistent until the 31st

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 20:19:20 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 12/19/2017 01:19

New week rolling out now (12-18 through 12-24) ... Still consumed by Classical, primarily Mozart, and now revisiting other piano concertos too (plus some other misc works) ... Good chance I'll go see The Last Jedi sometime this week/upcoming weekend and, if so, will probably post a rating (even if below 7/10 which I don't usually show here)

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Thu, 14 Dec 2017 17:03:50 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 12/14/2017 22:03

New week up and rolling now ... Still consumed/flabbergasted by the impossible genius of Mozart

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 18:03:12 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 12/11/2017 23:03

Updated through 12-10-17 ... First page, first post ^^^ ... Was overwhelmed by the miracles of Mozart this week, particularly his Piano Concertos ... His compositional, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and lyrical genius was so astounding and miraculous that it is almost too incredible to believe that there was once a single composer capable of such profundity of expression through such a perfect elicitation and economy of instrumentation and (upon surface impression) what may seem like "simple" means, the result of which appears completely natural (yet no composer has ever been able to replicate it) ...

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Tue, 5 Dec 2017 19:32:58 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 12/06/2017 00:32

New week rolling out now, daily ... Still pretty much entirely focused on Classical, with occasional departures

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Sun, 3 Dec 2017 15:38:35 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 12/03/2017 20:38

Updated through 12-3-17 ... First post, first page ... Revisiting lots of Bach at the moment

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 20:29:45 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 11/29/2017 01:29

New week rolling out daily. Still focused on Classical, mainly a mixture of revisiting what's already listed and polishing up ratings/rankings as needed, as well as adding familiar works to my list that haven't been ranked/rated yet -- (hopefully) with a "best recording" chosen...

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Mon, 27 Nov 2017 17:11:25 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 11/27/2017 22:11

Updated through 11-26-17 ^^^ First post, first page ... Mainly Classical ... plus a rewarding revisit of 1990's film Total Recall -- absurd, cartoonish, but also lively, wildly entertaining, compellingly and artistically "trashy" (reminiscent of the vibrant, trashy excess of some parts of Lang's great German Expressionist films, such as Metropolis). Also, finally saw 127 Hours, which was pretty good. Not much material to work with, but Boyle does an excellent job considering the limitations. Especially with the dream/hallucinatory/memory scenes, without which the film would've had far too little cinematic & emotional depth, despite being a remarkable true story.

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Tue, 14 Nov 2017 20:14:01 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 11/15/2017 01:14

New week, daily updates, will mainly be Classical for the time being...

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Sun, 12 Nov 2017 15:50:40 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 11/12/2017 20:50

Updated through 11-12-17 ^^^

Main focus still Classical, ratings/recordings revisits/updates

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Mon, 6 Nov 2017 18:56:09 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 11/06/2017 23:56

New week rolling out, daily...

Focus is on Classical right now, polishing up my ratings of the works themselves and updating the best recordings where needed.

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Sun, 5 Nov 2017 15:42:14 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 11/05/2017 20:42

Updated through 11-5-17 ^^^

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 15:50:45 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 10/29/2017 19:50

Updated through 10-29-17 ^^^ Mainly attending to Classical for now, revisiting and making necessary changes to various ratings...

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 15:36:29 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 10/22/2017 19:36

Updated through 10-22-17 ^^^ Several ratings changes (Rock/Jazz, Classical, Songs/Tracks)

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Mon, 16 Oct 2017 20:04:16 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 10/17/2017 00:04

Updated through 10-15-17 ^^^ ... including "Top 50 Works of the Year" (scroll down a little from the top of the first page) ... New week begun

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Tue, 10 Oct 2017 17:25:07 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 10/10/2017 21:25

Finally started a new (separate) week ^^^ Updated through 10-9-17

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 21:43:10 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 09/16/2017 01:43

Just in case anyone who's interested has missed it, I have been updating this just as frequently as usual. The only difference is, I've been combining the last several weeks of entries into a single-week format. Just been so busy with everything that I haven't bothered to update them separately. I won't be doing it this way permanently though.

Anyway, in that time frame you'll see that I've been revisiting Film, Classical, Rock and Jazz -- all of them listed, including various ratings upgrades. Most recently, it looks very possible there will be some key Jazz upgrades (for instance Kind of Blue, Brilliant Corners, Tijuana Moods and possibly others I've been revisiting ... Kind of Blue and Brilliant Corners have both been as high as 8.8+ in the past, so perhaps this isn't too surprising for them to be re-upgraded -- though probably not that high again ... Maybe 8.3+ though? ... We'll see, still under consideration...)

Re: Top 10+ Music, Movies, and Visual Art of the Week (2017)

AfterHours — Mon, 7 Aug 2017 17:11:41 GMT

Author: AfterHours

Posted: 08/07/2017 21:11

Still primarily focused on revisiting familiar works, already listed on my "Greatest Classical" list, that I feel I may have underrated.

While doing this I am increasingly seeing the potential that there may be on the order of 100 all time masterpieces (8.8+ on my scale) from Symphonies alone. I have not decided that this is the case but it is becoming increasingly probable while I am revisiting them. This would include many of the symphonies already on my list, perhaps all of them currently rated between, say, 8.0 and 8.7/10 (plus those which are already rated 8.8+ of course) ... plus several I have yet to revisit and list ... plus leaving room for a rough estimate that there could be 10-15 or so that I have yet to hear...

If true, this would open the door to the possibility (probability?) that there are on the order of 200 8.8+ works from Classical alone.

To revisit these and discover new works (new to me) is one hell of an adventure. I highly doubt any other art form is comparable overall.