Every publication under the sun that covers music in some way, shape or form has an annual “Best Of” list around this time of year. I read them all. This either means a) I have way too much time on my hands, or b) I care way too much about arbitrary rankings published by people I will never meet. In reality, it’s probably a little of both.

Regardless of which problem(s) I may or may not have, I do know that I enjoy creating lists, particularly concerning things I like. After all, I thought to myself sometime in October, how hard can it be to come up with the year’s 20 best albums based solely on a criteria I make up in my head? Turns out it’s harder than it seems.

I spent months agonizing over every little detail of this list, hoping to make a perfectly ordered piece of authoritative perfection with which no one could quibble. Then, sometime around early December and after much personal consternation, I realized all that effort was in vain. Art is unquantifiable and completely subjective. As much as I believe that everything I feel about these artists is perfectly sane, logical and correct, you will inevitably still think I’m an idiot. This is unavoidable. So, in that spirit and after much procrastination, I decided to suck it up and throw something together.

And thus was born the following list: the best albums of 2009, according to me and some unspecified criteria that only makes sense in my brain. All of you will disagree, and I suppose that’s fine. Feel free to leave your thoughts (positive, negative, apoplectic) in the comment space below. Maybe even make a mini-list of your own if you’re feeling super-ambitious — but, like I said, it’s harder than it looks.

THE BEST:

1. Joshua James, Build Me This
This isn’t a hometown pick. Yes, Mr. James calls Provo home and is undoubtedly the local scene’s most nationally visible artist, but those things don’t matter in comparison to the ungodly talent he unleashes on his second record. Build Me This features James doing folk-rock at its absolute best — with a little harder edge than on his 2007 debut, but with the same heartfelt sincerity. One listen to album opener “Coal War” instantly reveals James as one of America’s great young songwriters and a musical talent worthy of serious accolades. Build Me This may be a risky or unorthodox pick for album of the year, but I’m confident it’s the right one. This is a truly brilliant record by a prodigiously gifted artist.

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Few things are as satisfying as a good gangster flick and the last ten years have produced a bevy of masterpieces. In the wake of groundbreaking films in the 1990s (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, etc.), this decade has seen a remarkable mix of innovation and market appeal that, looking back, starts to look like a kind of crime movie renaissance.

In that light, identifying the best crime movies of the decade is no easy task. So, to help narrow down the list and come up with ten fantastic films, I used an informal criteria that focused on genre. In other words, for a film to make onto this list it had to be best-described as a crime movie. It could be a dark, violent and morally ambiguous film noir, or it could be a lighthearted heist film. It could focus primarily on crooks, or on the police. However, it had to include criminals (preferably professional ones) and derive most of its narrative thrust from the tension between order and chaos.

Unfortunately, that meant that a movie like The Dark Knight — which might be the best crime-oriented movie of the decade — isn’t here because it’s first and foremost a superhero movie. It also meant that a movie like No Country For Old Men also isn’t here, because it’s at least as much a western as a crime film. While those and other crime-related films are among the best of the decade, this list focuses strictly on the more generic (but no less entertaining) movies that show criminals and police in all their seedy glory.

So without further ado, here (in chronological order) are the best crime movies of the last ten years:

Nine Queens (2000) — This Argentine film follows two con men as they team up to pull a scam involving the extremely valuable “nine queens” postage stamps. Like many of the best crime movies, Nine Queens is simultaneously a comedy and a drama, with the two crooks seeming as bumbling as they are streetwise. The result, however, is a well-acted and intricately twisted plot that will leave you wondering just who was had.

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I am going to tell a story about a very polarizing topic in Provo. This is a story of ambition, anxiety and greed. It is a story about one tow guy on one city block, and one vehicle that wouldn’t budge.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re in one of two camps — you’re either part of the Village-on-the-Parkway Mob, and just the reading this article’s title made you grab that pitchfork and lynchin’ gear out of your closet; OR you’re a devil’s advocate for capitalism via the tow guy, eager to play the “he’s just doing his job” card. I’m not here to prove either side right or wrong.

About a month ago, I was doing sound at Muse Music Cafe for an ordinary Wednesday night show. The second act of the night was The Var Sequence. They loaded their gear into the venue and stayed parked in the approved Muse band load-in area during their set. Imagine their surprise when, after finishing their set, their van was on a tow truck!

Apparently, a warning sign at a neighboring parking lot had been budged the previous weekend, and the KPE tow guy naturally thought that after years of the Muse load-in area being a “no-tow zone,” this sign being moved suddenly changed all of that. “A simple misunderstanding,” I thought. Certainly one a lowly sound guy like me could fix by having a civil conversation with the guy. Surely I can calmly explain the misunderstanding to this cold, goateed man and discover that he, in fact, has a soft side. Right?

Okay, maybe it would take more than me. Problem #1: The tow guy wouldn’t release the van. Problem #2: He was also trying to charge the band twice as much as he was legally allowed to (if you catch your car in the process of being towed before the truck is in transit, the company can only charge you half the standard price of the towing fee).

Luckily for The Var Sequence, they knew their rights and called a police officer to settle the dispute. Meanwhile I called Muse Music owner Jake Haws, who walked from his house to the venue to try and talk some sense into the tow guy.

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It’s fairly hard to argue that both HD and the Blu-Ray disc (BD) are not successful consumer technologies. In fact, if you want to go out and buy a brand new standard definition television, you probably won’t be able to. It even appears that Best Buy doesn’t offer SD televisions anymore, unless you want to watch The Office on a seven-inch screen. Perhaps you have basic Comcast cable, then you should be getting the local channels in HD as well. Of course, owning an HDTV sure helps.

Finding any high-def naysayers has been difficult of late, as they’ve all seemingly succumbed to the idea that you cannot argue with pixels — 1920 x 1080 is absolutely more than 640 x 480. It’s an undeniable fact. One might as well attempt to prove 2+2 does not equal 4. With all this talk of pixels, we’ve found the most compelling reason for the success of high-definition technology — it just looks better and, of course, it is better.

What about the Blu-Ray disc? Why such controversy over it and why do I constantly get told that people “don’t get it?” I would actually say the main reason is because of its name. When pioneering the technology, Sony was directly competing with Toshiba, who were marketing their HD-DVD at the same time. Of course, Sony couldn’t use the same name, so they came up with Blu-Ray.

Why? Because instead of a regular red laser like DVDs, BDs use a blue-violet laser that has a much shorter wavelength and can thus store more than six times as much data, providing the same phenomenal picture as anything else labeled HD. Had Toshiba’s HD-DVD come out victorious in the format war, I feel they would have met less resistance than Sony has with the Blu-Ray moniker.

Since the advent of Internet streaming, Blu-Ray might appear at first glance to have heavy competition, especially with BDs pricing at $25 or more. Maybe so, but for people who still like buying disc editions of their favorite movies (read: a lot of people), shopping a little smarter will actually pay off.

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Communal is Provo's newest fine dining establishment in the downtown area.

This year hasn’t been great for small businesses anywhere, so it’s no surprise that Provo’s downtown — with all its vacant buildings and low foot traffic — vaguely evokes the aesthetic of a ghost town. Yet despite the woeful state of the economy, a few courageous entrepreneurs decided to open shop this year and have surprisingly managed to defibrillate our struggling Center Street area.

Of course, the local business scene can be a tricky thing; stick around long enough and it seems like most small-time joints go under just as they’re getting cool. Yet whether they remain for a few months or a few years, independent stores and restaurants are almost always one-of-a-kind. They also provide a place for people to come together and interact as friends and neighbors. In other words, local businesses are a city’s soul and supporting them is a worthwhile investment in community and culture.

In that spirit and in no particular order, here are of some of 2009’s best new businesses. All of them began in 2009 and hopefully, if people continue to check them out, they’ll survive for years to come.

F Stop Café — Provo cafés come and go, but F Stop’s simple offerings (mostly drinks) and chic, low-key ambiance set it a head above many of its predecessors. The café is a regular participant in Provo’s Gallery Stroll, so it also typically houses new exhibits each month. That means there is always something interesting to look at and talk about. It also means that visiting the café continues to be surprising month after month. If its warm there will be chairs and tables outside, but no matter the weather the F Stop Café is one of Provo’s newest and coolest places to hang out.

Lady Danburry Tailoring and Design- Do you ever wish you could get all your clothes tailor-made? Or just that they were designed for your body shape, instead of the platonic ideal of a woman or man? The answer to your questions is Lady Danburry Tailoring and Design, Provo’s own tailor shop. Run by Lynette Danburry, the shop sells custom clothing and can tailor the stuff you’ve already got to fit just how you like.

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