And these are a few of my favourite things...(from 2007)

Here's my Top 5 lists of some fab things about 2007.

Films
1. The science of sleep
2. The last king of Scotland
3. The lives of others
4. 2 days in paris
5. Eagle vs shark / Pan’s Labyrinth

This year was a great for little indie films. I think we saw most of the films in Jan/Feb, and found the rest of the year didn’t have anything better to offer.

Music
1. UNKLE – War Stories
2. Raising Sand – Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
3. Bjork - Volta
4. Rufus Wainwright – Release the Stars

I found I haven’t really listened to a lot of new music this year, hence I can’t even think of a 5th album. The UNKLE album was a bit of a grower, and the last two had sparkling moments, but certainly weren’t great albums. The only thing that really knocked me out was the production on the Robert & Alison album. T Bone Burnett has done a cracking job (Gone, gone gone and Rich Woman are fabulous).
For 2008 I’m really looking forward to new albums by Portishead, Isobel and Mark Lanegan, Madonna and Courtney Love.

Food
1. Café Meitreya
2. Teoh’s
3. Pieminster

Books/Magazines
1. Bust
2. Fingerprint – the art of using handmade elements
3. Design it yourself – ellen lupton
4. The crafter culture – amy spencer
5. Fashion market 1 (Japanese book about London indie crafty businesses)
6. Craft Magazine – a cute A5 US publication. It even had an article on Phranc (lesbian folk artist from the 80’s) who makes everyday objects out of paper (shirts, boots).

Gigs
1. Bjork doing ‘declare independence’ at Glastonbury with all the flags waving.
2. Jarvis Cocker – Electric Picnic singing ‘boys are back in town’ to Phil Lynott’s home crowd.
3. Gossip – Glastonbury. This was the final gig of the whole Standing in mud all day and Beth Ditto showing us how amazing her voice is, and stage diving into the crowd.
4. Courtney Love’s birthday gig – mad, bad and dangerous to encounter.
5. Portishead’s acoustic thing at Mr Wolf and them doing new songs at Butlins.
6. Beastie Boys doing ‘Sabotage’ twice at their multi-gigged time at the Electric Picnic in Ireland.

RIP
Miss Isabella Blow (the fashion business is a poorer place without your eccentricity)

(c) David Lachapelle