Favorite Movies of 2011

a little late to the "best of" 2011 party, but here's my 10 favorite movies of last year. in no particular order... i couldn't decide. too tough.

1. the muppets (clever, sweet and just super fun. i'd say this movie wins the funnest movie of the year in my book. on a side note - the music makes me miss flight of the conchords even more than i already did.)

2. the artist (very, very clever as well. beautifully made and it takes an idea that could have so easily felt like a gimmick and ended up just making a beautiful film)

3. arthur christmas (this one was the biggest surprise - i absolutely loved this. not ashamed to admit that i teared up at least a couple times. it's very funny, very sweet and the story is just great. was pretty sure i wasn't going to be a fan and i'm so glad i was way wrong. it's great)

4. being elmo (really great documentary about how elmo came to be. as if you needed more reason to love elmo, this movie manages to give plenty more reasons. very sweet story.)

5. x-men: first class (aside from christopher nolan's batman movies, i haven't had this much fun at an action/comic book movie in a long while. and it's certainly my favorite x-men movie. loved it)

6. super 8 (come on... it has all the right ingredients: jj abrams, spielberg (and spielberg-ness), beautiful score (mr. giacchino!), an alien/monster, great kid actors, coach taylor from friday night lights... win, win, win.)

7. attack the block (it's been compared to district 9 a billion times already, but it's true - a small-ish budget alien movie that is actually great. enjoyed it a bunch.)

8. drive (this movie is intense. i loved it - it's brutal, but i was thoroughly engrossed the entire time.)

9. bridesmaids (the winner of the funniest movie of the year in my book. kristen wiig is something special. a comedic force of nature)

10. harry potter and the deathly hollows - part 2. (a great conclusion to a really great, fun series)

more movies that i loved last year: 50/50, win-win, moneyball, crazy stupid love, hugo, harry potter, mission impossible: ghost protocol, midnight in paris, the tree of life ... and i'm sure there are plenty more. definitely missed a couple i wanted to see... i might have to add to the list later, i suppose. i sure do love lists. anyway...

how about you?!? what were your absolute favorite movies of 2011??

much love, ryan

ps. i did not include "breaking dawn" ONLY because i'm obviously a bit biased, of course! i enjoyed the movie a TON. fact.

"Yearbook" Box Set Have Arrived! (Photos)

the "yearbook" CD box sets have arrived! so thrilled with how they turned out!! and i am pleased to announce that we have already begun shipping these beauts... 

here's some pictures of the set...

box front (logo foil stamped in white!)

box (featuring a slide-out tray)

36-page booklet (lyrics, liner notes!)

12 5"x5" art cards (on thick watercolor-like paper!)

cd sleeve and disc

all 3 discs

all together now...

love, ryan

"Turning Page" Live (Video)

about a month ago, i spent a day in my favorite studio in the universe, electrical audio in chicago. my time there was multi-purposed - i wanted to film the upcoming official music video for my song "emphasis" there, but since the studio has so much incredible live recording gear, i also though it would be fun to do several live song performances as well. several of those tracks will be released in the coming months, in addition to the "emphasis" official video. one of the songs i filmed was a piano and vocal only live version of "turning page" from the breaking dawn soundtrack/movie.

it has been officially posted - hope you enjoy it!

HUGE, huge, huge thanks to following folks for making this video possible!

Mixed by Chris Bethea
Engineered by Greg Norman
Directed by Bob Davidson
Produced by Justin Ahrens and Rule29
Director of Photography: Brian MacDonald
Production by Wonderkind Studios
Edited by Jose Rivera

love, ryan

"Noble Aim" Rehearsal (Video)

i spent the entire month of november in the beautiful warmth and scenery of los angeles. i had a truly wonderful time out there! one of my favorite parts of the visit was meeting incredible people who i'm privileged to now call friends! while i was in town i played a show at my favorite LA venue, the hotel cafe. it was a solo show - a very intimate type of set, which was a ton of fun to put together. in the weeks leading up the show, i asked several new friends to be guests on a few songs in my set.

it was a really fun night for me and i can't thank my pals enough for lending me their talents for the evening!

matt mugford played electric guitar, gloriously on a few songs.

david hodges, who not only played a set of his own songs that evening, also played piano on a few songs of mine. and he did so, impeccably! keith tutt played cello on a handful of songs, excellently.

lucy schwartz sang backup on "next to me", ever so lovely-like. (laura's a twilight soundtrack artist too)

laura scott sang with me on a song called "noble aim"... laura is from an incredible duo called "imperial mammoth" which consists of her and her amazing husband, leonard. they're such lovely people! they too were featured on the breaking dawn soundtrack/film... so we are most certainly twi-buds (4 life)...

anywho, here's a video of laura scott and i practicing "noble aim" before the hotel cafe show, in laura and leonards lovely home.

much love, ryan

One Year Ago Today...

one year ago today, the "december" yearbook EP was released!

it was the 3rd ep in the yearbook series, and the final ep for 2010. i can hardly believe its been a year already! i remember really enjoying writing this ep... the previous months (october and november) were just getting things started, so deadlines and schedules were a little more manageable, or dare i say comfortable. working on the december ep, that was when things really got cooking in terms of schedule challenges. in the middle of writing the december songs, i also decided that we needed to keep traditions going and still record the annual christmas song cover, and for some reason i got it in my head that we should record two christmas covers that year. why not? in retrospect, the answer to that "why not" would have been because writing, recording and releasing 3 original songs is tough... but i'm glad i didn't have reasoning back then. it all got done and i'm very proud of how december turned out!

for those of you that don't know, i've taken a little time to write some posts about the making of each song from yearbook. i am still making my way through the series, but i did write about each of the december songs (including my very first original Christmas song, "snow") - explaining some backstory, how it came to be, lyrics, etc. if you're interested, here's some links:

Accidental Light

From the Ground Up

Snow

thanks for reading, guys!! happy december and happy anniversary to the "december" yearbook ep!

much love, ryan