Outsideleft's Top 50 Stories from 2007

A fleeting glance back to Outsideleft's Top 50 Most Popular Stories, published in 2007 and our most popular poem too. As ever, we don't want to know why you read what you do but we're glad you do it. Our bullwarks are all in place here, Alex, Lake, Joe, Paul. Alarcon came roaring back with a vengeance. That 2007 easily brought our strongest contributions ever, makes us really excited about 08. We're looking forward to reading more not only from our most established writers but also the newer contributors like Ruby, Kelsey, Wayne, J.Ch, and oh so many more its too early in the day to type the names important though they are. Anyway 2007's Top 50...

1. The Tubes and You #1: Pussyamazing by Alex V. Cook
   In this first of many trawls through the vast seas of YouTube and the like, we find a specimen that teaches us the more we lose, the more we gain. In her underwear.
2. Morrissey in Pasadena: Night 1 of 3 by Alarcon
   "Don't cry for me, Pasadena," crooned the evening's headliner, arm elegantly raised up, as he made his way center stage, almost as if he was channeling the dead old bones of Evita Peron herself.
3. Keep Clapping and Keep Saying Yeah by Alex V. Cook
   Clap Your Hands Say Yeah return with a deep and lovely expansion on the sound that caught people's ears to begin with
4. Happy Shopper #11: Jennifer Herrema by Alex V. Cook
   Jennifer Herrema, former rock goddess of Royal Trux, Calvin Klein, and current one of RTX struts down our psychic catwalk.
5. Wembley Stadium - Architecture / Regeneration / Gentrification by Joe Ambrose
   International football landmark, Wembley Stadium is again shiny and renewed. Joe Ambrose stands in its shadows
6. The Black Michael Jackson by Joe Ambrose
   Joe Ambrose discovers the joys of portliness and the disappearance of the Black Michael Jackson
7. Morrissey in Pasadena: Night 2 of 3 by Alarcon
   In many ways, "Bout Two" was a vastly improved affair. Morrissey's voice was still pitch-perfect, as it was the night before, but the old man seemed much more focused tonight.
8. Sziget 2007: Part the First by Caiomhin Millar
   Dublin's Caiohmin Millar spends a week at Sziget, he says, but even he's no longer certain of such things...
9. Morrissey in Pasadena: Night 3 of 3 by Alarcon
   Morrissey's third night at the Pasadena Civic started out with incredible promise. Maybe because there was a charge in the air that hadn't been there the previous two nights.
10. Drop Your Margaritas and Run Naked in the Streets by Alex V. Cook
    Blitzen Trapper falls like a flaming meteor on a dull summer and sends me into a frenzy
11. Harry Potter and the Sword of Love by Joe Ambrose
    Joe Ambrose wonders why Daniel Radcliffe's dick doesn't sell more tickets. I think...
12. Dear Girl... We Have a Panty Problem by Erin Pipes
    Dear Girl, Erin Pipes, gets to the heart of a young man's panty problem...
13. Black Stars and White Dwarfs by Alex V. Cook
    Mos Def and Talib Kweli pushed the boundaries of hip hop as it was experienced by white audiences in 1998 on Black Star, and they both continue to push on the respective recent releases.
14. North American Scum by LamontPaul
    LCD Soundsytem's North American Scum wins a grammy and gets appropriated as a political campaign anthem for 08. I don't think... But that doesn't mean it isn't great
15. Happy Shopper #12: Brini Maxwell by LamontPaul
    Brini Maxwell, the Style Channel and NPR Tastemaker is the latest and most welcome outsideleft.com Happy Shopper
16. A Day in the Life with LCD Soundsystem by Alex V. Cook
    James Murphy has provided a thorough analysis of my busiest work day in months.
17. 300 Words From London - Cricket World What? by Lake
    Lake rakes over the two month festival of cricket that most people have chosen to ignore.
18. Don't Eat the Brown Lutefisk by Alex V. Cook
    You didn't know it, but in the late 60s/early 70s, sunny Finland was the freakiest scene around, recently mapped for the first time.
19. Picard vs Palpatine / Shakespeare vs Ibsen by Lake
    There's a battle raging on the London stage between two titans of sci-fi cinema. In one corner Senator Palpatine has teamed up with Ibsen and in the other Captain Picard (or Professor X if you prefer) has called on Shakespeare. The winner will face Magneto's long awaited King Lear at Stratford in an attempt to be crowned the undisputed heavyweight of Sci-Fi Theatre.
20. All Aboard the Rad Times Xpress - Alex V. Cook interviews RTX's Jennifer Herrema by Alex V. Cook
    RTX's Jennifer Herrema has no problem with being a model and will take up Axl Rose's theorhetical offer of an opening slot
21. Five Sonnets on Arcade Fire's Neon Bible by Alex V. Cook
    There once was a band from Quebec....
22. American Neon #2: Burning Man by Shane O'Reilly
    For 7 days each year, if Burning Man isn't the 51st State of the USA, it's a least 'an outlying territory' Shane O'Reilly immerses himself...
23. A Tangier Christmas Whipping by Joe Ambrose
    Joe Ambrose witnesses a christmas whipping on the street in Tangier
24. Me So Horny!, or, Jazz is Discovered to Still Exist by Alex V. Cook
    New records by Ornette Coleman and David S. Ware are vibrant examples of jazz that blows past the walls of snobbery keeping jazz underground.
25. 300 Words From London: Damien Hirst Goes To Church by Lake
    More pills, not many thrills and a bit of religious belly aching. Damien Hirst. God. Again.
26. 300 Words From London: Me and David Beckham by Lake
    With David Beckham set to boom or bust US "soccer" Lake recalls a time when the two of them sat at the same table... Only days apart.
27. Redemption Song - The Ballad Of Joe Strummer by Paul Hawkins
    Paul Hawkins meets Joe Strummer's definitive biographer Chris Salewicz
28. Shellac is a natural polymer and is chemically similar to synthetic polymers by Alex V. Cook
    The mighty Shellac return from the abyss with enough broken shards of integrity to slice down the veil of inadequacy around us all.
29. Neate Neate Neate by Lake
    Adam Neate - artist. So good we ran him twice. A previous Happy Shopper and a very popular one. We revisit him with a more in depth feature. Well, as in depth as we get...
30. Dan Sartain at The 100 Club by Joe Ambrose
    Dan Sartain warms up the 100 Club and Joe Ambrose tells how...
31. C'mon, Get Weird on Me by Alex V. Cook
    Bardo Pond and Califone fulfill the unrealized promise for weirdness in classic psyche rock
32. A Funny Story About King Kong by Alex V. Cook
    King Kong's latest idiot savant party breakdown masterpiece is the Proust's madelines of my misspent bachelor years
33. And the Oscar goes to... Keira Knightley by Ruby Lake
    Atonement is this summer's most highly anticipated British movie. One of our London correspondents has seen it already. Wait a minute, it's a 15 certificate should she have even been allowed in there...
34. Writing on the Walls of Death With Dax Riggs by Alex V. Cook
    The former Deadboy emerges to save rock 'n' roll with a needed shot of teen death sex energy.
35. Moff Jerjerrod and I by Karl Morgan
    Karl Morgan sets foot on the Death Star
36. Tom Waits On A Plane by Belle Plankton
    To some, he was a fake boho hobo, and then there's the rest of the world, who have loved and delighted in him all along... Tom Waits, a brief encounter with our Belle
37. Happy Shopper #13: Edwyn Collins by LamontPaul
    Edwyn Collins is well known for his international hit record 'A Girl Like You' but did you know, he can be a keen shopper too...
38. Skin + Bones + Drainpipes by LamontPaul
    Skin+Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture is big and beautiful and happening at MOCA
39. The Hip-Priest of the Hyperreal by Alex V. Cook
    Mark E. Smith emerges out of the dust of Baudrillard's demise with a new band, a new record and old wisdom
40. The Top 50 Most Popular Outsideleft Stories...Ever by LamontPaul
    Now that's what I call... the most widely read stories published by outsideleft since our time together began...
41. Weirder and Weirderer by Alex V. Cook
    Deerhoof and Hella are but two of the emerging personalities in the fractured pantheon of weird rock genius.
42. Possessed By the Devil's Comedic Timing by Alex V. Cook
    While the world goes to hell, Gorgoroth's over-the-top Satanic malevolence puts a smile on my face.
43. I'm in H&M Heaven When You Smile... by LamontPaul
    Madonna's M line at H&M is a good reason to get back to the shops
44. Happy Shopper #14 - Tracks by Lake
    Minimalist instrumentalist Tracks. From the North West of London with odd interludes in the North East of England. Like an ASBO John Fahey his new CD on Red Guard records gives us the creeps. In a good way.
45. Magritte: Pipesmoker by LamontPaul
    Ren?© Magritte is the pipesmoker. That's possibly how you know him best, from 'La trahison des images' (the tragedy of images) Magritte's famous image of The Pipe coupled with the expression, Ceci n'est pas une pipe. This is not a pipe.
46. The Violinist and the Doll Collector by Alex V. Cook
    Tony Conrad and Charlemagne Palestine, two of the giants of minimalism, cross the beams and destroy the universe, only to rebuild it anew.
47. Postmodern Dutch Rub, or, Is That Anything like a Rusty Trombone? by Alex V. Cook
    The Bent Moustache sound a lot like The Fall. A whole lot, and that is just the tip of their greatness.
48. Boom Shakka Lakka - Live in London - Sly Stone Now by Joe Ambrose
    Joe Ambrose tastes the magic in the air at Lovebox
49. Cosmo-Politician: The Times Are Not-A Changin'... Yet by Paul Hawkins
    Modern day revolutionary songsmith and all round political agitator Cosmo has been around
50. The Shins are Here! The Shins are (yawn)..excuse me...here! by Alex V. Cook
    The greatest band in the history of all recorded mankind returns to up that ante of how much of their sad-sack shit you are going to put up with before you finally break up with them.
51. Morning Tide by Debra Ifill
    Celebrated New York Poet, Debra Ifill returns with her latest poem, Morning Tide