A Dozen Ways Sufjan Stevens Spent 2008

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Brian Wilson finally gave us a Smile in 2007. Chinese Democracy miraculously saw the light of day last year. Would it be too much to hope that 2009 is the year of Oregon? Or New Jersey? Or even a Rhode Island EP? Sufjan Stevens' second of his proposed 50-state project was Paste's album of the year way back in 2005, and he's been pretty coy about whether he's planning a follow-up or even whether he was ever serious about the project. Still, he's been doing more than learning how to hula hoop over the last 12 months. Here's a dozen ways Mr. Stevens spent 2008:

1. Releasing a video for "Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake"
This trippy instrumental track from The Avalanche slips by mostly unnoticed in under two minutes, but got new life early last year with equally trippy animation from Siebren Versteeg. The video is one of five Stevens projects on Asthamatica Vol. 1, a DVD compilation from Asthmatic Kitty Records. Also included is a live version of "Jacksonville" from Calvin College (that's me in the audience), "The Undivided Self," "The Vivian Girls..." and "Put the Lights on the Tree."



2. Introducing The Best Nonrequired Reading 2007
Steven's essay acts less as a preamble and more as Entry #1 of the Dave Eggers-edited compilation—a poignant, revealing account of his early struggles with learning how to read. The entire essay is available at the Houghton Mifflin website.

3. Joining Sen. Ted Stevens in a battle against a Hillary Clinton robot
At least that's what the cartoon version of Sufjan was doing (with his electric banjo gun).

4. Scoring Natalie Portman's directorial debut
Portman's 22-minute short film, Eve, stars Olivia Thirlby, Lauren Bacall and Ben Gazzara also features music from Sufjan Stevens. A tipster to The Playlist reported that "his style was recognizable: piano, very melancholic, it was all instrumental." Stevens told Stereogum, "I was asked to add only piano, no songs, no arrangements, just quiet, sad, romantic flourishes. Ah! My forte! They sent me scenes, and I performed and recorded all the music in real time, watching the video files on my computer. I don't especially like music in film, but this one had a few of those awkward, quiet woman-sitting-at- the-mirror-thinking-about-something-important scenes which ask for opera. Lauren Bacall, sans make-up, looking into the heart of the world. It's like some kind of sad sorcery. But I don't think I'd do this again, not unless Gus Van Sant called me, or if Kieslowski was raised from the dead, or if Cassavetes was raised from the dead, or if Antonioni was raised from the dead." There are no plans for distribution of either the film or its soundtrack.

5. Touring Australia
Stevens traveled to Syndey, Melbourne and Brisbane for a mini-tour Down Under. My friend Stephanie Black took this photo at The State Theatre in Sydney:



6. Joking about a New Jersey musical
On the heels of 2007's The BQE, his three-night orchestral extravaganza at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stevens tells New York magazine, "I'm obsessed with the Jersey Turnpike right now. It's so perfected and so efficient. It’s like a military endeavor—it was built by postwar military personnel, and they ran the whole enterprise like the army. And it’s an artery from New York, the great metropolis, to the rural countryside, South Jersey. And it’s very expensive. I like the tolls. I like that you have to pay to drive." When asked if this was his next musical project, he replied with a laugh: "New Jersey, the musical. An ode to the turnpike."