A little late, but whatever
So, here goes. My Best of the Year/Decade list. It is far too late at night to talk at length, but I'll say a little about each.
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First up we have music. A lot came out this year, and even in my current state of "not really giving a shit about new music" I still managed to pick up around a dozen albums this year. But, there can only be one best, and it is...
I couldn't name even 80% of the songs on this album just by hearing them, I couldn't give you a proper idea of the story it tells, and, hell, I've barely listened to the second half of it (compared to the first) but there wasn't a prettier album out there, and nothing I'd rather throw on and just zone out to.
Runners up: Eels - "Hombre Lobo" (New Eels album? With some badass songs on it? Yes, thank you.), The Protomen - "Act II: The Father of Death" (As a rock opera, you can't find better than this album. Which I suppose is an odd thing to say considering that my Best is also a rock opera, but it won as an album first and foremost. In terms of an interesting, engaging narrative told through music, The Protomen - combined with their debut self-titled album which is the Act I to "Father..."'s Act II - is the best I've ever heard.), They Might Be Giants - "Here Comes Science" (Yes, I am a giant nerd. A children's album about science? With awesome britpoppy songs about the visual spectrum? I'm so there.)
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Next we have movies. As far as I can remember, there hasn't been a year that I have seen as few new movies as I did this year. But, that doesn't mean that there weren't some awesome ones.
I don't think I've ever cried as much as I have seeing Up. Alanna and I also saw it on our first real date-date, so it will forevermore have a place in my heart, which just makes it all the more special. Which is appropriate, given the subject matter. I am freakishly relieved that I will probably die before she does, because holy shit. *sniffle*
Runners up: Star Trek (Another date movie. This one deserves to be on this list if only for the fact that it's Star Trek and I liked it. That alone is a goddamned triumph. Kirk is pretty pimp, I have to say.), Ponyo (Yet again, a date movie. Yet again, it's about innocence and cuteness and love. Yet again, I cried.), Where the Wild Things Are (Okay, so, looks like all my movies I saw with Alanna. Funny how that works. Anyways, this too was adorable. I didn't love it, but it was beautiful and incredibly interesting, and I can't wait to have kids so that they can watch it and explain it to me.)
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I read a lot of books this year, but, really, there weren't TOO many that actually came out in it. Still, there were some standouts.
Continuing the tradition of "this made me cry" we have I Kill Giants. I am convinced that if you read this and don't at least get a little choked up at the end, you have no soul. Powerful stuff.
Runners up: Chuck Klosterman - Eating the Dinosaur (Klosterman returns to form with a nice big collection of essays. It's laid out kinda weird, compared to his others, but you learn how it works after the first one and then you're in. Well, if you like him. Otherwise, you'll probably just hate him more for it.), Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe (New Scott Pilgrim comes out, it goes on my list. More on this later.), Kiyohiko Azuma - Yotsuba&! (Technically only volumes 6 & 7 were brand new to North America in '09, but 1-5 were reprinted as well, and it was also the year I discovered it. If you know me and know this book, you'll understand why I love it so.)
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If I didn't watch many new movies in 2009, I played even fewer new games. But, there was one that, once I heard about it, I looked forward to more than any.
Scribblenauts, while ultimately a little disappointing and kindof frustrating, was still the most interesting, new, and innovative thing I've played in a while. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and had tons of fun playing it when I did.
Runners up: Dragon Age: Origins (A real, proper RPG from some of the people who do them best. I actually beat it, and went straight back into playing it a second time once I did. That does not happen often.) [I honestly have barely played anything new this year. But, I got Assassin's Creed II and A Boy and His Blob for Christmas, and both are gorgeous and neat and I can't wait to get more of them under my belt, I just can't in good conscience give them a proper mention here.]
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This past year also happened to be the end of the decade (I swear, it is. Those "It starts at 1 not 0" people can kiss my ass) so I'm gonna go ahead and do a Best of the Decade as well.
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If you browse through my iTunes library as I did researching this, you'll find that at least half of my entire collection came out in the past 10 years. That made this pretty tough, but I did it.
I am fairly confident calling "OK Computer" the best album of the '90s, and it was pretty much the definition of how Radiohead, the best band of the past 20 years, sounded in that decade. In Rainbows is similar, in that it was the culmination of all their experimentation of the '00s. "Karma Police" off of "OK Computer" was, for a long time, one of the few songs I considered to be perfect. It was my favourite Radiohead song, and probably my favourite song period. "In Rainbows" managed to do the impossible and beat it. There isn't a song in existence that hits me in the way that "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" does, and I don't know why. It's indescribable. I can't put my finger on why it is so perfect and speaks to me so deeply, but it does. It's like falling in love. And for that song alone, "In Rainbows" is my album of the decade.
Runners up: Holy shit did a lot of big, awesome, important stuff in my life come out in the past 10 years. This was nigh impossible to compile. Modest Mouse - "The Moon & Antarctica" (The second I realized that this album came out in 2000, I knew that I was really making a list of 2 runners up, not 3. This album made me fall in love with this band, and if it wasn't for that one Radiohead song, would almost certainly be my #1), Gorillaz - "Gorillaz" (This album is still fantastic. As a whole and as a pure piece of art, there are few things that I am amazed with more than Gorillaz. This album started it all, and thus is one of my bests.), Eels - "Blinking Lights & Other Revelations" (This was the decade where I truly fell in love with Eels. And while my favourite albums of theirs came out in the '90s, "Blinking Lights..." is E's magnum opus, and is astonishing.)
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Really, there is no question when it comes to movies. There can't be.
Seriously. I mean, yes, I understand it is 3 movies, but fuck you it's The Lord of the Rings. Anyone who DOESN'T call these 3 movies collectively the best bit and most important bit of cinema in the past 10 years is wrong. Hands down. Avatar hasn't got shit on Frodo.
Runners up: This Is England (This is PROBABLY the best single movie I have ever seen. It is not as monumentally amazing and important to me as the Rings trilogy is, and isn't as big an accomplishment in the realm of film, but in terms of power and gravitas, this thing has it in spades. If you haven't seen it yet, come over.), Lost in Translation (Weird older guy feels alone and out of his element and falls for a beautiful, amazing, adorable younger girl who has no reason whatsoever to even give him the time of day? Even before I found my girl this movie spoke to me on too many levels to count.), WALL-E (A masterpiece. Easily. And way, way too cute for me to not instantly be dazzled with love. I will watch this movie for the rest of my life.)
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Since TV continues each year, and because TV is also pretty much entirely shitty, it was thusly impossible to give a Best of '09 because there's nothing I watched in '09 that started in '09. That said, the decade list was almost the hardest to compile. But, like with movies, there is nothing else I could possibly give this to.
Avatar may be the single best story I have ever seen. I don't think I've ever loved characters as much as I loved these ones, and I have never been more impressed with television as a medium. That they set out to do 3 seasons and only 3 seasons takes huge, huge balls. With a series as fantastic and popular with the demographic as this was, they could have milked it for years and years and years, but instead they went with their artistic dignity, told the story they always wanted to tell, and that was it. Now, with the live-action movie coming out this year, we'll see what happens (talk of a distant prequel or sequel series was bandied about after season 3 ended in '08, but nothing has materialized yet). And as much as I applaud them for not milking this franchise to death, the fanboy in me kinda doesn't care and really really wants them to.
Runners up: The Office (I'm sorry, but the Pam & Jim stuff just hits me right in the heart way, way too much for me to not include this show. I am a total, total sucker for that shit.), The Venture Bros. (Excluding Avatar, there hasn't ever been a show that has inspired me personally and artistically more than The Venture Bros. I wish I was friends with Doc & Jackson.), Gilmore Girls (There are no words.).
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Now, being that I am a sucker for long, long narratives when it comes to fiction, and really more a fan of authors when it comes to nonfiction, my Books of the Decade list isn't like the others, but you'll have to live with it.
Technically Scott Pilgrim won't wrap up until later this year, but you know what? I don't care. I don't care because there hasn't been a single work of any fiction or nonfiction, book, film, TV, or anything, that I have ever, ever, EVER identified with more than I do with Scott Pilgrim. This is in the running to be Book of My Life, not just Book of the Decade. I will cry when it is over, and bow before BLO'M if and when I ever see him, every time.
Runners up: Everything by Chuck Klosterman (It all came out in the past 10 years, and there are few people on the planet that I'd rather be than him, so he is on this list. Love him or hate him, I can't get enough.) everything by Sarah Vowell (I love my girlfriend to death and have no desire to ever leave her, but if I am ever in the same room with Sarah Vowell, Alanna will just have to live with being only the second-most fawned over and hugged girl in the room. I'm sorry, babe.), Y: The Last Man (When India picked their greatest citizen they, in so many words, said "Look, we know it would be Gandhi, so we're not even going to bother doing this unless we exclude him" and then picked Mother Theresa. When it comes to comic books, Scott Pilgrim is my Gandhi, and Y: The Last Man is probably my Mother Theresa.)
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Like movies and TV, there just is no contest for video games.
And like movies, anyone who doesn't say that World of Warcraft isn't the most important game of the past 10 years is completely wrong. It is the biggest behemoth the gaming world has ever seen, and will be for as long as they damned well want it to. I think they proved that persistent worlds kindof have to be the future of this hobby, and the only reason they haven't taken off and consumed the entire planet is because nothing can even touch WoW when it comes to that market space. There is without a doubt nothing I have ever played as much as I have played this. Hell, there's probably no other bit of media at all that I have ever spent as much time with as World of Warcraft. And I'm not even that hardcore about it! It's just THAT AWESOME. The fact that I've quit and come back something like 5 times is a sign that you just can't beat the gameplay. Nothing does it better.
Runners up: Compiling a list of best videogames in the decade where they were probably better than they have ever been is impossible, so I'm going to stick to the games that have amazed me the most. Grand Theft Auto IV (The whole series since 3 has, obviously, been a driving force in the world of videogames, but IV even more than the others blew me away. Even with stuff like Assassin's Creed around, I still don't think anything in a game looks as amazing as Liberty City does in GTA IV.), Katamari Damacy (It's really the whole series, and if we're being technical I don't think I've ever actually played the first one - I only ever owned We <3 Katamari - but I can't think of anything else that has completely created a genre like Katamari did. Keita Takahashi is easily one of my favourite living humans.), Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance / Final Fantasy Tactics: A2 (One of the things I prize in gaming more than anything is replay value. My dozen-plus Warcraft characters are a testament to that. And I don't think I've ever gone back and replayed a game as many times as I started up and played through FF:TA. It's not the best or most groundbreaking thing out there, but I loved it more than a lot of things. Still need to replay A2 properly. Hmm...)
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Anyways, that went on far longer than I assumed it would. My apologies. Anyways, it is now quarter to 3 and I am fucking exhausted, so I'm going to sleep. Happy New Year, people.
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First up we have music. A lot came out this year, and even in my current state of "not really giving a shit about new music" I still managed to pick up around a dozen albums this year. But, there can only be one best, and it is...
I couldn't name even 80% of the songs on this album just by hearing them, I couldn't give you a proper idea of the story it tells, and, hell, I've barely listened to the second half of it (compared to the first) but there wasn't a prettier album out there, and nothing I'd rather throw on and just zone out to.
Runners up: Eels - "Hombre Lobo" (New Eels album? With some badass songs on it? Yes, thank you.), The Protomen - "Act II: The Father of Death" (As a rock opera, you can't find better than this album. Which I suppose is an odd thing to say considering that my Best is also a rock opera, but it won as an album first and foremost. In terms of an interesting, engaging narrative told through music, The Protomen - combined with their debut self-titled album which is the Act I to "Father..."'s Act II - is the best I've ever heard.), They Might Be Giants - "Here Comes Science" (Yes, I am a giant nerd. A children's album about science? With awesome britpoppy songs about the visual spectrum? I'm so there.)
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Next we have movies. As far as I can remember, there hasn't been a year that I have seen as few new movies as I did this year. But, that doesn't mean that there weren't some awesome ones.
I don't think I've ever cried as much as I have seeing Up. Alanna and I also saw it on our first real date-date, so it will forevermore have a place in my heart, which just makes it all the more special. Which is appropriate, given the subject matter. I am freakishly relieved that I will probably die before she does, because holy shit. *sniffle*
Runners up: Star Trek (Another date movie. This one deserves to be on this list if only for the fact that it's Star Trek and I liked it. That alone is a goddamned triumph. Kirk is pretty pimp, I have to say.), Ponyo (Yet again, a date movie. Yet again, it's about innocence and cuteness and love. Yet again, I cried.), Where the Wild Things Are (Okay, so, looks like all my movies I saw with Alanna. Funny how that works. Anyways, this too was adorable. I didn't love it, but it was beautiful and incredibly interesting, and I can't wait to have kids so that they can watch it and explain it to me.)
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I read a lot of books this year, but, really, there weren't TOO many that actually came out in it. Still, there were some standouts.
Continuing the tradition of "this made me cry" we have I Kill Giants. I am convinced that if you read this and don't at least get a little choked up at the end, you have no soul. Powerful stuff.
Runners up: Chuck Klosterman - Eating the Dinosaur (Klosterman returns to form with a nice big collection of essays. It's laid out kinda weird, compared to his others, but you learn how it works after the first one and then you're in. Well, if you like him. Otherwise, you'll probably just hate him more for it.), Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe (New Scott Pilgrim comes out, it goes on my list. More on this later.), Kiyohiko Azuma - Yotsuba&! (Technically only volumes 6 & 7 were brand new to North America in '09, but 1-5 were reprinted as well, and it was also the year I discovered it. If you know me and know this book, you'll understand why I love it so.)
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If I didn't watch many new movies in 2009, I played even fewer new games. But, there was one that, once I heard about it, I looked forward to more than any.
Scribblenauts, while ultimately a little disappointing and kindof frustrating, was still the most interesting, new, and innovative thing I've played in a while. I couldn't wait to get my hands on it, and had tons of fun playing it when I did.
Runners up: Dragon Age: Origins (A real, proper RPG from some of the people who do them best. I actually beat it, and went straight back into playing it a second time once I did. That does not happen often.) [I honestly have barely played anything new this year. But, I got Assassin's Creed II and A Boy and His Blob for Christmas, and both are gorgeous and neat and I can't wait to get more of them under my belt, I just can't in good conscience give them a proper mention here.]
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This past year also happened to be the end of the decade (I swear, it is. Those "It starts at 1 not 0" people can kiss my ass) so I'm gonna go ahead and do a Best of the Decade as well.
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If you browse through my iTunes library as I did researching this, you'll find that at least half of my entire collection came out in the past 10 years. That made this pretty tough, but I did it.
I am fairly confident calling "OK Computer" the best album of the '90s, and it was pretty much the definition of how Radiohead, the best band of the past 20 years, sounded in that decade. In Rainbows is similar, in that it was the culmination of all their experimentation of the '00s. "Karma Police" off of "OK Computer" was, for a long time, one of the few songs I considered to be perfect. It was my favourite Radiohead song, and probably my favourite song period. "In Rainbows" managed to do the impossible and beat it. There isn't a song in existence that hits me in the way that "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" does, and I don't know why. It's indescribable. I can't put my finger on why it is so perfect and speaks to me so deeply, but it does. It's like falling in love. And for that song alone, "In Rainbows" is my album of the decade.
Runners up: Holy shit did a lot of big, awesome, important stuff in my life come out in the past 10 years. This was nigh impossible to compile. Modest Mouse - "The Moon & Antarctica" (The second I realized that this album came out in 2000, I knew that I was really making a list of 2 runners up, not 3. This album made me fall in love with this band, and if it wasn't for that one Radiohead song, would almost certainly be my #1), Gorillaz - "Gorillaz" (This album is still fantastic. As a whole and as a pure piece of art, there are few things that I am amazed with more than Gorillaz. This album started it all, and thus is one of my bests.), Eels - "Blinking Lights & Other Revelations" (This was the decade where I truly fell in love with Eels. And while my favourite albums of theirs came out in the '90s, "Blinking Lights..." is E's magnum opus, and is astonishing.)
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Really, there is no question when it comes to movies. There can't be.
Seriously. I mean, yes, I understand it is 3 movies, but fuck you it's The Lord of the Rings. Anyone who DOESN'T call these 3 movies collectively the best bit and most important bit of cinema in the past 10 years is wrong. Hands down. Avatar hasn't got shit on Frodo.
Runners up: This Is England (This is PROBABLY the best single movie I have ever seen. It is not as monumentally amazing and important to me as the Rings trilogy is, and isn't as big an accomplishment in the realm of film, but in terms of power and gravitas, this thing has it in spades. If you haven't seen it yet, come over.), Lost in Translation (Weird older guy feels alone and out of his element and falls for a beautiful, amazing, adorable younger girl who has no reason whatsoever to even give him the time of day? Even before I found my girl this movie spoke to me on too many levels to count.), WALL-E (A masterpiece. Easily. And way, way too cute for me to not instantly be dazzled with love. I will watch this movie for the rest of my life.)
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Since TV continues each year, and because TV is also pretty much entirely shitty, it was thusly impossible to give a Best of '09 because there's nothing I watched in '09 that started in '09. That said, the decade list was almost the hardest to compile. But, like with movies, there is nothing else I could possibly give this to.
Avatar may be the single best story I have ever seen. I don't think I've ever loved characters as much as I loved these ones, and I have never been more impressed with television as a medium. That they set out to do 3 seasons and only 3 seasons takes huge, huge balls. With a series as fantastic and popular with the demographic as this was, they could have milked it for years and years and years, but instead they went with their artistic dignity, told the story they always wanted to tell, and that was it. Now, with the live-action movie coming out this year, we'll see what happens (talk of a distant prequel or sequel series was bandied about after season 3 ended in '08, but nothing has materialized yet). And as much as I applaud them for not milking this franchise to death, the fanboy in me kinda doesn't care and really really wants them to.
Runners up: The Office (I'm sorry, but the Pam & Jim stuff just hits me right in the heart way, way too much for me to not include this show. I am a total, total sucker for that shit.), The Venture Bros. (Excluding Avatar, there hasn't ever been a show that has inspired me personally and artistically more than The Venture Bros. I wish I was friends with Doc & Jackson.), Gilmore Girls (There are no words.).
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Now, being that I am a sucker for long, long narratives when it comes to fiction, and really more a fan of authors when it comes to nonfiction, my Books of the Decade list isn't like the others, but you'll have to live with it.
Technically Scott Pilgrim won't wrap up until later this year, but you know what? I don't care. I don't care because there hasn't been a single work of any fiction or nonfiction, book, film, TV, or anything, that I have ever, ever, EVER identified with more than I do with Scott Pilgrim. This is in the running to be Book of My Life, not just Book of the Decade. I will cry when it is over, and bow before BLO'M if and when I ever see him, every time.
Runners up: Everything by Chuck Klosterman (It all came out in the past 10 years, and there are few people on the planet that I'd rather be than him, so he is on this list. Love him or hate him, I can't get enough.) everything by Sarah Vowell (I love my girlfriend to death and have no desire to ever leave her, but if I am ever in the same room with Sarah Vowell, Alanna will just have to live with being only the second-most fawned over and hugged girl in the room. I'm sorry, babe.), Y: The Last Man (When India picked their greatest citizen they, in so many words, said "Look, we know it would be Gandhi, so we're not even going to bother doing this unless we exclude him" and then picked Mother Theresa. When it comes to comic books, Scott Pilgrim is my Gandhi, and Y: The Last Man is probably my Mother Theresa.)
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Like movies and TV, there just is no contest for video games.
And like movies, anyone who doesn't say that World of Warcraft isn't the most important game of the past 10 years is completely wrong. It is the biggest behemoth the gaming world has ever seen, and will be for as long as they damned well want it to. I think they proved that persistent worlds kindof have to be the future of this hobby, and the only reason they haven't taken off and consumed the entire planet is because nothing can even touch WoW when it comes to that market space. There is without a doubt nothing I have ever played as much as I have played this. Hell, there's probably no other bit of media at all that I have ever spent as much time with as World of Warcraft. And I'm not even that hardcore about it! It's just THAT AWESOME. The fact that I've quit and come back something like 5 times is a sign that you just can't beat the gameplay. Nothing does it better.
Runners up: Compiling a list of best videogames in the decade where they were probably better than they have ever been is impossible, so I'm going to stick to the games that have amazed me the most. Grand Theft Auto IV (The whole series since 3 has, obviously, been a driving force in the world of videogames, but IV even more than the others blew me away. Even with stuff like Assassin's Creed around, I still don't think anything in a game looks as amazing as Liberty City does in GTA IV.), Katamari Damacy (It's really the whole series, and if we're being technical I don't think I've ever actually played the first one - I only ever owned We <3 Katamari - but I can't think of anything else that has completely created a genre like Katamari did. Keita Takahashi is easily one of my favourite living humans.), Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance / Final Fantasy Tactics: A2 (One of the things I prize in gaming more than anything is replay value. My dozen-plus Warcraft characters are a testament to that. And I don't think I've ever gone back and replayed a game as many times as I started up and played through FF:TA. It's not the best or most groundbreaking thing out there, but I loved it more than a lot of things. Still need to replay A2 properly. Hmm...)
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Anyways, that went on far longer than I assumed it would. My apologies. Anyways, it is now quarter to 3 and I am fucking exhausted, so I'm going to sleep. Happy New Year, people.