Top N
As usual, my end of the year musings are pretty much exclusively dominated by what happened in the past 6 weeks, making my impression of 2008 be that of a pretty stressful year. Forcing myself to look back with a little bit wider lens, though, I think it was actually pretty good. Ross already mentioned that it’s been a good year for movies, but it’s been pretty sweet on a bunch of other fronts, too. Here’s some stuff just off the top of my head. These don’t occupy any order other than they’re what’s on my mind.
Best Music
This year was pretty heavily December-ended with my end-of-November birthday and Christmas supplying most of my year’s musical acquisitions. Lindsay Anderson’s If, wherein L’Altra’s chanteuse cuts a solo album and it’s pretty sweet. Beach House’s Devotion I got for Christmas and is on heavy rotation at the moment. Dreamy and intense. And even though it didn’t come out this year, Bibio’s Hand Cranked is like the best album ever made.
Best Movies
Punisher: War Zone – ridiculously severe and surprisingly filigreed shoot-em-up.
Dark Knight riff trax – ANYBODY WANNA GO TO SHAKEY’S?
Best Video Games
I think I missed every important video game release this year due to outdated equipment. Didn’t play anything old I found especially memorable, either. I think my 2008 videogaming experience can be summed up by me playing through phantasy star I and II on game boy advance, hating every minute of it, but just finishing it because I started it.
Best Gaming
It’s been a banner year for roleplaying since Ross started 2 new games, I ended 2, and a few others have had significant streaks of riveting storyline. It even spurred me to write and submit a few short stories.
Best Movie Night
I think both Ross and I had visions of some Ultimate Movie NIght where it would be me, Ross, Dan, Mark, Rob, and Andrey. We even had a list of “ringers” all lined up and ready to go, but alas it wasn’t to be as everyone’s post-Christmas schedules were just too divergent. Nevertheless, there were several memorable movie nights this year, including I think the Avatar run (? was that this year?), and the He-Man/She-Ra specials.
Best Science
Mark hit the big time this year [link updated], and Chu laid down a monster Applied Optics paper.
Best Books
Devoured a shitload of Delany and a bunch of Conan comics, too. Have to say I’m still pretty into them both, though I think I’ve basically plumbed the depths of both of these wells at this point. But I’m looking foward to reading Delany and Howard Chaykin’s comic Empire: A Visual Novel which I got for Christmas.
Best Future
Also giving a lot of thought to what 2009 will hold, of course. Basically invested the whole of my being in the NSF fellowship application I have in, and will probably end up dying if I don’t get it. Leaving the professional stuff aside, I think the thing I look forward to most is Darren’s triumphant return to movie night.
So what have you guys been into this year? What are you looking forward to in the future?
December 30th, 2008 at 3:04 am
Best album:
Of the very small number of albums I purchased in 2008, I’d say the best was “Keep Your Eyes Ahead” by the Helio Sequence. Jesu’s “Conqueror,” which I think came out at the beginning of 2008, was also good.
Some more-or-less pop songs I enjoyed in 2008:
Lupe Fiasco, “Dumb it Down”; Coldplay, “Violet Hill”; Charlatans, “Oh! Vanity”; Kings of Leon, “Sex on Fire”; M.I.A., “Paper Planes”
Best old movie I happened to discover in 2008:
“Sanjuro” (Akira Kurosawa, dir.)
Best reading:
Roberto Bolaño, “The Savage Detectives” (also “2666,” which is starting strong); Junot Díaz, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao”; José Saramago, “Blindness”; Érico Veríssimo, “O Senhor Embaixador”
Best Mexican food, non-taco truck category:
Chicken burrito at Chuy’s Taqueria (Winters, CA location)
Best Mexican food, taco truck category:
Adobada and cabeza (beef cheek) tacos at El Paisano (Woodland, CA)
Best retail experience:
Browsing through and buying antique maps at the mighty Schein & Schein (Grant Ave., San Francisco)
Best urban discovery:
New Orleans; San Francisco (tie)
Best upgrade:
Ditching my 1992 Chevy Caprice wagon for a 2008 Toyota Corolla; getting an office (runner-up)
Best wine:
Pretty much anything made by August Briggs (Calistoga, CA).
Best gift:
Getting an unwanted but awesome leather jacket for free from my ex-girlfriend’s cousin.
Best political story, paradigm-shift category:
Obama elected president…obviously.
Best career move:
Taking a position at UC Davis; taking a temporary position at a Providence landscaping company (runner-up)
Best dodging of bullet:
Not having a basal cell carcinoma (relatively mild form of skin cancer) on my nose.
Best silver lining:
Watching the devastating economic crisis actually get people talking about better regulation and more infrastructure spending, and watching free market fundamentalism crash and burn (for now).
Best celebrity sighting:
James Franco at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, two days ago.
Best future:
Spending a month in Brazil this summer if I have enough cash; moving to Sacramento at the end of the summer; hopefully realizing my dream of owning a white suit at some point; attending an expanded movie night soon!
December 30th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I greatly enjoyed reading your guys take on the year of 2008. I’m glad to see that the site is still kicking. I believe darren is working on a best music list.
I’m not sure I can be as extensive as you guys. I really have to do a new to me list.
Best Album:
Chessie – Manifest. Preordered this to get the special edition photo. Listened to it a lot. Last time I checked their myspace had most of the songs I consider to be standouts.
Best Television:
24, watched through it all for the first time this year. Great experience all around.
Best Video Game:
For me 2008 will likely become the year I got back into gaming. I’m on a quest. To find another game that grabs me as much as quake 3 arena instagib. games I played this year. portal is definitely incredible. the valve experience has in a way made feel a deeper appreciation for what I do.
Best Movie Night:
have to agree with zach about he man, although charlie brown was pretty good as well
Best future:
I look forward to some more podcasts. getting a new computer and playing some games. getting into roguelikes.
December 31st, 2008 at 12:32 am
Did you watch the He-Man cartoon, or the incredibly strange movie?
December 31st, 2008 at 2:21 pm
a lot of albums i liked came out this year, mostly new albums from existing bands, so it was a pretty good year on that front for me. new Bella Morte, Dragonforce, In This Moment, Walls of Jericho blah blah blah some other bands.
i think i saw more movies in the theater this year than i’ve seen in the past 5 years combined. best ones were Iron Man, Punisher: War Zone, and Rambo 4.
the biggest disappointment was Romero’s Diary of the Dead, even though i somehow knew i wouldn’t like it beforehand. and i think had Dan not been so aggressively disgusted and angry with the movie that i would’ve disliked it more than i did, instead of being compelled to defend the movie from him and find good things about it. actually i was more disappointed in Indiana Jones 4, i just remembered that. ugh. actually maybe Vin Diesel’s Babylon AD. although i think i also knew that would suck, too, but i wanted so bad for it to be awesome. sorry, Vin. we’re such kindred spirits in our floundering careers.
best 2007 movie i saw in 2008 was Inside, as i think zach can attest to. i also got into the rest of the Death Wish movies which are pretty sweet. best 2008 movies that i saw later in the year on video were Jumper and The Ruins. pretty awesome.
i can’t remember any specifically bad or good things that happened to me this year that i could list here, everything kind of blurred together. most of it was spent writing scripts/comic pitches that nobody liked, reading news about the world blowing, and getting a slew of terrible reviews for my book Water Baby. my book The Abandoned came out in Italy this yea, that’s pretty cool.
can’t even remember what books and comics i read… the Ruins? that was good. i think i read a bunch of HP Lovecraft, that wasn’t bad.
best movie nights were definitely both He-Man/She-Ra movies, Inside, Spawn, Wicker Man remake.
worst movie night: “hypothetical situation girl” debate night, and the one where Rob didn’t show up
best movie we should have seen: Twilight, on opening night
dumbest movie performance: Michael Caine/Alfred
best show i got into: Battlestar Galactica
best weather: snow
worst game i ran: Zombie Game 2
hottest: Melonie Diaz, Jennifer Hudson, Selena Gomez, Francia Raisa, Keke Palmer, Tamarr the Wegmans cashier, and of course the always smokin’ Rachael Ray
best new tea: constant comment
best youtube discovery: Mitch Magee’s Welcome to My Study (http://www.youtube.com/user/mitchmagee)
December 31st, 2008 at 10:42 pm
ross, you’re always welcome to enjoy the things that i’ve found.
January 1st, 2009 at 9:22 am
not to promote myself, but I dont think that that link you have about me links to what you mean it to
January 1st, 2009 at 7:50 pm
hmmm…when i first looked at it, it wasn’t behind a subscription wall, and had your stuff further on down the line in the article. i’ll find a better link.