2008: my year in pop culture

[urbpan]

Movie of the year: Iron Man (only movie I saw in the theater).

Runners up, which may not have come out this year since I saw them all on Netflix:
The Dark Knight
Idiocracy
Futurama: Bender's Game
Evil Dead 2


Television show discovery of the year: "Flight of the Conchords."

Runner up: "Carnivale."

Contemporary TV show of the year: The debates.

Best live TV experience: waking up at midnight with the TV on and seeing Obama's acceptance speech.

Runner up: Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impersonation.


Music discovery of the year: Jonathan Coulton.

Song of the year: "Sexyback" by Poison.

Runners up: "Still Alive" and "Skullcrusher Mountain" by Jonathan Coulton and "Business Time" and "If You're Into It" by Flight of the Conchords.


Videogame of the year: Rock Band (duh) -- Seriously, I still have Grand Theft Auto 4 virtually unplayed sitting in the box somewhere in the living room. Someday I'll get bored of Rock Band and play GTA4, but not until after we get RB2 and the Beatles expansion game, and the AC/DC songs and...

Songs I like that I discovered because of our obsessive Rock Band playing: "I'm so Sick" Flyleaf, "Go with the Flow" Queens of the Stone Age, "Here it Goes Again" Ok Go, "Pleasure" Bang Camaro, "Seven" Vagiant.

Songs I hate that I discovered because of our obsessive Rock Band playing: "Train Kept A'Rollin'" Aerosmith, "Green Grass and High Tides" The Outlaws, "Run to the Hillls" Iron Maiden.

Songs that I already liked that I like even more now because of our obsessive Rock Band playing: "Enter Sandman" Metallica, "Black Hole Sun" Soundgarden, "Girl U Want" Devo.


I read a book this year. It was: While You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. It was funny.


Magazine of the year: The New Yorker. Probably the best magazine ever published, even though I only read about a third of each issue. No, wait, Mad during the 70's was better, but The New Yorker is close.

Runner up: National Geographic. Still awesome after 200 years or whatever. Great photographs plus David Quammen writes for them now.


Horrible fashion of the year: the return of neon (fluorescent colors in clothes that aren't intended for public safety). I only saw a few black teenagers wearing it, but I fear for a widespread nostalgia for this most ugly of 80's trends.

Runner up: Anything else from the 80's, or depicting female corpses as glamorous.


Worst music trend of the year: Grunge lite. Half the shit on the radio I hear sounds like electric covers of Alice in Chains unplugged. Horrible.

Runner up: The continuing mainstream acceptance of country pop. The only thing that makes this shit "country" and not rock and roll is the affected accents and the lyrics about pickup trucks. Embarrassing.

Best music video of the year: Not sure when this came out, or even if I discovered it this year or last, but I'm posting it here anyway to stand in as the best music video of the year.

Looking forward to next year: The Watchmen, Thor At the Bus Stop, the second season of "Flight of the Conchords," the fourth Futurama movie, THE NEW STAR TREK MOVIE!, getting around to picking up Rock Band 2, a president who doesn't make me cringe when I hear him talk, the kid turning 18 so that we can take her to see Jonathan Coulton.

Thinking about this stuff is my happy thing for the day. That, and the stuffed peppers Alexis made. mmmmmm stuffed peppers.



EDITED TO ADD A COUPLE THINGS