2009 Year In Review
2009 has been an exciting, yet stressful year for me. I’ve had a lot of success with my writing, some wonderful times with my family, but also some conflicts in my life that have caused me many late nights. Still, I’d say 2009 was a good year. I’d love for 2010 to be better, but that’s not necessarily in my hands. I’ll leave my future to Fate, but hope for the best and try to help things along as best I can. I hope 2010 is good for you and yours as well.
And now, for my 2009 Year In Review:
Best Movie of 2009:
Up
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see as many films in the theatre as I would have liked this year, but even when you consider rentals, the one film that has stuck with me most has been Pixar’s Up. I only saw it once in the theatre (in 3-D, of course), but I can still remember so much of it so vividly. I’ll soon be adding the Blu-ray to our collection and have no doubt time will prove it was one of the best films of the year.
Honorable Mention:
Tie: District 9 and Avatar
These are two very different takes on a very similar story – a single member of the dominate race becomes entangled in the culture of the oppressed race, winds up switching sides, and becomes his former allies’ worst enemy. It’s a classic story, told a million times, laden with plenty of White guilt from the last few hundred years and a touch of modern American/Middle East liberalism, but I don’t care; I don’t worry about the politics. What I can say, though, is that these two films blew me away in very different ways. For D9, I was impressed by the film’s grungy roots, foreign setting, all-out action, and unusual narrative format. For Avatar, the 3-D, the CGI, and the utter realism that is conveyed on screen, was amazing. I’ve already gotten D9 on Blu-ray and will be snatching up Avatar whenever it’s available in a few months.
Best “Movie I Saw in 2009 That Did Not Come Out in 2009”:
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
I started watching this one night around midnight on Netflix Streaming. I wasn’t quite ready for bed, but I didn’t want to do anything too mentally taxing. So I figured I’d start this documentary, watch it for 30 minutes or so, and then go to bed. I stayed up for the full 93 minutes and then couldn’t go to sleep for at least another 30 minutes after it was over. This film floored me. I have never been so emotionally impacted by a film. I cannot recommend this one enough, but be prepared to have a similar experience.
Honorable Mention:
Timecrimes (Los Cronocrimenes)
Sleazy, grungy, confusing, and very satisfying, I really enjoyed this Spanish tale of time travel and murder. For more, check out my review from earlier this year.
Best TV Show of 2009:
Tie: Mad Men and Lost
I know this is kind of a cheat. I don’t think I’ve ever had a tie for Best Of before, but, I have no way of being able to separate these two in my mind. They’re such completely different, yet completely fascinating shows for me, that I can’t put them on different pedestals. Lost blew us away with an incredibly fun and revealing time travel plotline. Mad Men continued to mesmerize us with the social, cultural, and emotional inner workings of 1960s America. Both are amazing at what they do, even though the two things are so unique.
Honorable Mention:
Tie: 30 Rock and Glee
My wife and I got caught up on 30 Rock this year thanks to Netflix streaming, so that we could watch the latest season as it happened. So, honestly, seasons 1-3 are going to sort of blend into season 4 (which is airing right now), to the point I can’t say exactly if 2009 was a great year for 30 Rock or if 30 Rock is great and I just happened to watch it in 2009. Either way, we love this show and wish everyone watched it. If you haven’t read my entry on Glee from the last few weeks, go read it now to get a better understanding of why I think the show is worth watching. http://www.spacemonkeyx.com/?p=983
Best iPhone/iPod App of 2009:
Tweetie 2
I’m utterly addicted to Twitter. So when I was given an iPod Touch for Christmas, I knew I was going to have to have a Twitter app. Tweetie 2 is the only one I’ve ever used and I’d have a really hard time believing there’s a better app for that (Sorry, I had to).
Honorable Mention:
Redbox
I rent from local Redbox kiosks quite a bit. And with the Redbox app, it’s even easier. The app allows you to make a list of local Redboxes that you prefer to use. You can then login to these Redboxes one-by-one and check their inventory. So if you’re looking for The Hangover, you can choose the Redbox down the street and see if it’s there. If it’s not, you choose a different Redbox from your list. Once you’ve found it at a location you like, it’s simple to reserve the movie online by using your redbox.com account. Then all you have to do is walk up to the box, swipe the credit/debit card associated with your account, and it spits out the movie. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Best Podcast:
This American Life
Every week, Ira Glass and the folks at WNYU bring amazing stories to listeners centered on a single theme. With such a diverse range of topics, it’s never boring and always insightful. Sure, there is the occasional episode that doesn’t hit on all cylinders for me, but 99% of the time, I’m riveted to my MP3 player for an hour a week. I cannot recommend it enough.
Honorable Mention:
Tie: /Filmcast and RadioLab
Dave, Devindra, Adam, and a special geeky guest are always great for insightful commentary and critique of films on the /Filmcast (pronounced “Slash Film Cast”). I don’t always agree with them, nor do I always listen to every moment of every episode (especially if the main film they’re reviewing holds no interest for me), but for my money it’s the best film show on the web and I’ve tried a bunch of them. They’re definitely the voice of the internet film critic generation. If RadioLab from WNYC were consistently releasing podcasts, they wouldn’t just be tied for Honorable Mention but would have taken it single-handedly. However, their output has been so sporadic this year that this is the best they could do.
Best Comic I Read in 2009:
The Walking Dead (All volumes, currently up-to-date)
If you’re sick of the zombie craze that has taken over pop culture, you’re obviously not reading The Walking Dead. It is by far the most realistic, emotionally-charged look at the forthcoming zombie apocalypse that you will ever read. It never pulls punches. It never cheats to keep a main character alive. Everyone is potentially a goner. And I mean everyone. It’s being adapted into a TV show by Frank Darabont (for you non-movie geeks out there, he directed Shawshank Redemption. For you geeks, he directed another horror film that pulled no punches, The Mist) and I cannot wait to see this thing played out in live-action. If they stay true to the comic, it could single-handedly destroy the cutesy image the zombie currently holds in our pop culture. It will return them to the shambling horrors they should have always been. And I can’t wait.
Honorable Mention:
AKIRA (All 6 volumes)
Yeah. I know. WTF? How can I possibly call myself a geek if I’d never read AKIRA? It was a gaping hole in my geek resume, that I finally filled this year. And it was well worth the time and effort to read. Better late than never, I guess.
Best Book I Read of 2009:
Assassination Vacation
Sarah Vowell is a unique voice in the world of nonfiction. She’s young, liberal, wears her geekiness on her sleeve and, well, you’ll notice I keep using a feminine pronoun, which is rare enough in her field. But she also has a really fun perspective on history, never treating these canonized figures as anything other than real people with real weaknesses and faults. Her tour of presidential assassination locations is a fun, brisk read that will leave you with a better feeling for history as it really was, rather than the idealized version you’ll read in most textbooks.
Honorable Mention:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
While I had major problems with this book, I’m glad I finally got around to reading it. This, coupled with AKIRA, makes my geek resume almost complete.
Best Purchase of 2009:
Nissan Cube
It was my idea to get rid of the truck. As much as I loved that thing, I knew the Saturn was not going to last forever. And when it finally goes to that big junkyard in the sky, we would need to have a vehicle with room for a car seat. The Saturn is worthless to a dealer, but my truck was still a viable trade-in option. We’d seen the Cube at least 3 years ago on an industrial design site and fell in love. That’s right: the Cube is not a new car – it’s been available in Japan since 1998. So when we heard it was finally coming to America, we thought the time was right to get rid of the truck. The Cube is unconventional. As one friend recently said about it, there are only two opinions about the Cube – Love or hate. We love it because it’s unconventional. It’s great driving around, seeing other Cubes on the road. We all wave at each other, knowing the driver has got to be of a similar mindset to have gone out and purchased such a unique vehicle. It’s kind of nice to be able to judge a book by its cover and know you’ll probably like it. For a complete review of the car itself, go here.
Honorable Mention:
Roku Box
Most people don’t even know what a Roku is, so let me give you a brief rundown. A Roku is a little box that you hook up to your home network that will allow you to stream video from Netflix or Amazon to your TV. It costs $100 with no monthly fees other than your already existing Netflix account and anything you purchase from Amazon Video-On-Demand. It’s just a portal for all this great entertainment, but lets you watch it on your TV without needing a separate computer to act as a go-between. With it, we’ve caught up on 30 Rock and Torchwood, watched a few episodes of Doctor Who, watched more than a few movies, let our daughter watch episodes of Kipper, and is our only way to watch Mad Men season 3. It’s a genius little box that has been well worth the $100 spent.
Best Website of 2009:
Amazon.com
I realize this is sort of a strange winner for Website of the Year, but, man, I use this site for everything. I use it to see what products are available, get reviews of products I’m interested in, to find out who starred in what movie, to know when something is coming out on DVD, I’ve rented movies and bought TV shows via the Video On Demand option, I check the Gold Box and MP3 deals every day, oh, and I occasionally buy stuff from Amazon, too. It’s become one of the most important websites to my daily life and I didn’t even realize it.
Honorable Mention:
Teefury.com
For years I bowed at the alter of threadless.com for all of my t-shirt needs. Then, a few months ago, I saw this image at /Film:
The shirt, called Darth Tut, was at a site called TeeFury. And it was only $11 with shipping! It became mine and I became a fan of TeeFury ever since. I’ve probably purchased more shirts from them in the past 2 months than I have in years from Threadless, simply because their designs are so well done and their shirts are so inexpensive. A solid win-win for me.
Best Time with Friends of 2009:
The Cabin
Early this summer, our friends Nikki and Jose invited us to the cabin Nikki’s parents own down near Brazil Creek (pronounced “brazzel”, because Missourians are weird like that) in southern Missouri. The creek is just a short trip down a ravine in the backyard. There’s no TV, but it does have electricity and running water, so it felt like we were roughing it, but not really. So after a full day of swimming in the creek, we played Scrabble and talked into the night, drinking beers and snacking on finger foods. It was a really fun time that I hope we can relive again next year.
Honorable Mention:
Boys’ Night Out
As a husband, father, and part-time writer, I don’t have a lot of time to go out with the guys. It doesn’t help that my guy friends live at least 45 minutes away. So what would have been a pretty typical night out a few years ago has now become one of my fondest memories of the year. I’m not sure if that’s utterly depressing or just a sign of me growing up and changing my priorities in life. Or possibly both. Either way, when my buddy JK was coming back through STL for a visit, we got a handful of us together to go out on the town. We wound up hitting Llywelyn’s in the Central West End for dinner, over to Pub Above for drinks and illegal billiards, where JK and Nate misread someone’s body language to hilarious results. In the course of the night, numerous beers were consumed, cigars smoked, and good times had.
Best Defunct Year-End Category:
Best DVD of…
I sold more DVDs in 2009 than I even considered purchasing, so I feel like this category has essentially become null and void. I’ve come to realize that the clutter and money wasted in developing a giant collection of discs that will be obsolete in a few years is just not worth it anymore. Most of time I either get a movie from a local Redbox or Netflix and watch it once. I don’t have a whole lot of time to revisit films, so that’s usually enough for me. It doesn’t help that Netflix Instant Watch and Amazon Video-On-Demand are making these physical discs less and less vital to my entertainment experience. So for now, I’ll be limiting my movie purchases to films that Andrea and I really love or that are our daughter’s favorites.
Honorable Mention:
Best CD of…
I don’t buy music anymore. It’s not that I’m out there illegally downloading it, either. With just my daily commute to work and back, I simply don’t drive enough to listen to music, let alone have the time to really explore a new album. So I stick with some of the favorites from my collection or just listen to the radio. It’s sad, but amidst all the things I have to do in a day, I had to find something to sacrifice. For me, the decision was simple.
Best Life-Changing Event of 2009:
Writing for mental_floss – the website and the magazine
In the words of Ol’ Blue Eyes, “it was a very good year”. I have been fortunate enough to maintain my freelance relationship with mental_floss online, publishing at least one full-length article every month and a couple of quizzes throughout the year. I had a streak of stories reprinted on CNN.com, as well as one on The Wall Street Journal website, and quite a few that became “Popular” on Digg. One story even made the front page of Yahoo! This led to an opportunity to submit ideas to the magazine editors, which they liked well enough to print two of them in the same issue, marking my print debut. My relationship with both entities is continuing into 2010 – I already have another assignment for the magazine and I’ll be ramping up my presence on the website to more regular posts – so I look forward to another exciting year with this excellent organization.
Honorable Mention:
Being Reprinted on CNN.com
Thanks to a relationship mental_floss has with CNN.com, sometimes stories from the site are reprinted on CNN’s site. This year I had three stories on CNN, some of which were a pretty big hit with readers. People are impressed when I say I write for mental_floss, but when they hear that I’ve been on CNN.com, it usually gets a “Wow!” out of them. And, honestly, every time I see one of my stories on the site, I still get a “Wow!” from myself, too.
Best mental_floss Article of 2009:
Get Rich Quick: 6 People Who Found a Fortune
This was not only my biggest hit article this year – ranking #12 of the website’s most popular stories for 2009 – but I also feel like it’s one of my better written stories, too. Short, concise stories that relay the information needed without a lot of superfluous backstory. I wish I could write every article this way.
Honorable Mention:
What’s a Hulu?: The Origins of 8 High-Tech Names
This one was just a lot of fun to research and write. I also feel like it’s pretty well-written, with very little fat to trim, but the topic itself was a winner in my opinion. I would have no problem if I could write articles like this on a consistent basis.
Best Monkey Entry of 2009:
Yo Gabba Gospel!
I wish I could do more entries like Yo Gabba Gospel every year. I love looking too deeply into something that really doesn’t have much more than a surface; essentially making a mountain out of a mole hill. I had a lot of fun writing this entry and would love to continually update it as I continue to watch new episodes with my daughter. But this was a pretty time-intensive entry, so these will have to be once in a blue moon.
Honorable Mention:
Watchmen V: Fearful Symmetry
I started a monumental task earlier this year – one that I would still like to find the time to finish – of reviewing every issue/chapter of the groundbreaking comic book, Watchmen. I got off to a really good start and then got sidetracked by mental_floss. But before I went back to writing to get paid, I was able to dissect one of the most important issues of the series, Fearful Symmetry. If you see how much thought was put into a single issue of a “funny book”, it might just help you look at comics a little differently.
