My Favorites of 2011

These are my favorite posts to write because I actually have time to write them out and think about them.

So here are some of my favorite things of 2011.  I’m not doing movies this year, because let’s face it, movies sucked this year.  If you must know, I really liked Super 8, Harry Potter 7 Part 2, and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  But that’s about it.

Top 10 Albums 

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#10

The Rip Tide by Beirut

Favorite Track - "Santa Fe"

While not Beirut’s best effort, it wasn’t their worst either.  We got some great tracks from this album like “Santa Fe” and “Vagabond” as well as a solid group of Beirut songs that fit right in with their other foreign sounding indie rock albums.

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#9

James Blake by James Blake

Favorite Track - "Limit To Your Love"

Dubstep? R&B/Soul? Prolific Pitchfork posterchild?  James Blake seems to encapsulate all of these.  Avoiding the everpresent “brostep” that has invaded frat houses and dorm rooms everywhere, James Blake has come out of his hidey hole in Britain and given us a lot of great music with a variety of influences creating a unique and original sound.

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#8

Watch the Throne by Jay-Z & Kanye West

Favorite Track - "Otis"

After last years powerhouse that was My Dark, Beautiful, Twisted Fantasy, I was interested to see where Kanye would go next.  Teaming up with Jay-Z, the two released a mediocre album… For them.  The production and craftsmanship that went into this album is still miles away from a lot of rap out there today.

*******

#7

Bon Iver by Bon Iver

Favorite Track - "Calgary"

Bon Iver.  You can’t help but like this guy.  After 2008′s For Emma, Forever Ago, we get a more honest, more adventurous  album from Justin Vernon.

******

#6

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming by M83

Favorite Track - "Raconte-Moi Une Histoire"

Amazing electronic double album.  Can’t get over Midnight City and Raconte-Moi Une Histoire.

*****

#5

Cinemetropolis by Blue Scholars

Favorite Track - "Seijun Suzuki"

Sabzi may be my favorite producer in rap.  The music on this album pump me up like metal can.  Cinemetropolis? Seijun Suzuki? Slick Watts? Oskar Barnack ∞ Oscar Grant? Fin? PERFECT.  A lot of people wanted another Bayani, but this evolution made perfect sense to me.

****

#4

Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars

Favorite Track - "Barton Hollow"

This is how modern pop folk should be done.  They were also incredible live, so go see them if you get the chance.

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#3

Leveler by August Burns Red

Favorite Track - "Salt and Light"

I never though a metal album would breach my top 10, not mentioning my top 3, but I love Leveler.  I started running this year, and after going through all of my metal and hardcore I always found myself coming back to ABR.  This album in particular got into my system like no other.  The talent and passion of these guys hits me like no other group, Christian or not can.  While it wasn’t my favorite album, my favorite song of the year did come from this album and I feel like I need an entire post just for it.  So look forward to my short post on “Salt and Light” by August Burns Red.

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#2

King of Limbs by Radiohead

Favorite Track - "Giving Up the Ghost"

It’s their shortest album.  It’s lyrically, and melodically weak compared to 2007′s In Rainbows, and songs like “Butcher” and “Supercollider” were better… And not included on this album.  So why is it number 2?  Because it’s Radiohead.  Despite it being one of their weaker albums, it’s still better, more original, and more provocative than the majority of music today.  This album has definitely grown on me like a tumor as well.  Earlier this year, I would have put it above Jay-Z and Kanye, but the more I listen, the more it clicks with me.

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#1

Last Night on Earth by Noah and the Whale

Favorite Track - "Give It All Back"

While they get lambasted by the critics, I’ve stuck with these British boys from the beginning.  I thought that Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down was delightful and joyous, something not oft desired in our apathetic world of today.  The First Days of Spring was a drastic change, but they kept their knack for catchy hooks and an overall sense of fun.  And now they drop this gold on us.  Forget the haters, this album is brilliant from start to finish.  The mix of indie pop/rock and ’80s synthesizers and a running theme about the end of the world is a real treat.

Kick Drum Punch Like an S.O.S.

Let’s try and give this blog some chest compressions and rescue breaths and keep it alive.

I had an awesome summer visiting my Aunt, Uncle, and (at the moment) youngest cousin who are living in Glasgow, Scotland. I also worked on staff at Lakeside Bible Camp again (First in 2009 as BMX Track Master) at the coveted boat driver position. I got my boaters license and drove a Malibu boat, towing kids on tubes and wakeboards. Much fun was had by me.

Now I’m in Dubuque, getting ready for my guys to show up. I am a Resident Assistant this year, so I’ve been planning, training, and praying for this upcoming year. Guys are slowly showing up early and it’s been a ton of fun already.

So please pray for me and the guys on my floor, Harlow 2 Center, as we face an incredible year and God moves and changes lives for the better.

Spring Break in North Carolina

This year for Spring Break I road tripped with some friends to Greensboro, North Carolina. Lots of good food, adventures, misadventures, and laughs have been had. One of my favorite things about NC has been their unique cherry soda called Cheerwine. I could drink this stuff for a long time before getting sick of it.

(This is a test run of the WordPress for Android app which is pretty slick.

What’s Up With Roundhill?

It is February 20th, 2011.  I think I’m overdue for a post.

Right now I’ve been keeping myself busy with school work.  I have 3 computer courses (UNIX, Multimedia, and Modern Office Apps) a Western Civilization course, and a Hermeneutics course that is definitely kicking my butt, but I’m glad for it.

I bought myself some new computer speakers that came with a subwoofer which isn’t making the girls who live above and below me too happy, but haters gonna hate.

If you’re one of those girls, this is what you’ve been hearing lately.

Radiohead – The King of Limbs

I like it.  It definitely has a more dubstep feel with lots of Hail to the Thief type lyrics and tones.  But Radiohead is Radiohead, man.

Sleigh Bells – Treats

I’ve been working out what this group sounds like.  The best I can come up with is, a-not-annoying-Ting-Tings-meets-the-guitars-from-The-White-Stripes-(RIP)-Icky-Thump-with-some-electric-blasts-thrown-in.  The cheerleader drums and violent guitars create a cacophony around the singer who seems to be calm in the eye of this sound hurricane.

James Blake – James Blake

I admit it, I only even thought to listen to this guy because he got a 9 on Pitchfork.  But still his cover of “Limit to Your Love” was one of the first things I listened to on my new speakers and I think I almost broke my little subwoofer with it.

On to other things.

I designed the Smart 2 floor shirt this year and they just came in the other day.

Final Design

And for those who are curious, here is the original image I stole from somewhere.

Just a tad different

It’s been a good semester so far and I only hope it gets even better.  I truly love Smart 2 this year.  We have way too much fun.

Also, I applied for RA for next year.  I’m very excited at the possibility of being an RA.

My Favorites of 2010 – Games

EDIT: I completely forgot to post this back in January.  I’ve been hibernating from the blizzard in Iowa and it’s starting to clear so I might post a “what’s up with Roundhill” post soon.

EDIT EDIT: Too lazy to put in pictures or links.  I hope you enjoy reading text.

 

 

As I started to compile my list of games that I played this year I quickly realized that there was no way I could organize these all into a list and say that certain ones were better than others like I could with music and movies.  I know it seems like a cop out, but I really just want to highlight some of my favorite games that I played this year and write about them.

Mass Effect 2

Until I played Mass Effect I wasn’t a Bioware fan like every other gamer.  Knights of the Old Republic is certainly a fun game, but I didn’t connect with it like a lot of people did.  Part of it, was the D&D combat system.  I’m not a huge thinking game kind of guy, I love action in my games.  Mass Effect for me was an excellent example of what an action RPG looks like.

Mass Effect has such a solid thought out sci-fi universe.  The universe of Mass Effect is so well realized for a standalone game that you’d think it was based off of a book series or a television show.  For example, you have multiple alien races within the game that are unique and complex.  From the all female Asari to the stingy Turians, each alien race is cool and has history.  There are even developed racial tensions.  The story is politically and emotionally super charged and because of the games ‘choose your own adventure’ style narrative, there are thousands of options for you to shape your story and watch how the universe around you responds to your actions.  With such excellent settings, characters, and plot, the third person gameplay in ME1 was a welcome feature for me.  Critics may have found it a bit more stiff than say Gears of War or Uncharted, but that didn’t bother me.

Mass Effect 2 took a perfect sci-fi game and made it even better.  Graphics, characters, and especially gameplay were all given masive improvements.  I loved the sense of permanence that your actions had on the storyline.  *SPOILERS* In my story, I play a male Paragon Commander Shepard and in the end suicide mission I sent Jacob to go through the tubes to unlock the doors and he ended up dying in the process.  It gives me chills knowing that Jacob will NOT be in my playthrough of Mass Effect 3. *END SPOILER*.  This emotional echo is what truly showed me how well a game can effect your emotions and how video games truly are art.

Minecraft

I picked up on this game during a “free weekend” when Notch’s (the games creator) servers were down.  To me, Minecraft is successful because it panders to someones inner creative self in a way that hasn’t been seen since the original Sims.  It’s simplicity/complexity is such a beautiful double sided coin that gamer and non gamer alike should give this game a shot…  After some tutorials of course.

When I first fired up the game I spent time walking around taking in the blocky visuals and silly looking cows and pigs which I proceeded to punch mercilessly.  It quickly became apparent that this was not the point of the game.  The game was interesting but I was totally lost as to what I was supposed to do or even why this game was setting the internet aflame with praise.  After goofing around in such a strange pixelated world for a while, I looked up some basic tutorials on how to make wooden planks and basic tools  With every new little thing I found myself saying this game is brilliant and one of the most amazing indie titles out there.

Super Meat Boy

Never has being so infuriatingly angry, frustrated, and all around pissed off been so much fun.  This is a tougher than diamond nails platforming game that mixes in platforming and difficulty from old Super Mario Bros. titles, VVVVVV, and I Wanna Be the Guy.  The humor and sense of style appeals to the true gamer (not the caffeine fueled junk food connoisseur that G4 and Mountain Dew pander to) with retro chiptunes, references to older eras of gaming, and 8-bit warp zone levels.

Call of Duty: Black Ops and Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Arguably the biggest blockbuster first person shooters of the year.  And to me at least, they succeeded their predecessors greatly in single player and multi player aspects.  I’ll talk about Black Ops first and then Bad Company 2.

I had my issues with Modern Warfare 2 that I voiced in probably too lengthy of a rant.  When I played through Black Ops though I was pleasantly surprised to see that Treyarch managed to make a better game as a whole than Infinity Wards 4th effort.  The single player campaign had some of the best set pieces of the year with a cool summer movie plot line that was easy enough to follow and kept you interested which is a lot more than I can say for Modern Warfare 2′s attempt at being a complex Tom Clancy novel.

The multiplayer is really good too.  It plays like every multiplayer Call of Duty since Modern Warfare 1, but that’s not a bad thing.  The CoD points are a welcome addition, as well as the incredibly addicting wager matches.  Sticks and Stones, a game type where everyone has crossbows, ballistic knives and a tomahawk, is my favorite for the record.

After all the smoke has cleared, I think the real success in modern shooters this year was Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  Whereas this game was ho-hum in the single player, the multiplayer was a unique breath of fresh air that combined the best elements from the Battlefield series with a bit of Call of Duty leveling and experience points.  Call of Duty multiplayer is fun because it’s pretty straightforward if you can keep up with its fast pace.  But you usually play as a lone wolf and can get away with it, even in team game types.  Bad Company 2 requires you to join up in a squad and play as a class that’s useful to your team if you want to be successful.  I love all of the little things in the multiplayer that make it so great such as the spotting system.  If you see an enemy, you can hit ‘Q’ (Or ‘back’ or ‘select’ for 360 and PS3 players) to “tag” that enemy for your team and he will show up with an arrow above his head and a blip on the radar for a while.  This small feature is such a huge help to your team mates and can make or break your teams effectiveness.  Good recon snipers can be so much more helpful than just picking off enemies from a distance.  They can let you know where the enemy is before you can even see them.  I’m really looking forward to what Dice does with Battlefield 3.

Just Cause 2

I remember seeing that Just Cause got bad reviews when it initially came out so like every gamer I ignored it since it got numerical reviews lower than 7.  I heard a few good things about Just Cause 2 and saw some fun gameplay that had to do with the grapple hook but I still kind of dismissed it since it was associated with Just Cause.  I was wrong to do so.  Avalanche Studios, I apologize.  I bought it during the Steam Give and Get sale on a whim and after getting used to the control scheme, I fell in love with it.  It’s over the top like a Jean Claude Van Damme movie.  It’s world, the Panau Islands, is huge.  The grapple hook is so much fun in the way it makes you feel like a mechanical South American Spider-man.  And the vehicles and gunplay are just a shy better than good.  This is GTA IV to those who liked GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas the best when they could type in cheats, get a helicopter, a jetpack, or a plane and go terrorize a city.  My average goofing off in Just Cause 2 consists of grapple climbing to the top of a sky scraper, sky diving off of it and parasailing onto a military vehicle where I open fire on some opposing military base.  Pretty soon they send more enemies and maybe an attack chopper after me.  I might drive my car at full speed, para sail out of it and grapple to that helicopter, punch and headbutt the pilot, toss him out and take over the helicopter so that I can open fire on the base with missiles and rockets.

Alien Swarm

Yeah, you forgot about this one didn’t you?  To be honest I did too.  Originally a UT2K4 mod, Valve picked up the mod team in Valve fashion and had them build the game in the Source engine.  They did this with Portal and the upcoming DotA2, but they released this one for free.  It’s a top down co-op shooter that honestly was a lot of fun.  Fighting off hordes of aliens with futuristic weapons and turrets certainly has it’s appeal, and the fact that it was released for free should mean that this is still being played a ton.  So what happened?  I think Valve is missing a few opportunities with Alien Swarm.

1. Not releasing it for Mac.  With Valve’s release of Steam on OS X, I’ve been trying to get more people to try it since it’s one of my favorite programs.  Initially they released Portal for free so that people could have an incentive to play something on Steam but that deal is gone now and it’s hard to convince someone to download what looks to them like an online game store.  If they ported Alien Swarm to OS X, they could have something to try out that has full Steam features and support and they could decide whether they like the program or not.

And that’s it.  Valve is perfect.

My Favorites of 2010 – Music

My Favorite Albums of 2010

This was a harder post to write because I went through my head, my last.fm account and all of the interwebz and came up with 22 possible albums that I thought were Top 10 worthy.  So I’ll try and kick it off with some honorable mentions and superlatives.

My Favorite Chiptune Album

Pixels... It's a thing...

MOON8 by Brad Smith

This simply put is Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon but done entirely with 8-bit tools to make it feel like the only true way to listen to it is by putting an old gray cartridge in a NES.  Best of all, this was released for free.  Get the album in any number of formats and read some FAQs about it here.

My Favorite Metal Album

Wash it down the drain!

Option Paralysis by The Dillinger Escape Plan

A better title for this award should be The Only Metal Album I Truly Enjoyed This Year. In my eyes, 2010 wasn’t the best year for metal.  Dio died, Mike Portnoy joined Avenged Sevenfold, and Lordi still exists.  2 bands I love released some of their most mediocre albums in their careers (*cough Demon Hunter and War of Ages cough*)  And according to a lot of “metal” critics, I need to love bands with names like Decrepit Birth and Enslaved to get the most out of metal this year.  No thanks.  I’ll stick with one of the most consistently insane bands out there.

The Dillinger Escape Plan released an album this year that had the brutality of their earlier work and the complexity of their newer releases.  Almost like Radiohead’s In Rainbows, this was an album that was a culmination of all their previous records.

My Favorite Rap Album

If everything is made in China, are we Chinese?

How I Got Over by The Roots

This album is a powerhouse of talent.  Even though they have steady music jobs playing 5 nights a week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, they still found time to put out a smooth album that doesn’t concentrate  on ego stroking or self obsession.  Lyrically this album was almost an anti-thesis to critic favorite My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West.  Also, piano driven hip-hop wins my heart every time.  And that minimalistic plinking on the keys in “Runaway” doesn’t count Mr. West.

My Favorite Soundtrack

The internet's not written in pencil, Mark. It's written in ink.

The Social Network by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

The best way I can describe Nine Inch Nails frontmans soundtrack for The Social Network is NIN’s Ghosts I-IV concentrated.  Rather than 36 instrumental tracks of dissonant piano and industrial electronic sounds or dirty guitars, we get 19 songs that were written to provoke emotions to accompany the brilliantly written and directed film.

It would be unfair of me not to mention some of my other favorite soundtracks from 2010.  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World had a great soundtrack from artists like Beck, Plumtree, Metric, and Broken Social Scene, and a great score by Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.  And Tron: Legacy could not have asked for a better duo to put together tracks for it’s stylized techno universe than Daft Punk.  And the use of Sigur Ros’ “Festival” at the end of 127 Hours was uplifting enough to cause grown men to cut onions.

Most Disappointing Album

Oh...

TIE: Congratulations by MGMT, and Plastic Beach by Gorillaz

Or maybe I just didn’t “get” these two albums.  They got good critical reviews, but I think I was expecting more of the first half of Oracular Spectacular and another Demon Days.  Either way, they didn’t sit with me right and never kept my focus for too long and didn’t end up getting a whole lot of use in my listening this year.

Onto the big 10.

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#10

This is Happening by LCD Soundsystem

And love is a curse, shoved in a hearse. Love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry

I’m usually not into the Pitchfork ’80s synth whine-a-long albums that they hail as the next step in modern art, but LCD Soundsystem put out an oddly enjoyable album that appeals to my weirdo sensibilities.  In my room, more than a few hours were spent listening to this album while roaming about in the just as strange world of Minecraft.  I dedicated my main castle basement to “Dance Yrself Clean”

 

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#9

The Way Out by The Books

You may just possibly detect from my voice that I am Irish, and now I leap forward in time.

Ok, I lied.  I love this weird stuff.  The Books compose their albums out of non-traditional looped percussion, unconventional spoken word cuts, and electronic wizardy to achieve a feeling comparative to hallucinogenics.  And that should leave no surprise as to why The Way Out had a very 1970′s New Age hippie feeling to it.  And while this isn’t my favorite album from the group (see The Lemon of Pink), this was still a solid effort that I keep returning to.

 

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#8

Broken Bells by Broken Bells

Without warning, she gave up the ghost inside

Danger Mouse and James Mercer.  The Grey Album and Oh, Inverted World.  One of the best modern producers and one of the best voices in alternative music.  Broken Bells was a pleasant surprise.  From the searching and wandering sounds of “The High Road” to the straightforward falsetto driven “The Ghost Inside”.  Speaking of “The Ghost Inside”, how about that awesome video with Christina Hendricks as an android?  Heck yes.

 

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#7

High Violet by The National

I still owe money to the money, to the money I owe

These guys have one of the coolest dynamics I’ve heard in indie rock.  Something about the faster paced drums backing Matt Berningers somber and almost slurring baritone come together in a sound that comes off a little sad, a little exciting, and very interesting.  Also, Matt has an inspiring beard and style that reminds of slick black and white films about people in sorrow and wealth.  I don’t even know what that means.

 

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#6

Champ by Tokyo Police Club

On the cover page of the year. Grainy photographs, greasy hair

Sporadic indie rock with a lovable sense of care in the craft of their upbeat songwriting.  The way that singer, David Monks sometimes almost croaks out his lyrics almost makes it sound like a band riding on apathy, but the band keeps an upbeat tempo and has fun with their distorted bass and resonant guitar solos.  Definitely a surprise hit for me.

 

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#5

The Age of Adz by Sufjan Stevens

It's been a long, long time since I've memorized your face

Sufjan Stevens.  Oh you.  The disgruntled and seemingly frustrated artist hadn’t released an album since 2005′s glrious Illinois.  He surprised everyone this summer with the similar-yet-fresh All Delighted People EP. Then he REALLY surprised everyone with The Age of Adz, a stark eclectic electronic album that ditched mandolins, harps, and flute trills for drum machine loops, synthesizers, and auto-tune microphones.  I initially described it as a Sufjan Stevens take on Animal Collective or Architecture in Helsinki.  But now I realize that it’s totally just the next evolutionary step in Sufjans artistry.  Gotta love the guy and I really wish I had seen him on his tour.

 

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#4

Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons

 

You desired my attention but denied my affections, affections

I love that Americans love British people and British accents.  These guys put out a lovable folky album that included the word “love” or “heart” in almost every song.  But the melodies and arrangements are so catchy and so fun you can’t help putting the album on repeat.  According to all of the live or out of studio footage I saw of them, they have a good raw sound as well.  Can’t wait to hear what else these guys put out over the coming years.

 

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#3

Contra by Vampire Weekend

When the taxi door was open wide I pretended I was horrified

Vampire Weekends debut album was great on its own, but everything that was great about that album was amplified in their followup, Contra.  Soft songs were softer, upbeat ska type songs were upbeatier and ska-ier, and melodies that belonged in Billboards Top 200 now belonged in Billboards Top 40.  They even toyed with auto tune on “California English”.  I really enjoyed the single, “Giving Up The Gun” and it ended up as my most played track on my last.fm account with 42 full play throughs.

 

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#2

The Suburbs by Arcade Fire

Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains

I remember not liking this album when I first heard it.  And now I can’t figure out why.  All I’ve known growing up are white suburban neighborhoods.  And while I never personally felt that I was trapped or destined to something greater outside of those suburbs, I understand the apathy and longing for something different.  I grew up constantly saying I was bored or than there was nothing to do when I had all of Americas middle class culture at my fingertips.  I think that Spike Jonzes video for “Suburbs” fits the tone of the album PERFECTLY.  Also, “Sprawl II”?  ME GUSTA.

 

*

#1

Go by Jónsi

Grow til tall, they all, in the end, will fall

Take out the post rock buildups of Sigur Rós songs, throw in some flamboyant and wild arrangements and you have Jónsi’s solo album.  It truly is Sigur Rós minus everyone but Jonsi.  I went and saw him play on his Go Tour in Milwaukee (Sadly, my only concert this year) and I was blown away.  The guys playing the instruments were so tight in rhythm and band cohesion even though they were at times playing their songs at 200 mph.  The drums on the album/tour were especially exceptional.  Andrew Platter put it best when he simply told me, “He was one of the best drummers I’ve seen. Period.”  Please give this album a listen.

My Favorites of 2010 – Movies

My Favorite Movies of 2010

I love movies and I went through a list of movies that were released in theaters in 2010 and narrowed down my favorites.  I then edited those favorites down to a list of 10 and arranged them in order.  Without further ado, here they are.

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#10

Predators

Adrian Brody kicked some serious butt in this movie

This summer flick first caught my attention when I heard that Robert Rodriguez had his hands in production duties.  I love his campy and violent take to action flicks and his vision to make the predator creatures scary again came through.  I chose this over his own Machete because I love a good re-imagining or a good remake.  And simply put, I enjoyed Predators more.  I think it was a better guns-galore-explosions-every-10-minutes action film than the popular Stallone movie The Expendables.  It takes enough cues from the old film while updating it to make it enjoyable and fresh and leaving us with a satisfying cliffhanger ending that leaves room for more wrist-blade-shoulder-rocket-launcher-mandible action.

* * * * * * * * *

#9

Toy Story 3

STOP TOYING WITH MY EMOTIONS PIXAR!

Pixel perfect animation and nostalgia galore filled this summer flick from Pixar that once again made this burly man cut onions.  Seriously though, you can’t help but love Pixar’s movies.  They have true heart and better stories than most films Hollywood can muster.  Blue Sky? Dreamworks Animation?  Please take notes.  You’re getting better, and How to Train Your Dragon is most likely a serious contender for animated film of the year, but don’t clog your movies with lame pop culture references and whatever “it” celebrity is available for voice acting.  I’m half expecting the cast of Jersey Shore to appear as orange d-bag birds in Blue Sky’s upcoming Rio.

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#8

The Town

Jon Hamm's John Ham

Great script, solid acting, and some intense bank robbing action made this a pretty entertaining movie.  I also loved the Boston setting.  I saw this with some friends from Boston that commented that they were a little homesick after seeing the movie.  Also, Jon Hamm. Yes…

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#7

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1

Hermione Granger. ME GUSTA.

I’ve loved the Harry Potter books since I was in Elementary School, but the movies have never been my favorite.  I liked 3 and 4 a lot due to new directors and some more mature elements that brought humanity into a world of magic and myth.  But the newest entry in the movie series is easily one of the best.  It stayed true to the book and had some awesome set pieces.  And the 3 brothers story animated by Stateless Films?  BRILLIANT.  Can’t wait for the conclusion.

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#6

Tron: Legacy

"Man, that light cycle really tied the grid together..." -The Clu abides.

This is a prime example of what a summer blockbuster can and should be.  Even though it came out in December, it had all the elements of a good popcorn flick.  Special effects were really cool, the sound design was unique and pleased the ear with futuristic resonance and digital atmosphere, and the soundtrack by Daft Punk?  HOLY COW.  So good.  I feel like this is the kind of special effects powerhouse movie that Transformers could have been.  Also, Olivia Wilde > Megan Fox.  ’Nuff said.

* * * * *

#5

127 Hours

"This rock has been waiting for me all my life . . . and all its life,"

Just a warning, these final 5 movies are love letters to the directors, but for good reason.  Danny Boyle (28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) knocked it out of the park with this adaptation of the true story of Aron Ralston.  Aron Ralston was hiking in Utah and slipped on a boulder while descending into a canyon and got his arm caught between a rock and the canyon wall.  It was a great film that showed off James Franco’s acting prowess.  You spend almost the entire movie with him in one setting but his struggles and hardships are so well displayed that you are glued to the screen and you’re never bored of watching this guy stuck in one spot in a canyon.  Be warned that this movie is pretty taxing on emotions near the end as he realizes what he has to do to free his arm from the rock, but like Slumdog Millionaire before, it comes out on top as one of the most uplifting and inspiring films of the year.

* * * *

#4

Inception

Joseph Gordon-Levitt kisses Ellen Paige in one of the smoothest moves of all time. Kudos to you Mr. Gordon-Levitt

Christopher Nolan is a great director who is finally getting the recognition he truly deserves.  The man has been messing with our heads since Memento and he brought a gritty and realistic vision to Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.  This time he tackled the wonder of the dream.  Inception was a slick thief film mixed with the surreal where popular science reigns king.  And the plot and ideas had millions wondering what’s really going on in their head while they sleep.  As noted in my popular post on my wishlist for villains in Batman 3 (Now known as The Dark Knight Rises) I’m really looking forward to Nolan’s next film.

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#3

The Social Network

The track "3:14 Every Night" accompanied me at 3:14 every night I forgot to do homework

David Fincher has been one of my all time favorite directors ever since I pirated Fight Club and watched it on a dim CRT monitor my freshman year of high school.  And like Fight Club, Seven, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, there’s a lot more going on in the film than what the title or premise proposes.  Fight Club isn’t some film solely about an underground fighting ring, Seven isn’t just a murder mystery, and Benjamin Button isn’t just a tale about a man who ages backwards.  The Aaron Sorkin scripted Social Network is not just the story of Facebook.  It’s the story of a computer driven generation where pride, recognition, and popularity reign supreme.  The acting is excellent and the soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross accompanied most of my studies this semester and I imagine a lot of the next.

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#2

Black Swan

"It's perfect!"

As a film buff I know it’s a crime that I haven’t seen any of Darren Aronofsky’s films such as Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, or The Wrestler, but my incentive to view them is now cemented by Black Swan.  If you had ever told me that I would love a movie about ballet so much I would’ve called you a dirty liar.  But this movie was dark, drenched in symbolic images and provoking themes (black and white, reflections and mirrors, perfection vs natural human performance), and more intense and thrilling than any horror movie I’ve ever seen.  This is not a horror film by any means but it succeeded in doing what true horror should, getting underneath your skin and twisting your vision of what the truth or reality is.  The amount of time the film gave you to relax grew exponentially shorter until the conclusion.  Go see this movie.

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#1

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I'm in lesbians with this movie

I doubt that this will show up on too many top 10 lists, but I absolutely loved it.  I think I was in the perfect demographic for this summer movie from Hollywoods greatest mash-up artist Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead being a romantic comedy zombie movie and Hot Fuzz being a police action murder mystery comedy).  I’m a 18-24 year old video game playing, rock and roll fan, who loves stylistic visuals, and vegan jokes.  I wrote about this in my last post and just about everything I said stands true.  The music is great.  Nigel Godrich’s score paints this surreal video game garage rock world, Beck’s Sex Bob-Omb tracks are blast your ears off distorted goodness, Broken Social Scene’s Crash and the Boys tracks are so apathetic and angsty that I was taken back to my public high school, and Metric’s contribution to Clash and the Demonhead was one of my favorite songs of the year.  Seriously, here’s the Metric version, and here’s the movie version sung by Brie Larson the actress who played Envy Adams in the film.  The movie is drenched in geeky video game references and the comic book visuals with onomatopoeic words flashed on the screen is so cool I couldn’t help but fall in love with it.  It was my favorite movie released in 2010.

 

Note: I haven’t seen True Grit yet, so this list might change seeing as how I LOVELOVELOVE the Coen Brothers.

My Favorites of 2010

I know I haven’t posted in a while but school kept me pretty busy and I didn’t have a ton of time to write anything that wasn’t a paper for school.  So I’ve decided to multiple posts over the next few days doing a personal blogger favorite.  Top 10 lists.  Now some of these lists might not have 10 items in them so you might see 1 or 2 Top 5 lists.  Up first? Movies.

Recent and upcoming weeks

Last week was supposed to be my last week at work but I was never called in so I enjoyed my laziest week of summer yet.  Video game hunting, midnight movies, and ended it with a hike that proceeded to punish me for the weeks activities (or lack thereof).

I got the idea to take my gamecube to school with me because everyone loved playing Smash Bros. and Mario Kart on an N64 emulator in my room using wired xbox 360 controllers, but the experience felt very emulated (full pun intended).  So I hooked up the gamecube to make sure our little cube was still up to the task of Metroid Prime.  I bumbled around on Tallon IV for about 20 minutes before the system came up with an error in fault of the disc.  I sad faced,  :(  and then I decided a quest was in order.  The next day, a Wednesday I think, I went to 4 Gamestops, a Half-Price Bookstore, and a pawn shop.  I found Metroid Prime at the last Gamestop for a modest 4 dollars, but not before my other trips yielded me SSX 3, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, and some other choice titles from the last console generation.  Fantastic.

This game consumed my Wednesday.

Come Thursday there was maybe 2 hours where I wasn’t playing a video game.  It was great.  I also had tickets to go see Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World at midnight.  Here are my thoughts on this box office bomb.  It was a GREAT film, but it’s going to have trouble finding a theater audience.  In fact it already has.  I think I may have fit the demographic a little too perfectly.  The movie contains more video game references than most programs on G4.  Some of the bands in the movie had songs written for them by Beck, Metric, and some of the guys from Broken Social Scene.  Not to mention the score was composed by Nigel Godrich, Radiohead’s long time producer. And George Michael and Ann (her?) were on screen together for the first time in years.  So I was kind of destined to love this movie.  I won’t try to review plot or visuals, I’ll leave that to the pros.  But I will say that I enjoyed this movie and came out of the theater as satisfied and entertained as I did leaving Inception. This won’t be the case for everyone since it really is a niche film.  But please give Scott a shot. (I might end up seeing it again with my little bro I loved it so much)

Are you hearing me AD fans? GEORGE MICHAEL AND ANN!

On Friday I saw The Expendables.  This was as standard an action film as you’re going to see.  It was definitely cool to see all the action stars in the last 30 years on screen.  You’ve got Rambo, the Russian guy from Rocky IV, the dude from the Transporter movies, the kung-fu guy that isn’t Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, or Chow Yun-Fat, that bald wrestler from the ’90s, the guy from the Tim and Eric directed Old Spice commercials, Angel Batista from Dexter, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Other than that though, there are bad guys and a team of rag-tag beatdowns with big guns who fight the bad guys.  There are explosions, muscles, and general radness going on.  It was cool, but you should really go see Scott Pilgrim.

On Saturday I went with some good friends and we went on a hike up to Denny Creek by Snoqualmie Pass.  Emily, Brian, Matt, Mary and I piled up in the van by noon and drove out.  The hike up to beautiful Denny Creek made me feel like I was using my summer vacation for actual vacationing.  After we got to Denny Creek we rested and enjoyed the site.  After hiking back to the car we went and stayed at the Lodge for some beverages and some games of Catch Phrase.  There was adventure, laughs, and one sweaty fat guy (Me).  Good times were had by all.  Follow it all up with Red Robin and a movie at the Crest and my Saturday was very complete.

This week has been good and lazy so far but should include some Sounders on TV, some teriyaki at the Youns restaurant, and I might even do College and Career TCL at camp.  Looking forward to my final week in Washington State until December.

Using Vuvuzelas for Good

I’m sitting on the couch with my mom watching videos of people being blobbed on youtube when I notice our 14 year old next door neighbor running up our steps and looking cautiously down our street towards his house. I open the door and ask what’s up. Sometimes his family borrows our weed whacker or cooking ingredients from us. Instead he informs me that there are two raccoons on his deck trying to get into his cats food and he doesn’t know what to do.

Being the man of this situation, my mind begins to race. Should I go get a BB gun? Maybe a shovel or something to shoo them off? And before any ideas of mine come fruition, my mom exclaims,

“Oh! Chris! Go get your vuvuzela!”

Now my blood is pumping. I give a good evil chuckle and start to head downstairs where my vuvuzela sits on my computer desk. I call back to the neighbor boy,

“Did you watch the world cup at all?”

“No, well maybe a couple matches.”

“Did you ever hear those horns that they blasted?”

“Yeah”

At this point I come back up the stairs feeling like I’m Jason Statham in some no holds barred action flick. My vuvuzela is in two parts that you pull on to extend to its full length, similar to how those toy lightsabers work. So I walk back up the stairs and stretch it out and growl,

“I’ve got one.”

I walk over to his house and sure enough, two raccoons bigger than Drifty are scoping out my neighbors cat nip. So I raise the instrument of audible demolition to my lips and blow into it like a rookie trumpeter. The raccoons cringe and scurry off down the street. I really wish I had video taped this, because it was fantastic.