Gonna go more free- form this year. Pick your own categories. Suggest keep lists to 3 to 5 items, and suggest you do multiple categories.
I’ll try to start this, may edit to add more later:
Albums:
Grizzly Bear - Shields
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes - Here
Tame Impala - Lonerism
(tie) Father John Misty - Fear Fun; Shins - Port of Morrow
My favorite single this year was Rhye - The Fall, because the video is even better than the song.
Films: (I havent seen several big name movies)
The Avengers - not perfect but gets so many things right and was so enjoyable as a summer popcorn flick
Argo
Skyfall
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
I have not Seen Life of Pi, Moonrise Kingdom, Looper, Safety Not Guaranteed, Brave… several more. Intend to rectify this soon. Notably absent were Prometheus (damnit), Spiderman reboot #2,159 (had no interest), Dark Knight Rises (just missed the list)
Top Niner Moments:
11-2 Hoops start making me care about hoops program again
W @ Davdison
Getting to sit in the Football stadium for the first time
4 (tie). Helmet Unveiling & Seeing fall practice videos for football team - Milestones
The Lumineers - Self Titled. - A denver based alt-country/americana act that messed around and got nominated for a few grammys. An amazingly catchy record.
JEFF the Brotherhood- Hypnotic Nights - Lots of heavy riffs and very catchy melodies. Their move to a major label also brought a move toward some pop licks, which i like.
Jack White - Blunderbuss - Tons have been said about this one already this year. The guy is just prolific in the amount of music he makes.
The Avett Brothers- The Carpenter - Hometown heroes continue to walk that line on fully exploding into the mainstream a la Mumford and Sons.
also of note:
Cat Power
Tame Impala
Alabama Shakes
The Tallest Man on Earth
Movies-
I really liked the new Batman and Brave. Honestly those were about the only two movies i saw in theaters
One great Niner moment not mentioned was Aiden Kirkbride’s goal vs. Denver with 4 seconds to go. That was the craziest I’ve seen Transamerica field go, even more so than the Akron game last year.
Favorite records:
Luther - Let’s Get you Somewhere else (mid-90s alt rock throwback)
Jealous Sound - A Gentle Reminder (power pop/guitar rock)
Gypsy - (quicksand and Jawbreaker hero worship)
Hostage Calm - (beach boys re-envisioned as a rock band)
Titus Andronicus - Local Business (rambling epics about sex)
Title Fight - Floral Green (shoegaze hardcore)
Classics of Love - S/T (rocksteady hardcore)
Hold Tight! - Blizzard of '96 (blink-182 hero worship)
Aspiga - Every Last Piece (aggressive punk rock)
Red Collar - Welcome Home (Springsteen meets Titus Andronicus)
Games
X-Com: Enemy Unknown (turn based Strategy isn’t dead!)
Kingdoms of Amalur (decent action RPG)
NBA 2k13 (best sports game by a lot)
Walking Dead (adventure gaming isn’t dead!)
Sleeping Dogs (GTA game that is more my speed)
Mass Effect 3 (until the ending, which makes it the worst game ever)
Borderlands 2 (most fun 4 player game)
TV Shows
Shameless was the best show this year.
Homeland, Dexter, and Californication all had great seasons this year also. Homeland was probably #2. House of Lies was disappointing, True Blood has jumped the shark I think and Weeds actually had a good last season. Game of Thrones is okay, probably the most overrated show on television that I watch and I haven’t seen season 3 of the Walking Dead yet, it is just sitting on my DVR. Hated season 2.
Movies
Haven’t seen many this year but 21 Jump Street was the best. Brave was mediocre. Avengers was a better than average comic book movie.
Since I really don’t feel like working today, I made a Spotify playlist of NNN’s favorite music of 2012. It’s a collaborative playlist, so feel free to add to it.
Here are the ones I added:
The Stray Birds - The Stray Birds
Band of Skulls - Sweet Sour
Hot Bodies in Motion - Old Habits
Tedeschi Trucks Band - Everybody’s Talkin’
Jason Isbell - Live From Alabama
Mumford & Sons - Babel
Matchbox Twenty - North
Punch Brothers - Ahoy!
Think you’ll be happy with season 3 so far. I could barely make it through season 2, at some points wanting to gouge out my eyes from the boredom and hitting the fast forward constantly. But season 3 finally picks up the pace. And there is less whining (season 2 sounded like a 14 yo girl). season 3 >>>>>> season 2.
Think you’ll be happy with season 3 so far. I could barely make it through season 2, at some points wanting to gouge out my eyes from the boredom and hitting the fast forward constantly. But season 3 finally picks up the pace. And there is less whining (season 2 sounded like a 14 yo girl). season 3 >>>>>> season 2.[/quote]
Oddly enough Season 2 picked up when the Darabont, the origional show runner’s influence had run it’s course and the new show runner Glan Mazzara’s direction really took hold. Yet everyone who complains about season 2 complained about Darabont being fired.
Season 4 will have a new show runner as Mazzara has been let go. I guess as long as creator and producer Robert Kirkman is still around then it should maintain a certain level of goodness.
Think you’ll be happy with season 3 so far. I could barely make it through season 2, at some points wanting to gouge out my eyes from the boredom and hitting the fast forward constantly. But season 3 finally picks up the pace. And there is less whining (season 2 sounded like a 14 yo girl). season 3 >>>>>> season 2.[/quote]
Oddly enough Season 2 picked up when the Darabont, the origional show runner’s influence had run it’s course and the new show runner Glan Mazzara’s direction really took hold. Yet everyone who complains about season 2 complained about Darabont being fired.
Season 4 will have a new show runner as Mazzara has been let go. I guess as long as creator and producer Robert Kirkman is still around then it should maintain a certain level of goodness.[/quote]
For the comics, the group was on the farm for all of what, maybe two comics? But that was enough to stretch into a full season? That’s what killed me. Someone was creating a load of fluff.
The entire second season while broadcasting (watched much later), a friend who would give me the recap for each episode, all I would say is, “They’re STILL not at the prison?!”