Phew! So much wrapped up in all of that (present pun), it's a seriously busy time of year, merely trying to survive the gauntlet that accompanies the seasonal festivities. My not so subtle excuse for a few weeks blog hiatus. But seriously, tough time of year to sit down and get anything done (written), since the age of 5 we were taught to shut our brains off, engage in stuffing our face with an assortment of Christmas goodies and mindlessly stare off at the consumer products placed before us. I didn't complain about it then and I'm not complaining about it now. I loved watching that little electric race car make his laps around the track. It was mesmerizing and hypnotic. And that was in elementary school. I'm just saying I couldn't hardly find the time to read, let alone write, this break. Beginning in university they tell you shut it down in early December. Okay, do your exams, shut it down, stuff your face, drink your beers, I know the routine. Again, not complaining, just, er, justifying, sorta.
I digress, I had started a holidays survival guide and maybe next year you'll get to read it. It appears we all survived to this point anyhow. I'm not so sure that the Beardo Knit Beard Cap we'll still be a hot ticket item in "gift giving 101", however I can assuredly say it will still be prudent to avoid drunkenly propositioning a coworker at a Holiday staff party function in 2012 so there's that from the "how to survive a holiday functions with dignity"section. Now you're already looking forward to next Christmas! Regardless whatever I had written, it was so last year.Here's a fun idea, let's start this year by reflecting on the year that was 2011. A year of water treading as far as I was concerned, in which the lows were never too low and the highs were never too high. Now that's what I call conservative living! I'll get to some lists and opinions here in a moment, but from a personal perspective I felt 2011 was a very safe year. I felt as though I did little in the way of reinventing myself or reshaping my mold. At times this can be a good thing - consistency, stability and balance certainly being positive characteristics. However in this case, while I do feel I have some of those characteristics, I also think we can get into auto-pilot sometimes and we're not allowing ourselves to grow as a person in that state. Just going through the motions and not living with emotion. Just food for thought. Certainly something that I will take into account when I begin to map out my resolutions for 2012 later in the blog. Sometimes I gotta break away from the comfortable coward within.
While I was sleep walking some exciting things went on in 2011. Here's a recap. My Take. Enjoy.
Top 11 Movies of '11:
01. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.... Can't Wait.
02. The Descendents.... Can't Wait.
03. Shame.... Can't Wait.
04. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy .... Can't Wait.
05, Mission Impossible: Ghost Recon .... Can't Wait.
06. The Adventures of Tin Tin .... Can't Wait.
07. A Dangerous Method .... Can't Wait.
08. Moneyball .... Can't Wait.
Wait a minute this looks like a list of movies I most want to see... just haven't yet. (No excuse on the Moneyball exclusion here, have to see it.) But yeah that's exactly what it is, as is usually the case the year's best films are released just prior to Oscar season, an effort to build up their buzz heading into award season. Below you'll find a list of the best films I actually saw in 2011 that were also released in 2011. I'll revisit a definitive best film of the year list when we explore the Oscar selections in about a months time. For better or worse.
11. Captain America - Didn't blow my mind, didn't let me down. 10. Margin Call - Enjoyed this office drama that depicts a firm folding over night a la Lehman Bros.
09. Paul - Consider me on the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost bandwagon.
08. The Ides of March - The year of Ryan Gosling...
07. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Good film, expect more Apes to follow. Not good.
06. Thor - Left the theater feeling pleasantly surprised after this viewing. Have to watch again but I enjoyed this popcorn!
05. Lincoln Lawyer - Early film from 2011. Probably slides down this list when some of the new releases come out but it held my attention, cocky McConaghy.04. Kill The Irishman - Sleeper pick. Dope film. Check it out.
03. X-Men: First Class - Or the year of Michael Fassbender?
02. Source Code - A very cool idea for a film, I kind of see this as this years Inception, a science fiction movie that seems to have a better grasp of how to deal with the loopholes that exist when we suspend of disbelief regarding the supernatural.
01. Drive - Best film I saw all year, opening scene sets the table for the whole film. Great music. Gosling owns the film without hardly speaking, acting his way through each and every scene. Check it out if you haven't already, expect something rather artsy.
With further apologies to Warrior, Cowboys and Aliens, The Hangover 2(!), Fast Five, and upon recommendation from Dan, Real Steel, all films I still have yet to see, despite having loads of time to catch up on this. Congratulations movies you are now on the short to-do list.
Top 11 Most Interesting People '11: Solely according to me so you won't find the Kardashians here. These are the people that I will always read an ESPN article or Yahoo! side bar story about whenever their name pops up. Not necessarily out of adoration but certainly intrigue. Odds that they'll return to the list in '12.
11. Cam Newton - What he lacks in philosophy (A lion Cam? Really? In the jungle? Really?) he more than makes up for in raw footballing talent. Newton should be the ROY and flashed talents that will electrify for years to come. 6:110. Albert Pujols - Any time a guy signs a 260 million dollar contract they get on the list, throw in the World Series Victory and the 3 HR performance in game 3 and a pretty vanilla guy (read: robot) deserves a mention. 40:1
09. Michael Jordan - I'm always interested in what Black Jesus is up to. Rocked a tidy Hitler-esque mustache. 4:1
08. Barak Obama - The President, always a man of intrigue. This day in age with the challenges the United States have been facing both at home and abroad it's certainly a difficult time to be the man in charge, '11 was a challenging year, but it's 2012 that will be make or break in determining his long term legacy. 1:1 It's an election year!
07. Derek Jeter - First Yankee ever to hit 3000 hits! Digest that. Arguably the most historic franchise in professional sports and Jeter stands a top the franchise in a sport that holds it's statistical milestones on a pedestal like no other. He did it in GQ fashion as only Jeter could hitting a home-run for number 3000, going 5-5 on the day and driving in the game winning run. I don't like many Yanks but Jeter is a baller. And he reportedly gives gift bags of memorabilia to his romances (read: conquests), a gentleman. 50:1
06. Mike Tyson/Charlie Sheen - Tyson always makes the list (for obvious reasons), sharing the spot this year with roast mate Charlie Sheen who was mildly interesting throughout the year with his Tyson-esque downward spiral out of sanity. 1.5/1 05. Kanye West - Ridiculously productive last 18 months for Kanye. Guy's a really talented asshole. Stayed out of trouble for the most part. 16:1
04. Peyton Manning - Guy doesn't play and he's still a very interesting topic of conversation. His value was starkly apparent with the Colts looking absolutely listless in the early weeks of the NFL season. Losing him cost the Colts their season, and now with the Colts holding the top pick, Peyton might be out the door. So much can change in just one NFL season. 3:1 (This thing is just getting started! Read: Fearless Prediction)
02. Lebron James - Another polarizing figure in '11 was Lebron James, who incidentally has the exact opposite problem as Tebow. He is arguably the best player at his sport, he just hasn't found a way to win on the big stage. (I realize Tebow hasn't won on the NFL's BIG stage) 2011 saw Lebron James, superfriend Dwayne Wade and their merry band of Miami Heat attempt to live up to their preseason parades and press conference posturing. In the end, the Heat were outdone by the underdog Dallas Mavericks, enlarging the size of the monkey to that of an ape now on Lebron's back at this point. Lebron continues to stumble on the biggest stage and, because of his villain image, this continues to delight us. Lebron was probably the player I would most miss watching if it weren't for this season coming together. No doubt it's Bron who has the league garnering it's best ratings in years. Love em or love to hate em, it's all love. 2:1
01. Steve Jobs - Have become increasingly interested in Steve Jobs and what a visionary his was for this digital world all around us. In a way he was one of the bridges to our transformation into the digital age. Sadly, it took his passing to bring everything that Jobs meant to our time and place to the fore. We live in the iAge (for better or worse) and it's mostly because of this guy. RIP
Honourable Mentions - Dirk Notwitzki, Aaron Rodgers, Jack Layton
Biggest WINNERS of '11
Dirk Nowitzki/Dallas Mavericks - The Mavericks and Dirk were both able to shake off previous claims that both the player and the team were too soft to rise to the challenge of an NBA championship. Facing the juggernaut Heat in the NBA Finals, a mid-level seed out of the West, the Mavericks were certainly the underdogs heading into the finals. But Dallas, backed by millions of Heat haters, were able to rise to the challenge. Using a combination of tough defense (Stevenson, Chandler, Marion) and timely shooting, (Dirk, Terry) the Mavs rolled over the Heat in 6, proving that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. It was a good year for the Mavericks!Ryan Gosling/ Michael Fassbender - As mentioned above in the top films of the year, both Gosling and Fassbender have broken out in a big way in 2011. Fassbender is more of a newcomer on the scene with Gosling being a name on the precipice of super stardom since his role in The Notebook made him familiar to the masses and his role in Half Nelson gave him critically recognition, a nomination nod from the academy. Fassbender was a star in X-Men's enjoyable prequel effort and remained busy with roles in A Dangerous Method and Shame, two films that are currently in theater and have received positive reviews to this point, largely for the efforts of Fassbender.
Tech N9ne - Tech N9ne finally made it onto the mainstream scene, appearing on Lil Wayne's Carter IV album this past summer with the banger Interlude. Pumping out his uber lengthy All 6's and 7's this past summer. Tech then released collaboration album Welcome to Strangeland in the fall. Was a good year for Tech.Green Bay Packers - A Superbowl and a 15-1 record to follow it up. In a league that is anything but predictable from one week to the next, sounds like these guys were winners in 2011 to me.
Honourable Mention: Tim Tebow, St. Louis Cards, Barcelona, Novak Djokovic, Rory McIlroy
Top 11 Albums of '11: 2011 was a pretty good year for hip hop with some major label debuts from much hyped youngsters Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean and J.Cole. The year also saw some heavyweights back on the mic with Kanye West releasing his own album and collaborating with Jay Z on watch the Throne, Lil Wayne added to his Carter collection (not that you'll see that reflected in our list here) and Drake continued to make a name for himself as a player for years to come. We also had some surprising new talents shine in Big K.R.I.T. and Kendrick Lamar. All told 2012 was a good year for Hip Hop.
(Of note: I've included an Out of 10 ranking here for each album which will be confusing because the scores may not entire reflect their positions on this board, which seems contradictory. But remember this list is my top 10 albums of the year. For instance I recognize that Wiz Khalifa's album Rolling Papers was somewhat of a dud, you won't see it on any critically acclaimed top 10 lists, but I listened to that album a tonne. It just makes me a poor decision maker. Noted. It's like the guy who says Transformers is his favorite movie, and he's watched it 46 times, it's high on his list, but it's not a 10. So yeah, sometimes I recognize an album to be generally less flawed and yet I've enjoyed it less than another album on the whole. Maybe because of a few high points and low points, as opposed to a consistency. For instance I think Watch The Throne has some scintillating material on it, possessing some of the highest peaks of the year music-wise (Otis, Murder To Excellence), meanwhile it suffers lyrically at times with the redundancy of being told how rich and powerful Kanye and the Jigga Man are. Still a great album to ride to and party to. I know, just writing this, I'm thinking this makes no sense, maybe, just maybe, what I'm suggesting, while it appears to be contradictory, might only be paradoxical. Juss sayin.)
Without further ado, my Top 11 Albums of '11
11. Rolling Papers - Wiz Khalifa - On the list solely because of the number of rotations this LP got from me. I can't leave this off the list and feel honest about it. Listen to..... Wake Up, When I'm Gone, Black and Yellow 6/10
09. Take Care - Drake - Take Care serves as an open account, revealing the past 12 months of Drake's life, unveiling the tension that exists between his rise to fame and the drawbacks of emerging fame. This collection of offerings expose both the niceties, as well as the struggles, of a life under the microscope. Technically Drake has improved, expanding beyond simply being a #hashtag rapper, his crooning has improved as well. The future is bright. Listen to.... Headlines, Marvin's Room, Over My Dead Body 8/10
08. Greatest Story Never Told - Saigon - After years of delay and set back Saigon finally releases a studio LP, it's worth the wait. In a word, gritty. Saigon has waited nearly 10 years to finally get his message out their and he makes the most of his opportunity. Listen to.....The Greatest Story Never Told, Friends, It's Alright 8.5/10
06. Watch The Throne - Jay Z, Kanye West - Jay Z and Kanye prove they can co-exist both in the studio and on the mic in this high powered anthem generating mega success they call watchin' the throne. Listen to.....Otis, No Church in the Wild Ft. John Legend, Murder to Excellence 8.5/10
05. Cole World: A Sideline Story - Long anticipatedmajor label solo debut from the one known as Young Simba. A few rehashed tracks were the byproduct of the recent mixtape phenomenon but other than that minor gripe this is a dope album and I listened to it lots in the past few months. Cole brings a fresh headiness to the game, punctuated by his ability to mesh popular cultural references within more complex themes and structures. Listen to.....Cole World, Lost Ones, Mr. Nice Watch Ft. Jay-Z 8/10
04. Pl3dge - Killer Mike - Another installment in Killer Mike's Pledge series, Pl3dge might be Mike's best yet. If you like southern rap and you like listening to someone with something to say than certainly check this album out, it was one of my go-to's in 2011. Kind of reminds of Scarface's The Fix in that it's an underrated album from a third coast that likely won't get its props. Listen to..... Ready, Set, Go Remix Ft. TI and Big Boi, That's Life 2, Ric Flair 8.5/1003. All 6s and 7s and Welcome to Strangeland (Collabo Album) - Tech N9ne - All 6's and 7's sees Tech N9ne begin his 2011 transformation into a more radio friendly emcee, a tough evolution to complete without selling out. Tech still explores some of the stranger sides of life, he just seems to do it with a more positive outlook. His word play has never been in question. Listen to.....He's a Mental Giant, Strangeland, Am I A Psycho 8/10, and Welcome to Strangeland served notice that Tech N9ne had energy to burn in 2011 with his early release already having an extended length. Listen to.....Who Do I Catch Now, Slave Ft Kutt Calhoun, Krizz Kaliko, Noose Ft. Mayday 8/10
02. Return of 4eva - Big K.R.I.T. - There's a lengthy review that shows my support of this album in a previous blog. I liked this album immensely and still listen to it regularly, a testament to it's craft. Can't wait for K.R.I.T. to drop his first major label debut in '12. Could be K.R.I.T.'s year to breakout. (read: fearless prediction) Listen to.....Dreamin', American Rapstar, My Sub 8.5/10
01. Undun - The Roots - This album might be getting a boost because of it's novelty to me right now, it's getting the most play in my itunes the past couple of weeks. The Roots have truly improved as musicians over the years and are now champions of their sound and Black Thought shows that he has not lost a step along the way either. A short play time, the album breezes by, just push play. Listen to.....Make My Ft. Big K.R.I.T. and Dice Raw, One Time Ft. Phonte, 9/10
Honourable Mention: REKS - Rhythmatic Eternal King Supreme, Raekwon - Shoalin Vs. Wu Tang Clan (Maybe I owe this another look) Sorry Lupe Fiasco and Big Sean, Lasers and Finally Famous simply did not make the cut, better luck next year.
Biggest Losers of '11:
Jerry Sandusky - One of the biggest stories of 2011 was also it's worst. Jerry Sandusky was charged with multiple counts of sexual assault on young men, children even , whom he encountered during his time working on the campus at Penn State. This is a despicable story and we're all losers for living in aworld where attempts are/were made to let perverts like this go on living their lives while young people are eternally scarred, for the sake of not rocking the boat? This story deeply saddens me about our state of apathy and lack of desire to take charge and seek change. The rest of these losers pale in comparison.
NHL Hockey Fans - No Sid the Kid for basically all of '11 and counting. Undeniably the games best player is leaving fans to wonder what could have been rather than what is. Get well Sid.
Lebron James - Lost the finals and was the butt of countless jokes as the masses reveled in watching James disappear during the the most important moments of the finals. His disappearance was a far cry from his in-your-face-im-taking-my talents-to-south-beach-to-win-6-or-7-titles-decision-blowout-bonanza. James made some poor decisions in '10 and they played out to make him look like a real loser in '11. I think James rights the ship in '12 , takes the necessary steps to winning the chip and cleans up his image in the process, landing him in the Winners of '12 section. (read: fearless prediction)Boston Red Sox - Epic collapse followed by a massive shit flinging. Make it poor losers.
Dishonourable Mention: Adam Sandler (Jack and Jill, Just Go With It?) , Joe Paterno (Guilty by Association - Should have done more), Lupe Fiasco (Yes - Lasers disappointed me this much, not even "American Terrorist III" could make up for that), Charlie Sheen
Top 11 Miscellaneous Good Things That Deserve a Spot on a '11 List:
11. Lionel Messi and Barcelona - Only soccer/futbol shout out that you're going to see in here, but 2011 was a huge year for the club team Barcelona. (Champions League Champions, Fifa Club World Cub, Spanish Super Cup) Messi was a big part of that trophy haul, cementing himself as the most talented football player in the world in 2011.
10. Simpson Catch - We've all seen the replay by now, but just one more time.
09. Wilco's The Whole Love - Great to have Wilco back. Not that Sky, Blue, Sky or Wilco were bad albums, they just weren't as challenging and/or dynamic as Yankee Foxtrot Hotel or A Ghost Is Born (IMHO). I've been digging this album since my first listen, and it continues to grow.
08. Michael Rapaport's documentary Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest -If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor. Here's the trailer.
07. Grantland - I love this Bill Simmons spin off site. This is where I go for a lot of my sports and pop culture reading among others. 2011 saw the site develop after years of writing for ESPN.
06. Frank Ocean - Thinking About You - I liked this song since I blogged about it, nearly 7 or 8 months ago. Had to get a shout out!
05. Last Day of the MLB Season - What a great finish that day was. Two games in which the seasons of multiple ball clubs game down to the final pitch. Was a memorable pennant and wild card race to be sure! Of course, that is unless you're a Red Sox fan.
04. Blake Griffin's Dunks - Let the video speak for itself. Take it away ROY.
03. UConn Huskies - NCAA Championship for Kemba Walker and crew. The Huskies outlasted a strong but even field to walk away the winners of March Madness in 2011. Kemba Walker and Jeremy Lamb hit big shots down the stretch and their rugged Big East defensive style held up in an impressive run through the tourney.
02. St. Louis Cardinals Big Comeback - The Cards entire season was one big comeback and this was never more true than in the bottom of the ninth in Game 6.
01. Roger Craig's Two True Daily Doubles - I watch Jeopardy on a pretty consist basis and this was mind blowing as far as Jeopardy goes. Remember this feat was accomplished in the tournament of champions, playoffs as far as Jeopardy is concerned, Roger Craig makes two ballsy calls, answering the bell on each of them becoming Jeopardy's 2011 Champion a quarter million dollar prize. Cojones.
*Of note - Roger Craig also owns the single day Jeopardy scoring record from a day during his time as champion. Trivia Baawws.
And finally, Part II will feature my 12 New Years Resolutions for 2012:
Stay tuned
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