2004: The Rest Of The Best Of
Posted on January 31, 2005 at 2:32 pm | No Comments
Following up on my favorite music of 2004, here are a few quick lists of the other random things that occupied my time last year. Figured I’d post this before ’04 is more than a month behind us….
Favorites in film…
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Garden State
House of Flying Daggers
Sideways
Infernal Affairs
Ong Bak : Thai Warrior
The Incredibles
Hero
The Twilight Samurai
The also-appreciated… The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Spider-Man 2, The Bourne Supremacy, Hellboy, Saved!, Fahrenheit 9/11, Robot Stories, Team America: World Police, Criminal, Shaun of the Dead, Kill Bill Vol. 2, Napoleon Dynamite, and Undertow.
The letdowns… Donnie Darko: Director’s Cut (echo = yes, inxs = nononono), Silver City (was no Lone Star), Sky Captain & the World of Tomorrow (lotsa flash, zero substance), Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (sooo sleeeepy).
The flat-out terrible… The Butterfly Effect, Troy, Stepford Wives, Wickah Pahk, Troy, Starsky & Hutch, Open Water, and Troy. (thank the prophets they were all free)
also saw a couple great plays last year… Pullman’s His Dark Materials and Mamet’s Oleanna in London
Favorites in comics…
Bendis / Oeming: Powers
Whedon / Cassaday / Martin: Astonishing X-Men
Wood / Cloonan: Demo
Vaughan / Harris: Ex Machina
Vaughan / Guerra: Y the Last Man
Bendis / Maleev: Daredevil
Willingham & Co.: Fables
Rucka & Co.: Queen & Country
Thompson: Blankets
Diggle / Jock: The Losers
Bendis / Gaydos / Bagley: Alias / The Pulse
Brubaker / Phillips: Sleeper
Cooke: The New Frontier
Favorite hardcover collection… The first five years of James Kochalka’s American Elf
Favorite daily webcomic… surprise, it’s American Elf
Favorite minicomic… Kochalka / Thompson: “Conversations #1”
Favorites in print…
Chris Ott & Joe Pernice – their 33 1/3 Series contributions
Neil Gaiman – American Gods
Howard Frank Mosher – Waiting for Teddy Williams
The Daily Show – America The Book
Robert B. Parker – Stone Cold / Melancholy Baby
George Pelecanos – Shoedog
Greg Rucka – A Gentleman’s Game
Looking forward to in ’05… Rucka’s 2nd Queen & Country novel, George RR Martin’s “A Feast For Crows” (Jul. 26), the first Warren Ellis novel.
Favorite video games…
(aka “the games I actually had time to play in 2004“)
Half Life 2 (PC)
Doom III (PC)
GTA: San Andreas (PS2)
FarCry (PC)
Halo 2 (XBox)
Call of Duty: United Offensive (PC expansion pack)
Favorites on TV…
The Wire
The Amazing Race
Da Ali G Show
Justice League Unlimited
Lost
The Daily Show
Arrested Development
24
Wonderfalls
Angel
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Sealab 2021
Alias
Significant Others
Biggest gift… Farscape returns briefly
Biggest tease… Enterprise flirts with goodness
Biggest disappointment… the assimilation & dumbing down of The Screen Savers
Biggest bummer… the undeserved end of Angel
Mp3 of the Week: Pond’s ‘Ebner’ (and some GBV)
Posted on January 31, 2005 at 9:27 am | No Comments
With my Vermonstress project finally finished, I’ve returned to slowly digitizing all my old vinyl… still have a few hundred pieces of wax to go.
This week’s mp3 is from one I did over the weekend: The German-only 12” single of Pond’s “Wheel” contained an exclusive b-side that never wound up on cd, as far as I know. It’s called “Ebner“, and it’s all yours.
And just for the hell of it: Guided By Voices appeared on Austin City Limits as part of their farewell tour, and it was aired a few days back (at least on the Boston PBS station it was). So here are three of my faves from the set for ya: “Gold Star For Robot Boy“, “Do The Earth“, & “Glad Girls”
Don’t forget: The Pixies are on ACL this week, and you can check out a preview right here.
In case you missed it in the comments below, The Arcade Fire has just been confirmed as a guest on Conan O’Brien tomorrow night, Tuesday, February 1st. Really curious how they’ll come across without an enraptured crowd in front of them. Hopefully they’ll overcome the sterility of the tv studio.