It's kind of becoming my tradition here on Vox, but the below is my personal best of, well, pretty much everything related to entertainment in 2009.
Looking back, this year's been pretty good, entertainment-wise, although things haven't really been cheerful or good in general, with recession and all that. Meh. Realistically, 2010 would suck in terms of economy and business. I hope enough new stuff (books, games, movies, etc.) to distract me from the general Meh-ness of it... (x_x)
(I'm picking stuff from what I have encountered during 2009, regardless of its original release date)
* Album of the year: "21st Century Breakdown" by Green Day
(Contenders:
"Color Me Free!" by Joss Stone
"New York Hell Sonic Ballet" by Naruyoshi Kikuchi y Pepe Tormento Azucarar
"The Fame" by Lady Gaga
"Live in London" by Leonard Cohen
"Tonight" by Franz Ferdinand
"Live Santa Monica '72" by David Bowie)
My idea of punk was formed by listening to Sex Pistols and The Clash, so all those nu-punk bands from 90s always felt too pop. Honestly I didn't like Green Day before this one, but however you sub-categorize it other than rock music, "21st Century Breakdown" was by far my most frequently played album this year.
R&B / Soul is not my usual fav genre (nothing wrong with the music, it's just my taste- I was baptized by Jim Morrison and corrupted by David Bowie when I was 15. There's no escaping I'm predominantly rock-oriented), but Joss Stone's album was really good. I like the way the band grooves.
* Game of the year: Gears of War 2
(Contenders:
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Biohazard (aka Resident Evil) 5
Left 4 Dead 2
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Crysis)
(Special mention: Prototype)
Top four were all well-made and highly entertaining. (I somehow didn't really get into Cod:MW2) I could have picked any of these, but I guess I would have to give it to Gears of War 2.
Prototype was very unique, although a bit rough here and there, but new, original IPs like this coming out seems to be a good sign. (I mean, compared to J-games... Every single new game invented by Square Enix unrelated to Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest has been crap. I agree with those critics who say that Japanese gaming industry is going down.)
* Drama of the year: The Wire Season 4
(Contenders:
Battlestar Galactica Season 4
The Wire Season 3
Gossip Girl Season 1
The Sopranos Season 5
The L-Word Season 2)
Not much to say here. I just love The Wire. As far as I'm concerned, it's the best cop drama ever made on this planet.
* Movie of the year: Versailles
(Contenders:
Gran Torino
Lust, Caution
Redacted
It's a free world...
Frost x Nixon)
(Horror movie of the year: Rec)
(Comedy of the year : Tropic Thunder)
It's not a perfect film, but it was made on a perfect time. Versailles is not about the palace. It's about homeless people who live near it. How their lives unfold, or unravel, as they try to fight for better life- against the era, against the social injustice, but above all, against themselves. It's not just about France, but pretty much everywhere. Gripping drama with great actors.
Same can be said about Gran Torino, Lust, Caution and Frost x Nixon- gripping drama with great actors. Didn't get me engaged like Versailles though.
Ken Loach's movie "It's a free world..." also takes up the current theme- made in 2007, this one is about illegal immigrants who (used to) come to England for better job at the height of real estate frenzy- from Katowice to Baghdad to Kiev. Like some of his other films, he has a bad habit of ending the movie without an ending- sometimes an open-ending is good and thought-provoking, but I always found his unsatisfactory. I want to see a sequel though, after the bubble has burst and immigrants are packing up and leaving England.
As for Horror and Comedy, they are pretty much self-explanatory; Rec (watch the original Spanish version. Not the American re-make) was really gripping horror film, and Tropic Thunder was so funny I had to go and buy the DVD next day. (You don't need any knowledge on war movies to enjoy TT [a parody on war movies in general], but you'd get more laughs if you have watched Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and Saving Private Ryan.)
* The Book of the year: "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
(Contenders:
"The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak
"The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
"Child 44" by Tom Rob Smith
"Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia" by Ahmed Rashid
"A Thousand Splendid Suns" was by far the most memorable, most engaging read of the year. Who else would have thought of telling the last three decades of Afghanistan's tragedy through the eyes of two women? Although it sometimes borders on being melodrama, the novel stays to be the first class example of the power of literature.
Lady Gaga looks like Cher (^o^)
They've got this illumination thing going on around Roppongi Hills.
This is right next to that Spider thing in front of Mori Tower. Just ignore some dude in front:-)
I started experimenting with Twitter.
So far, I don't like it.
I don't get it that people want to broadcast stuff about themselves all the time. Time spent on talking about yourself is time NOT spent on contemplating on matters that's not, for example, clothes you are wearing, type of booze you are drinking, or some dumb stuff you happen to be doing. More people should log themselves off from this seemingly hip connectivity and start reading real books.
I guess I'm old-school :-P
Happy Holidays to you, your family, friends and neighbors from all of us at Vox.
See you in 2010!
See you in 2010!
If you could kiss anyone under the mistletoe, who would it be?
I'm not going to tell you!!
"I love it that I'm the dream girl for geeks. That means smart men like me."
Milla Jovovich
Don't get me wrong; I do think global warming is real, humankind is causing this change to the environment, and the whole change is a huge problem for every humankind on this planet. I think people who want to deny global warming and environmental change are either intellectually dishonest and want to turn blind eye to countless stuff happening out there, or just want to sit on their dumb lazy ass and keep on with their old ways.
(However, I think it's also intellectually and scientifically dishonest not to face the accusation of "cooking the evidence" considering the global warming; and by the way, although I have a lot of respect for all those NPO people, but their naivety is, honestly, kind of annoying. Of course it's political and got a lot of business interests involved. You can't do something this big if you can't come up with something politically acceptable for both developing and "developed" worlds, and is easy for businesses on many levels to hop on. (And by the way, I can't believe they even air those stupid "discussion" programs on environment on so many TV channels to coincide with that COP 15 thing- has anyone counted how much electricity has been spent just to produce those crap?? Why can't they just shut down the fecking station for the duration of the program?? THAT would be so much better for environment, don't you think??)
Anyway, what bothers me about this whole "we must protect the Earth" talk is this tone of, how can I call it, maybe self-righteousness? Like we own the Earth and not the other way around?
What I mean is- imagine you are a dinosaur. This big rock falls from the sky, the land shakes, and the sun stops coming up again. Plants start do die, and your fellow dinos start to die. You would think, "Oh no, this is the end of the world!", right? Sure it is the end of the world for you, but guess what- the Earth moved on. Your time was just a chapter in its long history.
How do you know that, three million years from now, whatever species that 'rules' the Earth writes history of the world and humankind goesn't down in there as "the most efficient destroyer of the old world so the life-form as we know today could be born"? (Did you know that, in the beginning, oxygen was poisonous to the life-forms on this planet?) We think we are turning the Earth into Mars and all, but maybe it's the only purpose us humankind is supposed to serve. It's like Flying Spaghetti Monster. You can't disprove either theory because you don't know. (I'm not saying we should keep driving species into extinction. I'm just not comfortable with assuming one thing, when assuming the exact opposite is also perfectly possible)
What IS clear is, the environmental change is bad for us humankind if it continues. Rising sea level could sink cities and entire nations underwater. Our food supply could be seriously damaged (some say it always is). And generally living condition would be worse for us humankind.
That's right. I think that deep down, we are just saying, "Oh crap, we need to do something about this or our sustained existence, in the long term, could be threatened. Also it seems to be causing a lot of damage to other species. Let's pretend like we are doing this for fluffy animals and rare, exotic flowers (have you ever seen celebs parading for protection of hideous looking but very precious and important spiders and other insects???), although we can never live long enough to know the whole act of destroying them is not what we really are here for. Also, it's a great chance to sell whole new butch of cars, air-conditioning machine, bicycle, PC, whatever, calling them all "green" because we've been running out of innovations".
Environmentalists are saying the "human greed" is making it hard for us to move forward on this issue- it's certainly true, but then again, isn't their stated concern for "the Earth" is yet another greed? Greed for self-preservation of humankind, and also greed to look altruistic while we are just trying to serve our own purpose?
Again I want to stress I'm not saying we should stop worrying about global warming and other environmental changes. I'm just saying maybe more honestly on many levels are in order here.
... I'm probably getting flamed for writing this :-)
A Japanese jazz sax player Naruyoshi Kikuchi has this band called "Pepe Tormento Azucarar", and their album "New York Hell Sonic Ballet" is the craziest thing I've heard in quite a while. It's got a kind of club jazz, more old-school jazz element, bossa nova, tango, avant-garde violin, and even opera, all mixed up in very inexplicably cool way. I'm probably not really getting this, but it certainly is interesting music.
Did you know you can buy Alfa Romeo at 3 million JPY? (About 30K USD)? They have a kind of "entry model" nowadays. Actually, I saw a BMW advert with a model in the same price range. It surely is a lot of money, but compared to the price rage their cars usually are in, these models are pretty affordable- Japanese car makers make more expensive vehicles.
I don't get this. Luxury cars are supposed to be more, you know, expensive. Who would they want as their customer? Maybe younger people who may want to trade up in the future? (Terrible idea in Japan, increasing number of young generation thinks owning a car is a stupid thing to do) My guess is they just end up making those who just want that brand name on their ride happy. Which may not be a bad thing, considering today's economic climate..
I don't even know why I'm writing about cars, as I have no interest in owning one. I just saw this ad in a magazine and remembered another BMW ad, so I was kind of intrigued.
But anyway- take note, gold-diggers. You would need to tell which model from which, not just the emblem:-)
