BY MIKEY MIGO
2009 begins tomorrow. 2008 will be a year that goes down in the history books as one of the most important and historic years of the past generation or two. Sadly, I don't think the music world mirrored that as artists of the Woodstock or grunge era did. I don't think bands like Fall Out Boy, Lil Wayne, 30 Seconds To Mars, and Nickelback will withstand the annals of time as something relevant or future classic. It could probably be described in many ways, but to me music just doesn't have the balls that it used to. I'm hoping for something better for 2009, but that's not to say 2008 wasn't completely bad. I just don't think a cultural impact was made or any of the albums released will go on to be relevant five years from now that alone classic twenty five years from now. I know that sounds cynical and "back in my day" as fuck, but it's true. I've enjoyed a lot of new music this past year, but I didn't feel moved. We've all had our own personal favorites this past year. Here is an unnecessary amount of things I liked in 2008:
My Five Favorite Albums
5.) "Digi Snacks" by RZA
4.) "Dear Science" by TV on the Radio
3.) "Chinese Democracy" by Guns N Roses
2.) "The Slip" by Nine Inch Nails
1.) "Day and Age" by The Killers
To keep up with consistency, this is the same top five of the Top 8 of 08 feature the entire music zone will be running shortly. So if you're curious to my next three picks that would be the feature to check out. I'm sure it'll be an interesting contrast of opinions and tastes so it should be a pretty fun read. Any ways, to me hands down "Digi Snacks" was the best hip hop album of the year. RZA brought his A-Game and the album is seamless in listening quality. TV on the Radio put out "Dear Science" and it was the worst TV on the Radio album to come out in the past few years. That being said, I had them ranked at number 1 for "Cookie Mountain" so their horrendous slide to being the Number Four album is not that bad. Maybe I'm just a horrible person with no sense of what's "cool", but I thought "Chinese Democracy" was one of the best albums to be released in 2008. It's like a "Greatest Hits" album spanning the past fifteen or so years of invisible albums that Axel Rose released. The best free download album of the year would easily go to "The Slip" by Nine Inch Nails. I am a very bias NINny, but something about this album just feels a bit more gripping. With it being one of the first of hopefully many self-released albums of Reznor's future discography, it stands to me as a modern version of "Pretty Hate Machine" in terms that it's the first album of a new era. I never thought this day would come, but The Killers are actually responsible for what I think is the best album of year. They've always been a guilty pleasure, but if you'd of asked me three years ago if this day would come I'd of shanked you. It's just "Day and Age" is just THAT good. I often considered them to be a "retro throwback" band, but this album rocks. "Neon Tiger", "Loosing Touch", and "Human" are worth picking up the album alone. I don't know how they will upstage this.
My Three Favorite Music Related Movies
3.) The Rocker
2.) What We Do Is Secret
1.) Cadillac Records
I can't think of many music related movies to come out this year. I'm sure there is more, but apparently they didn't make that big of an impression on me. I enjoyed "The Rocker" on a 90's Lorne Michaels production level, which is not a bad thing at all. The movie itself was pretty okay, but what holds it back from being anything more than a mid-Sunday afternoon movie is that the music the band makes is horrible and not "rocking" at all. I think the "One-ders" from "That Thing That You Do" had more balls than this supposed "rock" music. The first two picks is where things were a bit serious for me. "What We Do Is Secret" surprised me. I'm not even sure if it's a 2007 or a 2008 movie to be honest. I watched it a few months ago so it was new to me. It ended up being a very well done bio pic for a generally unknown artist about a time period that really hasn't been captured in a movie. I'd suggest it to anyone who likes punk music or is interested in a flat out good movie. "Cadillac Records" is my favorite music related movie of 2008 and to me one of the best movies of the year. Jeff Wright knocked it out of the park, but it was the supporting cast that won the movie over for me. I'm shocked that Wright and Brody aren't involved in the award talks this year. I think it was THAT good.
My Top Thirteen Favorite Movies
13.) Hancock
12.) Iron Man
11.) Step Brothers
10.) Pineapple Express
9.) Cadillac Records
8.) Zack and Miri Make A Porno
7.) Be Kind Rewind
6.) Choke
5.) Role Models
4.) Vicky Christina Barcelona
3.) Forgetting Sarah Marshall
2.) The Dark Knight
1.) The Wrestler
Before jumping into this one, I want to say that I've NOT seen "Slumdog Millionaire", "Revolutionary Road", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", and a few others but I'm sure I will before the award season hits. A few notable movies that I did see and did not enjoy enough to deem better than Hancock was "Milk", "Tropic Thunder", and "Burn After Reading". I watched a lot of movies in 2008. It became almost an obsession it was so many. I was open to genres I used to avoid and gave just about every movie a chance. I started watching a lot of art house and independent films and taking in everything. To be 2008 wasn't just a super hero year, but a great comedy year as well. Then "Step Brothers", "Zack and Miri", "Be Kind Rewind", "Choke", and "Role Models" were all standouts as well. There were a few more comedies that COULD have made the list, but more than thirteen would have just been absurd. "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" isn't getting a tenth of the attention that "Pineapple Express" is getting and while enjoying both, FSM is easily the better movie and one of my favorites of the year. I'm a huge Woody Allen fan and have been "content enough" in his 00's of film making. VCB ended up surprising the hell out of me. It was obviously a Woody Allen movie, but it had the fresh charm and feel to it that his best works have had. "The Dark Knight" was obviously great and arguably the best super hero movie ever made. The world will be watching it twenty years from now and it's the favorite movie for a good chunk of casual fans. For me personally, "The Wrestler" is not only the best movie I've seen in 2008, but a movie that I related to on a huge level. I'm not on the independent wrestling scene anymore, but I knew Ram's world for the better part of my early twenties and still have close friends in the business. I've watched "The Dark Knight" about a dozen times in 2008. I'll probably watch "The Wrestler" a few dozen times in 2009.
My Top Eleven Favorite TV Shows
11.) The IT Crowd
10.) Breaking Bad
9.) Flight of the Conchords,
8.) Weeds
7.) Peep Show
6.) It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
5.) Entourage
4.) 30 Rock
3.) True Blood
2.) Mad Men
1.) Californication
You'd of thought I was bedridden for 2008 by how many hours of movies and television I've watched. I discovered HBO/Showtime shows and British comedy series in 2008 and totally took advantage of it. Some of the stand outs for me have always been "Entourage", "Weeds", and "It's Always Sunny". Some shows to pretty much came out of nowhere and got my attention. "True Blood" ended up surprising the hell out of me. I was reluctant to watch it for some reason, but when I did it ended up being one of my favorite shows of the year. The way I describe it to friends is "it's like if Anne Rice rewrote ‘Roadhouse'". It's a horrible comparison, but one of the best I can think of. "Mad Men" is another show I never paid any attention to until its second season. I didn't expect to like it so much. I knew it was well written and had good talent based on all the awards and acclaim it got, but I just kind of expected to be impressed rather than enthralled. The show I enjoyed the most in 2008 was "Californication". I really don't see how this show is not getting the praise and attention it deserves.
My Top Five Favorite Wrestlers
5.) John Morrison
4.) Santino
3.) TIE- Randy Orton/Edge
2.) Chris Jericho
1.) Shawn Michaels
I probably watched only about 30% of the Impacts to air in 2008. I can't get behind their product or company for the life of me. If this was a strict "Top 5 Best Wrestlers", I'd of have to be more objective, but this is my favorite picks of the year. These are the guys who entertained me the most in WWE. John Morrison stepped up his game yet again and I could see him becoming an Edge-like quality Main Eventer. Santino's mic skills and skits carried many not-so exciting hours of RAW this past year. He's easily the best new mouth behind a mic in years and should have a place in the mid card for years to come just because of that. Orton and Edge tie at Three this year. Both had some time off, but at the same time both carried the show on their backs when needed. They are two of the best young heels in the company and are always fun to watch. The hard part was picking Number One. There were two obvious picks in Jericho and Michaels. Jericho's year was remarkable with taking RAW into his back pocket, winning the belt a few times, and participating in the best feud wrestling has seen in a long time. I give Michaels the edge over Jericho because Michaels didn't have much down town to me. He makes everything he touches gold. I'm actually interested in a lame money feud with JBL simply because Michaels makes you want to care. If the WWE doesn't take advantage of his heat strength and give Shawn Michaels a title reign in 2009 then I might do something crazy like post a comment about it.
My Five Random Things I Look Forward to in 2009
New music from The Strokes
"Whatever Works"
"The Watchmen"
"No Line On The Horizon" by U2
The Inauguration of President Obama
There seems to be a lot on the plate for 2009. There will be new music by some of our favorite bands. While I'm excited about new music from The Strokes, for me it's the release of "No Line on the Horizon" by U2 that I'm looking forward to the most. I'm a huge U2 fan and the way they're talking about this album makes it seem like it could be something special. For me, U2 albums are like pizza and sex. As bad as it can be, it's still a good way to spend a night. Movie wise, there's plenty to be excited about with "The Watchmen". The trailers and previews of it seem very exciting and true to the novel. The movie nerd inside of me is excited to see Larry David in Woody Allen's "Whatever Works". It's Woody's return to New York and Larry David seems like a living character from his pictures. I would suppose that's better than seeming like an unliving character. There's also this one thing that's going to happen towards the end of the first month of the year and that's the inauguration of a new United States President. This isn't a jingoistic "America! Fuck Yeah!" type of thing because hopefully this will effect the entire world in a positive manner. If you support him or hate him is not the issue. The man has already given hope to a new generation of voters. If he lives up to half of his hype and promises then he could go down as one of the greatest leaders in many years. While the economy is struggling and things needed to be improved in our country and around the world, the only thing you can do is remain optimistic and do your part. We're already at the end of the first decade of this new millennium. Let's go out in style.
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