The Year of Pleasant Surprises

Obama aside, 2008 was a difficult year all around, and pop culture seemed to reflect that. I started working on some top ten lists to close out the year, until I realized that in most categories, I couldn't come up with more than three things that really impressed me. In fact, so much of what was produced this year was uninspired, uninventive, or just generally disappointing that it was almost a surprise when something turned out to be good. So, in recognition of that, here are my 12 pleasant entertainment surprises of 2008.

Wall-E. A kids’ movie about cutesy, animated robots that chirp and beep more than R2D2. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi story about a trash-collecting robot and his pet cockroach left behind on a over-polluted planet. A cautionary tale about the environment and the evolutionary effects of technology and lack of exercise. A sweet romantic yarn about a Hello, Dolly-obsessed loner who finally meets the woman of his dreams and crosses the galaxy to win her heart. Wall-E is all of these and more. Add in the fact that the two main characters barely speak any dialogue in the first 45 minutes except to repeat each other’s names, and you would expect this would make for a deadly boring, convoluted mess. Enter Pixar. If ever you doubted the genius of this studio, here’s all the proof you need. Wall-E is an incredible piece of moviemaking. So much is communicated through the smallest gestures, toots, whistles, and slight changes of expression that the lack of dialogue is barely noticeable. Hands-down, one of my five favorite movies of all time.

The Rhumb Line, Ra Ra Riot. An amazing mix of strong songwriting, catchy melodies, and driving strings made this my favorite album of the year. There’s a surprising amount of world-weariness for such a young band, and it gives the songs a lived-in feeling, even if you're only hearing them for the first time.

“Spiralling,” Keane. This track is so undeniably catchy, I almost forgive them for the bad 80’s synthesizers. OK, who am I kidding? The synths make the song.

The Dark Knight. I knew it would be good. I just didn’t know it would be this good. Total game-changer for all comic book films to come.

“M79,” Vampire Weekend. Imagine Graceland-era Paul Simon scoring a Wes Anderson flick. This song encapsulates everything that is great about VW’s debut.

Feed the Animals, Girl Talk. The most incredible mashup mix I’ve ever heard. So dense and complex in its use of samples that Wired devoted a full-page chart to breaking down one track from the album.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Proof that even Joss Whedon’s free time doodlings are works of genius (he wrote this to keep his mind fresh during the writer’s strike). Joss Whedon + Neil Patrick Harris + a musical about a supervillain’s video blog = comedy gold.

“Viva La Vida,” Coldplay. Yes, this song is overplayed. Yes, it may have been plagiarized. Yes, the album as a whole is so-so. No, I don’t care. It’s still impossible to get out of your head.

Iron Man. Not as gritty as The Dark Knight, but still a hell of a lot of fun. Favreau took the source material seriously, and Robert Downey Jr. was born to play Tony Stark. I went in with high expectations, and they were all met.

Lyle Lovett at Red Rocks. I maintain the belief that all Red Rocks shows are automatically 10% better simply because of the venue, but Lovett didn’t need the help. Despite the fact that I hardly knew any of his music, I was enthralled. Lyle is a true entertainer, and his band is top-notch.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson. This book was recommended to me almost simultaneously by my mom and Stephen King, which is strange, but also a testament to its appeal. The variation on a locked-room murder mystery (in this case, it’s a locked island) kept me turning pages all the way to the end...which I really enjoyed, despite it’s non-Hollywoodness.

Alpinisms, School of Seven Bells. Former Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis teams up with twin sister vocalists to create a new genre: atmospheric New-Age indie rock. This album is a gorgeously dense creation, full of layers and textures. Yet when I heard the Bells play an acoustic set on KEXP recently that stripped away all the effects, the songs held up.

“The Greatest Man That Ever Lived,” Weezer. Rivers puts on his Freddie Mercury hat and writes a 21st-century “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Good luck not singing along with the chorus.


Biggest disappointments of the year:
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Thanks for ruining yet another beloved franchise, George.

Chinese Democracy, Guns N’ Roses. We waited 11 years for this? It’s obvious Axl has a frustrated Stephen Sondheim hiding inside him. I just wish he wouldn’t put the G N’ R name on that stuff.

Less than 100 people showing up for Matthew Sweet’s October show at the Fox Theater. That’s just sad.

From the Office of the President-Elect

I may be a little late catching on here, but putting his weekly addresses to the nation on YouTube is such a smart move by Obama. Based on what he says here, it sounds like he's going to do his best to drag this country kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, and after using texts and emails to such great effect during his campaign, this seems like a natural next step.

The Art of Politics

One of the most impressive things about Barack Obama’s campaign has been the level of inspiration he brought out in his supporters. We saw the results of that yesterday in the turnout at the polls, but another area where I’ve been equally impressed is in his effect on the artistic community. Obama supporters have produced some amazing images over the past 9 months, starting first and foremost with underground artist Shepard Fairey’s ubiquitous “Hope” and “Progress” posters, which were originally produced as an independent guerrilla project, but were soon assimilated as official by the Obama campaign. This iconic image spawned numerous alterations, knockoffs and parodies (including a DNC-specific variation by Fairey himself, created for a certain Denver magazine), but one of my favorite remixes combines Obama and David Bowie circa “Aladdin Sane”.


While Fairey’s image was definitely the highest-profile of the campaign, there’s been plenty of creativity to spread around. A huge amount of original artwork was displayed in Denver during the DNC, but this image, produced recently by illustrator Patrick Moberg in honor of President-Elect Obama’s historic victory, is by far my favorite. Simple, yet effective, it truly embodies the old line about a picture being worth 1,000 words.

I, for one, hope that this creative explosion continues throughout President Obama’s entire term, and that he can continue to inspire all Americans, not just the artists, for years to come. (Clearly, my post-election afterglow hasn’t worn off yet. Hope, baby, hope...)

Change

Thank you, America, for returning to your senses.

Ranting and Raving

Not surprisingly, The New Yorker has endorsed Obama. Also not surprisingly, they give an excellent, clear, carefully considered, and factually-based argument in favor of Obama.

Sadly, I’m afraid this kind of endorsement won’t be enough. If this election was going to be decided simply on cold hard facts and rational thinking about who is going to be the best leader for this country in crisis, Obama could schedule his inauguration right now. Unfortunately, we live in Reality TV Nation, where the presidential election has become nothing more than a popularity contest in which the future of our country hinges on who can come up with the best sound bite. Maybe I have too little faith in the American public, but I have a feeling there are a lot of fairly intelligent but lazy people (along with a whole mess of total idiots) in this country who have been sucked in by the Republican misdirection, and are going to base their vote in the most important election in half a century entirely on the image of a pitbull with lipstick. Look over here, public. Watch the pretty lady, don’t think about that stuff that hurts your brain like the economy (which, by the way, we have no solutions for, because we don’t actually want to fix it). Call me a pessimist, but I fear for the next four years.

On the other hand, if McCain wins, maybe California and New England will secede from the U.S., and I can move back near a beach.

P.S. Have our standards really become that low for our leaders that anyone can crow about how well someone did in a debate just because she didn’t screw up? The whole VP show was pretty disappointing anyway. Trading 30-second sound bites doesn’t really qualify as much of a “debate”.

UPDATE: Happily, I was wrong, and the American public exceeded my expectations for once.

Thinking Clearly

I promise to keep the political posts to a minimum this year (unless McCain wins and that flip-flopping nutjob Palin ends up a heartbeat away from the presidency — then I’ll probably be firing off political posts left and right from Barcelona or Berlin), but I finally got a forwarded email that was worth repeating. It does such a great job of showing how ridiculous the Republican hype machine really is when you break their arguments down. Here it is:

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight....

If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you’re “exotic, different.” Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

If your name is Barack, you’re a radical, unpatriotic Muslim. Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

Graduate from Harvard Law School and you are unstable. Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

If you spend 3 years as a community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience. If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.

If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian. If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a Christian.

If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society. If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state’s school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you’re very responsible.

If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don't represent America’s. If your husband is nicknamed “First Dude”, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

OK, much clearer now.

Sadly, half of America would read this and completely miss the sarcasm. And that’s why the pessimist in me has this sinking feeling that Obama is going to lose.

McCain image by Steve Sedam/XL Industries.