Shooflypie

If I wrote some of my year-end lists today, things would be a little different...and I'm sure that will continue to be the case. Not much to do about it, really, except maybe write about it. So... I finally saw Lincoln yesterday. I'd meant to see it when it first came out but it just never quite worked out. Had I seen it before the end of the year, it definitely would have been on my list of the best movies of 2012. I  love how it focused on just a few months of his life- the battle for the 13th Amendment and the brief aftermath. It really is a movie about political machinations - the realities that were present back then and are still present today (unfortunately). The period detail feels real to me, specifically in the lighting and the fact everyone wore coats or blankets because there was no central heating. The movies is full of great performances - I thought Tommy Lee Jones was fantastic as Thaddeus Stevens and James Spader brought charisma and levity with his perform...

Some quick highlights from 2012... I graduated from Purdue North Central with an English degree back in May. My wife and mother threw a party for me and it was a great weekend filled with family (including a surprise appearance from my cousin and his daughter) and friends. I wrote a long paper on The Wire to finish off that degree, to boot. I became a runner, running my first ever 5K and first ever 5 mile race. What's more is that I enjoy running and finished off the year by running for 45 minutes straight this morning. I love that I can still surprise myself and make changes at 41. I got to spend time with friends and family outside of Indiana, traveling to the lake in New York for the 4th of July, spending time in Ohio and seeing the White Sox lose in Detroit (and getting surprised by my brother in the process), and taking the annual trip to PA for Thanksgiving. I watched my son leave middle school and begin his freshman year in high school, where he played the sousaphon...

I started 2012 with a goal to read 52 books in the year and I managed to meet that goal. I was probably a teenager the last time I read that much in a year, to be honest. It felt good to reach my goal and I really enjoyed the reading year. I read 35 books that came out this year, which is a pretty good total. I even read 9 books that weren't fiction, which is more than I've read in a year ever. Regardless of genre or publication date, here are the books I liked the most... 1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - A dark page-turner built on twist after twist that's wired into how the book is structured and the alternating viewpoints of a couple with a strained marriage. Disturbing and brilliant. 2. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson - A virtuoso novel set in North Korea about living under the rule of Kim Jong Il and the lengths people will go to in order to stay alive. Complex and crackling with creative energy. 3. Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain - ...

At this point, I'm almost completely digital when it comes to music. Yes, I did buy a handful of CDs this year but I don't expect to anymore going forward. While I do still play CDs in the car, I will just as often plug in my iPhone and listen to a podcast or an album I have only in mp3 format. I was also able to listen to a wider variety of music this year thanks to Spotify. Here's what I liked the most... 1. Ben Kweller/Go Fly A Kite - This is an album I've seen on exactly no best-of lists but it's the album I listened to the most this year and with good reason - it's full of great power pop. It's the album I was hoping for after his self-titled album back in 2006 ( Changing Horses , while good, didn't quite fulfill that need). It has 11 songs that are a ton of fun to sing along to and I sang along plenty. 2. The Shins/Port of Morrow - A lot of critics shrugged their shoulders at this album but I think it's more a case of group critical backl...

I saw 19 movies in the theater this year and a handful more on DVD/Blu-Ray. Here are the ones I enjoyed the most... 1. The Avengers - My expectations were high for this movie...not only had the movies leading up to it been quite good but Joss Whedon was at the helm and I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan. The movie delivered. It was the perfect super-hero on the screen movie, full of great action, character, and humor. And then there was the Hulk. So much fun. 2. Django Unchained - Speaking of high expectations, I always have them for a new Quentin Tarantino movie. Here again, my expectations were exceeded. No one puts a film together the way QT does - such a perfect marriage of visuals, soundtrack, and dialogue. Christoph Waltz was fantastic and Samuel Jackson chewed the scenery so perfectly. Leonardo DiCaprio was a perfect villain and Kerry Washington showed why Broomhilda was worth saving. And then there was Jamie Foxx, who was perfect in the title role. I loved this movie. 3. Wr...

I started out the year buying single issues of comics but stopped after a couple months. In July, I bought an iPad and started reading single issue digitally, which I liked more than I thought I would. I also continued to read collections and original graphic novels like I usually do. Between all those ways of consuming comics, a few series were clearly my favorites... 1. Saga - Brian K. Vaughan is already responsible for one of my all-time favorite comics, Y: The Last Man , and with this series it looks like he is on his way again. He teams with Fiona Staples to build a SF universe full of magic and bounty hunters and sex planets and ghost babysitters and more that is completely grounded in the relationship between Marko and Alana, who are new parents and should not be together. The comic is gorgeously-drawn and wonderfully-written and I recommend it to everyone. 2. Hawkeye - This Matt Fraction comic with art by David Aja and Javier Pulido began this fall and has quickly become ...

Most of the TV I watch is via the DVR or On Demand. I like the convenience of watching on my own schedule and being able to get through an hour-long show in 45 minutes or so is also pretty darn appealing. A side effect of consuming shows this way is that the DVR is often quite full (it's down to about 56% thanks to a week off of school) and, consequently, I tend to miss shows. I tried out Ben and Kate and The Mindy Project this fall but never followed through on recording or timely On Demand watching. I completely missed out on Elementary and Arrow in the fall - complete catching up will have to wait until some indeterminate future time. Still, I did watch plenty this year and found a lot to like... 1. Breaking Bad - Yes, there were only 8 episodes this year (and only 8 more to go) but they were great episodes - daring, inventive, and dark with a hell of a plot twist as the show went on hiatus. The acting, writing, and directing continues to be outstanding. If you haven't ...

My desire to listen to podcasts greatly outweighed my consumption of them this year, which meant I often had a week's worth of podcasts that I hadn't listened to. Obviously, that's not a state I can sustain and I've recently winnowed what was built up, most likely losing some good interviews in the process. The following are the podcasts I did the best of keeping current with, which makes them my favorites... 1. NPR's All Songs Considered - Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton (and a host of others) offer a weekly look at new music and help to expand my musical horizons, even in genres I would typically not be interested in. The dynamic between the hosts is great and listening to it is just a great time. 2. iFanboy's Pick of the Week Podcast - Ron, Conor, and Josh (and sometimes Paul) gather each week to talk about the week's comics, answer e-mails and voice mails, and generally have a good time. I've learned enough about their tastes over the past couple y...