Via Forbes Magazine’s 10 Things Our Kids Will Never Worry About Thanks to the Information Revolution:
“Today, virtually any piece of desired content, no matter how obscure, is just a quick search away.”
I CAN’T.
"10 Amazing Records Tom Hawking Listens to When He's Writing"
So my friend Marina asked me to make a top 10 list of albums I listen to when I’m writing. Your wish is my command, mfortki.
Mogwai — Young Team
Kevin Drumm — Imperial Horizon
Gas — Nas Und Fern
Billow Observatory — Billow Observatory
Julianna Barwick — The Magic Place
Fripp & Eno — Evening Star
Godspeed You! Black Emperor — Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Antennas to Heaven
Jackie-O Motherfucker — Flags of the Sacred Harp
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto — Insen
Motion Sickness of Time Travel — Luminaries and Synastry
Nate's Top 10 Shows of 2012
I was gonna write-up blurbs for all of these, but I’m lazy, so lets just leave it at “These shows are all gr15 and you’re a dummy if you’re not watching them.”
10) Cougar Town
9) Teen Wolf
8) Fringe
7) Happy Endings
6) Homeland
5) Childrens Hospital
4) Justified
3) Archer
2) Mad Men
1) Sons of Anarchy
Nate's Assorted Other End of Year 2012 TV Awards
These are for the things that weren’t covered by any of my other top 10 lists or are important enough that they merit a second mention. Because I am ridiculous enough that, between all my various lists, there is still shit I couldn’t fit in to them.
Best Reality Show Contestants – Lucy and Emilia, “The Amazing Race: Australia”
Not just the best reality show contestants of the year, these two sisters very quickly grew to be my favorite reality show contestants of all time. That’s not hyperbole, I am in love with these two sisters. Leg after leg, barely escaping elimination with each and every time because someone else did something dumb, they became a sheer joy to watch. With each leg they were spared, they became increasingly incredulous, and at a certain point stopped treating the Race like a race and just as the experience of a lifetime, something that I wish more people would do. They never fought with each other and just had the time of their lives, and it came through to the viewer too. Nothing but a pure joy to watch, these two were just the absolute greatest.
Most Improved – “Scandal”
This show started out as “Shonda Rhimes is trying to be Aaron Sorkin.” While it wasn’t bad, it felt forced and repetitive. By latching on to an overarching plot, the show has improved by absolute leaps and bounds. Kerry Washington is absolutely killing it in what has really morphed into the smartest drama on network TV. And by putting a bullet in Fitz, the show makes it clear than anything can happen, and I can’t wait to see what it is.
Biggest Downgrade- “The Vampire Diaries”
Much has been said by me already, both in written and podcast form, about how much of a trainwreck season four has been. So I’ll just throw them all out again in list form: SIRE BOND, Professor Manboy, April Sad Trombone Young, SIRE BOND, undagger Queen Bex already, SIRE BOND, what happened to the real Caroline Forbes, SIRE BOND, SIRE BOND, SIRE BOND TIMES INFINITY, AND THEN SOME MORE SIRE BOND. Just get your shit together, TVD, and get out of this nosedive already.
Worst Premature Cancellation- “Bent”
We only got 6 episodes of this gem, that NBC burned off over three weeks in a shitty timeslot. Why? I can only guess it’s because NBC is run by some dumbass monkeys (no offense intended to the smart monkeys out there) who can’t recognize quality when it’s displaying delightful bantering skills right in front of their face. Speaking of faces, David Walton’s. I still miss you, “Bent”. I still miss you.
Honorable Mention: GCB. (Three words: Cricket Carruth-Reilly)
Worst Premature Pick-Up- “Anger Management”
We have 90 more episodes of this coming. ‘Nuff said.
Honorable Mention: Nikita.
Show that Doesn’t Have Any Right To Be As Charming As It is- “Hart Of Dixie”
Seriously, this show doesn’t have any right to be as charming as it is. But I honestly believe Hart of Dixie might be the most charming show on TV. This show is the real successor to Gilmore Girls (SUCK A MILLION, BUNHEADS), small town charm to spare filled with mostly great characters. If only we could make the lead as likable as the supporting cast around her.
Most Disappointing Season Of A Previously Great Show- “Ru Paul’s Drag Race: All Stars”
This season was a mess. The pairs format, the awful challenges, how manufactured it all felt. Thank God we only had to sit through six episodes and we have a real season coming this month to wash the taste out of our mouths.
Best Use Of Abs – TIE: Stephen Amell, “Arrow” and Colton Haynes, “Teen Wolf”
Maybe they can have an ab-off once Colton joins Arrow this season. Although I’m not sure the internet could take it. But I want it anyways.
Listverse
It’s amazing how many time-wasting sites have accumulated on my bookmarks menu. Listverse is one of my favourites though; it’s one of those twofold sites that’s both entertaining and educational.
Some fun and memorable lists include:
- The Top 10 Scariest Filipino Monsters
- 10 Biblical Facts That Everyone Gets Wrong
- Top 10 Truly Bizarre Taxes
- Top 10 Greatest Food Combinations
So, unless you have an entire night you can dedicate to browsing through this site, I would avoid going on it at all. There is such a variety of topics that you’ll end up jumping from one to the next, and before you know it, two or three hours will have passed. True story.
top of the tops: best albums of 2012
it’s year-end top-albums listmaking time. this makes my inner datahead recklessly happy.
for your datahead/behind-on-what’s-cool pleasure (or, probably, mine), here’s a little top-of-the-tops list — an analysis of a sample of 131-ish* top 10 albums of the year lists.
so. what are the top 10 of the top 10s — the 10 albums that appeared most often on these 131 listmakers’ top 10 lists?
tadaaa (with links, for your listening pleasure)!:
- Frank Ocean - Channel Orange (Def Jam) (25 top 10 list appearances)
- Goat - World Music (Rocket Recordings) (17 appearances)
- Tame Impala - Lonerism (Modular) (15)
- Can - The Lost Tapes (Mute) (13)
- Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City (Aftermath) (13)
- Andy Stott - Luxury Problems (Modern Love) (12)
- Japandroids - Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl) (12)
- Alt-J - An Awesome Wave (Infectious) (11)
- Father John Misty - Fear Fun (Sub Pop) (11)
- Jack White - Blunderbuss (Columbia/Third Man) (10)
runners-up, with 7 to 9 list appearances: beach house “bloom”, swans “the seer”, the men “open your heart”, alabama shakes “boys & girls”, chromatics “kill for love”, grizzly bear “shields”, bobby womack “the bravest man in the universe”, dirty projectors “swing lo magellan”, dr john “locked down”, first aid kit “the lion’s roar”, francis bebey “african electronic music 1975-1982”, metric “synthetica”, neneh cherry & the thing “the cherry thing”, spiritualized “sweet heart sweet light”, v/a “personal space: electronic soul”
NOW YOU KNOW. hooray!!
*i collected 1312 top-ten-albums entries from various sources**, which i’m guessing roughly corresponds to 131 top 10 lists (buuuut i’m guessing somebodies didn’t take the ten part of top 10 seriously).
**these sources are definitely biased towards what i’ve been paying attention to lately, and also limited to the top lists available so far in the year, so: grains of salt!! sources: radio stations: CHIRP, KEXP, NPR, WFMU, the current mpls; record stores: reckless, other music; web stuffs: self-titled mag.
