A Lame List for a Lame Year

Hello, my name is Gilberto, but you can refer to me as "-G$" (pronounced: gee-muhnee).  I went to college w/Paul, and I spent 3 hours with him in NYC this summer.  Oh, and Paul will always be known in my family as that tall guy who is really really funny in his 5 minute appearance on my wedding video (trust me, it's a total show-stopper). 

I'm a veteran contributor to this list, and I was particularly proud of the list I submitted last year.  But I must be upfront about this: This year's submission is pathetic.  Between one thing & another (grad school; looking for, buying & getting settled in a new home; busy travel schedule; finances, etc.), I simply did not get to much by way of pop culture this year (especially music).  I mean, I used to be tha man at this sort of stuff, but this year I didn't even get myself to download In Rainbows!  Now if I want that damn CD I'll have to pay for it, and I'm not certain it'll be worth it (A couple years ago I bought Hail to the Thief and only heard it once; that was enough).  The bright side is that things are (slowly) beginning to change, and I expect to have my groove back soon (more so w/movies, courtesy of a new Netflix subscription).

Music

In 2007 I bought two albums that were released in 2007, both on the same trip to Best Buy.  They are Smashing Pumpkins, Zeitgeist, and The White Stripes, Icky Thump.  The former is a mediocre disappointment (which I sorta expected anyway). 

The White Stripes, though, continue to surprise me.  When are they going to release their Hail to the Thief?  When are they going to release that album that will prevent me spending more money on them?  For some reason with The White Stripes, I keep fooling myself into thinking that I don't like them anymore, or that their new music doesn't have that same fire that "Fell in Love With a Girl" lit under my ass.  And then I hear that bag-pipe-driven beat of "Icky Thump", or the unbridled joy of Meg & Jack's repartee on "Rag and Bone", or any one of the creative-yet-simple-&-catchy songs on this brilliant album.  I'm convinced Jack & Meg can find toothpicks on the ground and make a catchy tune with them.  What an amazing band.

Those are the two 2007 albums that I bought in 2007.  In 2008 I bought one 2007 album: Coheed & Cambria's Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Vol. 2: No World for Tomorrow.  I haven't heard it yet.  Paul's been busting my chops to get this list in, so I decided not to wait until I hear it, since every Coheed album is about 2 weeks long.  But I'm willing to bet that if I had heard it by now, it'd be at or near the top of this list.

I also bought one 2006 album this year: My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade.  I should have bought it last year.  A masterpiece of its kind.

Ok, now I will list in no particular order, some of the singles of 2007 that got my attention (at least the ones I can now recall):

The White Stripes, "Icky Thump"
Kanye West, "Stronger"
Good Charlotte, "I Don't Wanna Be in Love (Dance Floor Anthem)" (Yes, you read that right)
The umbrella -ella -ella song

So as you can tell, my encounters w/music this year were lame, lame, lame.  If I had checked out some of the stuff that made it on these other fine lists, I'm sure some of it would have shown up here.

Television

I am addicted to Two and a Half Men.  Here is a show whose every joke can be seen coming from a mile away, and yet I admire the way the screenwriters & actors go for it with such gusto (plus, I got to visit the set while I was in LA!  I was standing in that same living room you see on TV!).  Rules of Engagement is another terrible show that makes me laugh, almost entirely because of the way Patrick Warburton delivers his lines.  He was funny on Seinfeld, but was he this funny?

But the best comedy on television is 30 Rock, hands down.  The comedy comes fast & furious, and it hurts my gut to repress my laughter so that I won't miss the next joke.  It's Ludi-Christmas!

Finally, House continues to be where it's at.

Movies

Unless you're a movie critic who gets to see all the "important" films before they get released, it makes little sense to devise a best-of-the-year list until just before the Oscars.  So I'll just make a few comments.

I didn't think I could laugh much harder than I did when I saw Knocked Up.  And then a month later I saw Superbad.

Atonement is excellent, but not flawless.  No Country for Old Men is flawless.  Juno is not flawless, but perfect.

A word on The Simpsons Movie.  True, it doesn't belong among the best movies of the year.  Springfield & its residents did not translate so well onto the big screen.  But let me suggest that this movie will translate very well onto the small screen.  Let me suggest that what we have in The Simpsons Movie is not a movie, but a long, wacky Simpsons episode.  Let me also suggest that, like many Simpsons episodes, the movie may grow on you upon multiple viewings within the comfort of your own home, until it becomes a Simpsons episode that makes you laugh & smile at the same time.  Welcome to Alaska, here's a thousand dollars.

-G$


P.S. How could I forget to mention Across the Universe?  Here's a film that could stand to be 20 minutes shorter, but nevertheless kept me grinning for days after I saw it.

-G$