annual media roundup

2015.01.03
The media I consumed in 2014... It's kind of weird how consistent most of the numbers are year after year, though I watched fewer videos this year. Anyway, 4 star stuff in red, stuff in red and bold are "5 star all time favorites". Gray Stuff I wish I hadn't seen.

Movies at the Cinema (14)
Robocop (Remake), Lego Movie, The Wind Rises, Her, Speed Racer, Godzilla, Chef, Edge of Tomorrow, Snowpiercer, Boyhood, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Book of Life, Anywhere Else, Action Jackson
"Her" was fantastic: romantic, a deftly subtle vision of future fashions and technology, and some deep thoughts about the Singularity. I played "Speed Racer" at my birthday party, "Anywhere Else" was a touching film I saw at the Jewish Film Festival, "Action Jackson" was a fun bit of Bollywood, though my Indian coworkers weren't too impressed.

Movies on Video (23)
Broken Flowers, Elf, Iron Sky, Tokyo Godfathers, About Last Night, Backbeat, Run Lola Run, The Way Things Go, 9, Indie Game: The Movie, Nymphomaniac Pt 1, Nymphomaniac Pt 2, Breath of the Gods, Pulp Fiction, Grosse Pointe Blank, Say Anything, The Thieves, Orange is the New Black Season 2, Buried Alive, The Sunset Limited, Wolf of Wall Street, Jim Gaffigan: Mr. Universe, Nick Offerman: American Ham
"Iron Sky" is a crazy good, or maybe just good, Finnish-Australian-German comic book of a film, Nazis on the moon. I love the Beatles story in Backbeat, and the alternate realities of "Run Lola Run"... "The Sunset Limited" was a an intriguing one-set film with Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel Jackson arguing theology. The Nick Offerman special was a great blend of sweet and absolutely filthy.

TV Shows (12)
Life's Too Short, Extras Season 1, Extras Season 2, The Office (UK) Season 1, The Office (UK) Season 2, Sopranos Season 1, Girls Season 3, Parks and Recreation Season 6,New Girl, The Mindy Project, Modern Family, Game of Thrones Season 4, Orange is the New Black Season 1
The first two were Ricky Gervais comedies I liked. Mindy Project and New Girl just make me laugh.

Books (61)
Stuck in the Middle with You, I Wear the Black Hat, A Working Theory of Love, Expanded Universe, Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us , The Uncle Book, Everything That Remains, One More Thing, Breathing Machines - a Memoir of Computers, Desert Days (Meat + Greet), March of the Morons, RESTful Web APIs, Axiomatic, Design Crazy, Luminous, Oceanic, This Is How You Say Goodbye: A Daughter's Memoir, Raising Steam, Flatland, One Summer: America, 1927, Stories of your Life and Others, God is Disappointed in You, The Lifecycle of Software Objects, The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate, The Weirdness, NAVMC 2616 Unit Leaders Personal Response Handbook, How About Never--Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons, We Are Still Married, ZZT, Think Like a Freak, The Word Exchange, Mapping Our Salvationist DNA, Defining the World, Galaga, Will Rogers: Wise and Witty Sayings of the Great American Humorist, Tibetan Peach Pie, Weird Al Yankovic Interviews, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?, Sex from Scratch, Hardcore Zen, Jagged Alliance 2, I Murdered My Library, Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception, Wetlands, A Man Without a Country, Chubster: A Hipster's Guide to Losing Weight While Staying Cool, An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge, The Mysterious Stranger, Midpoint and Other Poems, Super Mario Bros 2, Why Does the World Exist?, Mindfulness, How Not to Calm a Child on a Plane, Wishful Drinking, The Two Cultures, Not That Kind of Girl, The Secret History of Star Wars, A Sense of the Mysterious, The Way the World Works, The Meaning of Human Existence, what if?
"Axiomatic" by Greg Egan and "Stories of your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang are two awesome sci-fi short story collections; giant ideas in concise packages. "God is Disappointed in You" is my new favorite Bible translation and "NAVMC 2616 Unit Leaders Personal Response Handbook" is an interesting historical document of the smarter and kinder side of USMC.

Comics (6)
The Beats, Alone Forver, We Are Become Pals, The Adventures of Mrs. Jesus, Andre the Giant: Life and Legend, Tomboy
Bleh, shoulda gone through more of my shelf of "comics to read". "Alone Forever" by Liz Price is just short and sweet (I love the heart candy "AT LEAST U HAVE CATS") "We Are Become Pals" (Comeau/Fink) is a sweet tale for friendship, and doesn't devolve from best friends into girlfriends.

Video Games (14)
Mario Party Advance, Earth Defense Force 2025, Thirty Flights of Loving, EDF 2025: all 3 mission packs, Saints Row the Third, Saints Row IV, How The Saints Save Christmas, 99 Bricks Wizard Academy, Just Cause 2, Idleplex, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Far Cry 3, Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader, Far Cry 4
You know, a too many of these are either games I played before or sequels! I guess some of that was comfort food gaming... I was delighted by the new Earth Defense Force though, and Far Crys are a bit Bro-tastic, but it's nice to have another open world series. One that's probably going to make a buttload of sequels.

Live Shows (2)
Our Town, Spamalot
Finally saw "Our Town", a local theater in Montpelier... hadn't seen it before.


LOL Conservatives. "States' Rights! States' Rights! TOO MUCH STATES' RIGHTS! TOO MUCH STATES' RIGHTS!" (ditto "Personal Liberty")
Calories are so counter intuitive. I'm consistently startled at Panera where pastries easily top the number of calories in their really big salads. Like, this cookie should not have twice the calories of a Snickers. (My standard unit for caloric indulgence)