Music

Boom Shadow by Nino Moschella
2nd album from the guy who I anticipate new work from the most. It’s a near-guarantee that I’ll love every piece of music that he puts out.

Good City for Dreamers by General Elektriks
It’s been a while since their last release, but he picks up right where he left off 6 years ago.

Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future by The Bird & the Bee
Easily the closest I get to pop in my listening habits, but I think I’m a sucker for Greg Kurstin’s production.

Runners Up: Carried Away by the People Under the Stairs, BLACKsumers’night by Maxwell, The Ecstatic by Mos Def

Movies

Star Trek by the J.J. Abrams
After the new Batman movies and this, I’m hoping that folks are figuring out how to properly handle summer blockbusters.

In The Loop by Armando Iannucci
Hands down the best use of swearing in the last decade. Even better than the TV series.

The Informant! by Steven Soderbergh
My favorite thing about this movie is that this guy really exists.

Runners Up: Moon, Good Hair

Books

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
I remember the author from one of my favorite super-hero graphic novels back in ’88, but I’m glad to see that 20 years later he’s done his first self-written graphic novel.

Nothing
I didn’t realize it until I started this list, but what the hell has happened to me?! I apparently stopped reading this year. Asterios Polyp is the only book that I can remember reading the whole thing. I mean, I read a few things that were published before 2009 which don’t count, but still…

Man… I better clean up my act.

Time To Jailbreak

The folks over at Teehan+Lax plan to make my iPhone a lot more useful. They’re in the process of working with the Cydia folks to release a new lock screen for the iPhone entitled Element. I’ve spent a fair amount of time with the Android, and the single feature that always stood out as heads and shoulders above the iPhone is their notifications system. Hopefully, as soon as next week, that will no longer be a problem. Take a look at some more screenshots.

Watch Out Andy Rooney

I admittedly have a soft spot for Jon Stewart (who, thank goodness, now has a key to Bellingham, WA) and Stephen Colbert, and not so much of a soft spot (a hard spot?) for Christopher Hitchens. I first became skeptical of Hitchens after reading about his stance on the Iraq War. And that feeling only increased after he attempted to join Richard Dawkins at the head of the Atheist movement by trying to mask his lack of scientific background with an even larger combative ego than Dawkins.

Hitchens uses the fact that Stewart was ranked as the #1 trusted newscastor in an online popularity pool to whine and complain that he is no Mark Twain (Is anyone really arguing that point?). His evidence seems to be Al Franken’s books (I’m still trying to figure out what that has to do with the Daily Show). My best guess is that either Hitchens is still bitter 4 years later that Stewart didn’t promote his Jefferson book well enough, or is formally applying for Andy Rooney’s position as Old Crank Laureate.

The Game That Keeps On Loving You

Take one look at this image and say out loud what it makes you think.

You got it right: REO Speedwagon, the Video Game!
Apparently someone is making a Halo killer in the forum of a casual hidden object video game. I am currently going to great lengths to make sure that the video game company I work for is going to sell this.

Twitter fave “Shit My Dad Says” heads to TV

What?! That is enough basis for the foundation of a television show? My pops might not be that cranky, but give him 5 years. He’s on his way; and soon I’ll be rich.

PS: I love that the one person he follows is Levar Burton.

Dan Scanlon covers X-Men 1

Probably the 2nd best post (just behind this one) on one of my favorite blogs.

Dear American Airlines

Interesting:

1. Designer dreams up a redesign of American Airlines’ website and chastises the company (particularly their design department)
2. An employee from the AA design group writes back to say, “You’re right.”
3. AA fires said employee for breaking their NDA.

Lots to take away from this. For me, most of all is that I’ve been in this employee’s shoes and this story reaffirms that I will make sure to never be wearing shoes like his in a company like that again. It sounds clear that AA is a seriously messed up company, and, as folks have said, the original critique is a little naive of the situation: A little screenshot does not a website make.

Chris Ware Does Halloween

This already appeared to make the rounds on the internet, but was too good not to pass up posting. Make sure to read the 4-page spread.

Books

Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw
I think this is the largest graphic novel I’ve ever read, coming in at 720 pages. I kinda imagined that this was a book by Noah Baumbach in which Noah was able to grow beyond the rut he got in with Margot at the Wedding.

Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
I grabbed this because I was particularly interested in Dane Cook’s parallels to Steve’s stand-up career (not really). And I’m a sucker for any tidbits I can find on the Jerk.

A Practical Guide To Racism by C. H. Dalton
The perfect book to keep by your side when you need to inflame the racial hatred that you’ve worked so hard to hide away.

Runners Up: Burma Chronicles by Guy Delisle, More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman, Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story by Frederik Peeters

Music

The Way I See It by Raphael Saadiq
Not as innovative as his first release, but still is probably tied for the best album out of the recent Motown revival along with…

JIM by Jamie Lidell
The first guy I know about to do the whole modern Motown sound came out with a close to perfect album. Every track is solid.

Metropolis: The Case Suite by Janelle Monáe
I have a strong feeling after hearing this album that she’s going to be huge, with crossover appeal to a number of audiences. She’s supposed to release another EP in Q1 of ’09.

Oracular Spectacular by MGMT
More rock like this, please.

Runners Up: Droppin’ Science Fiction by the Mighty Underdogs, Shine by Estelle, Doomtree by Doomtree, New Amerykah, Pt. 1 by Erykah Badu

Movies

Bigger Stronger Faster by the Chris Bell
I went into watching this movie against steroids in competition to now not knowing what to think. Might not be as superbly told as Man On Wire for a documentary, but it had more of an impact on me.

Let The Right One In by Tomas Alfredson
I thought about this movie for a couple days after watching it. The two 12-year-olds in this do just as good of a job as most of this years nominees.

The Dark Knight by Christopher Nowlan
A little bit of an obvious choice, but that doesn’t stop it from being hella good.

Runners Up: Slumdog Millionaire, Role Models, The Wackness

Earlier this year, I consolidated Dan Clowes’ 20-page entry for the Funny Pages into a single PDF file; and now I’ve gone back and complied single PDFs for all of the NYT Funny Pages’ past strips. Enjoy:

• Rutu Modan – The Murder of the Terminal Patient (16MB)
• Jason – Low Moon (17MB)
• Seth – GeorgeSprott (27MB)
• Megan Kelso – Watergate Sue (21MB)
• Dan Clowes – Mr. Wonderful (18MB)

NOTE: These are highly compressed, so there are slight visual artifacts. Their natural file size would be in the 40 – 80 MB range.

The magazine has been releasing each page as an individual PDF, but I combined the 20 pages into a convenient single 18MB PDF. Grab it and have a read.

Books

Exit Wounds by Rutu Modan
Big time comic releases seem to be more sporadic these days in comparison to a couple of years ago, but this one fits the bill. Israelis with identity issues makes for good reading.

I Am America by Steven Colbert
Obvious one for me. I’m a sucker for anything that he does, as evidenced by viewing all 337 episodes of the Colbert Report (as of this writing).

Into Hot Air by Chris Elliott
It’s not as good as his last, but it’s still quite good. A cast of Chris Elliott, Kristen Dunst, Michael Moore, Martin Sheen, Tony Danza, and more set out to climb Everest.

Runners Up: Comedy By Numbers by Eric Hoffman and Gary Rudoren, Percy Gloom by Cathy Malkasian

Music

Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird
I probably spent more time with this album than any other this year. Even better than his near perfect And the Mysterious Production of Eggs.

Please Clap Your Hands by the Bird & the Bee
It’s just an EP with 5 songs, but each is pop perfect. The production is great.

Alright, Still by Lily Allen
My guilty pleasure. This is probably the popiest album that I’ve ever fallen for. I very much doubt a sophmore album that matches this.

Runners Up: Back to Black by Amy Winehouse, Snow Beast by Luke Temple, Version by Mark Ronson, Once by Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová, the Reminder by Feist

Movies

No Country for Old Men by the Coen Bros.
TENSE. It’s everything I liked about Terminator 2 but with more humans.

Hot Fuzz by Edgar Wright
I think this is a perfect comedy. Conceptual jokes, low brow jokes, high brow jokes. They all hit.

There Will Be Blood by PT Anderson
Anybody who can make talking about milkshakes that dramatic deserves to be called the best actor in the world.

The Ten by David Wain
LOT’S of “A” jokes. Mostly “A-/B+” jokes.

Runners Up: King of Kong, This is England, Juno, Once, Michael Clayton