Half-Year Lists 2012
Half-Year Lists 2012
I'm going to modify my format slightly, to try to keep up with the changes in media and technology that have occurred over the past few years.
MUSIC (Formerly "2012 Albums" & "Albums From Previous Years Heard For The First Time In 2012")
1. Everything released this year on the Mystery Lawn Music label. Of course there's Poppy Seeds, but there's also Alison Faith Levy's World Of Wonder - kids' music that will make your kids smarter and have better taste in music, The Hollyhocks' Understories, and the vinyl version of Mixed Greens by Allen Clapp & His Orchestra.
2. The Beach Boys 50th anniversary reunion. Everyone who regularly reads this LJ knows that I'm kind of obsessed with the Beach Boys. Karla got me tickets to their June 1st Greek Theater show for my birthday. I was excited about seeing all of the surviving members back together but I honestly didn't have huge expectations. I figured they're all 70 years old, they'll probably just show up, half-ass their way through their 10 biggest hits and call it a night. Instead they played for 2-1/2 hours - 46 songs - and they sounded fantastic. It wasn't just the hits from the 60s either, they played a lot of the hipster catalog stuff that the younger generation (meaning people under 50) of Beach Boys fans is into, such as "California Saga", "All This Is That", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Sail On Sailor". The new album isn't bad either.
3. Men Without Hats - "Love In The Age Of War" They sound exactly the same. It's like I'm in 8th grade again.
4. The Classic Albums documentary series, available on Netflix, Youtube, etc. I don't even like a lot of theses albums, but it's fascinating to see how music was recorded in the 60s and 70s. My favorite parts are when they show an engineer in a control room and they play back isolated sections of songs like the backing vocals or the bass so you can hear exactly how they were done.
5. Willie Wisely - True
6. Rosie Abbott - Rosie Abbott
7. Mouse Deer - The Mouse Deer EP
8. The New Sell Out I've been waiting to hear this whole collection since 2000, when I played piano on the CvS track "I Can't Reach You". There's a long story behind it, but it's finally out. If you were into 90s Power Pop like I was, you'll recognize a lot of the names.
9. The re-issue of the first 3 Cleaners From Venus albums. I'm a huge Martin Newell fan, but I was never able to find these albums in a decent format. (No, I don't think the hipster cassette trend was a great idea.) The early stuff is kind of hit and miss, but I'm glad that it's finally available.
10. Pseu's Thing With A Hook, Pop Garden Radio, Snap, Crackle, Pop, and The Time Traveler Did you know you could still find great music on broadcast radio? You can. Add to that the fine, fine internet radio shows like Twirl, Shock Pop, Alan Haber's Pure Pop and The Forum on Recharged and you'll have to quit your job just to keep up.
FILM, TV, AND OTHER VISUAL MEDIA (Formerly "2012 Movies", "Movies From Past Years Seen For The First Time in 2012", "TV Shows") I don't think I've seen a single first-run movie in the theater this year, nor have I watched much TV live as it was happening. Since getting a Nexflix gift subscription I've been overwhelmed by such bounty that I am barely able to leave the house.
1. Mad Men Season 5
2. Sherlock Series 2
3. British comedies on Netflix: Come Fly With Me, Mitchell & Webb, Todd Margaret, Shameless, The IT Crowd.
4. Weird documentaries on Netflix: I Think We're Alone Now, The Hollywood Complex, A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, For the Love of Dolly.
5. Serious, well-made documentaries on Netflix: For the Bible Tells Me So, Magic Trip, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, Festival, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Commune, A Technicolor Dream, Ken Burns's Jazz, Nothing Is Easy.
6. Dirty Pope, aka The Borgias
7. ABC Family / Disney Channel guilty pleasures: Switched At Birth, Make It Or Break It, Camp Rock, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, Lemonade Mouth
8. Downton Abbey
9. United States Of Tara
10. BBC sci-fi dramas: Primeval, Merlin
BOOKS (Books are still books, in whatever format.)
1. Forever: A Novel - Pete Hamill
2. A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown - Julia Scheeres
3. Late Autumn Sunlight : East Anglian Verses - Martin Newell
4. Sarum: The Novel of England - Edward Rutherfurd
5. Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970 - David Browne
6. 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
7. Ready, Steady, Go!: The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London - Shawn Levy
8. I've Got Your Number - Sophie Kinsella
9. Bossypants - Tina Fey
10. The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret - Kent Hartman
I'm going to modify my format slightly, to try to keep up with the changes in media and technology that have occurred over the past few years.
MUSIC (Formerly "2012 Albums" & "Albums From Previous Years Heard For The First Time In 2012")
1. Everything released this year on the Mystery Lawn Music label. Of course there's Poppy Seeds, but there's also Alison Faith Levy's World Of Wonder - kids' music that will make your kids smarter and have better taste in music, The Hollyhocks' Understories, and the vinyl version of Mixed Greens by Allen Clapp & His Orchestra.
2. The Beach Boys 50th anniversary reunion. Everyone who regularly reads this LJ knows that I'm kind of obsessed with the Beach Boys. Karla got me tickets to their June 1st Greek Theater show for my birthday. I was excited about seeing all of the surviving members back together but I honestly didn't have huge expectations. I figured they're all 70 years old, they'll probably just show up, half-ass their way through their 10 biggest hits and call it a night. Instead they played for 2-1/2 hours - 46 songs - and they sounded fantastic. It wasn't just the hits from the 60s either, they played a lot of the hipster catalog stuff that the younger generation (meaning people under 50) of Beach Boys fans is into, such as "California Saga", "All This Is That", "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" and "Sail On Sailor". The new album isn't bad either.
3. Men Without Hats - "Love In The Age Of War" They sound exactly the same. It's like I'm in 8th grade again.
4. The Classic Albums documentary series, available on Netflix, Youtube, etc. I don't even like a lot of theses albums, but it's fascinating to see how music was recorded in the 60s and 70s. My favorite parts are when they show an engineer in a control room and they play back isolated sections of songs like the backing vocals or the bass so you can hear exactly how they were done.
5. Willie Wisely - True
6. Rosie Abbott - Rosie Abbott
7. Mouse Deer - The Mouse Deer EP
8. The New Sell Out I've been waiting to hear this whole collection since 2000, when I played piano on the CvS track "I Can't Reach You". There's a long story behind it, but it's finally out. If you were into 90s Power Pop like I was, you'll recognize a lot of the names.
9. The re-issue of the first 3 Cleaners From Venus albums. I'm a huge Martin Newell fan, but I was never able to find these albums in a decent format. (No, I don't think the hipster cassette trend was a great idea.) The early stuff is kind of hit and miss, but I'm glad that it's finally available.
10. Pseu's Thing With A Hook, Pop Garden Radio, Snap, Crackle, Pop, and The Time Traveler Did you know you could still find great music on broadcast radio? You can. Add to that the fine, fine internet radio shows like Twirl, Shock Pop, Alan Haber's Pure Pop and The Forum on Recharged and you'll have to quit your job just to keep up.
FILM, TV, AND OTHER VISUAL MEDIA (Formerly "2012 Movies", "Movies From Past Years Seen For The First Time in 2012", "TV Shows") I don't think I've seen a single first-run movie in the theater this year, nor have I watched much TV live as it was happening. Since getting a Nexflix gift subscription I've been overwhelmed by such bounty that I am barely able to leave the house.
1. Mad Men Season 5
2. Sherlock Series 2
3. British comedies on Netflix: Come Fly With Me, Mitchell & Webb, Todd Margaret, Shameless, The IT Crowd.
4. Weird documentaries on Netflix: I Think We're Alone Now, The Hollywood Complex, A Complete History of My Sexual Failures, For the Love of Dolly.
5. Serious, well-made documentaries on Netflix: For the Bible Tells Me So, Magic Trip, Page One: Inside the New York Times, Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields, Festival, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Commune, A Technicolor Dream, Ken Burns's Jazz, Nothing Is Easy.
6. Dirty Pope, aka The Borgias
7. ABC Family / Disney Channel guilty pleasures: Switched At Birth, Make It Or Break It, Camp Rock, Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, Lemonade Mouth
8. Downton Abbey
9. United States Of Tara
10. BBC sci-fi dramas: Primeval, Merlin
BOOKS (Books are still books, in whatever format.)
1. Forever: A Novel - Pete Hamill
2. A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown - Julia Scheeres
3. Late Autumn Sunlight : East Anglian Verses - Martin Newell
4. Sarum: The Novel of England - Edward Rutherfurd
5. Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970 - David Browne
6. 1Q84 - Haruki Murakami
7. Ready, Steady, Go!: The Smashing Rise and Giddy Fall of Swinging London - Shawn Levy
8. I've Got Your Number - Sophie Kinsella
9. Bossypants - Tina Fey
10. The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret - Kent Hartman