2010

As the year we make contact comes to an end. Thought it may time to post my personal tastes on the best and worst things of the year. Well mostly best. I try my best to avoid stepping in shit, but sometimes your guard may be down and your foot lands in big stinking load. So any on with the lists:

TV - Lot of good TV this so lets get into it:

*note: Airdates are first screenings in Australia. Also there is a Top 10 episode list down there so if you fancy getting into any of the shows in the top 10 I suggest you look up those ones.

Best Comedy Show: Community
Honourable Mentions: 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Modern Family, The Inbetweeners, Family Guy, The IT Crowd. Psychoville.

Best Drama: Breaking Bad
Honourable Mentions: Mad Men, Sherlock, Dexter.

Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy: Dr. Who
Honourable Mentions: Lost, V, Caprica.

Best Unscripted/Variety Show: Top Gear
Honourable Mentions: Q.I, Tony Martin In A Conversation With..., Rockwiz, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, Good Game.

Best Animated: Family Guy
Honourable Mentions: American Dad, Venture Bros., Archer.

Best Documentary: Life
Honourable Mention: Last Chance To See.

TOP 10 TV Episodes:

1. Road to the Multiverse - Family Guy
2. Bolivia Special - Top Gear
3. Ab Aeterno - Lost
4. The Getaway - Dexter
5. A Christmas Carol - Dr. Who
6. Fly - Breaking Bad
7. Shut the Door, Have a Seat - Mad Men
8. A Study In Pink - Sherlock
9. Modern Warfare - Community
10. Italian For Beginners - The IT Crowd

TV Quote of the Year: "A Fire! At a Sea Park!? - The IT Crowd

Worst TV show of 2010: The Event

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MUSIC - I must admit I was a bit slow with music this year. So slow in fact that I bought only one studio album from 2010. But here we go then. I can't do best or worst song because embarrassingly I can't name any. :P

Best Album (by default really): The Suburbs - The Arcade Fire

Best Movie Soundtrack (Composed): Inception - Hans Zimmer
Honourable Mentions: The Social Network - Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Tron: Legacy - Daft Punk, Red Read Redemption - Bill Elm and Woody Jackson.

Best Live Performance: Muse, at Rod Laver Arena (14/12)
Honourable Mentions: The Mars Volta @ Big Day Out, Muse @ Big Day Out, Mastodon @ Big Day Out.

Best Comedy Album: Triple J's: The Blow Parade

Shit lets move on.
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VIDEOGAMES - Now hear is something I can do. Just a quick ranking. All PS3 games. Also of note I do have Call of Duty: Black Ops but today my PS3 got the Yellow Light of Death on the day I wrote this blog and I'm yet to play the game so that is why it's absent from the list below.

Best games of the Year:
1. Red Dead Redemption
2. Gran Turismo 5
3. WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011
4. Madden 11
5 Fallout: New Vegas (frustrating game glitches prevented this from ranking higher on the list)

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MOVIES - Finally the last section. Now I have seen a few movies this year. But enough really. Being in Australia we don't get a lot of the really good movies until early 2011. So the following will have a bit of 2009/10 films in. I won't separate into categories like in TV (well in on case I have). First up is like the Oscars. Listing some best actors and directors and such before I count down my Top 10 for the year:

Best Actor: Jesse Eisenberg - The Social Network
Honourable Mentions: Ned Beatty - Toy Story 3, Ben Mendleson - Animal Kingdom, Jeremy Renner - The Town.

Best Actress: Jacki Weaver - Animal Kingdom
Honourable Mentions: Marion Cotillard - Inception, Chloe Moretz - Kick-Ass, Ellen Wong - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

Best Director - David Fincher - The Social Network
Honourable Mentions: Ben Affleck - The Town, Edgar Wright - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, John Hillcoat - The Road, Christopher Nolan - Inception

Most Memorable Scene (For the right or wrong reasons): The Rotating Hotel Hallway Fight Scene - Inception
Honourable Mentions: 'That' Sex Scene - Splice, Scott vs. Todd - Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Hit Girl drops the C Bomb - Kick-Ass, Lisbeth's Revenge - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.


Film I'm Most Looking Forward To in 2011: Super 8
Others: Cowboys & Aliens, Thor, Captain America, True Grit.

Special Mention: Jackass 3D - Just wanted to included scripted movies in the top 10 . But I enjoyed Jackass 3D so I just give it a mention here.

Worst Film of the Year: The Wolfman - Ugh.,.Bad story, bad Sp/Fx (Rick Baker, what's happened!?) and not that interesting.

Top 10 Films of the Year!

10. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Was surprised with this one. Even though I like the the director, I was not expecting to like this one. Looked a bit too Hipster. But I really enjoyed it.

9. Up In The Air - Films that are released really early in the year are easily forgotten. But this film was good enough to last in my memory. Has brilliant first half, second half kind of tails off. But still good.

8. A Prophet - From France. Set in a prison about a small time crooks rise to power. Best Foreign Language film of the Year.

7. Shutter Island - Another great film by Martin Scorsese. Although I could see where it was going, it did not detract from a stylish film.

6. The Road - One of the most underrated films of the year. This adoption of the Cormac McCarthy post apocalyptic novel was although depressing and bleak it was a brilliant film. Way better then that Denzel Washington one.

5. The Town - Ben Affleck has found his place in Hollywood. After years of starring in some rubbish films. He has found his place behind the camera as director. This is his second directorial effort after the brilliant 'Gone Baby Gone'. OK he acts in this one, but still a great movie about Bank Robbers.

4. Animal Kingdom - If you go into my archives you will find a post were I slag off the Australian film industry for not being brave. Well they must of listened because this film must be one of the best Australian films I have seen since Bad Eggs (sue me, I liked it).

3. The Social Network - Yes I 'LIKED' this film. David Fincher continues his departure from the gritty dark films he made in the 90s and early to mid 00s with this surprisingly good bio flick on the creator of Facebook and all the enemies he made. Jesse Eisenberg as mentioned above is brilliant as Mark Zuckerberg. But the biggest surprise was pop pretty boy Justin Timberlake well being a good actor in his role as Napster founder Sean Parker.

2. Inception - Nice to see a fun and exciting movie that is also a original idea. Chris Nolan's story about people going to steal secrets or implant ideas is great. Great all round cast. Great characters. And it looks good. Can't wait for The Dark Knight Rises.

1. Toy Story 3 - That's it we now have the perfect trilogy (That's not based on a boo). A perfect way to end the trilogy. So good. So touching. Makes me feel bad now that I broke most of my Toys. Oh Skeletor can you ever forgive for putting you in a lit BBQ? Anyway Pixar can do no wrong. Cars 2 in 2011 and I'm sure it will be fun.

OK that's my opinion. Thanks for reading

Not Worth Going Deeper

After seeing the movie Inception a couple of months back. I got thinking my dreams are nothing like the dreams featured in that film. Dreams are random pieces of your memory sticky taped to together and project into you sub conscious while you slumber. The next time you dream just try and take a look around, everything you will see is something you have seen before. Anyway my dreams are probably like everyone's, they are weird. Here are some dreams I throughout my life:

The Friend Turns Into A Bird Dream
Earliest dream I remember is when I was still living in Stockport, England when I was 4 or 5. The dream was I at School and it was the end of the day. I was in the classroom and I looked out the window and saw one of my friends at the time (Ben I think his name was, So long ago) walk into a bush and then a white cartoonish silhouette of a bird came flying out the other side.


The Menace of the Sinclair ZX81 Fiend
This was a recurring through out my childhood. Back in England my Dad got our first computer the Sinclair Zx81 (81 indicating the year it was made, But we got it a little after that) which was a calculator you can hook up to your TV. Anyway it had a game with it called '3D Monster Maze' where you walked around a maze and try to avoid a monster called 'Rex'. If Rex found you he would come running in you direction. Lame, but that badly pixalated image frightened the crap out of me when I was 5 and that image invaded my nightmares for about 6 years. Each time it would be a different location, I would be minding my own business and then suddenly Rex would be running towards me (See the above pic for reference).


The Roaring Snail
One of my most recent dreams. In the dream I walked onto my backyard porch and per usual there were snails hanging around the cat's bowl. And then one of the snails looked up at me and roared. Now it did not roar like say a lion or Godzilla would roar. It sounded more like a party whistle that's been partially blocked at the end.

So if the team from Inception wanted to hack into my dreams to extract some banking information or where I buried all that treasure I have accumulated. All they are going to find is Animated Bird Friends, A Pixalated Monster and a Roaring Snail.

The Summer Music Festival Survival Guide

Hey it's Summer. Time for music festivals! With the Big Day Out tour in full swing and the Soundwave festival not far behind it audience members attending will need to know how to get threw the day without coming home looking a like the devil from the movie Legend. So I have compiled a list of tips on what to do when attending these festivals:

1. Water! You will need to drink plenty of this. Especially on the really hot days. So take a bottle of water and top up that bastard at every opportunity you can.

2. Take sunscreen. That's a given.

3. Take a hat. Yeah yeah Random Idiot we have heard all this advise before. OK I will ad something new to the table:

4. Alcohol. Don't have any. Sure those Bourbon Slush Puppies look great on a 30+ degree day, but alcohol consumption is great way to get yourself dehydrated real quick. And then your missing half of the headline act's set because you have a massive headache and sweating like a Richard Nixon. So quite simply don't have too many or better don't have any at all.

5. Want to get close to the stage as possible. Well early on in the day and on the smaller stages it's pretty easy. But as hours get closer and closer to the headline act the harder it gets. My advise if you want to be up front for the headline act you have to get to the mosh at least 5 acts before they come on.

6. Take a piss whenever you pass a toilet. You don't want to busting for one while in the middle of a set your enjoying. Save the #2's for when you get home. Trust me with that one. You will have to hold you breath visiting the outdoor festival's lavvys. ;)

7. Dress smartly. Wearing a Tshirt is good but a good idea is to wear a collared shirt underneath it to protect the back of you neck from the sun. Hear is another good one if you wear lightly coloured (white, yellow) pants,shorts or skirts is to wear both briefs and boxers. Hey when it gets hot it might get a little messy down there so best you have a bit of a 'neutral territory' going ;)

8. Wear appropriate footwear. Lace up shoes to be exact. If you wear slip ons you will probably lose them in the crowd and then your walking home barefoot. And if in the mosh your foot will be stepped on a lot so it's best not to wear open toed footwear.

9. Travelling with a group you might want to set up a meeting point so you can get together at the end the day.

So there you go. What you really need to know if your at a music festival.

Best of the 00s: Music

So we have started a new decade. And with that over the next few years we will hear a new type of music that will really define the new decade. We don't know what that is yet. But every decade has their own distinct sound that defines it. So what was the first 10 years of this century then? What music really defined that decade the way The Beatles did in the 60s, Pink Floyd in the 70s, Michael Jackson in the 80s and Nirvana in the 90s.

Well to be honest nothing really stood out from the crowd. Sure some artists consistently charted but nothing really to highlight. Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask. Well I am the wrong person to ask lets make that clear. As you will read my lists below you can see I'm not a fan of Commercialised music. Stuff like Britney Spears, Black Eyed Peas, Pink, Gwen Stefani etc. I would go out of my not to listen to. And they are the stuff people bought. So how can I review the decade when most people bought shit like that. So I won't.

The decade also brought in a new media to listen to music: The Digital File. The days of having physical albums and singles is slowly coming to end. With Itunes and other online music stores you can just purchase the stuff you want and put it on a device that can fit an entire music library on. Yes gone are the days with carrying around a device that barely fit in your pocket plus an extra bag for cassettes/CDs if your on a long commute. Yes most of the main stream music was rubbish but I'm thankfull for Apple for giving me something that makes bus trips almost tolerable.

OK but what did I like about this decade. Well I did like stuff. In fact below is a list of the best things of the decade. I will keep the worst stuff out this time. So here we go. My best music of the 00's:

The 10 Ten Live Performances!

10. Radiohead (Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, 2005)
9. Jane's Addiction (Melbourne Big Day Out, 2003)
8. The Arcade Fire (Melbourne Big Day Out, 2008)
7. The Flaming Lips (Festival Hall, Melbourne, 2009)
6. The Who (F1 Grand Prix, Albert Park, Melbourne, 2009)
5. Pearl Jam (Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, 2006)
4. Muse (Festival Hall, Melbourne, 2007)
3. Tool (Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne, 2002)
2. Iggy & The Stooges (Melbourne Big Day Out 2006)
1. New Order (Melbourne Big Day Out 2002)

Top 5 Live Albums/DVDs!

5. Underworld - Everything, Everthing
4. Pearl Jam - Touring Band 2000
3. Placebo - Soulmates Never Die
2. Muse - HAARP
1. Foo Fighters - Everywhere But Home

Top 5 Comedy Albums (OK OK not music.... Well except for one case)!

5. Ben Elton - Get A Grip Live
4. Tony Martin; Get This - Illegal Download
3. Tenacious D - Tenacious D
2. Steven Wright - I Still Have A Pony
1. David Cross - It's Not Funny

Top 5 (Composed) Soundtracks

5. Cloverfield - Michael Giacchino*
5. Hot Fuzz - David Arnold**
4.Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Howard Shore
3.Coraline - Bruno Coulais, and a track by They Might Be Giants
2.The Dark Knight - Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard
1. Sunshine - John Murphy, Underworld and a track by I Am Kloot

* Giacchino's score for Cloverfield only played over the end credits of the film. And the track itself is less then 13 minutes long. So I have considered it a half and it share #5 with:

** The track of the score is the final track on the Soundtrack album which is mostly consisted of compiled songs. But the score is 20+ minutes and really good so it get the other half of #5



OK My Definitive Top 20 Albums of the 00's:


20. Audioslave - Audioslave

19. Muse - The Resistance

18. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights

17. Radiohead - Kid A

16. Cog - The New Normal

15. My Morning Jacket - Z

14. The Drones - Wait Long By The River And The Bodies Of Your Enemies Will Float By

13. Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV

12. The White Stripes - Elephant

11. Muse - Blackholes and Revelations

10. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

9. Muse - Absolution

8. Tool - Lateralus

7. The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium

6. Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump

5. Radiohead - Amnesiac

4. Muse - Origin of Symmetry

3. The Arcade Fire - Funeral

2. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf

1. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots




Now that's out of the way if you follow me on Twitter (@RichardKershawX) you might of seen my essential 100 songs of the decade count up. Well now here is the list in full:

My 100 Essential Songs of the Decade (in no particular order)!

1. Queens of the Stone Age - No One Knows
2. The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist
3. The White Stripes - Fell In Love With A Girl
4. Muse - New Born
5. Oasis - Fuckin' In The Bushes
6. Shihad - Pacifier
7. Blur - Out Of Time
8. The Arcade Fire - Wake up
9. Stone Temple Pilots - Sour Girl
10. Bloc Party - Positive Tension
11. The Drones - Shark Fin Blues
12. Apollo 440 - Heart Goes Boom
13. Foo Fighters - All My Life
14. Eddie Vedder - Hard Sun
15. The Cloud Room - Hey Now Now
16. Garbage - The World Is Not Enough
17. PJ Harvery & Thom Yorke - The Mess We're In
18. Dan Kelly and the Alpha Males - Drowning In The Fountain of Youth
19. The Mars Volta - (The Haunt) Of Roulette Dare
20. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Whatever Happenend To My Rock N' Roll
21. Mercury Rev - In A Funny Way
22. Cake - Comfort Eagle
23. Massive Attack - Special Cases
24. Kasabian - Club Foot
25. Hard-Fi - Hard to Beat
26. Living Things - Bom Bom Bom
27. Dropkick Murpheys - I'm Shipping Up To Boston
28. Interpol - Obstacle 1
29. New Order - Cyrstal
30. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Johnny Appleseed
31. Dallas Crane - Dirty heart
32. UNKLE - Restless
33. Chris Cornell - You Know My Name
34. The Darkness - Growing On Me
35. The Black Keys - 10am Automatic
36. Gomez - We Haven't Turned Around
37. Rammstein - Amerika
38. Tomoyasu Hotei - Battle Without Honor Or Humanity
39. Fatboy Slim - Sunset (Bird of Prey)
40. Bright Eyes - Lover I Don't Have to Love
41. The Mark of Cain - [R] Retaliate
42. Cog - Bird of Feather
43. Smog - Dress Sexy At My Funeral
44. The National - Thirsty
45. Stero MCs - Deep Down and Dirty
46. Midnight Juggernauts - into the Galaxy
47. Sparta - MYE
48. Eels - Hey Man (Now You're Really Living)
49. The Mess Hall - Disco 1
50. Young Heart Attack - Over and over
51. Babybird - The F Word
52. Brad - I Must Confess
53. Jarvis Cocker - Running the World
54. Deftones - Change (in The House of Flies)
55. Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God
56. I Am Kloot - Avenue of Hope
57. Greenskeepers - Vagabond
58. The Futureheads - The Beginning of the Twist
59. Black Strobe - I'm a Man
60. Austrian Death Machine - Get To The Choppa
61. Moby - Extreme Ways
62. Klaxons - It's Not Over Yet
63. Kings of Leon - On Call
64. Feist - 1234
65. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion
66. TV On The Radio - Wolf Like Me
67. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldier
68. Lily Allen - LDN
69. Gotye - Hearts a Mess
70. Eagles of Death Metal - I Want So Hard (Boy's Bad News)
71. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dance Floor
72. Wolfmother - Women
73. The Subways - Rock & Roll Queen
74. Kanye West - Gold Digger
75. Spiderbait - Black Betty
76. Modest Mouse - Float On
77. The Killers - Mr Brightside
78. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
79. Radiohead - There There
80. Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around
81. The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??
82/ The Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar
83. Audioslave - Cochise
84. Tool - Schism
85. Tenacious D - Tribute
86. System of Down - Chop Suey!
87. The Shins -New Slang
88. Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
89. Air - How Does It Make You Feel
90. Rollins Band - Illumination
91. Placebo - Taste In Men
92. A Perfect Circle - Judith
93. Magnetic Fields - Papa Was A Rodeo
94. Lemon Jelly - The Staunton Lick
95. Grandaddy - Hewlett's Daughter
96. Goldfrapp - Utopia
97. Fear Factory - Resurrection
98. At The Drive-In - One Armed Scissor
99. The Dandy Warhouls - Bohemian Like You
100. Rage Against The Machine - Sleep Now In The Fire

Please remember this is my opinion only.