I'll let you in on a secret: this wasn't the first topic I had in mind for today's column.The topic I originally had in mind, well, you'll be seeing it in a future installment, at a more appropriate time. But this happens a lot; I change my mind about column topics like Fox changes its mind about when to schedule a sci-fi series.
Instead, slightly belated as it might be, I wanted to take a brief moment to mention the things for which I'm thankful this year.
You won't really find anything substantial here, like family, friends or health--take it as a given that I'm thankful for those things. This, like every other installment of Vault #13, is for the trivial.
First of all, I'm thankful for J.J. Abrams and his revision of Star Trek.
It's about time someone brought it back to the forefront of the pop-cultural landscape, but in all honesty, I'm one of the many who didn't expect a reboot to work. I thought it was time to jump ahead to the next generation, not to go back and recast the TOS crew with MTV-friendly actors. But J.J. got it right. Even when he and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman (and guys, there is no way you should be writing gold like this and Fringe but turning out crap like Transformers 2) missed a few details and fudged a bit on canon, the broad strokes were there. The new cast ably adopted their iconic roles without resorting to outright mimicry (though Anton Yelchin and Karl Urban were notable exceptions, with Urban actually nailing Dr. McCoy perfectly). The opening sequence had me near the point of tears, and most of those characters don't show up for the rest of the movie. The rest kept me engrossed, enchanted and enraptured. Truly, J.J. Abrams has created my favorite movie of the year and already stands a good chance of turning in my favorite picture of 2011 with the sequel.
No bestowing of cinematic gratitude would be complete without mention of G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. Thank you, Stephen Sommers for turning in such a costly, overblown, piece of awful that makes one appreciate the much less expensive, yet exponentially more impressive District 9 even more. And thanks to producer Peter Jackson for giving first-time feature director Neill Blomkamp free reign and $30 million dollars to make such an intense, gut-wrenching film. It took elements of Alien Nation and Black Hawk Down, then shook them up and added its own flair.
My thanks to Bat for Lashes, Florence and the Machine, St. Vincent and Ida Maria for crafting four of my five favorite albums this year. I can't recall having such a femme-dominated year-end list for music, but I enjoyed the hell out of Two Suns, Lungs, Actor and Fortress Around My Heart. Bat for Lashes' Two Suns was an absolutely dreamlike concoction, with lead single "Daniel" as a highlight, though "Glass," "Good Love," and the surprisingly danceable "Pearl's Dream" were also favorites.
Florence Welch's debut full-length was an ideal showcase for her amazing, soulful voice with standout tracks including "Dog Days Are Over," "Howl," "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), and a cover of Candi Staton's "You Got The Love." (For the record, "Howl" is my favorite song on the album.)
Actor is a strange, beguiling work, often interspersing abrasive textures within Annie Clark's bewitching voice and unusual arrangements. You could almost call it whimsical until those distorted, fuzzy guitars kick in on album opener "The Strangers," or even before that when she repeatedly sings "Paint the black hole blacker." However, I think "Marrow" is the song that best illustrates that divide.
And Ida Maria is just such a fiery presence, turning in one of the most breathlessly paced, straightforward rock albums I've heard in a while. From the first song, "Oh My God," where she sings about wanting to "find a cure for my life," her raw, emotive vocals--violently wailing one minute, cracked and vulnerable the next--power an album's worth of songs about uncertainty and need. "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" is one of the most frighteningly playful songs about empty sex I've heard in a long time. And "Queen of the World" is an infectious, unapologetic ode to getting blasted to forget your problems. On the whole, Fortress Round My Heart is a kicky, anthemic portrait of a frenzied, frayed psyche.
Tremendous thanks to Mos Def for bringing it back on what could be my favorite album of 2009 (though I haven't firmed up my full year-end lists as of this writing), The Ecstatic. I, like many of Mos' fans, have been waiting for him to put out a proper follow-up to his 1999 classic Black on Both Sides (one of my favorite albums of all time). His two albums in the meantime have been wanting, unfocused and at times, just shoddy. (It's said that his 2006 offering, True Magic, was recorded simply to fulfill his commitment to Geffen, and was a creative afterthought on Mos' part, lacking even cover art or a booklet at the artist's request.)
Not so with The Ecstatic, where Mos finally raps like he gives a shit again. It doesn't totally lack the experimentation he brought to 2004's The New Danger, and there are some tracks which feel less fully-formed, but on the other hand, he raps throughout the whole thing, as opposed to fronting his blues-metal side project throughout half the album. Okay, I might still be bitter about the past ten years, but the point is that Mos makes up for it with The Ecstatic. With standouts like "Roses," "Twilite Speedball," "Life in Marvelous Times," Slick Rick collaboration "Auditorium," and "Casa Bey"--an exhibition in lyrical athleticism--it's a stunning album, to which I still haven't been able to stop listening.
Kylie Minogue deserves thanks for finally touring North America. While I couldn't personally attend, I was told by multiple friends that her sold-out shows were amazing, so I desperately hope she returns soon!
Special thanks go to Eidos for reuniting some of the key talent from Batman: The Animated Series and crafting a game around them worthy of their involvement. Batman: Arkham Asylum is finally a Batman video game worth playing, that nails the character and his world. Finally, someone has successfully integrated Batman's detective skills and hand-to-hand combat in a single, mostly cohesive experience! And thank you, Mark Hamill, for delivering one of your most ghoulish Joker performances here.
Thank you. Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer for bringing The Venture Bros. back with a vengeance! Despite the lack of Brock Samson, who left the Venture family last season and found himself on an unexpected new path in the premiere, the show has still been firing on all cylinders. The season premiere was a wild number that played with chronology while establishing the new status quo: Dr. Venture still a pretty neglectful parent despite the fact that his boys now have one life left (his clone banks were exposed, if you recall, in last season's finale), a (chemically) reformed Sgt. Hatred as the family's new bodyguard, the Monarch arching Doc with renewed fervor (aided by an unexpectedly super-capable #21, still grieving for #24), and the boys growing apart, with Hank rebelling in the absence of his father figure, and Dean growing closer to Rusty.
I'm not comfortable with the pedophilia jokes presented by Sgt. Hatred's regular presence, but the show got maximum mileage out of that thorny issue with the second episode, "Handsome Ransom," featuring a hysterical guest performance from Kevin Conroy of all people as a Superman/Batman pastiche obsessed with his dead sidekick and looking, perhaps unhealthily, to recast Hank in that role. Conroy was dead-on and hilarious in the role of Captain Sunshine--here's hoping the show utiliizes his knack for comedy again.
Russell T. Davies and the crew at BBC Wales earn my thanks for bringing along some of my favorite television this year: Torchwood's controversial third season, "Children of Earth," and the Doctor Who specials "Planet of the Dead" and "The Waters of Mars." I reviewed "Children of Earth" upon its initial airing and praised its maturity in presenting an unbelievable threat to human life in every aspect, from the families at ground level to the bureaucrats arguing over their fates like chess pieces, with Torchwood navigating in between to save Earth's children, and to keep themselves alive.
Then came "Planet of the Dead," the first of the 2009 Doctor Who specials meant to bring David Tennant's time as the Doctor to a close. A loud, bold action-adventure in the style of the Christmas specials, "Planet of the Dead" was meant to be the last truly fun outing for the Tenth Doctor. Here, he was joined by Michelle Ryan (yes, she was the new Bionic Woman, but she's really awesome here) as high-tech thief Lady Christina, shunted along with the Doctor and a busload of people onto another planet and left to find a way home before a swarm of mechanical alien locust-things found them. Tennant and Ryan had an undeniable chemistry, though at times, she was a bit overpowering. And yet, I was left wishing to see more of them together, or at least more of Lady Christina down the road. Not to be forgotten, by the way, was Lee Evans' delightful supporting turn as a UNIT scientist thrilled to be working with the Doctor. Yes, he was an obvious audience stand-in, and yes, it was another example of the fanwankery that has come to mark Davies' stewardship over Doctor Who, but Evans was a riot.
Nothing so riotous about "The Waters of Mars," which, while not bleak in the sense of "Children of Earth," was still quite dark, presenting the Doctor with a moral dilemma on a scale not seen since "Genesis of the Daleks." Simply put, should he interfere with a fixed point in time, and save a crew of human settlers on Mars whose deaths were fated to bring a new age of adventure and prosperity to Earth? The episode boasted one of David Tennant's best, most restrained performances on the show...until the last act, when he did his wild-eyed overacting thing again. I love David Tennant, though he isn't always tonally consistent. Here, however, was a twist, a sufficient emotional payoff not only to the episode, but to his entire tenure. If you've ever wanted to see the Doctor realize how much of an asshole he can be, the episode is worth seeing.
Particularly, I want to thank David Tennant. Flaws aside, he has been the defining Doctor for generations of fans, from the kids watching the show for the first time to the young adults like me finally getting to see the show as intended, in first-run broadcast (or as close as we can get via BBC America) as opposed to repeat blocks at 11 p.m. Saturdays on public broadcasting outlets. And more often than not, he has been fantastic. I've been rewatching his episodes, and I'll have more to say about his time in the TARDIS in detail in a future column, but for now, thank you, Mr. Tennant. Just, thank you.
And finally, I want to thank Stefan Blitz, my fellow FoG! contributors, and you, the readers, for visiting and giving him a reason to keep me around. I love the site as I hope you do too, and I look forward to bringing you a hell of a lot more from the vault in 2010!
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