Quantcast
Channel: disastercouch » Justin Timberlake
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

This Year in Wins (Best of 2013, part 3)

0
0

Waddup, this is the third and final installment of my best of 2013 listings.  If you haven’t figured it out, this encompasses everything from comic books to dance trends, the rankings are super arbitrary, and there may actually be anywhere between 14 and 20 picks on this alleged Top 15 list.  Without further ado, the Final Five:

The Final Five Cylons via EW.COM

The Final Five Cylons via EW.COM.  HA HA SPOILER lolZ

Now, without further further ado, my final five pop culture moments/things/memes of the year that was.  Click for Part 1, click for Part 2

05. Justin Timberlake’s “Mirrors” became ‘our song’

In 2013, I did something I never thought I’d do and occasionally even swore I wouldn’t do: I got engaged.  I pretty much blame Justin Timberlake for this.

Months before I got down on my knees and made a girl cry*, Justin Timberlake put out the worst album of his career** (only to be superceded by a worse worst album a few months later).  Of course, JT is the kind of pop genius who can’t even take a Chipotle shit without splorching out a catchy hook or two, so the carnitas burrito dump that was the 20/20 Experience*** still yielded the rose scented blossom that was “Mirrors.”  It’s just a really straightforward love song, and it’s laid over a baroque beat that was commercially concocted by record executives to play with your emotions and make you open your wallet.  Basically, it’s super trite and predictable but it’s also my favorite JT song of all time on strength of performance alone, and not long after hearing it, Kyle and I somehow came to the conclusion that we could sing this song to each other in place of reading wedding vows one day.  And that’s pretty much how the subject of us finally getting hitched got broached…fast forward a few months, and I was actually shopping engagement rings and gameplanning proposal scenarios.  Curse you Timberlake, you taught me how to love and I’ll never forgive you for it.

04. Shane Carruth’s second film, Upstream Color, was better than Primer

What did I really love about this movie?  Was it the unforgiving, two-steps-ahead-of-you editing; the contemplative (and yes, Malick-esque) visuals; the tight and efficient writing; the haunting ambient soundtrack; or the outstanding performance of the lead actor?  I really loved all of those things and what’s crazy is that director/editor/composer/actor/savant Shane Carruth was responsible for all of them.  He’s obviously proven that Primer wasn’t a fluke.  But, once again I have to ask, what did I really love about this movie?  Probably the two things Carruth had the least to do with: Amy Seimetz and Andrew Sensenig’s performances as the victim and orchestrator of frightening human experimentation, respectively.  Undoubtedly a film that will stick with attentive viewers, and as of this writing my favorite flick of the year.  Honorable Mention for Low Budget Science Fiction Film: Europa Report looks like it was filmed in a high school gym and had a cast of like four people and still managed to be the best space opera in years.  Blink and you’ll miss Sharlto Copley earning a Best Supporting Actor nomination in an alternate universe where good movies are relevant to the Academy.

2-chainz-meal-time_01-500x375

03. 2 Chainz made a cookbook (and an album)

As a hip-hop fan , I liked 2 Chainz a lot better when he went by the moniker Tity Boi and his rhymes had a little bit more to do with street life and less to do with rhyming fashion brand names with kinds of lobster.  But as lover of fine cuisine, 2 Chainz’ knowledge of crustaceans and sparkling wines is welcome.  #Meal Time was surely the funniest and most unexpected cross promotion effort of the year, and to prove it I’ll let these selected instructions from the Teriyaki Salmon recipe speak for themselves:

1. Put on your Versace apron
2. Slice fresh salmon, drizzle it with olive oil and season it with salt
3. Marinate salmon in teriyaki sauce and olive oil for 20 to 30 minutes
4. While you wait, feel free to watch Belly on the big screen
5. Before the movie is done, prepare grill or non-stick grill-pan and drizzle olive oil on pan
6. Place marinated salmon slices on the grill (or grill-pan) on medium-high heat
7. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes while blasting “Hit it with a Fork” at an ignorant level
8. Flip and cook another 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, before taking the salmon off the grill
9. Add 1 teaspoon of butter to pan and toss in sliced pepp ers and onions to sauté
10. Plate salmon and garnish with sautéed peppers and onions, using leftover jucies for additional flavoring

photo (16)

02. Bandette was the year’s best all-ages comic

We asked a lot from comic books in 2013.  Fed up after years of crap, readers of genre comics had a few demands, each of which was thankfully met by a handful of books:

  • We wanted more women in comics, both as creators as characters (hats off to Captain Marvel, Pretty Deadly, Coffin Hill, Rocket Girl, Rat Queens, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Amy Reeder, Gail Simone, Vanesa R del Rey, Emma Rios and many more on this front).
  • We wanted books with an actual design sense, a thoughtful throughline from cover to content to backmatter that tied the whole reading experience together (congratulations to Hawkeye, Young Avengers, Manhattan Projects, East of West, and yes, many more for achieving this in spades)
  • We wanted art that looked slick and modern while fully embracing the visual legacy of the medium (and we thank Chris Samnee, Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin, Javier Rodriguez, Fiona Staples, Jamie McKelvie, Mike Norton, and Sara Pichelli along with a generation of very talented digital color artists for delivering it)
  • We wanted easy and convenient digital distribution that made reading digital comics something to delight in rather than settle for (something for which Comixology obviously deserves the lion’s share of the credit, although other experiments like the pay-what-you-want Private Eye made big impressions this year as well).

I just named a lot of great creators and comics, but only one comic and its creators embodied everything that discerning readers demanded from comics in 2013:  Bandette, created by Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin.  Their delightful caper story spoke to my childlike sense of wonder and my adult appreciation of fine craftsmanship, leaving me with only one thing to gripe about: there just isn’t enough of it!  Monkey Brain Comics has digitally distributed five issues so far, which means you can get every page of Bandette for less than five bucks.  Seriously, I don’t even know why you’re still reading this paragraph.  Five bucks.

arrow_season_2_poster

01. I fell in love with the cast of Arrow

When I watch the best looking cast on television:

Barry_Allen_(Grant_Gustin)

Katie-Cassidy-Widescreen-hd-Wallpaper-1920x1200

david-ramsey-kerry-washington

Unfinished Business

arrow-1354304646

Sara_Lance

stephen-amell

968full-emily-bett-rickards

It makes me show my Vinegar Strokes:

tumblr_m1ixhpcFfF1rrl2rno1_500

*R. Kelly: if you’re reading this, DM me on twitter @disastercouch and I’ll let you know where to send the royalty checks

**HELL YEAH I count N’Sync albums and HELL YEAH I’m even counting the N’Sync Christmas album because Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays Bitchez

***Marriage Proposal to Scatological Humor in Three Easy Sentences.  They said it couldn’t be done. *drops mic*



Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 5

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images