Top Ten Films of the Year.

This was a strange year for films (of course aren’t they all?). I’ve heard in some corners that this was great year as far as film is concerned but for the most part, I have to disagree year. There were a number of very good films and very few really excellent films. The two best films last year (There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men) were significantly better than anything that was offered up this year.

With that being said, this year had a number of good films that deserve some attention to varying degrees. Although a big problem I had with the release schedule was that it was incredibly back loaded. This is something of a trend that seems to be taking root as I noticed it last year too. The major films will be released around the middle of May (and not before) until early August. Then there’ll be a lull from September to October (there were some real dregs that came out during this time, I mean, just horrible pieces of crap that never should’ve seen the light of day), until November when the studios role out what they think are the films with major Oscar potential. Of course it coincides with when the studios think people are more willing to see films, but still doesn’t it hurt the overall industry to produce a schedule like this?

Anyway, I’ll proceed with the best films of the years. Like I said above, there were a number good, if not spectacular films released this year, so I feel like a number of them deserve some mention and these are the films that just missed the list for me. Some of these are notable because they’re most likely going to show up the nominations list for the Academy Awards.

Milk – I wrote a review about this earlier and it was excellent for Sean Penn’s performances but some glaring holes about the explanations of the other characters really hurt it for me.

Doubt – The other film I wrote a review for. This also had some great acting in it but bare bones plot forced me to leave it short.

Frozen River – I have a feeling this would’ve made the top ten, but I unfortunately haven’t had the chance to see it yet. If I do see it I might make a note about it.

Frost/Nixon – I can’t quite put my finger on why this film didn’t completely connect with me, but I have this problem with all Ron Howard’s film. While they’re technically very good films, they lack a personal touch that really makes a film great.

Iron Man – I thought this deserved mentioned. For the majority of the film it was looking like an excellent character study with a superhero back drop, but its major fault is what sinks a lot of superhero films.

W. – I saw this and even thinking back on it, I have absolutely no idea where to put this movie or really what to think of it. What exactly was Oliver Stone shooting for with this?

Australia – I am a huge fan of Baz Luhrmann, but this attempted to be a little less whimsical than his previous films and attempted to be more of a straight historical drama (while still trying to keep some of the aspects of his previous films) and it hurt the film to a fair extent.

The Top Ten (in descending order):

10.) Boy A – This is a bit of a copout considering the film wasn’t technically released in 2008, but it didn’t get it’s US release until 2008, so I’m going to count it (it made an appearance in Canada and the UK before hand). This film explores the nature of one’s past. To be more specific what is one’s true nature and can you ever truly escape your past. The film is ultimately heartbreaking and leaves you a little mad at the world. It works well because the ending is so bitterly obvious but watching it you hope that it doesn’t turn out the way that you know it will. This is helped by excellent performance by lead actor Andrew Garfield who plays Jack, the Boy in question, who really pulls at the heart strings due to the innocence of Jack’s character.

9.) Happy-Go-Lucky – If you don’t like this movie then you’re obviously too cynical and I suggest you find some things to be happier about. Just a wonderful movie, that’s along the same line of Boy A (but in the exact opposite direction). It’s a character of study of Poppy, a British teacher who goes about doing her own thing despite everyone’s belief otherwise. The plot is a bit meandering but it doesn’t really matter as Sally Hawkins turn as Poppy is really what the film is all about. Director Mike Leigh never betrays the overall feel of the film even though most creators would send Poppy into somewhat darker territory, if given the chance. It shows a good bit of resolve to stay the course and the film is much better off for it.

8.) Slumdog Millionaire – This was the feel good movie of the year. Everyone loved it from average moviegoers to the critics. And there’s a very solid reason for this, it’s an excellent film in the mold of film that Frank Capra helped popularize. It’s a bit of a throwback film where the plucky underdog makes good and despite everything fails to go his way, he doesn’t give up on his ultimate goal (not once, the kid has amazing fortitude). This type of film has a tendency to be overly schmaltzy which can turn the viewer against it fairly quickly, but due to a great cast of unknowns (an all Indian cast adding to the atmosphere) and a director in Danny Boyle who was clearly on his game. While not the artistic accomplishment that some movies boast, there’s a lot to be said for a movie that shoots for its mark and hits it dead on.

7.) Redbelt – This will go down as the most underrated movie of 2008 (as I know absolutely no one who has seen it or has even heard of it). It had unfortunate timing of coming out right before the Summer push and to apparently not be marketed at all (as far as I can tell, I saw it on a whim after only vaguely being familiar with it). Of course that plays into the overall theme of the film, oddly enough. This film delves into the theme of how long before you’re willing to sell your most artistic notions. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Terry; a Brazilian Jujitsu Master who is being pressured due to financial restraint to compete in a UFC like competition, an act which he thinks goes against the purity of his Martial Art. The film is directed by the always solid David Mamet.

6.) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – The story of a man who is born as someone in their late 80s and then proceeds to age backwards. Visually it’s the most beautiful film to watch in the past year as David Fincher’s films tend to be. Unlike Fincher’s other films, which tend to end either on downers or morally ambiguous terms (Se7en, Fight Club, Zodiac). Benjamin Button on the other hand has a fairly uplifting message (which one can interpret as growth from Fincher I suppose). The film itself hinges for the most part on the roles Benjamin and Daisy and the two of them relate to each other as they grow older. In that respect the film is at its most successful with the chemistry between Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett is stellar at every point. It’s easy to feel every moment of excitement and disappoint between the two characters throughout their entire lives and carries the film.

5.) Rachel Getting Married – If Anne Hathaway ever becomes the critically acclaimed actress that most every thinks she has the ability to be, this film will be the start off it (although being in Bride Wars certainly seems like a step back). Hathaway plays Kym, who is recently released from rehab to attend her sister’s wedding (the titular character Rachel played by Rosemarie Dewitt in a somewhat thankless role). Partially because of Kym, the family has become the quintessential dysfunctional family, and needless to say sparks fly. Aside from Hathaway’s turn that should net her an Oscar, it’s also the return of Jonathan Demme to the ranks of elite directors. Demme does his best to film the movie in a style best associated with Robert Altman, with the camera effortlessly weaving in and out of the house where the wedding is taking place giving an almost voyeuristic feel to film making it seem more like a slice of life more than anything.

4.) Revolutionary Road – Sam Mendes is one the better directors to come along in the last decade, but what seems to be his bread and butter is suburban misery. The film draws a number of parallels to his first directorial effort, American Beauty. Like Kevin Spacey in American Beauty, Kate Winslet’s April is trying to find where she exists in a world where she doesn’t really belong but was told she would. Winslet and Leonardo Dicaprio are so perfect in their roles and their chemistry is so absolute that’s hard to figure out why exactly their marriage is failing. It becomes increasingly frustrating for them, knowing this that they can’t fix things. The film plays off on the chemistry that made them work in Titanic so well, that you don’t need to see the years leading up to the film’s start because it makes perfect sense that the two would be married and it’s practically mesmerizing seeing the marriage disintegrate.

3.) The Wrestler – This film begins and ends with the performance of Mickey Rourke. This is a role that seems to be tailor made for the actor. It is impossible to see anyone else besides Mickey Rourke playing Randy “the Ram” Robinson, the broken down wrestler for which the film revolves around. Rourke makes every nuance believable from his ease out in the ring and connection with every fan he encounters to the pain he goes through to connect with his estranged daughter (played by Evan Rachel Wood) or the stripper he wants to settle down with (played by Marisa Tomei). Framing the ups and downs of the Ram’s later life is director Darren Aronofsky. He’s always been a talented director but this is the first film that he hasn’t written himself and it shows by his most consistent work to date.

2.) Wall-E – The second best film of the year, is also the best animated feature as well. What makes this film even more impressive is total lack of dialogue through the first half of the film. Wall-E is about the last active robot on the planet Earth after it was abandon by humans a few hundred years earlier. Director Andrew Stanton (who also directed Finding Nemo) does a fantastic job of showing Wall-E’s curiosity as explores and collects knick-knacks on Earth and discovers human life off world. Another that makes the film succeed is the connection between Wall-E and Eve which, despite no dialogue between the two other than their names, might have been the most believable romance caught on screen all year.

1.) The Dark Knight – The second installment of Christopher Nolan’s reimagining of the Batman franchise is the best the film of the year. This might seem a little biased on my part seeing as how devoted I am to comics, but in almost every case, films based on comic books leaves me a good bit disappointed. There are a number of reasons for it, the two biggest ones are that the films are never really allowed make their natural progression and the endings are usually so convoluted that it would never even work inside an actual comic book. Batman Begins suffered from the last problem but it was changed in the sequel. Everything about the film occurs naturally (within its own given universe of course), which something that has been absent among comic book films and also doesn’t rely on a hokey ending that struggles to not deny rational thinking. Not only has Nolan given us the best comic book film ever but he’s also crafted the best crime film in quite some time. The film also delves into themes of what makes a hero and how one comes about what is right and wrong (and how easily the line can be skewered). I would be remiss to mention the great casting, which is lead by the wonderful performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker. Not only is it the best film of the year but it might very well prove to be the most influential film of this year.

Best Album of the Year: The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound

This is the start of the end of year selections for best of whatever comes into my head. I’ve decided to start out with music because I doubt that I will come across an album which came out in 2008 that’s going to change my opinion. Also, I’m not fully prepared to pick a film as I still need to see a few to really feel comfortable about picking a best of (plus it’s going to be a top five or ten or something and I’m pretty sure there are at least two, possibly three, out there that will crack whatever number I decide to stick with). We also have TV shows (I’m going to do a “worst of” there too. I know, fun, right?) and Comics that will be included in this little series. Both of those are going to require me to look back at multiple chapters of either medium to refresh my memory about which I actually felt the strongest about. So, yeah, on with the best album of 2008 (this really isn’t even my opinion, it’s just a fact more or less).

Normally I won’t talk about music. This is for a number of different reasons, the main reason being that it’s an overly personal thing for me all things consider and it’s rare that I agree with anyone on music in broad sense. When you get right down to it, I just don’t have a shared experience with very many people when it comes to music. Another reason, and this has more to do with why I won’t talk about music much on this soapbox, is that I rarely come across an album that I feel strongly about that came out within months (or even a year) of when I’m listening to it (of course, this means, I’ll probably talk about music more than anything, so I reserve the right to talk out of both sides of my mouth). That’s a pretty important part considering that my favorite albums of mine are ones that I experienced while the band was still very relevant, or at the very least the album was still considered recent. There are a number of bands that I love like Hüsker Dü, Nation of Ulysses, or the Clash, but there’s always a disconnect with them because I’m unearthing of them and that I was getting the full experience (ignoring the fact that I wasn’t fully aware of music in same capacity when most of them existed). So I feel a little odd expressing a like for an album or a band when I wasn’t around for the initial wave.

That’s not the case here. About a year or two ago I came across a band hailing from New Jersey called the Gaslight Anthem. They were a punk band with a slight roots rock influence (essentially a band with heavy leanings toward the Clash but grew up idolizing Bruce Springsteen). Their first album came out in 2007 to a fair amount of critical acclaim. It was faintly derivative but was good enough in its own right due to creativeness of it all and the structure (which was vaguely reminiscent of Alkaline Trio’s Goddamnit). At the of the day it was a very good album that didn’t necessarily break new ground but kind of brought back a feeling in music (especially the indie crowd) that hadn’t been mined in a long time.

That changed in August of this year with the release of the ’59 Sound. The album felt like a breath of fresh air. They went from a punk band that was playing up an equal influence of the Clash and Bruce Springsteen to a punk band that was channeling the feeling of late 50s, early 60s rock and roll. They went from a band that wore their influences on their sleeve and let it define their sound to a band that used their sound to inform people of their influences while creating something new. Their sound started to make this turn when they released a four song E.P., Senor and the Queen. I doubt there’s ever been a more perfect bridge between two albums as that E.P.

What makes this album especially great though? For one the songs feel like they could exist at any point from 1959 until now. There’s a feel of calm on this album that I haven’t heard from a band before (although it’s something I’ve kind of wished for in an album for awhile) but there’s also a sense of hectic energy that for all intents and purposes makes one want to dance. It seems like these attributes contradict each other or at the very least would make the album an uneven affair but that’s never the case (obviously). The reason for this is primarily because they’re trying to make a straight forward Rock ‘N’ Roll album and not just one that’s filtered through a certain genre of Rock music. This really is an album that harkens back to the early days of Rock ‘N’ Roll, which is what Punk Rock was doing back in the late 70s. Although instead of focusing on the manic energy and the inherent simplicity of that era like the Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Clash, and countless others did, the Gaslight Anthem focuses more on thematic ventures and the musicianship that the early days of the Rock ‘N’ Roll built on.

The band focuses more on hanging out and longing for loves and days past than anything else, trying to create a sense of melancholy and fun all at the same time. Remembering the days that now appear to be the best days of your life but at the time caused you the most possible heartache. Every single song in the twelve song set reflects this sort of feeling, all while playing that sound that feels like you should’ve heard it before but you can’t quite place where.

And that’s overall effect of the ’59 Sound. It feels like an album that should’ve been made a hundred times over already because evokes so many feelings that everyone shares. But using that to their advantage to create something new while making it feel like something old, brings the listener closer to the record and it causes you to remember the good times that have long since past.

Here are their first two videos from the '59 Sound to give a better a feel for their sound. The first video is the titular track and the second is the third track on the album "Old White Lincoln."

Milk/Doubt

Oscar season as begun in full (meaning now is when the serious Oscar contenders are to be released). Both of these films are probably going to be brought up once or twice in the conversation for best picture as well as a number of other awards. While neither will likely win the award for best picture they definitely deserve to be in the conversation.

Milk is a story about Harvey Milk who was the first openly gay man elected to public office in California (possibly in the country but I’m not entirely sure though). The film follows his life from day prior to his 40th Birthday to him and his significant other moving to the Castro Distract, to his election on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, to his last day in office. As clichéd as it sounds, Harvey Milk’s story is definitely a story of triumph and tragedy. He went from being a virtual nobody in New York to being one of the most visible people in the Gay Rights movement living in San Francisco. I found out that recently that it took years to get this film off the ground but it seems especially poignant now with Gay Rights being pushed to the forefront recently.

The strength of the film relies mainly in it performances as the story being told is a moderately straight forward one, which biopics tend to be more often than not, unless it happens to be about Bob Dylan. This is far from a bad thing because it leaves the narrative clear for the actors to shine and for their emotion to drive the film. Sean Penn in particular does an outstanding job as the titular character. His turn as Harvey Milk is so strong that it’s hard to imagine another actor portraying Milk (Penn having similar features to Milk certainly does help as well). For better or worse Penn is the focal point of the film and while that detracts from the film slightly at time, but he’s captivating enough that it doesn’t really matter. In other words, I think he’s the clear shoe in at this point for Best Actor.

Now, because the film focuses so entirely on Harvey Milk, he’s the only character that we’re allowed access to and it detracts from a few of the other principle characters. Although this works fine for a character like Cleve Jones, who wears his emotions on his sleeve but also is very much in line with Milk from his second appearance on (Emile Hirsch is excellent none the less), it leaves Scott Smith, Dan White, and Jack Lira searching for direction. With Scott and Jack, this is relatively minor because you’re still privy to their thoughts because their around Harvey a lot. There are times though when their actions seem under developed, specifically when they both exit Harvey’s life. The character it really ends up hurting is Dan White. His actions at the end of the film, while not necessarily confusing (and if you’re aware of Harvey Milk’s life, then you know exactly what happens) but it does leave you scratching your head a little bit because it feels like he took everything about five steps too far. Part of the problem is that you’re not aware of Dan’s life until he crossed paths with Harvey, so you’re never quite sure what driving Dan and why he’s so frustrated with Harvey’s rise to power (the explanation that’s offered in the film by Harvey and his compatriots is very much a low point in the film and rather insulting to boot).

Those flaws are ultimately minor in grand scheme of the film though. What this film set out to do was to examine the life of Harvey Milk. It succeeds mightily and translates what exactly made Harvey Milk so fascinating and unique during his life.

While Milk was very much a character study, Doubt is nothing but character. Doubt deals with the convictions one holds when faced with overwhelming evidence that the opposite may in fact be true. The film is about a battle of principles between Father Flynn, the head of the St. Nicholas Church and Sister Aloysius, the nun who runs the school that works in conjunction with the Church. Their battle specifically centers on the accusations made against Father Flynn that he may have taken advantage of one of the students of the school, accusations that Sister Aloysius whole heartedly believes and caught in the middle of it all is the young nun, Sister James.

There really isn’t much to comment on as far as the story, it’s fairly straight forward. Father Flynn is accused and Sister Aloysius attempts to prove that wrong doing has taken place. Both of them use their respective forums to convince the other and the audience of either Father Flynn’s innocence or his guilt. There are some great bits between both Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Father Flynn) and Meryl Streep (Sister Aloysius) where they both launch convincing arguments and it’s to the credit of the film that the actual wrong doing is left in total doubt.

Through all of this you get a clear sense of each of these characters, even though there are only a few. Sister Aloysius is certainly from a different age. She cares about the students but not so much in who they are but that she wants them to be contributing members of society when they leave her watchful eye. On the other hand there’s Father Flynn. He cares just as much for the children of the school, but it’s on a much more personal level. This is why it’s easy to believe his wrong doing depending on how easily you accept the preconceived notions of priests. You will have an opinion of his innocence or guilt when the hammer’s dropped early in the film.

Of course the emotional core of the film is Amy Adam’s Sister James. Hoffman and Streep turn in their usual great performances but the real standout in the film is Amy Adams (which at this point really shouldn’t come as a surprise really). While superficially the movie revolves around the accusations against Father Flynn, underneath the film is about the soul of Sister James. At the start of the film she’s a young nun who is as idealistic as they come. Slowly, as the film wears on, she is torn between that idealism and hard reality that is impressed upon her by Sister Aloysius. And it really becomes a question whether she is going to turn into a clone of Sister Aloysius or if she’s going to remain true to herself but not a naïve deer in headlights that will believe the goodness in everyone. Her story arc is about whether she can find a peaceful middle ground between the two concepts.

Ultimately what this film lacks in content, it more than makes up for in subtle character development, which is thanks to what is a great cast. So while you may wish there was more story the fill, you will more than likely be to fixated on the twists the characters take to really notice.

Phonogram: The Singles Club #1

Sometimes a girl's just gotta a dance.

I’m going to assume that if anyone reads this they are unfamiliar with the comic Phonogram. To sum it up in the most basic way, it takes the cliché “music is magic” and makes it literal. In the world of Phonogram, people literally use music to create magic. It’s a little difficult to explain outside of that because most the magic used isn’t necessarily overt, more like how magic was portrayed before special effects budgets skyrocketed. That means there were mainly subtle changes to reality where no one was sure that person supposedly using magic did anything, but something had definitely changed. That’s really not the point of Phonogram though. Phonogram’s point is mainly to express an open love of pop music (mainly British) by their creators. It doesn’t matter if you know the bands while reading this to enjoy it or get the story but it helps, although the creators go to extensive length to help the reader out that regard, which will be touched on later (as it is one of the more charming characteristics of the book).

Anyway, this is the second series in the Phonogram cannon. The first series was about phonomancer (a mage using music as their magical medium) David Kohl finding out what happened to one of the Goddesses (or maybe an extension, I need to go back and read the series) and also rediscover his musical roots (basically the source of his power). This is the first issue of the second series. Now I know I said that I wasn’t going to review (discuss, talk about, whatever) single issues of comics because the single issue have sort of been losing its way in the comic world, but this is a special case. Kieron Gillen and to a lesser extent Jamie McKelvie (the writer and artist for the series respectively) talked about the importance of using single issues kind of like pop singles in music. Each issue tells its own story but when it’s all written each issue will form an overarching narrative. Adding to that is each single issue includes two back up stories that make up six pages which won’t be collected in the “Singles Club” trade. This makes each issue its own little beast and ripe for consumption. Granted the idea of singles (in music anyway) is much more of a British Ideal (or at least I don’t see it being that important to audiophiles in the States) it works wonderfully here.

The overarching story for this series revolves one night at a club on the eve of Christmas Eve. The club everyone is going to has one rule for the night, the only songs being played are songs sung by girls (also there’s no magic being used but obviously that’s not going to be recognized that well). Each issue will focus on a different character but all take place at the same club on the same night. This story in particular focuses on Penny B, a phonomancer who expresses herself through dance. Her whole intention of going to the club (aside from it just being fun in general) is because this cute boy is making his presence felt for the first time since his most recent break up. Through the course of the night she tries to get the DJ (Seth Bingo, a character who will have his own issue later on) to play the Pipettes song, “Pull Shapes” by coercing him through magic. This royally pisses him off and places a fairly simple curse (I think) on her, which leads to her be turned into a social pariah pretty damn quickly. After some sulking, she shows her potential power and dances her way through her problems and expels the curse. Also showing up for the night’s events are David Kohl and Emily Aster, two main characters from the first series.

It doesn’t seem like a lot of story but there’s a good bit there. It’s more of a character study of Penny B. If you’ve ever seen a girl at a club who is just dancing her heart out and in the process is absolutely intoxicating and mesmerizing to watch dance, that’s Penny B. She ultimately just loves to dance and from the looks of it when she is dancing, she’s impossible to stop. Gillen also drop a number of little tidbits all over the place for music fans to find. There’s also an economy of character development here. At first glance it doesn’t seem like there’s much to these characters but with only a few scenes, you’re easily aware of the characters outside of Penny B. Laura, Penny’s best friend, comes off as a sarcastic wit that is common among the teenage crowd who is basically informed by her musical knowledge (this is readily apparent but once you realize all the references she’s making, it becomes clear). Then there’s Marc, Penny’s supposed crush. He appears in exactly six panels in the comic, but the things you know about are enhanced. He broke up with his girlfriend and he is visibly sober throughout the entire comic to the point where you’re wondering why Penny is even bothering with him (Penny being one of near constant enthusiasm). Finally there’s Seth Bingo and Silent Girl, the DJs, who are complete jackasses (well, Seth is, Silent Girl is basically his accomplice). All three of these characters factor into later issues and their stories are set up perfectly here.

This also touches on the main selling point of this comic, at least to me, Jamie McKelvie’s art. As much as I like and appreciate Kieron Gillen’s writing, I adore McKelvie’s art. To a point it’s a fairly simple art style but to borrow a term I used for Gillen’s writing, there’s economy to it. There are very few lines used in his style but not a single one is wasted and despite this, it still manages to be more detailed than one would thing. Adding to the simplicity is the grid lay out of the issue, which just enhances McKelvie’s storytelling ability. If Gillen never wrote a word, it would be easy to follow this story. McKelvie is reason alone to buy this comic.

The last unique thing about this comic is the glossary and bonus pages of the comic (B-Sides if you will). In the first series, each issue ended with an extended glossary and essays written by Gillen to explain a lot of the throwaway references in the issue. Those are back, although not in as much force as the previous series. This is a handy little feature as it enhances what each of the characters mentions if you’re unfamiliar with a lot of the bands and genres they’re referring to (it’s especially important to really understand Laura’s character at her core) and is worth reading if you enjoy the comic. Also the two back up strips are nice little backups, one introducing a character and the other building a previously introduced character (Seth Bingo).

When it gets right down to it, I can’t recommend this comic enough, even if pop music is so much your thing.

This is where it begins?

This first post basically a primer on what I plan to do with this blog (or a manifesto if I was really part of the go-getter crowd, but that word seems a little too strong for what I want to do). Until I figure out a more streamlined overarching topic the blog will mainly be about whatever I feel like at the moment that isn’t strictly personal (because honestly who wants to read about that?). The main topics will mainly focus on basketball, movies, and comics, branching off into occasionally books (when I actually finish reading one), TV (mainly on Tuesdays when I want to bitch about how horrible Heroes is and on Fridays when I want to gush about the Office and 30 Rock), Music (either looking back or when I actually listen to a relevant album) and various other aspects of pop culture that I come across on a daily basis. I imagine this is all going to be pretty boring for most people.

What I plan to cover with basketball is pretty simple, everything. Basketball interests me more than any other sport and has for quite some time, so here’s where I’ll be putting more effort into that interest. Here I’ll be covering everything from the NBA to NCAA to European basketball (of course this might just be complaining about the Ricky Rubio hype machine or how much I love Petteri Koponen). Every week I’ll probably post the week in basketball (or just the NBA, I don’t know), which will just account for the what’s happened in the past week because basketball is hard enough to comment on a daily basis and all you eventually do is making a bunch of knee jerk reactions. I’ll probably throw in some commentaries on teams and players when it seems relevant. Just so everyone knows that happens to read this, I am a diehard Wizards fan (one of the few that actually exist) but I will not be talking about them for two reasons: one, they depress me to no end right now and two, they really that relevant at the moment and probably won’t be until the race for Blake Griffin begins (being the most likely number 1 overall pick in the draft). So that’s basketball, and in all honesty, this will probably turn into a basketball blog, although I hope not.

The next major topic is movies. I see a lot of movies and often times can’t find anyone to have an open dialogue with along the terms that I want to talk about. This could be because I spent a good four or five years of school discussing movies, so for awhile there was a good number of people to do this with, or it could be that I have a hard time just enjoying movies. Either way, I’ll be talking about movies in some sort of depth. There will be reviews of recent movies, reviews of old movies that I happen to come across (whether I’ve seen them before or not), and I’ll also be commenting on trailers because I fine those almost as interesting as the actual movie. I will not however talk about movie news in general, unless it’s a passing remark about an actor or actress being in a movie that I’m looking forward to. It ultimately becomes celebrity gossip and I can’t stand that at all or ridiculous squabbles with studio heads that I just don’t care about. This will primarily be about a finished product of some fashion because all I really care about is what’s on the screen and can’t work up the proper amount of excitement about anything that goes on outside of it (unless it ruins a film that I think could’ve been relatively special).

The last major topic that I’m going to focus on is comics. This is probably going to be a little dull at first because I don’t really know anyone who reads them (who will primarily be my audience) except for one guy and he took an axe to them in his budget. Despite this, I will talk about comics both as an art form and as a form of entertainment (yes, there is a difference). I won’t be talking about single issues as much as I’ll be talking about collected editions. The main reason for this is that I like to talk about full stories rather than just installments. It would be like discussing the first quarter of a television show, there’s just not enough there to talk about (it didn’t used to be like that though). Oddly enough though the first comic I plan on talking about will be a single issue (the new Phonogram series) but that I will be discussed in detail when I actually get around to it. Anyway I hope that people will pick a comic or two, but I doubt that will happen.

So, in the end this is what I hope to accomplish, that people will find all of these things interesting. Of course that’s assuming anyone will read this, which I admit is a fairly lofty goal. I hope that the people reading this, enjoy it and that a few them think I’m looking at things a little differently (again, a loft goal). So here it is, The Culture Niche (I’m kind of regretting the title now), I hope you’re at the very least entertained.