Stuff of the Year: DJ’s Picks
Cut Chemist & DJ Shadow – The Hard Sell Encore
Four Mixers, Eight Turntables, and a set entirely composed of vinyl 45s, our turntable heroes, Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow resume doing what they do best. Fucking with your mind with the novelty, easy listening, new wave, doo-wop, honky-tonk, rock, electro, and pretty much every other genre ever made except…speed metal? What could get more fucked up, a 22 minute tribute to Atari, but with class. And Everlong is in that track for some reason. And Bonecrusher. It’s just really confusing. But hey, the cover art is two robot vinyl jukeboxes murdering iPods with lasers. The picture wins 70 internets and the album serves as the best thing of 2008.
Epson Duet Projector Screen
I used to have a home theater made by god. It was just a projector and surround sound blown up into some obcene 108” screen. Life was fantastic for a college student. Then I graduated. Lost everything ‘cause I had to move and could no longer afford shit. Put up with a 1-bedroom place for some time. No space to setup shop, so I gave all my equipment to SC Clown Disease. Later, I score a job and move out to some house renting style. The woman, demanding to reassemble the jesus theater solely to play Rock Band, picks this thing up on Buy.com for like, $150. It’s not a 108” portal into heaven, but it’s still an 80” Widescreen television that can be shrunk into a 4:3 ratio size whenever I want. I can also wall mount it or stand it up. Matched with my newly reclaimed Onkyo Receiver, Bose speakers, and an Optoma Projector, my new basement of legends is complete. Man. What a self-serving paragraph. My bad.
Barack Obama
You should Skreemr Black President by Nas. Greatness. I like to ask my mom if Barack bombed any buildings with Ayers yet since she still insists he’s a terrorists because Fox and GOP websites that use Fox clips as youtube sources told her so. And then she would spam me links; so very many links claiming anything from gopusa.com is a credible source.
Debt, gloom, and hearing how much Americans are sucking took a backseat to hear what this guy had to say. It was very interesting watching pretty much every single possible outlet of media I ran into do just about everything they possibly could minus coordinating an assassination attempt to try and stop this guy from getting anywhere. It was almost like watching Mr. Smith Goes To Washington…but in color and directed by Spike Lee.
The living, breathing C-C-C-Combo Breaker better not fuck up this chance. Godspeed, sir. Godspeed.
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10.) The Shield - This year saw the end of the award-winning FX series centering around Vic Mackey, a crooked cop working in L.A.’s most notorious gang district. Throughout the seven seasons, we’ve seen Mackey do some unspeakable things in the name of his own twisted form of justice, and in the interest of his own bank account. He’s killed criminals and cops alike, forced false confessions, and robbed mafia money laundering setups. But throughout it all, he’s done it with a sense of loyalty for the ones he loved that still made him a likable – if flawed – antihero. However, in the episode before the finale, the writers turned the tables on the audience, giving us a look at what a wretched person Vic suddenly realized he was. The entire show’s thesis was revealed, one of sins and redemption. In the final season, it was made clear that someone would pay for Mackey’s sins, but we didn’t know who. So many characters had their own motives and drives that each one’s fate was up in the air until the final moments of the series. The traditionally high-octane, action-packed ended with a season of thoughtful character progression, and culminating in some of the most heartbreaking scenes of loss and betrayal to ever grace television. Never could I have imagined that the writers could have brought the series to such a poetically satisfying end.
9.) Zack and Miri Make a Porno – I’m a bit more of a newcomer to the collected works of Kevin Smith. I had seen Dogma while ago, but I only saw Clerks for the first time two years ago, and the rest of his films since. However, one upside to this is that I get to see the entire span of his career in a short time, and with each film I get to see him grow more as a filmmaker. And with this, his eighth film, he shows his most substantial maturation yet. He displays the style of comedy he has become famous for, and ends the film with an almost direct address to the audience leading up to the big emotional climax. But above all else, it’s simply a funny film. The humor is certainly not for everyone, especially those offended by the filthiest of language, but if you’re willing to brave the torrent of swears and foul talk, you’ll be rewarded for it. This is Smith at his most comfortable, and really gets me interested to see what he does next.
8.) Lost Odyssey - Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m new to this whole “RPG” thing. Sure, I’ve played my fair share of Pokemon, and yes, the grid-based Strategy RPG Disgaea is one of my all-time favorites. But when it comes to the traditional JRPGs like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, I’m at a loss. In fact, when I first picked up Lost Odyssey, most of it was new to me. Yes I was familiar with the stereotypical tropes of the genre, but I hadn’t yet become jaded enough to let it bother me. I found the combat fun and engaging, the story was unique, the characters were diverse and likable, and the game was well-paced enough to not keep me in the same environment for too long. Suddenly, all of my previous notions about how dated and boring JRPGs were went out the window. Aside from the pacing and gameplay, it’s also a technical marvel as well. The localized voice acting is excellent, and the visuals play with cinematic aspects like depth of field to give the game a look all it’s own. I still haven’t finished it, but it’s the game that I’m most excited to revisit.
I’ll make a useful post for once. For the next few months at least, anytime you end up with a 100 dollar bill, check the security thread. That’s what that picture is as an example for a twenty. Make sure that tiny thread says it’s a hundred dollar bill. Not a five dollar bill.
