Top Ten of 2013 by Stephen Meads
“Fried Chicken Glazed Donuts
Pretty much exactly what it says.”
1. Gravity - a film by Alfonso Cauron
I almost never manage to watch as many films as I would like, but I wound up watching Gravity twice in three days. Because the first time I didn't see it in 3D and so I needed to fix that. Gravity in an immersive experience, the camera moving from deep space into the helmets of the astronauts, starting from absolute void of being in feel-fall in deep space to the ultimate re-entry sequence, every moment was a pure melange of wonder and awe and nerve wracking fear and amazement. Also Sandra Bullock should win like all the awards, like all of them. Best Actor? Sandra Mother Fucking Bullock escaping from Space. I mean, I saw Lockout this year too, Guy Peirce doing a weird Snake Plisken impression is no match for Sandra Bullock, I feel weird saying it, but I'm already looking forward to the next specialist Ryan Stone action vehicle!
2. Magic: The Gathering - Theros Block.
Magic is releasing an entire block based on Greek Myth!? And then they do, and it's fucking amazing! Winged sandals? Check! Gorgons? Check! The Golden Fleece? On A Fucking Lion! Check and Mate! Magic: the Gathering is basically the only game that mattered in 2013.
3. The Rap Game.
Rap is not a game in 2013. But like at least ten of top ten things this year were rap releases and everyone was wonderful and inventive and distinct and beautiful. The thing is, rap has been around long enough that there are multiple classic periods that tribute can be paid to, but like modern rap is just bursting at the seams to expand the definitions and boundaries of what we think of rap as. A short list of all the great rap artists who released amazing thing this year: A$AP Rocky's "Long.Live.A$AP." Chance the Rapper's "Acid Rap" Cakes Da Killer's "The Eulogy" Le1f's "Fly Zone" Danny Brown's "Old" Black Milk's "No Poison No Paradise" Drake's "Nothing Was the Same" A$AP Ferg's "Trap Lord" Action Bronson's "Blue Chips 2" El-P and Killer Mike's "Run The Jewels" Azalea Banks' "1991" Pusha T's "My Name is My Name" and Kanye West's "Yeezus". Holy shit, that's over ten right there.
4. Game of Thrones - Season 3 - Episode 9
I saw the show before I read the books, but then I read the books before they got to this episode of the show, but even knowing was not enough, and now there are like hours of youtube reaction videos, people just moaning on the floor, wrecked with tears, screaming obscenities at the show runners, the writers, George R. R. Martin! God!! But obviously there is only one God, and his name is Death, and what do we say to the god of Death? Not today! Except for pretty much like any day that an episode of Game of Thrones comes out.
5. Marvel Now!
Jason Aaron's Thor and Hulk. Johnathan Hickman's Avengers. Rick Remender's Captain America. Matt Fraction'sHawkeye. Mark Waid's Daredevil. I could go on. And on. And on. But I won't, just, like, read any Marvel Now! comic and you'll get it.
6. Miley Cyrus's - "We Can't Stop"
This song really can't stop! I don't know if Miley is crazy smart, crazy stupid, or just crazy, but anyone who tries to deny "We Can't Stop" has never lived an authentic day in their life ever! Look I could spend the next several thousand words of my life discussing all the problematic shit surrounding Miley Cyrus and her life and music and videos and attempts to sound black and twerk or smoke marijuana on award shows, but that's what the rest of the internet is doing... the important work of solving cultural divides, and really we can't stop doing that stuff, so I mean, ultimately Miley's right.
7. Fried Chicken Glazed Donuts
Pretty much exactly what it says.
8. FIDLAR live at Backspace (RIP) in Portland, OR
Look, aside from the fact that this band name pretty much represents my new mantra: Fuck It, Dog, Life's A Risk, FIDLAR basically destroyed it in the perfect venue. An all ages room that sells beer to the over-21's and red bull to kids, the places don't really exist in Portland where the old punkers can just mosh their wisdom on down to the younger kids in the pit, where the girls crowd-surfing could pretty much be sure of their relative safety, where everyone was just sort of full tilt. I admit, sometimes I'm real confused by punk, all the different camps, the culture vs. the origins vs. the fashion vs. the music but seeing a show like FIDLAR in a venue like Backspace, suddenly all of it makes perfect sense, I get the pit, the physicality, the leather jackets, the cheap beers, the surfing, life is short and Backspace is dead, but y'know Fuck It, Dude, Let's Go Bowling!!
9. Star Trek: Into Darkness - a film by J. J. Abrams
My other favorite space movie of the year that I also saw multiple times. Not liking the show has really helped me love the films, because, I mean, I've wanted to like the show, but for something set in the future Star Trek has never looked like a show how glorious that could look. The movies have all the Star Trek elements but they cleanly fuse them into a a sleek beautiful future of clean lines and stunning lights. And everything else about these movies is great too! And the excitement level, and the homage moments, and yeah, I just really love the visual of space. Like I know it would straight up kill me, and not in a cool alien bursting through my chest way, but like in a space is disease and death wrapped in silence and darkness way. But holy fuck is it awesome. It's awesome. And Star Trek: Into Darkness gets that.
10. Sandwiches
I'm gonna go ahead and say it, the food of 2013 is the sandwich, back on the top of the mountain. I had more good sandwich experiences this year than I can count. And pretty much every time I want food, a sandwich in some form is the food I want. What other food can do that? From the classic PB&J to super melty cheesestakes to overstuffed deli fare to bhan-mi's to tortas, I haven't had a bad sandwich experiences this year once. Perhaps next year will go to pho or pancakes or something, but right now, if it's between two slices of bread, then it's gonna be part of my life, and that part is going to be significantly better.
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<nailed's top ten of 2013>
