Blink 182's "Pretty Little Girl" and the Concept of Love in Season 1 of Friday Night Lights

Due to psychotically heavy pressure from Movie Kaki Karen and slightly less but still fairly heavy pressure from Movie Kaki Ad, I watched Season 1 of Friday Night Lights. 

Minka Kelly...

If you like good television drama, chances are you will like Friday Night Lights. There are caveats, certainly. For one, I wish that some of the main characters were more nuanced just to make the story more believable. People aren't all good and neither are they all bad. People are people and people do things. Sometimes we agree with them, sometimes we don't. I wished that for some of the characters, there were more things they did that we didn't agree with. Another caveat is that some plotlines, which had some seriously intriguing premises, were way too short. I'd like to have seen those plotlines explored further. It felt that, at times, the show just wanted to address as many plotlines as possible and cram them all in. It may be good to take a page out of Mad Men's book and do a more solid construction and explication of plotlines. The third caveat is that nearly all their games seemed to go down to some dramatic finish. Real life sports is not like that. If you are that good a team, you should win some games fairly handily. If you find yourself having to always come from behind, you can't be that good a team. 

The fourth caveat is if you follow some real life sports teams fairly religiously (see: Liverpool, the Celts, the Spurs), most of the plotlines and most of the characters will seem quite unoriginal to you. The backup player who's suddenly thrust into the pressure and glory of the limelight? See Jeremy Lin, circa 2012. The talented tough guy bad boy on the team who has problems with discipline? See Terrell Owens, Stephen Jackson, and many, many others. The super talented athletic star who turns to doping to cope with high pressure? See almost every athlete in every sport, ever. The most original character in Friday Night Lights is the coach's wife, Tami Taylor or, affectionately, Mrs. Coach. She is a great reason to watch Friday Night Lights, in all seriousness.

But those aside, I found Friday Night Lights to be an overall enjoyable watch, and I can see why it can be so captivating. The acting is top-notch, particularly Coach and Mrs. Coach (more on this later). The character development is decent, though not quite at the level of Mad Men. I mean, you gotta love a show who develops its chief character, Don Draper, so much that you don't really know if you can throw your support behind Don Draper as the seasons go. You learn that as much as he is brilliant, he is also petty, vindictive and destructive. Consider this - in the pilot of Mad Men, we see Don sleeping with some chick. At the end of that same episode, we see him return home to a wife, and to two kids. How's that for nuance-ing your main protagonist? 

I do believe that seeing the evolution of a character is far more compelling - for a drama - than feeling like you can throw your support wholeheartedly behind a character. At the very least, it is intellectually more satisfying. Friday Night Lights does the 'support' bit very well, developing characters for whom it is easy to sympathize and to support. It does not do so well in developing characters that make you feel uneasy in choosing to support them. I've come to really appreciate a chief theme behind Mad Men - that the universe is indifferent and people just do things because they're motivated by whatever it is that motivates them, not by some higher ideal or whatever. Nobody is just plain good, and nobody is just plain evil. 

Side note: In my post on my favorite fictional male characters, I picked characters who were essentially just plain good characters as my favorites. Maybe this is a good time to make clear here that I believe these are characters whose ideals that I like to strive towards. The characters are not necessarily the most compelling or the most fascinating (Batman > Superman, Eddie Kapsbrak > Bill Denbrough and Ben Hanscom, John Watson > Sherlock Holmes, Frodo/Gollum > Gandalf) but they are my favorite because they give me an ideal to strive towards. Again, this is not the same as being the most compelling characters.

Anyway, back to Friday Night Lights. Besides the acting, another great reason to watch Friday Night Lights is Minka Kelly in a cheerleader uniform. Her acting isn't the best, but goddayum. 

Yummy

Mmmmmmmmmm

Anyway, what I think is best about Friday Night Lights - or at least Season 1 of Friday Night Lights - is that it provides the best depictions of young, innocent, puppy love and of grown-up, real love that I've ever seen on television or on movies. And maybe even in books, though I will have to search my memory for this. Let's take this case by base.

For the depiction of young, innocent love, I give you Matt Saracen and Julie Taylor. 

The relationship was built very well across the season. It didn't rush it. It allowed it to grow very organically, in an almost linear form. And the little things along the way. Stolen glances. Small smiles. It was all very butterfly-in-stomachs material. The scenes were also great. Very representative of what it means to be 15 or 16 and in love, or so I think. To link to Blink 182, the song, "Pretty Little Girl" has moved, I think, to become my top love song of all-time. Not so much because it sounds romantic or because it's sweet, or whatever. Not that at all. It's because it sounds real. It describes how a relationship evolves over time, in an almost literal fashion. 

Consider this bit:-

"Nineteen, your eyes are glowing to my beating heart

Oh, it seems like it is fine as my hand is moving up your arm,

And you never really know where it goes up until it starts,

I got my eye on you, what you gonna do?

Daydream near a stream where the winter bites,

Oh, I listen to the song on repeat from the other night,
And I can't picture you but I sure got the feeling right,

What a crazy world, pretty little girl.

And we wake from the night in a bed with a bruise,

And we're laughing out loud with the craziest news,

And you reached for my hand, I was scared in your room,

We fell on the floor and we started to move,

And your hands were like birds as they flew from the coop,

Up my back they would climb just as I came unglued."

The relationship between Matt and Julie reminds me exactly of this bit in "Pretty Little Girl." From the first stolen kisses, to the first time they held hands, to the first mention of the word "girlfriend", to the time he asked her out "officially", to the embrace on the muddy field, to the night they spent together when they first planned to have sex (the treatment of young sex in this episode is absolutely brilliant), to the time she was there for him when he was having problems with his dad, to when she was with him at the bus station when his dad left back for the military. Everything, really. I bolded the bits in the song lyric above which I thought make the song lyrics' description of young love super real.

Sunshine and butterflies. 

Now, on the other hand, we have Mr. and Mrs. Coach. They've been married about 15-16 years (if am not wrong), and are now in Dillon, Texas where Coach coaches the Dillon Panthers and Mrs. Coach is the School Counselor. It is so bloody refreshing to see Mrs. Coach have a proper character with a well-developed personality. It is so easy to just fall into the steroetype of a "coach's wife" (see: We are Marshall, Glory Road etc) but Mrs. Coach has her own life, her own dreams, her own friends, her own work. And it's great to see it blossom as it did in Season 1.

But I think the best part of Season 1 of Friday Night Lights is the relationship between Coach and Mrs. Coach. The way they handle problems together. The way they deal with their daughter getting a boyfriend. For the record, if I ever have a daughter, and she wanted to go out with the Quarterback of the Football Team, rest assured I would have reacted in a more domineering and more pissed off manner than Coach Taylor. Full credit to him for not carrying a shotgun around or wielding a machete. The way they fight and argue and then resolve stuff later. The way they support each other. The way you know that in this relationsihp, both parties are always going to have each other's backs. It's a real partnership in the truest sense. And I do think, or hypothesize, that all romantic relationships generally evolve to that. To being proper life partners. And I think Coach and Mrs. Coach have that relationship, documented superbly in Friday Night Lights - essentially, what it means to be life partners. She's involved in all his decisions, and he is involved in all her decisions, even if they disagree on what the decision should be. They really are each other's best friends and it is really heartening to see.

I think what makes this depiction of a marriage (I prefer life partnership, since I don't think you need to be married to have this type of relationship) so fantastic is that it feels so real. They really are a couple devoted to each other and seriously just trying to make their way through all the mess, winging it as they go along. In the episode where Matt and Jules were planning to have sex (Jules is the daughter of Coach and Mrs. Coach), the scenes between Coach and Mrs. Coach were some of the most fascinating television scenes I have ever seen. To be honest, if anybody is looking for a guide on how to have a successful life partnership, Season 1 Episode 17 of Friday Night Lights is a great place to start. There's this one scene where Coach and Mrs. Coach are waiting for Jules to get home, and they're worried and pissed and sad and all that stuff at the same time. And Mrs. Coach says:-

"You know, you and I have the exact same amount of experience being parents. We've been doing this same job the same number of years and months and days as each other and the truth of it is that we don't have any control. You know, for the most part, we're just winging it. I don't know what to do...y'know, I don't know what to do in this situation. But I'll tell you what, the most important thing to me is that my daughter be able to talk to me. A girl is entitled to that with her mother. My mother used to tell me that I was going to go to hell if a guy ever even touched me, and you know that didn't work and I'm sure as hell not going to do that to Julie. And we raised a smart, responsible, moral girl and I have faith in us and I have faith in her and we just gotta let her go."

Needless to say, she delivered the lines perfectly. And the scene ends with Coach Taylor and Mrs Coach holding hands as they wait for Jules.

I don't know how more real that can get. It's such a great bunch of lines. And, quite frankly, if you believe that you must never settle for anything in life, then you (and I) should never settle for any form of partnership/relationship that isn't close to what Coach and Mrs. Coach have. In the final episode, when Coach is deciding whether to take a job at the fictional UMT, away from Dillon, Texas, Coach and Mrs. Coach have a final conversation about the topic. It's worth noting, for context, that Mrs. Coach doesn't want to leave Dillon but Coach wants the whole family to move together. They've been arguing about this for like 2 episodes or so. Anyway, here was how it got resolved, again brilliantly delivered by Mrs. Coach:-

"I don't want to be responsible, nor do I want to have this baby be responsible for you not living out your dream. I have walked with you...I have walked with you all these years to get to this place, you and I together. And you know what else we've been doing together? We've been allowing the space to create our dreams, y'know, and you've got it, you've got it in Austin and I've got it here in Dillon, I've finally, I've finally got this job. And Julie has a big life here in Dillon. And it's going to be hard. I don't know how we're going to do it, but I know our relationship means that we can do it."

Room just got dusty. Excuse me.

Still dusty.

I MEAN, HOW COULD YOU EVER SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN THIS?!

It's so fricking empowering knowing that there's somebody who's always got your back and you know you've always got the other person's back as well. Look, it doesn't need to be a romantic partner. It could be a parent, a friend, a cousin, whatever. But the point is, you're going through life together. Every up, every down. Coach and Mrs. Coach are more than husband and wife; they're life partners. They're going to go through everything together and they know that they'll have each other every step of the way.

To refer back to "Pretty Little Girl", they remind me of this bit in the lyrics:-

She said, if you break my heart, then I'll change your mind,
And I'll do it again,
If you play the part, then I will play mine,
And I'll do it again,
If we miss the mark, if we hold on tight,
We'll be there to try it again.

Nineteen as we roll across the bedroom floor,
Your eyes, they cannot lie as they're dreaming of our future home,
And the kids they are growing up, as you and I, we are growing old,
What a crazy world, pretty little girl.

In the rain with the drink from the back of the bar,
I would raise up my voice, you would raise it up more,
We'd forget that our lives, being apart it is hard,
We thought we were close but it still feels far,
Can we learn to get by if we learn to have scars,
We learn to forgive and accept who we are. 

It's a cry from the past, we have been through a lot,
Every year has been great and a few have been tough,
And our kids, they will reach for the stars above,
We'll sit and relax as we're cheering them on,
All the roads to the life from the crib to the grave,
We started alone, in the end we're okay. 

If we miss the mark, if we hold on tight, we'll be here to try it again.

The best part of Friday Night Lights. Better than Minka Kelly.

One more time, for the road, the Taylors and Blink 182:-

It's a cry from the past, we have been through a lot,

Every year has been great and a few have been tough,

And our kids, they will reach for the stars above,

We'll sit and relax as we're cheering them on,

All the roads to the life from the crib to the grave,

We started alone, in the end we're okay. 

We should all be so lucky. 

All of the lights

I generally don't mind if a person is a dick. Or arrogant. Or perpetually angry. I take issue when the person pretends that they're not. If being a dick is who you are, then go ahead. Free world and all. Just accept who you are, embrace that shit and be as big a dick as you want. Just don't pretend that you're not. 

So, while some people may have issue with a dude who's so fricking ballsy and egotistic that he named his latest record, "Yeezus," and says stuff like, "You know, if Michael Jordan can scream at the refs, me as Kanye West, as the Michael Jordan of music, can go and say, 'This is wrong,'" or "I knew when I wrote the line "light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson" I was going to be a big star...I knew I was going to make it this far; I knew that this was going to happen," or "I think what Kanye West is going to mean is something similar to what Steve Jobs means. I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of internet, downtown, fashion, culture. Period. By a long jump." 

Me as Nick Khaw loves this. 

Kanye West is so egotistic but it's cool cos he bloody well embraces it. We always tell people to be who they are and to be genuine. If this is who Kanye West really genuinely is, then good for him. People who say, "You shouldn't be so arrogant" also probably shouldn't ever give the advice, "Just be who you are." 

Anyway, this was all from this interview by the New York Times. I'd encourage reading all 5 pages for it. It is brilliant. As is to be expected, in all fairness, from a dude who named himself (or is it Himself) Yeezus. 

Besides the whole Kanyeezy-ness of the whole interview - which I thought was fricking fantastic - I also really liked a point he made towards the end of the interview. He said that (paraphrased so that the meaning becomes clear) he only really wants to be involved in things that can be Christmas presents, meaning making "something that's so emotionally connected to people." I thought that was profound. Well, he is Yeezus.

I mean, if you really think about it, and you really tap into the spirit of giving - probably most prevalent during Christmas - then you always want to give something that means something to somebody. It could be anything, really; except that it must mean something. I mean, I could give somebody a Hermes tie, but if the person doesn't really put any value into a Hermes tie versus, say, Rosebud (damn right I referenced Citizen Kane), a used old sled, then there's not much meaning in the Hermes tie. It is also true that one person's trash is another person's treasure, but the point is, the things we produce, the things we give, must be Christmas gift-able. I think that's a nice principle to adopt. 

And you know, maybe we could do things better or just make the world a less ugly place, if only slightly, if we only associate ourselves with things that can be Christmas gifts. I'd be happy with Yeezus' latest album, "Yeezus." Just sayin'. 

Blink 182 and the Evolution of the Concept of Romance

When I re-jumpstarted this blog (following my complete and utter failure as a food blogger), it was because I was inspired by Blink 182. The album, "Neighborhoods," was set to be released in the coming week; an important one, given that it was their first since they reunited. For those of you who don't know, Blink 182 is my favorite band. By far. I've said it many times before.

Perhaps the reason I most like Blink 182 is that they can hit the most relevant thoughts or feelings using the simplest of words. And maybe the way I say it in my head doubles the sensitivity, but I like that they don't try to stray too far from being simple. There's the occassional metaphor here and there - something I also appreciate but too much of it can be annoying (a line that Green Day, for example, whom I also really like can cross often) - but essentially, it's just straight words. 

Consequently, I have always felt that Blink 182 can express whatever I want to express but in a better, more succinct way. In fairness, I have never exactly been the most in-touch-with-my-emotions of people and often times, I don't get certain things and I'm not sure how to express certain things across a variety of emotions, not just the angsty ones. For example, I get sucked into things like, "Never trust happiness" or "Happiness is just the moment where you want more happines" or "Happiness is a billboard at the side of the road that screams reassurance that whatever you're doing, it's okay; you are okay."

Anyway, I also found it interesting how Blink 182's evolution of more sentimental lyrics evolved along with my thoughts on what the evolution of romance should be as well. Or at least, the different stages of romance that someone my age would experience. Consider the song "21 Days" from the album, Buddha, their first real album after their Flyswatter demo. The lyrics go:-

"My mind wanders as I'm trying not to fall in love with you,

Because everytime I'm awake I ponder on my mistakes of what I've said,

It is always my esteem that I sure lose,

Playing those stupid games as I always end up chasing you."

It's essentially how a boy who just hit puberty would feel if he finds someone he really, really likes but has absolutely zero confidence in the whole boy-girl relationship scene. Conceptually, I think many, many people can identify with this - the people who had some overwhelming puppy love feelings but were too afraid to express them because they didn't want to get laughed at or because they didn't want to get rejected. Those are valid concerns at 15. (I consider them invalid when you're 25. By now, everyone should have had learned how to deal with rejection. The worst that can happen is you get rejected. Big deal). 

Speaking of rejection! Here's a Blink 182 song many guys I knew felt during secondary school - the sheer dark pit of rejection (multiple times in some cases).

I shuddered just typing that.

But, check out these lyrics from the song, "Untitled" from the album Dude Ranch:-

"I think of awhile ago, we might have had it all

I was so stupid then, you needed time to grow (NB: Every guy's rationalization for why they were rejected)

But now just as things change, as well my feelings do,

In time things rearrange, I am so sick of chasing you.

But what do I get cos I just seem to lose,

You make me regret those times I spent with you,

Playing those games as I wait for your call,

Now I give up so goodbye and so long."

Girls have girlfriends and mani/pedis/retail therapy. Guys have Blink 182. 

But that's the bitter bit. Blink 182 also has a song for when you've been rejected, you know it's awkward, you're sad and you need your friends. It's from "Dammit", from the same album:-

"And maybe, I'll see you at a movie, sneak preview

You'll show up and walk by in the arm of that guy

And I'll smile and you'll wave, we'll pretend it's okay

This charade, it won't last, when he's gone, I won't come back.

And it's happened once again, you'll turn to a friend,

Someone that understands, sees through the masterplan,

When everybody's gone, and you've been here for too long

To face this on your own, well I guess this is growing up."

The first bit is the verse. Find me a more accurately literal description of that sort of feeling. Go ahead. 

Anyway, that's the secondary school, teenage stage, really. When a lot of angst comes about because people just aren't sure of themselves. I generally think that the lack of realizing exactly who you are is the largest cause of angst and insecurity in most people. There are exceptions, of course, but I think this takes the cake. Now, nearly all of my friends, after they finished their post-secondary education here, went abroad. Or their partners went abroad. Blink 182 has some special songs for that moment too. From Dude Ranch, here's Apple Shampoo:-

"And she said, it could never survive with such differing lives,

One home, one out on tour again, we may never come back,

The strike of a match, the candle's burning at both ends."

And, for a slightly more optimistic one, from "Going Away to College" (How apt!) in Enema of the State:-

"Please take me by the hand, it's so cold out tonight

I'll put the blankets on the bed, I won't turn out the lights

Just don't forget to think about me and I won't forget you,

I'll write you once a week she said."

Oh, and if you're scared shitless about giving a Valentine's gift:-

"I haven't been this scared in a long time,

And I'm so unprepared, so here's your Valentine,

Bouquet of clumsy words, a simple melody,

This world's an ugly place, but you're so beautiful [insert person's name]"

Yeah...Short, simple and sweet serves to summarize a superb sequence. You're damn right I just alliterated the crap out of that sentence.

So, now, you're in College. You're slightly more grown up now. What do you do? What's the next step in the concept of romance for you? Why, it's falling in love with someone at "The Rock Show" for sure. 

"She's getting kicked out of school cos she's failing

I'm kind of nervous cos I think all her friends hate me

She's the one, she'll always be there,

She took my hand and that made it I swear

Cos I fell in love with the girl at the Rock Show

She said what, and I told her that I didn't know

She's so cool, gonna sneak in through her window,

Everything's better when she's around, can't wait till her parents go out of town,

I fell in love with the girl at the Rock Show."

And, you know, if you meet the girl at The Rock Show, you can ask her out on a First Date:-

"In the car I just can't wait, to pick you up on our very first date

Is it cool if I hold your hand, is it wrong if I think it's lame to dance

Do you like my stuipid hair, did you guess that I didn't know what to wear

I'm just scared of what you think, you make me nervous so I really can't breathe."

If you haven't felt this way before, fuck off and run along. Both "The Rock Show" and "First Date" are from "Take Off Your Pants and Jacket", which came out in 2001. Of course, in 2001 I was still in Form 3, far from College. But just saying that these songs applied to my conception of 'romance' when I hit that stage. I'm obviously far from suggesting that these songs evolved with me; of course, they evolved as the band members grew older. But I'd say rather that I evolved to the point that I could follow the process of growing old of Blink 182.

Anyway, their next album was the eponymous "Blink-182." The music was older, the lyrics more of adults than young adults, which the previous lyrics clearly were. Take "I Miss You":-

"Hello there, the angel from my nightmare

The shadow in the background of the morgue

The unsuspecting villian of darkness in the valley

We can live like Jack and Sally, if we want

Where you can always find me

And we'll have Halloween on Christmas

But in the night, we'll wish this never ends."

To me, I took this as an addiction to someone who was clearly bad for you and it was kind of crazy, but you still wished it wouldn't end. Especially, y'know, at night. See: How I Met Your Mother Season 8. Fuck that show. And there's "Asthenia", 

"Last night, it came as a picture

With a good reason, warning sign

This place is void of all passion,

If you can imagine, it's easy if you try.

Believe me, I failed this effort,

I wrote a reminder, this wasn't a vision."

Going along the same theme of beating addiction. And being honest about what you want and who you want in your life. See: How I Met Your Mother Season 8. Fuck that show. Continuing along the same theme, check out "Always":-

"I've been here before a few times,
And I'm quite aware we're dying,

And your hands, they shake with goodbyes,

And I'll take you back if you have me (terrible decision)

So here I am, I'm trying

So here I am, are you ready."

See: How I Met Your Mother Season 8. Fuck that show. And in the same album, the dangers of settling, from "All of This."

"With all of this, I feel now

Everything inside of my heart,

It all seems to be how

Nothing I feel pulls at me at all (Don Draper alert!)

Again I waited for this to pull apart

To break my time in two

Another night with her, but I'm always wanting you."

That last line. If you're "her", I'm sorry. That sucks.

Anyway, after Blink-182, they fought. Mark and Travis formed +44. Tom formed Angels and Airwaves. Travis survived a plane crash. They re-united. In 2011, they released "Neighborhoods." Again, the lyrics showed signs of evolution. Of the trials and tribulations of having been with someone for a long time. Consider, "After Midnight."

"By your lips, your words, a robbery

Do you grin inside, you're killing me,

All long we talked of forever

I kind of think that we won't get better

It's the longest start, but the end's not too far away,

Did you know, I'm here to stay."

I have this hypothesis of how every relationship should logically be expected to fail, but I'll save that for another time. Then there's, "Even If She Falls", which I like but can't intepret for the life of me:-

"When the night will begin, the pain it won't end even if she falls in love

Fact, you want to turn back, your heart will attack even if she falls in love

Try to look in her eyes, the light is just right even if she falls in love

And it isn't so bad, it's driving you made even if she falls in love."

After "Neighborhoods", Blink 182 released a 5-song EP, called Dogs Eating Dogs. In my mind, I see a dog eating a hot dog. But that's besides the point. In this, I found what I thought was their best lyric on romance ever. And that's what I used to think about nearly all of the lyrics that I've typed out in this post. So, things evolve, and I find this to be the most meaningful out of all of them. Maybe relationships aren't about the butterflies in the stomach, or the fights and reconciliation, and being nervous and being in love, or being tired and apprehensive towards the end, or realizing that you're stuck and want to get out but are afraid. Maybe relationships are just about sticking it through. Maybe. I don't know. I don't claim to be an expert, but I do know that I wish the following set of lyrics, from "Pretty Little Girl" in Dogs Eating Dogs on all my friends, particularly those who are married or getting married soon. I think it's the most romantic thing out there, that's also the most simply and eloquently described:-

"It's a cry from the past, we have been through a lot

Every year has been great and a few have been tough

And the kids, they will reach for the stars up above

We'll sit and relax as we're cheering them on

All the roads to the life from the crib to the grave

We started alone, in the end we're okay."

The "Never again, not ever, I am NOT letting this happen again" Playlist

There is a large number of people whom I know are angry, sad and, for lack of a better word, lost given the events of yesterday. Seeing the team you root for lose is generally painful in and of itself, but seeing the team you root for lose in the manner in which it did is even more so. Just to extend this a bit further, the latter bit is best addressed elsewhere by other people - on Facebook, on media outlets, on social media outlets etc - but I'd just like to take a minute to talk about the former.

A simple calculus to life is this. Happiness = Actual - Expectations. If your expectations are low, and the actual experience is high, you have a lot of happiness. Think of a wonderful surprise you once had. If your expectations are sky high, and the actual experience is just 'meh', you come away feeling very dissatisfied. Think The Dark Knight Rises. Essentially, this equation works. Yesterday, a cognitive bias I think many of us unconsciously made was an overestimation of the probability of the team we support winning, thus increasing our expectations beyond the baseline level. It's an easily-understandable thing to do. For most of us, most of our social media networks are people who are similar to us and who tend to see things the way we do. At least, most of the time anyway. 

So, when people's hopes and expectations piled onto one another, it isn't difficult to imagine how the expectations were skewed beyond the base line. It was always going to be difficult going from 82 to 112, and perhaps it was naive to expect it to happen so quickly. In any case, it is important to set our personal expectations at the baseline expectations. Perhaps a reason many feel disappointed disproportionately more than they would have is because in the Happiness = Actual - Expectations equation, the "Expectations" was set far higher than it should have. It's a good lesson in reminding ourselves to manage expectations to the baseline. 

But, nontheless, people are sad, pissed and lost. Never to fear, I present to you my latest music playlist. I call it the "Never again, not ever, I am NOT letting this happen again" Playlist, which is essentially how I felt after several events that took place yesterday. It's a mixture of defiant hope and just plain wanting to Keyser Soze everyone. For those of you who have yet to watch The Usual Suspects, the movie features a master criminal known as Keyser Soze. The description of Keyser Soze is as follows:-

"One story the guys told me, the story I believe, was from his days in Turkey. There was a gang of Hungarians that wanted their own mob...After a while, they come into power and then they come after Soze...They come to his home in the afternoon, looking for his business. They find his wife and kids in the house and decide to wait for Soze. He comes home to find his wife raped and children screaming. The Hungarians knew Soze was tough, not to be trifled with, so they let him know they meant business (Cue: One Hungarian cutting one of the kid's throats). They tell him they want his territory, all his business.

Soze looks oever the faces of his family. Then he showed these men of will what will really was. (Cue: Soze shoots two Hungarians, then shoots his children and his wife as the last Hungarian watches in surprised horror). He tells him he would rather see his family dead than live another day after this. He lets the last Hungarian go, waits until his wife and kids are in the ground, and then he goes after the rest of the mob. He kills their kids. He kills their wives. He kills their parents and parents' friends. He burns down the houses they live in, the stores they work in. He kills people that owe them money."

I don't advocate Keyser Soze's methods, but I think we can all feel that sense of rage and injustice that just makes us want to lash out at something. But, I think we must also remain hopeful and to strive to do better. Because, eff this, I am not letting shit like this happen again without doing my best to make things work. I have the perfect music for this set of emotions. Here we go. Again, a shorter-than-standard 12 song playlist, in no particular order (except saving the best for the last).

1. Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff

This is actually the best song when you're super pissed off. Channels everything, really. Let's get the pissed out of the way early.

2. Michael Jackson - Beat It

"They'll kick you, then they'll beat you, then they'll tell you it's fair." Hm.

3. Oasis - Stop Crying Your Heart Out

Because at some point, you have to move forward. 

4. New Radicals - You Get What You Give

This world is gonna pull through.

5. Bob Dylan - Blowin' in the Wind

Suggest also watching this video. Very powerful. And the song itself was written about the meaningless-ness of things during the Vietnam War.

6. Blink 182 - Man Overboard

Excellent closing lyrics - "Man on a mission, can't say I miss him around. Insider information, hand in your resignation. Loss of a good friend, best of intentions I found tight-lipped procrastination. Yeah, later, see you around.

7. Blink 182 - Dammit

"And it's happened once again, I'll turn to a friend. Someone who understands, sees through the master plan when everybody's gone and I've been here for too long to face this on my own, well I guess this is growing up."

A very good song for realizing that there are friends among us who are willing to help and who want to help and that, sometimes, we don't have to face bullshit by ourselves.

8. Kanye West - All of the Lights

A haunting song. While it doesn't come across as that type of song, to me, it's a song that reminds me of hope. And about seeing the light. Cos goodness knows we need all of the lights we can get. "Turn up the lights in here baby, extra bright I want y'all to see this. Turn up the lights in here baby. You know what I need baby, want you to see everything, want you to see All of the Lights."

9. Coolio - I'll See You When You Get There

Coolio with Pachelbel's canon. A song of hope and striving for better and never letting your background and experiences drag you behind. "But I'll be rude to surrender when I know I can be a contender."

10. B.O.B, Hayley Williams and Eminem - Airplanes Part II

Don't really like the song that much, in fairness. But it's worth it for the Eminem bit. Very inspiring.

11. Journey - Don't Stop Believing

Think the title makes this fairly self-explanatory.

12. Lupe Fiasco - The Show Goes On

If you're going to listen to only one song from this list, listen to this one. I saved it for last because I think it best describes this playlist. The defiance, the hope, the idealism, and most of all, the hope. And the hope. I hope I made that clear (see what I did there). Because, dear reader, whatever happens, no matter what stupid shit life or whoever else can throw at us, the show goes on. The show always goes on. And, these lyrics seem particularly relevant, don't you think?

"So no matter what you been through, no matter what you into,

No matter what you see, when you look outside your window,

Brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire,

Never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher.

Raise 'em till your arms tired, let 'em know you there,

That you struggling, surviving, that you gon' persevere,

Yeah, ain't nobody leaving, nobody going home,

Even if they turn the lights off, the show is going on."

I'll close with Samwise (BAMF) Gamgee who said, "It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for."

City Lights

I came across one of the best soundtracks in memory from the 2004 movie, In Good Company. The movie itself was solid. I liked it - nice feel-good movie without being overly corny. And, of course, it featured the lovely Scarlett Johansson.

Hoodies are the way to go. 

Anyway, on the soundtrack. The soundtrack gave me the introduction to Iron and Wine - notably, Naked as We Came (interpret that how you will) and, more notably, The Trapeze Swinger. Listen to this in the dark. Don't think about anything else. Just soak in the song. Listen to the lyrics. It'll be worth it. Another song from that soundtrack is David Byrne's "Glass, Concrete and Stone." I hadn't thought of that song in a long time.

Tonight though, I was overlooking the skyline of some country at 10pm. And it was breathtaking. Whoever says that glass, concrete and stone (connection made!) lacks aesthetic qualities needs to have her or his head examined. I wish I could say I took a picture, but the Constant Reader knows how bad I am at all that. Anyway, city lights, when done right, are one of the world's best sights. Don't believe me? Fuck you. I have always loved the city lights on the water (snigger).

Anyway, beyond just the aesthetic of an amalgamation of concrete, glass and stone and lights, I thought also of Jay-Z's line in Empire State of Mind. Side note, I can rap the whole song without referring to lyrics. Just ask me. Anyway, the line goes, "8 Million Stories, out there in the naked." It's essentially what a city is, no? A dense agglomeration of people, all with their own stories, all with their own lives, hoping to achieve whatever it is they want to achieve, fighting every day (for most people at least) hoping just to make it through the week, hoping that one day their efforts will make the lives of their kids better. But like Jay-Z says, "It's a pity half of ya'll won't make it."

I cannot be fairly described as some paragon of humility, despite my best efforts, but I do believe what Jay-Z said, or rapped. In a city of 8 million people, there are 8 million stories. It felt rather peculiar looking down tonight at the city below, seeing the various lights from office buildings, homes, roads, cars whatever and thinking that each person contributing to those lights were living out their own story. Maybe they were rushing home to watch the latest Mad Men episode. Maybe they were taking on another shift as a cab driver to help put food on the table. Maybe they were trying to close a deal in some office. Maybe they had just reeturned from a date. I don't know. But it's quite humbling, I think. When you recall that in the grand scheme of 8 million people, one's life is just that. One. Out of 8 Million.

And the thing is, each of those 8 million stories is unique. Well, nearly all anyway (accounting for siblings who grew up in the same family, attended the same schools etc etc). I have never believed that just because you're unique, you're therefore special as I've made clear before. But that uniqueness is still something that is interesting. If each person is a story, which admittedly appeals to me from a poetic sense, then each unique story makes that person the only person in the world who has lived that tale. I think it's fair to say that hardly anybody is special, but everyone is unique. It's like the following two quotes from Watchmen (by Doc Manhattan):-

"Themodynamic miracles...events with odds against so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing. And yet, in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter...Until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air into gold...that is the crowning likelihood. The thermodynamic miracle."

"Yes, anybody in the world...But the world is so full of people, so crowded with these miracles that they become commonplace and we forget...I forget. We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another's vantage point, as if new, it may still take our breath away. Come...dry your eyes, for you are life, rarer than a quark and unpredictable beyond the dreams of Heisenberg. Come, dry your eyes. And let's go home."

I think cities remind us of stuff like that. A collection of stories, each one nearly entirely unique, coming together to try and make things work. It's humbling. Even the most reprehensible person has a story and even the most tame of people has a story. And that's life. And Doc Manhattan says we must remember that.

Speaking of life, may I interest you in a new scientific hypothesis - life began even before the Sun existed. The arguments make sense. Next comes the proof. But this is baller.

"I couldn't wait for the summer at the Warped Tour"

Blink 182 has a lot of great lyrics, as I mentioned in a (much) earlier post. One such lyric is the one in the title, "I couldn't wait for the summer at the Warped Tour", taken from The Rock Show. I've always wanted to go to the Warped Tour, you see, but unlike my buddy Zain, I've never made it there. But I will one day, soon, hopefully. That 'hope' led me to Google tour dates for the Warped Tour in 2013 (probably not going in 2013, but still), which then led me to replay The Rock Show on loop. This then led me to think, "Actually, The Rock Show is kind of a love song, no? And a pretty awesome one at that." And so, I'm going to do what so many other wannabe DJ's have done - create my own playlist. I've done this before in this blog, but that was on melancholic/mellow music. This one? We're on love songs, baby.

The same format applies to this one as it did to the previous post. 15 songs. The thinking behind the construction of this playlist is that I want to start with a bang and end with a bang. And since this is a love song playlist, maybe if you use it, you could start and end with a bang too, if you know what I mean. (I swear, I don't construct puns in my head and then write them down. They just present themselves rather naturally). So the pace should be fast at the start, slowing down towards the middle, hitting a local minima at the middle point (song 8), before rising to end with a fast beat. The tempo is kind of like the smile in the Watchmen smiley.

Blood optional. If that's your thing, hey, it's your thing.

And, also, I don't necessarily think that love songs should all be slow ballads. Love songs can come in any form of rhythm or tempo. This is unlike melancholy/mellow songs which are, by definition, meant to be slower. In any case, here goes the playlist.

1. Blink 182 - The Rock Show

Live from Pepsi Smash! I generally think Blink 182 would be better live than they are on CD. Anyway, we start with this one because it's my list, and I want to start with this. In less petulant terms, we're kicking off with this because it's fast, it's fun and it's not even 3 minutes. Also, I like these lines - "I couldn't wait for the summer at the Warped Tour, I remember that's the first time that I saw her there." I also like these lines:- "Seventeen without a purpose or direction, we don't owe anyone a fucking explanation." That's not so lovey, fine, but change that to Twenty-Six and that'd be me! And also, I really, really, really have always wanted to say, "I fell in love with the girl at the Rock Show."

2. The Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You

Taken from the OST of Juno. It's  a nice folksy, happy cheery type song. The words are very simple and, while admittedly bordering on the saccharine, very puppy love sweet. Example, "You are always trying to keep it real, I'm in love with how you feel, I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else but you." Also, massive bonus for, "Up up down down left right left right B A start, just because we use cheats doesn't mean we're not start." 

3. The Temptations - My Girl

Keeping with the happy, cheery, folksy theme, we're going a bit old school here. An all-time classic. If you're a heterosexual female or a homosexual male, just change "Girl" to "Boy". Done and done.

4. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights

A nice bridge from the happy/cheery to the more sentimental, mellow. There are two versions, both are good - one is by Iron and Wine, the other is by the Postal Service, which is the one I chose here. Simply because it's a good bridge. The song was made popular by the movie Garden State, the movie where things happen between Zach Braff and Natalie Portman for the entire movie without any meaning or point. At least the soundtrack's good. Favourite lyric:- "In truth, it may seem like a stretch, but it's thoughts like this that catch my troubled head when you're away and I am missing you to death - when you are out there on the road for several weeks of shows and when you scan the radio, I hope this song will guide you home."

5. Train - Drops of Jupiter

Think this came out some time in 2001 and Train didn't have a major hit until 2009 again with, "Hey, Soul Sister." In any case, this is a really good song, and generally underrated. But when it hits the karaoke screen, everyone knows it, everyone sings it, everyone adores it. I think a lot of people tend to relate to it - waiting for someone who's gone exploring. But I do like this lyric, "Can you imagine no first dance, freeze-dried romance, 5 hour phone conversation, the best soy latte that you ever had and me." 

6. Coldplay - Yellow

I like stars. In another life, I would've tried to be an astronomer. So, any love song that starts with, "Look at the stars, look how they shine for you" gets a load of plus points from me. Also:-

7. Death Cab for Cutie - I will Follow you into the Dark

I'd like to make a Gandalf quote here (he was talking about Eowyn to Eomer). It goes, "Who knows what she spoke to in the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in." I'm a bit discinclined to join the dots for you here, but I think you have an idea of how it's linked. Essentially, "the dark" can mean many things beyond just death. But if you're my friend, I will follow you into the dark.

8. Thrice - A Song for Milly Michaelson

My second favourite love song. Since this is the mid point, and hence the local minima, this will also be the slowest song on the playlist. It's truly melancholic. But with lyrics and a tone throughout that are really poignant. It's actually based off a 1980s sci-fi movie called, "The Boy who could Fly". The lyrics narrate the love story between the two main characters of the movie, "The Boy" and "Milly Michaelson." For kicks again, here's the chrorus - "Here we go, hold on tight and don't let go, I won't ever let you fall. I love the night, flying over these city lights, but I love you most of all."

9. Goo Goo Dolls - Black Balloon

Still fairly melancholic, but definitely faster than A Song for Milly Michaelson as we make our way upwards along the Watchmen smiley. Alongside Name, this is my favourite Goo Goo Dolls song. 

10. Oasis - Slide Away (acoustic)

This is my favourite love song. The album version is probably a bit too fast to be included here, but the acoustic version fits very nicely. The main difference between the acoustic version and the album version is that Noel Gallagher sings the acoustic version while Liam Gallagher sings the album version. I think Noel does this song better, as he does most of their more mellow songs. The lyrics are also very sweet in their simplicity, and nowhere do they border the realm of corn. My favourite lyric is the chorus:- 

Now that you're mine, 

We'll find a way, chasing the sun

Let me be the one that shines with you

Cos in the morning, I don't know what to do

We're two of a kind

We'll find a way, to do what we've done

So let me be the one that shines with you and we can slide away.

11. The Postal Service - Brand New Colony

Bonus points for starting with a Nintendo tune. Also, like its counterpart at No. 4, this song serves as a bridge between the slower and the faster rhythms. I think it has the best lyrics among all the songs here, actually. It says a lot of good things in very non-conventional terms, but when you see it, you go, "Wow, that's neat." My favourite line - "I'll be the fire escape that's bolted to the ancient brick, where you will sit and contemplate your day."

12. Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down

Makes it because of the last bit. Think it's a very cool way to describe a date. "Hands down, this is the best day I can ever remember, I'll always remember the sound of the stereo, the dim of the soft lights, the scent of your hair that you twirled in your fingers, and the time on the clock when we realized that it's so late and this walk that we shared together; the streets were wet and the gate was locked so I jumped it and I let you in, and you stood at your door with your hands on my waist and you kissed me like you meant it."

13. The Beatles - I've Just Seen A Face

This video isn't the Beatles. It's from Across the Universe. I know. Just watch the damn video.

14. The Lovin' Spoonful - Do you Believe in Magic

 

A very happy carefree 1960's type song. I cannot trust anybody who dislikes this song, in all honesty. I fail to see how anybody could dislike this song. Listen to it. It'll make you feel groovy. I also really like the word "groovy."

15. Guns and Roses - Sweet Child of Mine

We start with a bang, we go out with a bang. Featuring one of the most famous guitar riffs of all-time, this is one of the ultimate rock out songs. And it's a love song! This song will always have a special spot in my heart just because I got to feel like a rock star singing it once in front of a jumping, cheering crowd of hundreds. Favourite lyrics:- "She's got eyes of the bluest skies, as if they thought of rain; I hate to look into those eyes and see an ounce of pain." 

There we have it, dear reader(s). If you get start and end this playlist with a bang (the "if you know what I mean" type), you owe me dinner. You're welcome. 

A Rather Arbitrarily-Structured Review of 2012

I was thinking of a way to sum up my thoughts about a whole bunch of things that I watched, read, saw, experienced, whatever-ed in 2012. As most of you know, I like structure. And it does kill me when I can't figure out a storyline that fits the facts I have. This methodology is Sherlock Holmes approved, by the way. Holmes said, "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly, one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." So, yes, it annoys me when I cannot fit a story to a bunch of facts or ideas I'm trying to tell. It doubly annoys me when these facts or ideas are not arranged in a consistent manner. In other words, screw this. I'm just going to arbitrarily run through 2012.

Things that should have been on my Top 12 Things I'm Looking Forward to in 2012 list but weren't. 

1. Mad Men Season 5. 

A basic metaphorical summary of everything you need to know about Don Draper

Wtf man. Way to drop the ball. In my defense, it wasn't a certainty that Mad Men was going to be aired at all. In my offense, I dropped the ball. I saw this description on Grantland that best encapsulates why Mad Men is so great, by Chuck Klosterman:-

"This, I think, is what makes Breaking Bad and (especially) Mad Men so vastly different: When nothing happens, nothing is lost. The quiet moments are better than the loud ones. There is subtext in everything - the language, the clothes, and even the semiotics (once, on a JetBlue flight, I watched an early episode of Mad Men without audio and was amazed by how much could be deduced, simply by the various characters' posture and where they happened to be around the office). A week in which nothing happens might still be the apex of an entire season."

You gotta love any show that doesn't rely on "events" happening to still be an intensely rewarding series.

2. Wreck It Ralph

Dropped the ball again. This comes up again later.

Top 5 Books that I've read in 2012

Again, this only covers books that I've read in 2012. This doesn't mean, necessarily, that the books were published in 2012.

5. Dream Team by Jack McCallum - A book about the 1992 USA Men's Olympic Basketball team, otherwise more commonly known as the Dream Team. It goes through, in good detail for any basketball fan, the events leading up to the Olympics, how the team was chosen, what went on during the Olympics, and a fantastic recap of the greatest basketball game ever played. If you like basketball, you will like this book.

4. The Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan - I wrote about it before here. A criminally underrated series vis-a-vis Harry Potter, Twilight, the Hunger Games and other such brand name book series. Good clean fun, well-written (doesn't abuse adverbs), quite funny and, at times, quite deep. Also, it does help with remembering or identifying the different Greek Gods.

3. Poor Economics by Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo - A wonderful book on the new in-thing in Development Economics - randomized control trials. Loads of magnificent insights, particularly ways in understanding just how similar the poor is to the rich and as such, why we are more likely to find televisions in the homes of the poor but not necessarily food. A must read for anyone interested in the field.

2. Justice: What is the Right Thing to Do by Michael Sandel - A brief survey of the various political philosophies across time. From Aristotle to Bentham to Locke to Kant to Hayek to Rawls, it provides an excellent way in thinking of different issues in today's world. A great reminder that economic reasoning shouldn't be the only perspective with which we view issues - values should be brought to the table as well. A really thought-provoking read, perfect for the layperson who wishes to learn some other ways of thinking about things.

1. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - My book of the year. It does a fantastic job in highlighting the various systematic biases that we, as members of the human, face when we think. Does brilliantly in describing the various biases to thinking that affect us, despite how rational we believe we are. I learned an immense deal from the book, and I'm looking to apply that to my own thinking, just to make sure that I correct for or, at the very least, take into account the possible biases that may be structurally biasing my thought process. If I were lord and emperor of the free world, I'd make everyone read this book.

Honorable Mention (because I'm still reading it): The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson - I'm only about 1/3s of the way through the book. It's essentially a description of how evolution and natural selection has shaped the homo sapiens species into becoming the dominant eusocial species on earth and how it, via its social abilities, came to take control of the world over the other animal species. Gives a better description than any I've found about the improbability of the homo sapiens species dominance, actually.

[Before the creationists rejoice, I should add that any scenario in which we could have ended up was just as improbable as the other. By virtue of events turning out, it just so happened we ended up this way. And that's why things seem so improbable - the likelihood of things turning out this way is minimal, BUT, the likelihood of things turning out another specific way is just as minimal. We just happened to turn out this way - it's difficult to imagine what would happen if events unfolded in other ways.]

My Top 5 Most-Played Songs of 2012

Again, the songs need not have been released in 2012. It's just simply the songs that got the most rotation on my playlist throughout the year. If you listen to them and appreciate the lyrics, I think you can notice a certain pattern to the type of songs that get a lot of air time on my playlist. But here we go:-

5. Thrice - A Song for Milly Michaelson

An oldie but goodie. Since I was introduced to it in 2008 or so by Zain, this song has become one of my top 5 favorite songs. The lyrics are really sweet and I'd venture it to be one of the best love songs there is.

Cool lyricism: Here we go, hold on tight and don't let go, I won't ever let you fall, I love the night - flying over these city lights, but I love you most of all.

4. Pavement - Spit on a Stranger

Also quite an old song. But it has great staying power. There's another version by Kathryn Williams that's more reflective, I suppose and some may enjoy it. But I think this is the best version. A generally introspective song.

Cool lyricism: I've been thinking long and hard about the things you said to me, and now I see the long, the short, the middle and what's in between.

3. The Explorer's Club - Forever

Taken from HIMYM. It's the scene where Marshall and Lily get back together in Season 2. HIMYM actually has quite a lot of brilliant songs on it's soundtrack. There's a track called "Rivers and Roads" by the Head and the Heart which should get an honorable mention but it just wasn't played enough. But it's good to give it a go. "Forever" is very sweet though - the vocals fit the song very well. They sound very innocent, hopeful and that sort of thing. A good short 2.5 minute track that tends to leave a feel-good notion.

Cool lyricsm: She's the kind of girl who's in my thoughts all night, and she's the kind of girls who makes your wrongs all right.

2. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

This is the type of song with which you can lock yourself up in a wooden cabin for a month and just contemplate, life, the universe and everything. Maybe the "forever ago" bit adds to the whole melancholia and nostalgia sensations that kind of pervade the song. It's very soulful. A great end of the year song. But I did listen to it throughout the year, in fairness. Also, bonus points for the name "Emma." The vocals are really haunting.

Cool lyricism: I toured the light, so many foreign roads, for Emma, forever ago.

1. Lupe Fiasco - The Show Goes On

Uses the hook from Modest Mouse's "Float On" to great effect. "The Show Goes On" is a terrific song for any occasion. If you're in a good mood and want to pump yourself up, play it. If you're down and you want a lift, play it. If you're bogged down with tonnes of crap, play it. It's a song that's sure to encourage. If you choose to listen to it, which you really should, take some time to appreciate the lyrics. I should add, though, that Lupe himself didn't particularly want to do this song, which does sadden me a little, but the song is still good. And he did add a bit of retribution in the lyrics to the producers. But anyway, give it a listen and try to go along with the lyrics.

Cool lyricism: So no matter what you've been through, no matter what you in to, no matter what you see when you look outside your window, brown grass or green grass, picket fence or barbed wire, never ever put them down, you just lift your arms higher. Raise 'em till your arms tired, let 'em know you there, that you struggling and surviving, that you gon' persevere.

Top 5 Movies I've Watched in 2012

To be clear, I know that I've rated some of these movies before in other posts. But after the benchmarking and the normalizing of the ratings, I cannot find myself agreeing with some of the ratings I made earlier. The Dark Knight Rises is not an 8.5, for example. Neither is Hugo an 8.8. I have adjusted these ratings. I must also note that I should watch The Dark Knight Rises again some time in the future, this time, with my expectations managed so that I can evaluate it as a movie on its own.

5. 21 Jump Street (8.0/10)

A movie in which Channing Tatum was more hilarious than Jonah Hill. Overall, a very funny movie - comedy of the year. I think it's the type of movie everyone can enjoy - it's not overly 'bro' like The Hangover, neither does it take itself too seriously that it becomes unintentional comedy like most Nicolas Cage movies.

T-3. The Cabin in the Woods (8.3/10)

A really smart take on the classic horror/slasher genre. Hell of a ride, great entertainment with loads of laughs. And, it has Amy Acker:-

Still my dream girl after all these years.

T-3. Wreck it Ralph (8.3/10)

As I mentioned earlier, I dropped the ball on this. I'm not even sure why. Maybe it wasn't on the IMDB releases list at end-2011. But in any case, a lot of nostalgia and familiarity with this one. Particularly poignant to you if you used to play a lot of old-school video games. But even if you didn't, the characters are easy to like and the story is easy to follow, and it will lead you to a good sense of satisfaction at the end. Very smartly-written and the graphics are great too.

2. Hugo (8.5/10)

I did say I reduced Hugo's ratings. But of course, not by that much. As I wrote before here, this was a really well-done adventure-imagination movie. I am quite the sucker for these types of movies, particularly if they're adventures by children and particularly if they go back in time to the mid 1900s etc. I mean, there's something really quite beautiful about a kid's adventures, I think. Maybe they hit the nail on the inner child's head in all of us. The world in which Huge was crafted to live in was rather magical (in the railway station), Chloe Moretz becomes more and more pwntastic each time she's on screen, and I do like that Hugo's own mini-life-goal was part of a bigger plan and bigger purpose for the movie. I strongly encourage you to watch the movie, you will like it.

1. The Hobbit (9.0/10)

Radagast the Brown!

I've already watched this movie thrice - 2D, 3D and 3D Imax. Just bloody go watch it.