My Favorites of '09

Happy new year! Like every year I always like to review my favorites. Above are my favorite movies for the year. Star Trek was my most enjoyable movie of the year even though I'm not a trekkie. Best balance of sci-fi, drama, action, comedy, and every other element that makes a great movie. The cinematography was awesome too. I love the shots inside of the deck. I just saw Avatar just a week ago after hearing all the hype about the movie. I really didn't expect much from it when I saw the trailers and even saw Ben Stiller promoting it on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien even though he had nothing to do with the movie. Hilarious segment on the show by the way. Try Youtube'ing it sometime. I think I might watch it again in IMAX 3-D since I just watched it in normal 3-D the first time. The story was pretty Pocahontas predictable, but despite that everything else was great. My favorite scenes are those in the forest at night. I wish we had real plantlife like all those old fiber optic decorations from the 60's and 70's. Up! was by far my favorite Pixar movie so far, but that's what I always say after seeing a new one. My favorite thing about this movie was that it was whimsical and reminded me of a Hiyao Miyazaki movie. If you haven't seen any of these, watch them!

Music is an necessity in my life that I must have a dose of everyday. This year I must confess there weren't many albums that caught my interest. Only a few have. New Found Glory's Not Without A Fight made it on my list not just because they're my favorite band and that I am biased to them, but this album brought back their pop punk style that first got them on the radar. Lady Gaga. It took me 2 years for her to grow onto me, but now I could say that she is brilliant. Some of her songs remind me of ABBA, Ace of Base, Madonna, and Gwen Stefani. Her Grace Jones style is pretty intense and I think that is what caught my attention. Only when I saw her music video Paparazzi, did I start liking her. Once I saw Bad Romance, I fell in love. If you pay close attention to her videos, not only does she keep to a theme, but she also brings back a couple of things from her old videos, like those 2 dogs, a lightning bolt, a yellow watch, and the disco ball, just to name a few. Raditude by Weezer was also an album that has the catchy tunes that keeps Weezer one of my favorite bands. Kind of weirded out by that song with Lil' Wayne though. Everyone always say I'm weird for watching One Tree Hill. I think it's a great show that depicts characters following their dreams and overcoming obstacles whenever they are in front of them. Not only is it written well but they always have a great soundtrack to each episode. They even have each episode titled after the name of a song. Well, they featured Wild Young Hearts for the theme of one of the episodes. It compelled me to buy their album right after the episode. I love how they bring back the style of The Supremes but mix it with the pop alternative style of today's music.

Geez! This is too much for my first blog! I promise that my other posts will be much shorter!