On second thought, don't answer that. No really, don't. I thought I was being so funny but can't figure out how to get the html to embed properly so it's only a jpeg.
Anywho….first-ish here is the music – new or old – that was part of my 2011..and a place to listen to them too (click here)
Artists who had new 2011 albums that I expected more from but still had a couple great songs
- Mike Doughty – “Holiday” and “Na Na Nothing”
- Jonathan Coulton – Nemeses and “Want You Gone”
- Lil Wayne – “She Will” and “Blunt Blowin’”
- Kid Cudi – “Erase Me”
- Jay Z/Kanye West “Otis”….Plus I rediscovered “Paranoid” from 808s and Heartbreak
- Blink 182 – “After Midnight” – love the slightly wistful vocals over slightly uplifting guitars and inventive beat
Best cover (series) – AV Undercover – each season, bands come in and choose to cover a song from a list, which gets narrowed down as the season progresses. One of the best was Matt Nathanson covers "Little Red Corvette" by Prince
This year’s Mmmbop Guilty Pleasure award actually is a three way tie
- Katy Perry – “Firework”
- Pink – “Raise Your Glass”
- Rihanna – “What’s My Name?”
This
Here’s the Top 10…
10) Drake - Take Care – especially “Headlines”. Such a lonely record. I read somewhere that if Hip Hop had emo, this would be what it sounds like.
9) J. Roddy Walston and the Business- “Don’t Break the Needle” – Raw single. Lipshultz likes
8) My kids’ obsession with the Beatles. ….though I’m not sure I can hear Becca play “Let it Be” one more time on the piano without going It’s a Wonderful Life Jimmy Stewart on her.
7) Jason Aldean - “My Kinda Party” – Yes it’s very twangy but almost alt-country. I don’t really like the other stuff he does though.
6) Apollo Run – “Charlie Sheen’s Got Tiger Blood” – I love this group but almost didn’t listen to the song as I thought – especially with that title - it was just another on the ‘lets make fun of Charlie Sheen’ parade. Now I can’t stop singing it and Freddie Mercury probably wishes he had the same muse.
5) CeeLo at the Grammys - So original that I will pretend that Gwynneth Paltrow part was somehow meant to be a hallucination.
4) Foo Fighters – Wasting Light especially “One of These Days”, “Walk” and “Rope”
3) We Are Augustines – Rise Ye Sunken Ships. This band definitely wowed me. Check out “Chapel Song” and “Augustine”.
2) Two AMAZING songs, that I am years late to the party on. Must listens
Nizlopi “Helen”
Futureheads “Hounds of Love”
1) Nicki Minaj – Pink Friday. So consistent throughout the whole record.
Honorable Mention
- Lupe Fiasco- “Little Weapon”
- Mark Ronson – “Bang Bang Bang”
- Teenage Dirtbag – “Wheatus”
- T.I. Feat Eminem – “That’s All She Wrote”
- Ghostpoet - “Liiines” and “Survive It”
- Bricks + Mortar – “Heatstroke” http://www.brmr.net/ (Thanks Caleb!)
- Joshua Radin - “Today”
- Speechwriters LLC – “Anodyne”. Album title is cool too - “Bull Moose After Party”
- The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Stamp”
- Yellow Ostrich – “Whale”
- Childish gambino – “Freaks and Geeks”. Just getting into Camp now
- Shout out Louds – “Very Loud”
- Wild Light – “New Hampshire”
Eight of my favorite other bits of entertainment…
8) The Other Guys (Movie) – Has the feel of slightly less joke-a-minute Airplane. Can’t wait to watch it again.
7) Scott Pilgrim v. The World (movie)
6) Bob’s Burgers (TV) – I love the kid that yells nearly everything. Definitely grew on me.
5) The two books I read this year – Incendiary and A Visit From the Goon Squad
4) Modern Family (TV) – They’ve hit their stride
3) Damages (TV) season 1-3 NOT season 4. Anyone that loves thrillers should check this out. Plus every time I see the opening credits I get hyped up. If you watch this intro and don't want to see the show, I'm not sure we can remain on speaking terms
3) (tie)
- American Horror Story (TV) – Very, very whacked out and scary. Not for the faint of heart. Though I will say – without spoiling it – the last episode was horrible.
- Breaking Bad (TV) - This show has yet to let me down
2) The Muppets (movie)– I think I have a new favorite Muppet movie. Plus, Animal played with the Roots on Fallon, which was also very cool.
1) Harry Potter (book, movie, theme park, Halloween costumes) – In addition to going to the theme park (thanks Dad/Dar), we are now reading the series again with Pete. Zack and Becca stay in the room too to listen to it all again. Not only was it so cute that Becca wore Hermione outfit when we took her/Zack to see the final movie but now Pete breaks out his Harry Potter broom to fly around whenever we read about Quidditch.
Before moving on to other entertainment, a more somber note.
2011 was a tough for family health. My mother heroically battled breast cancer, but is doing well now so fingers remain crossed. Wendy’s Uncle Bob ended his inspiring two-year fight with pancreatic cancer. I was especially impressed with his insistence on taking his first a trip to Vegas -- even though he broke his hip in the process it was symbolic of a great fight to live life regardless. Also, we lost my 97-year-old grandfather who was an incredibly important part of my life. This blog does go out to quite a large distro and many of you didn’t have the privilege of meeting him, but I wrote a bit here.
Ahem. Well, things weren’t all bad in 2011....
Pete has discovered that the both word “Balls” and “Nuts” are funny. Wendy: “Zack? Pete? have you got your balls for practice? Pete: “Tee Hee”
Par-tay - Thinking back to the beginning, of the year I was able to pull off a surprise party for Wendy’s 40th. I knew she’d love an 80’s party, though I do not really love the 80s. I can’t half-ass it, though and hired a band that did modern-rock versions of 80s hits, had an 80s video montage, and Wendy’s family and friends showed up all neon-ed out with big hair. Was a blast. Here's a vid of the band that sold me on hiring them - they made me like a Billy Ocean song...
My favorite presentation: Zack and his friend Alex’s PowerPoint project was elaborate and well thought out. Though my favorite part is where they pretended it was over and clicked to make a sound effect for fake applause which was heard behind Zack saying “Thank You Thank You”.
This also reminds me of my new favorite toy I nicked from one of the kids’ fast food meals. It’s a simple box with two buttons, one with a crowd yelling “yaaaay”, the other yelling “booo.” It makes everything funny.
My favorite New Edition of 2011: Ronnie, Bobbie, Ricky and Mike you have been replaced. These new additions are Steeler fans through and through. Paula + Malu (say their names together) – have stolen all of our hearts.
My favorite Elvis wedding – Our close friends Matt and Lori got remarried in front of Elvis when many of us went to Vegas to celebrate turning 40. As Matt and Lori were prepped to sing along with Elvis by the surprisingly straight-faced minister, Matt was given one word “Teddy Bear” to sing....to which Matt asked “Is that my safe word?”
Well helllooo ladies – I’m an uncle twice over! My sister had a very smiley daughter Amelia and Elvis-endorsed Lori just gave birth to Kaitlyn. (“Yaaaaay”)
15 minutes - The squeals of excitement coming from the kids and their Florida cousins as we watched a TV show where the Lipshultz clan were in the crowd. One of our faces would be on the screen for . 5 seconds and the room would erupt.
This one’s gone even longer than usual ("Boooo"), so I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes I saw this year
“Things turn out best for those that make the best of the way things turn out” – Jack Buck
Okay 2012, I'm ready for you. Bring it on ya bastard.
