Andy Gapin

The last time I posted about t-shirts, I mentioned that I had a second Doctor Who related shirt on the way, this one comes by way of TeeRaiders, but it’s not an exclusive design. I’ve been seeing this shirt show up around the internet on a number of different sites, but I’ve held back until now. I just couldn’t take it anymore, it’s too awesome. Not only does it combine one of my favorite movies, Scott Pilgrim v. The World, with one of my favorite TV shows, but it also features Martha Jones, who happens to be one of my favorite companions. She doesn’t get nearly enough love.

The second shirt comes from RIPT Apparel and is called “Doctorama.” This shirt isn’t specifically a Doctor Who shirt, but it does feature four of the doctors along with a mess of other famous pop culture doctors. It’s pretty great and the best part is that they are all presented as Futurama-styled heads-in-a-jar. The only thing I don’t like about the shirt is Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. I could do without him.

2009 was a pretty fucking awesome year! Seriously. I’ll probably make another post about the rest, but there were some amazing movies and some great records that came out.

Top 10 Albums

A lot of people are making lists for the decade, but I decided that I just couldn’t do that. It was too difficult of a task. So I stuck with just doing a top 10 favorite records for the year. In previous years, I’ve done bigger lists, but I’m keeping it small this year. And, as usual, this is a list of my favorite records, kind of like a personal playlist, rather than ones that I would say are the best.

Anyway, the list is below and I’ll also be counting this list  on The Playlist with The Reverend on 90.3 The Core tonight at 9pm! Make sure to tune in. I’ll be playing one song from each album.

1. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone – Anti
2. Frank Turner – Poetry Of The Deed – Epitaph
3. The Lawrence Arms – Buttsweat And Tears – Fat Wreck Chords
4. M. Ward – Hold Time – Merge
5. Coconut Records – Davy – Young Baby Records
6. Monsters of Folk – Monsters Of Folk – Shangri-La
7. Dear Landlord – Dream Homes – No Idea
8. Conor Oberst And the Mystic Valley Band – Outer South – Merge
9. NOFX – Frisbee/Coaster – Fat Wreck Chords
10. Future Of The Left – Travels with Myself and Another – 4AD

And besides those, there are a few honorable mentions:

• Cheap Girls – My Roaring 20s
• Sonic Youth – The Eternal
• The Decemberists – The Hazards Of Love
• Mason Jennings – Blood Of Man
• Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
• Andrew Bird – Noble Beast
• Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
• Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career

You know, I almost wanted to put Lady GaGa on that list somewhere. I think I’ve spent some serious time in the second half of this year discovering a love for her. I never would have thought that I’d think so highly of her, but she’s pretty friggin’ awesome. However, I just can’t say that The Fame Monster was that great overall. It’s good for a few really great songs, but there’s also a lot of filler. Oh well.

And 2010 is already looking like it’s going to be a great year with new records by Murder By Death, Minus The Bear, Against Me!, Spoon, She And Him, and more already announced. I can’t wait!

Top 10 Movies

I actually had a much harder time making my list of top 10 movies for the year. There were a TON of good flicks this year and there were so many that I just didn’t have time to see either! Ultimately, these were my favorites:

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Star Trek
3. Up
4. The Hangover
5. Dead Snow
6. Zombieland
7. District 9
8. Paranormal Activity
9. Fantastic Mr. Fox
10. Coraline

And of course, some honorable mentions:

• Whip It
• (500) Days Of Summer
• Watchmen
• Last House On The Left
• Whatever Works
• The Wrestler

So there you have it, my favorite albums and movies of the year. I’m hoping to post another entry about other things from 2009 if I get a chance over the next week. But until then, don’t forget that I’ll be counting down that top 10 albums list tonight on The Playlist with The Reverend on 90.3 The Core!

I’m not a Star Trek fan. Never was. I tried watching it as a kid, but never really got into it. Yet, the previews for this iteration sold the hell out of it for me. I got really excited for it. And all of the positive reviews for it didn’t hurt either.

So I saw this last night…

Blown. The. Fuck. Away.

Literally everything about this film was absolutely stellar. I can’t speak for Star Trek fans, but it felt like there was something for everyone here. J.J. Abrams did a great job of making the franchise really accessible to the rest of us. I guess this was helped by the fact that he was never a Trekkie himself. In fact, apparently, he hadn’t even seen the previous Star Trek movies? This works in our favor.

There was action all over the place and things moved very fast with plenty of comic relief. A lot of ground was covered really quickly without skipping out on the important things or getting confusing. There was no real prior knowledge of the series necessary. And the few parts that got a little confusing were explained and cleared up literally seconds later. I think it’s rare that a movie can pull off messing around with time travel and black holes without getting too confusing or convoluted, but there was no issue here. This alone is impressive.

It’s not often that I say this about movies that are over two hours long, but when the credits started to roll, I sat there and thought to myself how easily I could sit there and watch two more hours. I think this may have to do with how fast things moved, but it didn’t feel like two hours at all. I wanted more.

The casting was absolutely great. I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Syler–sorry, Zachary Quinto–was amazing as Spock. And while it seems like he’s really only good playing a serious role, it’s nice to see that he can do something different than Syler very well. Chris Pine as Kirk pulled off the badassness and arrogance flawlessly. Very impressive. I would have liked to have seen more Simon Pegg, since I love everything he does, but I think any more of him may have actually been overkill.

For someone that isn’t a Star Trek fan, it was awesome to have all stereotypical Star Trek catch phrases covered. They did feel slightly forced, but I’m kind of glad they were there.

I don’t even know what else to say. Go see it.

Rating: A+