Best of the Year: Music

Boy oh boy, I am definitely going to use up my street cred here, and my homies are gonna be none to happy. My top pick for album of the year in 2008 is:



Yep, that's right. In the old days I would have said that Panic at the Disco's Pretty.Odd. was in my cd changer all year long. Let's just say that in 2008 it had the heaviest rotation on my various music devices. This was the year that I discovered The Ting Tings and Vampire Weekend (more on them in a moment), both with great debut albums. Architecture in Helsinki and Of Montreal were also new discoveries for me, and new albums from Tracy Chapman, David Byrne and Brian Eno, and the ever-fabulous Grace Jones also rocked my world.

But Panic was there all along as new albums came and went during the year. Pretty.Odd. is a mature second album. It's not cutesy like their debut effort. In all honesty, I thought of Panic as a group with music potential that made interesting videos. The new album confirms that. The album incorporates a huge range of musical influences in very creative and meaningful ways. It's engaging from start to finish, with the first two singles actually among the weaker contributions.

"When the Day Met the Night" was easily the most played song on my iPod. "Northern Downpour" is also terrific. I liked it over the summer. Pretty.Odd. was, indeed, the soundtrack to my summer. But by fall, I was loving it.

And so, my friends, think of this as a questionable choice, but appreciate my integrity. And most of all, give Pretty.Odd. an openminded listen. It's a great album.

And now back to Vampire Weekend. Their album was the first one I purchased in 2008, and it was a stunning debut. The group was all over the place in their debut year. A Saturday Night Live appearance was terrific and later efforts "Ottoman" and "Everywhere" (yes, that Everywhere) were also fine.



The album is well-written, well-produced, engaging, intriguing, witty and good good fun. And if that's not enough, I'm guessing this is the first group to ever sing about the Oxford comma. Vampire Weekend is another album well worth your time and worthy of that slot right up there with Panic at the Disco.

Best of the Year: TV

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know this was my pick last year. Both as a cancellation prize and a nod to the fact that Pushing Daisies was even better this year, it's my pick again. DVR be damned, it was the only television program I scheduled around. Bryan Fuller created a vibrant, colorful, quirky world populated with wonderful characters and engaging stories.

The cast of Pushing Daisies brings such warmth and depth to their characters. Lee Pace and Anna Friel continued to do standout work. And Kristen Chenoweth, who tended to annoy me at times last season (though I've always been hopelessly devoted to her), became the most compelling character at the Pie Hole. I will miss this show after its final three episodes air later this month. It shows the heights to which network television can soar.

But wait there's more....

In this year of extraordinary politics, we can forget the terrific work of MSNBC and particularly Rachel Maddow. Maddow was fantastic as a frequent guest and sub for Keith Olberman, but she came into her own as the host of the The Rachel Maddow Show. She is thoughtful, pointed and so, so bright.

But wait there's even more....

The Closer was very strong this year, as was Season 2 of Torchwood. Among the late arrivals, Fringe has been good, but I'm expecting more. Leverage has caught my interest, as well.

Best of the Year: The Web

This was the year I said goodbye to a number of sites that became so advertising laden they took forever to load on my browser. But that's the worst of the web, isn't it?

I'm not sure why the best of everything is coming in twos this year, but today is another twofer. And the award for the best of the year in World Wide Web activity goes to Lifehacker and Andrew's Blog.

I've been a casual visitor to Lifehacker for sometime. But 2008 was the year it topped my rss reader. Perhaps I became afraid that without checking it everyday I'd be overwhelmed by the number of posts. No, that's not it. What I discovered was that there is something useful every single day, and I don't want to miss it!

Lifehacker bills itself as "tips and downloads for getting things done." That's about as dead-on a description as I can provide. While technology is a major factor in what Lifehacker provides--and this is a particularly Mac-friendly site--the information goes well beyond the technical. The site is filled with information on do-it-yourself projects, on how-to's. The information on computers is also amazingly useful.

In this year, I downloaded a free program to protect my passwords and private information, learned what supplies needed to go into a basic cleaning kit, how to repurpose my old iPod, essential and discounted apps for my iPhone and so much more. Lifehacker became the essential site for finding cool things that would help me out and would make me cool because I would share them.

And now for something completely different....

Something is happening in the University of Michigan's Musical Theater program. The MT program has a fine reputation and has produced some of our finest actors working in New York. Lately, some of the more recent grads from the program have taken things to the Web. Besides a few random videos I came across on YouTube, my first in-depth contact was with the fantastic Web series The Battery's Down, the musical story of a struggling actor in New York. You can see all of season one's episodes online, and season two starts March 1, 2009.

One of the Battery's Down regulars is Andrew Keenan-Bolger, a UMich graduate with long career for a 23 year old. He was Jojo in Seussical, along with a bunch of other New York credits prior to his UMich days. He's currently in The Grinch in its Boston engagement. Keenan-Bolger maintains Andrew's Blog, a compelling video blog that provides an intimate look into the life of a young musical theater actor.



Andrew's Blog is part video blog, part performance art, part performance capture, lots of camp and a whole lot of fun. Keenan-Bolger is charismatic and open. His vlog is a little offbeat, which makes it more interesting. I love the fact that you're never sure whether it's Andrew Keenan-Bolger or Andrew Keenan-Bolger playing the role of Andrew Keenan-Bolger. Here's a sample of Andrew's Blog from his visit to Rosie's Cruise last April.



Keenan-Bolger has a well-defined web presence. From the inspired URL of his blog: http://keenanblogger.blogspot.com/ to his creative, if a little busy, MySpace page and the UMichMT YouTube Channel, Keenan-Bolger is fearless in getting his life onto the Web.

For a well-rounded virtual life, Keenan-Bolger provides a varied presence rich in both content and form. And for that, he gets my vote for the best of the year.

Best of the Year: Theater

My opportunities to see theater this year were a bit more limited than in other years. Still, I'm not disappointed. I had the opportunity to see stirring revivals, like Sunday in the Park with George, Equus and Gypsy, and big, new productions, like Billy Elliot and In the Heights. This was the year I finally got to see Blue Man Group, Laurie Anderson (Homeland) and Groovelily, longstanding gaps in my theatergoing education.

But this was mostly the year that I was reminded of the extraordinary power of theater to change your existance--and it happened not once but twice. There are those extraordinarily rare moments sitting in the theater where the audience becomes so engaged, so riveted, that people collectively forget to breathe. If I have two of those moments in a decade, it makes all the bad theater worth it. To have two such moments in a year is nothing short of thrilling, as both of these plays were. So, the best of the year in theater in 2008 is an unbreakable tie: August: Osage County and Passing Strange.

Traci Letts' drama topped most people's 2007 list and won five Tony Awards. My chance to see it came shortly after many in the Steppenwolf cast departed and Estelle Parsons stepped into the lead role of Violet Weston. Parsons gives an incredible performance, and she's a standout among a cast of incredible performances. But the true accomplishment is Letts beautiful words. Nearly four hours and not a single word is wasted. Every moment is raw and honest. And every person who sees the show leaves somehow different.

I hadn't expected to have a best play and a best musical, but that's how it turns out in 2008. Passing Strange was stunning in so many ways. I've rarely had such an intellectual night at a musical, with discussions of identity and race put to a rocking score. Daniel Breaker as Youth and Stew as, well, Stew were flawed, engaging human beings searching for meaning. The music was fantastic.

Passing Strange operates on a variety of levels. On one level it is the simple story of a boy and him mom. But it is also a profound meditation on the middle class African-American experience. It's an exploration of art and life--and which is, in fact, more real.

But what strikes me as most important about Passing Strange and a significant reason to lament its premature demise is the audience it attracted. This was the most age and racially diverse audience I've ever had the honor to sit in.

Passing Strange had the wonderful misfortune to be so complex and so finely integrated that it couldn't be marketed. Nothing I've seen--the commercials, the appearances on The View or The Tony Awards, the cast recording--did justice to the show. Had I not seen the show, none of these things would have attracted me to it.

Spike Lee's documentation of the final weekend of performances plays at Sundance next month. Will it finally do justice to the show that played the Belasco? I can only hope. But short of that, it will certainly provide a triptych to one of the most thrilling theatrical pieces in my lifetime.

Best of the Year: Film

As we move into the last weeks of January it is time to finally settle on the best film of 2007-plus. I've seen some excellent 2007 films in 2008, though I suspect there are a few more to come this way. And the winner is...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Two masters come together to make the year's most potent film. Sweeney is the film that should get the critical response people are heaping on Atonement. It's the amazing blend of story, art direction, musical direction all on a grand scale. Just much, much darker. Director Tim Burton takes the already amazing work by Stephen Sondheim and adds his deft touch. And the result is a new Sweeney Todd, different than its other almost perfect incarnations, but also almost perfect nonetheless.

The film is different in large part because Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter bring new, darker interpretations to the roles of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. The supporting cast, especially Alan Rickman, is strong. I've commented before on how the age-appropriate casting makes the film even more unsettling, something I see as a great strength of the film and a great achievement as well.

And now, on to 2008.

Best of the Year: Film (Part 1)

Living out here in the boonies, the choice for best film of the year always poses some perplexing issues. Our film selection is generally limited and the films that do get here take weeks, if not months. Last year, I waited a couple of weeks after the new year to choose my top films. So, I had a chance to see Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth before making my choices. Children of Men was easily my top film last year.

So, this year we have yet to see I'm Not There or There Will Be Blood. Of the top ten films on Modern Fabulousity, for example, five have yet to arrive within an hour of here. No Country for Old Men opened this week, as did Juno. My reviews of those two films will be posted in the next couple of days.

I've decided to wait one more week to post my best film entry. Rumor has it we'll be getting a few new films this week that have made it to a number of 10-best lists. In the meantime, I'll be posting my reviews of the films I have seen over the last week and a half. Stay tuned

Best of the Year: Internet

Sure, I could divide the Internet into its various components. Recognition for the best commercial site, the best social networking site, the best news site, the best queer site. But that would take a heck of a lot of time and totally misrepresent the fact that there is only one place I go every day without fail: Modern Fabulousity. ModFab has great taste, solid reviews, keen insight. And it's all mixed in with a whole lot of fun and hotness.

We might disagree on a thing or two. He owes me $35 for Fuerzabruta (I was only fifty percent of the way there with him) and I had no doubt that Sweeney Todd (the Tim Burton version) was going to blow me away. And I still can't figure out how he doesn't get Pushing Daisies. But ModFab is a blast to read. It connects me to some of the best music on the web and to some other great writers on the web. And he's a proud, stand-up-and-count-me gay man. That makes him a great role model, too.

Gotta give a special shoutout to Blue Hampshire. Being new to the whole New Hampshire thing, no site has done a better job of keeping me informed about the candidates and my new home state.

Best of the Year: Live and on Stage

This was a tough and simple category. Should I choose something I saw and admired in 2007 or should I choose something that actually opened in 2007? Going in the latter direction, it occurred to me that I would never get the chance to select Spring Awakening as my pick of the year. So, the live performance I rank as number one this year is, indeed, Spring Awakening. It's a fresh show dealing with difficult themes. It contributes to the development of music theater by introducing new forms.

The cast is exuberant with John Gallagher (who departed last week) and Jonathan Groff (who just extended six months) as standouts. But the creative team gets the biggest nod here. The book, music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater are simply fantastic, and the package is amazingly well crafted by Michael Mayer. Bill T. Jones (choreography) and Kim Grigsby (musical direction) put their own stamps on the evening, as well.

I do my homework before I go to the theater. It's too frikkin expensive not to. The result is that I'm rarely surprised. I don't avoid spoilers, so heading into Spring Awakening, I knew a lot about the surprises in store. And still I was surprised. The show is so rich, so well done, so engaging that the chatter on the web can't reveal everything. That's masterful!

And if I had limited my choices to those that opened in 2007? Coram Boy. Another compelling night at the theater.

This year I saw perhaps the fewest live performances in the last two decades. But there were a few things that deserve honorable mention: Sweeney Todd demonstrated that there was still much to be mined in the John Doyle production. Judy Kaye was as good and as different from LuPone as possible. Iceland Dance completed its first American tour. The dances weren't always successful, but they could only have come out of Iceland. And Annie Lennox provided a thrilling evening at Symphony Hall in Boston.

Best of the Year: Television

No television program has brought more joy into our household than Pushing Daisies. Each week as many as 15 of us get together to watch Ned the Piemaker and his cohort of odd and endearing characters solve murders. But the murder mystery angle of the show is not what keeps us coming back each week. It's the fairy tale. Ned can bring people back to life by touching them, but if he touches them again they die forever. In the "Pie-lette" episode, Ned brings Chuck, the now grownup girl who gave him his first kiss when he was 10, back to life after her murder on a cruise ship. (By the way, if Ned doesn't touch the person he's brought back within 60 seconds someone else will die so the universe can right itself.) And so, Ned and Chuck are hopelessly in love and hopelessly unable to touch. The thought of it makes me weep, even as I type this.

There is much joy to be found in Pushing Daisies. The characters all care deeply about each other. They are a family, even though Chuck's aunts (the totally amazing, reason enough to watch the show Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene) don't know she's alive. Olive Snook (the totally amazing, reason enough to watch the show Kristin Chenoweth) makes that connection, even as she tries to figure out Chuck's story and even as she pines away for the piemaker herself. And just when things are on the verge of sickly sweet, Chi McBride reminds us how surreal this whole thing is.

Pushing Daisies is a package, though. It's success is also due to incredible writing that is unlike anything else on the air. The narration is beautiful and moving, due in large part to the work of Jim Dale as the narrator. The colors are as surreal as the premise, so vibrant they cannot be found in nature. All of this is conducted under the sure baton on maestro Bryan Fuller, who creates a symphony of color and sound that moves the heart.

And what of Ned the Piemaker and Chuck? Lee Pace is perfect and Anna Friel has arrived at perfection over the first several episodes. It's hard to imagine the show working without either of these two, but it is Pace who stands out. Every smirk, every gesture, every line reading gets us closer to the experiencing the bittersweet world of Pushing Daisies.

OH YEAH! With that whole writers' strike going on, what are we to do for our PD fix? Run, don't walk, to get your hands on Wonderfalls, Fuller's 2004 Fox series that begat this year's favorite. It may just be the best show in the history of television.

Honorable mentions this year go to Ugly Betty, which is having a stellar sophomore season, The Closer, which has gotten better each season, and Damages, which was so drawn out it was painful to watch, but which was totally addictive thanks in large part to the work of Glenn Close.

Best of the Year: Music

So there's still one week left in the year, but no album has come close to The New Pornographer's Challengers as my choice for the best album of the year. Not a single track on the album misses, and the cumulative effect is an album of great wit, great insight and just plain great music. Carl Newman and company have released their best album to date. Nico Case shines as usual.

It's been years since I've given a specific album to people as a holiday gift. This year, quite a few people on my list got Challengers in their stockings. Four months after its release, the album still has a prized spot in my iPod. It should on yours, too.

Honorable mentions for the year go to Annie Lennox's Songs of Mass Destruction, Mika's Life in Cartoon Motion, Rufus Wainwright's Release the Stars, and the studio cast recording of Bare.