Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2012

Now it's time to wrap up this year with my Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2012! 2012 has been an AWESOME year for movies, in my opinion, but unfortunately I missed a lot of the big name films this year - The Dark Knight Rises, The Cabin in the Woods, Prometheus, Brave, Magic Mike, Argo, Seven Psychopaths, The Master, I COULD GO ON. Suffice it to say, this list is by no means a "Best of 2012" list. It's just my favorite movies that I saw. Also, it's not entirely my fault that I missed those movie. It's been a big year for me! I did graduate from high school and start going to college, after all. I'm still going to try to see as many Oscar nominees as I can before the Oscars, so I can let you guys know my guesses and things.

Anyway, let's kick off the list by looking at some runners-up. Here are the five Honorable Mentions who just missed the cut:

1. The Secret World of Arrietty
2. Lola Versus
3. Your Sister's Sister
4. Wreck-It Ralph
5. The Avengers

Now, here are my Top Ten Favorite Movies of 2012!  If I've written a review of the movie already, I'm just going to link to that because I... am really lazy.  But I will write out a little mini review of any movies I saw before I started this blog.

Special Post-Christmas Something Great Sunday!

Hey everyone! I know I'm interrupting the end-of-the-year lists for this Something Great Sunday, but fret not, as they will resume - and end - tomorrow! For now, I want to do a special edition of SGS and let you guys all know all of the great media that I got for Christmas! Yes, this is fairly brag-y, but I'm really excited and I want to share it all with you.

Top Ten Favorite Songs of 2012

Alright everybody, part 2 of my end-of-the-year lists! My Top Ten Favorite Songs of 2012 are as follows:

Top Five Favorite Albums of 2012

Alright guys, do you know what my favorite thing in the WHOLE WORLD is? End of the year lists!!! I love them soooooo much, and now that I have this blog, I'm going to be putting together 3 lists: My top albums, songs, and movies of 2012! So, without further ado, let's kick this off with my Top Five Albums of 2012!

First, let's look at the runners-up for my Top Five Albums of 2012. These are albums I really really liked, but not as much as some other albums! They're all excellent and I highly suggest you listen to them.

Runners-Up:
- 151a by Kishi Bashi
- Banga by Patti Smith
- Bloom by Beach House
- The Bloom and the Blight by Two Gallants
- The Carpenter by The Avett Brothers
- Electra Heart by Marina and the Diamonds
- Forever EP by Haim
- Fragrant World by Yeasayer
- The Heist by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
- Here by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
- The Lion's Roar by First Aid Kit
- The Lumineers by The Lumineers
- The Paradise EP by Lana Del Rey
- Sun by Cat Power
- Tell The Right Story by Harriet
- What We Saw from the Cheap Seats by Regina Spektor

And now, the Top 5!

Protaggin' It Up

Say hello to Shakti Nüwa! She's the protagonist of my comic. I'm still writing, still making sure I can get it off the ground, but it's definitely happening.

Shakti is a 20-year-old girl who is walking across the US and hunting ghosts. She's half-Chineses, half-Indian, and she's in love with Eshu, aka Death himself (at least an incarnation of Death, anyway). She loves kids and fast food and hates nosy people and doing laundry. She used to be a runner in high school. She's pretty cool.

I drew this so please don't use it without my permission! Thnx

Something Great Sunday 12-23-12

Yes, yes, I know I missed a week of Something Great Sunday. I'm not going to apologize, though, because no one really reads this blog anyway! Let's begin.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review

Alright, nerd confession: I'm not, like, a huge fan of Lord of the Rings. I've only seen The Fellowship of the Ring, and bits and pieces of the other two films when they're on TNT, and I've never read any of the books. I have, however, read The Hobbit (well, almost all of it), so I was actually pretty excited to see it! Yesterday, me and Kitty headed down to the movie theater to catch a (nearly three-hour long) matinee, and I loved it!

Spoilers, precious.

Paradise Review

Source

In case anyone thought it might not be the case after this album, know that I am still 100% a Lana fan. I actually don't know what would make you think that at all, because this album is wonderful! I was honestly terribly nervous about it, because I loved Born to Die so much and everyone knows how easy it is to be disappointed by follow-ups when you love their predecessors so very much. It was quite a relief to listen to this album and immediately be swept away to Lana Land with the opening track and single, "Ride," which is utterly fabulous. It sets the tone for the whole album: cinematic, restless, and intimate - much more so than BtD, which, after hearing this album, almost feels like Lana wasn't ready to let us into her head completely - or maybe she wasn't ready to go there.

Anyway, "Ride." I can't wait for the summer, so I can put it on my annual summer playlist. It evokes the feeling of being on the road, and makes me think of Spirit: The Stallion of the Cimarron, which, if you were an eight-year-old girl in 2002, I'm SURE you will remember. I especially love the line "I'm tired of feeling like I'm fucking crazy," because I think we've all been there before.  Some other stand-out songs are: "Cola (Pussy)," which draws you right in with its spectacularly absurd opening line (WHICH I LOVE) and keeps you there with its sexiness and with Lana's vocal harmonies and falsetto bits; "Body Electric," which ascribes paternity to both Elvis and Whitman and which totally makes sense in doing so - it's dark and suspenseful and has GREAT drums and a totally bad-ass guitar; "Blue Velvet," which I haven't ben able to stop singing since I first heard it in that H&M commercial (not to mention, I'm a sucker for Lynch-ian influences); and "Yayo," which is so simple and beautiful, and breaks your heart every time you hear Lana sing "Let me put on a show for you, daddy."

It's not a perfect album, of course. I like "American," especially the tagline "Be young, be dope, be proud," and how easy it is to get into and sing along to, but it's pretty forgettable overall.  "Gods & Monsters" is alright, and definitely gets better after the opening. I love that Lana vocalizes her own sexual desire, and I can't help but sing along to "Fuck yeah, give it to me," but the constant references to Jim Morrison worry me A LOT. If Lana Del Rey joins the 27 Club, I will be inconsolable, I can tell you that much.  And "Bel Air" is a pretty song, and I like how it makes me think of a soap opera that takes place in a castle, but it's just not for me. Personal preference. Still, Paradise is definitely a winner, and I'm crossing my fingers that Lana wasn't serious about not writing another album, because I am totally and irrevocably in love with her and I don't know what I'm going to do with myself without any more music from Lana Del Rey! I COULD DIE, IN ALL HONESTY.  However, her plans to start writing movies are pretty exciting for me, so maybe I could forgive her one day.  Maybe.

My rating: 8/10

Bleh

Okay, sorry I haven't really been making any posts this week. I've been working on my special end-of-the-year blog entries, and it's finals week, so I haven't exactly taken in any new media. My last final is tomorrow, however, and then I'm off for a month, so I should be able to absorb lots and lots of new movies/TV/music/books, so fret not! Also, since I haven't taken in anything, I'm not going to be able to do a Something Good Sunday, but I would like to say that the Star Trek Into Darkness teaser trailer came out and I was REALLY EXCITED about it! And also I watched the first episode of American Horror Story and... I am definitely going to have to make a post about THAT show at some point! Pretty much the weirdest thing I've ever watched.

Alright, thanks for reading and stay tuned for some reviews in the next few weeks!

NEW WEEKLY THING: Something Great Sunday

Okay so, every Sunday I'm going to make a list of my favorite pop culture/media things from the previous week. It's going to be called Something Great Sunday and it's only going to be a list of 10 things that are GREAT. So, without further ado...