Video Games

Pretty quiet on the gaming front for this year, especially after the console releases of past years. A couple of big games hit the market, as outlined below.

Winner: Grand Theft Auto IV
Runners Up:
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Wii Fit
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

Websites

There is really only one clear site that stood out from the rest of the pack this year for reasons I do not fully understand.

Winner: twitter.com
Runners Up:
wired.com
graphjam.com
processlibrary.com
smashingmagazine.com

TV

2008 saw the end of the WGA writers strike, after a number of awards shows were cancelled and seasons were cut in half. This year is no different, having only looked at upcoming TV shows. But by far the best news to come out this year was the axing of Big Brother. Now lets hope that Ten doesn’t replace the timeslot with some other shit. The bad news is that other good shows finished up as well, with the likes of Las Vegas and Boston Legal.

Winner: The Big Bang Theory
Runners Up:
Underbelly
Flight of the Conchords
Privileged
Mad Men
30 Rock

Worst for 08
The run down of what to avoid in 2008.

Music: Anything by Pink
Alright, we get that you want to be a man. Can you please get the operation and be done with it?

Movie: Disaster Movie
The whole series of these movies is just a complete joke. Even Vanessa Minnillo couldn’t save it. Its just a shit movie. Hey, now there’s an idea to parody these movies…

Website: N/A
Seeing as people have seen the light as to how shit myspace is and are no longer using it, its probably irrelevant to put it here for the 3rd year in a row. While at the time of writing, I have no website to replace it. If you do feel free to let me know in the comments.

TV: Gladiators (Excluding all reality TV and Current Affair/Today Tonight which is first by default)
I can’t believe they brought this back. They just couldn’t leave it alone could they. The original series was awesome, and the old Gladiators were experts at all the trash talk, Mike Whitney made a great ref and the show had a good run. Unfortunately this new series was way overdone, and all they ended up looking like were tools and douches. The new games were crap and the refs had no character. Very, very disappointing.

Let us recap the year that was in sport:

8 ) Indy driver Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first female to win an IndyCar race.

7) The Rugby League World Cup tournament culminates in New Zealand’s 34 – 20 win against Australia in the final at Suncorp Stadium before 50,599 spectators. This is the first win for New Zealand and is a major upset for the favourites Australia who have held onto the title for 33 years straight.

6) The Boston Celtics won their 17th NBA Championship by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the NBA Finals in what is the biggest rivalry in basketball. Paul Pierce was named Finals MVP. Worthy of a mention is Game 4, where the Celtics came from behind 24 points to beat the Lakers, the biggest comeback in Finals history.

5) Tiger Woods beats Rocco Mediate to win the U.S. Open. Woods originally was behind the leaders but faught his way back to the top and tied even par by the end of regulation. It then went down to an 18 hole playoff, which then continued to sudden death. This was Tiger Woods 65th PGA Tour win for his career and the 14th major championship of his career. Two days after winning The Open, Woods announced that he had been playing for at least 10 months with a torn ligament in his left knee and that he sustained a stress fraction in his left leg after the Masters.

4) The New York Giants upset the heavily favoured and previously unbeaten New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII, held in Glendale, Arizona at the University of Phoenix Stadium. Quarterback Eli Manning is awarded the Super Bowl MVP.

3) Lewis Hamilton, the first black driver in Formula 1 history, entered the final race with a comfortable seven point advantage over Brazil’s Felipe Massa. So even if Massa happened to win the São Paulo race, Hamilton would just have to finish fifth or better to clinch the championship. Massa led throughout, but Hamilton hung back comfortably in fifth, playing it safe. Then, with just five laps to go, it started raining, causing Hamilton and the other leaders to take a pit stop to get wet tires. Germany’s Timo Glock went for broke and did not pit, moving into fourth with two laps left, leaving Hamilton in sixth and out of title contention. But on the last lap, the Hamilton caught Glock at the final corner to finish fifth and claim the championship.

2) The Wimbledon final where Spain’s Rafael Nadal upset his arch rival, five-time defending tournament champ Roger Federer, in a five-set epic, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7. The match, which took 4 hours and 48 minutes to complete, featured three rain delays, a Federer comeback from two sets down, and an awe-inspiring fifth set that ended with two exhausted champions duelling in the dark (it ended at 9:16 p.m; fittingly this was the last year there were no lights on Centre Court). It was simultaneously gruelling, nerve-wracking and beautiful tennis, as Federer struck a 127 mph service winner to save the match in the fourth set tiebreaker, and Nadal chased down shot after impossible shot. When Federer hit his last shot into the net, a victorious Nadal fell flat on his back, as cameras flashed all around to get a snapshot of history. A few weeks later, Nadal replaced Federer as the top-ranked player in the world.

1) Of course the biggest event would have to go to the Olympic Games held in Beijing, China. The stand outs were:
Usain Bolt as he literally strolled over the line in the men’s 100m event while breaking the world record.
Stephanie Rice as she cleaned up in the pool for Australia by winning 3 gold medals.
Michael Phelps. 8 Gold Medals. 7 World Records. The fastest man in water. Period.

Memorable Moments

The Australian Open where Lleyton Hewitt beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the 3rd round qualifier in a marathon 5-set match which took almost 5 hours. The match ended at 4:33am local time after the match was delayed until just before midnight, making it the latest ever finish for an Australian Open match.

Spain wins the 2008 European Championships after 44 years. In the 33rd minute of the final against tournament favourite Germany, Spain’s Fernando Torres, who stars professionally for Liverpool in the English Premier League, jetted past a Germany defender and lifted the ball over sliding goaltender Jens Lehmann to give Spain a 1-0 lead, its first Euro title since 1964.

The 2008 NRL season culminates in the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles record-breaking 40 – 0 win against the Melbourne Storm in the grand final at ANZ Stadium before 80,388 spectators. Also, rugby league enters its 100th year in Australia and the team of the century is announced. On a sour note, Sonny Bill Williams abandons the sport, once again raising questions about the issue of elite players leaving the game.

The Hawthorn Hawks beat the Geelong Cats 115-89 in the AFL Grand Final at the MCG in front of a crowd of 100,012. The Cats only lost 1 game all season and were raging favourites to win, but couldn’t get by the Hawks in the biggest game of the season.

8 ) DVNO – Justice
After pulling in at number 1 last year, Justice have just scraped in with this brilliant video. They have basically put together all the logos from the 80′s into one clip in a masterful and crafty way. Go on, see how many of them you can recognise.

7) Time To Pretend – MGMT
It’s actually pretty rare to see such a good song backed up with a strong video clip, not with these guys however, their groovy tunes are matched by the unique and vivid imagery. You have to admire the use of blinding colour and the ability to cause epileptic seizures. All MGMT video clips are similar in that its like being high except, you know, without the drugs.

6) Heartless – Kanye West
One artist who never disappoints when it comes to this category. Its hard to decide which of his clips to include (refer to the Honourable Mentions). The notion of a cartoonised video clip is not new, but Kanye makes it his own with the deep channels of emotion he is feeling towards this girl. Plus it includes the Jetsons. Win.

5) Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) – Beyonce
Such a simple concept and yet so effective. This clip is the pinnacle of minimalism. The single shot, the black and white and having only herself and two other dancers on screen emphasis this motion. Not to mention the grace with which she dances leaves everyone mesmerised. My eyes are glued to the screen every time I watch this clip.

4) Who’s Gonna Save My Soul – Gnarls Barkley
Anyone familiar with Andy Samberg’s work will immediately recognise Jorma Taccone of the Lonely Planet (responsible for ‘Lazy Sunday’ and ‘Jizz In My Pants’). Along with that, Gnarls Barkley have always been pushing the music video frontier, so its no surprise to see them here. This tells of a story where a break up is currently in progress and the feelings are actually displayed in real life (rather graphically) which is what makes it so brilliant.

3) House of Cards – Radiohead
This video was placed here purely out of technological aspects rather that anything else. Apparently it was not recorded using video cameras, but instead using sonar technology, giving it that laser and mirrored effect. Props for thinking outside the box.

2) Pork and Beans – Weezer
Put together all the most popular videos on YouTube and an awesome song and you get this video. The time to recreate each and every one of these and the attention to detail is truly remarkable and makes it that much more funny.

Number one after the jump:

1) Toe Jam – The Brighton Port Authority feat Dizzee Rascal and David Byrne
Nudity, comedy and a cool song. We have a winner.

Honourable Mentions

Somethin Good ’08 – Utah Saints
Its amazing how something as simple as the running man can be so good, but the thing that sets this aside from the rest is the storyline and the last 30 seconds. Hilarious.

Shut Up and Let Me Go – The Ting Tings
Great video clip and the coordination is remarkable. Reminiscent of the White Stripes.

Flashing Lights – Kanye West feat Dwele
The first time I saw this I had the biggest WTF face. Half the song is missing! But over time I grew to love it and it makes sense once you understand the meaning of the song. Plus one has to wonder if Kanye also had all his ‘haters’ in mind as they would like to do what that chick did when she went on him Goodfellas style.

Good Morning – Kanye West
The clip tells a story of a bear who struggles to get to his graduation ceremony. The bear, who for all intensive purposes is Kanye West, overcomes these problems and eventually graduates in hip hop. It is very much symbolic as it is his last released track off the album Graduation, and it includes a DeLorean!

And then here we have the funniest of the year:

Jizz In My Pants – The Lonely Planet
Following from last year’s ‘Dick In A Box’ comes this year’s hit from Andy Samberg’s crew, The Lonely Planet. This song is absolutely hilarious and if it were released at the time I wrote this it would have easily been number 1. Just in case you were wondering, yes, Justin Timberlake is back, and also includes Molly Sims (Las Vegas) and Jamie-Lynn Sigler (The Sopranos).

Naughty Girl – Mr G
Using the success of the series of Summer Heights High, Mr G (Chris Lilley’s alter ego) launches this song into the market which is rather funny, especially to those who are fans of the show.

I’m Fucking Matt Damon – Sarah Silverman feat Matt Damon
I’m not quite sure how this became so popular but it is well and truly hilarious, and launched Sarah Silverman’s career so much so that she now has her very own TV show.

	8 ) 808s & Heartbreak – Kanye West I was tempted to leave this album off the list, as it is nowhere near his best, but the change in the tone of the album and the message it conveys is really strong and that alone gets it on here. For tracks that exhibit this refer to Heartless, RoboCop and Coldest Winter.
	7) Year of the Gentleman – Ne-Yo He is becoming a common sight on these lists, which is not surprising given the awesome tracks that he comes up with. From dance beats to love songs this album has it all.
	6) Intuition – Jamie Foxx A surprise entry this year, Mr Foxx’s album was quite solid compared to previous ones. Much like Ne-Yo, has plenty of the true R&B songs along with an occasional rap here and there. Highly recommended.
	5) Day & Age – The Killers Upon hearing this album for the first time I knew it belonged on here. I was genuinely shocked at how good it was given that their previous albums lacked that certain replay value. I think this album has it.
	4) Paper Trail – T.I. It’s good to see T.I. back to his best when he started heading downhill after the release of ‘King’. This is probably his best studio album to date, with many collaborations from other artists which is welcoming news.
	3) Oracular Spectacular – MGMT Well what can I say? This definitely is spectacular. I don’t know how long they’ve been a band but this has been their breakout year. The album is a great mix of unique, groovy music, which I can’t say for a lot of other music out there.
	2) Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends – Coldplay Going from the shortest album name (X&Y) to quite possibly the biggest, you just know the album is going to follow suit. Coldplay have seemingly done it again. This is one of those albums where you can’t listen to a single track or in shuffle, you must listen in order from start to finish.

I think you’ll all know what number one is…

1) Evolver – John Legend This was an extremely hard choice, and the top 2 were really, really close. So much so that I considered making it a tie, but I thought no, I must be decisive and my bias eventually won me over. Take nothing away from Evolver though, it is a super album which has both the harmonial piano ballads and the upbeat tunes that ‘Once Again’ lacked. Some may add that to its detriment, but I welcome the change.

Honourable Mentions

Disclaimer: I have listened to almost none of the following albums, but they seemed to appear on best lists everywhere so I have added them here. Having actually listened to them they might have even made it on my list.

Only By The Night – Kings of Leon
We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. – Jason Mraz
Lay It Down – Al Green
Tha Carter III – Lil’ Wayne
Death Magnetic – Metallica
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Dear Science – TV on the Radio

As per usual I’ll briefly cover the concerts of the year and not surprisingly the highest grossing acts were dominated by Madonna and Bruce Springsteen. Number one was the Spice Girls with their reunion concerts held at O2 Arena in London (US$33,829,250) followed closely (unfortunately) by Celine Dion with her string of concerts in Montreal (US$23,135,338).

As far as venues go, once again its not surprising to see Madison Square Garden make the most money, followed by O2 Arena in London. However, Acer Arena managed to make it on the list somehow coming in at #7 and is pretty much the only Australian standout statistic from the concert front.

Now on to what you have all been waiting for:

8 ) Love Lockdown – Kanye West
I first heard this song when he performed it at the MTV Video Music Awards and at the time was very confused. Turned out this was a small part of what was to come on his new album. A change of direction, giving the Autotune a good workout, turned out to be pretty good and is a direct result of recent events in his life (death of mother, broken up with fiancee) hence the sombre mood. However I do miss the great beats of past tracks which makes me feel a bit shortchanged. Mind you, still an awesome track, especially the use of a heartbeat as the base line.

7) I’m Yours – Jason Mraz
Mraz says to have wrote the song 7 years ago because he had some spare time on his hands. Some time after he performed it and it became popular so he had to record and release it. I’m glad he did.

6) Paper Planes – M.I.A.
At first I do admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of this song or M.I.A., but the steady beat and calm rap voice soon changed that.

5) Live Your Life – T.I. feat Rihanna
You got to love this song for its unique intro, impressive lyrics and killer hook. It’s almost ‘Touch The Sky’-ish, telling you that you can be anything, but its more a knock at rappers today who produce crap and get lots of money while doing it (refer to Dishonourable Mentions). This pretty much emphasises what everyone in the world is doing right now, because when it comes down to it, they are just living their life.

4) American Boy – Estelle feat Kanye West
I instantly fell in love with this song when I first heard it and continue to listen to it again and again. Estelle and West’s rap complement each other really well along with the hook. After being surprised at seeing John Legend make an appearance in the video, I did some research and found out that John Legend actually wrote the song. I knew there was a reason behind it being this good.

3) Time To Pretend – MGMT
After finally getting the album and listening to it, I found this track and have to say that its incredibly awesome. Much better than that overplayed Electric Feel (although it was good when it first came out). Seeing the video to that song I dismissed them thinking they were hippies but was surprised at how good they are and this song is.

2) Green Light – John Legend feat Andre 3000
Ah John Legend, I have yet to find a song that I do not like. I’ve heard this song so many times, and yet I’m not sick of it. Due to the upbeat and dance style of this track my initial worry was that we was going to change his style as well. I shouldn’t have worried.

Number one is… wait for it…

1) Viva La Vida – Coldplay
As soon as I heard this I thought to myself instant number one and throughout the year no song has come close. Coldplay have done it again, the strings, the piano, the vocals, the uplifting nature of the song, it has it all. Brilliant.

Honourable Mentions

If You’re Out There – John Legend
Inspired by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, a great song with a message much like Obama’s “Yes we can!”. Simple piano and vocals executed beautifully to give us self belief.

Forever – Chris Brown
1, 2, 3, 4!

No Air – Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown
Who would have thought a Idol contestant would make it this far? And with Chris Brown? WTF?

Sexy Can I – Ray J and Yung Berg
Great hip song with a awesome beat to boot.

Shake It – Metro Station
I don’t know whether I like this song or not but it was played everywhere so I guess it deserves to be here.

Can’t Help But Wait – Trey Songz
A great smooth song with great lyrics.

Heaven Sent – Keyshia Cole
She is so underrated, everyone raves on about Mary J. Blige etc but I reckon Cole is much better. This song, like her others, proves it.

Sex On Fire – Kings of Leon
When I heard these guys I thought here’s something different. Being unique goes a long way, far enough to be listed on here.

Love In This Club – Usher feat Young Jeezy
Finally Usher releases a new song after so many years, but unfortunately it was nothing like his previous club hits.

New Soul – Yael Naim
Ah, the popularity of Apple. It’s quite simple really, Apple Ad + Music = Instant Hit. Seriously though this song is incredible and deserves the popularity.

Human – The Killers
Great song, but found it to be lacking of a certain quality present in their previous songs.

Closer – Ne-Yo
Another good song from Ne-Yo but you wouldn’t expect any less.

Get Shaky – The Ian Carey Project
This is for all the house fans, a good quality song with great beat which is what you want.

Talk Like That – The Presets
The Presets are actually quite good when you consider that they’ve become popular using such repetitive tunes.

Dishonourable Mentions

I Kissed A Girl – Katy Perry
Funny at first but got old really fast. The popularity of it forced me to put it here but I’ll be damned if I’m going to put it on the ‘best’ list.

Low – Flo Rida feat T-Pain
Similar to the song above, still a great track to dance to at a club.

Crank That (Soulja Boy) – Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em
The song everybody loves to hate, its a wonder how it ever became so popular. Like the previous two it was funny while people attempted the dance, but everyone soon woke up to how shit it was when it was continually played on repeat everywhere. He even included his name in the song title. What a tool.