Carol of the Bells
O Holy Night
Happy Christmas (War Is Over)
Let It Snow
Do They Know It’s Christmas?

And to finish on a happy note (for those who were around yesterday):

Jingle Bell Rock

Happy holidays everybody! Peace out!

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.

Dynasty. The talk has begun. Much like the Broncos of the 90’s, the Bulldogs and Eels of the 80’s. They’ve been able to get to four grand finals in a row, but most importantly they have converted two of them into premierships. I absolutely love it. For those not in the know, the Melbourne Storm took out the 2009 premiership downing the Parramatta Eels 23-16. Who would have thought that in this era of the salary cap, that a team could be so consistently successful? Especially after you have a look at the amount of talent that they have lost over the years, it’s miraculous that they are even competitors at all. The players and coaches may have put in all the hard work, but my hat goes off to the management more so than anyone. Making the right choices when it comes to player deals and being able to pick upcoming talent is an art form in itself, and these days is vital to the success of the team. The fact that they have been able to shuffle players around and give the team every opportunity to complete in the grand final for four years running is nothing short of amazing. Melbourne are the team which the others should be striving to emulate. Kudos Melbourne, kudos.

Now, on to the team by team drive-by summary:

Storm – Can they do it again? Five straight GF appearances would be nothing short of a miracle and going back to back is a goal that they have yet to achieve which will no doubt cement their place in folklore. One has to start to wonder though when that salary cap will rear its ugly head and will begin the team’s eventual fall from grace.

Eels – It’s hard to believe that this team was equal second last mid way through the season and didn’t reach the top 8 until the second last round. Then began that impressive run which got them all the way to the grand final, but just fell short. As much as I love underdog stories, I was really happy to see them lose, I mean, they are the Eels after all.

Bulldogs – A surprising year to say the least and a massive turn around from last year. However, this team is completely different to last year, with a new coach and new players in key positions. The management has done well with the off season trades. It was surprising that they were able to gel together as quickly as they did. Also the last season for El Masri, a true legend in every aspect of the game. It was a shame he didn’t have the chance to go out with a premiership. (And I won’t even mention the stripping of 2 points or the robbing of victory at the St George game… oops I just did)

Broncos – At one point of the season we were left thinking that they wouldn’t even make the top 8, as the representative season hit them much harder as usual. They were able to have a good run into the finals, knocking out their former coach. Losing Wallace was a massive blow and they eventually got knocked out themselves by the Storm.

Dragons – After looking a Wayne Bennett’s finals stats of late, someone should probably teach him the Heimlich Manoeuvre. By far the strongest and most consistent team all year but lost that all important momentum at the most crucial time of the season. At least they’ll have the minor premiership title.

Titans – After looking so promising during the season, they too, lost their momentum and bowed out early. However, making the finals for the first time in their 3 years in the competition, I have no doubt that they will continue to build from this success.

Sea Eagles – Eliminated in the first round, they never really were the strong force they have been in previous years, and they had the worse possible start with the Brett Stewart drama and the consecutive losses. To come back as strongly as they did is an achievement in itself.

Knights – Despite finishing the season in 7th, they never really looked like contenders and with the mounting injuries they were no match for the Bulldogs even without Kimmorley.

Sharks – They really couldn’t catch a break this season. With all the off field drama its hard to believe that they didn’t finish last! The financial problems, the group sex scandal, Reni Maitua’s drug ban and the CEO’s assault. Next season can only be better, you can’t get any worse than that.

Roosters – Suck it.

Just a couple of side notes for the season:

All the NSW selectors should be sacked. They have absolutely no idea what they are doing, having only put in Kimmorley and Ennis for the 3rd game, oh and would you look at that, they won. I mean Farah and Wallace? Seriously? They’ve done fuck all to deserve a spot in the NSW team this season, and then they tried bringing back Barrett which didn’t work with Wallace. I still reckon Mullen with his form should have been brought in, and also where the hell was Hindmarsh? Speaking of which, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but here it goes… Kimmorley played outstanding football and probably has had his best season in his career. Especially after his call up to Origin and winning, that is definitely what you would call redemption. Having said all of that, if you look at the Qld team, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a strong team line up. They had Hunt and Hannant coming off the bench! It was practically the Australian team; NSW had their work cut out for them from the start.

I think the 2 referee system was by in large a success, which sped up the game and didn’t have us being referred to the video ref every 2 seconds. It also improved officiating decisions with more eyes on the ruck.

I also want to give a quick congrats to Derek who won our inaugural footy tipping competition. You better watch your back next year because I’m gonna win!

I think I’m done.

Finally. Kobe’s elusive 4th ring. Jackson’s 10th championship title. Just take a moment to ponder that. He has won it all in 10 of the last 18 seasons in which he has coached. That’s a championship rate of 55% over an incredibly long period. He is not only the most successful coach in the NBA but also one of the most successful coaches in the history of professional sport.

Now lets revisit the man of the hour, Kobe Bryant. Well what do you know, he actually did it without Shaq. He did however need Derek Fisher and Phil Jackson to come back do it again. In a way, its kind of fitting that he wasn’t able to do it again until now. He is a much more mature player, with an improved attitude towards the game and his team. As a result he is a much better leader and player. You can tell he definitely appreciates it more now than ever. Undoubtedly he will be ecstatic to finally have a Finals MVP under his belt and deservedly so.

Congratulations to Bryant, Jackson and the entire Lakers cast – closing out the 2009 NBA finals and the 15th championship for the franchise.

Once again, I’ll just add some comments on other aspects of this year’s playoffs:

Orlando Magic – Personally I think they had the toughest run through the playoffs, beating the Celtics and the Cavs before falling short. Just to get where they did was a massive achievement in itself, but in the end their lack of experience was their downfall as the Lakers capitalised on mistakes made in key plays towards the end of each game in the finals. I really hope they learn from this and Dwight Howard has another opportunity to win a ring.

Cleveland Cavaliers – An extremely incredible season record, only losing 2 games at home. LeBron James finally gets MVP. They then swept through the first round and the Eastern Conference Semi Finals, but despite their never say die attitude, they fall short to a determined Magic. Seriously, LeBron must be asking himself, what else is there left to do to win? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he needs a better supporting cast if they are any chance of going all the way.

Detroit Pistons – Much like the city, everyone has left.

Atlanta Hawks – The first .500+ season in 10 years. I’m sure they were happy making the playoffs as the forth seed, let alone beating Miami and advancing.

Houston Rockets – Well they finally passed the first round, only to meet the Lakers, who they stretched to 7 games before falling to them. Of course it was always going to be difficult without Tracy McGrady.

San Antonio Spurs – The season finished off just as badly as it started. Eliminated in the first round for the first time in the Duncan era and ending the odd year streak of championships. To be honest they were never really contenders, especially after losing Manu Ginobili to injury.

Denver Nuggets – Even with Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony on fire, they were still no match for Kobe’s crew.

New Orleans Hornets – Chris Paul had somewhat of a quiet year, which is disappointing after the impressive previous year. I fully expected them to build on that, but to no avail.

Boston Celtics vs Chicago Bulls – Best. Playoff. Series. Ever. Seven games. Seven overtime periods. So many clutch plays. It was the series you just didn’t want to end. Of course the Celtics were severely missing Kevin Garnett which probably helped even things up, but the Bulls will take a lot away from the intensity of this series. Especially the potential behind the likes of Ben Gordon and Derrick Rose.

With the decade done and dusted, one can surely say that it belonged to the Lakers and the Spurs, winning 7 championships between them over the past 10 years. What is impressive is how the Lakers have rebuilt themselves and returned as champions within the same decade. The scary part about this is that Phil Jackson tends to win championships in ‘three-peat’ blocks. Provided he will still be there, could the Lakers do it all again next year?

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.

1. Vin Diesel can’t act. Period. Paul Walker isn’t far off the mark.
2. In addition, Paul Walker is one of those guys you just want to punch in the face for no reason.
3. At the start while the Eclipse is being tested, there’s like 20 up-shifts and few if any down-shifts. WTF?
4. The ridiculous amount of times NOS is mentioned/referenced. Its called “Nitrous Oxide” you fucktards. Just take a look at this scene and count the references to NOS:

Mentioned 2 times and displayed 5 times. Yep, a total of 7 times in the space of 30 seconds! And then just in case you missed the big NOS advertisement, there’s a close up of the bottle as it spins by when the scene ends.

Actually, after seeing those irregularities, I decided to visit IMDB just to find the ones that I missed. Well, I’ve listed the conflicting ones here:

• Although clearly done for cinematic purposes (to make it obvious what is in the truck), the container full of electronic equipment isn’t packed at all realistically, with everything packed at the sides and none of it wrapped in plastic or on pallets. At the first turn, the boxes would be all over the place.
• Before the first race when Jessie is checking out Brian’s Eclipse, he mentions that it has a NOS fogger system, then later acknowledges that it has direct port nitrous injection. Clearly you don’t run both a direct port and a fogger nitrous system, as direct port is a much better system.
• The 1/4 mile race at the end takes the two “ten second” cars way more than 10 seconds to run. On top of that, in actuality, rail crossing bars lower long before the train is visible. If this was a ten second race, that means the rail bars dropped 2-3 seconds before the train appeared.
• In race wars when Jesse is filmed in close-up, you can see that he is actually driving a coupe (check the right rear side mirror). Also, the dashboard is not the Jetta’s.
• In the last scene when Dom and Brian drag race, the scoop on the blower closes when he revs up the motor, when it would really open, since it is to get air into the motor.
• When the bikers are shooting at the cars parked on the street, the glass is seen to explode outward. If the bullets were hitting the glass from outside, the glass particles would fly into the car.
• When Jesse puts the floppy disk in the A-Drive to show Brian the Supra designs, the computer power switch is clearly in the “OFF” position.
• When Dom hides his car in the empty building and begins walking down the sidewalk, the cop car that passes him is a Ford Crown Victoria. But when we see it again, it is a Chevrolet Caprice.
• When the beaten up Supra arrives at Dom’s garage, the car that arrives on the trailer is an NA (non turbo version) whereas the car is meant to be the TT (twin turbo) version.
• In the last race when the Charger goes into the big wheelstand he is smoking the rear tires. This can not happen since smoking tires means the loss of traction and a wheelstand means no loss of traction.
• A “10 second car” would not top out at 140 mph. A car that fast is likely to go much faster than 140 mph.
• After the first race, it is acknowledged that Brian’s Eclipse has blown its piston rings and requires the engine taking apart for repair, also some other kind of damage must have occurred (the manifold, according to his in-car laptop) that caused the floor-pan to fall through. This however doesn’t affect Brian being able to evade the police and escape at a reasonable speed immediately after.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the people who like this movie are either people who know nothing about cars, people who love pop up ads and love watching commercials or people who are willing to look past ALL these problems.

I guess I don’t fall in any of those categories. Having said all that, the other 2 movies aren’t that much better either (only slightly). In fact rather than say the ‘best’ of the series we should more accurately refer to the ‘least worst’ of the 3. Although, I will say that the trailer for the new one (Fast & Furious) looks promising compared to the others, but that isn’t setting the bar too high.

Of course, if your haven’t seen the movie then this will all mean nothing to you, but I did manage to find an accurate summary for you to watch. In fact, after watching this, you probably won’t even need see the whole thing. I just saved you 106 minutes of your life. You’re welcome.

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