The Year of Dead Celebrities: My 2009 Superlatives

It felt like every week this year another celebrity dropped dead, cramming headlines with obnoxious gossip about drugs, doctors and disorders. It would be wrong to say I didn’t care; I do, to an extent. However, it’s the mainstream media stretching content to its absolute thinnest strands, stuffing the public with fabricated details and tacky narratives, that makes me apathetic to another Hollywood, self-inflicted death. And, it can get in the way of the media I actually enjoy.

Luckily, the long tail has allowed me to filter out most of mainstream garbage. While the dead celebrities dragged along their share of crap, I found 2009 to be a stellar year for the media I consumed: mostly books (91 this year), blogs, film and music. Digging into the crates, the following is a brief synapses of my favorites.¹

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Favorite album:

Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective

This album was my favorite for a very simple reason: it sounded new, unique and exciting. Animal Collective pushed every boundary of pop music. Instrumentation has no limitations, but few artists take advantage of this the way Animal Collective did. Every song is a lucid trip.

Runner up:

Them Crooked Vultures by Them Crooked Vultures

Contrary to mediocre reviews, this album was more than just a super group side project. What made it stand out from most of the alternative music I listen to is that it seriously, unrelentingly rocked. Few bands play rock and roll music anymore. Them Crooked Vultures do, hard.

Favorite book:

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Bourdain’s written masterpiece doesn’t make you think too hard. It’s an easy, fluid read. And, there is nothing overly intellectual about it. He’s just a proud New Yorker talking about what he loves doing in a way that’s honest, funny and inspiring. It’s a noble, even rare way to treat your craft.

Runner up:

The Harry Potter Collection by J.K. Rowling

I know I’m late on this one, but I didn’t finish the series until this past summer. It’s genius storytelling and makes me nauseous to think the series was weaved from the mind of one person.

Favorite website:

The War on Mediocrity by Colin Marshall

I’m happy to have had the chance to work with Colin. I stand by the fact that I think his writing is a gem on the internet. Plus, as a creative, he focuses on his product and less (none, really) on self-promoting and marketing. Whether you agree or disagree with this strategy, it’s refreshing and admirable.

Runner up:

Philalawyer by The Philadelphia Lawyer

I’ve subscribed to Phila’s site for a few years, but only started diving in deep over the past twelve months as we started talking. Although I have no legal background, the general thesis behind the most intelligently hilarious writing on the internet is something I try live by: if you can’t laugh at yourself, everyone else will for you.

Favorite post:

MySpace is to Facebook as Twitter is to ___ by Cody Brown

This piece is a brilliant analysis on the current realms of social media culture. There is so much masturbatory, link bait garbage written on social networks that it’s relieving for a fresh voice to emerge. If you read it, you can ignore pretty much every other social media article written this year.

Runner up:

Distribution … now by John Borthwick

Borthwick successfully outlines an entire investment thesis in this blog post. It also sums up much of the technical philosophy behind Betaworks and the real-time web. Borthwick is a visionary, no doubt, but I think we’ll look back on this post in a few years and reaffirm that assertion.

Favorite film:

Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino

Who doesn’t have high expectations for Sir Tarantino? He’s a mad genius when it comes to violent, blood soaked film, and the Basterds didn’t disappoint. I often judge a film by how emotionally uncomfortable it makes me feel, and this one crossed the line many times over.

Runner up:

A Serious Man by Joel and Ethan Coen

There are aspects of this film I still think about, which is always a sign of quality, longevitous art. This film pokes fun, quite accurately, at aspects of my own culture and weaves them into a classically dark Coen storyline. Anything that makes me laugh and think at the same time is a winner in my book.

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Outside of my startup, the items mentioned above devoured most of my time in 2009. Feel free to leave your gems in the comment section.

And with that being said, whatever it is you celebrate, if anything at all, best wishes. See you in 2010.

1. This is what I enjoyed this year, and in some cases, not necessarily what was started, produced, written or released this year. [↩]

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