My Favorite Music, Movies, Video & Books of '12!

Movies
The Dark Knight Rises
I'm Now: The Story of Mudhoney
Searching for Sugar Man
Notes: Of the 19 movies I saw this year, eleven of which were 2012 releases, and just these three of those I deemed list-worthy... I got myself all psyched for The Amazing Spider-Man, but it turned out to be a proverbial turd in the punchbowl... And the less said about Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the better.

Video
Breaking Bad: Season 4
Eastbound & Down: Season 3
Get a Life: The Complete Series
Louie: Season 2
Notes: This doesn't include stuff from the "Movies" list above, just TV shows... Still need to see season five of Mad Men, released this year... Can't wait 'til the latest seasons of Breaking Bad and Louie are out on video, hopefully in 2013.


Songs
Best Coast - "Mean Girls"
Dum Dum Girls - "I Got Nothing"
Bob Dylan - "Pay in Blood"
Ben Gibbard - "Ichiro's Theme"
Japandroids - "The House That Heaven Built"
King Tuff - "Bad Thing"
Melvins - "Let Me Roll It"
Bob Mould - "The Descent"
Public Image Ltd. - "One Drop"
The Rolling Stones - "Doom and Gloom"
Soundgarden - "Been Away Too Long"
Bruce Springsteen - "We Take Care of Our Own"
TacocaT - "Cat Fancy"
Thee Oh Sees - "Lupine Dominus"
Jack White - "I'm Shakin'"
Notes: I just don't get into new albums as much as individual songs anymore, though the exception this year would be Best Coast's The Only Place... A couple older acts I became obsessed with in 2012 are the Beach Boys and Hüsker Dü (the first rock concert I ever saw was the Beach Boys, at the Puyallup Fair in 1981 or '82, and I regret not seeing them on their 50th anniversary tour this year; I saw Bob Mould open for the Pixies in '89 (and thought he sucked)... I'm also bummed that I again missed the original Dinosaur Jr. lineup when they came through town... Otherwise, I saw some classic rock bands for the first time (Aerosmith, Cheap Trick, Heart) as well as a couple new favorites (Best Coast, Dum Dum Girls), plus some old standbys (Girl Trouble, Melvins, Young Fresh Fellows).

Books
The Art and Making of The Dark Knight Trilogy
Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman
The Obamas by Jodi Kantor
Everybody Loves Our Town by Mark Yarm
Notes: I didn't read much this year. The other ten books I did read were either published in previous years (the best of which was Duff McKagan's It's So Easy (And Other Lies)), or comics...

Comics
The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist by Alvin Buenaventura
Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank
Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland by Harvey Pekar
New York Drawings by Adrian Tomine
Notes: I still wanna read Chris Ware's Building Stories.

For those keeping score, here are my favorites from 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006 (movies and music).
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