We Hardly Knew Ye: Harold Ramis

The cowriter of Animal House (1978), the director and cowriter of Caddyshack (1980), and the director and uncredited cowriter of Vacation (1983) is dead at 69.

Those were three of my favorite movies growing up, and they still are.

Lesser faves he directed and/or (co)wrote and/or acted in include Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Back to School (1986), Groundhog Day (1993), and the underrated Stuart Saves His Family (1995).
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We Hardly Knew Ye: Philip Seymour Hoffman

Dead at 46.
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My Favorite Pop Culture of 2013!

Movies
Of the 32 movies I watched this year, only six were 2013 releases: Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, Don Jon, Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa, This Is the End, Sound City and Star Trek Into Darkness. The Big Star documentary was great; the others ranged from pretty good to meh... I still wanna see Anchorman 2, Frances Ha, Inside Llewyn Davis, Nebraska, The Punk Singer and some others... As for older movies, I rediscovered Blade Runner, and watched its myriad versions multiple times.

TV
Bob's Burgers became a new favorite. I plowed through all five seasons of Parks and Recreation in a few weeks, and kept current with the latest seasons of Louie and Mad Men. I watched Breaking Bad all the way up through its finale, and while I saw some of the final-season episodes of Eastbound & Down, I haven't yet caught the end. I still watch Saturday Night Live fairly religiously, as I have for the last 25-odd years, mostly out of habit. It's still topical and unpredictable, if not consistently funny.

Rock 'n' Roll
The only 2013 album I regularly played start to finish was David Bowie's The Next Day (unless you count Best Coast's seven-song EP/mini-album thing Fade Away). This led me to revisit all of Bowie's back catalog, which I listened to pretty extensively for much of the year (I played "Station to Station" dozens of times in the car)... Disappointing were new releases by the Pixies, the Strokes, the Replacements and Iggy & the Stooges... However, the 'Mats and the Stooges kicked ass at the Toronto Riot Fest; the only other show I went to this year was a Mudhoney in-store on April Fool's Day... As for older stuff, I sprang for Bob Dylan's 47-disc Complete Album Collection: Vol. One ($197 on Amazon -- that's $4.19 per disc!)... The one album I listened to far more than any other was 1980's Pleasure by Girls at Our Best!. Since I couldn't find the lyrics anyplace, I took a shot at transcribing them here... Other 2013 albums/songs I like:
Camera Obscura -- "Do It Again"
Neko Case -- "Madonna of the Wasps"
Dead Ghosts -- "B.A.D."
Grant Hart -- "Morningstar"
Melvins -- Everybody Loves Sausages, Tres Cabrones
Mudhoney -- Vanishing Point
Thee Oh Sees -- Floating Coffin
Those Darlins -- "Optimist"
Wooden Shjips -- "Ruins"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs -- Mosquito

Books
Jeez, did I only read two books this year? Yep. Those would be Bebe Day by Day by Pamela Druckerman and Jim Gaffigan's Dad is Fat. Both are related to parenting, which makes sense -- in January I became a first-time dad to twin girls (which also explains why I've been even further out of the pop-culture loop this year)... The Replacements: Waxed-Up Hair and Painted Shoes: The Photographic History looks terrific, though I haven't actually read the text yet. Same with Fan Interference, which is also gathering dust on my nightstand.

Comics
Didn't read many comics either, other than Peter Bagge's Reset, Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half, and A Matter of Life by Jeffrey Brown. All good.

For those keeping score, here are my favorites from 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006 (movies and music).
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We Hardly Knew Ye: Billy Jack

Tom Laughlin is dead at 82.

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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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Batman vs. Spider-Man

They both look killer.

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Bob Newhart Spoiler Alert!

One of my favorite comedians has a surprise cameo at the end of this so-so comedy.
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My Favorite Movie of the Year So Far

Though I've only seen nine other movies in 2011: Biutiful, Blue Valentine, Bridesmaids, Cedar Rapids, The King's Speech, Lemmy, TRON: Legacy, Win Win and Your Highness, which sucked.

I find this helpful.
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Apropos of Nothing #2

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Bigfoot Re-Re-Remix!

The good folks at Everything is Terrible! compiled this X-rated, NFSW video from a bunch of Bigfoot movie and TV clips. Many of these are listed on my Bigfoot on Film page, including Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter, The Capture of Bigfoot, The Geek, iCarly, Little Bigfoot, Night of the Demon, Shriek of the Mutilated, The Six Million Dollar Man, and To Catch a Yeti, starring Meat Loaf.
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Stupid Hockey Shit #3

Above, Phil Esposito and friends perform "The Hockey Sock Rock" on Thicke of the Night. Below, Mark Messier befriends Gary Coleman...

FoxTrax...



Gretzky hosts SNL...

Shania Twain dressed like a Rocket Richard skankbag...

The Love Guru...



Carey Price's nightmarish Jacques Plante mask...

And finally -- somebody call the SPCA -- it's bears playing hockey...



UPDATE

Unofficial Ottawa Senators mascot, Sensquatch...

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Cool Hockey Shit #7

Above, the NHL's best mascot, Carlton; below, a funny collision...

Slap shots...

Slap Shot...

Croatian-Canadians Frank Mahovlich, Pete Mahovlich, Joe Sakic...

...and Dan Mandich...



Fred Sasakamoose...

Larry Kwong...

Women...

The Game...

The Hockey Book...

The Hockey Theme...



The Richard Riot...

And -- you guessed it -- fights...

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Stupid Hockey Shit #2

The Disney-era Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, and pretty much everything associated with them (the awkward name, the lame movie tie-in, the suburban SoCal locale, the scary mascot, the ugly uniforms, that shitty logo, etc.). Below, Florida hockey...



A certain pop star...

Score: A Hockey Musical...



Jesus...

The 1986-87 Calgary Flames' Red Hot video...



Pink ice...

And guys like this...


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We Hardly Knew Ye: Tura Satana

Iconic B-movie queen dead at 72; there's a nice remembrance on Pop Candy.
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Stupid Hockey Shit #1

Above, the Avalanche replacing Howler the Sasquatch (left) with Bernie the St. Bernard (right). Below, the NHL replacing its classic shield logo (left) with the new one (right)...

Jaromir Jagr's hair...

Stan Lee's The Guardian Project...

Garish goalie masks...

Kevin Smith...

Slap Shot 2, Slap Shot 3, MVP: Most Valuable Primate, The Mighty Ducks, etc...

A certain hockey mom...

Hockey in the desert...

Ice girls...

And, of course, Todd Bertuzzi ending Steve Moore's career...


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The Art of Jack Davis!

Nice find yesterday at Value Village: a $1.99 copy of The Art of Jack Davis! Though his long-running career stretches back to the '30s, his illustrations were ubiquitous during his '70s prime, especially in Mad magazine...

Here's one of his many Mad Evel caricatures, some of which I put on my Knievel Comedy page...

He also did illustrations for other comics...

And magazines...

As well as advertising art...

Movie posters...

Album covers...

And other random stuff, like this Seahawk...

And some Bigfoot illustrations for the 1959 article "The Trail of the Sasquatch," which appeared in Canada's Weekend Magazine...

See lots more in this Jack Davis flickr set.
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