2014 was a tough nut to crack for the Johnster. Yes, I am referring to myself and yes, “Johnster” will also be the name of my new filesharing website. Spoiler: All the files will be audio of people holding tape recorders next to radios. I don’t know if I’m less “with it” these days or that they changed what “it” was, and now what I’m with isn’t “it”, and what’s “it” seems weird and scary to me. All I know is I don’t want to become the middle aged guy getting wasted at the Death Cab for Cutie 30th Anniversary Show at the Chateau Ste. Michelle. I want to find new music I like and doggone it I’ll go to the ends of the Earth (the internet) to find it. I’d be lying if I said I heard most of these albums back when they came out. Most of them I heard two days ago but they seem okay. Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.
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This is brutal. Almost exactly a year ago, in my post about my favorite albums of 2013, I joked I would never come back and edit the list. Now I’m kind of tempted. The last year was a big one for me, I mean I graduated (again), got a real job, bought my first car, and moved to Seattle all in about a six month span. I also spent less time working on the blog, as I got comfortable being the podcast host guy and felt less compelled to work on my post count. That, coupled with the fact that I no longer had bus rides to school during which I could listen to music, meant I took music a lot less seriously this year. So when I sat down to write my list, I realized I had four albums I really loved (mostly from the first half of the year when I was still in school) and about 20 that I thought definitely deserved a spot on my list below them.

I don’t know if that means it was a great year or an OK one, I should have paid more attention, I guess. But here are some albums that very narrowly missed my list: High Life, the Brian Eno and Karl Hyde collaboration, which has some awesome 9 minute songs on it. The latest Gaslight Anthem album, Get Hurt, which is a pretty great return to form for them. Salad Days by Mac DeMarco, which I hope will make John’s list at least. Warpaint’s self-titled album, which you should listen to right now. And a few albums that I think might have made my list if I listened to them more: The Moon Rang Like a Bell by Hundred Waters, Rave Tapes by Mogwai, Blue Planet Eyes by Preatures, and Sea When Absent by A Sunny Day in Glasgow.
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Unlike most years, 2014 didn’t ever really feel like a year where I had to go too far out of my way to find good music.  So much so that I’m still catching up with really good late December releases like Charli XCX’s Sucker (it’s like bratty pop music! But with guitars!) or D’Anglelo’s Black Messiah (it’s like Prince! But sloppier!), both of which I just haven’t spent enough time with to put in to consideration.  Also, I guess 2014 was a year in which I ended up listening to music in a lot of different formats, because looking at my list, I can see there’s at least one album I bought on vinyl, a couple I bought on CD, one I bought on iTunes, one I got for free directly from the artist’s website, and several that I acquired by much less respectable means.  Anyways… on to the list.

Honorable Mentions:
Tony Molina – Dissed And Dismissed
The Hold Steady – Teeth Dreams
Cloud Nothings – Here And Nowhere Else
Sharon Van Etten – Are We There

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Looks like I have the honor of putting the final nail in last year’s coffin. Video game historians will probably remember 2013 as a year of the new technology, with a news cycle was dominated by PS4s, Xbox Ones, 2DSs, Ouyas, Steam Machines, Occulous Rifts, and more. For a lot of people, myself included, the PC had become the dominant platform over the last few years, as a tired console generation led to fewer exclusives and PC ports that were straight-up better than the console versions. But the knowledge that this would be the last year people really cared about their PS3s and 360s did let some developers cash in on some awesome ideas while everyone was started focusing their attention on the future. Let me show you some of my favorite games from last year.

As far as honorable mentions go, there’s a lot that I still haven’t played that I’d like to – these lists would be way easier to do in like early March. So Tearaway, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Forza Motorsport 5, Shadow Warrior, Ni No Kuni, Metro: Last Light, The Wonderful 101, and Fire Emblem Awakening, I’m sorry I either didn’t play you or didn’t play you nearly enough to really know how I feel. There were also two really terrific series relaunches early last year that I thought were great; DmC and Tomb Raider. Oh, and two sequels caught me off guard with their quality, Dead Rising 3 and Dead Space 3. Those sure sound like video games, don’t they?
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Every year I go see a bunch of movies in theaters, and the narrative basically goes like this: hit-or-miss action movies and comedies for almost the whole year, and then an intense cram session of all the depressing, critically-acclaimed movies in the last month or two. It must be nice to get screeners or live in New York or Los Angeles. At least things seem to be getting better, with Redbox, Netflix, and other on-demand streaming solutions starting to get smaller movies earlier and earlier, it’s becoming possible to catch up on indies, documentaries, and foreign films before the year is even over. Still, there’s a lot I wish I got to see in 2013, particularly The Act of Killing, which sounds amazing, and Upstream Color, which has been in my Netflix queue forever.

As far as honorable mentions, there are almost too many to count. Neither The Wolf of Wall Street nor American Hustle made my list, although they surely will deservedly win many awards from credible outlets. There were a few smaller films that I really liked, such as Enough Said, Frances Ha, Blue Jasmine, and Side Effects, which could have easily ended up on the back part of this list. There were some good big movies too, like The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, but they weren’t quite up for the list. Also, there’s an awesome Chinese movie on Netflix called Drug War that I really recommend, it’s pretty awesome; like The Wire if it was an amped up, melodramatic action movie. My list, my choices!
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Oh 2013, you so crazy! Yet again we have another year where all the best films were released in the last two months, leaving myself to make a mad dash to see everything I could with as little time as possible. Naturally, a few films fell through the cracks. My biggest regrets for 2013 were missing out on J.C. Chandor’s All is Lost, featuring Robert Redford on a boat and Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, featuring Bruce Dern on land, these are how I categorize films. Aside from that I liked a lot of what I saw and look forward to sharing my picks with all our Spambot fans.

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