Reflections on Pop Culture - 2011

Another year has come to an end which means another blog post on this incredibly informative site for all things in the popular culture. Without further ado, let's get started.

MOVIES

I'm excited to say that It was a great year for comic book movies!

Captain America ruled them all. The First Avenger was perfect. The story was solid, the action and special effects were top notch, and the character was true to the co

mic book. At the end of the movie was a preview for the new Avengers movie which looked awesome! The last ten years have been a great time to be alive as a comic book fanboy.

Thor also came to the big screen this year and was a fantastic flick. I was never a big fan of the Thor comics, but the movie was a blast and well worth the trip

to the movie theater.

I also enjoyed X-Men: First Class. The throw back to a young team was fun and interesting although the story was a bit soft for me. Howeve

r, the action and effects made up for any weakness in the plot.

A couple "Green" movies made it to the silver screen. Both Green Lantern and The Green Hornet failed to deliver the goods. I've watched both and will probably watch them again, however, that's completely due to my fanboy status. Remember, I'm the guy who likes all three Punisher movies. Anyway, the "Green" movies were both solid "C's".

Two non-comic movies that made my favorite list were the comedies Hall Pass and Horrible Bosses.

These two movies were amazin

gly funny and hade me laughing so hard that I have to put them up there with The Hangover, arguably the funniest movie I've ever seen. Jennifer Aniston is the hottest Horrible Boss you could ever imagine and I will never forget the Hall Pass scene wherein a sneeze relieves a terrible stomach ache. Just thinking about it makes me want to watch both of them again.

TELEVISION

I didn't do much TV watching this year. However, I did manage to get into watching various shows on DVD this year.

First of all, a big shout out to The Shield again. I ran through the entire seven seasons and was again completely blown away with how amazing the show was. It continues to remain my favorite television show of all time.

On to the new stuff...

Sons of Anarchy - My uncle, Scott, turned me on to this show. FX, the network responsible for the The Shield, puts out Sons so I'm not sure why i didn't jump on this faster. It's about an outlaw motorcycle gang and the surrounding drama of their lives. It friggin' blew me away. I raced through the first three seasons and am now champing at the bit to see the fourth.

The first season of The Glades was a

blast. It's about an out-of-water Chicago detective now living and working in sunny Florida. The show has some goofy set-ups with the main character runny around with the coroner as a partner, but any weakness is

more than made up with the likeability of the characters and their fast-paced dialogue.

Californication knocked my socks off. David Duchovny s

tars as Hank Moody, a writer who continues to screw up his life as he tries, unsuccessfully, to reconnect with his "wife" and daughter. It's the first show where I really understand the complete screwed-up nature of a character. When I talk with others about the show, they say Hank is an idiot and they wonder how he can continue to make poor de

cisions when he is obviously a smart man. That comment alone makes me feel they have no clue what it's like to know the stove is h

ot, but you put your hand on it anyway. For those of us who continue to walk into the wall, Hank Moody is our character.

Unfortunately, it only made two seasons, but The Hard Times of RJ Berger was one of the funniest shows on television for the past two years. It's the best thing MTV has done since they abandoned the "music". It's about a well-endowed nerd struggling through high school. The cast of characters were incredibly funny and the dialogue snapped, crackled and popped. Who didn't love the coach's statement regarding "the swamp funk of a grown man's taint"?

Ok, here's one from the reality side of thing s. HGTV's Income Property is fantastic. While I dig HGTV in general, it was really cool to see them finally add in a show that focused on the idea of cash flow with property instead of house flipping which focuses only on the appreciation side of things.

There was one television show that stood out this year. Fox's New Girl was the funniest new show I've seen since The Big Bang Theory. I guess there's something about quirky girls I find appealing.

As a follow up to last year's blog pos

t, four of my favorites were can

celled. The Human Target, Lie to Me, The Defenders and No Ordinary Family all were pulled due to low ratings. Yet they continue to pump out the lamest reality shows a person can imagine. That's an idea for a letter blog list ...

BOOKS

The man is back! Or should I say, the men are back! Lawrence Block returned with a new Matt Scudder novel this year. A Drop of the Hard Stuff takes Scudder back to his earlier years. The plot is super tight and the writing is crisp and utterly enjoyable. It's good to see the master back!

I ran across a couple of previously published books that I really enjoyed. Elmore Leonard's Stick was a great read and Alan Watt's Diamond Dogs flat out knocked me out of my chair. if you get a chance to read either of these books, give them a go.

Sammy Hagar's Red was a fun read. I've always been a big fan of The Red Rocker, but I also dig the fact that Hagar's a businessman with his Cabo Wabo tequila and clubs. It was also a fascinating look into Van Halen as well.

MUSIC

It was a good year for new metal, or at least new metal to me.

First of all, the panther is back! Steel Panther released Balls Out in October and it stayed in my car until I knew every song by heart. With 17 Girls in a Row and Gold Digging Whore on the disc, I'm sure it's going to stay in heavy rotation in both my car and iPod. Also, it is easily the best album cover in years!

Theory of a Deadman's The Truth Is... Was a solid disc.

Favorite songs were Villain and Gentlemen. There were a few misses on the disc but overall it rocked.

My buddy, Steve, turned me on to Theory as well as the amazing Boba Flex and their album Hell in My Heart. The song Bury Me with My Guns On is a great tune! I played that song over probably 5 times before moving on to the other songs on the album. Highly recommend this album to any metal heads.

Chickenfoot released III and is a great sophomore album. The songs

Bigfoot, Last Temptation and Up Next are my favorites, but the whole albums worth listening to over and over.

Nickelback released Here and Now this year. Bottoms Up and Kiss it Goodbye are great tracks. There always tends to be one or two too many ballads on a Nickelback CD, however, it's still worth the purchase. Good solid rock.

VIDEO GAMES

Steve got me hooked on Dead Nation, the best PS3 video game I've ever played. Don't get me wrong, I'm and X-Box guy so my exposure to the PS3 is limited to Steve's library, but the game is a blast and highly addictive. Zombie killing has never been so much fun.

TECHNOLOGY

I joined the iPad revolution this summer and I've go to admit I'm becoming more and more hooked on this tablet. I keep learning about new things I can do with it. And as a small tribute to Steve Jobs, I'm blogging this year's pop culture post on my iPad. Typing is a little slow compared to using my iMac, but it's more comfortable leaning back in a chair as i time travel back over the past year.

Well, that's it for this year. Stick a fork in 2011. It's done.