Best of 2009 AND the Decade!

Welcome to our year (and decade) end list! I guess you can call this my best of list since our writer Jeremy may post a couple of his own. I decided not to do a top ten kind of thing this year and instead picked my favorite along with some other great examples. I did the same for each section in terms of the best of the decade. There have been so many great examples these past ten years that it's too hard to choose which is the definitive best. This was especially hard in terms of music.

I hope you enjoy our picks and with luck, you'll be inspired to pick up a few of these titles and enjoy them yourself!

Oh and by the way, I didn't link all of our picks so that this isn't one giant collection of links. If you are interested all of these titles are available in the Pop Culture Beast Store, except the podcasts of course.

Enjoy!

The Best in Film:

(500) Days of Summer

Hands down the best. Brilliant script, wonderful direction, flawless cast, and the best soundtrack in years. These are 500 days I want to revisit over and over.

Best of the Rest:

Where The Wild Things Are
Taking Woodstock
Up
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek
Inglorious Basterds
Dear Jack
Taken
Drag Me To Hell
The Hangover

*Still to see: Avatar, Up In The Air, District 9, Zombieland, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnasus, A Single Man, Brothers, Crazy Heart, The Lovely Bones, An Education, The Messenger, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hurt Locker

Best of the Decade:
Almost Famous
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Brick
Up
Slumdog Millionaire
Garden State
Doubt
Children of Men
Wall-E
No Country For Old Men
The Royal Tenenbaums

The Best in Television:

Dexter

This spot was all wrapped up by Glee until a last minute couple of days marathon catch up of this shows AMAZING fourth season. Four years in and Dexter is just as fresh and shocking as the first time it aired. This was some brilliant television that brought us John Lithgow at his creepiest.

Best of the Rest:
Glee
Modern Family
Brothers and Sisters
The Cleveland Show
True Blood
The United States of Tara

Best of the Decade:

Lost
Nip/Tuck
Greek
Glee
Huff
Boston Legal
24
Modern Family
Desperate Housewives
Family Guy
Dexter
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Carnivale

The Best in Music:

Album:

Owl City - Ocean Eyes

This was the choice that almost wasn't. This was all set to post today when I stumbled across the latest Alberta Cross album. I gave each album more time to convince me and in the end the gorgeously captivating Ocean Eyes from Owl City emerged victorious.

Best of the Rest:

Jay Brannan - In Living Cover
Alberta Cross - Broken Side of Time
Kelly Clarkson - All I Ever Wanted
The Fray - The Fray
The Lonely Island - Incredibad
The Decemberists - Hazards of Love
Tinted Windows - Tinted Windows
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Brand New - Daisy
Thirty Seconds To Mars - This Is War

Best of the Decade:
Jay Brannan - goddamned
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Hanson - The Walk
Kanye West - The College Dropout, 808 and Heartbreak
Damien Rice - O
Margot and the Nuclear So and So's - The Dust of Retreat
Green Day - American Idiot
Eminem - The Marshal Mathers LP
Radiohead - Kid A
Sigur Rós - Ágaetis Byrjun
Blink 182 - Blink 182
The Killers - Hot Fuss
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
Björk - Vespertine
The Postal Service - Give Up
Patty Griffin - 1000 Kisses, Impossible Dream, and Children Running Through

Single:


Lady Gaga - Paparazzi

There is no denying that 2009 was Lady Gaga's year. At first I didn't really like her but this song was like a light switch. I just can't seem to get enough of it. I'm officially on the GaGa bandwagon.

Best of the Rest:

Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys - Empire State of Mind
Owl City - Fireflies
Weezer - (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
Phoenix - 1901
John Mayer - Who Says
Kelly Clarkson - My Life Would Suck Without You

Best of the Decade:
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Rhianna - Umbrella
Jay-Z - 99 Problems
Coldplay - Yellow, Viva La Vida
M.I.A. - Paper Planes
Christina Aguilera - Beautiful
Outkast - Ms. Jackson
Arcade Fire - Wake Up
Postal Service - Such Great Heights
Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends
Bright Eyes - Lover I Don't Have To Love, Lua
Blink 182 - I Miss You
Jay Brannan - Housewife


The Best in Podcasts:


Never Not Funny
with Jimmy Pardo, Matt Belknap and guest

They've topped this list for as long as I've been doing these lists and with good reason. Never Not Funny is the most consistently entertaining and hilarious podcast on the internet.

Best of the Rest:

I Love Movies, RadioLab, This American Life

Best of the Decade:

Never Not Funny

The 2000's have certainly been the decade of podcasting which, until Ricky Gervais launched his phenom The Ricky Gervais Show, was a format few people had ever heard of. This format exploded in Gervais' wake and now everybody and their mother has a show (don't worry we will too at some point) but few people, if any, have turned a show into a financial success. Never Not Funny has accomplished that feat and continues even after 3+ years to be just as fresh and entertaining as the first episode. This is not only a show for fans of comedy, it's even more so a show for fans of comedians. You won't hear material (that often anyway) what you will hear are stories from some of the best comedians working today. Stories about life, families, the road, friendships and more that will have you rolling in laughter courtesy of folks like Maria Bamford, John Hamm, Conan O'Brien, Paul F. Tompkins, Daniel Koenig, and many more. This is the podcast of podcasts and well worth the pennies it costs per episode.

The Best in Books:



Under The Dome by Stephen King

The King is back. This epic and emotional creep fest is King as the top of his game. The scariest part? Everything in the book could happen if a dome really did cover a small town.

Best of the Rest:

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover

Best of the Decade:
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski


The Best in Video Games:


Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Best PS3 Game by far. Just go play it. This franchise is ready for a movie. A good one.

Best of the Rest:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Batman: Arkham Asylum
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Aion

Best of the Decade:
City of Heroes
World of Warcraft
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Bioshock
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Rockband
Resident Evil 4
Portal
Silent Hill 2
Kingdom Hearts

Phew! That was rough. Time to get to work on next years list...

Happy New Year everyone!