Ryan's Top Music of 2009 Part 1: The Beginnenning

As promised, here I am once again, this time with a list of my favorite music from 2009.  When I made a similar list last year and looked ahead, I thought this year's musical landscape looked pretty bleak.  Oh, how wrong I was.  2009 proved to be quite an awesome year in music, particularly this past fall where it seemed like a ton of new releases from some of my favorite bands were released within the span of a month or two.  With me making as little money as I do yet still wanting to support the bands that deserve it (even though I know full well that the labels take a good chunk of the money and most bands don't even see it unless they go Platinum), I am limiting my list to albums that I have actually paid for.  Of course, that leaves a lot of albums that have gone unlistened.  And I do mean A LOT!  Therefore, to kick off the ceremonies, here's a list of the Top 15 Albums of 2009 That I Wanted But Didn't Get:

I Totally Wish I Had Photoshop Skillz (Part One)

Gaze upon greatness...and despair!

The First (And Hopefully Only) Annual Christmas Day Horror-Thon!

So, as I had mentioned in previous entries, I decided that since I was going to be spending Christmas Day all by my lonesome (don't worry, all my Christmas celebrations were either last weekend or Christmas Eve), I'd be spending that time watching a few horror movies that I've been putting off of watching.  I just got done and let me say that doing nothing but spending roughly 6 hours in bed watching scary movies isn't the greatest of ways to spend your day.  I'd probably like to go into the movies in a bit more detail but I won't for two reasons: 1) I don't wanna ruin anything for people who haven't yet seen them and 2) I got a bit of a headache and am feeling quite lazy.  A part of me just wants to play a little game of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and bring out my inner Christmas child.  Of course, I'm typing this up, eating nachos and watching Wonder Showzen instead.  And people wonder why I'm a bad person.

The Boondock Saints 2 Mini-Review (Or "Stereotypes and Slow-Mo" as I Like To Call It)

So I decided to check out The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day last night with a few friends (a few of which had already seen it). But despite the fact that I loved the original movie, I wasn't too psyched up for it. First of all, I re-watched the first movie recently and though I still liked it, it didn't quite hold up over the years. Plus, I heard a good chunk of critics tear the movie apart. Yeah yeah, I hate critics as much as the next guy (despite me practically being an unpaid one) but a good chunk of the critics that matter were actually fans of the original and thought the sequel wasn't all that great. The chief complaint among them was the fact that we basically waited ten years for a carbon copy of the first movie and I actually tend to agree with that sentiment. But that doesn't mean the movie isn't any good.

Ryan's Top 5 Movies Of 2009 (And One Crappy Movie)

So it's that time of year again where we in the media look back and reflected exactly what we wasted our time and money on. First off, I'll start with my list of the best movies of 2009, which you'll find is pretty sparse. Why is that? Mostly because I don't exactly get out to the theaters that often, as I feel that going to the theater should be somewhat of an event. I try to steer away from the crap that gets released nowadays (though as you'll read on from the list, that's not quite all that accurate anymore). Therefore, this list will focus only on movies I've actually seen in theaters, which is the only real way to watch movies, no matter how big your LCD TV is or what kind of stereo system you have. So, even a ton of blockbuster movies will be left off this list. No Star Trek. No GI Joe. No Up! No Ponyo. No Transformers 2...though it probably wouldn't have made the list anyway. No The Hangover. No Drag Me To Hell (which is really the only movie that I'm angry about having missed the theatrical run). No Ong-Bak 2 (damn you limited release!)

So here's my Top 5 Movies of 2009. Why five? Because that's one less than the total number of movies I've seen in theaters this year! What's that one, then? Well, I'm glad you asked.

Twilight Hate Addendum - I'll Stop After This, I Swear!

So do you ever have a moment where you're writing something and forget a key component? Sure, we all do and it actually happens quite a bit to me. But I didn't think I'd leave out the actual inspiration that put everything together in my head and compelled me to go on the Twilight rant in the previous entry. I guess at a certain point, even I get sick of yelling at stupid things and just wanna talk about something else. So anyway, here it is, the true reason why I ultimately hate Twilight.

Why I Hate Twilight, Hellraiser Mini-Review and Compiling the Best of 2009

So the past couple weeks, all I've really had penetrate my ears is the screaming banshee-esque squadron of figurative girl-boners that came as a result of the release of the newest installment in the Twilight saga: New Moon. You know, as a rational human being (or on a much lesser level, a pure-blooded male), it's quite easy to hate on Twilight just on the basis of it being insipid and dumb. But I'm willing to give one aspect of the Twilight-zeitgeist a pass: the books themselves. Sure, they started this whole mess and its debatable whether or not the writing itself passes a fourth-grade level but anything that gets people to read a mutha-lovin' book, be it Twilight or Harry Potter, should be a good thing. Unfortunately, most people are reading ONLY Twilight or Harry Potter nowadays but that's not necessarily the fault of the book but the fault of the readers. Of course, I'm not one to talk. The only two books I've read this year were "I Drink For A Reason" by David Cross and "How To Succeed With Women" by some random guy.

Christmas Horror Movie Marathon, I Pitch A "Black Friday" Movie and Something Else I'm Having Way Too Much Fun With.

I mentioned it in passing in my last post entry but I'm a little more gung-ho about the idea now of running a personal Horror Movie Marathon on Christmas Day. As it turns out, due to the various juggling of schedules between families as to how to celebrate Christmas when, it seems that I may be spending Christmas Day all by my lonesome. But in the words of Patton Oswalt: "Don't go 'Boo', go 'Yay!' Christmas is a time to spend alone and drunk. I spent my Christmas watching Repo Man and Night of the Living Dead. Merry fuckin' Christmas!" I may not be drinking (unless I can get my hands on some fine casket-aged rubbing alcohol) but I do have a stack of horror movies looking me in the eye. As I mentioned in my Black Friday rundown, I bought Hellraiser, Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and The Midnight Meat Train (heh, still can't stop giggling at that one). But when I went to Wal-Mart earlier today to pick up a few essentials, I perused the $5 bargain bin and picked up The Descent. I never really thought too much about that movie when it came out but I picked up a copy of HorrorHound magazine, who ran a list of the Top 20 Horror Movies of the Decade and they ranked The Descent firmly at #2, snug right between Shaun of the Dead and American Psycho, two of my favorite movies EVER, horror or not. So I figured if I don't like it, I'm only out a five spot. Also in the bargain bin, I found a 4-disc pack of Ringu movies, Ringu being the original Japanese version of what's known as The Ring here in the States. I didn't pick that up because I believe I've seen Ringu a while back and wasn't all that impressed with it. (Not to mention most horror buffs usually blow their load at Ju-On, which was remade into The Grudge, but I thought that was boring. Maybe Japanese horror doesn't affect me unless Takashi Miike is directing it.) Still 4 movies for $5 is a pretty good deal, though there's the possibility that some random customer could've just left that movie in the bargain bin and that it's not even $5 in the first place. Plus, I really should get around to watching Let The Right One In as well but I need to stop spending money as it is. Anyway, as it stands, I have 4 horror movies to watch. Though I'm not sure if I'll be able to sit down for 4 movies in a row in one day (I'll probably want to surf the net or play a video game after 2), I bet I'll have some time that weekend to polish off what I don't watch on Christmas Day.

"African-American" Friday Madness!

For everyone wondering about the title, I figured I should address it right off the bat. I feel that "Black" Friday is way too racist and have since changed it to "African-American" Friday to be more PC, despite the fact that "Black" is the term for a business' profit, not the color of anybody's skin. But that didn't stop people from calling out black holes as racist. Plus, Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream where he envisioned a world where black people can stand side-by-side with white people at Wal-Marts across the nation at 5 AM, acting like jerks and spending money frivolously just like us whities! Plus, as it was pointed out to me, Sears' Black Friday commercials had nothing but black people in them. Equality indeed. I'm just wondering if Sears still sells those swank Cliff Huxtable sweaters.

Thunderbirds Are GO!!

Well hello there, Mr. and/or Mrs. Internet American. Didn't see you sitting there, in front of your keyboard and all. Anyways, if you're reading this, what are you doing? Go do something more productive with your life! Don't end up a bitter recluse like me!

OK now, if you're STILL reading this, then welcome to the Official Unofficial Blog of yours truly, Ryan. If you know me, then consider yourself scarred for life. If you don't, then here's the gist: My buddy Chase started up a blog for our gaming group, The Veterans of a Thousand Midnights (V1kM for short). He went all out with feeds, Twitter linkability and a bunch of other stuff that's kinda over my head, despite being pretty adept with technology myself. But since I've kinda stepped back from the gaming aspect and settled back into my routine of self-abuse and misanthropy, I figured "Why not have my own blog?" Hell, being self-abusive and misanthropic are two of the prerequisites of being a quote unquote "blogger"! So while I still plan on being involved on the V1kM blog, this will be my playground for everything else that goes through my scatterbrain.

And what do you expect, you might ask? Well...I'm not 100% sure yet. Despite having a few blogs on LiveJournal back in the day as well as MySpace, I got pretty bored with them within a few weeks once I realized how boring my life really was. But I figure there's enough things or, more importantly, people on the Internet to ridicule to warrant some content. Other than that, expect plenty of reviews, rants, raves and plenty of other things that start with the letter "R". You know, like my name. After working out the initial kinks, expect a couple of Year End Asstravaganzas. I have a decent Year End list for Movies and a ridiculous list for Music planned. But after that, who knows? I got a whole 'nother year to waste. Only as opposed to this year, you'll get real-time updates as to how I'm wasting it! Lucky you!

So, if you're reading this (STILL? REALLY? You have the constitution of a goddamn champion!), then you obviously know how to get here. Whenever I update my blog, it should update my Twitter, which in turn updates my Facebook and MySpace updates (though MySpace is all but dead to me), so really everyone I know and plenty of people I don't have no excuse NOT to be reading this. You know, unless you don't care. Coming from someone as apathetic as myself, I kinda have to take that as a legitimate excuse.

NASH OUT!