Friday, January 19, 2007

The 2006 Davie Awards

Looking back at last year's awards, there were some trends that continued into 2006. This past year saw an even stronger movie crop than 2005, and there was a handful of movies I didn't get a chance to see that, from the look of them, had a good chance of making the list. Another thing that continued from 2005 was the presence of several good albums, but as in '05, there wasn't really one dominant, extraordinary CD. There also wasn't a huge number of video games that appealed to me, although video games are the group that suffer the most from time constraints. Games require such a bigger investment of time to play through and enjoy them thoroughly, so there's a much smaller selection to choose from. This is also where I'll put my disclaimer in that I don't own a Wii, so don't expect to see Wii Sports or Twilight Princess under the Best Video Games category, as my experience with both games was limited. But without further ado, I present to you the probably much-overhyped and very late 2006 Davie Awards:


Movies:


As I said before, there was a slew of great movies this year, but The Fountain really stood out among the rest. You could arrange the likes of The Prestige, The Departed, Casino Royale, or Stranger than Fiction in whatever order you'd like, as they're all exceptional movies. I thought Children of Men was fantastic and it was a clear-cut second place over the others.



Biggest Let Down: Snakes on a Plane
Runners-Up: Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit
Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, Miami Vice

I still think Snakes was really, really stupid. Borat was okay, but like Snakes, it too was overly hyped. I love Michael Mann's films, but Miami Vice suffered too much from a boring storyline.



Music:



A strong group of albums this year as well. None of them quite stood out to me as much as 10,000 Days. Tool bucked the trend of established bands releasing sub-par albums. While not quite as strong as their two previous works, it was still a fantastic CD.



Top Ten Albums
  1. Tool - 10,000 Days
  2. Muse - Black Holes & Revelations
  3. Johnny Cash - American V: A Hundred Highways
  4. The Killers - Sam's Town
  5. Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
  6. Beck - The Information
  7. Neil Young - Live at the Fillmore East
  8. David Gilmour - On An Island
  9. BT - This Binary Universe
  10. Tom Waits - Orphans, Bawlers, Brawlers, and Bastards



The movie would not have worked without the wonderful soundtrack from Clint Mansell. After the Requiem For a Dream OST and now this, he's making quite an impression.


Biggest Let Down: Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Runners-Up: Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist, Incubus - Light Hand Grenades,
Audioslave - Revelations

I expected more from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke's first solo album than what amounted to a short, minimalist electronica album. I had reserved expectations for the new Deftones, Audioslave, and Incubus, as all three bands seem to be on the decline as far as quality goes, and sadly my fears were realized in two mediocre albums. The Eraser is certainly the best album of the four, but also the one I had the most hope for. Light Hand Grenades just sucks.


Best Concert: Nine Inch Nails in Indianapolis
Runners-Up: Tool in Columbus, Nine Inch Nails in Cincinnati, Alice in Chains in Cleveland

It will be pretty difficult for a concert to top Nine Inch Nails July 3rd at the Verizon Ampitheater in Indianapolis. Doug and I were about three rows from the front of a jam-packed pit. The crowd was so amazing that it drew praise from the normally reserved Trent Reznor. The set list was almost as good as it could have been and the band played with reckless abandon. There was some stiff competition from Tool, Alice in Chains, and the first NIN concert, all of which were awesome shows.



Video Games


Company of Heroes was the runaway hit this year. Not only was the single-player campaign good but Doug and I have had a blast over the LAN. Half-Life 2: Episode 1 moved the franchise's story along nicely and set the stage for what should be a fantastic game in Episode 2. Lego Star Wars II was the other big hit this year.



Television:


Best TV Show: The Office
Runners-Up: Scrubs, Top Gear, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, My Name Is Earl,
Late Night with Conan O'Brien

It's pretty obvious that I think NBC is doing something right, as every show but the hilarious British series Top Gear is from the network. The Office continues to be the best show on television and the show is sandwiched between two other great comedies NBC's Thursday nights, My Name Is Earl and the resurrected Scrubs. The ill fated Studio 60 was surprisingly clever; it's not normally the type of show I'd watch. Conan is still the funniest person on television.



Sports:


Most Disappointing Sports Event/Moment: Bengals' mediocre season
Runners-Up: Steelers win the Super Bowl, Rick Franklin loses UFC Middleweight title, U.S. World Cup team fails to win a game, UC's basketball team is robbed of an NCAA tournament berth

The failure of the Bengals to live up to the expectations set last year by claiming the AFC North title was easily the most disappointing aspect of sports this past year. Watching the Steelers march through the playoffs and win the Super Bowl was a close second, as was seeing Rich Franklin get picked apart by Anderson Silva.



Best Sports Event/Moment: The (continued) Rise of the Ultimate Fighting Championship
Runners-Up: Georges St. Pierre wins UFC Welterweight title, UC upsets undefeated Rutgers

Obviously it was a lot easier to think of disappoints in sports this year than things that went right. It has been great to see the continued rise in the popularity of the UFC, and of MMA sports in general. Things are still looking up going into 2007, with some landmark names coming to the UFC, and more Pride Fighting events in the U.S.



Alright, well I'm sure we're all glad that's finally over. Here's to 2007!



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