Genres & Judgments: The Best of 2009

This is late, very late, so big apologies if any of you were actually waiting for it. I'm hoping my insane amount of technical problems from the year, especially the last two months, are behind me and I can post with more frequency as in September and October.

What follows are my picks for the album, comic book, tv series, novel and film of 2009.

Album of the Year
Yonder Is the Clock - The Felice Brothers [Team Love Records]
I don't really listen to a lot of new music any more (most of the music I discovered this year came out before 2009 when I looked back), which I suppose is why I enjoy the brothers' Felice so much -- their sound is largely of a century past. But to write them off as merely a folk/rock act sells them too short. This is not a bunch of guys that tried to capitalize on the O, Brother fad from a few years back. These boys live it on the road with accordion, washboard and fiddle in tow. They even have an album available for purchase only at their live shows that was recorded on a two-track in a chicken coop.
Unlike a lot of contemporary folk, hailing from the Catskills as opposed to Appalachia or the Bayou gives them a distinctly unique sensibility to that old-timey sound. With song subjects featuring the star of Bethlehem, sweeping porters and not one, but two songs about chickens on Yonder, they place you in a long-lost mindset where Honus Wagner and the steam engine ruled the land. But then they'll throw in a reference to Adderall, and suddenly you're transplanted to the now via the past.
In short, Yonder Is The Clock is a remarkable musical achievement.

Mainstream Comic Series of the Year
The Invincible Iron Man - Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca [Marvel Comics]
I've had to take a hiatus from comics this year due to my finances, but this Iron Man comic was the hardest one to give up, not to mention the last. What Fraction has done to a character conveniently pushed into the spotlight by an excellent movie is impressive. Tearing him down from the heights of Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and making you care each step of the way was no small task. All it's done is make me more excited for the coming sequel film as well as care about Iron Man, which I certainly did not before this series.
Also, it's nice to see that my prediction of Fraction becoming the next big thing in comics is firmly cemented 3 and a half years after the fact. It's going to be a hard task not picking up the new Casanova issues about to hit shelves.


Independent Comic Series of the Year
Criminal - Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips [Icon/Marvel Comics]
While I did eventually force myself to give up The Invincible Iron Man, I haven't done so with Criminal. It's the only monthly I CANNOT put down. In part because of the unparalleled level of crime fiction you get in each issue (it's my favorite genre, so I look for it in all mediums; nothing is consistently better), but also because of the extras included in the back pages. The trades don't include these essays on the best film, comics and novels that crime fiction is included in, so Brubaker and Phillips have ingeniously forced my hand.
The best news is that the mini series format shows no signs of slowing down, and allows for new readers to jump in with a new storyline. If you do that, make sure you visit the previous stops in the Criminal-verse.

Television Series of the Year
Battlestar Galactica - Season 4.5 [SciFi Channel]
This was a tough decision, a testament to just how good some shows have become, but ultimately I have to give it to BSG. The finale may not have been perfect, but damn was it close. Easily the best science fiction show ever forged, it accomplished exquisite social commentary in a post-9/11 world on religion, the role of the military and government, and the significance of humanity, among other topics, while never losing an ounce of entertainment value.
In a roundabout way, it will live on through Caprica, a prequel series that will begin later this month. Its pilot was strong and showed promise as a worthy successor to one of the greatest television series ever made.

Novel of the Year
My Dead Body - Charlie Huston [Del Ray]
The fifth and presumably final chapter in the Joe Pitt Casebooks, Huston's vampire-noir series, came out late this year in deliciously bloody fashion. Huston is far and away my favorite writer right now, so I'm majorly biased here.
This series is about a litany of colorful vampire clans battling for territory and general survival in New York City with the lone wolf Joe Pitt caught in the middle of all them, creating havoc more or less in the name of love. Unlike some of the more popular vampire stories out there right now, Huston tackles the need for feeding, the science of vampirism and even AIDS head-on. But he doesn't lose sight of love, even amid a hail of bullets and double-crosses.
Many people seem to classify him as a prose Tarantino, a description with some merit, and before seeing Inglourious Basterds this year, I had sorta ignored. To me, Huston is like Cormac McCarthy with a genre flair. He embraces horror, science fiction and violence with much more ease than what I've seen in my limited exposure to McCarthy but still is able to evoke the same resonance with an outstanding individual voice and flow of words.
My Dead Body will probably be the last installment, but it concludes inconspicuously. I wouldn't be surprised to see more tales emerge from this universe if it ever gets captured on film.

Films of the Year
Star Trek - J.J. Abrams [Paramount Pictures]
and
Inglourious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino [Universal Studios]
I've been trying to pick between these two for a couple of months now, and I just can't. Together, they filled all my requirements from a movie. Star Trek was the thrilling, yet wondrously crafted popcorn movie that made you want another installment. Basterds was a full-blown cinematic masterpiece that got better the more days went by. Both were made by directors who are at the top of their game, yet will probably only get better. The combination made for a superb year.

The Rest of 2009's Top Films:
3. District 9 - read my review here (scroll down)
4. The Brothers Bloom
5. Thirst
6. Taken - honorably mentioned in my most-underrated list
7. Anvil: The Story of Anvil
8. Watchmen
9. Avatar - read my review here
10. Up

2009-Released Films I Didn't See, But Wanted To:
Moon
The Road
Sugar
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Public Enemies
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
State of Play


2009's In-Theater Experience Shit List:1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
2. Year One
3. Terminator Salvation

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While I'm always hoping for something new and unexpected, I am confident that the contenders for next year's list will include Iron Man 2, Vampire Weekend's Contra, and Mad Men - Season 4.

Got other ideas on what to look out for next year? Tell me in the comments.

With that, bring on 2010!

Raves: Charlie Huston's Twitter Feed

Thought I'd let all of you out there know about Charlie Huston's latest Twitter experiment. If you're unaware, the novelist/comic scribe periodically uses Twitter as a means to release an original story (I'm not exactly sure what to call it -- novella and short story don't seem entirely appropriate) that he began on June 28th. Recently, he posted a bunch of 140-character sets at once to finish it up. For the last story, he did a single tweet almost daily. I suspect it'll be a little while until he starts another, but I can't wait until he does.

Just go to his Twitter page, click on MORE until you can't any longer, and start reading up. Definitely the most interesting use of Twitter I've heard of.

Free crime fiction. Thank you, sir.

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Also, the good folks at Amazon sent me Huston's newest novel, My Dead Body, to me this week. It's the final Joe Pitt Casebook, so I want to savor it and have been waiting until I'm not exhausted before starting it. Look for a review soon.

Genres & Judgments - The Overexposure and Rebirth of the Vampire

Vampires. If you haven't noticed (and how haven't you?), they're everywhere as of late. The hysteria surrounding the Harry Potter books has largely been replaced with the feverish furor regarding the Twilight series in the literary market, while television and Hollywood have quickly jumped on the bandwagon releasing hastily constructed adaptations and cheap knockoffs. In sum, there's a lot of bloodsuckers running around. Some are undeniably entertaining, while most of the others suck (yes, I went there). The following is a review of some of the more prevalent examples.

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Since Twilight (2005) is the most popular of the recent vamp stories, I'll start there. I've not read any of Stephenie Meyer's books, but I've seen the first movie (from 2008), which was more than enough for me. Based on accounts from friends and coworkers who have read it, the movie was not nearly as good as the book. Never heard that one before. Based on my amazing ability to sit through crappy movies, I'm just trying to figure out how there was a good story to work with in the first place.
Quick plot synopsis for those who have not experienced either: new girl comes to town, meets broody cute guy, turns out he's a vampire, guy has the hots for her, naughty vamps come to down, think it's weird for nice vamps to not eat human girl, they decide to kill her for fun, the naughty ones are eventually stopped by the nice ones. Also, there is no sex in between the commas.
Not that you need sex in a vampire story, since one of the initial allusions in vampire fiction was the chomping of the neck was used as a replacement for sex in more antiquated times. However, since the nice vampires only eat dirty animals in lieu of tasty people, any sexual chemistry is pretty much thrown out the window. Instead, there's just a lot of extended eye contact sprinkled with a little smooching.
Jonny watching that for 120 minutes = yawn.
Part of this can also be argued as one of the ways Meyer has turned the vampire mythos on its head. As far as I can tell, most of what constitutes as rewriting the rules of the vampire is same thing as ignoring everything that makes a vampire a vampire in the first place. Besides the no human blood drinking, there's also no need to avoid sunlight and there are no fangs.
The Twilight vampires cannot be killed by direct sunlight. No, the only reason they stay out of the sun is because when it does hit their skin, they go all sparkly on you. This actually didn't bother me. At least there's still a reason for them not do go out in the sun; otherwise, they'd stick out too much. I find it lame because there's now one less way to kill them, but it could be worse.
What's worse is that they don't have fangs. This is where the movie completely lost me. Not once do they show a set a fangs. I can understand (and completely dislike) the fact that the nice vamps don't drink human blood. But they should still have retractable canine teeth. How else were they blood-sucking demons in the first place?

Thankfully, the vampires of HBO's True Blood (2008) most certainly do possess fangs. They use them to great effect, too, signifying a moment of lustfulness or just plain feeding time.
There's lots of other things to like about the show too. They use the case of the vampire to explore modern American ideals regarding religion, homosexuality and small-town existence, among other things. It's these subjects, in addition to the nudity and language, that make this a more adult experience rather than the largely empty, teenage-romance landscape of the Twilight books.
The second season of the show wrapped up recently, and while it began more interestingly than season one's fairly basic murder-mystery plot, it failed to pack the oomph of originality that I was hoping for when all was said and done. The rounding of vampire Eric's character and Jason Stackhouse's experience amongst the anti-vampire church were mostly excellently done, but the season's largest arc left me lacking. The blonde, superpowered girl and her vampire boyfriend are forced to stop a god-like being from enacting Armageddon? Where ever do you get your ideas, True Blood writing room?
Despite that redundant plotline, True Blood has become a must-watch show for me. It's not in the upper echelon yet, but it could be someday if they keep up the quality.

Next comes a show I doubt I will ever force myself to watch again, The Vampire Diaries (2009), aka Twilight: The TV Show.
Truth be told, I was expecting this show to be udder shit. It was better than I was expecting, but still completely uninteresting to me. If you like Twilight, you'll probably be satisfied with it, as it's clearly mining separate yet similar material (it's also based on a series of books).
Quick plot synopsis for those of you not brave enough to watch: broody, cute, vampire guy moves to town, meets newly-parentless girl, guy has the hots for her since she looks like his ex, turns out he has an naughty vampire brother who doesn't understand why he doesn't eat humans, they fight about it.
See how they mixed things up? The vampire moved into town. Copyright infringement averted.
Hard to say after only one episode if there'll be much nice vampire/teenage girl boning down the line, but the main vamp can stroll around in the daytime too, only it's because of a magic ring, further distancing it into the realm of originality. Writer's room of The Vampire Diaries, where ever do you get your ideas?

One other problem I have with all these three examples is the ancient vampire going head over heels for the teenage girl. Sure, all us fellas have a little Kip Winger in us, but have you actually spoken with a 17-year-old since you were 17? I have over a decade on that age and I have a bit of hard time understanding what their thought process is, so how the hell are 100-year-old guys supposed to look at them with undying love instead of rolling their eyes every few seconds? Oh, right, they remind them of an old flame. I guess growing up in a world without Chris Hansen makes it okay to go through a mid-life crisis, essentially engaging in pedophile behavior. I suspect these stories are going to create a pronounced divide of expectations between tween girls and boys over the next few years as they mosey on through high school. See, while little Jenny is envisioning the handsome boy who has superior intellect and who would rather wait, little Jimmy has been streaming Anal Princesses 23 and is going to come to the table with a completely different set of expectations. But, I digress...
So, there's plenty not to like about all these vampires on the screen. Which is why I read things.

Flying somewhat under the radar was the June release of The Strain (2009), part one in a trilogy from acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro and novelist Chuck Hogan.
The Strain is also guilty of delivering some rather run-of-the-mill story conventions, however, these vampires are anything but cuddly.
I know nothing of Mr. Hogan and his work, but I'm arbitrarily blaming what I didn't like about this novel on him, because knowing what I know about del Toro, his contributions are clear, at least in my mind.
The ancient lineage of the Vampyre? del Toro. The Jerry Bruckheimer-like formula to get me to care about characters I didn't want in the book in the first place? Hogan. The sage old slayer with his encyclopedic mind? del Toro. The mind-numbing dull, C.S.I. hackery? Hogan. The thing that isn't a fang, but way worse that these vampires have? del Toro. The rats? Well, that one could go either way, but it was definitely cool.
These vampires are scary. In fact, they are like no vampire you've ever heard of before. Like Twilight, these ones don't have fangs. Unlike Twilight, they have something much, much worse. This book is seriously scary when it chooses to be.
The novel clocks in at about 4oo pages, and maybe only a quarter of it is actually good. But the good SO out-ways the bad here, that I'm giving it a light recommendation.

Unfortunately for all these other recent vampire stories, I read Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt Casebooks before any of them came out. Book five in the series, My Dead Body, is scheduled to arrive in stores before the year is over, and you can be damn sure I'll have a review up when it does. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and check out the others in the series, starting with Already Dead (2005). These are hands down the best vampire stories I've ever been exposed to, and because they're more modern noir than anything else, they are unlike anything vampire you've seen as well. To tease just a bit more, the inscription inside book three is made out to "Mr. Chandler and Mr. Stoker," the masters of the detective novel and vampire novel, respectively. He honors their work admirably, to say the least.

So, one can only hope that Twilight films get more interesting, that True Blood continues to embrace it's ability to mirror American society, that The Vampire Diaries find an original thought, and that the sequels to The Strain tighten up and stop overestimating our interest in the minute science of inane subjects. If some of that happens, we won't look at vampires as the overexposed monsters that they are in danger of becoming, but instead as some of the more enjoyable fiction of this era.

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Blood-Sucker Link of the Week:

Twilight for boys. [via Best Week Ever]

Maybe little Jimmy will be downloading this as well.

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Finally, the song of the week.

"Devil Town" by Bright Eyes, Noise Floor (2006)
A really good cover of the Daniel Johnston song. His original is much more haunting, especially if you know anything about him. This version is a bit more accessible to the masses, however, which is why I'm sharing this one. Gotta give another shout-out to Friday Night Lights (the TV show) for turning me on to it.

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Coming Up Next Week:

• I'll be catching up with a slew of movies (including The Yakuza, finally!) after taking two weeks to post this entry, most of which I'd finished a while back (last week's migraine was an evil thing).
• On the Netflix list, I've got The Night of the Hunter and Two Men in Town en route.
• The Mad Men feature I mentioned last time will have to wait a week, mainly because I thought it was a bit too forced to be included in the vampire column and this one was going on a tad long as it was.