I already said a good bit about this weird year in the first post, but I feel as if it's necessary to spit this out while it's still fresh in my mind.
Last Tuesday, I saw Alexander Payne's Nebraska. It's an absolutely brilliant and authentically Midwestern film, featuring characters I could've easily interchanged for certain family members. I highly recommend it. However, that's beside the point of what I'm talking about in this post.
To give some background to the story, Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) and his son, David Grant (Will Forte), agree to take a trip from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska so they can collect a prize Woody believes he has won. The prize? A million dollars, per the letter Woody received in the mail for winning some sort of sweepstakes (yes, it's fake). They face all kinds of adversity throughout this trip, the most of which is Woody drunkenly falling, splitting his forehead open in a hotel in South Dakota.
About 90 minutes into Nebraska, Woody and David are standing on the grounds of Woody's childhood home in Hawthorne, NE. Woody has just taken David, his brother, and his wife on a tour of the house. Woody and David survey the vast, open field ahead of them. David asks his father: "did you ever want to farm like your dad?" Woody, well into his 70s and already demonstrating a considerable issue with hearing, pauses for a moment to think and process.
Woody opens up to let out what may be my favorite and most relatable line of 2013 in film: "I don't remember. It doesn't matter."
What happened over the course of 2013 was nowhere near like what I anticipated happening at the beginning. Any expectation I had was blown away to the point that I legitimately cannot remember what I hoped for out of this year. All I can remember is that the expectations I had were influenced by very different motives than what motivates me now.
Friendships are much different. My walk with Jesus has changed a lot (for the better). Life events were far from what I expected them to be. My summer was the polar opposite of what I expected it to look like in December 2012, and I'm extremely thankful for that. All of this, and I can't remember very much about what I wanted 2013 to look like, because God blew up those plans, inserted His own, and it was way more interesting than what I dreamed up. It's funny, because I've forgotten most of those dreams.
I don't remember. It doesn't matter.
The Five Best Sports Moments of 2013, With Complete and Total Personal Bias
I hate me too.
- 5. The Fake Spike. Also known as "kickstarted the part of the season where Lions fans tricked themselves into being confident."
- 4. The Steal. What a pedestrian caption for one of the most electrifying (and important) plays in basketball last year: "Trey Burke made a dunk in the second half."
- 3. Michael Palardy Redemption Tour.
- 2. Iron Bowl.
- 1. The Shot. A. Basketball, the best game on Earth. B. I miss this in more ways than one (the amount of times I tried to make this shot at Pratt this summer: too many).
- Anything I bought at Prince's Hot Chicken
- Audio-Technica record player
- A $5 blue V-neck from H&M
- Febreze car air freshener
- Both Ben Rector shows
- Any of the seven Detroit Coney Island dogs I ate in four days in July
- Little Caesars (thrice)
- A car
- Garden and Gun magazine
- Mott's Apple Juice
"My yard so big, I got pet deers." - 2 Chainz, "Black Unicorn"
The 51st Best Song of 2013
Kurt Vile, "KV Crimes". As is Brian Cook of the brilliant MGoBlog, I'm one of those people who thinks the Big Lebowski is a substantially deep film. I think Kurt Vile's a lot like the Big Lebowski: you don't really get it the first time and you think it's corny, forgettable, and pointless. Suddenly, you can't stop talking about nothing and everything at the same time, because come on, dude, let's go bowling.
Thing I Bought That I Regretted Immediately
I bought these shorts from American Apparel, because I convinced myself that they weren't "too short" and that they would be acceptable in some form of social gathering. A. They were neither of these. B. I have worn these once and I still had to wear athletic shorts to work that day because they were more appropriate.
The Best Movie I Saw in 2013
Short Term 12. I'm still waiting to put out a full best-of list until I'm able to see Her and The Wolf of Wall Street, but this little indie film blew me away. Brie Larson steals the show as a supervisor at a home for "troubled" teenagers. For anyone planning to work at a school, with children, or in any form of social work at some point, see this immediately.
Ten Other Great Movies I Saw in 2013, in No Order
Nebraska, American Hustle, 12 Years a Slave, All Is Lost, Fruitvale Station, Before Midnight, Frances Ha, The Kings of Summer, Inside Llewyn Davis, Upstream Color
The Best Redbox Rental of 2013
Before Midnight. This film is also home to the Best Scene of 2013. Without revealing too much, Celeste and Jesse have a fight in a hotel room for over 20 minutes, in real time. That doesn't exactly jump off the page, but if you've watched the Before series (Sunrise/Sunset), you understand. Rarely do you get to see a scene like this go for so long and remain so emotionally compelling and taxing. This scene is the culmination of 18 years of work from director Richard Linklater, and how brilliant and precise it is.
Best Show I'm Three Years Behind On
Breaking Bad. 1. Life is hard. 2. The schedule I have makes it absolutely impossible to keep on track with shows I want to watch. I've seen one episode of Parks and Recreation this semester. ONE.
Show I Will Start Watching, Eventually
Mad Men. No promises.
Five Things I Didn't Like in 2013
- Big Sean. The guy's best verse of his career was on the same song as the best verse of the entire year as dropped by Kendrick. Sucks to suck.
- The Duck Dynasty "scandal." Can we really call it a scandal when A. they've already filmed season 4, B. people really shouldn't be surprised anymore by what 70 year old Southern Christians have to say about the marriage debate, and C. people are still going to watch the show regardless of what happens if not more so?
- Anything Seth MacFarlane did, because he's the worst.
- The Purge. Worst execution of a potentially solid premise in years. Worst acting since Hayden Christensen/Jessica Biel's glory days.
- Upper respiratory infections. I HAD TWO OF THESE THIS YEAR WHICH IS TWO MORE THAN ANYONE SHOULD HAVE EVER.
Rembert Explains America
Let me get this out of the way as quickly as possible: I love Grantland. I don't really love Bill Simmons, but I love his vision for the sports + pop culture site he created in 2011. There's brilliant writing, hilarious pieces, and occasionally Simmons will post something that I don't find obnoxiously New England. What ties this site together for me is Rembert Browne, an Atlanta native, Dartmouth graduate, and NYC resident who did this summer what I think we've all wanted to do or still want to do at some point in our lives: road trip the USA and talk about your experiences. Among his best writings from this summer: Burning Man, Detroit, the incredible Essence Festival, and moving. My personal favorite, though, is this epic saga of his trip to Chicago, featuring everything from a traffic citation to the death of a friend, which Rembert handles beautifully, as always. I hope we all get the chance to explain America for ourselves at some point.
Detroit
Look, I honestly tried. I really didn't want to force everyone to read my thoughts on a city that occupies so much of me despite my not living there for any permanent amount of time. I covered most of my feelings on Detroit late this past summer. I tweet and talk and post a lot about this city, once holding a population of 1,800,000+, now of around 700,000. They're bankrupt. It's not a very safe place to be. The police force is undermanned and outgunned. There are 78,000 abandoned buildings as of the most recent count. It's a shell of its former self, and I couldn't be bothered to care. Do I understand the previous facts? Yes. Do I still love this city with a burning passion in 2013 despite what it is? Yes. I will always love Detroit unconditionally because of the impact the city and its people and the family I have there have made on my life. I'll always rush to its defense in conversation. Detroit is where I feel at home, and nothing can change that. And yes, unnamed friend, it is a real city.
The Resurgence of Vampire Weekend
I feel like I need to explain further on my "white people getting over themselves to love Vampire Weekend again" comment from the first part of this installment. Post-Contra (really, even after their first self-titled album), way too many self-ascribed "hipsters" began to see it as cool to dismiss the group as "typical" indie rock and being too deep. Pardon me, but what does that even mean? Vampire Weekend in 2013 have crafted the year's best album and are not just an A-list indie group, but an A-list rock band, and they're there permanently. What a joy it is, too: Contra, VW's second album, sagged and wheezed to the finish, a fairly underwhelming follow-up to the neverending bouncy fun of their first album. During the formation of Modern Vampires of the City, the band seemed to realize they had to change something to be Vampire Weekend again. They did it: an album about growing older and searching for faith is the most listenable and enjoyable album of the year. A-listers, indeed.
2 Chainz
What you see above is not only easily the picture of the year, but also a picture that could've only happened in this weird and wonderful year we call 2013: 2 Chainz, a 36 year old rapper who already bounced out of one forgotten Atlanta rap group to start a now-three year old solo career, is ASCAP's Songwriter of the Year. Thank God for that, because we need rap to be fun in 2013. I'm enjoying the Kendrick vs. Everybody theme of this year as much as anyone, but sometimes you just need comic relief. Who else but Tauheed Epps to deliver it? The man has now made two just-listenable-enough albums that have individual songs with replay values that hang with the best of music, but at this point, he's more than just a rapper. He's a social icon. After Barack's reelection, #2Termz shirts were a real thing. The amount of white kids in schools that yelled "TWO CHAAAAIIIIIINZ" this year was off the charts. Everyone, including your grandparents (even Bob!) knows who 2 Chainz is. What a victory that is, because you don't get someone like this every lifetime.
CRU
Brace yourselves, because this is going to be really sappy. I found out what CRU was on my fourth day of college when the guy who impacted my life the most over the next two years, Grant Minchew, talked about it with me over dinner after getting my name in a survey for a ministry I had no idea about. Ever since then, it's been a two-plus year growing experience in my walk with the Lord, and it has been an amazing and unforgettable ride. My life simply wouldn't be the same without this incredible and Godly group of leaders I get to work and live with. I've made lifelong friendships and the memories of events like Fall Retreat and Rave-o-ween are, of course, too much to handle. My relationship with Christ would not be anywhere near where it is without the influences of this community around me that encourages me to serve and love the people around me. Friends, you're collectively the best.
To use the only term I liked in journalism classes, that puts a --30-- on this year. I'm still working on the Bruce Springsteen Case Study (the wait is because it takes a lot of work me to rank 300+ tracks and to write longforms in general), but that could potentially be done before the New Year. If so, you may see another post on here before 2014. If not, thanks for everything you did for me in 2013, whether you supported me by reading my scattered and sometimes incoherent thoughts on this blog or by being a friend in real life. I don't say it enough, but you guys are great. Thank you.
A fresh wind and bright sky,
Will
