Positive Vibrations

(FX's Louie; the Soft Boys)

I have several issues that I'm trying to either resolve completely or resolve to myself at the moment (including the excessive use of "I" to start off posts). A few are certain inabilities that are in extreme need to be corrected in some capacity - my struggle to finish any project or work I embark on at a reasonable rate, my internal necessity to put every pressure and stress inducing-idea I can think of on myself at one time, etc. - but it takes time and space to do this, along with realizing that some issues you have with yourself cannot be fixed, and one has to be at peace with that idea.

I talked a couple of weeks ago about getting older and the newfound struggles it brings, along with the new discovery of ideas of growing up and accepting more responsibilities that causes an immediate struggle between heart and brain. As humans, we have an innate need to satisfy our heart, and the idea of only being able to successfully fill either the heart or brain's needs without keeping both happy is a struggle that few of us have embraced and succeeded against at this point in our lives, unless you're reading this and are not a twenty-something who can't seem to dig out the answers like you were able to before new pressures arose.

The most enjoyable pastime for me this summer has been one that I found to be a common thread between my youth and my time as an adult: listening to, and reviewing, the ever-increasing and ever-diversifying (although at a slower rate than ever before, seemingly) world of music. The 400 album project is over 20% done, which makes it one of the best and more timely progressions I've made in years, the other being cohesively determining this to be the greatest review of any album ever written.

My mother sends me encouraging emails sometimes and she'd probably be a little bit upset if I were to share the ever-so private contents of those, but this week's encouraging email was a little different than most. Enclosed were words that attended the most urgent of matters to my mental health and were more helpful than ever before, and I found myself satisfied heart-wise. However, to satisfy my brain as well, I'll need to return, re-read the email a few times, research the general ideas of improvement, apply them, and then analyze to see if they've improved my own mental health. Writing this made it easy enough for me to see why I focus so much on helping my heart while ignoring the necessities of my head.

Most of this has been written at the extremely productive and intelligent thought-inducing hour of 1 AM with the impending doom of waking up in less than seven hours to attend to the mostly heart-based needs of children that finished preschool more recently than you finished watching Fargo. My intent for these posts is for them to be the vaguely cohesive-sounding thoughts of someone growing up, finding the fun in being serious, and understanding the appeal in not leaving your apartment because you can't leave a book like Shotgun Lovesongs. Sometimes you need to be at peace with who you need to be in that moment, and if not, you'll get there eventually. Yeezy season approaching.

• In Appreciation Of launched this week, with my friends Harrison and Brian making several contributions. Check us out and follow us on Twitter at @IPOblog.
• My first project is to do a musical review of the first few months of 2014, which should be a fairly easy thing to do, considering the speed of high-quality releases in 2014 has sputtered along at the pace of a '95 Geo. The long-term project: the top 10 albums of every year of my life from 1993 to 2014, once a week for 22 weeks. That will be starting on June 9th, while at the beach. This is also a terrible idea that you should read.
• Summer projects update: music (83/400), film (8/100), TV (3/50), books (6/25). Welp.
• Speaking of Shotgun Lovesongs, it's the best novel of 2014 thus far (although I'll be reading The Invention of Wings in Florida next week to see if it takes the title). If you like small-town America and musicians that are very obviously inspired by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, you should check it out immediately.
• Best eat of the month: hot whiting filet with white bread, pickles, baked beans, and sweet corn at Bolton's Spicy Chicken and Fish in East Nashville. 8.7/10.
• FREE MUSIC FRIDAY, from JL and I: "Big Whip."

I was maimed by rock and roll,

W. E. Warren

A Life of Possibilities

(1979's Manhattan; the Dismemberment Plan)

One of the hardest realizations of growing older - that is, hitting your senior year in college and entering your first mid-mid-life crisis - is that you aren't special at very many things. I came to terms with this a while ago, but the realization of being exceptionally good at a very slight few things, none of which are focusing on any one activity ever, is kind of disappointing in some way.

The categories/things that I consider myself to have legitimately exceptional abilities and potential in are not that important to my future (for instance, my ability to listen to music, analyze it for deeper meaning, and form an opinion rapidly and fluently is nice to have, but can I use that in a classroom?), but they do open doors in some fashion. Regardless, being in a season of change and realizing that you aren't the smartest one in the room is a challenge.

My parents have done an amazing job over the last few months of preparing me for the idea of post-college, a world where it becomes increasingly likely day by day that I won't immediately have a job in the field that I want a job in. Working in an office isn't the worst thing ever, either; there are plenty of opportunities for me to succeed in that environment. Life is so much more than my career, however; life represents a wild, colorful field full of possibilities, open doors, and an immeasurable amount of daily opportunities. To explore these opportunities, I have to first realize the innate self-worth deep inside me.

On a personal level, the amount of daily struggles I face in finding self-importance is high, and it fluctuates along with my mood. It took 20+ years to understand that bipolar disorder is a very real thing and that I'm affected with it and by it. If nothing else, I finally have an answer for why my moods can change quickly and why depression and anxiety have been such a large part of my life for so long.

The biggest challenge and struggle in finding self-importance is realizing your own self-importance, in that you, as a person, were created to make an impact in others' lives. It's hard to realize this from time to time (especially in high school, where the amount of real, legitimate friends I had by the end of my junior year was in single digits), but we are here for a reason. Far too often, I take this idea for granted, because there are days when I feel like the smallest cog in the grand machine. How could I possibly affect lives on a large scale? Is what I'm doing important? Am I important?

The answer to all of these is quite simple, even if I have trouble believing it some days: of course I'm important. Of course what I'm doing is important. Potentially, whether through teaching or a different type of work, I can affect lives on a greater scale than in a small room of smaller people. Does it take me longer to realize this than it probably does for you? Probably. However, I have been given the opportunity to seek a life of possibilities; it is my choice to seek out mine and your choice to find yours. 

• I have now reached the "college angst" portion of my life, where some of my best friends are moving away and I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. Chances are that you, too, will go through this at some point if you are my age or younger. Along with praying on it, which is my recommended action for those who see prayer as important as I do, two albums that I love madly and deeply that speak eloquently on this subject are Emergency & I by the Dismemberment Plan, along with the Meadowlands by the Wrens. Both of these albums are on Spotify.
• In Appreciation Of goes live this week with a few different posts: an introduction, an essential albums list, and everything I found wrong with The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I plan on posting there more frequently than I will on here, simply because writing is an effective outlet of my free time and I'd love to do it as much as possible if you're willing to read.
• Go follow @YJTmusic on Twitter. JL and I will be posting more stuff this week. Expect more releases this summer, because we'll both have a fair amount of free time, for the most part.
• I plan on listening to at least 400 albums for the first time this summer. I'm at 20 now. This will go until the end of August. Keep up with my progress here on RateYourMusic, where I'll be rating each one.
• A shortlist of projects for the summer: 400 albums (21/400 done), 100 movies (5/100), 50 seasons of TV (2/50), 25 books (1/25). Maybe we'll just extend this to the rest of the year.

My mind is filled with radio cures,

Will

American Weekend

(2002's Punch-Drunk Love; song)

Think about how this semester has gone for you. If you were asked to describe it in a few words, what would you describe it as? (Forever and always "This Boy is Exhausted" by the Wrens.) Would you look back on how your schedule was the schedule from hell or how you met many new people, forged new friendships, saw your two most important relationships become deeper and stronger, and overall felt like you had improved on your fall semester in many a way?

That's how I'm choosing to look back on the toughest semester of my life. Combining 19 hours of classes with working part-time, doing ministry work, and trying to cobble together something vaguely resembling a social life while juggling many other things I like to do was never going to work altogether, and it wasn't long before I felt like I was being forced to drop something.

My social presence went away first. While it wasn't very tragic because I'm an introvert and there are some days where other people are a major annoyance, it was still unfortunate, because I do like seeing people that I don't see every day. Writing letters is one of my best forms of communication, but it isn't very realistic to be doing that during the school year. (Also, Facebook messaging is, but I was embarrassed to admit it let's forget I ever wrote this run-on sentence.)

As the semester ran on, I saw my commitments dwindling and my stress level increasing. I failed to set up consistent discipleship times with the people I lead Bible study with this semester and I've felt terrible about it for months. I went weeks without speaking to some of my best friends. I knew that it would end, but I felt wrapped up in the greater mystery of finals week and what impact it would have on my grades. It was impossible to remove myself from my academic work.

While it has indeed been great for my productivity and efficiency levels (they've never been higher), I've had a lot of trouble in rejoicing in the Lord at times this semester. It has indeed been hard, but I took some time this morning to think about things that Jesus has blessed me with this semester, and as always, it was way more than I could remember or ever imagine.

He gave me opportunities to meet new people that I consider really wonderful people over the last couple of months. He's blessed me with the ability to play basketball (decently!) for most weekdays over the last few weeks. I have been given the opportunity to work with Sacred Heart's summer camp after a previous opportunity fell through, which I attribute to Him, as always.

It's been a wild and weird semester, and I want to thank anyone reading this for taking the journey with me, either through text or in person. Thanks to everyone for the most memorable four months of my life, and I hope I'm still here to get to do it all over again in August. I'll have consistent updates throughout the summer, and hopefully my life is still occasionally entertaining enough to write about it.

• I don't have some sort of phenomenal opening sentence, because it's hard for me to jump around a really fun fact for very long: I saw Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform on Saturday. It was one of the greatest three-hour experiences that I'll ever have in life and I would gladly do it all over again, especially outdoors in a city I've completely come around on in the last year in Atlanta. I'll go more in-depth on the show on my other blog soon, but just know that it was pretty freaking incredible.
• Because the rate of good new releases in the music world has slowed down this year (barring a better/more notable back half of the year, this is shaping up to be two straight "meh" musical years with a couple great albums and nothing more. Come through for me, Swans!), this month's playlist is made up entirely of songs that are from 2010 or earlier (the last great year in music). A lot of it is older stuff that I listened to a lot in high school and recently revisited/wanted to make sure they were known by more people I associate with. Here is your May playlist.
• I've finally decided what I would like to write on/"appreciate" for my other site, In Appreciation Of. It's a sort of revisionist history in terms of looking back on recent years and determining what the real best releases were from those years after I've had substantial time to revisit albums I had distinct first opinions on. Unfortunately, it's finals time and I have six exams, so this will take a while to do. Expect something to be posted within two weeks. I'm forcing myself to leave room for error. This is really embarrassing.
• I haven't had time to watch very many films from 2014, but I feel safe in saying that Under the Skin is your winner so far. I'm only recommending this to people that I know are fine with films that require deep thought. If not, stay away. If so, hurry up and see it.
• This is a work in progress, but I'll throw it at you anyway. There's but a week left in finals and summer is on the horizon. Here's a playlist to celebrate with some of my favorite summer-tinged recordings.
• I have six exams over the next week. If you need to get in touch with me, I likely won't be responding in a manner as efficient as I would like, so this is my apology.

That illiterate light is with us every night,

Will

Lights Out

(1984's Paris, Texas; song here)

(this post includes a long feature on twenty albums that have shaped my life in some way; that list can be found after the page break)

If there has been one discovery I've made during this learning experience of a semester, it's that there's only so many things in life you can truly enjoy. It's important to stop, take time to enjoy those things, and realize that you're in a pretty lucky position to be able to enjoy what you love just by being alive in that very moment on this planet.

To the surprise of exactly no one ever, I was playing basketball yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon. If you know me at all, you know that basketball is perhaps my favorite activity in this world other than eating, and it's something I enjoy with a deep and fierce passion. It's an outlet for me to work off frustration and then realize that I'm still having fun playing a sport I love.

After finishing up by making a few last shots, I took time to sit down on the back of my car and look out at what surrounded me. The place that I play at is in the middle of Fort Sanders, surrounded by concrete hospitals and deteriorating houses that haven't been renovated in decades. It's not the most beautiful place for a person to enjoy the sights, but sometimes you have to adjust your settings to get the highest amount of happiness out of it.

As I sat down, I started thinking about how utterly insane it was that God was allowing me to do more than a few things Wednesday afternoon. Despite how flawed I am, God loves me (and you!) enough to give me the ability to breathe, to run, to shoot, to see, to love, to feel, and to do so many things in life that I completely don't deserve to do. After blowing my own mind for a minute, I realized again that the best thing I can do in life is bring glory to someone who gives me the opportunity every day to do an incredible range of things despite doing nothing on my own end to deserve these abilities. God is pretty great, you guys.

Be Good

(2013's Her; song here)


(side note: I was asked to write something this week, so here it is. I'll have something better up soon.)

This week, I was advised twice by two different people at UT for two different focuses of my studies. One was from a Secondary Education adviser, telling me what steps to take and how to get to the point where I can achieve my aspirations of being a middle/high school English teacher. The other: my English adviser, who did two nice things in telling me to keep pushing forward and by clicking a button to make me eligible to register for classes.

Nothing about the previous paragraph is notable, except for the fact that advising seems to have parallels with other important stretches of life: I come into places expecting/hoping to get in and out quickly, but end up asking every question that could possibly come to mind at that moment to ensure that I'm covered. I've been seeing that occur lately in life with my walk with Christ, my living situation, and much more.

Recently, I had to figure out where I was living for my senior year of college. Very rarely was the idea of finding somewhere to live a stressful situation for me, because I've typically had an idea of where I wanted to live and who I wanted to be with. However, I woke up on Monday without a home for my final undergraduate year and without much positivity or hope for the situation.

On Sunday night, I learned that I'd have to find alternate plans for next year. I would like to say that I'm at the stage of life where I can deal with things like this pretty rationally, but from time to time it doesn't work that way. I frantically tried to get in touch with everyone I knew that didn't already have a steady living situation. For the first time in a long time, I felt truly lost as to what to do.

"Let go and let God" is a saying I've heard many times in my life about anxieties/worries and your relationship with the Lord, but I had never really experienced it until now. For a long time, I had a position of being willing to let him control some things, but I was never able to truly reconcile the idea of giving up my control of my own life. Efficiency is an extremely important thing to me and when I was unable to find an immediate answer to my problem, I had to let go and understand that God had control of what was happening to me.

The situation resolved itself on Monday night, but God showed me in a really powerful way what happens when he's in control of my life. When I finally accepted about midway through Monday that God was going to put me wherever he saw fit, I felt much more relaxed and much less nervous about senior year. I went to the park. I played basketball. (I also played the best basketball of my life, maybe. Tennessee's Doug McDermott. Or at least Steven Pearl.) I felt happier than I had felt in months. Cool things happen when you stop forcing yourself to control and let someone who knows more than you take care of it.

• My CRU playlists haven't been in high demand lately; however, lucky you, I'm dropping TWO NEW ONES today. One is a playlist for April, the other the ten best songs of 2014 (so far, in ascending order).
• Continuing on music, here is the official List of Recommended 2014 Albums (So Far):
• The War on Drugs, Lost in the Dream
• Sun Kil Moon, Benji
• Real Estate, Atlas
• Cloud Nothings, Here and Nowhere Else
• St. Vincent, St. Vincent
• Frankie Cosmos, Zentropy
• Future Islands, Singles
• Review of NCAA Tournament predictions made on this blog: Michigan to Elite 8 (yes), Tennessee to Round of 32 (underestimation! Then again, I didn't expect a game against Mercer), and Florida to win the title (still in play; likely winner).
• We're at the point of the year where the weather is fantastic for a couple weeks and then it becomes hotter than the hottest of hot chicken, so if you like basketball and friends, let me know if you would like to play at THE Fort Sanders Educational Development Center anytime soon.
• Public Shaming Weight Update: since deciding to limit the amount of soft drinks I partake in on March 5 (I'm down to one per week), I've dropped five pounds to 165, which is halfway to my goal of 160. This bullet serves no purpose other than reminding myself to finish the job/win the game/etc.
• In Appreciation Of... will be starting next week. It's been a rough time with creativity/scheduling recently, so the project should get off the ground soon enough. It'll be in full bloom after early May.
• Current project: I did a 20 at 20 for individual songs earlier this year. I'll be unveiling the 20 for 20: Album Edition with the next blog I post on here.
• Currently reading: Baja Oklahoma, by Dan Jenkins.

Where the sun doesn't come down,

Will

Friends of Friends

(frame from 1986's Castle in the Sky, song by Hospitality)

(I have an announcement I'm excited to share! It's a bit further down if you're interested. Also, the essay portion of this is really long because I have a lot to talk about. Apologies.)

It's no secret that a main goal of mine both in life and on this blog is to share ideas and thoughts that make people think. Critical thinking is a skill necessary for any sort of success in life and it's ignored all too often in the American education system today. It's important to work out that muscle so you can then be able to flex it at some point. (Note: my weight room metaphors are not the best, probably because I can count on one hand the amount of times I've worked out ever.)

This time around, I want to try something a little different that's based on an idea a friend of mine lent some time ago. Think back to three months from today's date. You were wallowing in the last days of 2013, possibly still taking final exams or figuring out how you were going to survive Christmas break (me, always). That's not the important point here, though.

Think about all of the people you've met in the last three months. Think about how friendships have changed or what life events have happened or what little events happened that you'll remember for a long time. Lastly, think about this: do you remember, at any point that isn't today or yesterday, why you were so upset at a person or a group of people?

Two really cool things have happened in the last three months (actually, the last eight days), and they weren't events that I would have expected to see in such an important light three months ago. Without being able to see God working in these situations, I can't guarantee that I would have gotten as much out of them as I currently am.

Eight days ago (it's killing me that it's been this long), I saw one of my favorite musical groups, Arcade Fire, play a live concert. I had been excited about this show from the moment my friend Matt and I bought tickets in November. The concert was at the KFC Yum! Center (the Yum! stands for Yum! Brands, an overarching category to which Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, etc. belong) in Louisville, Kentucky, and it was going to be a great time. However, it didn't really hit me that I was going or that the concert was a real thing until the night before when I realized that at that time the next night I'd be at the bottom of a 19,000 seat arena, watching a band I've loved since eighth grade play beautiful music that sounds wonderful when both upbeat and depressed.

I never saw a live concert until I began attending UT. McMinnville's closest major city is Nashville, which is 90 minutes way. I didn't have a car in high school and most shows I really wanted to see had an age limit of 18 and over, so attending those shows was never a possibility. On the occasion that my mom and I both saw that a band we both listened to was coming to Nashville, we never cared enough to make the drive to the overpriced and overhyped Ryman Auditorium to watch them play.

Because of that, I never thought I'd see bands like Arcade Fire in person. Last Thursday evening, though, it became a reality. Matt and I rushed to the general admission area, where we had bought tickets to be on the floor (we also stood in line for nearly four hours, so hey!). Neither of us realized until about a minute after we'd arrived at the floor that we were standing front and (slightly off) center of where Win Butler would be shouting lyrics at us two hours from then.

There were several people I met in line or at the concert that I'll always hold in memory. However, the one I'll always remember most is the guy standing to my right. Tim, a junior at Purdue University, had driven the three hours from West Lafayette to Louisville (note: I originally thought this was much longer, because it feels much longer when you make the drive yourself en route to Chicago), and was visibly excited. I didn't see this guy while I was in line (although I did become friends with the guy behind me and the guy in front of Matt, so I did something right, possibly).

Until Arcade Fire came on, Tim and I discussed life, where we were from, why we listened to Arcade Fire, and why we were who we were. I discovered that Tim was an Industrial Design major (this would fall under the architecture branch at UT) and that he'd be spending his summer in San Diego, interning and living a life that we rarely get the chance to live.

Although not a Christian, Tim was someone I could see myself being really good friends with if for some reason he had chosen to attend UT. He was an incredibly nice person and one of the greatest experiences I may ever have on this planet is the time Arcade Fire made the executive decision to make "Wake Up" their eternal closing song, to which Tim and I screamed out the lyrics with what we had left, exhausted after a long day and a lot of yelling back lyrics at a man also named William (who prefers "Win") with longer hair and better style than I.

As we left, Tim and I hugged and he wished me luck on my exam. Ever since then, I've been wondering every day if we should have traded numbers, agreed to be Facebook friends, or something else of the sort to stay in communication with each other. It's bugged me for over a week now and I've been left wondering if I could have had more conversations with him at a later date, because I want to. I badly wanted to have the ability to impact his life in some form.

Then again, perhaps God brings people into our lives for a short period of time so that they can impact us. When I saw Tim, I didn't see a non-Christian Chicago sports fan that I only talked to initially because it would have been awkward if we were next to each other for five hours and didn't. I saw a guy whose heart is big (although a bit misplaced, considering he's a Blackhawks fan) and who was loving the joy of the moment he was experiencing, surely one of the most incredible experiences he'd had (it's one for me, too).

It's the same reasoning I've been having to apply to people I've met on the basketball court (shoutouts to my new friends JaDarius and Steve). Obviously, I'd like to have opportunities to impact the lives of people I meet every day, and those opportunities will come. However, I think God's teaching me a lesson by having people like Tim teach me things. 

A big theme recently for me has been learning to live in the moment, because I sometimes get lost in the idea of waiting for the future to come. If I don't pay attention to what's happening in front of me, I'm losing valuable opportunities to seek the little joys in life as they come. Tim, for the five hours I knew him, was all about those little joys. The best I can do is use his advice and love those little joys, too.

BULLET POINTS

In which I try to figure out what else is notable from the last three weeks, other than taking six exams in nine days.

• The big announcement I mentioned in the short prologue is this: I'm starting a new blog. I'll still be posting on here, but I like to reserve this for big posts that I want to work my thoughts out in. This new blog is for things that are not that, because 1. I hate Tumblr, 2. They're too long to tweet. I'd also like to cover in greater detail items that would normally be relegated to bullet points on here. It's titled An Appreciation Of... and it will be debuting within the next two or three days, likely with 3,000 words on Lil B's Kevin Durant diss.
• I refuse to make any official bracket predictions until the bracket itself is released, but I'd like to revise some earlier predictions: Michigan (if 2 seed) to the Elite 8, Tennessee (if 11 seed) to Round of 32 (if 12 seed, first round exit).
• It's spring break! Go to the beach, or don't; either way, here's a daylight-themed playlist of sorts that is half-cold and half-fun sunny stuff, like March.
• Lent update: decided to give up soft drinks for this year. Currently going eight days strong after making myself drink a Pepsi to attempt to stay awake on the ride home from Louisville. (It didn't work at all.)
• Six exams in nine days is the new worst thing ever. The closest comparison is having six exams in nine days.
• Spring break plans: watch/play basketball, read, write, watch at least ten movies and a season of TV, etc. Have fun, you guys.

Try pink carnations,

Will

Past Lives

(frame from 1985's The Purple Rose of Cairo, song HERE)

During my junior year of college, I've had several incredible discoveries: the green Superball-that-isn't-a-Superball I covered in December, El Mezcal, True Detective, The Market in downtown Knoxville, any Popeyes location I didn't previously know about, Kazoozles, etc. These all serve different purposes and (along with my walk with Jesus, of course) help keep me sane, especially since half of my life is spent in an existential crisis over misplaced socks.

Making any new discovery is always a delight, whether it's a new television show that you can't stop thinking about (Martin Hart is the Yellow King, by the way) or something as simple as the best junk food you've had since the first time you tried a 3 Musketeers bar. It's rare that you're the first to discover something (unless it's Broad City and everyone discovered it at the same time), but even if it wasn't an original thought, it's still an enjoyable happening.

The best discovery I've made in the last twelve months is not one I made myself. The credit for finding the basketball court at Fort Sanders Public School off 22nd Street goes to a certain person with the first name Matt, and I'm extremely thankful for it. Few things in life for me are as joyful as playing basketball on a sunny afternoon in comfortable weather, and I was able to do that for the first time in 2014 yesterday.

When I'm doing something as simple as throwing a ball at a cylindrical hoop (don't worry! It doesn't go in that often) and finding joy in it, I feel that I'm attacking life with an attitude that feels successful. Choosing to be happy over the most simplistic matters has made life far more entertaining and fun for me over the last year and a slight bit less stressful, because I was tired of worrying about my future and if I'll have a job in three years, anyway.

It's the same joy that allows me to drive home on 40 East from work every day, tired but satisfied in the direction I'm heading. It's a narrow path that I want to walk on, but I plan on finding happiness in the places I go and the things I do. I'm still here, which is a miracle in itself. I get to live each day for a God that loves me (and you and everyone else, despite what some think) no matter how hard I fall, which is the most freeing truth I know. Life is good. (Have I ever been this optimistic in my 20+ years? Can I end an essay on a footnote? Si cela fonctionne, cela fonctionne.)

Academy Awards, and Their Predictions

This is not an original thought, sadly; my friend Brian posted his yesterday and I felt motivated to post mine as a response. I would invite you to watch this Sunday's Academy Awards, because, if predictable, they typically don't fail to entertain and they won't have an abomination of a host like they did last year (if you didn't know, Seth MacFarlane ranks alongside Urban Meyer on the Worst Humans Ever rankings). Here are some predictions. By some, I mean I prognosticated every category, but I'll put the important ones first so you can hit Page Down on your keyboard to avoid the rest. (No dark horses. I work in absolutes; it either is or it isn't. More on that next time.)

Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, for Gravity
Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey, for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, for Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, for 12 Years a Slave
Best Original Screenplay: Spike Jonze, for Her
Best Adapted Screenplay: John Ridley, for 12 Years a Slave
Best Animated Feature: Frozen
Best Foreign Film: The Great Beauty
Best Documentary Feature: The Act of Killing
Best Costume Design: Catherine Martin, for The Great Gatsby
Best Production Design: Catherine Martin and Beverly Dunn, for The Great Gatsby
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, for Gravity
Best Film Editing: Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Singer, for Gravity
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews, for Dallas Buyers Club
Best Original Score: Steven Price, for Gravity
Best Original Song: "Let it Go", from Frozen
Best Sound Editing: Glenn Freemantle, for Gravity
Best Sound Mixing: Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead, and Chris Munro, for Gravity
Best Visual Effects: Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould, for Gravity
Best Animated Short: Get a Horse!
Best Documentary Short: The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Best Live Action Short: The Voorman Problem

Because that's such a large amount of line breaks and text, I'll do the rest of this in bullet points, since I can't think of anything else important enough to cover in paragraph form. (Insert self-deprecating sentence here.)

• I have to cover many minor things here. Because basketball was a theme of this post and because it's the best sport ever, I'll let you in on a not-so-secret secret: barring a major injury, Florida is winning this year's NCAA Tournament. Outstanding defensively, just-good-enough offensively, efficient everywhere, and senior-laden, with one of the best coaches in the game. Because it's the tournament, anything can happen, but putting UF in your Final Four (again, barring an injury or suspension) is one of the safest bets you can make this year.
• Another basketball-but-not-really note: Atlas, the new (and excellent) album by New Jersey rockers Real Estate, is 2014's best summer album to play outdoor basketball to. (Indoor basketball: Illmatic by Nas, as always.) Grab it March 4th when it hits a record store (and internet stores, because 2014) near you. Spotify them HERE.
• I told myself I wouldn't do this, but I literally cannot recommend HBO's True Detective enough. Six episodes in, it's viciously grabbed the title of Best Show on TV that Breaking Bad held for the last three years. If you haven't seen any of this yet, catch up ASAP and watch the last two episodes live or on HBO GO, if possible.
• This is bound to be a somewhat controversial opinion, but if you've seen History's The Bible miniseries from 2013, please do yourself (and my sanity) a favor and skip out on Son of God, hitting theaters on Friday. The makers of the film took the original ten hours of the Bible and cut it down to slightly over two hours, which seems like a blatant and un-Christ-like cash grab to me. Yeah, I get that we're focusing on just the story of Jesus here, but why not just watch the original (albeit pretty forgettable) miniseries that literally aired less than a year ago? Maybe I'm the insane one, but come on, guys.
• Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, which will be far superior to the film discussed in the bullet point above, arrives in theaters on March 7 in limited release, although I doubt we'll see it in Knoxville until a week or two later. Budapest features an ensemble cast with seemingly every Anderson staple ever and looks quite entertaining. Also, if you read this often you know I don't single out a film to shill for very often. Trailer goes HERE.
• I'd like to think I have a friend or two that I've met in college. They're all wonderful people and I love being able to support them in whatever they choose with their summer. Although I still don't know where everyone will be this summer, exactly, I can happily ask you to support a few of my best friends heading to South Africa this summer, whether through monetary means or in prayer/thoughts. Here are their links, and if I forgot someone going, please let me know so I can correct this.
• Three quick predictions, also relating to basketball, because why not: Michigan finishes their season in the Sweet Sixteen, everyone but Jordan Morgan returns for a 2014-15 title run. Tennessee misses the NCAA Tournament with a quarterfinal SEC Tournament loss to (insert incredibly average SEC team here. A&M?), going on to lose at home to (insert A-Sun school here) in the NIT. Small school that you still can't locate on a map makes it to the Sweet Sixteen (a guess: Stephen F. Austin).
• No playlists this time. Just go listen to Real Estate already. Uncle Tupelo, too.

Watching the miles flying by,

Will