Monday, January 2, 2012

Best of 2011! [Some cool things I viewed multiple times last year] by Erin Irvin



Dreamer/Dubstep
   Skip to 30 seconds in and he gets started.  It’s unbelievable, trust me.

Rose
   If you’re a fan of CG film and Sci-Fi—especially when those two collide—you’ll love this.  It’s worth the 10 minutes.
Rookie Mag
   It’s another brainchild from the brain-child herself, Tavi Gevinson, the young teen fashion follower, who is anything but a Style ‘Rookie’.  Oh, that’s the name of her blog—Style Rookie.)  She started blogging when she was thirteen and soon got swept into the fashion world with interviews in major magazines and invitations to some of the most prestigious fashion shows around the globe.  As if going to high school and her über-popular blog weren’t enough, she also started her own magazine in September!  I love it and check it twice a week.  It has style elements and a design and format that match the energy of her blog, but it’s got all kinds of other stuff, too—movies, music, real life stories, TV…well, just go see for yourself.  Even if you don’t care anything about how you dress, this chick’s story and spirit are a true inspiration.

Better than Skrillex
   It speaks for itself.  Good from the start, but about a minute into it, he really gets going.

Glitch in the Grid
   This is just the trailer (albeit, an awesome trailer) but you should check out the film.

Okay, I can’t believe I’m about to do this but…
“Blow” by Ke$ha
   I never thought I’d be listening to any of her songs more than maybe once by accident or involuntarily—especially not via music video—let alone be putting it on a ‘Best of’ list, but life has a way of forcing you to rethink your sweeping generalizations.  Until I saw this video, Ke$ha annoyed the crap outta me.  I didn’t like her music, lyrics, voice, personality, fashion sense—none of it.  Then “Blow” came along and I found myself LOVING this song and the video and, by extension, however grudgingly, Ke$ha, herself.  Check it out.

While we’re on music videos…
“Sail” by Awolnation
   Seriously can’t get enough of this song or the accompanying video.  So stinkin’ good.

Oh, and also, if you like Bon Iver, you’ll love this.
For Emma (A Capella)
   They did a Take Away Show with La Blogotheque and walked around France, singing this song in different places.  The whole 8 minute show is wonderful, but I’ll link to the concise version for tentative listeners.  I’m pretty sure I like the a cappella more than the album version.

Also, a shameless plug though it may be, I made my own music video in 2011—my first one ever!
Return of Raven-Girl
Ahem.  Excuse me.  Now, on to other things.
My Drunk Kitchen
   This web show blew up this year, no doubt due to the off-the-charts cuteness level of the host, Hannah Hart.  The concept is ingenious in its simplicity: Young, cute, quirky girl gets drunk and cooks something in her kitchen (or sometimes her sister’s, or her friends’, or England).  What’s underappreciated about it is the fact that the girl does it all herself—she films it all herself, sets up the shot, cooks by herself (which is almost always a disaster) while getting exponentially more drunk throughout the episode, THEN, she uploads the footage, edits it all herself, and puts it all over the internet, as in she keeps up with about 20 million different networking sites (that number might be a little exaggerated).  On top of her constant web romps, she has traveled around the U.S. and Canada to do guest appearances on other shows, make special episodes of MDK with her own guests, and do LIVE EVENTS.  Crazy, right?  This chick is awesome.  Not to mention the fact that she did the theme song for the show by herself, as well.  She’s great.  She’s got a career ahead of her in some kind of entertainment writing or editing or something.  Check her out and love her like I do.
Very Mary-Kate
   Now, this one is kind of cheating, since, technically, I first saw it in 2010, but 2011 has been the year of me showing it around to people and discovering how much I love it, based solely on how often I check the site for updates.  It’s another web show, also starring a super funny girl who had a simple but ingenious idea and ran with it.  This girl (Elaine Carroll) developed a caricature based on Mary-Kate Olsen (Ashley also makes appearances throughout the series, played by the same girl, of course) that she used for auditions once upon a time, but decided one day to take it a step further and make some videos.  Besides her, there are other actors who come in to portray various characters that float around this fake Mary-Kate, who are all as funny as she is—especially the guy who does the dead-on impersonation of Philip Seymour Hoffman.  What’s underappreciated about THIS one is how much Elaine focused on getting the timing down to a science.  The episodes range anywhere from 60 seconds to 2.5 minutes, but never longer than that.  It’s perfect for an internet audience with a short attention span, which, let’s face it, guys, we’re definitely guilty of, at least when it comes to the internet.  Anyway, it got so big that College Humor actually picked it up.  She’s got a little green for production now and a crew to help on set, plus fancy equipment to make it.  But it’s all still her—her ideas, her comedic timing, and her amazing, creepily accurate portrayal of the Olsen twins.  Do yourself a favor and go back and watch from the beginning.  Some of my faves are still those old ones from before she got her endorsement—the ones after are still awesome and funny, but there’s a sort of charm to the ones where she was doing it herself.
And, to round out the web show section…
The Maria Bamford Show
   Some of you may have already heard of this, considering it was done 2 years ago, but I had never heard of it, or her, until 2011.  I tend to be late to all the parties.  I first saw her in Comedians of Comedy, when she toured with Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, and Zach Galifianakis, all of whom I love.  I promptly fell in love with Maria, too, partly because of her impressions, but mostly because of her awkwardness, which I relate to A LOT.  Anyway, the show documents her real-life crisis, when, after having a nervous breakdown in the middle of a set, she moved in with her parents to deal with it.  She dropped off the planet, apparently, and didn’t do any standup or anything involving the entertainment biz for a long while.  She got a regular Joe job and used the show as an outlet for her particular form of creativity.  And we’re all thankful for it.  She only did 20 episodes.  It’s sad, but ultimately good because it meant she got her life back together and conquered her crisis.  The last episode is her moving out of her parents’ house and getting back to L.A.  Yay for Maria!  I love happy endings.

Amanda Hocking, Author Extraordinaire
   You may not know who she is, but for us self-published authors, she’s a pretty big deal.  She has self-published about 12 novels, starting in the summer of 2010, and has sold over a million copies, at which point, rumblings began to be heard from publishers.  By March 2011, she had signed a traditional publishing deal, AND, as if that’s not enough, her Trylle series recently got optioned for films.  She’s living the dream.  At least, my dream, anyway.  She’s just a normal girl who happens to write a lot (A LOT) of books.  Check out her blog; it’s really inspiring (I look at it like 5 times a day).
And last but far from least…
The Stacy King Solo Album!
   Formerly Stacy DuPree of Eisley fame, Ms. King has been hard at work on her album with her husband, Darren (Mute Math), and Jeremy Larson.  Eisley is still going strong, Stacy’s just doing a little side project for experimentation’s sake.  And we’re very excited about it.  You can check her progress on her Tumblr, where she occasionally posts pix of her downtime in recording sessions and outtakes from her album photo shoots.  She also gives a few words on how it’s going and what they’re working on in the booth.  Just can’t wait.
I’m sure as soon as I see this posted, I’ll think of 10 more things to add to the list, but oh, well, it’s long enough anyhow.  Hope you enjoyed it—and last year in general!  May 2012 be as magical and inspiring and fun as its predecessor!
xxErin

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