Seven From 2011

JOHN HANLON, Brooklyn NY
Not a great year for culture, pop or otherwise, nor even a particularly coherent year. The event of 2011 was Occupy Wall Street, which addressed the tough problems of how we now live in a way that no art seemed capable of doing. As the internet continues to erode even the concept of mainstream entertainment, we may be in for more years like 2011, in which everything seems deeply personal but still marginal.

This in addition to the fact that I am perpetually catching up (favorite thing I watched this year? Mad Men. Finally.) makes it difficult for me to judge the best of any given year. Despite all that, here is a list of seven things from 2011 I liked:

1. The Book of Mormon
As great as everyone says. It has so many awesome parts.

2. Congress of Animals by Jim Woodring

3. Louie
Both the man and the show.

4. Moebius Trans Forme
I traveled all the way to Paris to see this career retrospective of one of my favorite artists. I suspect it was a once in a lifetime exhibit, but here's hoping that I'm wrong.

5. Paying for It by Chester Brown
Brown’s essay in the form of a memoir is either a study in denial or a provocative argument for a new way of living.

6. Portlandia
Marginal by design, almost to the point of being a mission statement, but every episode features something that makes me laugh out loud and there’s no show I look forward to watching more.

7. Tree of Life

Pops' Twenty-Eleven Seven

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ
2011 was an odd year, pop culturally… almost nothing moved me to the point of “love” outside of things to which I was personally attached (see #1). None of the four superhero films in ’11 were great, some of my favorite TV shows let me down and as for comics, well… So, rather than post a list of seven “best” things from the last year, here’s a list of my seven “big” pop culture events.

1) BIG LAKE
My NSO (that’s notarized significant other) spent much of 2011 writing and recording her debut EP as Big Lake, a personal passion project that I’d think was great if I weren’t living with the artist. Beautifully evocative, it begs for close listening and portends a great future for my new favorite band (aw).
2) HABIBI by Craig Thompson
Craig Thompson freaks me out. He may well be the greatest living cartoonist today (not just of his generation). His sense of storytelling, design and his lush, intuitive brushwork are all the works of a true master. HABIBI is another amazing accomplishment in an already legendary career.
3) DC COMICS' NEW 52 Reboot
On the other end of the comics spectrum, the much ballyhooed relaunch of the DC Comics Universe was, to my mind, a short-sighted, ill-advised attempt to draw new readers while shitting on a vast (admittedly mixed) 75 year legacy. And I’m not just saying that because I’m a purist who misses Superman’s red shorts. Initial strong sales are one thing, but I’ll be shocked if they can maintain the momentum. For me, it’s not even the same world anymore.
4) DEXTER Disappoints
Since I discovered DEXTER after the second season, Showtime’s serial killer drama has been my favorite show. This past season promised to be a doozy, with Dexter dealing with a religious fanatic and his own crisis of (lack of) faith, but the writers seemed too scared to truly tackle such a hot button issue as religion. In addition, too many unbelievable character turns and a lot of loose plot threads just left the whole season feeling like a pale shell of a once great program. Even the enormous shock at the end of the finale seems like a bad idea.
5) X’s LOS ANGELES Tour
One of my favorite rock bands of all time toured in celebration of the 30th anniversary of its first LP, and the shows proved that its groundbreaking, incendiary punk poetry is as vital and exciting as ever. I saw two of the shows, in Asbury Park at the Stone Pony and in Hoboken at Maxwell’s, and was in punk rock heaven both nights. My only regret is that I didn’t see them again.
6) THE CHICAGO CODE
Easily my favorite show of the year couldn’t garner enough viewers to get renewed, despite a hearty online effort to save it. Alderman Roland Gibbons languishes forever in a holding cell, waiting for a trial that will never come...! Boo.
7) My Stuff
In a year where I couldn’t afford to do a lot of consuming (this is within context), I actually had a lovely time obsessing over my collections… remaking DVD covers, reorganizing bookshelves, consolidating, compiling, re-reading, re-viewing and all that stuff that makes my ilk full of nerdy joy. And if all goes as planned, hopefully a year from now, you’ll all get what I mean.

7 Commonly Adored Things That I Do Not Particularly Appreciate and Thus Can Make Me Feel Like a Social Pariah or at Least a Little Uncomfortable in Certain Public Situations.

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ

1) Dogs
2) Summer
3) Sports
4) the Beach
5) Babies
6) God
7) STAR WARS

7 Video Moments That Always* Make Me Cry

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ

1) Superman (“A friend.”)
2) It’s a Wonderful Life (“To my big brother, George… the richest man in town!”)
3) Rushmore (“Ah, I didn’t get hurt that bad.”)
4) A Charlie Brown Christmas (“Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!”)
5) The Sopranos, “Employee of the Month” (“No.”)
6) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (“Of all the souls I’ve encountered in my travels, his was the most… human.”)
7) The Iron Giant (“Soooooperrrrrmaaaaannnnn”)

*Okay, maybe not always, but usually.

7 Favorite Celebrity Atheists

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ
1) George Carlin
2) Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
3) Bill Maher
4) Ricky Gervais
5) Patton Oswalt
6) Neil deGrasse Tyson
7) TIE: Gene Roddenberry / Ron Reagan Jr.

Favorite Works By Performers That People Have Told Me I Remind Them Of

JOHN HANLON, Brooklyn NY

1. Castaways and Cutouts / Colin Melloy (of The Decemberists)
2. Superman II / Christopher Reeve
3. “Daniel Faraday” on Lost seasons 4 – 6 / Jeremy Davies
4. Twin Peaks / David Lynch
(or Lost Highway or Mulholland Dr)
5. Curious George / Curious George
6. Robert Wagner imitation in Austin Powers:The Spy Who Shagged Me / Rob Lowe
7. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire / Harry Potter

7 Things I’m Looking Forward to About Autumn

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ
1) It not being summer any more.
2) DEXTER Season 6
3) Wearing long pants again (see #1)
4) BATMAN: YEAR ONE animated movie
5) Falling leaves and an early dusk (see #1)
6) Either moving or redoing the living room
7) The chili cook-off / Jeep-camping in VT

Slipped My Mind

JOHN HANLON, Brooklyn NY

7 Promises I've Yet to Follow Through On
By The King of Empty Promises

1. To burn the five episodes of the BBC's The Story of Ireland I download to dvd for my mother.
Promise made this past spring.

2. To burn the vhs of XTC videos lovingly collected by my friend Ben to a dvd for my friend Dave.
Promise made in January, 2011.

3. To loan my friend Bob the audiobook of David Cross' I Drink For A Reason that I had borrowed from the library.
Promise unfulfilled: I had to return the audiobook to the library.

4. To copy my dvd of Los Angeles Plays Itself for my friend Steve.
Promise made May 2011.


5. To burn some Betty Hutton movies to dvd for my friend Stacey.
Promise made November 1, 2010. Burned three movies to disc, have yet to give them to Stacey.

6. To loan my friend Kenny my copy of The Saragossa Manuscript.
Promise made in 2010, along with open-ended promise to get together for "movie night."

7. To post a list of 7 of 7Now! on a regular basis.
Promise made to my friend Karl in 2007. 2007? Good Lord!

7 Old Tee-Vee Things That Pops Remembers

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ

1) When bra commercials could only use mannequins as models
2) Watching LAUGH-IN and having a vague idea that there was some reason it was naughty
3) Being mad that the Watergate hearings pre-empted my afternoon cartoons
4) UHF / VHF, rabbit ears and no remote control
5) Walter Cronkite and Huntley / Brinkley (my folks didn’t do ABC News)
6) Wee Willie Weber’s Colorful Cartoon Club (see #3) on WPHL-17
7) Knowing I was up too late if I heard THE TONIGHT SHOW theme coming from my parents’ bedroom.

Seven Things The Followers of Harold Camping Could Do to Make Bob Happy

BOB FINGERMAN, New York NY
1) Jazz up their graphics. Really, Judgment Day is coming and that’s the snappiest ad campaign you could design? (All the best artists are sinners, that’s why.) Lame.
2) Try harder. Shed their clothes and try jumping up to Heaven, anyway (God Raptures those who Rapture themselves, or some such nonsense).
3) Get really pissed that God didn’t Hoover them up Heaven’s vac-hose and become Satanists.
4) If their clothes fly off for the Rapture, have an airborne orgy on the way up to Heaven (Oops! That’s a sin! And so close, too. Once you’re in Heaven, anything goes.).
5) Combine their goofy numerology with Sudoku (though Sudoku actually makes sense).
6) On May 22nd renounce their faith and join the world of the sane when once again Jesus fails to make his comeback.
7) Kill themselves. A giant mass suicide of soul-crushing disappointment. That would thin the herd of a few thousand nitwits.

As a lifelong atheist, I'd like to propose a reasonable deal to these people: I'll repent and accept Christ as my lord and savior if the Rapture does arrive on May 21st. Presented with irrefutable empirical evidence, I'll admit I was wrong, even if it's the last thing I get to do. But when May 22nd rolls along and everything is the same as it's ever been (in other words, exactly what May 22nd will be), can they all renounce their faith and admit it's a bunch of nonsense? No, they can't. Because they'll find more excuses about how their math was off or whatever. They can always find a way to justify (I'd say "rationalize," but rational is never a part of their thinking) getting it wrong. Again.

To-Do List for Earthbound Sods May 22 through Oct 21

LYSA with a Y, Jersey City NJ

1. Buy a motorcycle. Better yet, STEAL a motorcycle
2. Do not renew driver's license
3. Try heroin
4. Get knocked up and drink shots all day
5. Call out sick every Thursday and Friday
6. Credit cards bills are really only a suggested donation
7. Pizza. All day.

7 More Blondie Songs for the Rapture Besides "Rapture"

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ

1. Die Young, Stay Pretty
2. Fade Away and Radiate
3. Will Anything Happen?
4. In the Sun
5. Rip Her to Shreds
6. Just Go Away
7. Living in the Real World

7 Great Ethnic Title Characters from 70s TV

POPS GUSTAV, Jersey City NJ

1. Petrocelli
2. Delvecchio
3. Szysznyk
4. Banacek
5. Kojak
6. Starsky
7. Baretta