Seeing that I’m strangely fascinated with the end of this decade, I’m really enjoying all of the lists and essays that are springing up online. All of them trying to explain this cra-zay past ten years.
Time Magazine called it “The Decade From Hell” and although they named me Person Of The Year in 2006, I find it hard to disagree with them. After all this was the decade that 9/11, George Bush’s first term, Creed and teenage acne all hit me at once. But seeing as how this was the first decade I can remember from start to finish, I can still appreciate the finer things the ‘aughts had to offer…and so can other people!
Here are hand picked portions of some “Best Of” lists that are worth a look (if only for arguments).
New York Magazine Best of the 00’s
Movie of the Decade – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
TV Show of the Decade – The Sopranos
[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=rnT7nYbCSvM” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rnT7nYbCSvM/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”The Sopranos Final Scene”]
Articles to read –
“When TV Became Art“- interesting article on the schizophrenic quality of TV this decade
…this was most centrally and importantly the first decade when television became recognizable as art, great art: collectible and life-changing and transformative and lasting. As the sixties are to music and the seventies to movies, the aughts—which produced the best and worst shows in history—were to TV.
“A Million Little Cultural Pieces” – Blow-by-Blow pop culture time line
December 19 (2001): First of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films opens. Exposes rich, endless gold mine that is geeks.
The A.V. Club Best Of The Decade
Best Late Night Comedy Show – The Daily Show / The Colbert Report
Best Video Game – Bioshock
Craven played this one so here is his take:
“This game feels like a Disney animator took a bunch of acid and decided to create a twisted “uptopia” gone bad…then threw it all underwater just for kicks. Reminded me of the college days huddled around a Gamecube playing Resident Evil with Mitch and trying not to pee myself. Little demon children tailed by giant robots now scare the hell out of me.”
[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=CoYorK3E4aM” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/CoYorK3E4aM/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Bioshock Launch Trailer”]
Best Music – Kanye West “The College Dropout“, The White Stripes “White Blood Cells“
Articles to read –
The best bad movies of the ’00s – This list might be my favorite for it’s dead on inclusions of The Wicker Man and The Happening. How’d it get burned?!?!
…The spectacle of Cage running around on the island, shrieking “Bitches!” and punching women full in the face, makes The Wicker Man a howlingly good time.
It’s always worth bringing up The Wicker Man if only to post the video that was god’s gift to YouTube. Enjoy the bear-punching-women goodness.
[fvplayer src=”https://youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo” splash=”https://i.ytimg.com/vi/e6i2WRreARo/hqdefault.jpg” caption=”Best Scenes From "The Wicker Man"”]
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About the Author: Mitch is the resident music wrangler, lifestyle guru, and all-around well connected LaxAllStars insider. The lacrosse playing ended but the friendships never did. Known as the prima-donna of the writers. Still not sure about this whole “internet” thing. Would love to be called “Sir” without the following: “You’re making a scene”.