Five Star

[Tarka Dal]

I haven’t started a thread like this is a while, so I thought to tie-in with the year end I would.

Your recommendations please for great literature, music and so on that you’ve discovered in the last twelve months (doesn’t have to be new in 2011, just new to you).

The most triumphant catergories;

? Book or Graphic novel
? Album
? Film
? Video Game
? Any other business

Topic

[si]

Damn. I *so* hoped this thread would be about the group, and their humourous comic-strip adventures in Look-In.

One album I have found in the last twelve months is The Divine Comedy’s Regeneration from (I think) 2001.
I’ve been a fan for a while, but only had the last couple of albums. The earlier albums are quite hard to get hold of, so I’ve spent the past year trying to get them.
Regeneration was just that – Neil Hannon was trying something new, had an actual band, and the feel of the album is a bit more of the time. I was worried I wouldn’t like it – I love Hannon’s voice, and the classic tone and humour of a lot of DC’s other stuff is rather unique among his contemporaries – but it’s really quite refreshing, and I appreciate the album more each time I hear it. I think it’s even got a slight feel of Radiohead about it.
Regeneration was the last DC album I got, probably from Amazon marketplace, for godknowshowmuch, and ironically, I found three copies in a local CD store this week for £2.99 each.

Anyway. The Divine Comedy. ‘Regeneration’. I like it.

[Pete Part Three]

I’d like to ask Five Star why they’re so fucking shit.

Recommendations when I’ve had a think…

[Smeg4Brains]

Book/Graphic Novel: Planet Hulk.

Album: Skindred – Union Black (I know this won’t be to everyone’s taste but I love the combination of Reggae and Metal)

Film: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Not as action packed as the trailers make it look but it has a very good story)

Video Game: The Assassins Creed series (The first one isn’t great but I forced myself to finish it and I’m glad I did because it gets sooo much better)

[Jonathan Capps]

* Book or Graphic novel – the A Song of Ice and Fire series, by a mile.
* Album – Foo Fighters, Wasting Light. One of the few bands currently making music that I can actually count on to not be shit.
* Film – I don’t think I’ve seen ANY film released in 2011…
* Video Game – The Binding of Isaac, a massively twisted dungeon crawler that is utterly compulsive.
* Any other business – Your mother.

[Pete Part Three]

Book : I, Partridge
Film : 127 Hours
Album : I’ll get back to you
Videogame : I’ve only played two games this year. GoldenEye (Wii) at the beginning of the year, which was OK. LoZ Skyward Sword, which I’ve just started, is reliably awesome.
Any Other Business : On TV, Misfits is still pretty good and Black Mirror is great so far.

[Seb Patrick]

Si: I’m amused at the notion that Regeneration could be considered “early” Divine Comedy, that’s for sure. It’s their seventh album of ten so far!

The fact that it sounds a bit like Radiohead can probably be put down to the fact that it was produced by Nigel Godrich… and the fact that it was Hannon’s attempt to, well, to sound a bit like Radiohead…

I don’t know what of the earlier stuff you’ve heard, but for me Casanova and A Short Album About Love are the major highlights. A lot of people do prefer the first couple, though – Liberation and Promenade (not counting Common Muse as it’s deleted and essentially non-existent). Those two are a bit harder to find, but Casanova was HUGE so it should be every-bloody-where if you don’t already have it.

[genericnerdyusername]

Album: Caro Emerald – Deleted Scenes from the Cutting Room Floor

I literally just got handed it this morning and I bloody love it. It’s awesome!

I’ll get back to you on the rest though.

[si]

Seb, I didn’t mean that I considered Regeneration to be early, just earlier than Victory for the Comic Muse and Bang Goes The Knighthood, which were the only two DC albums I had this time last year. I’ve got them all now, apart from the very first album, Fanfare for the Comic Muse, which I know Neil doesn’t particularly like or count as part of the DC back catalogue. I am curious, though – I saw it online for about £200 a while ago…

[John Hoare]

Book or Graphic novel – Ashamed to say, I’ve read very few books this year. Loads of magazines, but few books. Really need to rectify this next year.

Album – Ditto, although I feel less guilty about this one.

Film – Conversely, I have seen shitloads of great films this year – admittedly, most of which I should have been ages ago. The Conversation sticks in the memory.

Video Game – Really enjoying Skyward Sword. Probably my favourite ever combat in a game.

Any other business – MY LITTLE PONY FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC IS FUCKING ACE.

[JamesTC]

Book – Man in the Runner Mask – Read the book earlier this year and it is brilliant. But of course you can now get the audiobook which is also brilliant (and incredibly cheap considering it also comes with the new version to be written and recorded in 2012).
Would also recommend tracking down a copy of The Making of Red Dwarf which covers the making of ‘Gunmen of the Apocalypse’, got it earlier this year for £3 on Amazon.

Video Game – Sonic CD – I got this on the Gems collection for the PS2 years ago but never really played it properly, with the fantastic and cheap remake out yesterday I have now discovered it is a lot more fun when you try to go into the past and make a good future rather than play it as a generic Sonic game.

Other Business – Rabbit – I got one, they are brilliant.

[Seb Patrick]

I Partridge
Ultimate Spider-Man (v3)
90 Bisodol (Crimond)
Senna
Deus Ex: Human Revolution

[Stabbim the Skutter]

Book: I, Partridge. Needless to say, I had the last laugh.

Album: Not much of a music person.

Film: Paul. Went into it thinking “Oh god, Seth Rogen as a CGI alien doing fart jokes” and was totally gobsmacked at how brilliant it was.

Video Game: Banjo-Tooie, the game I’d been dying to play since childhood, which is now my favourite 3D platformer ever.

Other Business: Arrested Development. I’ve made a huge mistake…by leaving it this long before watching.

[Bob Loblaw]

Book: Song of Ice and Fire
Album: Childish Gambino – Camp
Film: Bridesmaids
Video Game: Angry Birds?
Any other business: Caught up with Parks and Recreation recently, super funny. Also, Community continues to be amazing, everyone go watch it now.

[Phil]

I started to type up my contribution, and then I realized that I haven’t really spent much time reading / listening to / watching anything this year. Oh well.

I did play Skyward Sword though, and I returned it after a few days because the game wouldn’t shut up and let me play it. Seriously, do I need to see an obvious puzzle ahead of me, have a character turn up to explicitly tell me how to solve it, and THEN have my fucking annoying companion summarize the explanation immediately afterward?

After four or five play sessions the game still didn’t seem to trust me to play it without overbearing guidance, so I saved it the worry and stopped playing it.

Also the combat was fucking atrocious but it’s possible I had a faulty Motion Plus. No guarantee on that as there’s no way I’m buying another one, but being as nobody else seems to have that complaint I’m assuming that’s what it is.

EDIT: Mario 3D Land is brilliant though.

[ori-STUDFARM]

Book- I don’t think I’ve been reading at all this last 12 months. Although I have just been introduced to the Freak Angels online comic which I am really enjoying.

Album- I’ve actually gone right off current music and have been visiting albums of yesteryear. Mostly early 80’s punk/pop. Although a Public Enemy documentary the other day convinced me to get hold of every album they have done since Muse Sick-n-Hour Mess Age. For some reason, my collection ended there..

Film- I’ve been relatively unimpressed by most things. I discovered Troll Hunter, Lake Mungo and Monsters this year. All of which I enjoyed. My favourite cinema visit was probably for Cowboys and Aliens. It wasn’t a masterpiece or anything. But for a fun romp, I enjoyed it.

Video Game- I hung up the PS2 and finally got an XBox this year….and I’ve just not gotten into it. It came with 3 games. I won’t buy any more until they have been completed. And I just can’t be arsed with it….

Any Other Business- I have been really impressed with some of the TV shows I’ve discovered this year. I was already watching Breaking Bad, but loved the latest Season. I have just discovered Dexter and loved it! And I finally got around to watching The Wire which was awesome!…oh! And The Mysterious Cities Of Gold is every bit as good as I remember too!

The highest proportion of media I consume is podcasts. I listen all day at work and couldn’t live without them. I am currently loving Hypnobobs and The Black Dog

[Alex]

Book – Rob Shearman’s ‘Everyone’s Just So So Special’.

Album – There have been so many this year it’s hard to choose. Steven Wilson’s ‘Grace For Drowing’ was particularly good, but Tom Waits’ ‘Bad As Me’ was also fantastic.

Film – Source Code, closely followed by Kill List.

Video Game – Only played one that I can think of this year which was LA Noir, but that was enjoyable enough.

Any other business – Seen a lot of good stand-up this year. Richard Herring’s new show was very enjoyable, but special mention also to Dave Gorman, Stewart Lee and Tim Minchin.

[Ridley]

I did play Skyward Sword though, and I returned it after a few days because the game wouldn’t shut up and let me play it. Seriously, do I need to see an obvious puzzle ahead of me, have a character turn up to explicitly tell me how to solve it, and THEN have my fucking annoying companion summarize the explanation immediately afterward?

After four or five play sessions the game still didn’t seem to trust me to play it without overbearing guidance, so I saved it the worry and stopped playing it.

Also the combat was fucking atrocious but it’s possible I had a faulty Motion Plus. No guarantee on that as there’s no way I’m buying another one, but being as nobody else seems to have that complaint I’m assuming that’s what it is.

Not quite the 10+/10 you gave it on Nintendo Life then? ;)

—-

*Can’t think of any stand out novels, graphic or otherwise, that I’ve read this year.

*Tim Minchin and His Orchestra (out of the option of that or the Inbetweeners soundtrack).

*Instant Swamp

[Phil]

>Not quite the 10+/10 you gave it on Nintendo Life then? ;)

Oh I didn’t review it on NL. In a way I’m glad it wasn’t assigned to me; I’d probably be kicked off the staff!

[si]

Didn’t realise this morning that you wanted a list (I was still in bed at the time). So here we go:

Book: I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of hours, and I think I can honestly say that G&T’s Garbage Pod book is a great read, and it’s earnt it’s place on my shelf with my other Red Dwarf books. No, really. Good work, guys.

Album: The Divine Comedy – Regeneration (see above)

Film: Bridesmaids. I went to a preview screening a few weeks before it went on general release, and thought it was great. Not the *best* film I’ve seen this year (that would be Paul), but so much better than I was expecting (I thought it’d be a bit too, well, girly for me).

Video Game: I don’t play video games anymore. I’m afraid of my brain imploding, as is it’s wont. :/

Any Other Business: Er…well, I’m currently loving Zooey Deschanel in New Girl. It starts on C4 in the new year.

[clem]

> I was worried I wouldn’t like [Regeneration] … but it’s really quite refreshing

I agree. I was already a Divine Comedy fan when it came out, and I didn’t know what to make of it. People were accusing him of selling out, and I wasn’t sure whether I agreed. I remember halfheartedly sticking up for the album with friends of mine who found it disappointing, arguing that maybe Neil’s tongue was still firmly in his cheek, and he’d just used the trappings of popular Indie music to make what we should still regard as a proper Divine Comedy album, just as he’d done with chamber pop, electro etc in the past. Now I reckon he probably just made the album he wanted to make at the time, in the way he wanted to make it, and it’s a cracking album. The Beauty Regime especially is brilliant.

I like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVqV4Vv4H5U

[Danny Stephenson]

If we have a piano at the next DJ venue. Remind me to play this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPPi58K6wZs&feature=related

[Ridley]

Oh I didn’t review it on NL. In a way I’m glad it wasn’t assigned to me; I’d probably be kicked off the staff!

A link to the past.

—

I realise I should have also mentioned Fish Story along with Instant Swamp and incorrectly called Tim Minchin and the Heritage Orchestra ‘Tim Minchin and His Orchestra’.

[Nick R]

Book: Haven’t really read much this year. Main novels I read were Iain M Banks’ “Surface Detail” and Terry Pratchett’s “I Shall Wear Midnight” (both of which came out last year).

Album From This Year: Björk – “Biophilia”. Also enjoyed Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Old Album I’ve Heard For The First Time This Year: Captain Beefheart’s “Clear Spot” and “The Spotlight Kid” (I’m listing them both because they’re together on one disc on the currently-available CD). I like bits of his infamously weird “Trout Mask Replica” (mostly the funny spoken-word bits), and these two albums are nowhere near offputting as that (some of the tracks have – shock! horror! – session musicians and female backing vocals!). They’re mostly just really well-sung blues with just enough surreal lyrics and vocal quirks to make it interesting.

Film From This Year: “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”.

Old Film I’ve Seen For The First Time This Year: Hard to decide between “Local Hero” (now I understand why it’s Mark Kermode’s third favourite film ever!) and Kubrick’s “Paths of Glory”. Also really enjoyed “American Splendor”, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” and “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”. In animation, “Mary and Max” and “The Illusionist” were great, “How to Train Your Dragon” became my favourite non-Pixar CGI movie, and “Porco Rosso” turned out to be one of my favourite Studio Ghibli fims.

Video Game: This year’s playing has been dominated by just a few games, none of which came out in 2011: Halo Reach, Rock Band 2/3/Beatles, and Batman Arkham Asylum (I’m poor and so I haven’t bought Arkham City yet).

Any Other Business: Caught BBC4’s repeats of “The Killing” a few months ago, and it largely lived up to all the praise. I haven’t caught up with their broadcasts of series 2 yet though. Also reached “Angel” season 3 in my Buffy/Angel viewing; that was good (season 4 had its high points but was disappointing in comparison).

Oh, and “The Doctor’s Wife” and “The Girl Who Waited”, of course!

[clem]

> If we have a piano at the next DJ venue. Remind me to play this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPPi58K6wZs&feature=related

I’m writing you a list for DJ.

Chilly Down
Songs of Love

[Phil]

>A link to the past.

Hahaha! Mea culpa. I forgot all about that!

Comment was posted before I played it. I really, truly expected this one to be *the* Zelda to me.

:( Ah well. We’ll always have Termina…

[Stephen R. Fletcher]

Book: Sadly, I haven’t read much books this year. But I did read the first two Red Dwarf Novels again, which are, of course, an excellent read.

Album: Not really been any new albums this year I’ve been excited about. A few songs maybe. One of them being OK Go’s version of ‘The Muppet Show Theme’ (also love the video) and I quite like Cee Lo Green’s ‘Cry Baby’ – I don’t usually go for that sort of music but I’ve started liking him since his recent appearance as an evil singing Hot Tub in ‘American Dad!’. Other than that I’ve mostly been downloading old albums and soundtracks.

Film: Of the few new films I’ve seen this year, I would say ‘Paul’ is the best.

Video Game: Not much of a video game buff. I have been playing some old video games again such as ‘Rayman’ and ‘Crash Bandicoot 2’ this year and loving that though.

Any Other Business: Been re-watching Season’s 6A and 6B of ‘Futurama’ quite a lot this year. There’s a couple episodes verging on crummy, but overall I love it and I’m excited for more in the next two years. And “The Late Philip J. Fry” hasn’t stopped being epic yet in the amount of times I’ve watched it so far.

Also, I have to give a special mention to another favourite animated show of mine, which I mentioned earlier: ‘American Dad!’. It’s easily my favourite of the three MacFarlane shows. It’s a consistantly great show in terms of writing. Season 6 – from earlier this year – was a brilliant season and Season 7 so far, has been very good. It just gets better and better each season IMO and I really hope it doesn’t get the treatment FOX initially gave ‘Futurama’.

[Pete Part Three]

How far did you get into Skyward Sword, Phil? I have a few misgivings about it, but I’ve been impressed so far.

[Ben Paddon]

Rayman Origins is the best game of the year, hands down.

[Carlito]

Hmmm.

My favourite TV shows I’ve discovered this year are Breaking Bad and Community. Breaking Bad has certainly shot right to the top of my list of favourite TV dramas already.

Films… I enjoyed Source Code, Bridesmaids… a few older films I saw this year for the first time that I enjoyed: Zack and Miri Make A Porno, Zombieland, Taken… I also had a patch earlier in the year of watching Denzel Washington movies. The guy doesn’t exactly have a massive range but boy does he have an eye for a good script. (Especially scripts where he plays an affable cop with a steady marriage and a tough streak…) Deja Vu was one of my faves. Really enjoyed The Jacket and Session 9 too.

I’ve never really been one to watch movies. I think I’ve seen more this year than in any previous year in my life, so really there are a lot of great movies I’ve seen for the first time this year – far too many to remember or mention them all.

Bafflingly as I think about it, the only new album I think I’ve actually heard this year is the latest Coldplay offering. (My verdict: it very much grows on you). Hmmm I used to listen to so much more music.

Books: I tend to mainly read auto/biographies. Read all the Charlie Brooker books this year, the Chris Morris biog, the latest Mick Foley/Chris Jericho (wrestling) releases. Also re-read the Dwarf novels too. And Colony by Rob Grant. Oh, and I Partridge. Love ’em all.

[Arlene Rimmer BSc SSc]

-A few months ago I started visiting my local comic book shop on a semi-regular basis. I went in looking for Atomic Robo–which, don’t get me wrong, is an awesome comic and one I strongly recommend–and I came out with that and the first volume of Transmetropolitan. I now have all ten volumes and I’ve begun to seriously suspect that Warren Ellis is my new favorite comics writer.

I also got some other stuff–some Fables, for example, some Bone, Alan Moore’s From Hell, and a lot more–but Transmet is what well and truly sucked me in, and got me fully interested in a form of storytelling that I’d only hesitantly explored before. (It helped that I was buying local, from a guy who knows his stuff. He offered “money-back guarantees” on all of the above, confident in the knowledge that I probably wouldn’t need them.)

-My taste in music tends to be a bit eclectic, and I tend to get bored and leap onto something else pretty quickly (with the exception of a few stalwarts in my music collection, like the Flaming Lips). For example, just this year I bought and/or downloaded work by Daft Punk, Childish Gambino, David Bowie, Owen Pallett, Radiohead, the Olivia Tremor Control, Talking Heads, the White Stripes, Raphael Saadiq,and Electric Six. The last thing I listened to was an EP from a French electroswing outfit called Caravan Palace.

-My parents would probably be better equipped to answer this on than I am, since I don’t really watch a huge number of films these days. (I want to go see that Muppets movie, but a trip to the theater is fairly expensive these days.)

-I do loves me some vidjagames, though. I’ve been playing the hell out of Golden Sun DS and a game called Nostalgia, along with the DS Castlevania titles. I particularly recommend Portrait of Ruin, magic-frying everything in your path as Charlotte (or making heavy use of your stylus as the Sisters, in a New Game +). I also quite like Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for its attention to the details (and the number and creativity of all its many, many puns).

–Community. No, seriously, Community. Why don’t more people watch this show? I mean, it’s wonderful. Same goes for Parks and Recreation, which is as sweet as it is hilarious, and God is it ever hilarious. Ken Burns’ documentary on Prohibition is also pretty neato (particularly its soundtrack, which I really wish I could buy somewhere but haven’t been able to find).

[post-ed]

Community is one of the best comedy shows on TV right now, it’s very rewarding when re-watched too!

[Danny Stephenson]

I saw something on reddit about Community, they had three seperate utterances of ‘Beetlejuice’ throughout either an episode or a whole series. On the third mention, something clever happened…

[post-ed]

Yep:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayaRznft9H4

[Phil]

>How far did you get into Skyward Sword, Phil? I have a few misgivings about it, but I’ve been impressed so far.

Admittedly not very far. I lost interest rather quickly I think, and the experience just wasn’t fun enough for me to want to continue. I’d get into specifics but I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade (or further derail the thread…I’d be up for discussing it more thoroughly in a Skyward Sword thread, if anyone wanted to make one)…suffice it to say that the guidance is overbearing, the amount of dialogue was overshadowing interactivity by what felt like a factor of ten, and the motion controls were utter garbage. imho, of course.

[Arlene Rimmer BSc SSc]

Speaking of videogames! I found a copy of Electroplankton at GameStop during the summer, for a bit less than twenty bucks. You can make some pretty gorgeous music with it.

I find it’s best with headphones.

[Danny Stephenson]

Sounds like a game I would enjoy. I used to have Music 2000 for the playstation and i made ALL SORTS of songs for that.

[si]

Bloody hell! Music 2000 for the Playstation! Even *I* used to love that!

[Author]

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