Everybody Loves a Good (2007) List
So it is that 2007 is drawing to a close. Anyone else feel like breathing a sigh of relief that we survived this year? I mean this was a messed-up year. One thing you can say about 2007: you never knew what was going to happen next.
The Democrat-run Congress did next to nothing until December, and it was then that they proved they had done a complete 180 from their “oppose, oppose, oppose” agenda with which they started the year. Higher gas mileage standards for cars? Opposed them in January, passed them in December. Funding for the troops? Opposed it in January, passed it in December. Earmarks and pork projects? Opposed them in January, passed them in December. What a difference a year makes... More notably, they failed to accomplish the two objectives the 23% Crowd put them in office to do: immediately pull the troops out of Iraq and immediately impeach the president and vice-president. Then their worst nightmare happened... the surge worked. Oprah took to the stump for Obama, Hillary’s victory lap through the Democratic presidential primaries may have been derailed, and a guy named Huckabee is on the verge of winning the Iowa Caucuses for the Republicans, without taking my advice to make his campaign slogan “I (Heart) Huckabees.”
Steel finally started rising at Carousel. Nothing was built at the convention center... again (but they SWEAR they’ll start in February). Dan Maffei did indeed announce he was running against Jim Walsh again before the ink was dry on the “Walsh Beats Maffei” headlines from last year. And we became the envy of municipalities everywhere by electing a county executive whose first and last names rhyme.
The West Genesee boys lacrosse team and marching band didn’t win a state title... but the football team did. I think that may be a sign of the apocalypse. The SU basketball team got jobbed out of an NCAA Tournament berth. The Sabres won the President’s Trophy, then got run right off the ice by Ottawa in the conference finals. The Mets... don’t get me started. It still pisses me off. Barry Bonds got indicted (but no asterisk... yet), Roger Clemens got fingered for steroids and HGH by the Mitchell report, and both may join Big Mac among the baseball “legends” who will have the door to Cooperstown slammed in their face.
It was the year of Sanjaya (the only reason anyone still remembers him is these year-in-review columns), the year Avril Lavigne managed to draw a copyright lawsuit from the most obscure punk band ever (The Rubinoos? WHO?), and the year that saw a major U.S. city go into panic mode over what looked like a Lite Brite image of an alien giving the finger. The finale of "The Sopranos" caused everyone to scratch their heads, "Don't Stop Believing" to be ruined forever (seriously, who doesn't hear that song and immediately think of a cut-to-black joke?), and led to parodies ranging from "Family Guy" to the Hillary campaign to "Pearls Before Swine", my new favorite comic strip.
Right at the end of the year, 3 of the most eligible ladies in entertainment went off the market, as Katherine Heigl, Jessica Alba, and Fergie all got engaged. Not that I ever had a chance with any of them... although I would like to apologize to Fergie for wishing she would go away this year. “Big Girls Don’t Cry” changed my mind. You can stay. Also “Sweet Escape” saved Gwen Stefani from the “go away” list. And speaking of lists, let’s just get right to my list of observations of the year’s well-known and lesser-known events:
Dumb Lawsuit of the Year: Talk about Bridezillas... a bride in NYC sued for $400,000 because the FLOWERS WERE THE WRONG COLOR.
What I’d Like to See Less of in 2008: Music videos involving water... where the band/artist is getting doused, drowned, rained on, etc. It’s getting out of hand, seriously, it’s happening in every other video now...
Wuss-out Moment of the Year: Labatt chops the bleeped-out swear word from their deer ad. I mean, seriously, who whined about that one? They can say "f(bleep)k" on prime-time TV but not in a beer commercial? At least air the bleep version after 10pm.
Bad Mom of the Year: Hands down, Lynne Spears. Famous older daughter freaks out, shaves her head, misses child custody hearings due to "illness", and then the all-timer: famous younger daughter (who is 16) gets pregnant by her boyfriend (who may be 19, making him a criminal). Honorable mention to the mom who made her daughter write a letter to win Hannah Montana tickets saying that her dad died in Iraq... a bold-faced LIE. The mom should go to prison and have her child taken away from her.
Stop Him Before He Kills Again: By the time Sean Kingston is done, there won’t be any classic pop or rock standards left that some kid won’t mistake for just being part of a current hit song...
The Return of Women To Rock: I begged for it to happen last year at this time, and it’s slowly happening. Paramore and Flyleaf, both with female lead singers, continue to grab attention and gain popularity, Shiny Toy Guns boasts a male-female combo for vocals, and we’ll even count Silversun Pickups and Sick Puppies for having female bassists. Of these bands, K-Rock played a grand total of 2... the last two, and it took until December and the 2nd Top 10 hit of the year for them to add Silversun Pickups. Apparently, still no room for women on the so-called “Alternative” station here in Syracuse.
Best New CD I Bought This Year: Tough one, but I’m gonna go with the Foo Fighters, “Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace.” Hey, it was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy for a reason... Honorable mention: Paramore, “Riot!”, Silversun Pickups, “Carnavas”, and the White Stripes, “Icky Thump”.
Who We Will Talk About In Music in 2008: Paramore, Sara Bareilles, Madonna (Hall of Fame induction = new hit album?), Green Day, Jack Johnson, The Killers, Simple Plan, and Kanye West.
Who Needs To Just Go Away in 2008: Nickelback (PLEASE!), Kid Rock (again), Britney (again)... why do I get the feeling that I just can’t get what I want here? Also, I’d like the aforementioned Mr. Kingston to go away.
“What the Hell Were They Thinking?” Moment: Vladimir Putin as Time’s Man of the Year? Well, what do you expect from the magazine that once named Hitler Man of the Year?
The “Patting Myself On the Back Award”, a.k.a. Predictions I Got Right For This Year: Well, I was one of the first to point out Paramore as a band on the verge of breaking out, and sure enough, they have a song in the Top 20 on the Pop chart, 2 in the Top 20 on the Modern Rock chart, and they’re up for Best New Artist at the Grammys. I also said we’d talk about Britney a lot this year... but nobody saw the shaved head coming. And I correctly said Duke would lose in the 1st round of the NCAAs and Florida would repeat as champs. I still didn’t win any money in the office pool.
The “Kicking Myself In the Ass Award”, a.k.a. Predictions I Got Wrong: Aside from the Fergie and Gwen Stefani mentions above, Nickelback of course didn’t go away; in fact, now I can’t flip through the radio dial without hearing Nickelback on AT LEAST 3 different stations. I picked the Mets to win the NL East easily again; I was correct with 17 games to play. Unfortunately, they played the last 17 games. Oh, and the SU football team definitely DID NOT turn the corner this year.
Even Dumber Prediction: A “well-respected” climate expert was quoted by Rolling Stone’s website as predicting that over 6 billion people will die in this century because of global warming, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Now I’ve heard of everything being blamed on global warming, but this takes the cake. I’m not denying that over 6 billion people will die in this century, because this shall indeed happen... and it’s because there are 93 years left in this century and very few people live to see 100. Therefore, most of the 6 billion people on this planet today will be dead by the end of the century, and there is indeed nothing we can do about it. But to blame it on global warming? HELLO?!?
Dumb PETA Protest of the Year: Right before the traditional Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, there was a “Running of the Nudes”. I am not making this up... here’s their website. They say this is to show Pamplona that “it doesn’t need to torture animals for tourism”. Two thoughts: 1) What about the humans who get gored by bulls each year? It seems to me that by comparison, the animals get off lightly... and 2) This is at least the 4th year in a row that they’ve done this, which begs the obvious question: How did I not find out about this sooner?
My Simple Wish for 2008: That we can somehow come together as a country and elect a president who will do the right thing for all or most of us, who can fix the problems we have without messing up what works with this country. Or at the very least, let's have an entertaining presidential race. And a 4.0 GPA wouldn't hurt either...
The Democrat-run Congress did next to nothing until December, and it was then that they proved they had done a complete 180 from their “oppose, oppose, oppose” agenda with which they started the year. Higher gas mileage standards for cars? Opposed them in January, passed them in December. Funding for the troops? Opposed it in January, passed it in December. Earmarks and pork projects? Opposed them in January, passed them in December. What a difference a year makes... More notably, they failed to accomplish the two objectives the 23% Crowd put them in office to do: immediately pull the troops out of Iraq and immediately impeach the president and vice-president. Then their worst nightmare happened... the surge worked. Oprah took to the stump for Obama, Hillary’s victory lap through the Democratic presidential primaries may have been derailed, and a guy named Huckabee is on the verge of winning the Iowa Caucuses for the Republicans, without taking my advice to make his campaign slogan “I (Heart) Huckabees.”
Steel finally started rising at Carousel. Nothing was built at the convention center... again (but they SWEAR they’ll start in February). Dan Maffei did indeed announce he was running against Jim Walsh again before the ink was dry on the “Walsh Beats Maffei” headlines from last year. And we became the envy of municipalities everywhere by electing a county executive whose first and last names rhyme.
The West Genesee boys lacrosse team and marching band didn’t win a state title... but the football team did. I think that may be a sign of the apocalypse. The SU basketball team got jobbed out of an NCAA Tournament berth. The Sabres won the President’s Trophy, then got run right off the ice by Ottawa in the conference finals. The Mets... don’t get me started. It still pisses me off. Barry Bonds got indicted (but no asterisk... yet), Roger Clemens got fingered for steroids and HGH by the Mitchell report, and both may join Big Mac among the baseball “legends” who will have the door to Cooperstown slammed in their face.
It was the year of Sanjaya (the only reason anyone still remembers him is these year-in-review columns), the year Avril Lavigne managed to draw a copyright lawsuit from the most obscure punk band ever (The Rubinoos? WHO?), and the year that saw a major U.S. city go into panic mode over what looked like a Lite Brite image of an alien giving the finger. The finale of "The Sopranos" caused everyone to scratch their heads, "Don't Stop Believing" to be ruined forever (seriously, who doesn't hear that song and immediately think of a cut-to-black joke?), and led to parodies ranging from "Family Guy" to the Hillary campaign to "Pearls Before Swine", my new favorite comic strip.
Right at the end of the year, 3 of the most eligible ladies in entertainment went off the market, as Katherine Heigl, Jessica Alba, and Fergie all got engaged. Not that I ever had a chance with any of them... although I would like to apologize to Fergie for wishing she would go away this year. “Big Girls Don’t Cry” changed my mind. You can stay. Also “Sweet Escape” saved Gwen Stefani from the “go away” list. And speaking of lists, let’s just get right to my list of observations of the year’s well-known and lesser-known events:
Dumb Lawsuit of the Year: Talk about Bridezillas... a bride in NYC sued for $400,000 because the FLOWERS WERE THE WRONG COLOR.
What I’d Like to See Less of in 2008: Music videos involving water... where the band/artist is getting doused, drowned, rained on, etc. It’s getting out of hand, seriously, it’s happening in every other video now...
Wuss-out Moment of the Year: Labatt chops the bleeped-out swear word from their deer ad. I mean, seriously, who whined about that one? They can say "f(bleep)k" on prime-time TV but not in a beer commercial? At least air the bleep version after 10pm.
Bad Mom of the Year: Hands down, Lynne Spears. Famous older daughter freaks out, shaves her head, misses child custody hearings due to "illness", and then the all-timer: famous younger daughter (who is 16) gets pregnant by her boyfriend (who may be 19, making him a criminal). Honorable mention to the mom who made her daughter write a letter to win Hannah Montana tickets saying that her dad died in Iraq... a bold-faced LIE. The mom should go to prison and have her child taken away from her.
Stop Him Before He Kills Again: By the time Sean Kingston is done, there won’t be any classic pop or rock standards left that some kid won’t mistake for just being part of a current hit song...
The Return of Women To Rock: I begged for it to happen last year at this time, and it’s slowly happening. Paramore and Flyleaf, both with female lead singers, continue to grab attention and gain popularity, Shiny Toy Guns boasts a male-female combo for vocals, and we’ll even count Silversun Pickups and Sick Puppies for having female bassists. Of these bands, K-Rock played a grand total of 2... the last two, and it took until December and the 2nd Top 10 hit of the year for them to add Silversun Pickups. Apparently, still no room for women on the so-called “Alternative” station here in Syracuse.
Best New CD I Bought This Year: Tough one, but I’m gonna go with the Foo Fighters, “Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace.” Hey, it was nominated for the Album of the Year Grammy for a reason... Honorable mention: Paramore, “Riot!”, Silversun Pickups, “Carnavas”, and the White Stripes, “Icky Thump”.
Who We Will Talk About In Music in 2008: Paramore, Sara Bareilles, Madonna (Hall of Fame induction = new hit album?), Green Day, Jack Johnson, The Killers, Simple Plan, and Kanye West.
Who Needs To Just Go Away in 2008: Nickelback (PLEASE!), Kid Rock (again), Britney (again)... why do I get the feeling that I just can’t get what I want here? Also, I’d like the aforementioned Mr. Kingston to go away.
“What the Hell Were They Thinking?” Moment: Vladimir Putin as Time’s Man of the Year? Well, what do you expect from the magazine that once named Hitler Man of the Year?
The “Patting Myself On the Back Award”, a.k.a. Predictions I Got Right For This Year: Well, I was one of the first to point out Paramore as a band on the verge of breaking out, and sure enough, they have a song in the Top 20 on the Pop chart, 2 in the Top 20 on the Modern Rock chart, and they’re up for Best New Artist at the Grammys. I also said we’d talk about Britney a lot this year... but nobody saw the shaved head coming. And I correctly said Duke would lose in the 1st round of the NCAAs and Florida would repeat as champs. I still didn’t win any money in the office pool.
The “Kicking Myself In the Ass Award”, a.k.a. Predictions I Got Wrong: Aside from the Fergie and Gwen Stefani mentions above, Nickelback of course didn’t go away; in fact, now I can’t flip through the radio dial without hearing Nickelback on AT LEAST 3 different stations. I picked the Mets to win the NL East easily again; I was correct with 17 games to play. Unfortunately, they played the last 17 games. Oh, and the SU football team definitely DID NOT turn the corner this year.
Even Dumber Prediction: A “well-respected” climate expert was quoted by Rolling Stone’s website as predicting that over 6 billion people will die in this century because of global warming, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Now I’ve heard of everything being blamed on global warming, but this takes the cake. I’m not denying that over 6 billion people will die in this century, because this shall indeed happen... and it’s because there are 93 years left in this century and very few people live to see 100. Therefore, most of the 6 billion people on this planet today will be dead by the end of the century, and there is indeed nothing we can do about it. But to blame it on global warming? HELLO?!?
Dumb PETA Protest of the Year: Right before the traditional Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain, there was a “Running of the Nudes”. I am not making this up... here’s their website. They say this is to show Pamplona that “it doesn’t need to torture animals for tourism”. Two thoughts: 1) What about the humans who get gored by bulls each year? It seems to me that by comparison, the animals get off lightly... and 2) This is at least the 4th year in a row that they’ve done this, which begs the obvious question: How did I not find out about this sooner?
My Simple Wish for 2008: That we can somehow come together as a country and elect a president who will do the right thing for all or most of us, who can fix the problems we have without messing up what works with this country. Or at the very least, let's have an entertaining presidential race. And a 4.0 GPA wouldn't hurt either...
posted by Dave | 2:24 PM
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