I know it's a few weeks late, but I always like to give myself a little time to let the previous 12 months of music sink in before I create my playlist of my favorite songs of the year. Basic rules are these:
1. playlist can be no longer than 80 min so it can fit on a single cd
2. No repeating artists on the same mixtape (except in the case of guest artists or extremely awesome albums)
3. These are songs that I love and still enjoy at the end of the year. Therefore overplayed songs get bumped from the list. Sorry Avicii.
4. Don't be afraid of guilty pleasure songs (you'll see what I mean below)
5. Songs must be from the year in Question. No holdovers from the precious year allowed.
So here it is, The official 2013 mixtape according to The Scattered Approach
1. Lady You Shot Me - HarMar Superstar
The coolest thing to ever be associated with the HarMar Mall
2. Strictly Reserved for You (feat. Menahan Street Band) - Charles Bradley
Somebody introduce this guy to Sharon Jones stat so they can make a duet album and I can die happy.
3. Dance Apocalyptic - Janelle Monae
Best R&B/Soul Artist under the age of 40
4. Royals - Lorde
Yes it's overplayed. No, I'm not sick of it yet.
5. Cut My Hair - Luca Vasta
Thank you Amazon for highlighting this song
6. It Is The Way You Name Your Ship - Gogol Bordello
This song makes me want to drink whiskey, sing, and fight at the same time....
7. Rollin' Over - Skinny Lister
...While this song make me want to drink beer, sing, and dance in a circle at the same time.
8. Follow Your Arrow - Kacey Musgraves
I heard it was a good year for female country artists.
9. You Ain't Dolly (And You Ain't Porter) - Ashley Monroe
Why yes, yes it was.
10. Timber - Pitbull feat. Ke$ha
What can I say, I'm a sucker for a sick Harmonica riff. Anyone who's been around me when Outkast's "Rosa Parks" comes on can attest to that.
11. Acapella - Karmin
I also love pop music that is tongue in cheek.
12. Wild - Jessie J feat. Big Sean
How is Jessie J not the biggest pop star in the world?! She's got one of the best pop voices I've ever heard.
13. Remix (I Like The) - New Kids on the Block
Yeah, I do love a NKOTB song. So What? It makes me wanna dance like the girl in the video.
14. Harlem - New Politics
Kudos to my wife for introducing me to this awesome indie rock anthem. I defy you not to jump around to this song.
15. Pumping Blood - NONONO
Another great track my wife found. Either she's upped her game or I'm slipping. Probably both.
16. Holy Roller - Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
It's songs like this that make me grateful for NPR's free SXSW samplers.
17. Open - Rhye
Nope, that's not Sade. It's a dude singing this song. Which somehow makes it even more awesome.
18. Dark Horse - Katy Perry feat. Juicy J
This is by far the best song on her new album, and much better for dancing than "ROAR"
19. Rhyme or Reason - Eminem
You either love or hate Eminem at this point. Personally, I thought this was his most exciting album yet, and this is one of several stand out tracks on a stellar album. This song gets my vote simply for the shout out to Yoda over a Zombies sample.
20. New - Paul McCartney
With each new release, I realize I was very wrong about Sir Paul. The man is a genius and living legend. And this song makes me happy. Like, Muppets levels of joy.
21. Plastic Cup - Low
Low gets the nod for honorary haunting bummer of a song, unseating both The National and Arcade Fire to win this spot.
22. I Hope You're the End of My Story - Pistol Annies
I always get sentimental at the end of these lists, and thankfully Pistol Annies provided me with this gorgeous love song to end the 2013 mix
So That's the list. Let me know what gems I missed this year.
Saturday, January 25, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
100 by 30 Book 47 - Allegiant
MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR ENTIRE DIVERGENT TRILOGY BELOW!!!!
Well, That's one way to end a trilogy. The third and final installment is by far the weakest and basically undoes everything I loved about the first two. The books faults lie largely in execution and not in the plot details itself. I got a lot to say, so let's get started.
1. Page 1 of Allegiant essentially spoils the plot of the book if you have half a brain. The book starts by doing something that didn't happen in the first two books: the narration is divided between our two main characters. Given that the first two books showed an impressive lust for killing off major characters, separating the narrative basically shouts to the reader, "HEY! HEY YOU! THE MAIN CHARACTER IS GOING TO DIE!" Yes, it's true. Tris dies toward the end of this book. Don't worry, it's not sad, just dumb. I'll come back to this in a minute.
2. The division of the narrative hurts the plot and exposes Veronica Roth as a mediocre author. After following Tris' story for the first two books, suddenly having to follow two first person narratives becomes very jarring. This issue is compounded by the fact that the writing style does not vary between Tris and Four. There were a number of times where I had to return to the start of the chapter just to figure out whose story I was following. Because the two characters could not be separated, I suddenly lost my interest in Tris as a character. She lost all uniqueness and I no longer cared about her motives. Likewise for Four. It's very difficult to suddenly get inside the head of a character we've been viewing from the outside for the first 800 pages of the saga, especially when we find out that the inside life of said character is identical to the outside life we've been seeing. Seriously, the guy turns out to be saying everything he thinks at all times. So now we've wasted half the book with a pointless narrative that does nothing to further the plot in a meaningful way. We split the narrative and learn nothing new.
3. The story covers too much plot in too little time - The world of the first 2 books is a self-contained distopia. The revelation at the end of book 2 that the city is just an experiment run by the outside world explodes the universe that the story is built around. While the expansion is exciting and give the book plenty of places to go, Veronica Roth's book tries to expand too fast. The enlargement of the world would sustain several more books in the series. Instead, we get a very rushed introduction to this new world and all the political forces and characters in it. David, the new main antagonist, is introduced mainly has a former love interest for Tris' mother. We simply don't get enough of his motives or back story to keep the narrative engaging.
We are also introduced to all new cultural dynamics that we are expected to have a stake in, but we don't really get a proper examination of the difference between the genetically damaged and genetically pure people, nor do we get a sense of the motives behind hiding human history. The themes become very muddled because non of the characters or themes are fleshed out enough to give the impression of a real world.
4. The story exacerbates issues with the first two books - The speedy pacing of the first two books worked well because we were following one character's chaotic journey through a world falling apart. The worm's eye view gave an impression of greater things beyond Tris' understanding. In Allegiant, the split narrative shows us that, no, nothing is really happening behind the scenes. The books never get at anything below the surface of the events. Suddenly, the pacing of the first two books feels sloppy and rushed as well.
5. Tris' sacrifice has no impact - Tris has a very complicated relationship with her brother. In the end, she sacrifices her life to save him, but we never get a satisfying explanation for his actions. Bad or good, we never really understand why he did what he did. Because the relationship isn't well defined, her choice to sacrifice herself is muddled and loses impact.
The way she dies also raises more questions than it answers. First, she is the first person to survive the death serum, which begs the question, "why is she so powerful." This is essentially a supernatural act by all the rules established in the series. Instead of some sort of explanation for this amazing feat, she is promptly shot to death right afterwards, denying the audience any reasoning for the feat. It would be like Neo surviving the gunshot at the end of the Matrix only to have his head chopped off 30 seconds later. It's ineffectual storytelling.
I don't think this book was completely useless, but it did feel like the first draft of a better story. It think the death of Tris could have been much more effective if Veronica Roth had saved the splitting of the narrative until after her death. Also, recognize when you have enough material for an long running series and don't cram a bunch of half-assed garbage into the third book just so you can stick with the trilogy format. Probably don't read this book though. Enjoy the first two and pretend the third book was never finished.
3/10
Well, That's one way to end a trilogy. The third and final installment is by far the weakest and basically undoes everything I loved about the first two. The books faults lie largely in execution and not in the plot details itself. I got a lot to say, so let's get started.
1. Page 1 of Allegiant essentially spoils the plot of the book if you have half a brain. The book starts by doing something that didn't happen in the first two books: the narration is divided between our two main characters. Given that the first two books showed an impressive lust for killing off major characters, separating the narrative basically shouts to the reader, "HEY! HEY YOU! THE MAIN CHARACTER IS GOING TO DIE!" Yes, it's true. Tris dies toward the end of this book. Don't worry, it's not sad, just dumb. I'll come back to this in a minute.
2. The division of the narrative hurts the plot and exposes Veronica Roth as a mediocre author. After following Tris' story for the first two books, suddenly having to follow two first person narratives becomes very jarring. This issue is compounded by the fact that the writing style does not vary between Tris and Four. There were a number of times where I had to return to the start of the chapter just to figure out whose story I was following. Because the two characters could not be separated, I suddenly lost my interest in Tris as a character. She lost all uniqueness and I no longer cared about her motives. Likewise for Four. It's very difficult to suddenly get inside the head of a character we've been viewing from the outside for the first 800 pages of the saga, especially when we find out that the inside life of said character is identical to the outside life we've been seeing. Seriously, the guy turns out to be saying everything he thinks at all times. So now we've wasted half the book with a pointless narrative that does nothing to further the plot in a meaningful way. We split the narrative and learn nothing new.
3. The story covers too much plot in too little time - The world of the first 2 books is a self-contained distopia. The revelation at the end of book 2 that the city is just an experiment run by the outside world explodes the universe that the story is built around. While the expansion is exciting and give the book plenty of places to go, Veronica Roth's book tries to expand too fast. The enlargement of the world would sustain several more books in the series. Instead, we get a very rushed introduction to this new world and all the political forces and characters in it. David, the new main antagonist, is introduced mainly has a former love interest for Tris' mother. We simply don't get enough of his motives or back story to keep the narrative engaging.
We are also introduced to all new cultural dynamics that we are expected to have a stake in, but we don't really get a proper examination of the difference between the genetically damaged and genetically pure people, nor do we get a sense of the motives behind hiding human history. The themes become very muddled because non of the characters or themes are fleshed out enough to give the impression of a real world.
4. The story exacerbates issues with the first two books - The speedy pacing of the first two books worked well because we were following one character's chaotic journey through a world falling apart. The worm's eye view gave an impression of greater things beyond Tris' understanding. In Allegiant, the split narrative shows us that, no, nothing is really happening behind the scenes. The books never get at anything below the surface of the events. Suddenly, the pacing of the first two books feels sloppy and rushed as well.
5. Tris' sacrifice has no impact - Tris has a very complicated relationship with her brother. In the end, she sacrifices her life to save him, but we never get a satisfying explanation for his actions. Bad or good, we never really understand why he did what he did. Because the relationship isn't well defined, her choice to sacrifice herself is muddled and loses impact.
The way she dies also raises more questions than it answers. First, she is the first person to survive the death serum, which begs the question, "why is she so powerful." This is essentially a supernatural act by all the rules established in the series. Instead of some sort of explanation for this amazing feat, she is promptly shot to death right afterwards, denying the audience any reasoning for the feat. It would be like Neo surviving the gunshot at the end of the Matrix only to have his head chopped off 30 seconds later. It's ineffectual storytelling.
I don't think this book was completely useless, but it did feel like the first draft of a better story. It think the death of Tris could have been much more effective if Veronica Roth had saved the splitting of the narrative until after her death. Also, recognize when you have enough material for an long running series and don't cram a bunch of half-assed garbage into the third book just so you can stick with the trilogy format. Probably don't read this book though. Enjoy the first two and pretend the third book was never finished.
3/10
Thursday, January 2, 2014
100 by 30 Book 46 - Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Honestly, I finished this book in 2 days. Unfortunately, I read it so fast the whole thing is a bit of a blur. I remember I liked it though. MASSIVE BOOK 1 SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:
You've been warned.
OK, Here we go. Book 2 kicks off right after the genocide of Tris' former faction including the murder of both her parents. She's also pretty upset that she shot one of her best friends in the face while he was brainwashed. (told you there'd be spoilers)
For most of the book, Tris is suffering from some pretty severe PTSD. She becomes borderline suicidal as she attempts to stop the Erudite from either killing everyone or controlling them with mind altering injections. We also learn that the divergent population is being specifically targeted because of their resistance to these injections. I really liked the way the author showed the psychological toll the events are taking on Tris. The book spends a lot of time dealing with survivor's guilt and assorted trauma and it is really well done. It takes a pretty harrowing sequence of events to get her to stop trying to get herself killed.
That doesn't stop a whole crap ton of other people from dying though. I feel like author Veronica Roth is trying to set a record for the number of dead significant characters in a book series. We're into the dozens already and it's only been two books. Red Shirts have a better survival rate. With the breathtaking pace and the high mortality rate, it is sometimes hard to stop and consider the ideas being presented, many of which are worth pondering. The entertainment level is so high though that rereading is highly likely, so I'll think about the big ideas then.
Oh, and the book ends on a massive cliff hanger. I kind of saw something like that coming, but it was pretty great anyway.
9/10
You've been warned.
OK, Here we go. Book 2 kicks off right after the genocide of Tris' former faction including the murder of both her parents. She's also pretty upset that she shot one of her best friends in the face while he was brainwashed. (told you there'd be spoilers)
For most of the book, Tris is suffering from some pretty severe PTSD. She becomes borderline suicidal as she attempts to stop the Erudite from either killing everyone or controlling them with mind altering injections. We also learn that the divergent population is being specifically targeted because of their resistance to these injections. I really liked the way the author showed the psychological toll the events are taking on Tris. The book spends a lot of time dealing with survivor's guilt and assorted trauma and it is really well done. It takes a pretty harrowing sequence of events to get her to stop trying to get herself killed.
That doesn't stop a whole crap ton of other people from dying though. I feel like author Veronica Roth is trying to set a record for the number of dead significant characters in a book series. We're into the dozens already and it's only been two books. Red Shirts have a better survival rate. With the breathtaking pace and the high mortality rate, it is sometimes hard to stop and consider the ideas being presented, many of which are worth pondering. The entertainment level is so high though that rereading is highly likely, so I'll think about the big ideas then.
Oh, and the book ends on a massive cliff hanger. I kind of saw something like that coming, but it was pretty great anyway.
9/10
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