2008: Reflections, 2

by folkbum

We had to put up with a lot of crap this year. But that's another post. This post is about some things that I have enjoyed in the past year.

• Sidral Mundet. This stuff is liquid crack.
• Kodiak Cakes. Just add water, but the ingredients list is pure, natural stuff. No funny preservatives or additives. And they make durn tasty pancakes.
• "Leverage." Earlier in the year, my wife and I were complaining that it had been a long time since the last good, fun heist-caper movie (the last one being The Bank Job). Then along comes this show. You should be watching it.
• Susan Werner, Live at Passim, and Girlyman, Somewhere Different Now. It's rare that live albums accurately reflect the real nature of a performance, but, if I may speak as someone who has seen these acts live repeatedly, these do. Somewhere, in particular, could be verbatim any one of a number of Girlyman shows I've seen.
• iPod Touch. For those of us who want the music and games of an iPhone, but don't use the phone enough to warrant this gadget's more expensive cousin.
• Barack Obama kicked John McCain's ass. It wasn't even close.
• This paragraph:

  In any case, it’s certainly weird that the areas most affected by the crisis are centers of populations and finance. You’d think the deep South would be the first to crash, with the Franklin Mint bubble taking out Waffle House and Cracker Barrel, whose collapse would wipe out the rustic knick-knack manufacturers, dropping the floor out from under the Beanie Baby speculators, and so on down the line until you reach John Deere, at which point it’s game-over for Amway, Carhartt, Philip Morris, Mary Kay, QVC, Bob’s Big Boy, and the whole line of dominoes leading from Bally/Midway and the rest of the video poker manufacturers to Winn-Dixie and Piggly Wiggly, and from there to one Branson concern after the next, wiping out Winnebago before toppling various Indian tribes and their casino buffet and dream-catcher keychain suppliers, landing subsequently on Disney itself, at which point the coastal elites would notice something missing but not be able to put their finger quite on what it was, until 3AM one night when they sat bolt upright in bed, saying, “Oh my God, whatever happened to the Jonas Brothers?”

  It's so much better in context, but I felt it needed to be preserved here for posterity.
• Paste magazine. I feel hip by association reading it. Plus there's free music.
• Classic Slice Pizza. Best pizza in metro Milwaukee. Period.
• Nothing Like the Holidays. I didn't see Four Christmases, but I am quite sure this movie kicks its ass. Go see it while it's still the holidays.

This is far from a comprehensive list, of course. But tell me--what was good in 2008 for you?