My Top Stuff of 2016

haha! i’m publishing this so late i know nobody is ever going to come across it just browsing or looking for 2016 year-end lists, and that’s okay. like i’ve said before, truly i do these just for myself, for posterity, to refer back to later, to remember and look back on the year in a digestible way. i do end up putting these to use at unpredictable future points, like showing an artist years later that their last record was among my favorites of that year, or pointing out to some dude i met that i liked the movie he’s trying to tell me about long before he “introduced” me to it, or in proving in a braggy-nerd way that i was into a band or director before their big future breakout, or in giving an overview of my taste to future entertainment-biz employers. so i’m gonna keep doing that on the faith that something like that might happen again. so here this is!!

2016 was a real garbage fire of a year for the world, between the election and all the celebrities dying. so i don’t mean to brag but it was an alright year for me personally. i lived in the same house in seattle the whole year, and continued on with my previous gigs of the last few years: radio promo as The Band Mom obviously, plus show manager at the Vera Project, door person/box office at my cool neighborhood venue, Columbia City Theater, and i worked for my third year in the box office for the Seattle International Film Festival. i also started a new very part-time gig as door person at another neighborhood haunt, the Royal Room. in March i traveled yet again to Austin (and San Antonio) for my 10^th SXSW in a row. i got to participate (thanks to the Vera Project) in the Seattle music festival Bumbershoot (Sept), and was a leader of Vera’s group of scrappy young outreach volunteers at the camping music fest Sasquatch at the Gorge in May. AND i made cute lil trips to various locations around WA: North Bend/Snoqualmie Falls (several visits to my favorite place), Spokane with a friend to see a show at the Knitting Factory, Vashon Island for their annual Strawberry Festival and another time for a fun housewarming, Tacoma with another friend for a movie at the Grand and my favorite fried rice spot, Kent/Bonney Lake for some family visits, and Ellensburg to serve as a guest judge on KCWU’s “Burgstock” battle the bands(!). And also traveled to Los Angeles in January to visit friends, Princeton NJ for my cousin Nate’s wedding (onto which I tacked a fun lil NYC trip too), and Ohio in both December (usual holidays trip + parents’ retirement party + brief side trip to PA w/fam) and June (for my brother’s wedding!) – and hosted/hung with friends visiting Seattle from LA, Portland, and New Zealand. Like I said, a pretty alright year for me really!

you’ll see my festival and venue work again reflected pretty heavily when we get down to my Top Shows lists, much as they were in my Top Stuff of 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 (i didn’t have such jobs in 2010 and 2009, but the venues i’d later work at were reflected pretty heavily in those lists as well). i’m maintaining the rule that Band Mom bands are ineligible for the Top Albums list because i couldn’t possibly rank them against each other, but that i can’t rule out shows where i worked the door or box office or show managed or was otherwise professionally involved in for my Top Shows lists, because then there would be almost no shows to consider.

as always, i never claim stuff on this list is the ‘best’ of the year. art is impossible to grade on an objective scale, and it’s insulting and ugly to posture as though one could do so. these are just my favorites:

my top 45 albums of 2016:

1. tacocat – lost time                                                                                                    
2. the thermals – we disappear
3. eric bachmann – eric bachmann
4. nick cave & and the bad seeds – skeleton tree
5. mitski – puberty 2
6. car seat headrest – teens of denial
7. david bazan – blanco
8. lisa prank – adult teen
9. frankie cosmos – next thing
10. childish gambino – “awaken, my love!”
11. yoni & geti – testarossa
12. angel olsen – my woman
13. kishi bashi – sonderlust
14. bellows – fist & palm
15. thao & the get down stay down – a man alive
16. m83 – junk
17. beach slang – a loud bash of teenage feelings
18. LVL UP – return to love
19. mike adams at his honest weight- casino drone
20. told slant – going by
21. animal collective – painting with
22. bear hands – you’ll pay for this
23. the avalanches – wildflower
24. whitney – light upon the lake
25. quilt – plaza
26. the julie ruin – hit reset
27. jordan o’jordan – through tough thoughts
28. conor oberst – ruminations
29. okkervil river – away
30. of montreal – innocence reaches
31. nada surf – you know who you are
32. hey marseilles – hey marseilles
33. yeasayer – amen and goodbye
34. julianna barwick – will
35. aesop rock – the impossible kid
36. sad13 – slugger
37. kid cudi – passion, pain & demon slayin’
38. xiu xiu – plays the music of twin peaks
39. jimmy eat world – integrity blues
40. ty segall – emotional mugger
41. damien jurado – visions of us on the land
42. sound of ceres – nostalgia for infinity
43. half japanese – perfect
44. ra ra riot – need your light
45. american football – s/t / lp2

the top 10 especially this year are albums i care an extra lot about about, but i extra-appreciated all of them enough to make the big recommendation!

while i see my films list below as pretty definitive (with the couple of named possible exceptions and MAYBE like one or two wildcards that came out in 2016 but haven’t yet crossed my radar), i see this music list as much less so. even so far past the end of the year, i still know there’s so much more music that was released in 2016 that never crossed my ears but that may end up being my favorite stuff in the future. so like, in ten years i bet i’ll probably largely stand by my top films list here, but my list of favorite music released in 2016 may look completely different (i’m talking additions, not deletions – the fact that this list of albums had a real impact on me can’t and won’t change retroactively; even if the future brings new information that makes me feel differently about the artists generally, i’ll never be able to change the fact that this music has meant something to me). in fact i’ve got a list of about 40 more albums i just haven’t spent enough time with to include but i bet would be very likely to in a hypothetical distant-future accounting of this year. some of them are embarrassing, like ajj and tobacco and wilco and frank ocean and david bowie and beyonce – what was i even doing that i didn’t have time to spend with those surely-great albums? WHO KNOWS

as mentioned and as always, Band Mom artists are ineligible for this list because I wouldn’t even begin to know how to rank them: this means you (in chronological order), animals of grace, photo ops, tuft, melaena cadiz, seaons, casket girls, the stargazer lilies, prairie empire, like, listen to, and hillary susz. that’s artists from California, Seattle, Nashville, Oregon, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New York, and beyond (and releases by Graveface, Misra, Bad Friend Records, and several other beloved record labels!!). you all put out FANTASTIC albums that are tied for number one in my heart, and I love you the most.

that list is 5 shows longer than last year, because i just couldn’t bear to cut any more out.:) but it felt to me overall like the year of both third eye blind and pwr bttm. both came crashing in (or back in) to my life unexpectedly and ended up taking up kind of a lot of (positive) space in it!

my 12 favorite comedy/podcast/spoken word shows I saw (couldn’t keep it to 10! in chronological order):

-shitty jobs (dc pierson, dominic dierkes, ben schwartz, ben rodgers) @ ucb franklin (los angeles, january)
-dave hill, tim heidecker, and scharpling & wurster @ sasquatch (the gorge, may)
-harry moroz w/brenton biddlecombe on “the super secret stand up show” @ ‘comedy sportz’ (seattle, july)
-whiplash (aparna nancherla hosting, gary gulman, nick vatterott, neal brennan, jermaine fowler) @ ucb chelsea (new york, july)
-flight of the conchords w/john hodgman, demitri martin, eugene mirman (and guest kimbra on “carol brown”!) @ forest hills stadium (queens, july)
-thrilling adventure hour (guest stars jon hamm, craig bierko, ted leo, & jean grae, w/regulars paul f tompkins, padget brewster, marc evan jackson, mark gagliardi, craig cackowski etc) @ bell house (brooklyn, july)
-night train (michelle buteau hosting, jo firestone, hari kondabolu, beth stelling, graham kay, drew dowdey, and the found footage festival) @ littlefield (brooklyn, july)
-kevin mcdonald w/wallace shawn, and 2 dope queens live podcast taping w/jon stewart, basically simultaneously but i made it to both(!) @ union hall and bell house (brooklyn, july)
-weird & awesome with emmett montgomery, featuring tim lennon, @ the annex theater (seattle, august)
-maria bamford w/jackie kashian @ the moore (seattle, september)
-john hodgman on his “vacationland” tour @ the neptune (seattle, november)
-joe mande w/erin ingle & justin clark @ columbia city theater (seattle, december)  

top 100 movies:

1. hunt for the wilderpeople                                                                                                                                                  

   

2. other people
3. la la land
4. arrival
5. moonlight
6. nocturnal animals
7. don’t think twice
8. swiss army man
9. manchester by the sea
10. a tale of love and darkness
11. middle man
12. high-rise
13. green room
14. under the shadow
15. blue jay
16. 20th century women
17. tickled
18. immortal
19. captain fantastic
20. our little sister
21. midnight special
22. hello, my name is doris
23. 10 cloverfield lane
24. the neon demon
25. ma ma
26. ghostbusters
27. weiner
28. viktoria
29. desierto
30. the handmaiden
31. i am not your negro
32. jim: the james foley story
33. one more time with feeling
34. mascots
35. the salesman
36. torrey pines
37. certain women
38. before the flood
39. tanna
40. l’attesa
41. silence
42. hail, caesar!
43. kate plays christine
44. zoom
45. the pistol shrimps
46. kedi
47. looking: the movie
48. live by night
49. the love witch
50. imperium
51. 13th
52. closet monster
53. julieta
54. voyage of time
55. hidden figures
56. author: the jt leroy story
57. pee-wee’s big holiday
58. loving
59. the bfg
60. moana
61. the lobster
62. gleason
63. fire at sea
64. lion
65. goat
66. allied
67. krisha
68. hell or high water
69. syl johnson: any way the wind blows
70. toni erdmann
71. joshy
72. another evil
73. jackie
74. folk hero & funny guy
75. a bride for rip van winkle
76. land of mine
77. the lovers and the despot
78. american honey
79. tower
80. cameraperson
81. the invitation
82. into the inferno
83. the red turtle
84. my life as a zucchini
85. the birth of a nation
86. goodnight brooklyn – the story of death by audio
87. rogue one: a star wars story
88. fantastic beasts and where to find them
89. keeping up with the joneses
90. miss peregrine’s home for peculiar children
91. queen of katwe
92. love & friendship
93. before the streets
94. take me to the river
95. train to busan
96. microbe and gasoline
97. hardcore henry
98. wiener-dog
99. blair witch
100. paterson

honorable mentions (roughly in order; this whole list was initially a numbered top 204 until I considered how ridiculous that is. but FYI I feel EXTRA strongly this time about the top 30 of the above list, but strongly enough about all of these to mention ‘em. I did see 108 other 2016 movies that didn’t make any list at all!):

life, animated; little men; the vvitch; kubo and the two strings; right now, wrong then; the dressmaker; snowden; american pastoral; search party; miss sharon jones!; neighbors 2: sorority rising; the nice guys; the legend of tarzan; star trek: beyond; the fits; only yesterday; equity; the hollars; elle; money monster; 11:55; the jungle book; zootopia; alone; fences; a man called ove; the magnificent seven; popstar: never stop never stopping; whiskey tango foxtrot; christine; kaili blues; band of robbers; the accountant; april and the extraordinary world; finding dory; free state of jones; the eagle huntress; tiny: the life of erin blackwell; in a valley of violence; the land; equals; deadpool; mountain; kingdom of clay subjects; dough; amanda knox; mountains may depart; remember; come and find me; the light between oceans; burn, burn, burn; denial; jules and delores; the night stalker; morris from america; a monster calls; the family fang; x-men: apocalypse; central intelligence; eye in the sky; the edge of seventeen; henry gamble’s birthday party; the blackcoat’s daughter; the people vs fritz bauer; passengers; worst laid plans; zero days; phantom boy; captain america: civil war; lo and behold: reveries of the connected world; how to plan an orgy in a small town; southside with you; lamb; miss hokusai; i am the pretty thing that lives in the house; cafe society; a hologram for the king; de palma; finding october; vanity; the coop; being 17; demolition; barney thomson; knight of cups; sing street; florence foster jenkins; the first monday in may; the finest hours; all the birds have flown south; the architect; eternal summer; mr. pig; neruda; the innocents; marguerite; the bronze; the shallows; bad moms; the brand new testament; colonia; demon; the autopsy of jane doe; shut in.

top NEW actors of the year (as in i’d never heard their names before/hadn’t noticed them in anything as actors and now they seem like a big deal to me, were each in several things i loved or at least were really impressive in one thing – lots of tv in the mix here too): byung-hun lee (the magnificent seven), johnny pemberton (son of zorn, neighbors 2, superstore), gal godot (keeping up with the joneses, criminal, batman v superman), emily meade (nerve, money monster, broad city), wyatt russell (everybody wants some, folk hero and funny guy, black mirror), devin druid (imperium, wiener-dog), janelle monae (hidden figures, moonlight), maya erskine (man seeking woman, insecure, son of zorn), michaela coel (chewing gum, the aliens), and oona laurence (lamb, bad moms, pete’s dragon)

standout actors of the year (who were not new to me, but were in a bunch of stuff i loved and seemed to have a really big year): nick kroll (knight of cups, loving), michael shannon (loving, nocturnal animals, midnight special), john early (search party, neighbors 2, other people), daniel radcliffe (swiss army man, imperium, now you see me 2), amy adams (arrival, nocturnal animals), michael sheen (nocturnal animals, passengers, masters of sex), mahershala ali (moonlight, house of cards, luke cage, hidden figures), and riz ahmed (the night of, the OA, rogue one)

also as an aside, a few years ago I made up a ‘best sound design‘ category because I felt so strongly about black swan’s and then we need to talk about kevin’s and then upstream color’s and then the babadook’s and then the revenant’s, and was mad that they were slighted in oscar nominations, and this year I feel the same way about the sound in both swiss army man AND in nocturnal animals!

and I created a bunch more superlatives/notes of interest which tend to vary by the year, like this time i wanna talk about best use of a pop song: that barbara lewis song in the jukebox scene in moonlight was an absolute KNOCKOUT. i also really appreciated the crucial use of “every stone” by manchester orchestra in swiss army man.

how about, best soundtracks/scores: i had strong feelings about kid koala’s work in zoom, brian mcomber’s work in krisha, all the jonsi/sigur ros in captain fantastic, and the la la land which managed to be a musical i loved even though i generally truly hate musicals.

I’ve also been enjoying noting oddest coincidences or instances of parallel thinking: this year, marguerite and florence foster jenkins had the same plot, and also there were two oj simpson tv shows why??

also along those lines, there were two songs that were weirdly song by characters, each within two different films: “take on me” was sung in both la la land and sing street, and “pennies from heaven” was sung in both the founder and sing??

some stats notes on movies: in 2016 i saw 297 different movies. (167 of them were 2016-released movies.) 121 of them were in theaters, and to date i’ve seen 311 movies that came out in 2016 (dramatically, by far, an all-time record for me – but i’m publishing this soo much later than i ever have, too, so that’s a wild exception and not a record i’ll reasonably want to try and beat. this includes several that i watched after the year ended, so they’ll be among the total i report having watched in 2017, but they’re also part of the group of 2016 movies i’m counting as eligible for this best-of list because i watched them before publishing this list, today).

as for movies with questionable release dates, the rule i made up is basically that if i saw it in like a festival or limited-engagement special event in 2016, even if it didn’t get even limited national release otherwise, it counts for my list, but if i did not see it in a festival before 2016 and its first limited release (a usa release that’s not a specific festival, even if it showed in fests pre-2016) was this year, then it counts. in other words it’s pretty subjective to my perspective, but it had to have its (limited or wide) release begin in 2016 OR be seen by me in a festival or special event (i saw movies at SXSW, SIFF and a few assorted micro fests and special screenings, and in theaters and homes in New York, Washington, Ohio, and Texas) in 2016.

also of note, i saw 14 2016 movies in 3d, as well as 6 in IMAX (3 of those overlapped, IMAX 3d). (i also saw one more time with feeling, a 2016 release that made my above list, in 3d, but i didn’t see that screening until 2017.) i continue to think 3d is a stupid cash grab that almost never adds to the film, but I suffer from pretty severe fear of missing out so i keep allowing myself to get suckered in. this year the only ones i’d really make a case for 3d being worth it were one more time with feeling, and the marvel movies and star treks/wars (it does enhance the scale of things to see ’em flying all around with better depth of field i guess) (also i’d note that in passengers, the 3d was really the only thing i liked about it).

i saw two movies twice in theaters this year: la la land (one of the two screenings was in imax) and don’t think twice.

i keep saying this every year but this is once again my longest movie list ever…there are just so many that I truly feel strongly about! also I keep seeing more and more movies every year in theaters, because of this service called Moviepass where I pay a monthly fee for nearly-unlimited movies so that it actually made financial sense to see MORE movies than less, and I was happy to oblige. i also included netflix/other VOD-only releases that debuted in 2016, even if they never showed in theaters.

here’s what 2.33 trips to the movie theater a week (plus a few extraneous otherwise tix) looks like, btw:

although i obviously saw a ton of movies this year, you’ll always miss a few; there are a few that i still intend to see. i feel very good about the above list, really got pretty much all of the serious contenders in for once (like for only my second time ever since beginning to put these lists together, i caught every single feature-length film nominated for an oscar in any category before publishing!). even so, these stragglers might have had a chance at making the above lists had i been able to catch them: cemetery of splendor, aquarius, les cowboys, miles ahead, pride and prejudice and zombies, ordinary world, triple 9, the meddler, the empire of corpses, belladonna of sadness, harmony, tale of tales, demon, madly, and things to come. pretty much everything else, if it had a theatrical release in 2016 and it’s not listed here, it’s on purpose. SO THERE.

saw filmmakers/actors in person promoting:

-a bride for rip van winkle (director iwai shunji, SIFF @ egyptian, may 24)
-the pistol shrimps (director brent hodge, SIFF @ uptown, june 2)
-complete unknown (director joshua marston, SIFF @ egyptian, june 2)
-folk hero & funny guy (director jeff grace and producer ryland aldrich, SIFF @ uptown, june 5)
-the fits (producer/co-writer lisa kjerulff, SIFF @ ark lodge, june 8)
-middle man (writer/director ned crowley, stars jim o’heir and andrew j. west, SIFF @ uptown, june 12)
-11:55 (producer matthew thurm, co-director/co-writer ben snyder, SIFF @ uptown, june 12)
-don’t think twice (writer/director/star mike birbiglia, actor tami sagher, and producer ira glass, moderated by judd apatow, landmark sunshine NYC, july 23)
-transparent (writers’ panel for tv show, with writers bridget bedard, micah fitzerman-blue, and ethan kuperberg, and actor kate berlant, bumbershoot, september 3)
-local sightings “northwest strange” shorts program (6 short filmmakers, including my pal jared steiner with “last caller”, northwest film forum, sept 27)

also these 2 other special film events that weren’t with the filmmakers present but did have special hosts and feel worth a mention anyway:

-the mads are back: glen or glenda (MST3K guys riffing live on ed wood movie, SIFF @ egyptian, may 21)
-rambu: the intruder (b-movie bingo, SIFF @ egyptian, june 4)

favorite new tv shows:

atlanta

stranger things
love
lady dynamite
the oa
one mississippi
braindead
insecure
better things
chewing gum
search party
the night of
dirk gently’s holistic detective agency (us version)
fleabag
the good place
high maintenance
oj: made in america (why did the oscars classify this as a film?? it’s clearly a miniseries?)
american crime story: the people vs oj simpson
the get down
westworld
borderline
the path
baskets
divorce
borderline
wrecked
leah remini: scientology and the aftermath
luke cage
the aliens
dramaworld
horace and pete
marcella
the night manager
you, me and the apocalypse
animals.
11.22.63

plus favorite returning (not new in 2016 but had 2016 seasons) tv shows:

brooklyn nine-nine

bojack horseman
bob’s burgers
last week tonight with john oliver
crazy ex-girlfriend
togetherness
you’re the worst
transparent
broad city
the birthday boys
house of cards
grace and frankie
mr. robot
adventure time with finn and jake
unREAL
portlandia
izombie
casual
please like me
schitt’s creek
catastrophe
jane the virgin
adam ruins everything
drunk history
gilmore girls
superstore
man seeking woman
the mindy project
quantico
new girl
fresh off the boat
sherlock
the last man on earth
you’re the worst
the fall
documentary now!
comedy bang! bang!
black mirror
daredevil
the increasingly poor decisions of todd margaret
wayward pines
scandal
orange is the new black
better call saul
younger
bates motel
lovesick (formerly called “scrotal recall”, v good name change)
bloodline
angie tribeca
x-files (especially that episode with rhys darby and kumail!!)
those who can’t
married
scream queens
scream
peaky blinders

(fell behind on current seasons of marvel’s agent carter, the man in the high castle, girls, luther, masters of sex, penny dreadful, american horror story, ash vs evil dead, and maron that might’ve otherwise made the list; also planning on someday getting around to veep, enlightened, the americans, the leftovers, orphan black, halt and catch fire, the characters, flaked, people of earth, rectify, supergirl, roadies, outlander, jon glaser loves gear…need more hours in the day)

ok fine and a couple other cool things I did in 2016 that didn’t have a spot to be filed under elsewhere:

for a while i was capping off the ends of these posts with “celebrity encounters”, where i’d humblebrag about meeting famous people then post my favorite photo with one of them, but that’s starting to feel kind of gross, and also most of these encounters take place at work and i’m less and less finding impulse and/or opportunity to pose for a pic with someone who’s performing at my job, so i think i might transition this tradition (kind of already did last year) over into just my favorite photo of myself from the year. this year i think the honor goes to this one, with my parents, grandmother, brother, and brand new sister-in-law at their wedding:

THE END! i love you.