2021 Best-Ofs!

Is it time already, everyone’s asking, for the 2021 Best-Ofs?

Yes, kids, it is. It is indeed. And in a whirlwind year I’ve had only a few moments to relive the past twelve months, the ups, the downs, the highs and the lows, the awesomenesses and the could’ve should’ves. Yes, it’s the end-of-the-year post where Hopper evaluates the best (and the worst) of the past year. At least as far as his normally random, esoteric and highly selective interests go.

So, without further ado, let’s hear the winners (and losers) of each category …

 

 

Best Book, Fiction:

Sharpe’s Waterloo, © 1990 by Bernard Cornwell

This deserves its own post. Sharpe’s Waterloo is my first foray into world of Napoleonic soldier Richard Sharpe. A world completely devoid of political correctness and thus completely alien to our current culture. Author Bernard Cornwell has written twenty-four such novels over the span of thirty or forty years. Each novel is a stand-alone, yet all form the chronology of the dangerous toxic masculinity of Sharpe. I’ve read three so far this year, all A-plusses, but this, being the first, gets the award.

 

Best Book, Nonfiction:

Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness, © 2016 by Craig Nelson

A great, page-turning read that really, truly, honorably goes into depth into what happened on December 7, 1941 in the Pacific. Lots of detail, lots of trivia, lots of hair-raising turns and inspirational motivational stories. I loved it and will probably read it again in a few years.

Runner-up: The Physics of Immortality, © 1997 by Frank J. Tipler

One of the longest-lived books in the On-Deck Circle, making its first appearance 24 years ago. Finally read it for a different perspective of, well, immortality. It’s a physicists-version of life, death, and all that matters, all the big questions. Satisfied yet did not satisfy me, and begs for another re-read as I probably understand half of what I read. Not sure if I will, the whole life-is-too-short thing, but I am definitely pleased I climbed this Mt. Everest and it did give me lots of new ideas to chew over.

 

Worst Book:

First Lensman, © 1950 by E.E. “Doc” Smith

Not really “worst,” in the sense that I don’t waste my time on bad books, but I did read the fifth book in this series years ago and had some fond nostalgic memories of it. So I decided perhaps the first book, which I read during the most turbulent times of our move southwest, would take my mind off its troubles for a more innocent time. But I never got into it, and I think it’s because of the “Asimov problem” I have: every character acts and talks like it’s the 1940s, only it’s supposed to be 500 years later.

 

Best Movie:

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Watched this one earlier in the year with Little One, and then a second time with Little One and Patch. All of us love it. I think it strikes a perfect balance – not too cornbally Steven King, not too violent or gory (except for one terrible scene), somewhat epic in scope, and does not destroy the legacy of the original characters from The Shining, Little One’s favorite movie. Yeah, it hit some diversity cringe, but overall it was the best movie I watched this year, with the caveat that I did not watch many original movies.

 

Most Disappointing Movie:

The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

I think I am not alone in saying we were all looking for more Tony Soprano and less, if any at all, of Dickie Moltisanti. Good gangster flick that doesn’t quite make it into the classics. I hope the poor performance does not stop a second movie featuring on Tony’s rise into the mob.

Runner up for Most Disappointing Movie: Bird Box (2018)

Yeah, too much wokeness in this one. Perhaps 80 percent PC and 15 percent stupidity. An even better way to spend your time is to watch that youtube kid’s video on how to beat the monsters in Bird Box – what refreshing clarity and intellect packed into 10 or 12 minutes.

 

Movies Seen in an Actual Theater:

Just one, A Quiet Place 2. Not as good as the first, but definitely worth a watch. Would make a great back-to-back pairing with the first one for a horror night movie party.

Best Music:

Listened to a great variety, I have to admit, but nothing new and / or groundbreaking. Revisited all my old classic rock, all my old classic classical, plus some jazz fusion stuff I’ve chilled to in years past. The few original musicians or genres I explored did not leave any deep impressions. Only “new” thing I can recall is the last Van Halen record, c. 2012, with Dave, a CD of the Van Halen family modernizing the band’s old demos from the 70s. I listened to it a bunch of times back in October.

  

Best TV / Worst TV:

Not really a year of TV watching. At the beginning of 2021 the family re-watched the entire Office series, which never gets old, and since then we’ve been working our way through Hell’s Kitchen season re-runs on Youtube video. For myself, I had no new shows and thus didn’t waste too much time via the bube tube.

 

Best Youtube Channel:

Dunno. Kinda watched a lot of true crime stuff, particularly Dr. Todd Grande’s channel, and a lot of stuff on the Chris Watts and Jodi Arias cases. Still watching movie reviews, like Off The Shelf Reviews and Red Letter Media, as well as Critical Drinker and Hack the Movies. Watched a bit of historical channels, especially on WWII, but they require more concentration.

 

Moments of Creativity:

Wrote another album. By my reckoning, I now have three album’s worth of material. No lyrics, just somewhere around thirty songs more-or-less complete musically. A long-term goal is to buy a multitrack recorder and get these songs down on tape, with me playing all the parts save drums.

 

Best Podcasts:

(tie) Dr Taylor Marshall and Valuetainment

 

Other Internet Picks

Started following a few people on Twitter. Not sure as to the wisdom of this. Mostly – 99 percent – of it is griping. Griping about something – politics, religion. May stop this though I try to follow the more positive and less poisonous folks

 

Phases:

Selling the Old House / Buying the New House / Moving halfway across the country / Getting acquainted with a new state

Movie watching phase (primarily Stephen Kings) with both girls pre-move

New job in corporate

World War II

Electric guitarsmanship

The Napoleonic Wars

Sharpe Novels

Minor excursions into the Lord of the Rings, the JFK Assassination, Saucerology, New Thought, Classical Greek literature and mythology

Lifting, Walking, and Keto (mainly second half of summer)

 

Best Phase:

All – or None! – of them!

Bahahahaha!

No, seriously, it was a good year, despite being one of the more erratic ones. A hopper like me craves stability, so here’s to some stability in 2022!