A Year in Review
The end of the year marks a time for reflection and of course those "Best and Worst of 2014" lists. With this being a review blog, I thought I would make my own, only being an optimist, let's focus on the "best of" rather than the worst. Without further ado, here are my "Top 5's of 2014" for movies, songs, books, TV shows, theatre, people, and places.
Movies
This one is always really difficult because to be honest, I can't remember what films I saw at the beginning of the year. I'm sorry to admit, this list might be skewed towards the latter half*. Nonetheless, here are my top 5 movies of 2014 in no particular order:
1. Birdman
2. The Theory of Everything
3. The Lego Movie
4. Guardians of the Galaxy
5. About Time
*Guess it wasn't as skewed as I thought!
Honorable mentions: The Imitation Game, The Fault In Our Stars, Gone Girl
Movies of personal significance: The Amazing Spider-man 2 (see blog post), If I Stay (despite a lack of good reviews from the critics, I still cried...on an airplane), The Interview (I haven't seen it, but it caused so much raucous that there was no way I couldn't mention it).
Songs
So my taste in music is kind of weird...take this list with a grain of salt. Also I'm limiting myself to songs that were released in 2014.
1. Blank Space by Taylor Swift
2. Lips are Movin' by Meghan Trainor
3. The Great Unknown by Jukebox the Ghost (although the entire album is fantastic)
4. Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede (from Guardians of the Galaxy, the entire soundtrack really deserves a nod here)
5. Try by Colbie Caillat (mostly because of the message)
Honorable mentions: Night Changes by One Direction (mostly because the music video is adorable), Shake it Off by Taylor Swift (also because of the message)
2013 songs that were also great and I still listened to or discovered in 2014: Modern Vampires of the City (yes the whole album), Safe and Sound, actually pretty much anything I listened to at Coachella...
Books
This list is really my favorite books that I've read this year, not the top 5 books released in 2014. As you can see, I'm a little behind in my reading.
1. Dataclysm by Christian Rudder
2. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
3. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
4. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
5. The Art of Racing In the Rain by Garth Stein
Honorable mentions: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
TV Shows
Both continuing and new shows.
1. The Flash (What's not to love about Barry Allen?)
2. Sherlock
3. The Vampire Diaries (since Gossip Girl ended, I needed a new guilty pleasure)
4. Downton Abbey
5. Dancing with the Stars
Shows of significance to me that ended this year: How I Met Your Mother (minus a few of the later seasons and replacing the ending with the alternate one), The Colbert Report
Theatre
I'm not quite sure this list is fair since I didn't really see that many productions, but unlike the ones above this will actually be ranked with 1 being the best and 5 being the least best but still very good (since this is still a "best of" list after all).
1. Cabaret (w/ Emma Stone and Alan Cumming)
2. Kinky Boots (on tour)
3. Pippin (also on tour, but with Matthew James Thomas!)
4. This is Our Youth (w/ Michael Cera)
5. A Chorus Line (the Sunnyvale Community Players' production, in which I was a crew member)
People
A very subjective list, don't be offended. These are the people I found to be most influential/talked about/successful career-wise in 2014.
1. Emma Watson (she took her role as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador to the next level)
2. Benedict Cumberbatch (when are people not talking about Benedict Cumberbatch?)
3. Lionel Messi (World Cup finals, Golden Ball winner, whether you love him or hate him Messi's a significance - sorry Cristiano Ronaldo)
4. Taylor Swift (don't be a hater when it comes to T-Swift, not only is she a talented song-writer, but she might be one of the only celebrities who is an excellent role model for her young fans but still knows how to have fun)
5. Stephen Colbert (he got Google to change his height, how much more powerful can you be?)
Honorable mentions: Tim Howard (the man who single handedly led the USMNT), anyone who participated in the ALS ice bucket challenge, George Clooney (he got married!), Jennifer Lawrence
Places
This was the year of traveling for me, so I thought I would list some of my favorite places that I went to this year. Of course you can also refer to my other posts for a more detailed account of my travels.
1. New York City (how else do you think I saw Cabaret and This is Our Youth?)
2. Monaco
3. Barcelona, Spain
4. Paris, France
5. Salzberg, Austria
Honorable mentions: the beaches of Thailand and Florence, Italy
It's been quite the year. It's been an amazing year, actually, and I can't wait for an even better 2015. Happy New Year everyone!
Movies
This one is always really difficult because to be honest, I can't remember what films I saw at the beginning of the year. I'm sorry to admit, this list might be skewed towards the latter half*. Nonetheless, here are my top 5 movies of 2014 in no particular order:
1. Birdman
2. The Theory of Everything
3. The Lego Movie
4. Guardians of the Galaxy
5. About Time
*Guess it wasn't as skewed as I thought!
Honorable mentions: The Imitation Game, The Fault In Our Stars, Gone Girl
Movies of personal significance: The Amazing Spider-man 2 (see blog post), If I Stay (despite a lack of good reviews from the critics, I still cried...on an airplane), The Interview (I haven't seen it, but it caused so much raucous that there was no way I couldn't mention it).
Songs
So my taste in music is kind of weird...take this list with a grain of salt. Also I'm limiting myself to songs that were released in 2014.
1. Blank Space by Taylor Swift
2. Lips are Movin' by Meghan Trainor
3. The Great Unknown by Jukebox the Ghost (although the entire album is fantastic)
4. Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede (from Guardians of the Galaxy, the entire soundtrack really deserves a nod here)
5. Try by Colbie Caillat (mostly because of the message)
Honorable mentions: Night Changes by One Direction (mostly because the music video is adorable), Shake it Off by Taylor Swift (also because of the message)
2013 songs that were also great and I still listened to or discovered in 2014: Modern Vampires of the City (yes the whole album), Safe and Sound, actually pretty much anything I listened to at Coachella...
Books
This list is really my favorite books that I've read this year, not the top 5 books released in 2014. As you can see, I'm a little behind in my reading.
1. Dataclysm by Christian Rudder
2. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
3. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
4. Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
5. The Art of Racing In the Rain by Garth Stein
Honorable mentions: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
TV Shows
Both continuing and new shows.
1. The Flash (What's not to love about Barry Allen?)
2. Sherlock
3. The Vampire Diaries (since Gossip Girl ended, I needed a new guilty pleasure)
4. Downton Abbey
5. Dancing with the Stars
Shows of significance to me that ended this year: How I Met Your Mother (minus a few of the later seasons and replacing the ending with the alternate one), The Colbert Report
Theatre
I'm not quite sure this list is fair since I didn't really see that many productions, but unlike the ones above this will actually be ranked with 1 being the best and 5 being the least best but still very good (since this is still a "best of" list after all).
1. Cabaret (w/ Emma Stone and Alan Cumming)
2. Kinky Boots (on tour)
3. Pippin (also on tour, but with Matthew James Thomas!)
4. This is Our Youth (w/ Michael Cera)
5. A Chorus Line (the Sunnyvale Community Players' production, in which I was a crew member)
People
A very subjective list, don't be offended. These are the people I found to be most influential/talked about/successful career-wise in 2014.
1. Emma Watson (she took her role as the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador to the next level)
2. Benedict Cumberbatch (when are people not talking about Benedict Cumberbatch?)
3. Lionel Messi (World Cup finals, Golden Ball winner, whether you love him or hate him Messi's a significance - sorry Cristiano Ronaldo)
4. Taylor Swift (don't be a hater when it comes to T-Swift, not only is she a talented song-writer, but she might be one of the only celebrities who is an excellent role model for her young fans but still knows how to have fun)
5. Stephen Colbert (he got Google to change his height, how much more powerful can you be?)
Honorable mentions: Tim Howard (the man who single handedly led the USMNT), anyone who participated in the ALS ice bucket challenge, George Clooney (he got married!), Jennifer Lawrence
Places
This was the year of traveling for me, so I thought I would list some of my favorite places that I went to this year. Of course you can also refer to my other posts for a more detailed account of my travels.
1. New York City (how else do you think I saw Cabaret and This is Our Youth?)
2. Monaco
3. Barcelona, Spain
4. Paris, France
5. Salzberg, Austria
Honorable mentions: the beaches of Thailand and Florence, Italy
It's been quite the year. It's been an amazing year, actually, and I can't wait for an even better 2015. Happy New Year everyone!
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