Top 5- TV shows

I compulsively put things I like or dislike into rankings. It can be both positive and negative. It's bad when I rank people by how much I like them (Soobin is my #1 least favorite person!), but it can be useful when talking about TV shows and music and stuff. It helps people to get a feel for what kind of things I like, so they know what to suggest I watch/listen to/etc. Well, since I decided to start blogging again, I decided to make my lists a regular feature on here. So here it is in its first installment- my top 5 favorite TV shows, and what I love about them!

1. Futurama*
- Many of you already know that this is my favorite show. To me, this is the complete package- one part clever comedy, one part ambitious sci-fi, and one part relatable, emotional drama. This is a cartoon set a thousand years in the future, starring aliens and robots. Based on that sentence alone, this should not be relatable to anyone currently living. Yet the show can make you cry just as easily as it can make you laugh (see: Jurassic Bark, Luck of the Fryrish, The Sting, The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings). They connect to the viewer on an emotional level despite the outlandish scenarios, and that is the true genius of good science fiction.

2. House
- With such an abundance of medical dramas, it would seem like picking a favorite would be difficult, but to me, there was never any real competition. Most medical dramas are basically dramas that happen to occur in hospitals, but House makes both the medicine and the dynamic of working in a hospital central to the plot. If you watch too many in a row, the show can seem formulaic, but there are certain specific episodes where the writers really show what they can do, particularly the season openers and finales.

3. Arrested Development*
- This is quite simply the best-written comedy of all time, in my opinion. The sheer amount of foreshadowing and reference hidden within is mind-boggling. I've watched the series all the way through twice (along with watching a random episode here and there) and I'm sure I haven't caught everything hidden in the background. And aside from being clever and subtle, it is a genuinely funny show, even on the surface.

4. The Boondocks
- Never before has a comedy (let alone a cartoon) tackled social issues so directly and so cleverly. Aaron McGruder offers a perspective that most simply aren't familiar with- a black one. In much of television (and most other media), the cast consists of a variety of very culturally different, nuanced white characters, and a minority or two that are largely stereotypical of their race. McGruder flips this around, offering a series of nuanced black characters, and making the whites on the show largely similar. To some, this may seem equally racist, but the truth is that neither is intentionally offensive. It's simply a matter of perspective- if you grow up around mostly whites and few minorities, the cultural stereotypes that do apply tend to stand out more, and vice versa. McGruder tries to portray the depth of black culture beyond this simple parody so many are familiar with. Social implications aside, it's also a damn funny show.

5. Firefly*
- This show would have been a serious contender for the #1 spot if it had more than fourteen episodes (and a movie). In Firefly, Joss Whedon created an interesting and incredibly plausible future, and crafted nine amazingly compelling and unique main characters to inhabit it. Firefly is known as a "space western", a crossover genre I happen to love (see: Starcraft) despite never delving deep into the western genre. The show was ambitious, each episode was unique, and the character interactions were always organic. It was a show that could fascinate you, touch you emotionally, and make you laugh as hard as any comedy (see: Jaynestown), sometimes all in one episode. Firefly is also responsible for the title of this blog.

Honorable mentions:

Doctor Who
- I've only watched the episodes with the eleventh doctor, so I didn't want to put it in my top 5. However, what I have seen, I like just as much as any of these shows.

Game of Thrones
- I think everyone knows how much I like this show (I wear a damn Baratheon necklace every day). However, it's too soon to tell if this deserves a top 5 spot, since there have only been ten episodes so far.

How I Met Your Mother
- Very cleverly written, and one of the few shows that actually gets better in later seasons. This is probably the best sitcom that still uses a laugh track.

*cancelled by Fox. I really hate those guys.

2011: A surprisingly good year for music

I don't know why it took me until today to realize, but this year was fantastic for my personal favorite genre of music, progressive/technical metal. Here's a list (in no particular order) of great releases that have come out this year (or that soon will)-

The Human Abstract- Digital Veil
Devin Townsend- Ghost and Deconstruction
Scale the Summit- The Collective
Protest the Hero- Scurrilous
Blotted Science- The Animation of Entomology
Between the Buried and Me- The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues
Cynic- Carbon-Based Anatomy
Animals As Leaders- Weightless

And to top it all off, Dysrhythmia released a new track, which means they'll be releasing a new album soon. Probably not by the end of the year, but honestly, it'd be a damn good way to end the year.

I've listened to Digital Veil more than any of the other albums, but I can vouch for all of them. They're damn good. And I say this with complete confidence, even though the last two haven't even come out yet, because based on what little I've heard so far, Cynic and AAL are going to BLOW your MIND. That's just what they do.

After a few more listens all around, I might even do a detailed review or two. Keep an eye out for that if you're interested.

New blog (again!)

Yeah, I started another one. I wanted a clean slate, because I'm not in quite the same miserable state I was in when I made the first one. I'm currently in a slightly different miserable state. But I'm not gonna bitch about it in blog-form. This isn't going to be an act of depressed self-indulgence. It's going to be an act of regular self-indulgence. I'll talk about music, TV, movies, webcomics, and whatever else may be on my mind. And I might even try to keep the updates somewhat regular this time.

The design is preliminary. I haven't quite worked out how I want this to look yet.

sooooorryyyyyy