The Best of 200876543210

Lots of stuff happened this year. It’s been a great year. History will never forget this year for all the great stuff that happened.

To commemorate the wonderfulness that is this year, here’s the best things of this year (but not necessarily made this year. it’s just that I liked them this year, or right now, at this moment on the day before 2009)-

In we go!

BEST PHOTOGRAPHER

Berlin-raised Julian Röder. I’ve already gushed about him, but I’ll do it again. Röder represents a breed of photographers who documents the factual, understand that imagery is inherently not factual, and have unique voices which they aren’t afraid to exert stylistically or subjectively. This combination of traits is more valuable than ever in an ever-changing landscape of professional photography. ‘Ever-changing landscape’ is one where everyone can afford the same equipment and has access to the same marketing tools, because people tend to forget that sometimes since they never get to hear it enough.

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BEST SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER

It’s been a long time coming, but Brian Gaberman finally got a proper website to display his stupendous work. His brilliance extends outside the bubble of action sports too. If I’m not wrong, Gaberman is still the youngest photographer to ever have been featured in B+W Magazine.

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BEST BMX VIDEO PART

Stellar riding this year. Martinez and his two apprentices got together for an epic street section, Sean Burns was deservedly awarded a NORA for bunnyhopping gaps the size of countries at speeds approaching mach 2, and Dennis Enarson tailwhipped off Mt. Everest. But Garrett Reynolds took it one step further than everyone else by successfully porting himself out of the video game he was trapped in to the world we call real life.

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BEST SPORTS VIDEO INTRO AND VIDEO OVERALL

Well this choice was easy.

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BEST BOOK

Most of us will probably never get to read a physical copy of this brilliant book, but at least a digital copy surfaced of Lewman, Spike, and Jenkin’s genius that is the Freestylin’ Retrospective.

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BEST PHOTO SERIES

Every Playboy Playmate of the Month from the beginning of 1963 to the end of 1977. Not only did I get to fulfill my wish to write bad good porn puns, but this photo series also helped We Mine Deeper became more democratic by attracting a wider audience (this blog has been getting hits from people googling ‘porn.’) If you are visiting looking for porn, hi! Maybe I should say it a few more times so as to not alienate any potential visitors. Pornpornpornpornpornporncockpornporn. OK good.

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BEST NUTRITIOUSNESS MEAL

MOONSTTERR MUNNNCHHH

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BEST INTERNET TREND

I still like felines and that song, so I guess not all overexposure is bad. But it does help that I got Rick Rolled in real life, as in I was unwillingly present at a music festival-concert Rick Astley sang that song at, and I had no prior knowledge that he was even gonna be there. It was amazing, I almost collapsed.

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BEST THINGS HITLER SHOULD HAVE SAID

This is one of the precious few times a photo nerd can enjoy something about the world that a normal person can’t. Relish every second of it.

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BLAME GAME SHIFT

God didn’t do it, the bankers did.

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BEST REMIX

Think back to when you were a kid and if someone had intertwined Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with softcore 90s german porn. If that had happened, we would be way the hell cooler than we are now.

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BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR

Yes the not-so-bright Knight was good, but it can’t hold a candle to WALL˚E. Please tell me you weren’t leaking tears when those two lovebots were doing that robot tango in space.

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GOOGLE READER

Fuck yeah.

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BEST ENTERTAINMENT SECTOR FEW ARE PREPARED FOR

ESPORTS. The spectator culture around video gaming will grow magnificently, and most western media execs are sitting idle while venues are increasingly packed to the brim with a wider variety of people who like video games the same way others like basketball. See: the 500lb King Kong.

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BEST BLOG

I am completely enamoured with the BibliOdyssey. It is rare that a blog can be so captivating, educational, and deliver such a high quality of content. Spent ages in its archives and I’ve only gotten through half of 2008.

Thanks for reading. Baye!