Best of 2012: Books

For our final "Best Of" I get to wrap the year up in Books.  Now if you knew me in high school you would think, "He don't know no books."  Weel, first I would correct your grammar, "I do not know any books."  But then I would have to agree with you. I never ever ever read any book in high school.  Not one.  I remember taking a test for 'My Antonia' and it was a open book test and I was just scrambling threw the chapter and I thought, "This is the dumbest book I've ever had to skim." I never read, "To Kill a Mockingbird." I never read, "The Scarlet Letter." I never read, "Huck Finn." I never read, "Lord of the Flies."  I hated to read, I raged against.  It was dumb and you were dumb if you did it.  Then, I was living in California and I didn't have a TV and I woke up in the middle of the night and I could not get back to sleep and there was copy of 'The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe'. I opened it, read the first word, the last word, and all the words in between in that one night.  I was fixed. And now I get to sift through all the books I've read this year and tell you my favorite:


The Best: Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. 

It begins with a dying actress and it winds through the history of the movie Cleopatra, LA Screen Plays, the Donner Party, WWII German Soldiers who paint, and community theater.  It is beautifully written and stuffed with interesting facts about subjects I didn't think I cared about. Everything ties together, but lightly and without strain.  If you are going on a cruise around Italiana this year, you need this book...but not as bad as if you are NOT going on a Italian cruise.

Guilty Pleasure: The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt.  

The protagonist is a ruthless hit man (and his brother) in the wild west who get an assignment to hunt down and knock off a amateur chemist.  You guys, this book is wonderful.  SUPER FUNNY, and weirdly has this heart that hit me just right.  There is wild 1800's science and the relationship between the brothers is so spot on...I would know, I have four.  It might get violent, but not so much that you put it down...let's just call it dark.
    

Josh's Picks:

Best: The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green

When you try to explain this book and tell people that it is about a girl with terminal cancer who meets a boy in her cancer support group, people think you must hate yourself. Why would anyone want to read such a depressing story. John Green is an amazingly gifted writer (one of my personal favorites) who creates believable, lovable characters. I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that I sobbed several times while reading this book. It is gorgeous and life affirming and hopeful and wonderful.

Guilty pleasure:The Gathering Storm, by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson 

Let me tell you a story. There is this series of books called The Wheel of Time that I started reading when I was a freshman in high school. They are of the epic fantasy vein and are full of a million characters, good vs. Evil and are all about 900 pages long. I would eagerly await each book and devour it when it came out and then begin the long (sometimes 2 or 3 year) wait until the next book came out. The books started out great, then by about the 6^th one they started to drag. In those 900 pages, very little would happen to advance the big plot. It was painful and I eventually gave up. I figured I would just wait until they were all done and then read them. Then, after 11 books, the author of this series, Robert Jordan, died tragically and left the series unfinished. His widow picked a new author, Brandon Sanderson, to write the last three books using Jordan’s notes and wrap it up. Books 10 and 11 (the last 2 Jordan wrote) were absolute slogs. Page after page of description with no plot advancement. The Gathering Storm is book 12 and was amazing. It reminded me of everything I love about these books. I to read the next two and finally, after about 20 years, see how this series ends.

Brett's Picks:

Best - Bossypants, Tina Fey. 

I know, I'm late to the party but this book is so good because I laughed a lot and learned extra stuff about something I love: comedy and improv. 

Guilty Pleasure - Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. 

Very late to the party on this one. That's why I feel guilty about it. It's really quite amazing and I'm glad I finally got to it. Card really puts you right in it, makes the stakes super high, and keeps raising them through the whole book. There's not one moment that feels like padding. Just so good.

Ken's Picks:

Best Book: The best book I read this year? Why, it’d have to be Tell Me Who I Am, written by your very own Part Time Authors, plus others! 

If I’m not self-promoting, then I would have to select AMillion Miles in a Thousand Years, by Donald Miller. 

Mr. Miller wrote a book called Blue Like Jazz,and then, in the wake of its huge success, he found himself in a weird funk where he kind of questioned his life and life in general. While in this slump he was approached by two movie producers that wanted to make Blue Like Jazz into a movie. (Which they did! And it bombed at the box office!) However, in writing the screenplay and transforming the book events into proper and interesting movie dialog, Donald learns more about the elements of story and through that process learns more about life being a story and the story he wants to be living. I love storytelling, so this book struck a chord with me.

Guilty Pleasure: I don’t think I have any guilt pleasures in this area. But if you want to read books out loud to your kids, may I suggest the classic Rascal, by Sterling North. 

We did that this year, and it was a great read!    

 

Chris' Picks:

I really only read non fiction, to be honest. I have no idea why. Im not proud of it or  trying to sound awesome or smart. In fact, a lot of the non fiction I read is trashy, pointless, or inflammatory. That being said, My favorite book this year was Life Itself by Roger Ebert. A really charming and funny memoir by someone who loves movies as much as I do and probably more.

I also read that Amateur book about President Obama but it was pretty dumb. I'm sure enjoying Untouchable, a biography about Michael Jackson right now! Whoo boy! He was a kook!

Well, there you go!  Happy Reading!

Best of 2012: Music

Welp, it’s Music Day on our “PTA Recap of 2012 Tour.” Thus far you’ve enjoyed movies, TV, Tech/App…but today is the day you have been waiting for. Today is the day we unveil just how hip/retro/nerdy/high-school-girl/trendy/sophomoric/savvy we are when it comes to music. (Are you nervous? I am, a little bit.)

I’ll start.

For me, the best song to come out of 2012 was Ho Hey, The Lumineers. American Folk Rock band out of Denver that debuted in April. Here is the best endorsement I can give this song: Our family generally roadtrips at night. And when it’s late, and everyone is asleep, I put on the ol’ iPod and a selection of raucous tunes that I love and have personally selected keeps me company. This has gone on for years and years, yet, for the first time ever, just on our last trip, Katie rolled over from her passenger-seat nap, tapped my shoulder with a smile, and said, “I can hear you singing that out loud while you listen to it. I’ve never heard you do that before.” (I don’t generally sing in front of anybody. I am horrible at it. But I couldn’t help it while listening to Ho Hey.)

My Guilty Pleasure: What Makes You Beautiful, One Direction. I was chaperoning a youth dance in May when this song came on and the place went berserk. The energy and enthusiasm of youth just exploded all over the room. I hadn’t previously heard it, but I’ll admit it, it made me a bit nostalgic for dances I went to as a teenager. I was completely caught up in watching youth that I already loved (including a few of my own children) jump up and down together, singing in unison to this little ditty. Now it always makes me smile.

What’s that? You want to hear what Josh has selected? Very well.

Best: Mumford and Sons, Babel - This could either be about the album Babel or the song of the same name. It’s probably a little cliché, but I love the twangy, alt-country, moustache wearing hipness of Mumford and Sons. I want to listen to their music all day AND dress like them.

Gulity Pleasure: Somebody that I Used to Know by Gotye. Do we still say a song is “overplayed?” I guess, this song became pretty ubiquitous this summer, but I don’t really listen to the radio anymore, so I pretty much only hear the songs I want to hear and I wanted to hear this one a lot. I heard this song first when Gotye was on SNL and immediately went and downloaded it and then listened to it on repeat 1 trillion times.

You want more, loyal reader? Oh, you are insatiable. Here is from our very own Brett, who, when it comes to music, claims he is not “with-it” like he was in college. Well, Brett is in good company, as all of PTA is on that bus now.

Best - Gossamer, Passion Pit. I select my favorite music these days by the number of plays it gets through the year. I wore this one out. I think I listened to only this for a month straight. It's so happy, complex, full, and foot stompingly good.

Guilty Pleasure - "Call Me Maybe" Carly Rae Jepsen. I don't know how I even know this one. Yes, I do. I have an eight year old girl who knows it by heart and sang it over and over. You'd think that I'd hate it but I actually love that she loves it and that is why it's a guilty pleasure.

Chris chimes in with his picks as well.

BEST: My favorite album of the year was Barton Hollow, by the Civil Wars. Who knew I could get all country with my Civil Wars listening and Nashville watching? But I did. I ALSO LOVED: El Camino, by the Black Keys. Fear Fun, by Father John Misty. Suicide Pact, by JJAMZ. Release Me, by The Like. Happy to You, by Miike Snow.

GUILTY TUNES I BOUGHT and secretly listened to a lot in my car:

Somebody That I Used to Know, by Walk Off the Earth

Hang With Me, by Robyn

Tekitoi, by Rachid Taha

Super Bass, by Nicki Minj

Meddle, by Little Boots

Wide Awake, by Katy Perry

Brokenhearted, by Karmin

Ta douleur, by Camille

 But I’ll deny knowing any of those songs!

Patrick's Best:

Hold On, by Alabama Shakes. So so SO so SO good... serious, go find it and listen.  Heads up, that's a lady singing.


Guilty Pleasure:  Myself, singing songs I wrote.  This year I wrote a song called 'Christmas Eve Lullaby', I love it and I listen to it all the time.  I also wrote songs called, "I Will Love." and "Call Me Maybe" but you will never hear them.

And what about you, loyal and charming and EAGER  TO COMMENT reader? What were your musical selections this year?

Love,
PTAs

Best of 2012: Tech/Apps

At PTA, not only do we watch a lot of movies and TV, listen to a lot a music, and read a lot of books, but we also like finding new ways of getting that into our faces faster. That's where tech/apps come in. It's the most broad category. Some of us listed gadgets, some listed apps, some listed software. That's the fun of the category. Almost anything goes.

And as Josh said yesterday and Chris the day before, we love and welcome your comments. We want to know what you like and what you don't. That's important (so we can judge you). This will be the last call for comments, I promise, unless Ken and Patrick do it.

Brett's Picks

Best: iPad Mini. I am a borderline Apple fanboy. This is going to sound lame but the 7" screen is perfect, the weight of it is feather-like, and it does everything I need it to do to a point that I almost feel like I won't buy a regular iPad again (as long as I also have a laptop).

Guilty Pleasure: Wii U. We've had a Wii and we've never really played it much together, as a family. Since we've had the U, we've had so much fun playing little silly games and laughing our heads off together. We still love board games, I should add, but a Wii U is better than Monopoly ... we've never been able to get through that game without me getting cranky.

Runners Up - Best App: Evernote. I have it on my phone, my tablets, and my laptop, and, no matter where I go I can take notes, pictures, etc., and sync them across all devices. Guilty Pleasure App: Bloons TD 5. Bloons is a game that will consume you, create hate, and deliver joy in the space of a few hours. Do not get it.


Ken's Picks

Best: Dropbox. I am not super App-savvy. I will freely admit it. But I enjoy the luxury of moving large files around and having them on-hand – and doing it for free.

Guilty Pleasure: Shazam. I love using this whenever I hear songs in restaurants, in movies or TV shows, etc. and – boom – I suddenly know who sings it so I can download it later. (I used to be so musically knowledgeable. And now I’m not. And that is what I feel guilty about!)


Josh's Picks

Best: Instagram. If there is an app I use every day, it’s Instagram. And if you think it is merely a way to apply old-timey filters to photos, then your missing the point. Sure, the filters are fun and occasionally turn a good photo into something that seems artistic. But the funnest part about Instagram is to follow other people and see the photos they are taking. I follow a lot of friends and family and a lot of people that I don’t even know. And there is something fun and satisfying about getting glimpses into what’s going on in their life through these snapshots. Yes, it can be ridiculous (did you the see the awesome Instagram parody video? Warning: adult language!!) but I’m kind of obsessed. Follow me! I’m Jooshanoosh

Guilty Pleasure: HeroAcademy. I wish this game was at least intellectual or something. But it’s not. It is a little cartoony turn based battle game (you do your 5 moves and then send your turn to your opponent. You get a notification when they have done their turn.) I have wasted countless hours with my youngest son going back and forth. It’s not rocket science, but its kind of delightful.


Patrick's Picks

Best: Garage Band. Really, I know it's comes free with your mac, but honestly I have this little writing group and the three of us all ended up with Garage Band and we have so far written three brilliant and turbulent show stopping shows using this program. I'm sure there fancier programs but for my needs, I love it every time.

Guilty Pleasure: Hulu. But I have to take a moment to write my guilty pleasure a note:  Dear Hulu, if you are just going to show me the same set of commercials that whole episode of Nashville, then just get them all over with at the beginning, Oh, how I love Louis Vuitton who just gives me one 2 minute sexy video before New Girl starts and then, like a classy commercial should, picks up the tab for the rest of my advertising.  And every time the show I'm watching skips a set of commercials because Louis has them taken care of, I think, "I should buy myself a $600 purse."

And so the system works.  Thanks Hulu though for all you do. Love, Patrick. P.S. Josh wants you to stop showing commercials on Hulu Plus, because he's paying you already and that should be enough for you. Stay Cool!

Chris' Picks

Best: Samsung Galaxy 3. It's not an iPhone, I know. But I'm locked into my plan! What can I do? It's a Droid and I won't apologize for it. It's beautiful and it's smooth. And I love it and carry it around in my pocket and cry when we're apart. But I never call anyone on it! I've made about six phone calls. Isn't that weird? I use my phone all day long and it's never for calling people. We live in the future, and it's eerily silent. I'm OK with that.

Runners Up:
Instagram. For making your life look awesome and hipster HEFE
Life Reminders. To remind you to do things all day long
Amazon Kindle. Reading on the run!
Flixster. Movie reviews, locations, dates, and showtimes in a jiffy
Netflix. getting better all the time
UDOT Traffic and KSL Weather. two local faves, one that tells me where the snow is and another that tells me why the traffic's not moving.

Guilty Pleasure: LDS Tools. it tells you how old everyone in your ward is

There it is. What do tech or apps do you love? What did we miss?

Best of 2012: TV

Everyone at PTA is a bit of a TV Junkie, some more than others. I am a bit obsessed. When the Entertainment Weekly Fall TV preview comes out, I literally get highlighters and use a spreadsheet to plot out which shows we will DVR (Parenthood, Top Chef) , which we will catch up watch online (The Glee Project) and which we will wait for on Netflix (Breaking Bad, Revolution.) So me picking a favorite TV show is tricky, because I love so many different shows for different reasons.

And as Chris said yesterday, we love and welcome your comments. They validate us, let us know what you like and what you don't and help us know that we aren't just sending these posts out into the void. I promise that we won't keep begging for comments every day (let's be honest, its a little pathetic and needy seeming.) but don't be shy. Weigh in.

I struggle to recommend my favorite show, because I know it is definitely not for everyone, but when I think about which sow I would immediately watch when it appeared on my DVR, it was The Walking Dead. It's not for everyone: incredibly violent, pretty gross and incredibly violent. But it makes me sit up in my seat in shock. The end of season 2, which aired at the beginning of 2012, had two moments that were totally unexpected and made me gasp out loud.  No one seems safe on this show - good guys die regularly and if they live they often do things that make you question how good they are.

Guilty Pleasure: Happy Ending I don't know anyone else who watches this show. Its a wacky comedy about 6 friends and is definitely played in a zany style. No one really talks that way, I know. But it consistently makes me giggle.

Ken's picks:

Best: Parks & Recreation. Why? Ron Swanson and Andy Dwyer. And Tom Haverford and Donna Meagle. And a splash of Rob Lowe.

Guilty Pleasure: I am realizing I don’t watch that much TV. Maybe that’s what I should feel guilty about! And I want to apologize to….I guess whoever is offended by that. I have been catching up quite a bit lately on Psyche episodes. I’ll say I feel guilty I was ever so far, far behind on those.


Patrick's picks:

Best:  The Mindy Project. I die.  She gets to write her own ticket and on her own ticket Mindy Kaling writes herself as a valley girl OBGYN...come on, it practically writes its self.  This opening scene where she wakes up her boyfriend while wearing his shirt, she's super cute and they both think it's super cute, then he accidentally puts on her pants and she is horrified, he tries to recover by saying, "This is what we're doing, you wear my shirt and I wear your pants." To which she responds, "What I am wearing is adorable, what you're wearing is an ad for Lap Band Surgery!"--forever made me a fan...of the show and it's beautifully witty writer.

Runners up: Happy Endings (Every week, Josh...every week), The New Girl, and Shaun the Sheep (go find out...you think it's for kids but you will laugh every episode...every single one.)

Guilty Pleasure: Nashville. I die. First off Connie...WHAT?! She beguiles and she can't even really sing...though they let her.  The music is good, like go download after the episode good, and I'm super in to Hayden Panettiere's super mean Taylor Swift! I didn't think I would like her and turns out...she's good, they all are and you are missing something if you are thinking, "Who needs a Country version of Glee?" It's not...it's better!

Brett's picks:

Best: Sherlock. I love this show so much that I get angry every year when it's only three episodes. Three brilliant two hour episodes that will make you laugh, cry, and poop.

Guilty Pleasure: American Horror Story: Asylum. This stupid scary show. I really love it and I feel horrible because I'm sure it does nothing for my spiritual well-being but stomp on its face.


Topher's picks:

Best: My favorite show of the year is New Girl. Nothing makes me laugh like it does, and no show has the caliber of across-the-board casting that it has. I love every character, and they all make me laugh. I know I’m supposed to hate Zooey Deschanel, but I can’t. I still think she’s funny. I also loved Parks and Rec and 30 Rock, but I always have and probably always will. Even though 30 Rock is ending.

But judging a comedy with a drama is also like apples and oranges. I loved some good dramas this year: Mad Men, Downton Abbey, and my current favorite: Nashville.

Guilty Pleasure: Portlandia. This show is silly and quirky and ridiculous, but it’s also kind of genius. How Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein can come up with that many eccentric characters is beyond me. And when I visited Portland in September and actually ran into just about all of these characters? Amazing. PUT A BIRD ON IT!!!

So there you have it. What do you agree with? What did we miss? Please let us know in the comments! Don't be shy!!

2012 in review: movies

Josh hasn't told you this yet, but each one of us is taking a day to recap the past year in various forms of entertainment. So we here at PTA are going to talk books, music, apps, and, in my case, movies. We hope you enjoy it. We hope that you agree and post millions of comments! But sadly you won't. Because we get a ton of hits and no comments, and it hurts our self esteem. (Could this be our New Year's Resolution? Maybe we should spend a little less time with our families this year and a little more time writing awesome comments to PTA? Why not? Auld Lang Syne.)

Well. What a year in movies it wasn't! Nothing blew me away, and usually something blows me away. Bear in mind I haven't seen Les Mis, Django Unchained, or Zero Dark Thirty and I bet they will all blow me away and I will regret being so dismissive in this post. But up until now? Kinda dumb year, Hollywood.

But if I were to narrow it down to my favorites, I would offer the following poem:

Anna Karenina was beautiful
The Hobbit was dutiful
Lincoln was historical
The Master: metaphorical
Moonrise Kingdom: cute and sweet
Argo: an exciting feat
21 Jump Street was dirty and funny
Life of Pi's visuals were pretty dang stunning

But if it came to guilty pleasures, was there anything greater than The Avengers and Skyfall?? I saw them both twice. Twice, you say? How decadent!

I could also make a special poem about the movies I didn't like, but that seems hateful and I'm full of love. But I'm giving you the stink eye, Hunger Games, Battleship, and Cloud Atlas!

How did my fellow PTA members feel? Let's ask!

This is from JOSH:

BEST: Perks of Being a Wallflower - This may seem like an odd choice for best movie of the year. It was pretty small, I don’t think it made a lot of money and I doubt it is being considered for any awards, but I loved it. It seemed to get that feeling of being an outsider in high school (and weren’t we all) and what it feels like to finally find your people. Logan Lerman is pretty fantastic as Charlie, the main character, and plays nicely off Ezra Miller, who plays Patrick, his gay best friend.

Guilty Pleasure: Pitch Perfect - any movie with a character named Fat Amy is bound to be on the guilty pleasure list. This movie is silly and unbelievable, but funny and heart warming and has some killer music (even if you are not a fan of a capella groups.)

How about this from KEN:

Best: I haven’t seen it yet, but my guess is Les Miserables. This story of redemption has resonated with me from the first time somebody told it to me, when I was a teenager. It’s probably cliché at this point, but I’ve always found the music powerful and get emotional at the end when they sing the final “Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me? Out beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see?” To love another person is to see the face of God, indeed. I think it looks brilliantly cast. What’s that, you say? I have to pick something I’ve seen? Then I’ll go with Lincoln.

Guilty Pleasure: The Bourne Legacy. I say this is guilty because before I saw it, I consciously objected to the Bourne movies going forward without Matt Damon. But I told myself this would just be a spy movie and I could distance myself emotionally from it being a “Bourne Movie,” and it worked and ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

Here's a few thoughts from PATRICK:

Best: Brave

So admittedly I have not seen a lot of movies this year...I have a new born and a two year old.  So I saw Brave...the thing I loved was a surprise of it being a Mother Daughter movie. You think your are going to get arrows and bears, but really it's a story about one Daughter and one Mother who love each other and can't see why the other one can't see it their way...with arrows and bears.

Guilty Pleasure: Dark Shadows

I know, but what was I gonna do?!  Tim Burton?  Johnny Depp?  Michelle Pfeiff?!  I had to see it.  And I feel guilty for how much I liked it. I'm sure it was mostly because it was like watching old friends do something they thought was real funny and so I thought it was funny...but that they thought it was, not that it really was.  I love those guys, I can't wait to hang out with them again in...Lone Ranger?? (Not Burton) 

Movies I can't wait to see...when my kids have moved out:  Les Miserables, The Hobbit,  Moonrise Kingdom.

And finally, BRETT weighs in:

Best - Argo. I didn't see a more well-crafted, acted, directed movie this year than Argo. You know what's going to happen yet you're gripping the armrest seeing how they'll get there. I hope it wins tons of awards. Runners up: Avengers, because there wasn't a more fun movie all year and Looper, because of the mind blowing.

Guilty pleasure: Cabin in the Woods. This is a guilty pleasure in the sense that I feel guilty I love well-made horror movies so much. It balances the funny with the scary so well. And, it's Joss Whedon. It's so good that it may ruin you for other horror movies forever. Runner up: Ted, because I laughed a lot and I shouldn't have.

What about you, reader? What were your favorite movies this year? Let us know in the comments! (Oh, who am I kidding)