Jan022015

2014 Media Wrap-up

Time for our annual tradition here on Simple Tricks of recounting all the films, recorded TV content, books, and live performances I’ve experienced in the last year. As I’ve noted before, I have no idea if anybody else cares in the least about this, or if it’s just an exercise in tedious self-indulgence, but I like to remind myself where I’ve been over the past twelve months. I missed doing it last year due to this blog being out of commission, and the 2012 version was unfortunately one of the entries that evaporated when the blog failed, so I can’t really do much comparison with the previous couple years as I’ve done in the past, but I can at least list the titles and get the numbers.

FYI before we begin: An asterisk [*] before the title indicates something I’ve seen or read before. Bolded items in the home video sections are titles I own on either DVD or BluRay, or in a few cases, VHS tape.

Movies Seen in a Theater

Note: Much of my cinema-going this year was to special engagements of classics. What can I say, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see these films on the big screen, either again or, in many cases, for the first time. And besides, there just weren’t that many new releases that grabbed my attention. I’ll indicate where these screenings took place in brackets [ ] following the titles.

  1. Saving Mr. Banks
  2. American Hustle
  3. * Lawrence of Arabia [Salt Lake Film Society’s “This Is Digital” celebration]
  4. * Chicago [Cinemark Classic Series]
  5. * The Shawshank Redemption [Cinemark Classic Series]
  6. Divergent
  7. Muppets Most Wanted
  8. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  9. * The Ten Commandments [Cinemark Classic Series]
  10. * Ben-Hur [Cinemark Classic Series]
  11. * Spartacus [Cinemark Classic Series]
  12. Godzilla (2014)
  13. B.B. King: The Life of Riley
  14. Maleficent
  15. * Saturday Night Fever [Cinemark Classic Series]
  16. X-Men: Days of Future Past
  17. * The Godfather, Part II [Cinemark Classic Series]
  18. Chef
  19. * Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [Cinemark Classic Series]
  20. * Pretty Woman [Cinemark Classic Series]
  21. * The Breakfast Club [Cinemark Classic Series]
  22. * Monty Python and the Holy Grail [Cinemark Classic Series]
  23. Guardians of the Galaxy
  24. * The Big Lebowski [Cinemark Classic Series]
  25. * Beverly Hills Cop [Cinemark Classic Series]
  26. * Big Trouble in Little China [Salt Lake Film Society’s “Summer Late Nights at the Tower”]
  27. Elvis: That’s the Way It Is [Cinemark Classic Series]
  28. Scarface (1983) [Cinemark Classic Series]
  29. Emulsion
  30. Boyhood
  31. Gone Girl
  32. The Judge
  33. * The Nightmare Before Christmas [Cinemark Classic Series]
  34. Interstellar
  35. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1

Movies Seen on Home Video

Note: I used to grit my teeth and suffer through any movie I started, especially if I’d heard a lot of positive word of mouth or critical praise, on the logic that if everyone else thought it was good, then I needed to see it. But I’m getting much less shy in my grumpy middle age about shutting off the things that don’t engage me — life is too damn short, you know? I still don’t do it often, but there were a couple of titles this year I just couldn’t hack; I’ve indicated those with [ABANDONED].

  1. Total Recall (2012)
  2. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
  3. * Raiders of the Lost Ark
  4. Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
  5. Where the Buffalo Roam [ABANDONED]
  6. The Wolverine
  7. The Hindenburg
  8. Mary Poppins
  9. After Porn Ends
  10. The Keep
  11. The World’s End
  12. My Favorite Year
  13. * Next of Kin
  14. Appaloosa
  15. Twilight (1998 Paul Newman film, NOT the sparkly vampire thing)
  16. Slap Shot
  17. Brubaker
  18. * Dune
  19. Nobody’s Fool
  20. * Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977 theatrical cut)
  21. Citizens Band
  22. Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
  23. Joyride (1977)
  24. Man of Steel
  25. * Captain America: The First Avenger
  26. The Way, Way Back
  27. * The Godfather
  28. * The Godfather, Part III
  29. 42
  30. * Caddyshack
  31. * The Big Chill
  32. Downhill Racer
  33. Mr. Moto’s Gamble
  34. Mr. Moto Takes a Chance
  35. Sound City
  36. Behind the Candelabra
  37. We Bought a Zoo
  38. Silver Linings Playbook [ABANDONED]
  39. Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
  40. The Legend of Hell House
  41. * Duel
  42. The Town that Dreaded Sundown
  43. Dracula (1979)
  44. Gog
  45. Single White Female
  46. The Dunwich Horror
  47. Re-Animator
  48. * The Sugarland Express
  49. American Hot Wax
  50. Europa Report
  51. * Jaws
  52. Charlie Chan in the Secret Service
  53. Meatballs
  54. Cat People (1982)
  55. Cinerama’s Seven Wonders of the World
  56. * A Christmas Story
  57. * Bad Santa
  58. * The Ref [VHS]
  59. * Guardians of the Galaxy
  60. Bettie Page Reveals All
  61. Space Station 76
  62. * Godzilla (2014)
  63. * Battle Beyond the Stars
  64. * Amadeus (Director’s Cut)

 TV Content Seen on Home Video

  1. Pole to Pole with Michael Palin (complete series)
  2. Babylon 5 (seasons 1 through 4) [VHS]
  3. Babylon 5 (season 5, completing the series)
  4. The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Sixth Season
  5. Trilogy of Terror (TV movie)
  6. Full Circle with Michael Palin (complete series)
  7. Sherlock (season 3)
  8. Himalaya with Michael Palin (complete series)
  9. Sahara with Michael Palin (complete series)
  10. China Beach (season 1)
  11. The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Seventh Season
  12. Stephen Fry in America (complete series)
  13. Babylon 5: In the Beginning (TV movie)
  14. Babylon 5: Thirdspace (TV movie)
  15. Babylon 5: The River of Souls (TV movie)
  16. Babylon 5: A Call to Arms (TV movie)
  17. Crusade: The Complete Series
  18. WKRP in Cincinnati (season 1)

 Books Completed (Fiction)

Note: You’ll notice that I read a whole mess of novels by Clive Cussler this year. I realized at some point that, despite my frequent mentions of his Dirk Pitt adventures, and strong opinions about that character, it had been years, decades even, since I’d read them, and I wondered how well they actually matched my memories of them. So I developed ambitions of doing a novel-by-novel survey of the series, much as Michael May has been doing with Ian Fleming’s Bond series over on his Adventureblog. Well, I read the books (half of them anyway), but didn’t get around to writing the entries. Typical of how the year went with regard to blogging…

  1. Nobody’s Fool — Richard Russo
  2. The Song of Forgotten Stars, Book Two: The Wisdomfold Path (unpublished manuscript) — Kelly Sedinger
  3. * Pacific Vortex! — Clive Cussler
  4. * The Mediterranean Caper — Cussler
  5. * Iceberg — Cussler
  6. * Raise the Titanic! — Cussler
  7. * Vixen 03 — Cussler
  8. * Night Probe! — Cussler
  9. * Deep Six — Cussler
  10. The Master Mind of Mars — Edgar Rice Burroughs
  11. The Star Wars (graphic novel) — J.W. Rinzler (writer) and Mike Mayhew (artist)
  12. Me and Orson Welles — Robert Kaplow
  13. Prince Lestat — Anne Rice

Books Completed (Non-Fiction)

  1. VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave — Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn, with Gavin Edwards
  2. I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution — Rob Tannenbaum and Craig Marks
  3. What You Want is in the Limo: On the Road with Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, and The Who in 1973, the Year the Sixties Died and the Modern Rock Star Was Born — Michael Walker

Concerts and Live Theater Events

  1. War Horse [Capitol Theater, 4/24/14]
  2. Def Leppard/KISS [USANA Amphitheater, 6/23/14]
  3. Monty Python Live (Mostly) [Cinemark/Fathom Events live broadcast, 7/20/14]
  4. Wicked [Capitol Theater, 8/24/14]
  5. X-96 Nightmare Before Xmas concert with Billy Idol, Bleachers, and Priory [The Complex, 12/15/14]

And there we are for another misspent year…

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