BEST OF 2015
by Alexis Faulkner
The worst movie I watched on an airplane:
Entourage. Watched it on the plane ride back home
from Hawaii via Los Angeles.
The best movie I watched on an airplane: Amy. A fantastic documentary about Amy
Winehouse. I was amazed at the amount of raw footage of her that exists,
including lots of recordings made before she was famous and didn’t think it
possible that she could make a career of singing. I’d like to note that she
wasn’t putting herself down as a singer, she just didn’t think of it as
something she could do as a career. It made a fan out of me, though I only took
so long to appreciate her music because I hadn’t much previous exposure.
The best place I went: Kauai with my mom & sis. The island
is overflowing with elaborately colored roosters and many chickens. My mom
convinced me the bushes were overflowing with eggs, but I didn’t check.
Best food: Cart food or maybe cheap sandwiches,
$3.50 at a deli near me. DELIS! CARTS! Chicken over rice, man. *When I say cart
food, I mean hallal, specifically. I want to make special mention of the
delicious food available at the Barclays Center. It is fancy and well prepared,
and they have lots of Kosher options, too.
Best Holiday Occurrence: Cooking most of the Thanksgiving dinner
while drinking Kahlua and coffee and then later adding vodka having it all come
out pretty okay.
Best date: This goes over the course of a couple of
dates, actually. I went out with one person several times and they kept
explaining how a potentiometer works. It was super interesting.
Best venue visited: I went to 3 sports arenas that I hadn’t
visited previously in 2015, and that’s a personal best as far as visiting new
sports arenas goes. Some friends and I drank Coors Lite on the Finnerty’s
gamebus on the way to Citi Field, and even though we watched the Mets beat the
Giants (may the Mets championship dreams rest in peace) it was great fun. Without
being terribly rowdy, and attracting far less attention than I expected, a
whole sections’ worth of San Francisco fans- mostly expats- sat together and cheered
not only the Giants, but the Golden State Warriors, too. The Dubs were playing
game 4 of the finals that night, and the game started while we sat in a muggy
summer sweat that marks baseball in June on the East Coast. The stadium itself was
very clean and easy to navigate, though not particularly charming in terms of
architecture. Perhaps the character will come with time.
Yankee Stadium,
where I saw the Yankees beat the Mets, was also very clean, well organized and
full of particularly edible arena eats. And also very concrete and stale. A
nice place to see a baseball game, but with few particularly attractive
features, save the fact that you can see the train going by from most seats in
the park. It’s nice to know that you are nestled neatly in the Bronx, right
there in the mix. The Barclays Center in Brooklyn was my favorite.
This choice was
difficult, as I much prefer baseball over basketball, however, the Barclays
Center has a very interesting design, with its circular strip of screen that
you can see while standing underneath the open structure in front of the
entrance gates. The outside of the structure itself is a raw-looking metal that
is covered in copper rust, and it has mossy greens covering part of it, as
well. The seating inside arena goes up very high, the nosebleed sections are
steep indeed, but it seems you can see the action well from any seat. They
played good music during the game, lots of 90s hip-hop, among other crowd
pleasers. There was a lot of Jay-Z too, which was probably just a coincidence since
he no longer has a stake in the arena. The worst thing about the Barclays
experience was their sound system. The music sounded awful; the tracks sounded
blown out and the volume was low at times. This was highly surprising,
considering the newness of the venue and the typical auditory fanfare that goes
with live sports events. A final exciting note about the game I attended specifically:
about half the audience was wearing blue and gold. There were audible cheers
for Stephen Curry, there was applause, and it was not just in our bay area
gamebus section. I am so thankful that I got to witness a game during the
Warriors historic season starting streak of 2015.
Best change: Leaving Whole Foods Market after four
solid years of working there. Grateful for the friends I made, grateful to be
creatively explosive upon leaving. New Beginnings, that’s what happened.
Best annoying thing I did: Make out in subway stations, at the bar,
on the train. All over town, basically. At some point during 2015 a New York
native told me that New York is a sexy town, and I think he was right. I see
more public displays of affection than back home, that’s for sure.
Best movie: Love
& Mercy. I saw it
with my mom and I think it was a little dark for her. The story was inspiring
and very sad and Paul Giamatti was very twisted and terrifying. John Cusack, who
plays Brian Wilson as an adult, did an excellent job of talking in that fairly
shy yet halting manner while still managing to highlight the humanity in a
diseased mind through an evolution of a loving relationship. Paul Dano, with
delicate execution, showed us the genius of Wilson’s musicianship, particularly
as an arranger. He too was quite good at showing the internal pain and
confusion as his disease first unfolded.
This is just one
of three movies that Paul Giamatti starred in this year. Dr. Eugene Landy certainly
was his finest roll. Playing a somewhat similar musical handler of sorts in Straight Outta Compton, he was a much
more subtle villain, but still convincing, and in San Andreas he was a weak nerd.
Best album release: Marilyn Manson- The Pale Emperor. Just kidding, I haven’t even heard that record.
But I like the name because it’s ridiculous. That man loves bein’ freakin’
pale. And since I don’t like Drake and I wish that band UFO was more
interesting, I will go with Justin Bieber’s Purpose.
Also, I’m really thankful that Snoop Dogg went back to such a name after being
Snoop Lion and starring in hot pocket commercials. ***Really though, Dave Rawlings
Machine record was cool.
Best celebrity sighting: None. There are no celebrities in New
York City. ALTERNATELY: I recognize no one outside of my own family and I
refuse to answer this question. Actually, I suffer from face blindness.
Best NY chillers: Thankful to all of the people who came
out to New York and made a point to say hi. This includes my sister, my dad and
his girlfriend, Eden, Derek, Mark and Crystal, Scott, Sam and Maggie, Nikos,
Walter, Lynne, Victor and Hannah (thanks for taking me to Yankee Stadium), Christine
before she moved to New York officially, running in to Anthony on the street in
Williamsburg, Talia. Can’t wait for Kat to get here on New Year’s Even— you’re
gonna love it here.
Best concert: Thee Oh Sees with Zs as their opener at
Warsaw in Bushwick, Brooklyn. This took me by surprise, since I’ve never been a
huge fan of this SF originating band. However, their sound has changed quite a
bit since I’ve last listened in. Perhaps their move to LA did them some good.
They were tight and groovy with a big, rowdy, double drum set set-up. Zs was
great, very interesting, but I was so infuriated and distracted by the rudeness
of the audience that I feel ill-equipped to critique their set. The echo of the
audience talking over their performance is what I remember most.
Most entertaining TV moment: Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner for the Miss Universe competition. He had to correct himself on live tv, leading to an extremely awkward moment whereby the crown had to be taken from Miss Colombia and given to Miss Philippines. Harvey compounded this mistake by offering an apology via a (since deleted) tweet in which he misspelled both countries. He was a great host up until this moment and I loved watching him anyway.
Alexis Faulkner is Unicorn Editor-in-Chief of Uncanny Valley Magazine.
