Summer Oh Yeah! List

My Summer 2009 Oh Yeah! List

10) 21st Century Breakdown -- Green Day

The album that grows on you like a bad mole. It is no Dookie or American Idiot and a far cry from Nimrod. However, once you listen to it again and again in a hot car, you finally get it -- we're all musically doomed, so party now.

9) Bruno

Wazzup? It's boner flopped at the box office, true, but it was also a step above Borat. That's because it is easy to get on board with a guy who could be a terrorist from another country, but it is hard and ballsy (sorry) to throw America's worst fear back in their face and make people laugh. Performance art hardly does it justice. This was a defying leap into comedic social commentary.

8) Rescue Me

Let's see: more details about 9/11, substantial character development Sean's battle with cancer, and the women taking control over Denis Leary's tortured and confused fireman? Oh, and everyone is drinking again, including the ghosts. Yeah, it is a kick ass season.

7) City Of Glass Graphic Novel -- By David Mazzucchelli and Paul Karasik, based on the novel by Paul Auster

Forget the original and go with the adaptation that's original, eye opening, and haunting in a way the source material was never able to quite cook up. Not only are the illustrations entrancing and hypnotic, they push the story to new depths. A great summer graphic novel.

6) The Hangover and Up

The best double-feature you can get for one ticket price. Sneak into it with someone you love and is willing to hold your hair back (extra bonus: stay for both movies' credits)

5) "Paranoid" music video by Kanye West

R&B rap meets werewolf Tarantino movie. It's B-horror style with imagination and energy that elevates a mediocre song to a new level of awesomeness. And I suppose Rhianna is pretty dashing as the possessed damsel going to the top of the mountain in her tricked out convertible. You worry about the wrong things...

4) Weeds

Still funny. Still creative. Mary-Louise Parker and Justin Kirk have the best chemistry on television. It wouldn't be summer without green growing in Mrs. Botwin's backyard. And speaking of chemistry...

3) Away We Go

Dear Dave Eggers, I apologize for calling you a hack writer who does not fully understand complex and intriguing human beings. Perhaps Maya Rudolph and John Kransinski just did everything perfectly, but you and Vendela Vida gave them the set up. Write more movies, less books.

2) "Like A Boss" music video by The Lonely Island

Stay off the boat and go to work where you can micromanage, hit on Debra, find a fish, fuck its brains out, and have an interview with Seth Rogen. I am a believer in the Lonely Island guys and think that once again, they are genius in what they make.

1) Cage The Elephant -- Cage The Elephant

Ain't no rest for the wicked. Same goes for this album on your radio. Make sure you go crazy.

Oh yeah...