A few days late I know, but here’s my round-up of my favourite stuff from 2011. Enjoy!
MOVIES & TV
Best Movie ~ Senna
Runners-Up ~ Black Swan, The King’s Speech, Hugo, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, True Grit, Hanna
‘Didn’t Think Would be Good but was Actually Brilliant’ of the Year ~ Attack the Block
Movie Performance of the Year ~ Sacha Baron Cohen as the Station Inspector (Hugo)
Runner-Up ~ Saoirse Ronan as Hanna (Hanna)
Most Disappointing Movie of 2011 ~ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Unnecessary Movie Sequel of the Year ~ The Hangover Part II
Best TV Show ~ Horrible Histories
Runners-Up ~ Life’s Too Short, Angry Boys, QI series I, Come Fly With Me
TV Moment of the Year ~ Eddie Jordan thrown into the pool at the Monaco F1 Forum (
video link)
Runner-Up ~ Brian Butterfield on Shooting Stars (
video link)
VIDEO GAMES
Best Mainstream Game ~ The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii)
Runners-Up ~ Portal 2 (PC) , Solatorobo: Red the Hunter (DS)
Best Indie Game ~ Bastion
Runners-Up ~ Limbo (on PC), Terraria, The Binding of Isaac, Sequence
Best Social Network Game ~
Triple Town (Facebook, Google Chrome)
Video Game Character of 2011 ~ Wheatley (Portal 2)
‘Didn’t Finish’ of 2011 ~ The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Bastion, Portal 2, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
‘Better Never than Late’ of 2011 ~ Duke Nukem Forever
MUSIC
Best Gig ~ Turisas (Southampton University Garden Court)
Runners-Up ~ Sonata Arctica (Reading Sub 89), Tom Morelllo (supporting Rise Against, Soton Guildhall), Devin Townsend (Southampton University Garden Court)
Best Album ~ Foo Fighters – Wasting Light
Runners-Up ~ Turisas – Stand Up and Fight; Funeral for a Friend- Welcome Home Armageddon; Rhapsody of Fire – From Chaos to Eternity; Rival Schools – Pedals
Duke Nukem Forever/Chinese Democracy Award for ‘Will it Ever Get Released’? of the Year ~ Blaqk Audio – Bright Black Heaven
Unnecessary Collaboration of the Year ~ Lou Reed/Metallica – Lulu
Best Song ~ Swede Mason – Masterchef Synesthesia (
video link)
Runners-Up ~ Rush – ‘Caravan’; Foo Fighters – ‘Rope’; Turisas – ‘Stand Up and Fight’; Alestorm – ‘You Are a Pirate’
‘Why Won’t it Go Away?’ of the 2011 ~ Rebecca Black – ‘Friday’ (
video link)
Music-Based Game of 2011 ~ ‘Ke$ha or Katy Perry?’
MOTORSPORT
F1 Driver of the Year ~ Sebastian Vettel
Runners-Up ~ Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Heikki Kovalainen
F1 Best Race ~ Montreal, and JB’s storm to victory from the back of the pack
F1 Overtake of the Year ~ Webber on Alonso through Eau Rouge at Spa-Francorchamps
Crash of the Year ~ Allan McNish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (
video link)
Sorely Missed of the Year ~ Dan Wheldon cut down in his prime Indycar at Vegas
PROJECT 500
(see Empire’s 500 Greatest Movies of All Time) Progress: 314/500
Best Movies (I hadn’t seen) ~ The Apartment, Some Like it Hot, Bad Taste, Ratatouille, Duck Soup
New Discoveries ~ Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Billy Wilder
Disappointments ~ Mulholland Drive, Danger: Diabolik, Spirit of the Beehive, The 400 Blows
EVERYTHING ELSE
Best Purchase ~ My delightful Kisai Seven [aka. 7RON] watch (link)
Best Book ~ Mark Kermode – The Good, The Bad & The Multiplex
Best Internet Video ~ Masterchef Synesthesia (video link)
Runners-Up ~ Psychosocial Baby (video link), Nyan Cat (video link), Benton/Fenton (video link)
Tweet of the Year (me) ~ “Bryony just got so annoyed about boxing, she headbutted CIDER” (
link)
Tweet of the Year (someone else) ~ Peter Serafinowicz: “Trying to achieve the perfect erection. How hard could it be?” (
link)
Most Apt Phrase to Sum Up 2011 ~ “I used to [insert appropriate phrase here], but then I took an arrow to the knee.” – Skyrimlolz.
Word of 2011 ~ ‘Superinjunction’.
Quote of 2011 ~”Just goes to show, people with brain damage are the real heroes.” – Wheatley
Looking Forward to in 2012 ~ The Dark Knight Rises; The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ; Wii U ; Alestorm at the Cellar (Southampton) ; drinking in a whole load more motorsport; actually finishing Portal 2 ; Gyakuten Saiban (the movie) ; potentially becoming a Doctor of Philosophy ; Stewart Lee on Jan 15th (London).
Best Moments (no order) ~
Celebrating four years with Bryface; moving house (again); sprinting onto the track at the end of the 79th 24 Hours of Le Mans to get beneath the winners’ podium; successfully upgrading to the PhD programme by passing the MPhil/PhD Transfer; winning a place at the Autosport Awards 2011 and meeting Martin Whitmarsh, Tiff Needell, James Thompson and others; getting sprayed with mud by Sebby Loeb, Ken Block at al. at Hafren on the WRC Wales Rally GB; Shock Treatment, Richard O’Brien and Mark Kermode (and The Dodge Brothers) at the New Forest Film Festival; Pumpkin-carving at Diamond Cottage; Ockfest 2011; Wilton House Supercar Day; Danny Boyle’s Frankenstein LIVE; RockSoc shenanigans and pubcrawls aplenty; and aboslutely anything and everything that I’ve forgotten to include here.
Everyone, you’ve been awesome.
2011 is dead. Long live 2012.
[Zinar7]
Sinister Resistance 