2004 was one of the worst years of my life. My Gamecube got me through a lot of hell that year. though things started to look a little better. Didn't watch much in the way of movies, when I went out with friends we went out to clubs. I really started reading the Harry Potter series. My favorite games of the year were Tales of Symphonia, Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, and Baten Kaitos.
Pouring Over 2004 Media
On 08/25/2020 at 06:44 PM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
2004 was more pizza and music, but I do remember going to my dad's summer beach house in North Carolina. We had fun fishing, going to book stores and eating out. The drive from Philly was fun too. 7 1/2 hours with a stop on the Cheasapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. I also enjoyed the following media.
TV: The Mighty Boosh
Little did I know that my favorite show on planet earth would appear on British TV in 2004, but it did, The Mighty Boosh. This show has all my favorite things: stand up, situation comedy, skits, musical numbers, fantasy segments and a whole lot of stage design and costuming. I love the surreal, silly, absurd, artsy nature of this show.
Film: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
This movie was my entry point into the work of director Wes Anderson. I can't say enough about this movie. It's the careful set design and cinematography, the ensemble cast that works so well together, the sly humor, the angst and frustration regarding relationships, references to things I grew up with in the 70s (he's only a couple years younger than me), and great choice of music. It has it all for me. What really iced this as a all time favorite for me was, at the time, I was into Bowie and especially the song "Queen Bitch". When the film used a lot of bowie music sung in spanish and then capped the final moments with the original, nasty rock version of "Queen Bitch", I was so head over heels. It was like someone was reading my mind.
Game: Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
It's hard to describe the feeling of pure joy and wonder I had playing this game. It's astonishingly creative and delightful. I love the battle system where it's turn-based but you have timed button presses to make it feel more actiony. It's the same system used in the Mario & Luigi games. There are many interesting gameplay mechanics involving the things paper can do and a lot of humor in every encounter. It's a very colorful game with nifty puzzles. I'd say Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi games are my favorite Nintendo franchises even over Mario Bros. and Zelda.
Music: Trekkies 2 Soundtrack
This trailer gives no clue as to the rich wonderful fan music which was showcased in this documentary. I have the soundtrack and it is so dear to me. I listened to it front to back for a whole week when it came out. It feels like a collection of demos made by friends of mine, only, I wish I had more friends like these trekkies. There is a variety of musical styles such as folk by Leslie Fish (called filk - scifi folk music), rock by Warp 11, metal by Klingon themed Stovokor and punk by No Kill I. There are also a lot of funny dialog tracks from the movie. It's all hilarious to me but also heartwarming because I can totally understand this level of fandom. I always wanted to do a themed band or something humerous in music. I love costuming too. Once I painted myself red for a show. Not exatly a costume, but it was something.
Book: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
I remember being decidedly not interested in the movie when it came out in 2012 but one day I decided to read the book and devoured it. It's a tour de force of literary skill. Each time period featured in the book comes with it's own literary style appropriate to the time. I was mightly impressed by that. I found the ultimate message of the book a bit depressing but I still enjoyed the ride. There's a futuristic corpocracy near the end that is scarily not unthinkable at this present time. I often think about it and cringe.
What did you see or do in 2004?
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