I hate year end lists.
Just kidding, I read all of them just like the rest of you.
But here are things I liked in 2015 regardless of what year they came out.
1. How Big How Blue How Beautiful by Florence + The Machine. It's no secret that Flo and co. are pretty much my favorite band ever. This third album is their best to date and I'm still obsessed with it. I will forever associate it with an extremely sketchy hotel in Macon, Georgia where I was theoretically going to stay the night on my way to Disney World. The wi-fi wasn't solid enough for the download so I had to wait, but dang, it was memorable trying. Not five months later, the music video for Delilah would also find Florence in a sketchy motel, except this one had literal demons, and the one I was in only had blood and dirt on the sheets (yikes).
2. Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt. This show is probably my favorite that has come out of all the Netflix originals comedy wise (I'll get to the dramas later). Ellie Kemper and Tituss Burgess are fronting a hilariously original show and Carol Kane and Jane Krakowski are the multitudinous toppings on the sundae. You'll laugh, I promise.
3. Hamilton. Anyone who has been within thirty feet of me knows that I can rap all the way through Hamilton with varying degrees of success. I'll excuse you from reading the rest of this post if you wanna go listen to it. It's that awesome.
4. Lizzie the Musical. A rock concept album/musical about Lizzie Borden featuring awesome hard rocking songs? Sign me up.
5. Starbucks Green Tea Frappuccino. I don't know why it took me so long to figure out this was on the menu, but once I did, I didn't order anything else.
6. The cute barista at the Barnes and Noble Starbucks who can usually be found serving me these green tea frapps. we should probably talk sometime about something other than how to spell my name or whipped cream preferences. Will we? Probably not, because I'm not good at talking to anybody, much less boys.
7. Dole Whip. My aforementioned trip to Disney World was an awesome week in my summer. And every single day, at some point, usually in the hot afternoon or humid evening, you could find that pastel yellow nectar of the gods in my hand, that fateful soft serve delicacy: the dole whip. Pineapple soft serve should not be allowed to be this delicious, and yet here we are.
8. Crimson Peak. This movie perfectly fueled my performance in Poe's Midnight Dreary. It's like House of Usher turned up to eleven with 200 percent more Tom Hiddleston, so a win win situation.
9. Deaf West's Spring Awakening. The coolest show on the street is fittingly right next door to the coolest show in the world. A re-imagning of the rock musical Spring Awakening, already a favorite of mine, this show is accessible to both deaf and hearing people and is performed in sign language and spoken at the same time. It adds so many beautiful layers of story telling without adding or taking away a single word form the original show. Gorgeous, inventive, and even better than the original. my attempts at signing along to Blue Wind are hilarious.
10. Star Wars. It hasn't even come out yet and I'm just really happy at the influx of Star Wars in my life. Holla at that, am I right?
11. Hellboy. I'm definitely really late to the party on this one. But both the Dark Horse comics and the Guillermo Del Toro films never fail to cheer me up. My vision for a third film: Hellboy 3: The Abe Sapian Synchronized Swim Team. You know you want it.
12. Hand to God. A small Texas town? Religious commentary? A possessed sock puppet? How did I not write this?
13. Daredevil and Jessica Jones. Two really different shows, both totally awesome in their own ways. I love the action packed drama of Daredevil and the terrifying re imagining of Wilson Fisk, finally making him a truly scary villain. I love Jessica Jones being a female led superhero show, David Tennant's sickeningly evil Kilgrave, and Krysten Ritter's excellent portrayal of Jessica herself. Marvel's Defenders are turning out in full force.
14. Nanowrimo. Holla at me for winning.
15. Didn't He Ramble by Glen Hansard. After seeing this tour de force of a guy live in February, this September release felt like eons away. It was worth it though. An awesome collection of songs with influences from every genre under the sun.
16. Becoming a more independent person and making really hard choices for myself.
17. Composing the score to Poe's Midnight Dreary.
18. Getting to perform that score and be in the show at district and state levels of competition alongside some really hella awesome shows (shoutout to Bob Jones' Axe Man's Requiem and James Clemons' Silenced on Barbour Street, two standout shows full of standout people).
19. Edgar Allan Poe in general tbh.
20. MEETING ALICE RIPLEY
21. Mr car Butters. I don't know, he's just really great.
Well this devolved real quick. Imma sign off now while I'm ahead.
-Randi
