Ranking the Most Godforsaken Teams in the NFL

More than any other professional sports league, the NFL has the most success with parity, with playoff teams switching out year after year and at least one “worst to first” story every season. Despite this, though, it definitely seems some franchises are better at, well, everything than others.

This could be due to many factors: front-office know-how, solid coaching, All-Pro players. Or, more likely, it could just be which teams have pleased the Football Gods.

So, Cory Graham and I give this list to you:

The Most Godforsaken Franchises in the NFL
32. New England Patriots
Kevin: Historically, they’ve not been overly blessed, but this decade-plus string of dominance is beyond impressive. They’ve basically become the Yankees and Lakers of the NFL, and that sound you heard was Bill Simmons dying a little.

The very best in music, movies, books, TV, concerts and more of 2012

UPDATED: Dec. 28, 2012
A long time ago (or, actually, two years ago), I would make annual Best Of lists, usually for movies and music, and I loved doing it. I always wanted to include TV shows and books, but I often found myself unable to list 10, and since all good lists come in groups of 10, I would leave them off and be done with it.

Last year, though, I opted for an overarching list that included all things I loved about the year, so I’m now thinking that’s the way to go. Oddly enough, this year, I had a hard time narrowing my TV shows down to 10 – we really are in an amazing era of quality TV. Note: These aren’t necessarily listed in order of favorites or quality.

So, I give you The 2012 List of So … There I Was’ Favorite Things

50 Movies for a Well-Rounded Film Fan

I love lists.

Maybe it’s a bit of an OCD thing, maybe it’s a boy thing, maybe it’s just a love for talking about things that can be listed. Whatever the reason, lists fascinate me.

Entitled titles: Do some movies deserve special treatment?

Toward the end of 2011, I began the process of converting all my existing DVDs into a digital format, partly to have everything available on a computer, mostly to free up space in my house.

I’m at about the halfway point of converting the films, but I’m now faced with a dilemma as I move toward my favorite titles/directors: Do I keep any hard copies of the movies from my favorite directors? There’s something about having the actual DVDs from Scorsese, Eastwood, Anderson (both P.T. and Wes), Tarantino, Spielberg and others that I find comforting.

Lowered Expectations: My Official List of Things to Do in 2012

UPDATED Jan. 17, 2012
I guess I need a better list.

The past few years, I have started January with a list of fun pop-culturey things to do in the following 12 months. The list can range from eating a one-pound hamburger to watching four movies in a theatre in one day (both of which I proudly accomplished).

The 2011 Presidential Fantasy Team

Since the NFL is set to kickoff roughly an hour after President Obama starts his long-awaited “jobs” speech to America, I thought it would be appropriate to combine two of my favorite things into one mashed-up blog. So, I give you this:

The 2011 Presidential Fantasy Team

Old people vs. Li’l Wayne, or Why Weezy Doesn’t Belong on a List of Best Rappers

I first started listening to rap music in 1987, as Bowen Smallwood and John Tipton introduced me to some guy named LL Cool J, who continually told listeners he was B.A.D. (Bigger and Deffer). I’ll pause for a moment while you picture three little country boys running around with a boombox blasting Mr. Cool J.

Finished? Not quite?

Now? OK.

Over the years, I’ve stayed fairly in touch with rap, at least more of the mainstream artists (overly long and indulgent side note: I leave the deep underground knowledge to my friends, in increasing order of undergroundedness, Shane Carpenter, Adam Thompson and Cory Graham, the latter of whom once successfully operated a late-night weekend rap show on WSKV, Stanton’s home to country, bluegrass and gospel and, for a short time during Cory’s run, Wu-Tang).

The Top Movies of 2010

Spoiler alert: Furry Vengeance will not be on my Top Movies of 2010 list. If you think no “best of” list is complete without it, please do the following: a) stop reading; and b) delete me from your Facebook friends list.

Brendan Fraser’s film aside, 2010 ended up a pretty stellar year for movies, which is something I wouldn’t have said in July. By then, only a handful of good, let alone great, movies had been released, but 2010 ended on a strong note with quality work coming out as Oscar bait.

So, with the Oscar nominations set to be released Tuesday, I offer you my picks of the Top Movies of 2010:

Great Expectations for 2011, or My Official List of Things to Do in 2011

The list is ready.

Or almost ready.

OK, so the list has started, which is really enough to ask for by Jan. 6 given that I have the entire rest of the year to work on completing both it and the tasks on it.

After some input from friends (well, not really “input” as much as “Kevin, do not do such and such”), I offer to you my official Things to Do in 2011 List:

Kevin’s Best Movies of the Decade, a recap

I’ve been unveiling my favorite movies of the 2000s in this spot over the past week, providing some brief thoughts as to why each one earned a spot on my list. Here they are, 1-50, in pure list form. I’ll include some that almost made the cut at the end.

1. Lord of the Rings
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Almost Famous
4. The Royal Tennenbaums
5. Dark Knight