pop culture rundown 2015

(In no particular order)

5 Best Hollywood/Foreign Films I've Seen In 2015:

• Ant-Man
• Avengers: Age of Ultron
• Inside Out
• Paper Towns
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Filipino Films I've Seen In 2015:

• Heneral Luna
• Honor Thy Father
• I Love You. Thank You
• #WalangForever

Best Eye-Candy Films of 2015:

• Cinderella
• Magic Mike XXL
• The Man for U.N.C.L.E.

Films I Was Pleasantly Surprised With:

• The Little Prince
• Paper Towns

10 Best Songs of 2015:

• "Alive" - Sia
• "Black Magic" - Little Mix
• "Can't Feel My Face" - The Weeknd
• "Hello" - Adele
• "Jealous" - Nick Jonas
• "Love Me Like You Do" - Ellie Goulding
• "Sorry" - Justin Bieber
• "Stitches" - Shawn Mendes
• "WILD" - Troye Sivan

Best Albums of 2015:

• 25 - Adele
• Blue Neighbourhood - Troye Sivan
• EMOTION - Carly Rae Jepsen
• Like Us - Jon McLaughlin

Best TV Series (They Still Deliver!):

• Arrow
• Empire (Season 1)
• How To Get Away With Murder
• Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Orphan Black
• The Flash

(Formerly) Fave TV Series I Was Most Disappointed With This Year:

• Empire (Season 2)
• Nashville
• Once Upon a Time

Best New TV Series:

• Marvel's Agent Carter
• Marvel's Daredevil
• Marvel's Jessica Jones
• Mr. Robot
• Sense8
• UnREAL

New TV Series I Was Pleasntly Surprised With:

• Please Like Me
• Supergirl
• The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Eye-Candiest TV Series:

• Faking It
• How To Get Away With Murder

Best Books I've Read in 2015:

• More Happy Than Not - Adam Silvera
• More Than This - Patrick Ness
• Noggin - John Corey Whaley
• Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli

pop culture rundown 2014

(In no particular order)

10 Best Hollywood/Foreign Films I've Seen In 2014:

• Big Hero 6
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Gone Girl
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• How to Train Your Dragon 2
• The Fault In Our Stars
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay
• The Lego Movie
• X-Men: Days of Future Past

Best Filipino Films I've Seen In 2014:

• She's Dating a Gangster
• That Thing Called Tadhana

Best Eye-Candy Films of 2014:

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Neighbors
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Film I Was Pleasantly Surprised With:

• Edge of Tomorrow

Most Disappointing Film I've Seen in 2014:

• Maleficent

10 Best Songs of 2014:

• "All About That Bass" - Meghan Trainor
• "Bang Bang" - Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj
• "Chandelier" - Sia
• "Classic" - MKTO
• "Happy" - Pharell Williams
• "Maps" - Maroon 5
• "Prove it to You" - Kris Allen
• "Sing" - Ed Sheeran
• "Shake It Off" - Taylor Swift
• "Stay With Me" - Sam Smith

Best Unreleased Singles of 2014:

• "In Time" - Kris Allen
• "New Romantics" - Taylor Swift
• "Ready to Run" - One Direction

Best Albums of 2014:

• 1989 - Taylor Swift
• Horizons - Kris Allen
• In The Lonely Hour - Sam Smith

Best TV Series (They Still Deliver!):

• Arrow
• Grimm
• Orphan Black

(Formerly) Fave TV Series I Was Most Disappointed With This Year:

• Awkward.
• Scandal
• Teen Wolf

TV Series That Stepped Up Its Game:

• Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Best New TV Series:

• How to Get Away With Murder
• The Flash

New TV Series I Was Pleasntly Surprised With:

• Forever
• Selfie

New TV Series That I Was Disappointed With:

• Gracepoint

Eye-Candiest TV Series:

• How To Get Away With Murder

Best Books I've Read in 2014:

• Better Nate Than Never - Tim Federle
• The Fault In Our Stars - John Green

Books I Got in 2014 But Haven't Read (Yet):

• 100 Sideways Miles - Andrew Smith
• Noggin - John Corey Whaley
• S. - J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst
• Suicide Notes - Michael Thomas Ford
• The Truth About The Harry Quebert Affair - Joel Dicker
• What In God's Name - Simon Rich
• When Things Come Back - John Corey Whaley
• Winger - Andrew Smith

my definitive ranking of the kris allen discography (so far)

UPDATE (Aug 8, 2014): The full list is finally up! Meanwhile, Kris will stream Horizons in full midnight (US Central Time) in his YouTube page

A couple of weeks ago, when I was in a five-hour midnight bus ride from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Kris Allen's "Written All Over My Face" (a song off his first post-American Idol album) played on my iPhone playlist. It's been years since I've heard the song, having had Thank You Camellia in constant loop since its release in 2012, so it was a pleasant surprise for me to hear it again (fast-talking/rapping Kris is always a good thing).

So there I was inside the bus, at around 1AM, and while listening to WAOMF, I remember thinking back to some of those click-bait-y Buzzfeed posts about "ultimate" lists. Has there been such a "Kris List" before? There had been attempts, if I remember correctly. But that was years ago.

Anyway, so a crazy idea formed in my head: to rank all of Kris's songs to date. I figured it's a good way to reminisce while I (and his fans) are (impatiently) waiting for his new album Horizons. Granted, his latest single, "Prove It To You", has been on repeat track since pre-orders started July 8. And we've heard the live versions of some of those tracks as early as last year's Out Alive tour. But what the heck. It's a good way to kill some time.

thank you

Hello blog. It's been a while. Like one-whole-year while. Sorry about that. I guess this is worse than the previous years when I peppered you with my attempts at fiction, huh?

And to think I wrote last year that I should write more. Among other things. Whoops. Ah well.

Well 2013, you were a mixed bag. I'm not sure if you contributed a lot in the happy part of my "assignment" from last year, but you sure gave me several to get nervous excited about. I still have to take the leap, though. Although I have to say, I think in some aspects I managed a hop and a skip. It's not you. It's me.

Thank you, universe, for pushing me out of my comfort zone from time to time this year. I know whine most of the time but in the end I'm glad I did them. BTW, you can be a son a bitch sometimes. But hey, those are the exciting parts I guess.

These have been written here before, but I think I should put these on my cubicle at work next year:

Find out what makes me happy and excited. Then sustain it.
Follow through, PJ. Follow through dammit.

pop culture rundown 2013

This is inspired by the "best of" lists I've been seeing in my news feeds during the past couple of days. I actually can't believe I haven't done something similar (and regular) before.

Anyway, while I am still pondering on how my year was (i.e., while still trying to come up with a more serious blog post like the years past), in no particular order...