Overrated / Underrated 2013: The ‘Quiet Storm’ sound, oversharing and more
At a time dominated by a fascination with 24/7 access to one’s product, project and personal “brand†via thoughts and images shared over Twitter, Instagram and some as-yet-unknown app that will surely rule our lives next year, a curious power remains in keeping some things quiet. It makes sense from a privacy standpoint (can the National Security Agency hear me now?), but even the 24/7 marketeers could take a cue. (Mark Lennihan / AP)
Nothing against the cliche-upending “Orange Is the New Black†and the acidic nihilism of “House of Cards,†but even as Netflix shifts from providing rentals to original TV, something is getting lost: movies. After helping to shutter video stores great and small ¿ Blockbuster finally fell this year ¿ Netflix’s streaming film options remain thin. If you want to see a movie off the beaten path, most likely you’ll have to buy it ¿ much to the studios’ delight. (Paul Sakuma / AP)
Last week Time magazine ¿ yes, that’s still a thing ¿ released its choice for person of the year in Pope Francis, and tucked amid the finalists that included international newsmakers Bashar Assad and Edward Snowden was the attention-devouring twerking enthusiast herself, Miley Cyrus. Instead of shaming whatever process brought this on, let’s revel in it, America. This is the person of the year we really earned in 2013 ¿ for another few weeks, anyway. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Social networks are about socializing, but 2013 has been the year of the attention-courting pound sign, which fills almost every online observation like some hybrid of a Greek chorus and a personal branding seminar. What these broadcast is that sharing snapshots or “Walking Dead†one-liners among friends is not enough, amounting to a strange recalibration of living in public that means if it’s worth doing, it’s worth everyone seeing. #Wrong. (Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)
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No one wants to see this acerbic chef-turned-TV star deliver the news, which in theory was the threat in shifting from the Travel Channel to CNN. Still, this show takes the best of Bourdain ¿ his filter-free yet earnest attempts to understand other cultures ¿ and frees him from the fluff of exotic food porn. His visit to Copenhagen’s Noma was illuminating, but even more so were his trips into troubled Libya, Colombia and the Congo. (Ilya S. Savenok /Getty Images)
You have to be talented and bold to tackle this landmark work by Miles Davis and Gil Evans, and few artists capture both qualities like trumpeter Nicholas Payton. Backed by the Basel Symphony, Payton and a band that includes bassist Vicente Archer and drummer Marcus Gilmore don’t just honor Davis’ work with this live recording; they shine a new light on its knotty brilliance, particularly with the bewitching “Solea.†(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Remember Thanksgiving? That snack break between football games where we give thanks for loved ones and our fortunate tidings before blowing out the door to buy more fortunate tidings? Keep it in mind as our culture of consumption keeps expanding beyond turkey feasts and frenzied shopping efforts to claim more instead of taking a day to reflect on the riches we already have. The creep of Black Friday will stop only when we stop buying in. (STAN HONDA / AFPGetty Images)
Remember when this site first came online and we marveled at its mishmash of music videos, baffling memes-in-waiting characters and imagination-capturing felines? Now, this Google-owned behemoth has spawned an ever-multiplying population of bland singer-songwriters angling for a little “social media buzz†on their way to split-second fame and ¿ even worse ¿ yet another awards show that nobody asked for (pictured). When’s the VHS revival? (Jeff Kravitz, FilmMagic / Getty Images)
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Acclaimed for his wildly successful (and career-resuscitating) interview podcast “WTF,†Maron has been a talented stand-up comic for years, and he’s never sounded better than in this 90-plus-minute concert appearing on Netflix. Recorded in a small space in New York City, the special finds Maron at his loose, acerbic and often self-lacerating best, revealing a voice that’s never sounded clearer in delivering raw human truth through comedy. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
If there’s a sure path to chart success in 2013, it’s using the kind spotlight of kids TV to incubate a music career. It’s worked for so many in the Disney stable, and now that Miley Cyrus has discovered the earning power of exhibitionism, another contender has emerged to deafening hype. Witness this 20-year-old singer and Nickelodeon star, who sounds like a younger, blander copy of Mariah Carey, just as focus groups said you always wanted. (Brad Barket / Getty Images for Nickelodeon)
Another in a string of impressive HBO documentaries, this installment recalls the award-winning “Gasland†as an expose of an epidemic. Covering the horrific 2009 fall and traumatic brain injury of pro snowboarder Kevin Pearce (pictured), the film turns similar sports comeback stories literally on their heads by showing the true costs and risks of such injuries, and by exposing their prominence in sports. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)
Since bursting on the scene with a soulful 2007 album recorded in a rural Wisconsin cabin, the force behind Bon Iver became a Grammy darling in 2012 while revealing a surprising fondness for syrupy soft rock. Now admitting he’s stopped writing songs, Vernon keeps transforming into the new millennium’s Christopher Cross with the latest album from his side project, Volcano Choir. Can someone please get Vernon back to the woods? (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
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When ESPN first launched there was some question of how the network would fill 24 hours of programming with only sports. Even without broadcasts of Australian Rules Football (or even hockey), turns out there’s enough to fill multiple networks including new player Fox Sports 1. Our thirst for big-money athletics is somehow unquenchable, even though most days any given channel seems filled with as many people talking about sports as playing them. (Craig Barritt / Getty Images)
Available on Netflix, the latest from “Primer†writer-director Shane Carruth is unsettling, beautiful and often utterly deranged. Placing Carruth firmly alongside Charlie Kaufman as writers with unfathomably twisted imaginations, the movie has something to do with a trance-inducing drug, field recordings and (of course) a mysterious pig farm. The film isn’t too concerned with always making sense, but Carruth’s vision remains well worth a look. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
A prototypical child star who first appeared on “Barney & Friends,†this Disney alum seemed preordained for stardom with a headline-grabbing pairing with Justin Bieber and a stunt casting turn in Harmony Korine’s feverish “Spring Breakers.†A fall from fame is just as inevitable, but what’s distressing is that an actress who looks just old enough to drive is considered a sex symbol in 2013. Hollywood eats its young, but why are they looking younger than ever? (Jeff Vinnick / Getty Images)
Amid a revival over the last few years among fans and musicians searching for a more outdated format to fetishize, the humble and fragile cassette tape is riding this resurgence to a full retailer holiday scheduled for next month akin to the wildly successful Record Store Day. While it’s been fun to watch thrift store boom boxes become prized collectors items, it’s hard not to look forward to Compact Disc Day rolling around in the next year or so. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
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Now that the local housing market is back, so too are the many unscripted TV stars renovating homes for fun and profit on shows such as “Flip or Flop,†“Flip Men†and the enduring “Flip This House.†This is bad news for families who can’t compete against these cash-rich investors for a home they actually want to live in, and it doesn’t take much to remember the last time investments like these were treated as easy-money entertainment. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Remember when this rapper really was as great as he says? After dropping the indelible “The Blueprint†in 2001 and one-upping Sinatra with the Big Apple anthem “Empire State of Mind,†Jay-Z is now best known as half of a pop-culture power couple with Beyonce. But lately he’s struggled to say anything new on record, particularly on “Magna Carta Holy Grail,†which offers little more than recounting his undeniable riches in steadily less interesting ways. (Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times)
From Kanye and Kim to the global phenomenon that was the recent spawn of Prince William and the former Kate Middleton, we as a nation seem obsessed with the children of those more fortunate. Though most of the Internet is dedicated to churning interest in those born into royalty literal and figurative, it’s still mystifying why. Can’t we at least give them a chance to publicly disappoint us before they become pop cultural phenomena? (Andrew Cowie / AFPGetty Images)
