Gods of Advertising

Making of a Murderer will stun you…

What kind of blogger would I be if I didn’t post a list for 2015? Things I liked. Things I didn’t. You know the drill. First the good stuff…

I adored this spec commercial for Johnnie Walker. It wasn’t “real” but it’s really good. That it was made by aspiring film students make it even more remarkable.

My favorite thing on “TV” was a jaw dropping documentary from Netflix.  Like a combination of Boyhood and The Jinx nothing on any screen mesmerized me as much as Making of a Murderer – a deeply sad but utterly riveting series detailing the systematic failure of our judicial process as it pertains to one man. You have to see it.

Runners up: Fargo. Mr. Robot. The Jinx.

By far the greatest sports story was and is the unbelievable performance of The Golden State Warriors. They won it all last year. As of this writing they have only lost two games and the season is one third over. Steph Curry and the Warriors put LeBron James on page two.

From the world of music I got nothing. Sure Adele. But frankly only one song from her new album penetrated popular culture and it’s already fading. I liked U2’s new record but a lot of people didn’t and I concede that it wasn’t anything epic like Achtung Baby or How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. My daughters easily pick Taylor Swift’s 1989 as the greatest thing ever but, all respect to this prodigy, not my thing…

In terms of movies, I liked a whole bunch. Spotlight stands out. The Big Short. But in the end, I didn’t love anything as much as Bone Tomahawk. Why this movie did not get more love is a sin. A beautifully written, well acted and startlingly horrifying Western. See it. Unlike all of you, I haven’t seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So maybe that. Somehow, I doubt it though.

The best movie you never saw…

I read a lot of books (honest) but I can’t recall one in particular that came out last year and blew me away. Right up there was The Unfortunates by Sophie McManus – a novel about wealth and wasted years.

Pop culture? In 2014, for better or for worse, we got Miley Cyrus twerking on a “Wrecking Ball.” The concept of “Selfies” took over the world.  Last year, nothing quite like that. Maybe that’s a good thing?

In my opinion, the two most awful things permeating our world in 2015 is the growing mayhem of terrorism –all of it, everywhere- and the sad, shocking popularity of Donald Trump. For the love of God and Country, don’t let this bombastic clown become our President. We can’t really contain evil. But we don’t have to put a cherry on top of it.

The most significant phenomena in 2015 was the cell phone video. From the constant revelation of police abuses of power –a sickening runner up to terrorism, if not the same thing- to the opening up of every door imaginable nothing has shown ourselves to ourselves like the random footage on a cell phone.