It’s easy (and fun!) to blather on about the media we consume each year, but ultimately, books and movies are seldom the defining elements of our lives. In roughly chronological order, here are my life highlights of 2009:

• Seeing our first black president sworn in.
• Settling into a new home at the top of sunny Potrero Hill.
• Seeing Return to Labyrinth volume 3 become a New York Times listed bestseller!
• Tying the knot with an amazing lady.
• Swimming through limestone caves in Laos.
• Climbing 1,300 steps to mountaintop temples in Thailand.
• Playing matchmaker with rabbits and giving a loving home to a tragic rescue case.
• Learning how to transmogrify new ingredients into delicious meals.
• Watching one friend become a daddy and two others get engaged.
• Writing the last page of Return to Labyrinth.

Last year I ranked my games by how many hours I played each of them. It was sort of depressing and I don’t want to go through that again. Rather than making big lists, I’ll just cull out my gaming highlights for 2009:

• Thepure joy of playing Scribblenauts… for about an hour. This “create anything” DS puzzle/platformer was the truly rare game that elicited pure joy. Think of anything, write it and see it brought to life – amazing! After the novelty wears off, however, it becomes a pretty mediocre physics-based platformer and the moments where item behavior solves puzzles in serendipitous ways are few and far between. Still, I’ve seldom had as much fun with a game as those first moments.
• Being Batman! I watched every episode of Batman the Animated Series back in high school and college, so what a joy it was to hear Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as Joker in a new Batman game that didn’t suck. Arkham Asylum wasn’t the most groundbreaking game of the year, but I loved losing myself in that world.
• Getting to know the cast of Dragon Age. For the first 5 hours or so, the generic LOTR-derivative setting and music and stock fantasy scenarios weren’t selling me on Bioware’s latest, but once I started to assemble a small team of companions and took the time to listen to their stories and interactions, the game was a revelation. So many games in recent years allow players to make so-called “moral” choices that really only reward the player for being mustache-twirling evil or a goody-two-shoes nice. Dragon Age manages to avoid this trap by having moral choices have no bearing on the player character, but rather only affect how your companions perceive you. Eventually you learn which characters’ company you value (whether for personality, skills or looks), and you’ll be inclined to make choices based on pleasing them. At first I thought it was a little artificial, but the more I reflected on it, the more it became clear that that’s a pretty accurate reflection of life! When we’re getting to know people, we can either follow our convictions and see who’s left standing, or we can make compromises to get to know people whose convictions greatly differ from our own, and once those friendships are formed, we can navigate the occasional difference more easily. Dragon Age simulates friendship better than any game I’ve played before. Oh… and  you can have threesomes.
• A Crash Course in Facebook games. This year, I earned the majority of my income from working on Facebook games. I was the lead writer on Yakuza Lords, Champions Online (facebook version), and a forthcoming vampire game, and a contributing designer for Band of Heroes and Zynga’s Vampire Wars, Special Forces and Street Racing. As “research” I spent way too much time playing other games as I tried to familiarize myself with the space. I also spent a lot of time studying the metrics that drive the “success” of these games, at least as measured by DAU/MAU’s. I’m no longer working on those games, and I’ve since blocked all gaming apps on my account. For me, these games tap too strongly into addictive behavior patterns and don’t satisfy on any meaningful level. I don’t mean to dismiss this incredible new medium outright, but I found myself spending hours clicking buttons and leveling up and thinking about it when I was away but getting absolutely nothing out of it. There was nothing “social” about it as few of these games even have avenues for communication within the game (this is something that will change in the next year for sure). I’m still interested in working on casual/social games, but I think I need to approach that on my own terms or with likeminded creators.  We’ll see what 2010 holds.

Any gamers out there care to share their favorite gaming moment of the year?

What does it mean to be “literate” and am I doing enough to qualify? Looking back on 2009, I read 27 books, which neatly equates to a book for every 2 weeks.  I’m not a particularly speedy reader, but I know for a fact that only a couple of them took me 2 weeks to get through, which is a pretty clear sign that I had a lot of days (or weeks) where I wasn’t reading anything.  Hm. Not a good start. Of the 28 books I did read, at least half are YA or decidedly “genre,” with most of the rest skewing decidedly geek. Mabye two or three of those books require much work on the part of the reader. It isn’t that I regret reading the books I do – far from it! (with one or two exceptions) – but I certainly didn’t push myself this much in either quantity or content. It’s not as if I can hope to read but a tiny fraction of the books put out each year (not to mention, checking off the past 200 years of lit), but I can sure as hell do better at keeping up the literary conversation.

Of the books I did read, what stood out this year? Dan Simmons’ Drood was a personal favorite, as I loved Wilkie Collins as a delectably loathsome narrator of Dickens’ finals years. While neither author had a release in 2009, I discovered new YA authors Ysabeau Wilce and D.M. Cornish earlier this year, and their respective worlds of Califa and the Half-Continent quickly earned their place alongside Hogwarts, Narnia and Fantastica in my esteem. On a related note, I adored Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, a more adult take on the Wizard-coming-of-age subgenre. The trip to the magical world was a bit of a letdown, but then, wasn’t that sort of the point? The first “Girl Who,” the posthumous pop-lit mysteries from Sweeden, was a solid read, but the second was an gripping (if totally implausible) page turner. Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake is one of my favorite novels of recent years, if not ever, and The Year of the Flood was a worthy companion. I still like the original better, if only because I was visiting her dystopian world anew, but I loved framing device of sermons and hymns in this one. Good stuff. I’d never read Richard Powers, but after Generosity, I’m adding the rest of his books to my queue. Amazing writer, and the themes hit close to home.

I didn’t include comics/graphic novels in my 28 book count, but I did read a few of those as well. My biggest pleasure of the year was The Unwritten, by Mike Carey. I’ve enjoyed his writing for years, but this is shaping up to be his very best work. The new Scott Pilgrim book was fun as ever, but at this point, I’m just waiting for the finale. Aside from series I worked on, I only read a half dozen manga titles this year, and of those, by far the standout series was Urasawa’s Astro-boy remix Pluto. It left me a little cold at first, but by the second volume in, I was hooked and by volume 4 I was completely caught up in the melodrama. I shouldn’t limit my list to printed comics though, as perhaps my very favorite comics of the year were the Williams-Sonoma Sapphic Erotica arc of Achewood and the emergence Kate Beaton as a cartoonist for the ages (of the ages…of history).

So that’s what 2009 was like for me as a reader. Time to make up for 2009′s shortcomings with a reading resolution! In 2010 I will try to up my book count from 28 to at least 52. Of those books, at least half should be from writers I’ve never read before.  I should read a few prize winners, and as a new member of the SFWA, all of the nominees for fantasy/sci-fi. And at least 10 of those should be nonfiction (I only read 2 this year, yeek).

Okay, ye readers. What books stood out for you this year? Anything I should add to my list or avoid? Any resolutions you want to share?

My full (and woefully short) reading list is after the jump, listed in more or less the order that I read them:

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I came late to music. My parents never listened to music at home, and none of my close friends were particularly into music, at least not so much so that music was something we “did” together. Back when I was earning a little disposable cash from raising sheep for 4-H, I bought a first generation disc man and a Columbia House music membership, but it was totally wasted on things like Def Leopard and Paula Abdul that I never really enjoyed, and one time I won a Madonna CD by calling into the local top 40 rock station. My aunt Donna was the music-lover of the family, and I remember gravitating to her Bowie CDs, not for the music, but because Spiders from Mars sounded pretty bad ass. Throughout my teens, the only music I really connected with were soundtracks, as the music could stir memories of the emotions I felt when watching the films, whereas listening to music cold still didn’t stir much of anything.

It wasn’t until I was 18 that I really connected with a band in any meaningful way. For me, that band was Stereolab, for which I have Brent L. White, bookseller, to thank. At Leon’s Books, the “proper” store music was a mix of classical and light jazz, with a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas being the rockin’est thing on the playlist. When the owner was away, however, the staff could mix things up. Brent L. White played a few early Stereolab albums (Peng!, Emperor Tomato Ketchup) on high rotation. At first I found them a little abrasive, but gradually I started to fall in love with Laetitia Sadier’s vocals and the droning lo-fi guitars and MOOG tunes. No one else in my limited circles knew about Stereolab, so as I grew into a fan, it became a private obsession and the start of musical scavenger hunt that’s continued to this day.

Even though my ears were awakened, my musical education continued to progress more at the pace of a dirge than a punk jam. When I moved to LA when I was 20, I gravitated to the wonderful kcrw public radio station. It would be years before I actually knew the names of the bands, but for it provided a background noise that would pave the way for future appreciation. Friendships and relationships opened me up to other people’s musical worlds, which is how I came late to acts like the Pixies, Echo and the Bunnymen and Robyn Hitchcock that I’d been deaf to before. My collection was diversifying, but I was still learning the basic grammar of music that would allow me to form tastes of my own. I think it was around the time I turned 29 and moved to San Francisco that music became something I really enjoyed and appreciated in the same way that I enjoy film or good food.  I could now read Pitchfork or Rolling Stone and pretty much know what people are talking about. And it didn’t hurt that I met a girl with great musical tastes who introduced me to even more diverse sounds.

Anyway, I know officially LIKE music, but I still don’t feel at all qualified to (or even that interested in) ranking THE BEST of such a subjective medium, but to give you a glimpse of what sounds stand out for me in the past year and provided a soundtrack for much of my writing, I’ve culled some videos, after the cut:

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Chris sent along this original sketch of Skub, Snodgrass and a very unhappy cow. So cute! Thank you so much!

Happy Holidays, everyone. Hope you’re all feeling merry.

It’s time to celebrate the season, Gobblin style!

Back at the very beginning of this crazy Return to Labyrinth journey, before there was a script or even a finished outline, Chris Lie created a few pages of doodles as a way to lock down an art style and to spur story ideas. I now present a few of my favorite doodles!

There’s a new trailer out for Alice in Wonderland that finally hints at the direction the story is taking (previous trailers have shown characters from AiW and Through the Looking Glass as seen through Burton’s lens, but mostly out of context). It’s hard to tell if the movie’s a liberal retelling of Looking Glass, or a wholly original story, but this trailer makes it clear that the Queen of Hearts is the “Red Queen” and that Alice has been to Wonderland before. (Note — if you know more about the script, don’t spoil it in the comments, please!) Certainly there’s more action here than in any previous Alice retelling. Having Alice be the champion who has to save Wonderland seems a little odd, as the denizens of Lewis Carrol’s world seemed to universally live by nonsense rules rather than any sense of good and evil, but I don’t want to judge before seeing the movie. In any case, the visuals and the casting are fantastic and I’m terribly excited to see the movie next March. Between this, Clash of the Titans, Black Death, How to Train Your Dragon, Season of the Witch and The Lightning Thief, the first quarter of 2010 is going to be quite the season for fantasy!

We’re well into December, so you know what that means — it’s time for bloggers to rank things and make lists! I used to be a big fan of lists, but this year, I’m having a hard time mustering the armchair entertainment critic spirit. Are these lists really a way to reflect on the year that was, or are we retconning our experiences to step in line with our peers or preferred taste makers? After all, baring one’s tastes with unfiltered honesty can be quite an act of vulnerability (or is it hubris?). Is it a chance to evangelize our passions or an invitation for trolls to nit pick over omissions? And for movies in particular, is it fair to start this process when it’s impossible to have watched all the talking point movies of the season unless you live in NY or LA and go to the movies thrice a week?

But in spite of my doubts, I have to admit, I enjoy this time of year. For all the safe and obvious picks, there are the truly personal gems that show up on lists that can lead us to discover new things, or better yet, gain new insights about the list-maker. Lists from people writing about media other than the one their known for can be particularly enlightening (favorite books of film critics, favorite bands of filmmakers). And at the end of the day, lists like these really are a good icebreaker for discussion.

In that spirit, here’s my 2009 movie roundup. I’ll move on to books, music and games next. I’d love to hear about your own highs (and lows!) in the comments.

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There was a window there in the late ’90s early ’00s when anime was the epitome of cool. Not in an otaku way, but truly universally cool in the way that Marlon Brando or James Bond or Don Draper are cool. Really, can you get any cooler than Spike Spiegel or FLCL? Not really.

Anyway, an independent animator named Kousuke Sugimoto appeared out of the ether courtesy of youtube a couple days ago with a couple of videos. This one seems to be getting the most buzz, but I prefer this earlier effort, rough edges and all. I guess I just have a soft spot for monkeys. Thought I’d pass it along.

Elsewhere in the world of independent animation videos to share, here’s a slightly frightening (but still beautiful) short that uses children’s primers as a springboard. This one, titled Rabbit, was nominated for a BAFTA in 2006, so it isn’t exactly new, but it’s new to me (hooray friends + internet!)