2013 Year in Review

Best Of, Worst Of... what's the diff?  

This is An Aunt's Life's 2013 year in review!

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IN MUSIC:

• Macklemore (and that guy he hangs out with) winning up a storm at this year's awards circuit. The music world was primed and ready for a fresh-voiced M.C. who treasures his thrift shop wares over the other guys' iced-out bling. (Did you catch the E! special featuring another peek at the rapper with the softer side?  In it, Mackelmore treats his future mother-in-law to a surprise home makeover. Adorable!)
• 2013 was my introduction to the always suave Robin Thicke (Also the world's introduction to Blurred Lines: Cosby Edition.) Hey hey hey!
• Miley Cyrus helped us all sharpen our comedy skills while she poked out our eyes with her tail bone. Simultaneously, she managed to leave a snail trail of saliva across the nation to which a large enough stockpile of Clorox wipes has not yet been found to reverse the effects. (Maybe they'll work on my eyes, though...)
• Justin Bieber finally jumped the shark. (Oh great! I just gave him another idea, didn't I?)
• Jared Leto's (sorry... Thirty Seconds to Mars') cover of Rihanna's "Stay".  A great way to listen to a good Rihanna song without having to actually listen to Rihanna. (Alright, you caught me. I liked her version too.)
• Will.i.am sues Pharrell Williams over his "i am Other" brand. I picture next year's turf battle to be Marshall Mathers vs the "My Name Is" badges at Office Max. Stickers, you're going DOWN!

ON TV:

• Always late to the party, I finally got into Breaking Bad during its final season. I thought it was on HBO! I don't have HBO! I finished up season five with the rest of the planet (leading into what was, arguably, the best series finale in television history) and I've enjoyed binge-watching its past seasons ever since.  Yes! I fit five seasons of TV-watching into one calendar year. What did you do?
• After a growing annoyance over the terms "granite countertops" and "stainless steel appliances", I finally managed to find a group of women snobbier than the young housewives on House Hunters. The middle-aged housewives buying vacation homes on House Hunters International! Quit looking for an American kitchen in a non-American home! Like you're really going to be cooking a full Thanksgiving dinner once a week in the Caribbean!
• Bates Motel was a perfect mesh of creepy, intrigue, drama and fabulous acting. And I don't even like scary stuff!  Catch up on season one before the next season begins in 2014. (P.S. Wahoo to Vera Farmiga and her Emmy nomination!)
• I got conned into watching David Blaine: Real or Magic? in which he pierced a knitting needle clean through his own tricep and threw up a belly full of water. Thus, answering the title's pressing question.
• Cell phone advertisers stepped it up a notch this year with hilarious bits from the kiddies pushing AT&T. (In my opinion, the red-headed kid from the turtle one and the young lass whom I'm deemed Werewolf Girl should start traveling with an entourage. Of adoption agents. Because I want to own them!) The James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell spots for Sprint also scored big with me. Totes magotes.
• Glee's farewell to Finn episode nearly killed me. Providing me with instant onset depression and a crying headache that lasted for days!

• I'm not much a fan of country music or soap operas, yet Nashville managed to still get me thoroughly hooked. Besides. Who can resist the real-life Stella sisters!
• Louie C.K.'s hilariously truthful rant on cell phones (and kids, and life, etc.) on Conan was worth staying up late for.
• Under the Dome won me over just in time for the Time Warner/CBS dispute that took it off the air. (Thanks to modern technology, we could still watch it here!) If you can't get into the plot, you can at least play my Spot the Killed Off/Canceled Actor game. (Head start: Hank from Breaking Bad, Deputy Shelby from Bates Motel, Lt. Mason from Detroit 187, the original Victoria from Twilight...)
• ABC Family canceled Bunheads, whose young dancers decided to handle it like the pros that they are.
• And, for the Detroit locals, Ben Bailey left the Fox 2 morning team. Leaving me still longing for my forecasts, handsome with a chance of dimples.

IN MOVIES:

• Frozen. So, I may be a little behind on my yearly Oscar nominee binge. Maybe, all the way behind.  As in, I haven't seen much (any) grown-up stuff (like, at all!) this year, but have caught plenty of cartoons with my nephews. Either way, I would still highly recommend Disney's newest animated film Frozen to anyone. I loved it. Little girls all fell in love with the newest princess characters. My nephews loved the humor and bits of action. It was a win-win-win all around. BEST Disney animated princess movie since Beauty and the Beast. I'll stand by that, too!

CAST REUNIONS THAT MADE US FEEL OLD:

School of Rock (10 years! Really?!)

Mystic Pizza

Boy Meets World

Freaks and Geeks

The Sandlot 

Wayne's World

Full House.  Not just here, but...

...Kimmy Gibler and D.J. Tanner were also spotted at a NKOTB concert together!

And then there's also the complete possibility that this is going to happen!

ON THE WEB

• This year I quit Candy Crush. Cold turkey.  (But, may find myself in need of a Papa Pear Saga support group in 2014.)
• Pinterest. Where had you been all my life while I busied myself on Facebook? Sorry to have ignored you for so long. Equally inspiring and enabling. I demand that you all now follow me here.
• Two words. Christmas Jammies. Love it or hate it, it happened and it's stuck in your head now, isn't it? Mwah-ha-ha-HA!!!

• Dance battle in Detroit. 
• Dinovember. Read it. Live it. Be it!
• Best reasons for detention. They really are.
• What did the fox say? Certainly not that!
• This blog brought in new readership with the continuously curious mix of search words including "Charlie Brown Violet Brat", "Fancy Comforters", "Garfield Halloween Cartoon Scary" and the ever popular "Meth Mouth" still being used. (I also hit over 7,600 page views and counting this year. Thank you muchly!)

LET'S LEAVE IT BEHIND IN 2013:

• Hot Dog Leg pics. Let's pretend these never happened.
• Twerking.  Saying it, watching it on YouTube and, for heaven's sake, actually doing it! Let's just stop all of the above in 2014.
• Michael Bolton hustling for Honda. At first, I was like "Awww... I didn't realize that I'd missed Michael Bolton." Then after hearing it air every 20 minutes or so, non-stop, I decided that maybe I was just thinking about Office Space.  (Okay, fine. This one is better than that one if I have to choose.)
• Real Housewives. All of them!  Bravo has created a monster and now that monster must be slain.
• The Harlem Shake. It doesn't even have moves! C'mon on now. Learn to dance a little bit next year. Especially if you're going to record yourself doing it and post it everywhere. Even if it's just a little left-together, right-together. If that's the best you can muster, I'll take it over a Harlem Shake!
• Celebrating train wrecks. Miley, Lindsey, Amanda Bynes, Kardshian marriages... let's stop looking at them. Let's revere the nice people instead of the shallow, and encourage the struggling instead gawking at them.
• Kardashian overload. Take your Kanye and go!
• Saying "totes" instead of "totally", unless you're a distinguished man over the age of 70.
• Every word that my spellcheck did not accept from this post: "bling", "twerking", "Miley", "Bieber", "Kanye", "countertops"... huh?... wait, "Macklemore", "Facebook", "NKOTB". Maybe I should rethink this last bulletpoint.

Have a happy, healthy and safe New Year!  If you need a ride home tonight CLICK HERE and request one. Please don't drink and drive! It's just not cool.