2011 was a year in which I consumed a lot less film, comics, television, and music than I have in years past. I made no real attempt to “catch up” in the last few weeks, so as a result, the following lists may have an incomplete feeling. Regardless, these were my favorites.

note: I only read one 2011 book in 2011 (Supergods by Grant Morrison—it’s good), so that explains the lack of a book section.

FILM

1. Hugo (dir. Martin Scorsese)

2. Midnight in Paris (dir. Woody Allen)

3. Tabloid (dir. Errol Morris)

4. Drive (dir. Nicholas Winding Refn)

5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (dir. Rupert Wyatt)

Honorable Mentions- The Adventures of Tintin, Super 8, Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop, The Captains, The Muppets, Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Worst movie of the year- Larry Crowne (dir. Tom Hanks)

COMICS

1. The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

2. Batman, Inc. by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, et al.

3. Hellblazer by Peter Milligan, Giuseppe Camuncoli, et al.

4. Echo/Rachel Rising by Terry Moore

5. Daredevil by Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martin

Honorable Mentions- Action Comics, Spaceman, iZombie, Morning Glories, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Wolverine and the X-Men, Usagi Yojimbo, RASL, Justice League Dark, X-Men: Schism, FF, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Faith, Planet of the Apes

Worst Comic of the Year- Fear Itself by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen (feel my disdain in three different posts!)

TELEVISION

1. Community

2. Game of Thrones

3. Parks and Recreation

4. Beavis and Butt-head

5. Curb Your Enthusiasm

Honorable mentions- 30 Rock, The Simpsons (These are the only seven shows I watched with any regularity, though I’d heartily recommend this past season of all of them.)

MUSIC

1. Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye West

2. Alone III: The Pinkerton Years by Rivers Cuomo

3. Belong by The Pains of Being Pure At Heart

4. EP/Camp by Childish Gambino

5. The King is Dead by The Decemberists

Honorable mentions- Milk by The Lunatic, Hey, There’s Tommy! Hey, Tommy… Where’s Mom and Dad? by Humming Bird, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (self-titled), Castor, The Twin by Dessa, Take Care by Drake, Suck it and See by Arctic Monkeys, Submarine by Alex Turner

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (Michael Rapaport; 2011)

As a historical document of A Tribe Called Quest, Beats, Rhymes & Life does a great job telling the story of the first three albums (People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm, The Low End Theory, and Midnight Marauders) and of giving a solid overview of the Native Tongues movement. The group’s last two albums (Beats, Rhymes & Life and The Love Movement) are glossed over in order to give more time over their contentious 2008 reunion tour. I would have liked a little more coverage of the break up, as well as more details on those final albums (their collaboration with J. Dilla on Beats, especially), but Q-Tip and Phife’s on again off again friendship certainly makes for compelling viewing, even if all of their disputes come off as rather childish on both ends. The film ends on a hopeful note with Tribe reuniting again in the summer of 2010, seemingly a lot happier to be spending time with each other than they were in ‘08. If you like A Tribe Called Quest, there’s much to learn and be entertained by here, and if you don’t like A Tribe Called Quest, what’s wrong with you?

I make a top ten albums list a few times a year. Usually, I’m just shuffling around the same twenty-five or so albums, but whatever. Here’s some honorable mentions: The Beach Boys’s Pet Sounds, A Tribe Called Quest’s Midnight Marauders, Kanye West’s The College Dropout, Green Day’s Dookie, The Who’s Who’s Next, Alanis Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, Beck’s Odelay, Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and a billion more.

The list has one per artist.