10 Cool Things

1.  Bioshock Infinite

(warning: violent content)

    

I never considered myself to be a gamer.  When I was younger, I would play Mario and Sonic games for fun, but I stopped playing games in high school.  I never seriously considered gaming to be anything more than a mindless distraction.  That all changed after I played Bioshock Infinite. This is the game that convinced me that video games are not only fun and engaging, but can also be intelligent. It takes place in 1912, and you play as Booker DeWitt, an ex-Pinkerton hired to go to Columbia, a floating city in the sky obsessed with American ideals, the founding fathers, and their fanatical prophet/leader Father Comstock, in order to rescue a kidnapped girl.  It touches on themes of racism, xenophobia, Jingoism, American Exceptionalism, and the dangers of religious fanaticism, all while telling a complex story involving quantum mechanics and multiple universes.  It gets pretty complicated, and the ending of the game makes no sense on your first play-through, but if you're a fan of intelligent storytelling with complex themes and ideas, I can't recommend it enough (I also highly recommend the first Bioshock game, which is basically Atlas Shrugged underwater).

2.  The Stanley Parable

If Bioshock Infinite showed me that games could be intelligent, The Stanley Parable showed me that games could be art.  The actual narrative is simple enough.  You play as Stanley, an office drone working an extremely boring job pushing buttons on a computer.  One day, you notice that all of your co-workers have vanished and you wander around the now empty office, looking for an answer to this mystery, all while a British narrator describes your every move.  This deceptively simple story disguises the fact that this is not only one of the funniest games out there, but one that pulls away the curtain and exposes the illusion of choice and free will within video game narrative.  By the end, you'll be asking yourself "what's the point?", which was the whole point of the game all along.

3.  Debussy

Arabesque No. 1

                                        

I grew up playing a lot of piano, and when I was a kid, my mom would often play CDs of Mozart to help me sleep.  This helped me develop an affinity for classical music in my youth.  On my mission, one of my companions had a lot of Debussy on his phone, and I would listen to it every morning as I studied my scriptures.  I fell in love.  There's just something so soothing about Debussy's music, especially his most famous piece Clair de Lune. That's all I have to say.  I just find his music helps me to study and sleep better.

4.  Calvin and Hobbes

Like video games, most cartoons and comics get dismissed as childish trash not meant for adults. Calvin and Hobbes couldn't be further from this.  The comic tells the story of Calvin, a hyperactive, imaginative 6-year-old and his best friend Hobbes, a stuffed tiger who only comes to life around Calvin. Not only content with creating an extremely imaginative and entertaining world, the comic also touches on many important subjects, such as religion, politics, human nature, and art.  Most of my favorite strips involve Calvin and Hobbes walking through the woods and discussing the complexities of life, human nature, and philosophy.  That's part of what makes the strip so engaging. In one strip, Calvin could be having a space adventure as the daring captain Spaceman Spiff, and in the next, he could be talking about the fragile and fleeting nature of life with his good 'ol buddy Hobbes.  It's not just imaginative adventures or philosophical ramblings; it balances both in order to become one of the most intelligent, touching, and entertaining comic strips in the history of the medium.  

5.  The Beatles

Penny Lane

                                          

What more is there to be said about the Beatles?  Rolling Stone put 4 of their albums in the top 10 on their list of "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."  When Itunes and Spotify added their music to their catalog, it made national news.  They influenced everybody that came after them.  Their compilation album "1", released in 2000, still hit number 1 on the charts, 30 years after they broke up.  I grew up listening to that album on long car rides, and I fell in love with their music, "Eleanor Rigby" and "Penny Lane" in particular.  When they came out on Itunes, I immediately bought The White Album, Abbey Road, and Sgt. Pepper, and they are still among my most favorite albums.  Even today, I still listen to them as I ride my bike to school.  If you're not a huge fan of the Beatles, I urge you to listen to "Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper".  Hopefully you'll find at least one song that you enjoy out of their hundreds of amazing tunes.

6.  Ben Folds

Carrying Cathy

                                          

I got into Ben Folds my freshman year of college.  I don't know if it's the fact that his music is very piano-heavy, but I love it so much.  I've listened to every song, and I learned how to play the majority of them on the piano.  His music sounds very happy most of the time, but his lyrics often talk about heartbreak, loss, and tragedy.  I love this contrast, and it makes his music much more interesting to me.  To me, it suggests that there are often more layers to a song or story that we don't realize, and we often have to look a little deeper to figure out what's really going on.  His piano playing is amazing (listen to his songs "Philosophy","Dr. Yang", and "Do It Anyway" to hear what I mean) and there's an irreverent, humorous quality to most of his music that I greatly enjoy. I hope to someday be as good a pianist as he is. His band Ben Folds Five is also super awesome, so give 'em a listen, too.

7.  Rick and Morty

Thanksgiving Promo

                                         

This show basically boils down to this: it's Back to the Future, but Doc Brown is an alcoholic sociopath, and Marty McFly is an idiot.  Rick, an alcoholic, genius scientist, takes his loser grandson Morty on complex sci-fi adventures in alternate dimensions and all throughout the universe.  The show's immature, vulgar, and crude, but underneath the crassness of the jokes and characters lies an intelligent show that pays homage to famous sci-fi stories, along with self-awareness comparable to the show Community (both shows were created by Dan Harmon, so that's definitely intentional).  It's underlying nihilistic philosophy may be a little off-putting to some, but for me, it's one of the smartest, funniest shows on television right now.

8.  Cracked.com

Obsessive Pop Culture Disorder

                                        

This video is just one example of the kinds of things that Cracked.com likes to talk about. The site obsesses with over-analysis of films, TV shows, and other media.  And I love every minute of it.  It is rare that I read an article or watch a video on this site that I don't like or appreciate.  Most of my random film knowledge comes from this site (and IMDb), and I love how deeply they think about things that wouldn't even matter to most people. Not only do they talk about pop culture, but they often have fascinating articles about science, history, and art that cause me to reevaluate what I thought I knew about these subjects.  For me, there is no other site on the internet as consistently funny, entertaining, and educational as Cracked.com.

9.  Mae's The Everglow

"We're So Far Away"

Okay, I know I've talked a lot about music, but hear me out on this one.  Mae is my favorite band, even more so than The Beatles, although most of this has to do with nostalgia.  In this case, though, I decided to highlight not the band, but their best album: The Everglow.   I used to listen to it every night before I went to sleep.  To this day, I remember every word.  Each song blends into the next one, and the entire album tells a story of a man searching for love.  It was probably a lot more profound when I was 14, but this album still gives me chills.  I finally got to see them perform live last summer, and they played the entire album, front to back, and it was incredible.  It's sweet, it's touching, and in my personal opinion, the best album ever.

10.  Bo Burnham

"Sad"

(warning: some bad language)

One of my favorite comedians, Bo strikes a great balance between comedy, music, and poetic musings.  He's often very crude, but there's usually a cleverness to his crudity that makes him different from most comedians.  And when he's not being crude, he can be surprisingly sensitive and insightful.  His comedy comes from an intellectual place, often parodying the conventions of stand-up comedy and music, such as his song "Repeat Stuff" and, well, pretty much most of his stand up. He's definitely not for everyone, and I wouldn't be surprised if you find his comedy offensive.  What makes him stand out for me is that when he's being offensive, it's not just to shock his audience; he's trying to make a point.  And in some ways, he's changed how I view subjects such as feminism, gay rights, and the follies of human nature.  So if you're able to see past his seemingly juvenile humor, you might find something special hiding underneath.