(t5!) My Year In Lists 2013: An Introduction!

You probably headed over here looking for my fresh hot takes on this year’s most amazing things. Unfortunately, all you’re going to get this year are plain old top 50 countdowns. Sad to say, but this will probably be the default format of all of the lists forthcoming: meticulously prepared rankings, high quality images, YouTube or Spotify links, exceedingly short on words. No glimpses into my perspective. No defensive stances on why I love certain guilty pleasures. No explanations of why the number 23 (t5!) song of the year is awesome and why it is “six more awesome” than the number 29 (t5!) song of the year. It’s funny because I forecasted this impending decrease in content last year, but I never imagined that I wouldn't have any time to at least churn out a short, concise paragraph for each entry.

It was all because of that adorable little gangster pictured handsomely above. My wife and I were blessed by Avery Micah Reed Benoza on September 8, 2013, and he is hands down the greatest thing that ever happened to me in 2013. I don’t want to be presumptuous, but I can confidently say that he will be number one on most of the lists I produce from here on out. A friend asked me recently how having Avery in my life changed me. My response was I'm pretty much the same person, just more inspired. I will do everything imaginable to give my son an outstanding life, and to achieve that, I have to grind hard at my day job, improve my health and fitness, and become an outstanding father figure. Any of my previous activities that don’t do that (ie. writing about Daft Punk’s comeback album or Miley Cyrus’ twerk fest on VMAs) is unfortunately going to have to take a backseat.

I don’t want to say that this is all an excuse. There’s an apologetic tone associated when you're talking about excuses, and honestly I am not at all apologetic. Not even the slightest. I guess having Avery in my life revealed that while I love writing, both as a brain exercise and a vehicle to voice my opinions on pop culture and sports and crack-smoking mayors, it’s still considerably low on my list of priorities. At the end of the day, writing for this blog—no matter how short the blurbs are—was nothing more than a hobby. In 2013, I was basically forced to choose between this hobby and spending time with my son and well, people I touch fives with on a regular basis, it's not even a contest. #sorrynotsorry. Of course, if this ever became a source of income, I’ll drop 10,000 every week easily. Baby formula is expensive, and Avery can drink barrels of it in one day.

With all of that said, I still watched tons of movies and television this year. It’s one of the things my wife and I like to do when we’re spending time with each other. I still had time to watch sports. If my plan is to raise Avery to become the next Chris Paul or the next Curtis Joseph or the next Roberto Alomar, then our one-on-one film sessions should start as early as possible. Catching up on music was relatively easy due to the fact that I can listen to a bunch while I’m working or driving. It also helped that I have Spotify installed on my office computer. And all the other stuff like Internet memes, YouTube videos, smartphone games, and Twitter trends? I usually got around to those when I shirk on a Friday afternoon. And I do love compiling a good list, especially ones that serve as time capsules for the entire year, not just for me, but for Avery as well. One of these days, he’s to going to approach me and ask, “Father, what was 2013 like?”, and I will go “well, my son, everything you’re searching for is in (t5!) My Year in Lists 2013. But you’re going to have to look elsewhere if you want overly poetic descriptions for all of these.”

Let's get it started with (t5!) My Year In Lists 2013: Songs! >>>