The best of The A.V. Club 2008

By Josh Modell  |  January 2, 2009 | 5:03am
Aux Features Article

Though we're loathe to toot our own horn around The
A.V. Club,
we're aware that sometimes our stories move faster than our readers can keep up
with them. Casually looking back on 2008, we found a treasure trove of
interviews and features that we hope none of you missed. In case you did, we're
offering this New Year link compilation to take you back to those heady days of
yesteryore—some of our proudest moments of 2008.

And nothing makes us prouder than giving Andrew
"Dice" Clay the platform to describe a woman who has an "ass like a
basketball." We're not sure what that means, either, but we're here to report
the news, not interpret it.

In a similarly highbrow piece, writer-comedian Patton Oswalt accepted our challenge to consume and write about the KFC Famous
Bowl, a vile concoction that also happens to be one of the most popular
fast-food items in America. In the same week, we ran a terrific interview with
Anthony Bourdain, so we figured that balanced things out.

And in other "getting other people to do our work
for us" news, we asked writer Chuck Klosterman (whose first novel, Downtown
Owl, came
out in 2008) to review the fabled new Guns N' Roses album, Chinese Democracy, for us. He compared it
to a unicorn.

Oh, and we can't forget the controversial
interview with controversial A.V. Club commentator ZODIAC MOTHERFUCKER, who
convinced us to finally "man up and face the Rain." (That'd be a Taste Test on
Death Rain potato chips.)

Speaking of Taste Tests, none got people more
excited than the cheeseburger in a can.

In straight-ahead interview-land, we got some deep
thoughts from some amazing talents: Woody Allen finally gave us an interview.
(And we covered Allen in an exhaustive Primer.) P.T. Anderson talked about There
Will Be Blood. John Hodgman was incredibly smart, of course. Errol Morris talked shop. Charlie
Kaufman worried about journalists. John Cleese was historically hilarious. Harlan
Ellison was himself in all the ways that have made him famous and infamous over
the decades.

The world of Random Roles hit its peak with Teri
Garr, who was amazingly forthcoming, funny, and flirtatious. The same can't
exactly be said for the Random Roles with Fred "The Hammer" Williamson, but it
was an excellent read just the same.

Similarly, the world of Commentary Tracks Of The
Damned hit its personal best with the track to Uwe
Boll's Postal, which features the ego-stricken
director jovially sneering over Owen Wilson's suicide attempt and calling Sarah
Silverman and David Cross pussies.

In Random Rules, nothing could really top Jesse
Hughes of Eagles Of Death Metal, who claimed he was snorting a line of meth before
putting his "brain on shuffle." (He didn't actually have any music playing, in
case that wasn't totally clear.) Alex Ross took a far more serious route in his
Random Rules.

Then there was Wall-E, which was covered in a great review, the year in film, an interview with director Andrew Stanton, a Pixar primer, and a popular blog post called "Your guide to the Wall-E controversy."

Speaking of controversy, Donkey Kong champ Billy Mitchell
called us out of the blue after we ordered some of his hot sauce off the
Internet. He ostensibly called to say thanks, but it turned into an hourlong
conversation about whether the documentary The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of
Quarters
represented him fairly. It was a little bit insane, to be honest.

Also a little insane: Jean Claude Van Damme.

Then there's the death of Gary Gygax, which
inspired a lot of emotions from D&D; fans.

And we can't forget Noel Murray's yearlong Popless
project, in which he studiously avoided hearing any new music, and instead went
through and commented on his massive collection, with essays like this
one on his Southern-rock problem.

Other features didn't last as long, but they made
excellent impressions, including Steve Hyden's "Song And Vision" feature, particularly
his entry on Taxi Driver.

And it wouldn't have been another year without
more of Nathan Rabin's "My Year Of Flops," which touched on a bunch of
horrible, terrific films in 2008. Perhaps none was more magnificent than Mr.
Magorium's Wonder Emporium.

On a sheer popularity basis, our best-viewed and
most-passed-around features for the year were two Inventories: the
list of talented actors we think deserve better careers, and a
tongue-in-check rundown of "pop-cultural obsessions even geekier than Monty
Python." Those and many other breakout features helped make this our biggest
year ever.

No more laurel-resting, though—it's back to
work for us. Here's to the new year to come.

 
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