Top Everything of 2016

With the dawn of each new year, various media outlets and bloggers alike do write ups and videos about the previous one.  Most will focus on a specific topic.  For me, though, a year contains far too many interesting things, and I have way too many interests, to just cover one topic.  So, like I did for 2014 and 2015, I will choose my top picks for a variety of categories for 2016.

My criteria for each pick is a combination of merit/quality, personal preference (anyone who tries to pretend their "top" lists are objective are lying to themselves), achievements in a given field, and cultural significance/impact.  I also try to make choices for world news/current events-related picks that I have a decent amount of knowledge about, that way I can have something unique to add instead of just relaying the same basic points everyone else does.  That way, if I fail hilariously at saying anything interesting, I can fail hilariously my way.

Enjoy!

MOVIE: Moonlight

Gotta go with Moonlight here.

So, uhh, I saw Moonlight way after I made this list.  I initially chose Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.  I'll keep my reasoning for Fantastic Beasts here, but yeah, Moonlight is incredible and my pick for best movie of the year, and the movie Arrival is equally fanfastic.

There were some fine movies I saw this year, from Civil War to Rogue One, that I enjoyed.  None of them blew me away or stayed with me long after I watched them, however, even if some of them made interesting or noteworthy narrative moves.  Overall, 2016 felt slim compared to 2015, or at least among the movies I've seen.  There was one exception, however.  Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has remained with me more than any other movie I saw last year- or at least stayed with me more than any other movie from last year in a positive way.  I still have nightmares about paying money for Suicide Squad.

Unlike so many movies this year- including movies that I enjoyed, like Civil War- Fantastic Beasts offers a cast where each character has both a reason to be there and a reason for us to like them.   For instance, before seeing the film, I had heard that a character without magical abilities would be one of the four main characters.  I remember rolling my eyes and thinking the character would feel like a waste of space.   Yet this character, Jacob Kowalski, ended up being my favorite character of the movie.  He was both a relatable everyman and an aspirational figure in how well he handled everything.  I don't want to spoil anything, but the end of the movie had me on the verge of tears (no, it's not about him dying).

While I didn't connect with Newt Scamander or the other characters as much as I did with Kowalski, I did appreciate one thing about Newt's Scamander that another writer pointed out: the way Newt evades using aggression and other traits of hyper-masculinity in his pursuit of his narrative goals.  Even in his most dire moments, Newt is never using threats or force to get what he wants or try to pursue people.  Rather, he appeals to people's empathy and reason, sometimes to success and sometimes to failure.

Don't get me wrong here.  I train at an MMA gym, I love action movies, and I think violence could have theoretically been justified in a few situations in this movie.  I'm not saying I think violence is automatically bad or that it has no place in entertainment.  At the same time, almost every single adventure/fantasy/sci-fi movie in the history of cinema which has featured male protagonists has had them either deal with their problems primarily with super masculine tactics like aggression, intimidation, and violence, or had them portrayed as weak and worthy of derision for not using those tactics.  It's refreshing to see some variety here.  It's also nice to see a popular, well-regarded movie where a male character can keep his gentleness and still accomplish his goals.

COMEDY MOVIE: The Nice Guys

While there were plenty of funny movies last year- including Civil War- I could only remember one of the comedy movies I saw this year without Googling "comedy movies 2016" to come up with a list.  The Nice Guys is a buddy cop movie without cops set in the 1970s.  Directed by Shane Black, this movie stars Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling as two private eyes who, as most protagonists in these types of movies tend to do, find themselves in way over their heads.

What works so well with this movie is the performances of Crowe and Gosling, as well as Angourie Rice, who plays Ryan Gosling's daughter with a jaded maturity similar to Chloe Grace Moretz's role in 500 Days of Summer as Joseph Gordon Levitt's younger sister.  All of them do exceptionally well, especially Ryan Gosling, who breaks his typical mold by acting like a bumbling idiot and dork instead of his usual charming cool-guy roles.  This movie alone is proof that Gosling has more range than we may think.

Aside from consistent laughs, the movie has a genuinely interesting, lively environment in its recreation of the 1970s.  The arc of the characters in this movie are serviceable enough that the regular laughs and engaging environment can keep you caring, though they are nothing special.  The only major disappointment here is that the plot is not very engaging.  It is both convoluted and also just not that interesting.  That problem aside, though, the movie is a great laugh and unapologetically unique.

ANIMATED MOVIE: Zootopia

Zootopia has a lot going for it.  It has gorgeous visuals (seriously, look at that city), a creatively imagined world, well-defined characters, metaphors about racism, and poignant emotional moments that work precisely because of everything else on this list.  Almost everything is well-executed and works wonderfully together.  The fact that Shakira shows up as a singing gazelle is just a bonus.

The only place this movie slips up is the metaphor department.  The movie does a good job of showing how the predators are stereotyped as aggressive and untrustworthy.  There is a very powerful moment where a main character even falls into the trap of unintentionally stereotyping her predator friend, and the look of betrayal on that friend's face is devastating.  The scene where they make up resonates just as well in the opposite direction.

The problem is, the metaphor doesn't make sense.  Predators are treated like an oppressed group, but they're also disproportionately in positions of power, from the city government to the police department.  So is this a case of a group in power being oppressed?  By definition, they wouldn't be oppressed if that were the case.

Still, this is a children's movie, and it offers a good chance for kids to understand discrimination and why it is bad.  The message of the movie is, predictably, that we need to love one another and live in harmony.  Even with a few slips in the details of the metaphor the movie executes its theme well, and is just plain fun to watch in the process.

ACTOR: Diego Luna

I could talk about his charming performance as Cassian in Rogue One, his surprisingly believable role as a gangster in Blood Father, or how much it means to us Latina/o folks that he keeps his accent in his movies.  Instead, I have a different idea.  Watch this video of Diego Luna talking about Jabba the Hutt and tell me he doesn't deserve this spot on the list based off of that alone.  Go ahead, I'll wait.

ACTRESS: Kate McKinnon

Boy, that controversy about the Ghostbusters reboot, right?  Woo.  What a mess.  Apparently, in an era of nonstop reboots, having a new set of Ghostbusters that have ovaries was the straw that broke the camel's back.  To the point that the stars of the movie were being harassed, particularly Leslie Jones, because if you're going to be sexist garbage you might as well be racist garbage, too.

Beyond all the controversy, what we got was a good but not great movie.  Overall I like the original a little better than this remake, but each movie has their strengths.  This version's biggest strength is undoubtedly Kate McKinnon, who steals the show as the delightfully weird Dr Jillian Holtzmann.  As Holtzmann she plays a wacky Ghostbuster who is the best inventor of the group.  She is always cooking up new gadgets, which saves the group from certain destruction more than once.  She also brings a humor, liveliness and charisma that make her my favorite Ghostbuster of all time (sorry, Bill Murray).

In addition to her stealing the show as Holtzmann, she also did a great job as Hillary Clinton on SNL this year.  It's no secret that she and her coworkers, along with most of the rest of Hollywood, are Team Democrat.  What I appreciate, though, is that in her imitation of Hillary Clinton she wasn't afraid to directly point out problems with Clinton, either.  Not just poke fun at some of her mannerisms, but also some of her more dubious policy history and campaign contributions as well.  Combined with her excellent understanding of Clinton's body language and mannerisms, her impression became a highlight of SNL during 2016.  Her Ruth Bader Ginsberg ain't bad, either.

HIP HOP ALBUM: 4 Your Eyez Only

Unlike the movie categories, hip hop album of the year was difficult for me to choose because of how many dope albums came out.  In the end I was stuck between the newest efforts from Run the Jewels, J Cole, and Common.  I didn't feel right choosing Common because his 2016 effort didn't feel even the slightest bit close to the best work he's ever put out, and I didn't feel right choosing Run the Jewels since I chose them for album of the year in 2015 and I don't like choosing the same thing for consecutive years.  That left J Cole's 4 Your Eyez Only.

Something funny about this album is that it is technically a concept album, which means it should be further from the reality of Cole than the average album is for the average MC.  4 Your Eyez Only it is from the perspective of a fictional former hustler from the hood who is recording the album for his daughter.  It is quite clear, though, that J Cole put quite a lot of himself into the character.  Because the album pretends to be about someone else, however, Cole is paradoxically more personal, honest, and vulnerable on this album than the overwhelmingly majority of MCs choose to be on theirs.  I haven't heard a record this honest and vulnerable, as well as genuinely introspective, since I heard Varsity Blues from MURS.

One of the recurring themes of this album is death.  An awareness of it, an acknowledgement of its ever-present reality, a fear of it, a desire to symbolically overcome it through some sort of legacy.  This album can be seen as the hip hop equivalent of Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal or Atlus's video game Persona 3.  While Max Von Sydow's knight finds meaning in the face of death by saving a family with a baby boy and Makato finds meaning in death by sacrificing himself to save the world, J Cole's protagonist finds meaning through his daughter.

This presence of death isn't hard to miss with an intro track titled "For Whom The Bell Tolls," invoking John Donne's wonderful poem Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, which is where the phrase used by everyone from Hemingway to Metallica to, now, J Cole comes from.  The poem focuses on how every individual death diminishes humanity.  As Donne puts it: "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."  This album takes that theme and runs with it, reflecting on the tragedy that happens when so many people are disenfranchised and made more familiar with death than anyone should be.  Titles for other tracks like "Everybody Dies" and "Immortal" reinforce this theme, and that's to say nothing of the lyrics.  J Cole may have invented a new sub-genre with this album: hood existentialism.

One track has received a lot of flack for being about "laundry" of all things.  Yes, the track is called "Foldin' Clothes" and that is indeed what it's about on the surface.  But that's like saying Citizen Kane is about a sled or that The Great Gatsby is about parties in mansions.  The chorus explicitly says that he wants to do it to help out the mother of his child by taking care of chores, and the song contains the lyrics "listen, this is a meditation for me/a practice in being present, there's nowhere I need to be/except right here with you/except right here with you, folding clothes."  Now, these lyrics are admittedly corny and not especially complex, something which can be said about most of this album and prevents it from reaching classic status in my eyes.  But its thematic coherence, its well-crafted mood, and its ability to make you think about its subject matter make it my favorite album of the year.

HIP HOP SONG: Nobody Speak

I mean, right?

MMA PROSPECT: Érik "Goyito" Pérez

Full disclosure: I actually occasionally train with Goyito at San Diego Combat Academy/10th Planet San Diego.  We're not his primary gym, and I've only ever rolled with him once (he crushed me), but he is still someone I've trained with and I want to get that out of the way.

That said, I don't think many people will disagree with me putting him here. Goyito has been in the UFC for a couple years and he seems to now be finding his rhythm.  In 2016 he beat both Francisco Rivera and Felipe Arantes in fights where he showed not only promise, but also flair (that luchador mask tho) and a sense of excitement that makes his rise all the more exciting to watch.

Goyito has a frenetic pace, agile footwork, and good feints.  He is primarily a puncher, but he's good at mixing in a number of other MMA tools as well, particularly an impressively strong inside leg kick, solid single leg takedowns, and the occasional intercepting knee.  He also isn't afraid to use the occasional unconventional kick or jiujitsu transition, either.

He can tend to neglect to use head movement or other defensive maneuvers after landing a combination, as well as get into wild swinging exchanges where strategy is thrown out the window.  Still, he is young (only about a month and a half older than me), and he can either learn to fix those gaps or incorporate them into his gameplan moving forward.  It'll be exciting to see what he does in 2017.

MMA FIGHTER I'D LIKE TO SEE BOUNCE BACK: Cain Velasquez

Unfortunately I do not train with Cain Velasquez.  After winning the heavyweight championship from Australopithecus Lesnar-ensus and having an epic trilogy with the then-consensus number two heavyweight in the world, Junior Dos Santos, Velasquez has had a bumpy road.  He came back from an almost two year injury-induced layoff to face Fabricio Werdum in June of 2015 and lost the title to him.  In July of last year, over a year removed from his loss to Werdum thanks to yet more injuries, Cain fought Travis Browne and looked like the Cain Velasquez of old.

Velasquez was due to face Fabricio Werdum in a rematch a couple months after the Browne fight, but that ended up not happening.  I'll give you one guess as to why.

A healthy, functioning Cain Velasquez is a marvel to behold.  He has more cardio than anyone else in the heavyweight division, he strategically mixes up his striking with his wrestling perfectly, he has way better striking technique than most other wrestling-based MMA fighters, his ability to close distance is insane, and I'm pretty sure what he can do to his opponent when he pins them against a cage should be banned by the UN Council on Human Rights.  Cain Velasquez is, so far, the only heavyweight who could seriously challenge Fedor Emelianenko's claim to the title of Most Skilled Heavyweight Ever.

Because of his constant injuries, though, Velasquez hasn't built a record to challenge Fedor's.  He has beat some truly elite heavyweights, but his career has been far too inconsistent.  If he avoids injury in 2017, and is able to beat Werdum then win the title from Stipe Miocic, his record will further match his potential.  But really, win or lose, I'd just be happy to see a heavyweight division with an active Cain Velasquez.

MALE MMA FIGHTER: Stipe Miocic

This spot was between two contenders: Stipe and Conor McGregor. Honestly, it probably should go to McGregor because he became the champion of the lightweight division on top of the featherweight division, but like with Run the Jewels above, I don't like making the same pick two years in a row.  Also, while Conor McGregor did indeed defeat Jose Aldo last year, he has not defended the featherweight belt since and has implied he has no plans to do so, hence being stripped of it recently.  At this point he's basically just the lightweight champion.

Enough about McGregor, though.  Stipe Miocic had an excellent year.  He fought three times in 2016, which is impressive for a heavyweight, capturing either Fight of the Night or Performance of the night in all three of his matches, which is impressive for any weight.  After dispatching of the always dangerous Mark Hunt in 2015, Miocic's first fight in 2016 was against Andrei Arlovski, who was on a six fight win streak with wins over the likes of Bigfoot Silva, Frank Mir, and Travis Browne.  Arlovski looked to be on the verge of a title shot himself, but Miocic put a stop to that with his deity-like fists.  After knocking out Arlovski, Miocic fought for the title and knocked out Werdum after he rushed Miocic without any thought to his defense.

Many heavyweight champions lose their belt in their first title defense.  Not Miocic.  He defended his belt against Alistair Overeem, who is more minotaur than man.  To quote internet writer Seanbaby, Overeem "looks like someone at Marvel comics drew a man genetically engineered to fuck your girlfriend."  As someone who is also a world class kickboxer in addition to being a world class MMA fighter, he fights like that as well.  Yet thanks to careful planning and excellent boxing from Miocic, he was able to overcome trouble in the beginning and knockout Overeem to defend his title.

Miocic is an exciting fighter with good hands, a strong chin, and top level conditioning for a heavyweight.  It'll be a pleasure to see him continue to fight into 2017, hopefully against the winner of Fabricio Werdum and Cain Velasquez if that rematch can happen soon.  Junior Dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt, and others can't be counted out, either.  The heavyweight division is perhaps at its most exciting since the days of Pride, and I can't wait to see what unfolds.

FEMALE MMA FIGHTER: Joanna Jędrzejczyk

Beating Joanna Jędrzejczyk in a fight is like trying to pronounce her last name: very few people in the world, if any, can do it.  Joanna came to MMA as a six time world champion and four time European champion in Muay Thai, with an overall record of twenty seven wins and two losses.  She's as skilled in the art of the eight limbs as the United States CIA is skilled in the art of overthrowing democracies to install dictatorships.

Some of Joanna's best moves are a left jab-right cross-right kick combo, leg kicks in general, and a badass clinch game.  She also has outstanding cardio and evasive skills, able to make sure she is just out of range for her opponent's attacks.  Her only seeming flaw is that she sometimes backs straight up when attacked instead of circling out, but considering she likes to set up her devastating clinch when her back is to the fence, her backing up hasn't cost her much trouble so far.

She defended her belt twice in 2016, looking like a Muay Thai textbook while doing so.  She had some moments of looking mortal against wrestler Claudia Gadelha and fellow Muay Thai fighter Karolina Kowalkiewicz, having to deal with the former's takedowns and the latter's excellent jabs, crosses, and kicks, but she still won each fight handily.  In the end, Jędrzejczyk emerged largely unscathed and continued to cement her status as one of the top MMA strikers in the world.

A quick shout out is also due here for Amanda Nunes, whom I almost gave this spot to.  After beating Valentina Shevchenko (who would later go on to beat last year's pick for female fighter of the year, Holy Holm, proving she is no joke herself), Nunes fought Meisha Tate for the women's bantamweight championship.  She threw a combo that looked like something from a Dragon Ball Z episode and got a rear naked choke after following Tate to the ground.  When Ronda Rousey came back and got an immediate title shot, the UFC promoters seemed to forget Nunes existed and only promoted Rousey.  Nunes didn't seem to have any fucks to give about the UFC's plans, though.  She dispatched Rousey easily.

The fact that Amanda Nunes, with such an impressive 2016, didn't get fighter of the year shows how fantastic women's MMA is getting.  They still have some catching up to the men's divisions when it comes to popularity, but when it comes to excitement, they're doing just fine.

MMA FIGHT: Robbie Lawler vs Carlos Condit

There were a lot of great fights in 2016, but for me, the best match happened on only the 2nd day of the year.  Due to a series of injuries for other contenders, Carlos Condit was supposed to fight Robbie Lawler for the title in late 2015, but due to a thumb injury for Lawler it was pushed to UFC 195.  With twenty one of Robbie Lawler's total twenty seven career victories coming by knockout or submission, and twenty eight of Condit's thirty wins also coming by way of finish, this was set to be a hell of a fight.

The thing about fights that sound exciting in theory is that they can be disappointingly boring when they happen for realz.  This was not one of those fights.  Robbie Lawler's high level MMA boxing and Carlos Condit's high level MMA kickboxing clashed wonderfully.  Lawler used his excellent gauging of distance, headwork, jab, and counter punches while Condit used awkward but effective movement, all eight of the Muay Thai weapons, and elusive footwork.  The results was one of my favorite fights of all time.

What's great about this fight is that it was a fight that could satisfy both casual fans and educated fans alike.  Brawls like Brian Stann vs Wanderlei Silva (or really any Wanderlei fight) and Dan Henderson vs Shogun Rua are exciting to watch in a primal, high-octane way.  I love those sorts of fights.  I also love watching strategy and high level technique play out too, though.  Sometimes those things play out in a way that isn't accessible to the casual fan, but not here.  Condit and Lawler used moves from their toolboxes in a way that could satisfy fans of all levels of MMA understanding.

The fight was close, as many truly great fights are.  Most people agree Condit won rounds one and four while Lawler won rounds two and five.  The only controversial round was round three, where Carlos Condit landed more significant strikes but Lawler seemed to more damage with his.  The fight ended up going to Lawler in a controversial split decision, despite the fact that many scored it for Condit.  I personally scored it for Condit myself.  Despite my own disagreement with the decision, however, the fight was close, and really either fighter could have been given the decision.

In the end, though, everyone won.  Condit and Lawler both gave fantastic performances worth being proud of, which gave them Fight of the Night honors and a nice bonus by the UFC.  Fans got an all-time great fight.  The media got something controversial to cover.  What more could any of us ask for?

SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY: GK-PID

Multicellular life isn't a topic we explicitly think about often.  Sure, sometimes we'll pay mind to the fact we are basically self-aware apes and that life as we know it is a pretty kewl thing we can take for granted, but it's easy to take not only our existence but the existence of every plant and animal on Earth for granted as well.  It can be easy to think that the way things are was always our destiny, that evolution has always been marching us toward this inevitable course of the birth of humanity.

Really, though, it was dumb luck.

Like my pick for fight of the year, my pick for scientific discovery of the year came along only shortly after the beginning of 2016.  On January 7th, a professor of ecology and evolution named Joe Thorton published a study showing how multicellular life came to be through the "protein scaffold" known as guanylate kinase protein interaction domain (GK-PID).  I'm not gonna pretend I know what that means, but the condensed, simple version is that a genetic mutation a billion years ago caused the GK-PID to develop in a way that allowed for the development of organisms with more than one cell.  Because of the better genetic diversity, multicellular organisms were able to do well in natural selection and continue existing and branching out.  A billion years later, through an incredibly slow and erratic and luck-based process, here we are.

I have no idea what the practical implications of this study are, or if there even are any.  It's incredible, however, to know that we can trace there very development of complex life itself through advanced scientific methods.  It's further testament to what we can do as a species when we decide to think scientifically and work together and build knowledge that later generations will build on top of.  If we can figure out where life as we know it came from, what else can we do?

SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT: Science Helps Quadriplegic Man Play Guitar Hero

Welp, apparently this is what else we can do.  This is so cool.  Who would have guessed that when we're not busy enforcing violence and inequality on each other we're capable of such incredible and life-giving feats?


BULLSHIT NEWS STORY: Lottery Winner Shitting on Boss's Desk

Usually for this category I choose a bullshit news story that tells us something concerning about the way we view the world, but not this time.  When I first saw the story about a lottery winner repaying her shitty boss with a literal shit on his desk, I felt a sort of vicarious euphoria that anyone else who has ever worked under a terrible boss or manager instantly understands.  The article spread across the internet like wildfire.  If what I saw from friends and loved ones who reposted was any indication, I imagine most people watching around the world had a feeling similar to mine.

Unfortunately, the story was fake.  The vicarious delight and instant sympathy we felt with the woman was a lie.

Or was it?  Despite the falseness of the news story, it did create an immediate solidarity with the woman and those who shared this article, which is very, very rare to see happen so unanimously on the internet.  When denizens of the internet send non-stop hate mail to Youtubers who have slightly different movie or video game tastes than them, or harass journalists who don't see eye to eye with them, it's fascinating to see so many corners of the internet so united.

It's a nice reminder that, at the end of the day, we are all human beings and we do have common experiences that can give us empathy for people in similar situations.  And is there anything more relatable than working under a shitty boss?  The effect of this video on me was quite strong, and I haven't worked for a shitty boss for almost six years.  It's an almost universal experience for anyone who has ever had to work any job in the history of ever.  So thank you, viral video, for bringing us together for a moment, even if your story turned out to be as full of shit as this imaginary boss's desk. 

ACTUAL NEWS STORY: Trump's Election

So, uhh, holy shit, right?  At the beginning of this year it didn't even seem likely Trump would win the primaries and become the Republican candidate, let alone win the election.  Like always, there were people afterward who said they "knew" exactly how things would play out all along.  Let's allow a moment for a collective eye roll toward those types of people.

Regardless of who did or did not know how everything would shake out, Donald Trump won the presidential election.  Of course, every one and their mother had an analysis of Trump's victory.  Was it because Americans wanted to symbolically throw a brick through the window, voting for Trump as a way to give the finger to Washington even if they didn't care for Trump as a person?  Was it sexism and/or racism?  Was it the culmination of the urban vs rural divide in the US?  Was it the result of a broken election system?  Was it because of low voter turnout?  Was it because Clinton couldn't capture working class whites?  Was it the beginning of the decay of late stage capitalism?  Chances are, if you ask ten different people why Trump won you'll get ten different answers.

The thing about each of those answers is that you can find ample evidence to support or challenge any of them.  That's because of one simple truth: there is no one simple answer.  Politics is an extraordinarily complicated process, and one overarching narrative could never explain why all hundred and twenty nine million people voted in this election, with just under sixty three million voting for Trump (compared to almost sixty six million for Clinton).  Now we have as a president a man who bragged about sexually assaulting women, who proposed a ban on Muslims entering the United States, who called Mexican immigrants rapists, and who wants to re-enter the nuclear arms race.  It's gonna be a tough four years.

There is a silver lining, however.  Because of how openly bigoted Trump has been in his campaigning, people are mobilizing in ways they never did under Obama.  This is despite Obama being responsible for numerous deaths of innocent civilians in the Middle East with our War on Terror; leaving behind US military conflict in seven countries (Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia for those keeping track at home); deporting a record number of undocumented immigrants from the US (yes, more than Bush); expanding the surveillance state; and more.  Because he is much more inclusive and diplomatic in his rhetoric, however, Obama did not get nearly the same pushback Trump is already getting.  Clinton's administration would have been a continuation of these types of policies, which would probably have also gone unchallenged.

Right after Trump's election many took to the streets, and it looks like the same thing will be happening in two days for his inauguration.  People are getting active and mobilizing in a way this country hasn't seen in a long time.  If we are able to properly channel this discontent and challenge those in power, Republican or Democrat, we will not only be okay but possibly even manage advances in economic, human, and environmental rights.  The future is in our hands.

MEME OF THE YEAR: Arthur's Fist Meme

What is it about a meme that makes it good?  I'm no expert, but I'd say versatility is one of the most important traits.  The Arthur Fist Meme fits that criterion excellently.  It was great not only seeing how many relatable memes could be churned out with this template, as well as hilariously specific ones, but also seeing the creative ways some people subverted the meme, such as the one above that flips the image so that it appears to be Arthur's left hand instead of his right.

That's what's great about memes.  Say what you will about some particular ones, but overall they give us another medium for experimenting with different, creative forms of humor and social commentary with things as simple as a picture with words.  In the same way that most stories have common templates and are made special by their details, so too are memes.  May our days forever be as dank as our memes.

VIDEO OF THE YEAR: Think and Feel Like an Editor

If you've ever wanted to know more about the technical aspects of film making without taking a film class, you owe it to yourself to watch the Every Frame a Painting channel on Youtube.  The above video is about editing, which is what the creator of the series Tony Zhou does for a living.  It's a fantastic video about an aspect of film making we don't usually think about: how editors decide how to take footage and edit it together into a coherent movie.  It's eye-opening.

Most of Zhou's videos involve him choosing a director or actor and focusing on a specific thing that the director or actor does well.  Other favorite videos of mine are his videos about Akira Kurosawa and movement, Jackie Chan and action comedy, Michael Bay and "Bayhem", and Martin Scorcese and silence.  Check them out for a quality film education that doesn't cost a dime.  Especially if you have dreams of working in film yourself.

PHOTO OF THE YEAR: Muhammad Ali's Funeral

There has never been a celebrity death that hit me as hard as Muhammad Ali's.  Not even close.  Muhammad Ali was many things to many people, and that's what was so wonderful about him.  A lot of people will spend their entire lives pursuing greatness in one aspect of life, and a few will even achieve it thanks to incredible amounts of hard work and good fortune.  Ali, however, managed to achieve greatness in multiple ways.  Very, very few people are able to pull that off.

Of course, Ali's biggest legacy is in boxing.  Now, while many people call him The Greatest for his achievements in the ring, there are others who say he was a good boxer but not quite the best.  Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong, even Ali's former opponent and coach, "The Old Mongoose" himself, Archie Moore.  Now, whether or not Muhammad Ali is as good as those men can be debated until the heat death of the universe, but he still reigned as heavyweight champion for an incredible amount of time and has names like Floyd Patterson, Sonny Liston, George Foreman, and Joe Frazier on his list of wins.  It's indisputable that he was one of the greatest boxers of all time.

His record could have been ever better if he hadn't been stripped of his title in 1967, which brings us to another way in which he was great.  When Ali was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War he could have agreed, gone over, half assed his service with a bunch of photo opps, and come back.  Instead, he refused to fight for the US.  He made no bones about why, either.  As he said when talking about his refusal to go:

“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. (...)  If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years."

Ali was a fighter both inside and outside the ring, and when he fought outside the ring, it was for justice.  He would continue to be a figure for that same spirit of justice, peace, and love throughout his life.  He supported the Palestinian people, marched in support of Native American rights, talked a suicidal man out of jumping to his death, negotiated the release of US hostages in Iraq, worked as UN Messenger of Peace in Afghanistan in 2002, and more.  THAT is what made Muhammad Ali "The Greatest" in my eyes.  If it only came down to boxing, my choice would be Pernell "Sweet Pea" Whitaker.  But Ali was more than just a boxer.  Much more.

The world is sadder for his passing, but was lucky to have a man like him while it did.  Rest In Power, Champ.

BADASS OF THE YEAR: Standing Rock Water Protectors

I'm sure I don't need to tell you about the Native American resistance against the North Dakota Access Pipeline.  What's impressive about this story, though, is that mainstream media absolutely did not cover it until it got such a big focus on it through social media that they essentially had no choice but to finally do so.  When they did, very little contextual background was given in their coverage of the conflict, which often made the protestors look like the aggressors (but what's new, right?).

Still the water protectors stood against the police that were protecting the big oil companies.  Even when winter weather came upon the camp and temperatures became freezing, they stood.  Even when police used water cannons in those freezing temperatures.  Public support swelled.  Indigenous people and allies from around the world offered symbolic, financial, material, and people support.  Of course, Obama and others in power did nothing at first.  Eventually, however, Obama temporarily halted the construction of the pipeline.  Later, the Army Corp of Engineers finally decided on December 4th not to grant permits to build the oil pipeline.

Now, the battle still isn't over.  Many water protectors remained after December 4th, suspicious of the oil company, and it looks like conflict has indeed resurfaced.  There's still more work to be done.

Still, the water protectors at Standing Rock have won in a lot of big ways.  First and foremost, they've united against private industry and the state that protects it, preventing them from harming the land.  They've mobilized a global network of Indigenous and environment rights advocates.  They seized media attention by sheer force of grassroots action and support.  They've shown us that, in an era where cynicism is easy to give into, daring to fight and win for peoples' rights is still possible.  Not just possible, either, but necessary.

That's what will get us through the years of Trump.  That's what got us through the years of Obama.  The years of Bush, Clinton, Bush Sr, Reagan.  No matter what politician comes into office, we have people power.  That's what matters most.

Top Everything of 2015

With 2016 now upon us many news outlets, columnists, and bloggers are creating lists about different parts of 2015.  Topics like entertainment, politricks, science, and all sorts of other areas are each getting their own end of the year write-ups.

As anyone who knows me or has read this blog can probably guess, I have a lot of interests.  Writing an entire article about only one subject just isn't my style when looking back at the entirety of 2015.  Therefore, like with 2014, I've created a comprehensive end of the year list that encompasses picks for a variety of topics.  The list will cover everything from hip hop to politics to MMA to science to film, and more.  The categories will mostly be the same as those from last year, give or take a few changes.

My criteria for each pick is a combination of merit/quality, personal preference (anyone who tries to pretend their "top" lists are objective are lying to themselves), achievements in a given field, and cultural significance/impact.

Let's dive in!

Movie: Straight Outta Compton

This was a tough entry for me to select. There were a lot of movies that I loved this year, from very different genres, so much so that even narrowing my favorite films of the year list to just five presented quite a challenge.  But movies that stay with me the most are those that challenge me to both think and feel, and after reflecting about all the movies I've seen this year, one movie stayed with me more than the rest of my favorites by a slim margin.

Straight Outta Compton is the story of the NWA, covering their story from their inception to the death of Easy E.  The movie can be thought of in three stages: the group's rise, the group's fall, and the group's reconciliation.  Both the first and third stage are fantastic.  The beginning of the film introduces us to each member of the group and gives societal context to their ascent: the streets of Los Angeles.  A place of violence, racist cops, and little opportunity.  The group rises from the hood by harnessing the very anger that the hood gave them in their music to powerful effect.  The second phase is when the NWA falls apart, with Ice Cube and Dr Dre each going their own separate ways after tensions come to a head and the group disbands.  The final phase covers the group reuniting after Easy E is diagnosed with AIDS.  Overcoming ego and squashing beef is always easier when the specter of death is an imminent reality instead of an abstract idea.

While the movie loses some of its intrigue when covering the group's fall, my main problem with the film isn't that second phase.  It may be formulaic, but the first part of the movie (mixed with brilliant performances by the actors) got me invested enough to care when they started to fall apart.  The biggest problem with the film is its portrayal of women.  Women have two roles in this movie: mother or nameless sex object.  The only exception is Easy E's girlfriend, who is only around for less than half the movie.  It also goes out of its way to downplay the misogyny of the group, including completely erasing the history of domestic abuse by some of NWA's members.

Aside from this glaring flaw, Straight Outta Compton is top notch.  Had it handled women better, it probably would have become one of my favorite films of all time.  Still, the rest of the movie is so strong that it is my favorite movie of the year.  The performances are great, the characters are compelling, the social commentary about the hood (specifically the police) is important, and the emotional moments hit the mark every time.

Comedy Movie: Spy

I love comedy movies, but I never know how to rank them alongside "real" movies.  Comedy movies have such different goals from most other movies that it's hard to compare them.  So, I figured I might as well make a category specifically for comedy!  (For what it's worth, if I'd created this category last year, it would've gone to 22 Jump Street).

Spy is another Paul Feig directed comedy featuring Melissa McCarthy, continuing the hilarity train that started when the two worked together for Bridesmaids (I haven't seen The Heat, though I've heard good things about that one as well).  The movie stars Melissa McCarthy as Susan Cooper, a character who sits behind a computer monitor directing CIA Agent Bradley Fine (Jude Law) through his missions.  To keep this summary short and spoiler-free, early on in the movie bad things happen and circumstances lead to McCarthy's character going out to the field as an agent.

Both the writing and performances are all on point; almost every single joke hits perfectly.  My only problem is that the movie sometimes leans a little too heavily on fat jokes about McCarthy.  At times these jokes are piled on so much they become cringe-worthy.  That aside, though, this movie is absolute comedy gold.  The funniest parts come with Jason Statham's character, an unhinged loose canon who recklessly stumbles through the film with no regard for anyone's safety, including (perhaps especially) his own.

But while Statham's character maybe the funniest, McCarthy's character still stands out as the most interesting.  Cooper has a distinct character arc, gradually coming out of her passive, self-effacing shell to believing in herself and taking action.  This character archetype has existed as long as human beings have been telling stories, but McCarthy and the writing team bring enough life to the role that her character's journey feels relatively fresh and engaging.  She isn't the only prominent female character, either; her boss, best friend, and main enemy are all women who play important roles and have agency in the plot.

With almost nonstop laughs, a well-done character journey, one of the best comedy performances I've ever seen thanks to Jason Statham, and more female character agency than you'll see in almost any other film this year (or any other year), Spy is an easy pick for comedy of the year.

Animated Movie: Inside Out

The competition for this year's best animated movie isn't as fierce as last year's (Big Hero 6, The LEGO Movie, How to Train Your Dragon 2, and The Book of Life all came out in 2014).  Yet even if the competition were equally as steep, Inside Out would still be my pick for movie of the year.  This is the best movie Pixar has put out since their amazing three consecutive years of instant classics with 2008's Wall-E, 2009's Up, and 2010's Toy Story 3.  Yes, this movie truly deserves to be mentioned in the same conversation as those three.

The premise of this movie is refreshingly creative.  It takes place inside the mind of an eleven year old girl named Riley, following the five anthropomorphized emotions that run her brain: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear.  The five emotions work together to take care of Riley, with Joy being the leader.  Of course, as with any movie, things go wrong and it is up to our heroes (in this case, Joy and Sadness) to set things right.

The creative premise of the film leads to some brilliant ways of representing the human mind, with tons of imaginative set pieces and clever jokes about how the mind works (or, sometimes, how it doesn't).  Throughout the movie I was excited for each new scene and location, eager to see what other imaginative things Pixar had cooked up for the human mind.

The movie is about more than the inside of Riley's head, however.  Much more.  The central conflict of this movie is Riley's trouble adjusting to San Francisco after moving from Minnesota.  The message of this movie is a simple one, but also one of the most important and emotionally healthy messages you'll ever see in a kid's movie: it's okay to feel sad.  Each emotion has its own uses in certain situations; the movie shows us we shouldn't try to suppress them to appear happy all the time.  That's an extremely important message to send to children so that they don't grow up hiding their vulnerability from people who care and suppressing their emotions.

This is a movie with a vivid imagination, great laughs, creative metaphors for the human mind, and an important message for kids.  Like with The Book of Life, my favorite animated movie from last year, this movie trusts kids enough to cover an important subject thoughtfully and is all the better for it.

Actor: Michael B Jordan

This was a difficult category to pick.  Oscar Isaac and Sylvester Stallone each occupied this spot at one point as I kept changing my mind on who to pick, and a few other names came close as well.  There were a lot of compelling performances this year.  But in the end, I had to go with Michael B Jordan.  I've been a fan since Chronicle and I thought his performance in 2013's Fruitvale Station was fantastic, so it was nice to see Michael B Jordan become an A list star in 2015.

Of course, that is entirely on the strength of his performance in Creed.  I didn't see The Fantastic Four reboot, and according to everyone from friends who had seen it to 90% of critics, it was better that way.  But in his role as Adonis Johnson, the son of Apollo Creed, I bought every minute of his performance.  I felt the pain of Adonis that came with him not knowing his father growing up, going from foster home to foster home.  I felt his enthusiasm when he tracked down Rocky Balboa to ask to become his student.  I felt his dedication in every training montage.

Michael B Jordan didn't just convince me of his dedication through his acting abilities, either- he also took to boxing quite well.  This movie has the best boxing choreography I've ever seen and, as someone who has actually trained at a boxing gym before, I can say that Michael B Jordan actually looks and moves more like a boxer than any other character I've seen in a boxing movie before.  This is no small statement.  I've seen Raging Bull, The Fighter, Million Dollar Baby, Ali, and many other good boxing movies.  Of all of those films, none of the actors involved showed the same level of dedication to learning how to box for their role as Jordan did in this film.

Had Jordan not given his all for this performance, Creed would've fallen flat.  The story is formulaic and lacks any real surprises.  While the writing helps give some life to the roles, what truly gives them their heart are the performances of the actors and actresses involved, especially Jordan and Stallone.  Not only does Jordan do a great job with his own performance, but the dynamics he has with his love interest, his adopted mother, and Stallone are all interesting and full of chemistry.  Michael B Jordan proves with Creed that he is star material, even for a movie series that has as many high expectations for it as the Rocky series does.  I already can't wait to see the next time he is on screen.

Actress: Daisy Ridley

Yes, the original cast returns and Harrison Ford does a great job acting as the wise old mentor type for the group.  Yes, John Boyega is a likable, relatable actor who helps ground the movie while also providing a lot of its funniest moments.  Yes, Oscar Isaac plays an impossibly charming and good looking pilot who makes me question my heterosexuality.  But we all know who the real star of The Force Awakens is: Rey, as played by Daisy Ridley.

Rey is a scavenger on the desert planet Jakku, having been abandoned by her parents there at a young age.  Even before she gets mixed up in intergalactic political conflict, we are shown during the exposition that she is a tough and resourceful character, while also having a kind side and showing occasional moments of vulnerability.  Throughout the film Ridley has to convey every single emotion one can think of.  If a sequel to Inside Out were made starring Rey, she'd need over a dozen characters to represent all the emotional layers Daisey Ridley convincingly gives her.

Criticism against Ridley's Rey aren't common, but among those who do have complaints the biggest one by far is that Rey is too naturally talented at everything she needs to do in the film.  At first glance this doesn't seem to have a lot to do with Ridley's acting, but it actually does.  As I mentioned above, the film establishes early on that Rey is a scavenger who knows her way around a ship and how to use a weapon when attacked by other scavengers.  Rey's journey in The Force Awaken's isn't like Luke's in A New Hope.  Luke's conflict is external and his growth comes largely in his skills, which also results making him braver yet more grounded.  To keep this write up relatively spoiler-free, I'll just say that while Rey shares some of the same goals as Luke, her conflict is a lot more internal in this film.  She's already physically capable of a lot of what she needs to do- again, not because of bad writing, but because the film establishes early on that these are skills she has already learned living by herself on Jakku.  She's not some naive farmboy on Tatooine.

In a sea of fantastic performances (seriously, naming your least favorite performance in this movie is like asking a parent to name their least favorite child), Ridley's performance stands out.  She presents a rounded character who can be brave, scared, angry, happy, sad, regretful, determined, conflicted, horrified, and somber.  The depth she adds to Rey's character is astonishing for such a newcomer and definitely deserving of an Oscar nod.  I can't wait to see her in the rest of this trilogy, and I can't wait to see what else Daisy Ridley does in the future.

Hip Hop Album: Meow the Jewels

Run the Jewels has a lot going for it: two seasoned MCs, clever lyrics that are witty and often insightful without being self-important, top notch production thanks to El-P, and wonderful chemistry.  Their music is a lot like a Quentin Tarantino movie: fun and exciting at first glance, but also done with an impressive amount of attention to detail and craft upon further inspection.

Nothing epitomizes how fun this duo is than their album this year, Meow the Jewels.  The entire album is composed of songs of theirs remixed with cat noise centered beats.  Meows, hisses, purring, bells, kitten squeals, anything you can think of.  Whereas most rappers are concerned with projecting an image of gravity and grandeur, with Run the Jewels we have two seasoned rappers releasing an album with cat noises in the background.  And, aside from being both funny and fun, the cat-infused beats actually sound great.

With strong introduction track "Oh My Darling (Don't Meow)" and standout joints like "Close Your Eyes (And Meow to Fluff)" and "Paw Due Respect", these songs go hard, entertain relentlessly, and are just plain fun.  While Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly is also excellent and is arguably much more important on a societal level, I've found myself bumping Meow the Jewels a lot more often.  As a result, it is my pick for album of the year.

Hip Hop Song: Black Friday

I mean, holy shit, right?  If hip hop is dead, someone forgot to tell Kendrick Lamar (and J Cole, and El-P, and Killer Mike, and Logic, and...)

MMA Prospect: Yair Rodríguez

Over the last few years we've seen an emergence of a lot of moves from Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and other martial arts that a decade ago were mostly ignored for "not working" in serious MMA competition.  I even wrote a post about it last year.  Side kicks, spinning back kicks, front kicks with the ball of the foot, and other such moves have been used by MMA fighters at all levels in increasingly large numbers.

The problem is that a lot of fighters have began to use these moves without properly gauging distance or setting them up.  Using some of the flashier kicks that have become popular, like the spinning back kick, leaves you out of position to defend yourself should your attack miss.  That is why it's important to throw it at the right time, when it is least likely your opponent will take advantage of the opening your attack leaves.  If not, it can cost you- Chris Weidman lost his title because of a poorly timed spinning back kick that left an opening for Luke Rockhold to take Weidman's back, get him to the ground, and lay on some of the nastiest ground 'n pound I've ever seen.

Yair Rodríguez is a featherweight who has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.  Because of his time invested in Tae Kwon Do, Rodríguez hasn't just learned how to throw fancy kicks but has spent years learning exactly when he should throw them and how he can build a game around them.  He throws punches as distractions from his kicks, his footwork does a good job at maintaining kicking range distance, and he changes stances to effectively change the angles of his attacks.  He is also quite capable in the clinch and has a slick ground game that is about as entertaining as any MMA fighter's.

Rodríguez is not without his weaknesses.  When pressured too much he retreats straight backward, rather than circling out; his punches are sharp enough in the opening round, but get progressively sloppier as the fight goes on; he leaves a lot of openings, like by leaving his hands too low or leaning forward when on the offense against an opponent.  But he is twenty three years old and has only had seven professional fights, three of which have been in the UFC.  It'd be weird if he weren't making mistakes, and he has years ahead of him to correct them.

The 145 pound division is already electric; it has easily become my favorite division in the UFC.  While much of the talent toward the top of the featherweight heap is relatively young and won't be going anywhere soon, it's nice to see a prospect with such potential coming up.  Seeing Rodríguez grow as a fighter and continue his ascent among the 145-ers in the UFC will be a real treat for years to come.

MMA Fighter I'd Like to See Bounce Back: Kyoji Horiguchi

I first noticed Kyoji Horiguchi in his match against Jon delos Reyes in September of 2014.  His impressive fight style immediately caught my attention: he combines the excellent range-conscious movement of someone like Machida with the head movement and combination-punching ability of someone like Ross Pearson.  His striking is, essentially, a mixture of some of the best parts of karate and boxing for MMA.

When I first saw him fight, I remember thinking to myself that he had it in him to someday beat flyweight champion Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson, one of the most well-rounded and strategically intelligent fighters in the world regardless of weight class.  This confidence in Horiguchi only increased when he fought Louis Gaudinot.  Against Gaudinot, who is currently ranked #12 in the flyweight division, Horiguchi performed brilliantly and let his unique karate-boxing hybrid style shine.

His victory made me think he might be ready for a shot against Mighty Mouse if he got past someone in the top 10, then someone in the top 5 to earn a title fight.  Instead, Horiguchi received a title shot after his victory against Gaudinot because Mighty Mouse had cleared out the flyweight division of any other contenders.  Horiguchi fought Johnson in April and did well the first round, but as the fight went on Might Mouse's control of the fight became more and more pronounced.  The final round had Johnson dominating the match completely and submitting Horiguchi with an armbar at 4:59 of the 5 minute round, a record that can literally never be topped.

I sincerely hope Horiguchi can bounce back and work his way to another title shot, this time fighting top 10 fighters on the way up.  His fighting style is the rare combination of entertaining yet strategically sound.  If he takes the loss against Johnson as a learning experience and keeps getting better, I think he has a very real shot at winning his next title fight, provided that he is given a more gradual path instead of being thrown in head first again.  He is already off to a good start, having beat Chico Camus in September.  I hope this trend continues, if for no other reason than to keep the flyweight division interesting (seriously, Might Mouse has totally cleared out that division).

Male MMA Fighter: Conor McGregor

I'm going to get this out of the way: I don't like Conor McGregor's schoolyard trash-talk antics.  I don't personally dislike McGregor (or any other fighter) for doing it because it's a proven model for success, but I hate that the fastest way for a fighter to gain attention is to talk shit like a high schooler desperate for attention and what they think is respect.  There are plenty of ways to market fighters for their personality beyond the shit talking, but media outlets love drama and interpersonal conflict.  It's the same reason Donald Trump gets so much attention from the press.

But let's forget about McGregor the personality and talk about McGregor the fighter.  His ability to gauge/control distance, throw flashy kicks in strategically well thought-out ways, and counter with that excellent left hand are all top notch in MMA.  McGregor is excellent at using his kicks and footwork to control the range of his opponents and bait them into attacks that he then counters with his left hand.

McGregor's first opponent of the year was Dennis Siver, an elite striker who up until that point had only lost to Cub Swanson since dropping down to the featherweight division.  McGregor ran through him.  McGregor then beat Chad Mendes, who up until that point had only lost to featherweight champion Jose Aldo.  Finally, McGregor beat Aldo himself in an astonishing 13 seconds.  That's impressive for any professional fight, but especially so when you're fighting the UFC's then-longest reigning active champion.

It should be noted those last two victories might come with an asterisk of sorts.  Chad Mendes took the fight on a week's notice after Aldo had to pull out due to injury and Jose Aldo had been out of commission for over a year when the two finally fought.  But neither of those were McGregor's fault, and he did everything he had to in order to beat the champion of arguably the deepest division in MMA today (or perhaps the second deepest after the lightweight division).

2016 will be a big year for McGregor.  Will he defeat Aldo in a rematch?  Will he defend the title against other contenders like Frankie Edgar and Max Holloway?  Will he move up to lightweight to fight for the lightweight crown?  I don't know what path he'll take or how well he'll do.  But I do know that I look forward to seeing those fights (while ignoring all the silly pre-fight man drama).

Female MMA Fighter: Holly Holm

Joanna Jędrzejczyk, the champion of the new women's straw weight (115 pound) division, is an excellent fighter.  After capturing the title from Carla Esparza in the beginning of the year, she has since defended her title twice.  She deserves a lot of praise for her performances and accomplishments this year.

But the clear winner of female fighter of the year goes to the woman who dethroned Ronda Rousey, who was the UFC's biggest star at the time of this fight.  Holly Holm, who is also a former boxing champion and kickboxing competitor, beat two middle of the pack bantamweights to earn the title shot against Rousey.  Many wrote her off as not having a chance, while others "predicted" she would win simply because they wanted Rousey to lose.  Most fans wrote this off as yet another bout where Rousey would clinch up, hip toss her opponent, and eventually sink in that killer arm bar of hers.

As we all know, that's not what happened this time around.  Holly Holm used the footwork she gained as a high level striker to continuously slip away from Rousey and pick her apart with piston-like straights.  Rousey is excellent at operating once she has the clinch in a fight, but she doesn't have as much skill in setting it up.  Usually she rushes her opponents, who often try to stand their ground and strike with her in the hopes of getting a knockout before Rousey can sink in her clinch.  With her opponent standing right in front of her, Rousey would throw a bunch of wild punches until she saw an opening for the clinch.  When Holm decided to circle out and not let Rousey rush her, Rousey didn't have an answer.

Holly did a fantastic job picking Rousey apart and defending on the few occasions she did get caught in the clinch, eventually seeing an opening for a beautiful headkick that killed all wildlife in a five mile radius.  Many people afterward blamed Rousey for "trying to strike with Holm instead of using with her Judo", but make no mistake, this was Holm's doing.  In professional MMA, you simply can't walk into the clinch.  You need to set it up with strikes to create an opening.  Holm did everything she needed to in order to make sure Rousey couldn't do that.

Holm defeated one of the biggest stars the UFC has ever known thanks to sound striking strategy.  She also became the first fighter to hold championships in both MMA and boxing.  Heading into 2016, she will inevitably have a rematch with Ronda Rousey.  This winner of this rematch will be determined by who has the better footwork.  If Rousey improves her ability to cut off the cage instead of just chasing opponents, she will win.  If Holm is able to continue escaping Rousey, she will win.  Either way, it will be a hell of a match.  Until then, though, Holm has rightfully earned her place at the top of the women bantamweight division.

MMA Fight: Cormier vs Gustafsson

This category came down to a very, very close decision.  After whittling down an extensive list of fantastic fights this year, I was left with two: this one and Robbie Lawler vs Rory MacDonald.  Both fights were incredible championship fights that demonstrated the heart, technique, and versatility of each fighter.  In the end, I went with Cormier vs Gustafsson because (1)the fight felt slightly closer and (2)there were some specific aspects from this amazing bout that I wanted to talk about (though shout out to Lawler's excellent MMA boxing, which might just be the best in MMA right now).

Before we get into the details of this fight, the outcome is a perfect example of the fact that styles makes fights.  Tallying who has beat who in MMA doesn't always work because every fighter's style contains its own strengths and weaknesses.  Alexander Gustafsson got destroyed by Anthony Johnson, who was meticulously picked apart by Daniel Cormier in their fight.  If Cormier so effortlessly beat the guy who demolished Gustafsson, clearly Cormier should've smoked Gustafsson himself.  As we saw, though, that's not how things went down.

This was a phenomenal fight.  The first round made it look like Cormier would neutralize Gustafsson's striking with his wrestling and grind out a decision on the ground.  Clearly that didn't end up being the case.  Gustafsson did an impressive job using his polished footwork, strong combination punching, attacks to the body, and excellent gauging of distance.  Cormier, on the other hand, did a fantastic job of cutting off the cage with his footwork (that is, intercepting Gustafsson instead of just following him), striking from the clinch, and setting up his right hands with lighter kicks and punches, rather than just winging crazy right hands like most wrestler-turned-strikers do.

One thing that I appreciate about Gustafsson is that he isn't afraid to go for takedowns against wrestlers.  Conventional MMA wisdom says that lanky strikers should never try to grapple against stocky wrestlers.  Gustafsson reminded us here that conventional wisdom is something that should always be challenged.  Like against Jon Jones, he only scored a couple complete takedowns, but that was all he needed.  As I've talked about on this blog before, shooting for the hips against an opponent in MMA gets them thinking about your wrestling and takes away from their ability to focus on striking defense.  Grappling-based MMA fighters use this strategy all the time to out-strike opponents that have stronger striking credentials than them.  When you're a striker who can employ this strategy, all the better.

Another noteworthy part about this fight was how each fighter battled it out in the later rounds.  In MMA it is common for tired fighters to stand still in the later rounds and wing powerful, sloppy strikes at each other.  Not in this fight, though.  Cormier still used good intercepting footwork, Gustafsson still did a good job of being elusive, and both fighters (for the most part) kept their strikes diverse instead of only trying to throw wild right hands.  Even in the last round there were jabs, body kicks, lead uppercuts, lead hooks, feints, and combinations.  That is a large part of what makes a champion level fighter: not just physical attributes and their "heart", but also the ability to keep fighting sensibly even towards the end of an exhausting, exhilarating, incredibly close fight against the best in the world.

Cormier said in the post-fight interview with Joe Rogan that this bout made him a better man.  For those of us who payed close enough attention, it also made us better fans.  This fight didn't just prove a lot about Cormier and Gustfasson, but also about certain aspects of MMA itself.  For the first time in a few years, I am truly excited to see where the light heavyweight division is going, especially with the return of Jon Jones.  It's gonna be a hell of a 2016 for the 205-pounders.

Scientific Discovery: Liquid Water on Mars

For centuries humans have written about Mars, before the name "Mars" was ever given to it.  As astronomy advanced and people learned more about our red neighbor in the solar system, the possibility of life over there captured our popular imagination.  Could there be sentient lifeforms over there?  Could we find a way to reach out to them someday, or them to us?  If they looked like us, what are the intergalactic protocols about getting freaky with aliens?  Creative minds of all sorts told compelling stories to answer all of these questions, and more.

Toward the end of the 20th Century we began to realize that our Mars fan fiction wouldn't become true.  There weren't any civilizations on Mars.  But even with the idea of intelligent Martians being put aside, there are still a lot of interesting questions to be asked.  First and foremost: does any form of life exist?  Well, if life as we understand it does, it needs liquid water to function.  The question of water on Mars, therefore, became a big one.

In 2015, we found proof of liquid water on Mars.

Now, a problem with popular science journalism is how sensationalist it is.  It's a bit of a necessary evil, considering how few people would pay attention otherwise.  Headlines about water on Mars and speculation about the possibility of life on Mars went wild.  Often this went beyond the scope of the actual findings.  What we figured out with this discovery was that water seasonally trickles on Mars and leaves salty residue behind; there were no actual bodies of water discovered.  Scientists have a few different hypotheses about where this water is coming from.  Two of the leading ones right now are (1)that it comes from the atmosphere or (2)that it comes from the ice beneath Mars' surface.

We still don't know everything about the water on Mars yet, so we can't jump to any conclusions.  But that being said, we still made an incredible discovery about our rusty red neighbor that could hold the key to figuring out whether or not life exists.  Yay science!

Scientific Achievement: Teixobactin

I personally think science is at its best when it's being used to save lives.  Medicine is one of the best things we have done as a species, figuring out ways to cure ourselves (as well as animals) so that we don't have to contemplate our own mortality each time we get sick.  While the industry behind it is incredibly greedy and often shady, modern medicine itself is a wonderful testament to what the human scientific mind can do.

One of the challenges faced in modern medicine is the arms race between antibiotics and antibiotic-resistance bacteria.  Whenever we use anything anti-bacterial, the overwhelming majority of bacteria won't survive.  There will always be a tiny percentage, however, who are immune to whatever anti-bacterial item you're using.  These immune bacteria, being the only ones left alive, go on to reproduce and suddenly you have a whole generation of bacteria inheriting resistance to the anti-bacterial products that killed most of the previous generation.  This is why antibiotics are always becoming stronger and stronger.  We need stronger medicine as newer generations of bacteria are born from bacteria that is resistant to the previous generation of antibiotics.

Thanks to researchers at Northeastern University, we now have a new type of antibiotic joining the fray.  Teixobactin is the first new antibiotics developed in decades.  Ignore all the pop science articles that claim in the headlines there are no bacteria resistant to it, that's just because the antibiotic is so new.  Once teixobactin becomes widely used, bacteria with genes that make it immune to teixobactin will start reproducing and we will eventually have the same problems with immunity to teixobactin that we do with other antibiotics.

That said, this is still incredible news.  For now, we have an antibiotic that bacteria are not at all used to.  This means that current infectious diseases that are difficult to fight because of antibiotic immunity can be treated.  Teixobactin has the potential to save millions of lives the world over once it becomes readily accessible to medical professionals.  This is what we as human beings are capable of when we decide to find new ways to help save each other instead of new ways to kill each other.

Bullshit News Story: Muslim Brit Support for 'Jihadis'

According to an article from The Sun, one of the biggest news organizations from the United Kingdom, almost one fifth of British Muslim support "jihadis" who left the UK to fight in Syria.  The numbers are even higher in the 18-34 age bracket at about one in four.  Clearly something must be done!

Except for the fact that this article is complete bullshit.  The survey itself did happen and the report is based on an actual question, so it wasn't a complete fabrication.  Rather, it was a manipulation of information that would have even the most repressive of dictators nodding in approval.  The question The Sun points to asked British Muslims how much sympathy they had for "young Muslims who leave the UK to join fighters in Syria"; the answers were a lot of sympathy, some sympathy, no sympathy, or don't know.  You'll notice that literally nowhere did the term "jihadi" come up.

See, there are a metric fuckton of groups fighting in the Syrian Civil War right now.  To even begin to try to make sense of all the factions, their ideologies, and their allies would take days, but suffice to say that ISIL isn't the only group over there.  There are many groups representing many different ideologies, including some that are fighting for democracy and human rights.  So when asked about "young Muslims" who go to "join fighters in Syria", that can mean a number of things.  It certainly doesn't automatically mean support for "jihadi" groups- which, can't be stated enough, is a word that doesn't come up at all in this question.

It'd be easy to roll our eyes and make an offhanded comment about bullshit in the media before forgetting about this story, but it's not that simple.  Hate crimes against Muslims in the UK are on the rise.  We're seeing the same thing in the US.  Whether it's The Sun or Donald Trump, whenever bullshit is spread that vilifies a group of people, we're not just dealing with intellectual dishonesty.  We're dealing with physical threats to the livelihood of living human beings, their families, their communities.  And that's complete bullshit.

Actual News Story: The Paris Attacks

If you didn't spend 2015 living under a rock, you know about the attacks that happened in Paris.  It was by far the biggest media story of the year.  On the night of November 13th, coordinated attacks happened all over Paris that left 130 dead and many hundreds more injured.  There are no amount of adjectives that can encompass all the horror and tragedy about the situation.

These attacks also reveal some troubling aspects of US and European media that require some examination.  The issue, though, is that an attack that killed 40 people and injured many more in Beirut, Lebanon happened the day before.  The attack received only a fraction of the media attention the Paris attacks did, and never became a Facebook profile picture.  As a result, few people knew it happened, and the beautiful outpour of support that Paris received wasn't extended to Beirut.

On top of that, hundreds of innocent people have been killed by coalition airstrikes led by the US that include France.  The attacks on Paris weren't a random attack, but another drop in the bucket of the horrible cycle of violence that has been going on between Western Europe/the US and the Middle East since the early 20th Century.  A cycle of intervention by what is traditionally referred to as "the West" and desperate counterattacks by those from the Middle East have gone on since before World War 1 and continued throughout the century.

The problem is that our media, thanks to an intersection of private and government interests, doesn't acknowledge this history.  A "tension between cultures" narrative is often used to describe the current conflict between the US/Western Europe and the Middle East, without acknowledging the historical legacy of Western intervention that contextualizes it.  As a result, we're given a narrative that doesn't properly acknowledge the historical background of everything going on.  Imagine walking in on someone punching another person in the mouth and having someone tell you that these two have been fighting for the last ten minutes, without clarifying that it started after one person killed the other's family.

This story and the way it was covered shows how media creates narratives without acknowledging historical context.  Media not giving us the full background is a serious issue.  By doing so, we are denied the ability to create a fully-informed opinion about one of the most important issues of our time.

Meme of the Year: Hotline Bling

All of these Hotline Bling memes were comedy gold.  Or at least comedy silver.

Video of the Year:

I first stumbled across this video on Facebook, shared by one of my coaches at 10th Plant San Diego.  The video features the coach of 10th Planet Decatur, Brandon Mccaghren, revealing the "dirty little secret" of Jiujitsu.  No, it's not some secret forbidden technique to beat your opponent effortlessly or gossip about the seedy underbelly of the Jiujitsu scene.  In fact, it's not about anything unique to Jiujitsu at all.

This video, at 1 minute and 45 seconds, is the most important video you will watch today, whether you practice Jiujitsu or not.  The "dirty little secret" that Mccaghren reveals: everybody had thought about quitting Jiujitsu.  Everybody.  Because mastering a skill, whether it's Jiujitsu or anything else, requires tons of hard work and hours invested.  On this journey, you will face setbacks; progress isn't a linear path.  There will be times where you feel you have stagnated, or even taken steps backward.  There will be times where you feel it is all pointless.  There will be times where you want to stop what you're doing and never pick it back up again.

As Mccaghren puts it: "that's precisely why you can't quit, no matter what.  You gotta keep going.  Because it's hard, because it makes you wanna quit.  The discipline and the perseverance that you learn from going through something incredibly difficult and then to keep going, that's gonna carry over into every other part of your life.  It's gonna become the most important part of your training.  Not the fact that you can choke somebody unconscious or that you can break their foot, but the fact that you know that when your back gets put against the wall, and when everything is going wrong and all you wanna do is just stop, you know you got what it takes to keep going."

Again, this goes well beyond Jiujitsu.  Anytime we stick with something that challenges us, whether it's a martial art or anything else that requires discipline and perseverance, we're building ourselves into people who can keep our cool and get shit done under pressure.

For me, being able to maintain my composure when someone is on top of me or trying to yanks my limbs in directions they weren't built to go is what I value most in my Jiujitsu training.  Same with my training in other martial arts.  Keeping my cool, making sure I don't leave any openings out of panic or carelessness, and thinking about how I can work my way out of that bad spot has translated directly over to other parts of my life.  I just finished my first semester of graduate school, and to call it stressful would be an understatement.  There were times where I felt I couldn't possibly handle the workload and wanted to quit.  I honestly considered dropping out at a couple points.  But thanks to my years of martial arts training (among other challenges I have worked through) I was able to take a deep breath, find my center, and focus on what needed to get done.  I ended the semester with a 3.9 GPA.

I may not be the biggest badass in Jiujitsu (I only competed for the first time in November), and those of you reading this might not be the best boxer or soccer player or sex architect around.  That doesn't matter.  What matters is that we stick with something we have a passion for, cultivate a skill that we can take pride in, and forge an iron will that will get us through whatever challenges we face in life.

Photo of the Year: Alan Kurdi

Sometimes we think of geopolitics as an abstract idea.  This picture is a heart-breaking reminder they aren't.

The only difference between refugee kids like Alan, the elementary school students I mentor for my job at an after-school program, and any kids any of us happen to know, whether our siblings, children, nieces, nephews, or whoever else, is where they were born. But many of these refugee children are dead now because of awful geopolitical machinations that they had nothing to do with.

Too many children have been buried, and will continue to be buried, by their parents, their siblings, their grandparents.  Not just those fleeing Syria, either.  While Syrian refugees are currently the ones most prominently in the headlines, it is worth noting the Central American refugee crisis is still happening despite no longer being in the headlines.  There are refugees being created every day in other parts of the world as well.

These tragedies are why understanding international affairs matter.  Politics aren't abstract ideas.  They're very real policies and institutions that affect lives all over the globe.  Sometimes they also end them.

Badass of the Year: Aura Elena Farfán

Some of the entries on this list have touched on the grim side of humanity, the horrors we commit against one another, the tragedies that result from the often ugly world we have created.  Especially the entry before this one.  To call these injustices discouraging is an understatement.

But the power to fight back and work for a better world is possible.  It's not just possible, in fact, but it's something that many people around the world are doing right now as I type this and as you read it.  This entry is partially for them, but also for us: a reminder that action, not cynical resignation, is what we can and should strive for.

The Guatemalan Civil War began in 1960 and lasted all the way until 1996, when peace accords were signed and democracy restored.  Yes, 1996; me and many of you reading this are older than Guatemala's current democratic regime. Democracy had existed once before, from 1944 to 1954.  But in 1954 the US overthrew the democratically elected Jacobo Arbenz and installed military dictator Castillo Armas, who was assassinated by Guatemalans in 1957.  The United States tried to impose order by backing more military dictators after Armas was killed, but stability didn't come.  In 1960 Guatemala's Civil War erupted between a repressive military government and left wing guerrillas.  Gross human rights violations occurred, 93% of which were perpetrated by the military government, with 83% of its victims being indigenous Mayan people.

In 1984, Aura Elena Farfán's brother was kidnapped and killed by the military regime.  She opposed the military regime when it was in power, and in 1992 she founded FAMDEGUA, an NGO that supports families in their search for missing loved ones who were kidnapped (and usually killed) by the military regime.  She gets results, too, which would probably explain all the death threats she gets from people still connected to the military regimes of the Civil War.

But does that stop her?  No.  Aura Elena Farfán still presses forward, continuing to support the families of people who lost loved ones during the Civil War, and fighting to get those who committed atrocities behind bars.  That takes a ridiculous amount of courage to do in a nation still plagued by corruption and violence.  For that reason, Aura Elena Farfán is my pick for badass of the year.  A reminder that a better world is possible, but only if we take up the effort to make it so.