Monday, December 21, 2009

Let it Shine for '09

"A New Birth of Freedom"
The United States of America swears in their 44th President- Barack Obama.
Based on combined attendance numbers, television viewership and Internet traffic, it was among the most observed events ever by the global audience.

A snapshot of Obama's inauguration being watched in Kibera,
one of the poorest quarters in Nairobi.
Jan. 20, 2009
Photograph by Yasuyoshi Chiba


This year saw the end of an era as we bid farewell to Michael Jackson.
His death triggered an outpouring of grief around the world, creating surges of internet traffic and causing sales of his music and that of the Jackson 5 to soar.
His public memorial service was broadcast live around the world, attracting a global audience of up to one billion people.
They're calling 2009 "The Year of Death" due to the number of other casualties met throughout the year.
RIP: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, DJ AM, and just today, Brittany Murphy. (along with many others)

Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao defeated Miguel Cotto on
November 14, 2009 giving him the WBO World Welterweight Title which made him the first fighter in boxing history to win seven world titles in seven different weight divisions.
The fight generated 1.25 million buys and 70 million dollars in domestic pay-per-view revenue, making it the most watched boxing event of 2009.


A slow and painful death to the hipster regime and the gladiator sandals' worldwide domination- 2009 said hello to anything and everything black, babydoll dresses and/or muumuus, the comeback of the hippie hairband, stripes in every which direction, high waist shorts, and tights- all kinds of tights. Anything with a hole in it was deemed cool and only douchebags are known to wear anything Ed Hardy.
Personally, i overdid it with the purple this year.

500 Days of Summer, The Wackness and Inglorious Basterds
made it to the top of my movie list. UP was an awesome cartoon, The Time Traveler's Wife was highly disappointing, The Cast of Harry Potter have grown immensely, and The Twilight Series is just ridiculous.
Star Trek takes home the gold for Most Pirated Movie of 2009. It also went crazy at the Box Office. Transformers 2 was a close second.

Mayer Hawthorne (album dropped Sept. '09) is my rookie pick for this year. Then again, i refused to listen to anything else that was new (that was me being ignorant).
Sade's long awaited first single off her 9th album made it out on the last month of this year.
Lady Gaga released hit after hit, Jay-Z came out with a banger about New York that sits on top of the billboard, Miley Cyrus was voted worst role model, and when Susan Boyle sang she gave the world a new meaning of hope.
Hiphop started sounding like Electro for a minute, Techno still gives me a headache, Mashups are now extinct (finally!), and apparently, more people are listening to Country. Beats the hell outta me.

If you don't know who Sheldon, Leonard, and Penny are-
you're living in a different galaxy. Or you're old.
People are still (surprisingly) following Gossip Girl and 90210. They came out with a gazillion TV series about vampires (nice try, but nothing beats Buffy), and this show called Glee have fans calling themselves Gleeks.


Everybody and their mother owns an iPhone or a Blackberry.
I only upgraded to a Nokia E-series smartphone.
These handy gadgets that are practically considered to be an extended part of your anatomy no longer just texts messages or makes phone calls... you can now check your Facebook and Tweet too.

Their WiFi status determines what coffee shop you chill in.
The Twitter bandwagon is off the charts. Facebook is overcrowded & more stalker-friendlythan ever. What's Myspace again?
Skype kicks iChat's ass, Youtube still doesn't show nudity, Mac users are skyrocketing, MSN is threatening to shut down e-mail addresses unless you forward 8,975,363 messages due to lack of usernames because it's all being used up, "lol. omg. ftw. fml. mmt. wtf." and emoticons are part of your normal-everyday-routine, and nobody meets in person to catch up with each other's lives anymore.
No, seriously.


The biggest fuckup fail of the year goes to Kanye West for his interruption of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the 2009 VMA's.
Since then, Taylor has been sweeping up back-to-back awards, gaining incredible fame and pity.
Kanye has been labeled an ass and has been the butt (pun intended) of never-ending jokes.
It was the hottest topic on the web, the world was talking about it for ages, and 3 months later- we're all completely over it. I mean, really, it was terrible and shameless... but Taylor Swift for Artist of the Year? See, that's taking it too far, man.

In Local News:
H1N1 enters the P.I.
Corazon Aquino, former president and first female president, passes away.
Hell comes in the form of 2 back-to-back Typhoons leaving hundreds and thousands either dead, injured, or homeless. Recorded as the most amount of rainfall in 6 hours in the history of our country.
The Maguindanao Massacre places the Philippines as #1 most dangerous country for journalists and condemned worldwide as the worst loss of life of media professionals in one day in the history of journalism.
Our ex-President (who was in jail for corruption) announces his candidacy for President. He's not joking.
On a lighter note, Efren Penaflorida is declared as CNN Hero of the Year.


Did i miss anything?

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