Another exciting year in the books. From vacationing in Costa Rica, to coaching a state semi-final lacrosse team, to the most concerts ever, an apartment makeover, and a plentiful amount of weddings, it was an action packed year. I fell off the blog & vlog this year, but stayed busy with life. Now enjoy reading a handful of "top" items, events, and things that happened in 2017. Don't forget to peep the top lists from 2014 2015 and 2016.
Best Moment: Final Four Appearance. During my second year coaching varsity at the alma mater, the Neuqua Valley Wildcats went to the semi finals in the state tournament for the first time ever. Read about it all here. Go Cats.
Best Vacation: Rachel & I traveled to Costa Rica in August for a little over a week. See the view from our three locations below: La Fortuna to see the Arenal Volcano, Monte Verde to explore the cloud forest, and Manuel Antonio to enjoy the beaches and rain forest. So many wild creatures were out and about as well! Blog on this coming soon... as always with my big trips.
A close second in the best vacation realm was Portland and the west coast of Oregon. We headed out there for our cousins wedding and had a grand ole time exploring areas straight out of The Goonies.
Best TV Show: I watched a lot of TV over the year. Here are a handful of my favorites: Black Mirror, Mindhunter, The People vs OJ, Mr. Robot, The Magicians and Sense8.
Best Movie (Theaters): I only saw two movies in theaters this year, so why not include both. Fifty Shades Darker and Murder on the Orient Express.
Best Album: Definitely need to include two separate records released on the same day by my favorite band Deer Tick, Deer Tick Vol 1 & Deer Tick Vol 2. Volume one is acoustic and Volume 2 is rock. I am going to add my favorite rap album, Everybody by Logic, and one of my new favorite artists, Mac DeMarco and his album This Old Dog. Mac is one of the coolest and most chill dudes around. Click the photo of the album you want to give a listen.
Best 24 Songs: So many songs every year, this list originally was around 40, but I thought that was a little much, so I cut it down to still too many songs. I love music!
Best Podcasts: For those of you who don't know, I got super into podcasts this year. I even wrote two blogs about it. Read blog one here. Read blog two here. So definitely check out my top two favorites from the year. 99% Invisible and Reply All.
Best Jcubed Video: I made a ton of videos this year. Almost all music related. But I finished these two: Skate 4, filmed in 2016, and a throwback to 2014, A Beach Burial. A handful of Jcubed videos including The Trailers Last Stand will be coming early 2017.
Best Lacrosse Video: I caught my alma mater in action for the second time ever. Again at Elmhurst. They aren't so good anymore, but I made a video and figured I would put it in since my life is mostly lacrosse.
Best YouTube Channel: First We Feast: Hot Ones - It's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings. Basically this guy, Sean Evans, interviews celebrity guests while they go through 8 wings with varying hot sauces increasing in hotness as the guests answer questions. The latest was with Chili Klaus and one of my favorites from the year was with the rapper Logic. Through the four seasons, celebrities have included Bryan Cranston, Mac DeMarco, Terry Crews, Rob Gronkowski, & many more! My assistant coach Dario turned me on to this show and I can't thank him enough.
Best Video: This video actually came from one of my favorite podcasts, Reply All, but it is an in depth analysis of how to beat the level, Watch for Rolling Rocks, in Mario 64 by only using .5 A presses. Sounds confusing? Just watch the video to be even more confused.
Best Concert: I saw an insane amount of concerts this year, 28 and 1 festival to be exact. If you haven't read my blog about it yet, do so here. There were so many good shows it was hard to pick just one, so I decided to select four of my favorite concerts for specific reasons.
Best performance: Cage the Elephant at Lolla
Oldest and last show: Tom Petty at Wrigley
Top experience: Offspring moshing in the pit
Favorite band: Deer Tick at Metro
And that concludes my 2017 and all the best things I experienced during it. I am going out with the hope that I make 2018 another amazing year and that you can as well.
See ya next year!
Josh