And here we are again. Back with another best of life, this time from the year 2018. A jam packed year, as it always seems these days. It was a record setting year for weddings, we traveled from coast to coast, went to Mexico and made it back alive, and moved apartments. I attended a concert every month, coached another record setting lacrosse season with the cats, and enjoyed many YouTube videos, TV shows, and movies. Sure I only blogged 8 times, and vlogged for January and February, but I had a damn good time living life this year. Here are my “best” moments from 2018.
Don't forget to see my best lists from the past 4 years as well: 2017 2016 2015 2014
Best Moment: Friends and family getting married. Rachel and I were glad to be a part of many weddings this year. We attended 8 weddings in 2018, stood up in 5 of them, and filmed an additional 2. On top of all the weddings, we had just as many showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, and family events.
Best Vacation: Rachel & I traveled to San Diego for Rachel’s brother’s wedding in September. My first time to California and her first time to San Diego! Beautiful weather, beautiful coastline, and a pretty awesome trip. We also visited our friends John and Melissa in New York in December. My first time to the big apple. Can’t leave out our first all-inclusive resort trip to Cancun, Mexico in July. Be on the look out for blogs and videos from these trips at some point in the future.
Best TV Show: I watched a bit more TV over the year, and even made my own webpage for it! A handful of my favorites from 2018 included: Ozark, Homecoming, Rick & Morty, Maniac, Big Mouth & Handmaid's Tale.
Best Movie (Theaters): Pretty sure the only movie I saw in theaters this year, Blockers. It had some pretty funny parts and featured John Cena and Leslie Mann. I saw it with Rachel at one of the finest theaters South Bend Indiana has to offer.
Best Documentary: I saw a handful of documentaries in 2018. Student Athlete, Amanda Knox, Beware the Slenderman, & Eagles of Death Metal to name a few. But Oxyana took the #1 spot.
Oxyana is a 2013 documentary that covers the abuse of the prescription drug oxycodone in rural Southern West Virginia, based in the town of Oceana. It features a soundtrack by John McCauley of Deer Tick and their good friend Jonny Fritz. Watch it down below.
Best Album: My album of the year goes to Ryley Walker’s Deafman Glance. I was fortunate enough to be at his record release show for this album back in May. Parquet Courts came in as honorable mention with their album Wide Awake! I also enjoyed Vance Joy’s Nation of Two, Superorganism’s Superorganism, and Mac Miller’s Swimming (RIP). Click the photo of the album if you want to hear them.
Best Songs: I went a different route with my best songs of 2018. The past four years I have gone through my itunes (which I still did) and pull songs from there. In the age of streaming music, I expanded my list of songs from 24 to 69 and decided to make a playlist on spotify to share with you. That’s right, 69 songs by 69 artists. You can now easily listen to all 69 songs in a row! Enjoy! **UPDATE Feb 2019: Up to 81 songs by 81 artists**
If you don’t have spotify, here are 10 of the top 69 songs I included:
Nice For What - Drake
When the Curtain Falls - Greta Van Fleet
Self Care - Mac Miller
Tadow - Masego
Total Football - Parquet Courts
Better Now - Post Malone
Opposite Middle - Ryley Walker
Your Dog - Soccer Mommy
Everybody Wants To Be Famous - Superogranism
Saturday Sun - Vance Joy
Favorite music video from the year was an easy one. Also one of my favorite songs - Gambino, This is America
Best Concert: I was able to make it out to at least one concert every month in 2018. The first time I have ever done that, totaling 22 shows and 2 festivals. You can read all about it here. The show that topped them all this year had to be the last one, Greta Van Fleet at the Aragon. Legendary!
Best Podcasts: Podcasts pretty much replaced “reading” books on tape entirely for me this year. I released two more posts about podcasts, and am soon to release my 5th in two years. (Post One - Post Two). Three of my favorite podcasts I always listen to new episodes right away are: Radio Lab, Sword and Scale, and Crimetown.
Best Jcubed Video: Just like last year, most videos I made this year were music related. But I started working on Road to Rado again, finishing up parts 5 and 6. In 2019 I am hoping to power through the last 5 parts of Road to Rado and a few other videos I’ve had on the back burner for awhile now.
Best Lacrosse Video: I made a season review of the 2018 lax season I coached and this epic highlight video for one of my players, Snacks.
Best YouTube Channel: I have to give the best YouTube channel in 2018 to David Dobrik. A 22 year old Vernon Hills, IL native who moved out to LA and makes fun and crazy vlog videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. All of his videos are 4 minutes and 20 seconds long, made up of short clips that keep me coming back for more and more.
Lucas the Spider, a channel dedicated to short 30 second videos about a cute animated spider is our runner up this year
Best Video: I actually just stumbled upon this video in the last month of the year. This dad shot this entire 11 minute movie on an iphone, but did some fantastic editing and animation. Check out the action packed flick!
And that wraps up my 2018 and all the “best” things from it. Let’s make 2019 another solid year!
See ya there
Josh