The 25 Best Movies of 2009

I am in no why a movie connoisseur, I can count the number of times I stepped foot into a movie theater last decade on one hand, but thanks to the novel of idea of reviewing DVD’s through the mail, I did get to see a few good movies in the previous twelve month, enough to come up with my own list. But do to my laziness to actually drive to a movie theatre, this is really a list of the best movies released on DVD that were released in 2009 which is why you may see some movies that were released into theaters in 2008 on the list and is missing any movie released in the last three months of 2009 (Many apologies to 500 Days of Summer that was supposed to arrive Saturday but didn’t. I’ll try to remember to include you in next year’s list. Well assuming if you are as good as people would lead me to believe.)


1. Funny People

2. Gran Torino

3. Pineapple Express

4. Drag Me to Hell

5. Inglourious Bastards

6. Slumdog Millionaire

7. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

8. District 9

9. Up

10. Extract

11. Dead Snow

12. Role Models

13. Watchmen

14. Zach and Miri Make a Porno

15. The Lucky Ones

16. My Name Is Bruce

17. Fanboys

18. Angels & Demons

19. Monsters vs. Aliens

20. I Love You Man

21. Orphan

22. Sunshine Cleaning

23. Taken

24. Observe and Report

25. The Good: Live Hard, Sell Hard

Best of 2009 Redux

Every year I like to end my year in review with a quick wrap of some minor lists and some stuff for stat geeks like me of yearly states of most viewed 9th Green pages et al. Below you can find those as well as my top artists of the year with where they landed on my various lists of the year (check the Best of 2009 label at the bottom of the post for those), and for those of you that like making CD, there are the top 20 songs from my 100 Best Songs of 2009 list that fit nicely onto one CD.

Top Artists
1. Taylor Swift (Songs: 15, 70; Readers: 11, 22; Performances: 7; Videos: 30)/Kanye West (Songs: 2, 4, 69; Readers: 4, 17; Mash Ups 10; Videos: 6, 21, 50): Ironically last year, this duo went two and three respectively for Top Artists of 2008 and this year they became forever intertwined for which Swift will be indebted to West because she became America’s Sweetheart overnight simply because a black dude stole her spotlight. As for West, after taking Jay-Z’s advise to get back to rap, your T-Paining too much, his verses landed in two of the top four songs of the year.

2. Dave Matthews Band (Songs: 5, 8, 83; Videos: 41; Albums: 4): After the death of a bandmate, Dave and the boys put out their best work of the decade in tribute to LeRoi Moore.

3. Jay-Z (Songs: 4, 47, 96; Readers: 4, 8; Performances: 3, 15; Videos: 6; Albums: 19): Speaking of J Hova, with Run This Town finally made a post retirement song that stood up to the rest of his catalogue.

4. K’Naan (Songs: 65, 68, 79; Albums: 6): Ever since the Snow debacle of 1992, us American have refused to listen to any Canadian rapper until Drake came out this year. But the real rapping export from the Great White North us Yankees should have been paying more attention to was K’Naan who dropped the best rap album of the year.

5. The Roots (Songs: 93; Performances: 1, 4, 8, 14, 23, 25): Thanks to being the Jimmy Fallon house band, The Roots dominated the Best Live Performance of 2009 list. Here’s hoping there are more inspired collaborations in store for 2010.


Most Popular Posts
1. Do You Know What’s Worth Fighting For, When it’s Not Worth Dying For (Green Day review)

2. The Hottest Hot Chick Pictures of the Week

3. The Best Television Shows of 2008/2009

4. Chatting with Stana Katic

5. The 100 Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s

6. Best of the Week vol. X

7. You Hold Your Head up to the Sky You Say What Kind of Blue Are You (Erin McCarley review)

8. Keep Your Hand on My Head, Your Heart on Your Sleeve (Kelly Clarkson review)

9. ABC Family’s 25 Days of Christmas 2009 Schedule

10. Scooter’s Fall 2009 Television Schedule

11. First Impressions: Tool Academy 2

12. First Impressions: I Love Money 2

13. 57 Channels and Only This Is On vol. LXXI

14. Lyrics Quiz: As Seen on TV 2009

15. Somebody’s Broken Heart Become Your Favorite Song (Dave Matthews review)

16. First Impressions: Survivor Tocantins

17. Let Me Just Ask You One Question: Can You Play Like Champions (Friday Night Lights review)

18. One, Two, Freddy’s Coming for You

19. Time Keeps Ticking Away, Always Running Away (Company of Thieves review)

20. Oh, Chuck Me

21. Lyrics Quiz: One Song Wonders of the 80’s

22. The 100 Hottest Hot Chicks of the 00’s

23. 40 Worst Songs of 2009

24. What’s Done Is Done or if it’s Meant to Be it’s Meant to Be (Lost review)

25. First Impressions: Charm School with Ricki Lake

Most Viewed Labels
1. Chuck

2. Veronica Mars

3. Best of 2008

4. Best of the Week

5. Album Review

6. How I Met Your Mother

7. Kelly Clarkson

8. Lost

9. Friday Night Lights

10. Lyrics Quiz


Most Searched
1. Worst Songs of 2008

2. Do you know what’s worth fighting for when it’s not worth dying for

3. Sexiest video ever made

4. I love money 2

5. Top TV shows 2009

6. Best mashups of all time

7. Scooter mcgavin

8. Best TV shows of 2009

9. Do you know what’s worth fighting for

10. Hot chick pics


Best of 2009 CD (note: the track list is in reverse as if you are counting down to number one)
1. Even If It Breaks Your Heart - Will Hoge

2. Mykonos - Fleet Foxes

3. A Dustland Fairytale - The Killers

4. Geraldine - Glasvegas

5. Staying in Love - Raphael Saadiq

6. You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift

7. Who Says - John Mayer

8. Too Many Rappers - Beastie Boys featuring Nas

9. Pony (It's OK) - Erin McCarley

10. Nothing but a Miracle - Diane Birch

11. Magick - Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

12. Cowboy Casanova - Carrie Underwood

13. Funny The Way It Is - Dave Matthews Band

14. Grapevine Fires - Death Cab for Cutie

15. Sugarfoot - Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

16. You And Me - Dave Matthews Band

17. Run This Town - Jay-Z featuring Rihanna & Kanye West

18. I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers

19. Make Her Say - Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Common

20. Use Somebody - Kings of Leon

The Tribe Has Spoken

No television show changed the landscape of network TV last decade than Survivor. Before premiering on CBS, reality programming was relegated to cable and PBS, after, ever channel scrambled to jump on the bandwagon with every network grabbing their own flagship reality program, The Biggest Loser on NBC, ABC nabbed The Bachelor, and dudes still continue to sign bad karaoke on Fox. And VH1 might as well chance its name to RealityTV1. (And let us not forget all the colossal failures like Kid Nation, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire, Date My Dad and Farmer Takes a Wife.) But none can match the entertainment level of Survivor.

The concept is simple, drop a bunch of strangers in the middle of nowhere and have them vote out each other one by one. And that unfamiliarity of the contestants is the key because the two previous times they brought back familiar faces, All Stars and Fans vs. Favorites (as well as the upcoming Heroes vs. Villains) remain the weakest seasons to date. These contestants are stuck in exotic locations with the sole instructions to Outwit, Outplay, Outlast. And the one person that does that is named the Sole Survivor.

Even as the contestants change every season, there are two constants, host Jeff Probst and a beautiful local. Probst add brevity that other reality hosts fail to obtain (and to my knowledge is still the only host to go on to date one of his contestants). As for the locations, except for the lone hiccup of the dry and drab African National Reserve, the show keeps finding lush and exotic places to set up camp and thanks to the elements have as much effect on the games as the people playing it with torrential downpours and fluctuating temperatures (but not too much fluctuating as there still need enough sun for gratuitous bikini shots).

But it is the casting that has kept Survivor appointment television for an entire decade giving us such characters like the naked gay Richard Hatch, the curmudgeon Rudy Boesch, the country bumpkin Big Tom Buchanan, the overgrown hippy Rupert Boneham, the squirrelly Yau-Man Chan, the bow-tied Bob Crowley, the grave digging James Clement, and the recent biggest Survivor villain ever, Russell Hantz. And let us not forget all the token hot chick the show has given us like Danielle DiLorenzo (who recently lost the award for smallest bikini ever to Samoa winner Natalie White), Amanda Kimmel, Parvati Shallow, Jenna Moracsa, and Elizabeth Filarski who people best know today as The View blow-hard Elizabeth Hasselbeck.

After nineteen seasons, Survivor is a worthy induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame and even landed at number 10 of The 100 Greatest Television Shows of the 00’s. And be on the lookout for the latest season coming February 11 and look out for more post commemorating the twentieth season of the landmark show.

The 100 Best Songs of 2009

It is probably not a good sign for the music business that the biggest song of the year was released back in 1969. But for some reason, three artists all used Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by Steam in their songs. Wale started out ’09 sampling it for Chillin’. Then Kristinia DeBarge used it as the chorus for her debut song, the aptly titled Goodbye. Then Jay-Z tried to kill off Auto-Tune with the help of the famous cadence. Despite the overuse of cheesy sports anthems, 2009 was actually a great year for good music (on the flip side, it wasn’t much of a good year for great music) as this was the largest pool of songs, 250 (shoot me an e-mail if you want the full list, I'll send you my speadsheet), which I had to cut down for my Top 100. And here they are and I hope to see everyone back in 2010 (check the bottom of the post for samples of the songs on the Amazon MP3 widget):

1. Use Somebody - Kings of Leon

2. Make Her Say - Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and Common

3. I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers

4. Run This Town - Jay-Z featuring Rihanna & Kanye West

5. You And Me - Dave Matthews Band

6. Sugarfoot - Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears

7. Grapevine Fires - Death Cab for Cutie

8. Funny The Way It Is - Dave Matthews Band

9. Cowboy Casanova - Carrie Underwood

10. Magick - Ryan Adams & the Cardinals

11. Nothing but a Miracle - Diane Birch

12. Pony (It's OK) - Erin McCarley

13. Too Many Rappers - Beastie Boys featuring Nas

14. Who Says - John Mayer

15. You Belong With Me - Taylor Swift

16. Staying in Love - Raphael Saadiq

17. Geraldine - Glasvegas

18. A Dustland Fairytale - The Killers

19. Mykonos - Fleet Foxes

20. Even If It Breaks Your Heart - Will Hoge

21. People C'mon - Delta Spirit

22. Notion - Kings of Leon

23. Chillin' - Wale featuring Lady Gaga

24. Melody - Kate Earl

25. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight - U2

26. Fugitive - David Gray

27. Percussion Gun - White Rabbits

28. Chasing Pirates - Norah Jones

29. Under My Bed - Meiko

30. Red Light - David Nail

31. (If You're Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To - Weezer

32. The Fixer - Pearl Jam

33. Fitz and the Dizzyspells - Andrew Bird

34. Wild at Heart - Gloriana

35. 100 Yard Dash - Raphael Saadiq

36. Heartless - The Fray

37. I Could Break Your Heart Any Day of the Week - Mandy Moore

38. Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart - Alicia Keys

39. Just Breathe - Pearl Jam

40. Doesn't Mean Anything - Alicia Keys

41. Gravity - Sara Bareilles

42. Love, Save the Empty - Erin McCarley

43. I Love College - Asher Roth

44. Fire Escape - Diane Birch

45. People Got a Lotta Nerve - Neko Case

46. I Like You so Much Better When You're Naked - Ida Maria

47. Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys

48. The One - Slaughterhouse

49. Furr - Blitzen Trapper

50. The Fear - Lily Allen

51. A Whole Lot Better - Brendan Benson

52. Everybody Knows - John Legend

53. Laughing With - Regina Spektor

54. Beyond Here Lies Nothin' - Bob Dylan

55. Just Ain't Gonna Work Out - Mayer Hawthorne

56. Little Bribes - Death Cab for Cutie

57. Sometime Around Midnight - The Airborne Toxic Event

58. New in Town - Little Boots

59. Goodnight, Travel Well - The Killers

60. Brick by Boring Brick - Paramore

61. Sky - Joshua Radin featuring Meiko

62. I Wanna Rock - Snoop Dogg

63. Hometown Glory - Adele

64. Shining Down - Lupe Fiasco featuring Matthews Santos

65. Bang Bang - K'naan featuring Adam Levine

66. 1901 - Phoenix

67. Chocolate Box - Prince featuring Q-Tip

68. If Rap Gets Jealous - K'naan featuring Kirk Hammett

69. Kinda Like a Big Deal - Clipse featuring Kanye West

70. White Horse - Taylor Swift

71. Radio Radio - Brooke White

72. The Man Who Can't Be Moved - The Script

73. Oscar Wilde - Company of Thieves

74. Swim - Jack's Mannequin

75. Nothing to Worry About - Peter Bjorn and John

76. Show Me What I'm Looking For - Carolina Liar

77. Who'd Have Known - Lily Allen

78. A-Yo - Method Man & Redman featuring Saukrates

79. Wavin' Flag - K'naan

80. Life Is Better - Q-Tip featuring Norah Jones

81. Barely in Love - Q-Tip

82. Fly One Time - Ben Harper and Relentless7

83. Why I Am - Dave Matthews Band

84. Daddy's Gone - Glasvegas

85. Crawl - Kings of Leon

86. Uprising - Muse

87. Don't Forget - Demi Lovato

88. Bulletproof - La Roux

89. On Vacation - Aimee Allen

90. Fireflies - Owl City

91. Just Say Yes - Snow Patrol

92. East Jesus Nowhere - Green Day

93. How I Got Over - The Roots

94. I'm Broke - Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

95. Wonderful - Gary Go

96. D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune) - Jay-Z

97. That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings

98. Love Letter to Japan - The Bird and the Bee

99. Get On Your Boots - U2

100. Let's Take a Walk - Raphael Saadiq

The 9th Green’s Readers Favorite Songs of 2009

Today is the one day of the year I turn the 9th Green over to you the readers. I have collected your top ten lists, powered up Microsoft Excel, plugged them in, and here is the list that it spit back out to me. If you don’t agree with this list, you should have sent in you on list and I hope you do so next year. For the list of my 100 favorite songs of 2009, check back tomorrow (a little warning, it may be late as I just started working on it last night and I get a little obsessive compulsive with these lists). So thanks to everyone who did submit their list and hope to see you back here in 2010, here is your list of the best songs of 2009:

1. 1901 - Phoenix

2. Just Breathe - Pearl Jam

3. Bulletproof - La Roux

4. Run This Town - Jay-Z featuring Rihanna and Kanye West

5. Daniel - Bat for Lashes

6. Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

7. No Sound but the Wind (New Moon Version) - Editors

8. Empire State of Mind - Jay-Z featuring Alicia Keys

9. World So Cold - Three Day Grace

10. Fireflies - Owl City

11. Half of My Heart - John Mayer with Taylor Swift

12. Swim - Jack's Mannequin

13. Houses - Great Northern

14. Impossible - Daniel Merriweather

15. New Divide - Linkin Park

16. Heartless - The Fray

17. Supernova - Mr. Hudson featuring Kanye West

18. Use Somebody - Kings of Leon

19. I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers

20. Help I'm Alive - Metric

21. The Debtor - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson

22. You Belong with Me - Taylor Swift

23. Poker Face - Lady Gaga

24. House of Flying Daggers - Raekwon featuring Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, and Method Man

25. Day n Night - Kid Cudi

The 25 Best Mash Up's of 2009

Where I could find them, I linked the mash-up's to YouTube (or embedded them). To download the orginal source, click the song names to be taken to iTunes.

1. Party in the B.I.G. - Hatbanger
Notorious B.I.G. (Party and (Expletive Deleted) vs Miley Cyrus (Party in the U.S.A. )



2. Use the Same Old Song - Mighty Mike
The Four Tops (It's the Same Old Song) vs. Kings of Leon (Use Somebody)



3. Good ol' Fashion Rump Shaker - DJ STV SLV
Beastie Boys (Shake Your Rump) vs. Matt & Kim (Good Ol' Fashion Nightmare)



4. The Trooper Believer - DJ Schmolli
The Monkees (I'm a Believer) vs. Iron Maiden (The Trooper)



5. House of Klezmer - DJ Farfoff
House of Pain (Jump Around) vs. Amsterdam Klezmer Band vs. Pa Brapad



6. Machine Gun Shelter - Party Ben
Commodores (Machine Gun) vs. Rolling Stones (Gimme Shelter)

7. Brooklyn Rocks - DJ Lobsterdust
Beastie Boys (No Sleep 'till Brooklyn) vs. Joan Jett (I Love Rock and Roll)

8. ABC in Central Park - Zamali
Jackson 5 (ABC) vs. Krafty Kuts (Party in Central Park)

9. Give This Way - DJ Moule
Aerosmith-Run DMC (Walk This Way) vs. Red Hot Chili Peppers (Give it Away) vs. Chemical Brothers (Block Rockin' Beats)

10. Everybody's Everyday Girl - DJ BC
Fleetwood Mac (Everywhere) vs. Snoop Dogg (That Girl) vs. Kanye West (This Way) vs Q-Tip (Come Close)

11. Acoustic Alchemy - Norwegian Recycling
Jack Johnson (Bubble Toes) vs. Green Day (Good Riddence (Time of Your Life))

12. Religion in the Wind - Lasso the Moon
Kansas (Dust in the Wind) vs. R.E.M. (Losing My Religion)

13. Paperlong - Mighty Mike
Foo Fighters (Everlong) vs. M.I.A. (Paper Planes)

14. Westside Godzilla Connection - Frogthedog
Westside Connection (Bow Down) vs. Blue Öyster Cult (Godzilla)

15. It's Bigger Than a Prayer - Yold
Dead Prez (Hip Hop) vs. Bloc Party (The Prayer)

16. Radioghost - Norwegian Recycling
Radiohead (High and Dry) vs. Howie Day (Ghost)

17. Crushed Pony - DJ Fac
Ginuwine (Pony) vs. Paramore (Crushchrushcrush)

18. RiverBad - DJ Lobsterdust
Meatloaf (Two Out of Three Ain't Bad) vs. Morcheeba (Riverbed)

19. 2 Many Beastles - dj BC
Beastie Boys and Nas (Too Many Rappers) vs. the Beatles (Taxman)

20. Don't Stop Til You Get Enough Q-Tip - 33jones
Q-Tip (Breathe and Stop) vs. Michael Jackson (Don't Stop til You Get Enough)

21. Complicated Sex on Fire - DJ Schmolli
Avril Lavigne (Complicated) vs. Kings of Leon (Sex on Fire)

22. Gorilla Idol - locK3Down
Gorillaz (Tomorrow Comes Today/Clint Eastwood) vs. Billy Idol (Eyes Without a Face)

23. Fall Out Gloria - Mighty Mike
Fall Out Boy (This Ain't a Scene it's an Arms Race) vs. Gloria Gaynor (I Will Survive)

24. Hives For Your Right - DJ Y alias JY
The Hives (Tick Tick Boom) vs. Beastie Boys (Fight for Your Right)

25. Mercy For Roxanne - Mighty Mike
The Police (Roxanne) vs. Duffy (Mercy)

The 25 Best Live Performances of 2009

When it was announced that Jimmy Fallon would take over Late Night I thought it was the bad idea to end all bad ideas. When he finally took over the desk that was basically was the case. One bright spot was the Fallon brought on The Roots as his house band leading to many once in a lifetime collaborations, five of which landed on the list this year. Unfortunately copyright restrictions keep some of these performances hard to find, but I have linked the ones I could find.


1. Let’s Go Crazy – Incubus and The Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)



2. Cowboy Casanova – Carrie Underwood (American Country Awards)



3. Lost/Viva la Vida - Coldplay and Jay-Z (Grammy Awards)

4. Ride Like the Wind – Christopher Cross, Michael McDonald and The Roots (Jimmy Fallon)

5. Da Rockwilder / I’ll Be There for You / You’re All I Need to Get By – Redman, Method Man and Mary J. Blige (Hip Hop Honor)

6. 15 Steps - Radiohead and the USC Marching Band (Grammy Awards)

7. You Belong with Me – Taylor Swift (MTV Video Music Awards)

8. So What’cha Want – Beastie Boys and the Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

9. Medley - Bruce Springsteen (2009 Super Bowl)

10. East Jesus Nowhere – Green Day (MTV Video Music Awards)

11. Train Kept a Rollin – Metallica, Jeff Beck, Flea, Jimmy Paige, Joe Perry (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction)

12. No Sleep till Brooklyn – Wale, KRS-One, and Gym Class Heroes (Hip Hop Honor)

13. Use Somebody – Kings of Leon (MTV Movie Awards)

14. Margaritaville – Jimmy Buffet and The Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

15. Empire State of Mind – Jay-Z and Alicia Keys (MTV Video Music Awards)

16. Bo Diddly - B.B. King, Buddy Guy, John Mayer, and Keith Urban (Grammy Awards)

17. Lady of My Life – Maxwell (Grammy Nomination Special)

18. Party Up (Up in Here) – DMX and Gym Class Heroes (Hip Hop Honor)

19. Chasing Pavements - Adele and Sugarland (Grammy Awards)

20. Enter Sandman/Master of Puppets – Metallica (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

21. Regulate – Warren G and Trey Songz (Hip Hop Honor)

22. Amen/All Summer Long/Rock & Roll Jesus - Kid Rock (Grammy Awards)

23. Barely in Love – Q-Tip and the Roots (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

24. Four Tops Medley - Duke Farik, Smokey Robinson, Jamie Foxx, and Ne-Yo (Grammy Awards)

25. Rebel Without a Pause – Public Enemy, The Roots and the Street Sweeper Social Club (Hip Hop Honor)