IT'S OUR TWO YEAR BLOGAVERSARY!
Hello loyal readers! It was two years ago today that we launched The Couch, with goals of being: a chance for friends to participate in collaborative creativity, a great outlet for input from your peers regarding sports and pop culture, and becoming so expertly crafted and well-renowned that we catch the eye of investors and become the next Grantland. 730 days on, I'm happy to report that all but one of those things are true!
Our second year saw some tougher sledding for all of us, as the nonstop responsibilities of adult life made steady content a bit harder to come by. Still, we introduced a number of engaging regular installment pieces, and drew enough inspiration from the endless source of pop culture and sports talking points to unleash over 100 pieces of Couch fury this past year. Year 2 may have felt like more work, but it truly was a ton of fun, and it wouldn't have really been that fun if it weren't for your continued interest, so I thought it might be fun to reward all of you by telling you our Top 10 most-read posts since this blog's last anniversary! There are, of course, hyperlinks on each listing in case you want to revisit its glory. Enjoy, and thank you!
(And a begrudging congratulations to Micah, who makes it two years in a row that the Editor-in-Chief is denied the crown.)
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(Oct. 2017)
"In the US Soccer Team’s case, it is not exaggeration to state that a complete overhaul is needed. And the reason it isn’t exaggeration is because this isn’t needed now, it was needed before now. The warning signs were there: the decisions of many of the team’s stalwarts to play in the MLS instead of European leagues, and the dependence by Klinsmann and then Arena on many of the same players who clearly weren’t performing up to the level required was resulting in inconsistent, shoddy and at worst, downright ugly play.
Author: Michael Rondello
(Oct. 2017)
"The best way to analyze value in the win totals market is to examine a team’s record from the prior season and to project their change in wins based on their roster changes. This year’s eventful offseason saw many important players changing uniforms and, with that in mind, there are a few teams that provide substantial value for a bet on the over or under."
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(Jan. 2018)
"2017 was not quite as chock full of amazing skits as its predecessor was, but to be fair it was a tough act to follow. 2016 was filled with some of the best episodes of Saturday Night Live in years, and its election coverage was perhaps the most relevant of any news channel's. That being said, though the writing has been noticeably less sharp in Season 43 of SNL than Season 42, there have been plenty of skits, political and non-political that made me laugh."
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(Sep. 2017)
"This list begins with the inevitable caveat that none of these songs are anything but good to great. And I don't mean that to be a thoughtless platitude- genuinely, every single song on this album is a good song. It's what makes it a timeless classic, and renders a ranking so difficult (and pointless). Here goes!"
Author: Christian Becker
(Jan. 2018)
"I rarely go back to see a movie a second time in the theater. [My #1 pick] I saw 3 times. I probably sound like a broken record throughout this list, saying “oh this movie does such a great job with both comedy and drama, blah blah blah.” But nobody handles that balance better than [this movie]."
Author: Micah Veldkamp and Daniel Woodiwiss
(Apr. 2018)
"But the bracket that spawned all these others— indeed, the one bracket to rule them all — was undoubtedly the ‘Kanye Madness’ bracket, started by Twitter user Carrington Harrison. Whether it was the ardent fanbase the rapper has, or the pretty colors/formatting that Harrison used that inspired such virality, we don’t know. But there have been countless submissions of Kanye Madness, and we want to throw our hats in the ring.."
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(Jan. 2018)
"It was a decent year in music, not a great one. There was no shortage of great individual songs, but for the second consecutive year, I found only a few albums that wowed me, or seemed like an instant classic. Case in point: the only 3 that really grabbed me this year are the Top 3 of these rankings (the rest of my Top 10 has undergone about 9 edits today)."
3. "Review: I, Garbage"
Author: Sierra Slaughter
(Jan. 2018)
"When I have something positive to say, I never know where to start. When I have something negative to say, I just want to jump right into it. Let’s jump right into it then. Here are three quick bullet points as to why I, Tonya was not a great movie and why it needs to not be nominated for anything when nominations come out tomorrow for the Oscars."
Author: Sierra Slaughter
(Nov. 2017)
"'We’ve all recommended that ONE movie to our friends over and over. It might be a bit odd, a bit slow, a bit cheesy, deeply dark, or emotionally taxing, but we love it so much we want everyone else to love it as well. That’s what we have here. The people have spoken. These are the films that mean the most to you. The films no one ever watches even when you beg. I’ve watched them, and now I wanna chat."
Author: Micah Veldkamp
(Jan. 2018)
"This is a list of 2017 albums that were really great but that you’re not gonna find on any other best-of-2017 list. The reasons may vary (indie artist, not culturally relevant/significant, etc), but I think they also deserve a spotlight. Plus, I doubt you want to see another list with DAMN. at the No. 1 spot, Flower Boy underrated and More Life overrated (don’t @ me)."