IT *WAS* OUR SIX YEAR BLOGAVERSARY!
Hello loyal readers! It was six years ago at the beginning of this month 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. 2,206 days on, I'm happy to report that all but one of those things are true!
Just as has been the case every year since this blog's inception, and increasingly in the COVID and post-pandemic era, these last 12 months have been pretty stop-start in terms of the content, as you loyal fans will surely have noticed. Probably the most telling sign of this is the fact that we have published a grand total of six (6) new articles since Memorial Day weekend, which feels like an eternity ago to me at least.
Still, we were able to unleash over 100 pieces of Couch fury this past year, and with awards season, Premier League season, college football season, and critically-acclaimed cinema season upon us, we are ready to jump back on the horse. Year 6 of The Couch may have been every bit as (and even more so!) chaotic than the previous five, 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!
More so than any previous blogaversary post, you'll quickly notice a common theme that emerged among our top-read of the last year, lol. But am I going to change the formula for "Top 10 of the year" from pure, undisputed numbers? No chance, baby! Not when it delivers yours truly his second consecutive crown! Woooo!
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(July 2022)
"Over [the last 12-13 months] we've also seen Gregg Berhalter's squad take an increasingly consistent shape, to the extent that we have a pretty good idea of what at least half of the U.S. team in Qatar is going to look like. There are several unknowns in the starting XI still, though, let alone depth pieces, especially with FIFA's ruling that nations will be able to bring 26 players this year . . . so, with exactly 4 months until the team kicks off World Cup play against Wales, let's get to our breakdown of who is still in the running to represent the Stars and Stripes in November"
Authors: Daniel Baas, Christian Becker, Sierra Slaughter and Daniel Woodiwiss
(March 2022)
"This Oscars has several slam dunk categories tonight, including the biggest one of them all, and as a result, all four of us are still fairly confident in these selections. After such a turbulent and unprecedented year, though, the night is sure to include at least some drama and uncertainty. More than one acting category, for example, is at their most competitive in years. Who knows who will take top honors? We'll find out shortly, at least!"
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(February 2022)
"I was always aware of this list, but at the outset of 2022, being ever the musichead, ever the listophile, I made a plan to complete what some might argue is just as audacious an undertaking: I want to listen to all 500, regardless of my familiarity (or lack thereof) with a particular album, regardless of my feelings towards its artist. I'm going to listen to all 500, in order. And I'm going to share my thoughts on them, but because there are literally hundreds of albums to get through, I pledge to keep said thoughts to a sentence or two."
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(April 2022)
"Pop sensation Lizzo had graced the Studio 8H stage as a musical guest in the 2019 Christmas episode with Eddie Murphy-- one of the best episodes in recent history --and even beyond that, she's become one of the most instantly recognizable faces in America since her breakout success a few years back. . . The quality of the various sketches depended on when the writers and cast were up to matching their host's energy. In one of the most up-and-down episodes of the season, they were much less steady than Lizzo was. Fortunately, the lows were not in fact all that low, and the highs were really, really high."
Author: Christan Becker
(January 2022)
"A big ol’ hug of a movie. I don’t think I stopped smiling for one minute throughout Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming of age journey. One of the few movies I’ve seen in recent memory where I could tell I was witnessing a classic in the making. . . Mike Mills takes many years in between making films, but they’re always worth the wait. A wonderful celebration of life, childhood and adulthood that struck so many emotional cords in me. Everything from the writing, performances and visual choices were just charming and perfect in my eyes"
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(January 2022)
"Last year was another unique one for the show. In a telling reflection of the year that was, the season began with a limited, masked live audience watching jokes about the insurrection, proceeded to witness the return of a full live studio audience once more, right up until the very last show, which saw no audience, and next to no cast and crew. But through it all, though, the now 47-year old program never failed to find new, creative ways to make us laugh and perhaps briefly forget the sobering realities of the world around us. . . All this being said, with the recognition that there are several decent skits that will not receive the shoutout they probably deserve, here are my Top 25"
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(December 2021)
"Both in terms of quantity and variety, I've watched more television, I think, in the last two years than I had in the previous decade. Call it a "blessing" of continuous-come-intermittent quarantine, or a curse, but having finally consumed enough content to formulate a ranking of the best, here's my opinion on the best shows, programs, and events TV had to offer in the year 2021"
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(June 2022)
"Fortunately, there is one thing those of us stateside get to celebrate: the USA will be back at the World Cup! After the embarrassment of missing out on the tournament altogether four years ago, an almost entirely new generation of players, led by a new manager, rose up and secured qualification this past March. So, on the day that would have seen the start of the World Cup in any other year, I figured I would break down the performances of all 10 United States men's teams that came before this one, from worst to best"
Author: Sierra Slaughter
(December 2021)
"As we here at The Couch continue to recap 2021 in sports in entertainment, Film and Television contributor Sierra Slaughter offers her ranking of the best films of an abnormal year. . .Sad year for movies but admittedly there are plenty I haven't watched. Also I typed this on my phone. Here's my list!"
Author: Daniel Woodiwiss
(December 2021)
"I must confess, I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the music scene this year. Perhaps some of this is an expectations game; considering the names attached to the projects that were coming out this year, I had high hopes for one of the strongest years in a long time. But ultimately, while 2021 was high on quantity-- there were a lot of albums I really liked --it was low on quality-- there were no albums I truly loved, at least to the point of wanting to listen, and re-listen, and re-listen, etc. That being said, I seem to make this gripe about the lack of great albums annually, only to change my mind about that the more I listened to them. Case in point: I got in a spirited debate with a friend last year about how much better 2019's music was than 2020's, and now at the end of this year, I find myself nostalgic for many of 2020's releases. So I am once again asking you to watch this space for a change of mind, is I guess what I'm saying."
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