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Flavorwire

Best of 2012

Television

The 10 Best 'SNL' Skits of 2012

By Emily Temple on

Well, another year of SNL has come and gone. Unlike any other show on television, the skits on SNL have the potential to sneak into the cultural consciousness on their own terms, becoming much more relevant than the show itself — and sometimes more relevant than whatever they’re mocking. So what were the best skits of the year? From where we’re standing, the earlier half of 2012 was much stronger, bringing us a couple of our new all-time favorites, and the hilarity trailed off a little, but maybe it’s just that the new goodies haven’t had time to sink in yet. Either way, after the jump, watch our picks for the ten best skits from this year of Saturday Night Live. But since humor, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, let us know which of your favorites we missed in the comments. … Read More

Books

Last-Minute Literary Gifts For Every Member of the Family

By Emily Temple on

Was it just us, or did the holidays totally sneak up on everyone this year? If you’re headed to a family gathering this weekend and scrambling for last-minute gifts for your relatives, don’t forget that you pretty much can’t go wrong with a good book. It’s all a matter of picking the right book for the right relative. Sound hard? Well not to worry, dearest procrastinators, we’ve got you covered. After the jump, read through our suggestions (and our second choices) for books for every member of your family. Let us know what you ended up choosing in the comments! … Read More

Music

The 10 Best Dark and Weird Electronic Albums of 2012

By Russ Marshalek on

We’re not ones for preemptively compiling “best of the year” lists, particularly in music. There’s always one or two records or, as is coming increasingly more common, a small flurry of mixtapes that drop at the tail end of December that cause us obsessive, neurotic critics to compulsively rearrange our lists (see: last year, and The Weeknd’s Echoes of Silence, his surprisingly perfect ending to a trilogy that most thought lagged a bit in the center). That said, we’re ready to put a lock down on 2012 as it relates to the year’s releases in the brilliantly flourishing “weird” dark electronic scene. We’re living in a post-witch house landscape now, where the pop music landscape is slurring and blurring into a weird, dark hybrid of what we used to know… and that’s an awesome thing. It allows for the likes of Charli XCX’s Super Ultra tape to rub against the epic void of releases from Blackest Ever Black. So, in this festive time of year, let’s get dark. … Read More

Film

The 30 Best Movie Posters of 2012

By Alison Nastasi on

Before we close another chapter in cinema history, take a look at some of our favorite film posters from 2012. We kept our inner movie critic in check and focused on the retro, minimal, satirical, and striking artwork representing this year’s slate of incredible (and yes, terrible) movies. These designs did what every successful movie poster should: pique our curiosity, grab our attention, invite us to explore the story deeper, and give us great style. Do the best posters of 2012 meet your design-savvy expectations? Check out our selections after the jump. … Read More

Design

The Top 10 Design Books of 2012

By Claire Cottrell on

What do we love more than lists here at Flavorwire? Lists about books, that’s what. In keeping with one of our favorite time honored traditions — the end-of-year requisite roundups — we thought we’d take a look at some of the most noteworthy design books released in the past twelve months. Often relegated to the coffee table category, the design tome is a hallowed genre that’s more pictures than prose, but affords what we think is still the best form of inspiration in the world: the impeccably printed page.

From Phaidon’s comprehensive book-in-a-box featuring 500 plus graphic designs to Taschen’s enchanting retrospective of fairy tale tree houses for grownups, click through to check out our favorite design titles of 2012. … Read More

Books

Bill Gates' Favorite Books of 2012

By Emily Temple on

You may not have realized it, but Bill Gates — resident genius, founder of Microsoft and the richest man in America — is a total book nerd. And not only this, but he frequently posts musings about the books he reads to his website The Gates Notes. So we’re not surprised that today, in keeping with the season, Gates has published a list of his “top reads of 2012,” or as he puts it, “ten books that made me think.” There’s nothing wildly unexpected here, but hey, we’re always trying to be a little bit more like Bill Gates, so we’re adding a few of these to our to-read list. What about you? … Read More

Books

The Best Books Flavorpill Staffers Read in 2012

By Emily Temple on

Year-end best-of book lists can be tough. After all, if you’re anything like us, you’re still catching up on the best books of 2010 — or 1910 — and only sneaking a few brand new hardcovers into the mix. So when sitting down to contemplate our collective year in reading, we decided to include everything, not just the new stuff. After the jump, your humble literary editor and a few other Flavorpill staffers expound on the best books we read this year — whether they be books that came out this year, or just the ones we finally (finally!) got around to reading. And inquiring minds want to know, dear readers, what was the best book you read this year? Let us know in the comments. … Read More

Books

The Books That Made the Most ‘Best Of 2012′ Book Lists

By Emily Temple on

December means a lot of things. Our normally latent shopping gene starts itching like crazy, mint-flavored coffee starts sounding like a good idea, and every single media outlet (ourselves included) puts up their “best of” everything lists. Well, ’tis the season. In an effort to distill all those year’s end book round-ups — and let’s face it, be a little meta — we looked at 16 lists from 14 media organizations and counted up the books that tickled the most critics this year. Turns out, they had quite a few differing opinions — on those 16 lists alone, we noted more than 150 unique titles — but also agreed across the board on a few knock-outs. After the jump, feast your eyes on the most popular books of the 2012 best book list season — and let us know if you agree with consensus or think the world’s gone mad in the comments. … Read More