And thus, a third year of weekly blog posts has finally drawn to an end. It is therefore time for my yearly look back, collecting highs and (mainly) lows of fifty-two looks into popular culture. I will give your four of each, for the simple reason that, otherwise, I would have to give a different number. Or shut down the blog, I guess. Or just skip this overview. Okay, let’s just get on with it.
The worst of 2019
CIPC #127: Justin Timberlake feat. Jay-Z, Suit & Tie
I had very little to say about this one, which is a shame because the position spotlighted is very interesting. But I have an excuse! The music was just too horrible to spend much time on it.
CIPC #139: Miller advertisement
Here, too, I have an excuse, but it’s the exact opposite one: the position just isn’t very interesting. So, naturally, neither was my post. But I am not completely innocent: I could have chosen a better subject.
CIPC #140: Blackadder II E4, Money
Blackadder itself one of the greatest comedy series of all time, so there was just no way that my post could compare. But at least there could have been something, which there isn’t. Sorry.
Yes, it wasn’t a very interesting post. Yes, there were no jokes. Yes, there was no clever wordplay. But then again, that just makes it resemble the movie itself. It’s totally meta, guys!
The best of 2019
CIPC #145: Chess book cover galore
This was a nice change of pace from the standard posts I make: a few terrible covers, dissected shortly and quickly.
CIPC #132: The prisoner, Checkmate
The prisoner is a rather surrealistic tv series, so it is perhaps not surprising that it features a rather surrealistic chess scene, but surprising or not it gave me quite a bit of material.
CIPC #122: meetup.com commercial
I would have to be the absolute worst chess-in-popular-culture blogger on the planet1 if I couldn’t make something halfway decent out of this much material. So that’s exactly what I did: write something halfway, but not quite, decent.
CIPC #103: Bertina Henrichs, Die Schachspielerin
I have the feeling that my commentaries are usually my best posts. Unfortunately, they take quite a bit of time to make. Moreover, they only make sense for works in which chess plays a big role and I also want to show small, inconsequential scenes where chess just plays a supporting role.
1. [Which I probably am, come to think of it. But I’m probably the best one, too!] ↩