TNP and the Search For... The Best Media of All Time

[St George]

Heyo. Welcome to a fun new series the Culture Ministry is running - where we try to find the absolute, officially unofficial best or worst thing in any given category. Consider it like an election, only much more important.

And we're starting with a big one - the best piece of media of all time. It can be anything, from a book to a tv series, a film, a video game, even a piece of art or YouTube video. It just needs to be submitted and you need to give a reason for it to be considered as the best media of all time. This is important. There's an award and stuff.*

Nominations are open now, and then our panel of expert** judges will decide which nominations go through to the polling rounds, which will happen over a number of days before we come down to a winner - the best piece of media of all time.

Just fill out the form below to get nominating - we'll allow multiple nominations but the number of nominations you make might be taken into account when it comes time to judge them.

Name of Media:
Reasoning for why it's the best ever:

Spoiler

*There's not an award.
**By expert we mean 'they have working eyes and ears'. Don't tell that's not what expert means.

 

[Wonderess]

Name of Media: The film Tree of Life (2011) Directed by Terrence Mallick
Reasoning for why it's the best ever: This is a film that has much different goals from an average movie. It isn't about entertainment or telling a story, it is about the contemplation on life itself and the place of humanity in the cosmos. The story centers around a family's struggle to deal with the untimely taking of their son in a much similar style to the biblical Book of Job. God is questioned about this suffering. The answer is never given by a monologue or a scripted passage but rather in the silence and movements of nature and the human person throughout the movie. The beauty of this movie is that it does not call the viewer outward to be spectator of events unfolding, but rather it calls us inward to evaluate our own place and our connection with that which is unseen. A viewer of the movie on YouTube commented that it made everything else seem so insignificant compared to what the movie's subject matter conveys. I cannot help but agree to a point because it truly calls for a contemplation of eternal things rather than that which pervades daily living and our own little understandings of our world. I'll attach a link to the opening of the movie which is one of my favorite monologues of all time.

 

[Prydania]

Name of Media: Gay Bar music video by Electric Six
Reasoning for why it's the best ever: Electric Six is the greatest band you’ve never heard of. Seriously. Between the catchy tune and lyrics of Danger High Voltage, the rhythmic delight that is Dance Commander, and introspective masterpiece that is Escape from Ohio? Electric Six’s library is among the best rock/disco fusion has to offer.
Gay Bar, however, transcends all else. The oozy charisma of lead singer Dick Valentine is, of course, on full display. The guitar work of the White Wolf manages to electrify beyond even Danger High Voltage’s heights. And the subject matter is timely, persevere in amber to reflect the era of its conception. For it was the late 2000s that acceptance of LGBT+ peoples was first beginning to take hold in popular culture and it was Electric Six that dared to say that yes. There was nothing wrong with spending all your money at the gay bar.
Let us talk about the music video. By using beloved American President Abraham Lincoln Electric Six subtly draws a connection between both the African-American and LGBT+ civil rights struggles. Some might view using Lincoln in the manner the band uses him disrespectful to his legacy. This misses the broader point. By using such a beloved President in this manner? The band makes the point that social acceptance from the top to bottom of our society is something to strive for. Is Elextric Six’s Gay Bar the anthem of a generation? I’m not not saying that.

https://youtu.be/IslF_EyhMzg

 

[Escade]

Name of Media: Red Rising Trilogy (book series) by Pierce Brown

Reasoning for why it's the best ever: I don't read as often as I should usually checking out the first page or chapter and then moving on. This trilogy was stunning. It's a dark science fiction series that looks at a future where people are engineered for certain roles in life across planetary colonies and the desire for one person to start a revolution. Of course this series if much darker and much more realistic in terms of the human horrors that lead to and result in revolution. It's also in some ways a commentary on our capitalistic world. Highly recommended reading and some of the things that happened in the book haunted me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkZzLnFdbbc

 

[Haor Chall]

Name of Media: Star Wars Episode V The Empire Strikes Back

Reasoning for why it's the best ever: Star Wars, duh. And Empire is the best of the best, as should be obvious to everyone ever.

 

[artiza]

Name of media: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Reasoning for why it's the best ever: Play this every day on your way to school or work, no matter how shitty the day is gonna be, this song always helps.

 

[Iraelia]

Name of Media: The Mars Volta
Reasoning for why it's the best ever: The Mars Volta is arguably the best band since the turn of the century. Their innovative concept albums are cosmic and simply incredible, and the stories they tell are insane. Give a listen to De-Loused in the Comatorium and you get an emotional story about an addict entering a coma, spending time in a fantastical dream world, and eventually killing himself in a fit of passion upon realizing how he has failed in life. Listen to Frances the Mute, and you get a story of a man on the hunt to find his lost mother, only to discover she was killed by priests for having a bastard child. You can feel the emotion in all of their albums, and you can start to experience their hardships yourself. I guarantee you, you will be on the verge of tears as the final line of De-Loused's final track (Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt) is belted out by fantastic singer Cedric Bicker-Zavala. Who brought me here? Forsaken deprived and brought with fear! Who Turned me off? The last thing I remember now.

And that's just their first two albums. Amputechture is a work of GENIUS, showcasing their technical side with odd time signatures, ambient noises, and intense guitar playing. Their progressive tendencies make them sound like King Crimson on Cocaine, and it's incredible. The Bedlam in Goliath is an epic Prog Hard Rock, Jazz fusion homage detailing the band's battle with an actual demon that they channeled while on tour. Tracks like Aberinkula will fill you with pure dread, as you can almost imagine yourself as Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, confronting the demon for the first time.

Tl;Dr the Mars Volta is the greatest Prog Rock Band of all time.

 

[Krevt]

Name Of Media : One More Light By Linkin Park.
Reason : Just to Make Chester's Soul Rest In Peace and also because , This song will be my all time favourite not because of the richness of the song but it has got a lot of sense specially after we lost Chester.
This song is probably the most beautiful composition of the entire album with just a guitar and drums and some synths. Just the way it should have been. Many people have started to hate Linkin Park because of their drastic change from their metallish sound to edm back to metal( The Hunting Party) and then to pop. I think that is the reason most people don't like this song.
Recently Linkin Park have been too experimental with their songs and records which if you ask me, I don't mind because to every song they write they have got kind of Linkin Park touch to it. It may differ from person to person.
Moreover , I think that this Tribute song must atleast get a place in TNPs Hearts.

 

[Janus]

Name of Media: 2112 by Rush
Reason: Because, hope.