That’s right, 2013 is finally over — and after 365 days of international espionage, prime time twerking, and endless Rob Ford updates, most of you will probably be jumping for joy to think of the fresh new year ahead of you. But before we inevitably make the same mistakes in 2014 as we did last year, The Peak has compiled a list of the past year’s greatest hits, from Alice Munro’s Nobel Prize to water on the Red Planet.
Music
Kendrick Lamar gained “Control” A year after releasing the critically acclaimed good kid, m.A.A.d city, Kendrick Lamar made headlines for his verse on Big Sean’s “Control.” In it, he called out his contemporaries — including Drake, Pusha T, Tyler the Creator and A$AP Rocky — saying, “I got love for you all, but I’m tryna murder you niggas.” A call to arms and a celebration of hip-hop competitive spirit, Lamar’s verse stands as one of the best verses of the year.
It was the year of the comeback 2013 was the year of the musical comeback. Some, such as David Bowie, My Bloody Valentine, Justin Timberlake, Boards of Canada and Daft Punk, returned to critical and commercial fanfare — others, such as The Dismemberment Plan, Black Flag, the Pixies, Deltron 3030 and Lauryn Hill, fell flat. Either way, 2013 was all about listening to albums you never thought you’d hear, from a new Pixies EP to the first My Bloody Valentine release in 22 years.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor snuff the Polaris Prize The ultimate prize for Canadian music, the Polaris Prize, was awarded to idiosyncratic post-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor for their 2012 album ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! The notoriously politically radical octet refused to attend, calling the ceremony “tone deaf” and “FUCKING INSANE” in an online statement. They pledged to use the money from the award to establish a program to provide prisoners in Quebec, the band’s native province, with access to musical instruments.
Kanye West was Kanye West Just like 2012, 2011 and basically every year since his debut, Kanye West dominated music news in 2013. Last year, he released his sixth studio album Yeezus, feuded publicly with Jimmy Kimmel, cancelled two concerts in Vancouver, dubbed himself “the nucleus” in an interview with The New York Times, named his child North (get it? North West!), and rode a motorcycle with a topless Kim Kardashian. We love you, Kanye. Don’t ever change.
Pharrell became ubiquitous Before 2013, you could be forgiven for not knowing who Pharrell was. By now, you’d have to be living under a rock to be unfamiliar with the producer’s signature tenor. Last year, Pharrell provided vocals to the summer’s two biggest hits, “Blurred Lines” and “Get Lucky,” as well as producing tracks for Earl Sweatshirt, Beyoncé, Jay Z, and Miley Cyrus. He also made a 24 hour music video for his track “Happy” and wrote the music for Despicable Me 2, the second most successful film of the year.
Science and Medicine
We found out how particles acquire mass The scalar boson or Higgs boson particle was first theorised all the way back in the 1964, but its discovery wasn’t announced until 2012. The particle confirms the existence of the Higgs field, which is crucial to our understanding of the Standard Model of physics. In 2013, two of the scientists behind the particle’s discovery, François Englert and Peter Higgs, won the Nobel Prize in Physics. However, despite intensive analysis, many questions about the particle remained unsolved, such as why it is so light, and whether different types exist.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover found evidence of life on Mars After its first full year on the Red Planet, the Curiosity Rover’s studies of Martian soil and rock yielded traces of oxygen, carbon dioxide and — that’s right — water. The Rover also discovered that a particularly large crater on the planet, named the Gale Crater may well be an ancient lake bed, complete with all the minerals necessary to have made life on Mars a genuine possibility.
An asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia On February 15, an asteroid entered the atmosphere above Russia at a speed of 18.5 km per second. The asteroid exploded midair, shattering windows and sending approximately 1500 people to the hospital with injuries. This was the largest natural object to have entered the Earth’s atmosphere in 105 years. Though the planet’s atmosphere absorbed most of the object’s impact, its original kinetic energy is estimated to have been over 20 times that of the atomic bomb.
Breakthroughs were made in the study of cancer immunotherapy In 2013, researchers studying cancer broke new ground. Instead of targeting tumours directly, cancer immunotherapy uses the human immune system to eliminate cancerous cells. The research has had positive results but is still in its experimental stages — though the academic journal Science awarded the research with its Breakthrough of the Year award, the journal’s news editor stressed “it’s important not to overstate the immediate benefits.”
The oldest DNA of a humanlike species was found Scientists have discovered the Homo heidelbergensis, an ancient humanlike species whose DNA is the oldest found by scientists not in permafrost. The remains were found in northern Spain, on a site called the Pit of Bones. Though the species are not our direct ancestors, they’re of the same genus, and the technique through which its DNA was discovered — by analyzing traces of mitochondrial DNA in bones — is likely to be used by scientists in the future.
Film and Television
Breaking Bad came to an end Whether or not you enjoyed Breaking Bad’s finale last year, it’s likely you were as glued to your TV as the rest of us — after five years of shocking plot twists, breathtaking New Mexican landscapes, and Bryan Cranston in his tighty whities, it’s no surprise Breaking Bad was so hard to say goodbye to. Though the final episode was the most discussed, the final season’s high point — and, arguably, that of the whole series — was “Ozymandias,” in which (spoiler alert!) Walter’s world finally came crashing down on him.
Matt Smith passed the torch as Doctor Who After five years as the eleventh Doctor, strong jawed ingenue Matt Smith is finally moving on — and leaving Peter Capaldi, the foul-mouthed curmudgeonly star of BBC’s The Thick of It, in his place. Though Smith had his highs and lows inside the blue police box, he’ll likely be remembered as one of the better actors to take on the role, inspiring countless debates as to whether or not he was better than David Tennant.
Blue is the Warmest Colour won the Palme d’Or and controversy La Vie d’Adèle, the 2013 French film adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name, focuses on a love affair between two young women. The film was unanimously voted to win the Palme d’Or, the highest honour of the Cannes Film Festival. The award, which is usually given to the director, was shared by the film’s two female stars. Many have since criticized director Abdellatif Kechiche for pushing his actresses too far, citing the film’s lengthy simulated sex scenes.
Netflix ruled the world In 2013, Netflix went from a mostly innocuous DVD renting and streaming service to one of the biggest juggernauts in the TV business. Their earnings trampled expectations, their streaming service put competitors to shame, and Netflix original programs like Orange is the New Black and House of Cards stood up to televised counterparts, with the latter being the first web only series to win a major Emmy Award. Also, they helped bring Arrested Development back to life. What more can we ask?
12 Years a Slave tackled the trans-Atlantic slave trade Steve McQueen’s third feature tells the true story of the violinist-turned-slave Solomon Northup in unflinching detail, it’s hard to ignore its status as — potentially — the first film to successfully tackle the prickly topic of slavery in North America. Though the film isn’t without its issues, its stark portrait of institutional racism has more than its fair share of present parallels. It’s still the frontrunner for the Academy Award for Best Picture — deserving or not, it’s certainly better than Argo.
Politics
Rob Ford made us all ashamed to be Canadian In what might be Canada’s biggest political scandal since the King–Byng Affair, Rob Ford — Toronto’s incurably obnoxious mayor — admitted to smoking crack cocaine while in office. Ford further incriminated himself and ostracized Torontonian voters through a series of PR disasters, the most notable being his use of the phrase “eating pussy” to deny a claim of sexual harassment. Ford has since had many of his mayoral powers stripped by city council.
Civil war raged on in Syria Now in its third year, Syria’s harrowing and destructive civil war saw its most devastating year in 2013. The conflict arose out of the Arab Spring protests, and is currently being fought between the Syrian government and a unified group of oppositional forces, the latter of whom have received aid from Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Last year, chemical weapons — which have been banned by the UN — were confirmed to have been used by Syrian government forces. Though this has increased foreign intervention into the conflict, by all accounts the war seems to be far from over.
The United States government stopped working Unable to reach an agreement on how to curtail the nation’s debt and plan for the 2014 fiscal year, the United States government was forced to shut down for over two weeks last October. Though Democrats and Republicans eventually reached a solution, the two opposing parties have ceded very little ground since. Along with the fumbled rollout of President Barack Obama’s health care website, 2013 was a difficult year for politics down south.
The Senate spending scandal spilled into 2013 Beginning in late 2012, the Canadian Senate’s ongoing expenses scandal dominated national news throughout the year. The scandal arose when four Canadian Senators falsely claimed travel and housing expenses, leading to an extended government investigation. One Senator, Mac Harb, announced his retirement in August, while the remaining three have been suspended without pay. Many political commentators have since demanded that the Senate be reformed or even abolished, and Canadians have been left with no clear solution heading into the new year.
Edward Snowden opened Pandora’s Box Beginning in late 2012, Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the United States’ National Security Agency, began contacting journalists and documentarists in order to leak classified documents and other information to the public. After he fled the country in May 2013, the leaked information began to spread, and within months the global surveillance tactics used by the NSA and its international partners became common knowledge. The year’s biggest news story was the revelation we all suspected but hoped would not be true: We’re all being watched.
Literature
Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature Feminists, Canadians and short story lovers all rejoiced when the 2013 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature was announced as Alice Munro, the beloved Canadian author of such short stories as “Carried Away” and “The Bear Came Over the Mountain,” the latter of which was adapted as the film Away From Her in 2007. Munro has been writing short stories since 1950, and has been compared to such literary giants as Anton Chekhov and John Updike. She’s also won the Man Booker Prize, and been awarded the Governor General’s Award for fiction thrice.
Hyperbole and a Half took on depression Long known and beloved as one of the most irreverent webcomics on the internet, Allie Brosh’s crudely drawn Hyperbole and a Half tackled mental illness in “Adventures in Depression Part 2,” a follow up to a 2011 comic in which the artist first delved into her struggles with the disorder. Equal parts crudely funny and genuinely insightful, Brosh’s lengthy comic was eventually reprinted, along with Part 1 and several new stories, in an October print collection which was named an NPR Book of the Year.
Morrissey published his autobiography Cleverly titled Autobiography, the former Smiths singer’s long-awaited memoir chronicles his experiences in the indie pop quartet and as a solo performer. He’s surprisingly kind to his former bandmates, although not so towards the music industry bigwigs. Though the book received mixed reviews, it was notably illuminating on the topic of Morrissey’s sexuality, which he has since described as humansexual. Upon being published in the US, much of the book’s gay content was edited out, begging the question: are there homophobic Morrissey fans?
Boston bomber nabs Rolling Stone cover In a move that elicited controversy and proved people still read Rolling Stone, the magazine chose to feature Dzhokhar Tsarnev — the chief suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing case — on their cover. The cover of the Rolling Stone, which has long been a goal for up-and-coming musical acts, was argued to be unfit for Tsarnev’s innocuous portrait, which Slate went so far as to call “dreamy.” Whether or not the magazine made the right call morally, they certainly did economically — the issue doubled in sales amidst media backlash.
The Man Booker Prize goes to Canadian-born Eleanor Catton Proving again that our literature doesn’t suck, thank you very much, Canadian-born New Zealander Elizabeth Catton won the coveted Man Booker Prize — an award that, until 2013, was reserved for members of the British Commonwealth. Competing during the first year in which Americans became eligible, Catton wiped away the competition with her novel The Luminaries, which has the distinction of being organized around the movements of the Sun and Moon.
Culture
Twerking and selfies Every year, we learn to accept new words into our ever expanding cultural lexicon. Think YOLO or bromance. Last year taught us many new words, but the two most notable have got to be twerk and selfie. The former refers to the butt-jiggling dance that gained prominence after Miley Cyrus’ infamous performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, while the latter is meant for pictures of oneself posted on social media sites like Instagram or Facebook. Both have existed in one way or another for decades, and last year they were finally added to the Oxford Dictionary.
Super Pope In March 2013, Pope Benedict XVI retired from the papacy. His successor, Pope Francis, was born in Argentina, and worked as a nightclub bouncer before joining the seminary. Francis quickly distanced himself from his predecessor’s conservative reputation, spending time hanging out with children, making friends with rabbis and sneaking out at night to lend a hand to the poor. He’s criticized homophobia, income inequality, and radical religiosity. His mantra: “Who am I to judge?”
Feminism was embraced, publicly and privately Though feminism has too often been considered a dirty word in our society, 2013 was a pretty good year for gender equality. Malala Yousafzai preached nonviolent resistance, Wendy Davis stood for reproductive rights on the Texas Senate Floor, Robin Thicke’s sexist “Blurred Lines” was met with severe backlash, and Grimes took to Tumblr with an anti-sexist manifesto. There’s still a long way to go, but all things considered, 2013 gave feminists a lot to be proud of.
LGBT rights took two steps forward, one step back 2013 saw seven American states, as well as nations such as Brazil, France and Uruguay, legalize gay marriage. Kathleen Wynne became the first openly gay Canadian premier, Ukraine had its first LGBT Pride march, Jason Collins and Robbie Rogers became the first active pro sports athletes to come out, and Harvey Milk got his own postage stamp. On the other hand, Russia also enacted its infamous anti-gay propaganda legislation, leading some to encourage the boycott of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.
Phil Robertson, Paula Deen and the year of controversy 2013 was all about scandals — no, not that Scandal. I’m talking about Paula Deen’s N-word debacle, Alec Baldwin’s PR fiascos, Julianne Hough’s ill advised blackface Halloween costume, Saturday Night Live’s whitewashed cast, Miley Cyrus in general, Manti Te’o’s fake girlfriend, and Justin Bieber’s hope that Anne Frank “would have been a Belieber.” Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson’s recent anti-gay comments in GQ are the cherry on top of the controversy cake. Overall, 2013 was the year to get your knickers in a twist.
