Golden Geek Awards 2011

I have wanted to make an annual awards page for a number of years, highlighting fantasy, science fiction and other nerdy or geeky media. I should make a couple of things clear from the start:

1. There is no committee behind the decisions here, it is all my opinion. Feel free to disagree with my choices. In some cases, you are probably right. 
2. The awards for a given year are for things I first found in that year, not necessarily when they first appeared.
3. Hall of Fame entries are mostly things that I would enjoy gain this very minute if I had the chance and buddies to join me. However, certain things were so great and innovative for their time that they cannot be ignored. I have marked these as [dated]. We should give them their due, even if we don't want to spend a lot of time on them now. 
4. Some Hall of Fame entries have a [B+] designation. These are things I really liked, even if I probably shouldn't have. 
5. As a general comment, the Hall of Fame sections are preliminary. I am sure there are deserving entries I just haven't remembered yet. As the years roll by I'll fill these in, and also add more description of the entries. 

[New March 31 2012: Classical Geek Section]

Video Section

Big Screen

• 2011 Winner: X-Men First Class
• 2011 Winner totally B category: Immortals
• Hall of Fame: Blade Runner; Soylent Green [dated]; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Highlander [B+]; Star Trek II, the Wrath of Khan; Diva; Mirror Mask; Princess Bride; Unbreakable; X-Men I; Omega Man [dated]; Willow; Rocky Horror Picture Show

Small Screen

• 2011 Winner: Sherlock
• 2011 Honorable Mention: Misfits; Walking Dead; Game of Thrones; Doctor Who
• Hall of Fame: Doctor Who; Classic Doctor Who; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Babylon 5; Farscape; Star Trek (original series) [dated]; Xena [B+]; Highlander [B+]; Lexx [B+]

Shows they Cancelled

• Firefly; Babylon 5; Farscape; Strange Luck; Pushing Daisies; Wonderfalls; Freaks and Geeks

Anime and Cartoons

• 2011 Winner: Durarara. 
• 2011 Honorable Mention: Tiger and Bunny. 
• Hall of Fame: Baccano; Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood; Bleach; the Tick (animated); Naruto; Death Note; Cowboy Bebop; Cyber6; Princess Mononoke; Bacanno; Mushishi

Book Section

Novels

• 2011 Winner: Martin, A Song of Fire and Ice series
• Hall of Fame: Tolkien, Lord of the Rings [dated]; Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia [dated]; Clarke, The City and the Stars; Zelazny, The Lord of Light [B+]; Van Vogt, The World of Null-A [B+]; Moorcock, Dancers at the End of Time series; Moorcock, Elric series [B+]; Moorcock, Castle Brass series; Moorcock, Chronicles of Corum [B+]; Moorcock, Cornelius Chronicles; Vinge, A Deepness in the Sky; Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep; Tolkien, The Hobbit; William Gibson, Sprawl trilogy; Gaimon and Pratchett, Good Omens; Adams, A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series
• Hall of Fame Authors: Michael Moorcock; Vernor Vinge; William Gibson; Neil Gaimon 

Graphic Novels (Comics)

• 2011 Winner: Scott Pilgrim
• Hall of Fame: Sandman; Uncanny X-men (Claremont years); Excalibur (Claremont years); the Watchmen; Buddha; Megatokyo

Game Section

Computer Games 

• No Award 2011
• Hall of Fame: Classic Empire [dated]; Adventure [dated]; Rogue; Warlords II; Diablo I; the SIMS; Civilization  [dated]; Warcraft II [dated]; Starcraft I; Homeworld I

Multi-player Online Games 

• 2011 Winner: World of Warcraft
• Hall of Fame: A turn-based online classic empire-like game whose name I can't remember [dated]; Asheron's Call 

Roleplaying Games

• No Award 2011
• Hall of Fame: Dungeons and Dragons, 2nd Edition [dated]; Champions; GURPS

Board Games

• No Award 2011
• Hall of Fame: Risk; Diplomacy; Wagram; Panzergruppe Guderian; Kingmaker; Settlers of Catan; Barbarian Kings

Handheld Device (iPod) Games

• 2011 Winner: Fieldrunners
• 2011 Honorable Mention: Plants vs Zombies
• Hall of Fame: Orion; Lux DLX 2

Music Section

Albums

• 2011 Winner: NoMeansNo, The People's Choice (hits compilation)
• Hall of Fame: Beatles, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band;  Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour; Interpol, Our Love to Admire; Black Sabbath, Paranoid; The Cars, the Cars; Concrete Blond, Bloodletting; Concrete Blond, Walking in London; Cream, Disraeli Gears; Cream, Wheels of Fire; the Decemberists, the Hazards of Love; Decemberists, the Tain; Doors, LA Woman; Evanescence, the Open Door; Franz Ferdinand, Tonight; Hoodoo Gurus, Mars Needs Guitars; Hoodoo Gurus, Stoneage Romeos; Iron Butterfly, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida; Jean Michel Jarre, Oxygene; Jethro Tull, Aqualung; Kate Bush, the Dreaming; King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King; Led Zeppelin I, II, III and IV; Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti; Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon; Pink Floyd, Relics; Prince, Purple Rain; Queen, A Night at the Opera; Queen, A Kind of Magic; Rasputina, Cabin Fever!;  Rasputina, Frustration Plantation; Rasputina, Thanks for the Ether; Santana, Abraxas; Soundgarden, Superunknown; Styx, the Serpent is Rising [B+]; White Stripes, Icky Thump; Yes, Drama; Yes, Fragile; Yes, Magnification; Yes, Relayer; Yes, The Yes Album
• Hall of Fame Bands: Beatles; Led Zeppelin; Queen; Yes

Soundtracks

• No Award 2011
• Hall of Fame: Shrek; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Once More with Feeling (Buffy Musical); Cowboy Bebop OST; Homeworld I game OST; 

Classical Geek

Classical music can have a definite geek theme and/or evoke a mood appropriate for gaming or other geek pastimes. I stretch the term classical to include all orchestral pieces that you could not really put in the categories above. 

No award 2011

Hall of Fame:

• Wagner, Das Ring des Nibelungen: hours and hours of thick and rich opera, telling the tale of the Ring that gives domination over the world and the destruction of the Norse gods. The story shares some of the same roots as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. The theme, Ride of the Valkyries, is one quite recognizable piece of this epic. 
• Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture: the music follows Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812 ending with cannon fire. In some performances, real cannons are used as the musical instrument for this part and you have to love that!
• Prokofiev, Lieutenant Kije Suite: very fun piece with an amusing background story. It is apparently a movie score from 1933 so perhaps it should be in the soundtrack section.
• Sibelius, Lemminkäinen Suite: music related to legends from the Kalevala which has stories from Finnish mythology (it is like a Beowulf for Finland). 
• Grieg, Peer Gynt Suite: featuring the piece, In the Hall of the Mountain King.
• Orff, Carmina Burana: the opening theme has been used in many totally B movies such as Excalibur (1981). 
• Bach, Tocata and Fugue in D Minor: you will recognize this organ piece when you hear it even if you don't know it by name. It has been featured in many different kinds of media. 
• Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherazade: music inspired by the Arabian Nights. I think Scheherazade's theme is quite beautiful. 
• Strauss, Also Sprach Zarathusra: You'll recognize the prelude as the opening piece of 2001, a Space Odyssey. 
• Holst, The Planets: The Mars theme from this suite is also quite recognizable. 
• Mussorgsky, St. John's Night on Bald Mountain: made popular by the Disney movie, Fantasia. 

Other Section