Check out this cool posting featuring artful renderings of famous movie posters reimagined for another era.

Wilco has combined with King Features for the first hand-drawn Popeye cartoon in more than 30 years. Check out Darren Romanelli’s vision for “Dawned on Me‘!

2011 was an immensely challenging year. We saw turmoil in the world economies and the political sphere, multiple disasters natural (the Japanese tsunami and earthquake, tornadoes, hurricanes, and droughts) and manmade (see: Penn State). And things didn’t look all that much better on the small scale of our industry, where we saw stations flipped, jobs lost, and budgets slashed and slashed again. Therefore, we thought it more important than ever to look back on our collective year in Triple A radio and records in a cheerful light, and we were delighted to see that so many of our colleagues share our sense of sunny positivity in the face of all that’s transpired. We’re happy to present you with the results of the Songlines Poll 2011. Thanks to Mark Abuzzahab, Jim McGuinn, Gabby Parsons, and Chris Wienk, who submitted question ideas this year, as well as to all 123 of you who took the time to post responses to the poll.

At the end of this summary, you’ll find a link that will take you to more complete results of the survey, with spiffy pie charts and bar graphs, and more answers than we could ever highlight here. But first, an overview:

Tina Fey topped our Academy Awards host wish list, with 31 votes. Zach Galifianakis was a close second, and Stephen Colbert, Sarah Silverman, and Will Ferrell all got more than 10% of the vote as well. Actual host Billy Crystal only got 4 votes; sadly, the Academy producers appear to be as out of touch as ever.

Proof that we’re keeping our chins up despite the odds: if we had a week off, a whopping 61% of us would rather occupy our local record store to help it stay open than any other location (even the tree outside Christina Hendricks’ bedroom window).

Many of us weren’t afraid to broadcast the wishful thinking in our bones, dreaming of Kristen Kurtis fronting the lineup of the Las Vegas Lingerie Wranglers, and of Bruce Warren providing us with masterful coiffes rather than blogging advice, but the real previous occupation in this year’s Triple A true/false was rightfully selected, and did belong to Jon Hart: he did, in fact, host a sports show for 14 years.

When it comes to our favorite Rolling Stones album, Exile on Main St. wins the honors, with 22.6% of us making that selection. Next most-popular is Sticky Fingers, followed by Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet, and, cheekily, Some Girls.

Sixty-eight percent of us still prefer physical to digital when it comes to albums; as for singles, 57% are partial to Play MPE over CD PROs.

Here are some of the most interesting supergroups dreamed up by our Triple A pals playing A&R masterminds:

Ray Lamontagne, Keith Richards, Flea, Mike Campbell, and Stewart Copeland
Tom Waits, Willie Nelson, Beck, and Prince
Jonsi, Trent Reznor, and Justin Vernon
Merrill Garbus, Jim James, Patrick Hallahan, James Murphy, and the Dap-Kings Horns
Paul Weller fronting a mash-up of the Flaming Lips and the Roots for a psychedelic/R&B/Mod group
Eddie Vedder, Beck, Thom Yorke, Neil Young, Jack White, St. Vincent, Yukimi Nagano (Little Dragon), Danger Mouse, and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond)
Stevie Wonder, Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, Jason Moran, and Questlove
Dan Connelly, Sean Coakley, Lisa Sonkin, Paul Langton, and Brian Corona
Bob Dylan, Jim James, Jeff Tweedy, Questlove, Les Claypool, Maceo Parker, and Stevie “Fuck Yeah” Wonder

What turns you on? The answers to this question were so creative and good-spirited that we heartily recommend you read them all by clicking the link at the end of the summary. (It was question 25.) But here are a few standouts for the time being:
A hidden switch behind my left knee.
Babes with banjos. Or fiddles.
“When the Levee Breaks”
180 grams at 33 1/3 rpms. 
New York.
Sexy librarians. With glasses.
Ascots. 

Some things never change. Frampton Comes Alive! topped the voting in our “best live album of all time” inquiry. The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East came next, followed by a tie between The Last Waltz, Stop Making Sense, The Who: Live at Leeds, and “all live albums suck.” Several other live classics got multiple mentions, including Bob Marley and the Wailers Live!, Rock of Ages by The Band, Kiss: Alive!, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young‘s 4 Way Street, Black Sabbath: Live Evil, and Nirvana‘s Unplugged in New York.

Not surprisingly, since hundreds of thousands are available, our favorite apps were all over the map. Hipstamatic, Words with Friends, and Shazam were by far the most utilized amongst our poll-takers. Twitter, Spotify, NY Times, and Google Maps all have several proponents as well. There were also some hilarious answers, such as:
“App-etite”
“Add an ‘n’ at the beginning, and I would love one.”
“What’s the internet?”
And, we had some jokesters who clearly prefer food to technology, and offered up the following restaurant starters:
chili con queso
scallops wrapped in bacon
cheese sticks
mussels in a white wine and cream sauce
shrimp cocktail

As for the pick ‘ems: we’d much rather kick it old school than get up to speed with the new school; likewise, we staunchly favor board games over video games. At least for now, we have a strong preference for Facebook over Google+, and we use Spotify more than Pandora. Like James Bond, we’ll take a shaken cocktail over one stirred. We’re partial to Emma Stone over the other lovely ladies pictured, and Johnny Depp above the other gents. (Suck it, Gosling!) And we’ll still take Obama over Hilary by a long shot.

On to the NFL: As the playoffs roll on, our predictions aren’t looking as good as they usually do. Though 12.5% of those polled chose the Patriots to win the Super Bowl, the highest percentage of our respondents (29%) chose the Packers to win the big game. After this past Sunday’s loss to the Giants (who were selected by a grand total of 5 of our poll-takers), the green and gold are high-tailing it out of frigid Wisconsin. The Broncos and Steelers, both understandable favorites this year, nabbed 9% and 7% of the vote, respectively, but they’re already partaking in a long off-season. No other team–including the divisional championship-bound 49ers and Ravens–garnered more than 5% of the vote.

Looking for some stats to back up the theory that the NHL is experiencing a renaissance? The proof is in the pudding: 21% of us thought that the Bruins taking the Stanley Cup was last year’s best sports moment. (Although we acknowledge that this could just mean that a disproportionate number of folks in the Triple A world come from Boston.) However, more of us were happy about a comeuppance than a win: we loved seeing the Heat lose the NBA finals. (Maybe we were just looking for brownie points from Sean?)

We asked you to create a caption for this photo:

and some of our favorites were:
“After successfully reaching the zenith of their individual careers, Carmel and Kathleen decide to strike a blow for gender equity by forming the Blue Woman Group.”
“Did we get the roles, Mr. Lynch?”
“Kathleen: Let’s you, me, and that Bon Iver fella run away to Saskatchewan. That is his name, right?”
“These Snozberries taste like Snozberries!”
“Heeeeeere, Kitty Kitty…”

Below, you’ll see our favorite captions you created for this photo:

“Ronda, I think we can afford another round of shots.”
“We’ve almost got enough money to buy Pa’s farm back from the bank!”
“Amateur night was more lucrative than we thought!”
“Jesse has to let us into the poker game now!”
“And that’s for overnight spins only.” 

The list of our favorite TV characters of recent years is topped by the dashing Don Draper (Jon Hamm) of Mad Men, followed closely by Breaking Bad’s Walter White (Bryan Cranston), Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) from 30 Rock, and Ron Swanson, played brilliantly by Nick Offerman on Parks and Recreation.

Who turned in our favorite live performances this year? Not surprisingly, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, Bon Iver, Adele, The Black Keys, Paul Simon, Arcade Fire, My Morning Jacket, U2, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, TV on the Radio, and Iron & Wine got several nods each. (See the full list at the link below for some intriguing under-the-radar choices and remarkable settings.)

Also, here were some thoughtful choices for books that should be made into movies:
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Life by Keith Richards
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins

Meanwhile, there was a clear winner for the dubious title “book that should never have been made into a movie”: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. We also commonly expressed our collective disappointment in the entire Twilight series of films, Water for Elephants, The Bridges of Madison County, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, The Great Gatsby, and Eat, Pray, Love.

Lastly, we took what felt like a risk to us this year by asking you to choose your 5 favorite albums of 2011. We’ve always eschewed this question, fearing that you’re sick of answering it, but this year our curiosity overwhelmed us, and we also felt that we found a format that made it easier than ever to respond. We’re happy that we did: though it’s easy to see aggregate lists by music critics on the web, and to see “best of the year” lists from individual stations and DJs, we think these combined results from Triple A musicheads are somewhat unique:

We allowed each of you to select 5 records. Who crowned the list? Of the 118 people who responded to this question, 33 of you thought that The Black Keys‘ new offering, El Camino, deserved recognition, while 32 of you chose Adele‘s 21.

161 other records got at least one vote. Here’s a list of those that got 7 mentions or more:
The Decemberists, The King Is Dead (25)
The Head and the Heart, The Head and the Heart (21)
Bon Iver, Bon Iver (16)
Amos Lee, Mission Bell (15)
Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues (11)
Wilco, The Whole Love (11)
The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow (10)
Dawes, Nothing Is Wrong (10)
Ryan Adams, Ashes and Fire (10)
My Morning Jacket, Circuital (9)
Gary Clark Jr., The Bright Lights EP (8)
M83, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (8)
Amanda Shires, Carrying Lightning (7)
Florence and the Machine, Ceremonials (7)
Foster the People, Torches (7)
Gillian Welch, The Harrow & the Harvest (7)
Iron & Wine, Kiss Each Other Clean (7)
Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Here We Rest (7)
Paul Simon, So Beautiful or So What (7)
Tedeschi Trucks Band, Revelator (7)
Tom Waits, Bad As Me (7)
The War on Drugs, Slave Ambient (7)

Want to see more? Follow the link for complete results. Thanks again!

What may be the final truly great paper map of the United States ever created has recently been completed. Slate posted a cool article highlighting what makes it so great, and it’s really fascinating for lovers of maps, or of design in general, or even of fonts. I couldn’t resist buying a copy for myself so that I’ll be able to see it in person.