Another batch of some of the smartest writers online telling you what made this past year rock for them. Send in your picks and Happy New Year!
Movies: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1, Scott Pilgrim vs The World, The Runaways, Alice In Wonderland, Iron Man 2
Television: Modern Family, Burn Notice, The Cleveland Show
Books: Drew Friedman: by Gary Dell’AbateToo Soon?: Famous/Infamous Faces 1995-2010, They Call Me Baba Booey, Vive Le Rock!, Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found by Joe Bonomo
Music: The Fall: The Wonderful & Frightening World of The Fall (Omnibus Edition), Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings Box, David Bowie: 1st Album 2 CD Deluxe Edition, Stereolab: Not Music, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Beat The Devil’s Tattoo
Comic Book: Michael Kupperman: Tales Designed to Thrizzle Vol. 1
Video Games: (all Xbox 360) Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, Lucha Libre AAA 2010: Heroes del Ring, Call Of Duty Black Ops
DVD: Benny Hill: The Complete Megaset – The Thames Years 1969-1989, Gamera: The Giant Monster, Gamera Vs. Barugon, Gamera Vs. Guiron / Gamera Vs. Jiger [Double Feature], Gamera Vs. Gyaos / Gamera Vs. Viras [Double Feature], Ladies And Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones
Favorite web sites: Sublime Frequencies, Weirdo Records
Biggest disappointments of 2010? No new Japanese Godzilla film or dvds and the Red Sox
Movies: Exit Through the Gift Shop, the re-release of Metropolis with missing footage restored, Toy Story 3, Tron: Legacy, RED, Kick-Ass, Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, How to Train Your Dragon, True Grit, Black Swan and The Social Network. From India I saw Magadheera, which was terrific, and from China came Yuen Woo Ping’s True Legend, which was astounding.
Television series: The recently canceled Terriers turned in a great season, and Breaking Bad is better than awesome. Doctor Who continues to impress, with this years Christmas Special easily the best one ever. But, for truly great and brain damaging television, check out these three terrific series: Luther, featuring Idris Elba as a cop who might be completely crazy, the series Sherlock, a modern updating on the Sherlock Holmes mythos, and Misfits, a superhero series that demands your attention.
Books: I would be remiss to not mention Mad Skills by Walter Greatshell, which deserves all the great reviews it’s been getting. I would recommend anyone interested in ethics picking up The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris, and if you’re looking for a great, underappreciated read, check out Jasper FForde’s Shades of Grey.
Music: The only album I bought his year was Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy, which was a great soundtrack.
Comic Books: Grant Morrison’s Batman continues to get my atention, but I’ve also taken this year to catch up on Robert Kirkman’s work on both The Walking Dead and Invincible. They are inconsistent, but very good overall.
Video Game: The only game I’ve played all year is Trundle for the iPad.
Favorite web site: goldenagecomics.co.uk/ is where public domain comics can be downloaded for free. Fantastic books, all as free as the works of Shakespeare. I also admire PZ Myers Pharyngula site, in which he talks about the evils of organized religion, and the beauty and freedom of science.
Celebrity crush: Stephen Hawking
Biggest disappointment of 2010? No more 24.
What accomplishment were you most proud of in 2010? I finished a novel, and the first draft of a second.
What are you most looking forward to geeking out over in 2011? Etrigan the Robot, a sci-fi kung fu musical from India, the spate of upcoming superhero movies from Marvel and DC, (Thor, Green Lantern, Captain America, etc.) and some sort of announcement on the return of Star Trek.
Movies: Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Television series: The Walking Dead, Community
Album/Songs: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West; The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) by Janelle Monae; TRON: Legacy Soundtrack by Daft Punk
Comic Books: Incognito, Criminal, Batman and Robin
Video Game: Batman: The Brave and the Bold
DVD/Blu-ray Release: Metropolis
Viral Videos: LeBron James betrays Cleveland with the NWO, Cliff Lee and Jayson Werth
Music Videos: Bad Romance and Telephone, both by Lady Gaga
Favorite web sites: Yuhmm Magazine, Vice Magazine
Celebrity crush: Kristen Schaal
Biggest disappointment of 2010? Running Wilde – why couldn’t theyt make this show be any good?
What accomplishment were you most proud of in 2010? Successfully proposing to my fiancee on Christmas morning
What are you most looking forward to geeking out over in 2011? Sucker Punch
Movies: How to Train Your Dragon, Inception
Television Series: Doctor Who
(Young Adult) Books: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan, A Conspiracy of Kings by Megan Whalen Turner
Album/Song: Zorbing by Stornoway, F**k You by Cee Lo Green, Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros
Viral Video: Alex Day Reads Twilight (not strictly viral, but my favorite internet videos of the year)
Favorite Website: Reasoning With Vampires
Celebrity Crush: Matt Smith, David Tennant, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, YA Novelist M.T. Anderson and Charlieissocoollike
Biggest Disappointment of 2010: Black Swan (Did you all see the same movie as I did??)
What are you looking forward to geeking out over in 2011? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II and the sixth series of Doctor Who (I wear a Stetson now. Stetson’s are cool. OMG OMG.)
The following list comes with the caveat that I haven’t been able to pay nearly as much attention to pop culture this year as in others due to my job. That said, in the fraction of time that I’ve spent away from my desk, this is what I’ve been digging:
Television Series: Mad Men, Bones
Books: Rob Sheffield’s Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. To be sure, it’s no Love Is A Mixtape, but I love Rob Sheffield. Love. Him. So much so that every time I leave my apartment and go in the Direction of Fun (Williamsburg) as opposed to the Direction of Work (Manhattan), I gleefully (and only half-jokingly) squeal “Maybe I’ll see Rob Sheffield!” to my long-suffering boyfriend. See, here’s the thing… Rob and I were just, like, totally meant to be BFFs. A perfect example is last spring, when my boyfriend and I were walking through a park in Williamsburg, I noticed a car with the license plate “Wordman,” and I immediately called it out as an obscure Eddie and the Cruisers reference. Later in the summer while reading the book, I saw that Rob also saw the car and made THE VERY SAME REFERENCE. Like, OMG. See? It’s destiny. I just want to sing karaoke with Rob Sheffield. I want him to be the Tony to my Dawn.
Music: The Pains of Being Pure At Heart Say No To Love and Heart In Your Heartbreak EPs, The Gaslight Anthem American Slang, Abe Vigoda (Uh, the band… not Fish) Crush, The War On Drugs The History of Plastic, Belle and Sebastian Write About Love, The National High Violet, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings I Learned the Hard Way, She & Him Volume 2, JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound’s Motown-esque cover of Wilco’s “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart” … oh, HELLS yes.
Viral Video: The literal version of the video for “Total Eclipse of the Heart“; Improv Everywhere’s Star Wars on the NYC subway; Pixels by Patrick Jean
Favorite Website: Facebook, Huffington Post
Celebrity Crush: Rob Sheffield. I also once spent an entire dinner (at my desk) staring at the Details pictures of Matthew Morrison’s chest (uh, did I just say that out loud?)
Biggest Disappointment of 2010: Friends who aren’t.
What are you most looking forward to geeking out over in 2011: Music, music music! Brooklyn, NYC photography, and, hopefully, getting a moment to check out my childhood hero, Stephanie Zimbalist in the play The Subject Was Roses in NJ.
Movies:
Drama: ‘The Social Network’
Animated Musical Romance: ‘Tangled’
Mostly Live-Action Semi-Musical Adventure/Romance Work of Genius: ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’
Television Series:
Real-World Drama: ‘Mad Men’
Surreal-World Comedy: ‘Community’
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Drama, Spring 2010: ‘Supernatural’
Sci-Fi/Fantasy Drama, Fall 2010: ‘Fringe’
Socially Conscious Pseudo-Satire: ‘The Daily Show with Jon Stewart’
[I’d easily vote AMC best channel.]
Books: [None of the prose fiction or non-fiction I read this year was published this year, so…]
Art-History Trove: ‘Shazam: The Golden Age of the World’s Mightiest Mortal’
Music:
Song: Cee-Lo Green, “F— You”
[I didn’t have a favorite album from 2010.]
Comics:
Series, Humor: ‘Tiny Titans’
Series, Drama/Adventure: ‘Hellboy’/’BPRD’/’Witchfinder’ series of miniseries
Graphic Novel, Reprint: ‘Beasts of Burden’
Graphic Novel, New & Reprint: ‘The Amazing Screw-On Head and Other Curious Objects’
DVD Releases: [I don’t think I bought any DVDs released in 2010. And while I’ve rented plenty, I’ve been disappointed that most of the extras are on Blu-Ray these days, which I don’t have yet. Otherwise, I’d probably have said ‘Inception’ or ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’. My best guess otherwise is the ‘Cronos’ Criterion Collection DVD, but so far it’s unseen by me.]Viral Videos:
Text & Music: Cee-Lo Green, “F— You”
Music & Hand-Dancing: Up and Over It (Cleary & Harding), “We No Speak Americano”
Website:
Reading: Mark Evanier, ‘News from ME‘
Watching: Hulu [… when the Internet connection lets me, which is rare now]
Celebrity Crush:
I decline to answer on the grounds that it feels a little skeevy even if it’s meant in the most innocent way.
Biggest disappointment of 2010? The end of ‘Lost’ — not the very end, but the total dropping of the ball in the final season in terms of satisfying narrative conclusion.
Movies: Kick-Ass, True Grit
Television: Doctor Who
Book: My friend Leroy Ronalds wrote a great local political humor book titled Say You Love Table
Music: Gorillaz, Plastic Beach
Comic Book: I’ve been getting into the Batman, Inc. storylines
Video Game: Iron Man 2 pinball
DVD/Blu-ray Releases: I’ve really enjoyed a few Kaiju Big Battle DVDs
Viral Video: “Bed Intruder” was pretty funny
Music Video: I hate to admit this, but I really like Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” video.
Favorite web sites: Peter Tangen’s reallifesuperheroes.com is a really exciting site. Netflix on demand has kept me entertained on many broke nights in.
Celebrity crush: Tina Fey…rarrrr
Biggest disappointment of 2010? I gained weight.
What accomplishment were you most proud of in 2010? My own book project, Heroes in the Night got some good media attention, and the book’s subject matter awarded me my first writing award.
What are you most looking forward to geeking out over in 2011? I know there are several superhero themed movies in the pipeline, so I’m looking forward to those.
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