50 More Things from 2010

Due to the severe limitations of “top ten lists”, as well as the sheer amount of crap I love each year, I’ve decided to institute this general list of 50 things I plain-old loved in 2010.  Most will be things that did not appear on my music or movies list, as well as things created, released, or performed in 2010, but I’m not going to limit myself with actual ground rules.  Here are, quite simply, in no particular order, 50 things I loved in 2010:

50.  The New York Times

Hear hear for a newspaper that still dares to have sections devoted to important things like science, business, and art.  I’ve found it difficult to spend less than two hours on a copy—even on a day like Tuesday.

49.  Red Bull Cola

It will probably be a short-lived experiment, but the delicious and almost-natural cola from Red Bull was a tasty shot of adrenaline (even if it was overpriced).

48.  Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson in “The Other Guys”. 

The movie itself may have been lacking, but these two good sports’ 5 minutes of screen time made the enterprise worth the price of admission.

47.  “Dancing with the Stars”

For awhile, I hated myself for this guilty pleasure, until I realized it was actually genuinely compelling television.  Cynical hipster naysayers need to actually watch a season (I should know–I am a cynical hipster naysayer)

46.  The segment on NPR’s “Whad’Ya Know? with Michael Feldman” where they listed fake WikiLeaks

Far and away the most I’ve ever laughed at the radio.

45.  The new Ansel Adams photographs

Whether or not they are actually Ansel Adams’ is still in dispute—but they’re terrific photographs anyway

44.  This.

43.  “8: The Mormon Proposition”

The documentary that reveals (gasp!) how Prop 8 was engineered by the institution of the Mormon church.  Enraging, and engaging.

42.  VEVO on YouTube

Sure, this music channel on YouTube is 100% a corporate whore, but my year has been exponentially enhanced by concert footage of my favorite bands not shot by a drunk frat boy with a first generation iPhone.

41.  James Franco’s “Palo Alto”

Franco’s collection of short stories is good—real good.

40.  James Franco on “General Hospital”

Yeah, it’s on before I leave for work, so sue me if I watch it every now and then!  Franco’s performance as–ahem–Franco was an over-the-top piece of performance art so nuanced (with nods to the real-world oddity of James Franco being on a soap opera) that I often found myself stunned something so lovely and sophisticated was happening on American daytime television.

39.  James Franco in “127 Hours”

Portraying a not-so-likeable man within a bare-bones script who also has to cut off his own arm, Franco manages to make us like him, and makes us want to be better people, too.

38.  James Franco’s art opening in New York

James Franco opened a gallery exhibit of his art in New York this year, and although not all of it is great, some of it is incredible, and it’s all very valid.  To imagine a Hollywood star opening an art show he says–out loud–is about the “sexual confusion of adolescence” makes me think we may be living in a culture with, well…culture.  See some of the art here. 

37.  James Franco in “Howl”

So, the movie kinda stinks, but Franco hits an underappreciated home run as the poet Allen Ginsburg, an unlikeable, grizzly gay man with so many conflicting character traits, it’s an amazing juggling act Franco had to do–and a bona fide joy to see.  Also, John Hamm is in the movie, too!

36.  Salvation Army Stores

Thanks to this discovery, the visual palette that is me (it seems absurd to call what I have a “fashion sense”) is evolving for the first time in a decade.  (read: more sweaters)

35.  Joel Stein’s column in TIME magazine

The most self-absorbed man in the newsmagazine business continues to get funnier, even as his subjects get more serious.  Every week, I’m sure he’ll be arrested.

34.  The Mac Wrap at McDonalds

I seem to be the only human alive not disgusted by this, either literally, morally, or some other, more etheral way.  But I’m not disgusted.  I’m delighted.

33.  “Gimme Shelter” performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony by U2, Mick Jagger, and Fergie.

Rock and roll heaven.  An absolute orgasm.  And I don’t even like U2!

32.  The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Because even republicans want to get into Heaven.

31.  Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom”

Franzen is this generation’s Hemingway.  And “Freedom” is his “A Farewell to Arms”.  Read it.  Just do it.

30.  The March to Restore Sanity

I wasn’t there, and I didn’t see a lot of it, but I love it anyway.

29.  The “LOST” finale

It’s much debated, but I was never an “I need answers to X, Y, and Z, and I need them freaking spelled out for me” kinda guy.  I didn’t have LOST theories.  I work more by “feel”.  And the finale certainly felt right.  I still cry, every time.

28.  The “twist” ending of “Remember Me”

Everybody hates it.  I love it.  What’s new?

27.  The Chilean miners

Seriously?  This story was too good to be true.  If they made this movie and it was fictional, you’d be all like “No way this would happen like this.”  Just an unbelievable story.  The rare event of real news being real entertaining–and then uplifting.

26.  John Updike’s “Endpoint”

Sadly, this posthumous collection is the last poetry that will ever be released by Mr. Updike.  Luckily, it’s amazing (but, also, terribly terribly sad.)

25.  “The Good Wife” on CBS

I’ve just discovered it, so I have to get caught up, but it is tickling me.

24.  Seeing Art Speigelman give a talk at Dickinson University

Seeing the legendary literary graphic novelist give a highly entertaining and informative talk was one of the live event highlights of my year, and nobody had a guitar.

23.  My super-secret crush, The View‘s Sherri Shepard.

I will do unspeakble things to this woman.  In the good way.

22.  Mila Kunis and–yes–James Franco in “Date Night”

See #48 and substitute these actor’s names.

21.  The comeback of The Atlantic

One of the oldest and most respected magazines in the world revamps itself and somehow does not end up sucking.  In fact, it’s now better than ever, and just announced a profit for the first time in a decade.  And thankfully, it is somehow still completely pompous.

20.  Michael Vick

I sure know when to get back into Philadelphia sports, don’t I???  I simply love this real-life tale of redemption; if I didn’t believe in second chances, my own life would probably look a little bit different.

19.  This.

18.  TurningArt

The Netflix-like service provides you with rotating art prints (and a neato frame).  Sure, they don’t do much but hang there, but it’s a great way to explore what you like and don’t like about art.  It’s interesting to find how your relationship with a piece of art changes as it hangs in your home; much different than seeing it for 5 minutes in a gallery.

17.  Dogs

Still the best thing going.

16.  “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”

Fallon has really hit a stride that is pure magic.  Sure, he’s not breaking new ground like his competition Craig Ferguson (who’s got a bit of briliiance working, as well), but Fallon’s show works miracles within a formula.  Delicious.

15.  The Fusco Brothers

The smartest, funniest comic strip in (or probably NOT in) your local newspaper just keeps getting funnier.  And smarter.  And harder to find.

14.  BuyBack$

A store that is just cheap, used DVDs, CDs, and Blu-Rays?  Yeah.  I’m kinda all over that.

13.  The re-release of new-age symhony In C.

Composer Terry Riley’s experimental, semi-electronic classical piece In C was re-released on CD this year, and it is just as addictive as when I first owned it back in high school.  Shades of just about all my current favorite artists can be heard in this breakthrough work.

12.  Cherry Crush

Because it’s fucking delicious.

11.  “What Up With That?” sketches on Saturday Night Live

This is by far the most enjoyable recurring sketch on SNL I’ve seen in years.  It has a concrete element of the absurd, and a perfect setting for uproarious celebrity cameos.  And Keenan Thompson is a genius, I don’t care what you say!  Click here for a selection of this year’s What Up With That’s on Hulu.

10.  Roles For Women

There’s still not nearly enough meaty roles for women in movies—Hollywood, indie, or otherwise—but this year saw a few choicer roles than before, thanks to dandy’s like “The Kids Are All Right”, “Please Give”, and “Secretariat”.

9.  Dan Simmons’ “The Terror”

One of the most interesting, and also more difficult, novels I’ve ever read.  Simmons’ explorers-trapped-in-icelocked-ships-being-terrorized-by-unseen-monsters-yet-also-slightly-based-on-historical-fact-of-Franklin’s-lost-expedition has got to be the world’s first historical fiction gothic horror novel.  And it scared the shit out of me.

8.  Cleveland

It really does rock.

7.  slate.com

The one-time almost-sad story of an great website gone bad is now a must-read internet newsmagazine.  I have it set as my homepage.

6.  Blu-Ray discs in Reboxes

Hey thanks.

5.  The first fight scene in “The Book of Eli”, where Denzel cuts that dude’s hand off.

OK, so the rest of the movie is kinda hum-drum, but that knife scene by the underpass with above-mentioned amputation is pure badass movie magic.

4.  Free concerts in the square in downtown Buffalo

I got a free front-row Ed Kowalczyk show, courtesy of the city of Buffalo, in a very attractive, quaint little square with a big statue of some dude (Mr. Buffalo?) in the center.  Can’t wait to see next year’s schedule!

3.  Katie Couric doing CBS’s Evening News

I just plain trust her.  A throwback to old-school news.

2.  The poster for The National’s album “High Violet”.

Good art and good music, all affordable?  Sign me up.  Check out the poster here.

1.  “The Expendables”

The movie was pretty bad, but I’d watch these guys pop popcorn.

 

Vote for my new mousepad

So, it’s time for me to get a new mousepad, and I figured since I was having trouble deciding on one, I’d open a poll and let you folks decide for me.  Currently I have a kickass Jack Bauer mousepad that has served me well for a few years, but the bottom of it is becoming frayed and is annoying my wrist.  You can see the fray in this picture I just took of it:

So, here are the options for the replacement pad, with the poll at the bottom.  Thanks for voting!

A Pearl Jam mousepad themed after their "avocado album"---one of my favorite albums of theirs.

 

A super-funky Mr. T mousepad!

Super badass "LOST" mouse pad

2 Perfect Castings

Just in case it ever really happens, I want to call it early that I saw how perfect these castings in movies will be.  First, as living American poetry superstar Billy Collins, I would cast Michael Emerson, who played Benjamin Linus on LOST.  Here’s Billy Collins:

And here’s Michael Emerson:

And trust me, it’s not just the physical likeness.  Emerson would be perfect as Collins in every way.  Secondly, as BP CEO Tony Hayward, one would simply HAVE to cast Michael Sheen.  Here’s Hayward:

And here’s Sheen:

Not an incredibly interesting post, I know.  I just wanted to get these predictions into the public sphere.

Seth’s Favorites of 2009: Television

May I present to you the first of several year-end wrap-up blogs I will post to attempt to convince myself you all care about my opinions.  First up: television!  Feel free to yell at me in the comments (you will anyway, I may as well invite it).  Notice I’ve finally caved to the pressure and am going to be calling these my “favorites”, not the “best” of 2009.  I hope you’re happy!

#10: Mythbusters

The seventh season of Mythbusters (still in progress) has seen our guys Jamie and Adam quite revitalized, after an admittedly lackluster season 6.  The myths no longer seem forced, and we’ve gotten back into–dare I say it?–good science. Especially exciting were the YouTube special and the duct tape episode.  My favorite Discovery channel show might just have a longer shelf life than I’d thought!

#9:  How I Met Your Mother

Let me address something right up front here that some of you are going to get at me for:  I have not included any of the uber-hip “one camera” sitcoms on my list (The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation).  I DO love these shows.  These shows are very funny and expertly crafted.  But I’ve never felt…I don’t know…close to these shows.  They are hilarious, but their method of filming leaves me a bit cold, at arm’s length, sort of.  And one of the things I need in my comedy is a feeling of comfort laced with a devious amount of “edginess” (asking a lot, I know), and this year, that is what How I Met Your Mother finally managed to do.  HIMYM has always been edgy for a two-camera sitcom, with its over-arching mystery (who is the mother?), its multi-dimensional characters, and its occasionally intellectual jokes. But season 4 ratcheted it up a notch, giving

stock charcter Barney–the token sleazeball–something of a heart, a subplot that never got old, and paid dividends all season long.  And I know I’m not very original when I say this, but Neil Patrick Harris is absolutely amazing, and is one of the best things on television.

#8:  Eureka

This little-seen SyFy network show just keeps getting better.  A quaint but exciting cross between Northern Exposure and The X-Files, season 3 saw Sheriff Carter taking on an interesting, different role in the community, as well as more imaginative, dramatic and–yes–believable phenomena taking place within the town.  Oh, and Carter’s daughter, Zoe?  Yeah–season three practically belongs to her.  And that could never be a bad thing, could it?

#7:  History Detectives

Long the most underrated show on PBS (and hence one of the most underrated on all of television), History Detectives continues, in its seventh season, to be entertaining, informative, and, sometimes, awe-inspiring.  Check it out some time.

#6:  24

Sure, the premise has gotten shaky over the years.  Sure, they’ve really pushed the limits of believability and sometimes even respectability.  But 24 remains a vital show to television, because–if you haven’t watched it–its a lot more than what you think it is, and it’s even a lot more than what is has to be.

24 is not just some serialized action series.  If it were that, I certainly wouldn’t watch it and evangelize it so much.  24 explores current, important, hot-button political issues–without even telling you it’s doing it.  But more impressively than that, 24 explores vital philosophical questions.  In fact, I have seen no better exploration of Utilitarianism in all of popular American culture, ever.  24 has been exploring Utilitarianism for 7 seasons now, and I dare say, has had more to say about it than John Stuart Mill ever did.

Season seven was certainly not the best season, but it was far from the worst, and featured one of the most exciting (though too-brief) set-pieces of the whole series:  a terrorist invasion of the White House (which is incredibly exciting when viewed on the surface level, yet also has alot of say when viewed symbolically or allegorically).  Here’s some of the White House hostage crisis:

#5:  Heroes

Yeah yeah yeah, it had a real crappy Season 2.  And Season 3 started off shaky–in fact, it didn’t even gain its footing till halfway through, when the season changed titles from “Villains” to “Fugitives”.  The “fugitives” half of the season was spellbinding, and finally seemed as though the half-thought crap we’d sat through for a year and a half had all been adding up to this, and all this wayward character development finally had a point.  Consider me impressed.

#4:  Big Love

HBO’s Mormon polygamist drama found some serious legs in Season 3, and those legs have a name:  Harry Dean Stanton.  How this show ever scored the elusive, reclusive, least-famous legendary actor we currently have alive is beyond me, but he’s been the main driving factor behind my continuing to watch this show.  Sure, Bill Paxton’s marital woes as the head of an illegal four-way marriage is interesting and at times spellbinding (and I’m in love with wife #3, Ginnifer Goodwin) and would make for a show to check out occasionally, but it’s Stanton’s creepy, Godfather-esque Roman Grant who makes this show must-watch, and has kept it that way for three seasons now.

#3:  FlashForward

OK, so it’s only aired 5 episodes so far, but it has come out of the gates just swingin’ away.  This show is just utterly captivating and frustrating and dramatic and mind-boggling and emotional and plain-ol’-neat wrapped up into one, and I give big kudos to any show that could do all those things all within 5 episodes, all while making me care about almost all the characters (I could do with less of John Cho’s Agent Noh, who is, in a word, unappealing).  Not only is every episode expertly written and acted, but they feature something rarely found on television: careful and thoughtful use of music.  I can’t wait to see where FlashForward takes us, and even if it derails, I daresay these first 5 episodes are good enough to land it in my #3 spot.

#2:  Dexter

In all honesty, the full breadth of Dexter is, at times, flimsy.  It can run into cliches and predictibility fairly often, and at times seems to throw a twist at you just for the sake of doing it; more than anything, it suffers from not knowing which reality to reside in: the hyper-real reality the show’s viewers live in, or the somewhat unrealistic world the show has created for itself.  It often flip-flops between these realities on an almost whimsical basis.  And, really, Showtime can’t cough up any more money for the Police Department set?  It looks like Who’s the Boss in there!

So why, you ask, do I love it so damn much?  In a word, Dexter.  The character of Dexter Morgan is so complex, sometimes you wonder if he’s not actually simple. So simple he’s complex.  Ug.  To try to know or understand Dexter (even as a viewer) is like trying to know smoke and mirrors, and that’s why it’s so amazing that the writers of Dexter have managed to make him so likeable, interesting, and watchable.  With every episode, we see a Herculean writing task pulled off, but we don’t feel it as a writing task, we feel we’re getting a little closer to our quirky friend Dexter.

Season three got even more exciting, however, as we watched our friends at Dexter try to change their main character without ruining the premise of the show (which pretty much requires Dexter to remain static), and we watched in awe as they somehow managed to change Dexter in a way which showed he was…unchangeable.  Huh?  I’m still not sure what happened.  I only know it was television magic.

#1:  Lost

For the past 5 years, there has not been a better show on television than Lost. There has not been one year in the last 5 years in which I have not thought that.  It has everything good dramatic entertainment and art needs.  I won’t go on and on, or say much more:  there’s certainly enough being said about Lost all around us all the time, you don’t need me to fill you in.  If you’ve never seen any, every episode is available streaming, for free, right here.

Honorable mentions:

Season 2 of Californication–Duchovny at his smarmy best

Season2/3 of The Big Bang Theory–More 2-camera sitcom ground-breaking

Season 1/2 of Dollhouse–best parts for females on television since…well, maybe ever, but at least since Roseanne or thirtysomething.

Kings, the four episodes it existed for:  incredibly ambitious, engaging, epic.  Too big for television, I’m afraid.

Full disclosure (shows the critics love which I haven’t seen):

Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Fringe, Weeds, Damages, Monk, In Treatment, Brothers and Sisters, The Closer, Ugly Betty

Seth Reacts to the Emmys

The Emmys were last night, and though I didn’t get to watch them and I don’t watch most of the major winners, but a few of my horses were in the race, and thought I’d just bounce some feelings off my blog here:

“30 Rock” is still deserving of the Comedy Series win, but I can’t wait until “How I Met Your Mother” starts getting some golden statues.  It’s the best 3-camera sitcom in a decade.

Three of my favorite shows were nom’d for drama–“Lost”, “Big Love”, and “Dexter”, as well as one of Mary’s favorite shows, “Damages”, only to be trumped once again by “Mad Men”.  I think this just means I should probably watch “Mad Men”.

Huzzah for “Grey Garden”‘s two wins!  This made-for-television movie was outstanding and I would probably be on a plane to somewhere to hurt someone if it hadn’t been recognized.  However–and this is a big however–FUCK them Emmy voters for giving the acting statue to Jessica Lange instead of Drew Barrymore.  Barrymore had a much harder job in “Grey Gardens” and actually did her job better than Lange.  Guess people still want to go with the safe vote.

It would have been nice to see Jim Parsons win for “The Big Bang Theory”.  Alec Baldwin has won enough shit in his lifetime.

Call me crazy, but I still root for Julia Louis-Dreyfus every time I’m able, and not just because of Seinfeld.  Have you seen “The New Adventures of Old Christine”?  It’s a good show!!  And has anyone ever even seen this “Untied States of Tara” show that Toni Collette won for?

Fuck the Lead Actress in a Drama category entirely, since not a single of the amazing women from “Lost” were even nominated.

JON CRYER wins for “Two and a Half Men”, are you fuckign kidding me?????!! EVERYONE knows that show is an unfunny piece of douche written for the lowest common denominator (and acted that way, too).  And Cryer wins over Neil Patrick Harris from “How I Met Your Mother”, two worthy “30 Rock”ers, and Rainn Wilson from “The Office”????  Poo-poo!

Michael Emerson wins for “Lost”!!!!!  Thank goodness someone’s still paying attention to how good this show is!  And especially Emerson–it’s nice to see the exact actor who deserved it more than the rest to actually get it.

The Supporting Actress in a Drama Series:  I only watch one of the shows nominated, and it won, and it was “24”, the show that awards have forgotten!  Yay for Cherry Jones, who just does a passable job of playing the nation’s first female president on the show, but I’m thrilled she won anyway!

I wish Jeanne Tripplehorn would have won her supporting statue for “Grey Gardens”, even though she’s barely in it, but you know she’s never going to nominated for “Big Love”!  However, Shohreh Aghdashloo did win it for some movie I’ve never heard of, but she used to be in “24”, so it’s all good!

Of all years, how did “Saturday Night Live” not win the variety category this year?  I love Jon Stewart as much as anyone else, but c’mon!  SNL was swingin’ this year!!  They influenced public thought more than any other non-news show, in my opinion.

“Intervention” wins over “Mythbusters” and “Antiques Road Show”=just plainly ridiculous.