50 Things I Like From 2010
(In no particular order)
1. Pop Culture Happy Hour is a wonderful little podcast done by some wonderful folks at NPR. Nearly every Saturday morning I wake up later than usual, go out to get some breakfast, realize the state of the kitchen has deteriorated, do the dishes, then make myself some breakfast. Pop Culture Happy Hour is the soundtrack for all of it. There is a website: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/.
2. Roadtrips. I got three in this year. One to Portland for 2 nights of Joanna Newsom shows at the Aladdin, one to Seattle for Okkervil River and The National, and one to Oregon for Christmas.
3. Joanna Newsom’s Have One On Me.
4. Reading. I started reading again the second half of the year and got through a number of things I liked a lot. A partial list: Let the Great World Spin (my favorite of the books I read this year); Freedom (Really good writing about mostly unlikable characters many of whom (spoiler alert) are somewhat redeemed in the end, some a little too abruptly for my liking; the Scott Pilgrim series which is just delightful; High Fidelity by Nick Hornby.
5. “Rhinestone Eyes” by Gorillaz from the album Plastic Beach
6. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (the movie). If you didn’t get a chance to see it in the theater (and according to box office numbers you probably didn’t) go rent it, push it up your Netflix queue, buy it. You’re welcome.
7. The Wire. It ended it’s run on HBO a few years ago, but I finished watching it this year. I don’t know if it is the best television show ever or just my favorite.
8. Sufjan Stevens. I enjoyed both albums he released this year, All Delighted People EP and The Age of Adz. The show he played in Salt Lake City was probably my favorite concert of the year.
9. Scrivener. I love this program. At this point it has basically replaced my word processor. I am using it to type this right now.
10. “The Cave” by Mumford & Sons from the album Sigh No More. I grew tired of this band after a month and a half listening to them, but for that month and a half I didn’t listen to very much else.
11. Seeing The Morning Benders early in the year end their show with a stunning version of “Excuses”.
12. NBA Jam for Wii. My one complaint: no ability to unlock the Seattle Supersonics.
13. Asics Onitsuka Tigers. This is my first pair of new shoes since 2003.
14. Ken Burns’ “Baseball: The Tenth Inning”. Ken Burns is a national treasure.
15. Not getting burned again by taking BYU past the first round in the NCAA Tournament this year. BYU v. Florida triple overtime game was one of the most exciting of the first round.
16. Winning my NCAA Tournament bracket group.
17. Finally getting around to watching “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”. Such a funny show about such terrible people.
19. Autolux. Transit Transit grew on me throughout the year. I saw them this fall for the second time, it was very loud and very wonderful.
20. The phrase “Take my talents to South Beach” and the fact that I didn’t waste an hour watching “The Decision”.
21. All three members of Sleater-Kinney are making music again.
22. Winning Sparks Battle of the Bands as a member of My Disloyal Friends and receiving a packet of Pop Rocks for all to share.
23. Thai Thursdays at Aiyara Thai.
24. Community.
25. 30 Rock.
26. The Daily Show. (24-26 are not specific to this year but they made the year better.)
27. The New Pornographers Together and free show this summer in SLC.
28. Buke and Gass Riposte.
29. Netflix.
30. “Floating Vibes” by Surfer Blood from the album Astrocoast.
31. MLB At Bat 2010 app, listening to White Sox day games while I work, and the month before the all star break when the White Sox went from way below .500 to first in the AL Central.
32. Podcasts: This American Life, The Moth, Radiolab, WTF, All Songs Considered, Planet Money.
33. My first trip to Powell’s Books in Portland.
34. America’s Next Top Model, best reality show on television.
35. The “I’m not here to make friends” videos.
36. Public libraries. Books for free.
37. Mystery Science Theater 3000. Rowsdower.
38. NPR Music: All Songs Considered 24 hour music stream which has helped me fill in the lost years between 2003 and about 2007, Tiny Desk Concerts, First Listen, Live coverage of SXSW and Bonnaroo.
39. Catching up on Cohen brothers films: Fargo, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, still need to see True Grit.
40. Reclaiming and looking through my baseball card collection.
41. LCD Soundsystem This Is Happening.
42. Shep Studio. I got my hair cut professionally for the first time since 2005, I figured that made it list-worthy.
43. Goodreads.com. I listed reading earlier and that would not have happened without Goodreads.
44. Rob Sheffield’s Love Is a Mix Tape and Talking to Girls About Duran Duran. LIAMT is one of the best memoirs I have had the pleasure to read. Sheffield does a masterful job of connecting personal experiences to larger cultural trends and events.
45. The few months of RollingStone that ended up at my apartment. It was nice to finally find out who Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber are. Also, the Jay-Z cover is still hanging on my fridge.
46. Arcade Fire The Suburbs. Not my favorite Arcade Fire album but I don’t know that I am ever going to like anything they do better than Funeral. I wanted to like this album a little more than I did but my least favorite tracks “Modern Man” and “Rococo” sitting back to back in positions three and four often made it difficult to get further into the album.
47. Girl Talk live.
48. “Coquet Coquette” by Of Montreal from the album False Priest.
49. The National High Violet. These songs sounded so good live.
50. “POWER” by Kanye West from the album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
