Bests of 2010

You know what I don't think I've ever done?  Or you know what I hardly ever do?  Make Year End Best Of lists.  So here are some little ones for 2010!

Best Meal of 2010:
While Blue Hill Stone Farms was an unforgettable dining experience, course for course, nothing tops my dinner at Ma Peche (the midtown Momofuku) in August.  I went in wondering if this restaurant would have anything to show me and at the end of the night I had definitely been taught a lesson about having my guard down when entering a Tien Ho establishment.

Honorable Mention:
The spread at the Frankies cookbook launch party.  All the meatballs and celery root salad I could eat!

Best Movies of 2010:
Honestly, don't know that I watched a Best Movie in 2010, something of amazing cinematic quality or gravity.  But these are the movies that had me leaving the theater with a spring in my step:

-Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
-Tangled
-The Green Hornet (coming to a theater near you January 14th!  Don't sleep!)

Honorable Mention:
True Grit.

I know, it's not a very normal list.  Here, for fun let me comment on Roger Ebert's list:
1. The Social Network—Oh yeah, this was a well-made movie.  But the fact that I totally forgot about it when making my favorite movie list might be the reason it didn't make my favorite movie list.
2. King's Speech—Didn't see, but I know my aunt liked it.
3. Black Swan—Didn't see, would not see.  I did see a lot of the Red Shoes one time, does that count?
4.  I Am Love—?
5. Winter Bone—Name sounds familiar, didn't see.
6.  Inception—The more I think about it, the more comfortable I am saying I didn't like it.
7. The Secret in Their Eyes—Never heard of it.  I promise I didn't start this list to be a contrarian!
8.  The American—Didn't see it.  The trailer made it seem like something you'd watch on an airplane.
9. The Kids Are Alright—Didn't see it.  Looks like something they'd play on an airplane.
10. The Ghost Writer—And, whoah, this I DID watch on an airplane.  And liked!

Best Album of 2010:
Best Coast, "Crazy for You"—By a long shot this was the record that I listened to the most this year and the 2010 record that I see myself listening to the most in 2011.  Short and catchy songs mixing a 60's and 90's sound, I'm super down.

Runner Up:
LCD Soundsystem, "This is Happening"—Favorite record of my favorite live band, if I can't listen to a short and catchy song then I'm happy to listen to a long, complex dance jam.  Impeccably produced, may I add.

Special Jury Prize:
Beach House, "Teen Dream"—So dreamy that sometimes I wonder if it was all just made up.
Flying Lotus, "Cosmogramma"—More and more I like these sounds.

Honorable Mention:
Hot Chip, "One Life Stand"
Male Bonding, "Nothing Hurts"

But for real, there were a whole lot of good records this year.  This list could go on forever.

And the Award for Excellent Album Taken Out of Rotation Because I Couldn't Stand You in Concert:
Wavves, "King of the Beach"

Best New Read of 2010:
John Barth, "Lost in the Funhouse"—It's absolutely unethical of me that I never posted about this book, but it made me say "Whoah."  A collection of somewhat related short stories, they're all perfect examples of how to write a story (you know, characters, characters that want things, beginnings, middles, ends, etc.) as well as perfect examples of postmodernism.  If you've got some fool bugging out over what is or isn't postmodern writing, hand them this book and tell them to get back to you.  A highlight of the collection: "Menelaiad", where Barth has Menelaeus tell his version of the Trojan war through the use of seven-framing stories.  What I'm saying: this story has six stories within the story, it has dialogue bracketed within seven sets of quotation marks, out Inceptioning anything Christopher Nolan has for you.

Best Re-Read of 2010:
Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"—I'm so down with this book, who knows, I might read it again this year.

Most Enlightening Re-Read of 2010:
Thomas Pynchon, "V."  Reread the first Pynchon book I ever read this summer.  Nine years after my first read, with four more Pynchon novels read now, I understood more and my overall Pynchon comprehension increased as well.  Doubling and reflections is a major theme of Against the Day and V. is full of "V"s (like parallel paths [story, thematic, characters] that converge or paths that begin at one point and diverge in parallel ways) and really, those two things aren't so different.

Best TV Show:
Parks and Recreation—Don't even get me started on how much I don't care about any other TV show in comparison to this TV show.

Best Exception to Above Statement:
"Does that include hour-long high school football dramas?"

Favorite Person of the Year:
You, of course.

Best Thing For You to Do Right Now:
Either read my Disney post online or download it.