Top Ten Obsessions of 2010

10 Backwash – I’ve loved Josh Malina forever but this web series he wrote and starred in was one of the most unexpected pleasures of the year. Every moment of the 13 episodes was a surprise, and though it got off to a slow start and dragged at times, it was refreshingly imaginative and incredibly stupid. But like, in a good way. Claymation, opera singing, plenty of physical comedy and cheap sight gags fill the story while a cast of guest hosts hold their own as reason enough to tune in. The best is Jon Hamm, and the reappearance of his springtime beard was certainly welcome. Notice how so many of the other hosts talk about him? Who can stop themselves? But Michael Vartan and John Cho were hilarious, and Dulé Hill tap danced. Add those to Michael Ian Black’s flamboyant ice cream truck driver and you’ve got the makings of a top notch way to kill time.

9 Psych’s homage to Twin Peaks – May have more to do with the fact that Twin Peaks was one of my biggest obsessions in 2010; frankly this wasn’t the best episode of Psych this year. Nonetheless, it was fun. And two decades later, Sherilyn Fenn is still hot.

8 Jenny Wade (@jenny_wade) on twitter – The star of Fox’s The Good Guys is hilarious. In a really unfair sort of way. But she’s incredibly smart and irreverent, and you could spend forever scrolling through her old tweets and laughing out loud (and I have).

7 Mark Paul Gosselaar’s guest appearance on Weeds – We should never take it for granted that Mark Paul Gosselaar is hot. We should be reminded of it every day. He’s that hot. Breathtaking at times. And what better reminder than to watch him have his way with Mary Louise Parker in the most graphic sex scene the show has ever done? The much-talked-about scene was too much for some people, and well, just enough for others. The tension Nancy is feeling being alone is drawn out in great scenes with Gosselaar and Parker sharing chemistry and pushing one another’s buttons in a dark, empty bar. Then their charged “no smoking” argument is almost hotter than the sex scene itself. Almost. This is what TiVo was invented for.

6 Secretly Memorizing Ke$ha songs – There is this recurring daydream I have whenever I hear a Ke$ha song on the radio that involves a riotous party where out of nowhere one of Ke$ha’s interchangeable dance anthems comes over the speakers and my friends and I get to gleefully belt out the terrible lyrics (I mean, you guys have heard “Take It Off” right?) with the joyful abandon of youth. Nevermind that I don’t go to riotous parties anymore and have, mostly, bid farewell to the joyful abandon of youth. I still can’t help but listen when I’m alone in my car and succumb to the catchy hooks and danceable beat. Oh, what life must look like covered in glitter…

5 True Grit – I didn’t really have a great year at the movies. Despite my best laid plans, I didn’t see Inception, or The Social Network, or even Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I saw Twilight something or other. In my defense I was a guest and it was free, and you know, I was going in to hide from a rainstorm, or something… Anyway, by the end of the year I was ready to see at least one of the important movies, and I’ve been obsessing over True Grit since I first heard about it. And it’s great. It’s not the Coens’ best film by a long shot, and it’s probably not the best movie of the year, but it’s good. It’s not as heavy handed as it threatened to be, but strikes a great balance between humor and intensity and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Matt Damon plays the best part in the film, even if no one is talking about it. My love for it though mostly has to do with setting my feet back down in Arkansas, and hearing a familiar history on screen, told by warm accents that are endearing, not mocking. True Grit is everything it promised to be, and a little better.

4 Sleepwalk With Me – Mike Birbiglia’s book of comedic memoirs, Sleepwalk With Me and Other Painfully True Stories, based on his 2009 off-Broadway one man show of the same name, deserves all the praise it’s gotten from his comic peers Lewis Black and Eddie Izzard, as well as This American Life host Ira Glass and fellow contributors. Birbiglia toes the line between stand-up comic and American illuminary, and his book is both laugh-out-loud funny and personally affecting. I obsessed about the play when I knew I could never see it. When I learned it was going to print, I waited anxiously for most of the year for the chance to read it, and was so glad to find out how well it delivers. The hilarious stories of “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend” and his mom’s quip “Like Fun” are familiar, but new stories about his relationship and reaction to Mitch Hedberg’s death and his sleepwalking disorder are surprising and moving.

3 Community – From the beginning, Community was a creative comedy with an ensemble cast of players who ALL manage to be funny, but as time went on Dan Harmon and company continually pushed the envelope with high-concept theme episodes that pay off in spades to the viewer who can give them the leeway to do it. The zombie nightmare Halloween episode, a secret garden with a magic trampoline, and “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas” make Community one of the best shows on television. I just wish I could get Jeff and Britta’s awkward, super French kiss from the season premiere out of my head.

2 Sally Draper – Mad Men didn’t lose stride at all during season 4, but instead managed to go broader and more daring with the growth of characters. And as nice as it was to see Don Draper working on self-improvement, this year was all about the women (see “The Beautiful Girls”). Joan faced new levels of disrespect, sexism, and personal drama as her career reached new heights; Peggy struggled to find a balance between her career and personal life and found she could never please everyone. Over and over we were shown that these women would have to face their struggles alone (We saw Faye left high and dry by Don Draper, but if we know anything about Don, it doesn’t look all that hopeful that Megan won’t have a life of loneliness ahead of her). Surprisingly the biggest standout this year though is Sally, who it seems has a snowball’s chance in hell of growing up well-adjusted. It’s one thing to be among the first of her peers to have divorced parents but she’s got a self-involved, workaholic lush for a father and an emotionally-stunted mother who shows no qualms about slapping her hard across the face. Not to mention stifling Sally’s maturity and growth to save her the inconvenience. Sally was the most compelling character in a room full of intrigues, and I can’t wait to see what happens to her next year.

1 Joe Pug – I haven’t been able to shut up about Joe Pug all year, though I promise I’ve tried. His full length album Messenger dropped at the beginning of the year and I’ve been drooling over it ever since. Pug’s introspective, prophetic brand of Americana music is the kind you can’t seem to shake. He sings with the intensity of a man who has a message he desperately has to get out, and songs like “Not So Sure” and “Bury Me Far (from my uniform)” display a wisdom far beyond his years. The pain and regret he so eloquently conveys in “Not So Sure” are haunting, and whether listening to Messenger or last year’s Nation of Heat EP, it’s impossible to hear Joe Pug and be unaffected. He inspires the kind of pensive self-reflection that has to make other writers jealous, not just songwriters. Also, “Speak Plainly, Diana” is virtually impossible to get out of your head. Resistance is futile.

Runners Up: Tulsa, obvs. And watching videos of puppies on YouTube.

This Week's Obsessions Are As Follows:

Top Ten Lists

Lists of value judgments are always a favorite, and this time of year provides plenty of them. My own Top Ten List won’t be published until tomorrow, but it will be my Top Ten Obsessions of 2010. It will be like today’s list but exponentially more awesome. Until then, here are my favorite lists of the recent past:

GQ's Top Ten New Restaurants in America – I love GQ’s food writing as well as anyone’s, and I take their word on almost anything. I knew before reading this list that Longman & Eagle would be on it, but still managed some giddiness when I saw it spelled out. L&E is the Logan Square bar that no one will stop talking about, which opened earlier this year 2 ½ blocks from my old apartment. The whiskey list is pretty intimidating, and frankly most of the food intimidates me just the same, but I’m still a groupie. It’s also the home of the urban lumberjack - all the guys who work there wear plaid and have beards. You’ll think you’re being served by the Brawny man. Quintessential Logan Square.

XRT's Top Ten Live Performances of 2010– One of the best radio stations in the country does a phenomenal job of promoting live music and getting the best performances from the most talented acts around. And they hold on to it - their live archives have recordings from the birth of the station, including performances from the Grateful Dead. This year’s list of their favorite performances includes a great set by Mumford and Sons, a feel-good number by Peoria band Back Yard Tire Fire (whom I’ve really come to love) and some videos of Everest that look like Guitar Heaven. There are some notable performances from this year that seem to be missing, but these videos are all pretty great. I even like Chelsea Dagger again…

This Video by Volkswagen/The Fun Theory

There’s no way to watch this and not think back ruefully at all the times you emerged from a subway tunnel on boring old concrete stairs. I want.

Patrick Sweany Band

They are playing White Water Tavern tonight, so congrats to all the lucky assholes who will be there. Jealous.

Addendum: This is awesome.

Just found this What's Your State Good At list (with fun pictures!) and had to add it. I've known about Arkansas' rice production, but seeing Illinois represented by a gun sure does make me proud. I love the neutrality here - if you're lucky enough to be in Vermont, you're the smartest in the nation! If you live in Nevada, congrats on all the teen pregnancies and meth use. Rhode Island is clearly the best place to party, but Oregon is the most bi-curious. So if that's your kind of party...  I just feel sad for the states who rank number 1 in potential. Snooze. What fun is being the hottest if you're not getting any?

I got a blog y'all

It’s taken quite a few attempts over the years to start this blog, and as many weeks in the recent past of grasping for a manageable writing project to fill a seemingly wide-open space in life, to finally get down to business and pen the inaugural entry into what will hopefully evolve into something actually worth reading. As I learned with my last writing project, the quick failure (but personal success? maybe? eventual success? perhaps.) of NaNoWriMo, I like to just get the beginning part out of the way and hope the meat of the thing is worth enough to make you forget it. I think I once knew how to write a killer lead, whether for an editorial or a short story, but the key element there is patience and tiresome effort. Frankly, that sort of effort is reserved for other things these days, like, searching for things on the internet that are better than my blog.

A while back I had a sort of unpublished blog in the form of witty e-mails I sent to my friends about my adventures as a townie when I moved back in with my parents after college. I’m not sure I have something as distinct or comical to write about these days, and I may come across as scattered, but I hope some kind of theme emerges without me having to try too hard. Confession: generally the most well-received things I’ve ever written have been accidents.

Early last summer I went on a series of bad dates and toyed with the idea of chronicling my bad luck on a blog, but I grew weary of going on bad dates and just got more careful – and quickly ran out of material. Well, I still go on comically bad dates sometimes, but I can’t count on that enough to be blog fodder for months to come (I hope). The townie thing works, but only in small doses I think. I considered writing about music but much of the best of it eludes me; music writers, or great ones, have to have their ears to the ground in a way that intimidates me and I’m not afraid to admit it. And don’t let anyone tell you differently – it takes a lot of time and money to even be an amateur music critic. The glory days of the 1960’s where anybody could take in a show at your local basement club or buy a secondhand record and write a review of it, then send it in to Rolling Stone and actually have it published, are gone. That world grows larger and more accessible everyday and in turn music writing becomes less so. Every indie rock critic agrees on 9 out of the 10 best albums of the year but they all have to have that ONE rabbit to pull out of the hat that shows they listened to every underground EP that you did and all the ones you didn’t. I am not that person. Same for television and movies. There is so much great television out there that I don’t watch because I don’t have the time, and important movies I haven’t seen because they cost $10 and I’m cheap. When I see one, I’ll tell you about it. But the last time I paid for my own movie ticket was… not in 2010.

In the introduction to the book Crazy Salad, a collection of articles Nora Ephron wrote about the feminist movement for Esquire back in the seventies, she says, “For a while there I wrote about women.” I daydream about that sentence. I’ll not have that singularity of focus, and I clearly won’t be able to begin things in the graceful, nonchalant way that she can. But if you get nothing else out of this, just go read that book and give me credit for pointing you toward it. It’s fantastic.

As for my own self-indulgent musings on culture, and pop culture, and anecdotes about my own misadventures, I just hope to be entertaining. And if I’m lucky I succeeded in my endeavor here, which was leaving nowhere to go but up…