Favorites of 2010.

I didn't do this last year, and I kind of regret it; it's funny how easy it is to forget what was on your mind in a given year, if you don't write it down (2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003).

Music

For the first time that I can remember, I relaxed my arbitrary rule of one song per artist. Because it's my list, and that rule was stupid! Another stupid rule? Not bothering to order the songs. That rule? Abolished!

Here's a pretty picture:

And here's an eleven-song-strong list, where songs link to something appropriate, if possible:

1. Robyn, "Dancing On My Own"
2. The-Dream, "Yamaha"
3. Kanye West, "Runaway feat. Pusha-T"
4. Sleigh Bells, "Infinity Guitars"
5. Fat Joe, "(Ha Ha) Slow Down feat. Young Jeezy"
6. Big Boi, "Shutterbugg"
7. Robyn, "Call Your Girlfriend"
8. Mark Ronson & the Business Intl., "Somebody to Love Me"
9. Kanye West, "Power feat. Dwele"
10. Marnie Stern, "For Ash"
11. My Chemical Romance, "Na Na Na (Na Na Na...)"

Incidentally, Penelope's favorite song of 2010 (well, at least from the above list) is "Call Your Girlfriend", which she calls "I'm your girlfriend", and which we play, often.

And, a favorite album, despite the fact that none of the songs appear in the list above? The Roots, How I Got Over.

Reading

Last year, I started using goodreads to track all of the books I've read (I even imported the books I'd listed on Vox). And according to goodreads, I finished 25 books in 2010; I'll count that as 26, since I finished another on January 3, 2011.

My favorite of the year is easy: David Mitchell's The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. A gorgeous book; I want to read it again and again.

Food & Drink

And finally, cooking and, well, drinking. And that's easy: 2010 was the year of pizza! I made so many pizzas, all with the goal of getting better at making dough.

Everything I've ever read about kneading dough implies--or even explicitly states--that making dough is really easy. And it is! The problem is, the first time you make it, and maybe the second and third times, you've no idea what the dough should feel like, and so it's tough to know when it's ready. But once you've done it a couple of times, and have made a pizza (or bread) each time from that dough to see how it tastes--then, yes, it's easy.

Comments

[Matt Jacobs]

Where's my rdio playlist for your top songs, eh?

[Abe Hassan]

Gaga didn't even make the top eleven, eh?