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Serious

A great quote from James Surowiecki on the Oscar nominations:

The funny thing, though, is that Hazlett's broader point, about the Oscar voters foolishly ignoring popular films this year, is right--though not for the reasons she thinks. There's no doubt, after all, that the most popular film of the year, "Wall-E," was also among the best, yet it went unnominated for Best Picture. And one could similarly make a case for Christopher Nolan's excellent if flawed "Dark Knight," which was a huge box-office smash. The problem with the Oscar voters isn't that they love small, independent films like "Frozen River" too much. The problem is that they think tasteful, middlebrow dramas like "The Reader" are necessarily more artistic or serious than a movie like "Wall-E." This year, at least, the Oscar voters should have more paid more attention to what ordinary people liked, not because it would have made for great television, but because it would have made for better nominations.

Granted, I saw very few new movies in 2008, but I did see both "The Dark Knight" and "Wall-E", and they'd certainly be on my list.

Being Great

I love Kanye's blog, because it offers up gems like this line from a recent post about how he just can't have nice things (via Idolator):

YOOOO WHY WON'T YOU LET ME BE GREAT!!!

Plastic

It's a new year for pop music, and I'm both catching up on a couple of albums that didn't quite make it to my year-end favorites list--Ne-Yo, Ida Maria, and Alphabeat, specifically--and excitedly awaiting some of the albums coming out soon, like Lily Allen's It's Not Me, It's You, including "The Fear", which I'm loving.

The Modern Pantry

I loved Mark Bittman's article about the modern pantry (via Ruhlman, who has a great comment thread going on the subject).

076 | Arborio rice
Originally uploaded by woordenaar

One of my absolute pantry favorites is arborio rice, because I love making & eating risotto. There are so many things you can do with it!

Just over the past couple of months, I've made a cauliflower risotto, a beet risotto, a sausage & pea risotto, a kabocha squash & arugula risotto, and a wild mushroom risotto. And those are just the ones I remember.

Once you get the technique down, risotto's easy (and even soothing) to make. A truly great fall & winter food.

Will Oldham and R. Kelly

I almost skipped the profile of Will Oldham in last week's New Yorker, mostly because I kept confusing him with Todd Oldham (I know, I'm dumb).

But so anyway, what got me interested was when I saw this while scanning the article:

And he played a police officer in "Trapped in the Closet," the multipart comic opera by the R. & B. singer R. Kelly, who is one of Oldham's favorites. [1]

And so, of course, I ended up reading the whole article. I'm easy: I might even read a New Yorker theatre review if it mentioned R. Kelly.

[1] The episode in question, by the way, was number 15, from the second series of episodes (also known as the episodes that really disappointed me).

Stone Roses: "I am the Resurrection"

A couple of years ago, this was one of the first songs I listened to in the new year. Today, by coincidence, it came on my iPod, now at the beginning of 2009. Well done, shuffle!

Here's a brilliant (though sadly shortened) live performance from 1989. (But wait, really: this was 20 years ago? Oh, dear.)

Little Man meets Forrest Gump?

My favorite quote of 2009, so far, from this review of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (via David):

With his head digitally placed on various bodies, Pitt displays less character than did Marlon Wayans' CGI tour-de-force in Little Man--which hilariously said more about man's stages of life.

Look: I've seen Little Man, and calling anything about it a tour-de-force is absolutely ridiculous, because that's one of the stupidest, creepiest movies I've ever seen.

AND YET, I totally agree with this quote.

Favorites of 2008

Favorite reading:

I didn't read much, this year, in the way of books. In fact, all I read is the first half of Lolita; and I absolutely loved it, but even so I haven't yet gotten around to reading the second half.

That's not to say that I didn't read at all, though; the only way to tolerate a commute on Muni is to have a New Yorker on hand, after all, and besides that, I read a number of great things--new and old--this year. Here are a few. (Where possible, links go to my posts, with notes, on each of the articles.)

• Michael Bywater's "My Dad had the best death"
• Letters from Norman Mailer, from the New Yorker
• David Ramsey's "I Will Forever Remain Faithful" (the best thing I read all year)
• A quote from an old (1996) interview with David Foster Wallace
• Robert Forster, on Grant McLennan and The Evangelist
• "Chef on the Edge", the profile of David Chang in the New Yorker (now online here!)
• James Surowiecki's New Yorker blog, probably my favorite blog of the entire year

Favorite songs:

• Britta Persson, "Kill Hollywood Me" (watch/listen)
• Dirty Projectors, "Hyperballad" (listen)
• Erykah Badu, "The Healer" (listen)
• Estelle, "American Boy ft. Kanye West" (listen)
• Janelle Monae, "Many Moons" (watch/listen)
• Lil Wayne, "Tie My Hands ft. Robin Thicke" (listen)
• Lloyd, "Girls Around the World ft. Lil Wayne" (watch/listen)
• Mariah Carey, "Touch My Body" (watch/listen)
• Q-Tip, "Gettin' Up" (watch/listen)
• Solange, "Sandcastle Disco" (watch/listen)

Most popular search terms:

A couple of years ago, in my 2005 year-end wrapup, I listed a couple of the most popular search terms leading people to my blog: "cat glover", "criss angel", "selena and chris", &c. These are the things that make me proud, people!

And so here are a couple of the search terms that led people to this blog in 2008--they're a combination of terms that would've led people here in 2005, 2006, and 2007, as well as for new stuff posted in 2008.

• "biggest dog in the world" (see also: "biggest dog", "the biggest dog", "the biggest dog in the world", &c.)
• "vin diesel fur coat" (one of my favorites!)
• "dave longstreth" (#1!)
• "what does ordinary firmness mean"
• "is clinton kelly gay" (still on the list, 3 years later!)
• "'the office special' song at the end"

And that's that!