Thinking outside the botox

I, for one, don’t like top lists. The idea of recording what my favorite movies, CDs, games or television shows were for a year is way too much responsibility. Especially since what I like right now could change at any minute.

And, of course, I haven’t even experienced everything that might be great. (King Kong, for instance, is still in my maybe I’ll see it pile.)

So here, instead, are a few things that mattered to me during the past year.

This list may be obsolete by the time you read it.

The Most Interesting Movie of the Year: Good Night, and Good Luck. I’ve already talked about it enough, so I won’t waste any more of your time. But this is the type of movie I’d want to write, if I wanted to write movies.

The Most Entertaining Movie of the Year: Sin City. I don’t think I can call it my favorite, but on the whole the movie has a kitschy brilliance that you have to like. It’s ultraviolent, misogynistic and overly stylized –– and I loved every minute of it.

The Album That Made Me the Happiest: I don’t think there was any one album that did it for me this year. I quite enjoyed the Jon Brion version of Fiona Apple’s Extraordinary Machine. The Shout Out Loud’s Howl Howl Gaff Gaff made me intensely happy for a solid week, but I haven’t gone back to it much since. I really did like Clap You Hands and Say Yeah! self-title ultra indie favorite. And Late Registration from Kanye West made me a nearly permanent fan that was almost willing to go to a U2 concert just to see Kanye open (I hate U2).

The Album I Should Have Listened to More, But Haven’t So Far: Blinking Lights and Other Revelations by The Eels. I’m actually a little surprised that it hasn’t been on more top album lists. It’s really brilliant and more so than any Eels album up to Blinking Lights, and that saying a lot. The candor and irony on the album is the type of music I’d want to write, if I wanted to write music.

Most Free Time Stolen: The Nintendo DS. I’ve only had my DS for a couple of weeks now, but I’ve already drained the battery more times than I have the battery for my PSP (which I’ve had since March). That more impressive too, since the PSP battery last about four hours on average and the DS battery last 8-10. So far, I’m mostly just playing Animal Crossing (that is why I bought it). But I’m look forward to all the quirky, exclusive Japanese developed games in my future too.

Least Free Time Stolen: The Sony PSP. I drained the battery exactly three times. Twice for Lumines (the only game worth owning) and twice for the homebrew/video encoding PSP abilities (which are more of a nerd hobby thing than a useful feature). I spent $250 on this little machine… but I’d be willing to sell it for $200. In other news… I’m done with Halo 2 and my Gamecube may only be played one more time.

The Shows That Made Me Happy I Didn’t Sell My Television: The Office, My Name Is Earl, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother and Arrested Development. You probably noticed, they’re all comedies. Two are more standard sitcom fare and three are not. But – all together – they all feel like a worthy investment of two and a half hours each week.

The Show That Makes Me Happy to Own a DVR: The Office. I’ve watched most of the episodes three or four times. But again… I’ve already talked about this show enough.

Favorite Symbolic Moment of the Year: This one, and every related one since.