Some day I will be better remembered.
- President Grover Cleveland
2010 was an odd and embittering year. Was it a good year? No, too much plain dysfunction lay about for this to be a truly good year. However, the year’s events fell short of the dire expectations that I entertained at the end of 2009. It seems much of the world, both Left and Right, has opted for the black flag and purple pomp of reactionism, snark, and hollow howling. Even the well-intentioned found themselves paying a war’s-worth of wages to win battles for honor and good. Obviously, we are in the midst of years of transition between an old world order and a newer one without the assurance that what is to come will be any more decent or interesting than the old way. This is probably why the oddest (but also, perhaps, the most sincere) event of the year — Jon Stewart’s ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’ — achieved such a strong turnout: people just want things to make sense again.
2010 was the big “WTF?” May 2011 be the cutesy “JK.”
BOOK:
Hitch 22 by Christopher Hitchens
ARTICLE:
“Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster” by John Heilemann, New York Magazine
Honorable Mention:
“The Man The White House Wakes Up To” by Mark Leibovich, New York Times Magazine
MOVIE:
“I Am Love” directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Tilda Swinton
ALBUM:
“Brothers” by The Black Keys
Honorable Mention:
+ 4 by The Bamboos
SONG:
“F*** You” by Cee-Lo
Honorable Mentions:
+“Cornbread and Butterbeans” by Carolina Chocolate Drops
+“Runaway” by Kanye West
+“Unknown Brother” by The Black Keys
THING I SAW ON TELEVISION:
Parks and Recreation, “Woman of the Year”
HERO:
VILLAIN:
TIE — Fred Phelps & Kim Jong-Il
CAPITALIST:
SOCIALIST:
Brazil President-elect Dilma Rousseff
CITY:
MISSED OPPORTUNITY:
ACT OF CARPE DIEM:
GAMBLE:
SCHOOL:
