Sunday, January 2, 2011

New Year's Resolutions/A look back at 2010

Just before we completely abandon 2010, here is a very quick, very superficial list of what I liked during the year. Please note that when I use the word "Best," I mean what I thought was best, based on my limited experience. I have not seen every movie released in 2010. I only travelled to a handful of places. The music I listen to is mostly rock; my musical tastes will not be extremely varied.

I guess that's enough of a disclaimer.

Best TV drama: Mad Men (yes, I just discovered it this year.)
Best TV comedy: Community (Not enough people are watching it because in Season 1 it was up against Glee, and in Season 2 it's up against The Big Bang Theory. It is far better than either show.)
Best film: Inception (It falls over, damn it!)
Hon. mention: The King's Speech (Who knew a movie about overcoming a stutter could be so good, and so funny?)
Best song: Tighten Up, by The Black Keys
Hon. mention: F*** You, by Cee Lo Green. And none of that "Forget You" crap.
Best music video: Tighten Up, by The Black Keys (for everything from "but he smells like ranch dressing," to the pocket donuts, to the kids singing, to Dan and Patrick getting beaten up, to Dan just dumping the kid when he sees the woman, to... well, just watch it).
Best graphic novel series: Fables. Preacher comes close. Scott Pilgrim comes even closer. A very tough call.
Best new drink: Scotch. Not that I'm a big drinker, but some brands taste good.

***

That's that. Now a look ahead to 2011 and what I'd like to accomplish. You'll notice the bar doesn't go extremely high (no quest for world peace, or a trip to the moon). I've left off a few things, but I wasn't sure how to set them into definite goals. They're off the list for now, obviously.

***

The List of Resolutions

Have an art portfolio review.
Near the end of every year, there is a portfolio review day for prospective art students. Hopefully I'll work hard enough over the year to amass enough quality pieces to get a positive appraisal, or at least some good feedback.

Make a stop-motion short video.
Because I've always wanted to.

Re-write my novel. The whole thing.
The old novel is dead. Parts of it were good, but other parts were less than stellar. It could not go on, and to patch it up would only turn it into something resembling Frankenstein's creature. I will begin again, from scratch.

See more movies that are new to me.
I love movies and the history of cinema. But for all that I try to watch a lot of movies, there are huge gaps in my film list. For example, there's a list of the Essential 100 as selected by some people at the Toronto International Film Festival, and I've only seen 27 of them. Lists are always subjective, but since I want to see more movies that I haven't already seen, how about I try bumping up my current number on that list? One a month should be manageable. In fact, let's make it a baker's dozen, just to get me to 40. I like round numbers.

Read more new books.
How are we ever supposed to catch up with all the books being churned out? We can only read so many books in a year, yet thousands of new titles are published every week. It's daunting. So I'll try to keep track of my readings here. I'll post what I wanted to read for the month, and what I actually read.

Perform some original songs at a show.
This would be so much easier with a band. Unfortunately, I am band-less, and there is no band project on the horizon. Well, there's a whole year to fix that. (FYI, this shouldn't be TOO difficult. Being in a band would not be new to me. Here is a 90-second mashup of my old band's tunes, complete with an interesting voiceover by our producer.)

Get back to working out regularly.
Self-explanatory.

Gain and maintain 10 pounds.
This is related to the workout goal, but separate from it. Gaining is more difficult while exercising.

Learn a relatively impractical skill.
How does knife-throwing sound? Suggestions are welcome.

***

Happy New Year !

4 comments:

mel said...

sign me up for working on the stop motion with you. i have also been wanting to make another one for years, but lack a script. (plenty of shot ideas mind you)
solid lists. make sure you catch up on madmen before the new season starts. i am throwing a premiere party.

fvpaonessa said...

Thanks, Mel! I'll let you know about the video, and I'll try to have all four seasons watched in time for the premiere.

B.Kienapple said...

Aha how did I not know about this Fuck You song?!
Also, recently watched the Community pilot on the recommendation of a friend and yes, definitely an underrated show!

fvpaonessa said...

You hadn't heard the song? It's so catchy that I almost gave it the #1 spot. And the videos for it are good. But I played Tighten Up so much more. In fact, the whole Brothers album is still in heavy rotation.
I thought that Community took a few episodes to really get going. By the time you get to the Halloween episode, though, everything should be awesome. Before you know it, you might even be teling your friends to check out the little Troy and Abed endings and rapping along to La Bibilioteca. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcD_Y838DXA

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