What are your favorites of 2010? Let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly in popular culture for a year that has absolutely FLOWN by. Leave a comment about your faves and least faves and be entered to win a gift card for that last-minute Christmas shopping!
Mark Wahlberg in THE FIGHTER
MOVIES– For me, the year’s best film is a tie between Toy Story 3, which defied my expectations for an animated sequel, and The Town, a bank-robber story set in Boston, featuring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner (who had better get an Oscar nom for his amazing performance as Affleck’s bad-boy sidekick!) Of course, it is entirely possible both these movies could get bumped from my top spot after I see another tough-guy movie set in Massachusetts: The Fighter. Mark Wahlberg. Christian Bale. Boxing, training. More boxing and training. What’s not to like?
Speaking of stuff not to like, how about the movies that bombed in 2010? I saw some duds, but I have a feeling the worst were the ones I missed. Those include some that got plenty of hype, but then seemed to fizzle: Salt with Angelina Jolie. The Last Airbender. Did anyone see these? What did you think? I must say that the movie I liked the least was one plenty of other people loved– Despicable Me. Sorry, but I thought the whole creepy-old-guy-adopting-little-girls-and-tucking-them-into-bed-at-night thing was just icky.
MUSIC– I don’t have a favorite song of 2010, but I will admit I’m among the gazillion or so people who downloaded Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” onto my iPod. Much easier to listen to her there
Katy Perry
than, say, in the car where my young kids are asking me to explain sex on the beach. This song was second in iTunes downloads this year, while the first place song was “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train. Like the song. Did not like so much that it was used in what seemed like half the ads on the airwaves.
TELEVISION– What shows did you watch this year? My whole family loved “Glee”, but I didn’t connect with it. I did, however, really enjoy a reality show called “Man, Woman, Wild”. It’s essentially “Man v. Wild” but with a husband and wife relationship thrown in to keep things interesting. At first, the woman seemed like a bubble head and they kept filming her in skimpy tank tops for unknown reasons. But after watching almost every episode, I decided I admire her pluck. She can eat bugs and rodents with the best of them.
BOOKS– I blogged about this already, but I really loved Freedom by Jonathan Franzen. Some people hated it. It was that sort of book. I liked it because I thought it was bold, gritty, truthful, and at times hilarious. Kind of like family life.
HEADLINES– As for the best headline of 2010, my runner up is: “Fed Up Flight Attendant Makes Sliding Exit” about the Jet Blue worker who let loose on an obnoxious passenger, grabbed a beer, and slid down the emergency chute. Reminded me of a Johnny Paycheck song. Top headline for the year, though, was a bit more far-reaching: “Country Rejoices as Miners Brought to Freedom” about the rescue of 33 Chilean miners trapped half a mile underground.
What were your favorite things / moments / happenings of 2010? Leave a comment and be entered to win a $25 VISA GIFT CARD for all that last-minute holiday shopping, as well as a signed copy of my new release, UNFORGIVABLE.
