Rambling 2013 Round Up

When my family went to write up our holiday/year end letter, I realized I didn't do anything "year-end-letter" worthy in 2013. Here's what I did do: I celebrated award shows with Elise and Bryce and sparkling beverages. Heidi named a cookie after me. I mourned Roger Ebert's death. I visited Seattle (Lillian! Kristen!) and Alaska (Tim!). I finally started watching Dr. Who and finished the first six seasons on Netflix. I took a class on The Modern and Postmodern through Coursera. I watched hours of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with my beard fiancée, Kristen, until she left me and moved to California (I miss you!). I cooked up a storm of new recipes and went to the movies a lot. I applied for many jobs and didn't get very far. And then I lost almost 30 lbs before I gained 15 of it back.
 
And now for Top 10 Lists! I hope it's not any more boring than last year's. 
Let's start with music. My Top 5 Albums of the year were:  

Bankrupt! by Phoenix (stand-out song: "The Real Thing")
This album is as crisp and bubbly as seltzer and was my go-to album all summer long. 
Born to Die by Lana Del Rey ("National Anthem")
It was only this year (after "Summertime Sadness" became her first charting US single) that I became obsessed with this 2012 album and Lana's languid and sultry bad-girl songs. 
Heartthrob by Tegan and Sara ("How Come You Don't Want Me")
This is a delightful pop album about hookups and breakups (and, I'll admit, my first exposure to Tegan and Sara.)
Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend ("Diane Young")
Still thoroughly a Vampire Weekend album, it is a bit older and a bit darker and maybe their best one yet. Full of pop hooks, dense lyrics, and preppy East Coast imagery. 
Pure Heroine by Lorde ("Royals")
Combining excellently produced hooks with old-soul lyrics, it's both a great album about adolescence and a take-down of pop art's consumer culture.  

And here are 10 more Songs I loved this year (mostly 2013ish releases):
"Anything Could Happen" by Ellie Goulding
"Dancing On My Own" by Robyn
"Harlem" by New Politics
"Here's to Never Growing Up" by Avril Lavigne (I'm slightly embarrassed but I cannot deny my love for Avril.)
"Hot Knife" by Fiona Apple
"Lightning Bolt" by Jake Bugg
"Old Skin" by Ólafur Arnalds and Arnor Dan
"Picking Up the Pieces" by Paloma Faith
"San Francisco" by The Mowgli's
"Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Rey
Bonus Song: "I Love It" by Icona Pop was my summer jam in 2012, but it didn't start playing on the radio until this summer, and I loved it just as much this year as last. 

Films! This aren't necessarily the "best" pictures I saw, but they are my favorite movie theater experiences this year (includes some late 2012 releases I didn't see till early 2013). Also, I have not seen a lot of the recent year-end releases:

Anna Karenina directed by Joe Wright
Gorgeous and theatrical, it's a very Baz Luhrmanesque adapation. 
Argo directed by Ben Affleck
It may not have deserved its Best Picture statue, but it's a well-executed thriller done up in old Hollywood style. 
Before Midnight directed by Richard Linklater
The first two Before films were about meeting and remeeting. Midnight is about the baggage and bruises that comes from spending nearly a decade together. It's an excellent if difficult chapter in the relationship between Celine and Jesse.  
Blue Jasmine directed by Woody Allen
In Woody's take on A Streetcar Named Desire, we follow Blanchett's fearless performance as a woman constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. 
The Conjuring directed by James Wan
A well-done and terrifying flick. My friends and I screamed, laughed, gasped, and tightly grabbed each other's hands.
Frances Ha directed by Noah Baumbach
Greta Gerwig is goofily delightful as 27-year-old Frances who is fumbling through life after her best friend moves out. Proudly wearing its French New Wave influences, it may be Baumbach's warmest picture (which is not saying much). Awkwardly funny, exuberant, and uncomfortably close to home. 
Frozen directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee
Though only very loosely based on "The Snow Queen," it's a delightful Disney film about the relationship between two sisters (and the men who get in the way). 
Gravity directed by Alfonso Cuarón
A stunningly visual and heart-racing experience (esp. in IMAX 3-D). 
Much Ado About Nothing directed by Joss Whedon
Nothing more than a trifle that Whedon filmed at his house starring his friends, it is nonetheless a delightful trifle that acquits itself of Shakespeare rather well. 
Short Term 12 directed by Destin Daniel Cretton  
Brie Larson is quietly fantastic as a foster care supervisor battling demons of her own. It's authentically moving (even when the film's designated structure is obvious).

Here are my favorite ten books I read this year (only one of which was a 2013 release) including my Goodreads (friend me!) reviews: 

Animal Farm by George Orwell 
Betraying the promise of the Russian Revolution, Orwell’s fairy story of animals who overthrow their human masters only to submit to porcine tyranny vividly illustrates the potential consequences of our political actions. 
I read my first Orwell this year for book club: The Clergyman's Daughter. I didn't care for it. But my book club recommended I read this title, and I liked it quite a lot. One day I'll get around to 1984. 

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 
The Bundren family take turns narrating their harrowing odyssey to bury their formidable wife and mother, Addie, combining dark comedy with great pathos. 
I first read this in college, and I think it may be Faulkner's most accessible novel. And didn't James Franco direct a film adaptation of it this year..? 

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel 
In Fun Home, Bechdel's "compulsive propensity to autobiography" charts her identity as a lesbian, her fraught relationship with her father (including his possible suicide and homosexual inclinations), and the common ground they find in literature (including Remembrance of Things Past and Ulysses). This postmodern and (tragi)comic memoir is richly detailed, emotionally honest, and compulsively readable. 
I reread this graphic memoir for my Modern and Postmodern course and found it even better the second time. 

Glittering Images by Camille Paglia 
Reading Paglia is like talking to the smartest person at a party; her conversation refreshes, provokes, and sustains. Here Paglia teaches us to focus our eyes on over two dozen pieces of art from Ancient Egypt to Star Wars, providing a marvelous (if brief) art history education. Paglia's passion for and insight of art is astounding and makes this the only nonfiction book on my list. 

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clark 
Clarke, in her ambitious novel, has created an excessively detailed history of English magic set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. The host of characters includes the fussily reclusive and paranoid Mr Norrell, who returns practical magic to England; his foppishly brilliant and unruly pupil, Jonathan Strange, who pushes the boundaries of practical magic, to his eventual peril; a balmy and bloodthirsty fairy who places cruel enchantments on various persons; and the mysterious Raven King who casts a shadowy presence on the proceedings throughout. It is a joy to read such an engrossing novel replete with engaging characters and full of history and the fantastic. 
Lev Grossman calls it a must-read fantasy novel. I agree. 

The Magician King by Lev Grossman 
Bored as king of Fillory, Quentin longs for a heroic quest. Meanwhile, the wrathful Julia will stop at nothing to become a magician. Their joint adventures with both imperil and safeguard Fillory, and both will pay prices they could not imagine. 
This sequel of Grossman's adult take on Narnia and Harry Potter remains just as engrossing as The Magicians. 

Tenth of December by George Saunders 
In this satiric set of short stories, George Saunders cuts to the quick of life in these United States. From milquetoasts with delusions of grandeur to unlikely heroes, these tales (sometimes veering into sci-fi) examine home, free will, class society, love, and the life choices we all must make. These darkly subversive stories can be quite savage, nevertheless Saunders generously empathizes with his characters. 

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf 
This modernist novel captures the minutiae of familial and daily life—its minor victories and setbacks, love and grief. Illuminating ordinary life with a matchstick, Woolf's vision expands the lyrical into a breathtaking narrative. 
Possibly Woolf's best (and my favorite), I reread this for my Modern and Postmodern class. (Earlier this year I also read Woolf's The Waves for the first time. It was . . . most unusual.) 

Who Could That Be At This Hour? by Lemony Snicket 
Snarky and drolly pessimistic, Lemony Snicket asks all the wrong questions in this children’s take on noir detective fiction in his search for a stolen item that wasn’t stolen at all. 
We read this for book club, forgetting that mysteries do not lend themselves particularly well to discussion. Nonetheless, while I never really cared for Unfortunate Events, I thought this book was rather delightful. 

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys 
Things fall apart in this Caribbean Gothic when the Creole heiress Antoinette enters into an arranged marriage with Jane Eyre's prideful Mr. Rochester and loses her mind due to colonial sex and race relations eventually becoming the madwoman in the attic. 
While I did not initially care for this book club selection, Rhys's combined instinct for form and passion for the underdog creates an original and deeply troubling novel ripe for discussion. 

So that's it for now and for 2013. What did you think about the year and art? I don't have a TV list because I only watch old seasons on Neftlix anymore. Have a great 2014!