2010 in Review

Strap in for another year in review... tis the season, after all. If I were to choose one word to sum it up, I'd go with overwhelming. There were many overwhelming moments along the way -- some happiness, some sadness, some heartbreak, some fearful and painful, some that were downright triumphant. Here's a list of 10 favorites from the past 365 days.

*Movie of the Year: This one is really tough because there was so little this year, movie-wise, that really stood out as great. "Inception" was cool, but had a feeling of missed opportunity to it. "True Grit" was a phenomenal movie, but didn't strike me in the same way you'd expect a favorite movie to really hit home. I enjoyed the heck out of "Tron: Legacy," but it certainly was not without flaws. I'd like to say "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1," because that's probably the closest thing to a favorite I had, but even that didn't stand head-and-shoulders above everything else for me this year. So we'll just let that absence of a favorite movie stand as a statement of hoping next year will be better.

*Puppet of the Year: Sid the Foul-Mouthed Bunny Rabbit from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Sid makes me laugh out loud, and hard. But I concede there are a small number of people who would even know who he is, and of those people, probably even a smaller number who would appreciate him.

*TV Show of the Year: "Community." Seriously, if you aren't watching this, you are really missing out. I'm not sure I like the broader, more absurdist tone its taken on this year in place of the slightly more believable character interactions from the first season, but it's still the best thing out there right now. Although I am enjoying the subtle way "The Office" is beginning to set up Michael Scott exiting the show.

*Game of the Year: Angry Birds. There really isn't even a close second here.

*Concert of the Year: Rush at the Minnesota State Fair. A three-hour great moment.

*Album of the Year: Surprisingly enough for me, I have to go with "A Thousand Suns" by Linkin Park. Yes, they were one of those aggressive, in-your-face caricature rap-rock bands from the late 90s, but this album bordered on being conceptual, and was, I thought, a great example of how a band can evolve into something you'd never expect without drastically changing their style. A very, very close runner-up would have been the long-awaited (by me) "Alter Bridge III."

*Book of the Year: "The Passage," by Justin Cronin. A monster example of how a post-apocalyptic horror adventure can be character-driven and literary at the same time.

*Literary Agent of the Year: Suzie Townsend. Because even if she shot me down when it came to offering representation for "Following Infinity," she was the first one who was intrigued enough to consider it. For giving me that glimpse at the next step in becoming a published author and letting me speculate what it would be like for a little while, she gets the nod. Though I'd probably like her even more if she'd made an offer....

*Life-Changing Toy of the Year: The iPhone. I owned three cell phones before it, and used the more in the first month than I had the other three combined. A tectonic shift in my life. And for the record - Yeah, AT&T. I have yet to experience a dropped call. Just sayin'. Honorable Mention goes to my original blue yPod -- the iPod shuffle I listened to during my workouts this year. Without the motivation it provided me, I would not have been able to stay as consistent in my workout schedule as I was, and likely wouldn't have lost the 55 pounds (and counting) that I have.

*Artist of the Year: Rush. To think that three guys who have been playing together as long as they have can still be as vibrant and dynamic in their live shows and in the music the released this year (even if it was only two new songs).... pretty impressive. Not to mention that "Beyond the Lighted Stage" was probably the best rock and roll movie released in a long time. Having that movie come out three months before I got to see them live, and having two great new songs to play during the summer as serve as gateway songs to reintroduce a lot of their older music into my current iPod rotation really made the summer.

The thought that always goes through my mind on this day is to consider the calendar of the coming year, and to wonder what things are waiting to happen for all of us in the coming days and weeks and months that we won't see coming, and what changes they will inevitably bring into our lives. Here's hoping for more good than bad.