One of my favorite things about the dawn of a new year has to be all the attempts to sum up experiences into a “best-of” post. I’m awful at things like that, mostly because I just forget what my favorite things are and only list what I heard, saw, read or experienced in December.
So instead of a “best-of” post I’ve decided to just tell you some of my favorite things.
How about a little bit of entertainment to kick us off.
“The 400 Blows” is easily one of my all-time favorite films. The way that Truffaut shows the despair and loneliness of a young boy on the streets of Paris is equal parts heartbreaking, hilarious and beautiful. The closing scene on the beach has to go down as one of the most haunting, and anti-climactic, cinematic experiences I’ve ever experienced. If you haven’t seen The 400 Blows, of Godard’s “Breathless” for that matter, do yourself a favor and find it now.
If you haven’t heard Joe Pug and his heart-on-his-sleeve lyrics yet, you should be ashamed of yourself. On first hearing, Pug sounds like a musician who spends most of his days drink whiskey, smoking cigarettes and being brilliant. The simplicity of his sound lends itself to a folk style that is reminiscent of early Dylan mixed with Neil Young and a bottle of Jack Daniels. He says things like “the more I buy, the more I’m bought, and the more I’m bought the less I cost,” with so much ease that you’d think he was a 60-something troubadour that survived Vietnam. It’s just a beautiful, raw intensity that sets Pug apart.
I’ll leave you with the TV show “Happy Endings“. Sure I started to watch because Elisha Cuthbert was in it, but I think it’s Damon Wayans, Jr. and Eliza Coupe’s characters that keep me tuning in. Tune in Wednesday nights on ABC for one of the smartest relationship sitcoms on TV today.
