Top 9 of '09

Did you know that in Dhaka (Bangladesh) the New Year came twice. Once the clock struck midnight we had to roll them back for an hour and wait for the new year again. It was kind of wonderful, as impatient as I was for the new beginnings of 2010. I had a lot of time to think, for that extra hour. So I made a strangely specific list.

Biggest Issue: Healthcare Reform. It is going to be the make or break move of Obama's political career, and it feels like it may make or break most of us in our current situations. It's so strange that heads of state who don't have to worry about this kind of thing get to choose what works for the greater good.
Honorable mention: Gay marriage. 'Nuff said.

Most Keenly Felt Emotion: Disappointment. Let's be honest, we're the generation of loneliness, so that barely even registers. But because of the optimism of '08, we had some pretty high expectations for '09. I don't think they all worked out, but I'm grateful for what has. Honorable mention for what follows disappointment: determination to get back on track and not repeat mistakes.

Best Media Sneak Attack: Huffington Post has turned blogs into something that big media companies should be scared of. With pervasive presence in all subjects, most acutely, political. I'm just wondering what they might do next.

Best Apocalypse Story: In a Perfect World, by Laura Kasischke. While the rest of you may be 2012'ing it up, I am obsessed with the quiet bravery and fearlessness portrayed in this book. Forget feeling helpless as John Cusack survives earthquakes and floods. In a Perfect World has a much more realistic and therefore scarier end-of-the-world scenario. However, reading it made me feel like I can survive whatever may come.


Best DVD to Watch with Wisecracking Friends: Drag me to Hell. Don't get ready to be scared, get ready to piss your pants laughing.


Most Unlikely Internet Meme: Truly, the joy of internet meme-age is that it rarely makes sense. But David going to Dentist? C'mon... they are making t-shirts and money out of their kids drugged out freak out... I won't go into my child exploitation rant right now, but suffice to say, let it go. I'm trying...

Best New Television Show (despite AWFUL subway ads): Modern Family. Yes, those posters featuring Ed O'Neill and some other randoms, is laugh out loud funny. There is that heaping spoonful of dysfunction (which, face it, we can't live without) with a dash of good ole fashioned heart. Sounds cheesy? It is. Sounds utterly watchable? That too.

Best New Venture by Old-school Indie Darling: Taken by Trees album, East of Eden. Victoria Bergsman, formerly of the Concretes, and more recently female vocalist for Peter, Bjorn and John's Young Folks shows us time and time again that she makes great, refreshing pop tunage. But what is so great about Taken By Trees album is that it really, really sounds new. You can listen to it over and over as well.

Honorable mention: Julian Plenti, I've always had a bit of a crush on him, if his album featured fewer Interpol knock-off tracks I would have been duly impressed.

Best New Pop Enigma: Lady Gaga, you should have guessed! It has more to do with the fact that she writes meta-pop songs about just getting drunk and having sex and people taking pictures and shitty boyfriends, and less to do with the performance artist stage persona (though that helps). She will not have some strange anthem like Beautiful by Christina Aguilera which tries to sell some meaning but falls flat on it's face for sheer insincerity. This is a girl who does what she wants, and right now, I want it too!

Happy New Year!!!

-Kastoory