Year in Review: 2011

A continuation, in slightly different form, of the “Annual Favorites” list I’ve been keeping for the past decade:

Favorite Books

  1. One With Others, by C.D. Wright
  2. Mao: The Unknown Story, by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
  3. Beautiful Evidence, by Edward R. Tufte
  4. The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain de Botton
  5. The Pale King, by David Foster Wallace
  6. Havana, by Michael Eastman
  7. The Big Short, by Michael Lewis
  8. Why Mahler?, by Norman Lebrecht
  9. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
  10. Decoded, by JAY Z
  11. To End a War, by Richard Holbrooke
  12. The Hare With Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal
  13. The Diary of Virginia Woolf, Vol. I
  14. The Pentagram Papers (anniversary collection)
  15. Saul Bellow: Letters
  16. Enduring Love, by Ian McEwan
  17. In the Plex, by Steven Levy
  18. A Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan
  19. In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson
  20. Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson
  21. Butcher’s Crossing, by John Williams
  22. The Submission, by Amy Waldman
  23. Buddhism, by Donald W. Mitchell
  24. Out Stealing Horses, by Per Patterson
  25. At the Same Time, by Susan Sontag
  26. Solar, by Ian McEwan
  27. The Elements of Content Strategy, by Erin Kissane
  28. Content Strategy for the Web, by Kristina Halvorson
  29. Richard Serra: Sculpture: 40 Years, multiple authors

Other Book Notes:  Meh on Life of Pi by Yann Martel and The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. Was impressed by the early portions I read of Hitch-22. Gave up early on Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, Blue Nights by Joan Didion (despite really liking Magical Thinking), and The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (despite loving Middlesex way back when). Enjoyed paging through a handful of art books and catalogues, most especially Marina Abromivic: The Artist is Present. And about the Jobs bio: I’m a grateful and admiring Apple user, but it’s troubling how much time Jobs seemed to spend — and enjoy spending — belittling others.

Favorite Movies: 2011

  1. Tree of Life
  2. Midnight in Paris
  3. The Artist
  4. Beginners
  5. Cave of Forgotten Dreams
  6. Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol
  7. Tabloid
  8. Drive

Other 2011 Movie Notes: So-so on Contagion. Disliked The Descendants.

Favorite Movies: Pre-2011

  1. Macbeth (BBCs’ 2010 version)
  2. The Mirror
  3. The Death of Yugoslavia (6-part BBC documentary)
  4. Blue Valentine
  5. Inside Job
  6. Another Year
  7. Rabbit Hole
  8. Of Gods and Men
  9. Toy Story 3
  10. True Grit
  11. Objectified
  12. The Other Guys
  13. The Fighter
  14. Casino
  15. The Secret in Their Eyes
  16. The Town
  17. Badlands
  18. Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Schulman
  19. Happy Go-Lucky
  20. The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
  21. Salt
  22. The King’s Speech

Other Pre-2011 Movie Notes: Meh on Separate Lies. The September Issue could have been a decent 30-minute TV segment.

Favorite TV Programs

  1. Parks & Rec
  2. Colbert & Stewart
  3. Modern Family
  4. Curb Your Enthusiasm
  5. 30 Rock
  6. Top Chef (Season 6)
  7. American Masters: Woody Allen
  8. The Buddha (PBS)
  9. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979 series)
  10. Downton Abbey
  11. The Hour
  12. American Masters: Charles & Ray Eames

Favorite Music: This was the year I turned to Rdio, paying $5/month for access to its terrific (though not complete [no Will Oldham, for example]) library. It’s not a perfect set up, but I love the chance to listen to a lot of new-to-me music (including classical and hip-hop) without committing to a complete purchase. I also like being led to artists and albums I wouldn’t have known to seek out (like the movie soundtrack below). And I certainly don’t miss weighing down my MacBook with mp3 after mp3 — traveling lightly has its advantages. Looking at my Rdio history, here’s an alpha-order look at some of my favorite music from the past year’s listening:

CDs that weren’t on Rdio that I actually bought (digitally) and like a lot: Bill Callahan, Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle; Radiohead, The King of Limbs; The Decemberists, The King Is Dead; and Gillian Welch, The Harrow & the Harvest (though I always end of skipping the banjo-heavy tunes).

While we enjoyed some great St. Louis Symphony Orchestra concerts this fall (Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and Elgar; Stravinsky), the personal music highlight this year was seeing the Fruit Bats in concert in St. Louis. Tamara and I chose “Seaweed” as our wedding song back in 2007, and I’d requested, via Twitter and Facebook, that the songwriter play it during his St. Louis show. He ended the evening with a phenomenal, slightly altered version, solo, in a dead-quiet Off Broadway.

Favorite Museums & Exhibitions

  1. Permanent Collection, Neues Museum, Berlin
  2. “Dreamscapes," The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St. Louis
  3. Permanent Collection, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
  4. Permanent Collection, The Joan Miró Foundation, Barcelona
  5. “Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: Kunst des Lichts (Painting with Light),” Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
  6. “Robert Mapplethorpe Retrospective,” C / O Gallery, Berlin
  7. Permanent Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona
  8. Permanent Collection, New National Gallery, Berlin
  9. “Italiens Junge Kunst in der Botschaft,” Italian Embassy, Berlin

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts hired me to edit its print and web catalogue for “Reflections of the Buddha,” so my opinion isn’t terribly subjective; but it’s a tremendous show.

Favorite Articles & Essays

  1. “The Aquarium,” by Aleksandar Hemon, The New Yorker
  2. “A Murder Foretold,” by David Grann, The New Yorker
  3. “Revolt of the Elites,” by The Editors, n+1
  4. “Coming Apart:” by George Packer, The New Yorker
  5. “The Apostate,” by Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker
  6. “The Gulf War,” by Raffi Khatchadqurian, The New Yorker
  7. “Behind the Curtain” and “Exit Bin Laden,” by David Remnick, The New Yorker
  8. “The Broken Contract,” by George Packer, Foreign Affairs
  9. “The Joy of Vex,” by James Parker, The Atlantic
  10. “Post-Artifact,” by Craig Mod, Craigmod.com
  11. “Are You Ready for More?” by Sharon Begley, Newsweek
  12. “State for Sale,” by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker
  13. “Franzen’s Ugly Americans Abroad,” by Tim Parks, NYR Blog
  14. “Story’s End,” by Meghan O’Rourke, The New Yorker
  15. “Inside David Foster Wallace’s Private Self-Help Library,” by Maria Bustillos, The Awl
  16. “Personal Best,” by Atul Gawande, The New Yorker
  17. “The Book on Publishing,” by Chad Harbach, Vanity Fair
  18. “Mapping Home,” by Aleksandar Hemon
  19. “The Disposable Woman,” by Anna Holmes, The New York Times
  20. “Today, Muslims; tomorrow, you,” by Roger Simon, Politico
  21. “Dubai on Empty,” by A. A. Gill, Vanity Fair
  22. “Universe Dented, Grass Underfoot,” by John Gruber, Daring Fireball
  23. “Fear of Missing Out,” by Caterina Fake, Caterina.net (link’s currently broken)
  24. “Don’t Release the Photos,” by Philip Gourevitch, NewYorker.com
  25. “Fact-Free Science,” by Judith Warner, The New York Times Magazine
  26. “The Future of Books,” by James Warner, McSweeneys.net
  27. “No Depression,” by Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker
  28. “My Job Pt. 1 — I have no idea what I’m doing,” by Ben Pieratt, Pieratt.tumblr.com
  29. “Karen Green: Interview,” by Tim Adams, The Observer
  30. “Bruce Springsteen Releases New Concept Album About Struggles of Poor Miners Working on Mars,” The Onion
  31. “Mitt Romney Haunted By Past of Trying to Help Uninsured Sick People,” The Onion
  32. “David Chipperfield: A master of permanence comes home,” by Rowan Moore, The Observer
  33. “How long does it take to ‘get’ an album?” by Steven Hyden, The Onion AV Club
  34. A good number of posts by Andrew Sullivan, Amy Davidson, and Shawn Blanc.

Favorite Audio & Podcasts: Love The New Yorker’s Political Scene podcast. My find this year was Slate’s The Culture Gabfest. The BBC’s Arts and Ideas podcast is consistently great. Planet Money’s “Inside the Mind of a Financial Criminal” was a terrific and entertaining individual episode. The BBC’s “Europe’s New Politics” was troubling and important (though I’m happy to say it looks as if this trend has slowed in northern Europe). I greatly enjoyed On Being’s episode called “A Wild Love for the World.”

Favorite Technology: iPad 2. Remarkable. And we love our PanasonicGF-1.

Personal Highlights: Spending half the year living with Tamara in Berlin, spending 10 days with her family in Bosnia, visiting friends in Spain, and reunioning with family in Oregon. Back here at home: Joining TOKY and buying a house we dig.