Media Consumed 2023

I really like the format I used for 2022, so I'm just gonna continue on with that for now.

250 Books | Six Cities Visited | 48 Comics | Four Concerts and the Like | Five Conferences and Festivals | 107 Movies | Four Museums and Landmarks | Twelve Readings and Talks | 0 Sports Matches | Six Theatre Productions | 848 TV Episodes

LET'S. EFFIN. GO.

Media Consumed 2022

What things have I kept count of this year?

316 Books | 21 Cities Visited | 27 Comics | Two Concerts (ish) | 6 Conferences and Festivals | 77 Movies | 21 Museums and Cultural/Historic Sites | 15 Readings and Talks | 1 Sports Match | 6 Theatre Productions | 801 TV Episodes

Media Consumed: Quarantined Globetrotter Edition (May/June 2022)

So yeah, I went on a long-planned vacation and spent half of it quarantined in Casablanca! Which was fun in its own right, if extremely repetitive. More soon!

Books: 10
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake, Alexis Hall
Give Unto Others, Donna Leon
The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, Lauren Willig
Boyfriend Material, Alexis Hall
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St John Mandel
The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever, Julia Quinn
Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, T Kingfisher
Across the Green Grass Fields, Seanan McGuire
Calculated Risks, Seanan McGuire


Cities Visited: 9 (five countries)
Switzerland: Zurich (airport)
Portugal: Lisbon (including airport), Evora
Spain: Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga (airport)
Morocco: Casablanca (including airport), Fes
Canada: Montreal (airport)

Cities I Missed Due to Quarantine: 6
Morocco: Rabat, Marrakech (including airport)
Spain: Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona (including airport)
Germany: Munich (airport)

Movies: 5
Galaxy Quest (United Airlines)
Ghostbusters Afterlife (United Airlines)
Ron's Gone Wrong (United Airlines)
Dog (Air Canada)
Moneyball (Air Canada)

TV: 30 episodes
The Legend of Vox Machina 1.03-1.12
Nora From Queens 2.01-2.03
Obi-Wan Kenobi 1.01, 1.02
Selena + Chef 1.01-1.04
Take Out with Lisa Ling (HBO) 1.01-1.03
WandaVision 1.01-1.09


I think it's safe to say I wouldn't have read as many books, at least, if I hadn't spent six days confined to one hotel room. But still!

Media Consumed in 2021

Books: 248
Not bad! And my Goodreads count is 258, which is closer to accurate than usual. (I often include some short stories on Goodreads, since I figure the ratings are good for the authors.) In any case, my CYRT posts are available for your perusal.

Comic books: 61
Better than last year! Part of this is because I subscribed to Comixology Unlimited for a few months. I dropped it recently, though--I realized I should probably make sure I've read everything I already own before I get caught up with other stuff. I'll get it done eventually.

Concerts: 1
Our Troubled Times, bah! But the concert I did go see was a doozy: Cat Power, Garbage, and Alanis Morissette!



Conferences: 3
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (virtual)
Advanced Placement Reading (virtual)--this isn't a conference, but "conference" is the closest analog, so.
Conference on College Composition & Communciation (#4C21 virtual)

Festivals: 2
Sundance Film Festival (virtual)
Six Bridges Literary Festival (virtual)

Movies: 155
Wooooooooo!

Readings: 32
These are almost all book readings--I only did one full festival (that is, more than a couple of the scheduled events), but overall, not too shabby!

Garth Nix & Laini Taylor, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz & Reece Jones, Buffering the Vampire Slayer recording, Ayana Gray, Caitlin Starling & Wendy N Wagner, Madeline Miller, Chief Bev Sellers & Anne Spice & Kisha Supernant & Gina Starblanket, Pamela Paul & Ayad Akhtar, Amber Edwards & Justin Scott, Lisa Wells, Jasmine Guillory & Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, Charles Yu & Jen Fawkes, Katherine Angel, Marie Benedict, Ash Davidson & Suzanne Simard, Leana Wen, Adrian Miller, Sandra Cisneros, Abby Turner, Abby Turner & Kelli Marks, Jacqueline Woodson, Ayana Gray & Kate Milford, Nate Powell, Margaret Renkl, Dawnie Walton, Hollaback training on street harassment, Hollaback training on anti-Asian harassment, Mary Roach & Suzanne Simard, AMPire Diaries Book Club, In the Heights book launch, Alexandra Bracken, Christina Li & Erin Entrada Kelly

Theatre: 10
I finally started going to the theatre again! I've been lax the past couple of years, partially because of Our Troubled Times and partially because of my own troubled times. It was nice to get back to feeling like a theatre kid again.

• A Very Potter Senior Year, Team Starkid (recording)
• Puffs: Filmed Live Off-Broadway (recording)
• Come From Away, Orpheum Theatre
• Outside Mullingar, HSU Theatre & Dance
• The Oedipus at Colonus Project, Theater of War
• RENT, 25th Anniversary Farewell Tour
• Men on Boats, HSU Theatre and Dance

TV episodes: 1460
I don't go out much, okay?

Media Consumed in 2020

No concerts or road trips at all, given Our Troubled Times. But then again, a drastic increase in conferences/festivals and readings/lectures since everything went online. Theatre is down from I went a movie a day for a few months, which means I've watched about 100 more than last year. I'm willing to bet my TV episodes are waaaay higher than before, but since I didn't keep track of those for a couple of years, I can't say for certain.

Books, heh, are pretty much par for the course.

• 217 books
• 25 comics
• 8 conferences/festivals (mostly book festivals)
• 234 movies
• 82 talks (mostly author talks)
• 10 performances
• 1384 episodes

Who knows what 2021 shall bring? Lordy.

2019 by the Numbers

Books Read: 190
Weirdly, Goodreads said I read 200 books, so just as last year, this may remain a mystery.
I'm listing the authors, for a bit of brevity.
Mia Marshall, Charlie N Holmberg, Paul Krueger, Caitlin Doughty, Zoraoida Corova, Nicole Ponseca & Miguel Trinidad, Valeria Luiselli, Kevin Kwan, Robert Jordan, Seanan McGuire, Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, Nicola Griffith, Louise Penny, Elaine Castillo, Ling Ma, Ben H Winters, Megan Whalen Turner, Tommy Orange, Robin McKinley, Tana French, Carlo Sernaglia and Julia Turshen, Sarah J Maas, Suzanne Goin with Teri Gelber, Malka Older, Anita Lo, George RR Martin, Diane Morgan, Justina Ireland, Nafkote Tamirat, Jenn Lyons, Uzodinma Iweala, Tom Rachman, Anna Burns, Heidi Sopinka, Oyinkan Braithwaite, Esi Edugyan, Richard Powers, Deborah Harkness, Laurie R King, Genevieve Cogman, Emily XR Pan, Tomi Adeyemi, Kelly Thompson, Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett, Malinda Lo, Donna Leon, Curtis C Chen et al, Sarah Perry, Dhonielle Clayton, Hannu Rajaniemi, Zen Cho, Mary Robinette Kowal, Elisabeth Cohen, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Joseph Fink, Marcela Valladolid, Elizabeth George, Jeff Parker, Caitlin Starling, Anissa Helou, Bill Willingham, Elizabeth Acevedo, Yoon Ha Lee, Brian Switek, Faith Erin Hicks, Neil Gaiman, Adam Johnson, G Willow Wilson, Blake Crouch, Holly Black, Christopher Kimball, Elizabeth McCracken, Lonely Planet, Will Hill, Naomi Novik, Sarah Porter, Pat Barker, Daniel Jose Older, Jon Ronson, Thi Bui, NK Jemisin, Fareed Zakaria, Amin Maalouf, Gabriela Camara, Rachel Khoo, SA Chakraborty, Leigh Bardugo, Mira Grant, Elisa Goldstein et al, Fonda Lee, Rachel Caine, Alastair Reynolds, Joakim Pamkvist, VE Schwab, Sarah Gailey, Edna Lewis, Margaret Owen, Erin A Chang, Charles Soule, Struan Stevenson, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Carla Lalli Music, Marie Lu, Susan Meissner, Michelle Ruiz Kell, Lisa A Nichols, Jennifer Nagel, Sady Doyle, Geraldine Brooks, Rebecca Traister, Maggie Stiefvater, Jennifer Givhan, Rakhee Yadav, Alana Kysar, Xuan Juliana Wang, LL McKinney, Philip Pullman, Harriet A Washington, Tom King et al, Ivan Orkin and Chris Ying, Mackenzi Lee, Becky Chambers, Sally Rooney, Namwali Serpell, Joseph Harris, Joel Spring Martin Morales, Neil Gaiman & P Craig Russell, Jenny Linford, VE Schwab, Laila Lalami, RF Kuang, Maria Gainza, Tea Obrecht, Claire Lombardo, Gail Simone, Rebecca Solnit, Paula Volksy, Elvia Wilk, Stacy M Perryman-Clark & Collin Lamont Craig, Sharon Kay Penman, Sally McKenny, Sue Burke, Joel Shepherd, Erik Larson, Anne Griffin, Amanda Cohen, Meghan Scott Molin.

You can read snippets from every book I've read this year here.

Cities Visited: 14
Memphis, TN
Pittsburgh, PA
Nashville, TN
Tampa, FL
East Lansing, MI
Bangkok, Thailand
Hong Kong
Baltimore, MD
Dallas, TX
Kansas City, MO
DeKalb, IL
Houston, TX
Lubbock, TX
Riverside, CA

Concerts/Performances Attended: 11
Kelly Clarkson, with Brynn Cartelli and Kelsea Ballerini supporting
Carrie Underwood, with Runaway Jane and Maddie & Tae supporting
Beale Street Music Festival (Everclear, Rodrigo y Gabriela, 6lack, Cardi B)
Amanda Palmer
Hannah Gadsby (comedy)
Hamilton (theatre)
Carly Rae Jepsen, with Phoebe Ryan supporting
Mary J Blige & Nas
Common, with Mumu Fresh supporting
Trevor Noah (comedy)
Switchfoot

Conferences Attended: 5
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing 2019 in Pittsburgh
Conference on College Composition and Communication 2019 in Pittsburgh
AP Language Reading in Tampa
Computers & Writing in East Lansing
Council of Writing Program Administrators in Baltimore

Festivals/Readings/Lectures: 5
Arkansas Literary Festival (Charles J Shields, Brantley Hargrove, Jericho Brown, Geffrey Davis, Elizabeth Minchilli, Dorie Greenspan, Arkady Martine, Marina Lostetter, Pitchaya Sudbanthad, Maurice Carlos Ruffin)
Thi Bui reading @ HSU
Emily Roberson reading @ Wordsworth Books
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
Hillary Clinton & Chelsea Clinton reading @ University of Houston

Movies Watched: 129
Bird Box, Peppermint, Eight Grade, BelCanto, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, Split, Blockers, Aquaman, Mary Poppins Returns, Roma, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Vice, On the Basis of Sex, Mary Queen of Scots, Antiquities, The Wife, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Front Runner, At Eternity's Gate, The Hate U Give, Bad Times at the El Royale, Green Book, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Sorry to Bother You, Minding the Gap, Of Fathers and Sons, Nobody's Fool, Shoplifters, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Hale County This Morning This Evening, Robin Hood, Fighting with My Family, What Men Want, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Mortal Engines, Operation Finale, A Private War, Instant Family, Free Solo, Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse AU, The Mercy, The Runaways, Second Act, Gloria Bell, Bumblebee, Shazam!, Welcome to Marwen, The Kid Who Would Be King, Glass, Against the Clock, Hellboy, Avengers: Infinity War, Justice League vs the Fatal Five, Avengers: Endgame, The Quake, Miss Bala, Little, Breakthrough, Long Shot, Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, Aladdin, Fighting with My Family, Paddington, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Five Feet Apart, Captive State, Late Night, Hotel Mumbai, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Spiderman: Far From Home, Alita Battle Angel, Mission: Impossible, Batman Returns, Twenty-fifth Hour, Grave of the Fireflies, The Best of Enemies, Fantastic Four, Ratatouille, Dreamgirls, Little Woods, Toy Story 4, Men in Black: International, Yesterday, The Farewell, Always Be My Maybe, Tolkien, The Sun is Also a Star, The Hustle, Crazy Rich Asians, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Rocketman, Booksmart, Amazing Grace, The Biggest Little Farm, Dark Phoenix, Hustlers, Ad Astra, Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw, Shaft, Downton Abbey, Judy, China Love, Varda by Agnes, Well Groomed, Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops, Nothing Fancy, Meeting Gorbachev, Pizza A Love Story, Made in Boise, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Terminator: Dark Fate, Harriet, Avengers: Endgame, Brian Banks, Charlie's Angels, Ford v Ferrari, Queen & Slim, Black Panther, Official Secrets, Blinded By the Light, Where'd You Go Bernadette?, The Goldfinch, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, Don't Let Go (Relive), Wit, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Topkapi, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

You can see all the mini-reviews here.

TV
So I once again forgot to keep count of all the episodes I watched this year, but I CAN tell you which TV shows I binged from beginning to end.

• Game of Thrones (to prep for the last season, SIGH)
• The Magicians
• Criminal Minds and its two spin-offs
• Supernatural

And I'm about four seasons into Cold Case right now. NOTHING CAN STOP ME.

So, those are the numbers for 2019. Here's to 2020!

Media Consumed in 2017

So I've had this sitting in a text file for two months. Oops.

Academic Conferences: 4
ATTW, CCCC, C&W, CWPA

Books: 194
Though my Goodreads count is only slightly over 125, so I'm giving this count a bit of sideeye. How is Goodreads measuring these things? Have I been meeting my reading challenges all along, but been misinformed by the system? Ah, well.

Comics: 90 individual issues (I count graphic novels under books)

Concerts: 8
The Lumineers, Leslie Odom Jr, George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic, Shawn Mendes (w/ Charlie Puth supporting), Fall Out Boy (w/ Jaden Smith and Blackbear opening), Bruno Mars (w/ Jorja Smith opening), Regina Spektor, Lady Gaga

Cooking Classes/Demos: 21
Craft/Floral Classes: 8
I will miss Ames and Iowa State so much. So, so, so much.

Festivals: 2
Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2017, Riverside Festival of Lights 2017

Lectures and Readings: 13
Chuck D, Kekla Magoon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Lee Mun Wah, Black Light Butterflies (entymology lecture), Keisha Blaine, John Darnielle, Curtis Chin, David Anthony Durham & Benjamin Percy, Taylor Broby, Anne Curzan, Toni Phinisey-Webber (re: Little Rock Central High School), Jon Ronson

Movies: 140
Last year I only watched 14 movies, so I vowed to watch more. And...yup. Totally did. Special shout-outs to AMC's annual Oscar nominee specials and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.

Museums & Landmarks: 13
Brunnier Art Gallery, Octagon Gallery, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Mazza Museum of Children's Literature, Living History Farms, Tennessee Riverboat Cruise (Knoxville), Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (Knoxville), Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville), ESSE Museum, Witt Stephens Jr Central Arkansas Nature Center, Arkansas Art Center, Saint Louis Art Museum, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

New Restaurants: 53
Thanks to conferences (Portland, Findlay, Knoxville), a wedding reception (Chicagoland), a few concerts/road trips (Minneapolis, Nashville, St Louis, Kansas City, Dallas), moving to another state (Arkadelphia, Little Rock, Hot Springs), and a couple of extra-long visits to California!

Theatre: 26
Messiah on the Frigidaire, Akeelah and the Bee, The Vagina Monologues, Newsies, Allegiance, Our Antigone, The Bee's Tease, The Importance of Being Earnest, Good Night Desdemona Good Morning Juliet, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, Little Women, Annie, Fun Home, Other Desert Cities, Trashion Show, Tempest, Happy Days, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, HIR, Greater Tuna, I Am Emily Doe, Circle Mirror Transformation, Night of the Iguana, The Mousetrap, HSU Directing Class Showcase, Corona Dance Academy Winter 2017 recitals

TV Episodes: 632
This is the first year I've kept track of how many episodes of television I've watched. This is a big number, but it's also probably way less than I've watched in previous years--my shift to watching more movies meant, obviously, that TV was edged out a bit. Oh, and for the record, I also watched a ton of The Daily Show (I love Trevor Noah deeply), Late Night with Seth Meyers, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, but since I generally skip the interview portions of the shows, I opted not to count those here.

And that's officially a wrap for 2017!

2016: By the Numbers

I've done quite a bit this year! My habit for the past few years has been to keep track of these things monthly, but somewhere in the middle of the summer, I lost track of things. This is about the best that I can do in reconstruction--I'll be a bit more organized in the year to come (I hope).

Academic Conferences Attended: 6
Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, Ames, IA (20160303-04)
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, Houston, TX (20160406)
Conference on College Composition and Communication, Houston, TX (20160407-09)
Computers and Writing, Rochester, NY (20160519-22)
Council of Writing Program Administrators, Raleigh, NC (20160714-17)
International Writing Centers Association, Denver, CO (20161013-16)

Books Read:
102, according to GoodReads. A good number, except that I ambitiously set my reading challenge to 200. LOL.

Comics Read: Not Enough
Princess Leia, Saga, Black Panther (not counting graphic novels)
I need to increase my consumption here--I've got batches of comics in my Marvel/Comixology/Dark Horse accounts. I just need to read and log them more consistently.

Concerts Attended: 6
Adele (St. Paul, MN, 20160705)
Nico & Vinz (Ames, IA, 21060825)
Switchfoot & Relient K (Clive, IA, 20160921)
Grace Potter (Des Moines, IA, 20160929)
Beyonce (Nashville, TN, 20161002)
Carrie Underwood (Des Moines, IA, 20161007)

Cooking Classes/Demos: 17
Quinoa (Cooks Emporium, 20160128)
Pressure Cookers (CE, 20160220)
A Taste of Egypt (CE, 20160227)
Turkey Roulades & Lemon Cupcakes (CE, 20160305)
Risotto Croquettes (Wheatsfield Co-op, 20160329)
Versatile Goat Cheese (WC, 20160426)
Chicken Mole (CE, 20160430)
Cooking with Cast Iron (Williams-Sonoma, 20160626)
Fermented Food & Kombucha (WC, 20160809)
Spiralizer Favorites (W-S, 20160821)
Natural Fermented Pickles (CE, 20160903)
Nordic Waffles (CE, 20161008)
Thanksgiving Side Dishes (CE, 20161112)
Paella (CE, 20161119)
Seven Cheese Gougere (CE, 20161126)
Holiday Cookies (CE, 20161203)
Holiday Savory Snacks (CE, 20161210)

Craft/Movement Classes: 23
Copper hoop earrings & pendant (The Workspace, 20160114)
Felted wool mittens (TW, 20160121 + 27)
Silver & copper rings (TW, 201602)
Resin Jewelry (TW, 20160224, 20160302)
Boho Wall Hanging (TW, 20160801)
Fused Glass Pendants (TW, 20160829)
Inked Coasters (TW, 20160831)
Knitting (TW, 201609)
Mat-cutting (TW, 20161006)
Dia de los Muertos Skulls (TW, 20161008)
Crochet (TW, 201610)
Sugar Skull Embroidery (TW, 20161020)
Silk Painting (TW, 20161029)
Delsarte: Body Language and the Artist (TW, 20161105)
Delsarte: And a Torso Even More So (TW, 20161105)
Delsarte: Standing Up for Your Art (TW, 20161105)
O'Keeffe Oil Painting (Reiman Gardens, 20161107)
Fused Glass Ornaments (TW, 20161109)
Frugal Florals (RG, 20161116)
Balloon Crafts (RG, 20161117)
Miniatures (RG, 20161120)
Wreath-Making (RG, 20161130)
Etched Glass Ornaments (TW, 20161207)

Festivals Attended: 2
Define American Festival, Des Moines, IA
Festival of Cheese, Des Moines, IA (20160730)

Lectures and Readings Attended: 7
Alisha Gordon, "The Fierce Urgency of Now" (20160121)
Reshma Saujani, "Women Who Don't Wait in Line" (20160128)
Marion Blumenthal Lazan, "My Holocaust Story" (20160208)
Cheryl Strayed (20160915)
Jennifer Knox + Iowa Bird of Mouth (20160916)
Gloria Steinem (20161011)
Margaret Atwood (20161101)

Movies Watched: 14
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (DVD)
Jurassic World (DVD)
A Better Life (film festival)
Don't Tell Anyone (film festival)
The Muslims Are Coming! (film festival)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [theatre]
Cinderella (2015) [DVD]
The Grand Budapest Hotel [streaming]
Hector and the Search for Happiness (streaming)
Captain America: Civil War (theatre)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (streaming)
Edge of Tomorrow (DVD)
Loving (theatre)
Rogue One (theatre)

Museums & Landmarks Visited: 12
Chocolate Tour of Chicago (BestTours.com, 20160507)
Strong Museum of Play, Rochester, NY (20160522)
Design Exchange, Toronto, ON (20160524)
Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Art, Toronto, ON (20160525)
Peel Art Gallery and Museum, Brampton, ON (20160527)
Niagara & Horseshoe Falls (20160528)
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (20160529)
Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh (20160715)
Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Des Moines, IA (20160730)
Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Factory Tour, Nashville, TN (20161001)
Corsair Distillery tour, Nashville, TN (20161002)
Broad Contemporary Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (20161227)

New Restaurants Visited: 43
The Mission Inn (Riverside)
Ninfa's (Houston)
1600 Bar + Grille (Houston)
Calabash Island Eats (Houston)
Volare (Chicago)
Doc B's Fresh Kitchen (Chicago)
Quartino's (Chicago)
Yolk (Chicago)
The Owl House (Rochester)
Senbazuru Sushi Bar (Richmond Hill)
Sushi Inn (Toronto)
Bohemia (Barrie)
Anchor Bar (Buffalo)
Table 128 (Clive)
Blue Tomato Kitchen (Des Moines)
Bubba - Southern Comforts (Des Moines)
Prime (Des Moines)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Cleveland)
Fran's Restaurant (Toronto)
Spoon River (Minneapolis)
Izzy's (Minneapolis)
Birchwood Cafe (Minneapolis)
Hell's Kitchen (Minneapolis)
Bluestem Bar (Minneapolis)
Little Octopus (Nashville)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Nashville)
Biscuit Love (Nashville)
Las Paletas (Nashville)
Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream (Nashville farmers' market)
Bolton's Spicy Chicken & Fish (Nashville)
Five Daughters Bakery (Nashville)
Franklin Juice Company (Nashville)
Green Fine Salad Co. (Denver)
Guard and Grace (Denver)
Syrup (Denver)
Prospect's Urban Kitchen & Bar (Denver)
Range (Denver)
Goldfinch (Des Moines)
Thai Kitchen (Ames)
Porto's Bakery & Cafe (Glendale)
Komodo (Los Angeles)
Cascabel (Los Angeles)
Sam's Banh Thai (Riverside)

Road Trips Taken: 8
Lafayette, IN (20160312-18); Spring Break cooking
Chicago, IL (20160506-08); bachelorette weekend
Rochester, NY/Toronto, ON/Buffalo, NY (20160518-30); conference/visiting family/wedding
Pennsylvania & Cleveland, OH (20160701-03); wedding
Lafayette, IN (20160805-07)
Toronto, ON (20160909-11); wedding
Minneapolis, MN (20160924-25); theatre
Nashville, TN (20160930-1002); concert

Sports Attendance:
Rams vs. Forty-Niners (20161224)

Theatre Performances Attended: 10
Sweeney Todd, Minneapolis, MN (20160724)
[title of show], Ames, IA (20160923)
Lady and the Trump, Minneapolis, MN (20160924)
The 39 Steps, St. Cloud, MN (20160925)
Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Ames, IA (20161009)
Cabaret, Ames, IA (20161113)
Ugly Lies the Bone, Des Moines, IA (20161119)
November, Ames, IA (20161127)
Cirque Dreams: Holidaze, Ames, IA (20161201)
The King & I, Los Angeles, CA (20161228)

TV Watched:
A lot. (I meant to keep track of how many episodes I watched this year, but I lost track around June. But it's a lot.)

2015 By The Numbers

I used to keep better track of things, but for various reasons, it's been rather haphazard the past couple of years. Looking forward to a meticulous 2016!

• Books Read: 170
  
  
• Comic Books Read: 76
  
  
• Concerts Attended: 3
  
  
  1. Norah Jones (20151030)
     
  2. Katy Perry (20151024)
     
  3. k.flay, Des Moines, IA [20150701]
  
  
  
• Conferences/Conventions Attended: 11
  
  1. Iowa Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson Dinner (20151024)
     
  2. Iowa Hunger Summit (20151013)
     
  3. International Writing Centers Association Conference, Pittsburgh, PA (20151008-10)
     
  4. Womyn of Colour Network Retreat, Ogden, IA (9/18-9/19)
     
  5. Council of Writing Program Administrators, Boise, ID (7/15-7/19)
     
  6. AP Reading 2015, Kansas City, MO [20150611-15]
     
  7. Computers and Writing 2015, Menomonie, WI (5/28-5/31/15)
     
  8. Iowa Writing Center Consortium, March 27, 2015
  9. Conference on College Composition and Communication, March 19-21, 2015
     
  10. International Writing Centers Association Collaborative, March 18, 2015
      
  11. Iowa State Conference on Race and Ethnicity, March 5-6, 2015
      
  
  
  
• Lectures/Readings Attended: 10
  
  1. Kai Davis (20151110)
     
  2. Alison Bechdel (20150409)
     
  3. Dan Barber (20150408)
     
  4. Rachel Williams (20150408)
     
  5. Ava Chin (20150406)
     
  6. John McWhorter, "The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language" (20150305)
     
  7. Dan Fagin, "Connecting the Dots Between Toms River and Beyond" (20150303)
     
  8. "The Underground Girls of Kabul," Jenny Nordberg (20150206)
     
  9. Michelle Alexander, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" (20150129)
  10. Alison Hawthorne Deming, "Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit" (20150122)
      
  
  
• Movies Watched: 16
  21 Jump Street, Ant-Man, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bring It On, Drumline, Fast Five, The Fault in Our Stars, Furious 7, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, Hook, Iron Man 3, Mad Max: Fury Road, A Night at the Museum, Sisters, Spy, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
  
  
• Museums Visited/Landmarks Visited/Tours Taken: 10
  
  1. Des Moines Art Center (second visit, 20151101)
     
  2. Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh)
     
  3. Boise Art Museum
     
  4. Des Moines Art Center
     
  5. Taste of Louisville tour
     
  6. Henry Doorly Zoo (20150704)
     
  7. Joslyn Art Museum (20150703)
     
  8. Mall of America (20150601)
     
  9. The American Swedish Institute (20150531)
     
  10. Florida Aquarium (Tampa, FL)
      
  11. Tampa Bay History Center (Tampa, FL)
  
  
• Theatre Attended: 2
  
  1. Love and Information, Caryl Churchill (20151206)
     
  2. The Vagina Monologues (20150213)
  
  
• TV Episodes Watched: 722
  

At least I kept busy?

2014 in Numbers

So in 2014, lots of important stuff happened. The top three: I finished my dissertation and successfully defended it, I moved to Iowa State to begin as Assistant Director of the Writing and Media Center, and I was awarded my Ph.D. in English: Rhetoric and Composition. Along the way, I survived the job market gauntlet, had lots of emotions, and did some crazy traveling.

I also consumed a lot of media, which is detailed below. As mentioned in my previous post, I read 101 books. I usually keep track of comics I've read, games I've played, and TV I've watched, too, but that sort of got away from me this summer. Ah, well. Let's just say it was a lot and leave it at that.

Concerts: 9

• HEAVning of Whimsy (talent show) [03 April 2014]
• Buddy [19 September 2014]
• Meiko [19 September 2014]
• Butch Walker [18 October 2014]
• Ryan Adams [18 October 2014]
• Jenny Scheinman [21 October 2014]
• Ani DiFranco [21 October 2014]
• Leslie DiNicola [14 November 2014]
• Anna Nalick [14 November 2014]

Conferences and Conventions: 7

• 129th Modern Language Association Convention, Chicago [9-12 January 2014]
• Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, Indianapolis [19 March 2014]
• Conference on College Composition and Communication, Indianapolis [20-23 March 2014]
• Advance Placement Scoring in Louisville, KY [9-15 June 2014]
• Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference, Normal, IL [17-19 July 2014]
• International Writing Centers Association/National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, Orlando, FL [30 October - 01 November, 2014]
• National Council of Teachers of English 2014, Washington, DC [20-23 November 2014]

Festivals: 1

• International Food & Wine Festival @ Epcot Center [01 November 2014]

Lectures and Readings: 9

• Laverne Cox, hosted by Purdue's LGBTQ Center [26 March 2014]
• Zadie Smith at Purdue's Literary Awards [17 April 2014]
• Kelsey Timmerman, "WHERE Am I Wearing?" [02 September 2014]
• Michio Kaku, "How Science Will Revolutionize Business, Medicine, Jobs, and Life" [19 September 2014]
• "The Symbolism of the Sand Mandala," Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery [23 September 2014]
• Juan Battle, "Closets are for Clothes: Being LGBT in Black America" [29 September 2014]
• Jane Smiley, "Writing About Iowa: A Conversation with Jane Smiley" [06 October 2014]
• Sanjaya Rajaram, "In the Footsteps of Normal Borlaug: The Golden Years of Wheat Production" [13 October 2014]
• Sam Taylor, "Politically Engaged Poetry for the 21st Century" [06 November 2014]

MOOCs Completed: 2

• Moralities of Everyday Life, Paul Bloom, Yale, Coursera
• The Art of Poetry, Robert Pinsky, Boston University, EdX

Movies: 28

• Pacific Rim (DVD)
• Her (theatre)
• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (theatre)
• Vampire Academy (theatre)
• Much Ado About Nothing (DVD)
• Veronica Mars (streaming & theatre)
• Captain America 2: Winter Soldier (theatre)
• Edge of Tomorrow (theatre)
• Divergent (theatre, twice)
• Megashark vs. Octopus (DVD)
• Frozen (DVD)
• Godzilla (theatre)
• X-Men: Days of the Future Past (theatre, twice)
• Guardians of the Galaxy (theatre, thrice)
• Don Jon (streaming)
• The LEGO Movie (streaming)
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (DVD)
• Lucy (theatre)
• The Giver (theatre)
• Snowpiercer (streaming)
• The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (theatre, twice)
• Annie (theatre)

Theatre: 4

• Hamlet, The Acting Company [29 March 2014]
• Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, The Acting Company [30 March 2014]
• West Side Story, Troika Entertainment [24 April 2014]
• "An Evening with Colin and Brad," Colin Mochrie & Brad Sherwood [26 October 2014]

Not a bad year.

The Dog Days Are (Almost) Over

While I'd like to argue that I'm a culture-consumer of all sorts, when it comes to audiovisual narrative, I'm defintely a TV sort of gal. Don't get me wrong--I love movies, a lot. I just like the slow build of TV more. As a viewer, I get to slowly piece together the way a fictive world works, and absorb the episode-to-episode character growth. It's more satisfying, to me--and, come to think of it, all my favorite movies are parts of franchises.

Movies are different beasts, however, much of the time, because they don't have time to be subtle about everything. Some things, maybe, but they often lean upon the meta-knowledge of the audience. That is, expectations about the type of character that actors tend to play, or how narrative tropes turn. Sometimes, that works in interesting ways, and sometimes...we enjoy our two hours and immediately forget them.

In any case, as summer is winding down and I find myself facing new spaces, new faces, new EVERYTHING, I've decided to mark the end of my vacation by watching a movie a day. Some of them are new, some of them are a bit less than that, but they're all new to me, and that's what I'm counting. SPOILERS, of varying degrees, for Guardians of the Galaxy, Don Jon, The LEGO Movie, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Lucy, The Giver, and Snowpiercer.

• Guardians of the Galaxy (theatre, 3D): It should be noted that this was the third time I watched Guardians. The first time, I saw it in 3D, and the second time, in regular movie version. I really, really love this movie. It's got the chaotic-neutral vibe that Firefly did, and the depth of background AND emotion that made Farscape spectacular. Vin Diesel and Zoe Saldana have been two of my favorite actors for pretty much fifteen years or so, and I am pretty much all-in on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like, it took serious force of will to see other movies in the theatre.
  
  Maybe I will see it again anyway.
  
  
• Don Jon (Amazon streaming rental): I had wanted to watch this with some friends when it was in the theatre, but our schedules never managed to sync up. After watching it at home, alone, I was so glad that didn't work out. Like, I knew the hinge of the story was "Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character watches a lot of porn," but...yeah. That could have been awkward. For the record, though, I was WAY more discombobulated by the profanity and male-gaziness of Tony Danza's character than any of the (actual, real) snippets of pornography.
  
  Anyway, the movie was a little too enamoured with its own clever/indieness, but it ably highlighted the way our media habits--whether porn, romcom, football, or text message--influence the way we frame the world, as well as how other people perceive us. JGL's character, Jon, is dim, but his interactions with Scarlett Johansson's and Julianne Moore's characters demand he grow and, like, maybe he does. I guess?
  
  My favorite scene, however, is about two thirds of the way in, when Jon's best friend (played by Rob Brown), shows up at his apartment and asks him if he's okay. That, more than any other scene, felt like it could be real people having an actual, if difficult, conversation.
  
  
• The LEGO Movie (Amazon streaming purchase): My brain could not process this movie. It felt like too much, too quickly. But it came at the end of a long day, and it made me laugh, so there's that.
  
  Really, though, I kind of dig how much this movie reflects The Matrix, which is kind of weird and neat. I'm especially pleased with the interactions between Wyldstyle and Vitruvius, which hinted at depth that wasn't present in the big gathering of master-builders. Also, the twist/not-twist at the end was sweet, even if it felt almost too pat and Toy Story for its own good.
  
  I was worried for a while that The LEGO Movie would go the way of the first Kung Fu Panda, in which we were told that training didn't matter, because if you BELIEVED enough, you could be the very best (URGH ARGH). Instead, we're given not-special Special Emmet, and the message that an insistence on specific awesomeness/branding originality can lead us to devalue co-operation and/or experimentation. Which I dig.
  
  Also, extra points to the LEGO version of Batman, which might be the most perfect version of Batman I ever encounter. Also, the crazy trip into Unikitty's world was delectably dark at the center. Also, SPACESHIP. SPACESHIP. SPACESHIP!
  
  
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Netflix DVD): You're the first against the wall, Draco Malfoy.
  
  I had trouble with the first chunk of the movie, because, like, pet chimps will bite people's faces off. So the idea of James Franco, friendly neurobiologist and devoted son, adopting a baby chimp to live with his Alzheimer's-suffering father? Nope. That his douchebag neighbors never reported him to the police? Nope. That his VETERINARIAN girlfriend never thought to question the pet chimp for five years? NOPE. NOPE. NOPE.
  
  And then Caesar started with social experimentation, and just decided to make his people smarter? If this movie established anything credible, it's that human beings are awful. I'd guess I'm not the first audience member to feel thrilled when the apes took control of their own destinies.
  
  
• Lucy (theatre): I went into this movie expecting an Elseworlds version of Black Widow. Instead, it was...weird. Like, if you spliced together The Fifth Element, The Matrix, the second season of Bravest Warriors, and two decades of National Geographic specials. And I had no idea what would happen, which was both disconcerting and refreshing. So, maybe I liked it? I am not sure. Scarlett Johansson continues to impress me, at least.
  
  I think, if I had to pick one thing that bugged me, it would be how totally not freaked out all the other people acted when Lucy did her crazy thing. Like, at most, her allies and opponents were mildly disconcerted by this woman who was LEVITATING things and CONTROLLING PEOPLE'S BODIES. Several points in the movie, I sat there thinking, Y'all need to be curled up in the fetal position now, gibbering. Also, aside from a couple of quick scenes with Lucy's mother (via phone) and a friend, there are no other speaking women in this movie, which sucks.
  
  Anyway. It's not a good movie or a bad one. It's a weird movie. A weird and pretty movie.
  
  
• The Giver (theatre): I didn't understand The Giver the first time I read it. It took me a couple of rereads to really grok what it portrayed. As Lowry continued to write sequels, I also grew a little disenchanted with the series. I expected to dislike the movie, but I didn't.
  
  Don't get me wrong, the movie did try to squish the narrative to fit the YA action movie paradigm, but there was snippets of perfection that sort of counter-balanced that. When the Giver is training Jonas, we get walloped with color and breathlessness and emotion. It's enchanting; I was with Jonas with every gasp, every rapturous moment.
  
  Because of the tropes of YA action movies, the story did get sort of weirdly compressed in the middle (I wish we had spent more time with Jonas learning and juxtaposing), and surprisingly elongated at the end. We get a good 15-20 minutes of Jonas on the run with the sturdiest baby in the world. The ambiguity of the book's ending still played out, but it was much more muted.
  
  But, I don't know. I got teary-eyed every time Jonas experienced a new memory. Those moviemakers knew what they were doing, at least in those moments.
  
  
• Snowpiercer (Amazon streaming purchase): So here's where my week o' movies plan sort of backfired, because Snowpiercer is BONKERS, and I no longer have the capacity to sufficiently react to things. Just, like. Tilda Swinton?! Closed-circuit eternal train?! Twice-yearly sushi?! I cannot do anything but nouns and interrobangs.
  
  Or, I don't know. Maybe it's this movie. Maybe this movie defies explanation. Also, I am a lightweight when it comes to blades and squishy gore, so I had to cover my eyes for about a third of the movie.
  
  The overall design of the movie--the forced structure of having train car after train car after train car--is intensely evocative, if pretty illogical. Like, where do all the front passengers sleep, if each car is devoted to things like aquaculture and confusing saunas? And the aside of, uh, the gate guy telling his daughter about the revolutionary seven was just, I don't know, a really beautiful moment. I was rooting for them, and didn't care so much about the other stuff.
  
  It's, man. This movie. I can't even. Nice to have something different and not predictable--in the same vein that I liked Lucy, and felt disgruntled with The Giver and The LEGO Movie, I think.
  
  

I seriously considered just seeing a movie a day for another week, but this was tiring. Fun, but tiring. Onward to the new year!

See you later, 2011!

Here is the year-end round-up! Books Read: 91 WHAT. This is way low for me, y'all. WEIRD. Comics Read: 0 Although I have a stack of comics read, all the sequential art I've read has been in graphic novel form. Huh. Concerts Attended: 2

• Esperanza Spalding's Chamber Music Society Tour [06 October 2011]
• Lupe Fiasco's Generation Laser Tour, with opening acts Sarah Green and New Boyz [30 September 2011]

Movies Seen in the Theatre: 11 Bridesmaids, Captain America, Cars 2 (3D), Crazy Stupid Love, Kung Fu Panda 2 (3D), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3D), Real Steel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Source Code, Thor (3D), X-Men: First Class Movies Watched Outside the Theatre: 16 Classes Taken: 6 Empirical Research in Writing [Spring 2011] Composition Studies: Postmodern Rhetoric [Spring 2011] Public Rhetorics [Spring 2011] Rhetoric and Posthumanism [Fall 2011] Gender, Rhetoric, and the Body [Fall 2011] Assessment [Fall 2011] Classes Taught: 3 Two sections of First-Year Composition [Spring and Fall 2011] One section of Animal Breeding [Fall 2011] -- I didn't suddenly add a new specialty! I co-taught the writing portion of the course, so there were three of us: the Animal Science professor and two composition lecturers. Conferences/Lectures Attended: 3 Conferences:

• Composing Live(s): Writing the Self and the Other Within the Disciplines [Miami University, 25 March 2011]
• Conference on College Composition and Communication 2011 [Atlanta, April 6-9]
• Computers & Writing 2011, Ann Arbor, MI [19-22 May 2011]

2 Lectures:

• T.C. Boyle lecture and reading [29 March 2011]
• "Cancer, Culture, and Community," with guest presenters Noah Hutton and Seun Adibiyi [03 November 2011]

Festivals and Conventions Attended: 0 Huh. Museums and Monuments Visited: 7 Turner Field, Atlanta [07 April 2011] World of Coke, Atlanta [08 April 2011] Chicago Lake and River Tour, Wendella Boat Tours [12 Aug 2011] Highlights by Bus: Robie House, Chicago Architecture Foundation [13 Aug 2011] Art Institute of Chicago [13 Aug 2011] Skydeck, Willas Tower [14 Aug 2011] Chicago Theatre Marquee Tour [15 Aug 2011] Sporting Events Attended: 0 I totally skipped out on football and volleyball games this year! I clearly need to step it up. Theatre Attended: 7 Arabian Nights by Mary Zimmerman [26 February 2011] Blue Man Group [West Lafayette, 01 March 2011] Monty Python's Spamalot [27 March 2011] The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee by Rachel Sheinkin and William Finn [23 April 2011] Little Shop of Horrors [27 May 2011] The Miracle Worker by William Gibson [02 October 2011] Iphigenia & Other Daughters by Ellen McLaughlin [19 November 2011] Road Trips Taken: 3 Atlanta [April 2011], Ann Arbor [May 2011], Chicago [August 2011] Best Film I Saw in 2011: Crazy, Stupid, Love and Captain America were both flawed, but entertaining. Other than fleshing things out more, I actually don't think I would alter anything about either movie to improve it. For me, that's pretty darn good. Best TV Shows I Watched in 2011: Series 6 of Doctor Who, any and all Community and Cougar Town, Parks and Recreation, The Good Wife, and Game of Thrones. This was...a really good year. Best Episodes of TV I Watched in 2011: Game of Thrones 1.10: Fire and Blood Doctor Who 6.08: A Good Man Goes to War Community 3.07: Studies in Modern Movement Best TV Moment I Watched in 2011: The very last moment of Game of Thrones 1.10--if you watched it, YOU KNOW THE ONE--gave me chills. And I wept. Because HOLY CRAP. Even though I knew it was coming. Best Books I Read in 2011: Diane Davis's Inessential Solidarity, which is just a gorgeously written book about the weird academic things that I love. Mira Grant's Feed, which just BLEW MY MIND, and was funny and heartbreaking and terrifying all at once. Favorite Albums of 2011: Lupe Fiasco's LASERS just filled me with so much joy every time I listened to it. Best Concert I Attended in 2011: Surprise, surprise: Lupe Fiasco's LASERS tour. I danced THE WHOLE TIME. It was magnificent. Favorite Songs of the Year: Ke$ha's "Blow" Glee's mash-up of Adele's "Someone Like You" and "Rumor Has It" Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass" All-Around Best Things About 2011: I spent a lot of time with some very awesome people this year. I passed my preliminary exams and actually, possibly, maybe have some good ideas for my dissertation. I moved into an awesome, awesome apartment. I feel...more like myself than I have, ever. All-Around Worst Thing About 2011: Working until 6 was a great idea in spring, when home was a ten-minute walk from campus. This fall, when home was a ten-minute wait for the bus, a ten-minute bus ride, and a fifteen-minute walk up a hill? Not so much. Something 2011 Taught Me: No matter how crappy I feel, and no matter what crappy things happen, I am really good at what I do and, weirdly, people know that. Why 2012 Will Be Better Than 2011: I will keep on keepin' on, and I know that I'm on the right track.

The Year-End Meme

Books Read: 203 Comics Read: 44 Concerts Attended: 4 Semi Precious Weapons and Jason Derulo, 14 January Lady Gaga's Monster Ball, supported by Semi Precious Weapons, 26 January Kid Cudi, supported by B.o.B., 26 March Snoop Dogg, supported by Janelle Monae, 20 October Movies Seen in the Theatre: 20 Sherlock Holmes, Avatar (3D), Clash of the Titans (3D), Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, Letters to Juliet, Robin Hood, A Team, Despicable Me, Inception, Salt, Step Up 3D (2D), Scott Pilgrim vs the World, The Social Network, American Splendor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One, Burlesque, The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, TRON: Legacy (3D), Tangled (3D) Movies Watched Outside the Theatre: 28 Museums and Monuments Visited: 3 Meramec Caverns, 19 July Shedd Aquarium, 03 October Art Institute of Chicago, 04 December Sporting Events Attended: 4 Women's Basketball: Purdue vs Iowa State, 17 January Football: Purdue vs Ball State, 18 September Women's Volleyball: Purdue vs Northwestern, 12 November Men's Basketball: Los Angeles Clippers vs Sacramento Kings, 25 November Theatre Attended: 10 Hamlet, 20 February, Purdue Theatre An Enemy of the People, 25 February, Aquila Theatre Top Girls, 27 March, Purdue Theatre Scapino!, 23 April, Purdue Theatre Avenue Q, 29 April, Work Light Productions The Chester Cycle: The Fall of Man, 18 May, Purdue Theatre The Merchant of Venice, 09 July, 3 Theater Group A Night with Bill Cosby, 24 September The Matchmaker, 02 October, Purdue Theatre Amadeus, 13 November, Purdue Theatre Best Film I Saw in 2010: Toy Story 3, hands-down. Honestly, I waffled between naming The Social Network and Inception, because both were just flawlessly crafted, but the gender issues are difficult to swallow. Toy Story 3, however, managed to be brilliant on both artistic and emotional levels, while never inspiring any meta-rage. Best TV Shows I Watched in 2010: Community and Cougar Town are doing amazing things with genre, with character, and with continuity. Each episode impresses me--Community with its staggering variety, and Cougar Town for its boundless heart. Best Episodes of TV I Watched in 2010: "Modern Warfare," Community: If you haven't seen it yet, YOU MUST. "Mr Yin Presents," Psych: An absolutely brilliant Hitchcock homage. "Vincent and the Doctor," Doctor Who: I wept. "The Big Bang," Doctor Who: The way this all weaved together was amazing. "For the Team," Warehouse 13: I have NEVER seen a science fiction show pass the Bechdel Test so spectacularly. Best TV Moment I Watched in 2010: "Devil You Know," Burn Notice Cinched with the following exchange:

"Do you really want to pay for your son's mistakes?" "He paid for mine."

Said without any sort of dramatics, and better for the lack. Best Book I Read in 2010: Like No Other Lover by Julie Anne Long. OKAY LOOK, this is a Regency-era romance, and that title is just embarassing I KNOW, but it is the most finely-crafted book I have read in AGES. Just look at this sentence:

He still couldn't seem to resume thinking clearly, and normally thoughts poured through him the way his blood did: ceaselessly.

Look at the way she deploys that colon! It's an artful combination of adverbs and punctuation, with structure imitating the implication of the imagery. And I'll tell you, Long is even better with semi-colons. Favorite Albums of 2010: Kanye West's latest, which has a long title don't remember. He never disappoints, but this album exceeded my expectations, both in ferocity and in fun. The grandiose "Power" is my favorite, but "Monster" is impressive, and "All of the Lights" is just beautiful. Best Concert I Attended in 2010: LADY GAGA. It was a spectacular show. Best one I've been to, honestly. Favorite Song of the Year: Tom McRae's Me & Stetson. This song is right up there with "Karaoke Soul" and "End of the World News (Dose Me Up)." I endlessly miss seeing Tom perform live. All-Around Best Things About 2010: Cohort and Comic-Con and CCCC. All-Around Worst Thing About 2010: Tact is just not saying true stuff. Something 2010 (Should Have) Taught Me: Do not procrastinate about grading! (This is something I should have been learning every year since 2002, actually.) Why 2011 Will Be Better Than 2010: I don't know, y'all. 2010 was pretty awesome.