Aaron's Self-Indulgent New Year Greetings
Here are my versions of the annual holiday greeting card,
where I let you know what cultural products encountered in the past year
are likely to stick with me into the next. Read carefully, and you'll
learn how to be just like me! And since it's online, your letter carrier
gets a break, my tongue gets fewer paper cuts from licking envelopes, and
the forest is a few trees thicker.
A tip o' the cap is due to the Real
Life Top Ten columns by Greil Marcus for the initial inspiration.
Index of Every Single Year
Why A List?
[I]sn't it great the way everyone these days has a 10-best list? It was
once the exclusive province of people like Andrew Sarris, who spent time
adjusting his pantheon like a boy with a bunch of toy soldiers. But now
Joe's Web Site offers the 10 best movies of the year, and so does
Melanie's Movie Guide and Sarah Sue's Home Page and everyone on every
bulletin board in every country in the world. A culture of rankers! "How's
your 10-best list coming?" "Up to eight. Yours?" "I got 12. Have to lose a
couple. Want 'em?" "Nah. Gotta rank for myself." "I understand." "I rank
therefore I am. The Royal Tenenbaums is the movie of the year!
Sir, I exist!"
David Edelstein
Slate Movie Club
(January 3, 2002)
Celebrity Endorsement
"Now I agree with Mr. Caplan..."
Pat Buchanan
The Abrams Report, MSNBC
(April 6, 2004)
