The Best of 2012

These are in no way REALLY the "best" of the year, but here are a few of my best things from 2012.

This. Kid.

Best Reality Show-Here Comes Honey Boo Boo
Don't talk to me about Duck Dynasty. This is the real deal.

Best New Show-Nashville
I love it. It makes me want to revisit the city, it makes me want to listen to country music. The drama is great, the acting is great, the music is great, and I get swept up in it each week.

Best Drama-Parenthood
This should win for consistency if nothing else. Each and every episode delivers, which is rare. Usually there are hits and misses, but this one is on the money from week to week.

Best Comedy-30 Rock
Two Broke Girls, Modern Family, Raising Hope...I love them, but Tina Fey and this darling show will have my loyalty for the little time it has left on the air.

Best Song-We Are Young by Fun
It's a feel good song, it's upbeat, the lyrics are good, and it's smart. I could listen to this all day, and there have been days that I have.

Best Album-Babel by Mumford and Sons
Mumford and Sons is my go to music for the Fall and Winter. This new album by them is as good as their last, if not better. I can't wait to see what they do next!

Best Movie-Life of Pi
I watched A LOT of movies this year, but if I had to choose the best one FROM this year, I'd say it was this one. It was a creative and solid story as well as, suspenseful, action packed, funny, sentimental, and even carried a little twist ending.

Best "Breakout" Star-Olivia Wilde
Olivia Wilde is in no way new to stardom, but she is new to movies, and this year she did a lot of them. The Words, Butter, People Like Us, and more. She played drastically different roles in each of them and did a great job. I am not sure she will ever hold down a leading lady spot, but I would love to see her try.

Everyone will know her name.

Best Underage Star-Chloe Grace Moretz
She's not new, but the more I watch her, the more I am super impressed. I can't wait to see her in Carrie coming in 2013!

Best "I Changed My Mind About Her" Star-Carey Mulligan
I wrote a blog earlier in the year about Mulligan and my doubt about her being cast as Daisy on Gatsby. While we are still waiting to see how she does in this movie, I have seen so much of her this year that I have changed my mind about her. She's beautiful, brilliant, vulnerable but strong, and when she's on screen I can't help but be enthralled by her. I admit, I judged her too quickly.

Best Celebrity Moment-Any Rebel Wilson interview
Best Celebrity Moment 2-Any Emma Stone interview
Best Celebrity Moment 3-Any Kristen Bell interview
These three are always perfectly adorable and hilarious during their interviews, unlike weirdos Kristen Stewart, Nicole Kidman, and Melanie Griffin. Watching those three on live TV is horrifying.

Well played.

Best Politician Moment-Obama playing Spiderman with a kid.
Adorable. Take note politicians, we live in an internet age. If you want to win an election, you MUST be likable on the internet.

This friendship is one of my favorite.

Best Politician Moment 2-Texts with Hillary Memes
She's just the coolest.

Best Bad Story Turned Good-The Bullied Bus Driver
I could mention Christian Bale's visit to the families of the dead and injured who were show in the theater during The Dark Knight Rises, but the bus driver story really stuck with me. When I read about the horrible things that this woman had to endure driving a bus of brats to and from school daily, I felt sick. To make things worse, she went home to a somewhat sad life each night. When America got wind of the video on the bus, people reached out to this woman with money, gifts, kind words, and more. She has since retired from driving on her over $600 grand worth of donations, some of which she gave to charity. I love when the good in humanity sees the bad and works to make up for it.

How does he look so scary!

Best Bad Guy Hair-Javier Bardem. Always.

He looks weird with clothes on.

Best Sports Moment-I didn't pay attention since Auburn was so bad. But probably something to do with Michael Phelp's abs.

Best Book-We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
This is one of the most haunting and well written books I have ever read. It's not from this year, but I did read it this year, so that's something.

Best App for iPhone-Pocket
I love this app cause I can just move everything I want to read and put it into one place. So when I'm sitting in a waiting room or wherever (I'll just say it, the bathroom), I can catch up on blogs, articles, and more! I'm a dork, I know, but this has been a really great thing to have this year in China!

What is on your BEST of 2012 list?

10 Things in Pop-Culture This Week I'm Thankful For

Gotye's mouth. (Obvi.)

See yesterday's blog for more information on this.

Seeing Freddie Prinze Jr.'s name for the first time in maybe...7 years.

Remember this guy!?

Anne Hathaway's "near death" experience filming Les Mis. Losing 25lbs.

I dreamed a dream that I was Natalie Portman and it was the 5th of November.

My Repair by Brandi Carlile and Jason Scavone

Hearing "Tell Me Something Good" on 2 TV shows last week. Scandal and The Neighbors.

American Horror Story has been renewed for a 3rd Season.

She deserves an emmy nod JUST for her performance in Episode 5. That accent, that story. Amazing.

Twinkie Memes.

Well played Mayans.

Justin Bieber looking like a lost member of Color Me Badd.

I wanna love you down, I think I wanna throw up!

This picture of Honey Boo Boo made of trash.

This might be an attempt at commentary, but I think it's just fantastic!

Heidi Klum enjoying a Big Mac after the AMA's

As a conspiracy theorist, I can't say this actually qualifies as her EATING the Big Mac, I need more proof.

Oh there it is...she's fat. 

True Romance: A Movie Review

It's rare for me to venture back to the movies of the early 90's to watch something that someone suggests. At this point in my life, I kind of think I've seen all of the quality ones, or at least heard of them and have some awareness of what I'm missing. 

Brilliant.

It's also rare for me to add a new movie to my favorites list. The last movie I added to the list was Inception, and that took writing multiple blogs on it to work out why exactly I loved it so much. I eventually landed on these three things: The concept was brilliant. The emotional content was brilliant. The music was brilliant (and I was probably manipulated by the swells and chords). Even so...it made the list. 


Last night I was Face-Timing (such an awkward way to say that) with my friend Joni and we were sharing about some of our favorite movies as we often do. She mentioned the movie, True Romance. I had never heard of it and she was shocked. She went on to list all of the people in the movie. You can read for yourself here:

Star. Studded.

I assured her I would try to find it and watch soon. She insisted on sooner than later. It happened to be for rent on iTunes and so I kicked back tonight on my couch and decided to watch.


True Romance was made in 1993, at the height of Christian Slater's career. And in this movie, he is as great as I remember him being when I was 14 and completely in love with him. Patricia Arquette comes out of nowhere for me. I have never really paid much attention to her, but in this movie she's adorable and strange. The two of them together are kind of magical. Oh, and Gary Oldman. Oh wow!

I can't even...

All of the acting is great, but the brilliance of this movie is the totally unexpected dialogue. It's off the wall and crazy and yet, completely believable. The storyline itself is pretty simple: couple in love, a little in over their heads with a drug deal, trying to make it out alive. It's violent for sure, and there's some pretty offensive language, so you've been warned. But it's so so so good. It's ironic and comes full circle in all the right ways. 


One of the things that caught me off guard was that some scenes are so full of tension that you will want to watch The Hurt Locker afterwords so you can relax. One in particular scene is a confrontation between Hopper and Walken. In your gut you know what's coming, but leading up to it is turmoil. I found myself smiling in awe, but looked down to see that I had crushed a handful of popcorn to bits while watching.

3 Words...You're So Cool.

I know this is all very vague, but when I start to tell you the details of a scene I find that I don't want to give it away at all! I think this is the same feeling Joni must have had when she was stressing that I just "have to watch it." She couldn't really seem to pinpoint the greatness, but assured me it was there.


I'm sure True Romance is not for everyone. I honestly had doubts that it would be for me. But after seeing it today, I am proud to announce that I have added it to my list of favorites. I'm a little ashamed that I have missed it all these years. If you get a chance, check it out.


Oh, and don't get me STARTED on the soundtrack....