this song makes me happy

January Playlist :: Track One

My Top 40 in Pop Culture for the year 2010

Note: This list encompasses my pop culture year, which means that some things were current and many others originated in past years. Of the things I saw and heard through 2010, these are the ones that stood out… for better or worse.

MOVIES
1.	Inception
2.	Salt
3.	Toy Story 3
4.	Crazy Heart
5.	The Hurt Locker
6.	The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
7.	Knight and Day
8.	The Expendables
9.	Stage Door
10.	Breakfast at Tiffany’s (which I finally, finally saw this year)

 

TELEVISION
1.	Rubicon (may it rest in peace)
2.	concluding the saga of LOST
3.	the final season of 24, which included my beloved Clayne Crawford and provided my number one favorite moment of its entire series run: Jack Bauer’s armored assault
4.	Mad Men, featuring the steady downward spiral of Don Draper, the comic demise of Miss Blankenship, and Sally Draper’s coming of age
5.	the parallel universes of Fringe and my ever-increasing love for Peter Bishop
6.	The Walking Dead, the zombie series I never knew I’d want to watch
7.	finally discovering Friday Night Lights
8.	Cole Hauser’s return to a weekly series (however brief it may turn out to be)
9.	the revival of Grey’s Anatomy, with more Christina and less Meredith (thankfully!)
10.	giving up on no less than 8 series in a single network season, including two longtime favorites (Survivor and Private Practice)

 

MUSIC
1.	Lady Antebellum’s Need You Now album
2.	Free by Zac Brown Band
3.	White Liar by Miranda Lambert
4.	Every Dog Has Its Day by Toby Keith
5.	an actual mass-produced CD from Christian Kane
6.	discovering Josh Turner
7.	discovering Blake Shelton
8.	giving Kenny Chesney a chance
9.	realizing I’d been loving the music of Garth Brooks without knowing it
10.	the continued (superior) musical output from Glee, which made me love a Lady Gaga song and reminded me that Gwyneth Paltrow can sang, baby

 

NEWS & EVENTS
1.	Earthquake in Haiti
2.	Oil spill in the Gulf
3.	Flooding in Nashville, Tennessee
4.	Chilean miners survive more than two months trapped underground
5.	The Great North Texas Snowstorm
6.	Texas Rangers play in World Series
7.	Royal Engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton, which brought back memories of his parents’ grand wedding in 1981
8.	Sandra Bullock wins the Best Actress Oscar for a family film then shows true grace through the public spectacle of her crumbling marriage
9.	the ridiculous success of Avatar sets off an influx of movies released in 3D… much to my dismay
10.	my personal highlight of 2010: finally getting a chance to see Wicked on stage and being able to share that with Kiwi

 

Day Seven of the Advent

The companion to Friday’s post about new Christmas albums and favorites from years past is my newly created playlist for 8tracks.com. I’ve been making these Christmas mixes for so many years that I can’t even play the original versions anymore since they are on cassette! I notice that some of my selections reappear almost every year — “Gabriel’s Message” and Amy Grant tunes being the most frequent — but I also include several new tracks in order to mark the year of the list. And since these mixes get stored away at the end of the season, it’s especially nostalgic to play them again the following year, as if revisiting old friends.

Below is the new page placed beside its companion from Friday. Click the second (single page) image for a closer view, then click over to the new playlist at 8tracks to share in my Christmas joy. Happy listening!

 

 

Day Six of the Advent

My Christmas spirit is directly tied to the music of the season, and each year I look for new additions to my personal collection. This year there’s a plethora to choose from, including new offerings from favorite artists of the past two decades and beyond. Awesome!

 

Presently: Blake Shelton

I’ve learned that it’s good to watch the Country Music Awards in order to put names to the songs I hear on the radio. Quite often I’ve been diggin’ an artist’s music without really searching them out, and that was the case last night after watching the 2010 Awards. I realized that I’ve been seriously loving Blake Shelton for more than a year now and never quite noticing it. I just loved his songs whenever they came up in a playlist or on the radio! But after seeing him and his gal on their big night and putting his music to his face, I’m all the way in. I’ve been listening to his most recent albums all day and truly love most every song. Totally hooked!
 
Current favorites are She Wouldn’t Be Gone and Who Are You When I’m Not Looking.
But, of course, you can never go wrong with Hillbilly Bone. Ha ha.