Sunday, December 19, 2010

Best Wishes for a Bright New Year!

Meanwhile Back in 2010...

I apologize to readers of this blog for the long break between posts. National Novel Writing Month took literally every spare second of my day. I admire those participants who seemed to be able to both write and post in November but freely admit that there was no way I could make that happen! And while I crossed the deadline with more than the 50K words required to be a NaNoWriMo winner, I still have a lot of work to do before I can claim the victory of a solid submission draft.

Until I'm able to start some writerly posts again, I’m say goodbye to the old year by the classic expedient of posting some top ten lists (cross-posted to another of my blogs).  Only a few of these have to do with the experience of writing, but they're all are part of the experience of this writer!

My top 10 2010 experiences (chronologically)
  • Tim Burton exhibit at MoMA
  • Trip to Venice & Barcelona with Mom (special mention: dinners at Alle Testiere, Venice and Cal Pep, Barcelona; the roof of La Pedrera)
  • Designing/knitting a lace shrug
  • A Week in Tuscany (special mention: Uffizi Gallery in Florence; Duomo di Siena) 
  • Having a piece published by Smithsonian Online
  • The Pantheon in Rome
  • A day in Pompeii
  • Tweets from History portion of my personal 3 month "extreme writing" challenge
  • Making Paella
  • NaNoWriMo (ending @ a proud 67,845 words)

Top 10 books I read in 2010 (alphabetically)
  • A Map of Glass (Jane Urquhart)
  • American Gods (Neil Gaiman). 
  • The Confessions of Edward Day (Valerie Martin)
  • Cyteen (C J Cherryh)
  • The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery) 
  • Fantastical Feasts (Heston Blumenthal)
  • Four Freedoms (John Crowley)
  • The Imperfectionists (Tom Rachman)
  • One Day (David Nicholls)
  • Shades of Grey (Jasper Fforde)
NOTE: I fell very behind in my reading due to NaNoWriMo.  Full expecting to be wowed by Connie Willis' 'Blackout' and 'All Clear', WIlliam Gibson's 'Zero History' and David Mitchell'd 'The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet'

Top 10 film and television I saw in 2010 (alphabetically)
  • City Island
  • Doctor Who, Series 5 (aka season 31)
  • Eureka, season 4.0
  • Get Low
  • Inception
  • The Kids are Alright
  • Mad Men, season 4
  • The Social Network
  • Temple Grandin
  • The Tudors, season 4
NOTE: looking forward to catching up on film during next 3 weeks run-up to SAG Awards voting, especially 'The King's Speech', 'Black Swan', ‘Another Year’ and 'Winter's Bone' 

Top 10 music I started listening to in 2010 (alphabetically by artist)
  • Amy Macdonald: This is the Life
  • Anssi Karttunen: Saariaho: Du Cristal
  • Cyndi Lauper: Memphis Blues
  • Florence & The Machine: Lungs
  • The Like: Release Me
  • Nellie McKay: As Normal As Blueberry Pie
  • Of Montreal: Coquilecot Asleep in the Poppies
  • Rasputina: Thanks for the Ether
  • Steve Reich: Double Sextet/2x5
  • Vampire Weekend: Contra

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