For many years growing up, Sunday just sucked. It was my least favorite day of the week by far. I dreaded waking up in the morning; it meant that the weekend was officially drawing to a close, and a pile of unfinished homework was waiting for me--as soon as I got back from Sunday school. Things improved after convincing my parents that two hours spent with a bunch of gossiping 13-year olds was a waste of time, though the homework problem remained harder to resolve; mom and dad had this thing against becoming a school dropout altogther.

But somewhere along the way, I started to see the day as the last chance to savor the weekend. And there were some real good Sundays along that way. On those best days, I'd roll out of bed around 11, stumble downstairs in my bathrobe and slippers. Assorted newspapers would be sitting on the breakfast table, and if my mom was in a generous mood, the smell of chocolate chip pancakes would waft in while I leafed through the oversized sports section in the Sun.

Ah...my doddering youth has probably idealized those mornings, but they truly felt special. College let me forget why I looked forward to the day; Sunday blended together with everything else, with the exception of football in the afternoon and fairly quiet nights. And no one made me pancakes, no matter how many times I plodded to the kitchen wrapped in a bathroom, waiting expectantly. There were no newspapers; everyone was in bed with a hangover. Man, Sundays kind of sucked again at Penn, now that I think about it.

But now that the routine of a work week has imposed itself, I've rediscovered why I liked the day in the first place (this is no great mental leap; as we've all learned, working Monday-Friday makes you savor every second of the weekend). Yet I particularly look forward to peaceful Sunday mornings; rolling out of bed, the house being still; maybe going for a run or meeting someone for brunch--wow, reading over what I just wrote, what idealized bullshit. Apologies for taking this blog too seriously. More likely, I wake up with a hangover, the house is a mess, and instead of schoolwork due, I have work work waiting for me.

But there is still one great reason to get up on Sunday. Something that takes me back to those lazy Ruxton mornings; since it's not pancakes and I often end up at the office, astute readers might be able to figure out by default what that reason would be: the newspaper. Specifically, The New York Times. It's thick and hearty. And damn if I don't love to browse through it. I may not make it through the entire paper week in and out, but always read the same three sections without fail. One of those sections is Arts & Leisure...which finally brings me to what I originally thought to write about.

The End of the Year: Wannabe Lettermans' time to shine

Arts & Leisure this Sunday had its annual "Top of" list; it's particularly enjoyable for spotlighting the "lows" too (such as John Stamos on Broadway and "The Mullets" on TV). There's something I like about these end-of-the-year lists; if you've missed a great album or film, this is a chance to see what's out there, or remember what made you smile or frown back in May. And they run the gamut, from holiday DVDs recommendations to news stories on the biggest news stories of the year (A couple notable "end of year" lists: diverse music here; odd news stories here; great NBA quotes here; audio file of two noted movie/music critics here)

With all this EOY hoopla, a writer at Slate brings up a good point; some awards and best of- designations don't really matter. Certainly, my opinion doesn't count for anything--which is the exact reason that I bring you my own end-of-year best of list! As its my blog, no apologies for doing so. See below.

Four best movies I saw this year, in alphabetical order:

Buffalo Soldiers
City of God
Lost in Translation
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

The movies above were not the most "serious" nor "inspiring" or even "entertaining"; they're just the ones that left the best impression on me. I hope you got to see these four as well, but if not, there were plenty of other good ones my limited time and budget allowed for and am sure many more are out there.

Best of the rest:

28 Days Later lived up to the hype, especially in the first two-thirds; Dirty Pretty Things was powerful, as was Capturing the Friedmans, but both left me feeling in need of a shower. X2 was an awesome summer blockbuster. Kill Bill was like cotton candy; enjoyable, viscerally stimulating, and totally ephemeral. I'd completely forgotten about it two days later. It was too hard to understand the dialogue in the otherwise decent Master and Commander. Bend It Like Beckham was "cute". The shaky Better Luck Tomorrow was thrilling--for about five minutes. On the other hand, Rodger Dodger was great until the last five minutes (the last five minutes were likely great as well, though Markham and I may never know.) Greatness was out of reach for The Shape of Things, but it was at least an interesting film that makes you go "hmmm."

The only movie I've ever walked out of:

Divine Intervention. It didn't just make me want to shower; it made want to scream.

Less painful but still disappointing:

Elf
The Matrixes (Matrices?)
SWAT

Complaints here are few, as none of those was truly terrible; Elf actually made me smile, but it was totally different than what I expected. SWAT was just wooden and too long; Ebert made it sound a lot better. And everyone hated the Matrix movies so much that they'll probably experience a cult renaissance in a couple years.

My music picks would be pretty eclectic...but I go with the mainstream more often than not:

Unanimous best song:

"Hey Ya" is clearly the single of the year (the actual album is too uneven to be among the best though.) Can anyone think of a more creative, catchy, booty-shaking ballad? The video is fun too.

Great albums:

I wore out Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief"; only loaning out Guster's "Keep it Together" and Black Eyed Peas "Elephunk" saved them from the same fate (though hope to have them returned soon...)

Seen and heard:

Neither is new to the scene, but catching both Blackalicious and Vertical Horizon in concert and repeated listening made me plan to buy CDs of my own, rather than keep mooching.

Hate the man but not the music:

A sicko with a sick ability to make you dance, R. Kelly's "Ignition" (remix) was 'hot to death'.

Funky, yet fresh:

I grooved to the neo-soul sound of Donnie's "Our New National Anthem" and the Roots/Cody Chestnutt's "Seed 2.0", and teared up the first time I heard Talib Kweli's "The Proud."

Songs to leave you pissed off:

Two songs were choice pre-frisbee games. Nas's "Made You Look" leaves you wanting to beat up someone with the barrel of a gun; one of my teams was named after Lil Jon's gutteral "Get Low." Anything by The White Stripes would work here too.

But then this song cheers you up:

Well, not initially; the first time I heard "Stacy's Mom" by Fountains of Wayne, it kind of annoyed me. But the video was funny and on repeated rotation, the song proved to be too.

You know, there's such a huge difference in making a best-of list for music and movies though; it was much easier to do so for film. Many artists I heard for the first time in 2003, and enjoyed, had work from years past (DJ Shadow, Groove Armada, Barry White--RIP, Barry White) or there were songs from the radio that I don't know the name of. And watching a movie is much more cut-and-dry than listening to music; so much depends on the context of how and where and when you hear the song. It feels a lot more personal to share music picks too...interesting. So I guess I'll stop here.

Blog of the year:

Talk about winning by default...Progressive Impromptu. Will, your posts didn't always make sense, the formatting was erratic, and there were no graphics to speak of. However, since you stole ideas and articles from me, and stealing is akin to flattery, naming your blog the best of the four in this category is the closest I can come to recognizing my own, which would just be gauche. So you get it by a smidgen over the technically superior, religiously maintained, and more comprehensible Culture Chameleon.

My blog post of the year:

It was both nice and embarassing to hear recently from a few friends that this blog gets read. Nice because it justifies my lack of e-mailing people; embarassing because I wish I had a better product for the critical mass that I now have of five readers. Of course, it's hard to know what to do with such feedback, which ranges from "all you write about is sports" to "you need to write more about sports". This leaves me with something akin to writer's block; I enjoy having a forum to write whatever I want, but it's already a challenge to just sort of throw yourself out on the internet. If I've leaned towards sports, entertainment, sometimes current events and politics, that's because I've always enjoyed writing and talking about them. They're also pretty safe topics that as a very amateur writer are easy to hide behind.

Still, I took a much different tack a few weeks after I started this blog; it was immediately after I moved into the city and life felt like it had started all over again. My writing was free-flowing and personal, and excited about the change, I didn't mind sharing. I thought it was my best blog writing--and was very pleased to hear someone share the same thought, unsolicited, the other day. I direct you to my July postings.

Happy new year, everyone. And Jed, happy birthday.
- posted by DD @ 3:44 AM

 
Washington is freezing this time of year.

Seattle, Washington that is. I don't think I'd like to live there; it looks too damn cold. But pretty.

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Maybe I should go pro. Over the weekend, I was challenged to eat an entire slice of "Mile High Ice Cream Pie" at Chammps sports bar. Though I'd already had dinner before going out, then nursed some appetizers to keep a seat during the Patriots game, I accepted the bet and consumed this disgustingly gargantuan excuse for dessert with style and gusto, not to mention substantial alacrity. (No idea who the people in the picture are, by the way, as it was the only image of the cake I could find. Their vacant expression reassures me of the stupidity of my decision. But I got a free dollar for parking out of it. Who's the sucker now, Weingart?)

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Then I went home and puked.

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During that idiotic meal, we actually had a pretty interesting conversation about the challenge of gift-giving. Per the holidays, there are plenty of articles addressing this lately, trying to offer "tips" and "hints" for saving both the dull-minded and the lazy (here and here, as this definitely applies to several of my loyal readers). Particularly, this pointless excuse of an article bothers me; it just promises too much that it can't deliver. Yeah, it's challenging to find that "perfect gift"--but those really don't exist anyway. Most normal people are just pleased when someone thinks of them and listens well enough to try to fill in the gaps. And gift cards are cheating.

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Entertaining day in the NFL on Sunday--though not a good one for my fantasy team, after weeks of uncanny dominance. Lights, both high- and low-:Ravens D overwhelms; my wasted draft pick Plaxico re-appears; an incredible finish...almost.

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Next Steve Kerr? Not yet, but like Kerr before him, Richie Frahm is a funny guy. He's also a hell of a shooter.

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And the Carolina-Wake game was whack. Early prediction: next Sunday's Florida State-Terps game will be surprisingly good.
- posted by DD @ 11:15 PM

 
Back from Bahamania


Three things I learned this weekend:

1) The weather, people, and amenities in the Bahamas are all conducive to relaxing. The music ("junkanoo"), however, is not.
2) Fine dining is easily had in the Bahamas--if you're a fan of conch fritters.
3) People get pissed off if you nitpick about going to the Bahamas in the middle of a December snowstorm.
- posted by DD @ 11:19 PM

 
Strawberry and Terps dunk Florida


And three days later, proud to be a Maryland fan once again. Bring on UNC (Greensboro).
- posted by DD @ 12:47 AM

 
Roland Park gets a synagogue
Having grown up in every segregated neighborhood mentioned in the Sun, I am very ambivalent on this development.
- posted by DD @ 1:54 AM

 
DC goes national
An interesting take on K Street.

A not-really-interesting NPR segment on White House street hockey.

A not surprising research study shows that exercising is addictive.

- posted by DD @ 9:49 PM