At the end of each year, I catalog books, films, museums, movies and more that I was lucky enough to experience. For me, it's a good way to keep track, take stock and also suggest to others. This year was especially a big travel year with jaunts to Istanbul, Israel, the West Coast and multiple trips to France, including Paris and Provence. Will probably update more as more things come to mind. Sorry if it formats like crap; trying to update the look of the blog at the same time.
Also: Be sure to see Bryan's great holiday message around food on his blog.
BOOKS
Fiction:
- Freedom, Jonathan Franzen
- This Is Where I Leave You, Jonathan Tropper (good family funny)
- Attention. Deficit. Disorder, Brad Listi (and my tnb publisher/editor)
- Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
- Then We Came To the End, Joshua Ferris (Finally read this — hilarious)
- Overexposed, Susan Shapiro (My writing prof)
- Imperial Bedrooms, Bret Easton Ellis
Nonfiction:
- The Mesh, Lisa Gansky
- How the States Got their Shapes, Marc Stein (interesting)
- Everything is Going to be Great, Rachel Shukert (funny essays)
- How Did You Get this Number?, Sloane Crosby (funny essays)
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace
- Everything Is Wrong with Me, Jason Mulgrew
FILMS
- Precious (January). Disturbingly good.
- An Education (January). Haunting.
- Client 9: Eliot Spitzer. Couldn't get through the second half but a good history.
- Exit Through the Gift Shop: Banksy. Is it true or not? Love the mystery.
- Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. Good rental.
- The Kids Are All Right. Love strong women.
- Kick Ass. Surprisingly funny.
- The Social Network. This was surprisingly good.
- Greenberg. Funny, but not that funny
- Iron Man 2. Silly.
- Eat, Pray, Love (August). The food is as pretty as Julia.
- Fair Game (November). Good melodrama, acting. Love spies.
- The King's Speech (December). Stunning and funny.
- Tron (December). Fun to watch but weak plot. Galactica spoiled us for Sci-Fi.
- Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps (December). Just awful.
- Somewhere — (December) Stunning Sophia Coppola and Stephen Dorff.
ART & MEMORIALS
- Israel: Well, the whole country is a dig. Not sure if I'd consider Masada a museum, but it is a UNESCO site and a huge experience. Yad Vashem of course too. (Incidentally, one cannot find shaving cream in Safed.) Just go if you haven't. Some photos here.
- Lisbon: The Museum of Tile/Azulejo (Seriously)
- Istanbul: Hagga Sophia, Basilica Cistern (stunning), a 16thC Synagogue with permission in advance and too much time at the Four Seasons. A few photos here.
- The Modern Kitchen, MoMA, New York
- Le Louvre, Paris (November)
- Avignon: Palace of the Popes (July); the Museum of Corkscrews
- Raymond Depardon photography at Le Biblioteque Nationale Mitterand, Paris (November)
- Julia Child's Kitchen, Smithsonian, Washington, DC (October)
CONCERTS + UNIQUE EXPERIENCES
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| From The Rally for National Sanity on National Mall, Wash., DC |
- Rally for National Sanity in Washington, DC. (October) Unique experience on The Mall. Thank you, Julia, for flying in for it.
- Carmen, at the MetOpera in HD (January)
- David Sedaris reading at the Apollo Theatre (November) Hilarious. He also collects jokes.
- Jonathan Franzen reading from Freedom at McNally Jackson
- Pop-Tech in Camden, Maine (October). Science meets social engineering. Read the TFT post.
- Agency.com Wake. The very very final end of a very long story.
- Delivering the keynote on creativity at Belgium Direct Marketing Association in Mechelen, Belgium. Read the TFT post.
- A week at The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio (Thanks, John)
- Sam's Bar Mitzvah (!)
- The Search for the World's Greatest Salesperson, including two live TV interviews in Australia and Philadelphia. Story behind the experience here.
- Shorning of the Sheep at Blue Hill at Stone Bars
- Creative Workshop at Chateau du Touffou.
- Gay Youth Pride Concert (December). Charming, but not Glee.
- Ben Folds performance at The Beacon, NYC (December). This surprisingly sucked.
- The lights of Dyker Heights with Eitan and Dina. (December)
FOOD EXPERIENCES (gets its own category)
- Lunch with Bryan Fuhr, Julia and Rachel at The French Laundry (October).
- Lunch under a tree at vineyard Michel Schlumberger
- Thanksgiving in Paris :: Le Retour VII. This year, the theme was Renaissance. Still not exactly sure why. Ann's photo collection here.
- Learning to eat Raclette with Bridget and Thomas
- Eating at Bisto Au Coin, Washington DC, forgetting we were there 10 years ago
PUBLISHED
- "How to Talk to My Dog", The Bark
- Embrace Branding, The Jewish Forward
- "Spare Me Your Shekels", "When Should We Get Naked?", "A Good Sport", in The Nervous Breakdown
- "Second Chances" on This I Believe about how my first boss Dennis Ferrone taught me to write ad copy.
- Tons of columns in The Faster Times, now bi-weekly.
