Frist!

One thing I’ve learned this decade: politicians respond to *pressure*. Can’t be passive – must stay *active*.

Happy new year and decade, y’all. I’m getting down with my new DVD of Gustavo Dudamel taking the reins of the LA Philharmonic and annoying my loved ones with wacky YouTube videos.

Well, most of my life was in the last decade, or at least most of the important parts. What did I learn? Hmm…

Trust, but verify. Also, you never know as much as you think.

Also, incompetence is a universal standard. Maybe not as pleasant, but no less true.

As any rosary bead afficianado already knows: when you finish one decade, you just move on to the next.

On your knees.

What the past ten years have taught me: that the Peter Principle is, in fact, as inviolate as the laws of physics.

I listened to the Shins waay too much in 2009. I think their 3 CDs jammed my car’s player. Then I moved on to Lupe. Now I’ve discovered Lady Gaga. Like Madonna but more playful, less full of herself.

The past 10 years taught me that we should’ve been socking away cash in all those Bushy years of faux-prosperity because our recession-proof company actually isn’t. 2009 put our finances in the toilet, and the handle is still quivering, ready to flush.

I also learned to love blogs, esp. this one. Thanks for the insightful snark, TBogg. Happy 2010 to you, Mrs. TBogg, and the L&TC, and give some belly-rubs to the boys for me.

Happy New Year to all Bogg’s and community

Mr TBogg, I have the slender thread of music cred I have with my kids because I read you – thanks!

I seem to be moving backwards through music time – my big discoveries this year were Moby Grape and The Great Society.

Interesting enough, music I could have heard in real time had I not been an effete classical music snob as a young-un.

T does make me feel like a new music snob. Aimee Mann is the only name I know on the whole list.

I agree with you on Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude. He has a way of writing that doesn’t just describe a place or situation that goes so far beyond just “drawing you in.” He manages to make you feel like you’re actually there with the characters. It’s pretty amazing.

My favorite song of the decade was the Melvins covering the Wipers Youth of America. It just churns. I’d like to make a musical suggestion, Tbogg: Tommy Guerrero. His record From the Soil to the Soul is pretty great.

And one more thing: thanks for all the snark. Reading this page is something I look forward to all day.

Why “Charlie Wilson’s War”? If you think it was anti-empire or anti-war, better look again.

Tom Hanks has never, ever made an anti-war movie. He has, instead, made movies that are utlimately pro-war.

And he, with the aid of Stephen Spielberg, Has another one coming: “The Pacific,” on HBO.

The last thing this country of perpetual war needs is another pro-war Tom Hanks movie.

Wow, I was so outside the mainstream this last decade. My favorite shows were Doctor Who (I loved David Tennant, whose final episode as the Doctor airs in the UK today…sob)& the anime series Cowboy Bebop (that came out in the late ’90s, but it wasn’t broadcast here until this decade). Because of Bebop, I fell in love with the music of the show’s composer, Yoko Kanno. Movies? I wasn’t much of a movie watcher this decade.

Because Charlie Wilson’s War is a very good movie. I don’t apply a litmus test to my movies, otherwise I would be writing 10 Best Liberal Movies lists which would be every bit as stupid as 10 Best Conservative Movies/Songs/Snack Cake lists.

You know, Tom, I’ve had nothing to offer to the “random ten” entreaties because I have no device on which to render a random ten. Nevertheless, I thought you might be interested to know:

Kayak: Close to the Fire
Nektar: Recycled
Seventh Wave: Things to Come

If I had such a device, they’d be on it.

Happy New Year, to you and yours, and I cannot thank you enough for the extraordinary writing– there’s nothing to compare you with.

TV shows that rocked:
American:
True Blood
Mad Men
The Wire
Deadwood
Breaking Bad
Entourage
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Damages
Battlestar Gallactica
Hung
Rome
The Tudors
Project Runway
The Good Wife

From Britain:
QI
Top Gear
Mistresses
Little Britain
The Office
Extras
Every film of Ricky Gervais’ stand up comedy (Politics and Animals are notable)
Prime Suspect
Inspector Morse (ended in 2000)
I’m Alan Partridge and Saxondale (everything by and featuring Steve Coogan is worth watching)

Movies
El secreto de sus ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes)
Up
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Casino Royale (the stunts are ooooh la la)
No Country For Old Men
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
The Departed
El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labrynth)
Batman Begins
40 Year Old Virgin
Good Night and Good Luck
The March of the Penguins
Syriana
Fahrenheit 9/11
Ghost Town
The Incredibles
Mean Girls
Napoleon Dynamite
The Fog of War
Lost in Translation
About Schmidt
Bowling for Columbine
The Pianist
Amelie
The Royal Tenenbaums
Almost Famous
Best in Show
Chicken Run
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Tao of Steve
Ghost World

Balloon Juice Lexicon is the last ten years in a capsule.

Great music for aging hipsters as the decade drew to a close.
Dylan and his swing band,
Van Morrison touring on the Astral Weeks at the Berkley Greek Theatre
Los Straightjackets and Southern Culture on the Skids
X!Both at Harlows in Sacto.
Alan Tousasiant and Marsha Balln and later, Jorma K. at Mondavi Center
Thanks that my hearing is doing better than my vision!
Hugs and Skritches to all.

Only thing I’m grateful for is that I still have a roof over our heads even after being laid off for most of 2009.

Which makes me glad I moved to a blue state that doesn’t treat unemployment benefits as proof of my un-Protestant human weakness. So I guess that’s two things I’m thankful for.

Oh, and I’m thankful for DFH lie-brul snarky bloggers like TBogg, because after the 2000 elections and 9/11 I thought everyone in America had gone insane. Bloggers like TBogg, Atrios, Josh Marshall and the not-evil Roger Ailes proved to me I wasn’t. So that’s three – THREE things to be thankful for.

So sue me. Also.

Wait. Satchmo was a person! Just not a person of the homo sapiens persuasion.

Hoffman? Seriously? Ok, maybe not better, but just as good AND, better looking, that would be Cate Blanchett. I could go on but the point is it’s important to be good looking. That’s a show biz rule, not mine. Hoffmann takes Red Green’s advice; “If you can’t be handsome, be handy.”
For TV, skip everything and see “The Wire.” I know, I’ve seen everything. Skip it. Big screen. Dolby. Like a movie. A 75-hour movie. It’s worth it. “The Wire.”
On music and books you rule. Period.
Hell, I miss your dad and all I know is what I read here. Satchmo too. Hail all things Tbogg, and FDL. Another year please.

I’ve had a lot of enjoyment from Lethem. My favorite is still Gun, With Occasional Music, which pretty much in and of itself constitutes the short list of successful Chandler pastiches, getting far beneath the skin to the heart of Chandler’s emo soul. It doesn’t quite outdo “Red Wind,” but it might possibly outdo The Long Goodbye in how close it comes to making the reader feel like rummaging through the medicine cabinet for something to OD on.

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I don’t understand…you watched *The Devil Wears Prada* for Streep, then pass her over as an actor? She is so other-wordly good that it gives me chills to watch her. See *Julie and Julia*. She absolutely is Julia Child. Or, if you like Hoffman, *Doubt*. She boggles my mind. And she’s done so for forever. And she’s never in trouble.