Oh na na na na na

Pardon me, but I believe I have perfected a dance move.

I know you're scoffing right now. Please stop.

Anyways, the dance move is called shoulder raising. Sit in a chair in front of a mirror, put on a song with a nice beat, such as "Odessa" by Caribou or "You Spin Me Right Round (Like a Record Baby)" by Dead or Alive. The next step is to emphatically raise your left shoulder in time with the music.

It should look a little something like this:


You are very welcome.

(Now, it's quite possible that that image isn't moving like it's supposed to on your computer. If it isn't, imagine that the left shoulder is raising up and down repeatedly.)

Television

Because my family hasn't ever had good access to television (no cable, and bad reception of the main channels), I never really got into TV shows, and when I heard people talking about TV I managed to throw in a smug "I don't watch much TV" to justify not knowing what they were talking about and making myself look like I used my time more productively.

I did watch Lost, though, and occasionally American Idol, but beyond that my TV experience was limited. When Lost ended last year I was sure I was done with all television. I had tried to get into the Golden Globe/Emmy award winning Glee at one point, but when I really, really disliked most of the episodes I decided that television shows just weren't good.

Lost

Since then, though, in my endless hours spent whittling time away on the internet I've found myself returning to hulu every now and then, and I've discovered a few excellent television shows that I really enjoy.

Here are my favorites (realize that I'm only comparing shows that get put up on hulu, because if it doesn't then I don't have a way to watch it):

5. The Office
This is the one that got me hooked on the site initially, as I had seen and liked episodes in the past for some reason. It's supposedly a comedy, and might have been more of one in previous seasons, but I find the jokes upstaged by the show's repeated flirtation with sadness, obsession and unrequited love (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

4. Parks and Recreation
Very similar to The Office, but more consistently funny, and with more realistic, dynamic characters.

Parks and Recreation

3. Fringe
The only non-comedy on my list, this fantastical detective show has expanded into Lost-esque levels of scope and confusion.

2. Community
My favorite current show, Community is repeatedly hilarious and touching, often in the same moment.

1. Arrested Development
This one isn't currently being produced, as it was canceled after three seasons of low ratings. In its short lifespan it was an off-the-wall portrait of the dysfunctional Bluth "family" that I can only
compare to The Royal Tenenbaums, but it's less serious and less restrained, and filtered through rapid-fire, pun-peppered scriptwriting. Hulu currently only has season 3 available for viewing, but it rotates between the seasons every few months. (I've actually only seen seasons 2 and 3, but whenever they put up that first season I can guarantee I'll be all over that to see how things began).

Arrested Development

After taking a glance back at my new favorite television shows, I've discerned that the allure of TV is most definitely in the characters. You can keep coming back to them week after week and they'll be there, going through trials and struggles not always unlike your own. In the movies you're done with your new friends in like two hours.

Every 2010 movie I saw, in neat lists

(i rated everything out of 100, relative to the rest of the movies in this list, if a movie released in 2010 year isn't in this post, i haven't seen it yet)
movies in bold were added after my initial post

Best movies:
1. The Social Network - 100
An astounding piece of cinema in every way. The wordplay, the score...I've found it difficult to discuss this movie beyond the "I loved everything about it" level.
2. Black Swan - 99
Terrifyingly enthralling. I came out of the theater shaken, gasping for air.
3. Toy Story 3 - 95
Hilarious. Sublime, even.
4. Exit Through the Gift Shop - 90
5. True Grit - 85
6. The King's Speech - 82
7. The Ghost Writer - 81
8. How To Train Your Dragon - 80
9. 127 Hours - 79
10. Winter's Bone - 78
11. Inception - 77
Not as good as I wanted it to be.
12. Despicable Me - 75

Also worth watching:
The Book of Eli - 70
Shutter Island - 71
The Crazies - 65
To Save a Life - 70
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - 65

movies i enjoyed a great deal even though they kind of weren't good:
Tron: Legacy - 50
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - 45
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief - 35

worst of the year (I try to avoid bad movies in general, so i'm sure there were much worse films out there which i fortunately missed):
5. Robin Hood - 40
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 1 - 45
It looks nice, but it's long and boring like the part of the book it's based on.
3. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - 35
The worst film in the series yet.
2. Green Zone - 25
Incoherent action sequences are all i remember.
1. Alice in Wonderland - 15
What should've been another crazy good Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration ended up failing to be anything. It wasn't funny, it wasn't that weird. The worst part? It was the second highest grossing movie of the year.

the other movie i saw that didn't fit into any of my lists:
Iron Man 2 - 59