Nancy’s Favorites of 2012

We love making lists. This is a restrained list of my favorite things about 2012, not necessarily the bests in any category. Politics, music, movies, theater, TV, books. Wanna argue? Write a comment here.

Politics

• Constant political coverage, which annoyed everyone but political junkies like me
• The reelection of President Obama
• Bruce Springsteen campaigning for the President and riding on Air Force One.
• Crowning of Nate Silver as King of Stats (others who did much the same, like Sam Wang of Princeton, unfortunately were not recognized)

Music – the Bruce Springsteen factor

• Release of Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball album (yes, I still buy them). Excellent, substantive story songs even though the music is better played live
• The Wrecking Ball tour and the six fabulous concerts I attended in Greensboro, New York (first time at the Garden!), Detroit, Los Angeles and Chicago (yay, Wrigley Field)
• Taking my grandson James to his first Springsteen concert at Wrigley Field (see my September post)
• Taking a road trip to Detroit with my nephew Brad and friend Craig to see Bruce at the Palace in Auburn Hills, with several dynamite food stops
• Bruce’s keynote speech at South by Southwest. Regretted not going to Austin but I watched him streaming live. He gave us a history of rock and roll through his own career in music  

Music – the all-others factor

• Leonard Cohen’s new album, Old Ideas. So sorry I didn’t get to see him live on 2012 tour. We were never in the same city at the same time
• Tom Morello at the Woody Guthrie 100th birthday concert at Metro
• Tom Morello generally especially when he played a fiery guitar duet with Springsteen on “Ghost of Tom Joad”
• David Byrne with St Vincent at the Chicago Theater
• The 12-12-12 concert (see my December review)
• Saturday Morning Flashback on WXRT
• Jimmy Page
• The Talking Heads

Films (not in ratings order)  

• Not Fade Away (my favorite; review coming up this week)
• Lincoln
• Seven Psychopaths (see my October review)
• Searching for Sugar Man
• Argo
• Margaret
• Killer Joe
• The Gene Siskel Film Center and its dedication to excellent, rarely seen films

Theater

• Venus in Furs at the Lyceum Theatre in New York
• Death and Harry Houdini at House Theater
• Good People at Steppenwolf Theater
• Hamlet at Writers Theatre
• Timon of Athens at Chicago Shakes

Television

• Netflix streaming and my Apple TV
• Palladia, the 24/7 rock music channel (see my December post)
• Breaking Bad on AMC
• The Good Wife on CBS
• The Newsroom on HBO
• Lilyhammer with Steve Van Zandt, streaming
• Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers (who could be well-informed without them?)
• Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes, Chuck Todd, Scott Pelley

Books

• Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Rock by Legs McNeill and Gillian McCain
• This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
• Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
• How Music Works by David Byrne
• Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon
• Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Bruce, the biography by Peter Ames Carlin
• Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield (see my August post “I Love Type”)

Farrago

• New baby grandson in North Carolina, born in June
• Glory Days symposium on the Jersey Shore (see my September post)
• Getting together with my book group and Nation discussion group
• Tortilla soup at Frontera Grill at Macy’s on State Street (the tortilla soup made me forgive Macy’s because it’s not Marshall Field’s)
• Retirement; it’s a fine thing