Aught-7 was a wild ride

Time for my Big List of Things That Were Very Awesome or Important or Mostly Just Entertaining in 2007.
(2006's list is here.)

Notable Deaths:
*My grandmother
*Kurt Vonnegut, fellow former University of Tennessee student, writer, cultural icon, wittiest man ever born
*Jerry Falwell, fire and brimstone preacher
*David Halberstam, journalist of the finest quality
*Deborah Kerr, who is up in heaven talking about the cala lillies being in bloom
*Norman Mailer, writer extraordinaire
*Luciano Pavarotti, tenor, beard enthusiast
*Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Pulitzer Prize winner and wonk many consider to be the father of liberalism
*Jane Wyman, who played my favorite grouchy aunt with a heart of gold in "Pollyanna"
*Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto
(A note: I've seen Kurt Vonnegut speak and have actually met Jerry Falwell and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. As usual, I have put Mickey Rooney on my celebrity death prediction list for next year. Perhaps I am the missing ingredient.)


Top Albums of the Year:
Holy moly! A lot of really great music came out this year, making it really tough to actually rank the records. I rearranged this list about 20 times before I finally settled on these fine pieces of music.
1. "Neon Bible" by the Arcade Fire
2. "Wincing the Night Away" by The Shins
3. "Emotionalism" by the Avett Brothers
4. "The Reminder" by Feist
5. "Sky Blue Sky" by Wilco
6. "Under the Blacklight" by Rilo Kiley
7. "Hail Mega Boys" by J-Roddy Walston and the Business
Honrable mentions: "In Rainbows" by Radiohead, "We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank" by Modest Mouse, "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga" by Spoon, "The Story" by Brandi Carlile

Some Books I Read:
This section is smaller than I'd like because, quite honestly, I can't really remember everything I read this year. I know it was more than this tiny little list. Perhaps I'll add more when memory allows.
"Shopgirl" by Steve Martin
"Being Good" by Nick Hornby
"The Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion
"Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" by Chuck Klosterman
"The Devil and Miss Prym" by Paulo Coelho
"Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut
"The Outsiders" by Susan E. Hinton

Some Awesome Movies I Saw:
"Ratatouille"
"Waitress"
"The Darjeeling Limited"
"Hairspray"
"Hot Fuzz"
"Super Bad"
"The Simpsons Movie"
"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium"
"Across the Universe"
"Lars and the Real Girl"
"Charlie Wilson's War"
"Juno"
"Walk Hard"

Plays I Was In:
"Much Ado About Nothing"
"The Merry Wives of Windsor"

Places I Visited:
New York City
Memphis
Chicago
Hershey, Lancaster, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Penn.
Dauphin Island, Ala.
Chattanooga
Pennville, Ga. (home to the Howard Finster museum and to his folk art Mecca, Paradise Gardens)

Famous People Sightings:
Chili from TLC
Tony Bennett
Jesse Jackson
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne
Emily Saliers
Fred Schneider (OK, fine, it was only on the phone, but I'm counting it)
The Dalai Lama
Gedeon McKinney, former American Idol contestant


A List of Random Things that Changed My Life This Year:
- J.B.N.
- OKCupid.com
- starting a new housing adventure
- Crystal Light
- My grandmother's death
- North Fulton Drama Club (again)
- my 10-year high school reunion
- more friends having babies
- losing 30 pounds
- Alexyss K. Tylor and her Vagina Power