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The last ten years – the first full decade of my adult life-- has at times been very difficult. There were two recessions, one of which we are still in. And, we continue to be entangled in a war. My life was personally and significantly affected by these events. I reached a very low point personally in my life at the beginning of this decade – I battled with severe depression. I went through some pretty bleak and hopeless times. In many ways outside observers might look at my life and still presume that it’s not that great. However, over all, for me, it was a fantastic decade. It was a great decade for relationships, experiences, art, and furthermore as far as I can tell things are going to keep getting better – at least that’s what I believe.

So in honor of the end of this year and the end of the naughties, I’ve made some lists of my favorite things. For example I’ve made lists of my favorite movies and albums, and lists of some of the most significant things that have happened to me. It’s been fun thinking back and remembering much of what had slipped my mind. Hope you enjoy them.

Tops of ’09 and the decade 2000-2009

Movies 2009 (all these movies make my best of the decade list):

Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

District 9

Zombieland

Everlasting Moments

Star Trek – the biggest unexpected delight of the year

Honorable mention:

Gamer – a very good social commentary

The Brothers Bloom

Funny People

Outlander – Straight to DVD (I think), but pretty darn good for what it is

Taken – not exactly the best film ever made, but I was glad to see a movie about human trafficking do so well and hopefully raise people’s awareness

Year One – I liked it

Away We Go

Sherlock Holmes – very entertaining and cool; not Guy Ritchie’s best, but I look forward to the sequel

Not as impressed by:

Avatar – “Not bad for 300 million” (Adam Trotta). I was very entertained, but my mind was not blown and furthermore I wouldn’t be that disappointed if I never saw it again. But, I’m sure I will see it again and maybe then I’ll like it a lot more; maybe I’m being too harsh. It definitely will have a huge impact for the good on the movie industry and I look forward to future movies that use technology developed for Avatar.

Coraline – Incredible animation, but I was pretty disappointed. The film was just flat.

Worst movie of the year that I saw: Terminator Salvation – I didn’t see Transformers, if I did I’m sure it would be in the running.

Still want to see:

A Serious Man

Up in the Air

Fantastic Mr. Fox – I’m very disappointed that I missed this in the theatre

Samson and Delilah

Invictus

In the Loop

Up

Whip It

Extract

The Messenger

Land of the Lost – I don’t care what the critics say (and just about everyone else), I’m seeing it. Bruno – I didn’t see Borat, and don’t care if I do, but I love Sacha Baron Cohen’s Bruno character.

Ong bak 2

House of the Devil

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Seraphine

The Road

Coco Before Chanel

An Education

Summer Hours

A Single Man

Crazy Heart

The Informant!

Moon

Ponya

Me and Orson Welles

John Woo’s Red Cliff

Nine

The Beaches of Agnes

The Damned United

Bad Liutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Drag Me to Hell

Tyson

Pirate Radio

Hunger

Feel like I need to see, but don’t really want too: Precious – I know it’s getting a lot of buzz, but it looks like the kind of movie critics are supposed to like, but which are really just boring and depressing.

Best acting performance of the year: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds” – Col. Hans Landa

Acting performance that affected me the most: Richard Sammel, “Inglourious Basterds” – Sgt. Werner Rachtman (the guy who gets beat with a baseball bat). Brief, but powerful.

My favorites of the decade (in no particular order except my number one pick):

The best: Atonement ‘07

Russian Ark ’02 – great simply for the fact that the entire movie is one continuous steady-cam shot, done in one take.

Mystic River ‘03

Million Dollar Baby ‘04

The Departed ’06 – I thought Scorsese got the Oscar for this one as a make up for Raging Bull. Then I got around to seeing it and it truly is a great movie in and of itself.

Children of Men ‘06

Millions ‘04

Pan’s Labyrinth ‘06

Black Book ‘06

Royal Tenenbaums ‘01

No Country for Old Men ‘07

Ju-on ’02 - the Japanese original of The Grudge

Gomorrah ’08 – possibly the greatest Mafia movie ever

Brick ’05 - a very cool modern take on film noir

The Host ’06

Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit ’05

Pineapple Express ’08

It’s All Gone Pete Tong ’04 – about a rave DJ who goes deaf; contains one of the best acting performances of the decade

Layer Cake ’04

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ’00

The Protector ’05 – contains one of the best fight scenes of all time. Tony Jaa is the new Jackie Chan/Jet Lee/Bruce Lee

Winged Migration ’01

Kung Fu Hustle ’04

Amelie ’01

The Fall ’06 – more than just a visually beautiful movie.

Best in Show ’00

Hot Fuzz ’07

Shaun of the Dead ’04

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl ’03

Slumdog Millionaire ’08

The Lives of Others ’06

The Counterfeiters ’07

Bon Voyage ’03

There Will Be Blood ‘07

The Triplets of Belleville ’03

Snatch ’00

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ’05

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ’04

The Science of Sleep ’06

Kamikaze Girls ’04 – Incredible

O Brother, Where Art Thou ’00

OSS 117 ’06 – a great spoof of spy movies, and a wonderful reproduction of period movie making.

Kill Bill ’03-‘04 - I hadn't been that impressed with Tarintino until this

The Wind That Shakes the Barley ‘06

Night Watch ‘04 - please finish the trilogy

Sunshine ‘07

Breakfast on Pluto ’05 – made me feel confused, but I loved it

Moliere ’07 – a very interesting movie about the famous French playwright

Letters from Iwo Jima ’06 – much better than Flags of our Fathers

Everything is Illuminated ’05

Moulin Rouge! ‘01

JCVD '08 - an incredible performance by Van Damme playing his real self

Major movies of the decade I still need to see:

Cache

Half Nelson

Mulholland Drive

The Son

Beau Travail

Diving Bell and the Butterfly

No Man’s Land

Waltz With Bashir

Ken Burn's The War, and I need to see all of his National Parks doc (I only watched half)

Biggest disappointment of the decade: Lord of the Rings – not a bad movie, but by the third I was just not pleased with the choices Peter Jackson made. I was entertained, and I loved the music, the movies just did not meet my expectations. Runner up: Star Wars prequels; but I didn't have as high of expectations for them.

Albums of ’09:

Deer Tick: Born on Flag Day

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

One Day International: Blackbird

Miike Snow: Miike Snow

Franz Ferdinand: Tonight

Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion

Noisettes: Wild Young Hearts

Phoenix: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Albums I still want to hear

Badly Drawn Boy: Is There Nothing We Could Do?

Muse: The Resistance

Lilly Allen: It’s Not Me, It’s You

St. Vincent: Actor

BLK JKS: After Robots – I love their EP Mystery

The Decemberists: The Hazards of Love

Kid Cudi: Man on the Moon: The End of Day

Albums of the decade:

Fleet Foxes: Fleet Foxes ’08

Little Joy: Little Joy ’08

Franz Ferdinand: Franz Fredinand ‘04

Okkervil River: The Stand Ins ’08

Frightened Rabbit: The Midnight Organ Fight ’08

Ray LaMontagne: Till the Sun Turns Black ’06

Badly Drawn Boy: Have You Fed the Fish? ’02

Muse: Black Holes and Revelations ’06

Lilly Allen: Alright, Still ’07

The Strokes: Is This It ’01

Gogol Bordello: Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike ’05

Gogol Bordello: Super Taranta ’07

Yann Tiersen: Amelie Soundtrack ‘01

Wyclef Jean: Welcome to Haiti – Creole 101 ’04

Coldplay: Parachutes ’00

Amy Winehouse: Back to Black ’07

Bright Eyes – I never actually listened to one particular album, I just downloaded a bunch of their music and have liked every song.

Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot ‘02

Muse: Absolution '03

The Hives: Tyrannosaurus Hives '04

I'm sure I'm forgetting something

Albums I still want to get (and haven’t heard all the songs):

Ray LaMontagne: Gossip In the Grain

Gnarls Barkley: The Odd Couple

Blitzen Trapper: Furr

Best (my favorite) songs of ‘09:

Flight of the Conchords: Friends

Miike Snow: Animal

Best song that was new to me this year: Blitzen Trapper: Furr

Song of the decade: Muse: Unintended – This song changed my life; it led me to date Jessi. I had heard of Muse a couple of years before I actually heard them, because Celine Dion tried to buy the American rights to their name for her Vegas show. I had meant to check them out and finally did. This was the first song of theirs I heard and I guess I just was finally emotionally ready for its message.

TV Best show of the year: 30 Rock

Honorable mention: Community – I really enjoy this show and hope it will grow into something really good.

Almost good: Glee – started good, love the music, but the characters got more and more annoying as the season went on (all except Jane Lynch’s Character) and I just can’t look past the cliché-ness of the story line anymore.

Favorite of the Decade: Top 3: Top Gear – They’ve driven trucks to the North Pole, A homemade amphibious Toyota across the English Channel, scooters – bought in country – up the entire length of Vietnam (showing the countries beauty and really making me want to go to Vietnam) and much, much more. This show gives me more pleasure than probably any other show I’ve ever seen.

Curb Your Enthusiasm – better than Seinfeld

The Wire

The rest: 30 Rock Dexter Madmen – I love January Jones’ performance in this show (and didn’t think she was that bad on SNL)

The Daily Show

The Soup

The Flight of the Conchords

Arrested Development

Extras

Veronica Mars – I was very disappointed that this was cancelled – who’s the killer?

Dead Like Me – I was even more disappointed that this show was cancelled, and the recent movie quite plainly sucked and didn’t answer any questions.

Worst Week of My Life – the British version

Coupling – the British version

I’m Alan Partridge

The Katherine Tate Show

Black Books

Man Stroke Woman

Monarch of the Glen

That Mitchell and Webb Look

A show I still want to see and haven’t seen a single episode of yet: The Sopranos

Why not Lost? I’ll have to see how the series ends before I give it my final judgment.

Books – It’s a little hard to keep up on books actually published this decade and especially those published this year. So, I just came up with a list of the best ones I read this decade regardless of when they were first published.

My favorites:

The Reason for God: by Tim Keller

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World: by Jack Weatherford – unbelievably fascinating

The Brothers Karamazov: by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Babi Yar: by Anatoly Kuznetsov – a very powerful story concerning the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis

The Book of Execution: An Encyclopedia of Methods of Judicial Execution: by Geoffrey Abott – very interesting especially if you’re interested in Christian martyrdom, or just Christians killing other Christians.

The Bromeliad Trilogy: by Terry Pratchett

The Crucified God: by Jurgen Moltmann

Theological Ethics: by Helmut Thielicke

The Shaping of Things to Come: by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch – ruined my life, in a good way

Father Brown Mysteries: by G.K. Chesterton

Orthodoxy: by G.K. Chesterton

The Curate’s Awakening: by George MacDonald

True History of the Kelly Gang: A Novel: by Peter Carey

Seabiscuit: An American Legend: by Laura Hillenbrand – made me depressed for days; disappointed by the movie

Harry Potter Series: by J.K. Rowling

Hard Times: by Charles Dickens

Hellboy and B.P.R.D. comics: by Mike Mignola – great visual art

Erasmus, the Anabaptists, and the Great Commission: by Abraham Friesen

April 1865: The Month That Saved America: by Jay Winik – made me a fan of Ulysses S. Grant; I hope to make a biopic of him someday and I really want to read his book.

The Thousand March: by Frederica de Laguna

The Church: by Wolfhart Pannenberg

Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel beyond the West: by Lamin Sanneh

Christianity Through the Centuries: by Earl Cairns

A Primer on Postmodernism: by Stanley Grenz

Celtic Christianity: A Sacred Tradition, A Vision of Hope: by Timothy Joyce

Various writings by Martin Luther

Various writings by Soren Kierkegaard

Introduction to Christianity: by Joseph Ratzinger (the Pope)

The Nine Tailors: by Dorothy Sayers – a very good mystery novel

Undaunted Courage: by Stephen Ambrose – made me a fan of Thomas Jefferson

The Fragrance of God: by Vigen Guroian – made me a fan of gardening

The Warden: by Anthony Trollope

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: by Susanna Clarke - not the easiest read, but an incredible masterpiece 

Coraline: by Neil Gaiman 

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch: by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett 

I’m sure there were many more great books that I can’t remember at this time, but that’s a long enough list.

Favorite book I read this decade: The Count of Monte Christo: by Alexander Dumas

My favorite book published this decade: The Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men series: by Terry Pratchett – Pratchett is easily my favorite living author and I feel this series is better than the Potter series.

Best experiences I had this decade:

Seeing Petra and getting to climb to the top of the monastery

Floating in the Dead Sea

Swimming in the Sea of Galilee

The food in Israel and Jordan

Hiking to the top of Smith Rock with Jessi

Hiking to the top of Beacon rock with Jessi and other friends

Taking up smoking a pipe

Actually starting to like beer and really getting interested in it – drinking great beer in Eastern Europe and the U.K.

The beer in Portland

Hendrick’s Gin

Getting to spend lots of time with my cats when they were kittens

Fritz (my dachshund) – begrudgingly listed; I love him, but I often wish I had never met him

Oak park in Minot ND

The zoo in Minot Minot – I do actually miss the place, and my friends from that time

The Badlands in ND

Glacier National park with the family

Bonfires on Crescent beach

Listening to A Prairie Home Companion

Going to see A Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul with Jessi

Cedar Point Amusement Park with the Kaufmans

Trips to the U.K. – especially the one with Jessi (even getting stuck on Iona)

Oxford and the Costwolds with Jessi

Kilchurn castle at sunset with Jessi

Punting at Magdalene College in Oxford – glad I didn’t fall in

Trip to Czech Republic and Slovakia with Jessi, Caleb, Logan and Amy

Exploring a castle in the woods in Slovakia

Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic – spending the night in a castle tower from the 1300’s Meeting Phil Collins in N. Ireland – not the Phil Collins, this one was a pastor from Birmingham, England.

The Illinois River near Cave Junction, OR

Rediscovering Portland with my lovely wife

Stromboli pizza at Flying Pie Pizza, Portland

Discovering rueben sandwiches - LIl Cooperstown in Portland has the best

Ruch Church summer camps

Trip to San Diego with Dan

Driving down California Hwy 1

Elkton, OR and the drive from I-5 to Reedsport

Living in my van

4th of July in Seaside, OR

Rocket bakery and The Elk Pub in Spokane, WA

Spokane with Jessi

Gyros at the Anoush Deli, Portland

The Red Shed at McMenamins’ Edgefield, Portland

Home PDX/1-4-1

Sauvie Island, Portland

Big disappointment (maybe not the actual biggest): Jerusalem

Seemingly small – would seem insignificant things – which have changed my life for the better: Deciding to move to Spokane after graduating college and making a really stupid decision on which job to take – if I had taken the job with Stanley Steamer, which would have been the wise choice, my life would be very different.

Running into Ian Moore, a college roommate from Portland who I hadn’t seen in eight years, we happened to meet twice in coffee shops here in Medford. The second time I actually called him later like I said I would the first time.

My Dad’s suggestion, in ’01, that I look for a summer job at a camp, I ended up in Cannon Beach.

Deciding at the last minute to, through a process of eeney meeney miney moe (a much used decision making tool of mine) to go to a Mike Frost talk – a guy I had never heard of before. Watching the director’s commentary on the DVD extras of The Mission. It had a major impact upon my perspective of Christianity.

Going to Spokane with Jeremy Carlton to play drums with his band. Because of that trip I met the Steigerwalds, which has greatly impacted my life.

Discovering the White Horse Inn podcasts. It has greatly impacted my perspective; pushing me even closer to becoming a Lutheran.

Being sent by the Air Force to Minot ND. If I had gone to Europe like I wanted, I most likely would not be married to Jessi right now.

Biggest Regret (I do believe in them, they do exists and we can learn from them): Not going into the Air National Guard when I got out of Active Duty. Lesson learned: don’t just live for the moment, plan for the future. And possibly pray more when making decisions (though I don’t know if that’s helped me much. I still tend to just do what I want and think it’s what God wants).

Top 5 Big Events of my Decade:

Not getting married to a particular someone

Summer of one, and two in Cannon Beach

Being Married to Jessi

Two years of grad school – I want more

Having a baby girl