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I know I'm a little late, but since the Grammys just happened and Oscars haven't happened yet I'm not too late. And, really, since I'm not a professional critic and am not obligated to publish a 'best of' for the year I guess it really doesn't matter when I do it.

This picture comes from The Nations At War: A Current History, one of the best books I read this year.

Movies

Of the movies I saw It's a tie for best between Inception and The King's Speech. They're very different movies so I'm not going to decide which one I liked better. These two movies are closely followed by:

True Grit

Social Network

The Town

Get Low

Some movies I really enjoyed:

Date night

The Other guys

Alice in Wonderland

Some movies that didn't actually come out this year, but were released in the U.S. this year and I want to make note of because they are really good

OSS 117: Lost in Rio – A sequel as good as the first; hilarious and beautiful.

A Prophet – An incredible crime movie with intense depth of emotion, which does not glorify crime.

9th Division – A Russian movie about their war in Afghanistan.

The Damned United – A British movie about one of the best soccer coaches of all time and how he failed miserably in coaching one of the best teams – being fired in only forty-four days.

Shiver – A Spanish thriller that's very creepy.

Flame and Citron - A Danish movie about two famous Dutch resistance fighters during WWII.

People who should have been nominated for an Oscar:

Christopher Nolan: best director, Inception – Of the other nominated movies I saw, there was some very good work, but to not recognize Nolan's achievement is insane.

Robert Duvall: best actor, Get Low – Duvall was superb as usual. Maybe that's the problem, people expect it and so they don't recognize how good he is.

Movies from (or released in the U.S.) this last year that I still want to see:

The Fighter

127 hours

Winter's Bone

Toy Story 3

Black Swan

The Illusionist

Vincere

Cyrus

Please Give

Another Year

Ajami

I Love You Phillip Morris

Made in Dagenham

Ghost Writer

Monsters

Mother

Let Me In

Easy A

Four Lions

Animal Kingdom

Rabbit Hole

Kick Ass

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Barney's Version

Fish Tank

Carlos

Kawasaki Rose

Mother and Child

Mesrine

North Face

Television

Modern family – The best comedy.

The Middle – A very close second. It is truly one of the smartest shows on TV. Though not as hyped or flashy as some shows, it's got a lot more going on than most. It also has some of the best performances by teens – way better and more subtle than Glee (though it's not hard to be more subtle than that show).

30 Rock

Community – Has really developed into an amazing show. Good cast, create concept episodes, hilarious.

Dexter

Top Gear

The Walking Dead – One of the best new shows.

Psych – One of my new favorite shows. Not a masterpiece, but very entertaining and clever.

Outsourced – Entertaining, the Indian-American/Canadian actors are very funny.

Bored to Death – I only caught a few episodes; they were very promising

Shows I still need to see:

Mad Men – Started watching this last season, but missed most of it. I won't be happy if they got rid of January Jones.

Breaking Bad

Men of a Certain Age

Music

This year I finally got rid of my Emusic account. It was too much work to try and keep up. And, I discovered I don't really care that much about keeping up with new music. Still I did have some good discoveries, most of them brought to my attention by the World Cafe on NPR.

Dawes: North Hills – Actually came out '09 but I heard of it this year.

The Clientele: Bonfires on the Heath – Also '09

Gogol Bordello: Trans-Continental Hustle

Midlake: The Courage of Others

Janelle Monae: The ArchAndroid

Page CXVI: Hymns – Also released in '09 (I'm really behind) great worship music

Songs

The Ruminant Band, by Fruit Bats: from The Ruminant Band

Let There Be Horns, by RJD2: from The Colossus

The Acts of Man, by Midlake: from The Courage of Others

Give Me Time, by Dawes: from North Hills

Rebellious Love, by Gogol Bordello: from Trans-Continental Hustle

Artists I've recently discovered and really like, but haven't bought an album yet:

Jem

Kate Nash

Bert Kaempfert

Music I still need, or want to check out:

Y La Bamba – I love this group; why haven't I bought the new album yet?

B.o.B. – What I've heard I like, I've got to check this out more.

Ray LaMontagne: God Willin' & The Creek Don't Rise – still need to get his last album too

Daft Punk: Tron Legacy Soundtrack – loved the music in the movie; hope the album feels the same.

Carolina Chocolate Drops - I saw them this summer open for Steve Earle; they were amazing

Books

I'm really behind on books, this is one area that I'm not even close to keeping up with new releases and don't really care, because I'm not interested in much that is new, I generally like the time tested. But here are a few highlights form this year:

I Shall Wear Midnight, By Terry Pratchett

The Unseen Academicals, By Terry Pratchett

The Nations At War: A Current History, by Willis John Abbot – This is a book about WWI written while it was still happening. I found it at a garage sale. It was very fascinating and started me on a WWI reading kick.

The Red Knight of Germany, by Floyd Gibbons – about the Red Baron

Mere Churchianity, by Michael Spencer