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I know everyone has seen this already, but I’m posting it here anyway because it’s the GREATEST COMMERCIAL EVER MADE!!

I’m a list- happy person, so when I was asked to contribute here, I loved the fact that the guys seemed to be list enthusiasts as well. I may be a little late, but here are  five things I’m looking forward to in 2011.

1.Alexander Ebert’s solo album – It’s out March 1st. Alexander is the lead singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. I love them so I was pretty pumped  to hear he was putting out a solo album. I’ve heard two tracks and want to marry them. Can’t wait to hear the rest.

2. Blue Valentine – I  need to see this movie, but  it’s a process trying to find time or someone to go with. I HEART Ryan Gosling. He’s a phenomenal actor, hott too; but I’ve known that since he was on the Mickey Mouse Club. But in all seriousness, it looks really good.

3. True  Blood Season 4 – When the hell is this back anyway? Either way I can’t wait. That finale was interesting to say the least. I love me some HBO and vampires.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II – Oh Harry Potter and crew, how I love you. I am going to miss the crap out of you.  I’m not sure how I’m going to deal, reading the book was hard enough, what’s it gonna be like actually watching it? I can’t believe it’s the end, bummer.

5. I am Number Four – So, this movie  looks decent and I’m 85% positive I’d like it,but I’m pretty sure the main reason I’d give this the time of day would be because of Timothy Olyphant, that man is the epitome of badass and does no wrong in my book. So yeah, that’s all I got.

Fall sure does seem far away. Come quickly, Arkham City.

As I’ve already mentioned, my goal entering 2011 was to read 50 books. It appears that’s going to happen, because I’m not sure what transpired to make it so easy, but I read ten books in January. I obviously won’t keep up the ten books per month pace, but I do find it likely I’ll read so many books in 2011 that I won’t want to sort through them all at the end of the year to pick my favorites. If I did that, I’d feel terrible leaving so many great books out. Thus, more book posts!

Another reason I realize I need to do more book posts is how remarkably fortunate I was to read only amazing books in January. I suppose it’s not pure luck, part of being a bibliofile is spending lots of time thinking about books when you aren’t reading books, so I make educated guesses that I’ll like the books I read. Still, this was a great month!

First up in the higher frequency book posts, Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry.

“Telling a story is like reaching into a granary full of wheat and drawing out a handful. There is always more to tell than can be told.” – Jayber Crow

There are so very many books and movies set in small towns. Often, the small towns depicted are romanticized beyond recognition. Like airbrushed models on a magazine cover, it gets hard to tell you’re meant to be looking at something organic and real. Not so with Wendell Berry.

His tale of Jayber Crow and the small town for which he barbers is certainly romantic, but in the way real life is. Berry’s writing offers a picture of real people, with real heartbreak and ordinary foibles. The result is that this is the first book set in a small town that actually made a part of this city boy’s heart long to live alongside Jayber and his neighbors; to know everyone’s name, to share everyone’s joys and sorrows, to tolerate one another’s idiosyncrasies.

It’s also a story about learning to understand one’s place in the world. It’s a story of faith, theodicy, calling, doubt, and love.

It’s quite possibly the most unique love story I’ve ever read, and it’s certainly one of the most bittersweet.

Yet, as time passes, I think it’s the book’s interaction with the concept of ‘calling’ that will stay with me. It’s an area of thought I’ve done a fair bit of wrestling with myself over the last several years, with no small amount of fear and trembling. Jayber Crow was genuinely reassuring and inspiring to my tired heart. Jayber journeys through different understandings of calling, wondering where he fits, to discover that he is called to be a perfectly ordinary barber to a tiny, all but forgotten town. I found connections between Jayber’s tale and my own, and I hope to find more as I live more of my life. I hope to continue to see in Jayber’s story an assurance that I can never think my way toward answers, but must simply blindly live my way toward them.

I’ll leave you with my favorite excerpt from the book.

I said, “Well,” for now I was ashamed, “I had this feeling maybe I had been called.”

“And you may have been right, but not to what you thought. Not to what you think. You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out — perhaps a little at a time.”

“And how long is that going to take?”

“I don’t know, as long as you live, perhaps.”

“That could be a long time.”

“I will tell you a further mystery,” he said. “It may take longer.”

As it is written, so let it be.

**Hey folks, brief intro from Scott first. This is our very first post from Lauren, a new contributor to Roused to Mediocrity. She’s awesome, and she likes awesome things, so enjoy getting to know her! She also has the honor of being our first lady contributor, so she can share her nerd girl love with us all.**

So, if you know me well, you know there are a plethora of things I love, including coffee,art,candy etc etc. If you don’t know me, well you’re gonna get to know me, and me equals geeky 😉

There happens to be something I am, what some might call, obsessed with; one of the greatest TV shows to ever air, and that is : “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Call me a nerd, a geek whatever you’d like, it’s nothing I haven’t heard before. The minute that show aired in ’97, it sunk it’s teeth into me and hasn’t let go.

I don’t always know how to explain just how I feel about the show to people who don’t watch. But here it goes.
I had originally loved the movie, mostly because I was an 11 year old girl who loved anything to do with vampires, and Luke Perry.
So when I got older and heard news about this being turned into a prime time television show, I was more than pumped. A TV show with kids my age? and vampires? sign me up. It had everything I was looking for in a show, horror, drama and comedy, and it delivered, and I’ve been in love ever since. I have all the seasons, not to mention memorabilia and behind the scenes crapola. I even make it a point to at least watch one full season a year if not more. I might even go crazy and start from the very beginning to the very end.

But, monsters, vampires and demons aside, the show’s cast really spoke to me. I grew up with them and they grew up with me. Everything they went through, minus the vampire slaying & turning evil thing, I went through, or a friend did. I saw myself in each one of these characters, just a little bit, and that was cool. I didn’t identify with many people in high school or anyone on TV for that matter, so this was cool to escape to on a weekly basis. I dreaded it the day it would all end and still miss that show 8 years later, and often wonder if there will ever be a show that I will ever love that much. I know it’s just a TV show, but it was more to me than that.

Now as an adult, entering my 30’s, (Buffy and I both turn 30 this year, blech!) I’d have to say I’m an even bigger fan than I had been as a teenager, and in fact, went out of my way to go to a “Buffy Fest Convention” here in Boston. I, along with my two cousins, my best friend and her sister, got to have a Dinner/Meet and Greet with Nicholas Brendon (Xander), and then go to the convention the next day to see him again, and James Marsters (Spike), and sit in on a Q & A with Clare Kramer (Glory) and Mercedes McNab (Harmony). It was kind of a big deal, and I got the pictures to prove it. It’s an experience I will never forget and geekily hope to do again 🙂

Wow, two Ewan McGregor trailers in a row. How about that!

Scott is a machine when it comes to consuming media of different types. And I don’t mean mindlessly consuming media like some idiot who watches primetime CBS. He consumes, and critiques. He delves into it … looking through a pair of finely tuned lenses. You all have seen the brilliant stuff he’s written on here about everything from Kanye to China Miéville, and many things in between … why am I saying all of this??? Well, for one, to kiss his ass because I don’t have a non-music list up yet, but the other reason is to comment on my own lack of consumption … especially when it comes to books.

Last year, I read maybe ten books. Maybe more. But not many more. Luckily, because I live with such well read, lovely people, the quality of these books was high to quite high.

So, here they are, my three favorite books I read in 2010 … (apologies for overlap with Scott’s list)

1. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak

I suppose in some twisted way, it makes sense that a book that is so painfully human is narrated by Death.

Like Scott, I wept and sobbed tears of the bittersweet variety over the last thirty pages or so. The way Zusak employs the theme of duality, both of people and of words, is breathtaking. The book is so filled to the brim with truth. In the end, when I did find myself sobbing at the pages, it wasn’t so much because of tragedy, but because the hope was so overwhelming in the midst of tragedy. Read this book!

2. No Country for Old Men – Cormac McCarthy

I read four of McCarthy’s works last year: the above mentioned No Country …, The Road, Blood Meridian, and a play called “The Stonemason”. Each word, each paragraph, page, chapter; each book I read, further cemented Mr. McCarthy as one of my favorite authors. To be honest, the choice of No Country was completely arbitrary. Any of his works could be on my list. Scott already spoke of the sparse writing style McCarthy uses in The Road, and it is no different in No Country. Most of us have probably seen the Brothers Coen adaptation on the silver screen. Yes, they are brilliant filmmakers, and it certainly helps when the story you are adapting is so perfectly written. Chigurh’s menacing, stoic demeanor jumps off each page. The tension is perfectly built. McCarthy wrote one of the most terrifying villians in literature in the character of Anton Chigurh.

3. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers

I have already written about this book a bit here. But I want to reiterate a few things.

You know when you read something, watch something, see something that so intensely resonates with your soul that you cannot shake it for weeks, even months? That was this book for me.

It’s a book about searching. A book about learning and understanding yourself. The struggle to be understood by your peers. This is what I got from it, ultimately: we are all very different. We come from different places, backgrounds, experiences. We may never see eye to eye on certain things. We may never resolve differences that may exist between us, but when it comes down to it, we are all people. We are all lonely at one time or another. And maybe it is that longing that will always bring people together despite their differences. Maybe I missed a point that was devoid of hope … but I’ll stick with hope.

Here is one of my favorite lists, the movies of 2011 I’m most excited for.

Granted, it may seem a bit odd for me to be posting a 2011 list before all the 2010 lists are done, but I can’t help myself.

Last year’s list was a pretty good showing. Granted, a few of my choices last year were underwhelming, like Green Zone, Dinner for Schmucks, Alice in Wonderland, and Iron Man 2, (although, I will point out I enjoyed a few of them enough that I think they’re underrated). I also placed Shutter Island in the honorable mention category, which was a mistake, it deserved far more. Clearly, I made some missteps in judgment.

However, there were some, like Inception, Kick Ass, Scott Pilgrim, Toy Story 3, Harry Potter 7.1, and Tron: Legacy that made the list a success.

This year’s list will obviously not be exhaustive. There are plenty of 2011 films I just don’t know enough about yet, so they’ll sadly be missed. The list obviously tends toward blockbuster fare, because those are the films hyped furthest in advance, thus they are on my rader already. Also, I’m a nerd… so.

I could probably come up with honorable mentions all day, but a few off the top of my head would have to include The Hangover 2, Winnie the Pooh, and Moneyball.

Perhaps fewer will be missed this year, as I’m upping the total number of films listed from 10 to 25! With that many movies listed, there will obviously be several duds. I’m just hoping that 13 of these are hits, keeping me over the 50% mark.

Here it is, the most epic list I’ve ever made, in chronological order.

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1. The Adjustment Bureau – March 4

Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, and John Slattery in an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story. Yes, please.

Granted, Ben Affleck is Damon’s buddy, and he was in the atrocious Dick adaptation, Paycheck, but while he is certainly impressing with his directorial work, Affleck is no Matt Damon!

I know Emily and I will at least enjoy the film on a visual level. With Emily Blunt and Matt Damon involved, we’d probably pay 10 bucks to watch the movie with the volume off.

The premise definitely has potential, and I’m really hoping this will be a good time at the movies.

[The trailer below is actually a short featurette.]

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