My Top 10 Favorite Things of 2012

Hi everyone!

As the clock winds down to the final moments of 2012, I wanted to take a moment to share with you my top 10 favorite things of the year. With the exception of #1, these aren't in any particular order and encompass everything from movies and TV to art exhibitions, musical artists, books, theatre, and food.
So without further ado, here are my top 10 highlights of 2012:

1. Les Miserables: Tom Hooper's massive and massively entertaining long-awaited film of the international musical phenomena is hands-down my pick for Best Film of the Year. Not all of the voices were as big or strong as they might have been, but even the most cynical person cannot deny that this is epic and emotional filmmaking. What struck me most was the passionate commitment the entire cast visibly demonstrates for the material and that in itself was enough to move me to frequent tears. Worthy of particular praise are the performances by the supporting cast: Eddie Redmayne as the love-struck revolutionary Marius, in my opinion, steals the show. His rendition of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is all the more wrenching for the quiet sincerity he brings to the song and his voice is absolutely beautiful; Samantha Barks is a perfect Eponine and while her big song "On My Own" doesn't feature the emotional histrionics of Anne Hathaway's much-lauded "I Dreamed a Dream," I found Ms. Barks lovely in her more understated but equally heartfelt turn; Amanda Seyfried is another major surprise as Cosette. While she doesn't have a powerhouse voice, she turns out to be perfectly cast, and more than succeeds in holding her own, particularly in the murderously high notes at the end of the great love trio between Cosette, Marius, and Eponine, "A Heart Full of Love". Ms. Seyfried is indeed a revelation in this role. While I don't think Hugh Jackman's voice is particularly strong (certainly not in comparison to Colm Wilkinson who originated the role of Jean Valjean and appears in the film as the Bishop) and rather reedy, he brings a quiet depth to the role that works. Russell Crowe is rather vocally stiff as Javert, but his acting can't be faulted. His steely determination is affecting. And Anne Hathaway? She'll win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her turn as the doomed Fantine and I admired the courage she brings to the role without necessarily loving her voice. The film is beautiful to watch and the final scene will soften the hardest of hearts. I'm already planning to see it again...and again...

2. George Bellows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City: a definitive exhibition of the works of the under-appreciated early 20th century American artist George Bellows. I was unfamiliar with his works aside from his vividly rendered boxing scenes that are presented here within the greater context of his artistic oeuvre. His landscapes are stunning. And while there is a certain derivative element to his painting--his influences are rather transparent--one cannot help but be swept up by the alternately sweeping and intimate power of his collective work. This exhibition, which will be traveling to the Royal Academy of Art in London in Spring 2013, is a gem and a major rediscovery of a great American artist.

3. Picasso in Black and White at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City: while I found this exhibition of Picasso's black and white paintings a little monotonous by its end, it was definitely a landmark event that beautifully showcased the evolution of an artist. And the Guggenheim, with its minimalist spiral-like gallery space, was the perfect setting.

4. Jake Gyllenhaal's New York theatre debut at the Laura Pels Theatre in the off-Broadway play "If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet". I've always been a fan of Mr. Gyllenhaal's film work, but he showed a greater nuance and depth to his acting in this overly ambitious and somewhat thematically jumbled play by young British playwright Nick Payne. As Terry, the ne'er-do-well but well-intentioned drifter brother of George, Brian F. O'Byrne's rigid and environmentally obsessed professor brother, Mr. Gyllenhaal succeeded in making his character likable, repulsive, and ultimately sympathetic. His scenes with Annie Funke in the role of Anna, his overweight and emotionally disturbed niece, were beautiful and what's more, he succeeded in commanding the stage in spite of an occasionally garbled Cockney accent and the rather abstract/symbolic destruction of the increasingly water-logged set, which was a wonder unto itself.

5. French Pop Music: 2012 was the year I discovered a host of chart-topping French and Quebecois pop musicians whose music collectively has become the current soundtrack of my life. Christophe Willem's 2012 release "Prismophonic" is one of my top choices for best album of the year: the electronic jams swirl, the beats are infectious, and high above the disco/trance/electronica (or very much a part of it), Mr. Willem's voice soars almost ethereally. You don't need to be able to speak or understand French to enjoy his music, just blast it into your earbuds while you're working out or getting ready for a night out, and you'll be in just the right mindset for clubbing. My favorites: "L'amour me gagne," "Jamais du," "Cool," and "Le temps qu'il reste." While you're at it, also check out M. Pokora, the chart-topping French/Polish pop idol whose music more than holds its own against the better-known (in the U.S.) tracks of Chris Brown and Justin Bieber. And if you're in the mood for a real balls-to-the-wall power ballad, check out Pokora's "Si Tu Pars" (If  You Leave) from his 2012 album "A la poursuite du bonheur".

6. Madonna's MDNA World Tour: netting the Material Girl more than $200 million in revenue, the MDNA tour proved to be the top-grossing concert of the year, not to mention one of the most elaborately staged, hyperkinetic, and jaw-dropping spectacles of the concert year. (I still don't know how those drum majors managed to remain perfectly suspended from the rafters!) I've seen all of Madonna's tours and this proved over and over again that at 54, Madonna is still the undisputed Queen of Pop. And while no one but me seems to have liked her 2012 album "MDNA," I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it is the best pop album of the year. Much of the tour was based around her new material, most of which held its own against some of her better-known and better-loved earlier pop hits.  Okay, the bloody Tarentino-esque massacre that served as the context for her song "Gang Bang" was in poor taste especially in light of the spate of mass shootings here in the US this summer and fall, and I did find her slowed-down Marlene Dietrich rendering of "Like a Virgin" painfully overindulgent. But she more than made up for it with incredible reinventions of "Express Yourself," "Vogue," and "Like a Prayer" along with visually extraordinary performances of new material like "I'm Addicted," "I'm a Sinner," and "Girl Gone Wild." If you missed it live, the DVD/Blu-Ray is coming out soon.

7. The spectacle and grandeur of the Opening Ceremonies of 2012 London Summer Olympics: half of my heritage is British so I'm biased but the opening ceremonies and the Olympics as a whole were a testament to British pageantry and organization. Despite early naysayers, no one does it better. I was proud (and am proud) to be British.

8. "Jerusalem: A Cookbook" by celebrated Israeli and Arab chefs Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, published by Ten Speed Press: a visually stunning and accessible celebration of Middle-Eastern cuisine.  I received this book for Christmas and cannot wait to try my hand at every recipe. A wonderful introductory guide to one of the world's most diverse and flavorful cuisines.

9. "Un Village Francais": a long-running French television drama centered around a small village in Vichy France during the Second World War, this series is in the middle of its run on TV5Monde, a premium channel on Comcast cable. I came into this series about halfway through, and was immediately hooked. Epic--yet intimate--in scale, it traces the lives of French villagers and members of the Resistance, police, Gestapo, and Jews all struggling to survive in Occupied France. This series is exquisitely acted and gorgeously produced and while it certainly has its moments of melodrama, it provides a powerfully distilled portrayal of what life must have been like during this infamous and difficult time in French (and world) history. It isn't available yet for streaming on Netflix and the first four seasons aren't available on U.S.-compatible DVDs, but given the acclaim the series continues to receive, it's a sure bet it'll be available for streaming within the next year or so. If it isn't, it should be.

10. "The Shahs of Sunset" on Bravo TV: my top guilty pleasure pick for 2012. This is a train wreck in every sense of the word and I'm almost embarrassed to include it among the loftier elements of this list, but no reality show (not even "The Real Housewives of Wherever) makes me laugh or cover my eyes/ears in horror as the Shahs do. The first season was good but now we're well into Season Two: Reza, GG, Asa, Mike, MJ, and new cast member Lily shamelessly demonstrate that more is indeed more but it's so indulgent and so ridiculously hilarious you can't help but watch. Where else will you see a self-proclaimed Persian Pop Princess (Asa) duke it out at a pool party with the always volatile--strike that, insane--GG over the fact that GG's boyfriend--now fiance--has a big nose? "I love Omid's nose," Asa defends herself at one point, "I'm totally into the Persian nose business." To which GG screams: "I'm going to toss you like a salad!" And then of course there's the "Persian Barbie" (no, strike that, 'entrepreneur') Lily who tells her make-up artist: "I love that you make me look like I've had a nose job." These people are obsessed with their noses--among other things--and I'm obsessed with this show. Diamond Water anyone? Don't ask...

So there you have it: for good or bad, these are the top 10 things that inspired me, intrigued me, entertained me, or just flat-out made me laugh in 2012. I'll follow up shortly with my list of my least favorite things of 2012. Stay tuned!

Ciao.

Album Review: Madonna's "MDNA" Is Sonic MDMA

Hi everyone!

It's been four years since Queen Madge's last album release--2008's "Hard Candy," an album I enjoyed at the time but one that hasn't aged overly well and one that certainly will never be remembered for being one of her best albums. Fast-forward to 2012. After much hype and speculation in the weeks since Madonna's epic Super Bowl performance last February, "MDNA" finally released today. Having listened to it now several times, I am very happy to report that the Queen of Pop is back. Indisputably so. Epically so. In fact, "MDNA" is easily her best album not only since 1997's "Ray of Light" but (I'm going out on a limb here) since 1989's "Like a Prayer." Yes, this is the Queen of Pop's best album in 22 years.

What made "Like a Prayer" stand out at the time of its original release was the fact that it was the first album Madonna released that could truly be called confessional. While the title song "Like a Prayer" (which will probably always be remembered as one of history's best pop songs) and other hits like "Express Yourself," "Cherish,""Oh Father," and "Keep It Together" solidified Madonna's dominance on the world's pop charts, the album's best moments were its quieter, more introspective tracks: "Til Death Do Us Part," "Promise to Try," and the slightly psychedelic Prince duet "Love Song." These songs dealt with pain: the pain of divorce (from Sean Penn) and the pain of losing her mother at such a young age. After the bubble gum pop of "Like a Virgin" and "True Blue," "Like a Prayer" gave the world a more sensitive side of Madonna that was often lost amidst her rise to superstardom, the controversy, and her turbulent short-lived marriage to Sean Penn.

In the years since 1989, Madonna has released a slew of albums--some iconic (1992's "Erotica" and 1997's "Ray of Light" leap to mind), some decent but not great (1994's "Bedtime Stories," 2000's "Music" and 2005's "Confessions on a Dance Floor) and others that could have been great but were too inconsistent to truly work (2003's "American Life" and 2008's "Hard Candy.")

"MDNA" is one of the iconic albums. Similar to "Like a Prayer," many of the tracks here again deal with the subject of divorce--this time from British director Guy Ritchie--loss, and spirituality. The album runs the gamut from revved-up dance-floor ecstasy (with tracks like "I'm Addicted," (a techno barn-burner) "Girl Gone Wild," "Some Girls" and a really f**cked up track called "Gang Bang" whose culminating moment comes when Madonna screams "Drive, Bitch, and while you're at it Die, Bitch over and over and over..." You just have to hear it ) to beautifully poignant confessional ballads ("Masterpiece," "Best Friend," "Falling Free," and "I F**ked Up") to tracks that fall somewhere between the two (the heartbreaking and wistful "Love Spent" comes immediately to mind, a song that makes me want to dance while crying my eyes out...go figure, but it works beautifully.)

Added to this already compelling but rather volatile mix is the up-tempo pop confection "Turn Up the Radio" which I've already dubbed my 2012 summer anthem, "I'm a Sinner" (which flips "Like a Prayer" on its ass while transporting us back to some LSD-laced late-1960s psychedelic magic bus ride), "I Don't Give A" which has Madonna flipping Guy Ritchie the bird while pseudo-rapping with Nicky Minaj only to end with an epic electrified choral bit that channels Queen, and "Superstar" a catchy little romp that goes nowhere but is still kind of fun. Even the more-or-less throwaway tracks "Beautiful Killer," "B-Day Song," and the album's first single "Gimme All Your Luvin'" have their appeal.

If you're already a Madonna fan, "MDNA" is the comeback album you've been waiting for. For those of you on the fence or indifferent, "MDNA" is the Madonna album you want in your collection. It's hypnotic, schizophrenic, and really quite extraordinary. I can't wait to see what she does with these tracks in her tour this summer.

Download: "Gang Bang," "I'm Addicted," "Turn Up the Radio," "Love Spent," and "I'm a Sinner."

Ciao.