Most Underused Actor: Casey Affleck
Okay, so yes, technically I feel like I’m related to Casey Affleck, which I grant you is weird and kind of creepy, but I feel I can still be objective about this.  Casey endeared himself to me forever with the classic song “I had a double burger,” which is the kind of thing I sing all day long. He was the best part of Tower Heist, he got artsy with Joaquin, he’s got a funny shaped mouth and I just love him to pieces.

Best Sax Solo of All Time, Ever: My dear friend Ian Young, playing with M83
Though 2011 was the year the Big Man departed for the astral plane, it was also the year that rock n roll rediscovered the saxophone.  The highlight of that trend was M83 hiring my friend Ian to blow people’s minds. Exhibit A.

Best Book I Forgot to Put on My Best Of List: Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility
This first novel made me giggle with delight. I want sixteen more just like it. Rich kids and strivers in New York in the 30s? Doormen? Love triangles? Car wrecks? Yes please!

Best Baked Good that I Didn’t Make: City Bakery‘s Pretzel Croissant
How did no one tell me about these before 2011? It’s like everything I love, all together. If only they made a chocolate pretzel croissant. But this one will do for the foreseeable future.

Best Play: Lynn Nottage’s By The Way, Meet Vera Stark
Okay, yes, so a lot of my Top Picks have to do with the 1930s, and Hollywood, and glamorous ladies. So sue me! I was doing research. Nottage’s play, about a young African-American actress and the woman she works for, had me on the edge of my seat, and it wasn’t just because I was staring at Spike Lee and his wife, who were at the safe performance.

Best Idea We Ever Had: Houseswapping
This July, we spent a month in LA. We swam and ate guacamole and I worked my ass off. I want to do it every year, forever. If you live somewhere else and would like to spend a few weeks in Brooklyn with the two most beautiful cats in the world, holler at me. Places we like: Oregon, Maine, Texas, California, anywhere. Seriously, holler. This is where I live.

Best Restaurants: Gjelina (Los Angeles), Blue Hill at Stone Barns (Pocantico Hills, NY), the Russian Tea Room (NYC)
My husband took me to Blue Hill at Stone Barns to celebrate the sale of my novel. It was a lovely way to mark a very hectic and exciting and overwhelming period of time. Shockingly expensive, but how many times do you sell your first novel? Only once.

People I’m Going to Miss: Coach Taylor and his crew.
I know a lot of people who don’t watch television, which I suppose is their prerogative, but they’re missing out on some of the best, most heartbreaking narratives of our day. Case in point: Friday Night Lights. Do you know how much I care about football? Not at all. Not at ALL. Do you know how much I cried during the course of this series about high school football in texas? A lot. A LOT. It’s poetry, pure and simple. Ignore the second season. Everyone makes mistakes. The only thing that is mending the hole in my heart is Parenthood, also written by Jason Katims, who is clearly the best person in the world.

2012 is going to be a biggie, and I’m looking forward to it. Clear eyes, full hearts.

Happy new year.

Yours,
Emma