The Nose Knows: Ten Pop Culture Things I Liked This Year

Rather than pretending that I've seen enough movies, listened to enough new music, watched enough tv, etc, to prepare any definitive "top ten" lists.... Here's a random selection of ten things I liked this year.

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Heroes

Definitely my favorite new show of the year, quite possibly my favorite show period right now. Or maybe it's tied with.....

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The Office

'cause that show just keeps getting better.

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Thank You For Smoking

Overall, I'd say this is the best movie I saw this year. Maybe it's kind of a lightweight choice, it's obviously not going to win an Oscar or anything, but I can't think of a movie I more thoroughly enjoyed.

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Forest Whitaker

I already put actors who aren't Forest Whitaker on notice, because he gave hands-down the best performance of the year in "Last King of Scotland." Heck. Maybe best performance of the decade thus far. And the little bits I saw of him on ER were good too.

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S.R. Sidarth

Ok, so maybe it's a stretch to put him on a "pop culture" list, but if Time can completely wimp out on the "Person of the Year" thing, just try and stop me from putting "Macaca" on my list.

If you want to pinpoint one event that both showed the power of Youtube AND put the Democrats in control of Congress, it's Sidarth going to a George Allen rally with a camera, videotaping George being a douche bag and uploading it on the internet for the world to see. For this, I salute him and name him The Nose Knows's "Person of the Year."

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The Dixie Chicks

Speaking of politics in pop culture, The Chicks make my list for not backing down from the politics, even if their record sales and tour wasn't as successful as it could have been, and, incidentally, making one of the best albums of the year.

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Tom Petty - Highway Companion

So I never really got around to all my promised Tom Petty posting, but this album pretty much rules.

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Sacha Baron Cohen

This is as much for his performance in "Talladega Nights" as for "Borat."

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Samuel L. Jackson "Snakes on a Plane" phone calls

I never got around to seeing the movie, nor do I really care to, but having Samuel L. Jackson call my friends was definitely a highlight of the year.

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The World Series