By M.G. Wood

I would like to preface the following by stating this is not a “best of…” piece. In order for me to proclaim any film, book, music, etc. as the best, I would have to have some unique insight or expertise on said film, book, or whatever. No, this is all about me, me, me. This is what I like, or don’t like as the case may be. So, I hereby relinquish any responsibility I may have for destroying anyone’s belief that THE NANNY DIARIES was a misunderstood masterpiece or that Eli Roth truly is a visionary. Anyway…

So, every publication, blog, television “news” program, newspaper, magazine, tome, Dick and Harry are releasing their “Year in Review”. Only problem is, the year ain’t over yet. I mean, I would love to sit down and write out a paper-thin, stress-free, effortless compilation of the best and worst pop culture had to offer. But, the fact is, we have so many days yet for American filmmakers to deliver another piece of master-crap like “300” or GRINDHOUSE. Why squander those precious days at the end of December only to realize that you could have included BEOWULF on your year-end list.

In all semi-seriousness, there are a couple of films coming late in the year that may truly be worth the wait, in particular Tim Burton’s SWEENEY TODD and the 5-disc “Ultimate Edition” BLADE RUNNER.

And if you think its hard digging 10 good films out of a pile of shit, just imagine how hard it is to make out a list of the 10 best books in a country that reads about as much as it exercises. If you happen to come across a New York Times Review of Books lying around your local desolate library, just take a glance at the top 10 bestsellers and you will discover an odd similarity between what Americans are reading at home and what Americans are watching at the Cineplex. Hint? They both smell vaguely of piss.

Therefore, I tend to read maybe 5 new books a year, and 20-30 old books. So, that leaves me literally incapable of making a list of the best books of 2007. I have one. The only great book I read this year, published this year, GOD IS NOT GREAT by Christopher Hitchens. Mr. Hitchens gives religion a scathing bitch slap across the jowls and makes a convincing case that God and religion has done far more damage to the world’s governments and cultures and peoples than any good thus proclaimed. But, the best books I read this year were from Henry Miller, as I was attempting to finish off his entire bibliography.

Television? CALIFORNICATION was good.

Music? I find myself in the same quandary with music as I do with literature. It’s hard to invest in the best and the brightest new pop/rock star when I haven’t even listened to everything Elvis Costello has to offer.

In summation, I would like to say, here’s to a better new year, it can’t be any worse. And as opposed to the old expression “the best is yet to come”, in regards to American culture, I say, the best is yet to be discovered. You want a good book? Go to the fuckin’ library! Want a good film? Buy or rent an old movie that you have never seen, possibly in black and white, but be warned, where as the tint may be black and white, the plots and the characters are not.

My favorite film of 2007 is NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. And while I’ll hold the rest of my favorite films ‘til the end of the year, suffice it to say, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN gave me hope at the end of the year in the same way that David Fincher’s brilliant ZODIAC inspired me at the beginning; escapism in difficult times is all well and good, but what Americans really need is a cold, hard slap in the face by artists that are willing to challenge us and wake us up.

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