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 KYRIA
ABRAHAMS
Writer, I'm Perfect, You're Doomed
http://www.kyriaabrahams.com
FIVE
GOOD THINGS FROM 2008
1. Ronnie Bronstein's Frownland
What independent cinema is still needed for.
2.
The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac
Had me huffing back tears like a drag queen who ran out of
pancake makeup.
3.
Matisyahu's Shattered EP
Still deep and kind, despite being name-checked in "Knocked
Up".
4.
Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers
Famous and Obscure
I swear I'm not choosing this because I was in it. I'm actually
choosing it because Foreskin's Lament came out in 2007.
5.
Twitter and 12seconds.tv
Saving the internet by turning banality into haiku.
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JAMIE
STEWART
Musician, Xiu Xiu
http://www.xiuxiu.org
TOP
FIVE BOOKS READ THIS YEAR
The Setting Sun by Osamu Dazai
King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
Light in August by William Faulkner
Britain's Gulag by Caroline Elkins
Roman Poems by Pier Paolo Pasolini
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 TAO
LIN
Writer, cognitive-behavioral therapy
http://reader-of-depressing-books.blogspot.com
TOP
FIVE MOST PLAYED SONGS ON MY IPOD FOR HALF OF 2008
(I Got a New iPod in, I Think, May)
"Custom Concern" by Modest Mouse
I listened to this song on repeat while editing Richard
Yates (Melville House, 2010). I feel this is one of the
least agitating songs I listened to in 2008.
"Tripped"
by Neva Dinova
I listened to this song on repeat while editing Shoplifting
from American Apparel (Melville House, 2009). I listened
to this song a lot in other years also.
"85"
by Rilo Kiley
I listened to this song on repeat while editing Richard
Yates (Melville House, 2010). This song is 5:18 so I maybe
listened to it for the most amount of time out of any song
in 2008.
"Outside
the Theatre Hall" by Line & a Dot
I listened to this song on repeat while editing Shoplifting
from American Apparel (Melville House, 2009). Line & a
Dot's songs can be listened to here.
"Long
Way Home" by Line & a Dot
I listened to this song on repeat while editing Shoplifting
from American Apparel (Melville House, 2009). I like the
music video for this song.
 ROBIN
BENWAY
Writer, Audrey, Wait!
http://www.robinbenway.com
TOP
FIVE SONGS THAT GOT ME EXCITED TO WRITE IN 2008
I'm pretty sure that if it wasn't for these songs, I'd still
be sitting in front of a blank Word document, watching that
little cursor silently judge me.
1.
"Inní
Mér Syngur Vitleysingur" by Sigur Rós
The title translates to "Within Me a Lunatic Sings," which
sometimes feels a little too accurate.
2.
"Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon
I'm such a sucker for the "whoa-whooooa" parts that it's embarrassing.
If I were still in high school, I would have ditched to sit
in my car and listen to this song.
3.
"Carolina Drama" by The Raconteurs
The best six-minute story of the year.
4.
"Fascination" by Alphabeat
Easily my guiltiest guilty pleasure of 2008. It's ridiculous.
If you need to get psyched up to write, put this on and dance
around for awhile. (Unless you're at Starbucks. They don't
like when you stage impromptu one-person dance parties in
their stores.)
5.
"Graveyard Girl" by M83
Makes
my little suburban goth girl heart flutter a bit faster.
 DEANNE
STILLMAN
Writer, Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American
West
http://www.deannestillman.com
TOP
FIVE WORDS/PHRASES THAT MUST BE IMMEDIATELY RETIRED
Closure
Agenda
Tragedy
Spin—unless it refers to a baseball pitch
Self-esteem—alas, still in heavy rotation
TOD GODBERG
Writer, Simplify
http://todgoldberg.typepad.com
TOP
FIVE STARBUCKS TREATS
This week, my wife removed my Starbucks debit card from my
wallet due to excessive expenditures. Apparently $300 per
month is excessive these days, but I think that when you factor
in the slope of Y multiplied by pi, well, it feels pretty
much right in line, but then I'm no mathematician. I found
the number surprising, honestly, because it doesn't feel like
I spend $10 a day there on coffee…which turns out to be precisely
the problem. I spend about $4.50 a day on coffee and another
$5.50 on various treats. Seeing as this time of great treating
is coming to an end, I thought it would be prudent to list
my personal top five Starbucks treats of 2008.
 Sausage
and Egg Breakfast Sandwich
Technically, this is not a treat. It's a meal. And technically,
it's not a breakfast sandwich as I've eaten it for breakfast,
lunch, and dinner. If you've never had a Starbucks Sausage
and Egg Breakfast Sandwich, what you need to know is that
it comes on a toasted English muffin and has a piece of cheese
between the meat and the egg and is summarily warmed up in
a huge microwave to the point of tongue scalding while you
wait for your coffee. It is then stuffed into a white bag
and handed to you by the morose woman with the facial piercings
who never seems to know your order even though you see her
every single fucking day of your life. As a bonus, you get
a free ring of grease, too!
Top
Pot Glazed Old Fashioned Doughnuts
I'm generally opposed to doughnuts that are clearly not made
in the same place as they are served, since they tend to have
a chemical taste and aren't exactly notable for their freshness.
I mean, hell, give me a disgusting Winchell's doughnut any
day over, say, anything first made by Dolly Madison. But these
bad boys, shipped in from a store in Seattle, taste a lot
like their main ingredient is awesome.
The
trans-fat filled blueberry muffin
At some point this year, Starbucks got rid of all their trans-fats,
which is, you know, probably a really good thing. But with
it, they took a blueberry muffin that tasted like it was first
bathed in pure animal lard, which, in terms of overall muffin-y
taste, was a good thing. The new muffin isn't bad; it just
doesn't taste like it's killing you one bite at a time.
Glazed
lemon loaf cake
Starbucks has been serving this since they were still just
a coffee place and not a bookstore/music store/Hot Topic-with-sofas
place. As such, the glazed lemon loaf cake packs a sweet and
pleasant reminder of a less complicated time, when you could
order a mocha without also purchasing James Taylor's album
of covers, too.
Crumble
coffee cake
I still yearn for the original classic coffee cake, which
was the size of the moon and covered in little pills of cinnamon,
but this moist alternative takes care of most of my yearnings.
The downside is that it is covered in powdered sugar which
tends to snow all over your shirt if you happen to be eating
while driving and, unlike the classic coffee cake, also seems
to be part of the new "no trans-fat" edict, thus making it
tasty but not death defying.
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