2010 in Retrospect

It's hard to believe that 2010 is already at a close. I feel as if it was 2002 about ten seconds ago, so how can we possibly be about to enter 2011?!

As with any year, a lot can be said to sum up 2010 from just about any perspective imaginable. In the United States, those on the right of the political spectrum certainly had a lot to cheer in the mid term elections, yet it was also the year in which Congress finally passed some Health Care legislation and repealed Don't Ask, Don't Tell, which will allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

On the Same Sex Marriage front, no new states joined the five states (and Washington, D.C.) that had already allowed (or were about to allow) LGBT citizens their right to marry at this time last year, but Maryland did begin to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states and, best of all, California's Prop 8 was overturned in federal court, though of course the case is far from over.

President Obama appointed Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court this year, bringing the number of women on the court to an historic high of three.

In the entertainment world, the two biggest men to come out of the closet this year weren't really any great surprise: pop singer Ricky Martin and Will & Grace star Sean Hayes had both been rumored/assumed to be gay for many years, but that doesn't make the fact that they finally took the steps to come out publicly in 2010 any less noteworthy.

A true milestone this year in terms of coming out: the first openly gay country music artist, in the form of newly out lesbian Chely Wright.

Ricky Martin, by the way, was part of another trend this year: out gay celebrities becoming parents. Ricky Martin has been a dad since 2008, while Neil Patrick Harris and his partner David Burtka, and Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, all welcomed new children into their lives in 2010.

We lost some greats this year in every field imaginable, from daytime TV's Frances Reid, James Mitchell, and Helen Wagner, to primetime TV greats Rue McCLanahan, Dixie Carter, Barbara Billingsly, and John Forsythe, to all around legends like Lena Horne, Dennis Hopper, and Tony Curtis.

The literary world lost an iconic figure in J.D. Salinger and we lost a great historian, writer, and activist when Howard Zinn left us at age 87.

Last year in my retrospective, I mentioned that the year had been bookended by two very different gay love scenes in daytime soaps: Luke & Noah's long awaited first time on As the World Turns at the beginning of the year and Oliver and Kyle's amazing New Year's Eve love scene on One Life to Live.

It's sad to read the hope and excitement I was feeling over Kish a year ago at this time, completely unaware that in less than three months Kish would be gone, that in less than nine months there would no longer be an As The World Turns or any LGBT characters on daytime TV at all. This year, when I say "What a difference a year can make" I say it with sadness.

Well, on to some of my picks for this year's favorite things!

*Favorite Classic Fiction Book I read this year: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.

*Favorite Gay Fiction Book I read this year: Mary Ann In Autumn, by Armistead Maupin, with Stephen McCauley's Insignificant Others a near second.

*Favorite Modern Fiction Book I read this year: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I snobbishly put off reading this for ages because it was published in the U.S. as a Young Adult novel (in the author's native Australia, it was published as adult fiction), but it was so good!

*Favorite Non-Fiction (Literary) Book I read this year: The Book of William by Paul Collins.

*Favorite Non-Fiction (Autobiography) Book I read this year: City Boy by Edmund White.

*Favorite Film I saw this year: (500) Days of Summer.

*Favorite Gay Themed Film I saw this year: A Single Man. I only saw four gay themed films this year, and this was by far the best, but it couldn't begin to touch the beauty of the book.

*Film I Most Wanted to see this year but haven't yet: The Kids Are All Right. What's wrong with me?! I've been dying to see this. First film of 2011, for sure.

*Favorite Hour long TV Show: It's still Glee.

*Favorite Half Hour long TV Show: A tie between Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory, both of which I've belatedly caught up with and love.

*Best Daytime Soap: One Life to Live until March. After that, NONE.

*Favorite CD: Hard to say. I've been discovering Sondheim all year, so probably A Little Night Music or Company.

*Favorite Actress: Kristin Chenoweth

*Favorite Gay Themed Website of the year: AfterElton.com.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (Daytime): A tie between Oliver Fish, One Life to Live (until March), and Reid Oliver, As The World Turns.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (Primetime): Kurt Hummel, Glee.

*Favorite Gay Character of the year (International): Aaron Livesy, Emmerdale

*Hottest Actor (Daytime): A tie. Scott Evans (until March)

and then the Brothers Ford (aka Nicolas Robuck, David A. Gregory and Lenny Platt), One Life to Live.
*Hottest Actor (Primetime): Jared Padalecki. I still love me some Jared, and this year he even deigned to show some skin!
*Hottest Actor (Film): I barely saw any films this year, so I'll go with my choice from last year, the still very sexy Ryan Reynolds.

Well, I think that about sums it up. I hope 2011 proves to be a wonderful year for everyone reading this!

Year End Lists

It's that time of year again! Last night I made my list of the Guys Who Made 2010 and now I'm working on my retrospective look at the year.

While I work on that, I thought I'd share some lists put together by others. I always love these annual Best Of lists!

First up, The New Yorker's look at the best in film. Actually, I should say 'looks' since they have three critics weighing in: David Denby, Anthony Lane, and Richard Brody.

On the subject of film, Roger Ebert also offers his list of the top ten feature films and looking at all these combined lists makes me realize how few films I saw this year!

The New Yorker also has several writers commenting on the books they read in 2010.

Speaking of books, one of my favorite blogs, Band of Thebes, has a fantastic round up of 80 writers who choose their favorite LGBT books of the year. The list numbers 100 books and it's certainly enough to give anyone hope about the future of LGBT writing!

Oh, and be sure to check of Lambda Literary for several great articles on 2010.

Playbill.com has an excellent look at the year in theater , including a tribute to those who left us this year.

Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker has picked his top ten TV shows of the year, and then added another ten on top of that.

Even though I've more or less sworn off daytime soaps made in the United States, I can't help but check in on Michael Fairman's list of the Best and Worst in the year of daytime drama.

Fairman shows some love to One Life to Live, naming it best soap, but also calls out the shameful dumping of the Kish storyline as the most shocking moment of the year. He also names As the World Turns' Luke and Reid as the best new couple of the year and Reid's portrayer, Eric Sheffer Stevens, as giving the best overall performance by a supporting actor.

Not surprisingly, he 'honors' the ATWT writers with a well deserved nod for the worst writing of the year and mentions Reid's death as the most upsetting soap moment of 2010.

Fairman also offers photographic evidence of the 25 best and 25 worst soap moments of the year.

Well, I'll have my own retrospective on the year up later this evening.

The Men Who Made 2010

For the past two years, I've made year end lists of what I considered to be some of the hottest guys of the year. These weren't necessarily guys who were 'new' to the scene in the entertainment world, but rather guys that had caught my attention for the first time in the past twelve months.

Being the stickler for tradition that I am, I see no reason not to continue this particular one, even if I haven't had any time at all to blog during the holiday season (I've been at the book store for more Christmas seasons that I care to remember, but this was the first year in my new position and it was way more intense and exhausting than I expected it to be).

Anyway, without further ado, here are the men who made 2010 for me:

So far, I've always opened this list with a guy from One Life to Live. In 2008, it was Mark Lawson and last year it was Scott Evans. Now, I haven't followed the stories on One Life to Live since the shameful writing out of Kish back in March, so you'd think that this year would be different.

The truth is, though, that I still record the show on my Tivo every day, simply to ogle the hot guys, and there is one in particular who has caught my fancy this year. His name is Nicolas Robuck and he plays James, one of the very delicious trio known as the Ford brothers.
While all three of the Ford brothers (the other two are played by David Gregory and Lenny Platt) are incredibly sexy, as evidenced above, there is just something about the vulnerability that Nicolas brings to the role of James that makes my heart skip a beat.
Next up is a soap hottie from across the pond. I'm talking, of course, about Danny Miller, the actor who plays gay character Aaron Livesy on the British soap Emmerdale. I was aware of Danny somewhat at this time last year, since his gay storyline was just kicking off, but 2010 was the year in which he not only impressed the hell out of me with his acting talent (seriously, this man can break my heart; I dare you to watch a scene in which the tough, tightly wound Aaron breaks down and not sob right along with him!) but also had me completely falling for him.
The last three guys from my list all came to my attention this year while starring on the same show. You probably won't be at all surprised to hear that the show in question was Glee.

First up, Chord Overstreet. Once upon a time, when I was much younger, I had a major thing for blonds. Almost all of the guys that I had crushes on, both in real life and in the entertainment world, were blond. Nowadays, though, I tend to gravitate towards men with dark hair.

Still, once in awhile a hot blond like Chord comes along and I just can't help lusting after him like it was 1999 all over again! I mean, those lips, that body, that smile! I'll let the evidence speak for itself.
Next up is Mr. Teenage Dream himself, Darren Criss. At this point, I think even people who have never watched Glee know that Darren became an overnight sensation after he debuted on the show with an incredible performance of Katy Perry's song Teenage Dream. He certainly won my heart that night and his talent, his sexy grin, and his awesome attitude definitely made him one of my favorite guys this year. I just wish some shirtless pics existed! Maybe in 2011?

Finally, I think my biggest discovery this past year was Jonathan Groff. I can't even begin to tell you how much I crushed on him during his run as Jesse St. James on Glee last spring or how much I hope to see this talented, sexy, and out gay actor in something again soon! Shirtless pics of him aren't quite as scarce as those of Darren, but they're still pretty rare.

Well, there we are. The men who made 2010 for me. I can't wait to see what hotties 2011 will call to my attention!