"Top 10 Tops" by Michael Czyzniejewski

During the first month of 2011, Dzanc Books will be sharing a number of "Best of 2010" lists written by our authors, our editors, and other affiliated folks. Today's list comes from Michael Czyzniejewski, author of Elephants in Our Bedroom.

Top 10 Tops

1) Best Scene

When I moved to Chicago in May, I knew that the city had a lively writing environment, boasting a variety of literary magazines, reading series, and bookstores that kept the written world alive. Not until I was fully immersed did I realize how outstanding the Chicago Literary Scene really proved to be. Firstly, a rash of great journals have popped up in recent years, including Knee Jerk, Requited, The Packingtown Review, Make, and Artifice, joining stalwarts like ACM to bring the best writing to readers, big-shoulders style. Next, there are some pretty raucous reading series out there, for instance Quickies, Nerves of Steel, or The Sunday Night Sex Show, to fill the calendar. I also enjoy visiting various Barbara’s Bookstore locations, Women & Children First, and especially The Book Cellar to browse books and journals or just hang out. Most of all, the people associated with all of these endeavors are friendly, passionate, and talented folk, and I was really glad I got to meet and even get to know so many of them. Chicago is an unmitigated powerhouse for writers and writing: I want to go to there.

http://www.bookcellarinc.com/

2) Best Short Story Chapbook

Matthew Salesses’ Our Island of Epidemics is awesome. I was able to read this little collection early because I blurbed it, and I've never been so happy to blurb something. This one definitely falls under the "I wish I'd written that" category. Surprising, creative, and true: Order yourself a copy now.

http://ourislandofepidemics.com/

3) Best Short Story Collection

Lots to choose from here, though a lot of the books I read this past year were novels or collections from previous years (props to Lydia Millet's Love in Infant Monkeys). I enjoyed every bit of Laura van den Berg's What the World Will Look Like When All the Water Leaves Us and Tina May Hall's The Physics of Imaginary Objects, both excellent collections, unique voices, writers whose work should be studied. The winner: The Taste of Penny by Jeff Parker. This collection surprised me with every story, and at the same time, I was impressed with Parker’s technical savvy, not apparent unless you go looking for it (I usually do). I laughed out loud at some pieces and was shocked and yes, even a bit appalled at others. The title story is also one of my favorites of all time. This is a book I’ve already gone back to this year to enjoy again, one that won’t ever collect too much dust on the shelf.

http://www.dzancbooks.org/taste-of-penny-by-jeff-parker/

4) Best Sports Competition

Had Gordon Hayward’s desperation half-court heave caught enough of the rim to choke itself in, giving mid-major Butler the NCCA men’s hoops title over Duke, this past year’s March Madness would have easily filled this spot. Sadly, it didn’t, so I’m going with the 2010 MLB Playoffs. Because the Cubs were eliminated from contention sometime around Mother's Day, baseball was a bummer for me most of the year—and I lived up the street from Wrigley all summer, passing by the stadium daily, bowing my head and saying a prayer as I went by. So there was no reason to go into the baseball playoffs with any expectations except, “Someone else besides the Cubs is going to win. Again.” What happened instead was one of the best postseasons of my lifetime. Surprising teams knocked off high-priced juggernauts, other surprising teams knocked off those surprising teams, and a ragtag group of castoffs (aided by ridiculous pitching) won the World Series. Combined with a few remarkable individual performances (Roy Halladay, Cody Ross), this year's games gave me a few weeks of solid entertainment, plus further hope that the Cubs might just win it, at any time, because 2010 proved: Anyone can win it at any time. I'll be ready.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=8495331

5) Best Song (tie)

"Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)" The Arcade Fire

"Dance Yrself Clean" LCD Soundsystem

I don’t listen to music as much as I did when I was in college. Back then I bought three-four CDs a week and saw just as many shows in the same time span. These days, I have to be introduced to a band, or if I want to force the issue, scan blogs and year-end best-of lists (Lame!) for some sort of hint. That’s how I came across these two bands, more or less, making me glad I still try once in a while. Both songs are inescapably catchy, intense, and in a lot of ways, epic. Choosing between them was the hardest decision of the year, and since the Dzanc people said I could have one tie—which I had to fight for—I'm going with two songs, both of which I've already listened to 500 times since first hearing them. Top 20 all-time Mike songs, and two in one year. That in itself makes 2010 a banner year for music. (Note: The Dzanc people didn't actually allow me only one tie.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L6ZFhZVOx0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfObMuK5nVk

6) Best Trend

This seems like a good place to insert a joke about the Shake Weight, but really, I don’t wanted to undermine the absolute importance of the emergence of pretzel bread. This delicacy was around before 2010, but this was the year it bitch-slapped breadsticks, rolls, bagels, crackers, and baguettes as the premier food envelope and pre-meal filler in the U.S. It was everywhere in 2010, from the Bowling Green student union, to the bar we go to after readings, to freakin’ Subway. I just ate at the Walnut Room in Macy's (nee Marshall Field's) in downtown Chicago, and even their table bread was the pretzel roll. This is a place where the featured item since the ‘20s is a chicken pot pie that one of its workers used to pack for lunch. Like the chicken pot pie, much of their menu has remained unchanged for decades, yet they've adopted the pretzel roll as their first impression. Case closed. I couldn't be more pleased.

http://www.allbusiness.com/consumer-products/food-beverage-products-snack-foods/14078705-1.html

7a) Best Movie, Seen-With-My-Son Division

The sentimental favorite here is Toy Story 3, but as great as that movie is, some of its moments are devastatingly sad, Bambi's-mom-just-got-iced-in-the-opening-scene sad. Instead, I’m going with the one I want to see over and over again: How To Train Your Dragon. I just bought it for "my son" for Christmas and have watched it five times already (one more time than my son has), liking it better each time. It’s been a long time since I’ve wished I was a character in a movie (Daniel Russo comes to mind), but every time I watch HTTYD, I imagine myself in Hiccup’s saddle and just smile.

http://www.howtotrainyourdragon.com/

7b) Best Movie, Overall Division

Before I was a dad, I saw just about every movie in the theater, two or three a week, every blockbuster, every artsy film, even terrible movies I wouldn’t watch now for free (Bordello of Blood might be the worst). Nowadays, I'm lucky to see two-three non-kids movies a year. So I get most things on Netflix, meaning that I'll see all those movies everyone is talking about now in 2011. Still, I think that it's going to be hard for me to like something more than I liked Inception. From the opening scene, I was riveted, and after, I kept thinking, "How the fuck did he come up with that?" The work Christopher Nolan put into this movie makes my head hurt. Special mention to Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as well as District 9, which I saw in January and subsequently deemed my favorite movie released in 2009.

http://inceptionmovie.warnerbros.com/dvd/

8) Best Hype

Since I hit thirty several years ago, I’m routinely watching more and more of the pop culture world passing me by, especially since I don’t watch a whole lot of TV; reality shows, and all their references, will forever be lost on me (Note: I’m okay with this). But how could I exist in America without hearing about the trials of Conan O’Brien in 2010? I enjoy talk shows, but only watch once a week or so, usually when my wife turns them on and I’m too lazy to get up and do something else. I probably like Conan the best, but have also been pleasantly surprised by Jimmy Fallon, and in Conan’s absence, discovered the pure lunacy of Craig Ferguson. More than the shows themselves, however, I enjoyed the fervent backing of Conan by his fans (who ironically couldn’t rally to keep his ratings up) upon his dismissal, the drama that unfolded, and most of all, how the issue became political, how Conan somehow emerged a hero of liberals everywhere and Jay Leno was pegged the Dick Cheney-like ogre of conservative badguydom. The story certainly outperformed any of the programs, especially when Conan finally returned on TBS: It was nice to have him back, but halfway through the first show, it was hard to remember that he’d ever left.

http://teamcoco.com/

9) Best Nonfiction Book

Even though I don’t read much nonfiction, I'm adding sportswriter Bill Simmons' The Book of Basketball to this list because it’s so freaking awesome. It technically came out in hardcover in '09, but I just read it this past week and am still thinking about it. He's the first journalist I've ever laughed out loud at, and the first journalist that I've ever followed, looking forward to his weekly column and Podcast on espn.com. The 700-page epic will make an NBA expert out of the most casual of fan, and is a book that could become the professional basketball Bible. Simmons is also very, very funny, so much so that Jimmy Kimmel hired him as a comedy writer for his talk show. Kudos and second place to Nathan Rabin for his collection of blog entries My Year of Flops, which I've enjoyed on The Onion’s AV Club page for some time now.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/simmons/

10) Best Place to Eat

While living in Chicago for three and a half months, I started Yelping every restaurant we ate at over the course of the summer, over sixty places in all. I found some fabulous places to eat, and it's impossible to pick, I've decided, between the best barbecue (Fat Willy’s), the best Ethiopian (Demera), the best hot dog (Byron’s), etc., and crown a champion. Different cuisines can't be compared, end of story. So what I'll whore out here is Molly's Cupcakes. It's a place that only sells cupcakes (and stuff to drink…I suggest milk), but they're the best cupcakes I've ever had, hands, feet, and everything else down. The selections are plentiful (Pear Almond is still my favorite, but I’d really take any of them), and every cupcake is moist, rich, and too, too small (despite the fact they're huge). The place is also pretty cool to be in, with free board games to play and a bar where you can sit and enjoy your cupcakes on a swing. Neat place, somewhere you can go after any cuisine, a place you should visit right now.

http://www.mollyscupcakes.com/home.php

Michael Czyniejewski

Michael Czyzniejewski is the author of the story collection Elephants in Our Bedroom (Dzanc, 2009) and was an NEA Fellow for 2010. He teaches at Bowling Green State University, serves as Editor-in-Chief of Mid-American Review, and sells beer at Chicago Cubs games during summers.