The Cabinet's Year in Review

Happy New Year, dear readers!

This is the season of making merry and taking stock and looking forward. Which, on this first day of 2011 I mostly intend to do the latter. It's been an action packed year in many ways, but I'm not the most introspective of people, so I prefer not to dwell on the past but to look ahead.

But. Certain accounts must be taken before marching boldly into this new decade (things begin with ones, not zeroes). So, may I present the Top Five Most Popular Blog Posts of 2010!

5. My review of The Man Who Laughs.

4. Eight arms to hold you: Happy Cephalopodmas!

3. This might be attributable to the Maya Deren retrospective at MoMA this year.


2. This one is really gratifying, as I adore the beauteous Olive, and worked really hard on this post. More about her this upcoming week!

1. I learned the most lessons from my Mary Harron/American Psycho post. It received a ludicrous amount of traffic and I really never understood why, as it wasn't one I was particularly thrilled with. Let me just say that sexy pictures of Gretchen Mol dressed as Bettie Page are extremely popular.

But what were my favorites of the year? The Olive Thomas post mentioned above, certainly. I'm also extremely proud of my FringeNYC and Mad Men coverage. I want to write a lot more about television in the coming year. I'm also very, very fond of my piece on The Runaways movie. I often say that I'm "not a real writer", as I think mostly of myself as being a picture person. My brilliant and perceptive inamorato recently called me on that, and I hearkened back (and what is the New Year about - other than looking forward - if not hearkening back?) to something my High School English teacher used to say: "You are students because you study, if you write, you are a writer. What we think we are is beside the point. In my head I'm a great American novelist, but that's just bullshit." (please note: I am paraphrasing).

I write. So, I guess I'm a writer. But I like pictures better. One of my other favorite posts was the recent one in which I discovered the glorious illustrations from the French magazine La Vie Parisienne. So my New Years gift to myself and to all of you are more lovely pictures of pretty, pretty girls!

Have a gorgeous 2011!

I had to add one more!