Presenting a somewhat random and certainly subjective list of stuff that moved and impressed me most in the past year:
Best rock ‘n roll moment – Patti Smith spits on the Massey Hall stage, Toronto
Best concert – Brian Wilson + Jeff Beck, Sony Centre, Toronto
Runner up – The Master Musicians of Jajouka, Villa Medici, Roma
Best performance – Wilco + Feist + Richard Thompson doing Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne”, Molson Ampitheatre, Toronto
Best fiction films – Blue Jasmine; Gravity; Philomena; Prisoners; Unforgiven (Japanese version)
Best actors – Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis); Jake Gyllenhaal (Prisoners); Ken Watanabe (Unforgiven)
Best actresses – Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine); Judy Dench (Philomena), Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Best nonfiction film – El Alcalde http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2248996/
Best Canadian Journalism – The Toronto Star for its coverage of Rob Ford
Best Canadian social sciences peer reviewed article – Ian Mosby,“Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942–1952″ Histoire sociale/Social history, Volume 46, Number 91, Mai-May 2013
Happy New Year and best wishes for 2014!