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Subject:	Eric's Completely Arbitrary List of Stuff That Was The Best In The 2000s
Time:	6:41 pm.

For your entertainment and infuriation
Eric Scott presents
A Completely Arbitrary List Of Stuff That Was The Best In The 2000s

Special note for you ornery fucks who claim it's a year too early for such a list: There was no year 1 A.D. The Romans at the time were using the Julian Calendar, it's true, but that's not the same as our modern Gregorian calendar,and anyway, they used a totally different scheme of enumerating their years. As a result, the Romans never had a "short decade" of 1-9 A.D; A.D. didn't exist until 525 A.D. It defies our basic sense of years to say that 2000 was not the beginning of the Naughts.

Now, on with the list!

PART I: Cultural Artifacts, My Judgment of Whom May Well Enrage You

BEST BOOK (FICTION)
American Gods, Neil Gaiman. A book about belief, identity, and the road that was so good that I taught a course about it. And it's damn fun, too. Probably the book that, more than any other, has colored my consciousness regarding divinity; I doubt I would have run into Thor had I never run into Mr. Wednesday.

BEST BOOK (NONFICTION)
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman. Irreverent but thoughtful commentary on the modern world that manages to make The Real World about as philosophically compelling as Faust. Some of his particular affectations may be annoying to certain readers, but in general, I think the guy's a genius.

BEST SHORT STORY
"Forecast," in Other Electricities, Ander Monson. Really the entire "Carrie" line of stories in Other Electricities, which is a fabulous non-linear book about growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that you really, really ought to read.

BEST SHORT SHORT STORY
"Deb Olin Unferth," in Minor Robberies, Deb Olin Unferth. Hilarious. I would quote the first sentence, but it would ruin the surprise.

BEST COMICBOOK
Promethea, Alan Moore, J.H. Williams III, Mick Gray. Particularly issue #12, "Metaphore." Wonderful in its medium-exploring experiments, and a lovely introduction to the basics of Western magick. The superhero aspects are less fulfilling, but still alright, especially as philosophical counterpoint to the magick.

BEST FILM
Memento, Christopher Nolan. An engaging premise, wonderful acting, and the world's first twist middle. If you haven't watched it yet, go, right now, and acquire it. Also notable for proving that Carrie Ann Moss CAN act when working with a decent script (i.e., not one from The Matrix.)

BEST SONG
Float On, Modest Mouse. Fantastic guitars, beautiful pacing, a message that is quite satisfactory whether you like it at its word or not. The only thing not to like is the lead singer, but even he warms up to you after a few listens. A song of tremendous depth.

BEST ALBUM
Heathen, David Bowie. This record was Bowie's proclamation that not only was he not washed up, he was still the best popular musician out there. Listen to "Sunday," "5.15 The Angels Have Gone," or the Pixies cover "Cactus." My favorite song might be "Everyone Says Hi," one of the few songs that can make me cry.

BEST TELEVISION SERIES
LOST, Bad Robot. It's a long-haul series, admittedly; if you aren't already into it, I would avoid getting into it until the sixth season is done and you can watch the whole thing on DVD. But for those willing to put in the effort, this is the most rewarding experiment in serialization yet conducted on television. Notable for very rarely breaking my maxim of good art: this show almost never treats the viewer as idiots.

BEST ROLEPLAYING GAME
Arcana Unearthed, Monte Cook. Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition under the hood, with weird yet recognizable new archetypes, a compelling backstory, and a magic system that puts an awesome twist on the old levels 1-9 trope.

BEST COMPUTER GAME
World of Warcraft, Blizzard Entertainment. Arguably the game that has ruined my life. Wrath of the Lich King, in particular, is so good that it must be destroyed.

BEST CONSOLE VIDEO GAME
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Nintendo. The best interpretation of "epic" I can think of. The sword combat was wonderful and the graphics were a fine mix of weird with romantic fantasy. In addition, it told a pretty good story. All the Zeldas are good, but especially this one.

BEST BOARD GAME
Arkham Horror, Fantasy Flight Games. It's like playing speed Call of Cthulhu. Enormous replayability, thanks to the myriad combinations of investigators, Old Ones, and expansion packs. Also notable for not doing anything campy at all with the Lovecraft Mythos, which keeps the game decently scary.

Part II: Personal Events, My Description of Which May Bore You

BEST WEEK
June 29th - July 5th, 2008: The week I visited Prague with

mad_maudlin. It was a lovely city, and she was a lovely companion. I still really don't know what to say about it.

BEST DAY
October 4th, 2009: Sven Davisson emailed me to let me know he was going to justify my entire life-path by publishing "Three Encounters with the Gods." (Before you ask: nope, I don't know when Ashe! Journal 8.2 comes out. I last spoke with Mr. Davisson on the 18th and he said it would be out soon.)

BEST MOMENT
November 17, 2006. "So can I start calling you my boyfriend now?" "Depends. Can I start calling you my girlfriend?"

BEST THING WRITTEN BY ME
"Over the Rainbow," the third story in the No Place Like Home series. It probably doesn't stand alone as well as it should, but I honestly feel like it's as good as I've ever done. I guess it's fitting that it's the most recent thing I've finished, too. This story means a lot to me, especially because I think I did something meaningful (to me, anyway) without having to fall back on too many of the old standards.

MOST IMPORTANT STORY TO ME
Still "Raining in January." I look back at it and see that it's got a lot of obvious problems, problems that I still struggle with in my writing. (Who is that first-person narrator?) And it's got a lot of self-indulgence. I haven't really tried to submit it anywhere in a few years. But... Well, it's still the first story where I think I had any kind of voice at all, and really, it foretold a lot of what I've spent the past couple of years writing.

BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
December 16, 2007: Finishing the first draft of Argen the Demon. I'm not sure at all of what to do with Argen now. (I'm not sure of whether I still like the book that much right now, but whether that's just the natural predilection toward whatever I'm working on currently or because in hindsight it's not that good is hard to say.) But regardless, it was the first really long project I've finished, and so far remains cyclopean in its scale compared to everything else.

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