It's the End of the World as We Know It (...or is it?)

      It’s odd to have spent nearly 10 years within the confines of a ‘decade’ and still not know what to call it.  The ‘aughts,’ the ‘naughties,’ the ‘2000s,’ et cetera have all proven to be ill-fitting monikers for a period that has kicked off a new century and a new millennium. It’s strange that no nickname has caught on considering how modern media outlets have become so adept at naming things that within hours a label can become wholly inextricable from the original event (see ‘Balloon Boy’). Perhaps we are just living in completely indefinable times.  Well, whatever you want to call January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2009, one thing I know for sure is that it is almost over.  While this period has provided some majorly negative events (September 11, 2001, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, the recession, etc.), it hasn’t been all bad.  All told, it’s been a pretty interesting time to have gone through high school, college, and the beginnings of my post-graduate life, thanks in large part to the internet explosion (not sure how the universe could have existed before Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook, College Humor, et al.)

     Seeing as the change from 2k9 to 2k10 will be sort of a momentous occasion, it seems to be an appropriate time to quantify and qualify some of what happened in these last 10 years.   I figure there is no better way to make sense of it all than to do countdowns of some of things that helped define the decade. (The Rolling Stones and Pitchforks of the world should not have a monopoly on the list-making business, after all).  Starting later today (hopefully), and intermittently thereafter, I will post lists about this decade’s best music and (ideally) other things from friends and myself.  At this time of year when everything seems to be moving at a dizzying pace, it’s important to slow down and reflect for a minute about what has been going on while you’ve been busy updating your Facebook status. So, please enjoy.