Pop culture resolutions for 2011

Not the boring personal New Year's Resolutions. The fun kind. So, as inspired by The A.V. Club, my resolutions for 2011.

Read more. Right now I do virtually all of my reading on public transportation, which is fine since I spend a lot of time on the train or the bus, but reading shouldn't be something I do just because I'm not in the same room as a tv or a computer. I'm also looking to read more books by female authors, since everything I read in the second half of 2010 was written by dudes. I could stand to add a few minority authors to my "to-read" list, too. On a related note, I'd also like to...

Take advantage of the library. The neighborhood branch of the Chicago Public Library is small and unimpressive, but I can get books (or other media) from other branches sent there. Evanston also has a great library with a huge periodicals section, if I ever feel like killing an hour flipping through magazines like I did in college (I was a really cool guy in college). The Chicago library system has a fairly good selection of graphic novels from what I've seen online, and I'd like to take advantage of that because reading them doesn't come cheap. Part of the reason it's taken me over a year to slog through Preacher is that I don't cotton to paying $18 for something I can finish during a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Take better advantage of Netflix Watch Instantly: The advantage to renting movies from Netflix is that in order to get your money's worth, you need to watch rentals right away and get a good turnaround on your next one. Netflix has a treasure trove of documentaries, independent/foreign movies, and tv shows available through streaming, but since they're always there there's rarely an impetus to watch them. A long, cold winter could be just the reason I need to finally watch Sherman's March and Big Man Japan.

Watch more television. Remember when I was talking about Netflix Watch Instantly? I've had Friday Night Lights languishing on my streaming queue for a year now. If I'm not vigilant, Veronica Mars and Battlestar Galactica could suffer the same fate. I've been putting off the second season of Sons of Anarchy for a few months, I've only seen four episodes of Community, and I've still never watched a minute of Breaking Bad.

Top Chef All-Stars: 12/15 power rankings

1. Angelo
2. Richard
3. Dale T.
4. Antonia
5. Tre
6. Marcel
7. Carla
8. Tiffani
9. Spike
10. Casey
11. Tiffany
12. Jamie
13. Mike
14. Fabio

Angelo: still weasly, still on top. Dale's win, plus Antonia's strong showing, brings the top 4 back to the same it was after the first episode. Fabio is running hot and cold, but more cold than hot and when he's cold he's cold. Luckily for him, Dale L. had the lesser dish.

Reasons why The Rocketeer, despite its faults, is still awesome.

- evil Timothy Dalton (see also: Hot Fuzz)
- Terry O'Quinn as Howard Hughes
- an animated Nazi propaganda film
- general Art Deco-ness
- Tiny Ron Taylor as a "heavy"
- a zeppelin
- mobsters and G-Men teaming up to fight Nazis

Top Chef All-Stars: 12/8 Power Rankings

1. Angelo
2. Richard
3. Dale T.
4. Tiffani
5. Marcel
6. Antonia
7. Tre
8. Carla
9. Dale L.
10. Spike
11. Fabio
12. Casey
13. Jamie
14. Tiffany
15. Stephen
16. Mike

Clearly, we got "second half of Top Chef: Las Vegas" Jen instead of "first half of Top Chef: Las Vegas" Jen.

Tiffani gets a huge boost this week. Jamie nosedives, although most of the drama surrounding her was a total non-event. Spike is inching his way towards respectability.

Brief thoughts on The Secret in Their Eyes

I'll be concise and to the point: The Secret in Their Eyes is an Argentinean crime drama that won the 2010 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. It's good. You should watch it.

But I do want to highlight some quotes from reviews of the film. Slate sums up the movie best by calling it "a really long, really awesome episode of Law & Order set in Buenos Aires," which is better praise than I could come up with. Roger Ebert describes Ricardo Darin's character as "one of those men on whom a beard seems inevitable." Once again, he's right on the money, and as a bearded man I appreciate his insight (although in this case, I hope I'm not quite like that character).

If I may be so humble as to add my own insights to the movie, it's real genius is that its three best scenes are not only back-to-back-to-back but that the first is brilliantly written, the second brilliantly staged, and the third brilliantly acted. The Secret in Their Eyes is a procedural at heart, and a melodramatic one at that, but it uses its few flourishes to better effect than any movie I've seen all year.

Top Chef All-Stars power rankings: 12/1

1. Angelo
2. Richard
3. Dale T.
4. Antonia
5. Jennifer
6. Jamie
7. Tre
8. Carla
9. Tiffany
10. Marcel
11. Dale L.
12. Casey
13. Spike
14. Tiffani
15. Mike
16. Fabio
17. Stephen

Not a lot of major changes to note. Spike has a good chance of doing what he did during his season; being just competent enough to not get eliminated, but never excelling. It's too soon to tell whether mid-level chefs with strong dishes (Jamie, Mike) are stronger overall, or if they simply learned from their one fatal mistake. The strong Chicago cast has a predictably strong showing. Stephen looks lost. Jennifer couldn't cook well under pressure in Las Vegas, and this season is all pressure. Fabio spent too much time shilling for Bravo and not enough time in the kitchen. Do the producers actually have the stones to paint good guy Richard as a villain, or did he just inadvertently slip up by going over his alloted time?

Top Chef All-Stars: Preseason Power Rankings

Bravo's Top Chef franchise is one of the network's flagship programs, but it has laid the cooking on a little thick this year. Immediately after another technically proficient but drama-free season of Top Chef: Masters, the extremely underwhelming Top Chef: DC premiered. The weakest season in the show's history was followed by another spinoff, Top Chef: Just Desserts, which had to have set a statistical record for amount of crying per episode. I've been a fervent Top Chefian for years now, but I couldn't finish Top Chef: Just Desserts. The fun wasn't there anymore. Bravo seems to feel that the series has lagged, too, hence Wednesday's premiere of Top Chef: All-Stars. If they're looking to freshen up the series, they've done a good job, since the cast is absolutely loaded with talent. Even better, they've brought on Anthony Bourdain as a judge. I'm stoked. Let's handicap this race.

1. Richard
2. Angelo
3. Carla
4. Antonia
5. Jennifer
6. Dale T.
7. Tre
8. Tiffany
9. Fabio
10. Marcel
11. Dale L.
12. Casey
13. Elia
14. Tiffani
15. Stephen
16. Jamie
17. Mike
18. Spike

Admittedly, I'm making educated guesses with Tiffani and Stephen since I never saw the first season. It's pretty clear that Mike and Spike are the lesser of the cheftestants by a country mile. Conversely, it's clear that Richard and Angelo are the cream of the crop. Virtually everyone else is a wildcard. Will Dale Talde keep his temper? Will Tre redeem himself? Can chokers like Carla and Jennifer regain their swagger?