Music
- Titus Andronicus – The Monitor
- LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening
- Caribou – Swim
- Shad – TSOL
- Das Racist – Sit Down, Man
- Karkwa – Les Chemins De Verre
- No Age – Everything in Between
- Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
- The Tallest Man on Earth – The Wild Hunt
- Sleigh Bells – Treats
—Mike Lakusiak
- Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
- Vampire Weekend – Contra
- Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
- Janelle Monae – The ArchAndroid
- Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
- Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
- The Dead Weather – Sea of Cowards
- Shad – TSOL
- Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
- Karkwa – Les Chemins De Verre
—Sarah Murphy
- Black Keys – Brothers
- Hannah Georgas – This is Good
- Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More
- Radio Radio – Belmundo Regal
- Gord Downie – The Grand Bounce
- Caribou – Swim
- Owen Pallet – Heartland
- Shad – TSOL
- The Arcade Fire – Suburbs
- Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
—Bryn Ossington
- Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
- Sufjan Stevens- The Age of Adz
- Beach House – Team Dream
- The Tallest Man on Earth- The Wild Hunt
- The National – High Violet
- Basia Bulat – Heart of My Own
- Jenny and Johnny – I’m having fun now
- The Thermals- Personal Life
- The Drums – The Drums EP
- Tift Merrit- See you on the Moon
—Judith Brunton
- Beach House – Teen Dream
- Hot Chip – One Life Stand
- The Books – The Way Out
- Autechre – Oversteps
- Jonsi – Go
- Four Tet – There Is Love In You
- James Blake – CMYK EP
- Old Man Luedecke – My Hands Are on Fire and Other Love Songs
- Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma
- Caribou – Swim
—Sam Robinson
Film
- The Social Network (Fincher)
- Inception (Nolan)
- Toy Story 3 (Unkrich)
- The King’s Speech (Hooper)
- True Grit (Coen)
—Wade Thomson
- The Social Network (Fincher)
- Black Swan (Aronofsky)
- Toy Story 3 (Unkrich)
- I’m Still Here (Affleck)
- The Other Guys (McKay)
—Bree Mantha
- The Social Network (Fincher)
- Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy)
- Black Swan (Aronofsky)
- True Grit (Coen)
- Toy Story 3 (Unkrich)
—Shawn Zacchigna
News
Ipad released
Apple launched their much-hyped tablet computer — the iPad — in April 2010.
Bringing movies, music, games and books to the world’s fingertips, the not-a-phone-but-not-quite-a-laptop gadget’s usefulness has been questioned by many, but this didn’t stop 3 million people from buying one in the first couple of months that it was available.
The touch-screen display and wide variety of accessible applications for the tablet have continued to draw in buyers.
Later in the year the device proved its worth by being the focus of a hilarious Modern Family episode, and then again on Christmas day when Gorillaz released their almost entirely iPad-recorded album The Fall.
Late night CBC drama
In late 2009 rumours started circulating about the future of NBC’s late night line-up.
Jay Leno’s 11:35 pm hosting gig at The Tonight Show had been predetermined to come to an end in May of 2009.
Conan O’Brien smoothly transitioned into Leno’s role, and Leno began preparing for his 10:00pm NBC evening talk show.
In January 2010, NBC executives begin taking steps to take The Jay Leno Show off the air after lacklustre ratings.
Rumours then began to spiral about Leno reclaiming The Tonight Show, and network offers to bump Conan to midnight.
Fans flocked to the Internet to show their support for O’Brien, kicking off the Team Coco campaign.
Nobody seemed to back Leno, but every other late night host had something to say about the situation. Parodies, jokes and Conan’s own network-bashing became a nightly occurrence, and caused ratings to skyrocket.
After a tense couple of weeks, O’Brien made the decision to leave NBC, while Leno made his way back to The Tonight Show desk.
O’Brien’s new show Conan debuted on TBS in early November.
Regardless of who you supported or if you even cared about the debacle, hearing about the memorable Leno/Conan/NBC feud was unavoidable.
Bieber Fever plagues the world
2010 saw an unprecedented surge of tween obession as Stratford’s Justin Bieber gained an exponential amount of popularity.
His second album My World 2.0 debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts, surpassing records formerly set by The Beatles and Stevie Wonder. This was followed up by the Nov. 22 release of My World Acoustic, which sold 100,000 copies in its first week.
More bizarrely, everything from Bieber trading cards and action figures to underwear and bedding are also on the market now.
Tourism in his hometown Stratford is also booming thanks to the “Bieberiffic Map” of the Ontario city known for its Shakespearean culture.
The map, designed by Biebs, marks the location of all his favourite hangouts, restaurants and even his old schools.
It was also recently announced that the 16-year-old popstar was named the second most influential person on Twitter — only falling behind Barack Obama, but beating out Sarah Palin and George W. Bush.
With a recent haircut, his biography Justin Bieber: First Step 2 Forever out and a 3-D movie scheduled for a February release, the “Biebonic Plague” shows no signs of slowing down in 2011.
—All compiled by Sarah Murphy
