Aside from getting coffee or hot chocolate at a McDonald’s in the middle of the night or on the road to use the bathroom, I was successful. After one year, I decided to continue. And I didn’t eat fast food for more than four years.

At the end of December, I thought it would be okay to take a day off from my commitment to avoid fast food. I really, really loved the stuff and missed it, and why should I deprive myself?

So since I hadn’t had any fast food (as defined by me above) since mid-December 2004, my plan was to go crazy on December 31, 2008. But then I thought about it some more. I hadn’t had this kind of food in my system for four years. I would get sick. And I didn’t want to be sick on New Years Eve. So I moved it two days earlier, to Monday, December 29. I took the day off from work and headed to the Upper West Side where I was going to catch a 10:20 a.m. screening of Doubt.

I had some orange juice in the morning and on the way to the movie theater I stopped by the McDonald’s on West 73rd Street. I was late for the movie so I took the below items ‘To-Go’ and snuck them into the movie theater:

1 hash brown

1 Sausage, egg and cheese McMuffin

1 McSkillet breakfast burrito

After the movie ended I snuck into another movie, Australia, and I didn’t get out of there until about 3 PM. I was really hungry, so I went back to the same McDonald’s and ordered:

1 Cheeseburger

1 Big Mac

1 Medium French Fries

1 Medium Chocolate Milkshake

I sat down and wolfed all of that down pretty quickly, so I went back for the second round.

1 more Cheeseburger

1 Filet-o-fish

and another Cheeseburger

That was lunch. I was a bit disappointed by the Big Mac. It just didn’t taste as good as I remembered. The Cheeseburgers were a pleasant surprise, which is probably why I ate three. The Filet-o-Fish, which was my signature McDonald’s sandwich growing up (I always ordered that), was awful. I used to love that sandwich but the one I got that day was dry and disgusting.

Since my lunch was late, I didn’t eat dinner until about 9 PM. I had my mind set on Taco Bell, because I really missed that shit. I used to love going there when I lived in St. Louis. Chalupas, Gorditas, Mexican Pizzas, Grilled Stuffed Burritos, Nachos Bel Grande… Hmm-mmm-mmm. But Taco Bell isn’t very easy to find in Manhattan. There aren’t many, so I took a cab from my apartment to Union Square. It’s one of very few in Manhattan, and it’s the closest to my apartment.

I was planning on going for two rounds, but ended up stopping after the first. Back in the day I loved Grilled Stuffed Burritos, which were introduced near the end of my fast food days, and Gorditas, which hadn’t been around long then, either. But I couldn’t eat everything. I ordered:

1 Mexican Pizza

1 Nacho Cheese Chalupa

1 Baja Gordita

And an orange soda.

The Mexican Pizza was terrible - disgusting compared to how I remembered it. The Nacho Cheese Chalupa was okay, but I always favored Taco Bell Gorditas over Chalupas. Which is why I saved the Baja Gordita for last. It was heavenly.

I wanted to go for another round, but I thought that the responsible thing to do was to stop. I didn’t want a repeat of Thanksgiving 2002, when I ate my way to the emergency room.

So that was it. I didn’t eat everything that I wanted, but I still felt content. This will keep me going for a while. I don’t know how long I will abstain from fast food restaurant fast food again. Maybe I’ll go again at the end of 2009.

(Yes, I did get sick the next day)

10. The Wackness

9. Gran Torino

8. Milk

7. In Bruges

6. Snow Angels

5. Rachel Getting Married

4. Let the Right One In

3. The Wrestler

2. Wall-E

1. The Dark Knight

These came in close:
-The Reader
-Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about His Father
-Man on Wire
-Doubt
-Last Chance Harvey
-Changeling

And when people asked me to recommend a movie that they probably haven’t heard of or might not otherwise see, my big recommendation was the underrated indie comedy The Hammer. It was the movie that surprised me more than anything else in 2008.

I didn’t see either of the Friedberg/Seltzer films this year. In 2006 and 2007 they had my #1 spot, and their two releases in 2008 (Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie) would have been a natural for #1 and #2… where I’m sure they would have placed them had I seen them.

10. The Happening
9. Vantage Point
8. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
7. The Day the Earth Stood Still
6. 10,000 B.C.
5. 88 Minutes
4. Bangkok Dangerous
3. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
2. War, Inc.
1. The Love Guru

Getting to hold that lion cub… it was incredibly soft. I can’t think of anything cooler - even though there were plenty of other cool things in 2008. These are the runner-ups:

Running. I did two races - a 10k and the NYC Half Marathon, which went through Central Park and Times Square. I wasn’t fast, and my time was terrible compared to avid runners. But it’s something I never thought I would be able to do. I haven’t been able to run for the last five months due to a foot injury, and I can’t wait to start running again. I also got a bike, which I normally ride to work every day, but it’s too cold now. If the weather is good enough, I go just about everywhere by bike. So between that and the running, it’s been a pretty fit year for me.

Kayaking and cliff diving. It wasn’t a big cliff, nor did I dive, but it’s probably the highest point I’ve ever jumped off of. (I have a fear of heights)
I look forward to doing it again this Summer.

12 days in Egypt.

I met a number of people that I really admire, or think are funny or talented. I already wrote about Gene Hackman and Chevy Chase. In 2008 I also met Ron Howard, Will Ferrell, Brandon Flowers of The Killers, Michael J. Fox, Robert Downey Sr., Joey Chestnut, Ricky Gervais, and a few others.

Last year I also got a 16mm film projector and have acquired a nice little collection of films, documentaries, cartoons, educational films, trailers, commercials and TV show episodes. And, as of last month, that includes a print of one of my all-time favorite animated shorts, about which I have written here a few times before: The Snowman.

To me, watching film projected is magical, especially in your own home. Not just the sequence of images projected onto a screen to create the illusion of movement, but also the hum of the projector, the scratches, the splices, the faded color, the lights turned off and the blinds shut… they all create a wonderful mood that gives me a warm feeling inside, watching these forgotten treasures.

I feel similarly about watching movies on CED (vinyl, or PVC to be specific - they look just like records). That’s also something I got into in 2008, and I will write more about it another time. I bought an old player and have collected about 50 or 60 titles… but they’re so big and heavy that I doubt I’ll acquire anymore.

So goodbye 2008, hello 2009. New Years Eve wasn’t like usual here. I think a lot of New Yorkers are happy to put 2008 behind them, yet they’re not looking forward to 2009. It’s with some guilt that I say that 2008 was a good year for me, knowing that so many others haven’t fared well this year. Just the thought of ‘09 scares me. It’s pretty weird when you think about it. Last night we ‘rang in the New’, knowing full well that it’s going to be shitty.

That said, I think there’s a lot to look forward to. Take the movies, my favorite form of escapism. I can’t wait to see Watchmen… and G.I. Joe… and Inglorious Basterds. And speaking of movies, I updated my list of 2008 films. I have been watching a lot of the Oscar contenders and year-end favorites over the last few weeks - films like The Wrestler, Revolutionary Road, Che and Let the Right One In. See which ones I liked and which ones I didn’t like. I’ll have my top 10 of 2008 (as well as the 10 worst of 2008) ready in a few days.

By the way, does anyone else remember the early 80s Hulk animated series? It’s my favorite incarnation of The Hulk thus far. Particularly the theme song:

I’ve been meaning to write about WALL*E for about two months… here it finally is.
I have written before about my love for animation. I love the Disney classics, and while I enjoy most of their recent work, many of them “future classics”, it hasn’t blown me away. I wasn’t crazy about all of the Pixar movies. I’ve seen all of them and usually catch them in the theater - although I waited for Cars and Ratatouille to come out on DVD. I thought the second Toy Story was near-brilliant and Finding Nemo was terrific, and while most of the others were good, I didn’t fawn over them like so many other cinemaniacs do. In particular, I don’t see what all the hoot ‘n hollar was about The Incredibles. It was decent but it’s among my least-favorite Disney Pixar movies.
I don’t know when I first heard about WALL*E, the next Disney Pixar film, but it was probably a few years ago when they put out some designs for theater exhibitors. I figured that it would be a cutesy robot movie, though I did like the 70s/80s robot style they used, which is what Short Circuit’s Johnny 5 was also inspired by. Then when previews started appearing late last year, I was not impressed. More of the same Pixar, that’s what I thought. Then there was a Super Bowl spot that didn’t do much for me either. The 2008 film that I was anticipating most was Indiana Jones IV.
Well, that changed when I got to see a bit more of WALL*E at New York Comic Con in April. Disney had a 1-hour panel in which they had the a producer from WALL*E talk about that film, and then had the director and some cast members of Prince Caspian do a Q&A in the second half hour. I wasn’t particularly interested in either film, but I wanted to get a good seat in the theater for a Lucasfilm panel that was going to happen later.
Disney screened approximately 15 to 20 minutes of WALL*E. I cannot tell you how much I was blown away by it. What I saw was brilliant. It was old-fashioned science fiction with some of the most beautiful computer animation I have ever seen. The story takes place on planet earth hundreds of years in the future. The human race has abandoned the planet, but before they left, they put some robots to work to clean up and compact trash - including WALL*E. He keeps working and working. By 2700, there’s nobody else, except for a roach named Hal (get it?) who is WALL*E’s only friend. During those hundreds of years, WALL*E begins to develop character and some human traits, and he collects some of the more interesting earth relics from our generation - the most important of which is a small TV screen with a Beta player and a copy of Hello Dolly. There is no dialogue, aside from beeps and other sound effects provided by Ben Burtt of the Star Wars films. Later on, WALL*E does leave earth and there is dialogue there, but I find it fascinating that (from what I have read) as much as 45 minutes of the film does not have dialogue.
In any case, after I saw the WALL*E footage, Indiana Jones IV was no longer my most-anticipated film. I’m incredibly excited. There has been a preview screening and people are raving - including Harry Knowles at aint-it-cool-news.com, even though he’s under embargo and can’t officially talk about it yet.
WALL*E comes out on June 27.