Gotta Start Somewhere

• DOWNLOAD | JON BRION “Gotta Start Somewhere” Meaningless, 2001

Everything seems like such an important choice this morning. Like when my boyfriend and I sat down at the diner for breakfast this morning, I looked over the menu with the kind of scrutiny reserved for the list of side effects on a prescription drug pamphlet. What would be the first thing I ate in 2010?

“I’ll have what he’s having.” That’s usually my answer when I can’t decide.

I wasn’t nearly as hyperconscious about some of my other firsts. For example, the first song I listened to this morning — thanks, in part, to the iTunes shuffle feature — was “Carpet Muncher” by µ-Ziq. Although it’s certainly a perfectly decent breakbeat track, I’m not so sure I’ll look back at 2010 and think that a song called “Carpet Muncher” is ever going to be a great way to usher in the new year. But whatever.

My first tweet of the year was, I think, more successful:

“Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!” is awesome holiday television. You can’t hate on a show where 10-year-olds are bipolar and read Tolstoy.

I’m sure I’ll stand by this one years from now — if only because there’s something about hearing Charlie Brown say the words “Anna Pavlovna” that brings great joy to my heart. It also features (hyperbole alert!) one of the greatest exchanges of dialogue ever captured on film:

PEPPERMINT PATTY: Have you made any New Year’s resolutions, Chuck?

CHARLIE BROWN: Yes. You know how I always dread the whole year? Now I’m only going to dread one day at a time.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve often depended on Charlie Brown to provide reasonable survival strategies for the impending grief of time, aging, and reading Russian novels for school. He simply does not disappoint.

Photo: Dogseat