The Best of The Dawn of the 21st Century

"When everything is a rope of sand, we should be learning to let it go." - Jamie Lidell, Rope of Sand

The 21st century, for me, began with a breakup. Right before Y2K hit, I was hit by the end of a six year relationship that had begun my freshman year of college. It wasn't the end of my innocence or anything that melodramatic but it definitely shifted my world view about what was possible. We were heading down a path that I didn't want but that I felt was inevitable and then she had the class to fall in love with another guy. It tore me up inside but I came out of it better for it. Me, the single guy, now knew that anything was possible. Life isn't pre-determined.

Ten years later, and I'm at the precipice of the next phase of my life. Things are afoot. There's a she + me situation and that notion of possibility continues to prove itself out. And, it is through that prism that I plan to look back on the last decade. How'd I get from that guy to this guy? What were the words, sounds, events, and emotions that mattered?

I'm going to cover music, TV, movies, books, moments in time, blog posts, and whatever else I can think of. I'll spend the most time on music for a couple reasons: 1) I've got the most data around my music habits via last.fm and my own writing and 2) if anyone has followed me online for any period of time you know that it's the music that matters most.

This post will remain up front on the blog until I'm done and will get updated with each thing I add.

Sometimes I still can't believe Prince wasn't right about 1999.

Okay...let's go.

Music

• The Two Zeros: The Best Albums of the Decade (according to Last.fm)
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2000 - Mama's Gun
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2001 - Simple Things
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2002 - The Colored Section
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2003 - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2004 - The Grind Date
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2005 - Be
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2006 - Veneer
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2007 - Cross
• The Two Zeros: The Best Album of 2008 - Of All The Things
• The Two Zeros: Songs of the Decade - They Live In The Sky
• The Two Zeros: Artists of the Decade - Ghostface
• The Two Zeros: The Best Music of 2009 - Michael Jackson
• The Two Zeros: The Best Albums of 2009 (a list)

Movies

• The Two Zeros: The Best Movies of the Decade

Television

• The Two Zeros: The Best Television of the Decade - Six Feet Under