It's not every day that you get an e-mail from Pete Wentz. Actually, now that I think of it, it kind of is. Perhaps it'd be more correct to say that "it's not every day you get an e-mail from Pete Wentz ... and he's asking you for something."
So imagine my surprise last week when, in the midst of the Christmas madness, I checked my MTV inbox and discovered a note from Mr. Wentz himself, asking if I'd be interested in submitting a list of my favorite "people, albums, movies, books, arts or events" of 2008 that he could include on his blog. It seems he was growing bored with the endless stream of year-end "Best Of" lists (like, ahem, this one or this one), and wanted to create something a little bit different. It seemed like a pretty cool idea, and even though I had no idea who else he had sent the e-mail to, I decided to send a list anyway. (Also, there was a brief time over the summer when Pete and I were co-workers on "FNMTV," so I figured I owed it to him).
I ended up writing a jokey list of "My Top 5 Reactions To Kid Rock's 'All Summer Long' " (you can read it over at Pete's blog). I'm sandwiched between lists by Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump and a dude named Christopher Gutierrez. The whole thing is a pretty decent read (the blog entry, not necessarily my contribution), with really good lists from people like Pharrell, John Mayer, Perez Hilton and Travis McCoy, plus a bunch of authors, music critics and graphic designers, too. Seemingly everyone put "Barack Obama Being Elected" as their #1 favorite thing of the year, which means that I totally should've also, except I am kind of a dumbass and am obsessed with Kid Rock. At least I got to make a joke about George W. Bush's mental capacity in mine, though.
Anyway, the whole thing was a lot of fun, and proof that whenever Pete Wentz e-mails you, it's probably a good idea to respond to him. And thank you, Peter, for thinking of me. Not only did I reveal myself to be painfully unaware of politics, but I got to squeeze a few more critical drippings out of the lemon that is "All Summer Long." And if that isn't a good way to wrap up 2008, well, then I don't know what is.
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