I think the Artist might be my favorite movie of the year. First of all, I am a big silent movie buff. Secondly, I have seen some terrible movies. I was extremely curious where the movie was filmed. I recognized a few of the places, including  my neighborhood. Here's a list of the locations. 

I also loved the soundtrack, which included "Scene d'amour" from Hitchcock's "Vertigo" - click here for a Youtube of it. It  still creeps me out, but in a beautiful way.

From Silent Era: The top 100 silent movies

From Andrew Sullivan:  His take on Tim Tebow.

From BoingBoing: OWS and Law & O. Clang Clang

From Salon: Writers choose their favorite books of 2011

From the NYT: The next movie that I want to see