1. Early shots of Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko, as then-blissful couple Neil and Marina, walking on the oddly elastic silt in Terrence Malick's To The Wonder. While the film ultimately suffocates in its own self-seriousness, Malick remains a gifted purveyor of natural images.
2. "You and me at the edge of the world," the words that introduced me to Kishi Bashi, a musician who began the year not even getting an official spot at South By Southwest and ended it in a Microsoft commercial for the best possible reason: the irresistibility of that song, "Bright Whites." (Also check out his Tiny Desk Concert.)
3. The dance at the end of "For Fanny," the second episode of the first season of ABC Family's excellent new series Bunheads. In the episode, the young dancers embrace and salute their grieving teacher, Fanny (Kelly Bishop), with a brief, gorgeous performance set to Tom Waits' "Picture In A Frame." Just in these two episodes, the show had established dance was the language all these people spoke, and that for some people, you make a cake, and for some people, you dance.