December 19, 2004

• Favorite book so far is Chabon's Final Solution.
• Favorite CD is Neil Lannon's Chemical Friends.
• I'll take a stab. Albums: 1. Ghosts of the Great Highway - Sun Kil Moon 2. Now Here Is Nowhere - The Secret Machines 3.. The Dirty South - Drive-by Truckers 4. Escondida - Jolie Holland Live shows: 1. Andrew Bird at 12 Galaxies, SF 2. The Gourds at the SF Bluegrass Festival By far my favorite movie of the year was Sideways. Favorite AND least favorite MoFi thread: JonathanQuick.
• Music: From a Basement on the Hill - Elliot Smith Book: The Republican Noise Machine - David Brock Movie - Fahrenheit 9/11 Blog - Community - Monkeyfilter Individual - Largehearted Boy because it introduced me to the mp3 blog. Most important/underreported news story - The Neoconservative Plan for World Domination Most overreported news story - Scott Peterson Funniest News Story - anything on The Daily Show Best thread, because its such good news - This one Worst Thread - not going to insult anyone. Probably one of mine. Best non-MoFi Websites - Fark, Webnymph aggregator, Furl Best TV Show - The West Wing, Bill Moyers Now Favorite USSR leader - Arnold Ruutel of Estonia. I don't know why, he's the second one I looked up after the President of Turkminestan. Since opposition parties are outlawed in Turkminestan, I went with the avowed ex-communist Ruutel.
• Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov of the Republic of Kalmykia is quite the loon, though of course not in Turkmenbashi's league.
• Movie - Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Album - Lyrics Born's Later That Day (technically this came out last year, but I discovered it this year via a Diet Coke commercial with Adrien Brody, and why it didn't blow up huge I have no idea) TV Show - Lost Event In My Life - Avoiding homelessness
• Book: Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (It's a sequel to The Curse of Chalion; read it 3 times in 2 weeks, and cried each time. It's not the best novel in the world, but seems to have a profound effect on me when I read it) Best Lot of Folk In The World: Why, *looks around* here of course! May I use this space to thank everyone who has sent me cards, postcards, and letters. I love them and they adorn my tackboard most magnificently. Many thanks for making this displaced monkey feel less isolated. waraw: That's awful! Are you all right now? Found a permanent solution to the threat of being homeless?
• Permanent, no. Seven month rent-free reprieve in which to find a job and save some cash to find a home, yes. I had to move to Cleveland to do it, but hey. Thanks for your concern.
• Oh dear. I can only wish you luck, waraw. Hope that the new year will bring you better fortune.
• Best Album: The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place (Explosions in the Sky). Changed my life. Best Movie: Garden State. maybe. I don't think I've seen enough movies this year to make a real call. Worst News Story: Bush given a second term in office. Best Book: A Mathematician Plays the Market (John Allen Paulos). My plans for computer generated stockmarket riches came crumbling down after reading this. Best TV: The Wire Best Comic: Fables Best Doco: The Corporation
• I concure that the Lyric's Born album is awesome for those that have a taste for rap. Coincidentally, I first hear Lyric's Born on WOXY, which has my vote for both the best rasio station EVAR!!! as well as its return to Internet broadcasting after being gone for a while as the Best Non-Life Altering Thing to Happen.
• Best Jazz CD: Gathering of Spirits Best Classical CD : America: a Prophecy Best book: Cryptonomicon
• Best movie: The Incredibles Best book: Jonathon Strange and Doctor Norrel Best Mo-Fi thread: The comments after some idiot posted a goatse link. Best CD: Enimem, Encore
• best movie: tarnation best album: elliot smith best month: all the ones prior to november
• TV: Wonderfalls. Albums: Patti Smith, Trampin' and Leonard Cohen, Dear Heather. Film: Kill Bill. Books: America: The Book General awesomeness: Jon Stewart.
• lamearse: That album was 2003. Fucking awesome, though. Music: Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender; Fly Pan Am - N'Ecoutez Pas; Isis - Panopticon; Ratatat - Ratatat; TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes. Films: Eternal Sunshine etc, Lost in Translation, Shrek 2. You know, the usual. Gig: Fly Pan Am - Glasgow Nice N' Sleazy's; Silver Mount Zion - Glasgow Oran Mor; Explosions in the Sky - Manchester Night & Day; Bloc Party - Manchester Bierkeller.
• Book: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel Film: Eternal Sunshine, probably Album: Real Gone by Tom Waits Tragedy: Bill Moyers retiring.
• I'd like to amend my entry to indicate a TV-tie between Lost and Venture Brothers. Tho Adult Swim has almost cancelled out its worth by also premiering such drek as Super Milk Chan and Perfect Hair Forever -- totally awful.
• Song of the year: 'I Was Born (A Unicorn)' by The Unicorns. Albums: honours shared between Franz Ferdinand, The Libertines, and Secret Machines. Film: a solid win for Eternal Sunshine, with I ♥ Huckabees and DiG! in a photo-finish for second (Although I haven't seen Sideways, House of Flying Daggers or The Aviator yet). Absolutely not film of the year: Fahrenheit 9/11. Acting type person of the year: Gael García Bernal. Short Jewish American Satirist of the year: J. Stewart, esq. Television: The OC, The Power of Nightmares, Nighty Night. Book of the year: Venus As A Boy, by Luke Sutherland. Book of several years ago which I only got round to reading this year: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Genre of book: Books with childishly-drawn pictures of dogs on the cover. Dictator of the year: S. Niyazov. Small object of desire: iRiver mp3 player. Animal-based news story of the year: the one about the parrot, or the one about the bear escaping from the zoo on the bicycle. Play of the year: The History Boys, Alan Bennett (so I'm told). Boris of the year: Johnson. Insult of the year: "Cocksmith". Idea that I expected to see made in some medium or other but then never was: A group of detectives, injured and each having lost one of their senses in the line of duty, are convalescing together, and must solve a crime, combining their heightened remaining senses to become the most perceptive crime-fighting force around.
• Am I the only person in the world to think that the Libertines should be put in a rocket and fired into space?
• Best fizzy wine tasted in 2004: Vixen, from Fox Creek. Perrier Jouet Grand Brut (at a wine tasting) a close second. Best hot chocolate of 2004: the Dancing Dog Cafe in Footscray. Best meal: Sam and Harry's (during restaurant week in DC). It should have been 1109, but I didn't make it to Anderson, SC, this year. Dammit. I read Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell on the basis of the rave reviews, and I must have missed something. It was just OK....must re-read.
• Best movie: toss-up between Garden State and Shaun of the Dead. Most long-awaited book: The Dark Tower - the last in Stephen King's series. But the ending was so infuriating. Grr. Best MoFi thread: I'm liking Nostril's thread about Yuschenko, because the discussion was so well-reasoned and we got to hear from some experts in the field. :) Best day: my birthday, with iPoddy goodness!
• Am I the only person in the world to think that the Libertines should be put in a rocket and fired into space? Well, I think so, but I say that from a position of love. Also, Pete Doherty would probably agree too. (Interesting few days in Libertine-land...)
• Best Movie: Napoleon Dynamite (with F 9/11, Saved and Spider Man 2 as runners-up) Best MoFi threads: The Turkmenbashi threads, Daisy_May, Secret Santa, the real-time presidential debate threads. BiCurious George and the JonathanQuick threads are shaping up to be contenders.
• Biggest news story, in terms of long term impact, may be Abu Ghraib.
• Best CDs: Mory Kant
• Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Book: Oblivion, David Foster Wallace Album: The Pretty Toney Album, Ghostface Killah And since the only things I really like are books, music and movies (and it's quite rare that I actually like movies) I don't think there was anything else this year that I liked enough for it to be my favourite.
• Wolof, Gargoyles is one of my favorite books, and Bernhart one of my favorite writers. Looking back now, I see that the fact that Bernhardt spoke to me so should have told me to start looking for a doctor to prescribe me antidepressants well before I actually did.
• I'd have preferred to have written "Thos. Bernhardt", but I copied it as was from the spine of the book. Then (after posting) I looked at another book of his I had sitting in the kitchen. Which gave the name as "Bernhard". Don't mind me, my head's been trying to decipher Mandarin characters for the last fortnight. Tired now.
• apologies, but my ego needs it... - Which 2004 news stories were most important? Me. - What were the funniest 2004 news stories? (or, "news" stories) Me. - Over-reported news stories? Me. - Under-reported news stories? Me. - What were the best MoFi threads? Me. - Worst MoFi threads? Me. - Best non-MoFi websites? Me. - Best TV shows? Me. - Favorite leaders of former republics of the USSR? Me. don't worry. just ignore me. i'll go away. i spent WAYYY too much time doing that...
• come to think of it, Prismatic was also my favorite leader of a former republic of the USSR
• I just love what he's done with Tajikistan. The decor! The lighting! The food! FAAAAAAABULOUS!
• Joanna Newsom, Milk Eyed Mender. BBF mentioned it, I heartily second it. By far my favorite record of the year.
• Are you people serious? Prismatic's first couple of albums were great, but the later stuff just sucks.
• Well, it's more prog. A grower, perhaps.
• HawthorneWingo, flashboy: but I've only got the one EP! woo! on-thread, in-context, self-linky pluggage! i win so hard!
• The most ugliest weblog of 2004: G.U.T.S.
• I'm going to make a possibly controversial, but considered, comment about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: It was enjoyable, and well made, but ultimately forgettable. My problem with Charlie Kaufman stories is that while they're quirky and clever, they're never as "deep" as they seem to want to be. Which is why I like Malkovich best among the Kaufman films: It's not trying to be existentially deep or anything; it's not trying to be anything more than quirky and clever. Go see Sideways, then tell me Eternal Sunshine is a better movie.