Top Tens and Other Things.

At the end of the year it's impossible to escape the sea of "best of" lists and stories flooding everything that you read. So why should I be any different, well, I can't think of a legitimate reason. Besides, bucking trends is played out. So without further adu, here are my Top Ten's in music and movies for 2006. Enjoy, or disagree with me, I like both.

MUSIC

I feel like this year was one of the best in my lifetime as far as my personal music taste goes. As far as commercial music, well, there was much to be desired. All you need to know is the Dannity Kane was the number one album at one point, and Young Jeezy is the number one album to end the year. There were some positive highlights in the mainstream, but I found the best way to enjoy it was to turn off the radio, because all it does is kill the good stuff that does hit the airwaves. OK I'm rambling, here's my list.

Top Ten Albums of 2006

10. Brand New: The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me

9. Jay-Z: Kingdom Come

8. Incubus: Light Grenades

7. The Format: Dog Problems

6. The Hush Sound: Like Vines

5. The Killers: Sam's Town

4. Jack Johnson and Friends: Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies: The Curious George Soundtrack

3. John Mayer: Continuum

2. Gatsby's American Dream: Gatsby's American Dream

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium

Why Stadium Arcadium?

2 Discs, 28 songs, from a band that has been together longer than a lot of other bands on my list have been alive, and yet the Chili's still manage to create what could be their best album as a band.

Honorable Mentions: Saves The Day: Sound the Alarm, The Strokes; First Impressions of Earth, Action Action: An Army of Shapes Between Wars, This Providence: This Providence, Matisyahua: Youth, Amos Lee: Supply and Demand, The Roots: Game Theory, Outkast: Idlewild, New Found Glory: Coming Home, Spitalfield: Better Than Knowing Where You Are, Punchline: 37 Everywhere, Thursday; A City By the Light Divided, Taking Back Sunday: Louder Now, The Academy Is: Almost Home, Yellowcard: Lights and Sounds, Senses Fail: Still Searching.

Worst Album of The Year:

Angels and Airwaves: We Don't Need to Whisper

Why? Tom Delonge hyped this record to be the second coming. It was far from it.

Why I'm Excited about 2007:

311, Coheed and Cambria, Relient K, Fall Out Boy, Talib Kweli, Motion City Soundtrack, Samshing Pumpkins, The Academy Is, Action Action, Kanye West, Minus the Bear, Small Leaks Sink Ships, Bloc Party.

MOVIES

Now I didn't see nearly as many movies this year as I would have liked. In fact I feel like I barely saw enough movies to make up a top ten. I squeaked by in the end however, but my list of movies I would like to still see is longer than the ones that I have.

Top Ten Movies that I actually saw in 2006:

10. Inside Man

9. Nacho Libre

8. An Inconvenient Truth

7. Cars

6. V for Vendetta

5. Casion Royale

4. Borat

3. Running Scared

2. Thank You For Smoking

1. The Departed

Why The Departed?

First, it was freaking awesome. I haven't been glued to my seat in a movie theatre in quite some time. Second, A list acting like it was meant to be. DiCaprio, Nicholson, Damon, Baldwin, Sheen, and Wahlberg deliver Oscar worthy performances across the board. On top of that it's helmed by one of the crime genre's most legendary directors in Martin Scorsese. I liked the Departed better than Goodfellas if that tells you anything.

Honorable Mentions: Lucky Number Slevin, Pirates of The Caribean: Dead Man's Chest, Talladega Nights, Snakes on a Plane, Curious George

Movies I still Need to See: Three Burials, United 93, Mission IMpossible 3, X men 3, A Scanner Darkly, Little Miss Sunshine, Miami Vice, Idlewild, The Sciene of Sleep, Crank, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Prestige, Children of Men, Stranger Than Fiction, The Last Kiss, Bobby, The Fountain, Pan's Labryinth, Blood Diamond, Apocalypto, The Good Shpehard, Rocky Balboa

Worst Movie of the Year:

Ultraviolet

Why?: I walked out, nuff said.

Why I'm excited about 2007:

300, Smokin Aces, Tranformers, TMNT, Number 23, Oceans 13, Beowulf, Live Free of Die Hard

Random Awards

Video Game of The Year

Gears of War

Athlete of the Year

LaDaian Tomlinson

Biggest Disappointment of the Year (Sports)

The Carolina Panthers

Biggest Surprise of the Year (Sports)

The Detroit Tigers

Biggest Disappointment of the Year (Life)

Donald Rumsfeld

Biggest Surprise of the Year (Life)

The November Election

Dumbest Moment of the Year

Dick Cheney shooting his friend in the face

Best Moment of the Year

(TIE)

Stephen Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondence dinner

Dick Cheney shooting his friend in the face

Worst Person of the Year

(Tie) Mark Foley/Jon Mark Carr

Person of The Year

Stephen Colbert (see above for the reason)

The end. Feel free to leave your opinions folks.

2006: It was a year.

You could say the same thing about 2006 that you could about every year since the dawn of the calendar. There are plenty of events that took place that created good memories and satisfying feelings, but for everyone of those, it seems like there was something else that came along and crapped all over it. I know this sounds pretty cynical, but in fact it's quite the opposite. In order to appreciate all of the good things that go on in your life, it's important to recognize the bad. It helps you to know what you're thankful for. The value of any given year basically boils down to whether or not you can recognize the good things that happen in your life thru the cloud of everything else that tries to spoil it.

So based on that logic, how was to 2006 to me?

Well, it was a year, falling right in the middle of good or bad. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a five. From a Yeah! to a No! it was a meh...

I had a great year personally, 2006 will be a year I remember for a very long time, but nationally it's a year that I'm sure most Americans would like to soon forget. We're still at war after three years, and there seems to have been more scandal in Washington this year than actual progress. Scandals which include:Tom Delay, Mark Foley and his Pages, Jack Abramoff and his congressman, the Natalie Plame CIA leak, NSA Wiretapping, Gitmo, and Dick Cheney shooting people in the face. Instead of the things that should have been focused on like global diplomacy, global warming, immigration reform, stabalizing the economy and fighting terrorism). We've been destroyed in just about every major sports competition (Olympics,World Baseball Classic, World Basketball Championships,World Cup). On top of that, there have been massive outbreaks of disease like avian flu and e. coli.

This is the crap storm you'd have to wade thru to find the good things that have gone on this year. Most of which I'm sure are found in your personal lives, and if that wasn't much better for you, then crack open an icy cold beverage and get ready to toast in a new year and a fresh start, because if your at the bottom, there's no way to go but up. There's some optimism :)

As far as the good stuff, 2006 is closing well. Most of the shady politicians were replaced by new and probably equally shady politicans (we'll find out soon enough), and Doanld Rumsfeld stepped down. I know it's not much, but it gives us a little national hope, and by "a little" I mean "not much", but hey, I'll take what I can get.

So here's to 2006, thanks for not doing enough to kill us, but no thanks for not doing enough to make our lives any better

Now bring on 2007.

Review: An Inconvienient Truth

It doesn't matter whether your a democrat, a republican,an independent, a moderate, a conservative or liberal. The issue of global warming should mean something to you. We are all guilty of polution, not going the extra step to cut back emissions, or even separating our trash and recycle (me). The point of this movie isn't to point fingers, but rather to warn of what is going to happen if we don't change and change fast.

The film itslef is a documentary that follows a slideshow presentation given by Al Gore. This apparently has been what Gore has been devoting his time too since he "lost" the 2000 election. A great thing about this film is the fact that Al Gore does an excellent job of presententing this case without making it a polarizing issue. Gore also presents Global Warming in a way that isn't overly scientific and it's very digestable to the masses, which is the main reason why this movie was made in the first place. To get the message out on global warming, because the mainstream media and Washington D.C don't really think it's that big of a problem. The film presents some compelling evidence and even scarier visual images that show the reality of global warming. It also struck a chord with me as I sat on my porch in the 65 degree a week before Christmas.

This is a very important movie to see if you don't know much about global warming, and also a good one to see even if you know about it but you are like me and have been careless in your environmental habits.It's a very strong reminder if nothing else. So check this movie out, no matter if you voted for the man or not.

8/10

What I've Been Listening To: Late Fall Super Mega Edition

It's been a month since I've written anything, which is sad, I know. What can I say, besides, it's been a crazy month filled with all of the business that every college student goes through this time of year.I have been listening to a lot of music lately, so I thought I give my two cents on all of the good stuff that has passed through my ears as of late.


Amos Lee: Supply and Demand
Amos Lee is a largely unknown singer/songwriter who plays relatively slow paced, chilled out bluesy guitar music (that's the best I could describe it). I really enjoyed this album, it took a little bit for it to grow on me because I felt I had to be in a certain mood to listen to it, but after awhile you'll find it fiitting in to just about whatever mood your in. This is probably the album that I have listened to the least out of all of these, but that doesn't mean I didn't dig it. So check it out especially if your a fan of classic rock and chilled out music.

Key Tracks: Night Train (awesome, awesome song)

The Roots: Game Theory
I didn't even hear Tipping Point, I'll be honest. I was a huge fan of Phrenology, and have only heard bits and pieces of their music before that. So I am not the utmost expert on the Roots. I can say that Game Theory is a very solid hip hop album. The music, played by the Roots themselves, is awesome , and like all Roots music that I have heard, Black Thought delivers strong, provacative vocals. Albums like Game Theory remind me why I listen to rap.

Key Tracks:
False Media
Game Theory
Don't Feel Right

Spitalfield: Better Than Knowing Where You Are
This is Spitalfield's third album, and while it's pretty solid, it fails to live up the expectations they built for themselves after the awesomeness the was their debut (Remember Right Now). A lot of Spitalfield fans bailed on the band after their second album, but I was one of the few that liked it and stuck around. I'm glad that I did because they are definately on their way back up the muscial mountain. The album opens and closes strong, with only a few clunkers in between. The band has a new bass player, and are now almost soley a one vocalist band (which is good because their old bassist wasn't the best singer in the world). BTKWYA is also a little bit harder than their previous two albums, but not hard enough to separate themselves as a "rock" band, they are flirting with the line a little bit though. If you were a Spitalfield fan in the past, then I think you owe it to yourself to hear this album.

Key Tracks:
Secrets in Mirrors
Tell Me Clarice
...Listen


New Found Glory: Coming Home
Coming Home is without a doubt NFG's strongest album since their self-titled. The stongest aspect, the vocals. Jordan Pundik must have taken some voice classes since Catalyst, he still sounds a bit nasaly, but it's been toned down and more refined. New Found Glory as a band went in a whole new direction with this record, it's less punk, more rock, and more grown up. The band themselves calls this their "record that will stand the test of time". I agree to an extent because its the most digestable album to anyone who isn't a hardcore NFG fan. There are still flashes of the old band on this album, but it's clear that they have grown up . Which is nice, because I hate it when Thirty year olds keep talking about High School like they are still there.(see Blink 182, or Plus 44, or Angels and Airwaves)

Key Tracks:
Coming Home
Taken Back By You
Familiar Landscapes
Make Your Move

John Mayer: Contiuum
I know what your thinking, but hear me out. This is by far one of the best albums of the year. I know that some of Mayer's older stuff is a little bit sappy, but the cool thing about John Mayer is that he is one of the first people that will admit his old stuff is sappy. In fact, the record company almost didn't put out Continuum because it wasn't "John Mayer" enough. This album is straight classic rock, Mayer spent two weeks with Eric Clapton while he was writing this record and it shows. So don't let his image fool you ,John Mayer is an awesome musician and one of the better guitarists alive right now. It you like rock music you are punishing yourself by not hearing this cd. Give it a chance, don't be scared.

Key Tracks:
Belief
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room
Vultures
Bold as Love (Hendrix remake)



Brand New: The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
I have been waiting new music from Brand New from the very second I finished listeing to Deja Entendu. That's how good this band is, they leave wanting more. Devil and God is no different. Brand New continues on a trend of growth that I have never seen in a band before. Deja would be a peak album for most bands, but somehow Brand New took another step forward. At first listen the album seems much darker than anything they've ever done, but the more you listen to it, it's no so much dark as it is a remorseful and refelctive look at one's life. The title of the album describes it perfectly. Musically it has some hints of the old Brand New scattered about, and they try a lot of new things (Guitar solos anyone). Just like Deja, they reinvented themselves again and leave you wanting more. This band is easily one of the best of my generation.

Key Tracks:
Archers Bows Have Broken
Jesus Christ
You Wont Know
Not the Sun


Jay-Z: Kingdom Come
It's not Black Album good, but it's pretty close. The only thing missing is an equvalent to "99 Problems" (which is one of the best rap songs of the decade). Still, I find myself coming back to this album more often than I ever thought I would. I never thought it would be possible for a rap album to be catchy, but Kingdom Come is. I find myself singing bars, like I sing hooks to rock songs. Lyrically Jay-Z raps about his old stand by's quite a bit (money, his mom, cars), but from a different angle, mainly because he is king of the rap world right now. He also raps about serious issues (which I wish more rappers would) like Katrina, age, and death. Plain and simple, I dig the crap out of this album.

Key Tracks:
30 Something
Dig A Hole
Minority report
Beach Chair

Incubus: Light Grenades
I'm still not sure if I can give this album a fair assesment because I haven't listened to it as much as I would have liked, but at this point I'd have to say I'm a little bit dissapointed. I felt that "A Crow Left of the Murder" was a step in a new direction for Incubus and whether you liked that album or not, you'd have to at least admit that they were trying something new. To me Light Grenades feels like a couple steps back. This album itslef sounds like it should have come out in between Make Yourself and Morning View, which to some, that might be awesome. I love Incubus previous albums, but I don't want their new stuff to be a rehash, which is was Light Grenades sounds like to me so far. Who knows, maybe there is something there that I'm not hearing. If I hear it I'll let you know.

Key Tracks:
Anna Molly
Paper Shoes
Pendulous Threads
A Kiss to Send Us Off