i didn't properly ring in the new year the way i usually do because the circuitboard on my work computer is fried and believe it or not, i don't spend as much time in front of the computer at home as i once did. the first two weeks of 2007 have been awesome. i've played pop5 twice now and turned dan and zachary onto phase 10. i went to the brookfield zoo with james. i celebrated ginny's bday at rudy's taste/zakopane. i ate bbq four times in one week (yes, i know it's got to stop but fat willy's rib shack has a great pulled chicken bbq sandwich) with four different people (zachary + ginny, james, lauren, and josh miller). i finished reading ALTERNADAD (manda + ryan, i suggest you read this since you'll be alternaparents soon enough) and today i started reading the 33 1/3 neutral milk hotel biography. this past weekend i saw my friends and amazing musicians, the brother kite, play a successful show at the note and since they didn't have a show yesterday, they stayed with me another night and i got to show them chicago. jon and andrea had their first ever real tacos. pat and mark and their friend dave had fun sliding on the ice in front of millenium's park fountains (which i should probably know the proper name of since i am a chicagoan but i don't). mark bought a stack of cds but i think mark spent the most money on music since he went to three more stores than we did (and we went to a bunch). we ended our hang with a dinner at the duke of perth. so much money was spent that zachary and i are imposing a cheap eats (ramen) menu on ourselves. anyways, onwards, here is my best of 2006: bands + films...

MUSIC

+ top albums of 2006 +

01 | Thom Yorke - The Eraser
02 | The Brother Kite - Waiting for the Time to Be Right
03 | Headlights - Kill Them With Kindness
04 | Rainer Maria - Catastrophe Keeps Us Together
05 | Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
06 | The Mountain Goats - Get Lonely
07 | The Thermals - The Body, the Blood, the Machine
08 | Psapp - The Only Thing I Ever Wanted
09 | Darren Hanlon - Fingertips and Mountaintops
10 | Human Television - Look At Who You're Talking To
11 | Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
12 | Love Is All - Nine Times That Same Song
13 | Damien Jurado - And Now That I'm In Your Shadow
14 | Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors
15 | Tilly and the Wall - Bottom of Barrels
16 | Rocketship - Here Comes...Rocketship
17 | Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You
18 | Metal Hearts - Socialize
19 | Specific Heats - Aboard A Spaceship of the Imagination
20 | Sprites - Modern Gameplay

+ i don't feel like i listened to these enough to add into the best of but i like them +

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - Etiquette
I Am Robot And Proud - The Electricity In Your House Wants To Sing
Kamikaze Hearts - Oneida Road
The Legends - Facts and Figures
Lil' Hospital - Heavy Metal
Manual - Bajamar
The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief

+ top cd-singles/eps of 2006 +

can i just give all of these to Bishop Allen?

+ biggest hope for music in 2007 +

statehood
paper cuts (uk) (COME ON ROSS CUMMINS, get it together - i bet you'll find this while googling!)

FILMS

+ films of 2006 that i absolutely loved and that i think most everyone should watch +

01 | Children of Men
02 | An Inconvient Truth
03 | Look Both Ways
04 | Mutual Appreciation
05 | Pan's Labyrinth
06 | Blood Tea & Red String
07 | Snakes on a Plane
08 | Shortbus
09 | Hard Candy
10 | The Puffy Chair

+ other top INDIE movies of 2006 +

A Scanner Darkly
Drawing Restraint 9
Duck Season
The Great Yokai War
The Oh in Ohio
A Prairie Home Companion
The Science of Sleep
Strangers With Candy
Volver

+ top blockbuster movies of 2006 +

The Devil Wears Prada
Inside Man
Superman Returns
The Holiday
V for Vendetta