• Versus – 1/3 at the Middle East Downstairs
  

• Camper Van Beethoven – 1/11 at the Mid East Down
  

• Mark Gardener (of Ride) – 4/15 at the Mid East Down
  

• Throwing Muses & Audio Learning Center – 4/25 at the Mid East Down
  

• Sondre Lerche – 6/18 at TT the Bears
  

• American Analog Set – 6/24 at TTs
  

• Cinerama – 6/27 at TTs
  

• The Joe Jackson Band – 8/10 at Avalon
  

• British Sea Power – 8/10 at TTs
  

• Kristin Hersh, Tanya Donelly, & More – 8/15 to 17
  at Fort Apache’s “Rock in Rockingham“, Bellows Falls, Vermont
  

• Mark Gardener with Goldrush – 9/18 at TTs
  

• Nada Surf – 9/26 at the Mid East Down
  

• Death Cab for Cutie & AmAnSet – 10/25 at the Mid East Down
  

• The Twilight Singers – 11/17 at TTs

A great year of shows, marked by new discoveries and old favorites. The reunion of Camper Van, the Muses, and the original Joe Jackson band, the return of Mark Gardener, a special weekend in Vermont thanks to Fort Apache, and a blindsiding show by British Sea Power were highlights. As comparitively old as I can feel in the rock-show crowds, being there helps keep me kid-like.

Comics …

• Box Office Poison – Alex Robinson
  

• Demo – Brian Wood / Becky Cloonan
  

• Sandman: Endless Nights – Neil Gaiman
  

• Fables – Bill Willingham
  

• The Losers – Andy Diggle / Jock
  

• New X-Men – Grant Morrison / Quitely & More
  

• Planetary – Warren Ellis / John Cassaday
  

• Powers – Brian Bendis / Michael Avon Oeming
  

• Sleeper – Ed Brubaker / Sean Phillips
  

• Y the Last Man – Brian K. Vaughan / Pia Guerra

My weekly visits to the comic shop have turned into monthly ones, but there are still a few serials that keep me from ‘waiting for the trade’. Demo has lived up to, and surpassed, the promise of it’s premise… especially with new issue #3. I’m loving The Losers (an action flick on paper). Y the Last Man lost some steam, but I’m hanging in there. Bendis pulled off a brilliant backstory for Powers detective Christian Walker. Fables (and especially “The Last Castle”) completely transported me. Ed Brubaker got added to my ‘writers to follow’ list. And we finally got a couple new issues of Planetary. Keep ’em coming.

Books …

• My Magpie Eyes Are On the Prize: The Creation Records Story – David Cavanagh
  

• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon
  

• Shrink Rap – Robert Parker
  

• Our Band Could Be Your Life: American Indie ’81-’91 – Michael Azerrad
  

• Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them – Al Franken
  

• Another Country – James Baldwin
  

• Live from New York: The SNL Story – James Miller / Tom Shales
  

• The Dante Club – Daniel Pearl

  the frustration award …

• Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time Series

A couple music-related histories, some detective fiction (well, mostly-fiction), two bonafide classic (one new, one old), some brilliant political satire, and the bumpy ride of Saturday Night Live. I may not have read as much as I wanted to, but at least I kept it varied.

My one stab at fantasy last year frustrated the hell out of me. Attention Robert Jordan: Get on with it, already! He’s been milking his Wheel of Time series for far too many years, and upon finishing his latest massive volume, I was a little annoyed to realize nothing. happened. And what does he do for a follow-up? A prequel. Which is the expansion of a story he already told. Oy. I’ve got too many hours into the series to bail on it… I’m chained to this train until (well, if) it reaches the end of the line. Or runs off the rails. Watch… next he’ll do another silly Conan book.

Movies …

the great …
• The Station Agent
  

• American Splendor
  

• Triplets of Belleville
  

• Winged Migration
  

• All the Real Girls
  

• Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
  

• Lost in Translation
  

• Mystic River
  

• X-Men 2
  

• 21 Grams

  the very good …

• Laurel Canyon
  

• A Mighty Wind
  

• Magdalene Sisters
  

• Elf
  

• Spellbound
  

• Terminator 3
  

• TMBG: Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns)
  

• The Last Samurai
  

• School of Rock
  

• Buffalo Soldiers
  

• Shattered Glass
  

• Melvin Goes to Dinner

  the long-awaited …

• Y Tu Mama Tambien
  

• Narc
  

• The Weight of Water

  the painfully overrated …

• Bend It Like Beckham

The popularity of Bend It Like Beckham is still a mystery to me. At best, it’s an afterschool special with marginally better acting. It’s this year’s “Greek Wedding”… something we were conned into seeing by recommendations and good reviews, but which left us shaking our heads at it’s blandness and lack of originality. Meh.

With that out of the way, it sure ended up being a damn good year for film. It was so tough to narrow down the faves that I had to throw in some runner-ups. Sure, the top five were easy (Station Agent, Return of the King, Lost in Translation, Winged Migration, 21 Grams, Triplets … oh, wait, that’s six… nevermind), but the rest could easily have been swapped out for the also-rans. Such a varied list… from touching personal stories to epic ones, from french animation to the best superhero movie since the first Superman. Well, until Hellboy, I hope.

TeeVee Shows …

• The Wire
  

• The Office
  

• The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
  

• Alias
  

• Angel
  

• Carnivale
  

• Teen Titans
  

• Justice League
  

• The Brak Show
  

• Sealab 2021
  

• Six Feet Under
  

• Arrested Development
  

• Amazing Race

It was the Year of the Office. More laughs out of that one show, those 12 episodes, than anything else on television. Hard to believe it’s over so fast, but they went out at the very top. Even if the American ‘conversion’ works at first… they’ll run it into the ground before they bow out gracefully. Mark my words.

Arrested Development was also a revelation, and I hope it sticks around for a long while. (It’s on Fox, so my hopes aren’t high… *cough* Firefly *cough*). Amazing Race remains the best so-called reality show on television (I know, not saying much… but trust me, it’s damn good), the Wire is still the best episodic drama, and the Adult Swim shows (Sealab & Brak specifically) continue to crack me the hell up. Such sad news that Harry Goz (Capt. Murphy on Sealab) passed away, but new episodes keep comin’. The Daily Show peaked and stayed there… they’ve got it figured out and rarely fail. New cartoons were great out of the gate… both Teen Titans & Justice League deliver the best in half-hour regression. Carnivale? You lost Amie with your lack of answers, but you’ve got me for awhile. The 2nd season had better start dishing on the mystery. Alias? Stayin’ solid. Angel? On shaky ground, although this past week’s episode redeemed months of mediocrity. Hope it’s the start of a streak.

Video Games …

• Buffy: Chaos Bleeds
  

• Simpsons Hit & Run
  

• Call of Duty
  

• XIII
  

• Medal of Honor Expansion Packs (Spearhead & Breakthrough)
  

• Midway Arcade Treasures

I didn’t have near as much time this year to play videogames, at least until my Call of Duty obsession started. It’s so good, I can’t even remember what Medal of Honor was like… there’s just no better first-person WWII online game. XIII was a great idea that mostly worked… but their flawed ‘save-game’ functionality (or lack thereof) nearly ruined it. I may have finished otherwise. The Midway collection helped when I needed mindless, minute-long old-school arcade nostalgia trips. Buffy was alright, but was brushed aside by the Simpsons and it’s virtual Springfield. Once I drove the Monorail around town, there was no going back to Sunnydale.

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