(Sat, Jan 07, 2006)
This list is a little sparse this year since I've been living in a hole for most of it. (The excavations are coming along nicely, btw.) I've dropped the Best Tech category because I couldn't think of anything, and added a Best Event category in order to flip off Live8 one last time.
- Best movie of 2005: [No Award Given!]
- Worst movie of 2005: Stealth
- Most disappointing movie of 2005 (tie): Land of the Dead, Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy
- Most overrated movie of 2005: Syriana
- Most surprising movie of 2005: The Aristocrats
- Best music of 2005: Broken Social Scene
- Worst music of 2005: dunno
- Most disappointing music of 2005: Death Cab, "Plans"
- Most overrated music of 2005: Jamie Foxx
- Most surprising music of 2005: Sun Kil Moon, "Tiny Cities" [Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters) covering Modest Mouse songs in his typical style. Amazing!]
- Best book of 2005: William T. Vollmann,
- Worst book of 2005: [Don't much care]
- Most disappointing book of 2005: George RR Martin,
- Most overrated book of 2005:
- Most surprising book of 2005: Robert Jordan,
- Best TV of 2005: Rome [Thirteenth!]
- Worst TV of 2005: Ghost Whisperer [okay, I've never seen this, but it just has to be awful]
- Most disappointing TV of 2005: Six Feet Under [like a BMW crashing into a garbage truck]
- Most overrated TV of 2005: Desperate Housewives
- Most surprising TV of 2005: Ghost Hunters [surprisingly entertaining]
- Best News of 2005: Iraqi and Afghan elections
- Worst News of 2005: Hurricane Katrina
- Most disappointing News of 2005: Supreme Court upholds Kelo vs New London
- Most overrated News of 2005 (3-way tie): Terry Schiavo, Runaway Bride, Natalee Holloway
- Most surprising News of 2005: Muslim riots in Afghanistan over false Newsweek article about Koran desecration
- Best Event of 2005: Iraq elections
- Worst Event of 2005: Activation of Kyoto Protocol
- Most disappointing Event of 2005: The Super Bowl [I'm an Eagles fan]
- Most overrated Event of 2005: Live8
- Most surprising Event of 2005: Indianapolis 500 with a chick in it
- Best Person of 2005: [Everybody sucked. Well, maybe Peyton Manning didn't suck. So okay] Peyton Manning
- Worst Person of 2005: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
- Most disappointing Person of 2005: Anakin Skywalker
- Most overrated Person of 2005 (tie): Bono, Cindy Sheehan
- Most surprising Person of 2005: Ariel Sharon
- Best Politics of 2005: Same-sex marriage legalized in several countries [as if anybody ever had the right to make them illegal in the first place]
- Worst Politics of 2005: $24 Billion Federal Highway Bill with 6,376 pork projects
- Most disappointing Politics of 2005: SCOTUS upholds Kelo vs New London
- Most overrated Politics of 2005: FEMA and National Guard vs Katrina disaster
- Most surprising Politics of 2005: Howard Dean elected DNC chairman [as part of the effort to completely destroy the Dem Party]
- Best announcement of 2005: NASA's Deep Impact probe hits Comet Tempel 1, demonstrating to all alien observers that we are not completely defenseless down here
- Worst announcement of 2005: Harold Pinter's Nobel prize
- Most disappointing announcement of 2005: Delta and Northwest Airlines both file for bankruptcy
- Most overrated announcement of 2005: Intelligent Design not fit for classroom instruction [duh]
- Most surprising announcement of 2005: Tenth planet discovered (2003 UB313, called Xena)
- Best Show of Respect of 2005: Eulogizing Saul Bellow
- Worst Show of Respect of 2005: Harold Pinter's Nobel prize
- Most disappointing Show of Respect of 2005: 60 year anniversary of conclusion of WW2 goes largely unnoticed
- Most overrated Show of Respect of 2005: The media acting like Pat Robertson's opinion means anything to anyone other than a bunch of kooks just like him
- Most surprising Show of Respect of 2005: Mohamed El Baradei and IAEA's Nobel Peace Prize [why exactly?]
- Best Organization of 2005 (tie): US National Guard, US Coast Guard
- Worst Organization of 2005: Sony
- Most disappointing Organization of 2005: FEMA
- Most overrated Organization of 2005: FEMA
- Most surprising Organization of 2005: Google
- Best Country of 2005: USA
- Worst Country of 2005: Venezuela
- Most disappointing Country of 2005: USA
- Most overrated Country of 2005: China
- Most surprising country of 2005: The Country Music Awards in prime time on a national network? How could that be...?
(Sat, Jan 07, 2006)
The best album of 2005 is Broken Social Scene. It's lush, complex, beautiful, original. I've been sad since Dismemberment Plan broke up, but BSS wander around the same musical areas (although on a larger, more extravagant scale). Check out "Our Faces Split the Coast in Half", "Major Label Debut", "Fire Eye'd Boy", "It's All Gonna Break".
Even better is Arcade Fire, who in retrospect probably had last year's best album. They remind me a bit of Pere Ubu (probably because of the singer), early Pixies, and Roxy Music -- but they somehow manage to make that crazed screeching thing into something moving and sensitive, almost tender. Check out "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)", "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)", "Rebellion (Lies)". Also look for their EP, especially the tracks "No Cars Go" and "Old Flame".
My Morning Jacket also released a good 2005 album, "Z", which was unfortunately sabotaged by the band's publisher in the form of the Sony rootkit (a copy protection scheme that takes entirely too many liberties with your computer if you try to play the disk in it). It's difficult to describe MMJ because they drift into a lot of different styles -- country, pop, reggae, soul, even carnival groove. It's mostly a fusion sort of thing I guess. Check out "Gideon", "Wordless Chorus", "It Beats 4 U".
Finally, there's still Mogwai. Thanks to pure accident I got to hear a pre-release of their 2006 album "Mr. Beast" (okay fine, it was leaked last month, but I'm still going to buy it when it's released). Despite promises to the contrary, the tempo hasn't changed much from "Happy Songs" (there are a few "noise" tracks, but they tend to be the album's weaker material), and has a good deal of skillful piano, less (zero?) sampling, and fewer distortion effects. One track even has a country flavor, with like a steel guitar and everything. It seems to have more craftsmanship too, as if actually written out beforehand or something. (There are one or two tracks that are almost "songs", as in fit-for-radio even -- weird). Overall, it takes the band in a generally more polished direction. Check out "Auto Rock", "Travel is Dangerous", "Friend of the Night", "Folk Death 95". Due out March 7.
Even better is Arcade Fire, who in retrospect probably had last year's best album. They remind me a bit of Pere Ubu (probably because of the singer), early Pixies, and Roxy Music -- but they somehow manage to make that crazed screeching thing into something moving and sensitive, almost tender. Check out "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)", "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)", "Rebellion (Lies)". Also look for their EP, especially the tracks "No Cars Go" and "Old Flame".
My Morning Jacket also released a good 2005 album, "Z", which was unfortunately sabotaged by the band's publisher in the form of the Sony rootkit (a copy protection scheme that takes entirely too many liberties with your computer if you try to play the disk in it). It's difficult to describe MMJ because they drift into a lot of different styles -- country, pop, reggae, soul, even carnival groove. It's mostly a fusion sort of thing I guess. Check out "Gideon", "Wordless Chorus", "It Beats 4 U".
Finally, there's still Mogwai. Thanks to pure accident I got to hear a pre-release of their 2006 album "Mr. Beast" (okay fine, it was leaked last month, but I'm still going to buy it when it's released). Despite promises to the contrary, the tempo hasn't changed much from "Happy Songs" (there are a few "noise" tracks, but they tend to be the album's weaker material), and has a good deal of skillful piano, less (zero?) sampling, and fewer distortion effects. One track even has a country flavor, with like a steel guitar and everything. It seems to have more craftsmanship too, as if actually written out beforehand or something. (There are one or two tracks that are almost "songs", as in fit-for-radio even -- weird). Overall, it takes the band in a generally more polished direction. Check out "Auto Rock", "Travel is Dangerous", "Friend of the Night", "Folk Death 95". Due out March 7.