Happy New Year! All in all, not a bad year- at least compared with the crapstorm that was 2005. Finally some sanity in the voting booth and Mother Nature didn’t go all biblical on us- maybe we should thank Al Gore. The list was hard to put together this year as I had a tough time limiting a few of the categories to five. Several selections below were not released last year, but that was when I finally caught up with them. It was a good year for live performances too, so I’ve included them as well. I now respectfully submit my 2006 Top 5’s.
TOP 5 MOVIES
Little Children (suburban horror movie)
Sweet Land (timeless love story)
The Departed (Marty’s back)
Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story (funniest of the year)
The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (same old problems in the new west)
TOP 5 DVD'S/VIDEOS
Targets (Bogdonovich’s inspired debut B-movie/art film)
The Best Of Youth (Italian family saga- 100% mafia-free)
The Proposition (a genuine Western, in a different west)
Brick (contemporary high school noir)
Angels In America (elegy for the 20th Century)
TOP 5 LP'S/CD'S
The Weakerthans- Reconstruction Site (Winnipeg poetry with guitars blazing)
The Drams- Jubilee Dive (from the ashes of Slobberbone)
Pernice Brothers- Live A Little (so pretty, if you ignore the words)
Bloc Party- Silent Alarm (angular and beautiful)
Drive-By Truckers- A Blessing & A Curse (even in a world of hurt, it’s great to be alive)
TOP 5 BOOKS
King Dork- Frank Portman (rock & roll Holden Caufield)
The Darling- Russell Banks (politics wilt under the West African sun)
Never Let Me Go- Kazuo Ishiguro (sheep Dolly’s progeny)
Black Swan Green- David Mitchell (universal coming of age story)
On Beauty- Zadie Smith (higher education survival game)
TOP 5 LIVE PERFORMANCES
Drive-By Truckers 5/5 Fillmore SF (from acapella harmonies to thundering 3-guitar onslaught)
“The Lieutenant of Inishmore” 5/23 Lyceum Theatre NYC (blood drenched farce)
“Spring Awakening” 8/3 Atlantic Theater NYC (19th century German “Breakfast Club”)
The Drams 9/25 Bottom Of The Hill SF (they just can’t NOT rock)
“Passing Strange” 11/4 Berkeley Repertory Theater (Is Stew the new Sondheim?)
Now it’s your turn! Please respond with Top 5’s of your own- I’m always looking for new/different viewing/listening/reading material. Here’s to a great year in 2007!
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