Top 13 Albums of 2006

2006 was a really strong year for music, although as far as I’m concerned there weren’t any truly great records released. None of these albums will break my top 30 or maybe even top 50 all-time, but they’re still solid through and through.

I can’t listen to everything that was released in 2006, so at the bottom you’ll find the complete list of eligible albums. We start though, with the ten runners-up, listed from 14 to 23: Duper Sessions — Sondre Lerche & the Faces Down, Rabbit Fur Coat — Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins, How We Operate — Gomez, At War With the Mystics — The Flaming Lips, The Garden — Zero 7, Everything All the Time — Band of Horses, We the Vehicles — Maritime, Time Without Consequence — Alexi Murdoch, Half the Time — Pablo, Putting the Days to Bed — The Long Winters

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Top 13 Live Shows of 2006

I saw more than 30 live performances this year, and nearly all of them were excellent. Here’s the best of the best in both music and comedy. First, as usual, the ten runners-up:

Ben Harper at Sasquatch, Ben Folds at The Paramount, Gomez at Easy Street, Guster at Easy Street, Spoon at Bumbershoot

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Top 13 of Television 2006

TV is everywhere now: internet, phones, iPods, DVD, even the television itself—and in all forms: drama, comedy, reality, game show and more. In celebration of the no-limit world of TV we live in now, this is a free-form list of my favorite things on TV of any kind for this year.

First, the ten runners up, in alphabetical order: 24’s Supporting Players (Gregory Itzin, Marylynn Rajskub, Sean Astin, Jean Smart), ABC.com Full Episode Player, CBS.com Innertube, “Get a Mac” ads with John Hodgman & Justin Long, Lost: “Two for the Road,” Pardon the Interruption, Project Runway Season 3, Saturday Night Live Season 1 on DVD, The State Season 1 on iTunes, YouTube

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Top 13 Movies of 2005

2006 has nearly passed, so it’s about time I get around to posting my best of 2005. No, that’s not a typo. I just don’t see as many movies in the theater as I used to. So here, better late than never, is my top 13 list. It’s an eclectic list as usual, filled with blockbuster extravaganzas that actually delivered right along side smaller, more intimate fare.

First, the ten runners-up (listed in alphabetical order): The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Batman Begins, Broken Flowers, Cinderella Man, King Kong, March of the Penguins, Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Squid & the Whale, Wallace & Gromit: Curse of the Where-Rabbit, Wedding Crashers

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Happy Halloween

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