Gist of the Lists

A few days late, a wallet-full of bucks short, but at least I say and do. You've all likely read Best Of 2006 lists from Ebert, Rolling Stone, and blahblahblah commercial losers while you were sucking the bone marrow out of the last turkey drum stick. Well, time to go beyond the magazine rack at the local "Eee-gah" (that's "IGA" for all you townies who think the "East Coast" equals the shores of T-Not) and get into some real lists, of all the greats you missed, and even the pieces of shit you hoped no one saw you leave behind on the sidewalk after taking out your Labradoodle.

MOVIES

David Denby over at the New Yorker puts together a interesting best of list that combos his fave flicks of last year (e.g., "The Last King of Scotland" with "Blood Diamond"). I have to agree with many of his choices, save for the fact that "Children of Men" is missing (but arguably, due to its staggered release, the Clive Owen sci-fi fest might be an '07 pick).

A shorter, but more interesting overview comes from Kevin Biggers at Filmstew.com. While at first glance, it looks like Biggers is set to slam Scarlett Johansson harder than JT in his new music video (3 movies this year and all came nowhere near the acting calibre she showed off in "Lost in Translation" or "Ghostworld"), he gets into a pretty quirky review of the obscure "best of" in acting, directing, and films in general. His reasoning behind including "Brick" in his top 5 is priceless and needs no further ranting from this Peter Griffin impersonator.

MUSIC

One need look no further than Pitchfork's, um, needle in a haystack (wow, that was an awesome pun) best of 2006 list. If you know more than 15% of the bands listed, you're a) the lead reviewer at Pitchfork, b) a serious speedfreak with cable Internet and a bit torrent program, or c) a dot com millionaire owner of 20 different indie record labels. Don't be afraid - bands like Mastadon can be your friend...

... what else has best of lists?! Books?! TV?! Yeah, I could go there... but this is way funnier:

THE BEST COMPUTER APPLICATIONS OF 2006

I couldn't resist. Check out the, um, Lifehacker blog for a rundown of last year's geek orgy when it came (another pun - awesome) to fondling the latest tech software... by the way, I got halfway through the review of "Google Reader" and had to blind myself with half a bottle of Aquavit just to bring me back to reality. Funniest part of the blog: Geek critics slamming the writer for not including Firefox 2.0 in the list.

Maybe I should have rundown the top 10 adult videos of 2006 instead... oh wait, the awards aren't handed out until next week... seriously.