Best of 2006

Geir Arne Brevik, December 10 2006:

Traditions are important, and thus do I hereby present my list of what made 2006 so 2006-ish for me. The soundtrack to this reading experience is listed above. Some of my dear readers have already the CD, some of you will get it for Christmas, but most of you will have to put it together yourself. Anyway, here’s the list!

Movies I’ve loved so much, they might even contend for spots on my “all time best” list

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story – I was a huge Steve Coogan fan before I saw this movie, but it really blew my mind. Cynical, romantic, funny, deadly serious and confusing.
Thank You for Smoking – A lesson in rhetoric that’s not easy to forget.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan – It feels so good to get shocked.

Honorable mention: Reprise, Babel, Stranger than Fiction, United 93, Neil Young: Heart of Gold, A Prairie Home Companion, V for Vendetta, Little Miss Sunshine and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (a very good year!)

Websites that have affected my life, good or bad

YouTube – Spending an evening on YouTube actually became an alternative to an evening in front of the TV. Even though I mainly searched for clips of TV shows.
Underskog – A kind of Myspace for cultural elitists in Oslo. Tickets to concerts and contact with friends have been made through this often annoying site. Annoying, but I love it.
Wikipedia – Maybe it’s me, but this year I’ve started to use Wikipedia almost as much as Google. Sometimes now, lack of knowledge is more a question of it you have looked it up on Wikipedia or not.

Honorable mention: LineRider, Techcrunch, Digg, Twitter and good old BoingBoing.

TV shows that I’ve seen every single episode of, thanks to the wonders of DVD technology

Curb Your Enthusiasm, season 5 – Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good.
Arrested Development, season 3 – Maybe the best sitcom on TV ever. Rest in peace.
Family Guy, season 4 – More jokes per minute than anywhere else.

Honorable mention: Entourage, The Wire and The Office (US).

Bonus: Heat Vision and Jack – the best show that never was.

Three albums that came out this year, and that I’ve listened to over and over

Marit Larsen: Under the Surface – It’s really good. And she’s even better as a country-girl.
Justin Timberlake: FutureSex / LoveSounds – Not as good as the last one, but more than good enough.
Sufjan Stevens: The Avalanche – Not as good as the last one, but more than good enough. Add this year’s best concert to that, and you have a winner.

Honorable mention: For some reason I’ve listened a lot to Wilco’s A.M. (1995) and Elliott Smith’s XO (1998) this year. So they deserve this spot.

Even though I’ve played too few games and read too few books, here are some goodies:

Douglas Coupland: jPod – Scary and funny look at a culture I must accept I’m a part of
Adam Greenfield: Everyware – Scary and tempting look at a future I believe is coming
Phoenix Wright, Ace Attourney (NDS) – The closest I’ve come reading a crime novel this year

Honorable mention: Building Scalable Websites (The Flickr Way) by Cal Henderson. I read quite a few books like this, and this one’s a keeper.

Sporting events that sucked up too much of my time, but with good reason

FIFA World Cup – TV doesn’t get any better than this year’s final, even though (because?) France should have won.
Tour de France – Le Tour is greater than the sum of all its troubles.
The curling tournament at The Winter Olympics in Torino – You don’t get a sport with more sympathetic athletes.

Honorable mention: The International World Rock Paper Scissors Championships. Of course.

Hardware and software that made the year go smooth for a professional geek like me

Apple MacBook – It’s the best computer I’ve had. Kind of important to enjoy the tool you’re using 24/7.
BASH – It’s not new. That’s the whole point. It’s trusty and flexible like nothing else.
Subversion – This year, version control became integrated with my lifestyle (exhales).

Honorable mention: TextExpander, BluePhoneElite and Adobe Photoshop CS 3 beta