Between the holidaze and some unexpected year-end work, I've had a bit of trouble focusing to post much this past week. Sorry about that. But I've really wanted to end the year with my more-or-less-annual salute to the cool stuff that's happened - so here goes.
Geopolitics. Aaargh. For months starting with Inauguration Day and continuing through the horrors of Iraq, Darfur, and Katrina, 2005 felt like one long hangover. But things have brightened in recent months, as Katha Pollitt does a nice job of pointing out in this column. (Thanks, Pam.) And Bono and Bill and Melinda Gates being named Time magazine's Persons of the Year for their work in Africa - that's just plain cool. (Now, if only the Gateses could do something about that nasty security hole in Windows ...)
Technology. This was the year - just a month ago, actually - that I made the switch to Mac, along with many others who tired of battling Windows' many demons (chiefly the spyware glut; see above). As a byproduct, I also found Firefox, which is (I think) the only Mac-compatible browser that works with TypePad. Speaking of TypePad, I was very impressed by how they swiftly rebuilt the blogs after a snafu two weeks ago. Now if I could only figure out why my Christmas gift Airport Express base station isn't working to stream iTunes, and why the customer support people at Apple aren't nearly as cool as the company's products, I'd be really happy.
Music. For a few years, several of my chief musical guru friends had been yammering on about Wilco. I foolishly paid no heed. Then I caught the last few minutes of a rerun of Austin City Limits (with the band performing "I'm a Wheel") in spring '05, and suddenly, everything clicked. I spent the rest of the year catching up on the Wilco/Uncle Tupelo/SonVolt catalog, enjoying everything from the heartbreaking Americana of Anodyne to the impressionistic landscapes of latter-day Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost is Born, The Wilco Book CD (thanks Bob), etc. etc. By November, I was buying the new live disc Kicking Television the day it was released. I am a fan for life.
This year, I also dug Elvis Costello live at the Big Easy here in Boise, Beck's Guero, Mary Gauthier's Mercy Now (thanks Tim), and the channeling-mid-'80s-REM Death Cab for Cutie single "Soul Meets Body," though that's already starting to wear a bit thin from overplay. I also belatedly discovered (via my daughter) Green Day's American Idiot and the Gorillaz. I would love to see the all-female Lez Zeppelin tribute band at their Boise gig later next month, but I doubt I'll actually go. My Wilco-loving buddies are now rhapsodizing about The Decemberists, whose Picaresque wound up in my stocking. I am paying better attention.
Movies. I joined the Blockbuster online rental program early this year (yeah, I know Netflix is more PC, but it can't offer the two free in-store rentals per month, which sold me). So I've been watching more films at home than at the theaters. Still, of the stuff I've seen on the big screen, Good Night and Good Luck was a standout, as were Crash and Junebug, both of which were complicated movies that I'm still thinking about.
Books. I finally read To Kill a Mockingbird this year. Somehow, I missed reading the Harper Lee novel in school, but it was by far the greatest book I read in 2005. The runner-up is Greg Kot's book about Wilco, Learning How to Die, which I read in about three hours one summer afternoon. I also enjoyed J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ( ... so I am a little behind ... I got Half-Blood Prince for Christmas), and God's Politics.
Miscellaneous media I like. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. "The Other Studio," an hour of smart rawk talk with Tim Johnstone and Michael Deeds on Boise's 94.9 The River (Sundays at 9 p.m.). Boise Weekly. NPR. iTunes radio. The American Prospect, Ode, Paste, Wired, and UU World magazines. And naturally, all my friends and fellow scribes in the blogosphere.
Happy new year - and happy blue year - everyone!
Julie,
Thanks for a nice wrap-up of the year. I agree with you, the Gates' deserve a big thumbs up for their work in Africa. Probably the single most positive thing a wealthy American has done for the world since Ted Turner gave a billion dollars to the United Nations.
Doesn't make my opinion more favorable of Microsoft's software or business practices though. I know too much about both I guess.
We use Firefox and OpenOffice on our Mac and our PC laptop. Except for Windows and one computer game on our Mac, we are a
Posted by: Chris in Seattle | January 01, 2006 at 08:43 AM
sorry, the last sentence was supposed to be...
"we are a Microsoft-free zone".
Posted by: Chris in Seattle | January 01, 2006 at 08:45 AM
Happy New Year, Julie!
Posted by: Bubblehead | January 01, 2006 at 10:41 AM