Things to be excited about in 2007:
1.
Absolute loads of new albums from many of my favorite musicians.
-New Patrick Wolf album - "The Magic Position," February 26th in the UK.
-New Willy Mason album - "If The Ocean Gets Rough," March 5 in the UK, March 20 in the US.
-New Bright Eyes album - "Cassadaga," April 9.
-New Rufus album - "Release the Stars," early May.
-New Art Brut album - I don't know the title or when it will be out.
2.
Possible album supporting tours by all of the above. Bright Eyes is already touring in February and March, and Willy Mson is headed to the UK and Ireland for a house tour.
3.
Getting my hands on several albums from last year I haven't bought yet - such as Jarvis Cocker's "Jarvis" and Larrikin Love's "The Freedom Spark," and the single for Patrick Wolf's "Accident and Emergency."
4.
Knowing there's a lot of music I like a lot but am still discovering - like whole world of indie folk and alt.country, and that there will be tons of bands I'm not even aware of right now that will release really good stuff this year, too. And adding to my record collection, now that I have a player.

5.
TRIP TO EUROPE. Spring break. Europe. 'Nuf said.

Things to be a little freaked out about, 2007:
1.
Turning 20, and therefore not being a teenager anymore. Heck.
2.
Stopping with the being "undeclared" and becoming an art history major. And trying to figure out if I want to double with something.
3.
Deciding where I'm going to go abroad in spring 2008.
4.
Finding a good job this summer.


Er... yeah. 2007!

My favorite movies I saw this past year. I tend to take a long time to see movies, so I saw a lot more 2005 releases this year than I did 2006 ones. So they're sorted into three categories depending on if they were released in 2006, 2005, or before. They are not ranked by how much I liked them, but they're vaguely in the order of when I saw them.

Released 2006:
Talladega Nights
Little Miss Sunshine
The History Boys (I technically did not see this one in 2006)

I know Marie Antoinette and The Queen belong on this list, but I haven't seen them yet.

Released 2005:
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Memoirs of a Geisha
Breakfast on Pluto
The Chumscrubber
Thank You for Smoking
Transamerica
L'Enfant

Released Pre-2005:
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Edukators
Danny Deckchair
Männer wie wir (Guys and Balls)
Captain Blood
A Hard Day's Night
Crazy (which I would have enjoyed a lot more if it had been blessed with English subtitles.)


My favorites of the above would be The History Boys, Thank You For Smoking, Breakfast on Pluto, Talladega Nights, and Little Miss Sunshine.

It seems I didn't watch many sad movies this year. That was probably a good, if fairly sub-conscious, choice on my part.

Oh, and by the way, the worst movie I saw this year was The Break-Up. That thing is a blight upon the Earth. The second worst was Tropical Malady, simply because I still have no idea what the hell was happening, and it was incredibly boring. The Love Eterne was also one of the most painful things I have ever had to sit through, but it was for a class. Otherwise, I'd never have had the experience of 2 hours of melodrama and dirge-like singing. But I can't blame it, really; it's Chinese opera, and it was made in 1963. Still. If anyone ever asks you to see it, run in the other direction.

Finally!
The end of last week was crazy. I am over it now, and ready to post these. Took me long enough.

Favorite Books Read in 2006, Fiction:
The Thursday Next books, Jasper Fforde
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
At Swim, Two Boys, Jamie O'Neill (begun in 2005)
The Charioteer, Mary Renault
The Persian Boy, Mary Renault

Favorite Books Read in 2006, Non-Fiction and Memoir:
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest To Become the Smartest Person in the World, A. J. Jacobs
Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story by Chuck Klosterman
Strangers: Homosexual Love in the Nineteenth Century, Graham Robb
You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons - The World on One Cartoon a Day, Mo Willems
In Ruins, Christopher Woodward

My favorite books of the year, in all, would probably be The Persian Boy and In Ruins.

This list is really heavy on gay literature and humourous things. In matter of fact, there in all are only two things on the two lists that don't fit in either category.
I guess this is because I read so much for school when it comes time to read for myself I pick up what I know I'll really enjoy. This equates to gay lit, humour, and fantasy. In Ruins was just a happy, happy accident.

Things I need to do: Top 10s, Year Re-cap... but right now, meme-ity-memes.
I'm watching Degrassi. Eeee. So bad. Good stuff.

Meme 1.
List the "current music" that was playing when you wrote the first entry of every month this year. (If there was no music for the first, find the first one that had a song listed.)

January: Something in a NPR podcast
February: mp3 Blog Sturff.
March: "Danny Boy" Rufus Wainwright
April: Death Vessel "Mandan Dink"
May: Jill Scott
June: Last.fm player
July: Black Bear "I Believe In Immediacy"
August: internet radio skipping (didn't know that happened, didja?)
September: "Skip Divided" and the rest of The Eraser - Thom Yorke
October: a song about rain
November: Sufjan Stevens
December: Sufjan! Christmas!

Now the same thing... with moods
January: tired
February: cheerful
March: calm
April: hungry!
May: eh
June: content
July: okay
August: mixed; bored but pleased
September: tired
October: groggy
November: optimistic about democracy
December: tired