Where to now, my idiot child?

Last post before the holidays and, in all probability, 2008. Seems like a good time to do a year- ender.

Music: Not a great year. As I'm sure I've said before, I'm old and jaded, so finding the latest new shit isn't a huge priority for me. Too much out there and too much of it is crap. Usually, the critics would be a good way to separate the wheat from the chaff, but much of this year's crop of critical favourites can be summed up in one word: "unlistenable." See: Battles, Justice, Panda Bear, Animal Collective, Patrick Wolf. This was also the year of letdowns. Radiohead put out another record and people continued to pretend to care, The Arcade Fire dropped a stinking deuce, The Shins's third record fizzled, The Shout Out Louds released a lukewarm record of Cure covers, The Hold Steady look like they're running out of ideas and Bloc Party put out a record that was jut kinda, sorta okay.

On the positive front, there were some gems. In no particular order my picks for this year are:

• Spoon- Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
• The Long Blondes-Someone To Drive You Home
• Electrelane-No Shouts, No Calls
• M.I.A.-Kala
• LCD Soundsystem-Sound of Silver
• The National-Boxer

Film: For me, this year was all about the films I didn't actually see. If it was critically acclaimed and/or arty, I probably missed it. "No Country for Old Men," "Juno," "Control," "I'm Not There," "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead," "Atonement," "Michael Clayton," "The Savages": missed 'em all. Of The few I did see and liked included:

• The Darjeeling Ltd
• Once
• Zodiac
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Knocked Up/Superbad

Books: Yeah, I didn't read much from this year. This looks like a good list to work from, though.

Life: Big year. New city, new job: really a whole new start. Shaking the dust from the old town has been nothing but good. In fact, it's the best thing I've ever done in my life and it showed me that taking a risk can pay off. That's something I hope to explore more in the new year.

I'm leave for Edmonton this Saturday, so have a great rest of 2007.