Cool Stuff of 2005

With the willpower of a 20-a-day smoker without the habit, I am not keen on New Year's resolutions. For me they tend to make it about as far as lunch-time on day two and before I know it I'm stuffing my face with guacamole and washing it down with some cheap white Muscadet. Sure - this year I would like to lose about a stone in weight, I would like to find more time for myself and I would like to become better at Ultimate. But they are all "likes" and not "must-haves" so the resolution plan is flawed. It all sounded a bit to "Bridgety" for my liking anyway.

So what was cool about 2005? Well it went so bloody fast...and that's kinda cool as a feat of physics. It does have a sickening downside though and that was I don't remember experiencing very much at all. I would like to compile a list of best TV shows, Movies, Books and Gigs of 2005 but the business seemed to consume everything in my life in 2005.

If I think long and hard enough, I do remember really enjoying (and in no particular order):

Top Radio Singles of 2005:

1. Interpol - Evil
2. Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #2 (laika)
3. Devendra Banhart - At The Hop
4. Maximo Park - The Coast Is Always Changing
5. Rufus Wainwright - The One You Love
6. The Fall - Clasp Hands
7. The Decemberists - Sixteen Military Wives

Top Albums of 2005:

1. Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinois

2. Funeral - Arcade Fire

3. Interpol - Antics


4. Elbow - Leaders of the Free World

5. The Decemberists - Picaresque

6. Little Barrie - We Are Little Barrie

7. The Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations

Still missing:

1. The Doves - Some Cities

Top Movies of 2005:

1. Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
2. Batman Begins
3. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
4. War of the Worlds
5. Sin City
6. Anchorman - The Legend of Ron Burgundy
7. Sideways
8. Team America - World Police
9. Garden State
10. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

Still missing:

1. Beyond the Sea
2. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
3. King Kong

Top Gigs of 2005

They all managed to rock out and yet marginally disappoint at the same time. Apart from Brendan Benson who didn't even rock out. It was a lifetime achievement to see Bob Dylan and the Dears were great.

Oops...missed:

1. The Arcade Fire
2. The Doves
3. Interpol
4. Kaiser Chiefs
5. Thirteen Senses

Top TV of 2005

See 2004.

Top Books of 2005

Couldn't live without:

Gayla Trail - The You Grow Girl: The Groundbreaking Guide to Gardening

Douglas Coupland - Eleanor Rigby

In 2005 I was also into:

1. My new Canon 350D
2. Eating home-made Sashimi and living to tell the tale
3. Flickr
4. Visiting Las Vegas
5. Drinking Mojitos
6. Digging in the garden, drying herbs/chillis and recognising our potential for self-sufficiency