Thanks for a great list of recommendations. I’m about to start listening to Iron & Wine and am keen to hear the Wilco album. Heavy Metal Drummer remains my definitive “I’m feeling happy” song.

It’s also been great to read a few paragraphs from Zoomtard, an Irishman I gather who, like Bono, sees the value of a nom de plume. His blog sabbatical has convinced me that this internet thing is a flash in the pan.

In terms of literary highlights, Fred Buechner’s Secrets in the Dark provided wisdom and sustenance at the end of fractured days. David Remnick’s Reporting showed how a craft can become an art, and proved a uniquely fascinating place creation is – just having the chance to experience reality is a bountiful blessing. Whether writing about Al Gore or Mike Tyson, Remnick documents with a precision which spellbinds the reader without resorting to flourishes.

In cinema, it’s been exciting to see a return to compelling storytelling. Juno starts out with the whimsy of a indie flick but is actually a brilliant story about the bewilderment of teenagerdom and how it doesn’t dissipate one iota when you hit adulthood.

Zodiac was also an epic crime story told with ashamed bravura, interspersed with utterly unironic chills and laughs in equal measure.

Mock me, but I found I Am Legend significantly smarter than the average bear, and Pan’s Labyrinth was perhaps the most successful representation of magical realism on screen yet.

Charlie Wilson’s War was fantastic, and makes me hope all the more that HBO will pick up the West Wing and coax Aaron Sorkin back for a full term.

In terms of new media, I had a go on Call of Duty 4 and am more convinced than ever that I never want to go to war.

I’m itching to see No Country for Old Men.

Here’s to a year of transition and revelation.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

Ok, I need to get out more.

Im with Zoom on In Rainbows, it hit the spot nicely… also i advise making a playlist mixed with OK computer… one song in turn from each starting with OK. (saw it on some web site somewhere)

The National – excellent…. no Neon Bible?
movies… 2 days in paris? Babel?

I’ll have to check out Colossians Remixed since it has both zoomtard and soapbox salivating. I bought the Resurrection tome this year and will read it sometime in the next decade. Look forward to processing it over a pint or ten when we get home.

I’ll give the Radiohead record more time, but I’m not optimistic. And I must check out Rilo Kiley this year since I loved the Jenny Lewis album…

I seriously didn’t see enough movies this year to do a top 5, which is kind of tragic. I could do a top 5 of kids movies and TV shows though…

Booktown:
1. Colossians Remixed.
Maybe in years to come we’ll all laugh and say “What fools we were to get so caught up in all that politics lark” but for me right now, no book has haunted me and excited me as much this year.

2. The Resurrection Of The Son Of God
I re-read this in the summer and it terrified me at times- the paragraphs just lodge in the old noggin cos they are written so well. If I’m ever bed ridden for a while, I think I’ll just spend my time learning the final two chapters off by heart.

3. The Harry Potter book
Cos I am seriously predictable and it was so very fun.

Musicville:
1. Radiohead’s In Rainbows
J! How could you be disappointed. They found melody again. Thom Yorke sings about sex! I thought he had no willy, like Eoin McLove from Fr. Ted. But there he is, singing love songs and here I am, singing along, all the crimes of banal anti-Bush records forgiven.

2. Rilo Kiley’s Under The Blacklight
I think I love Jenny Lewis almost as much as my wife. The voice. It’s a little bit of heaven in my i-river. “Her good looks could have sailed a ship but her will alone could have sunk it”. Amazing

The best film of the year was obviously Lives of Others.

Now I’m off to continue my recuperation from a rather intense and embarrassing hangover.