Adios '05

Some Great Stuff From 2005
MFA folks getting mainstream recognition - Elizabeth Kostova's worked-on-for-part-a-thesis and Hopwood award-winning The Historian was a decent-sized hit (though to me, a bit underwhelming a retelling of the Dracula legend. Whether it was dumbed down for mass consumption I don't know, but there were some themes and ideas hinted at that would've made the novel better had they gotten more "type-time" than the forced romance of the somewhat forgotten narrator and her traveling companion. Besides that, imagine being Simon Kinberg and having your MFA thesis become the movie that gave us celluoid Brangelina. Ah well, it still beats John Grisham's umpteenth lawyer story or Pearl Harbor right?

Aqualung - Again, this is the album that people who gush about how good Coldplay is should really be talking about. X and Y should pay royalties to U2 for copyright infringement--they even eq'd Chris Martin's voice to sound like Bono on "Speed of Sound" (in addition to reusing the riff from "Clocks").

Dredg - Catch Without Arms Alterna-rock/metal that doesn't suck. See also, Coheed and Cambria IV.

The new DVS - Sure, only one track's done...but trust me, it's FIRE.

A History of Violence - Let the nerds watch Star Wars, this movie was far, far, far better.

But all "Best of" crap aside, I myself and just really looking forward to 2006...