Tuesday, December 25, 2007

A final look at 2007

Ahhh....2007, a year in which Britney Spears could do no right, The Sopranos came to a sudden end, and the writers became mad as hell and wouldn't take it anymore.

Some other happenings in '07...

Nancy Pelosi became the first woman speaker of the house; the war in Iraq began it's fifth year; China experienced massive recalls and has some thinking they are trying to kill us with their tainted products; former astronaut Lisa Nowak is arrested; Tony Blair steps down; shooting at the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah; Marie Osmond faints on Dancing With The Stars; the Indianapolis Colts win the Super Bowl; the Virginia Tech massacre; Bob Barker finishes The Price Is Right; Drew Peterson; Martin Scoreses FINALLY wins an Oscar; Live Earth; iphone goes on sale; concert to commemorate Princess Diana dying 10 years ago; two television helicopters collide in Phoenix; I-35W Mississippi Bridge collapses; Sydney goes dark for a global climate change; Barry Bonds hits 756; Marion Jones admits to doping; coal mine collapse in Huntington, Utah; Anna Nicole Smith dies; shooting at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska; California wildfires; Judge Larry Seidlin; Boston Red Sox win again and Queen Elizabeth II becomes oldest ever monarch and televises her 50th Royal Christmas message.

Yes, 2007 was an interesting year; at times exciting and irritating. As the year comes to a close, I've compiled some of my favs and not-so-favs of the year. Enjoy! I did, at times.

Movies: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Atonement are not yet playing in Rochester, however, there are some movies I saw this year that were great. Two of those movies are Once and Away From Her.

Once is the story of a busker and an immigrant who meet and fall in love all the while expressing their feelings through song. The movie is touching, engaging and features some of the best movie music of the year. It stars unknowns and is a little-released and seen film, however, it's definitely one to be seen; especially for those that believe in the power of love at first sight. It's now available on DVD.

Away From Her stars the radiant and beautiful Julie Christie. She's back in a big way as a woman suffering from Alzheimer's. When her husband has her institutionalized, Christie reconnects with a man she used to know making her husband jealous and making the viewer wonder just how cognizant Christie is of what she is doing. Christie turns in a tremendously quiet but powerful performance and Gordon Pinsent, as her husband, is sympathetically moving in actress turned director Sarah Polley's nearly flawless film.

Honorable Mentions:

No Country For Old Men, The Lives Of Others, and Dan In Real Life.

Major disappointments/stinkers of the year: Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World's End, Spider-Man 3, Georgia Rule, I'm Not There, The Darjeeling Limited, and Lions For Lambs.

Music:

If you weren't annoyed by Rihanna's "Umbrella" or Timbaland's "The Way I Are" well you should have been because I was. There were some less annoying songs that were catchy and worth listening to over and over again. Below are just a few.

Canadian alt group Arcade Fire was definitely worth listening to with their critically acclaimed album Neon Bible and Paul McCartney was wonderfully winsome with his release Memory Almost Full.

Singles worth listening to:

No One by Alicia Keys
Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5
Apologize by Timbaland w/One Republic
Shadow Of The Day by Linkin Park


Books:

I really enjoy reading and read a number of fiction and non-fiction books from Barack Obama to Harry Potter. Below my fav fiction and my fav non-fiction.

Non-fiction: The Birthday Party by Stanley N. Alpert. A former US assistant Attorney is abducted at gunpoint on the eve of his 38th birthday. The ensuing story of his imprisonment and the trial is thrilling and vivid.

Fiction: No, not Harry Potter, instead it was A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. A story of two women in Afghanistan whose lives are intertwined and become closer than they ever imagined. An adaptation of Hosseini's first book, The Kite Runner, is currently playing in theaters.

The worst: If I Did It by OJ Simpson; The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold.

TV: Some of the best so far have been Pushing Daisies, Life, Brothers & Sisters and Desperate Housewives, the tornado episode notwithstanding.

The worst includes Heroes, October Road, Prison Break, Big Brother and Samantha Who.

That's it for me in '07. I will definitely write you in '08.

peace,

paul

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