Yes, it's that time of decade again, when another cyclic division of linear time passes "Go" - and probably forgets to ask for that $200. And time to look back, as fondly as possible, on the twelve months gone. Or not. I'd planned to post this on New Year's Eve, but 2007 was one of those why-be-bothered years in general.

Plus, I'm in New York for the next week or so and have 1) more free time than usual, 2) decent internet access compared to central Pennsylvania, thanks to ubiquitous wi-fi connections, and 3) little else to do while spending time at Sean's parents' house in Brooklyn. I'm at the keyboard. Let's go.

Politically, it looks as though 2007 was primarily looking forward to 2008 - and the national election which is still 300 odd days away. But who can blame anyone for wanting the Bush administration out of the way as soon as humanly possible? And if that means that we have an earlier primary season than ever before in human history, so be it. Just don't expect me to be very interested. The Bush admin is still doing enough damage that it needs to be monitored as closely as possible - the potential replacements can wait.

So, yeah - the past year saw far too many potentially important people devoting more time to campaigning than actually doing their jobs. And those that weren't preoccupied with their career paths - like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid - were such useless excuses for politicians that they might as well not exist. Indeed, the country would be far better off if neither did exist - their places might be filled by people who could do slightly more than occupy space and waste limited natural resources by sustaining their miserable excuses for human life.

Then again, if they were replaced, it'd probably be by more Democrats - and "Democrat" should soon be appearing in thesauruses around the globe as a synonym for abortive, bootless, counterproductive, expendable, feckless, futile, incompetent, ineffectual, inept, pointless, unproductive, valueless, weak, and/or worthless - and translations thereof in every language that has produced a thesaurus.

The GOP, meanwhile, has spent the year attempting to give new meaning to the words "reckless", "regressive", and "venal" - they can't really further refine the definitions of "avaricious" or "short-sighed", can they? With the likes of Huckabee on the national stage, it remains to be seen whether the definition of "witless" needs to be re-examined.

Enough commentary, on with the lists!

Over-hyped news stories of the year:

1. The "success" of the "surge". Actually, this shouldn't really be considered "over-hyped" so much as wholly invented.
2. The inevitability of Hillary Clinton. Not only do I think she's far from inevitable, this has been going on ever since the Clinton's left the White House. Give it a rest and see what happens.
3. The visit of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. A non-event surrounding a nonentity, surrounded by a lot of nonsense.
4. The unveiling of Windows Vista. *yawn*
5. The arrest of dissidents in Burma. This was more a transparent diversion for Bush's address to the UN than a news item. And, Mr. President, Burma doesn't exist - it's Myanmar. What next? Conflict in Constantinople? Riots in Rhodesia? Panic in Persia?

Over-hyped entertainment stories of the year:

1. The death of Anna Nicole Smith. Under-reported sidelight: Paternity rivals, Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead, had threesomes with Ms. Smith and may have been sometime lovers themselves. TMI: Abscesses of the buttocks were one of the contributing factors to Ms. Smith's timely demise.
2. The sentencing of Paris Hilton. Under-reported sidelight: Dr. Charles Sophy, the shrink who got Hilton sprung from prison due to an undisclosed "medical condition" also testified that she was "not capable of any meaningful participation" in the civil suit brought against her by diamond heiress Zeta Graff. TMI: Hilton's only known "medical condition" is the occasional flare-up from her herpes simplex infection.
3. The Trump-O'Donnell feud. Under-reported sidelight: No one cares about bitch-slapping between a woman whose mouth is larger than her brain and a man whose wallet is larger than his penis - the story was only covered to broadcast the insults they traded. TMI: Everything each said about the other was true.
4. The exploits of Lindsay Lohan. Under-reported sidelight: Nothing about Lindsay Lohan was under-reported. TMI: Lohan kicked off the year by snagging an hors d'oeuvres from a tray at a Hollywood bash, popping it in her mouth, shrieking "This tastes like shit", and spitting it back onto the tray. Classy.
5. The plight of Ellen Degeneres' pets. Under-reported sidelight: Degeneres paid $3000 to have Iggy, a Brussels Griffon, trained to peacefully coexist with cats - to no apparent avail. TMI: Brussels Griffons, notoriously difficult to train, often have chronic eye and respiratory problems. Great: a wheezy dog with runny eyes.

Yes, I omitted Britney Spears - not in the spirit of "leave Britney alone!" though. It's more that watching her descent has been almost as entertaining as an animated short based on a Flannery O'Connor story.

Elsewhere in pop culture...

Albums worth listening to last year:

1. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
2. Kanye West - Graduation
3. Oppenheimer - Oppenheimer
4. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
5. M.I.A. - Kala
6. The Good, the Bad & the Queen - The Good, the Bad & the Queen
7. The National - Boxer
8. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
9. Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
10. Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

Films worth catching last year:

1. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2. Michael Clayton
3. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
4. The Kingdom
5. Eastern Promises
6. Rendition
7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
8. Across the Universe
9. Redacted
10. Gone Baby Gone

Juno would probably be something of a runner-up. I have not yet seen In the Valley of Elah, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, or Away from Her - or Ratatouille.

Meh - that's probably enough for now. Happy New Month.

Tags: duly noted, liszt, media, movie madness, muzik, politburo, pop kulture
humour: reflective