In two days at work my email count managed to top 350, and the Christmas tree is coming down tomorrow, which must mean that the holidays are officially over. My grand plans for blogging in December, which as originally envisioned would have resulted in at least a dozen entries in the "Great Christmas albums" category, went astray for a variety of reasons. Oh well - something to shoot for next year.
I'll be writing more about it later, but the best Christmas album I bought in 2006 (and one of the best albums I bought, period) was Sufjan Stevens' Songs For Christmas, a 5-CD set collecting the homemade CDs that Stevens created over a period of 6 years to give to family and friends as Christmas gifts. Combining traditional holiday tunes with quirky originals (with titles like Did I Make You Cry on Christmas Day? (Well You Deserved It!) and Come On! Let's Boogie To The Elf Dance!), it blew me away, and is probably the best Christmas album released by a contemporary artist since The Roches' We Three Kings in 1990.
The best album I bought in 2006 (a complete Top Ten list is forthcoming) was Bob Dylan's Modern Times, his third consecutive masterpiece. Rosanne Cash's Black Cadillac was a close second, and how it managed to be left off of Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2006 list is beyond me. The song that will always remind me of 2006 was "Crazy," by Gnarls Barkley.
The best books I read in 2006 were Kate Atkinson's Case Histories, Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, and Michael Connelly's Echo Park.
The best movie I saw for the first time in 2006 was the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice, featuring a luminous performance by Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett.
Resolutions for 2007? None in particular, but here's hoping that there will be more time to put something up on here that at least a few folks find interesting.
Happy New Year!
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