Best Records Of 2006

The wailing, the gnashing of teeth is over. I have chosen my top 10 records of 2006.

They are:

1. All The Roadrunning-Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris
2. Behind The Levee-The Subdudes
3. Song Of The Blackbird-William Elliott Whitmore
4. The Trials Of Van Occupanther-Midlake
5. Corinne Bailey Rae-Corinne Bailey Rae
6. Dog Problems-The Format
7. The Warning-Hot Chip
8. Allright, Still-Lily Allen
9. American V-Johnny Cash
10. People Gonna Talk-James Hunter

Bubbling under ...

Worrisome Heart-Melody Gardot
Funnel Cloud-Hem
Tired Of Hanging Around-The Zutons
St. Elsewhere-Gnarls Barkley
We Are The Pipettes-The Pipettes

My Other Blog

The Christmas season has inspired a lot of movies and TV specials, religious and secular, good and bad, over the years. Everyone knows the various versions of A Christmas Carol, and It's A Wonderful Life. For kids of all ages there's A Charlie Brown Christmas, of course. But in 1996, I missed the showing of the made-for-TV movie The Christmas Tree. Apparently, a lot of people did see it, however, and still rave about it, although it hasn't been seen on TV since nor released on DVD.

It starred Julie Harris, Andrew McCarthy, and was directed by Sally Field, based on a book by Julie Salamon. Maybe there's a good explanation for its unavailability; if so, I'd like to hear it. And, so, my quest to rescue this film from obscurity begins with a blog. Check it out!

Chained Melody

Wal-Mart is one of those American institutions some people just love to hate. San Diego has shut the door on any opening their doors there, to protect local establishments and to protest their wage scale. It may be that some bloom is off the rose: the store chain's profits are down in a quarter for the first time in 10 years. I haven't been in one in a few years, because I have a wide variety of retail choices where I live. But I can't deny that using economies of scale in buying things (whether toothpaste or now, generic drugs), allows many of their customers to stretch their dollars.

And so we come to the typical American's love/hate relationship with chain stores, the subject of an article in the December 2006 issue of The Atlantic magazine by Virginia Postrel (former editor of Reason). We love the lower prices, the better hours and locations, and the wider choice of goods usually provided by chain stores. But she doesn't worry about how shopping at a Starbucks, Target, or Macy's in any location in the country can alter how we perceive a place:

Stores don’t give places their character. Terrain and weather and culture do.

Her argument is pretty convincing. Besides, I have little doubt that a hundred years ago, there were some people who welcomed, say, Woolworth's to their town, and others who fretted. Like Horn & Hardart, Two Guys, Best Products, and lots of other retailers, it didn't change to fit conditions, and disappeared from the scene. Someday, maybe Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and the Olive Garden will as well.

I Know It's Just Hollywood But ...

There are those moments in many sci-fi or action movies & TV shows when something happens that causes me to just shake my head, or even laugh. This isn't just ships moving through space with a "woosh" sound I'm talking about, I mean plot contrivances that completely violate the laws of physics. From Armageddon to The Core and the Tom Cruise/Stephen Spielberg version of The War of the Worlds, there enough examples out there to give Albert Einstein a splitting headache.

Two of the best places to go to on the Web for review of the bad science on display in major movies are: Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy and Intuitor's Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics.