2006 Capsule III: My Year in Tune

As best I remember (I have no records of this), I added four new CDs to my collection this year:

1. A Hard Day’s Night by The Beatles (originally released in 1964; and I recently saw the movie). Thanks, Aunt Carolyn.

2. A ripped Dragonfish by The Yale Whiffenpoofs. Thanks, Brian.

3. A ripped Rock Swings by Paul Anka (released in 2005, I think it was given to me in 2006 . . .)
and
4. Despite Our Differences by The Indigo Girls (released in 2006). Thanks, Lisa.

5. And the Thank You For Smoking original soundtrack, featuring: "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette" by Tex Williams; "Greenback Dollar" by The Kingston Trio; and "Little Organ Fugue" by The Swingle Singers. Thanks, Lisa and Meliss.

Once again, most of the new tunes that found their way into my brain came to me from the soundtracks that loop through the “offices” where I work on my dissertation (Quizno’s, Potbelly, that Irish place . . . ). Here are a few of the memorables that ended up sticking to the walls in that fashion this year:

1. "Catch My Disease" (originally released in 2005) by Ben Lee

2. "Throw Down Your Arms and Come" (2005) by Sinead O’Connor

3. "Louisiana Bayou" (2005) by the Dave Matthews Band

4. "Maybe" by Emma Bunton (2003). This this is not one I’m proud of, but once it got in there, it wasn't coming out.

Then these came to me from Saturday Night Live—one of the rare occasions in which the music was better than the sketches:
5. "Put Your Records On" (2006) by Corinne Bailey Rae and
6. "Like a Star" (2005) by Corinne Bailey Rae.

The musical highlight of the year was listening to a collection of Wiggleworms tunes recorded for Emilio by Fernando and enjoying a nightly karaoke ritual with Emi. "Born to be Wild" and "I Got You Babe" were our favorites.

Peter Gibson and I also blasted our way through a rousing rendition of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” that will not soon be forgotten by any who witnessed/endured it.

2006 Capsule II: My Year on the Tube

Best Feature Film I Caught on the Cable Rebound
Teacher's Pet (2004). Delightful animated confection featuring the comic stylings of Nathan Lane.

Best Use of Netflix
A Nicole Holofcener Film Festival (inspired by 2006's Friends with Money) featuring 1991's Walking and Talking and 1996's Lovely and Amazing. I’d seen Lovely and Amazing before, but appreciated it even more this time. Director Holofcener and actress Catherine Keener make a good team.

Best Made for TV Movie
Elizabeth I. Helen Mirren rocks as a randy royal.

And these were my DVR Regulars in 2006
1. The Sopranos: Part One of Season Six (HBO). Tony begins the season in a coma. Vito comes clean about his secret life. A. J. is an idiot.

2. Meet the Press (NBC). This show is barely hanging on. I’m starting to find Russert to be tedious. He usually fails to get his interview subjects off of their canned talking points. I usuallly surf the web while listening to this one.

3. This Week (ABC). George does a good job cutting through the bullshit. The roundtable is generally the best part, although I find Cokie Roberts to be smug and I don’t like the gang condescends to The Nation's Katrina Van den Heuvel. George Will is articulate advocate of points of view I disagree with.

4. The Daily Show (Comedy Central). I still like the newsy opener best, but I’m starting to like the silly features more. The interviews—especially those with celebrities—are often a waste of time. Peter O’Toole and Harry Frankfurt (author of On Bullshit) were recent embarrassments.

5. Ebert and Roeper Show. Due to an illness, Ebert actually stopped appearing in the show over the course of the summer and a series of guest hosts have replaced him. A.O. Scott, Kevin Smith, and Aisha Tyler have been the best fill-ins. Even though experience has repeatedly proven to me that I can’t expect to like the films that E&R give two thumbs up, I keep coming back and occasionally get sucked in.

6. Saturday Night Live. Chris Parnell was executed this year and I’m not happy about it. Kristen Wiig’s star continues to rise, though. I don’t miss Horatio Sanz.

The Most Memorable SNL Sketches included:
Chris Parnell in a non-speaking role at a pirates convention (for Parnell-ophiles only) and as Tyler, the money patient in the Appalachian Emergency Room. This year, Tyler has to explain how a canister of Axe Body Spray found its way into his nether regions. If he moves in a certain way, he claims, he "can still make it spray." And finally as Tato the houseboy for Noony (Fred Arnisen) and Nuni (Maya Rudolph) in an episode hosted by Natalie Portman. This year Tato serves the Noony family a treat: melted ice cream, which he sucks up through a straw and then spits into their mouths. Parnell also lights up the Fire Alert 3000 commercial advertising a Fire Alarm that plays great hits from the ‘80s.

Will Forte as an overly enthusiastic lead singer of a local rock band performing the new theme song for a Minnesota morning news/talk show: Duluth Live! Forte also returns as Ken Mortimer in one of my long-time favorite sketches: The Falconer, which usually begins with a voice-over narrator explaining how “In 1992, Ken Mortimer was an advertising executive in Baltimore, Maryland. Then, for reasons known only to him, he left his wife and career, and moved deep into the forest. Now, he is known only as ... 'The Falconer.'” The Falconer’s falcon is called Donald and the show usually ends with Mortimer, crying out “Oh, you are a true friend, Donald... Hopefully, one day we can return to society. But until that day, you will be the Falcon.. .and I will remain. . . [Announcer V/O cuts in]: 'The Falconer'!
This year, when Kevin Spacey hosts, The Falconer uses a time machine to go back in time to save his own life.

Kristen Wiig—who has really become the star of the show—makes for a good uptight office worker in Introverts Night Out sketch (as when Linday Lohan hosted); she did a nice turn in “Crazy Mountain Man” starring Lost heartthrob Matthew Fox; she breaks Emilio up with Aunt Linda’s film reviews; and she tagged well with Alec Baldwin in an “Awkward Carpool” sketch that Mari loved.

And Amy Poehler tagged well with Baldwin in a hilarious ad for Valtrex, a genital herpes cream.

BEST SNL HOSTS

Honorable Mentions go to:

Peter Sarsgaard scored reading a newspaper alone in the dark. Nude.

Matt Dillon did a solid Rod Serling on the Vincent Price St. Patrick's Day Show.

Silver Medals to:
Justin Timberlakem who did well co-starring in a video segment with Andy Samberg: "Dick in a Box" and in "The Barry Gibb Talk Show" with Jimmy Fallon (in a surprise cameo).

And to Natalie Portman, who showed well in the video "A Day in the Life of Natalie Portman," which depicted as a hard core ass-kicker. She also had a nice turn as the daughter of Noony and Nuni.

And The Golds go to:

Alec Baldwin, who, in addition to his effective tag teams with Wiig and Poehler, mentioned above, did his usual fine job in "The Tony Bennett Show."

And to John C. Reilly was hilarious in a three-part "MacMillan Family Moment," trying to pass on his precious method of eating Oreo cookies. He also made an excellent racist re-enactor at Colonial Williamsburg.

2006 Capsule I: Books, Arts, Celebs

So it’s capsule season again—year two of the Blog Era--the much-anticipated time of the year when I drop an account of my experiences and preferences of the previous calendar year into digital formaldehyde and patiently wait for it to become interesting, surprising, and/or quaint. I've already rolled out the most memory-worthy news events of 2006. In this installment, we get a little more personal, naming the best book I read (for fun) in the previous year, a record of my interaction with the world of the arts, and my favorite celebs (the kind of people I'd want to see on a talk show or wouldn't mind getting stuck in an elevator with). In coming days, you can look for entries on my year in tune (music) and my year on the tube (TV).

I. Favorite Book

March by Geraldine Brooks. A fascinating, artful imagining of the experiences of Mr. March, father to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, during the Civil War and prior to his marriage to Marmee. My enjoyment of this fine, suprising novel was enhanced by my knowledge of Bronson Alcott, Louisa May's father, who was the model for Alcott's Mr. March (that's a sketch of Bronson at right, made by his daughter May).

II. Memorable Arts Events—Theater, Art Exhibits, Museums, Concerts

It was not much of a year for theatre and museums. I saw and enjoyed Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind with Gerardo and Gimena. And I saw Jack in Orphans, which was not the kind of play I tend to go for (contemporary, realist, relationship drama), but Jack was good.

Mari and Emilio and I enjoyed picnic concerts in Millenium Park with the Gibsons (pianist Marc-Andrè Hamelin and the Grand Park Orchestra: Chabrier's Danse slave, Saint Saens' Piano Concerto No. 4, and Franck's Symphony in D Minor) and Gerard and Gimena (Carlos Kalmar conducts: Villa Lobos: Choros No. 10, Ramirez's Misa Criolla, and Estevez's Cantata Criolla). The music was good, the food tasty (Park Grill hamburgers--Chicago's best), the company was great, and, as always, the open-air Pritzker Pavilion, changing colors as the sun sets, was awesome.

We joined the Gibsons at the Children's Museum on Navy Pier--my first visit--and I had a lot of fun constructing foam helicopters and building plastic water fountains.

We also made a trip to Ravinia with the Gibsons to see Sweet Honey in the Rock and Ladysmith Black Mambazo and that whole experience--the train ride, the laughs, the glow sticks, the music--was probably my arts event of the year.

III. FAVORITE CELEBS
A. Male

1. Stephen Fry (born in 1957 in London). Charming and clever as host at the 2006 BAFTA, also scored a meaningful albeit small role in V for Vendetta.

2. Billy Bragg (also born in 1957 in London). I haven’t heard from Billy this year, so this is a nostalgia choice for the world's most famous Marxist pop star. And did you know he once hugged me?!?!

B. Female

1. Catherine Keener (born in 1960 in Miami). The 40-Year-Old Virgin has started to grow on me, I rediscovered the glories of Lovely and Amazing this year and enjoyed Catherine’s turns in Walking and Talking and in Friends with Money for the first time in 2006.

2. Kelly MacDonald (born in 1976 in Glasgow). I enjoyed finding MacDonald in a small role in Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth and in an unexpected turn in Nanny McPhee and in A Cock and Bull Story.

State of the Union/State of the World 2006

For the second year in a row, here's my alternative State of the Union: a look back at 18 stories that mattered most in 2006.

1. In January, the radical Islamic group Hamas won a surprising 76 of 132 seats in Palestine's parliamentary elections, unseating the Fatah Party. On April 17th, Hamas said a suicide bomb attack in Tel Aviv, which killed nine, was justified. In June, it was reported that an Israeli artillery shell killed at least seven civilians who were picnicking on a beach in Gaza. Hamas subsequently declared that it would no longer abide by a 16-month-old cease-fire and fired a rocket into Israel. After the abduction of an Israeli soldier in July, Israel bombed Gaza's main power plant, two bridges, and the offices of Palestine's prime minister and interior minister.

2. In February, conservative Samuel Alito was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, replacing Sandra Day O’Connor.

3. In March, the U.S. Supreme Court voted to refuse Puerto Ricans the right to vote in U.S. Presidential elections.

4. In March, the Basque separatist group ETA declared a permanent ceasefire. They broke that ceasefire on December 30 with a car bomb attack at Barajas International Airport in Madrid that killed two Ecuadorian immigrants.[3][4]

5. Also on December 30th, Saddam Hussein was hanged.

6. In April, The Massachusetts legislature voted to make health insurance mandatory for all state residents by July 2007.

7. Also in April, the United States announced that it would free 141 of the 490 inmates then being held at Guantanomo. As of November 2006, only 55 of these detainees had been freed. Of the remaining 435, 110 have been labeled as "ready for release. " Of the other 325, "more than 70" will face trial, according to the Pentagon. That leaves about 250 who may be held indefinitely.[6] In a related story, it was reported in June that the Pentagon has decided to remove a reference to Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions-- the one that bans torture and cruel treatment as well as "outrages on personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment"--from a new edition of the Army Field Manual on interrogation. And in October, Bush signed the Military Commissions Act sent to him by Congress, which suspends the right of habeas corpus for terrorism suspects and grants immunity to CIA interrogators and government officials, such as President Bush, for violations of the War Crimes Act. [NYT][Chicago Sun-Times] A United Nations official claimed that the United States has become a role model for prisoner-abusing governments around the world.[Washington Post]

8. By the end of May, the International Rescue Committee estimated that 3.9 million people have died from war-related causes since conflict began in the Congo in 1998, making it the world’s most lethal conflict since World War II.

9. In June, an Islamic militia took over Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, routing U.S.-backed warlords. On December 25th, Ethiopia (with tacit support from the U.S.) declared war on the insurgent Islamist militia.[9] The photo at left shows Islamic militia casualties in Somalia (it has been reported that 1,000 were killed).

10. In July, the world-trade talks known as the Doha round broke down over agriculture policies because the EU won’t give up their agricultural tariffs and the U.S. won’t cut back its farm subsidies. Bad news for West African farmers.

11. A September article published by the official UN News Service states that " over 400,000 people have lost their lives and some 2 million more have been driven from their homes"[77] since armed conflict began in the Darfur region of Sudan in July of 2003. Last January, the working U.N. estimate of deaths in Darfur was 180,000.

12. In July, war erupted between Hezbollah and Israel after the Lebanese militia crossed the Israeli border and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel countered by bombing Lebanese roads, bridges, power stations, fuel depots, ports, and airports, killing numerous civilians. Hezbollah guerillas fired several hundred rockets into towns in northern Israel and Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah (that's Nasrallah in the photo at right) boasted that his forces were inflicting "maximum casualties.” Eventually, Hezbollah accepted a U.N. ceasefire resolution, agreed to allow Lebanese and U.N. troops to serve as peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, and declared victory in the 34-day war. In October, Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon, and in December one million Hezbollah supporters rallied for the ouster of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

13. Felipe Calderon, candidate of the conservative Institutional Revolutionary Party, was apparently elected president of Mexico in July, though Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist mayor of Mexico City, refused to concede (that's Calderon on the left in the photo at right and Obrador on the right). In December, "donnybrooks and yelling matches" preceded Calderon’s four-minute swearing-in ceremony.

14. In October, North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb.[BBC News]

15. In the November mid-term elections in the U.S., six incumbent Republican senators were defeated and the Republican Party lost its majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, giving Democrats control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1995.

16. Following the midterms, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resigned, and to replace him President Bush nominated Robert Gates, a member of the Iraq Study Group and former head of the CIA, who was investigated in 1991 by the office of the independent counsel for his role in the Iran-contra scandal, and was suspected to have passed military intelligence to Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

17. On November 23, two hundred fifteen people were killed in a massive bombing and mortar attack on a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad, marking Iraq's largest single-day death toll since the U.S. invasion. The killings prompted Shiite militiamen to seize and burn alive as many as twenty-four Sunnis. As of January 9, 2007, 3,018 U.S. Armed Forces have died in Iraq since 2003; 806 of these U.S. soldiers died in 2006 (as opposed to 904 in 2005 and 958 in 2004). Meanwhile, The United Nations reported that 34,452 violent civilian deaths occurred in Iraq 2006, based on data from morgues, hospitals, and municipal authorities across Iraq.[3] By comparison, the Iraq Body Count Project gives totals of 24,500 civilian deaths in 2006, [4] and 55,000 since the U.S. invasion of 2003, while the Lancet survey of mortality forwards a much higher total of approximately 370,000 deaths in 2006, [5] and 655,000 total excess deaths in Iraq from the U.S. invasion in 2003 until the summer of 2006. The Lancet study's figure of 655,000 is based on surveys and sampling methods and includes those due to increased lawlessness, degraded infrastructure, poorer healthcare, etc. [2] The Iraq Body Count (IBC) project's figure includes civilian deaths due to insurgent/military action and increased criminal violence, but the IBC warns that the figure is low since "It is likely that many if not most civilian casualties will go unreported by the media." [1]

18. Muriel Spark, author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961), and Augusto Pinochet, author of the deaths of 3,000 Chilean dissidents and the torture of 30,000 more, died.