Choose your Best of 2008!!

I am on a bit of a roll today (two posts in one day after none for eons)

Anyway, as it is the time of the year for awards and look backs, I wonder if you would permit me to give you my 'Best of 2008' and invite you to do the same....
Here then are my suggested categoires and my 1-2-3. Let's have your choices...

BEST GIG OF 2008 ATTENDED

1) The Stranglers - Birmingham Oct

2) The Stranglers - Cardiff Oct

3) Bruce Springsteen - Cardiff

(I saw Strangs 8 times, plus Bruce, Editors, the Pistols and Oasis)

BEST ALBUM OF 2008

1) Glasvegas - Glasvegas. Utterly compelling. The Mary Chain meets Phil Spector meets The Proclaimers. Melodies to die for.

2) Coldplay - Death and All His Friends. I genuinely can't believe I am voting for a Coldplay record - I normally HATE Coldplay. But this happens to be a pretty amazing collection.

3) Hugh Cornwell - Hoover Dam. His best ever solo album. Excellent.

I also liked other 2008 releases by The Gaslight Anthem, The Killers, The Hold Steady Oasis and Keane. I also had the Kings of Leon album for Christmas which sounds pretty funky after a couple of waxings.

BEST FILM of 2008

1 The Dark Knight. I don't normally love superhero flicks but this was outstanding.

2 The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. Loved the book - film made my entire family cry.

3 In Bruges. Fantastic black comedy. Includes THE line of the year - 'you can't give horse tranquilizer to a midget'.

I also enjoyed Spanish horror movie The Orphanage, The Other Boleyn Girl (because it was partly filmed around the corner from my house) and The Quantum of Solace because no-one else seemed to get what was actually a pretty smart movie.

BEST TV SHOW of 2008

1 The Wire. See previous post. Outstanding.

2 The Office. (An American Workplace) Possibly, just possibly, better then the Brit version now. Wonderful characterisation.

3 Match Of The Day. My love of football is as big as ever.

PERSON OF 2008

1 Barack Obama

2 Jet Black (aged 70 and still on a rok-it to the moon)

3 Adrian Chiles (I just like the guy and most people here regard him as my doppleganger!)

THE 'WELL I WOULD'....FANTASY LIST

1 Katherine Jenkins. She may be Welsh but that is the only bad thing I can say about her...

2 The woman who plays Carla in Coronation Street. Defines the word 'foxy'

3 Nigella Lawson. OK, a bit predictable for a man of my age but you've got to admit....

MY PERSONAL HIGHLIGHTS OF 2008

1 Visting Auschwitz - nuff said

2 Interviewing all four Stranglers for their tour programme and seeing the band seven times

3 My daughter doing well in her GCSEs (and yes she would understand being beneath the other two!!)

Right, boys (and gals?) over to you.....

Has anyone else yet got into The Wire?

Hi there Mem Bookers - an an early happy new year t'y'all...

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone else has got into The Wire yet?

It was only shown on an obscure Sky channel - FX - but it has become such a word of mouth classic that I decided to invest in series one after reading about the fifth major national newspaper article saying it was the 'best TV programme ever'. Everyone has been lauding it (including Irvine Welsh, the Trainspotter author) so I thought I'd better check it out myself as I love losing myself in long running box sets...

And, folks, all the hype is worth it. It is brilliant. Utterly brilliant. As an example on Amazon the fourth series (which I am ploughing through) had about 35 reviews the last time I checked and ALL 35 have given it five stars. That never happens.

But once you watch it you know why - because once you watch it you are hooked.

It is basically all about drug dealing in Baltimore and is completley authentic in terms of the language etc. It takes a while to get to grips with that street lingo (most unlike Bath I can tell you), the fact that in some shows not much happens (it is all about character and subtle plot developments) and the bewildering amount of different people involved. It is also refreshingly 'neutral' - not all the police and politicians are good and not all the drug dealers are bad.

Race is often an issue which is ironic because there is simply nothing 'black and white' about the characters - The Wire doesn't do easy stereotypes and isn't very PC.

It is brilliant, classic, unforgettable, original TV. And nothing comes close - no, not even Terry and June.

Go buy!

You (didn't) read it here first!