Best of 2005

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m HAPPY to see 2005 go away.  This year my appendix exploded, my brother got thrown from a four-wheeler at high velocity (he’s ok now) and lots of other annoying crap went down.  On the flipside, however, I loved a lot of things in 2005, including my friends, my family, my work, NYC, and the following movies, books, records and shows. 

My 20 favorite records of 2005

As always, I’ll just say that there were probably better records than these released in 2005, but I don’t care.  Sorry Kanye!  I made my choices based on the records I know I listened to the most, which were as follows….

1. My Morning Jacket – Z
2. Feist – Let it Die
3. Engineers – Engineers
4. Songs of Green Pheasant – Songs of Green Pheasant
5. Low – The Great Destroyer
6. Broken Social Scene – Broken Social Scene
7. Mercury Rev – The Secret Migration
8. The Zincs – Dimmer
9. M83 – Before the Dawn Heals Us
10. The Kingsbury Manx – The Fast Rise and Fall of the South
11. Sigur ros – Takk
12. Boards of Canada – The Campfire Headphase
13. Rogue Wave – Descended Like Vultures
14. The Clientele – Strange Geometry
15. Chad Vangaalen – Infiniheart
16. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
17. Antony and the Johnsons – I am a Bird Now
18. Stephen Malkmus – Face the Truth
19. Broadcast – Tender Buttons
20. Foreign Born – In the Remote Woods

my 20 favorite books of 2005

1. The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion
2. Lunar Park – Bret Easton Ellis
3. Budget Travel Through Time and Space (poems) – Albert Goldbarth
4. Indecision – Benjamin Kunkel
5. Save Me – Patrick Ryan
6. Mystery, So Long (poems) – Stephen Dobyns
7. Manstealing For Fat Girls – Michelle Embree
8. With the Beatles – Lewis Lapham
9. Pretty Young Thing (poems) – Danielle Pafunda
10. Oh Pure and Radiant Heart – Lydia Millet
11. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
12. On Beauty – Zadie Smith
13. The Sluts – Dennis Cooper
14. Oh, The Glory of It All – Sean Wilsey
15. The Stewardess is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s – Ron Hogan & Peter Bogdanovich
16. The Glass Castle: A Memoir – Jeannette Walls
17. When I Knew – Robert Trachtenburg
18. The Fabulous Sylvester: the Legend, the Music, the 70’s in San Francisco – Joshua Gamson
19. The Disappointment Artist (essays) – Jonathan Lethem
20. Music Lust: Recommended Listening for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason – Nic Harcourt

my 20 favorite movies of 2005

1. Brokeback Mountain
2. Cache
3. Mysterious Skin
4. Me and You and Everyone Else We Know
5. Capote
6. The Fearless Freaks
7. Grizzly Man
8. Walk the Line
9. The Century of the Self
10. Ballet Russes
11. Match Point
12. Transamerica
13. Look at Me
14. Munich
15. King Kong
16. Thumbsucker
17. The Squid and the Whale
18. Murderball
19. March of the Penguins
20. Hostel

my 10 favorite rock shows of 2005

1. Secret Machines // at their practice space, Brooklyn, NY // 1-25-05
2. Feist // Bowery Ballroom, NYC // 6-25-05
3. Ley Royal Scam // Pussycat Lounge, NYC //  9-15-05
4. The Arcade Fire // Coachella Festival, Palm Springs, CA // 4-30-05
5. The Duke Spirit // SXSW, Austin, TX //  3-18-05
6. The Pixies // Across the Narrows Festival, Coney Island, NYC // 10-1-05
7. Green Day //  Giants Stadium, NJ //  9-1-05
8. My Morning Jacket // Webster Hall, NYC // 10-18-05
9. Mates of State //  Siren Festival, Coney Island, NYC // 7-16-05
10. Sleater-Kinney // Mercury Lounge, NYC // 3-2-05

Here’s to a safe happy healthy 2006.
xo COLE