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December 31, 2004
2004 Favorites
Because the world is filled with more than albums, here are some of the things that made me happy in 2004:
Favorite EP: The Tain, by the Decemberists. The band gets downright proggy with their interpretation of an 8th century Celtic poem.
Favorite Live Show: The Drive-By Truckers at the 40 Watt, August 27th. The first night of a two-night release party for The Dirty South, the band puts on a signature show with three hours of three guitar rock and roll. The band's live DVD of these shows will be a welcome reminder of the good music and good times.
Favourite Blog That Makes Me Consider Expatriating: Chromewaves. Frank's engaging Toronto show reports make Toronto look very appealing (until he mentions the weather).
Favorite Online Radio Stream: No Love For Ned gets much love from me. The eclectic weekly stream introduced many smaller label artists to me, and the weekly in-studio guests are a magnificent, intimate bonus.
Favorite Mix CD: Any mix from Max at Lotsofco. Max and I often trade mix CD's, and his mixes of pop and dance tunes (often filled with mashups and remixes) are inspired and open doors to music I ordinarily wouldn't hear (which makes the perfect mix disc for my mailbox).
Favorite Music Forum: Just when you thought that The Last Plane To Jakarta couldn't get better, the site added a forum and a thoughtful and intelligent (and often irreverent) community came into being.
Favorite Q&A Discussions: Ask Metafilter. The questions are varied, but no matter what you ask, someone in the MeFi crowd is bound to have the answer. Ask Metafilter has proved invaluable as we added our first two cats this year.
Favorite New Toy: My iPod, of course.
Favorite Game: Football Manager 2005 and NHL Eastside Hockey Manager 2004 (a tie). Both these games make up most of my computer gaming time, and are loaded on both my iBook and media server. Produced by the programmers of the famed soccer sim, Championship Manager, they are excellent sports simulations that are highly addictive. An especially added plus is the availability of a mac version of both games.
Favorite Book: Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides. The book I enjoyed more than any other this year, it also introduced me to the work of a talented author...
Favorite People: everyone who reads Largehearted Boy. The interaction with readers is a major reason I keep up the site, and your suggestions and comments have opened my eyes and ears to treasures in music, literature and film. Thank you for reading and being an integral facet of the site.
