It’s the last day of the year, and I’ve been trying to think up some way to sum up my thoughts on 2006. The problem is that I don’t have thoughts on 2006. I was laying in bed last night with a bout of insomnia, squished between Ray and the dog (who likes to take her half out of the middle, if you know what I mean), and it suddenly occurred to me that 2006 was an Olympic year. There were Olympic games, weren’t there? I remember something about Torino and the buzz over a hot young snow boarder who didn’t get any medals. That was such a long time ago…

Anyway.

Personally, 2006 was a fairly decent year. Ray went to Egypt with me (his first ‘real’ trip out of the United States) in the summer, and got to see firsthand why being in charge of a group of people does not in any way resemble a vacation. My folks came another step closer to moving to Austin, which is a good thing. Since I moved to Austin, I seem to only see them once or twice a year, regardless of whether they live in Columbus, Ohio, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, or Memphis. My brother and his girlfriend have settled in Chicago after a little bit of a rocky start to their lives back in the U.S. after several years in Korea. I got what the state of Texas considers a “raise.” And a couple of people that I didn’t enjoy working with at all no longer work at the University.

I started blogging on a regular basis, too. Don’t let’s forget that.

I’ve seen a bunch of lists of things that people enjoyed about this year, so here are my highly subjective picks for the best of 2006:

Best film(s) I saw this year:

Little Miss Sunshine. I understand that a lot of people viewed this as an emperor with no clothes sort of film: a much ballyhooed film that’s a critics darling that just doesn’t deliver in the theater. I know this because that’s Ray’s opinion of it.

For me, I haven’t laughed so hard at a movie in a long time. I enjoyed every single minute of it, and I may have to break down and purchase it on DVD.

The other contender, Volver,which I expect to enjoy highly as well, hasn’t opened in Austin yet, so that will go in the 2007 list.

I also greatly enjoyed Casino Royale, not that I think it was the best film of the year. Another movie that circled me due to circumstance before I finally got to see it is an Egyptian film called The Yacoubian Building.

The book has just gotten a wide release in the U.S. — naturally this was after we had to comb Cairo to find a copy in English because every bookstore kept selling out (it’s been out in Arabic for years). It got to the point where we started acting on rumors that a small mom-and-pop store in a distant neighborhood might have a copy with a torn cover hidden under the counter.
The Yacoubian Building was the biggest budget film ever made in Egypt, with a budget of 30 million Egyptian pounds (about $5 million), and the production values shine through. In Egypt, both the book and the film are risqué – in the U.S., they’re kind of bland, but one has to bear in mind that issues like corruption, fundamentalism, sexual harassment and homosexuality are taboo in film and literature in Egypt, so the book caused quite a stir — and several of the more religious-minded members of the Egyptian parliament tried to ban the film even while it was playing to packed houses every night. Unfortunately, it’s probably not going to get a wide release in the U.S., which is too bad. The copy I saw wasn’t exactly legal, but enough to get the point …

Best book(s) I read this year:

I’m kind of surprised to find myself glowingly recommending a book like Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. In all honesty, I didn’t actually read this book – it was read to me. I’ve been a huge fan of audio books since I started getting stuck in traffic on a twice-daily basis (and since NPR started turning me into a ranting lunatic).

Shantaram is the story of Lindsey Ford, aka, Linbaba — neither of which are his real name — an Australian bank robber who escaped from prison and eventually makes his way to Bombay, where the story opens. The books spans several years, quite possibly includes every one of Bombay’s millions of residents, has enough organized crime to make The Sopranos look like it belongs on PAX-TV, and is written in an amateurish “I must end every chapter with a profound thought” style — and I loved every single second of it.

We listened from late August till mid-December. I despaired on days when Beverly (my co-worker and carpool mate) and I didn’t ride in together because it wouldn’t be fair to listen to the story without her. It’s the sort of story that makes you laugh out loud, weep a little, and wish it hadn’t ended. I don’t care if the sequel is another 28 hour, 900 page read. I’ll be first in line.

Best Show(s) on Television that I’ve Seen

Do I even need to identify Battlestar Galactica as my pick here?

• Musings about a world on fire (October 9)
• In Galactica, It’s Politics as Usual. Or is it? (October 26)

This has been a pretty decent year in Television. My Runners-up (in no particular order):

• Epitafios (not new, but I watched it this year, and this is my list, so it counts … )
• My Name is Earl. Come on, even my parents like it…

I’m starting to get over Lost, and I’ve still got a wait-and-see attitude about Heroes and Studio 60. I still enjoy Family Guy, even though it jumped the shark a long time ago…

Most indispensable Web site(s):

Wikipedia. It’s still a work in progress, and God knows that it always needs to be double-checked, but as a first stop, Wikipedia is a good pick. Especially if you need to check the spelling in another language…

The New York Times. I know, I know. Rather predictable for me — but I like the New York Times, and I can’t afford to pay for it to be delivered (not that I’m sure they’d even deliver to me in the ‘burbs), so I stick with the online version.

I could take this list further, but I’m running out of steam.

Anyway. I gave up New Year’s resolutions a long time ago, usually because I don’t ever keep them. For those of us who work in academia, August is a much better time to make “new year’s resolutions.” Not that I did then, either.

I hope, however, that 2007 is a more peaceful year than 2006, and that we get ourselves on the road to national reconciliation. This country is quite a factional mess right now, and it would be nice to stop all the name calling and start working together for once. Of course, that’s something I wish every year, and it never comes true, but for the next ten and a half hours, I can hope, can’t I?

Enjoy New Year’s Eve. Be safe. Be happy. And see you in 2007!

(p.s. Before anyone points out that the title of this post is misspelled, let me explain: I read a headline this morning about “Castro gives Cubans New Year’s message,” except that I misread the title as “Castro gives Cubans New Year’s massage,” so I clicked on the article and expected to read something completely different. I mean, he’s going down the hill, so it’s the sort of weird and eccentric thing you’d expect from him, right?)

Tags: battlestar-galactica, bloggers, Books, casino-royale, Epitafios, gregory-david-roberts, little-miss-sunshine, Movies, my-name-is-earl, New-York-Times, shantaram, Television, volver-(film), yacoubian-building