2006 Year In Review

Today is the day when the most over-hyped holiday of the year comes around ... New Year's Eve. This year, I'm going to open a bottle of wine, light a stogie and go to bed well before midnight - with pride. No standing out there at 2 AM with no buzz left trying to hail a cab for this guy.

But I digress.

2006 was a notable year for me personally, to say the least. I got married, made a significant career move, and saw changes on the family front as well. In terms of pop culture, it was pretty significant as well. Here's my list of the live shows, albums, movies, DVDs, and books that either took place or released over the last 365 days which I enjoyed the most.

I also read, listened to or saw things that were created in years other than 2006, but for the purposes of this post, I'm keeping it to the last year. Each item listed below, as well as ones from years previous (say, for instance, the book "Tommyland" by Tommy Lee) has been reviewed on this blog. So, if you want to read what I have to say about all of them, just do a little search of the archives by going to "Edit" on your toolbar, then "Find On This Page" with the word "Review" in the search engine and just go from there.

(Keep in mind that these are by no means what I consider to be Oscar or Grammy-worthy, but rather, just what I enjoyed the most. Doesn't mean I consider them to be high art.)

In no particular order:

Live Shows:

Alice Cooper, Cornwall, ON, October
Allman Brothers Band, Niagara Falls, ON, June
Eddie Turner, Ottawa, ON, April
Live/Nelly Furtado, Ottawa, ON, July
Toby Keith, Syracuse, NY, August
Brad Paisley/Carrie Underwood, Greenville, SC, November
Calexico, Ottawa, ON, July
Cowboy Mouth, Greenville, SC, December
Rocketface, Ottawa, ON, December
Storm Large, Ottawa, ON, October
Dilana and Magni, Ottawa, ON, October
Nashville Pussy, Ottawa, ON, September

Albums:

Kid Rock - Live Trucker
Joe Satriani - Super Colossal
David Gilmour - On an Island
The Black Crowes - Lost Crowes
Gov't Mule - High and Mighty
Def Leppard - Yeah!
Rebel Meets Rebel - S/T
Keith Urban - Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing

Concert DVDs:

Whitesnake - Live ... In the Still of the Night
Judas Priest - Live Vengeance '82
Rush - Rewind
KISS - Kissology 1974-1977
Pink Floyd - Pulse

Movies (Viewed in the Theater):

Thank You for Smoking
Mission: Impossible 3
Little Miss Sunshine
Borat
Blood Diamond
Jackass Number Two

Movies (Viewed on DVD):

United 93
The Matador
V for Vendetta
Poseidon

Books:

The White Man's Burden - William Easterly
While Europe Slept - Bruce Bawer
America Alone - Mark Steyn
Londonistan - Melanie Phillips
The J Curve (review forthcoming) - Ian Bremmer
The President, The Pope and the Prime Minister - John O'Sullivan
The West's Last Chance - Tony Blankley
Do As I Say, Not As I Do - Peter Schweizer
Guests of the Ayatollah - Mark Bowden
Life on Planet Rock - Lonn Friend

Once again, thanks for stopping by and rest assured I'll be bringing you more reviews over the next year. In the meantime, be sure to get out there and support creativity wherever you are, because if it's not profitable for people to produce it, they'll stop - and that would suck.