Travelers Diagram '06 Favorites
Once again, I've put together a few lists of my favorite new (or new to me) music, movies and books. Click the "buy me" link to purchase an item through Amazon (I'll get a tiny percentage of every sale). If you like this page or post a link to it somewhere, can you please let me know at "tim dot paul at gmail dot com"? Special thanks to my wife, Melissa, for inspiring me to put this together.
Note to my friends and fans: I'm in midst of the frustrating and exciting process of learning a bit about Web design. My goal is to relaunch Travelers Diagram sometime in the first part of 2007 (fingers crossed!). In the meantime, please continue to read my del.icio.us links.
Thanks for checking this out. Enjoy.
Music
Presenting this year's top 26 albums. Culled from, I'm not kidding you, something like 1,200 albums downloaded onto my laptop. Listening was like diving for pearls in a septic tank. I won't be doing that again! Here's what I found: lots of sugary pop (B&S, Mates of State, Camera Obscura, Young and Sexy, SLGTM, Like Young); an apparent shoe-gazer revival (Asobi Seksu, Mahogany, Brief Candles); and strong showings from some old favorites (Belle and Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, Sonic Youth) and our favorite New Pornographers soloists. I'm reminded every year that this is not only a highly subjective enterprise, but a flawed one: How do you compare an album first heard this November to one heard 11 months ago? What's better, an album with a unique approach or one that you listen to over and over? Can a band's cover art, Web site, biography or critical reception affect how you think of the music?... Okay, enough solipsizing!
Click the blue triangles to hear the selected songs (and you really should... they're great).
01. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit ("For the Price of a Cup of Tea") [buy me
02. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood ("Hold On, Hold On") [buy me
03. Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies ("European Oils") [buy me
04. Mates of State - Bring it Back ("Punchlines") [buy me
05. Band of Horses - Everything All the Time ("Weed Party") [buy me
06. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country ("Lloyd, I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken") [buy me
07. Saturday Looks Good to Me - Sound On Sound ("Can't Ever Sleep") [buy me
08. Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block ("The Chills") [buy me
09. Young and Sexy - Panic When You Find It ("Without Your Love") [buy me
10. Cat Power - The Greatest ("Willie") [buy me
11. Sunset Rubdown - Shut Up I Am Dreaming ("Stadiums and Shrines II") [buy me
12. Asobi Seksu - Citrus ("Thursday") [buy me
13. Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass ("Beanbag Chair") [buy me
14. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - House Arrest ("Hardcore Pops Are Fun") [buy me
15. Mahogany - Connectivity! ("Supervitesse") [buy me
16. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar ("Prenzlaurberg") [buy me
17. Voices and Organs - Orphanage ("Trees Are Bending Shades to Shapes") [buy me
18. Peter and the Wolf - Lightness ("The Ivy") [buy me
19. The Like Young - Last Secrets ("For Money or Love") [buy me
20. The Walkmen - A Hundred Miles Off ("All Hands and The Cook") [buy me
21. Bears - Bears ("How to Live") [buy me
22. Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped ("Incinerate") [buy me
23. Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - #3 ("Parakit") [buy me
24. Brief Candles - They Live We Sleep ("The Patron Saint of Hopeless Causes") [buy me
25. Envelopes - Demon ("It Is the Law") [buy me
26. Lilys - Everything Wrong Is Imaginary ("The Night Sun Over San Juan") [buy me
Note: For cross-referencing purposes, my corresponding Rate Your Music list is here (with album art).
Movies
Here follows the nine decent movies I saw in the theater this year, including a couple '05 releases. Two documentaries, two Hollywood movies, an Almodóvar pic, some melodrama, a comedy. A mix. There you have it.
01. The New World [buy me
02. An Inconvenient Truth [buy me
03. Little Miss Sunshine [buy me
04. 49 Up [buy me
05. Volver
06. Little Children
07. Marie Antoinette
09. Brokeback Mountain [buy me
10. The Science of Sleep
...and my top 17 '06 Netflix rentals...
01. A State of Mind [buy me
02. The Devil and Daniel Johnston [buy me
03. On the Waterfront [buy me
04. In Cold Blood [buy me
05. West Side Story [buy me
06. Walk the Line [buy me
07. Das Boot [buy me
08. The Wicker Man [buy me
09. Syriana [buy me
10. Good Night, and Good Luck [buy me
11. The Celluloid Closet [buy me
12. Munich [buy me
13. Murderball [buy me
14. The Remains of the Day [buy me
15. Rize [buy me
16. V for Vendetta [buy me
17. United 93 [buy me
Books
Finally, here are 11 stand-out books I read this year (including two published this year). I discovered Philip Roth (genius!), some classics of Brooklyn lit (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, A Drinking Life) and some superb non-fiction (King Leopold's Ghost, The Omnivore's Dilema, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, Take Heart, Naked Airport).
01. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith [buy me
02. A Drinking Life by Pete Hamill [buy me
03. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth [buy me
04. The Human Stain by Philip Roth [buy me
05. King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild [buy me
06. The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri [buy me
07. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (2006) [buy me
08. Field Notes from a Catastrophe by Elizabeth Kolbert (2006) [buy me
09. Take Heart: The Life and Prescription for Living of Paul Dudley White by Oglesby Paul [buy me
10. Naked Airport by Alastair Gordon [buy me
11. Rabbit Run by John Updike [buy me