IMHO 2005

If there's one thing in common amongst the cacophony of internet opinion, it's the confluence of year-end lists every December. And who am I to buck that trend? Well, I'll do it slightly. In keeping with last year's wildly popular year-end list, (subject to web statistics that will surely prove otherwise) I give you all of the best moments of the best of things from the last year. (Or until I get tired of tracking down links.)

Film

This moment from Batman Begins. A sure contender for the Nobel Prize for Awesome.



Getting someone's opinion on Star Wars Episode III - when she had never seen the other five films: "Well, I had heard of this Luke fellow."

In The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, where Wallace realizes his scientific experiment - Hutch the Rabbit - is starting to display strikingly similar charactersitics: "I do fancy a bit of gorgonzoooooooooola!"



Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers discussing being tired: "Yeah, it could have been the soft mattress. Or the midnight rape. Or the nude gay art show that took place in my room last night. One of those three probably contributed to the lack of sleep."

In No Direction Home, where a Swedish reporter asks Bob Dylan to suck on his glasses. WTF?

Music

Fiona Apple singing "Go out and sit on the lawn and do nothing / it's just what you must do / and nobody does it anymore" on "Waltz." I mean, why don't we do that more? With wireless connectivity I don't see any good excuses.

The cumulative yelps and howls of singer Jim James on My Morning Jacket's album Z, notably the Michael Jackson impersonation at the end of "Wordless Chorus."

Speaking of guttural intonations: that moment on B.R.M.C.'s album Howl where you realize you haven't heard any electric guitars, and you just might be OK with that.

The same sort of thing happened with Dylan. With the exception of "Desolation Row," all the alternative versions of songs on disc two of his No Direction Home CD are all superior to the originals. Isn't that some kind of horrendous production error? He's just lucky people idolized him already.

The trifecta of three great Ryan Adams albums could warrant a post of its own, making it hard to narrow down any one moment I liked. I guess one such time was when I was driving and my unapologetic love for this singer got the better of me and I had "My Heart is Broken" blaring out the windows to a perplexed audience. Guess nobody does hootenannies anymore.

Television

Kate Winslet as a nun being caught in a doubly embarrassing situation on Ricky Gervais' Extras.



Serena Southerlyn, upon being fired as A.D.A. from Law & Order, wondering if it was "because I'm a lesbian?" Say wha? Not only was this plot thread never established or explored, according to the Law & Order crime scene photos book I received as a gift, this was not part of Serena's original character bio.

The fact that the American version of The Office is funny is remarkable because most stuff on TV nowadays isn't. That the show actually comes close to (but does not match) it's British predecessor is amazing. I love this show. But fave moment? It's a toss-up between Michael's gun threat at improv class or Dwight showing his "physical dominance of the office" at the dojo.



That said, Arrested Development was still the best thing on TV, and who could forget the moment where awkward, cousin-loving teen George Michael grappled aloud with Maeby dating rival Steve Holt: "What a fun, sexy time for you." Screw you Fox for cancelling it.

Jack Bauer's idea of "buying some time" involving holding up a convenience store at gunpoint, around hour 3 of his latest circadian ordeal.

Printed Words

Having gone another year without reading the Da Vinci Code. The streak continues!

Realizing in Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go that something extremely shady is going on at the boarding school, but also that the students might just be OK with that.



Any moment with Vinculus in Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

This doesn't exactly fit the list, but it's about a book, so: hearing my co-worker describe how she saw one woman reading the same book all summer long on the bus to work. That book? The Neverending Story.