Happy New Year

Have a good last night of 2008. I never got around to the achievement awards or Shameful Events list last year, but I hope to get that up by the weekend.

Top Ten Films of 2008 (mine)

1. “The Dark Knight”
2. “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”
3. “Milk”
4. “Rachel Getting Married”
5. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
6. “Frost/Nixon”
7. “The Visitor”
8. “Man on Wire”
9. “Wall-E”
10. “Dear Zachary”
Honorable Mention: “Valkyrie,” “In Bruges,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “The Pineapple Express,” “Burn After Reading,” “Be Kind Rewind,” “The Bank Job,” “Iron Man,” “The Wackness,” “Synecdoche, New York,” “Young@Heart,” “Definitely, Maybe”

Top Ten TV Shows of 2008 (mine)

1. “The Shield” (FX)
2. “Mad Men” (AMC)
3. “The Wire” (HBO)
4 (tie). “The Daily Show”/”The Colbert Report” (Comedy Central)
6. “How I Met Your Mother” (CBS)
7. “The Paper” (MTV)
8. “Saturday Night Live” (NBC)
9. “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (FX)
10. “Morning Joe” (MSNBC)

Top Five Albums of 2008 (mine)

1. Vampire Weekend, “Vampire Weekend”
2. Coldplay, “Viva La Vida, Or Death and All His Friends”
3. The Hold Steady, “Stay Positive”
4. Soundtrack, “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist”
5. Lil Wayne, “Tha Carter III”

Top 40 Products of 2008 (my magazine’s)

E-Gear gives us the top 40 gadgets of the year.

Crime Time

The last consumer electronics retail crime roundup of the year is online at Dealerscope.com

Good to Know

The other day, Brandeis University’s newspaper, the Justice (both my alma maters)sent out an e-mail blast re-assuring us all that Brandeis’ endowment is safe, despite the havoc wreaked on Jewish philanthropy worldwide by Bernie Madoff.
Apparently the Shapiro family- which has its name on the student center, the admissions center, a large freshman dorm, and probably a dozen other buildings on campus- lost a large part of their fortune in the fraud. The university itself, though, had no money tied up with Madoff. Which means that they’re much better run than the New York Mets.

First the Movie Theater Thing, Now This

News Item: Eagles-Cowboys dispute leads to shooting.
Not sure which one was the shooter, but the guy who was arguing for the Eagles? He was right.

Blago, Burress and the “Cracker Ass Cracker” Vote

Ta-Nehesi makes a whole lot of sense.

The Wild Thing Goes National

News Item: Mitch Williams hired as analyst by MLB Network
A Comcast Sports Net and WIP host for the past two years, the “Wild Thing” had previously been known primarily as that huge-mulletted relief pitcher who gave up the World Series-losing home run in 1993. But then a surprising thing happened- he turned out to be a great, great broadcaster. He’ll be missed in Philly- I’ll never forget his outraged commentary the night Game 5 of the World Series was suspended (“There was standing water on the field!”), and a knowledgable and authoritative sports media figure in a town with way too few.
Something sort of eerie, though- Williams was originally hired on both WIP and Comcast to replace John Marzano, who was leaving to work for MLB.com and eventually the MLB Network. Marzano died of a heart attack this year, and now Williams is succeeding him in another job.