Ubiquitous End-of-Year Post

I thought about writing a long essay about the year, but I find that I don’t really have the interest. I’m eager to get 2007 done with. Bring on 2008.

Instead, I’ll just give the powerpoint-presentation highlights:

WORST PART OF 2007: Being diagnosed with cancer.

BEST PART OF 2007: The success of the treatment for the cancer.

WORK ACHIEVEMENT OF 2007: Adamant’s sales increasing by 20% over the previous year.

FAVORITE BOOK OF 2007: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch.

FAVORITE FILM OF 2007: Grindhouse, by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.

FAVORITE RPG OF 2007: It pre-dates 2007, but that’s when I got it, so: Spirit of the Century.

FAVORITE ALBUM OF 2007: There were a bunch of good ones. If I had to pick one: Mark Ronson’s Version.

FAVORITE TV SHOW OF 2007: A tie between Doctor Who and Mad Men.

—-

Plans for 2008: Expansion of Adamant into non-RPG entertainment fields (fiction, and some other stuff — more on this in a “state of Adamant” post on the company weblog later this week), and a more concerted effort on my part to devote time and attention to my own writing as well.

Beyond that? Who knows — 2007 felt like a lost year, spent in reacting and recovery, which had me missing opportunities. My plan in 2008 is to re-boot and take advantage of opportunities as they come.

Happy New Year.

Last Friday Music of 2007

We’ll start off this final entry for the year with an absolutely smoking Mash-up, combining the latest trainwreck by Ms. Spears with a Sisters of Mercy tune featuring the best opening line ever. Sing along, now: “25 Whores in the room next door…” Celebrity Murder Party – “Gimme Mercy”

Goddamn Microsoft. Why do they have to fill the commercials for their horrible crippleware music player (the Zune) with such catchy music? The two most recent commercials have completely brainwormed on me, so here are the songs in question:

The Shins – “Sleeping Lessons” (The commercial with the guy on the bus imagining going into a huge Mt. Rushmore-esque statue of his own head)

and

Rogue Wave – “Lake Michigan.” (The one with girl dancing with rabbits, swimming with giant jellyfish, etc.)

A nifty jazz-influenced electronica piece from a Strasbourg-based producer, HervĂ© Poudoulec, who records under the name Kira Neris (taking his name, I presume, from the Deep Space Nine character). Good stuff. Kira Neris – “Open Doors.”

For : That cover version that I told you about. One of my favorite versions of this song: Cake – “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps.”

The last big hit from the Jacksons, in 1979. After this, Michael went solo, and then slowly went batshit insane. The further back you go in his career, the more I like him. The Jacksons – “Shake Your Body (Down To the Ground) – 7″ single version.”

Lastly, I’m pretty sure I posted this before, but who cares. When Thomas Dolby released the single version of “Airwaves” in the UK, the B-side was intended as an extended intro, to blend right into the main song. Some enterprising soul on teh intartubes has ripped the tracks from vinyl, and melded them into a single mp3, so we can hear it as Dolby intended: Thomas Dolby – “The Wreck of the Fairchild/Airwaves (single mix)”

See you in 2008.

Doctor Who: Voyage of the Damned

More Davies nonsense.

Please give Steven Moffat the next Special, PLEEZKTHNX.

There were bits that were OK, bits that were pretty, but mostly it was overlong, and CheeseTastic, and DeusExMachinaRiffic.

Overall, it was a clunker — pretty much an amalgam of everything that Russel Davies does wrong, and far too often, in the new Who.

The new theme arrangement was interesting, though….and the scenes from the upcoming series were pretty damned nifty. Here’s hoping.