Looks like my mom’s not the only one who loves Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas.

.:.
We finally got around to watch Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (imdb | rotten tomatoes) the other night. It’s hard to attach the same kind of significance to movies that were groundbreaking forty years ago but seem mild now. Still, despite a few minutes of wondering “Can we sit through two hours of this?” we stuck it out and I’m glad I did. I loved the dialogue (especially George’s) and Elizabeth Taylor just chewed so much scenery that I practically forgot it was her. It’s certainly stuck in my head since we watched it; the temptation to call every woman I see “monkey nipples” is nearly overwhelming.

.:.
As I’m off to Nova Scotia tomorrow I probably won’t be posting much, unless I score loads of sweet gear on xmas morning and feel the need to brag about it.

Happy holidays, kids!

I’m usually pretty smart about downloading stuff off the net. However, I was so excited to find this MP3 I’ve been looking for forever that I opened it too quickly. It must’ve built the filename dynamically from the search query string ’cause what opened…well, let’s just say it opened four very interesting browser windows, one of which was playing what looked like a weird farcical copy of the paris hilton sex tape. I didn’t really stick around to study it further as I’m now convinced that a bunch of spyware is on my machine. Dang. Dang dang dang.

Running ad-aware *and* the MS anti-spyware beta now…

To go along with my favourite discs of 2005, here’s the 2005 mix…just to give you a sampling of what I thought was the best music of year. It’s just the best song from 20 of the best 25 discs; I didn’t delve into all the single tracks I picked up over the year.

• And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead . “The Rest Will Follow”
• Black Mountain . “Don’t Run Our Hearts Around”
• Bright Eyes . “Road To Joy”
• The Constantines . “Soon Enough”
• The Dandy Warhols . “Down Like Disco”
• The Duke Spirit . “Hello To The Floor”
• Elbow . “Mexican Standoff”
• The Fiery Furnaces . “Single Again”
• The Heartless Bastards . “Onions”
• Ladytron . “High Rise”
• LCD Soundsystem . “Losing My Edge”
• Low . “When I Go Deaf”
• Metric . “Monster Hospital”
• The New Pornographers . “The Bleeding Heart Show”
• Nine Inch Nails . “With Teeth”
• Rogue Wave . “Salesman at the Day of the Parade”
• Sleater-Kinney . “Let’s Call It Love”
• Spoon . “I Turn My Camera On”
• The White Stripes . “Instinct Blues”
• Wolf Parade . “I’ll Believe In Anything”

Just in time for the holidays, I’ve come down with a cold. Hooray!

.:.
Scheduling a meeting between two VPs and a bunch of senior managers around the holidays might be one of the most frustrating tasks ever invented.

.:.
And now the debate: new stereo? Or new suit? New stereo? New suit? Normally the stereo would win hands down, but I’m reluctant to buy something until we move lest it doesn’t meet with the new entertainment section design specs. Then again, my black suit is almost six years old, and that’s pretty much the end of life for an off-the-rack suit.

Gawd, I feel like an ass for even having that argument with myself. Maybe I’ll do neither and give some money to a charity. Hey, that’s an idea. I’m now taking votes on what charity to donate some money to. Unless someone convinces me otherwise it’s going to the humane society.

Well, this’ll be handy to know when we move into our new place (which is actually on the 24th floor).

The Americans have lost their nuts. And their constitution, by the look of it.

.:.
Interesting to see Paul Martin coming out so aggressively against Stephen Harper. It’s a good tactic; as sad as it seems, many Canadians will choose between the media-fuelled outrage they feel at the Liberal party and the media-fuelled creepiness that Harper gives off. If Martin can remind them that Harper’s views largely don’t really match their own, he should eliminate this biggest threat; Jack Layton is as much an ally as an opposition party leader, and Gilles Duceppe is an afterthought in federal politics.

.:.
I fly back to the Maritimes in a few days. Seems like everything here is well in hand, except for the packing which I’m sure I’ll do at the last minute while watching Die Hard and scarfing down a festive special. That’s about the closest thing I have to a tradition.

.:.
Nellie and I swapped anniversary presents yesterday, even though it’s not for another nine days. I already knew what my gift was (a spring/summer jacket from M0851, which is currently a hipster fashion staple, but in five months, when I actually wear it, it’ll be a plain jacket again), but she was surprised by the giant magenta Holt’s box that I came home with and the uber-soft bathrobe therein. So we both managed to stick to the traditional 2nd anniversary gift of cotton; next year (leather) should be interesting. Who knows, we might both end up at M0851…

I’m sitting in my bedroom, working on my wireless laptop, finishing & submitting my economics assignment. Nellie’s in the den working on the other computer.

I send a message to my gmail account knowing that an alert would pop up on the desktop with the subject line, which reads “Nellie stinks!”

I hit send.

I wait a few seconds.

“OH REALLY!?!!!!???!”

[grin]

What an age we live in.

The best movies* I’ve seen all year:

1. Murderball
2. Syriana
3. Good Night And Good Luck
4. Thank You For Smoking
5. Capote
6. The Constant Gardener
7. A History Of Violence
8. Sin City
9. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith
10. Brokeback Mountain

The best of the rest, in alphabetical order:

• Batman Begins
• Crash
• Jarhead
• March Of The Penguins
• No Direction Home
• Sorry, Haters
• Street Fight
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin
• Walk The Line
• Winter Passing

* Keeping in mind that I haven’t yet seen The Aristocrats, Be Here to Love Me, The Best of Youth, Breakfast On Pluto, Elizabethtown, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Everything Is Illuminated, Hustle & Flow, King Kong, Lie With Me, Munich, North Country, Proof, Shopgirl, The Squid And The Whale, Thumbsucker, Touch the Sound or Transamerica.

My ten favourite albums of the year:

1. Sleater-Kinney . The Woods
2. The Heartless Bastards . Stairs And Elevators
3. The Duke Spirit . Cuts Across The Land
4. Spoon . Gimme Fiction
5. The Dandy Warhols . Odditorium Or The Warlords Of Mars
6. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead . Worlds Apart
7. The New Pornographers . Twin Cinema
8. Low . The Great Destroyer
9. The Constantines . Tournament Of Hearts
10. Sigur Ros . Takk…

The best of the rest, in alphabetical order:

• Black Mountain . Black Mountain
• Black Rebel Motorcycle Club . Howl
• Bright Eyes . I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning
• Death Cab For Cutie . Plans
• Elbow . Leaders Of The Free World
• Explosions In The Sky . The Rescue
• The Fiery Furnaces . EP
• Great Lake Swimmers . Bodies And Minds
• Ladytron . Witching Hour
• LCD Soundsystem . LCD Soundsystem
• Metric . Live It Out
• Nine Inch Nails . With Teeth
• Rogue Wave . Descended Like Vultures
• The White Stripes . Get Behind Me Satan
• Wolf Parade . Apologies To The Queen Mary

There were two other albums that I left off the list, but felt they deserved a mention: Mogwai‘s Government Commisions: BBC Sessions 1996-2003 and the complilation Sunday Nights: The Songs Of Junior Kimbrough.

As I do every year I’m sure I’ll change my mind as I pick up more 2005 music in 2006, but for now…this is it.

We went to see Brokeback Mountain (imdb | rotten tomatoes) last night, and $5 says I was the only heterosexual male in the movie theatre. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal getting in on ponderosa-style? If I were gay/female I’d probably dig it too.

It’s a beautiful story (how did Annie Proulx fit that all into 40 pages? They *must* have added material for the screenplay), the scenery is mindblowing, and the performances — especially by Heath Ledger — were incredible. Don’t believe the hype about how the sex scenes will make you uncomfortable; they’re much tamer than you’d think. In fact, the hetero sex scenes are probably racier (who knew Anne Hathaway — Ms. Princess Diaries — was so hot?) than the Jake-Heath love.

Put it this way: not everyone will like this movie (it’s a talkie character drama…certainly not everyone’s cup of tea), but anyone who avoids it because they’d feel icky about the two male leads making out probably isn’t capable of enjoying everything an intelligent, emotional film has to offer anyway. They should stay home and watch Fear Factor.