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Media Consumption for 2004

Not only is it the time of year to share good times with friends and family, it is also a time to reflect upon the year that has past. Basically, this is just an excuse to blather on one last time by making a "best of 2004" list. So here we go.

I successfully met my goal of reading at least one book per month (even though there are probably at least 12 more books sitting on my shelves waiting to be read). Next year, I should try for two books per month. Also, my music tastes have expanded in one direction toward "modern" classical music and minimalism and in another direction toward groovy, funkified jazz. And I sure there's a lot more where that came from.

On the other hand, we averaged only one movie per month. Interestingly, four of these were documentaries, two were animated, and one was performed by puppets. Time to update the Netflix queue for all the good movies we missed.

So here's my list of favorite media items of the year, listed in no particular order and consisting only of media I myself have actually consumed:

Books

Oblivion

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Why Globalization Works

The Grasshopper King

Motherless Brooklyn

Music

John Scofield - A Go Go

Medeski, Martin, & Wood - End of the World Party (just in case)

Tom Waits - Real Gone

Bob Sneider & Paul Hofmann - Interconnection

Antonio Pinto & Ed Côrtez - City of God (Soundtrack)

Terry Riley - In C

Steve Reich - Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint

Tommy Guerrero - Soul Food Taqueria

Galactic - Ruckus

Sean Hayes - Alabama Chicken

Jonas Kulhammar Quartet - Plays Loud For the People

Films

Touching the Void

The Triplets of Belleville

Goodbye Lenin

Note that these items were not necessarily released this year, I just happened to discover them myself.