My (slightly) late list of favorite things of 2006:
Album: The Crane Wife by The Decemberists
I hate to sound like a broken record (pun intended, bitches!), but I love The Decemberists and this album is truly fantastic. Nothing can quite compare to the excellence of Picaresque for me, but that's because Picaresque was the first stuff I'd heard from them so it has a special place in my heart. The Crane Wife was released in October of 2006—coincidentally almost one year after I heard Picaresque for the first time in 2005—and rose immediately to the top of my most-played list. Capping off this rise was seeing The Decemberists in November at Hammerstein, and well, like I said, I love them.
Runners up for favorite album were How to Save a Life by The Fray, which I found myself enjoying more than I ever thought I would, and Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins, both of which were released well before 2006 but neither of which I had listened to until we saw The Shins at McCarren Park Pool in the summer.
TV show: 24
I mean, my god. How can a show that is about "the worst day of Jack Bauer's life" be good in the fifth season? And how can it end up being the best season yet? From the moment the season started until the moment it ended, it was the best work they had ever done. Very rarely can you kill all the characters people love on a show and keep them hooked. 24 is some of the very best television ever made and it continues to astound me.
Runners up for favorite show were Smallville, which did amazing things yet again last season and The Unit. I'm consistently impressed by how well Smallville has handled the responsibility of the Superman franchise. I loved Superman Returns, but I love Smallville much more. I'm deeply saddened to know that it's going to come to an end sooner than later, but while it's still around I love it. The Unit is new (and, coincidentally, stars Dennis Haysbert from 24), but already solidified as a very enjoyable show. Scott Foley as military back-ops? Holy crap, he's actually really great!
Film: Tie between Casino Royale and The Departed
A lot of people have really specific systems for deciding which films they liked the most, based on actors, plot, writing, cinematography, etc, etc, but I tend to gauge my "best movie of" feeling based on the film (or films) I flat-out enjoyed the most and thought about seeing again. By far, these two films were the best time I had at the movies all year.
Runner up for favorite film was Little Miss Sunshine, which was so fun and great (we happened to see this shortly before the press for it exploded and while we had heard good things, it was surprisingly good).
Trip: France
Granted, we only took one real trip last year, but it was a lot of fun. It was the first time Katia and I had ever rented a car on vacation, and driving through the French countryside was a blast. Between Paris, Le Mont Saint Michel and the memorial at Ponite Du Hoc (which I still think about to this day), we had a really fantastic time.
Photo I took: Looking Out
This is an extremely simple photo and to anyone else it's probably pointless, but I took this from inside a bunker entrance in Normandy and it holds a really specific thought/feeling/memory for me. Being inside those bunkers (especially at Pointe Du Hoc) was truly awe inspiring and terrifying and this photo captures the duality of the darkness inside the bunker with the peace outside. The green grass and the blue sky belie the feeling I had as I walked around the various bunker remains.
Runners up for favorite photo were Ben, Differently, which I like because the colors are so interesting and the angle is abnormal, and Jam and Crackers, which so perfectly captures a day from the summer in Prospect Park. More than anything, I realized when looking through photo archives for 2006 that I didn't take nearly enough pictures. Consider one of my resolutions for 2007 to get back into the habit.
Application: TextMate (again)
I honestly believe I will choose TextMate as my application of the year every year, so this will be the last time I actually do. Instead, from this point on, everyone will need to remember that my favorite application every year is TextMate, but that I'll pick another one so as not to make developers feel bad.
Runner up for favorite application was ProTools LE, which I finally bought after a year of suffering in GarageBand. I've only had the app and hardware for a month, but it has already made my life much better.
Purchase (tech): Tie between the Sony 42" HD TV and 17-inch MacBook Pro
The HD TV has really revolutionized our home entertainment. Television looks so much better that I can't even understand how we made it so long with our old 27-inch tube TV, and don't even get me started on games. XBOX 360's native HD support completely blows away any gaming experience I've ever had, and now with the HD DVD player it's even better for movies. The MacBook Pro is the best computer I've ever owned—insane speed in a portable package that does everything I've ever wanted and more.
Runners up for favorite tech purchase were the Nintendo Wii (obviously), Nike+ running kit (I'm running and enjoying it!) and the Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote (finally, having tons of stuff on one remote done correctly!).
Purchase (non-tech): 2007 Honda Fit Sport
It's arguable that a car is technically technology, but oh well. We sold our used Saturn and bought a new Fit Sport and it was a great choice. Fantastic fuel efficiency, tons of interior room and safety features, as well as a cool looking and easy-to-park-sized car.
Runners up for favorite non-tech purchase were Asics Onitsuka Tiger shoes in dark grey/black (I love these shoes) and the weatherproof case I bought for my Canon SD450 (again, sort or tech-related, but not tech itself) which allowed me to take plenty of pool pictures (and, this season, will be used for snowboarding).
Game: Tie between The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Gears of War
I don't even have the energy to explain why Twilight Princess is so damned good, because I'm exhausted from spending so many late nights playing. I'm 40+ hours in and just about to finish the game, and I've been putting it off for a while because I don't want it to be over. Everything about this game is fun. Everything. That's extremely rare and makes this absolutely the best game of the year. Gears of War is just one of the most spectacularly gritty and fun games I've ever played. In HD, it looks better than just about anything ever created in human existence (take that, Sistine Chapel!)
Runners up for favorite game were Wii Sports (unbelievably basic game with simple graphics and yet it's some of the most fun I've ever had playing a game before) and, extremely surprisingly, Just Cause. The missions in Just Cause get old quickly, but the environment is so insanely large and beautiful. I've never seen such realistic lighting conditions, sunrise and sunset, and no loading ever once you're in the game. It's so much fun just to be in the environment and free-falling from planes at 5,000 meters is breathtaking.
Non-blog website: Popurls
I hit Popurls at least once a day, if not more than that. It aggregates the top content from all sorts of places (Flickr, Digg, etcetera) into one easy-to-view layout and I constantly rely on it for fun stuff to read or look at.
Blog or similar: Three-way tie between Cabel's Blog LOL, Daring Fireball and John August.com
Cabel didn't have many entries, but every one of them seemed to be made of gold or something similarly shiny and awesome. Of course, Gruber needs no introduction or explaining and had a great year and John August is a screenwriter who speaks frankly and honestly about his craft.