my best of 2005

January 10th, 2006

For me 2005 was a bit of good and a bit of bad. Luckily the scales tipped slightly more to the good side than the bad. If 2005 was a track on my iPod I’d give it 3 stars out of 5. Seeing as every blogger on the web has compiled a best of 2005 list by now, I’ve created my own best of 2005 list. Some of the entries were not necessarily released in 2005, but I only truly discovered their beauty last year.

Music

N8ive – Teleport 2 U (This EP contains without a doubt the best rock music created on South African Soil ever. Look out for their first studio album to be released in 2006. Favourite track: Dis Ease)
Bloc Party – Silent Alarm (It’s definitely fit for a party. Favourite track: Banquet)
Snow Patrol – Final Straw (Favourite track: Run)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (I’ve only heard the 3 tracks available for free on their website, and it is brilliant (Go download it now). Favourite track: Over and over again (Lost & found) )
Chicane – Behind the Sun (This album makes me happy. Favourite track: The whole album from front to back)
New Order – Waiting for the Sirens’ call (Excellent blend of rock and electronica, I don’t know how it happened but I never really noticed New Order until last year. Favourite track: Krafty)
Steve Vai – Real Illusions: Reflections (The man does crazy stuff with guitars and spandex! Favourite track: Glorious)
Springbok Nude Girls – The Fat Lady Sings (The original South African rockers. Favourite track: Lonely)
Jack Johnson – In between dreams (A friend brought this along on our Christmas holiday, and I got on everybody’s nerves because after I heard the first song I didn’t want to listen to anything else. Favourite Track: Better together)
The Ramones – The Ramones Anthology (This is probably the only CD I listened to the whole of January. Favourite track: Beat on the brat)
Hellacopters – By the Grace of God (A Swedish colleague gave me this album and it’s damn good. Favourite track: Rainy Days revisited)
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing (Thanks to David I have been endtroduced to DJ Shadow. Favourite track: Stem/Long Stem)
Bob Dylan – Blood on the tracks (After reading Bob Dylan’s book Chronicles I had to get me some more of his music. Favourite track: Idiot wind)
Leftfield – Leftism (Sometimes I just need a good dose of electronic music. Favourite track: Space Shanty)
Guns n’ Roses – Appetite for destruction (Last year I finally bought the whole Guns n’ Roses collection. I found the cd’s at a second hand store in Antwerp, all for 15 euros! Favourite track: Think about you)
Gwen Stefani – Love, Angel, Music, Baby (She makes funky tunes and she’s damn hot! Favourite track: The real thing)

Books

WiReD magazine and the internet kept me from reading too many books but here are the most enjoyable reads I had in 2005.

Revolution in the Valley (The insanely great story of how the Mac was made) – Andy Herzfeld. Read the stories for free at folklore.org.
Big Bang (The most important scientific discovery of all time and why you need to know about it) – Simon Singh. I now have a vague idea what the Big Bang is all about and what discoveries led to the Big Bang theory.
Chronicles Volume 1 – Bob Dylan.
State of Fear – Michael Crichton
Slaughterhouse 5 – Kurt Vonegut

And the worst book I read this year is without a doubt The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. It started out interesting, but the second half of the book just drags on and really sucks. Luckily I read the illustrated version so I could at least look at the pictures.

Movies

Lemony Snicket’s, A series of unfortunate events
Sin City
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
Wedding Crashers – Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are too damn funny together!

TV Shows

I don’t watch TV. I watch Scrubs!

Websites

folklore.org – If you’re interested in apple and the early days of personal computing the you’ll be instantly addicted to this website. Andy Herzfeld has documented his experiences when he helped create the Apple Macintosh in the early 80’s, changing the way people use computers forever.
reddit.com – If you want know what’s new online, the go here.
flickr.com – The easiest and most fun way to store your photos on the web, and it’s free of charge.
wikipedia – When you don’t know something, go to wikipedia and find out about that something which you know nothing about.
paulgraham.com
kottke.org – The first blog I ever read. I stumbled on it early in 2005 and started reading this blog without knowing what a blog is. Now I know what a blog is and I have my own blog right here at www.sizeight.com. This is still my favourite blog on thew web.
airbag – The second blog I ever read.
paul graham – The guru on startups.
del.icio.us – The Easiest way to save your favourite links forever and to share your links with other users.
start.com – A simple easy way to read all your favourite blogs on page.