2005 bengarvey.com Awards

The past few years I’ve mentioned which album I thought was the best that year. My pick for last year was Rubber Factory by the Black Keys. It’s a great album, but it would have never made the cut had I listened to Arcade Fire’s Funeral, which I bought in February ’05. I can consume everything on time, so this list is a collection of the best things I’ve read, seen, or heard in 2005. It may not be the actual best, but we’ll see.

Best Album
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
I doubt there are any surprises here. I’ve been playing this CD in my car almost every day for 6 months.

Best Movie
Happy Endings
I didn’t see too many movies this year, but I saw this one starring Lisa Kudrow, Tom Arnold, and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Its four stories dance around each other as people move out of one and into another. There’s the film student blackmailing a woman into letting him film her reunion with the son she gave up. There’s the gay couple who suspects the sperm they donated was used to conceive their friends’ baby and more. Check it out.

Best TV Show
NBC’s The Office
I’m a huge fan of the BBC version of the show. In fact, I ranked it as the greatest TV show of all time, so I was very skeptical when I heard NBC was producing a version for the US. Some comedy doesn’t translate well, but shouldn’t office humor? I watched the first episode with Steve Carrel as the regional manager and wasn’t impressed, but as the season went on I liked it more and more. Once they started moving into their own territory it really took off and now I’m hooked. It think the best episode so far was when Dwight was put in charge of picking the company health plan.

Best Book
I’m trying to think if any of the books I read in 2005 were written in 2005. I doubt it, but who reads new books when there are hundreds of years of good stuff out there? I think the best book I read was probably Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephensen.

Best Post
This is another easy one. When I go out people still ask me about ham dogs.

Best Show
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ The Khyber on September 11, 2005. CYHSY rocked the place and I also found a great band in their opening act, Audible.

Best Website
Is there a better site out there than boingboing.net?

I may have more bengarvey.com awards coming soon, but this is all I have for now.