All in All

And a Happy 2006 to you all.

Originally I was going to do a detailed month-by-month or season-by -season round up of the year but you just know what I'm like, I'd never get round to it.

So instead, I'll do a round-up via the general themes of what I like and talk about, giving my highs, lows and anythign else that comes to mind.

Music

As the year started, the band I was most excited about and had highest hopes for was Kaiser Chiefs. I'd seen them live towards the end of 2004 and they were great. The album came out and I played it to death for the first month or two. Then fatigue set in. Frankly, I now don't care if they ever played again. I despise their blatant hype, marketing and ego. I'm so bored with them. Sorry Boadwee, we'll just have to agree to disagree with this one.

Arcade Fire and Anthony and the Johnsons, however, fully lived up tot he hype. Arcade Fire at Kings College was one of the gigs of the year, despite the attempt by some coked up record company arse to ruin it for us. I hope his peroxided girlfriend cheats on him with all his friends.

Architecture in Helsinki and The Decemberists have great potential to be new bands of the year. It's great to see people enjoying themselves on stage, as opposed to those who take it all too seriously.

The Born To Run 30th anniversary box set reissue was fantastic.

Film

Frankly I don't watch films often so this is a bit of a non starter.

All I can comment on in this box is Star Wars 3 (nice to see how the story all plays out, but strangely, I thought it looked a bit rushed and not to the same level of perfection on production values as the others)

Oh, and I saw the Incredibles and Team America on dvd. Both worth seeing.

Comics

What a year for DC. Identity Crisis concluded and although a lot of people were not happy with what happened in the story, it was well written and it did keep me wondering who the villan was right up to the end almost.

The lovely Donna Troy is back and she's frankly everywhere at the moment, which can only be a good thing.

Infinite Crisis is proving to be a good read and a great thing to look at. Who will die? Plenty have already but we still need a few real big names to go.

Seven Soldiers is eating away at my wallet like nobody's business. But that's good.

We3 was fantastic, but frankly anything by Grant Morrison is always something that I have high hopes for.

Fables just gets better.

The World

What an awful year for natural disasters.

Iraq is still a mess, this will forever tarnish Blair's legacy

No-one has tried to take a pot shot at Bush, surprisingly. is this because Cheney would be even worse?

People

The Royals continue to be a constant source of amusement.

Can't say I like the new Pope, especially his Christmas hat.

I am so fed up of Pete Doherty (sorry again Boadwee). Overrated waster scum in my opinion.

Two new Hitchman's joined the world - adorable babies, not that I'm biased

Gushing finale

Thanks to everyone who made the year the great one that it was.

To everyone who came to our 40th birthday party

To Kieran and Janet - best gig-buddies in the world

To everyone overseas - Daniel in Sydney, Bill in Washingtion, and of course Boadwee and Kennybeans in California. Here's hoping to see each and every one of you this year some time.

To little lady Marfa, we have a lot of quality time ahead of us together this year.

But most of all, to Ian Mac, without whom it all would have meant nothing. Here's to our new year together, to our "wedding" in the summer, to our life forevermore. Love you, boy.

xxx

A