I set out to do a top five of books, movies, CDs and television in 2005, and decided that I actually didn't care enough about TV or movies, or read enough to do a thorough job on books.. So I wound up doing the top five Irish plays, CDs, talking about meals I ate, and doing a quick run-down of some books, most of which actually *were* released in 2005. So, in case you care about what I thought of '05 - or are just supernaturally bored at the office and will read literally anything at this point - here goes:

1. The Top Five Irish Plays of '05
2. The Top 5 of Music for 2005
3. Top Five Meals I Consumed in 2005
4. Top Five Books I Read in 2005

Top Five Irish Plays of '05

#5: Maurice Stovall against BYU. I think it was his third of a school-record
four touchdown receptions on the day, but to set it up - Stovall is six-five and
was on a severely under-tall BYU corner all game long. He'd already gone
up over the dude for two catches, so the guy was playing back about ten
yards. Brady threw a quick screen to Stovall, who just looked at the
corner. The corner then actually proceeded to fall down without Stovall
even juking. He mentally juked the guy to the ground. That's how you know
you're in a dude's head.

#4: Chinedum Ndukwe, the least Irish-sounding guy to ever play for the
Irish, which is remarkable when you see the next three guys' names,
made this pick - or fumble recovery, I forget what it was ruled - off his
back on the one-inch line against Ty's Huskies. The defense did well taking
the ball away this season, and I think this may have been the most
key turnover that didn't happen against Michigan all season long. But it
makes for a better picture, so it makes the list over the Michigan ones.

#3: This should probably actually be number one on the list. In fact,
yeah, we'll make it number one. But it was directly set up by #4, so
that's why it initally appeared here.

#3: Tom Zbikowski returns an interception against the Vols. This one's
great because Zibby's the meanest guy on the team - or at least
he looks that way - and the quarterback basically threw himself
on the ground so that Zibby didn't steamroll him out of spite.

#2: Jeff Samardzija's catch against Purdue. This was going to be number
one, but I went the sentimental route, instead. This was a sixty-yard bomb
downfield that Brady basically threw with his feet planted - all upper-body
strength. Still, though, Samardzija had to lay out for the one-handed
grab, which, as you can see, the Purdue dude can't believe he made.
From this catch, the route was on. Let's get another angle:

I can't believe he made that catch. Crazy.

#1: Anthony Fasano catches the pass right. This one basically
summed up the entire season in one play. Before traveling out to
Seattle to play the Huskies in a game the national media desperately
wanted Notre Dame to lose (because the school is racist for firing an
inept coach), Charlie Weis shed his robotic genius exterior to visit a dying
10-year old boy named Montana Mazurkiewicz , after Irish great Joe Montana.
He offered to let the boy call the Irish's first play from scrimmage that week,
run or pass. Montana chose pass. Left, center, right, Montana chose right.

Montana died Friday night. The game was the next day.

The squad's first posession came on the one-inch line from the Duke's
interception up there at #4. You do not pass from the one-inch line.
Charlie told Brady about the situation. Pass right was dialed in.

Brady to Fasano, a thirteen-yard gain, highlighted by the hurdle
up above. The new Irish: unpredictable, human, robotic, awesome.

And that's my favorite Irish play of the season, Charlie Brown.

The Top 5 of Music for 2005

OK, now it's time for the Five Bucks to Friday top five albums of musical pleasures or the year. It dawned on me in going over this that for as much music as I bought this year, not much of it was actually new. Anyway, a few technicalities out of the way, first.

Best band that put out a new album this year, which was the first album of theirs I heard, but I also heard its first album and that was better, at least I think so: The Transplants.

They released Haunted Cities this year, and there are a few really good songs on it, but, overall, I liked their self-titled debut much better. It just sounds like southern California to me. I should make note that I've only ever been to SoCal for twenty-five hours, though, and most of that was spent either sleeping or in Temecula, the least-California place on earth.

Band whose release was in my top five and then I found out it came out in 2003: Streetlight Manifesto, for Everything Goes Numb.

Great album, just evidently two years old. First ska album I've listened to in years. Also, provided me with a strip back in April.

Album that made me remember why, if you listen to hipster buzz on an album, you only have yourself to blame when it turns out not to be much good: Sufjan Steven's Illinois. I dunno, this got under my skin like the Big New York pizza from Pizza Hut did on spring break in 1998. They ran that ad with Spike Lee so many times, I had to have that pizza. And it tasted like ass. Well, I read so many good things about this album that I just had to have it. It's comparatively better than the Big New York pizza was, but, seriously, this is what all the buzz was about? No picture for you, Sufjan.

OK, now, my top five.

#5 - Beck, Guero.

By the way, all these pictures are ganked from Amazon, who would like you to know that they're currently offering Guero at fourteen percent off retail. So, yeah. Anyway, Guero. Basically, Odelay 2: Sorry About Sea Change, but Odelay was so damn good and is still so damn good almost ten years later that a sequel is not unwelcome in the least. And Beck's live show is still top notch. Best cuts: Que Onda Guero, Hell Yes, Farewell Ride.

#4 - Wilco, Kicking Television.

I originally had DQed them on the technicality that this is not new material, but I just can't stay mad at Jeff Tweedy. Also, you know, it's a good album. Except that for some reason the second disc won't play in my stereo, but as 2.0 and I are getting each other an iPod stereo system for Christmas, that won't matter for much longer. If you've been staying away from recent Wilco releases because they're kind of weird in parts, this is basically the un-weirded version of Yankee Hotel and A Ghost is Born - more guitar, less strange noises, and 2.0 is just getting worked up watching me type this. She would like everyone to know that Wilco is not weird. Well, that they are weird, but that there's nothing wrong with that. OK, I'm moving on now. Best cuts (here, I'm just doing the songs that are extra good on this disc - the Late Greats is completely impregnable of its awesomeness - it's awesome on Ghost, it's awesome here): Company in My Back, A Shot in the Arm, Via Chicago (already good, just very interesting here).

#3 - Sleater-Kinney, the Woods.

I'm actually surprising myself here, I kind of thought I'd give this the one spot. An album so raw it's just work to listen to your first time through, this is their most savage album since their Call the Doctor and their most rocking since - well, OK, since the first half of One Beat, which was their previous album, admittedly. Let's Call It Love is probably my favorite song to come out this year. Best cuts: The Fox, Modern Girl, Let's Call it Love.

#2 - Bright Eyes, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning.

2.0's upset. You can expect a top five list from her coming in a few minutes, probably. Let me see if I can guess it - Bright Eyes, Wilco, Beck and that's about it. Anyway, now she's headbutting me. This is why I usually write these when she's in the other room. And why we don't have a podcast, and why we don't often go out into public. This is horribly uninteresting to read, why would we want to inflict this on people? Anyway - Bright Eyes put out two albums back in January (and, evidently, a live album somewhere along the line), a classic-ish folky one, and the slightly more experimental Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. For one, the Digital Ash cover wouldn't show up on a black background, but for two it just didn't work on all the tracks. Points for trying something new, definitely, but this is a more all-around good album, although the song Lua is so Goddamn sad and depressing I haven't listened to it since maybe May. Best cuts: First Day of My Life, Another Travelin' Song, Road to Joy. (Bonus best cut from Digital Ash: Easy/Lucky/Free. Possibly objectively the best song off either disc, but I have one that's more my fav.)

#1 - The Hold Steady, Separation Sunday.

OK, if you've been reading this site (and actually listening to anything I write), you probably saw this coming. Well, I can't help it, they rock. Now shut up and leave me alone. Best cuts: Your Little Hoodrat Friend, Multitude of Casualities, How a Resurrection Really Feels.

Do I have any other honoraries? Um. The podcast I feel safest in recommending everyone: Retrocrush the podcast is awesome. I also love Ninjaconsultants, but if you don't know the people or aren't really into anime, you may not be interested. The consultants, though, do have great chemistry. What with their dating and all. So, I dunno, give it a listen. If you can find the one that has something about Ireland in the description, that's a pretty good episode. Oh, it's show 11 and is right there on that page I just linked to. Go for that one, it's a good taste of Ninjaconsultan..cy.

Uh, what else. Trail of Dead and the White Stripes get the award for most disappointing follow-up to an excellent rock album. The Stripes are exonerated because they mined a halfway decent album out of it all the same, but Trail of Dead - shit, guys, I don't even know you anymore, man. Lost gets the Seinfeld Memorial Award for Best Minimalist Opening Theme. Paul Anka wins the award for ripping off Richard Cheese, you bastard. I'm sure Bjork did something really weird in the last twelve months to retain her title of the Weirdest Person Alive Who Makes Really Good Music. I think she and Beck should have a kid - its weirdness would weigh so much, the world would collapse upon itself.

OK, that's all I've got at the moment. Much better year in music that 2004 was. Oh, and the Onion has this, if you'd rather take the opinions of people who get sent free CDs and thereby are guaranteed to have heard more new stuff that I did in the past twelve months.

Top Five Meals I Consumed in 2005

This would be a great time to segue into the top five TV shows of 2005, but I only watch three regularly - Lost, the Gilmores and Notre Dame football. I catch the Simpsons and Family Guy more often than not, but usually I wind up talking to my parents during one of them. So I'll let Tom the Dog take care of the TV, since he seems to watch everything (also, he has cable, which I do not).

I was thinking of doing the top five flicks I saw that Tree would hate, but I don't actually remember seeing a lot of films this year. I greatly enjoyed the 40-Year Old Virgin, and the March of the Penguins. Sideways was awesome, too, but I guess that was from 2004. I enjoyed Charlie and Chocolate Factory and Corpse Bride, but wanted each of them to be better than they wound up being. Land of the Dead was good. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was great, although without the book, it probably makes no sense. I forget what-all we rented. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which I enjoyed, although it's more interesting as a concept than a film..

Anyway, I guess I'll skip the top five films. I will rate, instead, the top five meals I have had this year that I readily remember. I'm dog tired as I write this, so pardon me if I am brief in my recollections.

#5 Random pizza slice in Dumbo. I think it was at the Front St. Pizza Inc., a little pizza and deli place, but maybe 2.0 can remember better. It was a random, unassuming deli-looking place that we stopped in after going by West Elm as part of our interminable search for a hutch for this one wall of our apartment. At any rate, the pizza here was crazy good without approaching gourmet. I think they used a lot of basil in the sauce or something. A really surprising slice of pizza, and considering how hungry I was and how much walking we wound up doing that day, freaking fantastic.

#4 The pasta amatriciana (I think) 2.0 made me for running the marathon. From that Everyday Italian cookbook from the show hosted by the hottie, it was a fancy sauce with bacon and goodness in it. The cookbook is extremely easy to follow and extremely yummy, so I'm recommending it. Alternately, the meal immediately following the marathon at Coppola's was also fantastic.

#3 The grande burrito I ate tonight from Clemen's on Prospect Park West, with carne asada and grilled portabello mushrooms. Because I rollerbladed 16 miles and walked another two trying to get back and forth from the office and was freaking starving.

#2 Dinner with Tree at Lupa. It's not every day I have a big-shot lawyer take me out to dinner. I wish I could tell you what I had - wine, I know that much. No, I remember - the gnocchi, and I believe we split the pork shoulder as the secondi. Tree ordered some complex appetizer thing that was quite good. I think he's still disappointed I didn't go home with him after such an extravangant dinner..

#1 The Merryvale cask room with 2.0's family. I can't believe the things I'm leaving off this list. The Greek wedding, MNP's wedding, KC's wedding, the bread bowl of clam chowder I had out in San Fran, the poached salmon I made, Nathan's dogs, the steak I had tailgating before the Syracuse game... Man, I've eaten well this year. But the grande finale (check the 'e' - you know I'm serious) of the Napa Valley trip with 2.0's family was friggin' unbeatable. 2,000 gallon casks lining the wall, chandeliers and candelabras providing the only light, a different wine for each course... Man, that was a meal.

Top Five Books I Read in 2005

I was going to do the top five books of the year, but in realizing how few films I see, I've come to realize how few new books I read in a year. So I'm just going to do my five favorite books that I read in the past year, although I'm certain I'm going to forget some of them. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was excellent, although it was apparently not perceived to be as excellent as Everything Is Illuminated. Maybe just because the subject matter - 9/11 - is much more familiar with me than the shtetls of the first book. Work and Other Sins, I've spoken about a few times and as recently as last week. I can't recommend it highly enough. Loved that book. Harry Potter doesn't need much description. I still think the Goblet of Fire is my favorite, but I've only read this one once so far (yes, I'm that kind of dork that reads the books multiple times - whatever, shut up). The Zinn Reader, stretching way back to January, was excellent. I recommend the People's History of the United States over this one, but if you've read the People's History, the Reader will give you basically your fill of Zinn and activist history. It's fantastic. (Speaking of fantastic, Landslide just came on my iTunes - love that song.) Hm, fifth. We'll give it to Tricked, which chronicles an obsession with music that Nick Hornby only wishes he could've written. (Partly Cloudy Patriot almost made it on the list - Sarah Vowell's great.)