I like to do my little wrap-ups every year, so here we go:

Movies

I saw 24 movies in the theater this year, 1 more than last year (I'm still seeing more at home.). My favorites (in the order I saw them):

Adaptation
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Shanghai Knights
Willard
Irreversible
Phone Booth
House of 1000 Corpses
Pirates of the Caribbean
Matchstick Men
American Splendor
Kill Bill part 1
The Station Agent

(And T-3 and X-Men were so bad they made me afraid to go to the movies. I won't go to stuff that I know is going to be that bad without a really good reason. "I feel like going to a movie" isn't enough to get me through that cynical stuff. Man, Station Agent and American Splendor were good. They were really what movies should be.)

I put video, broadcast, DVD, TiVo, and lasers together.

I saw 44 video things (32 fewer than last year, but I don't write down all the Fernwoods, Perrys, South Parks and "24" only counted as one) - here's the ones I liked in the order I saw them.

Still EVERY Perry Mason. I watched fewer than last year, when I watched almost one a day, but I LOVE all of them and everything about them. It's all style over content and I'm usually not good at that, but I have fallen in love with the characters and the music and the look. I don't care much about the story.

We got into Columbo this year. It's got plot over Perry, but less style. Man, Peter Falk is great.

Still EVERY Fernwood 2Night. It was the South Park of it's time. So far ahead of everything else.

I loved the South Park movie, but I never saw the shows. After hanging with Trey, I started to TiVo them and I just want to see them all. They are perfect. It makes me understand why the Simpsons doesn't grab me. Man, I love South Park. I just love everything about it. I can't believe how in line with my politics and philosophy they are.

I loved Da Ali B Show. I think we saw most all of them and they're just wonderful. So funny, brave and creative.

Here's what I liked, in the order I saw them:

The Jack Benny Show (with Raymond Burr)
Jason Garfield Videos
The Edge
Dragnet (the movie, but NOT the Dan Ackroyd, this is real Dragnet)
Coma
Twin Peaks (the whole first season)
Sinatra Duets
Mirage
One Hour Photo
8 Mile
Secretary
The Beatles Anthology
Standing in the Shadows of MoTown
The Killing
Battle Royale
Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth
About Schmidt
Freddie Got Fingered
In a Lonely Place
Bartleby
In the Line of Fire
Hollywood Palms
The Great Escape
24 (second season)
True Romance
To Live and Die in LA
The Aristocrats (2 hour)
The Aristocrats (2 hour)
Spellbound
A Christmas Story
Roommates

And let's not forget:

Perry Mason
Fernwood 2Night
Da Ali B Show
Columbo
South Park

Bands

I saw 15 bands (2 fewer than last year) in 2003 and my favorites were:

Morrie Louden and a piano player
Morrie Louden Duo
The Ducks
Extreme Elvis
Anne-Margaret
Purple Reign
Yo Yo Ma, The Sounds of Brazil
Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine
Los Strait Jackets
The Lon Bronson All-Stars
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Mike Jones
Extreme Elvis

And let's not forget SLAMSTOCK, where I loved every band and everything that happened.

Shows

I saw 4 comedy shows in 2003 (3 fewer than last year) and my favorites:

The Jason Garfield Show
Urgent and Confidential: The Nigerian Spam Scam Scam
Mac King
Ron Shock, Benny Baker

Magic Shows

I saw 8 magic shows in 2003 (2 more than last year) and my favorites were:

Monday Night Magic - Jamy Ian Swiss, David Oliver, Doc Swan, and Todd Robbins
Las Vegas Magic Invitational
Mac King
Mike Close (with Jonesy)

Plays

I saw 2 plays (same as last year) and I liked both:

The Jason Garfield Show
Urgent and Confidential: The Nigerian Spam Scam Scam

Vegas Shows

I saw 30 Vegas shows in 2003 (Same as last year), my favorites were:

Morrie Louden and a piano player
Porno Convention
Bond Con
Andy Warhol Celebrity Portraits
Morrie Louden Duo
Extreme Elvis
Anne-Margaret
Clark County Fair
Purple Reign
Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the
Los Strait Jackets
Mac King
The Lon Bronson All-Stars
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Fetish and Fantasy Ball
Mike Jones (with Mike Close)
Ron Shock, Benny Baker
UniverSoul Circus, Poppin Soul
Gun Show
Fair Convention

And again, let's not forget Slamstock - the greatest Vegas show!

Books

My book list is less complete, but I think I liked every book I read (what does this teach me about how to spend my time? (sadly, I read only about a book a month):

Love and Other Games of Chance, A Novelty - Lee Siegel
Kill Two Birds and Get Stoned - Kinky
Kind of Blue, The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece - Ashley Kahn
A Box of Matches - Nicholson Baker
Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation - Olivia Judson
The Best American Science and Nature Writing of 2002 - edited by Natalie Angier and Tim Folger
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
Woman, an Intimate Geography - Natalie Angier
Complications - Atul Gawande
Stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
Myself when I am Real - The Life and Music of Charles Mingus - Gene Santoro
Ellen Foster - Kaye Gibbons

Penn

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