List-o-mania!

As any visitor to the blog (are there any?) might know by now, I have a weirdly insatiable interest in lists of all kinds, which makes this time of year, and its inevitable glut of "top ten" lists, particularly resonant. Here are a few to chew on ...

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Entertainment Weekly critics name their Top 10 Movies of 2004, and "Sideways" leads the pack. Woo-hoo! (on the incomprehensible side, "Spanglish" is deemed worst of the year). Newsweek film critic David Ansen offers his Ten Best Movies of the year, with "Sideways" topping he list. The New York Times' inimitable critic A.O. Scott gives his nominees for the year's finest flicks, continuing that newspaper's tradition of recognizing inscrutable art-house films not seen by anyone who lives outside New York, L.A. or San Francisco.

Oh, what the hell: You can pretty much find all the major film critics' lists catalogued on Movie City News.

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The New York Times Review of Books declares its selections for the 10 Best Books of 2004. The Village Voice lists its favorite 27 reads of the year. (Note to self: Read Philip Roth's "The Plot Against America")

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The New Yorker has its top 10 CDs of 2004. The gaggle of music junkies over at Pitchfork gives us a whopping 50 best albums of the year and, unlike Rolling Stone magazine's selections for its top 50, some of these are actually interesting choices. PopCultureJunkies offers five albums from 2004 worth the money.
Billboard asked acts such as Green Day and Robyn Hitchcock what they would deem 2004's best music. Stereogum also offers its choice audio cuts.
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Oh, and for something completely different ... Media Matters whips up its Top 10 Outrageous Statements of 2004. Sure, it's a partisan source, but what the heck? Some of these quotes are doozies like this Michael Savage gem: "When you hear 'human rights,' think gays. ... [T]hink only one thing: someone who wants to rape your son." Savage, indeed.