The choices here are ones I have seen, read, heard, or otherwise experienced.
Bill’s Best of 2001
- Family: Sorry but it’s mine: Richard, Bobbi, and Joanne Lazar. Faults and all. I love them best. I won’t make a fuss if you prefer your own family.
- Reward: This list has to start out with my thanks for the good fortune to not work for the last 11 months. I was supposed to be out only six months but, as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay.
- Book: Roddy Doyle’s A Star Called Henry, beautiful writing, dialog, characters.
- Movie: Out of 53 written up here since March, one I haven’t written up yet: Lord of the Rings. Differences from the book or not. Classic (not released this year) movie of the year: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
- Music: The Tribute to Heroes CD/DVD. Springsteen, Young, U2, even a cool Linkin Park doing Pink Floyd. Close second: Springsteen and the E Street Band Live in New York City.
- TV: Enterprise. David Letterman’s return to the air. HBO’s Band of Brothers and Sopranos.
- Software: Blogger, hands down. The Guardian agrees, naming Blogger one of the seven wonders of the web. Second place to PHP, a very cool and useful web application programming language used for this website.
- Online essay: I’m sure there are many that I haven’t read. Nonetheless, Steven Denbeste’s June effort, Theory and Practice of Terrorism, just blew me away. There have been many heartfelt pieces written in the wake of Sep. 11 but Steven got to the heart of the matter months before what we said hit home. His weblog has had the most consistent, insightful material after that terrible day as well, such his look at Belgium’s push to rule world or at least Europe (maniacal laughter).
- Trip: Gee let’s guess… Could it be June in Italy with Dad?
- Photo: The saddest story of the year for America
On a more personal note, this picture of Dad and me:
- Sports: I did see Barry Bonds pop his 70th and 73rd homers out of the park. I did see Arizona nearly blow the World Series. My choice, though, is the amazing season Liverpool FC had this past year, especially their UEFA and FA Cup wins in May, not to mention all the wins over the once mighty Manchester United.
- Dinner: Back to Italy, has to be at Velo Bianco.
- Car: Of the cars I drove this year, there is no contest: Byron’s Porsche Boxster, Lord B. What a sweet ride!
- Art exhibit: This was a close one for me, choosing between the Ansel Adams Centennial and the Capella Palatina but I’ll go with the exotic, classic beauty of the chapel in the fortress in Palermo.
BillSaysThis 