The List to end all lists …

It’s the end of 2009 (last few hours here in the UK, though Aussie Cynic’s probably already into 2010).

Every form of media has compiled lists upon lists, upon lists … so here’s mine for ‘09:

Best film: The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band) – Michael Haneke’s brilliant depiction of small village mentality; tense & gripping, yet without ever resorting to shock-tactics that schlock-horror lazily falls into. The best explanation why society & humanity needs to evolve & avoid atavism: the sins of the fathers SHALL be visited upon the sons.

Best TV drama: The Wire box-set, by a country mile. Brilliant screenplay, on-the-money dialogue, defining & colouring the ills of society through the drug dealers & police of Baltimore.

Best concert/gig: Kraftwerk at the Manchester Velodrome for Manchester International Festival. Close run thing, with Embrace & the Halle Orchestra creating heart-soaring music, but the German pioneers of electronica made me dance into oblivion.

Best album: not been big on buying music this year, but Mercury Prize nominated Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s ‘Twice Born Men’ – generally not my bag – was mellifluous, creamy music for the soul. Also bought Blakrok’s eponymous 1st album but only just getting to grips with this beauty – top-rate rapping (Raekwon, Mos Def, RZA, etc.) over heavy geetahhs – so will hold my decision on this one.

Best book: shamefully, I’ve hardly read many novels this year, constantly trying to keep up with newspapers/Sunday supplements with some kind of news OCD voracity. Sebastian Faulks’ ‘Engleby’ was a great discourse on human nature & awkwardness, but think David Peace’s novel (may have read on the cusp of ‘08-’09 so just slips in) ‘The Damned United’ on Brian Clough’s 44 day reign at Leeds United takes the plaudit, capturing the tortuous lines between genius, obsession & madness.

Best sporting event: tough one with Usain Bolt nonchalantly blowing away the best of the world in Beijing, England winning the Ashes against the Aussies in cricket over the summer. But being a parochial sort, I’ll go for Nottingham Forest humbling Manchester City, the richest football club in the world, on their own patch almost a year ago (3rd Jan, 2009). Forest beat City 3-0, & I was there gleefully singing ‘You might be rich, but you’re still sh*t’.

Any best bits (in whatever category you fancy) for 2009?