I’m up to my fascinating hair in deadlines, so it must be time to fritter away precious minutes blogging. Might as well round up a few year-end thoughts while 2003 is still fresh and festering in my memory. I did movies already, so how about music? I’m sure I must have purchased or illegally downloaded (just kidding! heh heh) at least a handful of ’03 releases, but not many are springing to mind. Let’s see, I picked up the new ones from Ween and Lyle Lovett, but didn’t end up listening to either very much. Warren Zevon’s grand finale The Wind isn’t as good as his two previous albums, but if the overpraise and high sales made his final days better, I’m not complaining. The Kill Bill soundtrack was a hoot. Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” video was amazing.

The CD I listened to most was actually (I think) an ’02 release, All Relationships Are Doomed to Fail by the Meat Purveyors. Well, there’s nothing like a great new heartbreak record that comes along at just the right time, and this one even came with a special ironic twist as the year wound down, which just drove the knife in further. And isn’t that what you really want when you’re licking your wounds?

Also, used a Christmas gift certificate to pick up two of the recent Dylan reissues, Nashville Skyline and Street Legal, and they sure sound spiffy. Especially Street Legal, which I always thought was an underrated album that unfortunately sounded like crap. But now it’s crisp and bright where it was muddy and dim – thin wild mercury music indeed. Now I’m gonna have to shell out for all of these, dammit.

Live music highlights were plentiful. The Austin City Limits festival in particular was an embarrassment of riches: Los Lobos, Liz Phair, Dwight Yoakum, the Gourds, the Damnations, Spoon and the grand finale, back-to-back mindblowers from Ween and REM. I got my money’s worth. There was also the peculiar ballooning festival in western Massachusetts, where Brave Combo, the Asylum Street Spankers and (especially) They Might Be Giants put on great sets, and I got to take a brief hot air balloon ride. And though it’s bittersweet to think about now, I had many good times at James Hand’s happy hour sets at the Saxon, Dale Watson’s chickenshit bingo extravaganzas at Ginny’s Little Longhorn, and many Trouble Down South shows at various drinkeries, most notably the venerable Carousel Lounge.

As far as television goes, season two of The Wire was tops in my book, along with both seasons of the brilliant British sitcom The Office. And if someone had told me a year ago I would watch just about every damn episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in ’03, well, that person would have had some explaining to do. But I did, and I suppose I have some explaining to do…but I’m not gonna do it.

What else? Live theater? Uh…none, unless Esther’s Follies counts. Books? When I finish writing mine, I might actually read one again. Final thoughts on ’03? Well, it wasn’t boring, I’ll give it that much.