It’s the end of the year again, that time of year when Minnesota, The Land of 10,000 Blogs muddies the water of the internet with lists of things people thought were the “best of 2006″. Oh well, for what it’s worth, here’s my contribution.

2006 – The Good

The Demonslayer’s Handbook

I worked on The Demonslayers Handbook a lot this year. (also known as “The Book”) I’m taking a short break from that now, to focus on audio recording, and will attack the DSH again in January. It’s such a huge project I have no idea how long I’ll be hacking at this thing.

Jagged Spiral

The Jagged Spiral project “Days From Evil” creeps towards completion, and the third single, ‘Forced Entry’ has been entered into the Rift Magazine Compilation CD 2 Contest. My 6-week sore throat and chest cold, and a lovely rebound of congestion is not helping to get this project completed anytime soon. But we are proclaiming 2007 to be The Year of the Spiral.

The Jagged Spiral website progresses in short bursts of manic creativity, we will release an official announcement once we have some real content. In the meantime, you can catch some audio clips on our myspace page. www.myspace.com/jaggedspiral

Pray For Daylight (AKA: The indie Vampire movie that cost about as much as a used car.)

Although the score for Pray For Daylight (also known as ‘The Vampire Movie’) was finished in May 2006, we have yet to see a final version release. To all of you who keep asking to see it, I assure you that it will eventually see the light of day (pun intended, and I promise no more bad puns. This year, anyways.)

The end of… Superstar DJ’s?

Thankfully, City Pages reports that 2006 was the year that Superstar DJ’s died, This assumes that there actually were such things as ‘Superstar’ DJs. But if it’s true, then I guess 2006 wasn’t all bad.

I’m actually reporting that 2006 was the year that City Pages died.  The City Pages covers and cover stories are nearly offensive in their poor quality and topics. God bless them for trying to be ‘journalistic’ but it ain’t like Playboy, people read it to find out what the hell’s going on in Murderapolis. Hey CP, the ‘Reader’ is gone now, you can relax!

I find myself turning towards Vita.MN as my Minneapolis To-Do Resource. I know it’s just a repackaging of the Star Tribune’s Entertainment section, but Vita MN is focused on the local. Easy to find what you’re looking for, and their website gives citypages.com a run for its money.

Mein Kampf über alles.

In 2006 I finished German and graduated from the University of MN with a Bachelors of Philosophy Degree. It will soon be supplemented with a Computer Science second major, which should qualify me to work at a Burger King instead of just the Philosophy Major, which qualifies me to debate on the ethics of eating there.

I did not watch any television this year. None. It isn’t worth my time. And I don’t drink, smoke or weigh any more or less than I did last year.

The Words of 2006

2006 – The Bad

Emo Music

Emo music hit its Godforsaken Peak in 2006, and I hope everyone involved with this travesty of a music genre will die a slow painful death involving internal hemorrhaging. Doubly so for Metal Emo bands like Hinder.

If you are exposed to Emo music, the only cure is to listen to Tool very quitetly for 6 minutes, then listen to Jagged Spiral as loud as you can for three days straight without eating or sleeping. After the third day, have a shot of Jagermeister and repeat until you are feeling better.

DRM – Automatic for the Sheeple

DRM also hit its peak in 2006, thanks to the i-Diots who bought an i-Pod to play their i-Tunes. Did NONE of you investigate the other options? If you can’t name three other mp3 player brands, you shouldn’t be allowed to buy one. If you don’t know what DRM is, you shouldn’t be allowed to buy one. Sheep, sheep, sheep.

2007 – Die Zukunft

For myself, I’m glad 2006 is over. I will look back on 2006 as a year that was high-maintenance, low-payoff. Hopefully, 2007 will be more of a payoff for all the work I did in 2006. Don’t forget, 2007 Is The Year of the Spiral!

Hope you all have a safe, happy, and unboring New Year’s Eve!

Blog on,
-CZ