I worked a lot this year. I manage the graduate admissions for the School of Drama now. I serve on the Exectutive Committee for the Faculty Senate. I'm on a bunch of University committees. I teach a lot of classes - eight by last count. School takes up a lot of life.

I didn't buy a lot of music this year and what I did buy was pretty much standard stuff for me i.e. the usual gang of idiots. Live 8/7/08 at Park West by King Crimson, Spock's Beard by Spock's Beard, The Slip by NIN, Echoes by CG3, Lifeline by Neal Morse and Insurgentes by Steve Wilson spent a lot of time on the victrola. I remembered why I love the Butthole Surfers and listened to them a lot in the Fall. Same with Crack The Sky earlier in the year. Although I didn't buy a lot of music, I did go to a lot of concerts and managed to see a lot of bands I'd never had the chance to see before (Ministry, Meshuggah, Buckethead, Neal Morse, The Flower Kings, Spock's Beard, Dream Theater) plus some groups I always catch when they tour (Opeth twice, Nine Inch Nails).

Looking at my iTunes library, I find I listened to only 23% of the items (3288) stored on my computer over the course of the year (14473 items total). 80% of those 3288 songs were only listened to once. Looking at it another way -- hours of music instead of number of songs -- my library would play for over 300+ straight days and I only listened to about 8 days of music, which is less than 3%. That makes me sad for some reason. I guess I feel like I'm not listening enough. Of course, iTunes doesn't tally what I listen to on my iPod, the contents of which changes every few days, so I guess I'm really only looking at figures for home studio and office listening.

I read a lot this year and a few things were memorable and worth a future re-read. Raw Shark Texts was one. The Graveyard Book was another. A number of books on cognition like This Is Your Brain On Music and Whole New Mind. Among revisited books: American Gods and Breakfast of Champions.

I also saw a larger-than-usual number movies this year -- the Panda and I saw probably a movie a week though the entire summer. She liked Hellboy 2 and Get Smart, I liked Dark Knight.

Hoping for a better 2009.