2006 was an incredibly busy year. I feel like I barely had time to take a breath. A lot of work and a lot of traveling. Here is my lazy end of the year list. Nothing too deep here. 2006 was deep enough in many other ways. This is a list for fun.

Most Played Track of 2006
Je pense à toi - Amadou et Mariam (Sou Ni Tile)
So this song came out a few years ago but I still listened to it nonstop in 2006. For me, it is the ballad of all ballads. It is so beautiful it takes your breath away.

Best Overall Album of 2006
Dimanche a Bamako - Amadou et Mariam
Just listen to it yourself and be amazed. Listen to an interview of Amadou et Mariam on odeo.com.

Best Pop Album
Loose - Nelly Furtado
I love this album. My favorite track is "Glow." This album has been on heavy rotation for me since it came out. Furtado has grown on me over the years and I've had mad respect for her since she performed a duet with Caetano Veloso (one of my favorite singers/songwriters of all time) on her last album Folklore. She takes less chances on Loose than on Folklore but still her 2006 effor  was hands down, imho, the most solid pop album of 2006. Runner up: Corinne Bailey Rae's eponymous album. I made a ringtone out of "Girl Put Your Records On" for someone in my razr address book :)

Most Anticipated Album
ON - Tasmin Archer
I've been meaning to do a "listening party" post of this album. But "time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping...into the future." But I will soon. In the meantime, check out tasminarcher.com

Most Hyped Yet Still A Big Letdown Album
20 YO - Janet Jackson
Dear Janet, I grew up listening and dancing to you are your siblings. I've danced in the wee hours of the morning to many of your tracks in clubs on more than one continent. And some of your slow jams are sweetness. BUT, you are over 40 years old yet your lyrics on this album and the musicality reek of a myspace.com addled-teenaged hot a** mess. Jo Jo does it better. And that is her age group. Please get some mature, grown-folks lyrics and stellar music to match. Take out page out of the book of Gladys Knight. You will still sell albums. And if the music is good, the teeny boppers will still buy it. I was embarrassed for you listening to 20 YO. You are so much better.

Best Indie Album
Tie: Woman Dangerous- Doria Roberts & Red Dirt Diaries - Molly Bancroft
Doria does all of the legwork for her albums via her record company Hurricane Doria. Don't sleep on her. And with her manic touring schedule, she'll be in your town sooner or later.
Molly (along with Gabriel & Dresden) hit number one on the dance charts with "Tracking Treasure Down" and still found time to self-produce a gem of an EP, Red Dirt Diaries. During the last weeks of my time in corporate hell, I listened to this album on the way to work. For some reason, it was an antidote to the impending dread of quotidian nasty politics in cubelandia. Twice in 2006, I saw both of these women on the same bill in the ATL.

Best Jazz Album
Mythologies - Patricia Barber
I've seen this woman play in about four different cities but most often at the Green Mill jazz club in Chicago which was about a ten minute walk from my Andersonville digs when I lived in the Windy City. Monday nights when she played at the club were a staple of my musical diet. I got her to sign all of my discs in 2005 at a gig she played in Cambridge, Mass. Included in that collection was a 3'' inch red disc of "My Funny Valentine"- a collector's item from a Valentine's Day concert special giveaway she did several years ago to go along with a concert at Symphony Center in Chicago. I think she must've thought I was some crazy Stan when I told her how many times I'd seen her play as she was signing my disc. Oh well, listen to her music and enjoy.

Best Gospel Track
Walk Around Heaven - Patti Labelle (The Gospel According to Patti Labelle)
I bought Patti's latest album for my grandmother and my older sister for X-mas. "Walk Around Heaven" was my mother's favorite song. And Patti does it justice.

Best Musical Discoveries
· Waldemar Bastos - An amazing singer from Angola
· Lokua Kanza -  He is like a Congolese Caetano Veloso. So smooth and beautiful.

Best Out of the The Blue Single
It's All True - Tracey Thorn
Just last week I though I'd left my Everything Thing But The Girl's Temperamental CD in the player of a rental car I dropped off. I was beyond sad. I was almost a wreck until I made myself think "there is no way in hell I would leave that CD anywhere" and I recapped my movements and found it. Thank you Jesus! That CD is like a talisman to me. I'm surprised it still plays since I bought it several years ago from Dr. Wax near the Berwyn El stop in Chicago. That is one of my favorite CDs and I played it everyday for nearly two years right after I bought it, lulled by the voice of Tracey Thorn. And, I have all of EBTG's and Tracey's CDs. I was even a fan back in the 1980s before Ben Watt discovered turntables. But Temperamental holds a special place in my heart for many reasons that I'd rather not disclose :) I have a cherisehed flyer from a club in Toronto that takes the graphic from the cover of the CD to advertise a DJ appearance of Watt's. I sat on a bench underneath the DJ booth when I wasn't dancing and just closed my eyes and listened. I was in heaven. And now his musical partner/wife, Tracey has finally come off of a musical hiatus with a track of her own produced by Ewan Pearson. Her album drops in March on Astralwerk. While surfing the blogosphere, I read a blog where the writer said something along these lines of: "Tracey Thorn does what Gwen Stefani want to do: make an outstanding track that actually sounds like a tribute to 80s mashup electronica/hip-hop/dance." I co-sign that. You can stream "It's All True"  on Tracey's myspace page, http://myspace.com/traceythorn.

Best Athlete
Candace Parker - U. Tennessee Lady Vols Basketball
This girl is a force. Just wow. She continues to amaze me. And this weekend she dunked on the UCONN floor! Talk about  guts and cockiness. The dunk revved up the Huskies to narrow the Lady Vols lead until a tie was made but the burst of energy still wasn't enough to beat Tenn.

Top "I guess you needed a wakeup call" of 2006
The U.S. Women's Basketball team lost in Brazil to the Russians.
The U.S. looked they were sleepwalking in the one crucial game that they lost. But Australia deserved the crown as they handily beat the Russians. And Lauren Jackson proved once again why she is the best women's player on the planet at the moment. When Lisa Leslie comes back to the game after she gives birth we'll see about that but in the meantime, congrats to the Aussies.

Worst Sports Dream
Last week I dreamed that the WNBA Seattle Storm did actually move to Oklahoma City and the team was renamed the Okie Swing. And that Sue Bird, Lauren Jackson and Bettie Lennox posed on the cover of some glossy magazine in big read cowgirl dresses. Bettie sat in the front. Lauren was right behind her and Sue Bird was balanced on Lauren's shoulder. With the demise of the Charlotte Sting and the Houston Comets on the block, I really am scared for the future of women's pro game in this country.

Weirdest Sports Experience
I was in Seattle in late July and saw the Seattle Storm take on the Los Angeles Sparks. Betty Lennox had a chance to tie the game with just seconds left IF she would've taken and made a three-point shot--something she is very capable of doing. I swear everyone in Key Arena thought that was her plan. Instead she went for a layup. The LA players were stunned but still smart enough to step back so they wouldn't foul her and the audience gasped. She didn't get fouled. Even the overhead announcer paused for a few seconds. When he finally started talking again, it was clear Betty messed up. I would've hated to  be Betty at that moment because she started jumping around like she accomplished something but everyone else including myself was like "What the F*ck did she do that for?" But her team stuck by her even as Lisa Leslie was like "she could have the lay up. She made a mistake." Afterwards I went to the Key Arena store and bought a Lauren Jackson replica jersey.

Best TV
The last episode of "Prime Suspect", "MI-5," reruns of "Malcolm in the Middle," and "The Vicar of Dibley"
I couldn't believe that they actually made another "Prime Suspect" which is the G.O.A.T. TV series. I even have a "Prime Suspect" mug that I bought several years ago at the KCTS store in downtown Seattle. Heshima Thompson, cast as Curtis Flynn, plays a similar character in MI-5. I hope he doesn't get typecast to only play criminals in his career. It was cute to see him though in the video following the episode where the making of the show is broadcast. He was very cute in his gushing appreciation for Helen Mirren.
I'm hooked on "MI-5." They only show chopped episodes on A&E in the states. So, I'm near the end of the season three DVD set. I don't understand why the have David Oyelowo (as Danny Hunter)  playing a straight male. He is so gay. There is no chemistry between him and the women they pair him up with in the show.
Runner up: "Malcolm in the Middle." I never saw this show before it got cancelled. It is in syndication on late night TV and it is funny as hell. It feels like a funnier take off of "Married with Children."
Dawn French is hilarious in "The Vicar of Dibley." Her facial expressions alone are gold. Thank goodness the local public TV station runs it.

Best Movie
The Queen
Dame Helen Mirren better win the Oscar for her acting as Elizabeth II. I also saw her play the queen in Elizabeth I on HBO. She is the only person I can think of that could pull that off--playing both Elizabeth's like she was born for roles . Mirren is the best living female actress. No doubt about it. My favorite parts of The Queen are 1) when Elizabeth II cuts Blair chops Blair off at the knees with one line "You are my 10th Prime  Minister" and 2) near the end of the movie when she warns him that the public will one day turn on him in the blink of an eye. "One day it will happen to you, quite suddenly and without warning.." And it has.

Best Trip
Summertime in Guatemala
It was not my first time in Central America but the first time in Guatemala. I was stunned by the sheer ugliness of the skyline of Guatemala City yet taken aback by the beauty of the countryside. But nothing compared to the view of Lake Atitlan from a chicken bus way up in the mountains or riding in a boat from town to town on the world's most beautiful lake which is surrounded by volcanos. Words cannot describe it. I will go back in 2007.

Best Party
My New Year's Eve Party on Dec. 31
More people showed up than we anticipated and everyone had a load of fun, except for that chick who kept trying to make me play Project Pat songs ten minutes before midnight. "Hell to the nooooo!" I said. Not at my party and I put on The Cure's "Just Like Heaven," somebody got the TV on a station showing the ball drop in Times Square, the champagne was poured and we all screamed like crazy. Then I played "Rock Lobster." People danced to my dj-ing (I played reqeusts from "Dirty" by Xtina Aguilera to "You Make Me Feel Mighty Real" by Sylvestor), ate a lot, drank a lot, hooked up and ushered the year in with giddy vigor. Thanks D----e for the photos!

  dj cheryl on new year's eve 

Tomorrow my UF Gators take on Ohio State in the national title BCS game. You better believe I will be watching. GO GATORS!