Reasons To Be Thankful 2006

Obviously, I’m thankful for family, friends, health, employment. But forget all of that, because here is my list of the Medialoper-y things for which I’m thankful right now:

• Season Three of Battlestar Galactica — Some people thought that the New Caprica storyline was too dark; other people have thought that they’ve lost the plot since they’ve gone back into space. Sure, the “hey, we could kill all of the Cylons” and “old friend returns” plots were resolved too easily; and sure Lee, Kara and Saul may again seem like the people we remember from the last seasons. But my guess that they aren’t. They’ve all changed, they’re just clinging to their old (new) normal. I think that the Moore & Eick needed to get them back to face whatever mind-blowing showdown they’ve got planned for the end of the season. Meanwhile, the Cylons continue to be awesome, and I keep going back to a seemingly throwaway line of Bro. Cavil’s where he said that downloading was more difficult every time. Is it possible that, even for immortal killer robots, some things are worse than death? Or is it probable?
• Kevin and Bean — I’ve always had a weakness for morning radio. I love the epic silliness of KROQ’s Kevin and Bean. Making fun of all, with malice towards none. Except for Joan Rivers. And Kevin Federline.
• Alan Sepinwall’s “What’s Alan Watching” and Tim Goodman’s “The Bastard Machine” — My two favorite TV writers, blogging away. Sepinwall does a lot of smart recaps, and Goodman brings the pitch-perfect attitude.
• The Squeezebox – Slim Devices’ digital media player has been a nice addition to my household.
• King Kaufmannin Salon and Bruce Jenkins at SF Gate — My two favorite sportswriters. Kaufmann always has a left-field perspective that I love. Jenkins is more old school, but noone has captured the love/hate relationship that Giants fans have for Barry Bonds better than he has. You can tell that despises the man, but loves what he’s done on the field.
• The Onion’s A.V. Club — Area man is shocked that he now prefers better-than-ever pop culture commentary to not-as-good-as-it-once-was satire.
• The Hold Steady’s Boys and Girls in America — Hands down, album of the year. Maybe even the decade.
• Yo La Tengo’s — “Pass The Hatchet, I’m Goodkind” — Especially that part near the end when that last riff comes in out of nowhere. After two decades, they’ve finally gotten Sister Ray to love them back.
• South Park – Ten years down the line and Matt and Trey are still beholden to absolutely nobody.
• My iRiver mp3 player — Not as cool as my iPods, but my jogging workhorse. Because it has the FM.
• Season Three of The Office – Pam/Jim ‘shippers probably aren’t happy with the way that this season is going, but this show just keeps getting better.
• Rickey Gervais’ laugh in the podcasts — A while back, we asked if it was worth paying for the Rickey Gervais Show podcasts. I can unequivocally answer “yes.” Just for the way that Rickey Gervais laughs from deep inside of his gut at the things that Karl Pilkington says. Oh, and it looks like they are back with some more free holiday podcasts, so good on them.
• Slate’s Blogging the Bible series — The Lazy Guy’s Guide to the Old Testament.
• The Absolute Sandman, Volume 1 — The first twenty issues of Neil Gaiman’s seminal mythological comic in a beautiful — but huge! — bound volume.
• Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball — Specifically, the Superman-Tim League, which has been active for six years now, and includes all of your ‘Lopers, plus friends. And even more specificially, the fact that I’ve won it for three years running, now. Kirk, our commissioner, is actually talking about somehow changing the rules. That’s some mad respect.
• Comedy Central’s News Hour – Stewart/Colbert ’08!!

I’m sure that there are more, but these are the ones that came to mind. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!