Journalism, FARK and iPod playlist

My 'best of 2006' list is due in a week and I'm still stuck on what to put at the top. I'm putting the iPod away and carrying five CDs around this weekend and giving each a second, third and fourth listen before I reach my verdict. The contenders (so far)...
TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Ghostface Killah - Fishscale


A good friend of mine is coming in tonight with his wife. We're probably going to grab a few beers at Brothers and do the general "what have you been doing?" catch up. He works at a newspaper, I work at a software company. Whenever I meet up with him, I always feel regret not chasing a journalism gig. But this job has its rewards, I love the coworkers and I get to travel (a rarity for tech writers). He relays countless stories about mismanagement and thick-headed, stubborn editors not to mention stories about cutbacks. I've become less and less psyched to reenter the journalism world as I hear more and more about vanishing newspaper readership and the true-to-life stories of fellow grads taking second jobs like so many schoolteachers.

Brighter topic... The Fark.com forum has started its 'best of 2006' headline threads. Some of my personal faves...

Explosion inside a Post cereal plant blows one unfortunate employee to Alphabits

Dennis Miller to join Fox News this fall. This makes about as much sense as Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at the first battle of Antietam

Never bring a gun to a cockfight. Or is it a knife to a gunfight? Anyway, one guy's dead

World's largest corn maze built in Nebraska. Maze is designed to be much like Nebraska in that you enter, see nothing but corn, then leave

Check out other gems at: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=2460394

Anyway - here's the playlist o' the day - courtesy of LastFM and my iPod.
Late -

Last FM
"Rough Around the Edges" - Teitur ***
"Psycho Killer" - Talking Heads *****
"Hurt" - Johnny Cash ***** (almost going down to **** since it's been overplayed to death)
"We Both Go Down Together" - The Decemberists ****
"Forgiven" - Ben Harper ***
"Black Star" - Radiohead ****
"Improvise" - Jurassic ****
"The Recluse" - Cursive ***
"Hey Ya" - OutKast **** (so sick of this song)
"Vicarious" - Tool ***** (album is o.k., but this song justified the Grammy nod. Sickly good)
"Justify My Thug" - DJ DangerMouse ****
"In the Mouth a Desert" - Pavement *****
"Joanna" - Peasant ***
"Boys Don't Cry" - The Cure (yes, they do) ****
"Meat Cry" - John Lennon ****
"Unleashed the Largehearted Boy" - Guided By Voices ****
"Welcome to the Machine" - Pink Floyd ****

Whi-T (iPod) mix
"T is for Texas" - Johnny Cash ***
"Hats Off to (Roy) Harper)" - Led Zeppelin ***
"Season of the Shark" - Yo La Tengo ****
"Fall on Me" - R.E.M. *** (never been one of my favorites from the band)
"Your Children Aren't Special" - Bill Hicks *****
"Patience" - Mark Sandman ***** (one of his best non-Morphine songs)
"Of Course" - Janes Addiction *****
"Hide and Seek (live)" - Ani DiFranco ***
"When You Wake Up Feeling Old" - Wilco ***
"Leash" - Bruce Springsteen ***
"Andvari" - Sigur Ros ****
"An Attempt to Tip the Scales" - Bright Eyes ***
"Autumn Sweater" - Yo La Tengo *****
"The Gentle Rain (RJD2 mix)" - Astrud Gilberto ***
"Buddhisattva Vow" - Beastie Boys ** (meh)
"Guns Before Butter (alternative)" - Gang of Four ***