2006 was a scary, challenging, wake-up call of a year with so many plot lines that remain unanswered, there should be a huge "To Be Continued" sign hanging above the New Year's Eve ball in Times Square. Here were some of the things that kept me going during the last loop around the sun, and reminded me that, in a country increasingly brainwashed by pabulum talking points, mediocre entertainments and unimaginative advertising, there are not only those who are effectively raging against the machine, there are parts of the machine still worth listening to. In no particular order:

The Huffington Post - There are two news destinations that are a must for me every day, one from ye olde media and the other virtual. The New York Times, despite a few bad and lazy reporters (anybody read that painful puff piece on Tom DeLay's new blog? Ugh.), deservedly remains the nation's newspaper of record and a necessity. But The Huffington Post, from political provocateur Arianna Huffington, is the progressive blog that the Internet has needed for years to match the right wing talking points and often near-slanderous slant of Matt Drudge (which, yes, you need to be reading, too). I've met Huffington several times and interviewed her once more, and I'm reasonably sure she's doing this for the glamour of celebrity at least as much as she is for the actual cause, but that's probably the best we can expect in this day and age anyhow.

Daily Kos - After Huffington Post, I go here. A far more aggressive, progressive news blog, it's also so loaded with facts that can be fact-checked, I'm not sure how any reasonable mind could remain wedded to what currently passes for conservative political thinking without being brainwashed beyond all raison d'être. Would the Democrats have taken Congress without the rise of Daily Kos? I don't think so. It was a catalyst that drew attention to so many right wing YouTube gaffes, news stories that would have otherwise been buried, and out of left field Senators-elect Jim Webb and Jon Tester.

Showtime - 2006 was the year the pay cable channel Showtime's original television programming unexpectedly passed HBO as the hipper subscription service. Edgier, more daring, more original, series like the Robin Hood of serial killers "Dexter," pothead sitcom "Weeds" and suspense thriller "Sleeper Cell: American Terror," actually brought something new to TV, while HBO staggered through a meandering year of "The Sopranos," bombed with "Lucky Louie," upped the ante on sour epic misanthropy with "Rome" and inexplicably cancelled the brilliant "Deadwood." Though "The Wire" remains arguably the greatest series in the history of television, HBO is no longer the only pay channel worth paying for.

Keane - "Under the IronSea" made it two bull's-eye albums in a row from this three piece keyboard band from Southeast England. Beautiful, soaring melodies steeped in melancholy romanticism, with hook after hook after hook. They can barely get arrested here in America, but in the UK, they're the new Beatles (or is it the new Oasis?). I've heard the complaint that every song of theirs sounds the same, but you know what? It's a great song.

Pandora - Whether you like Keane or not, I can guarantee that I'll help you find some new band you like through this amazing Web site from the Music Genome Project. Just type in a few bands or songs that you like, and Pandora will recommend other bands or performers that you'll probably like, too. I discovered Josh Rouse and The Umbrellas, you'll find other obscure artists who suit your tastes. Radio and popular music might be getting blander and more concocted all the time, but the avenues for discovering good stuff is also better than it's ever been.

Coca Cola's "Video Game" commercial - A work of genius from Wieden + Kennedy, the best coke commercial in years and years, and the best branding message of 2006. This tour de force 60-second cinema spot takes the nihilistic and violent world of the video game "Grand Theft Auto," turns our expectations about it on our heads, and in the process creates a piece of advertising that delivers a deeply effective and emotionally resonant brand message to the most desirable demographic audience while simultaneously creating a piece of transcendent entertainment. It taps brilliantly into a deeply resonant theme that has been a common thread through all of Coke's classic advertising: that this carbonated sugar water is actually a catalyst for connection and community.

"Armed Madhouse" by Greg Palast - A collection of painfully funny and meticulously researched investigative pieces that recasts the short history of the Bush Administration in a completely new light, one that brightly pierces what's going under the rocks the writer continually turns over. A few years earlier, he was completely right about the 2000 election fraud that took place in Florida; his reporting in this book about the 2004 election irregularities has been backed up in Rolling Stone and elsewhere. The section in this book about the competing post-Iraq War planning strategies of the Pentagon and the oil industry is a must for anyone who wants to understand why we've failed in Iraq.

"Iraq for Sale" - In a year of great and important documentaries - "An Inconvenient Truth," "Who Killed the Electric Car" and "This Film is Not Yet Rated," just for starters - Robert Greenwald's furious broadside against the military industrial complex should be seen by all Americans. It's an anguishing reminder that there is a small but powerful segment of the American population who will gladly send our young citizens off to kill and be killed in order to make themselves very rich.

MSNBC - The best mainstream news channel, without question. Entertaining, informative, about as close to genuinely fair and balanced as you'll find in a broadcast operation owned by a massive media conglomerate (or two), MSNBC actually gives a little hope that maybe there isn't somebody behind the curtain pulling their strings. I'm hardly up for giving them three cheers, but I'm happy to give them one. As for Keith Oblermann, maybe he's peaked, maybe he's going to self-destruct, maybe he's no better than his bete noir Bill O'Reilly, but the sportscaster-turned-newscaster was calling attention to the arrogant lies of the Bush Administration long before anybody else on television, and for that he deserves a cheer of his own.

Planetary - Superman, Batman, Spiderman and X-Men may rule at the box office, but the best comic book stories are still being spun on the pages themselves. And no title understood the modern myths of the four-color strip better than writer Warren Ellis and artist John Cassady's "Planetary"--the best comic of the past seven years, and the slowest. It has a mere 26 issues in that span.

But every issue has been smart, sly and epic--it deconstructs one pop culture hero or touchstone after another. Imagine the "X-File"s taking on James Bond, John Woo movies, the Godzilla canon, 1950s radioactive "Giant Bug" movies, metaphysics and practically every well known superhero in history, and you've just cracked the surface. The tale's just about told--there's only one issue to go--but the series has been collected in trade paperbacks. You won't find better intelligent action entertainment.

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