You've been waiting in dread, I know, for Mark's musical year in review. But people, it's just like pulling off a band aid; read quickly and it'll be done before you know.

Personally, it was actually a great year for me, musically. Not because I discovered so many new bands, or so many of my current favorite bands put out killer albums. Rather, the internet has brought me a whole host of ways to discover new music, and to play music I already own. It has really made a qualitative difference in my music enjoyment, and promises to get even better. The internet innovations that have transformed my music listening experience, in no particular order:

• last.fm - their streaming radio in particular. Love the ability to create a radio station based on a particular artist.



• Songbird music player - a great player for all the music on your hard disk, plus links to hundreds of internet radio stations. Includes band information and ratings, and with option add-ons, will show song lyrics, similar artist recommendations, and will even tell you when your favorite bands are coming to town in concert.



• Playlist - a great site for queuing up a list of almost any song and streaming it back instantly. We amazed some house guests by being able to play a song by any artist they could name within seconds.



• uTorrent - a program for downloading BitTorrents, which I've been a little behind the curve on, but finally got into this recently. Great way to download almost any CD, and TV shows as well (haven't had the patience to attempt a movie). Combined with a CD/DVD burner, and it's a piece of cake to inflict share your music with friends, which we've done a lot of this year.



• StreamZap PC Remote - actually, this just arrived from ThinkGeek, and I haven't hooked it up yet. But I'm looking forward to it enhancing our champagne Sundays in conjunction with all the aforementioned technologies.

And now, onto the music itself. Nothing really jumped out as a top album this year, but I came across a lot that I've enjoyed, including:

• Fleet Foxes - A great soundtrack for driving through desolate Queensland woodlands.


• Cibelle - The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves - modern Brazilian for getting your chill on


• Elbow - The Seldom-Seen Kid - dark and beautiful


• Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Primary Colours - local garage band does good


• Vampire Weekend - good fun


• M. Ward - Post-War - lovely stuff

I have new albums by Paul Weller, Lucinda Williams, Beck, and Weezer that I haven't really digested yet as well.

Concerts this year include:

• Paul Weller - brilliant


• Billy Bragg - good


• From The Jam - great fun


• Polyphonic Spree - good


• Rufus Wainwright - really good


• Jet - actually, this is next week; I scored tickets to see them in a private show, which I'm very excited about.

We have tickets to see Lucinda Williams as well, but that's not until April! So it'll have to go on next year's list.

On a final note: despite all the new sources of music, the album I listened to probably more than any other this year is "Dry" by PJ Harvey, which dates back sixteen years...

Five minutes away by bike is the Fairfield boathouse. So today I rode up and rented a kayak. Though the Yarra River there is wide and calm and unchallenging, the experience was really quite excellent, and much different than walking or riding alongside the river. Serene, scenic, and lots of wildlife. Towards the end I rounded a bend and came across the flying fox bat colony, which I didn't realize was so close. As I watched I noticed that many of the bats were carrying their babies on their chest - must be breeding season! Here's a bad shot of me in action by the bats. (Hey, cell phone photos are grainy enough even when you're not worried about dropping the phone in the water.) I'll definitely be going back.