Top 20 Albums of 2006

It is that time again, time for me to jump into the music side of things and give my top 20 albums of 2006. Last years top 5 was strong (Kanye West, Common, Fall Out Boy, John Legend, Jack Johnson), lets see if this years list compares. As always, I can only rank what I have heard, so if your favorite obscure artist did not hit the list, shame on you for not getting me a burnt copy of the album.



1. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
2. My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade
3. Lupe Fiasco - Food & Liquor
4. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
5. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
6. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
7. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
8. John Mayer - Continuum
9. Ghosteface Killah - Fishscales
10. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
11. John Legend - Once Again
12. T.I. - King
13. The Roots - Game Theory
14. Jack Johnson - Curious George Soundtrack
15. The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
16. Ben Harper - Both Sides of the Gun
17. The Killers - Sam's Town
18. Tool - 10,000 Days
19. Corine Bailey Rae - Corine Bailey Rae
20. Nas - Hip Hop is Dead

Oscar Predicitons

With nominations only a few days away, it is time for my yearly Oscar predictions. The last 2 years I have picked a really high percentage right, this year may prove more difficult. This is a harder year to predict than most, and I have not been able to pay as much attention as I would have liked to the process due to work, but here goes nothing...


Best Picture

Babel
Dreamgirls
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Children

Best Director

Martin Scorsese (The Departed)
Bill Condon (Dreamgirls)
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (Babel)
Clint Eastwood (Letters From Iwo Jima)
Stephen Frears (The Queen)

Best Actor

Forrest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland)
Peter O’Toole (Venus)
Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed)
Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson)

Best Actress

Helen Mirren (The Queen)
Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal)
Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada)
Kate Winslet (Little Children)
Penelope Cruz (Volver)

Best Supporting Actor

Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls)
Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine)
Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children)
Jack Nicholson (The Departed)
Brad Pitt (Babel)

Best Supporting Actress

Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)
Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)
Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal)
Shareeka Epps (Half Nelson)
Adriana Barraza (Babel)

Best Original Screenplay

Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine)
Peter Morgan (The Queen)
Guillermo Arriaga (Babel)
Zach Helm (Stranger Than Fiction)
Paul Greengrass (United 93)

Best Adapted Screenplay

William Monahan (The Departed)
Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking)
Todd Field & Tom Perrotta (Little Children)
Bill Condon (Dreamgirls)
Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men)

Best Animated Feature

Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best Documentary Feature

An Inconvenient Truth
Deliver Us From Evil
Jesus Camp
The Ground Truth
The War Tapes

Best Foreign Language Film

Pan’s Labyrinth
Volver
Water
The Lives of Others
Black Book

Best Cinematography

Children of Men
Babel
Apocalypto
Pan’s Labyrinth
United 93

Best Art Direction

Children of Men
Dreamgirls
Pan’s Labyrinth
Babel
Pirates of the Caribbean 2

Best Editing

The Departed
Dreamgirls
Babel
Casino Royale
United 93

Best Visual Effects

Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Night at the Museum
Superman Returns

Best Costume Design

Dreamgirls
Pan’s Labyrinth
Marie Antoinette
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
The Devil Wears Prada

Best Makeup

Pan’s Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean 2
Apocalypto

Best Original Score

Phillip Glass (The Illusionist)
Alexandre Desplat (The Queen)
Gustavo Santaolalla (Babel)
Howard Shore (The Departed)
Han Zimmer (The DaVinci Code)

Best Original Song

Prince - The Song of the Heart (Happy Feet)
Beyonce - Listen (Dreamgirls)
Melissa Etheridge - I Need To Wake Up (An Inconvenient Truth)
Aretha Franklin & Mary J. Blige - Never Gonna Break My Faith (Bobby)
Sarah McLachlan - Ordinary Miracle (Charlotte’s Web)