It's that time of the year again. Yes, I love lists even if most of the time they are hard to compile. Same happened this year and, I must admit, when it came to movies, it was a sad affair for yours truly. I did go the cinema more often than last year, but I wasn't particularly lucky either: walking out in the middle of "Get Smart" was one such example.

I did however see a few interesting films, some at home, others outdoors, just not enough to build a strong Top 10. "The Dark Knight", "Body of Lies", "John Rambo", "Transsiberian", "Felon" and "Traitor" were all particularly enjoyable and let's not forget 2007's tour de force "Elite Squad" which I did see only this year. Then I can only recall a string of disappointments, starting with "Burn After Reading",  "Vantage Point", "Get Smart" and even, to some degree, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" (I am now in the process of catching up with the very first season of X-Files, by the way, and this last movies crawls lower and lower in my ranking as I go about it).

The more interesting list, sadly, is the one made of movies I should have seen and for one reason or another haven't. All these titles are in my so-called "to see" list, so better late than never:

• Son of Ranbow
• W.
• Appaloosa
• Wanted
• 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
• Revolutionary Road
• Slumdog Millonaire
• The Wrestler
• In Bruges
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• The Visitor
• Man On Wire
• Wall-E
• Frost/Nixon
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Iron Man

As far as music is concerned, the only thing I'd like to say is that, again, I've listened to far less music than I would have liked to. But that's inevitable, I guess. So, without further ado, here's my favorite list of 2008 (which, again, was a great year for music):

1. Portishead - Third
2. Opeth - Watershed
3. Torche - Meanderthal
4. Russian Circles - Station
5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!
6. Steven Wilson - Insurgentes
7. Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
8. Boris - Smile
9. Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
10. dEUS - Vantage Point

A few honorable mentions while we're at it:

• Black Mountain - In The Future
• Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
• Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
• MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
• Mouth of the Architect - Quietly
• Burst - Lazarus Bird
• Helms Alee - Night Terror

And to wrap this up, some great shows I've attended this year:

• Murdering Tripping Blues (PT)
• Cynic (US)
• Opeth (SWE)
• The Ocean (GER)
• dEUS (BEL)
• Porcupine Tree (UK)
• Iron Maiden (UK)
• Switchtense (PT)

Welcome, 2009.