The best of less known in 2006

The year and its troubles are all but over and it is appropriate to talk about leisure stuff. Throughout this year I have come across a few movies and music albums which impressed me but could have been missed by you (V For Vendetta or Crash are terrific but surely everyone saw it). Assuming that you share my taste I would definitely recommend the following of them:

Album of the year

• All the Roadrunning - ever since Dire Straits was disbanded Mark Knopfler has been getting better and better. In my opinion he is much better than he used to be - and he was truly great back then :)
  

Music Discovery of the year

• Johnny Cash - this is what happens when one lives in the Evil Empire. Until this year I had no idea about this country superstar (BTW I would not call it simply country and he was a real man, not what they call stars nowadays). If you are country-inclined or at least like engaging melodies and inventive lyrics (about something meaningful later in his career) .. I reckon in such a case you listened to at least The Greatest Hits. For like one hundred times :)
  

Movies for and about adults

• Conversations with Other Women - mesmerizing, astonishing camera work, superb dialogs
• Thank You for Smoking - hilarious to the very end, stylish, quite instructive
• Closer - absolutely stunning performance from true actors, amazingly powerful scenario

Movies for young adults

• Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Clerks II - I have finally watched all the movies by Kevin Smith. I admit I like all of them. They are slightly controversial but funny. Not only quite a few deep ideas are playfully considered but the style and dialogs are clearly unique. If you like one of the movies you should like the rest of them (and Dogma to load). My personal rating is Dogma, Clerks 1/2, Mallrats/Chasing Amy. Snoochy boochy :)
• Wicker Park - circuitous, engaging, nice soundtrack