One of my goals for 2007 is to replace this li'l retrospective with a blog post on the best books of the year. But, who am I kidding?

I'm very particular about the TV I watch. I'll damn near give anything a chance but tire of most shows pretty quickly. For example, this fall's Season 3 of Dancing With The Stars left me wondering how many more paso dobles I could take, particularly considering nobody will ever beat Drew Lachey's interpretation to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in Season 2.

As much as I loved "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" in 2005, my interest in NBC's new Thursday night staples waned considerably this year, particularly in the Jason Lee vehicle. For television to be compelling to a busy dude like me, it really has to become appointment TV as opposed to what they call habit-forming TV.

In the biz, the latter constitutes things like The Cosby Show always, always coming on NBC Thursdays at 7 throughout the 1980s. Watching that fine Phylicia Rashad became a habit.

A great example is CBS' "60 Minutes." Sundays at 6. C'mon, everybody knows that.

On the other hand, some shows we choose to watch because of the show itself and not because of our habits, what we're doing at the time or routine. With the way networks switch time schedules these days, it makes practically all television "appointment TV."

However, for me, there were five shows in 2006 that stood out not as the best, necessarily, but as my personal obsessions.

5. American Idol - The FOX staple had its biggest year yet in terms of ratings and votes; however, I thought it was a down year. The contestants are becoming too polished in one sense, while other shows (namely CBS' "Rock Star") are producing equally compelling shows with better music.

Problem is that nobody can argue that these contestants on AI -- the winners in particular -- are commercial failures. Kelly Clarkson is the biggest female star in pop music, and Carrie Underwood is arguably the biggest female star in music, period.

Jennifer Hudson, who finished in 7th place back in Season 3 is about to win an Oscar for her role in "Dreamgirls." Josh Gracin, a vastly overrated country-music-singing marine, who placed fifth in Season 2 is a definite commercial success.

Fantasia's second album is grittier and significantly better than her first. She has the legitimate possibility of standing toe-to-toe with the Aretha Franklin of this generation, Mary J. Blige.

However, what has always made AI appointment television is that the show itself is compelling. First, viewers are sucked in to rooting for some of these kids. Second, the show is typically full of surprises and controversy with regard to results because it's completely in the hands of the audience, which again is a positive. Third, the show is one an entire family can watch, regardless of age. Fourth, the show is the ultimate water-cooler program. Everybody has an opinion, and less gets done in corporate America on Wednesdays specifically because of Idol.

There is only one television event bigger on Earth, and it's a game played here in about five weeks -- the Super Bowl.

However, the talent itself the past two years has been down relative to the actual Top 12 performances. Not enough wow moments for me this season, musically. There were significantly more of those on CBS' "Rock Star," for example.

On the other hand, Elliott Yamin's story was ultra-endearing. The guy is deaf, diabetic and his mum is sick. To boot, the boy can flat-out sing the good stuff, as he proved by nailing Donny Hathaway's "A Song For You." You want a wow moment from this year on AI? That was it.

And on the other hand, runner-up Katharine McPhee was hot. Smokin' hot. Enough so that her image became part of my desktop wallpaper for like a month.

Still, there were better shows this year.

*****

4. Ugly Betty - I strongly considered making this my No. 1 show on two counts. First, this is a show that portrays a Hispanic family with a father who is an "illegal" in a positive light at a time when any brown person with questionable viability in terms of citizenship is looked down upon as if he or she were evil.

I love that, not because I support "rule-breaking" but because the issue of immigration is vastly more complex, as a whole and individually, than FOX News or Lou Dobbs will let you believe. "Ugly Betty" presented its primary patriarchal family figure as a guy who is here illegally not because he's evil but because he was busy supporting his family.

Anyway, I could go on. However, "Ugly Betty" is also socially transcendent in that it has introduced a queer kid, Justin Suarez, but refused to address it directly. The kid talks effeminately. He loves fashion and is quite knowledgeable about it. And, for Halloween, he dressed up as a sailor and sang and danced to Gene Kelly?

Gay. Gay. Gay. Right?

Not so fast. As a straight guy, I've always taken umbrage to the notion that we can't like musicals, that we can't like clothes and that we can't do any number of other things disassociated with sexual preference. While it's ok to kid your buddy for purposefully going to the theater to see "Brokeback Mountain," it's not cool for adults to chastise a 10 or 11-year-old boy because he's interested in dance, for example, instead of football.

I think it's about 99.9 percent likely that Justin Suarez goes the gay way. However, I thought it was quite classy that the only allusion the show has made to it was between Michael Urie's character and Justin, when the former told the kid he'd need to learn how to run fast.

*****

3. The Soup - I devote one hour to Joel McHale and the E Network's show dedicated to recapping TV shows every week. I typically watch "The Soup" twice. It's that funny. It's brilliantly written. The host is perfect for the show and he better not leave like that Kinnear fellow or Aisha Tyler or Hal Sparks or that dude with the skunk hair.

I'd never know about the blow-up bear featured in those telanovelas or that Rosie O'Donnell had a sex scene with a dude in Nip/Tuck. I've never watched VH1's "Flava of Love," but I knew all about New York after watching The Soup.

And, when somebody tells me something is a little gay, I know what to say.

I absolutely, positively do not miss an episode of this show, ever. For whatever reason, it wasn't on tonight, and I'm pissed.

*****

2. Big Brother 7 - In about 2000, I spent (er, wasted) an entire summer watching the first edition of CBS' semi-hit reality show that was so unsuccessful then, the show's executives literally erased it from the annals of the program's history.

However, I decided to give Season 7, an all-stars edition of the show, a chance.

Little did I know how obsessed I'd become with the show and just how much time it usurped. First, CBS airs this show during the summer on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. For those of you who don't know, a group of about 15 people live together in a house and, one by one, get voted off by each other until one remains.

It's not nearly as simple as a popularity contest. There are tasks, feats of strength or will or endurance. There are punishments. There is lying, deception and cruelty. There are bonds and alliances formed.

If you're thinking it's a lot like Survivor, then you're probably right. However, Big Brother is way more focused on human deception and pure evil than being able to start a fire from a pair of twigs.

Sure, like with Idol, you grow attached to certain contestants. Janelle was hot, but Will was the puppet master. Hell, I've forgotten half their names already, but what I do know is that I subscribed to an iTunes podcast (or two) devoted to this show and weekly online speculation about strategy.

There is no audience participation, really, outside of some spare contests CBS puts on affiliated with aspects of earlier seasons of BB. For example, they might have a contest where the winner gets his or her name put into a drawing for a trip to Vegas if he can remember something obscure about Season 4.

I could not care less about all that. My obsession is with the show itself, in its current format, which is a billion times superior to its original season. Hell, these folks this summer were doing each other in the house, or at least an allusion with a bit of video evidence was made relative to Boogie and Erika.

When it came time for the finale, I rushed home to get it on the DVR. I was pretty sure and definitely hoped that Boogie (Mike Malin is his real name) had the votes, but I didn't know. He did. He won. But, in true Big Brother fashion, half the contestants still personally hated the others. There was no, "Well, it was a competition, and we're friends in real life."

The real strength of a show, regardless of ratings, is whether you really look forward to the next season, and I can't wait. BTW, I should note that this is the one reality show I would consider applying for. Seriously. If I could live without the money for a summer, I'd be there.

*****

1. Heroes - What's funny is that I'll write considerably less about my No. 1 choice than my No. 2. That's because I already wrote a damned essay about NBC's breakout fall hit earlier this year, citing its characters and its concept as unlike anything I had ever seen.

Read what I wrote back in October. It still applies today, and although I fear what the show's writers are capable of in terms of eventually destroying what has begun as possibly the best scripted television drama in the past 25 years (slight hyperbole), I still must freakin' know who's on that goddamned list.

And, we'll know Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. on NBC.

Now, that is some appointment muthaf***** television.

Now that I've given you my 10 favorite movies of the past year, it's time to start a list for 2007. I'll be much more organized this year.

Well, I'll number my quick-reviews.

And, I'll add reviews of close friends, including one I got today from my buddy K. I'll see about getting T to add to this thread, if he'd like.

Not sure why I've been in a movie-watching mood, but I have. I particularly love movies that cause me to think about my place in life, my goals, my aspirations, etc.

Perhaps that's why I've always appreciated sports and music movies, in which the athlete or artist is struggling to succeed or express. One such movie, an IFC flick, starred Matt Dillon as the alter ego of Charles Bukowski, a famous writer and an infamous drunk.

No. 1 (for 2007) The movie is called Factotum, and it was directed by Bent Hamer.

My understanding is that this guy Hamer is a Norwegian, whose films have typically been light and happy. Or perhaps it was that I had read that Norwegian films were generally sweet and fluffy. At least, my understanding is that they typically were not dark.

Factotum, which as a word I believe refers to a person -- particularly a servant -- who does a little bit of everything, such as odd jobs, is supremely dark.

However, it's not a dark comedy. It's just dark and desperate, the innerworkings of Dillon's Henry Chianaski (pronounced Juh-nah-skee) and his attempt to get any job that will allow him to do what he loves: write and drink and drink and smoke and write and drink.

Henry picks up a couple of lovers along the way, in the form of actresses Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei. They're like Henry except they don't have an intellectual side. They merely survive on drink and sex.

At one point, Dillon's character -- who grows paunchier and ruddier throughout -- offers this soliloquy on the merit of trying. He says something to the effect of, "if you're going to try, then really, really try."

After watching the movie, I wasn't sure if he was expressing sorrow at his own wasted efforts or if he was proclaiming success at developing the self-destructive life he wanted. Bukowski is a cult icon, sure; however, I can only relate to his desire to pursue his art, his craft.

Hell, I can appreciate his love of fine booze and skanky women, too. Nonetheless, my level of ambition and my ability to minimize my own self-destructive habits separate the image I have of myself and the one held by Dillon in Factotum.

In other words, I'd have to judge the movie itself as opposed to how well I relate to Chianaski.

And, in that regard, the movie was pretty dismal. Lots of good dialogue and some memorable quotes, but I thought the film moved like troops marching in quicksand. I'd gladly watch it with a friend interested in Bukowski, but I doubt I'd sit through this again on my own.

Props though to Dillon who was quite good in this. Sean Penn was the director's first choice, but frankly I preferred Dillon.

Grade: C+

***********

No. 2 Zach Braff stars in The Last Kiss, a remake of an Italian movie that was called L'Ultimo Bacio. The gist of the film centers on Braff's desire to alleviate boredom by stepping out on his pregnant girlfriend.

Braff plays Michael, and Michael is hooked up with Jenna, played Jacinda Barrett. She's essentially the perfect girlfriend. Easy on the eyes. Easy on the wallet. Low-maintenance. Easy on the ego and the nerves, contrasted by Marley Shelton who plays Arianna, who ass-whips husband Casey Affleck (Chris) into leaving her.

Nevertheless, Jenna is what 80 percent of men would call the perfect girlfriend. At a wedding, Michael starts talking with a young U of Wisconsin co-ed named Kim (played by Rachel Bilson).

The conversation leads to a nightmare for Braff's character, one that he wholly deserves.

However, this relationship is parallel to one between Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson, who play Jenna's parents. The role is sort of reversed between the older couple and the younger couple, and much of the dialogue early in the movie foreshadows what happens in retrospect.

The only other worthwhile, meaningful subplot in this Paul Haggis-written movie (he wrote Crash) is the one between Chris and Arianna. They're married, and she can't keep herself from any opportunity to grate Chris' last nerve or to choke his ego to death.

I genuinely feel sorry for Affleck's character and appreciate greatly what he did. He left.

Audiences will be able to sympathize with Affleck's character primarily, I think, because he's good enough not to play along with Braff and his indiscretions. However, Affleck's performance itself was notable.

I'm not a big Braff fan, but I enjoyed "Garden State," and I loved this movie. I thought about it this morning, and I equate the final scene of "The Last Kiss" to the scene in Say Anything where Lloyd serenades Diane with Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes."

It was that good. The way the movie ended and worked itself out was smart, charming, desperate and melancholy all at the same time. In no way did I sympathize with Michael, but as a viewer, I was willing to accept whatever Jenna was willing to decide.

However, the movie wasn't perfect and suffered from a number of unnecessary scenes and, frankly, characters that I think were added primarily to endear the film to younger audiences.

Nonetheless, it's a movie that I'd not only watch again. I'd buy it.

Of course, Braff handled soundtrack duties, and the music was wonderful. First, is there any more beautiful song going right now than Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek"? Holy hell is that a gorgeous piece of music. Second, he used Turin Brakes' "Pain Killer" in the closing credits, which scores points with me considering how much I liked that tune.

Grade: A

***********

Now for a guest review from my buddy K, taken from his e-mail to me on Thursday:

"The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." It's a 2005 flick Directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones.

I have no clue how this movie was received by the public or the "expert," but I'm guessing that it was received rather poorly.

For my part, I enjoyed it, but it's one that I'd like to eventually watch again. However, when I say that I enjoyed it, I don't mean that I loved it. I don't mean that it was a great movie. I don't mean that it should have won any awards. I can only say that it was worth a watch for 1) the part of the country portrayed in the film and 2) how the true character that Jones portrayed was gradually revealed.

It's this latter, especially, that threw me and made me enjoy the movie even more by the end.

The film is set in a very troubled part of this country: the border region between Mexico and Texas. However, though the reality of life down there sets up the basic plot of the film, that's not the focus of the film. The focus is on people -- people on both sides of the border -- and their natures. Obviously, some are good, some are not. Some are honest and loyal, some are not. Some are decent, some are troubled.

The first third of the movie is very confusing, offering lots of very quick flashbacks mixed in with what's happening in real time ... but it's not obvious which is which. The catch to keeping up is simply this: Assume that everything you see is happening NOW, and go with what you know about the general plot of the movie, which is offered in the title of the film and which is reinforced with scene titles throughout the film). You'll start to recognize the flashbacks.

By the second "scene," there's really no difficulty in keeping up with what's going on, and the flashbacks are much more apparent.

This movie is a character study focusing primarily on the Jones character, but which exposes the viewer to a very wide range of character types, they decisions each makes about his or her own life, and the way each chooses to interact with the rest of the world.

Grade: B+

I can't say I've watched even 1/20 of the movies that were released this year. However, most of them I would have hated.

Some of them are still on my to-watch-as-soon-as-I-can list, such as "Babel," "Flags Of Our Fathers," "The Queen" and "The Departed."

But, my list of the best movies of 2006 really includes movies from 2005 and 2006 that I happened to have watched this year. I'm not aiming for mega-credibility here. I'm just a guy in need of a good list.

Hell, my list for next year is likely to include a bunch of 2006 movies that I watch next year. However, I draw the line at the 24-month timeframe. A boy has to have standards.

In the interest of full-disclosure, here are the 2005-06 movies I watched this year for the first time:

2006

Grandma's Boy

Clerks II

Little Miss Sunshine

The Matador

The Devil Wears Prada

Thank You For Smoking

Failure To Launch

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for
Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

You, Me & Dupree

The Pursuit of Happyness

Rocky Balboa

Snakes On A Plane

2005

Wedding Crashers

Rumor Has It

Syriana

The Longest Yard

Kicking & Screaming

The Weather Man

Good Night & Good Luck

Fever Pitch

The Upside of Anger

Diary Of A Mad Black Woman

That's 22 movies from the past two years, not including some older movies my buddy T made me watch as part of my continuing film education. I'm too embarrassed to say what he made me watch only because it would sap what miniscule credibility I had left.

However, the 10 movies from this bunch that I picked were top-notch. Movies I would not only recommend, but I'd also buy if given the chance and a good price.

So, here goes. Academy, take note:

10. Clerks II -- One of my cinematic joys this year was to introduce one of my brothers to the Kevin Smith series. This sequel to the 1993 classic was way better than expected, although -- really -- all of Kevin Smith's movies are fun, funny, raunchy, well written, classic.

Even though Daunte and Randall are a bit older and pudgier, it still works. Funny as hell. Plus, they leave the door way open for a Clerks III, so even better.

9. The Pursuit of Happyness -- Will Smith's work in this movie makes an ordinary movie really on the brink of great. I don't think most folks will consider this movie great; however, I separate the whole movie from Smith's performance. Plus, the understated way the movie ends is not only incredibly moving, it's really much smarter and classier than you'd expect from a very mainstream sort of movie. There's no doubt this movie will be featured on cable networks about a billion times over the next 10-20 years.

8. Thank You For Smoking -- First, I've seen Aaron Eckhart in several movies, including "In The Company of Men," which was a brilliant little indy film about a couple of terrible guys who lead this secretary into thinking that one of them loves her.

In this movie, Eckhart plays a pro-tobacco lobbyist who is at once quite funny but also damned smart and right on-point, socially, I think with regards to how tobacco is vilified in this country. You can hate tobacco all you want or smoke like a chimney, but you can't watch this movie and not think there is more than an air of truth to what Eckhart's character represents. And, like in The Pursuit of Happyness, Eckhart struggles with being a good father under unique circumstances.

7. Grandma's Boy -- This is a low-budget Adam Sandler-financed juvenile comedy about an older dude who works as a video-game developer, who happens to live with his grandmother. It's funny, raunchy and disturbing at times, such as when Shirley Jones and some teenager get it on -- although, Jones ain't exactly the ugliest 70-year-old woman on the planet.

Erase that thought.

Nevertheless, it's a movie I could watch another 20-25 times, easily. I probably will as soon as my buddy T buys it.

6. Borat -- I'll spare my typing fingers the rest of the title. By now, you probably know what this movie was all about. This comedian fools folks into acting like idiots. It's crude, crass, funny as hell and brilliant. Underneath the raunchiness and the idiocy is some social commentary I think, particularly when one considers how stupid people are willing to act and speak when they think the camera is merely shooting footage for a "foreign documentary."

To be honest, I don't think time will treat this movie as well as, let's say, "Grandma's Boy," which I think will be a big sorta-cult hit for the next couple of decades.

5. Fever Pitch -- This 2005 release featured Jimmy Fallon in a leading role, which turns most moviegoers off right there. However, this love story about a guy and his baseball team, intermingled with his love for a girl, was simple, charming, goofy and well received by reviewers.

I'm a sucker for a good baseball movie. I was never that endeared by "Field of Dreams" because I don't equate baseball to some emptiness inside or some desire to reconnect with a relative. Baseball is about passion and joy, and both are so well represented in "Fever Pitch." Those who refuse to see it because the normally lame Fallon is in it are just missing out.

4. The Matador -- Pierce Brosnin plays an assassin who is losing his mind. He loves his booze, his hookers and he hoodwinks Greg Kinnear into helping him pull off one last hit. The writing is fierce and biting and supremely dark. Lots of references to deviance, and I loved it. The whole movie. And, the references to deviance.

3. The Weather Man -- I had been holding off on watching this movie about a weather man (not a meteorologist) whose life is just on a downward spiral because I hadn't heard one person say anything about it. It was like the movie that was always there in the new releases section of Blockbuster but that nobody ever had a word about, one way or the other.

Rent it, already! Look, I love dark, happy-as-cancer movies, and Nicholas Cage's character being tortured by Michael Caine is beautiful. Caine was brilliant in this, and the humor is highly cringe-worthy. Two words for you: Camel toe.

2. Little Miss Sunshine -- Widely considered to be the best comedy of 2006, Greg Kinnear, Steve Carrell and Alan Arkin head up an impeccable cast, a family headed to Redondo Beach, Calif., to support a little girl (played by Abigail Breslin) in a beauty pageant.

The girl isn't beautiful, really, by pageant standards, but the family is at once dysfunctional and sweet. Oh, but the girl IS talented, as you'd see in what is probably the funniest scene I've seen all year. Let's just say that her heroin-addicted grandfather (played by Arkin) was her talent coach.

It's worth it just for the ending, but the whole thing is worth skipping a rent and heading for a buy. And, Steve Carrell is stellar. This is the type of movie that will stand by "Raising Arizona," "Harold & Maude" and "Rushmore" as a film that people either love or think is supremely weird.

I thought it was brilliant, although I do use that term a bit much.

1. Rocky Balboa -- Technically, No. 4, 3 and 2 are probably significantly superior to the Rocky finale. However, I've seen it twice now, and the sixth installment of the Rocky Balboa series is not only respectful of the original Rocky, to which it alludes a ton, it's also among the very most moving sports movies I've ever seen.

I wrote about it a bit on Saturday, but really I don't have the time to do it much justice. There are some obvious flaws in the movie, I think, based on the integration of a ton of pop-culture references and personalities (from HBO and ESPN).

However, as much as I love the underdog role Sly Stallone played in 1976, I love even more that this is a movie most people are chuckling at as some sort of vehicle for Stallone's desperation. Truth is, there is probably some fact underlying that sentiment. It really is like Stallone was looking for that one last cinematic comeback, to go out on a high note -- film-wise.

I'll say this now, and you can call me a genius when it happens. Do NOT be surprised when this gets a nomination for Best Picture in a month or so. The vast majority of reviewers loved this movie. I also think there will be a groundswell of support for Stallone's work in this series, overall, good and bad, as well as a deep appreciation for his success in recreating a movie with so much respect for the original.

There's no chance this movie should win Best Picture. Not with "The Queen" and "Babel" and the Eastwood films out there -- all of which I'll see soon enough.

However, if this movie does get nominated, and I think there is definitely an outside chance of it, then it would be foolish to count it out come Oscar time.

Maybe it shows I need to watch a more serious variety of films. Maybe it shows what a sap I am, but pound-for-pound, it was the most enjoyable movie I saw this past year.

Side note: How would Rocky Balboa fare in a list of my favorite sports movies? I'll put together a more comprehensive list sometime, but right now, I'm thinking it would go: 1. Rocky, 2. Hoosiers, 3. Tin Cup, 4. Major League, 5. Friday Night Lights, 6. Rocky Balboa, 7. White Men Can't Jump, 8. A League Of Their Own, 9. For The Love Of The Game, 10. The Longest Yard (original).

Bill Conti wrote the greatest instrumental of all-time. Not Beethoven. Not Mozart. But, Bill Conti.

It's the theme music to "Rocky," and if nothing else, it attracted me to the new Rocky movie, "Rocky Balboa." It's a film that's got buzz and is gaining attention with each person who watches it.

Because it's excellent.

Nothing will top the 1976 classic. However, the sixth film in the Rocky series is the perfect finale. Perfect. Lots of old faces. Lots of sentimentality. Lots of solid writing and, of course, there's Sly Stallone.

I told my brother that it's weird how bad Sly can be in some movies but how brilliant he is as Rocky Balboa. It's like he is that guy from South Philly. And, I think one of the reasons people love Rocky so much is because modern sports features nobody like the guy.

Not in boxing, for sure. Football, maybe?

I'll admit that I've never seen Rocky II, III, IV or V. To me, nothing was going to come close to the original. So, why did I decide to spend $6.25 on "Rocky Balboa"?

Simple. Most reviewers said it was the Rocky flick that came the closest to capturing the heart and talent of the original. So, I decided to see for myself.

I'm not going to give a thing away here. All I'll say is that it was understated, classy, well-done and probably the second best in the series because it came within a right-hook of being as good as the original.

For my taste, there was a bit too much ESPN and HBO involvement in the movie. There was a cameo from Mike Tyson. There were the boxing reporters and experts and trainers. Bert Sugar made an appearance.

That's what all sports movies do, nowadays.

However, the vast, vast majority of the movie centered on Rocky dealing with the death of his wife. It dealt with Rocky's loyalty to old friends and to this at times uncomfortable reverence Philadelphians have toward him. It dealt with Rocky's relationship with his son. It dealt with Rocky's understanding that the combination of age and inertia is deadly.

What is making reviewers love this movie is that it was more about HIM than it was merely the boxing. There is seemingly no shot that Rocky could ever be the champ again (at least long-term), but by God, he's not going to just sit back and rot. Not yet.

The boxing sequences, I thought, were just fine. It looked a little weird to see Stallone out there with Antonio Tarver. However, hell, George Foreman got old and became a champ, so why not Balboa?

It's like this movie knew that Rocky owed a bit back to the movie fans who hold the original Best Picture winner in such high reverence because this one was a movie fan's movie. It might not be a boxing fan's movie. I dunno. However, anybody who holds the original in high respect ought to give this one a shot. It might not be the second-coming of Godfather II, but it ain't half-bad either.

Bottom line is that if you liked the Rocky series at all, you will love this movie. Love it. It comes as close to capturing the heart of the original without just reproducing it as possible. If they'll just end the series here, it will have been the perfect finale.

Grade: A

Mike Nifong should be fired. Mike Nifong should be sued. Mike Nifong should be forever vilified by women who are actually raped.

Right? Am I nuts here?

Nifong is the district attorney who accused three rich white boys from Duke's lacrosse team of rape based on the account of a stripper. Based on her picking these three guys from a lineup of photos. Based on no actual evidence.

I've been waiting to see how this played out. For awhile, I'd say that even if the three guys didn't rape this stripper, they were probably guilty of something.

No more. The charges of kidnapping and sexual assault should be dropped completely. Furthermore, I'd say a tort against these fellows is probably worthy of about $10 million apiece from the state.

It should come from Nifong and the taxpayers who voted him in, as punishment for choosing somebody so separated from the notion of justice. As is pointed out by one of the player's defense attorneys, the job of the prosecutor has never been to win cases.

It is to preserve justice.

This case doesn't peeve me on behalf of women. Sorry, I can't pretend. It peeves me on behalf of men because, frankly, I'm pretty sure that between 10-20 percent of all rape accusations are false, while I'm also pretty sure that a big chunk of rapes never go reported.

The former incites me much more than the latter because I can't empathize with being raped. However, if any woman found me remotely sexually attractive, I might fear being accused of rape.

We're advanced enough scientifically as a nation that DNA evidence will have to be required, I think, from now on to prove any rape. Testimony is no longer good enough. Hell, it was fallacious to prosecute solely based on the victim's testimony anyway because each individual is equally capable of lying.

We're human.

At some point, I think we need to offer this Nifong guy an olive branch and have him help to structure the system better -- not to prosecute rapists but to pursue truth. That's all law-abiding citizens are really interested in. Reasonable people want rape to be prosecuted vigorously. Reasonable people want a safe, secure system in place by which women can report incidents without fear of repercussion or a loss of privacy.

However, not at the cost of justice itself.

As for these three Duke boys (sounds very Hazzard of me to write that), they should just be completely exonerated, sent home and written a giant check. They were 100 percent the victims in this case.

On to happier topics:

The best thing that could have possibly happened to The View was Rosie O'Donnell's arrival. She's in the news every week. Sometimes I'm with her. Sometimes I'm not. Either way, I always have her tuned in because she is what I call watercooler TV.

People talk about what she talks about.

Well, she picked a fight with the wrong hombre ... or did she?

Here's the recap of what went down between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell. She questioned his role as the arbiter of morality, and as you can see on a billion videos posted to the Web, Trump went on a rant that only a second-grader could have mustered.

First, I liked Donald's gesture toward the Miss USA chick. However, I understand his motive was to keep that in the news as long as possible and then to be the "good guy" in the end, so I can't really give him much credit for this.

During the better part of his Apprentice run, I really liked the guy. Sorry, but I think he's a smart dude, and a lot of his knowledge and advice on that show -- I think -- was spot on. However, a ton of smarts can't really cover up an asshole, and he pretty much demonstrated embarrassingly to the planet that he's a giant asshole.

Don't love Rosie. She can be grating at times, but his attack was childish and laughable and terribly immature ... and, well, not worth writing about one more line.

I had a couple of days off this week, so I caught a matinee by myself -- one of my absolute favorite things to do. In fact, I might be doing it again soon given that there are two movies I really want to see.

The first was Gabriele Muccino's The Pursuit of Happyness, which is the real-life story of Chris Gardner, who went from homelessness to a job to becoming a millionaire. And, he's black. And, he was a single father. And, he had just about everything bad happen to him possible.

So, society's stacked against this guy. His wife is on his ass. The world just can't possibly suck any more than this.

However, Gardner -- played by Will Smith -- has his son. That kid is played by Jaden Smith, who happens to be Smith's son in the real world.

How does Gardner overcome his situation? Hard-ass work.

He's really my kind of person in that respect. Hard work, in my estimation, is what separates the ordinary from the great. And, Gardner is a classic up-by-his-bootstraps sort of character, but he never forgets that the reason he's doing what he does is for his kid.

Not going to get into the hows and the whats. Don't want to give anything away. However, what I'd offer you is that Will Smith's acting job is probably worthy of an Academy Award. Seriously. It's one of the better pieces of leading-man acting I've seen in years.

Perhaps it suffers from a bit of Will Smith "playing himself," which Tom Hanks often does. However, it's not hard for the viewer to buy Smith as this Gardner fellow. It's very easy to pull for this guy along the way. And, it's impossible, in my estimation, to deny that the understated way Smith approached the final 15 minutes of the movie was actually a thing of beauty.

It is. I'll say this: The movie was good, even pedestrian at times. However, the ending was artful and brilliant. They could have gone a million ways with it, but they went for subtlety.

Personally, I wish this Gardner fellow had been less about the kid and more about himself. To me, it was almost too good to be true that he was all about the kid. Besides, as a viewer, I want to empathize with the character more, and I don't have kids nor do I have a fascination with them. I like them well enough, but this story could have been just as heartfelt if it had just been Smith playing a man trying to find himself in the world.

But, that's not how Gardner did it.

The movie was really good but not quite great. It was formulaic but not nearly as much as you might think. However, Smith's job was just tremendous. The guy is a gem, and the movie's worth a watch just for the final scene.

Grade: B+

In other news ...

I've posted my Top 25 Songs of 2006 on my MySpace Music blog: click here for the list.

You say, MySpace? What the hell?

Believe it or not, MySpace and MP3.com are kind of in competition in the free music space, meaning I'm again an MP3.com artist. Now, I'm also a MySpace.com artist. My MySpace page is http://www.myspace.com/ryanwelton, and my MP3.com page is http://www.mp3.com/ryanwelton.

New song for the kidows and widows. I'm really trying to write up to a song a day, which means not all of 'em gonna be gems. However, let's see what you think.

This one is very much a 1970s Leon Russell/Billy Preston-like diddy about a dude who's married to a lounge singer, and he knows she's probably cheating on him with all sorts of seedy hotel businessmen.

Not sure where I come up with this crap. But, alas.

Link and lyrics below:

Link: Listen to "Finger".

Follow along with the lyrics

Finger
© 2006 William R. Welton

Verses 1 & 2:
--------------
Settle down my child, no need to borrow
trouble's gonna yield some pain tomorrow
Relax and say a prayer
He's just the product of your mind ...

Married life can be a pain, I'm told that
boring men can be a drain, I know that
Stop and take a breath
He's nothing but a waste of time ...

Chorus:
--------
Just because that ring burns your finger
Doesn't mean you follow-through
Lots of men will fall for the singer
Of the hotel band but I was the lucky man who married you

Verses 3 & 4:
--------------
Call me from the concierge to tell me
You'll be playin' late again, Danielle,
I can hear it in your voice
But I have a hunch what's on your mind ...

Is he in town on business, do tell, I want to
hear about his clientele, or is he
the type who buys you scotch
And hopes that you can drink me blind ....

Repeat Chorus 2X ...

Leave it to the great Justin Timberlake to be part of possibly the funniest SNL skit in the past 20 years. He and Andy Samberg teamed up to perform a Christmas love song:

Click here to watch.

However, it got me to thinking about this skit I had told some friends about, one in which Christina Aguilera played Samantha from "Sex In The City." I kept yodeling about how funny this was and how GOOD Christina was in reprising Kim Cattrall's role ...

Click here for this tranny surprise ...

SNL might be two-thirds boring, but when they're on ... holy crap, they're on. Christina Aguilera was stunningly good in this ...

If 1970s pop ever comes back into fashion, I might be in business.

Did a little songwriting this weekend, and this is the result. The demo is merely me and the piano. Like I always say when I issue my demo caveat: I don't purport to be a singer. Hell, I just pray I stay on key without gasping for air.

However, I'll just shut up now, post the lyrics and a link to the song.

Here's the song: Lonely People.

Here are the lyrics:

Lonely People
c 2006 William R. Welton

Verse 1:
----------
i should've known
that the best of my years were behind me<
i should've grown
up instead of bein' a baby
i should've thrown
in the towel to signal surrender
Maybe I should
but i won't ...

chorus:
-----------
i've been wonderin'
whatever happens to the lonely people
with lonely hearts like mine?
do they hover undercover looking for another?
or do they just quit trying?

i've been thinkin'
whatever happens to the lonely people
i hope they find their peace
'cause whatever happens to them
could happen to me

Verse 2:
----------
we shouldn't grieve
look at all of the art it inspires
we can believe
that our passions are all we require
should I be relieved
that I haven't experienced heartache?
maybe I should
but I'm not ...

Return to chorus ...

Bridge:
----------
Is there something I can do or buy
That could give me the natural high
Of two people who are deep in love
There's nothin' I can think of ...

Return to the chorus 2x

Hot off the press. Fresh from the oven.

I've been doing some writing in the style of my forte -- smooth jazz, pop instrumental, whatever you'd like to call it. If you'd like to listen, right click the link and save it to your machine.

You might need to turn it up on your machine because, for the life of me, I can't figure out how to normalize my tracks against other CD tracks. I master it as loud as it will go without clipping.

Anyway, the track is called "Nick the Quick," the name deriving from my nephew, who is quite the handful. It features a lot of the pop melody that I normally write but with a bit more funk in the middle.

As I progress in writing these instrumentals, for the sake of both time and your ears, I forego trying to write fancy solos to go with these tunes. Takes too long.

My hope is that I can talk my Internet pal and musical colleague extraordinaire, Oklahoma sax god Chris Hicks, into writing/playing a sax line to accompany this, to give it more umph and soul. With just a keyboard, it's tough to give a tune much authenticity.

But, alas, it's the way I roll. It's still damned cool that I can write, record right from my front room ...

Feel free to post comments on the tune ... You won't hurt my feelings one bit.

I wanted to hate it. Really, I did.

The more we heard from Taylor Hicks in Season 5 of American Idol, the more I was convinced he's be a steely-toed bomb when it came time for record release.

Couldn't be more wrong.

He's been performing his first single, "The Runaround," on various TV shows, and while it won't be a big hit with the teen-beat crowd, it's likely to endear him to the adults. It's catchy, smart pop, and his band is great.

It's still on YouTube, if you'd like to view his recent performance at The Rockefeller Center.

Doesn't mean I'm buying any albums. Doesn't mean I'll like any of the rest of his self-titled debut, expected to be released on Dec. 12.

However, I know a good, well-written *song* when I hear it, and this tune is terrific. Hopefully, haters out there will give this guy a chance because clearly he has something.

Might be epilepsy, but it might also be talent ... or at least a damned good songwriter doing his bidding.

It used to be that everybody assumed that we'd never have a college football playoff system. After Michigan's snubbing at the hands of the BCS poll, I really think we're three or four years away from one.

With that said, I personally think it matters not. Ohio State will drub Florida to win the national title -- and, I picked Florida to win the national championship eight weeks ago based on the fact that Urban Meyer was the Gators' coach and that he was in his second year, which seems to be the magic number for great coaches (see Stoops & Tressel, both of whom did it in their second seasons).

That's a very soft predictor of title success, and I know it. However, it is still a hunch on my part. On paper though, Ohio State has too many weapons, the vastly superior quarterback and makes way fewer mistakes than the Gators, in general.

Nevertheless, there is a part of me that believes OU is the second-best college football team in the country right now. Their defense was stunning against Nebraska, and the Sooners' secondary was 2000-like. Oklahoma is at its best, historically, when its secondary is dominant, and anybody who saw Nic Harris' diving interception of Zac Taylor in the second half of OU's 21-7 win over Nebraska Saturday night knows that OU's secondary is stud.

But, how would OU fare in a playoff? Based on the Top 16 BCS teams, from which a playoff could be formed, I predicted the outcomes, in tournament fashion.

2006 College Football Playoff

Round 1

1 Ohio State 37, 16 Rutgers 10

2 Florida 23, 15 Virginia Tech 9

3 Michigan 27, 14 Wake Forest 20

4 LSU 34, 13 West Virginia 31

5 USC 38, 12 Arkansas 21

6 Louisville 27, 11 Notre Dame 30, OT

7 Wisconsin 13, 10 Oklahoma 19

8 Boise State 17, 9 Auburn 31

Round 2

1 Ohio State 26, 9 Auburn 14

2 Florida 23, 10 Oklahoma 24

3 Michigan 45, 11 Notre Dame 21

4 LSU 27, 5 USC 25

Round 3

1 Ohio State 20, 10 Oklahoma 13

3 Michigan 9, 4 LSU 7

National Title Game

1 Ohio State 35, 3 Michigan 31

Even if there were a playoff, I think the Buckeyes would be crowned champs, just as I suspect they will come Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz. Whether Michigan would be Ohio State's opponent is merely a guess on my part, and -- heck -- the beauty of the NCAA basketball tournament is that even the best teams can get knocked off in a sudden-death situation.

An Oklahoma-LSU matchup for a title, in a playoff system, isn't out of the realm of possibility. My point is simply that a college football playoff system would not lessen the importance of regular season games because all 100-something Division I teams would be vying for a Top 16 BCS spot. Our same arguments and debates would still happen come Selection Sunday.

However, the excitement would start the minute a favorite went down to an underdog, and just like in the hoops tourney, it would happen. It would improve college football infinitely, into something out of this world in terms of popularity. It wouldn't hurt the bowl games a bit. It wouldn't cause pain or suffering academically for these athletes -- and, most important to big business, a ton of new money would and could be made.

It's insane that college football doesn't adopt this. Insane.

I'm home for the first time since Tuesday night. Really, I was technically here on Wednesday, but only long enough to get out the door.

Oklahoma is recovering from a rare blizzard in the state. It wasn't merely snowfall; it was technically a blizzard, albeit a small one as blizzards go. The winds, drifts were all there. Visibility was zero -- and I spent three days in the newsroom.

It's funny, but in the news business, you find that even people who would generally hold disdain for the media love them when it comes to giving them information that'll keep them out of a wreck. I've never been so sure that the fearmongering some news outlets are guilty of really interests folks as much as the practicality of should-I-be-on-the-roads coverage.

Weather is the singular news happening in Oklahoma each year. Sports teams can be good or great at times, but weather happens. Severe storms, tornadic activity and, yes, winter weather. No, it's nothing like Buffalo might have; however, Oklahoma is not equipped to deal with severe winter weather just as we're not equipped to deal with hurricanes.

If one were to come along, we're screwed.

People who live in the north love to make fun of southerners who freak out about winter, but don't understand why we chuckle at their expense when they flip out over an F1 tornado, which in our part of the world is merely a nuisance.

Nevertheless, my colleagues and I put in a ton -- a ton -- of work to disseminate information to Oklahomans about the storm, and adrenaline carried us through it all. And sugar. And caffeine.

So, I sit here exhausted, but had a good time doin' what I do.

What it meant though is that my Michael Richards rant stayed up on the site for more than a week. There were Thanksgiving things to do before the winter storm inconvenienced all of us.

The more Richards' sordid story continues, the more I see a guy in real mental trouble. His reaction to his anger in the mainstream media has been odd at best, but I am not so sure that his issues are anything new. From several news items I've read, he was always kind of like this in his younger days.

Nevertheless, I do think folks should give the guy a break. He's a comedian, not a "leader." Second, I think that when a person has serious mental or emotional issues going on, it's quite ok to dismiss some behavior -- chalking it up to the situation or the meds or the stress.

But on to things that interest me quite a bit more:

1. The whole Clay Aiken-Kelly Ripa cat fight (watch the whole thing). Never got to comment on this. Rosie O'Donnell basically outed Clay as a "gay man" (stunner) by submitting an argument that Ripa's reaction to Clay's putting his hand over her mouth was homophobic. Ripa called b.s., saying that Aiken had been shaking everybody's hands before the show.

I agree with Rosie and Kelly.

First, the tone of Ripa's comeback to the Idol star was such that her inference was clear in my book. She made the reference because she believes, everybody else believes he's gay. You can tell it in her voice. That's merely my opinion considering it's hard to make arguments based on an analysis of vocal tone. It's pretty soft to make a judgment of one's intentions merely by the inflection of his or her voice.

On the other hand, if I were Kelly, I would have been annoyed, too.

1. Having somebody's hand over your mouth is NASTY.

2. A man putting his hand over a woman's mouth as a means of "shutting her up," even playfully, to me, is a GIANT no-no unless you're lovers and you're about to be her gimp.

Nevertheless, as funny as I actually think Rosie O'Donnell is, as much as I think she has improved The View exponentially, as much as I might think she has a point, I do think she needs to get a life on this one.

Who cares.

Alright, time to watch "The Soup" and go to sleep. It's been a long week, the roads are going to ice up in places, the temps are getting down to 9 degrees, and OU plays Nebraska tomorrow for the Big 12 title.

Ahhhh, sleeeep.