Yvonne Prinz
Author, The Clare Series
CITC Regular Contributor
(www.stillthereclare.com, www.myspace.com/stillthereclare)

1. Best New World Leader: Barack Obama
2. Best Political Joke: Sarah Palin (Glasses don't make you smart)
3. Best movie: The Fall
4. Best Foreign Film: I've Loved You So Long
5. Best soundtrack: Vicki Christina Barcelona
6. Best New Food Trend: "Mona Vie" (Fruit juice that costs more than a good bottle of Chardonnay? Count me in!)
7. Best Order From TV Item: The Ab Rocket (Makes crunches super-easy by, um…doing them for you. Operators are standing by).
8. Best CD: Teddy Thompson, A Piece Of What You Need (I know, right?)
9. Best TV Series: Mad Men (We've come a long way, baby)
Read the rest of Yvonne's list >

Justin Currie
Singer/Songwriter
www.myspace.com/justincurrie

Mild Disappointments, 2008
I have had a culturally underwhelming year. I paid ninety-five pounds to see Tom Waits and left with a shrug of indifference. I coughed up a similar sum to see Leonard Cohen at Edinburgh Castle who was elegant, word-perfect and funny as fuck. But why does he employ that band of L.A. charlatans to undermine his beautiful musings with their tinny trash? I imagined him with Tom's musicians and felt bitter at the lost opportunity. I rushed out to buy Roots Manuva's Slime and Reason and quickly resigned myself to the thought that "Awfully Deep" was so brilliant as to be unassailable. "It's Me, Oh Lord" is wonderfully dark, but the album as a whole exists in a strange twilight of wracking depression set against a sort of morbid chirpiness.
Read the rest of Justin's list >

Lyn Dunagan
CITC Web Designer/Staff Writer/Triathlete

Top Ten Short Stories You Can Read Online, in no particular order:
"Shadow Unit" - various - it's Criminal Minds meets X-Files, only better. An entire season of online episodes for a TV show that doesn't exist but should.
"By the Liter" - Ekaterina Sedia (Subterranean Press)
"The River Boy" - Tim Pratt (Clarkesworld Magazine)
"How to Hide Your Heart" - Deborah Coates (Strange Horizons)
"Kokoro no O-Notsu" (flash fiction) - Arachne Jericho (Spontaneous Derivation)
"Tideline" - Elizabeth Bear (Aisimov's)
"A Water Matter" - Jay Lake (Tor)
"Them Shoes" - C.E. Murphy (Subterranean Press)
"The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder" - Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
"Tanglefoot (A Story of the Clockwork Century)" - Cherie Priest (Subterranean Press)

Thomas Cooney
CITC Staff Writer

Album of the Year: Swing Out Sister's Beautiful Mess.
The underappreciated duo's first studio album in four years was a magnificent testament to the ability of melody to lift pop music to shimmering elegance. Comparatively speaking, it lacked the dark Cuban subtext of their masterpiece Filth and Dreams, but it was the best thing to hit my stereo in a long, long time.

Least Good Album of the Year: Seal's Soul.
And this wasn't even the album in which he dueted with Heidi Klum! It was worse than a phoned-in performance. It was worse than a cashed-in money maker. It was like showing up to a convention of classic automobiles behind the wheel of a Yugo.

Song of the Year:
Read the rest of Thomas' list >

Steve Wynn
Singer/Songwriter
(www.stevewynn.net)

Top Ten Albums Of 2008
1. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
2. Dungen - 4
3. Nick Cave - Dig, Lazarus Dig!
4. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
5. Flee Foxes - Fleet Foxes
6. Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
7. R.E.M. - Accelerate
8. Willard Grant Conspiracy - Pilgrim Road
9. Bonnie Prince Billy - Lie Down In The Light
Read the rest of Steve's list >

Rob Roberge
Author/Guitarist (The Urinals)/Professor/CITC Staff Writer
www.myspace.com/robroberge

Top 10 List of 2008
Our fearless leader, Alex Green, has asked the staff of CITC to do a top 10 list of stuff from 2008. It was very cool to get the email request, because it meant I was "on staff" which has a jaunty sound to it. I may break out my Fedora with "press" on a note card tucked into the band at all events I attend in 2009. Since every venture I'm involved in loses money (bleeds it, in fact), when CITC goes public and starts selling shares, you might want to check the old masthead and see if I'm still here before venturing your capital.

Top 10 of 2008?
Read the rest of Rob's list

The Vinyl Princess
CITC Staff Writer/Musicologist/Vinyl Expert
www.thevinylprincess.blogspot.com

Top Ten Vinyl Re-issues for 2008:
1. Cannonball Adderly - Soul Zodiac (Capital)
2. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (on 180 gram vinyl, Capital)
3. Jimi Hendrix - Band Of Gypsys (limited edition fiery red 180 gram vinyl- Capital/EMI)
4. R.E.M. - Document (Capital/EMI)
5. Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey (Polydor)
6. Cream - Disraeli Gears (Polydor)
7. Cat Steven - Tea For The Tillerman (A&M)
8. Supertramp - Breakfast In America (A&M)
9. Nick Drake - Pink Moon (Island)
10. Charlie Mingus - Mingus Ah Um (originally issued 1959, now on 180 gram vinyl, audiophile)

Mike Crook
CITC Staff Writer/New Zealand Correspondent

Best...
That jagged little word that awakens the contrarian in us all. When I hear that something, or someone is the "best" at anything, I am almost instantly transformed into some sort of critical monster. Giant sharp teeth, red scales, horns, flames etc. I simply cannot bear to be told the latest best of anything.

Best, best, best.

Read the rest of Mike's list >

Matthew Edwards
Lead Singer (The Music Lovers)
www.myspace.com/themusiclovers

Best Books I Read (Or Reread) This Year:
A Rebours - Huysmans
Beau Brummel (biog) - Ian Kelly
Revolution Road - Richard Yates
The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa
Like A Fiery Elephant, a biography of BS Johnson - Jonathon Coe
Tokyo Year Zero and Damned United - David Peace
Waterloo, A Near Run Thing - David Howells
Complete Poems - Ted Hughes
Swann's Way - Marcel Proust
Read the rest of Matthew's list >

Graham Foust
Poet/Liar/Spy

EIGHT THINGS I DUG IN OUGHT EIGHT
1. Tiny Hawks / Fingers Become Bridges (Corleone Records)
2. The Savage Detectives / Roberto Bolano (FSG Books)
3. Martin Puryear (MoMA, SFMoMA)
4. The Wire (HBO)
5. The Drones / Minotaur (ATP Records)
6. Bear in Heaven / Red Bloom of the Boom (Hometapes Records)
7. Kathleen Edwards / Asking for Flowers (Rounder Records)
8. Dark Reflections / Samuel R. Delany (Carroll & Graf)

Mark Geary
Singer/Songwriter
www.myspace.com/markgeary

End Of Year—Top Five Things...Or Things In A List...Or Things...

Favorite Books So Far This Year:
1. Remains Of The Day—Kazuo Ishiguro (the correct spelling—I checked.!!) 2. Lenin's Tomb—David Semnick 3. The Greatest—David Semnick 4. Atonement—Ian McEwan 5. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being—Milan Kundera

Favorite Films
Read the rest of Mark's list >

Christine Fort
CITC Staff Writer

2008 in Music:
Best indie, pop, folk, and gospel album: The Mountain Goats—Heretic Pride (4AD)
Best Album Combining All Other musical Genres: Girl Talk—Feed the Animals (Illegal Art)
Best Solo Effort: Jason Collett—Here's To Being Here (Arts & Crafts)
Biggest Buzzkill: Mixel Pixel—Let's Be Friends (Mental Monkey)

2008 in Video and Film:
Best Music Video: Obama and Biden "Rickroll" the RNC
Best Cinematic Use Of A Refrigerator: Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull
Read the rest of Christine's list >

Eric Corne
Singer/Songwriter
www.myspace.com/ericcorne

Top Ten Artists Who Released New Albums In 2008 In Descending Order
10. Elliot Brood
9. Lucinda Williams
8. Black Mountain
7. MGMT
6. Calexico
5. The Dears
4. Fleet Foxes
3. Bon Iver
2. Devotchka
1. My Morning Jacket

Jessica Simons
CITC Staff Writer

I find coming up with a "best of" for anything quite difficult, but selecting my top albums for the year proved particularly challenging. That said, I decided to make the task even more difficult by rating both my obsessions: music and movies. The following are my favorites for the year:

Top Five 2008 Albums
1. Sigur Ros--Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust
2. Of Montreal--Skeletal Lamping
3. Fleet Foxes--Fleet Foxes
Read the rest of Jessica's list >

Yusuf Azak
Singer/Songwriter
www.myspace.com/yusufazak

Albums of 2008:
Deerhunter--Microcastle
MGMT--Oracular Spectacular

Songs of 2008:
Atlas Sound-"Recent Bedroom"
MGMT-"Time To Pretend"
Sam Amidon-"Wedding Dress"

Best Footwear: Adidas Gerd Muller
Great Discoveries: Read the rest of Yusuf's list >

Kristi Callan
Singer/Songwriter (Dimebox)
www.myspace.com/dimeboxband

Favorites in 2008:
Beck - Modern Guilt
Alejandro Escovedo - Real Animal
Black Keys - Attack and Release
The Pretenders - Breaking Up the Concrete
The Derailers - Guaranteed to Satisfy
Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
My Morning Jacket - I'm Amazed
Pete Seeger at 89

Alex Green
Editor
Caught in the Carousel

Albums Of The Year:
1. The Awkward Stage—Slimming Mirrors, Flattering Lights
2. Steve Wynn—Crossing Dragon Bridge
3. Lindsey Buckingham—Gift Of Screws
4. The Gaslight Anthem—The '59 Sound
5. Randy Newman—Harps And Angels
6. honeyhoney—First Rodeo
7. Mark Geary—Opium
8. Big Bang—From Acid To Zen
9. The Enemy UK—We'll Live And Die In These Towns
Read the rest of Alex's list >