Gooner Greetings: Don't open until Christmas morning.

I'll be in NC and computer deprived so I'm posting early. No peeking.

Mark Wahlberg Talks to Christmas Animals

Happy holidays!

Happy Festive Footie Season!

While all of you have been snoozing back Stateside, I've been up with the jetlag scouring the morning sports pages and glued to Sky Sports in preparation for a brilliant day of footie watching with my Dad. First up in a couple of hours is the fascinating match-up of bottom of the table Pompey against faltering Liverpool. Then it's the regular fixture list with Leeds taking on Soton at Elland Road and finally the late kick-off between Arsenal and Hull. Should be enthralling. Won't you join me?

Champions League Knock-out Draw

Greetings from London, LOB'ers! The big news across the Pond today was the draw for the knock-out stages of the Champions League, which immediately through up return visits for Jose Mourinho to Stamford Bridge and Goldenballs to Old Trafford. Here's the draw in full:

Stuttgart v Barcelona
Olympiacos v Bordeaux
Inter Milan v Chelsea
Bayern Munich v Fiorentina
CSKA Moscow v Sevilla
Lyon v Real Madrid
Porto v Arsenal
AC Milan v Manchester United

The first legs will take place on February 16, 17, 23 & 24, with the second legs on March 9, 10, 16 & 17.

Music of the 2009

That wise old man of Britpop Jarvis Cocker recently summed up the decade in music with one word - "Shuffle." I couldn't agree more. While there were certainly a number of albums that caught my ear this year - notably, Polish jazz pianist Marcin Wasilewski's "January," Brazilian dude Curumin's "JapanPopShow," Melody Gardot's second album "My One and Only Thrill," Maxwell's return to form with with "Blacksummer'snight, Kat Edmonson's "Take to the Sky," Neko Case's "Middle Cyclone" and the AIDS benefit double-disc "Dark Was the Night" - my listening habits are now firmly anchored by the experience of the "playlist" rather than the "CD" (to say nothing of the long lamented "LP").

Indeed, the most gratifying musical experiences I had this year were in putting together a bewildering number of iTunes playlists based on my latest whims. While last year was dominated by a certain beardy folk introspection, it seemed as if a lot of the my favorite artists this year were determined to dance while the world was collapsing around them. Most of the tunes that caught my ear were relentlessly upbeat and danceable, including: Franz Ferdinand's "Ulysses," Passion Pit's "Little Secrets,
Phoenix's "Lisztomania," Peaches' "Talk to Me," The Phenomenal Handclap Band's "You'll Disappear, Animal Collective's "My Girls" and St. Vincent - "The Strangers."

The folkies didn't exactly disappear and I enjoyed Bon Iver's "Blood Bank" EP, J. Tillman's latest solo disc, Jeff Tweedy's duet with Feist on "You and I," Pete Yorn's "Don't Wanna Cry," Bonnie "Prince" Billy's "Afraid Ain't Me," Alexi Murdoch's soundtrack for "Away we Go" and many more.

I'm still getting a lot of my music tips from podcasts, including most notably NPR's "All Songs Considered" and the Guardian Unlimited's "Music Weekly" and I have thank the Gooner again for hipping me to a lot of my favorite sounds of the year. As usual, I look forward to hearing what's been in your earbuds this year.

The People Who Ruined The Decade

I was a bit surprised that this t*t didn't make the Guardian's list.

Here's who did

Johnstone's Paint Trophy Northern Division Semi Final Live!

It may not be the marquee event of the afternoon, but my eyes will be glued on the Mighty Whites clash against Accrington Stanley in order to make the final of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Northern Division. Heady days at the Elland, eh?

Oh, there are one or two Premiership matches on as well. Ho hum.

More Footie Websites

When Saturday Comes gave out awards for the best football websites.

My Favorite was Football Filter, an aggregator site for all things to do with English football. Click the link HERE

The link to the WSC story with all the best footie websites is HERE

A Decade of Turkeys

We'll be dealing with the best films of the year shortly, but I was amused to see the following list of the decade's twenty worst films on Huffington Post. Read the full post here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/12/the-worst-movies-of-the-d_n_375849.html

20. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
19. The Wicker Man
18. Daddy Day Camp
17. Lady in the Water
16. Sleuth
15. The Adventures of Pluto Nash
14. Norbit
13. The Love Guru
12. Freddy vs. Jason
11. Swept Away
10. I Know Who Killed Me
9. Employee of the Month
8. Disaster Month
7. Gigli
6. Bratz: The Movie
5. Battlefield Earth
4. Freddy Got Fingered
3. Torque
2. The Hottie and the Nottie
1. Glitter

So, how many of these did you suffer through?