cool lester smooth

so, episode 52 of the wire (airing sunday, on demand since monday) gives us a little taste of det. lester freamon's musical preferences as he sits in his ride listening (& even singing along) to the sultry sounds of smooth jazz & soul from the likes of ella fitzgerald, aretha franklin & her older sister, erma...pretty much what you'd expect from the bad ass former house cat...personally i think prop joe's got the best ears on the show (harold melvin & the bluenotes, the meters, etc.), but some might disagree (i'm sure dg would make a case for chris & snoop, who killed a new york boy last season for not knowing who young leek was)...anyway, here's what's on lester's playlist.

download: ella fitzgerald - black coffee
download: erma franklin - piece of my heart
download: aretha franklin - don't cry baby

while on the topic of tv, i thought i'd throw up a list of my favorite shows of 2007...the wire might deserve a place on it if only for all the hype the show's (justifiably) received in the past few months, or even for just the first episode of season 5, which debuted on demand 12/31...but it's not...instead, here are the ten shows i enjoyed most in 2007.

01. the office
02. 30 rock
03. the sopranos
04. the best of soul train
05. mad men
06. lost
07. curb your enthusiasm
08. it's always sunny in philadelphia
09. planet earth
10. friday night lights

i actually liked 30 rock a little more than the office coming into this season, but they kind of dropped the ball the first few episodes while the office stretched out to an hour & got even funnier after settling the jim/pam thing...still, after 30 rock got back on track it was unbelievable, & continues to be...last night's "midnight train to georgia" finale (complete with gladys knight cameo) was incredible.

download: gladys knight & the pips - midnight train to georgia

in addition to 30 rock, there were a couple other shows i really enjoyed that kind of fell off from previous seasons (friday night lights, rescue me, rome) & others that i've heard great things about, but haven't been able to watch, or for whatever reason decided not to (dexter, weeds, ken burn's the war)...there's really only so much television you can watch, especially with every day fixations like pti & the daily show, & it gets even harder when you keep adding new shows to your tivo season pass...these were my favorite new shows of 2007.

01. mad men
02. flight of the conchords
03. damages
04. pushing daisies
05. life

anyway, if you don't like my list, check out the thighmaster's (which actually prompted me to do this) & then make sure you take a look at hypeful's great 10 best tv music moments of 2007, which includes mp3's of charlie & dennis's sensational "day man" jam session from it's always sunny... & tracy jordan's monster party anthem "werewolf bar mitzvah" from 30 rock (a song that was stuck in my head for the better part of november & i'm pretty sure my relationship almost ended from my inability to stop singing it)...& here's one more list, my five favorite television characters of 2007.

01. leon black (curb your enthusiasm)
02. jack donaghy (30 rock)
03. creed bratton (the office)
04. marty funkhouser (curb your enthusiasm)*
05. 1980 david bowie from the music video ashes to ashes (flight of the conchords)

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download: david bowie - ashes to ashes

*just finished reading steve martin's new book, born standing up, & found out that bob einstein, who plays marty funkhouser, was steve's writing partner on the smothers brothers show...thought that was pretty interesting.

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update: looks like i was wrong about who was playing in lester's car during the aforementioned episode...according to hbo's episode guide, it was sarah vaughn's version of "black coffee" & etta james singing "don't cry baby"...sorry