Mark Karan

Ratdog

Best Album(s) of 2008

Joe Henry - Civilians
Stephen Bruton – From The Five
Elvis Costello & Bill Frisell – Deep Dead Blue
James Hunter – The Hard Way
John Mellencamp – Life Death Love & Freedom
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
Randy Newman – Harps & Angels

Favorite Song(s) of 2008

Stephen Bruton – “Fading Man"

Your Personal Favorite On-stage Moment/Show of 2008

Doing the breakout of "Dancin' in the Streets" with Ratdog in D.C. the night after the election

Classic Album or Artist You Discovered This Year

Bootleg of Jimi Hendrix and Stephen Stills jamming in Stills' basement…revelatory...

and/or...

Rediscovering Leon Russell…in particular a bootleg I got of him doing the classic "Blue Album" tracks live at some studio from "back in the day."  Rediscovering just how much I REALLY love "The Sons of Champlin"

Best Film You Saw This Year

hmmmmmm... "Iron Man"?   Not sure...

Favorite new gadget, technology, site or application you can't live without

iPhone... that's probably so ubiquitous it's become a cliché, but I really dig it.

Your Latest Guilty Pleasure

TV…especially some of the new HBO & Showtime series like Weeds, Entourage, Dexter, etc.

What should President Obama change first in 2009?

Find a way to help folks losing their homes due to bad (illegal?) loans, get us out of the quagmire in Iraq, take care of the health care problem...

*Bonus question – great YouTube or viral video you saw this year

Prop 8: The Musical -  http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/c0cf508ff8/prop-8-the-musical-starring-jack-black-john-c-reilly-and-many-more-from-fod-team-jack-black-craig-robinson-john-c-reilly-and-rashida-jones