It's the last day of the week that Christmas was in, and that means it's time for the last of our Spray Picks 06 – where the hecklerspray writers look back on the year and go "Cuh, what was supposed to have happened there?"
Today is a doubly difficult day for us. Firstly we have to try and pretend like this wasn't written back in April to disguise the fact that actually we're all off riding the hecklerspray yacht to our private 90,000 acre lapdancer plantation in the Maldives, and secondly we've already listed our favourite music, films and TV of the year. What's left? Best DVD? We did that last year and it was rubbish. Best meal? That's just ridiculous. Best person? OK, looking back we probably should have gone with Best Person, but it's too late for excuses now. Instead, we're looking at the hecklerspray writers' favourite things of the year. Unforgivably vague, we know, but it's thrown up some fairly mental answers.hecklerspray's things of the year – cominatcha after the jump…
Stuart Heritage
There's been plenty of things that have floated my boat this year, but one thing above everything else has had me grinning like a giddy schoolgirl. It's Moo.com. Moo.com falls under the category of Things I Wish I'd Thought Of First – it's basically a dodgy service station Print Your Own Business Cards machine made spellbinding brilliant. You pick as many photos from your Flickr account as you want, do some minimal editing, add some text, pay about £12 and in less than a week 100 beautiful tiny satin-finished cards land on your doorstep – a photo on one side and text on the other. Moo was a bit of a late find for me, but next year I can almost guarantee that everyone I know will be sent tiny Moo Christmas cards of me scratching my arse. Now a note to Moo – thousands of people have read this, so can I have some free stuff please?
Shawn Lindseth
The best thing of '06 was going to be my all-time world-wide high Dig-Dug score, but it got shattered a week or two ago. As a result, I'd say the best thing of the year was when I saved those burning orphans from the flame retardant group home. Sounds weird, I know. I can't really go into details in such a limited space. It wouldn't do me justice.
Just know I'm a real hero.
CJ Davies
You know what? I’m going to say MySpace.
Sure, it has its detractors – ‘oh, god, isn’t it, like, so pathetic when people chat to others who share similar interests and hobbies and be, like, friendly and enthusiastic?’ – but the influence it has gathered over the more casual web-user in 2006 is nothing short of incredible. And – pretty important, this – it’s also fun. You get that? FUN. A cardinal sin in some circles, I guess.
But bollocks to ’em. They’ll never be my friend anyway.
Chris Laverty
A curious point this, but I’m as pleased as a porn star in his forties who hasn’t got fat that Film4 has become as free as a bird.
Most of the time it shows tedious repeats (Sexy Beast, Jack and Sarah, Mickey Blue Eyes) and it really should not have been charged for in the first place. It’s a touch too Guardian and the artwank movie intros should be shut in a room and burnt. Even with all these problems you still have to remember it’s a channel that shows nothing but movies and it costs zilcho more than a set-top box.
Really the best thing about 2006? Don’t be silly. But it is on the telly while I’m writing this, so there you go.
Matthew Laidlow
Probably – like many pissed off commuters on a morning making their way to work on bus or train – you’re quite likely to find that public transport never runs like clockwork. In fact, it usually runs like a cheap copy of something you buy off a Sunday market stall which is basically shit and breaks after five minutes. You're always hanging around for buses/trains to come and you need something to pass the time. That’s why this writer adores his Apple iPod. It’s brilliant for a few reasons. I can store my stupidly huge record collection on it – and it’s a brilliant device for ignoring people too. Sometimes the occasional nutter will try and talk to you. But not with an iPod in your lug! Crank it up and everyone else will fade away. Granted everyone will probably be able to hear what you’re hearing, but fuck 'em, you’ll be educating them with your groovy tunes.
It wasn’t until this writer stupidly lost his fruit-based MP3 player on the bus that he realised how much he loved this gadget. Journeys got longer, boring and I had to grumble away with other people about stuff not showing up on time. But thank the lord for when enough pennies were scraped together to buy another one. Now I can ride in my own world whilst deafening myself with my sexy 80GB iPod. Mmm.
We want to know what you think about all this malarkey too, so leave a comment would you. And we'll be back on Tuesday ready to face 2007 head on with a son g in our heart and a raging hangover thumping through our dishevelled bodies. See you there.