My 2008 album begins in Utah and ends in (or near) hell. Whether you think the distance between the starting point and the destination is a lot of territory or not much, we do get to travel pretty far afield. There's sunny California with the Botticellis, lovely inner-city Baltimore with DoMaJe, Iraq with the estimable Danny Elfman, and someplace sublimely absurd with Flight of the Conchords.

"It's tough to scream ‘witch hunt' when your client is riding a broom," one Statehouse reporter cracked recently after Ed Genson, the defense attorney for Governor Rod Blagojevich, claimed the atmosphere following Blagojevich's arrest was "a real witch hunt."

Genson's protestations have mostly fallen on deaf ears, particularly with the Illinois House's impeachment committee. The committee has shot down his objections time and time again in a clear attempt to make sure Genson knows he is not in a courtroom and has few, if any, legal legs to stand on.

"Happy Holidays, Jeff!"

"Happy Holidays to you, Mike."

"Guess what I'm giving you for your gift this year!"

"A moratorium on those annoying Jeff-and-Mike dialogues?"

"Ha ha! Good one, Jeff! No. But I'm going to make your job for the Reader's end-of-year issue so much easier - I'm giving you only one What's Happenin' article to edit instead of five!"

Strange as it may seem, there are some people who would love to ring in the new year with a festive party who can't quite manage to stay awake until midnight. But enough about me. If you'd like to celebrate the arrival of 2009 with your kids, yet are concerned about them (or perhaps you) nodding off before the ball drops, Bettendorf will be offering a sensible December 31 alternative - the shouting of "Happy New Year!" at 12 p.m. - at two of the city's family venues.

I love David Sedaris' writing, but on those rare occasions when I've heard the author read from his works on National Public Radio, I can only listen to him for a few minutes before feeling compelled to change the station. It's not that his high, reedy voice is unpleasant, exactly. But the caustic self-deprecation and derision that can make his stories so wickedly funny strike me as whiny and ungainly when Sedaris himself vocalizes them, and when he indulges in sentiment, his attempts at honest emotion ring hollow. (His "heartfelt" moments don't sound noticeably different from his sardonic diatribes.) This isn't a huge failing - Sedaris, after all, is a writer, not a performer - yet I still find that a little of him, vocally, goes a long way.

The world has moved one step closer to total censorship. For the fourth year running, on December 18 the United Nations General Assembly passed a defamation-of-religion resolution that threatens to undermine the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

It feels as though the teasers for Yes Man have been running since the first Bush administration, so I'm assuming everyone is aware of the film's 10-word comic premise: Jim Carrey always says "no," then learns to say "yes." If you're thinking the setup sounds an awful lot like the conceit behind 1997's Liar Liar, you're not wrong, and in his one-joke role as a depressed loan officer who decides to embrace life by acting against his natural impulses, Yes Man also requires Carrey to goose the proceedings with the sorts of rubber-faced buffoonery and "spontaneous" madness that the actor can pull off in his sleep. Unfortunately, that's exactly what he appears to be doing here.

So how did David Fincher's latest fare in the final Box Office Power Rankings of the year? Well, it won, but not by much, challenged by the scrappy Marley and Me. That does not necessarily portend Oscar doom for Curious Case — it opened among some serious competition — but we might have expected more from a wide-release Academy hopeful that's eager to be a cultural flash point.

From the very beginning, Governor Rod Blagojevich sought to centralize the operation of state government as much as possible in his office. A cadre of deputy governors has overseen daily agency operations with an iron fist and reported directly to Blagojevich's chief of staff or to the governor himself.

But Blagojevich is now under siege and spending much of his days meeting with attorneys about his criminal case. His chief of staff has resigned, as did one of his deputy governors. Another deputy governor was hired only recently.

Is there a hole in your stocking, or pink slips paper-clipped to the tree in a festive display? Times are tough, but the simple joys do survive. Pile on the blankets and give a gift to yourself this season, in the pleasure of a new book from the Dewey 780.9 section of your public library or your hip local bookseller.

There is officially too much theatre in the area.

Not for me, mind you. Just for this week's issue of the Reader. Although the print edition does feature the article "The Essentials 2008: A Dozen Names to Remember," which hopefully provides a rough idea of the extraordinary wealth of talent found on the local stage scene in 2008, there was still plenty more that needed be said (and plenty more photos that needed be shared).

For the third year in a row, I've composed a list of 12 area-theatre participants who devoted their time, energy, and skills to numerous theatrical organizations and venues during the past year. And once again - happily and inspiringly - it hasn't been necessary to repeat names from one year to the next; local theatre, to the great good fortune of local audiences, never seems to run out of talent.

There was no lack of spectacular work done in area theatre this year, and the following list is hardly exhaustive. But if you were fortunate, you caught at least a few of these 12 performances in 2008; whether taking on a leading role, a supporting role, or (in one case here) the only role, these gifted artists commanded the stage. And, hopefully, your attention.

Five Extraordinary Ensembles

An actor friend of mine says he always wants to be the worst performer in everything he's in, because if the rest of the cast is doing stronger work than he is, that means the show is in really, really good shape. With that in mind, any actor worth his or her salt would be thrilled to be the worst performer among these five ensembles.