Welcome again. Welcome one. Welcome all. Greetings, salutations and hellos. Welcome to the Weekly Town Crier where I gather and you forage. Where I collect and you peruse. I html and you click. This is a (mostly) weekly collection of links that, for one reason or another, caught my attention and caused me to stop and think, even if only for a bit. Hopefully they’ll make you think as well.

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I love year-end lists. And now, we have the added bonus of decade-end lists:

• Browse the best of the year picks from NPR listeners
• Browse this list of the best debut albums of 20009 from PopMatters
• Browse EW.com’s list of the 10 best albums of the decade
• Browse Large Hearted Boy’s favorite albums of 2009.
• Browse Rolling Stone’s albums of the decade.
• Browse Sterogum’s albums of the year.

Read about the Japanese man who recently “married” his virtual girlfriend.

Read this short interview with D.A. Carson on what it means to be Gospel-centered.

Read about the cocaine-filled chicken.

Read about Apple buying Lala.com.

Read about the man suing NewSpring Church. Read Newspring’s response.

Read about the guy who met the SWAT team because of his Lego gun.

Read about L.A. Episcopalians electing an openly gay assistant bishop.

Read D.A. Carson’s advice to a church planter.

Read here to find out what’s next for The Resurgence. Exciting stuff.

See this tally of monetary damages done in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Read this piece explaining why no one visits your church website and what to do about it.

Read as Barna considers the state of mainline churches.

Read this piece arguing that those wine ratings may not be as reliable as the raters would like you to believe.

Read about Tom Waits possibly being cast in The Hobbit.

Read bout how John Piper fights the temptation of pornography.

Read as Jared Wilson urges us not to waste our Calvinism.

Read this piece looking at where churches are planted, drawing the conclusion that “God Still Loves The White Suburbanites.”

Read Jonathan Dodson’s review of the movie adaptation of The Road.

Read this piece considering the eschatological implications of the Manhattan Declaration.

Read as Scot McKnight considers two important missional books, one old, one new.

See in their own words why some did or did not sign the Manhattan Declaration.

Read this consideration of Facebook’s new privacy settings.

Read Christianity Today’s profile of Leslie Newbigin.

Read Paste’s profile of Ólafur Arnalds.

Read about the recent research finding that beer (hops) and coffee may help prevent prostate cancer.

Browse this collection of the most anticipated band reunions of 2010.

Read Dan Kimball’s changed thoughts on church buildings.

Read this great profile of Bifrost Arts.