I'VE MADE GROUSING a way of life. I figure I'm at least making the negative into positive: like Jerry Seinfeld, I'm usually the one who gets called on to use my wildly critical eye and low-grade sarcasm in the service of amusing others. But since this is an end-of-the-year column, and I'm sure you've already done your fair share of whining about the cold weather, the lack of holiday cheer, and the fact that you keep missing reruns of The O.C., I've decided to pick out the bright white points of light in an otherwise blurry year, instead of droning on – for the sake of our mutual mental health. So here, as Julie Andrews sang, are a few of my favorite things from this year.

I really liked long, hot showers and miniskirts in inappropriate weather, and pink stiletto boots. I liked the back corridor at Club Six (go downstairs, make a right), perfect for make-out sessions, and with a little sand, it would make a good boccie court. I liked Paris Hilton as a style icon. I loved driving past bus stops when it got cold and seeing everyone bundled up so cute in striped scarves and parkas with furry hoods and then going home and heating up some Morningstar Farms vegetarian Buffalo wings with Marumari on the boom box.

Too $hort made a comeback this year, which was hot since his seedy pimp raps sound great over the new crunk beats – and since the whole genre probably wouldn't be possible without him. A new record from Chicago ghetto house pioneer DJ Funk just landed on my desk. It still sounds a lot like 1994 in Funk's world, but hey, nostalgia for the mid '90s is about to feel so fresh and so new. Ditto this year's LFO record, whose gritty dance floor-tweaking single "Freak" made me want to do illegal things.

In general, dancing was especially cool, in part because it felt like a special occasion every time I got to do it. I did a lot of dancing in my car, with my shitty-ass Honda stock stereo cranked up almost all the way and the sounds of Ying Yang Twins' "Salt Shaker" bouncing all over Divisadero Street as I attempted some very impressive upper-body jigginess. A few weeks ago I stumbled on an old cassette, DJ Dan's Warehouse Flashback Vol. 1, and my car has since become known to my friends as "the Place Where Rave Never Died." I like it like that.

The tape was on and poppin' a few weeks ago at the third annual "Booty Bass Bowling" party presented by XLR8R (where I work as an editor) and Future Primitive. I started the night by slipping and rolling halfway down the bowling lane, bisected it by dancing to OG Miami bass from the just-flown-in Magic Mike, and ended the evening by doing shots with DJ Pause and Toph One, who reminded me that, by the second round, "it's not about bowling – it's about drinking heavily." True, Toph, but maybe that's why the XLR8R and Red Wine teams always lose out to squadrons from the Stüssy store, Red Five, and whatever team has Romanowski on it. Props to Roman (who was wearing a beige velour tracksuit with style and grace and bowling some mean strikes) and also to Shortkut, who dropped my favorite fourth-grade drill team song, Freestyle's "It's Automatic."

And finally, may I just say that quite a few of the bands that were overhyped this year were actually hot like fire. Interpol, the Stills, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and local band Numbers were riveting. Dizzee Rascal ruled my iTunes, while the Soft Pink Truth rocked my leg warmers, and I did the nasty to DFA's productions a few times (although I heard more good gossip about the Rapture's after-party than their actual show). There's plenty more cool stuff to come too, judging by the new Chromeo, Vybz Cartel, Diplo, and Squarepusher records waiting impatiently in my mailbox.

So I'd like to wish a brief, fond farewell to Storyville, the Hotel Utah Saloon, and the Tenderloft, and say hello to Voda, the refurbished Cellar, and Blue Cube, coming in 2004 from the San Francisco Late Night Coalition's Terrance Alan. And now I'm going to go enjoy something I haven't yet in 2003: quiet.

'Bad Kitty New Year's Eve,' with Seraphim, Felix the Dog, Forest Green, dMarie, and others, Dec. 31, 8 p.m.-2 a.m., Anú, 43 Sixth St., S.F. $10. (415) 543-3505.

'New Year's Eve 2004,' with DJs from Massive Selector, Fu-Mando, Club Fake, True Skool, and Fresco, Dec. 31, 9 p.m.-4 a.m., Club Six, 60 Sixth St., S.F. $15-$25. (415) 863-1221.