Summer always confirms the one constant that life offers: Time flies. It is a cliché in every sense of the word, but is there any other statement one can say about anything that rings so true? Perhaps summer always seems to disappear before our eyes because there is always so much going on; both in the world and in our lives - perhaps that is why late winter always seems to crawl by.

In the arena of non-vital news, summer 2007 was chock full. “The Sopranos” ended accompanied by the sweet sounds of Journey, but Showtime has been picking up the slack where HBO has let up. Spiderman 3, Shrek 3 and Pirates 3 were all released within a month of each other, each one breaking the box-office opening that their counterparts had set.

In terms of sports, we could not turn on ESPN at all during the first couple months of summer without hearing about Barry Bonds and his chase towards 756. Inevitably he got the record and most of us were happy, if for nothing else because we could watch SportsCenter again, or so we thought.

Michael Vick has now replaced Barry Bonds as the reason not to watch ESPN, for it is now impossible to turn it on without hearing about the current status of the Michael Vick saga, and this probably will continue through football season.

In terms of our flailing music world, summer of 2007 was as inconsistent as ever. While it does not seem that 2007 will replace either 1967 or 1977 in terms of great music released, music consumers have had a lot to listen to over the past few months, all things considered.

Wilco’s “Sky Blue Sky,” proved to be almost just as consistently great as their previous releases and further cemented Jeff Tweedy’s reputation as one of our generation’s best songwriters. Elliott Smith’s posthumous compilation “New Moon” was further proof of why the angelic-voiced singer-songwriter will be missed.

The White Stripes released their most eclectic record to date in “Icky Thump,” and served as further evidence that Jack White can write a hit song that is completely different from anything else on the charts and he is still the most unique looking man in music.

Queens of the Stone Age officially ascended their throne as the kings of “stoner metal,” with the excellent “Era Vulgaris,” and were rewarded with the opening slot at the only non-festival date Rage Against the Machine played this summer.

Legions of Smashing Pumpkins fans were pleasantly surprised when Billy Corgan and Co. released “Zeitgeist” this past July, proving that they could still rock 10 years after the peak of their career. And while “Zeitgeist” proved to fall short of “Siamese Dream,” it feels fairly safe to say that it blew “Machina” out of the water.

Bon Jovi went country, Trey Anastasio went instrumental again, Prince released the god-knows-what-number album of his career, Chris Cornell went solo, Ozzy once again proved that he has not had a good album since “Diary of a Madman,” Paul McCartney pleasantly surprised us (at Starbucks nonetheless), Kelly Clarkson turned into the guilty pleasure of the summer, Ryan Adams released yet another album, T.I. proved a mainstream rapper can still make a halfway decent album, and Marilyn Manson made another album that all his fans seem to love but the rest of us do not get.

If fall proves to be as interesting as summer in terms of music, fans and critics alike may have to swallow their pride and admit that maybe we did actually have a good year, in terms of product. If music lets us down like it has in the past, there are always sports, television, books and movies to fill in the void. After all, time always seems to fly when we are surrounded by tons and tons of non-pertinent joy.

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