MUSIC (Do You Like To Boogie Woogie?)
This was the year that iTunes finally came into it's own, and I downloaded far more music legally than I bought at JB HiFi or HUM. It wasn't an intentional decision to join the bleeding technological edge - I mean, how many cyber band aids can one guy use in a year? - but iTunes has allowed me to pick and choose songs that I want as opposed to downloading whole albums which may or may be fabulous! I know there's an argument that by not buying the whole album that you lose a sense of the artist's overall vision - that's assuming they have one which in the case of Britney Spears or Lady Gaga likely doesn't extend beyond making money and being famous! Bitchy but true -but it's given me the chance to afford lots of new music and new artists, and to a new junkie like me, that's better than sliced bread.
Sorry about that Baker's Delight but that's just the way it is...
So finally released from the tyranny of an entire album, what did I do? I ended up buying lots of funky tracks like "Boys and Girls" by Pixie Lott (my winner for most creative name.... I don't care if it's even her real name....it's the best name I heard all year!), "Can't Stop Moving" by Sonny J, "Laughing With..." by Regina Spektor, "Ordinary People" by Chantal Kreviazuk, and my winner for Song of the Year, "Happy Up Here" by my favourite Icelandic electronica act, Royksopp (quite possibly the only Icelandic electronica act I listen to but given my ever more eclectic tastss in music that can't be guaranteed!)..... I did succumb to buying some full length CDs, store bought and everything, including 'Two Suns" by Bat For Lashes (think Kate Bush updated for the 21st Century), Florence and the Machine (sadly the machine remained cruelly nameless), Metric, Fischerspooner, and my favourites from the 80s, The Pet Shop Boys, who sound very current and engaging for such a long standing musical act.
As ever I went to a host of concerts too, with the standouts being PINK!, with her amazingly creative Funhouse theme (giant plastic pop up clowns and warping mirrors anyone?), and Coldplay who dazzled, engaged beautifully with their adoring audience, and sang their hearts out with a fervour and passion that's hard not to like. As always music kept me sane, grounded, entranced, delighted, calm, thrilled, and overjoyed and as my constant companion on my journeys to work, thanks to my trusty iPod, the most dominant pop cultural part of my life.
TV (Fire Up the Cathode Ray Boys!)
Right so there's one thing we need to get out of the way straight off the bat.... I still haven't loaded elgato on my iMac despite owning it for 12 months. It turns my iMac into a TV and Hard Drive Recorder, which would mean I could ditch the VCR. Why haven't I loaded it? Lord knows. It is a mystery known only to the swirling goo of mashed up neuroses that some dare to call my soul.....
However what has to be the most profound piece of procrastination in my entire life - yes I am still over-achieving at 44! Yes!! - aside, I did still manage to watch lots of TV, although nowhere as much as I used to, largely due to the aforementioned beautiful guy whom I am now delighted to call my boyfriend. Surprise, surprise, I prefered spending time with him rather watching TV, live or taped, so I didn't get into Survivor or Race Around the World as I used to do. But I did surprise myself - yes more surprises than a seminary full of trainee priests all coming out of the closet all at once in this paragraph! - by faithfully watching The Collectors on the ABC (accompanied by pizza and wine and my gorgeous man) and even on occasion, Midsummer Murders.
But any fears I had that I was one English crime drama away from blue rinses and a night at the local bowls club were allayed by my continued love of shows like LOST (I have had to but season 5 to try and re-watch and make sense of it all; plus I missed many episodes this year, which is not a good idea with a show like this), Battlestar Galactica, and True Blood, and brilliant new shows like Glee (so deliciously camp and bright and musical with a very dark underbilly, you can't help but be drawn in as I was from the pilot on!)FlashForward, Stargate Universe, Sanctuary (yay the DVD box set once again!) and Dollhouse.
So I think I am safe from spending my time watching 20 to 1 on Channel 9 - it has to be the most pointless awful show on TV! Hmm that does make me sound like a grumpy old man? Yikes! - and I doubt that my love of genre-busting, creative envelope pushing shows will ever wane. Just how I watch them.
Which reminds me...where did I leave the elgato software again? Hmmm....
MOVIES (Wild With a Chance of Meatballs)
A recurring pattern this year - and who doesn't love a recurring pattern especially if the colours complement each other, and it has a slightlly avant garde look and..... sorry what was I saying? - seems to be that I am not doing some things as much as I did. This afflicted my attendance at the movies too, but I did manage to see some amazing flicks including the eerie but clever Moon, about a lone guy on the moon looking after a mining base..... Where The Wild Things Are, which was poetic, dark, sweet and a joyous recreation of the intensity of childhood........ The Time Traveller's Wife, which was achingly sad and full of the deepest, most heartfelt love all at the same time...... Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which I saw with my friends kids in Vancouver, and which was eye-poppingly colourful, hilarious and over the top 3D fun!.....
And there was 500 Days of Summer, which was a love story that wasn't, that beautifully evoked the pain of love that doesn't quite go where you want it to go, and how that's not always a bad thing... Vicky Christina Barcelona, a Woody Allen movie with fiery performances, a psychotic femme fatale, and an eccentric sense of playfulness....
BOOKS (Read If You Want, Read Around the World!)
Trust me, this was not the year that I read all those books gathering dangerously high mountains of dust on them as they sit forlornly on my shelf, awaiting the use for which they were intended. It turns out I am fantastically talented at buying the books, finding new and exciting tomes at every turn, in every bookstore I walk into; but reading them is another matter entirely and I have vowed to not buy any books in 2010 and just read the ones I have.... I think that's a New Year's Resolution just waiting to be rent asunder but for now I will try to remain hopeful....
All those unread books aside, I did manage to get some books read and swirling around in my grey matter...... The Commitment by Dan Savage explored with a mix of humour, biting wit and serious observation the idea of gay people being allowed to marry. It's unique perspective was that here was a gay man not necessarily agitating to be married but irked that larger society, at least in part, continues to act as if allowing gay people to marry will tear civilization apart, and arguing that this, of course, nonsense..... The Clouded World series by Jay Amory offered a unique idea of the winged haves living in their opulent sky cities, and the wingless have-nots down on the ground below in their murky sun-starved cities and towns and the inevitable clash of culture that results. A little overly dramatic at times, but it's epic tones and great storytelling won me over... Street Gang : The Complete History of Sesame Street by Michael Davis documents the 40 glorious fun-filled, learning-saturated years that Sesame Street has been a part of our lives. A brilliant read!....... It's Not News, It's FARK! How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News by Drew Curtis attacks the modern media for pursuing nothing stories over stories of actual substance and dumbing down peoples' consumption of current affairs. It's passionately well-written and argues its case well....
Not all the books I read enthralled me.... I tried to read The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterston and for a while it's lyrical storytelling, that moved a shimmering;y beautiful grace enthralled me as did the story but it never really resolved anything, and it's leaps between the far future, sort of present and the past were a tad disjointed, and ultimately, disengaging for me....
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