Goodbye 2011

New Year's Eve has been a bigger draw for me than Xmas for last few years. There is a sense of exciting romanticism that accompanies it, along with a feeling of universalism that few other events can really celebrate. It seems weird to me that there aren't more songs about celebrating the dawn of a new year and a symbolic fresh start for all. Those that I am aware of fail to match up to the lofty standards of the Xmas classics...

Still, there are plenty of other wonderful songs that can be listened to to ring in the New Year. As it seems to be an integral part of the New Year celebration, be it the dance mix at the party or the Jools Holland Hootenanny being watched from the sofa, I shall begin my personal review of 2011 with my top 10 tracks of the year.

Music
1.  British Sea Power - Who's In Control?
2.  Electric Six - French Bacon
3.  Hurts - Sunday
4.  The Streets - OMG
5.  LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
6.  Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera - Moves Like Jagger
7.  Anastasia Vinnikova - I Love Belarus
8.  Take That - The Flood
9.  Tim McGraw & Gwyneth Paltrow - Me and Tennessee
10. Noah and the Whale -  L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N

For yet another year I feel as though I have fallen away from my indie roots. Most of my experience of new music this year came from exposure to MOR radio in the form of Radio 2 and Bright FM at work. I don't think that it has been a very good year for music. Over Xmas I watched both the 2011 TOTP round-up and the 2009 edition, and 2009's 'highlights' were leagues ahead of this year. 2011 has also seen releases by some of my favourite bands (Art Brut and Radiohead most notably) that were very disappointing and remain unpurchased. Fortunately my two top dogs, BSP and E6 remained as reliable as ever. That's as pop-orientated a top 10 single tracks I've probably ever had to be honest, though also probably one of the most positive sounding ones (barring Hurts).




Film
1.  Super 8
2.  Black Swan
3.  Attack the Block
4.  Senna
5.  Hobo With A Shotgun

I've not seen that many new films this year to be honest, being quite lax at making it out for the new releases. I could probably make a longer list of films I wanted to see but never got around to (I'll watch you one day, Tree of Life!) The top three films were all visually arresting and emotionally engaging, as was my biggest disappointment of the year, Drive. The difference here is that these three all managed to maintain a captivating narrative where Drive rambled onwards into ridiculous, incoherent, over-stylised irrelevance. Honourable mentions for Melancholia, one of the most powerful art-pieces I've seen in the cinema, and Moonbug, an invigorating documentary on a photographer's pursuit of astronauts.




Gigs
1.  Amanda Palmer @ Concorde2
2.  Final Fantasy: Distant Worlds @ Royal Albert Hall
3.  British Sea Power @ Concorde2

I have played in a fair few gigs this year, as well as customarily attending a great deal. 2011 saw the live debut of the Red Diamond Dragon Club, performing several gigs with fluctuating success. It also saw the return of the Sneaky Frog and the Scoundrel and SmoothGay to the live arena. It was a shame not to be able to play more gigs,  but such are the constraints that academia, geography and employment present. Hopefully 2012 will see some improvement there. I would recommend seeing Amanda Palmer live to anyone. She is one of the best pure entertainers I have had the pleasure of seeing. Everything she does conveys an enjoyment of her work and it is infectious. Lots to be learnt from that lady.




Books
I don't really keep up to date with books being released, and I didn't really do too much reading outside of uni texts. The best thing I read this year though, and now one of my favourite books ever, would have to be Dracula. The different narrative styles draw you into the world so completely, and the epistollary style gives the tale such dramatic and tense pacing. It is almost a complete masterpiece (the ending could be more exciting and drawn out I feel) and has certainly inspired the direction I would like to go with my astronaut pieces. Other interesting reads have been Linh Dinh's American Tatts, a collection of accessible but varied contemporary poetry, and Zamyatin's We, the novel that inspired 1984.




Achievements
It would be easy to go off on an angsty rant about the bad things that happened in 2011. Far better and more interesting to look at the things that went successfully. First year of part MA complete, boom. First performance with bands and as performance poet complete, boom. First league trophies for FC Kierkegaard in 5-a-side, boom. Formation of the 11-a-side team, Kemp Town FC, boom. Traversing of the West Highland Way and Great Glen Way, boom. First journey outside of Europe, boom. These are the things that stick in my mind when I look back at the good things that happened this past year. Without a doubt there was bad and unfortunate shizzle that took place this year but at the end of the day it's the good things that usually last. Yeah. Postivity an' shit.




New Year's Resolutions
- write more, try and do something creative at least once a day an' shit
- take more photos, events should be documented more thoroughly an' shit
- keep a more comprehensive record of books and films read and watched an' shit
- be brave an' shit
- maintain correspondances an' shit
- review a cooked veggie breakfast once a week

That's probably enough to be getting on with. It's all about being active an' shit.
Happy New Year!




"Oh, friend John, it is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play."