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2019
Dec 3, 2019 18:47:02 GMT
Post by Reactionary Rage on Dec 3, 2019 18:47:02 GMT
How was it for you? a vintage year? One to forget?
Fave film? fave book? Fave tv show? Fave concert? Cultural highlight?
Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)?
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Sneelock
god
hey Daddy-O. I don't wanna go.
Posts: 8,506
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2019
Dec 3, 2019 20:00:36 GMT
Post by Sneelock on Dec 3, 2019 20:00:36 GMT
Fave film? wow, there's so many I still aim to see. That Almodovar & "Lighthouse" and the Scorcese. I'd have to say "they shall not grow old" but "US" really worked for me albeit in a very unpleasant sort of way.
fave book? "American Carnage" was very good. the writer charts where he thinks "Trumpism" came from and explains why he thinks it might be here to stay.
Fave tv show? I thought Russian Doll was good. shit, a lot of things were good. BUT, this last season of "Silicon Valley" is the one to beat for me. I just love that show and think it stands up to repeated viewings. This last season is not letting anybody off it's very sharp hook.
Fave concert? once again the guy in front of the Trader Joes with the banjo. I think he just keeps getting better.
Cultural highlight? we still have culture? it's all been downhill since "pizza rat". Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)? I hope the guy who wrote "American Carnage" is wrong. I'd like to be able to break bread with people without others being called losers & scumbags. I mean, it's one thing to disagree - it's another to feel like you get to be a PRICK about it and that others have no choice but to bear it. ugh. it seems like it's getting worse. It would be nice to see people get inspired about something again but what are the chances of that?
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Post by Crunchy Col on Dec 3, 2019 21:41:46 GMT
How was it for you? a vintage year? One to forget?
2018 was my annus horribilis so really anything had to be better. It's been OK, not quite vintage.
But, you know, a year's a long time, so unless someone's kicking you in the head for 12 months solid, there are going to be sweet moments. I think 2020 will be much better.
Fave film?
Fave film actually from 2019 has to be The Irishman. I thought it was all kinds of wonderful. But I saw a lot of old films again this year and some of those eclipsed the Scorsese in terms of FUCKING HELL lifechangingness. More of that later...
fave book?
I haven't been reading.
Fave tv show?
Chernobyl. It was an incredible achievement. Elegaic, political, beautifully filmed and performed, and absolutely memorable. I'm planning to watch it all again over Xmas.
The first half of the year was stuffed with great shows, mind. Fleabag, The Virtues, and the Thatcher docu series were all must-sees. And the new Vic and Bob thing shows they're still on great form.
Fave concert?
I've only been to a couple of shows - but The Love Band with Johnny Echols strummed and crooned and drummed their way through one of the very best catalogues in rock - a fabulous night out in Glasgow.
Cultural highlight?
I went to Paris, Barcelona and Berlin in the first half of the year. I had an absolute blast in all three places (you'd have to be daft NOT to, right?). And I had big cinema experiences alongside the galleries and the cakes.
In Paris I saw Cassavetes' Opening Night in the famous CHAMPO cinema (it was barely a quarter full) which knocked me out. In Berlin I finally got to see a couple of Roland Klick films in the tiny Lichtblick arthouse cinema , with the man himself in attendance (White Star is great fun - see it if you can). And in Barcelona I went to the Filmoteca de Catalunya for the first time, and virtually took up residence there (4 euros per ticket, and an amazing programme the likes of which I haven't seen anywhere), and the highlight of that was seeing The Creature From The Black Lagoon in 3D.
Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)?
Personally? I want to travel. Mexico or Cuba, maybe. Definitely a couple of Europe trips - I'd like to see Albania, finally. Maybe Romania. Finland. Ukraine.
We're selling my Mam's house next month, which is going to be tough, but it's necessary. So I'm probably going to buy a flat or a house in Whitehaven, which is a huge step. Summer with the Chinese again, maybe at Heriot Watt. And I might be off abroad to work again from September - I love this country but TEFL options are crappy. Prague's beckoning, or I might give Berlin another go.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2019 23:08:18 GMT
Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)? The Mayans were off by eight years on their calendar..
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 3, 2019 23:09:22 GMT
2019 was a strange year - my son lived with me all year, did terrible in school and I let him fail so he'd have to make some tough decisions on his own, (believe me, that's hard for a parent), work was unrewarding, but convenient, and I had some interviews I thought went well, but didn't go anywhere, love life was non-existent - I had a woman friend who wanted to be friends with benefits, but she made it too complicated because she was too complicated. Took a couple nice trips with my son.
Fave film? I have a few. . . The Irishman Amazing Grace Yesterday - good romantic comedies are tough, especially when you throw in sci-fi and the Beatles Mike Wallace is Here
fave book? What Unites Us by Dan Rather. Although slight, it was pretty poignant.
Fave tv show? When They See Us, about the Central Park Five. Veep kinda let me down this season.
Fave concert? Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, most notably Ryland Baxter.
Cultural highlight? Tethered by a teenager, I don't get out much, but I'd say my adopted hometown of Fremont is a cultural highlight as the city becomes much more multi-ethnic, mainly Indian and Chinese. It brings a certain vibrancy and unpredictability to normal, every day life as the city changes.
Hopes and fears for 2020 I don't know if this will be the year, but I'd really like to move out of the Bay Area. I'm looking forward to my daughter getting out of community college and going to a four-year. Watching each of the kids grow up a little.
I'm really worried about more exponential changes happening with climate change and want Trump to get the hell out of the White House. I don't know if the country, or the world, can stand another four years. The man is a plague and pestilence. He needs to go by any means necessary.
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Sneelock
god
hey Daddy-O. I don't wanna go.
Posts: 8,506
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2019
Dec 3, 2019 23:16:48 GMT
Post by Sneelock on Dec 3, 2019 23:16:48 GMT
I thought that final gag was a doozy! Veep kinda let me down this season.
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2019
Dec 4, 2019 8:19:39 GMT
Post by Reactionary Rage on Dec 4, 2019 8:19:39 GMT
How was it for you? a vintage year? One to forget?
Not a vintage year, no. A bit up and down. Personally it’s been mostly very good but the first half was deffo better than the 2nd. I visited Florence and Lisbon and drove the north 500 and all were wonderful. Work has become a bit of a cunt though and has been getting me down for a while now. I’m starting to feel my age more too, at work in particular. The generational changes I guess but it’s felt sharper, more pronounced due to some new people joining and it’s starting to hit home. I’m feeling more isolated than I have for some time politically and culturally. Such is life. I mean I really can’t complain because in many ways I have it great but I guess it feels like the start of something and you know where it’s heading. It feels like it can only get worse and I need to learn to live with this otherwise I will go fucking mad.
Fave film?
New: The Irishman. Late period masterpiece? I think so. A beautiful swan song. Runner up: The Favourite. I laughed my arse off throughout. Dirty, witty, delightful.
New old: The Passenger. Not a fan of Antonioni but thought this was great and cool as fuck. How hot was Maria Schneider? Damn!
Fave book?
I don’t read much but Douglas Murray’s The Madness of Crowds is one of those books where you go “ahhhhh, I get it a bit more now”. Illuminating but depressing too. A lot of really dumb ideas have taken root and we have a job on our hands. I’m yer man though #believe
Fave TV show?
Chernobyl was magnificent. Worthy of the hype. I wasn’t fully aware of the scale of the problem. This thing could have fucked Europe! But then you think about the people who gave their lives and their heart and souls to prevent it getting worse. The fucking miners! Heroes. A very human experience. Draining but also uplifting in a “people coming together and being magnificent” kinda way. Can’t recommend it enough. And that scene where the fucker looks into the glowing reactor was like looking into the doors of hell.
I loved RuPauls Drag Race UK. I’ve felt the American version has gone off the boil a bit for a while – too self aware, too serious – but this was British was hell in the best possible way and after an odd, shaky start it really came together. I laughed my arse off. Genuinely made me feel proud to be British.
Fave concert?
Steely Dan. The band were cooking, Donald was in strong voice and I danced my arse off. God bless The Dan
Runner up: The Residents. Still wonderfully weird and like nothing else in the world. Also Sterelab although that was marred by vomiting (I can only aplogise to those people in the middle of the crowd who had to endure my leftovers…sorry folks, I felt bad)
Cultural highlight?
Florence. Wow. What a city. Runner up: Gotterdammerung at the Usher Hall? What a momumental slab of art it is. I had issues with some things as you always do but….the norns were especially wonderful and the music is, of course, some of the greatest ever. Grane! My steed! etc
Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)?
I’m quite pessimistic now. I think we have real problems. But I don’t have kids so part of me, truthfully, is a bit like “whatever”. Which is not a great place to be but there you go.
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2019
Dec 4, 2019 11:41:12 GMT
Post by Crunchy Col on Dec 4, 2019 11:41:12 GMT
Yeah - we're all fucked but we should enjoy ourselves. I think that's good advice, generally.
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2019
Dec 4, 2019 12:03:27 GMT
rayge likes this
Post by DarknessFish on Dec 4, 2019 12:03:27 GMT
I'm crap at these things because I'm so out of touch with whatever is going on culturally in the here and now, I always stumble along blindly and enjoy things I come across whether old or new.
How was it for you? a vintage year? One to forget? Well, compared to last year it's a definite improvement, as no parent or friend has yet died. In your face, 2018. Otherwise, I guess it's been ok. My mum's much more comfortable about living on her own, gets out and about a lot, and we're quite well set in the routine when she comes round for meals, picks up Tom from school, that kind of thing. On the downside, I've never been one to get stressed about work, but this year work seems to have impinged much more on my free time, and I appear to have taken more responsibility without any benefit or actually getting anything done myself. I'm meant to be a software engineer, but I can't remember the last time I wrote any significant code. Also failed in my yearly goal to have sex with Scarlett Johansson.
Fave film? fave book? No idea what came out this year. Christopher Priest's The Affirmation was probably the best book I've read this year, or in nno-fiction Roger Moorhouse's Berlin at War
Fave tv show? Finally caught up with modernity and watched the first series of Peaky Blinders, which was remarkable. Not from this year though, and the second series is shit. Bake Off?
Fave concert? Only saw one, Keiji Haino and Charles Hayward (of This Heat) doing an improv set at Hebden Bridge Trades Club. Magnificent gig, Haino is an actual wizard.
Cultural highlight? The New York trip with wife, child, and mum. I mean, by God it's hard to please everyone when you're traipsing around a major city with three different generations, but it's possible to do in a city like New York. Actually didn't really get to do anything I would've done on my own, like the museums or art galleries, but I'll always remember lazing around Washington Square Park in unseasonally hot weather, listening to different jazz combos stationed around the place.
Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)? Well, the major fear is the impending election, if a Tory majority occurs now it feels like the end of times, the end of hope. That one party can get away with destroying the infrastructure of a country, and really kicking the most vulnerable over and over again. Feels like a properly dystopian future is on our doorstep. Hopes are for health and happiness, simple pleasures, and that long awaited crack at Ms Johansson.
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2019
Dec 4, 2019 12:56:26 GMT
Post by Reactionary Rage on Dec 4, 2019 12:56:26 GMT
Yeah - we're all fucked but we should enjoy ourselves. I think that's good advice, generally.
I've thought for a while now we are living in the last days of a golden age.
Unlike some I have zero confidence in millennials either.
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2019
Dec 4, 2019 13:05:54 GMT
Post by hippopotamus on Dec 4, 2019 13:05:54 GMT
How was it for you? a vintage year? One to forget?
This has been the most momentous of any year I've been alive, but also the most different. I got engaged on New Years Eve. We moved into my first house that I bought myself, 2 weeks in. I worked a lot, but we did a few weekend holidays, one to Paris, one to Jersey and went to the peak district for my birthday. We officially got married in Liverpool in May (just at the Town Hall, with 2 witnesses as it was just the legal bit, but it ended up being a very special day). We then had our big wedding in June, in Germany. We went on our "honeymoon" on Vancouver Island in August, by which time I was suffering from a lot of morning sickness. And since then we've been redorating our house, with plans to re do the kitchen, add a new bathroom, and redo the another bathroom just in time for the baby to be born. But apart from big life events, I don't think I've done ANYTHING. I don't know what I've done all year. I more or less have not participated in ANY of my hobbies. I haven't done any races, I played the cello for about a month, then stopped. I haven't done any singing. We haven't done a lot of trips. I'm not really sure where the time has gone. But I did figure out something important.. I'm MUCH happier when I'm not working all the time. But how I use this information in the future remains to be seen. Fave film?I don't think I've seen a SINGLE new release. I've gone through the list briefly to check, because this is unbelievable to me. There was a time when I would have seen MOST of them. It's really really peculiar. fave book? I actually DID buy a few books that only came out this year. I have read none of them Fave tv show? I made my husband watch The Good Place with me, as he confessed he hasn't watched any TV shows since he was a kid. I thought it was as good a place to start as any. I really liked it. But he complained that we were wasting our life on TV. So we haven't watched any other shows together. Fave concert?I don't think I have been to any concerts We did go to the Theatre a few times to see Book of Mormon and a stage version of Rocky Horror, as well as a Panto called Scouse Pacific. I loved them all, but they weren't life changing or anything. Cultural highlight? Going to Jersey for a day and a half. I loved it to bits. I didn't know what to expect at all. It was fascinating and a place I want to spend a lot of time in to get to know better. Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)?To NOT talk about politics for one minute-- I'm pretty happy with things at the moment. We've been planning our parental leave with the baby next year. I feel really lucky to live in the UK, where you can have shared parental leave. Where I get decent Maternity pay. I don't worry about losing our jobs over it, and I think it will make us better parents. I grew up in a household where both my parents worked full time from when we were born. I'm going to take some leave, but we're trying to share it as equally as possible, and have some help at home, so neither one of us has to take too long off work. Then when I go back to work, I'll go back less than full time. It might be absolutely amazing to work part time, have a home and family. These are my hopes. The coming elections are worrying me a little. I don't know that the outcome will have too acute an effect. I don't think it will be all doom and gloom. But it's already causing me a lot of grief, because somehow despite living in the UK for over 15 years, apart from a break of 4 years to go to Medical school in Ireland, as it stands I don't qualify to be "Settled" here. Being a German citizen will be MUCH more complication when we finally leave the EU. Speaking to an immigration lawyer didn't help, who basically just advised us to move somewhere less complicated. So we will see.
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Post by hippopotamus on Dec 4, 2019 13:10:28 GMT
Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)?Well, the major fear is the impending election, if a Tory majority occurs now it feels like the end of times, the end of hope. That one party can get away with destroying the infrastructure of a country, and really kicking the most vulnerable over and over again. Feels like a properly dystopian future is on our doorstep. Hopes are for health and happiness, simple pleasures, and that long awaited crack at Ms Johansson. I've never had any definitely allegiance to Labour or Torys, or any political party anywhere. But going to a conference on how children's health is affected by their environment. And seeing how the environment is directly affected by the goverment. I was absolutely SHOCKED at the numbers of children living in poverty, relying on food banks ever since the Tories came into government. They stopped funding policies that were shown to work, and now a third of British children live in Poverty. Most of these come from families who have two working parents. This is bizarre to me. One of the Scientists presenting the work said he presented some of his data in Sweden, and he got a question from the audience in all seriousness "Why do British people hate children?". I have very little confidence in Corbyn or anyone else, but this sort of power in the wrong hands does scare me a lot.
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2019
Dec 4, 2019 14:43:54 GMT
Post by Half Machine Lipschitz on Dec 4, 2019 14:43:54 GMT
How was it for you? a vintage year? One to forget?
It wasn't a terribly special year. I turned 50 on August 30th, which didn't seem like such a big deal, but I had a very nice celebration with a few good friends, some delicious food, and a bunch of bottles of very expensive wine that I had spent a couple of years collecting for the occasion. The year started out with Basia's father moving in with us in February, requiring us to change our lives rather dramatically. We had to get a hospital bed, and rearrange things to accommodate his wheelchair and hire some personal support workers to come in twice a day to help out. He moved out in August, first into a hospital where he stayed until just last week when he moved into a long-term care facility. We still haven't rid ourselves of the goddamn bed, and a bunch of his mobility supplies (we've got three wheelchairs, several grab bars, a 10' wheelchair ramp and a bunch of other odds and ends which just don't seem to want to disappear) and I'd really like to get our house back to the way it was before he moved in. My band (if you can call it that anymore) spent most of the year (plus a bit of late 2018) recording the rock opera that has consumed everything in its path, and while not in the recording studio we've rehearsed it a bajillion times and performed it a few times to very appreciative audiences.
Fave film?
Checking a list, I see that the only new release that I've seen so far this year was the latest in the Star Wars saga, which I'd hardly call a "fave". I'll come back to this.
fave book?
I read a lot of books this year, but I really need to see the titles in front of me to jar my memory, and I'm at work at the moment so I'll come back to this one, too, if anyone cares.
Fave tv show?
I'm going with 'Chernobyl', too. Probably some of the best drama I've seen in a long time.
Fave concert?
Aside from performing the bloody rock opera, the only concert I saw this year was Robyn Hitchcock at the Drake Hotel, which is a fantastic venue for him (we try to catch him whenever he comes to town as, aside from his great tunes, he's also a great psychedelic raconteur).
Cultural highlight?
Culture? Twitter's been great!
Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)?
Owning a house is one never-ending chore, but I'm hopeful that 2020 will finally see any remaining large projects come to completion. Hell, after twenty years in this place we finally replaced the concrete walkway between our house and the neighbour's that was the main cause of our leaky basement, and I took the opportunity to bury an electrical line from the house to the garage, so we finally have lights and power out there!
At some point in the early-ish new year, the recording of the rock opera should be wrapped up, and we'll have a few shows to celebrate what, in all likelihood, will turn out to be a triple-LP (fingers' crossed).
I also hope that, somehow, radical right-wing politics can just shut the fuck up and take a backseat for a while to allow some actual progress to be made toward relieving poverty and hunger and that climate change can be taken seriously by everyone, amongst many other things that I expect will never happen.
I'm quite happy with my lot in life and am certainly more comfortable than I've ever been since I left home over thirty years ago. I do need to do something about starting some sort of retirement plan, I suppose - I think I've put that off far longer than I should have.
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nolamike
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Old Fart At Play
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2019
Dec 4, 2019 15:32:23 GMT
Post by nolamike on Dec 4, 2019 15:32:23 GMT
How was it for you? a vintage year? One to forget?
Helluva year personally - finding my biological family without really looking for them, learning I have a full brother and sister, and nephews and a niece, and building wonderful and strong relationships with them all. And had a few trips to places I'd never been, which I enjoyed - Pittsburgh (to meet that family), San Diego (first time ever in California!), Cooperstown NY/Montreal (family vacation), and Detroit (loved it). Beyond that... lots of emotional exhaustion from what is happening in the US right now, and lots of self-doubt. Fave film?
I haven't really seen many that came out this year - mostly just ones the kids wanted to see. If it has to be a 2019 film, I guess I'd go with Rolling Thunder Revue, which just goes to show how few new movies I did see. If it can be something older that I saw for the first time this year... probably Tampopo, which I adored. fave book?One that came out this year that I thoroughly enjoyed was Nuking the Moon, a non-fiction book about insane military/espionage plans from the 20th century that were (thankfully!) scrapped. A favorite I read this year, but which came out a while ago, was David Maraniss' biography of Roberto Clemente. Fave tv show?
Probably The Good Place or Chernobyl. Fave concert?
Either Courtney Barnett or Julia Holter, both of whom blew me away. Cultural highlight?
My youngest daughter's blue-ribbon winning art for the Houston Rodeo! Hopes and fears for 2020 (fuck)?The biggest fear is definitely what's going on with the US government - the fear that the Senate won't vote to remove Trump from office, the fear that Trump will get reelected, the fear that I'll keel over and croak...
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nolamike
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Old Fart At Play
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Post by nolamike on Dec 4, 2019 15:36:50 GMT
We still haven't rid ourselves of the goddamn bed, and a bunch of his mobility supplies (we've got three wheelchairs, several grab bars, a 10' wheelchair ramp and a bunch of other odds and ends which just don't seem to want to disappear Party at your place!
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