I think it would be fair to say that more than anything I have put more effort into films than anything else in my life, in a year when I proved the critics wrong and excelled in A-Levels, but yet again, they are getting easier! So here it is, my favourite releases of 2009:
A Serious Man, The White Ribbon, Inglourious Basterds, Broken Embraces, Looking for Eric, Kisses, Che, Milk, Il Divo, Lakeview Terrace, Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee, Tony Manero, Cherry Blossom, Gigantic and The Informant!
Sadly I also missed a handful of movies that I would have liked to catch, such as; Up!, Thirst, Katalin Varga and The Invention of Lying. Although, I must say, that at the time none of these films looked particularly attractive, or the cinema was too far away, or more than likely I was too busy making the transformation into an apple to go and watch them. Sadly, I watched a couple of stinkers as well, none more than Mesrine: Killer Instinct, which was truly style over substance, with murder after murder which became tiresome after 5 minutes.
However, something I have not been too bothered about is new music, nothing this year has really truly excited me, apart from The Flaming Lips new album (embryonic) and maybe the Major Lazer album in September, but that quickly tired on me, and now I think it is just average. Instead of ranting about the poor output of music in 2009 compared to 2008, instead I will show you the bands I listened to the most over the past 12 months!!!
Cat Power, Scout Niblett, Jonathan Richman, FOTL, mclusky, Pixies, Flaming Lips, Public Enemy, Gang of Four, Vivian Girls, Beastie Boys, Quasimoto, The Fall, MF DOOM, Nick Cave…., My Bloody Valentine, Madvillain, Sonic Youth, Devo, Ponytail, DANGERDOOM and Clinic
I must say that despite not being excited by much new music I did enjoy watching a lot of the oldies rocking it at Primavera 2009, Neil Young, Sonic Youth, MBV, Jesus Lizard and Yo La Tengo. But, my biggest music change this year has been a sudden upsurge in interest of decent hip-hop, thanks mainly to my new flatmate, Oliver, who virtually BULLIED me into listening to more than just Public Enemy, NWA and Wu Tang Clan,
Primavera isn’t quite up there as time of my life due to the amount of stress organising and then reorganising took, but some key events of the year are probably me not talking to anyone apart from Mark Critchley, Marcus Barnett, Sam Nicholas and Joe Smith on a regular basis for nine months, being thrown out of home for one night before going home for tea – heartbreak, spending the entire year without fancying anyone – winrar, spending the majority of the year without phone credit and the little time I had with loud headphones for my ipod.
Embarrassingly this year I only completed three or four books, Chris Harman, Fantastic Mr. Fox (69 pages!!), Roy Keane autobiography and Chopper. For the past six months I have read 180 pages of Yiddish Policemen’s Union, and 140 of them have been read in the past two weeks. So, this year I am aiming to read much more, something I can do once my exams have finished and I have six months until my next term, and have a long list of fiction that I am interested in reading, as I am now totally turned off reading about politics considering I have to do it nearly every single fucking night, especially all the liberal bollocks.
So that is one new years aim, the other is to play more video games and become more cultured about it, instead of just seeing it as beating the shit out of virtual monster on FIFA or PES. This upturn in interest of video games is because I recently played Left 4 Dead 2 and it was the first time I have been genuinely scared by a video game, as hordes of infected human beings attempt to eat me alive. I also aim to guide Celtic FC to a Champions League final in the next five seasons and win, something I believe I will have difficulty doing due to the scope of players available to me, but a challenge nonetheless. Lose all inhibitions and don’t grow my hair long ever again. Also cut down on the amount of carbohydrates I eat.
Inabit
