Year in Review 2011

It’s the third day of the New Year and so far most people seem happy to see the back of the year that was 2011. And who can blame them? Earthquakes, uprisings, riots, political upheaval and recession do not make for a joyous end of year summary.

Not that we talk about those kinds of things here at Insert Witty... No, we tend to stick to the stuff we know about, music, movies, books and giving out in general. Unfortunately the last twelve months haven’t been great for those either.

Movie wise it been a pretty ‘meh’ year. Far too many ‘it was ok I suppose’ (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Super 8 and Oscar winning The Kings Speech) or ‘I can’t believe people thought that was good’ (Black Swan, Puss in Boots.) In fact a lot of reviewer’s movie the year fits perfectly into that second category.

Drive, starred Ryan Gosling as a moody, broody, stunt man turned getaway driver. As a movie it was a shallow homage to movies of the 80’s, a decade whose style over substance emptiness Drive emulates to perfection. There is absolutely no need for any of this movie to exist. From the horrible Day-Glo credits and appalling synth music soundtrack to its lack of script and video nasty violence, it is of zero artistic merit. Ladies tend to swoon over Gosling but he was in three other movies this year which are miles better than Drive.

In fact, one of those movies, Blue Valentine makes it into what I would consider the top five of the last year along with, in no particular order, Submarine, Tree of Life, Animal Kingdom and possibly Bridesmaids or Warrior. Like I said, it wasn’t a particularly great year for cinema but of what I saw, these were probably the best.

It was reported today that album sales (including digital units) for the last year are down. I can appreciate this. While there have been some good records, there hasn’t been anything that makes me want to listen to it over and over again. Bon Iver, Adele, Elbow and PJ Harvey have released decent efforts but nothing that has blown me away. So there is no JH album of the year.

My musical highlights have come from live gigs this year. As a huge Prince fan I was very sceptical about his gig in Malahide Castle. It was too expensive and the sound was bound to be terrible, I wasn’t going.


In the end my love of the man’s music got the better of me and I’m so glad it did. It was the fifth time I had seen him live and this was easily the best. It was definitely the best outdoor gig I’ve been at, possibly the best anywhere. A hits collection from start to finish (almost three hours,) he interacted and had the crowd eating out of his hand.

Then at Electric Picnic, I saw lots of great bands playing to appreciative audiences that where there to have a good time. Bands like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Public Enemy, Caitlin Rose, Midlake, Santigold, DJ Shadow and others all put on great sets to make for an enjoyable weekend. The Headline acts then went and turned it into an amazing experience.

Arcade Fire on Saturday night put on an incredible show, every bit as good as their performance in the O2 in 2010, and should have been the highlight of the weekend. That was until Sunday night when the man god that is Jarvis Cocker strode on stage with a reformed Pulp and sent me and my friends back in time to 1996. Singing and dancing along to Disco 2000 was an experience I have waited fifteen years for. It was worth the wait.

On a personal note, 2011 was a great year. I continued my efforts to become a proper human being and writer. I spent a lot of time helping kids write stories (I even appeared on the news doing so) and I helped educate some of them in the ways of proper comedy. The best bit, without doubt, was that I ended the year all loved up and in a relationship with a fantastic woman who I personally think is brilliant.

If I can keep that stuff going forward into this new calendar I will have a very Happy New Year.