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.

Pandering

First of all,

Повідомлення для всіх читачів з Україною. Дякуємо Вам за відвідування'Вставити Дотепний Поп Посилання культури тут. Запрошуємо Вас і, хоча явпевнений, що ви, ймовірно, потрапив сюди через якийсь спам-посилання ясподіваюся, що ви будете тинятися поблизу і прочитати деякі з речей, які янаписав. Та якщо ви робите, чому б не залишити коментар, я хотів би почути від вас.

And back to normal service. Regular non Ukrainian readers should relax, I haven’t been hacked and infested with a virus, nor have I been the victim of some type of demonic possession. I’m not writing in tongues. What the above paragraph is doing, is welcoming my apparently many visitors from the former Soviet Republic.

In the last couple of months, Ukraine has shot to third in the ‘all time’ league of nations of visitors to my little blog. It appears they are particularly fond of ‘Flummoxed’ for some reason. I hope they enjoy and read some other bits but in all likelihood they probably ‘x’ out of it as soon as whatever spam link takes them here.

And who can blame them with a charlatan like me slacking off constantly. Here we are in the last week of September and so far I’ve only got one entry for the entire month.  And I only did three in August. What kind of bullshit blogging is this?

You are right of course. It is unacceptable and I will have to get my act together. You people read my work and you deserve to be treated better than this. I appreciate that you take the time to come here and cast your eye over the latest witterings of a “fat fingered moron.”  I mean I don’t even have games like Farmville and you still visit. It means a lot, it really does.

I’m going to try and get some kind of work ethic going again. I’ve just been a little distracted recently. The run up to and the come down after this year’s Electric Picnic was fairly time consuming. It was worth it. It was amazing, with Arcade Fire, shamanic meditation, DJ Shadow’s 3D sphere, hot tubs and Chilli Con Carne from a shed in the woods among the highlights. 

Pride of place however, goes to Pulp who stole the show. Amazing performance and worth the fifteen year wait. The hug I shared with my friends afterwards was beautiful also, knowing we’d shared a moment that we had waited for since our days in the Roxy.

That said the main thing that has seen me neglect my opus is something that makes me even happier than a gyrating Jarvis Cocker. She’s very pretty, sexy as sin, tickles my funny bone and is much cleverer than I am. She seems to like me as much as I like her and we have a great time together. She has threatened to kill me if I write about her on this thing. So I won’t be doing that.

Although I suppose I could always write in Ukrainian.