2006 According to Me
Ah, dear reader. You find me looking over the burning wreckage of 2006 and flicking it the V’s whilst holding an emptied petrol can and flaming torch. Come, let us reminisce!
Favourite books of 2006 (that mostly didn’t come out in 2006):
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World War Z by Max Brooks
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Nifenegger
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
Spin by Robert Charles Wilson (I’ll write about it soon, it was great!)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Isiguro
Favourite Albums of 2006 (which mostly did come out in 2006, except for the ones that didn’t):
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Gypsy Punks by Gogol Bordello
Boys and Girls in America by The Hold Steady
Return to Cookie Mountain by TV on the Radio
Silent Shout by The Knife
Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards by Tom Waits
Favourite film of 2006 (which isn’t in a list of 5 because I can’t remember any other films of 2006. I’m assuming this means that either nothing very memorable came out or that I drank too much gin this year):
Favourite Shows of 2006 (based on how much of a berk I made of myself by jumping around and singing along):
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Flaming Lips @ Hammersmith Apollo
The Dresden Dolls (twice) @ The Roundhouse
Mogwai @ The Royal Albert Hall
Sigur Ros @ Hammersmith Apollo
Low @ Koko (They played all of “Things We Lost in the Fire“, which made me unspeakably happy.)
The show that I’m most spectacularly pissed off about missing (thanks to work deadlines and a broken-down train) in 2006:
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The Twilight Singers (with Mark Lanegan) @ The Forum
Thing I’d like most for my friends in 2007:
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That everyone who’s feeling homesick or out of place finds something to make it bearable.
While I was up in Scotland for the last fortnight, I spoke to so many people who felt that they wanted to be somewhere other than where they found themselves or who were musing about what “home” really meant. I thought I was avoiding all of that until I arrived back in Guildford and had to stop in the street and (out loud) talk myself out of turning right around and running back to Edinburgh.
Hang in there, kids.
Thing I’d like most for my family in 2007:
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That life would stop forcing them into the hospital please, and that good things happen to the other family members who are around to help them out.
Thing I’d like most for myself in 2007:
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That I can convince myself to do more stuff this year. 2006 was pretty full ahead work-work-program-program-stress, where I didn’t take much time to do anything creative away from the computer. I’m living somewhere that’s big enough to house my guitars nowadays, so if by this time next year my playing isn’t back to its previous sort-of-not-entirely-unbearable level, then you have permission to kick me in the head.