About 2019 and 391
I'm having to scratch my head a bit about any culture I enjoyed in 2019. One overarching factor was British politics which seemed to infect life with more and more depression as the year went on. We've just had an election which seems to have at last broken the parliamentary deadlock, but may prove to be a false dawn, once they get back to talking to Brussels. Me, I voted Green anyway, knowing full well that it doesn't force anybody to do anything. This is a safe Conservative seat. I'm one of those who think climate change is far more important than Brexit. I simply wanted to give a minuscule bump to the Greens' national percentage.
I saw four films!
Stan and Ollie, Apollo 11, Transit and The Irishman. Yes I certainly like going to the cinema but for circumstantial reasons that means organising a day around a train journey into Manchester. Especially because that's where the most prominent arthouse cinema is. All four films were good, and very different from each other. The only regrets were missing out on one or two interesting small films like Booksmart, but for the most part I wasn't very enthused by what was on offer at the flicks. The brilliant Logan was on the telly the other day and it reminded me how poor most of those superhero films are, most blockbusters in fact. Few manage to attend greatly to themes, character and narrative, once they've put in such stupendous effort on their special effects. Even The Irishman was treading a risky line in that respect.
I bought two dvd boxsets, of Game of Thrones Season 8, and The Expanse Season 3. I don't have streaming services (except for BBC's iPlayer) so I've been slow to both. Pity about Game of Thrones. I'm especially sorry for the actors, who really tried their hardest with the script. The Expanse was (and I gather still is) great.
I haven't gone off music
but I've been playing the same old stuff, usually in the car, and only bought a couple of albums, all the way from Finland. It probably says it all that my recent most enjoyable cd is the copy of Finnish Drinking Songs which Jan handed me ages ago. After a drink or two it really does seem like the greatest album ever. The only live music I experienced was a sort of jazzy lounge session at Joensuu's very own version of Kew Gardens.
I should mention in passing that my biggest cultural experience of the year was actually a sporting one. I'm still delighted with the memory of seeing most of the matches at the Womens' World Ice Hockey Championships in Espoo, yes the very place where I've seen most of my ice hockey. I realise my take on it and the sport as a whole is unique, too bad, I love the sport and despite all the derision, I think people are missing out. The Finns were amazing and seeing them shine meant a lot because several of them I've seen play on and off since I started following the sport ten+ years ago.
A lot of time was spent on model making this year.
I won't repeat what you can read on my model making blog (if you so choose) but there it is. The two biggest projects were: another Nativity Stables, with a novel feature of a flickering fire; and a WWI Royal Naval Air Service scene I built for a forum competition.
I kept up my book reading.
Not as many as last year, thanks to various other things going on including ones already alluded to, but 21 isn't a bad total. I may be kidding myself(!), but the average quality of book appears to be going up. And like last year the total includes a decent proportion of books by women authors, of non fiction books, and books of diverse genres.
I may have mentioned a suitably arbitrary rule I have, of 'starring' up to four books a page in my book list/log/journal/watchamacallit. I see I've awarded (oh how gracious of me) three stars this year, so I guess these are my three best reads of 2019: Dadland by Keggie Carew, The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert, and A Word Child by Iris Murdoch.
At the moment I'm struggling to digest something very odd I've just noticed, a coincidence. Coincidences certainly do happen, but this is a weirdly specific one. Those three books, and only those three books out of 2019's list, are each exactly 391 pages long.
I saw four films!
I bought two dvd boxsets, of Game of Thrones Season 8, and The Expanse Season 3. I don't have streaming services (except for BBC's iPlayer) so I've been slow to both. Pity about Game of Thrones. I'm especially sorry for the actors, who really tried their hardest with the script. The Expanse was (and I gather still is) great.
I haven't gone off music
but I've been playing the same old stuff, usually in the car, and only bought a couple of albums, all the way from Finland. It probably says it all that my recent most enjoyable cd is the copy of Finnish Drinking Songs which Jan handed me ages ago. After a drink or two it really does seem like the greatest album ever. The only live music I experienced was a sort of jazzy lounge session at Joensuu's very own version of Kew Gardens.
I should mention in passing that my biggest cultural experience of the year was actually a sporting one. I'm still delighted with the memory of seeing most of the matches at the Womens' World Ice Hockey Championships in Espoo, yes the very place where I've seen most of my ice hockey. I realise my take on it and the sport as a whole is unique, too bad, I love the sport and despite all the derision, I think people are missing out. The Finns were amazing and seeing them shine meant a lot because several of them I've seen play on and off since I started following the sport ten+ years ago.
A lot of time was spent on model making this year.
I won't repeat what you can read on my model making blog (if you so choose) but there it is. The two biggest projects were: another Nativity Stables, with a novel feature of a flickering fire; and a WWI Royal Naval Air Service scene I built for a forum competition.
I kept up my book reading.
Not as many as last year, thanks to various other things going on including ones already alluded to, but 21 isn't a bad total. I may be kidding myself(!), but the average quality of book appears to be going up. And like last year the total includes a decent proportion of books by women authors, of non fiction books, and books of diverse genres.
I may have mentioned a suitably arbitrary rule I have, of 'starring' up to four books a page in my book list/log/journal/watchamacallit. I see I've awarded (oh how gracious of me) three stars this year, so I guess these are my three best reads of 2019: Dadland by Keggie Carew, The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert, and A Word Child by Iris Murdoch.
At the moment I'm struggling to digest something very odd I've just noticed, a coincidence. Coincidences certainly do happen, but this is a weirdly specific one. Those three books, and only those three books out of 2019's list, are each exactly 391 pages long.
Comments
Post a Comment