Monday, January 04, 2010

2009 in review

Here are some of the things that were good and bad for me in 2009 – across all aspects of life!

Favourite album: Junior – Röyksopp. I could not stop (and still am) playing it. Always one for electronic music this has the right combination of vocal and instrumental tracks, and enough interesting songs and arrangements to keep hearing something new.

Favourite single: The Girl and the Robot – Röyksopp. I’ve always been a sucker for space opera type singles and this has the lot – operatic vocals and a robot – duh! Honourable mentions go to On My Own Again – Kleerup; Bulletproof – La Roux; Stuck On Repeat – Little Boots; Your Disco Song – Vitalic.

Favourite ‘rediscovered’ track: It’s a tie! Well there’s one rediscovered and one discovered as although it’s an oldie I only really found it last year. Rediscovered: Supernature (William Orbit Mix) – Erasure. I want this to be my set opener at about 4am when I finally realise my dream of being a DJ. Discovered: First Hand Experience of Second Hand Love – Giorgio Moroder. Still sounds fresh and relevant today, some 30 years on.

Best mix: Other than my own Minkered Mix 8, the winner has to be the Automatic Lovers’ Mix – Little Boots. The mixing itself is patchy in parts, but what a fantastic bunch of tracks!

Best live gig: The Human League. Having not seen them the first time round, it was great to finally see them live – and not only once but twice. At the V Festival they played Dare in its entirety which is one of the most influential albums ever for me. At the Metro they did a greatest hits gig that had us singing and dancing in the aisles. Perfect! Honourable mention goes to Grace Jones at the Enmore. Who knew a 64 year old woman could still mix it with the best of ‘em?

Favourite musical guilty pleasure: Either Shewolf (Calvin Harris Remix) – Shakira or I Left My Heart In Tokyo – Mini Viva.

Favourite movie: Can’t for the life of me remember going to see anything. I’m sure I did. Both GI Joe and Transformers 2 were fantastic in their improbability. I also really enjoyed AstroBoy.

Favourite TV show: Probably Being Human on the ABC, or Dollhouse.
Favourite music blog: So Hip It Hurts – knowledgeably written by someone who has the same musical tastes as me.

(This stolen from meme at Muzbot) Song lyric that sums up the year?: “No one’s singing songs for me” The Girl and the Robot - Röyksopp. Enough said.

Best career moment: Being made permanent at school after applying and being interviewed for the job was up there, but there were two other moments that make it all worthwhile. Firstly a boy from my class last year came to read to this year’s class because he wanted to show me how well he could read now. Secondly a child telling me he’d made no mistakes on his work because he just wanted to make me happy. Tears in my eyes!

Best holiday moment: Spending time back with Dad in the UK. He was fit enough for us to go for a couple of day trips and we both really enjoyed it. Also Helsinki with Sue, Julia and Stevie P – interesting place, wonderful people, my time for me within the trip home. Edifying in every way.

Best personal achievement: Two things here, one relatively minor, one a bit more major. Playing tennis again has brought me so much pleasure, and it’s with huge disappointment (and a sore shoulder) that I start 2010 unable to play until I know whether or not I need an operation to fix a SLAP tear in said shoulder. In May though, I ran my 4th half marathon. I knocked an impressive 12 minutes off my PB, and a full 20 minutes of the previous year. I trained hard and deserved the result.

Best social event: probably Sunday arvo beers with Muz. I did that more than anything else last year which is a good indication of how much fun it can be.

Area to improve upon: Procrastination. Say no more. This is a review of 2009 and it’s already 4 days late.

Thanks to all my family, Muz, Adrian, Gary and Peter, Bobby and Marc for their friendship and support over the year. Let’s see what 2010 brings – if I can improve as detailed above, you might just get a list of things I’m hoping for up on here very soon!

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Happy New Year!

It's been a quiet Christmas and NY so far. Maybe a little too quiet, but I'm relaxed at least. I'll update more over the next few days... those essays I promised a while ago, and I hope to do a year in review too. Plus thoughts and hopes for the year to come. More soon.