201o1

i mean it's year in review time again. a couple weeks earlier this time, but this is when all the real publications and outlets and shit do their summaries so why can't I too? I'm in control of these damn rules I can do whatever I want about it damn it.

so... 2011. maybe it's the sparklehorse playing right now, but overall I think it was a pretty sad, beautiful year (or maybe i'm playing sparklehorse because i'm feeling particularly sad and beautiful, or maybe I'm just beautiful). or maybe i'm just feeling strange and angsty (is that why i'm typing without lots of capital letters? oh shit they're on to me). as usual, i forgot to make notes along the way, and my memory is failing me hard when it comes to remembering all sorts of shit from before, say...... october??? but as usual, i'll try my damndest to remember all sorts of important stuff that went down, in the intimate and expansive realms.

Overall year: enjoyable overall, i mean life is enjoyable at its basest so i'm cool with that, but also strange and, at some points, overbearingly dismal. if 2009 was transition, and 2010 was solidification, 2011 is precipitously perched on the verge of another major transition. dunno what, dunno how, but it all added up with the same result: Stagnation. but whenever things stagnate, there's a big window to potential, great or bad, on the horizon. i may be in a bad mood now, but the future is bright. so i'll give it that.

Year in Me: where the strangest, worst things tended to be going on, as well as the most unexpected, wonderful things. as usual, my friends defined my life. on two separate, horrifying occasions, I realized that I may have lost two of my closest and most loved friends to permanent circumstances. the highest high of the year came when one friend very, very thankfully returned to the fold stable and healthy, culminating in the best (and most needed) vacation of my life thus far. the other friend... i hope to Whoever every day that she is doing okay. i'll leave it at that. broke up with girlfriend. so it goes. a lot less sex, especially in Act III. looking forward to reversing those fortunes. biggest bright spots, aside from Montana, with the family, which is doing great, just great. almost drowned. so overall super scattershot, a bit of a roller coaster amidst a paradoxical hanging atmosphere of malaise and stagnation.


Year in Lit: this is a new section! because I remembered how much I love reading this year, and I actually had time this summer to read for pleasure, the first time since godfuckIdon'tknow. read Phillip K. Dick, left me with a bit of an empty pit where satisfaction should have been. read Frank E. Ahl, completely turned around all my political and religious ideals. read waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much Walt Whitman, inspired to almost like and understand poetry. finally read James Joyce: started Ulysses, enjoyed the fuck out of the first 75 pages before the book disappeared; read and related a scary fuckton to Portrait, probably the most I've scarily related to a novel since Goethe. overall, I look forward to reading a lot more than I used to, because if i can be superearnest for a second, reading really is the most important thing in the world. so i'll try to do that more.

Year in Movies: practically nonexistent. Bridesmaids was pretty funny, but didn't transcend like so many are saying it did. The Hangover 2 shouldn't have existed. I finally saw Psycho; it was alright. Hugo was great, beautiful, and got a lot of tough smiles out of me, but still somehow felt lacking. the silver lining, however, is that there's a LOAD of new movies I still want to see: Drive, Certified Copy, Beginners, Drive, Take Shelter, Poetry, Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Drive, Drive, and Drive, just to name a few.

Year in Kanye West: also lacking! "HAHHH??!!!" deservedly became a national catchphrase (and also inspired the best pitchfork year-end blurb i've ever read, great job pitchfork), but his shit was significantly less cray than in years prior. step it up, Mr. West. do it for the childrens.

Year in Music: The Weeknd (whose new mixtape's .zip currently stands before me, though I still don't want to stop listening to Sparklehorse), Atlas Sound, Destroyer, St. Vincent, M83, Azari & III, Washed Out, and the ever-reliable Low release albums of the year. as far as songs go, nothing can compare to the enormous "Midnight City," though I've grooved superhard to "Hours" by Tycho in equal amount, too. The Weeknd claims best new artist easily, though I'm just as excited for the future of Colin Stetson, who is the most talented and unique musician in the Western World right now, and Post-Dubstep, the credibility of which was revived by stellar albums by Kuedo, Rustie, and Sepalcure after James Blake's 2011 approach drifted from the most favorable course.

Music trends are kind of shitty. just when I was starting to like Chillwave, it's declared deader than fucking Jong-Il (but i'm getting ahead of myself here). PBR&B never broke out as much as it should have, and the whole "dark" aspect of hip-hop needs to seriously slide out the back door (drakez a bitch #whatyougonnado #hashtagginonablogspot). like i said, though, the future of Dubstep is brighter than God lighting up a Neutron joint.

My personal year in music was, again, a great success. again, I hit my new year's resolution, and again, it occurred precisely on Thanksgiving Day. no strong focus on my exploration of older tunes, since I spent the summer too tired to keep up with anything, and the fall too busy keeping up with everything to explore older stuff in depth. something wonderful may have happened earlier in the year, but as usual, I can't recall shit. learned a lot about old blues due to class, but nothing I listened to really struck a chord, except for Mississippi John Hurt (oh my god I love Mississippi John Hurt). overall, I feel my tastes strongly shifting into electronic territory, a renewed interest in music over lyrics (the usual exception being The Mountain Goats, whose new record has been sadly underplayed), and Michael Haggins.

Television! Television perseveres again at providing the most consistent entertainment of all media. Did a full second run-through of The Wire after the first wasn't enough, and caught up on 3 seasons of Community shortly thereafter. I preferred Louie when he had a good balance of hilarious episodes with the deep ones, so Season 2's willingness to go full-unretard was somewhat jolting, but still super enjoyable. the high points are the best moments of television all year, though. "Come On, God" ranks right next to "Dogpound" for belly laughs; I've only seen "Eddie" in full once, but it's stuck like a fucking bullet in my brain. seriously, Louie is an adept motherfucking storyteller, comedic, dramatic or whatever the hell "Duckling" was. plus, i became an enormous Whovillian. bowties are cool.

STILL HAVE TO WATCH PARKS AND REC. FUCK.

Time for the month-by-month? Eh. I'll just do it by quarter, and then divide the last few months that I can actually remember into bits and pieces.

Jan: I had to have been home for this month, but I can honestly not remember much at all of what transpired.
Feb - May: WALT WHITMAN. relationship peaked, then decayed and stagnated for a while. drifted apart from a few good buddies because of it. first big friend crisis results in a personal and academic crisis. luckily, all was overcome. did an acting class, met some pretty sweet people. of course, instant dispersal once class ended. damn shame.
June - July: WORKED. a government job, cubicle and everything. the office was, by far, the least depressing part. the most depressing part was not knowing what to say when a lonely 80 year old asked you for more food stamps, please. the jovial cynicism of my officemates were a welcome countervailing force, otherwise the summer would have just been overwhelmingly, almost viscerally depressing (though the passing one one officemate certainly didn't help... RIP Carl). rekindled a bit with one of my oldest friends, even though we basically have nothing in common anymore. ate a big fucking amount of ice cream, to the ire of certain people in Bulgaria at the time. became superactive on Uncyc again, mostly out of boredom and emotional relief after the stressful work day. quickly became a strong contender for Writer of the Year. so it goes.
August: more of June/July, but also MONTANA! couldn't have asked for a better reprieve from the dismal town job, or better company to spend that reprieve with. fuck carly's adulterous scumbag father though. he can chew a taint.
September: I have a house! It's pretty sweet, though I'm out of the loop since everyone else was already there since June. broke up for real. enjoyed a good bit of regrouping and solitude, but being an absentee from the summer really put a hamper on getting back into the college dynamic.
October: finally got back into the Tufts groove very late in the month, around Halloween, which was especially fun this year. fall into some heavy infatuation with a lady, but the situation is more complicated than the plot of It's Complicated, starring Alec Baldwin. never act, regret it forever???????????
November: wouldn't you know it, my first actual successes in the comedy world outside of Uncyc. work piles up and reaches critical mass around thanksgiving, but i put off all that unimportant shit to memorize lines in the big show, which I am actually in for the very first time, thus ending that unfortunate running joke. second friend crisis. still coping, still worrying.
December: starred in the show, everything went smoothly, regretting not being able to participate again until senior year, though i'll certainly be submitting some stuff postAmericaly next semester. rocked half the finals, bombed the other half, but so far the alphabetical return(s) have been more than satisfactory. got real sad about leaving for the semester and decided to do this post super-angsty, ahead-of-time, and Sparklehorse-soundtracked (it's kind of getting old now).

Abrupt segue into celebrity deaths: Steve Jobs, Bin Laden and Jong-Il, Hitchens and Havel, Patrice O'Neale and Bil Keane have nothing in common except they're also missed, ANDY ROONEY ;____________;, Joe Frazier, Mikey Walsh, Betty Ford, Amy Winehouse, Clarence Clemens and Columbo, Jack Kevorkian, GIL SCOTT-HERON!!! ;______; (the sliiiiiiiits), Macho Man Randy Savage, M-Bone (the "M" stands for "Dougie"), Jackie Cooper, Gerard Smith of TVotR, Sarah Jane, SIDNEY LUMET ;________;, Geraldine Ferrarro, Elizabeth Taylor, NATE DOGG ;___________;, "Bear" Stanley, Joe Morello (who kept the best 5/4 time in the world), Mike DeStefano, and lastly, UNCLE LEO ;___________________;

And that's that. I'm turning off this damn Sparklehorse already. I already know I'll treat you good someday. You don't have to shout it, Linkous (also RIP).