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2004 retrospective (W/O)Feb 09 '05 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line This is my year
#1: Name one person you met who you met throughout the year that has made a lasting impression on you. Tell us about them. The Preston social life is pretty dour, even in the University. The best social events I've had have been outside Preston in cities like Blackpool, London, Manchester or my hometown, Liverpool. I'm going to be really negative and say it was the girl who broke my heart who made the biggest impression on me. For a brief time me and her were friends. She woke me up to stimulating interactions where I could really give as much as I recieved and just be happy and comforted for a while- I really started taking an interest in her kind of stuff, her kind of book writers, I felt I had a lot in common with her. I think its been too long since I've ever known someone I cared about. Now that she's suddenly treating me like a stranger without even a goodbye she's left me feeling very confused, and its also been a long time since I'd felt so hurt and broken. I'm mostly over her now as long as I don't see her but we go to the same university and when I do see her and she scowls at me and then looks away from me its like a sharp punch to the gut, my head runs and feels full of gunk, I just feel full of rage and stress and I would give anything if I could talk to her again, maybe to curse and upset her, maybe to fall into her arms and beg her to love me, maybe to find out why. I just want to communicate again. I'll get through it somehow. If I were to point to my feelings in a song, it'd have to be Gloria Estefan's "Anything For You". #2: Was there a TV show you saw for the first time in 2004 – perhaps 2004 was it’s first season – that you now absolutely love? Without a doubt its gotta be the Live Aid Concert originally transmitted on TV back in 1985 and which I saw this year for the first time on DVD. That truly blew me away with great music and beautiful human compassion. #3: Tell us about the best movie you saw last year. It doesn’t have to be one that was released last year, just as long as you saw it for the first time in 2004. If possible, include a link to your review of it. In 2004 I saw an old Michael Caine classic from 1971 for the first time- "Get Carter" which was showing at our local independant cinema on a huge screen with a fantastic sound system. Though not a pleasant film by any stretch of the imagination, it thoroughly held my interest with all its deep mystery and characterisation and realism and its transcendental camera work and acting. I loved the character of Carter, that he was such a cool and cheeky antihero and so methodical and contained and there was something so empowering about him. I also saw "American History X" for the first time and that blew me away with its authenticity and its message. I think its an underrated human condition movie about coming of age and the trauma of rape and how suckered we are by the media, both the mainstream and the underground media. On the foreign side of things I also enjoyed the Swedish film "Show me Love" about a lesbian high school couple. It was musical, very natural and an immensely uplifting film, mainly because it treated its teenage characters and their sexuality with respect and didn't demonise or exploit like Hollywood cinema does. There was also "Breaking News" from 2004, a fantastic piece of Hong Kong action cinema from Jonnie To. Sadly its near impossible to get hold of. It had it all- honour amongst thieves, a riveting hostage stand off shown in real time, ingenious scenarios, media commentary, beautiful and refreshing cinematography and an opening action scene which runs fifteen minutes without a single cut! Of the films I saw at the cinema, "Saw" and "Collateral" were really good thrillers, but not quite the best. For me the best Hollywood cinema films of that year were the documentaries "Super Size Me" and "Fahrenheight 9/11", which were excellent wake up calls about the modern world and the way we live in this capitalist society. I never really mentioned it in my "Fahrenheight 9/11" review, but the real star of that film is Lisa Lipscomb, because she's just so genuine and articulate and expressive. It's not just an anti-Bush film either, its about our whole Capitalist machine philosophy of needing to create enemies in order to keep society and the economy going. #4: How about the worst movie you saw last year? Is there one that sticks out a mile – perhaps you wrote a scathing review on it. Last year I did manage to stumble on some truly nauseating 70's exploitation films- "A Boy and his Dog" and "Looking for Mr. Goodbar". I hate those kind of films. In terms of cinema last year, I'd say "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" made an attrocious effort out of potentially riveting material. Another film was "The Forgotten" which was majorly disappointing, it was very boring and just when it looked about to blow your mind it ended with an inexplicable turnaround happy ending, making me wonder why it bothered following through with its grim scenario to simply abandon it. #5: Was there an event that you wish people would just shut up about already? No, not really. I guess all the talk about the superbowl incident with Janet Jackson's boob might have irritated me if I lived in America where people seem much more sensitive and uptight and were shocked and horrified at this "attack on family values". Fortunately here in Britain we're a lot less likely to give a fuck. Actually I didn't mind giving my own penny of thought on the incident, about how everyone's so caught up in terms like immodesty, obscenity, sexuality, family values, or on the other extreme sensitivity, hypocrisy or lunatic fringe morality, but very few people are throwing the right words about, such as sexism, maltreatment, gropeing, permissive. People have been talking a lot about the Tsunami disaster, but I'm okay with that since it was a major and shocking event that needs to be deliberated on. Its a reminder to us of our mortality and of the horrifying power of nature. If there's one thing that has been blown ridiculously out of proportion lately however (and forgive me but this is a 2005 event), it is the controversy over Prince William going to a recent fancy dress party dressed in a Nazi uniform. The media followed him naturally, and published the pictures and now everyone's offended and demanding his apology for something that was a private social event anyway. I find it depressing that people are so duped into being told what to be offended by and what to not be offended by, and placing dressing as a Nazi at a goddamn fancy dress party on the same pedestal as actually espouting or supporting Nazi philosophies of intolerance and hate. Okay it was probably a stupid thing to do and reeks more than a bit of vying for attention, but did he recite any Nuremberg speeches or any anti-semitic comments, No! It was a bloody fancy dress party! #6: Was there a worldwide event that left you wondering what the world is coming to? In Britain there was a recent train crash killing around a dozen passengers. All because some man wanted to commit suicide so he parked his car on the track. The man himself died and I have no sympathy for him at all- I mean what kind of fucking sick, deranged bastard wants to take innocent people with him when he goes. I normally sympathise with people who commit suicide, sometimes I think I can relate to them, a lot of the time I'm disgusted that schools and detention centres do very little about the bullying that goes on within them given that 70% of teenage suicides are due to bullying. And yet this is one case that makes me think to myself to hell with you if you want to kill yourself and selfishly bring grief on all the people that love you, if you're going to do yourself in, get on with it and do it somewhere where you won't bother others with it. On the global side of affairs I just don't understand why we don't just pull out of Iraq, the people don't want us there, we've got rid of Saddam and his regime and yet it seems we'll never successfully stabilise the country, we're crippling their businesses and services and breeding more hatred, provoking more hostage taking and recruitment to Al Quaeida. #7: Similarly, was there a worldwide event that made you happy? Call me bloodthirsty but I must say I bloody cheered when I heard that some Al Quaeida agents had been shot dead in Pakistan. It's very rare that I'll take pleasure in the taking of life but if its one less mass murdering lunatic we have to worry about, I'm very happy indeed. #8: What were the best and worst albums you heard last year? Well in terms of new/recent albums I got to hear that year there aren't many. I got into Boards of Canada's "Geodaddi" after hearing it sampled in the "Salad Fingers" Flash cartoons at fat-pie.com. I enjoyed it, very meditative and ambient. I also got to hear some of A Perfect Circle's recent album at a student party. I had considered all of modern Metal music pretty dour until I heard this. It really got under my skin and utterly compelled me to dance and rock out on the sofa with my air guitar. I also heard bits of Snoop Dogg's new album. Some bits of it were quite good, but the pro domestic-abuse track "Can U Control Yo Hoe" was absolutely vile and disgusting, and if I owned the album myself I'd have binned it there and then. #9: Which musician / band disappointed you? I guess it disappointed me that Sophie Ellis Bextor didn't make a new album this year. She's one pop singer who really brightens up the music scene for me with a sense of fun and humour and plenty of electro-disco stuff. As alluded to above, I'm still disappointed in the prevailing ignorance and hatred espouted by many Hip-Hop artists. The whole gangster/commercialism thing has long been exhausted but somehow in the 21st century it continues to be flogged like a dead horse. I mean N.W.A. as a group and as solo artists did a lot of vile music and they arguably sold out to the mainstream with it but from 1988 to 1992, they often showed a spark and some of their albums -"Straight Outta Compton", "Amerikkkas Most Wanted", "Death Certificate" and even "The Chronic"- were still masterpieces of urban disaffection and expression and of the gangster as socio-political spokesperson. After 1992 we had 2pac and Biggie to take the reigns and they were brilliant, but now those days are gone. And still everyone wants to be the "next" 2pac or the next godfather gangster pimp and it's depressing really. #10: Are there any writers who were newbies in 2004 that you highly recommend we read? I believe metalluk only joined last year and he immediately dug into a speciality for reviewing foreign art-house cinema, old and new. His reviews have a consistent layout, high standard writing, and lots of insight, political points and relevance, the occasional spoiler and once in a while even details of a well endowed actress' measurements :) I would also be remiss in not mentioning my new favourite reviewer: pyfr . This guy has such a great sense of humour and shares my tastes in retro alternative music, that if he lived locally, I'd gladly invite him for a beer and a night of wild spastic dancing at the Warehouse Rock Club. Put simply he is the best of us 80's reviewers. #11: What was the most significant event of the year? It could be local, international, or simply personal. Only one..... Probably when I started speaking to my father again after these last five years. I wouldn't say I came to forgive him for what he did those years ago, but there's no sense in giving up talking to one another. The drive to know who your parents are is always one that wins out and I got wracked with fear that if I didn't start talking again soon it would be too late. I don't regret it, I find him easy to talk to now. #12: Do you think your life is on the right track for where you want to end up? How did 2004 affect this? Not at all- I'm stuck in the wrong city, none of these social circles around me are accomodating me, I have no self discipline and I have exactly the wrong attitude and outlook for someone of my vibrant and maturing age, and to top it all I've been failing my Uni courses. I'll try to do something abot it this year though. I'm gonna sort my life out and make something of it, I'm going to succeed and I'm gonna show that girl what a fool she was to reject me because I'm gonna get it all and she won't be sharing in any of it, she'll see that she missed that chance. #13: Was there anything else significant about 2004 you’d like to add? I think I've gotten a lot better at writing reviews. Check out my one from Last Year The best & worst of 2003 (in music, movies and life)  |
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