It was the year when we, namely my family, lost its first member since mum and dad passed away. That was a big mortality check. Definitely a lowlight. The same could be said for the re-election of Trump in the US. Let the shiftuckery begin! Apart from that, I’d say it was a fairly steady year for me, consolidated by steady, enjoyable work and steady relationships. Highlight was probably getting my car, weird as that seems. It’s a good car, I really like driving it.
Really, one of the biggest and most important things I’ve done this year is to start and maintain this blog. It’s been great maintaining my mindful pop culture consumption. More than anything, it’s been therapeutic having a place to record and unload my thoughts and ideas about what I’ve been going through. Sometimes I even think I’ve learned a new thing or two about myself. One of the most important influences on this has been my reading of Rose Gwain’s book on Discovering Yourself Through the Tarot. I’m still making my way through it, but I’ve learned so much about my personality type and my strengths and weaknesses through the beautiful imagery of Tarot, and I can’t wait to read and learn more.
I couldn’t finish this opening off without making mention of the amazing role my favourite Kpop group, Twice, has made in my life. Their music and antics have filled my life with joy and helped keep me sane this year.
With love and gratitude, Thank you,
A humble Once…
Music
Spotify tells me my most played song was I Got You by Twice. Yes, I liked it, but this high placement will undoubtedly be because it was the song I used as my alarm sound all year long. It woke me up every morning I had work or thought I might get work. The reason I chose this song was because it begins with Mina’s voice, and I wanted the first voice I hear each day be my darling Mina’s. But Spotify’s not a true indicator of what really were my favourite songs. For example, the ones it listed for my top five were all these Twice songs: I Got You, Rush, One Spark, You Get Me and New New. But here are my real favourites, Top 30, for the year (in no particular order). They’re mostly my usual Kpop, and they are Magnificent, all of them. I’m gonna go with Twice‘s Beyond the Horizon as my favourite, but must make special mention of Night Drive by Red Velvet. The bit where Wendy lets fly (and keeps going!) near the end sends chills. The only annoying thing is the producer should have mixed the vocal higher.
- You Get Me – Twice
- Beyond the Horizon – Twice
- Magical – Twice
- Love Is Lonely – Nmixx
- Supernova – Aespa
- How Sweet – NewJeans
- Cosmic – Red Velvet
- Heaven – RM
- Flowers – Aespa
- Rush – Twice
- Passionfruit – Nmixx
- Daydream – Misamo
- One Love – Tzuyu
- Night Drive – Red Velvet
- Klaxon – G-Idle
- New Look – Misamo
- Cosmic Treat – Perfume
- Bubble Gum – NewJeans
- Count It – Nayeon
- Misty – Mina
- Whiplash – Aespa
- Bahama – Aespa
- Strategy – Twice (with Megan Thee Stallion)
- Run For Roses – Nmixx
- Dash – Nmixx
- Espresso – Sabrina Carpenter
- I Will Love You – Teenage Fanclub
- Waiting For Stevie – Pearl Jam
- Something Special – Pearl Jam
- Won’t Tell – Pearl Jam
- Re:Re: – Kessoku Band
Albums
- With You-th – Twice
- Fe304: Break – Nmixx
- Armageddon – Aespa
- Dark Matter – Pearl Jam
- Right Place, Wrong People – RM
- NA – Nayeon
- AbouTZU – Twice
- Fe304: Stick Out – Nmixx
- Nebula Romance Pt1 – Perfume
- Whiplash – Aespa
- Cosmic – Red Velvet
- I Sway – G-Idle
So that’s this year’s songs, albums and artists, all very predictable. I’ve been raving about them all year on this blog. It’s time to give a spotlight to some of the older songs and albums and artists I discovered or revisited this year – they’re at least not as predictable.
- Lavender Lane – The Kinks
- Need Someone To Hold – Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Tearin’ Up the Country – Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Today’s the Day – America
- Holiday – The Outlaws
- Take It Anyway You Want It – The Outlaws
- New York Groove – The Sweet
- From Angel Touch – Cindy
- Take Me Home – Spice Girls
- I Believe – Demi Lovato
- Warrior – Chloe x Hallie
- Say So – Doja Cat
- Levitating – Dua Lipa
- Pick Me Up – Perfume
- Water Damage – Dick Diver
- Never Say Forever – Clouds
- Motherson – Clouds
- Wednesday Night – Clouds
- I Spent My Last $10 on Birth Control and Beer – 2 Nice Girls
- Diverse – Nana Mizuki
- Pop Master – Nana Mizuki
- Better Than Love – Ching G Squad
- Lifted – CL
- Let Me Imagine You – Robert Forster
- Old Brown Dog – Ralph McTell
Concerts/Videos
My concert going has really slowed down these days. At least I got another Kpop gig in this year (Aespa). I’m still managing to get the occasional indie Aus artist in (Clouds and Robert Forster). I like that the big international bands I saw this year were one from the US (well, two – Pearl Jam and Pixies) and one from the UK (Fanclub). It’s still pretty meagre. I must be getting old. The Pearl Jam/Pixies concert was the only one that might be called an exercise in ticking off the bucket list, but it really was a great concert. Just wish I was closer to the action. I’ve already got one gig penciled in for next year (Within Temptation). Let’s see how many I get through this time.
- Teenage Fanclub
- The Clouds
- Aespa
- Robert Forster
- Pearl Jam/The Pixies
My standout video came near the end of the year. Inevitably it was going to be a Twice-themed one (they put out a lot of music videos this year). I’m going with the clip for Magical, my favourite song from Strategy. I’m so glad they made a video for it and that it’s so damn adorable. If you watch, amongst a plethora of wonderful moments, please check out the bit where Nayeon bobs her head from side to side during ‘As long as you’ll be mine’. It warms my heart and makes me dream my dreamy dreams.
Movies/TV
Here are the films I saw at the cinema this year, which means they were released this year.
- Civil War
- Alien: Romulus
- Gladiator 2
- War of the Rohirrim
- Bocchi the Rock
- Mad Max: Furiosa
- Dune Part Two
There isn’t really one that stands out above the others, though I’m inclined to give the gong to Furiosa. Also, with Trump now back in the Whitehouse, I’m waiting for the bleak vision of Civil War to come true. Of TV, the only thing that stands out, apart from the many enjoyable Time to Twice series I saw, was anime show Bocchi the Rock. I saw the TV show and the film edit in the cinemas and loved them both.
Books
This wasn’t a really solid year for my reading. I seemed to get distracted by too many unimportant non-fiction books, and way too much manga. It got in the way of the important stuff, like Mervyn Peake’s magnificent Gormenghast. Reading that was quite an experience. I’d read the first volume, Titus Groan, a couple of years back and knew I had to get back to the twisted world and characters of Gormenghast as soon as possible. It was worth the wait. Now there’s just the third and final volume Titus Alone to go and I must get to that soon. It was great to revisit J.G. Ballard’s The Drought. I was able to appreciate more its delirious surreal visions this time around. Gregory Benford’s classic Timescape was also a revisit on my way to reading the sequel Rewrite. It was very different to the first novel in tone and conception. It seemed to deal more with cosmological physics rather than the hard physics of the first novel. I was puzzled but I had a good time. By contrast, The Warriors by Sol Yurick was an exercise in returning to the source after being long familiar with the famous film that came later and was based on it. A very different experience. More a sociological essay than a novel (Yurick did indeed do sociological research, some practice-led, for the novel). There is an actual essay at the end of the novel where the parallels between what the Warriors do and some ancient Greek history are pointed out. The differences between the book and the film are striking, and I still prefer the film. At least with that we’re spared the ‘chain pull’ the character Swan alludes to in the film. And most of the Warriors make it back to Coney Island (only one does in the book).
- Gormenghast – Mervyn Peake
- The Drought – J.G. Ballard
- The Warriors – Sol Yurick
- Timescape – Gregory Benford
- Rewrite – Gregory Benford
- Discovering Yourself Through the Tarot – Rose Gwain
- The Music Goes Round My Head – David Johnston
- All the Colours of Darkness – Lloyde Biggle Jr
- I Am Legend – Richard Matheson
- Shuna’s Journey – Hayao Miyazaki
- Urusei Yatsura – Rumiko Takahashi
- Maison Ikkoku – Rumiko Takahashi
- Bocchi the Rock – Aki Hamazi