i don't know about you but i'm feeling (20)22
Happy New Year! May 2022 be better than 2021. The bar is on the floor, so hopefully we are able to step over it and not trip and fall.
I'm waiting for new Doctor Who to air and also to celebrate the roommate's birthday, so what better time to post my yearly media roundup?
According to last.fm, I listened to 10,686 tracks scrobbles in 2021, an average of 29 songs per day. I listened to 750 different artists, 666 different albums, and 4,793 distinct songs.
Like last year, I also listened to a lot of podcasts, which last.fm does not track; unlike last year, this was also a year of listening to a lot of Big Finish audio plays and also audiobooks in general, which last.fm also does not track; more about those under my year in books.
Top artist was, unsurprisingly, the Pogues, with 933 scrobbles, followed by Dropkick Murphys (848)(+3), Taylor Swift (836)(-1), Flogging Molly (611)(not in the top five last year), and Rent (556)(not in the top five last year). If we cut out musical theatre, Declan Bennett slides back into the top five (555)(~). Top albums: Just Look Them Straight In The Eye And Say...POGUEMAHONE!! by the Pogues (199), Turn Up That Dial [Explicit] by Dropkick Murphys (157), Red (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift (143), Record:BREAKUP by Declan Bennett (129), and Red Roses For Me by The Pogues (127). None of them were in the top five last year (and two of them were only released this year, so that makes sense.) Top tracks: Queen of Suffolk County by Dropkick Murphys (33), Sally MacLennane by the Pogues (26), Freer by Declan Bennett (24), Bang by Declan Bennett (23), Middle Finger by Dropkick Murphys (23), Boys From The County Hell by the Pogues (23), and Streams of Whiskey by the Pogues (23). (I know that's not five but there was a tie.) Queen of Suffolk County is a clear winner but honestly I was very obsessed with that song and still am.
Lots of new albums came out this year! Dropkick released Turn Up That Dial; it's not the hardcore album they've been promising but given the times I can't blame them for scrapping their plans and doing something a little softer. I'm obsessed with Queen of Suffolk County, Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding makes me laugh far too much, HBDMF reminds me of more than a few people, there's a bunch of winners on this album is what I'm saying. Taylor Swift released the first two of her re-recorded albums in her quest to reclaim her masters from her former record label, resulting in Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version), and bundled with each of them a collection of 'from the vault' songs, i.e. songs that were written for the original album but didn't make the cut for one reason or another. I'm particularly loving We Were Happy off of Fearless TV and Nothing New off of Red TV. Olivia Rodrigo's debut album Sour is extremely short but very tight, a really good pop heartbreak album; I love traitor and enough for you in particular. Big Red Machine's How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last is gorgeous. On the French punk side (yep, still listening to French punk!) Mon Autre Group's album QUELLE JOIE is fantastic.
I am almost certainly forgetting some things.
In 2021, I read 206 books, exceeding my goal of 150.
This once again included quite a bit of trash reading, including continuing my reread of the Babysitters Club series, a bunch of comic books, and a ton of Doctor Who books. You can find my Goodreads year in review here. Goodreads informs me I read 19,887 pages; the shortest book was Constantine issue 20 at 22 pages; the longest book was The Searcher by Tana French at 576 pages; the average length was 96 pages. The most popular book I read was Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, shelved by 623,532 other people; the last popular was The Thirteenth Doctor (2020) issue #1, shelved by 5 other people.
Some of the best books I read this year (the diamonds among the trash): Why The Moon Travels, by Oein DeBhairduin, a collection of Irish Traveller folklore written by a member of the culture instead of by a sociologist or anthropologist; At Childhood's End, by Sophie Aldred, a Doctor Who book, yes, but also a very thoughtful exploration of what it means to confront the monsters that haunt your dreams; Gay New York, by George Chauncey, a nonfiction exploration of queer culture in prewar NYC; Field Guide To The Haunted Forest, by Jarod K. Anderson, a poetry collection about our connections to each other and to nature; I Love The Bones Of You, by Christopher Eccleston, a memoir about working class culture and mental illness and a million other things that I can't do justice in a one-line blurb.
This was also the year of Big Finish audio plays for me. I get into Big Finish in fits and starts, traditionally; there's no rhyme or reason to it. This year I just started listening to my accumulated collection from top to bottom in preparation for the NDAs coming out and then...just didn't stop. Some standouts: A Death In The Family, The Time Museum, Return Of The Rocket Men, The Holy Terror, The Chimes Of Midnight, The Veiled Leopard, Ninth Doctor Adventures: Lost Warriors, The Year Of Martha Jones. There was something to enjoy in every one I listened to, though.
I don't track what I watch on TV anymore so we're going to be relying on my questionable memory for this next part!
There was new Doctor Who this year, obviously. I really enjoyed Flux. I got very invested in the characters. Vinder/Bel OTP.
New Amsterdam was good. It had a lot of very stressful plotlines but it was good. I am 83% watching it for Freema so I don't like this "will Max and Helen move to London" plot.
I finally watched Blake's 7 after roughly a million years of being passively recc'd it on various sites. I now understand why it's recommended so highly because it is in fact very good. Highly enjoyed it.
Dickinson on Apple TV is a very charming show. I love how ridiculous it is.
It's A Sin, on the other hand, was EXTREMELY stressful and upsetting and EXTREMELY good. Just. Amazing. I have my problems with RTD as regards Doctor Who but It's A Sin was incredible.
I watched a couple of Jenna Coleman projects - The Serpent and The Cry - and of them preferred The Cry. Both were very good, though.
And a Pearl Mackie project, The Long Call, which also featured Declan Bennett in a supporting role. (It's fun when my unrelated obsessions cross paths.) It was also very good. 10/10 do recommended if you like murder mysteries.
And then the only other thing I can think of right now is the various DC shows I watch, the best of which are Stargirl and Legends of Tomorrow. Those are very different kinds of 'good', mind. Stargirl takes its material very seriously and Legends...does not.
Trying to remember what movies I watched this year is an exercise in futility. Some standouts, though: In The Heights, which I've been waiting AGES for and which lived up to the hype; tick tick...BOOM!, ditto (I cried buckets); the Come From Away proshot, which also made me cry. Other than that? No idea. I know I've seen more movies than that! But what they were, whether they were this year or last year or 2016, no clue.
No live theatre for me this year, although Broadway and tours opened up (with multiple cancellations and early closures and just...yeah). One day.
It's been a weird year. I started two new jobs. The first was a temporary position, although turned out to be more temporary than I thought going on. The second will hopefully be permanent; I really like it so far, although it's only been a few weeks (and after two weeks of training I left for a week to go see my family for Christmas! they were very understanding. I was very nervous about traveling in these Covid times, but I took all due precautions -- 3 doses of Pfizer, everyone in my family is vaxxed, double masked in all public areas -- and I have now returned home Covid free). It's very nice to be out of customer-facing positions because I really hated the job I had before where I got yelled at by customers all day. Now I go all day either without talking to anyone or just occasionally talking to my coworkers. It's SO NICE. I'd still rather be working in theatre but, you know, health insurance and job security and Covid. We make choices about priorities.
I still owe you a couple Doctor Who posts, one about the two PDAs I've read most recently and one about a couple Big Finish audios I want to talk about, but I've just been very busy and stressed with things and I want to make sure I can actually do them justice. They're coming. Sometime. Soon. Promise.
I'm waiting for new Doctor Who to air and also to celebrate the roommate's birthday, so what better time to post my yearly media roundup?
According to last.fm, I listened to 10,686 tracks scrobbles in 2021, an average of 29 songs per day. I listened to 750 different artists, 666 different albums, and 4,793 distinct songs.
Like last year, I also listened to a lot of podcasts, which last.fm does not track; unlike last year, this was also a year of listening to a lot of Big Finish audio plays and also audiobooks in general, which last.fm also does not track; more about those under my year in books.
Top artist was, unsurprisingly, the Pogues, with 933 scrobbles, followed by Dropkick Murphys (848)(+3), Taylor Swift (836)(-1), Flogging Molly (611)(not in the top five last year), and Rent (556)(not in the top five last year). If we cut out musical theatre, Declan Bennett slides back into the top five (555)(~). Top albums: Just Look Them Straight In The Eye And Say...POGUEMAHONE!! by the Pogues (199), Turn Up That Dial [Explicit] by Dropkick Murphys (157), Red (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift (143), Record:BREAKUP by Declan Bennett (129), and Red Roses For Me by The Pogues (127). None of them were in the top five last year (and two of them were only released this year, so that makes sense.) Top tracks: Queen of Suffolk County by Dropkick Murphys (33), Sally MacLennane by the Pogues (26), Freer by Declan Bennett (24), Bang by Declan Bennett (23), Middle Finger by Dropkick Murphys (23), Boys From The County Hell by the Pogues (23), and Streams of Whiskey by the Pogues (23). (I know that's not five but there was a tie.) Queen of Suffolk County is a clear winner but honestly I was very obsessed with that song and still am.
Lots of new albums came out this year! Dropkick released Turn Up That Dial; it's not the hardcore album they've been promising but given the times I can't blame them for scrapping their plans and doing something a little softer. I'm obsessed with Queen of Suffolk County, Mick Jones Nicked My Pudding makes me laugh far too much, HBDMF reminds me of more than a few people, there's a bunch of winners on this album is what I'm saying. Taylor Swift released the first two of her re-recorded albums in her quest to reclaim her masters from her former record label, resulting in Fearless (Taylor's Version) and Red (Taylor's Version), and bundled with each of them a collection of 'from the vault' songs, i.e. songs that were written for the original album but didn't make the cut for one reason or another. I'm particularly loving We Were Happy off of Fearless TV and Nothing New off of Red TV. Olivia Rodrigo's debut album Sour is extremely short but very tight, a really good pop heartbreak album; I love traitor and enough for you in particular. Big Red Machine's How Long Do You Think It's Gonna Last is gorgeous. On the French punk side (yep, still listening to French punk!) Mon Autre Group's album QUELLE JOIE is fantastic.
I am almost certainly forgetting some things.
In 2021, I read 206 books, exceeding my goal of 150.
This once again included quite a bit of trash reading, including continuing my reread of the Babysitters Club series, a bunch of comic books, and a ton of Doctor Who books. You can find my Goodreads year in review here. Goodreads informs me I read 19,887 pages; the shortest book was Constantine issue 20 at 22 pages; the longest book was The Searcher by Tana French at 576 pages; the average length was 96 pages. The most popular book I read was Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, shelved by 623,532 other people; the last popular was The Thirteenth Doctor (2020) issue #1, shelved by 5 other people.
Some of the best books I read this year (the diamonds among the trash): Why The Moon Travels, by Oein DeBhairduin, a collection of Irish Traveller folklore written by a member of the culture instead of by a sociologist or anthropologist; At Childhood's End, by Sophie Aldred, a Doctor Who book, yes, but also a very thoughtful exploration of what it means to confront the monsters that haunt your dreams; Gay New York, by George Chauncey, a nonfiction exploration of queer culture in prewar NYC; Field Guide To The Haunted Forest, by Jarod K. Anderson, a poetry collection about our connections to each other and to nature; I Love The Bones Of You, by Christopher Eccleston, a memoir about working class culture and mental illness and a million other things that I can't do justice in a one-line blurb.
This was also the year of Big Finish audio plays for me. I get into Big Finish in fits and starts, traditionally; there's no rhyme or reason to it. This year I just started listening to my accumulated collection from top to bottom in preparation for the NDAs coming out and then...just didn't stop. Some standouts: A Death In The Family, The Time Museum, Return Of The Rocket Men, The Holy Terror, The Chimes Of Midnight, The Veiled Leopard, Ninth Doctor Adventures: Lost Warriors, The Year Of Martha Jones. There was something to enjoy in every one I listened to, though.
I don't track what I watch on TV anymore so we're going to be relying on my questionable memory for this next part!
There was new Doctor Who this year, obviously. I really enjoyed Flux. I got very invested in the characters. Vinder/Bel OTP.
New Amsterdam was good. It had a lot of very stressful plotlines but it was good. I am 83% watching it for Freema so I don't like this "will Max and Helen move to London" plot.
I finally watched Blake's 7 after roughly a million years of being passively recc'd it on various sites. I now understand why it's recommended so highly because it is in fact very good. Highly enjoyed it.
Dickinson on Apple TV is a very charming show. I love how ridiculous it is.
It's A Sin, on the other hand, was EXTREMELY stressful and upsetting and EXTREMELY good. Just. Amazing. I have my problems with RTD as regards Doctor Who but It's A Sin was incredible.
I watched a couple of Jenna Coleman projects - The Serpent and The Cry - and of them preferred The Cry. Both were very good, though.
And a Pearl Mackie project, The Long Call, which also featured Declan Bennett in a supporting role. (It's fun when my unrelated obsessions cross paths.) It was also very good. 10/10 do recommended if you like murder mysteries.
And then the only other thing I can think of right now is the various DC shows I watch, the best of which are Stargirl and Legends of Tomorrow. Those are very different kinds of 'good', mind. Stargirl takes its material very seriously and Legends...does not.
Trying to remember what movies I watched this year is an exercise in futility. Some standouts, though: In The Heights, which I've been waiting AGES for and which lived up to the hype; tick tick...BOOM!, ditto (I cried buckets); the Come From Away proshot, which also made me cry. Other than that? No idea. I know I've seen more movies than that! But what they were, whether they were this year or last year or 2016, no clue.
No live theatre for me this year, although Broadway and tours opened up (with multiple cancellations and early closures and just...yeah). One day.
It's been a weird year. I started two new jobs. The first was a temporary position, although turned out to be more temporary than I thought going on. The second will hopefully be permanent; I really like it so far, although it's only been a few weeks (and after two weeks of training I left for a week to go see my family for Christmas! they were very understanding. I was very nervous about traveling in these Covid times, but I took all due precautions -- 3 doses of Pfizer, everyone in my family is vaxxed, double masked in all public areas -- and I have now returned home Covid free). It's very nice to be out of customer-facing positions because I really hated the job I had before where I got yelled at by customers all day. Now I go all day either without talking to anyone or just occasionally talking to my coworkers. It's SO NICE. I'd still rather be working in theatre but, you know, health insurance and job security and Covid. We make choices about priorities.
I still owe you a couple Doctor Who posts, one about the two PDAs I've read most recently and one about a couple Big Finish audios I want to talk about, but I've just been very busy and stressed with things and I want to make sure I can actually do them justice. They're coming. Sometime. Soon. Promise.