2009 diversions
Films So, I watched 41 films this year, not counting rewatches. I've blogged briefly about them over on 52filmchallenge, but here's the list:
The Departed
The Sentinel
Hollywoodland
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
No Country For Old Men
Juno
The Bank Job
Infamous
Bobby
Vantage Point
Blood Diamond
There Will Be Blood
Notes On A Scandal
8MM
Offside
Michael Clayton
Ghostrider
Brokeback Mountain
3:10 To Yuma
WALL-E
The X Files
Dark Knight
We Are Marshall
The Good German
Mission Impossible III
Hellboy II
The Mummy III
Cars
Blithe Spirit
Curse of the Golden Flower
Elizabeth:The Golden Age
88 minutes
In Bruges
Burn After Reading
Quantum Of Solace
Street Kings
Soylent Green
The Invasion
The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice
Conspiracy
The Golden Compass
Brief Encounter
I reckon that Brokeback Mountain, Dark Knight and In Bruges were the best of the bunch.
Books I kept track of my reading this year:
Bad Blood, Linda Fairstein
McSweeney's volume 22
The Act Of Roger Murgatroyd, Gilbert Adair
The Devil In Amber, Mark Gatiss
Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Jennifer Rardin
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Scandal Takes A Holiday, Lindsey Davis
Requiem At Rogano, Stephen Knight (gave up part way through)
London Revenant, Conrad Williams
Reading "Deadwood": A Western To Swear By
See Delphi And Die, Lindsay Davis
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
The Devil You Know, Mike Carey
Vicious Circle, Mike Carey
Dead Men's Boots, Mike Carey
The Listerdale Mystery, Agatha Christie
The Burnt House, Faye Kellerman
The Seventy Seven Clocks, Christopher Fowler
The Crime at Black Dudley, Margery Allingham
The White Cottage Mystery, Margery Allingham
Saturnalia, by Lindsey Davies
Look To The Lady, by Margery Allingham
Ten-second Staircase, Christopher Fowler
White Corridor, Christopher Fowler
Death Message, Mark Billingham
Trouble Is My Business, Raymond Chandler
Twenty six and a half books, averaging out at one per fortnight; which, given the stupidly long hours and lack of travelling I've been doing this year, is not back going at all. Mostly crime fiction of varying genres, I think Mike Carey wins this year, with Mark Billingham and Christopher Fowler runners up.
Theatre Six plays this year, which isn't great but isn't terrible:
The Hour In Which We Knew Nothing Of Each Other
The Importance Of Being Earnest
The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Private Lives
The Female Of The Species
The Revenger's Tragedy
The Hour In Which We Knew Nothing Of Each Other and The Revenger's Tragedy were by far the best of those, by a fairly clear margin.
Music
Seasick Steve
Dan Hartland
Tom McRae (Hotel Cafe Tour)
Beth Rowley
Alanis Morisette
Jane Taylor
HWCH08 (The Lost Brothers, Panama Kings, Fred, Lines Drawing Circles, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Super Extra Bonus Party, The Rags, Dolbro Dan, Nick Carswell, Tom McShane, Cian, Ollie Cole, Valerie Francis, Mackerel The Cat, One Day International, Carly Sings, and Autamata)
Alison Moyet
James Hunter
Alex Roberts
Eli "Paperboy" Reed and The True Loves
The National
Seth Lakeman
Ray LaMontagne
Frightened Rabbit
Noah And The Whale
Bon Iver
Devon Sproule
Barenaked Ladies
So lots of new music this year, and a reasonable number of gigs.
TV Lots of TV this year, but most of it was just background noise. Shows I've been paying particular attention to (not necessarily indicative of their quality) are:
The Wire
House
CSI
Waking The Dead
Scrubs
Reichenbach Falls
Dr Who
NCIS
Family Guy
Dexter
Life
Burn Notice
Messiah
Of these, the very best was quite obviously The Wire (and we're still part way through danmilburn and wg's S4 boxset). Nothing else came close. Honourable mentions though, to Dexter and House.
2009 also saw us travelling rather less extensively than in previous years, with visits to London, North Wales, Northumbria and Dublin.
And that was pretty much that :-)
The Departed
The Sentinel
Hollywoodland
Before The Devil Knows You're Dead
No Country For Old Men
Juno
The Bank Job
Infamous
Bobby
Vantage Point
Blood Diamond
There Will Be Blood
Notes On A Scandal
8MM
Offside
Michael Clayton
Ghostrider
Brokeback Mountain
3:10 To Yuma
WALL-E
The X Files
Dark Knight
We Are Marshall
The Good German
Mission Impossible III
Hellboy II
The Mummy III
Cars
Blithe Spirit
Curse of the Golden Flower
Elizabeth:The Golden Age
88 minutes
In Bruges
Burn After Reading
Quantum Of Solace
Street Kings
Soylent Green
The Invasion
The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice
Conspiracy
The Golden Compass
Brief Encounter
I reckon that Brokeback Mountain, Dark Knight and In Bruges were the best of the bunch.
Books I kept track of my reading this year:
Bad Blood, Linda Fairstein
McSweeney's volume 22
The Act Of Roger Murgatroyd, Gilbert Adair
The Devil In Amber, Mark Gatiss
Once Bitten, Twice Shy, Jennifer Rardin
Atonement, Ian McEwan
Scandal Takes A Holiday, Lindsey Davis
Requiem At Rogano, Stephen Knight (gave up part way through)
London Revenant, Conrad Williams
Reading "Deadwood": A Western To Swear By
See Delphi And Die, Lindsay Davis
The Golden Notebook, Doris Lessing
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield
The Devil You Know, Mike Carey
Vicious Circle, Mike Carey
Dead Men's Boots, Mike Carey
The Listerdale Mystery, Agatha Christie
The Burnt House, Faye Kellerman
The Seventy Seven Clocks, Christopher Fowler
The Crime at Black Dudley, Margery Allingham
The White Cottage Mystery, Margery Allingham
Saturnalia, by Lindsey Davies
Look To The Lady, by Margery Allingham
Ten-second Staircase, Christopher Fowler
White Corridor, Christopher Fowler
Death Message, Mark Billingham
Trouble Is My Business, Raymond Chandler
Twenty six and a half books, averaging out at one per fortnight; which, given the stupidly long hours and lack of travelling I've been doing this year, is not back going at all. Mostly crime fiction of varying genres, I think Mike Carey wins this year, with Mark Billingham and Christopher Fowler runners up.
Theatre Six plays this year, which isn't great but isn't terrible:
The Hour In Which We Knew Nothing Of Each Other
The Importance Of Being Earnest
The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare (Abridged)
Private Lives
The Female Of The Species
The Revenger's Tragedy
The Hour In Which We Knew Nothing Of Each Other and The Revenger's Tragedy were by far the best of those, by a fairly clear margin.
Music
Seasick Steve
Dan Hartland
Tom McRae (Hotel Cafe Tour)
Beth Rowley
Alanis Morisette
Jane Taylor
HWCH08 (The Lost Brothers, Panama Kings, Fred, Lines Drawing Circles, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Super Extra Bonus Party, The Rags, Dolbro Dan, Nick Carswell, Tom McShane, Cian, Ollie Cole, Valerie Francis, Mackerel The Cat, One Day International, Carly Sings, and Autamata)
Alison Moyet
James Hunter
Alex Roberts
Eli "Paperboy" Reed and The True Loves
The National
Seth Lakeman
Ray LaMontagne
Frightened Rabbit
Noah And The Whale
Bon Iver
Devon Sproule
Barenaked Ladies
So lots of new music this year, and a reasonable number of gigs.
TV Lots of TV this year, but most of it was just background noise. Shows I've been paying particular attention to (not necessarily indicative of their quality) are:
The Wire
House
CSI
Waking The Dead
Scrubs
Reichenbach Falls
Dr Who
NCIS
Family Guy
Dexter
Life
Burn Notice
Messiah
Of these, the very best was quite obviously The Wire (and we're still part way through danmilburn and wg's S4 boxset). Nothing else came close. Honourable mentions though, to Dexter and House.
2009 also saw us travelling rather less extensively than in previous years, with visits to London, North Wales, Northumbria and Dublin.
And that was pretty much that :-)