2010 in Concerts

Mumford & Sons
Marcus Mumford and the rest of boys are one of my favourite bands, so this was a really really wonderful experience. I was standing at the very front and I got the set list afterwards, both of which were great. But the band was phenomenal. They made it so fun — seeing the camaraderie between them, the laughing, the jibes and the passion, made it a truly memorable experience. Favourite moment: when Marcus asked for us to just enjoy I Gave You All and the entire concert hall went quiet. It was a beautiful moment, and Marcus himself remarked on it.
Opening: O Emperor 

Rufus Wainwright
Stupid, gorgeous man made me cry. Several times. It was just Rufus and his piano, and his gut-wrenching voice. 

Slow Club
I’m surprised I didn’t upload a post about Slow Club, because I had a great time at the concert and I got a few great shots, as well as a couple of videos. It was a fun, upbeat concert and I’m glad I got to see them. I loved how informal they were. Their friends were in the audience and they’d often shout down to them, and they took a couple of requests. They had several opening bands, too. A couple were average, but the one (I forget their name, now!) who went on just before them were pretty great.

Laura Marling
Amazing amazing woman. I had missed seeing her earlier in the year, so I was beyond thrilled when I found out she was preforming at the Hay Festival while I was there. It also compounded my love for her: she preforms at literary festivals. She’s just made of awesome. 

I didn’t see as many concerts as I hoped this year, but I definitely loved every one I attended. The links are to videos or photos that I took, sometimes accompanied by thoughts on the concert.

2010 in Theatre

I’ve linked if I reviewed the play at the time I saw it, and wrote a little ditty if I didn’t.

The Little Dog Laughed

The Misanthrope 

iGod
This was a student production at my university, written and directed by one of my childhood friends. It wasn’t all it could be, but it had an interesting premise. The “iGod” was a modern man, and the people who ‘believed’ in him. It was a play on cults and religion.

The Libertine
This was another student production, but it was more lavish. It was absolutely hilarious, and I thought all my friends did spectacularly. If I hadn’t gone to see it on its last night, I would’ve seen it twice. 

Wicked
I had never seen Wicked, despite wanting to. The circumstances never seem to match up, for some reason. The night I went to see this I happened to be in Victoria near curtain time, and I poked my head into the box office and asked if they had any tickets left. They did, and I got a great seat for what was a wonderful show. I wish I’d seen it with the original Broadway cast, though.

Women, Power & Politics: Then
Women, Power & Politics: Now

Les Miserables*
I had seen Les Mes before. I was on Shaftesbury Ave with not much to do the night before I was flying out, so I decided to rewatch it. Wasn’t as good as the first time I saw it, but definitely had some singers that give me goosebumps.

Tap Dogs
The reason I went was pretty simple: Adam Garcia plus dancing. I almost missed the show, because I wasn’t in London for the large bulk of it, but I’m glad I didn’t. It was absolutely mesmerizing. I really, really loved.  

Deathtrap

Best Books from 2010

I’m not very apt at making best of lists. I’m especially crap at trying to keep it as a top 10, or anything neat and orderly. So I decided to split it into sub-sections, and even then I found it difficult. I realised, though, that this is a great thing. It means I read lots of wonderful things, which I did. It’s been a great reading year, and I want to thank you all for keeping me company. Out of the 118 books I read, these are my favourites, in no order:

[Oh! Important note: I didn’t include more than one book per author, even when I’d read several that deserved to be on here.]

Essays

• On Solitude (And Other Essays) by Michel de Montaigne
• The Art of War by Sun-Tzu
• A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
• Books v. Cigarettes by George Orwell
• Days of Reading by Marcel Proust

Non-fiction

• Half a Life by Darin Strauss
• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
• The Eden Express by Mark Vonnegut
• The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
• The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
• The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

Classics

• Paradise Lost by John Milton
• To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
• Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 
• Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• The Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint by Shakespeare

Contemporary

• The Easter Parade by Richard Yates 
• Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
• Cathedral by Raymond Carver
• Music for Chameleons by Truman Capote
• South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
• Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson 
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
• So Many Ways to Begin by Jon McGregor
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy 
• One Day by David Nicholls
• Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
• Freedom by Jonathan Franzen 
• Room by Emma Donoghue
• By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham 

Top 5 Albums of 2010

I don’t tend to like doing lists such as these because normally I find it hard to chose. This year, though, I think there are five stand-out albums that are going to be my favourites for years to come, so I thought I’d share.

In no particular order:

Laura Marling, I Speak Because I Can

I speak because I can, to anyone I trust enough to listen
You speak because you can, to anyone who’ll hear what you say 

I really can’t recommend Laura Marling enough. I know she’s gotten her share of attention over the last year or two, and she deserves every allocate. It’s a little depressing that she’s my age (she’s exactly 18 days older than me) and has achieved so much, and is actually enormously talented. This, her second album, is the kind of album I’m sure singer-songwriters work for years to achieve. It contains such perfection, haunting lyrics and soft melodies. She’s releasing a new album next year, which I cannot wait for. When I saw her live this year, I was just so incredibly happy. She sounds exactly as she does on her album, which tickles me because it means her voice isn’t over-produced, or auto-tuned to hell, or any of that shit. I’d see her again in a heartbeat. 

It’s hard to accept yourself as someone you don’t desire
as someone you don’t want to be 

Arcade Fire, The Suburbs

Kids want to be so hard,
but in my dreams we’re still screaming and running through the yard 

I’m not new to Arcade Fire, although I didn’t listen to them or love them with the ferocity created by this album. I just love absolutely everything about it. I love the lyrics and the music. I love his voice. I love the way they play, which has a lazy immediacy — I’m fully aware that’s an oxymoron, but it’s how it feels and I believe it encompasses several generations. I love the way they recorded it, to make the MP3 sound like vinyl. I love that they released it with eight different covers. I love that if you downloaded the album from their website, like I did, you got a host of interactive stuff imbedded into the MP3s (in the “Album Art” bit in iTunes, there were links to what inspired the songs, as well as a changing photograph over imposed with handwritten lyrics to the song). I love, love this album.

I would rather be alone
than pretend I feel alright 

The National, High Violet

It takes an ocean not to break

Matt Berninger’s voice. Oh, my God, his amazing, amazing voice. I’d heard Alligator and was lukewarm about them, I didn’t hear Boxer when it came out and then heardthis album. It’s interesting, my introduction to them — because I can’t say I fell in love immediately. I knew there was something interesting about his voice, and the lyrics, and I felt like we would click if given time. So I listened to the album all the way through, and promptly bought it, a week later bought Boxer, and even Alligator. I can’t imagine my iTunes not including The National now. I am so utterly in love with this band, their music and their lyrics. I was actually depressed when I had to leave London a week before they were due to preform, and missed seeing them live. If you’ve heard a song once and been unimpressed, give them another listen. I swear they’ll crawl under your skin and settle in your heart.

I’m too tired to drive anywhere, anyway right now
do you care if I stay? 

Sufjan Stevens, All Delighted People EP

So yeah I know I’m still afraid
of letting go of choices I have made
all delighted people raise their hands

The first song I ever heard of Sufjan’s was For the Widows In Paradise, for the Fatherless In Ypsilanti, from “Michigan”, so I’ve been a fan of his for a long time. I know he released The Age of Adz this year, as well, and it’s beautiful — but for me All Delighted People is a gem. The melodies, the backing vocals, his ethereal voice, the lyrics, his homage to Sounds of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel are one of my all-time favourite bands, I’d probably consider killing to see them live), it all comes together so spectacularly. Who else could pull of such a ridiculous mash, and do it to perfection? On his bandcamp, the EP is described thus: All Delighted People is built around two different versions of Sufjan’s long-form epic ballad “All Delighted People,” a dramatic homage to the Apocalypse, existential ennui, and Paul Simon’s “Sounds of Silence.” Existential ennui! YES! I hope he never loses what makes him so different from everyone else. Oh, did I mention the title track is 11:38mins long? And not a second of waste. 

Somewhere there’s a room for each of us to grow
and if it pleases you to leave me, just go
stopping you would stifle your enchanting ghost 

Eminem, Recovery

‘Cause the way I feel, I’m strong enough to go to the club
or the corner pub, and lift the whole liquor counter up
‘cause I’m raising the bar
I’d shoot for the moon but I’m too busy gazin’ at stars
I feel amazing 

This is probably an oddity compared to the other albums on this list, but it belongs on here. I’ve been an Eminem fan for years, I’ve got all his albums, I just adore his turns of phrase and how clever his rhymes and raps are. It’s easy to ignore his talent if you don’t like rap, but he really has a knack for making you sit up and take notice. So I was more than a little disappointed with last year’s Relapse, although I dutifully bought it, and celebrated his turn. Of course, Beautiful off that album is a gorgeous song, but the rest of the album is sorely lacking. This one isn’t. It’s Eminem back on top, with an album full of wonderful songs.

But Marshall is not an egomaniac that’s not his motto
he’s not a desperado he’s desperate, his thoughts are bottled
inside him, one foot on the break, one on the throttle

***

Previous years (again, in no order):

2009
Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More
Paolo Nutini, Sunny Side Up
The XX, xx
White Lies, To Lose My Life
Florence & The Machine, Lungs

2008
Okkervil River, The Stand Ins
Death Cab for Cutie, Narrow Stairs
The Killers, Day & Age
She & Him, Volume One
The Airborne Toxic Event, The Airborne Toxic Event

Anonymous asked: Did you vote in the elections?

You know, when the questions are this specific to my everyday life, I’d appreciate it if people didn’t use the Anon feature. That’s really only left on so people without tumblrs can leave me questions.

Yes, I did vote in the elections. It’s the first year that I’ve been old enough to. I’m mad about the whole thing, though, from the people who weren’t in the database even though they should be able to vote (my mother was one of them), and when we talked to the judge he said that there wasn’t “nothing” he could do. At the very least, hundreds of people had this happen to them and as far as I’m concerned there should be another vote. There is no way that the results that come out will accurately reflect the public’s votes. Furthermore, that whole business of security, the way the votes are counted, the lack of widespread information about the candidates available prior to the day just made me very bitter about the whole thing.

So the short of the long is that I voted, because if I’m going to rail on the government or on certain aspects of life I don’t agree with, I need to have voted.

I’m starting to photograph a collection of portraits.

As per my resolutions. I’m starting with friends who will sit for me, and then maybe put an ad in the university paper and see who turns up! I’m excited :)

Resolutions.

After debating whether or not I was going to make any, I decided I should. Not so much because it’s New Year’s, but because these resolutions need to be made.

1. Regulate my sleeping pattern. Give myself a bed time, and a waking up time, and stick to it. DO NOT wake up five minutes before a lecture, skip breakfast and leg it (aka what I’ve do every day).
2. Study. I used to love studying. Now I find it really difficult to sit down and review lectures, or study for an exam. I still love attending lectures and learning to new things, I just seem to want to do nothing with that knowledge.
3. Eat healthily. When I’m at uni, I’m a vegetarian. So I actually eat pretty healthily when I’m cooking for myself etc. The problem comes in the form of crisps, which I love, and chocolate. Need to cut down. Figure out how many a week/month is okay and stick to it.
4. Exercise. Walks, yoga, sit-ups, anything. Maybe sign up for kickboxing.
5. Continue reading as much as I have been. I’ve always been a big reader, but I had lost sight of that a little over the past couple of years. Since last summer though, I’ve regained momentum and I’ve been reading like crazy. I want this to continue.
6. Finish my short story about Evie. I have a really bad habit of beginning stories/novels that I don’t finish. I have more than 30 unwritten stories on my computer, all of which have two chapters that are actually written.
7. Finish my 25 Strangers project.
8. Start submitting to magazines/journals again.
9. Improve my photography. Taking pretty pictures is one thing. I can do that. But what I did when I got my DSLR was basically learn how to use it simply, then dipped a toe in (aperture, shutter speeds, etc) and then bought a couple of lenses for it. However, I don’t know how to use all the features, or even most of the important ones. I want to fix this.
10. Take more photographs. Do a collection of portraits.
11. Write regularly in my (hand-written) diary.
12. Print more photographs and put them in albums.
13. Visit 4 friends who don’t live in my town.
14. Go to a new country or state.
15. Get an internship for the summer.
16. Get into honours for both English and Psychology.

I deliberately have not set any that are ridiculous. Most are achievable if I set my mind to it, and decide this is how i want to live my life.

Two things I’ve done

to make 2010 better for others, too.

1. Donated to Locks of Love.
2. Became an organ donor.

I don’t normally advertise things I do for charity, but I’m really proud of myself for both of these.