January 2012 - "Welcome to 2012. Streets flooded; please advise"
The year began with a terrific storm. I wandered out to Tooting Bec Common on a sunny 3rd Jan, and took this photo:
It seemed an apt coda to a 2011 which had proved incredibly dramatic, but a mixed omen for the year ahead. This view seemed more positive, and I'm a glass half-full sort of guy:
It would seem I didn't get up to a lot in January, which is pretty typical. I did make it to see a friend's band - My Heroine - among whose numbers, drummygirl will be pleased to learn, is a woman drummer. They're a hard-workin' hard rockin', all-woman band and although rockin' out isn't my cup of darjeeling, they made a mighty racket. I even managed to make it to the right venue, after assuming that the only O2 they could possibly be in was the one in North Greenwich, rather than the one in Islington.
On 25th January, for second year running, sleeperesque invited me and Becky round for a Burns Night Supper, and there was lots of booze, haggis and good times. But I think I spent a lot of the month in hibernation.
That's not to say that there wasn't a lot going on elsewhere. The televised hearings of the Leveson Inquiry made it clear that most of my long-held suspicions about not just the abuses of power perpetrated by the press, but their attitude toward being held to account on those abuses, were completely justified. I began using Facebook and my newly set-up Twitter account to share my feelings, and relevant info about the inquiry, the Hacked Off campaign and any related articles about it. I genuinely believe that the overbearing power, and the abuse of that power, by the press is actively undermining and eating away at our democracy when it is, of course, supposed to make it more healthy. I hope and pray that Leveson and his supporters will prevail.
I've been watching an awful lot less telly this year, but January brought the conclusion to the second series of Sherlock, which has proven thoroughly entertaining, and another reminder that the BBC can make exciting and challenging drama when it tries (as 2011's The Shadow Line had also demonstrated.) The concluding episode, The Reichenbach Fall, was received in some quarters as initially disappointing, but ultimately a brilliant vindication of what Moffat had been up to all along with his 21st c. reboot of the great detective saga. I attempted two new coinages off the back of this series. The first, in response to John Lewis's feeling that at the beginning of the final episode, the series had jumped the shark:
"Yeah, a couple of people have said that - didn't feel it myself. Perhaps episodes of something nearly going rub then redeeming themselves at the end can henceforth be referred to as having 'jumped the hospital'?"
The second was the verb "to Holmes", inspired by Holmes's habit as an ex-smoker of ostentatiously inhaling others' second-hand smoke. As in, "I was well Holmesing that bloke's fag at the bus stop."
Neither, sadly, have caught on.
January also brought the latest series from the incomparable Jonathan Meades, "On France". There's not a lot I can say about how fascinating and entertaining (and occasionally infuriating) Meades is - give it a go for yourself:
(You can find the rest, and a lot more of his work at the wonderful Meades Shrine on YouTube)
I'll finish with a couple of other things that cheered me greatly in January:
Sarah Ditum's comprehensive trashing of colour-supplement-wank interviews with pointless actresses
This superb, lovingly made Honda advert in which Matthew Broderick brings back Ferris Bueller for another day off:
And finally, I began watching the Flight of the Conchords, about four years after everyone else. Lots of highlights, this might be the best:
January was also the month where I concocted, with monkeyssk8, my masterplan for another California visit, of which more later...
It seemed an apt coda to a 2011 which had proved incredibly dramatic, but a mixed omen for the year ahead. This view seemed more positive, and I'm a glass half-full sort of guy:
It would seem I didn't get up to a lot in January, which is pretty typical. I did make it to see a friend's band - My Heroine - among whose numbers, drummygirl will be pleased to learn, is a woman drummer. They're a hard-workin' hard rockin', all-woman band and although rockin' out isn't my cup of darjeeling, they made a mighty racket. I even managed to make it to the right venue, after assuming that the only O2 they could possibly be in was the one in North Greenwich, rather than the one in Islington.
On 25th January, for second year running, sleeperesque invited me and Becky round for a Burns Night Supper, and there was lots of booze, haggis and good times. But I think I spent a lot of the month in hibernation.
That's not to say that there wasn't a lot going on elsewhere. The televised hearings of the Leveson Inquiry made it clear that most of my long-held suspicions about not just the abuses of power perpetrated by the press, but their attitude toward being held to account on those abuses, were completely justified. I began using Facebook and my newly set-up Twitter account to share my feelings, and relevant info about the inquiry, the Hacked Off campaign and any related articles about it. I genuinely believe that the overbearing power, and the abuse of that power, by the press is actively undermining and eating away at our democracy when it is, of course, supposed to make it more healthy. I hope and pray that Leveson and his supporters will prevail.
I've been watching an awful lot less telly this year, but January brought the conclusion to the second series of Sherlock, which has proven thoroughly entertaining, and another reminder that the BBC can make exciting and challenging drama when it tries (as 2011's The Shadow Line had also demonstrated.) The concluding episode, The Reichenbach Fall, was received in some quarters as initially disappointing, but ultimately a brilliant vindication of what Moffat had been up to all along with his 21st c. reboot of the great detective saga. I attempted two new coinages off the back of this series. The first, in response to John Lewis's feeling that at the beginning of the final episode, the series had jumped the shark:
"Yeah, a couple of people have said that - didn't feel it myself. Perhaps episodes of something nearly going rub then redeeming themselves at the end can henceforth be referred to as having 'jumped the hospital'?"
The second was the verb "to Holmes", inspired by Holmes's habit as an ex-smoker of ostentatiously inhaling others' second-hand smoke. As in, "I was well Holmesing that bloke's fag at the bus stop."
Neither, sadly, have caught on.
January also brought the latest series from the incomparable Jonathan Meades, "On France". There's not a lot I can say about how fascinating and entertaining (and occasionally infuriating) Meades is - give it a go for yourself:
Click to view(You can find the rest, and a lot more of his work at the wonderful Meades Shrine on YouTube)
I'll finish with a couple of other things that cheered me greatly in January:
Sarah Ditum's comprehensive trashing of colour-supplement-wank interviews with pointless actresses
This superb, lovingly made Honda advert in which Matthew Broderick brings back Ferris Bueller for another day off:
And finally, I began watching the Flight of the Conchords, about four years after everyone else. Lots of highlights, this might be the best:
January was also the month where I concocted, with monkeyssk8, my masterplan for another California visit, of which more later...