Tweet Nothings, Part 8
Hacking the date on a new post one last time, two days into 2011, for this final batch of 2010 Twitter archives. (Previously.)
So Few Movies
Okay, so having a kid didn’t bring my book-reading to a complete halt, but it’s pretty much done for my movie-going. My cinema visits dropped from 10 in 2007 to 5 in 2008, then 3 in 2009, and only picked up to 4 in 2010 because we accompanied him to his first full-length movie in the cinema, Space Chimps 2: The Return of Zartog. My top ten big-screen movies of 2008 to 2010 would therefore cover just about everything I saw, and most of them would be the obvious blockbusters. So I’ll have to include the small screen, even if the experience wasn’t as full as it could have been.
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31 December 2010 · 
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So Many Books
As if my procrastination on music reviewing wasn’t bad enough, it’s over four years since I wrote anything much about books here. I always told myself it was because I wasn’t reading much after our son arrived, or because I’ve been reading mostly for work, but actually I’ve managed to complete a fair few once they’re all added up. So instead of a top ten for 2010, here’s a top ten for 2007-10, in the order I finished them, with notes on others.
So This Year
So, what have been my favourite albums and songs this year? As far as albums go, new releases by Ash, Badly Drawn Boy, the Bluetones, Crowded House, the Divine Comedy, Ben Folds, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Goldfrapp, Gorillaz, the National, the New Pornographers and Sufjan Stevens all failed to register sufficiently to make a top ten; no doubt they would repay closer listening, but I haven’t had the opportunity. The new GB3 album (Glenn Bennie of the Underground Lovers, with Steve Kilbey of the Church) has hovered in the wings since I got it last month. Annie’s Don’t Stop from late 2009 is another I considered. On the basis of their excellent demo-mix bonus discs, I even thought about including the 2010 remasters of Mike Oldfield’s Hergest Ridge and Ommadawn. But in the end, I decided it would be a better reflection of my album-listening to go for a top...
So Last Year
So, last year I wrote a post called So Last Year in order to capture my favourite music of 2008 before 2009 was over... and here I am doing the same for 2009 before the end of 2010. Pathetic, he says Eeyore-ishly, but that’s weblog neglect for you. Last time a focus on single tracks seemed appropriate, but this time I’ll swing back to albums.
I wrote a ridiculous amount in the Popular thread about this song. Here’s half of it.
The tail-end of 2010 seems a good time to catch up on the tail-end of 1989 and beginning of 1990 at Popular. Once again my comments have been brief, even when my scores have been high—which for most of 1989 they weren’t. Jive Bunny’s three UK number ones all drew a 1 from me (“like the musical intros round at a pub quiz, without any of the mystery”), and many others got poor-to-middling scores. Here are those that did better, apart from one I’ve held over for its own post.
November 2010