Sunday 4 January 2015

New Year, Same Old Brand New You...

Shit. Forgot to Blog since July.

So it’s now January, 2015.  What has happened? It’s time for my New Year Recap: 2014 In A Nutshell.

We went to Amsterdam, and spent all our money and all our time in a Eurovision Bar that played Take Me To Your Heaven once every hour.



I have spent more on my car than ever before, in A Series OF Unfortunate Events, but now it is fine and I am convalescing from Open-Wallet-Surgery.



I have a minor promotion/pay award at school (good), pushing me further into the scary tax bracket (bad) and realms of further responsibility (ugly).

I have co-ordinated 2 gay trips to Birmingham with some homosexual friends of mine, for booze, food, shopping and dancing, and we had amazing fun.



We took a family trip to Eastbourne (I know, right) for my mummy’s 60th birthday, to stay in a surreal hotel stuck in the 1980s and watch to the Air Show.

 


We holidayed in Barcelona, surrounded by The Gays, where it was far too hot, but also amazing fun because everyone was frankly so beautiful.

 


We took a mini-break to Edinburgh, and had a wonderful time up to the point where we almost froze to death.

 


We went to see the diving again, because it’s a fascinating sport and because the competitors wear tiny speedos.

 

There are possibly other events that occurred as well, pride- as ever –was super fun, work is actually fairly enjoyable at the moment, and I have experimented with DIY in an attempt to fix those things about my house that aren’t quite as they should be without spending any money.


But wait – what about the top 10? Well, top 7. What about my favourite picks of the year…


Best Movie of 2014
X-Men Days of Future Past. Probably not most people’s top pick, but I LOVE X-Men so much, it was always going to be this, and it is a truly fabulous film. And true to the original material, and exciting and dramatic and well-performed by a truly great cast. Amazing fun. Added to which, I don’t go to the cinema much, so the choice of recent films I actually saw upon release is rather restricted, and limited to favourite franchises and those that are worth sitting amongst other human beings to view.

Best DVD Movie of 2014
Philomena. Lent to me by my TA, and I was very unsure, but it was wonderful. I like it when someone sort of… makes you borrow something, and you accept it to be polite, then absolutely love it. A beautiful, moving and very powerful film. Again, great cast. And those nuns? They were BASTARDS, weren’t they! I love a good church-bash…

Best Song of 2014
Chandelier. Following the cliché, as hordes of gays declared their online love, and very late to the party, but this is totally my song of the year… A bit unexpected, a weird but very engaging video, an amazing voice and such a fab chorus. Brilliant work.

Best Book of 2014
Lost at Sea- Jon Ronson. Cheating a bit I know, as this was released in 2013, but I didn’t get around to reading it until early in 2014. Also, I read a lot of old books, so this is the newest I read that I really devoured and want to massively recommend. I always love his stuff, but this one is different as it is comprised of many shorter investigations and bizarre situations, rather than one long, ongoing one. Essentially, a collection of off-beat, journalistic investigations into the weird and unusual, but absolutely fascinating at every turn.

Best Comic of 2014
Magneto: Infamous. After the debacle of AvX, the Marvel writers are finally getting their shit together and fixing the mess that was left across their major franchises. X-Men: Revolution made a very good start, and now Magneto is going all-out amazing once again to right some wrongs in a hugely entertaining and well-written piece, but turning a bit darker than we’ve seen lately, which I always enjoy.

Best Game of 2014
The Last of Us. I’m pretty late to this party, as I’ve just bought my PS4, and this is my first game, but it is what everyone promised: Stunning, polished and clever. I’m so impressed with the level of detail and the clever little effects. I wasn’t very convinced PS3 would be easily left behind, but this is a work of art and I can’t wait to get further into it…

Best TV Show of 2014
AHS. I am a huge fan of Game of Thrones, to the point where I grieve a bit every time an episode comes to an end. I totally love it. Same for Orange is the New Black, and even Bake Off -  a show finishes and I am unable to cope with the wait for the next one. But American Horror Story hit all these spots and a few more. It is very up my street, with nods to lots of great, established horror classics, and some very inventive ways of weaving them all in to one story. And it can be genuinely scary, can make you squirm and make you really REALLY hate some of the characters. But it is amazingly good fun, very entertaining and really hooks you from the start. Should be made compulsory viewing.


So there we have it, my low-brow hit list for 2014. And a low-brow rundown of my low-brow year.

Way to challenge myself…