Here, one the ultimate day of Anno Domini 2012, I used LastGraph to compose a chart of my listening habits (the ones that have been recorded by audio scrobbling service Last.fm since 2005) for the year.
2012 ~ The Year in Scrobbling
Month: December 2012
2012 ~ The Year in Film
Admittedly, I didn’t see a great many “films” theatrically in 2012. I spent a decent portion of 2011 ingesting a glut of films for free at a theater that still used the actual medium of film, but in 2012, I daresay I saw perhaps only one legitimate “film.”
That film, was The Master. By no means an endearing experience, it is nonetheless an unshakeable one. This film springs from a dusty, high, forgotten shelf of cinema where a few peers may reside. Perhaps Aguirre: The Wrath of God? Perhaps The Thin Red Line? I don’t know what else to compare it to. It’s just… extant. Great performances all around, but the connection between the film’s titular character and Scientology-founder L. Ron Hubbard is tenuous and oblique. P.T. Anderson seems to have something to say about the apparent futility of soul-searching in a world replete with charlatans who employ technology as a means of enlightenment, but I’ll be darned if I know what it is.
Now I am brought to my top 10 list of movies from 2012. The #1 spot is taken by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, unsurprisingly. I have been a Tolkien fan since my youth, and originally read The Hobbit from an illustrated version that my mother bought for my cousin. Gollum’s cave is etched deeply into my remembered childhood imagination. Peter Jackson’s return to Middle Earth is at once triumphant, cataclysmic, and like the arrival of a dear, old friend on your doorstep.
My second favorite film came as something of a surprise. I had known of Richard Linklater’s new(er) film, Bernie, for a while. Strictly speaking, the film was completed back in 2011, but it didn’t see the light of day as far as a distributor until 2012. Why on earth it took me so long to finally watch it, I cannot say. I do know I will NOT miss out on Linklater’s next project, a third entry in the Before Sunrise series, with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. I digress. Jack Black does something amazing, here. He inhabits the entire length, breadth, and width of his idiosyncratic, real-life character’s personality traits and proclivities, delivering a performance that is so bizarre and true, it could not have ever been invented. Read that last sentence aloud, without taking any breaths. Sorry about that.
And the list goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began.
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- Bernie
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi
- Moonrise Kingdom
- Kari-gurashi no Arietti (The Secret World of Arrietty)
- Looper
- The Avengers
- Les Misérables
- The Master
- The Dark Knight Rises
Here is a list of ALL 2012 releases which I have seen, specifically. An all-time low: total number equaling 18. I aim to do a little better in 2013.
- Brave – theatrical
- Les Misérables – theatrical
- The Master – theatrical (film!)
- Kari-gurashi no Arietti (The Secret World of Arrietty) – theatrical
- The Avengers – theatrical
- The Dark Knight Rises – theatrical
- The Hunger Games – theatrical
- Skyfall – theatrical
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – theatrical
- Prometheus – theatrical
- John Carter – theatrical
- Looper – theatrical
- Chronicle – theatrical
- Moonrise Kingdom – RedBox
- Bernie – Netflix
- Jiro Dreams of Sushi – Netflix
- Take This Waltz – On-demand
- The Innkeepers – DVD
2012 ~ The Year in Music
2012 was a “thinner” year for me, as I maintained a fairly strong connection to the channels through which I received my music-culture input, while at the same time withdrawing to a place where I spent less time seeking to find, and more time learning to redirect my own creative energies towards building stability for my family. Does this make sense?
There was a time when I bent the majority of my intellectual energy toward the uncovering of new artists and songs. It was hard work, long hours spent deeply absorbed in a world of sounds. I invested inordinate amounts of time just hearing things I never would have had the patience for if I hadn’t believed that there was some value to be discovered within the cacophony of the potentially-sublime creative output of some kids in a bedroom half a world away.
Upon moving to California, I adopted something of a passive attitude about such things. I was determined to remain in the dark about all of the shows I was now missing out on, mere miles away. I did go to a few, mind you, but nowhere near the number I would have gone to, had I not been so committed to pinching every penny we had. I locked up my input streams, and let the music flow to me, and flow it did. In pleasantly manageable quantities, too.
I won a spot on the guest list for Damien Jurado’s show in San Diego, and later I was able to tag along to a VIP hangout with Mutemath. Those were my concert-going activities for 2012. Will 2013 be more eventful? I fully expect it to be so.
Here is my list of top albums from 2012. Someday, an expansion on why Maraqopa was chosen will be due. I chose it very early in the year. Nothing has eclipsed my decision since.
- Damien Jurado – Maraqopa
- Grimes – Visions
- Chromatics – Kill for Love
- Bat For Lashes – The Haunted Man
- elite gymnastics – ruin
- Japandroids – Celebration Rock
- Beach House – Bloom
- Sharon Van Etten – Tramp
- Kent – Jag är inte rädd for mörkret
And a couple of honorable mentions. Why are these two honorables mentioned? Well, for one, Silver & Gold is a compilation of Soof’s past 5 Christmas albums. Also, it is a masterwork of staggering genius. Small Black’s Moon Killer Mixtape was released on 11/11/11 and was missed by yours truly (as a whole). I wound up digging on the title track a heck of a lot in 2012, so, I place this mixtape here as an honorable mention.
- Sufjan Stevens – Silver & Gold
- Small Black – Moon Killer Mixtape
I don’t know what to expect from Sufjan, anymore. I just don’t.
Best un-owned (not unheard) albums from 2012. These are albums which I listened to- in this age of Rdio, Spotify, Grooveshark, and Soundcloud- and was highly impressed with, but hitherto have not been so moved as to purchase them. I would like to, though.
- Purity Ring – Shrines
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
- Jessie Ware – Devotion
- Liars – WIXIW
- Chairlift – Something
- Passion Pit – Gossamer
- Woods – Bend Beyond
- Memory Tapes – Grace / Confusion
- The Fresh & Onlys – Long Slow Dance
- Crystal Castles – (III)
And finally, here is my list of favorite songs from 2012.
- Moon Killer – Small Black
- Genesis – Grimes
- Cherokee – Cat Power
- Give It Up – The Big Pink
- Wildest Moments – Jessie Ware
- No. 1 Against the Rush – Liars
- Into the Black – Chromatics
- Truth – Alexander
- Darkness – Leonard Cohen
- Working Titles – Damien Jurado
- Size Meets The Sound – Woods
- I’m Not Talking – A.C. Newman
- Presence of Mind – The Fresh & Onlys
- Shallow Tears – Light Asylum
- They’re Talking About Us – Tronics
- The House That Heaven Built – Japandroids
- Met Before – Chairlift
- Obedear – Purity Ring
- Wishes – Beach House
- h e r e, i n h e a v e n 4 & 5 (CFCF Remix) – elite gymnastics
- All Your Gold – Bat For Lashes
- Only in My Dreams – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
- Fineshrine – Purity Ring
- Kill for Love – Chromatics
- The Theory of Relativity – Stars
- Museum of Flight – Damien Jurado
- Laura – Bat For Lashes
- Last Rights – Jeremy Enigk
- Heaven – The Walkmen
- Christmas Unicorn – Sufjan Stevens
2012 ~ One More Photo
2012 ~ The Year in Photographs
2012 ~ The Year in Review Begins
Beginning on December 21, 2012, I am posting a daily encapsulation of the year’s finest attributes.
One year ago, I awoke for the first time in Southern California as my home. Though I was barely unpacked, with my wife and two cats in tow, I was giddy with the possibilities and challenges the coming new year would hold.
We had driven from Texas in our little Honda, with worldly possessions and said cats, and arrived in San Diego in the midst of pouring rain (really?) on the evening of December 17th, 2011. Our first home was in the guest room of a house built in the 80s. We slept on an air bed and used an old bookshelf for a dresser.
We found church by way of a garage sale and attended on our first Sunday in town. Nearly every family in this church actively homeschools their children. Both of us grew up homsechooled. Needless to say, we are an active part of the very same congregation here today.
The winter was the first one I spent without so much as a snowflake or gust of frigid wind. Born and raised in Ohio, I was accustomed to a windswept environment framed by the skeletal branches of hibernating trees. Instead, I was treated to a sometimes-rainy, mostly green winter with frequent trips to the beach.
In May, we moved out of our first home and I flew back to Ohio for a little gig shooting a feature. Bree house-sat at an apartment in L.A. and took care of the cats. When I returned, we searched for a new place to live and found one right down the street from our previous place. The day after we moved in, I was called in to interview at a natural foods grocer 3 blocks away, hired 2 hours later, and began work the very next day. Prayer works, people.
Over the next 7 months, we gathered stability as I worked and Bree managed the homestead. In August, our roommate left and we gained a new one, a dental assistant in-training who is also a Christian and a terrific person to boot. Together, we have gradually been turning our humble apartment into something that is more “furnished” and festive. We still have a long way to go, i.e. obtaining actual communal furniture, but we are very thankful for our home.
As the holidays descended I was initiated into a conversation about the possibility of filling a position at a local company doing some really incredible work. That conversation extended on for a couple months and culminated in a job offer, which I accepted on a Sunday morning with a handshake. Kind of crazy how these things transpire, but then again, looking back at 2012, I can say for sure that God has never been more obviously maneuvering in my life, before. It’s as though He’s planting flags all over my road map, saying, “I was there!”
I could go into plentiful detail about all the ways in which God showed up this past year, however I will save some of those stories for journals and future postings.
Stay tuned for my next post, 2012: The Year in [iPhone] Photographs.
Joel Manahan 