2011 Favourites

So, a brief recap of 2011's brighter moments, according to yours truly. This was an unusual year, in that I never left London, and my picks reflect that.

Favourite art exhibit:
Pipilotti Rist: Eyeball Massage
A legal psychedelic trip, with bubbles, knickers, and all manner of visual delights. Running at Hayward Gallery until 8 January.

Favourite film:
Dreams of a Life, dir. Carol Morley
Moving and profound imagining of a life lost in London. Running now in UK.

Favourite gig / live event:
Sound and Silents
Live scoring of four short films from early women directors, which played at Queen Elizabeth Hall in March as part of the Bird's Eye View festival.

Favourite album:
W, Planningtorock
A late spring release that I continued to play into winter. Quite moody, at times disturbing, but also playful conceptual album from Janine Rostron, whose stage get-up resembles one of Buffy's demons.

2010 Moments

While I am still not keen on lists, I do have a few memories to share from 2010.

Favourite film: The Arbor. Clio Barnard's experimental documentary may have attracted attention for its miming technique, but what stuck with me was the raw emotion extracted from the audio interviews.

Favourite exhibit: Gender Check at MuMok, Vienna. So huge, so expansive, it was almost draining, but this survey exhibit of gender expression in Eastern European art was awesome to behold.

Favourite song: "Found Love in a Graveyard", by Veronica Falls. It came out at the start of the year, but kept coming back. And it still sounds great.

Favourite album: City Splits #1: Berlin. A slight cheat, as it presents two bands--Jasmina Maschina and Golden Diskó Ship--from one city on one record, but this was one of my favourite spins of the year. A delightful rainy Sunday afternoon record.

Favourite gig: Amanda Palmer at Arena, Vienna. One woman, one keyboard, one ukulele. Mind-blowing.

Favourite random moment: AGF singing "Bau Auf Bau Auf" to me over Skype.

And it only remains for me to wish all eine bessere Zukunft.

De-listed

So many things I am meant to be doing: clearing space to finally set up proper bedroom instead of sleeping on futon in office, writing speculative article on artist/filmmaker, prepping re-construction of destroyed radio show, oh, and blogging.

I have been asked a few times for end of year/decade lists, but find I have nothing to say in this format. Why is this? I used to love lists. I would never go shopping without one and about a decade ago used to compile all my favourite songs into a bespoke compilation tape for my own enjoyment.

Now, however, I have become listed out by other people's lists. It seems the easiest way to fill space in media outlets and strikes me as, quite frankly, the laziest of lazy journalism. So, I am not doing one. Everyone can make up her or his own mind about favourite and least favourite things. So there.