This is a continuation of this
Music
Studies suggest that after the age of 33, you tend to like less and less new music. Certainly, you don’t tend to like emerging genres. This might be the reason why “old-heads” dislike mumble rap. Over the last year, it has been my usual ecclectic mix of rock, grunge, reggae, ‘90s hip hop, synthwave, house, blues and metal. With my biggest discoveries being that one song by J-Cole you’ll find plastered over TikTok videos and German house DJ Chris Luno’s stimulating house beats which I’ve used to get the most mundane tasks done during the day jobs.
I have had the joy of seeing the following: Tool, The Specials, some bands at Desertfest (this is an ongoing joke about how I rock up every year on the last day when everyone is too hungover for bassy psychadelic metal, pay £50 for a ticket and drink to a wall of sound, or spend the entire time in a smoking area, despite not being a smoker), Tom Jones, Kings of Leon, Brass Against and a Pink Floyd Tribute Band.
My biggest win of the year has to have been seeing Tool. After eating a somewhat delicious and aromatic Rice Krispie cake, the show came to life with insane visuals and hypnotic rhythms so potent and powerful it has been rumoured to have had an effect on big-time Northern Irish house duo Bicep’s music. Whilst initially the audience were to be seated, frontman, Maynard James Keenan had his devoted followers on their feet for the duration. Had he announced he was starting a cult, I would have volunteered myself to have been his muscle. Incredible stuff. This would have been made only a little bit better if I had seen a little bit more of warm-up act, Brass Against, who I’ve adored since discovering them in 2017.
My biggest loss has to have been missing ridiculous synth-comedian Marc Rebelliet. Rebelliet was due to play in February and I had purchased two tickets for myself and my pseudo-girlfriend of the time (long story, but let’s say friend with benefits who I had attempted to “convert” into a girlfriend) as a Valentine’s weekend thing. COVID restrictions still being what they were meant that Marc postponed the gig until August, at which point pseudo-girlfriend and I were no longer a thing and the lack of email reminders from notorious cunt-corporation, Ticketmaster meant that I missed the gig entirely. I had hoped that the additional insurance Allianz Global Assistance had supposedly provided would actually be of some use, but of course these other corporate-twats will rely on you not reading small print. Who is going to go to a doctor to get evidence if they believe they have COVID? Absolute joke. Do not trust them as far as you can throw them.
Most of my music discoveries came as a result of weird remixes, this Wu-Tang remix album
Along with a Biggie Christmas album got a lot of listening. As the top comment puts it: “nothing says christmas more than "honey´s feel it deep in the placenta"
My Dad would be proud that I’m getting stuck back into one of the greatest blues legends of all time, John Lee Hooker
As for the synthwave, the bizarre, hyper-violent indy game, Hotline Miami 2 has fed into my music tastes getting a little bit weirder
There was a big loss this year with the passing of Terry Hall. I was blessed to have seen The Specials in Botanic Gardens during the Summer, which I enjoyed immensly even if it was as a result of some sort of weird THC-infused Techno Viking dancing, much to the chargrin of my buddy.
Fashion
I’ve never had a cool sense of dress, with shorts being my prefered pantalon for most of the year, and one of the many wooly jumpers I’ve been gifted by my mum to keep my core warm. It is time to accept though, that in Winter, I have become my Dad. Courdroy trousers, coupled with these wooly jumpers is exactly what he would wear, though I have enough of the jumpers that I’m not wearing the ones with holes all the time. Additionally, I am now officially the “what the fuck is that haircut” guy, as I see that weird shaved almost bare back-and-sides, but longer on-top do is like a bad Peaky Blinders Imitation. I think you can probably tell, I don’t quite follow it.
Sports
As per usual, I don’t to care that much about sports, other than combat ones. Over the last few years we’ve moved into the era of freak fights, with Youtubers calling out retired MMA fighters and boxers for some generally piss-poor fights, which have more than stanky whiff of corruption and fighters taking dives. What’s alarming is the fact these “fighters” have all decided “turning heel” and acting in the most obnoxious, dishonourable way calling each other out on social media and podcasts. Of course fighters have done this for a long time, Tyson Fury seems to alternate between bigging up and putting down his opponents as and when it suits him, all the while dodging mandatory title defences, or fighting genuine threats to losing his title. However, I have never have I seen it to the same degree, this massive staged dance to boost pay-per-view sales. Whilst Muhammad Ali and Chael Sonnen are some of the masters of it over the years, I think overall its promotes a toxicity amongst young people. The same kind of toxicity which leaks onto Call of Duty servers and has female players doxed and abused even more so than their male counterparts. Perhaps this is a gross conflation of the effects, but surely it’s all part of the same cause-and-effect pattern.
What about the good fights? Well we’re not going to mention Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua or even Oleksandr Usyk (except to say “fair fucks to the Ukrainans for returning home, putting themselves in danger and being an active part of the war”), because some of their displays have been embarassing. Terrence Crawford’s incredible Welterweight defences have nothing but enthralling. Whilst the UFC has had a number of wild fights, ending in out-of-no-where comebacks: Leon Edwards fourth round headkick knockout was actually something I called (Well I was a round out), whilst Alex Pereira landed a similar out-of-the-blue finish of his arch-rival Israel Adesanya. Both fights have real fight of the year qualities about them, with Cyril Gane vs Tai Tuivasa not far behind. It’s been in some ways a rough year for UFC as the fighter’s pay dispute still seems far from being sorted. Fighters are underpaid compared to the amount of damage sustained, cost of camps, and healthcare, all in the context of the massive global revenue generated by the fights themselves. This has given Jake Paul more credence pushing for a fighter’s union alongside Anderson Silva. Lastly, several former fighters, all under 45 have passed, Stephan Bonnar, Rumble Johnson are amongst them. Johnson was unfortunately a victim of cancer, but in Stephan’s case, it seemed that the injuries sustained throughout his career led to him abusing opioids as a source of pain relief. This, likely combined with CTE led to some erratic behaviour in his final years. This is not dissimilar to many of the professional wrestlers who have passed early over the years.
Comedy and Theatre
I’ve tried to get the odd theatre show in there here and there, partly as some sort of “actor obligation”, sometimes to show support to my thesp comrades, other times to see if I can learn anything from seeing a live, engaged performance, but a good live theatre show can sometimes be better than a good film.
One such play was “The Wife and Me, and my Sex Doll” by Mark Kavanagh. Whilst all three performers did a great job of holding the witty, fast-paced sex romp together, Maryann Maguire and Christine Clark were particularly good at showing just how empathetic and interesting characters can be. Another was Clare Gould’s “The Gap Year”, which followed three older ladies deciding to travel around the island of Ireland, reconect and grieve lost loves. It’s a piece which saw a standing ovation from the crowd and may well get turned into an indy feature.
I’m still a comedy nerd and saw some great local shows, but Liverpool-native and main MC of Hot Water Comedy club, Paul Smith came over and did an extended set in The Waterfront at the start of the year. Doing extended bits on his DMT experiences, getting pegged and surviving the highs and lows of lockdown were a real treat. The runner up might have to be Steve Hofstetter who had a half decent show in The Empire Bar, but it was one which felt a little bit overpriced for what it was compared to other comics. The third part will finally be a review of my own efforts and figure out what I’m looking to achieve from next year.
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