Goodbye 2012
Jan. 1st, 2013 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoHappy New Year, everybody! :o)
I was going to post this yesterday, but LJ seemed to be a bit broken. Figuring those Russians are a few hours ahead of us, I realised no work was going to get done to fix it for a little while. And I was right...
These end-of-year posts always make me sad, as so many friends always seem to post about what a crappy year they've had. I hope you didn't, and for those who I know did, I hope 2013 turns out to be a lucky number after all and a much better year all round. It certainly seemed to get off to a good start last night!
For me, I'm happy to say that 2012 seemed to be a year peppered with frequent doses of awesome. Well, maybe I'd rather forget the bit where I got attacked by a falling shop sign, but the summer was great and I really got caught up in the celebrations, going to a Jubilee hog roast, seeing the Queen and Prince Philip, watching the Torch relay (three times), hosting an Olympic party, and (best of all) getting to spend a day at the Paralympic Games.
Earlier in the year, I visited Cardiff, and then later in the year, I went back to (a different bit of) Wales and then the slightly more exotic locations of Geneva for work and Maastricht (and Valkenburg) for pleasure. I also gained a new niece (and, just before Christmas, a new second cousin), visited the seaside, and met J.K.Rowling. And I seem to have had a quite ridiculous number of pub lunches, particularly towards the end of the year...
In semi-traditional style, following my round up of films and books I devoured in the first half of the year, here's the same treatment for the second (not-quite) half of 2012:
FILMS:
The Bourne Legacy - A surprisingly good reboot. Not exactly brain-taxing, but a well-constructed plot and some excellent action scenes.
Brave - Pixar does medieval Scottish feminism. Hmmm. Not one of their best. An entertaining enough slice of disposable entertainment, but Disney's Tangled is better.
The Watch - A neighbourhood watch takes on aliens. Surprisingly engaging for a Ben Stiller farce.
The Expendables 2 - Garbage, with tongues very firmly in cheeks. Best enjoyed in the spirit with which it was intended.
Lawless - Western about bootleggers during prohibition. Gritty and serious, but well-made.
The Sweeney - A remake that doesn't quite work. Disbelief never quite fully suspended.
Total Recall - Clever (and very shiny) futuristic thriller. I really enjoyed this. I haven't seen the original though.
Paranorman - Best cartoon of the year. Funny, scary, inventive, and has real heart without being soppy or predictable. Watch it if you get the chance.
Looper - Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a believable younger version of Bruce Willis in what is basically a time-travel comic book. Fun, as long as you just go with it and don't question the paradoxes.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - This is not the light-hearted teen flick it first appears to be. It's a well-written character study of three emotionally-damaged teens. The three young leads are superb. Well worth a watch.
Skyfall - Bond back on brilliant form. My full review here.
Rust and Bone - Somewhat overhyped story about a single father and a whale trainer who suffers a horrific accident. Let down by poor writing - the characters just aren't that engaging.
Argo - True-life story of a hostage rescue mission. Don't be put off by Ben Affleck's director/lead actor credit. This is tense and gripping all the way through, peppered with occasional (but never misplaced or OTT) humour. Special mention for the opening sequence, which sets out where the Iranians are coming from.
Gambit - The Coen Brothers do a Brit flick! If you like the Coens' particular brand of farce, they're on form here, although I know some people thought it too silly. Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz and Alan Rickman all do well, and the ending is nicely ambiguous.
End of Watch - A good "buddy cop" movie with strong characters, but let down by a thin story and ridiculous overuse of shaky-cam. Disappointing overall.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Too long and too much like LOTR. My full review here.
Seven Psychopaths - More demented craziness and people trying to kill each other from the makers of 'In Bruges'. A bit too self-referential for my tastes, but still a very enjoyable black comedy with a great cast.
BOOKS:
The Sleeper Awakes / The War in the Air / The Shape of Things to Come (H.G. Wells) - These mark the end of my H.G. Wells marathon. All three are alternate futures, in which Wells peddles his politics and speculates on what might be. TSA (1899) is a great distopian adventure. TSoTtC (1933) is disappointing, being essentially written as a 'history' text book and pretty much devoid of action or characters. It also falls rather wide of the mark in terms of what did happen in the latter 20th Century. TWitA (1907) though, is spot on, and by far the best of the bunch. As Wells wrote when the book was re-published in 1941, "I told you so. You damned fools."
Dream-Songs Book 1 & Book 2 (George R.R. Martin) - A compilation of GRRM's short stories writtenwhile he was avoiding writing A Song of Ice and Fire over his long career. A mixed bag of sci-fi, fantasy and horror. Some are much better than others, but on the whole I enjoyed these collections a lot.
For One More Day (Mitch Albom) - A story of a near-death experience and one man's reconciliation with his (dead) mother. If you've read 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven', you'll know the sort of thing to expect. Touching and quite sad, although the ending doesn't really work for me.
George's Marvellous Medicine / Fantastic Mr Fox / The BFG (Roald Dahl) - I'm sure these need no explanation! ;o) Thanks to Anne (WINOLJ) having a book clearout, I finally acquired my own copies of these Roald Dahl classics, having relied on library copies when I was younger.
Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary (Neil Corry & others) - A bog-standard Dorling Kindersley guide to the new series (2005-2010). Lots of pictures but not much detail.
Transformers Vault (Pablo Hidalgo) - This, on the other hand, is a guide packed with lots of information I never knew. Written by a true geek, for geeks. Yay!
Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Volumes 1 & 2 (James Roberts) / Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (John Barber) / Autocracy (Chris Metzen & Flint Dille) - After some recent rubbish, TF comics are back on form. James Roberts is clearly a Firefly fan, as MTMTE follows a wisecracking crew of post-war survivors from mishap to mishap. RiD is more serious and looks at post-war politics back on Cybertron (albeit with things going boom or not). Autocracy is a rather good origin story for Optimus Prime.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling) - One of my favourites in the series, introducing the Dementors and the Marauders, as well as Harry's greatest Quidditch triumph. Reading this with Evie has been a tremendous pleasure :o)
The Casual Vacancy (J.K. Rowling) - It turns out JKR can write about stuff other than wizards, after all. My full review here.
Elisabeth Sladen - the autobiography - A light-hearted insight into the making of Doctor Who in the 70s, from one of it's best-loved (and much-missed) stars.
The Lego Ideas Book (Daniel Lipkowitz) - A great collection of model ideas and building techniques from the sorts of master builders who build Legoland parks. Now, how many spare bricks do I have...?
The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) - This needed a re-read before seeing the film. More fun and full of charm than Lord of the Rings. A chaotic adventure with dwarves, goblins, giant spiders, elves and a stonking great fire-breathing dragon. And of course, 'Riddles in the Dark' ;o)
Myth & Magic - The Art of John Howe - Split about 50/50 between his Middle Earth paintings and other fantasy artwork, this is very pretty :o)
Inheritance (Christopher Paolini) - The final (at last!) book in the 'Eragon' series. Paolini seemed determined to make this more 'epic' than it needed to be. It does go on a bit, and the extended ending really is too much. Still, the big bad Galbatorix turns out to be a complex and smooth-talking manipulator when he finally makes his appearance, and his scenes are real page-turners. Saphira the dragon is still a joy to read about as a character. Special mention for the scene where she battles another dragon using a cathedral as a weapon.
The Christmas Mystery (Jostein Gaarder) - A nice little Christmas story about a boy who gets an apparently magical advent calendar, which tells the story of a girl who disappeared 40 years ago and travelled back in time to Bethlehem at the time of the Nativity. Best read as a chapter a day, starting on 1st December ;o)
For All The Tea In China (Stephen Sheppard) - A rollicking adventure on the high seas, as two not-quite-pirates-but-definitely-scoundrels flounder through a series of adventures before taking part in the race of a lifetime. Preposterous but terrific fun.
I stuck to my 2012 New Year's resolutions of starting/finishing work earlier and reading more books, and I aim to carry those on in 2013.
The last couple of rounds of the Christmas season went well, with going out for Dim Sum on the 22nd, Christmas Day with my parents, Boxing Day at my sister's, the traditional NYEE party/barbecue chez Nightingale, and seeing New Year in last night at Flat of Geek. A few glasses of Jura Superstition seemed like a good way to see in 2013 ;o). Then it was a round of pizza, games and movies this evening before it's back to normality tomorrow.
Best wishes to all for the coming year!
I was going to post this yesterday, but LJ seemed to be a bit broken. Figuring those Russians are a few hours ahead of us, I realised no work was going to get done to fix it for a little while. And I was right...
These end-of-year posts always make me sad, as so many friends always seem to post about what a crappy year they've had. I hope you didn't, and for those who I know did, I hope 2013 turns out to be a lucky number after all and a much better year all round. It certainly seemed to get off to a good start last night!
For me, I'm happy to say that 2012 seemed to be a year peppered with frequent doses of awesome. Well, maybe I'd rather forget the bit where I got attacked by a falling shop sign, but the summer was great and I really got caught up in the celebrations, going to a Jubilee hog roast, seeing the Queen and Prince Philip, watching the Torch relay (three times), hosting an Olympic party, and (best of all) getting to spend a day at the Paralympic Games.
Earlier in the year, I visited Cardiff, and then later in the year, I went back to (a different bit of) Wales and then the slightly more exotic locations of Geneva for work and Maastricht (and Valkenburg) for pleasure. I also gained a new niece (and, just before Christmas, a new second cousin), visited the seaside, and met J.K.Rowling. And I seem to have had a quite ridiculous number of pub lunches, particularly towards the end of the year...
In semi-traditional style, following my round up of films and books I devoured in the first half of the year, here's the same treatment for the second (not-quite) half of 2012:
FILMS:
The Bourne Legacy - A surprisingly good reboot. Not exactly brain-taxing, but a well-constructed plot and some excellent action scenes.
Brave - Pixar does medieval Scottish feminism. Hmmm. Not one of their best. An entertaining enough slice of disposable entertainment, but Disney's Tangled is better.
The Watch - A neighbourhood watch takes on aliens. Surprisingly engaging for a Ben Stiller farce.
The Expendables 2 - Garbage, with tongues very firmly in cheeks. Best enjoyed in the spirit with which it was intended.
Lawless - Western about bootleggers during prohibition. Gritty and serious, but well-made.
The Sweeney - A remake that doesn't quite work. Disbelief never quite fully suspended.
Total Recall - Clever (and very shiny) futuristic thriller. I really enjoyed this. I haven't seen the original though.
Paranorman - Best cartoon of the year. Funny, scary, inventive, and has real heart without being soppy or predictable. Watch it if you get the chance.
Looper - Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a believable younger version of Bruce Willis in what is basically a time-travel comic book. Fun, as long as you just go with it and don't question the paradoxes.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower - This is not the light-hearted teen flick it first appears to be. It's a well-written character study of three emotionally-damaged teens. The three young leads are superb. Well worth a watch.
Skyfall - Bond back on brilliant form. My full review here.
Rust and Bone - Somewhat overhyped story about a single father and a whale trainer who suffers a horrific accident. Let down by poor writing - the characters just aren't that engaging.
Argo - True-life story of a hostage rescue mission. Don't be put off by Ben Affleck's director/lead actor credit. This is tense and gripping all the way through, peppered with occasional (but never misplaced or OTT) humour. Special mention for the opening sequence, which sets out where the Iranians are coming from.
Gambit - The Coen Brothers do a Brit flick! If you like the Coens' particular brand of farce, they're on form here, although I know some people thought it too silly. Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz and Alan Rickman all do well, and the ending is nicely ambiguous.
End of Watch - A good "buddy cop" movie with strong characters, but let down by a thin story and ridiculous overuse of shaky-cam. Disappointing overall.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Too long and too much like LOTR. My full review here.
Seven Psychopaths - More demented craziness and people trying to kill each other from the makers of 'In Bruges'. A bit too self-referential for my tastes, but still a very enjoyable black comedy with a great cast.
BOOKS:
The Sleeper Awakes / The War in the Air / The Shape of Things to Come (H.G. Wells) - These mark the end of my H.G. Wells marathon. All three are alternate futures, in which Wells peddles his politics and speculates on what might be. TSA (1899) is a great distopian adventure. TSoTtC (1933) is disappointing, being essentially written as a 'history' text book and pretty much devoid of action or characters. It also falls rather wide of the mark in terms of what did happen in the latter 20th Century. TWitA (1907) though, is spot on, and by far the best of the bunch. As Wells wrote when the book was re-published in 1941, "I told you so. You damned fools."
Dream-Songs Book 1 & Book 2 (George R.R. Martin) - A compilation of GRRM's short stories written
For One More Day (Mitch Albom) - A story of a near-death experience and one man's reconciliation with his (dead) mother. If you've read 'The Five People You Meet in Heaven', you'll know the sort of thing to expect. Touching and quite sad, although the ending doesn't really work for me.
George's Marvellous Medicine / Fantastic Mr Fox / The BFG (Roald Dahl) - I'm sure these need no explanation! ;o) Thanks to Anne (WINOLJ) having a book clearout, I finally acquired my own copies of these Roald Dahl classics, having relied on library copies when I was younger.
Doctor Who: The Visual Dictionary (Neil Corry & others) - A bog-standard Dorling Kindersley guide to the new series (2005-2010). Lots of pictures but not much detail.
Transformers Vault (Pablo Hidalgo) - This, on the other hand, is a guide packed with lots of information I never knew. Written by a true geek, for geeks. Yay!
Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye Volumes 1 & 2 (James Roberts) / Robots in Disguise Volume 1 (John Barber) / Autocracy (Chris Metzen & Flint Dille) - After some recent rubbish, TF comics are back on form. James Roberts is clearly a Firefly fan, as MTMTE follows a wisecracking crew of post-war survivors from mishap to mishap. RiD is more serious and looks at post-war politics back on Cybertron (albeit with things going boom or not). Autocracy is a rather good origin story for Optimus Prime.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (J.K. Rowling) - One of my favourites in the series, introducing the Dementors and the Marauders, as well as Harry's greatest Quidditch triumph. Reading this with Evie has been a tremendous pleasure :o)
The Casual Vacancy (J.K. Rowling) - It turns out JKR can write about stuff other than wizards, after all. My full review here.
Elisabeth Sladen - the autobiography - A light-hearted insight into the making of Doctor Who in the 70s, from one of it's best-loved (and much-missed) stars.
The Lego Ideas Book (Daniel Lipkowitz) - A great collection of model ideas and building techniques from the sorts of master builders who build Legoland parks. Now, how many spare bricks do I have...?
The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien) - This needed a re-read before seeing the film. More fun and full of charm than Lord of the Rings. A chaotic adventure with dwarves, goblins, giant spiders, elves and a stonking great fire-breathing dragon. And of course, 'Riddles in the Dark' ;o)
Myth & Magic - The Art of John Howe - Split about 50/50 between his Middle Earth paintings and other fantasy artwork, this is very pretty :o)
Inheritance (Christopher Paolini) - The final (at last!) book in the 'Eragon' series. Paolini seemed determined to make this more 'epic' than it needed to be. It does go on a bit, and the extended ending really is too much. Still, the big bad Galbatorix turns out to be a complex and smooth-talking manipulator when he finally makes his appearance, and his scenes are real page-turners. Saphira the dragon is still a joy to read about as a character. Special mention for the scene where she battles another dragon using a cathedral as a weapon.
The Christmas Mystery (Jostein Gaarder) - A nice little Christmas story about a boy who gets an apparently magical advent calendar, which tells the story of a girl who disappeared 40 years ago and travelled back in time to Bethlehem at the time of the Nativity. Best read as a chapter a day, starting on 1st December ;o)
For All The Tea In China (Stephen Sheppard) - A rollicking adventure on the high seas, as two not-quite-pirates-but-definitely-scoundrels flounder through a series of adventures before taking part in the race of a lifetime. Preposterous but terrific fun.
I stuck to my 2012 New Year's resolutions of starting/finishing work earlier and reading more books, and I aim to carry those on in 2013.
The last couple of rounds of the Christmas season went well, with going out for Dim Sum on the 22nd, Christmas Day with my parents, Boxing Day at my sister's, the traditional NYEE party/barbecue chez Nightingale, and seeing New Year in last night at Flat of Geek. A few glasses of Jura Superstition seemed like a good way to see in 2013 ;o). Then it was a round of pizza, games and movies this evening before it's back to normality tomorrow.
Best wishes to all for the coming year!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-01-02 10:33 pm (UTC)(Does that help balance out any negative posts you've read?)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-02 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-01-02 11:13 pm (UTC)ST:DS9 wasn't a reboot of ST:TNG, but a different story in the same universe; but Abrahms Star Trek movie(s) is a reboot of ST:TOS.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-03 06:30 pm (UTC)