Next in my reviews of the year is music. Spotify loves to hit you with statistics at the end of your listening year (November to November is how they calculate it), and this year I am told I listened to 1,158 artists performing 2,832 songs spanning 61 genres, for a total of 20,072 minutes (orRead More
As 2022 winds its way to its ignominious close, it’s time to look back at some of the things that were good about the year, despite war, weather, viruses, the meteoric rise in the cost of living, and a revolving door of prime ministers. We’ll start off with books, which were the greatest solace. InRead More
Let’s move on to the books read in 2021. Of these there were plenty – too many to remember, let alone list. So, as in previous such lists, I am restricting myself to one book per month, even though some months were more full of riches than others, meaning some fine works had to beRead More
Next in the reviews of 2021 comes images – personal images, that is. The usual mixture of nature composing itself to its best advantage, abstract art discovered in run-down places, and people arranging themselves as they will. For higher resolution versions click on the title links, which will take you to my Flickr pages. MyRead More
Up next in my review of the year is music. As with most years, I listened to a great deal: exploring the new; uncovering former favourites not heard in a long time to see if they stood up well; trying out the new recordings of established favourites, sometimes up to standard, sometimes needing more listensRead More
Here we are at the end of the year we thought would not be like the last one, only for it to be almost exactly like the last one – just with more traffic and not quite so such sunshine. Nevertheless, a year is a year, and it’s time to review from various perspectives, muchRead More
2020 was the year in which I photographed. Under lockdown, with all that emptiness and those astonishing clear skies, it was the thing to do. You shared images of anything on social media, just to tell people that you were still there, seeing things. I took many pictures of my home town of Rochester, discoveringRead More
I read quite a few books in 2020, and finished most of them. As with last year, rather than try and survey them all (which would be too much) or even just the ones I thought were good (which would still be too much), I have selected twelve, one for each of the months inRead More
At the start of 2020 Bob Dylan might have been looking forward to a quiet year. He had a few new recordings lined up or completed. There would be around 100 concerts – par for the course. He might weld a few gates, sip a little more whiskey, and rest a while. He was goingRead More
According to Spotify, I listened to 462 music genres over 2020. I did not know that there could be that many genres, and I’m certain I couldn’t name them all. At the end of a year’s listening for those signed up to the service, they send a cheery, personalised summary of your year’s listening, packedRead More