Tangled Mind

Quick review of 2014 culture (or what I can remember of it): links lead to review tags, I haven't reviewed everything ...

Over the last 11 years, the ranges have been:
* 4 - 20 films (11 in 2014)
* 1 - 15 theatre trips (15 in 2014)
* 2 - 22 classical concerts (8 in 2014)
* 2 - 6 operas (0 in 2014, boo)
* 0 - 9 gigs (9 in 2014)

Film I liked most: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Film I think objectively best: Only Lovers Left Alive
Best gig: Kate Bush
Best non-Kate Bush gig: Band of Skulls
Best theatre: Electra
Best classical concert: Brahms, Ein deutsches Requiem

Books!
Read 47, 28 by female writers, 19 by male writers, 7 rereads, 1 graphic novel ... click on the icon below for a pretty picture of covers, even though I mostly read on Kindle.

♫ Classical concerts: 10 + Opera: 4
‽ Theatre: 4
♯ Gigs: 1
§ Exhibitions: 2
⊗ Films: 6 different ones, 10 cinema trips

Over the last 10 years, the ranges have been:
* 4 - 20 films (6 in 2013)
* 1 - 8 theatre trips (4 in 2013)
* 2 - 22 classical concerts (14 in 2013, but that includes 4 operas)
* 2 - 6 operas (4 in 2013, included under 'classical music')
* 0 - 6 gigs (1 in 2013) must do better
( details -- no reviews, must do better on that too! )
Also:
Weddings: 1
Conventions: 2 (Eastercon and Nine Worlds)
Leaving the Country: 2 (Menorca in July, Fuerteventura in December)

Books to come!

♫ classical concerts / opera: 11
Θ theatre: 5
♦ film: 16
⊗ gigs and clubs: 3
( Read more... )
Over the last 9 years, the ranges have been:
* 4 - 20 films (11 in 2012)
* 1 - 8 theatre trips (3 in 2012)
* 2 - 22 classical concerts (11 in 2012, but that includes 2 operas)
* 2 - 6 operas (2 in 2012, included under 'classical music')
* 0 - 6 gigs (3 in 2012, including one club night - Salon Rouge) must do better

I really must get back into writing up my cultural outings: one sentence is better than nowt!

As for books, I am soooo far behind on writing up what I've read since September that I've lost count. (Oh, the joys of a Kindle and a solitary week in the sun.) Watch this space ...

Links to write-ups (where I managed to marshall my thoughts in a bloggish direction) point to LJ, but all the posts are on Dreamwidth too.
( Read more... )
And how does this compare to previous years? (Thanks LJ for year-in-review tag!)
Over the last 8 years, the ranges have been:
* 4 - 20 films (12 in 2011)
* 1 - 8 theatre trips (1 in 2011) must do better
* 2 - 22 classical concerts (10 in 2011)
* 2 - 6 operas (3 in 2011)
* 0 - 6 gigs (1 in 2011) must do better
* 49 - 107 books (66 in 2011)

What I read in 2009:
75 books, all reviewed with this tag
- 40 by women and 35 by men
- 19 sf, 12 historical, 4 non-fiction, 21 fantasy, 10 crime, 4 horror (some books fall into more than one category)
( booklist )
One of my resolutions is to finish the unfinished: which leaves me set to continue reading Transition (Banks), Retribution Falls (Wooding), The Child's Book (Byatt), Beloved and God (Lambert), Generation Kill (Wright) and To The Ends of the Earth (Golding).

What am I looking forward to?
The Demon's Covenant (Brennan)
[unknown title] (Wilce)
Iorich (Brust)
... suspect many more, but these are the ones I can think of without recourse to 'coming soon' lists!

What I read last year (with links to reviews)
Titles in bold are those I especially liked.
26 books by women, 22 books by men, 1 book by the mysterious K J Parker.
40 fiction, 9 non-fiction
7 review books (some reviews still outstanding!)
5 titles I tagged as sf, 13 I tagged as fantasy, 6 I tagged as historical, 9 contemporary. (Some overlap).
( 49 books ... )

I've denuded the pinboard and put last year's tickets away safely. And what did I do last year, in terms of cultural events attended?
( Read more... )

2006: A Year in Review
More for my own reference than anything. I try to keep all my tickets, though Ancient Traditions such as my pinboard fell by the way in 2006. And there may still be tickets down the side of the boiler in Burgess Hill.

Summary: Need to get out more. Need to see different films.

FILM (4)
22/01 -- Brokeback Mountain
05/02 -- A Cock and Bull Story
18/03 -- V for Vendetta
06/07 -- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (multiple viewings!)

GIGS (1)
25/05 -- Patti Smith (Meltdown) at Charleston

CONCERTS (2)
24/02 -- La Pasión según San Marcos (Golijov) -- Barbican
14/10 -- Mozart in Barcelona

OPERA (2)
06/05 -- La Belle Helene (Offenbach) -- English National Opera
19/05 -- The Fairy Queen (Purcell) -- Armonico Consort at Theatre Royal, Brighton

THEATRE (1)
20/05 -- The Odyssey -- Hugh Lupton and Daniel Morden, Old Market, Hove

OTHER (3)
07/01 -- Forgotten Empire: The World of Ancient Persia (exhibition at British Museum)
08/07 -- Sand Sculpture, Brighton

A year in books

Oh, and I read 106 books (all reviewed over at Tamaranth Non-Ephemera).

A year in photos ... (each links to my Flickr post)

I keep tickets, ticket-stubs etc for almost everything I go to: they end up (along with postcards from friends) on a pinboard in my kitchen and every New Year I clear off the pinboard and put the ticket stubs away in a drawer, and start the year with the cultural equivalent of a blank canvas.
( illustrated )