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2021: Perhaps The Most Useless Year of My Life

A year characterised by a lot of walking loops around the neighbourhood

2020 was a real shit of a year. Dealing with Covid, lockdowns, and the immense stress of trying to move back home. The fear of disease, and the fear of being locked out of my home country left me with some form of mild PTSD in the early stages of this year. But even amongst all that bullshit, I achieved the monumental task of getting home, and I squeezed in a couple of epic road trips in Alberta and Western Australia along the way.

2021 was a year of nothing. It was a whole lot less stressful, but also a lot emptier. Bereft of achievement, life progress having been kneecapped by the same culprit time and time again.

It was a year of being paralysed. Half of the year was consumed by official lockdowns, the other half by a self-imposed semi-lockdown. Two years into this, I’m now having to choose between a social life or a family life. The fear remains that you can’t take up new hobbies, meet new people, go for a beer or go to the gym without killing your parents weeks later.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom. I finally got back into making tunes again. I hope to have something original to share in 2022, but until it’s a little more polished here’s a cover I punched out when I was learning

Until two weeks ago, I hadn’t actually known anyone who’d gotten Covid personally. I now know one, and I suspect that will increase rapidly in the weeks ahead. Best case scenario, this is the “ripping the band-aid off” of the pandemic and this time next year it’s behind us (as is this government and the corrupt lazy fuck at the top). Fingers crossed!

I did purchase a vacuum cleaner for the first time this year. I think that just about sums it up.

Top music and shows for the year below…

Music

My year end playlist, comprised of songs which all landed in my top fifty plays, and which were released after December 2020 – chosen for play count, as well as thematic content and musical range.

Most played song was Alien Crime Lord, by a long way. Awaiting a new album from The Voidz, I also gave their back-catalogue a lot of attention.

Streams

I didn’t catch a lot of movies this year, but Dune wins regardless. My first (and only) trip to a theatre in two years was worth the wait.

The White Lotus was my favourite series for the year.

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (Season 2) kept me laughing, as did It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia (Season 15) – which was also far more brilliant than a show should be fifteen seasons into its life.

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Streams 2021 Sep Oct Nov

Series

  • Succession (Season 3)
    This show just gets better and better. It is now up there with Better Call Saul as the only series to which I salivate as I await new episodes (I’m not the only one). The cast is just phenomenal, as is the writing. And I have no idea where it will go next.
  • Squid Game
    This was terrific. Mind you, the style and themes do all the heavy lifting. Without the distinctive visuals, intense subject matter and class war themes, you might be left thinking more about that dead end plot line with the cop (whose phone battery seems to last days), an organ harvesting storyline which went nowhere, and the overly drawn out nature of the story (that last episode in particular was a drag). Still, a highlight of the year despite these pet peeves.
  • Dexter: New Blood
    The original run of this show had the worst final season and final episode of any show, ever. Somehow, I was still up for more eight years later. Thankfully, it’s a return to form (thus far anyway. At time of writing there’s still four episodes remaining). Worth a look for fans of the series before it turned bad.
  • Ted Lasso
    What a great first season of a show, followed by a clusterfuck of a second to undo all the good vibes of the first. Season one is a great mix of drama, comedy and warmth. Season two was hot garbage. Much like Mythic Quest it doesn’t seem to understand what was appealing about the show in the first place (keep it light for a start), and overestimates my interest in the “world” of the show. I give zero fucks about B-characters. I don’t need to know more about them, or watch them go on LENGTHY side quests to find themselves. I sure as shit don’t need to know about the issues they had or continue to have with their father. It’s a simple light breezy show and the tone was set in season one. Keep it there. Suffice to say I won’t find out if they get back on track for season three because hit the ejection button on this rickety plane before I got to the end.
  • Foundation
    Well this sure was pretty. Some incredible and unique sci-fi visuals. Unfortunately that was about all it had for me. Perhaps my hopes were too high, but this was a chore to get through.
  • Curb Your Enthusiasm (Season 11)
    This season had a few weak moments, but Larry still makes me laugh. Will I continue to watch? Sure. Would I be sad if they stopped making it? Nope. Always Sunny on the other hand keeps me wanting more.
  • You (Season 3)
    Yes I watched this. Yes it is trash. Yes I knew it was trash going in.

Movies

  • Dune
    I’ve been waiting many many years for this one. When I heard Villeneuve was attached to direct, my anticipation only increased – and it did not disappoint. My first visit to the cinema in two years and it was well and truly worthy of the big screen.
  • The Father
    One of the best of the year. Very cleverly structured and perfectly executed. The less you know before hitting play, the better.
  • Free Guy
    Enjoyable enough but wouldn’t recommend. Plot wise, a bit like The Lego Movie meets The Truman Show with Ryan Reynolds doing his usual thing (which while fun, is really getting a little tired). Taika’s character shat me off too. But what really got to me was the godawful ending. The female lead is sold as a highly intelligent girl, yet somehow she is completely oblivious to her male friend overtly crushing on her for years. So, she’s not interested right? Or she became interested because he grew and changed? Nope. He does fuck all, goes to get a coffee and she suddenly notices all the creepy messages he left in the game for her. So when he returns with his coffee she’s *all over him*. What a steaming pile of Hollywood horse shit.
  • Jungle Cruise
    Does what it says on the label. Entertaining fun in the vein of Indiana Jones and The (Brendan Fraser) Mummy.
  • Nitram
    Fantastic performances and overall a very chilling film. My only gripe is that by the end I wasn’t entirely sure of the point of it all. Perhaps that it was all preventable? I guess that sense of unease might be the whole idea.

Docos

  • Woodstock 99
    Where the 90s died. Pretty alarming to watch now but they make the argument that a lot of what grunge and rap seeded in the early 90s mutated into an angry white male beast by the name of nu-metal. Somehow the messages within the lyrics were lost on a lot of people. I guess that same angry crowd is storming the US Capitol these days.
  • Watch The Sound
    This made for an interesting dive into different technologies, effects and concepts of music production within the last 40 years. Especially interesting given I was diving into some of these effects myself during lockdown.
  • Shirkers
    Really quirky and fascinating doco. I went in blind, which is best. You never quite know where it’s headed or what the point is, but come out of it feeling as though you’ve watched something unique.
  • Inside Central Station
    I love this stuff. In another lifetime I could see myself involved in infrastructure somehow. It was pretty eye-opening to see the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to keep Sydney moving.
  • New York Super Airport
    Similar to above, a doco about infrastructure and engineering, and I lapped it up. It covers the impressive reconstruction of New York’s LaGuardia airport, completed whilst the airport remained functional.
  • Q: Into The Storm
    I’ve stayed out of the loop with the ins and outs of this cesspool. This HBO doco was pretty thorough and engaging. Really makes one reflect on where the balance sits between pros and cons of the internet.

Games

Walking a dystopian version of Vancouver in Backbone
  • Backbone
    I fired this up knowing little about it and found myself on the streets of a dystopian version of Vancouver (albeit not named as such – but the inspiration is clearly there right from the game map to the scenery). Beautiful artwork, engaging story. Good to see a story-driven adventure work so well on a console.
  • Mini Motorways
    Well this just consumed a lot of lockdown time. Addictive, fun, and frustrating. Sim-City meets Oilswell.