Apathy. Transmutation. Refraction. Consumerism. The things I choice to discuss for 2004.

2005 will be different. A new year. Enjoy it, and have a good celebration tonight.

Best wishes, and remember auld lang syne.

It has been a good year for music and film. Lots of new creativity.

Best Albums of 2004

1. Auf Der Maur – Auf Der Maur. A stunning debut album from the former Hole bassist, delivering chunky guitars against twisted lyrics. The sexiest and best album of the year.
2. Biffy Clyro – Infinity Land. The boys from Kilmarnock finally produce the rock album they have been threatening for years. While their first album, Blackened Sky, was all catchy hook filled sing alongs, and Vertigo Of Bliss took them into slightly stranger territory, it is with this third album that they finally nail their sound. A very close second. Just remember: There’s No Such Thing As A Jaggy Snake.
3. Probot – Probot. Dave Grohl’s metal side project comes to fruition after years of speculation. Songs sound like extensions of the main bands of the many guests, with “Shake Your Blood” spilling over with the influence of Motorhead. An easy choice for a drummer.
4. JetPlane Landing – There Is No Courage Unless There Is Real Danger. Not actually an album (or it would be higher), more of a 23 track single. Either way, fantastically good. The title track is the sort of rant produced by Rage when they were in their prime, followed by a mixture of live tracks and new acoustic songs. For 4, it’s excellent value (quality and quantity) and with proceeds going to International Red Cross you really should get a copy.
5. yourcodenameis:milo – All Roads To Fault. The first mini-album sounds great. A fairly odd guitar dynamic, switching tempos and strong lyrics make this a favourite. Worth it for the title track alone.

Honourable mentions for the above should go to Mclusky for the “The Difference Between Me And You Is That I’m Not On Fire“. Opens with two dark tracks, and progresses as a very proficient rock album. Only kept out of the top five by a whisker.

Top Five Bands To Watch In 2005 (we’ll assume that Chinese Democracy won’t make it out again):

• The Mars Volta – First album, Deloused In The Comatorium, was and still is a mind-expanding sonic adventure. Upcoming second album, Frances The Mute, has a lot to live up to but if anyone can do it Omar and Cedric can.
• Degrassi – Solid indie rock with perfectly posed lyrical riffs and cutting guitars. If this band get signed, they will be big.
• Fickle Public – A band who understand the intricacies of guitar dynamics better than most who have decade long careers. Funny titles, head bopping tunes and a hint of punk, the debut album is most definitely one to watch.
• Hell Is For Heroes – Two singles into the approach for their follow up to the fantastic Neon Handshake, Hell Is For Heroes prove that being dropped by a major label shouldn’t slow you down if you’ve got belief in your music.
• yourcodenameis:Milo – The first full-length will drop sometime early next year, preceeded by an EP. Buy them both. They shall be good.

Now, the next part is the best films of the year. Tricky business since it has been such a spectacular year for cinema. Because the selection process was so tricky (particularly cross-genre), I’m picking a top three and then listing another ten excellent films.

1. Bubba Hotep – A dark comedy about a retired Elvis, a black John F. Kennedy and a soul sucking mummy, opening with a spiel about warts in odd places. Hilarious. Bruce Campbell is spot on, as always.
2. I Heart Huckabees – Comedies about an existential crisis and the nature of human existence probably shouldn’t work. This one does and does it well.
3. Zatoichi – Samurai action done right: short battles, single swipe kills, and lots of blood. Takeshi Kitano is superb as the master swordsman turned blind masseur.

Other films (no further commentary, just read the review):

• Infernal Affairs
• Dawn Of The Dead (remake)
• Shaun Of The Dead
• Kill Bill, Volume 2
• The Bourne Supremacy
• Anchorman
• Collateral
• Hero
• Oldboy
• Garden State

That’s all. I would thoroughly recommend all the films and albums listed here. If you haven’t seen or heard any, give them a go.

Forewarning: This is largely a personal post. If you avoid those posts (as I normally do), then stop reading now.

1. Not sure if it has been a good year or a bad year. Certainly an odd year. Some of the ups and downs, and general occurences:

• Finishing my third year university team project. Though TwentyFour24 is now defunct, it’s the best distributed, topic-driven web crawler (I’ve worked on).
• Some excellent nights out. Evidence of some can be found on Derek’s gallery, evidence of others is buried and should stay that way. Of note were the CompSoc Karaoke, last years end of term, Jill’s 21st in the middle of nowhere, and the trip to Camden.
• My summer in Nottingham. Working for a great company, meeting new friends, seeing a fine city, going to some excellent clubs, doing some things I’m not proud of, enjoying some independence. Sure, it was supposed to be a year, but for various reasons the summer was what I wanted. A good time, in general.
• Pub Friday. The celebration every Friday of all things pub (or an excuse to drink). Also known as Chip Friday, Quiz Friday, No Hidden Weapons Friday, Queen Friday, and other things.
• The friends I keep. Made a lot of new friends (my phonebook has literally doubled in size this year), lost touch with several (for better and worse), and got to know most of my friends better.
• Recreating the charge of the light brigade the other night using only beer bottles and glasses with Derek while Matt looked on.
• Films. Great year for cinema and I enjoyed a lot.
• Some recent news about my future which I’ll not go into here, but perked me up.
• Joining a band again. How I missed drumming, and am enjoying getting better at it once more.

There are things missing from here, some more poignant and affecting than those listed, some more trivial from an outside perspective.

1. A year shaped by lots of changes.

Oh dear. It all went a bit wrong. House Of Flying Daggers could have been a great film. The premise (police hunting for the leader of a dissident sect) lends itself perfectly to be an impressive martial arts film with large and small scale battles between the two factions. Instead, the film focusses on the growing love between two characters on opposing sides.

The poor Romeo And Juliet plot is further let down by the twists: weak bluff after bluff after “Aha” after double bluff, not a single one enhancing the film at all.

The final act was particularly weak, with one of the two male characters being picked fairly arbitrarily as the villian and the plot meandering from there.

Dull, lengthy cinematics only gave way to one or two reasonable fight scenes. A shame.

How have you improved the world this year? Consider for a moment your place in the world. You almost certainly consume resources, but do you give the same amount back? Are you apathetic to those around you?

Maybe. You don’t have to deal with other people to change the world, to improve it in some small way. However, if you’re not actively trying to make it better, it is likely that you are passively destroying it.

Again, think about how you contribute to communities and society as a whole. List five ways that you make the world a better place (and please, leave out narcissistic reasons, you are not inherently good). Just list five ways that we are better off for having you around. Can you honestly do it? Why not?

A whole new year is coming. Think about how you can resolve that situation. Figure out your talents and skills, decide on the little things that you can do to improve the world, and then do them. As a thought experiment, this is only a brief curio. Action is what is needed. Action.