In some ways, it feels like I was just writing about the end of 2011 a few weeks ago. So much happened in 2012 that that's obviously impossible, but it was easily the fastest year in recent memory. I don't exactly know how to quantify the quickness of a year. I just know I've never felt like a year didn't really pass, when one actually did, until I met January 1st, 2013.
So much did happen.
I now know what it's like to be married for a whole year. It's hard, but wonderful. Everything everyone says is actually mostly true. Besides all of the stuff about hating it you here in pop-culture from time to time. I couldn't love being married more. The secret to that is simple: I couldn't love my wife anymore than I do, but then, somehow, each day, I wake up, and realize that I do, much more than the day before.
I learned that much of my 2011 strife over my employment with InteVarsity and pull toward law school was part of a master plan which gave me an immediate landing spot, once InterVarsity diverged from the ranks of an organization for which I can ideologically work.
We've now officially lived in Cleveland for 1 year. It's everything I thought it would be and more. I love living in Cleveland and, unless I somehow manage to retire to Savannah Georgia, I can't imagine calling anywhere else home.
As different as it is from Cleveland, I happened to fall in love with Savannah this year too, when we visited it in August. Perhaps it was the adventure, driving across five states and all that, then ending up in a historic, semi-tropical-paradise city without a care in the world for a week, but, like Cleveland, Savannah has its interesting, historic, alluring dark spots. There's nothing like it in the world. Supposedly, its the most haunted city in the country- and why wouldn't it be? Historically, it was the end of the civil war, a pirate port, and an antebellum wonderland. In some ways, it was built on evil- but in others, it is something of a pure pearl, untouched by too much jarring modernity.
And of course, I started law school this year. It was like the heavens opened up and showed me a path I'd been searching for, for so long. I can't wait to see where it leads, but for now, I'm overjoyed at being on it. Still waiting for first semester grades, and that makes me a little nervous, but no matter what they are, as long as I don't fail out, I'll still be happy to be there and be engaging with the body of law.
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For those of you who have been reading this for any number of years, you may know what's coming next. Each year, I go through the rolls of my memory and determine my favorite things from the past year in each of several categories- movies, music, etc.
2012 was a good year on that front, but law school made it quite a bit thinner than in years past. I did not crack 40 books or 55 movies for the first time in 3 years (at least- I haven't been keeping track for longer). The mere fact that I'm okay with that fact means I think law school is worth it, but that's another story for another day. For now, I'll address the categories as I have been, for at least six years, spanning www.xanga.com/dulacian and this blog. Past entries can be found, somewhere around the beginning of the year, by searching either place. Last year's is just 13 back of this one. It was a thin year in blogging. It might go without saying, but this list is compiled from things I first read, watched, or listened to in 2011- much of it is much older.
Without further adieu, I give you the best of my year, in terms of entertainment and ephemera:
Literature:
Book of the year: This is always the hardest choice for me to make, though at least I have less to choose from this year. I only made it to a paltry 34 books in 2012, after posting 52 in 2011. I have a good excuse, but I still wish I could have made more progress. Even so, I greatly enjoyed what I did read. In many ways, it was the year of Proust and Stephen King. In total, that only means 4 books- but more than 2500 pages therein. Proust is the greatest technical writer whoever lived, for my money. He took a fairly normal life and made it into a wonderful dance through revelry, ribaldry, grace, and candor. His sentences are powerful yet elegant, graceful yet frank. King, on the other hand, is a great story teller and a good enough writer. He gets the job done, and that job captures imaginations better than most American writers can dream to do. But it's actually none of them that take the proverbial cake this year. It's actually a children's book. The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman, to which I give my honor this year. It's also the first book I finished in 2012. Pullman tugs at the heart, writes for children like they are growing into adulthood instead of as children, and tells a story few could read and ever forget. It's quite possibly the best children's book ever written, and most certainly the best I've ever read. It's more perfect than the rest, and that's why it wins 2012 for me.
Runner Up: Guermantes Way, Marcel Proust
Author of the year: Marcel Proust. See above for why. Words in his hands are more powerful than 1000 armies.
Runner Up: Stephen King
(You may notice that that's just an inversion of last year's winners. I'm pretty sure that's the first time that's happened to me. It's a testament to how law school prevents me from branching out in my reading adventures)
Motion Pictures
Film of the Year: 2012 marked the first time that as many as 1/3 of the films I saw were in theaters. I started going to movies by myself, when I had the time, and it was a good decision. Watching movies is probably my favorite personal past time, and college got me in the habit of doing it alone. I do like going to movies with people too- but I don't let lack of a group hold me back from seeing something I want to see. So, seeing movies is what I did. A lot. Right after I got fired by InterVarsity, I went to see a movie. Almost every free day this winter break, I've seen a movie. I'm glad it's become fun again, and not academic, as it had been, for so long. So that means this decision is a hard one. Two of my favorite directors released movies last year (Moonrise Kingdom and Django Unchained being those) and both were brilliant. Some other favorites included Cloud Atlas and Life of Pi. On top of that, I saw plenty of great films apart from the theater too: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Roshamon, Intolerance. Life of Pi is probably the best film of last year, for Oscar considerations (though Lincoln will probably win, even though I haven't seen it, I'm calling it). But Moonrise Kingdom was my favorite. And so I'm picking it.
Runner Up: Roshamon
Television show of the year: It probably shouldn't be too surprising that I didn't watch much TV last year. In fact, it's hard to even think of a single show that I just "had to watch-" I'm months behind even on The Office and Parks and Rec. Thankfully, Downton Abbey exists, and though there aren't many episodes and I've never watched it on broadcast, it's literally the only show I wanted to watch more than doing something else, all year. It's a little, sudsy, I believe, according to a mutual friend (and she wasn't wrong), but it's well acted, better shot than the Les Miserables musical-movie atrocity (of course, so was Goatman 2, but that's another post..., to pull an Alton Brown on early Good Eats), and relentlessly compelling. I don't think I should resolve to watch more t.v. anytime soon, but unless something changes, there's a good chance this entry will look similar in 2013's edition of this very post.
Runner Up: Phineas and Ferb
Music
Song of the year: It's next to impossible for me to actually pick a single song to represent my 2012. A lot of great stuff came out, and a lot of stuff that already existed managed to enamor me, in one way or another. However, for some oddly fortuitous lyrics with the way I exited InterVarsity, and because it's an awesome song, I'm actually picking Heartlines, by Florence and the Machine this year: http://youtu.be/WouoSftCIz8 To this day, everytime it happens upon my randomized music while driving or working out, it brings me back to the central narrative that defined my 2012.
Runner Up: Joy to the World, Sufjan Stevens (from Silver and Gold) http://youtu.be/QhTCh7smrR4
Though I don't typically comment on "runner up" winners, I'll make an exception. The reason I picked this, a Christmas song no less, is twofold: when I first heard this song, it was roughly the end of exams for my first semester. The mood, the tone, they just fit. It also made me love Joy to the World, usually one of my least favorite Christmas songs. The tune is a variation on "Impossible Soul," one of the greatest 9 minute songs in history (off of his Age of Adz album, the closing track), and incorporates the most ending refrain from that piece. It (JttW) also closes with a line from the best modern Christmas classic, turning not just to the finality that JttW typically is, closing Christmas Eve services the world over (unless you're of the sort that does the candle lit, hand-holdey silent night. Were I a pastor, I'd either abolish that or let it be the beginning), by turning to the hope and expectation Christmas represents. It's the best arrangement of a Christmas song I've ever heard, if sentimentalism isn't your bag (at least not christmastime sentimentalism), and, in terms of significance and greatness, my second favorite song of 2012
Artist of the Year: It's always difficult to determine the most definitive artist of my past year in music listening. Much like LeBron could always win the MVP because he's the best player in the league, I could always just pick Kanye, because he's the best artist in the game. He even did some great things in 2012 (what GOOD Music Cruel Summer represents in terms of communal artistry is groundbreaking, if mostly ignored commercially). But I don't think it's actually that easy. Certainly, the day I rode to school listening to it for the first time was sufficiently mind-blowing. Likewise, I could just pick Sufjan because he's Sufjan and I will listen to him til the world ends or I'm drawn from it. It's quite honestly a coin flip between those two. I feel unoriginal to say it, but everything else isn't as consistent. Just look at last years. All I'm doing different is disallowing a runner up, when there just isn't one. http://youtu.be/1nCmeSGVpyU
http://youtu.be/Zr5Q5UJ0udw
Album of the Year: Though you might not know it from all of the musing above, my favorite album was actually Mumford and Sons' Babel this year. It's graceful, forceful, powerful, and charming. There's everything about the human experience and more, all right there. http://youtu.be/urYjkkitfvc
Runner-Up: Kanye West Presents Good Music: Cruel Summer
Sports:
Personal Favorite Team of the Year: 2012 was rough for my rooting interests. Ohio State was suspended from bowls, The Packers lost their first playoff game, the Indians, Browns, and Cavs are/were all pretty abysmal. Thankfully, the OG Titan Football team went undefeated and lost a close game to the eventual state champs. That's remarkable for a program that won all of 3 games my freshman year (now, of course, 11 years back....)
Runner Up: The ever disappointing come post-season, Cincinatti Reds.
So that's that. I'm going to do my best to update once a week this semester/year, probably/hopefully on Thursdays. I can't be held to that, if last year was any indication. But we'll see. Thanks for reading.
-Zack
"There's fantasy, there's fallacy, there's tumbling stone, echoes of a city that's long overgrown"
-Florence and the Machine
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