best.....

hello there

well then, another year (2022, look you see) just about over. at the time of writing, at the least. quite likely that it was all over with some time ago, depending on when you read this. or yet to dawn, if time travel has, at last, become a thing as was promised. 

time, then, for a vague, meaningless, based on nothing but what came to mind "review" of the year. all i have done is thought of a few things to pop here, so no research or methodology beyond option. which one could argue, in this odd way of life in this century i do not understand, has become the totes most important thing to base stuff on, anyhow. 

and so, in no particular or specific (pacific) order, 

.....prime minister of the year

here in the UK we've kind of grown accustomed to the idea of two (2) prime ministers a year being more often than not the case. rather unexpected, then, for 2022 to herald the era of having three to consider and decide which one was "best". on the news recently they had details of a poll what was gone done across conservative party members. whereas Boris was chosen as "best" or "most effective" by some distance, i think two thirds of the vote, it was with interest i saw that 4% of those asked said that Liz was. never trust polls. 

other than categorically stating that no, it was not Liz, i am not sure how to determine which of the remaining two was best. by virtue of the fact that no one has yet made any concerted effort to oust or bring him down, well, the "least worst" seems to be Rishi. good luck, fella. 

.....strike of the year

quite tough, this one, as there's lots of them to choose from and not sure if the world has seen any relative success (or failure) complete from them. the one i support "the most" is the postal strikers. despite the inconvenience, well, i am sick of Royal Mail and Post Office "pretending" to be two different things and blaming each other when things go wrong in a massive avoidance circle. also they do things like beg people not to send post, then complain that postal numbers are down. 

.....album of the year

when it came out i declared that, for me, Autofiction by Suede was the album of the year. this view has not changed at all. it's brilliant, and shall remain forever so. beyond that Liam Gallagher's was immense fun, Forenzics was niche and excellent, whilst the one off of Hugh Cornwell was a pleasant surprise. i am still not sure if i actually liked the Kasabian one. for a re-release or re-issue, the only one which comes to mind of note was Know Your Enemy off of Manics. strange one, as the two tape (disc) variation was class and decent value, the triple (three) disc set looked and felt like a complete and utter rip off. 

.....song of the year

don't think you can, with a straight face, call them "singles" any more. which is a shame, a passing of the ways, but so it goes. anyway, the one i believe i enjoyed the most - as in i would have bought the 12" the tape and the cd single if it existed - was Music For A Sushi Restaurant by that lad out of One Direction, a band i am now assuming are not getting back together. smart tune, that one is. close second would be Viper with Pussy Boy I'll Kill Ya, which is (for me) his best and most important record since the seminal You'll Cowards Don't Even Smoke Crack. most disappointing tune was easily Pretty Boy off of Noel Gallagher. that he recorded it, presumably played it back and still decided that it was worth releasing suggests he wants to just sit back, tour his greatest songs every 4 or so years and be happy with that. 

.....service station of the year

rather baffling to see (or rather hear) that Jeremy Vine had set up a "rival" award for this. he, however, went ahead and selected some station near (or around) Rugby, which of course is wrong. 

once again, then, Donington services gets the award for best service station of the year. why? not a bad question, since the food outlets are not the best and the location of it means it's far from the easiest to access, or even get in and out of. but, still, Donington, man. metal. 

worst service station, either in the UK or the world, is easily Blyth. terrible place. it's not so much that it is full of people loitering in all doorways, rather that it is so badly designed that there is nowhere else for anyone to be but blocking the way. bathrooms are a joke, with someone deciding the best place to put the hand dryer as being right by the entrance, so you can't use it without blocking people wishing to enter and spend a penny or, if Spiros, make a new friend. 

.....blog post of the year

not sure if "most read" translates as "best", but anyway, 24/12/21 - 24/12/22 shows that these are the ten most clicked on of what i gone done. 

absolutely no clue as to why a telephone box in, of all places, Portsmouth would be of interest. perhaps it is to do with Chuck Norris being on it, or maybe the vandal ('artist') what painted on it is somehow popular. really would not have a clue what my "best" would be. that said, delighted to see a fair bit of interest in the subject of the mythical, unlikely to actually exist 13th episode of Fawlty Towers. 

.....plague of the year

for the third (3rd) year running it simply has to be this covid, or coronavirus, or whatever the trendy marketing people are calling it now. at the least we haven't just stopped everything to enjoy it. having been infected with it, despite numerous "vaccinations", i can tell you it's really quite sh!t. despite being ostensibly clear of the disease - unless i got killed off it and the afterlife is weirdly like actuallife - every has just felt all slow motion ever since. 

.....gig of the year

my three-quarter life crisis appeared to have gone full tilt in 2022, for i ended up seeing no more and no less than 6 (six) gigs. unless i have missed one. rather tricky to pick one out as "best".

best singular moment off of a gig was most decidedly Simon & Oscar out of Ocean Colour Scene doing a sterling take on Traveller's Tune. not so much the performance but being with a huge audience all digging it and singing along. it has felt, for somewhere north of a quarter of a century, that it has affected me, meant so much, in an isolated, singular way. to have so many others celebrate it so was kind of like a life affirming experience; alone i may well be but no outcast. 

going on how i have wanted to see him for north of forty (40!!!) years, and the delays in the gig actually even happening, the award then goes to Adam Ant. an absolutely rip-roaring, brilliant set, leaving no one disappointed, least of all moi. for those with particularly niche tastes, to unexpectedly use that word again, then yes, certainly, the best predominantly taped based gig of the year was Ian Brown. 

.....book of the year

no idea how to do this one, as most of what i read in 2022 was, or shall have been, first published in 2021. even earlier (fewer) than that, possibly. basically i think all i read which was not that awful tripe by Peter Robinson was pretty good. other than the recently reviewed Anthony Horowitz one, i seem to recall novels off of John Connolly, Paula Hawkins and John Grisham being highly satisfactory this year. and that second one off of the tall one formerly off of Pointless, who has done ever so well for someone that started off as a backing dancer for Sonia. 

.....film of the year

i ended up going to a cinema no less (fewer) than 4 (four) times in 2022. and 50% of that was to go and see Top Gun Maverick, which is to say i went and saw it twice. that were a brilliant film, that were, as were the other things what i gone done saw at the cinema, Moonage Daydream and The Batman. in regards of the usual avalanche of Marvel films, Thor 4 was boss. and the film pictured above, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent, is likely most probably the greatest film ever. so, a decent year for movies, helped by avoiding going and getting waterboarded off of James Cameron with whatever it is now he has decided to use (or squander) his talents on. 

home viewing in terms of "streaming" services and that there Disney+ do the business. probably the best series i saw was Pistol, which was incredible if not for all. the conclusion of Better Call Saul on the main rival service was also outstanding. and back to Disney, particularly Star Wars. i very much enjoyed Kenobi, and Andor was very good but extremely, and needlessly, s-l-o-w. 

.....monarch of the year

and this still feels, well, surreal, perhaps. we all knew, i suppose, no matter how much it seemed so, that we would not have HMQE2 forever. and now we have HMKC3(PO). there is no way that i can choose between them as "best". it just feels like it would have been amiss of me not to make a reference. 

right, that's that. undoubtedly there are other things what i could have speculated on the "best" of from the year gone by, but i have not. we had, for instance, a large number of world cups, but as only the cricket one would be worth mentioning it strikes me as futile to go to any effort here. let's see, if i, we, make it that far, what the year ahead has in store. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!