Notionally, the
"Spinnage Awards" have been in my head for a couple of decades. Intended to be a review of the best of "spun" things… Stories,
Songs, Records, Webs etc. And
intentionally a homophone of Spinach.
Based upon the
Awards method Neil Hughes at http://www.walkingoncustard.com/the-awards-or-how-i-review-my-year/
So here goes:
Favourite New Person:
Tricky to narrow
this down to one person - but significant people have been: John Totoro, Claire T-S, Davina, Herm and Melvyn.
John isn't really
new (I first met him in 2015) - so we'll go with Melvyn - but we'll mention the
others later on.
I know Melvyn from church - and he's persuaded me to start running a new D&D campaign.
Claire, Davina & Herm I met through Monstrous Productions and had some good times with them, and hopefully many more to come.
Most Improved Friend:
John Totoro? I had some great laughs with John - eating,
drinking, watching films and being in plays.
(Also: Paul Woolley - for also getting involved in Going Postal)
Best Memory:
Being involved with
Monstrous Productions "Eric" and "Going Postal" -
So.much.fun.
Most exciting moment:
Being in "Going Postal" was great. But also going to town dressed up as a pirate
for International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Most frightening/worst moment:
Brexit vote. I'm still feeling very anxious about this.
Quote of the Year:
"The man who put the Go in Golem, and the Tomato in Automaton"
(I said this to Matt Burnett to complement him for his fantastic Golem costume he made for Going Postal)
Family of the Year:
Mine. My family is fantastic. As always.
Place of the Year:
Warsaw. Our family holiday for the Summer of
2016. It was a great time with our boys
Josh & Will and we'd all want to go back when we can.
Gigs/Songs/Films/Games/Plays/Books/Events of the Year:
Several notable gigs
happened in 2016:
- Railroad Bill's 30th Birthday Party at Gwdihw. It's hardly believable that I've been following this band for over 25 years now. Also saw Maddie Jones perform at this event. She's definitely a powerful performer and girl worth watching.
- Wonderbrass - again at Gwdihw. Always a tremendous gig.
- Bellowhead - Finally caught up with this juggernaut of folk on their farewell tour, and went to the after-party too.
The best film I saw
in 2016 (not at the cinema) was undoubtedly "Perfume: Story of a
Murderer" - a new lifelong favourite.
We saw very few
films in the Cinema this past year - and few of those stand out. Maybe
Star-Trek Beyond was the best??
Games? I'm no gamer.
But I love role-playing and have done for years. This year I've been playing in a long-running
D&D campaign and lately started a campaign of my own.
Plays? Aside from
being in two plays, I thoroughly enjoyed "Wyrd Sisters" at the Dolman
in Newport. (Also winning the dressing-up competition and simultaneously
discovering that walking around in fancy dress in Newport is far more
conspicuous than doing the same thing in Cardiff)
Two books stand out
for me this year:
- Nathan Crowley's bizarre "Grand Amazon"
- Becky Chambers' "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet". Both highly original and imaginative (and recommended.)
Other than that I've
been reading about 18th Century Europe (Napoleonic era and the Franco Prussian
War specifically)
Events:
- Properly celebrating Towel-Day/Geek-Pride/The Glorious 25th. (Dressing up, with towel & lilac to celebrate the best of satiric fantasy & SF.) - I intend to do this every year henceforth.
- Properly celebrating International-Talk-Like-A-Pirate-Day (Dressing up as a pirate to go swigging rum in town with local privateer Herm Holland) - Likewise a new tradition.
- Going to a Halloween/All-saints-day Alt-Christian event with Daffy Vina (Davina)
- Also went to a fun adventurer's party at John Totoro's house.
- And the Monstrous "Going Postal" After-Party was tremendous fun too. (More dressing up fun)
- And for one day, on twitter, we swapped our identities - and I got to transmogrify into a moth. A kind of social media version of Kafka's metamorphoses.
Best Virtual Person:
Nathan Crowley - the
extraordinary tweeter of Daniel Barker's Birthday and all the other surreal
things that have come since.
Most Significant Blunder:
Bought a Mercedes
190 - which isn't living up to its promise as a fun classic car. It doesn't really run that well at the
moment, the sunroof broke in the first week of owning it and it's just not
classic enough. I'll be getting rid of
it.
Greatest Life Lesson:
Step out. Be brave
and creative. (The same as most other
years to be honest.)
Accomplishments:
Being in 2
plays.
Getting a new job.
Theme for 2016:
Seems to have been
"Dressing Up" - which has been pretty fun. (And apparently everyone loves a pirate*)
To Work On in 2017:
I want to be more
generous. While we increased our
regular/organised charity giving a bit in 2016, I feel very privileged and
living in a world full of needs. So
generosity is important and needs to be improved upon in every regard.
In previous years
I've often joked "I don't have any New Years' resolutions - my wife hasn't
given me any!" But this year I
asked her, so Annette said - I should spend more time being creative: writing,
poetry, doing art - or whatever.
[Challenge Accepted!]
Theme of 2017:
Be grateful for
small blessings.
*except ninjas
apparently. (But when do you ever see any of them**?)
**
"Aaargh!"
