shaun belcher BLOG

I coming in a bit late here as I usually do this at Xmas so here best of 2010 in a random summation list type thingy and as so late I may forget some things and get dates wrong on others so I have made it a best of 2010-11 to June…

So here goes the best of last year and half is…

A Dozen of everything:End of year (and a half) humbuggy anti-list

I’m not a great fan of all this end of decade ,end of year list thing…seems like an excuse to pretend you know more than someone else or purchased more than someone else…

So here things that really impressed me this year and a half…yes impressed..not made me feel miserable,or reach for a doggy persona…or generally resort to spitting vitriolic posts at the perpetrators ….impressed….here goes…could be hard to get to 12!

BEST SONGWRITER:JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

Found Bon Iver a little too high and lonesome on his debut and although daddy earle been strong on last two releases i cannot fault his baby boy’s ‘Harlem River Blues’. Liked it so much I wrote a review (only one in year and a half ) can be found at http://flyinshoes.ning.com/profiles/blogs/justin-townes-earle-harlem

BEST GIG:RICHARD THOMPSON:Royal Theatre Nottingham January 27th 2011
Hadn’t seen him since a gig at Palladium london with Gregson and Coillister in tow in early 1990′s so was pensive but had to celebrate fact he came here at all and on day before my birthday. Mark Patterson reviewed it and said first half a little dodgy but i thought Dream Attic stood up better than expected. Second Half was a reel back the years greatest hits feast of which the tearjerker for me was a lovely rendition of Wall of dearth…the best song the Byrds never recorded. All in all a bloody good gig.

I also caught Daniel Carlson and Anny Celsi who both have a fondness for Beach Boys type pop and both delivered fine sets to a sparse audience and both showed that powerpop not dead Hats off to Nick Butcher and Richard Snow for persevering in helping people like this tour in the face of unwanted economic realities..but it was never about the money…was it.

BEST BOOK:Richard Ford –Multitude of Sins
Tricky as I seldom read much these days as I usually struggling to keep pace with whatever the latest fad in multimedia is ( now its android by the way and HTML5 publishing ). So to get my attention it has to be fairly strong. This year and a half I read Cynthia Freeland’s ‘But is it art?’ a very good brief introduction to the craziness of modern art and why it still crazy after all these years. recommended. I also read Richard Ford’s ‘A Multitude of Sins’ which was excellent and wins best of award.
I presently very engaged by Victor Burgin’s ‘the Remembered Film’

BEST POEM:C.K. WILLIAMS –TAR
actually a re-reading of TAR by C.K. Williams who I saw read at South Bank Centre Poetry Library when I worked there many moons ago and who impressed me greatly. Never did imitate his long line but content was fantastic. TAR is in ‘Wild Reckoning‘an anthology provoked by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and highly recommended.

BEST MEAL:ORANGE TREE THORNHAM
Tricky my memory not what it was…has to be the food at the Orange Tree Thornham…my wife emma had fresh thornham Oysters and I had…ummmm it was good….

BEST SOFTWARE:ANDROID
Android will dominate the handheld horizon for decade to come..hello Google the new Microsoft,,bye bye Apple

BEST CLOTHING ITEM:BRASHER BOOTS
My new Brasher walking boots and when I feel better I will finally wear them in…..I seen too much of the NHS this last year already..

BEST DRINK:BLUE MONKEY
or several drinks the Tynemill Castle Rock Harvest Pales sunk at my birthday night in The Gladstone..hats off to everybody who came but they were beaten into second place by my forst pint of Blue Monkey at the new Blue Monkey pub…chimp done good

BEST GADGET:ASUS TRANSFORMER
HALF TABLET HALF NETBOOK…cool device still working it out…

BEST FOOTBALL TEAM
Only one answer to this and despite major disapointments The Arsenal still the most beautiful game out there This carried over from last year as disappointment the same if not greater farewell Cesc…..

BEST EXHIBITION:GLASGOW BOYS –Royal Academy
My father-in-law and his brother took me and we managed to just beat the crowds. Great show….has impacted on my M.A.

BEST NEW ART GALLERY:Impressed by how Surface Nottingham had revamped but sadly looks like they under threat –best current space in Nottingham although the shows they put on hit and pretty miss all too often. Worth supporting if only because they lose out to the pretentious toss up the road and the ARTNOT shambles of insidious self-promotion. I have no qualms in hating ARTNOT because it so bloody lacklustre and compliant with what happening now…..oh yes cutting edge so sharp its blunt and dumb.

http://www.surfacegallery.org/

BEST SPORTING MOMENT:Arsenal V Barcelona first leg (JUST) just because if you had forgotten the mighty Arsenal beat the team that beat Manchester United out of sight in the final…..

Hard pressed by Sunday at Trent Bridge (the Bell dismissal day) where I actually witnessed cricketing history