Just finished the Mandalorian this weekend, as my girlfriend and I have had our attention pulled from Disney+ by her DVDs of Boston Legal and by the first season of Project Blue Book. But we got on the Baby Yoda bandwagon fairly early, and I'd say we've enjoyed the show a lot - especially in light of what the movies have been serving up.
In fact, it's probably fair to say that the Mandalorian is the best Star Wars to come out since Rogue One, or possibly even since the original trilogy (since Rogue One, as much as I love it, suffers from some serious character problems).
I haven't devoted an entire blog to it, but I was quite disappointed by Episode 9. The first hour is a headache-inducing mass of set pieces, with plot points pulled out of nowhere to satisfy the filmmakers' need to move the plot along. I'm reminded of critiques I used to get on my own writing, where beta readers would accuse me of placing characters in certain situations because the plot demanded it, rather than it being organically driven by the characters themselves.
I've seen other instances of it since then, but this is potentially one of the worst - the Emperor Palpatine, who hasn't appeared in any of the sequel trilogy films until now, just announces his return to the galaxy. Off-screen.
Why? Because JJ Abrams needs him to.
The Last Jedi was also a bit frustrating for me, as it wastes a bunch of characters and has to be walked back by Rise of Skywalker, even if I could appreciate the swing for the fences.
And Solo was fine, though not necessarily ground-breaking. I also find it hard to forgive the filmmakers for how they came up with Han's last name.
So, you could say that the public's been waiting for a nice, enjoyable, non-divisive Star Wars movie or show or, well, anything. And we've got that in the shape of the Mandalorian.
If we accept that Star Wars has always been an exercise in remixing tropes and visuals from other movies and genres, then it's not such a large leap to suggesting that the most successful Star Wars movies are those that wear its influences most proudly. Episode 4 is a prime example, with kissing princesses (who are also pretty dab hands with a blaster), swinging across chasms and fighter battles lifted straight from World War II movies as its clearest "homages" to what's gone before.
Westerns, samurai movies and Dune are also heavily in the mix, as we see in that movie and in the next two films in the original trilogy. Rogue One also wears its influences pretty proudly, and the Mandalorian joins this tradition by clearly being a space western, just as clearly as Firefly was.
Like Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns, the main character swaggers onto the screen with barely a word, no hint of his name or face or background. We spend the first episode learning about what he does for a living, watching him move toward the moment where he has to decide whether to follow his principles or his quest for more beskar steel. Though let's be honest, it's easy to follow your principles when they involve saving an adorable Baby Yoda from being blasted by an assassin droid.
The next few episodes take the space western thing and run with it, as he fights off assassins trying to get his prize, goes running elsewhere and gets involved in Seven Samurai-style adventures to help a peaceful village fight off raiders. And at last he gathers the folks who've helped him up until now, to face down the Empire - featuring surprisingly affecting deaths of several characters on the way.
Thinking about the show this way, it feels like storytelling - or rather, just telling a good story - is at the heart of the Mandalorian the way it hasn't been for Star Wars for... well, decades. Part of what ruins the prequels is the fact that you know what's going to happen to the characters. Part of what ruins the sequels is the feeling that Rey's story, at the final reckoning, is inessential.
The thing that made Rogue One work for me was the way it fit into the tapestry of the earlier movies - it doesn't retcon anything (at least, not to a significant degree), but rather fills in some blanks and leads into Episode 4 in quite a satisfying way, while also showing you other aspects of the universe that still fit in with what we know of Star Wars.
The Mandalorian manages this at the other end of the original trilogy, taking place after the collapse of the Empire in Return of the Jedi, but showing how the galaxy has been thrown into chaos by the death of Palpatine and the formation of the New Republic. Imperial forces are still running around, but they're a little dustier and dirtier, more warlords than Imperial officers - which feels like a cool plot development.
The Mandalorian is also probably the most sympathetic main character Star Wars has had in a while. You have to appreciate the acting job that Pedro Pascal does in the lead role, since his face is covered the whole time and his voice is mostly muffled by his helmet, taking away the two most important tools in an actor's arsenal. Yet he still conveys a range of emotion through the helmet, for example when he's tenderly taking care of Baby Yoda.
The Child (to give him his official name) is also a great addition, since he fills that time-honored niche of cute sidekick that R2-D2 and BB8 have done such a good job with since 1977. He's a marvel of digital and practical effects, and his eyes and ears are so expressive that you can't take your eyes off him whenever he's on screen. You might scoff at a grown man fawning over a cute puppet, but that contrast between hardened killer and innocent child makes for great drama (while also being a nice callback to Lone Wolf and Cub).
Given what a nice job they did with the Mandalorian, one hopes that the creative team, and especially show runner Jon Favreau, gets hired to make the next few Star Wars movies. But then, what do you expect from the director whose vision brought us the first Iron Man movie, and with it the whole MCU?
Thursday 30 January 2020
Sunday 26 January 2020
Crisis on Infinite Earths: Endgame for DC Nerds
Took a while to start, and took a while to finish, but I finally managed to get through the CW's Arrowverse crossover for this season, Crisis on Infinite Earths. It's been teased heavily for a while, with some of the characters from last season's Elseworlds crossover hinting at it, and the Crisis has also been intended to serve as a sendoff for Arrow, the CW's first show in this shared universe.
Like all of the Arrowverse shows, there are a few easily anticipated negatives: the quality from show to show, and from episode to episode, can be variable (just like during the regular season; it's not always clear that the story requires being told across so many hours; and if you don't watch a specific show that participates, there can be a moment of adjusting to figuring out who all the new faces are (or, if you do watch the show, it can be jarring to go from normal one week, crossover the next and back again the week after that).
For this one I'd also add that the mix of characters sometimes struck me as weird, with the so-called Paragons facing off against armies of shadow demons who... burst into ash the minute you hit them? This is convenient for keeping the plot moving, but if you stop to think about why the guy tipped as the new Atom, Ryan Choi, can help the likes of Supergirl and the Flash, then it starts to fall apart.
But that's not why we're here!
They've hinted already in a number of previous seasons and episodes that basically any live-action DC-based show can be included as canon for the Arrowverse. Sometimes it was blatant, like pulling John Constantine from NBC's short-lived show for a pivotal part of Arrow Season 4, and other times it was more subtle, like bringing John Wesley Shipp back to play the same Flash that he played in the early 90s show (and kudos to the Flash team for also bringing in Mark Hamill to play the Trickster, the role he played in that early show, but also filtered through the version of the Joker that he voiced in the 90 Batman animated series).
This time, however, they went all out, and from a fan-service point of view it was all extremely satisfying. The first episode features cameos from none other than Robert Wuhl in his role from the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman (Earth-89) and Burt Ward giving his catchphrase from the 1960s Adam West Batman (Earth-66). Another episode has a cameo from the old Birds of Prey show, they even found time to bring back Tom Welling to reprise the version of Clark Kent he played on Smallville - I only watched a couple of seasons of that show but it warmed the cockles of this jaded old heart to see even him. And of course, they brought in none other than Kevin Conroy to play future Bruce Wayne, which I loved, at least at first.
They also pulled in some more contemporary cameos, for instance DC Universe's Titans, Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing, and the one that made me squeal with the most glee was seeing Lucifer pop up (on Earth-666, no less). I was less sure of Ezra Miller's Barry Allen appearing, because I don't like that version of the Justice League and I don't know if his movie's ever actually coming out, but from the perspective of showing that all DC shows are linked, it was nice to see.
In terms of story, it was entertaining enough - in the title I suggest this is the DC version of Marvel's Avengers: Endgame, which is accurate in terms of closing out one phase of the last few years' shows, but maybe less accurate in terms of plot cohesiveness, for the reasons I mentioned above. But for all the relatively cheap looking sets and effects, it's still nice seeing a classic story like the 1985 Crisis brought to life, pulling in loads of new and old characters and giving them some surprisingly resonant moments, like when the Old Flash remembers a scene from the 90s TV show before disappearing into the Speed Force.
And as far as a farewell for Arrow, it's a nice sendoff for Stephen Amell to kill him not once but twice, bringing him back as the Spectre and allowing some of his supporting cast the leeway to move on to their next shows, like Green Arrow and the Canaries. As mentioned above, the show has seen variable quality, with a good first season, great second, meh third and fourth, and similar ups and downs since.
From the very first season, the creators have thrown in Easter eggs for seasoned fans, both of Green Arrow lore and of DC in general. The current incarnation of Team Arrow has had some curiously D-list supporting players, like Wild Dog. But while some reviewers thought that a negative, I liked it because it was more in keeping with the incarnation of the character that has most influenced this show.
Mike Grell's version of Green Arrow, starting with the Longbow Hunters miniseries, was aimed more at adults and fit in with the Question, Wild Dog and Vigilante as a street-level corner of the DC Universe. Batman would appear from time to time, but so would the word "shit", and the more fantastical super powers were pretty rare. It came at about the same time as Neil Gaiman's Sandman, but while that book spawned the entire Vertigo line, Green Arrow and the Question carried on as their own weird little sub-universe for a few years and then were subsumed back into the main universe. The ironic thing is that if they'd kept on longer, they might have been able to survive within Vertigo once it grew past its horror/dark fantasy roots to include crime books like 100 Bullets.
The other funny thing about Arrow is that because they couldn't use Batman, Green Arrow effectively filled that niche for the Arrowverse, becoming the elder statesman and brooding human vigilante figure - so it's not too surprising how they've skipped past Batman to have a Batwoman show instead, all the while retconning Bruce Wayne and Gotham City into the universe.
It's a little sad to see Arrow draw to an end after all these years - it was one of the first shows I watched on Netflix when I moved back here to the US - but it has been pretty long in the tooth for a while. After season 5, a particular high, they were dragged down by the Ricardo Diaz storyline that went on through two seasons before fizzling out (pun intended, given that someone set him on fire). But it was still fun seeing Ollie and the gang fight the latest menace, and spotting the latest fan service reference (like, why did it take me so long to realize that his buddy Anatoly was the KGBeast from the comics?).
So I'll miss the show, because of the fun times I've had with it. Seeing Ollie go from violent vigilante to mayor to... well, the Spectre, has been entertaining at times and infuriating at others. I'll probably not keep on with the Canaries show, because his daughter Mia and the potential future setting don't grab me as much, though if it gets good reviews I'll probably revise that opinion. I don't know how long I'll keep on with the Flash either, as that's never again hit the heights of its first season, though it's always fun to see how the creators add some new wrinkle to their already convoluted mythology.
In any case, I mentioned several years ago how DC was killing it on TV, if not at the movies, and it's been nice to see that at least some of the attitudes and traditions that I love about DC Comics have made it to the Arrowverse. That may not continue, but in compensation DC looks to be finding its feet at the movies again, starting with Wonder Woman and going through Aquaman and Shazam, which were both surprisingly watchable. I'm just hoping they can manage a good new Superman movie, for once.
And if not... well, maybe Brandon Routh can be persuaded to don the black shield once more and do Kingdom Come? Because that was another fun Easter egg to see.
Like all of the Arrowverse shows, there are a few easily anticipated negatives: the quality from show to show, and from episode to episode, can be variable (just like during the regular season; it's not always clear that the story requires being told across so many hours; and if you don't watch a specific show that participates, there can be a moment of adjusting to figuring out who all the new faces are (or, if you do watch the show, it can be jarring to go from normal one week, crossover the next and back again the week after that).
For this one I'd also add that the mix of characters sometimes struck me as weird, with the so-called Paragons facing off against armies of shadow demons who... burst into ash the minute you hit them? This is convenient for keeping the plot moving, but if you stop to think about why the guy tipped as the new Atom, Ryan Choi, can help the likes of Supergirl and the Flash, then it starts to fall apart.
But that's not why we're here!
They've hinted already in a number of previous seasons and episodes that basically any live-action DC-based show can be included as canon for the Arrowverse. Sometimes it was blatant, like pulling John Constantine from NBC's short-lived show for a pivotal part of Arrow Season 4, and other times it was more subtle, like bringing John Wesley Shipp back to play the same Flash that he played in the early 90s show (and kudos to the Flash team for also bringing in Mark Hamill to play the Trickster, the role he played in that early show, but also filtered through the version of the Joker that he voiced in the 90 Batman animated series).
This time, however, they went all out, and from a fan-service point of view it was all extremely satisfying. The first episode features cameos from none other than Robert Wuhl in his role from the 1989 Michael Keaton Batman (Earth-89) and Burt Ward giving his catchphrase from the 1960s Adam West Batman (Earth-66). Another episode has a cameo from the old Birds of Prey show, they even found time to bring back Tom Welling to reprise the version of Clark Kent he played on Smallville - I only watched a couple of seasons of that show but it warmed the cockles of this jaded old heart to see even him. And of course, they brought in none other than Kevin Conroy to play future Bruce Wayne, which I loved, at least at first.
They also pulled in some more contemporary cameos, for instance DC Universe's Titans, Doom Patrol and Swamp Thing, and the one that made me squeal with the most glee was seeing Lucifer pop up (on Earth-666, no less). I was less sure of Ezra Miller's Barry Allen appearing, because I don't like that version of the Justice League and I don't know if his movie's ever actually coming out, but from the perspective of showing that all DC shows are linked, it was nice to see.
In terms of story, it was entertaining enough - in the title I suggest this is the DC version of Marvel's Avengers: Endgame, which is accurate in terms of closing out one phase of the last few years' shows, but maybe less accurate in terms of plot cohesiveness, for the reasons I mentioned above. But for all the relatively cheap looking sets and effects, it's still nice seeing a classic story like the 1985 Crisis brought to life, pulling in loads of new and old characters and giving them some surprisingly resonant moments, like when the Old Flash remembers a scene from the 90s TV show before disappearing into the Speed Force.
And as far as a farewell for Arrow, it's a nice sendoff for Stephen Amell to kill him not once but twice, bringing him back as the Spectre and allowing some of his supporting cast the leeway to move on to their next shows, like Green Arrow and the Canaries. As mentioned above, the show has seen variable quality, with a good first season, great second, meh third and fourth, and similar ups and downs since.
From the very first season, the creators have thrown in Easter eggs for seasoned fans, both of Green Arrow lore and of DC in general. The current incarnation of Team Arrow has had some curiously D-list supporting players, like Wild Dog. But while some reviewers thought that a negative, I liked it because it was more in keeping with the incarnation of the character that has most influenced this show.
Mike Grell's version of Green Arrow, starting with the Longbow Hunters miniseries, was aimed more at adults and fit in with the Question, Wild Dog and Vigilante as a street-level corner of the DC Universe. Batman would appear from time to time, but so would the word "shit", and the more fantastical super powers were pretty rare. It came at about the same time as Neil Gaiman's Sandman, but while that book spawned the entire Vertigo line, Green Arrow and the Question carried on as their own weird little sub-universe for a few years and then were subsumed back into the main universe. The ironic thing is that if they'd kept on longer, they might have been able to survive within Vertigo once it grew past its horror/dark fantasy roots to include crime books like 100 Bullets.
The other funny thing about Arrow is that because they couldn't use Batman, Green Arrow effectively filled that niche for the Arrowverse, becoming the elder statesman and brooding human vigilante figure - so it's not too surprising how they've skipped past Batman to have a Batwoman show instead, all the while retconning Bruce Wayne and Gotham City into the universe.
It's a little sad to see Arrow draw to an end after all these years - it was one of the first shows I watched on Netflix when I moved back here to the US - but it has been pretty long in the tooth for a while. After season 5, a particular high, they were dragged down by the Ricardo Diaz storyline that went on through two seasons before fizzling out (pun intended, given that someone set him on fire). But it was still fun seeing Ollie and the gang fight the latest menace, and spotting the latest fan service reference (like, why did it take me so long to realize that his buddy Anatoly was the KGBeast from the comics?).
So I'll miss the show, because of the fun times I've had with it. Seeing Ollie go from violent vigilante to mayor to... well, the Spectre, has been entertaining at times and infuriating at others. I'll probably not keep on with the Canaries show, because his daughter Mia and the potential future setting don't grab me as much, though if it gets good reviews I'll probably revise that opinion. I don't know how long I'll keep on with the Flash either, as that's never again hit the heights of its first season, though it's always fun to see how the creators add some new wrinkle to their already convoluted mythology.
In any case, I mentioned several years ago how DC was killing it on TV, if not at the movies, and it's been nice to see that at least some of the attitudes and traditions that I love about DC Comics have made it to the Arrowverse. That may not continue, but in compensation DC looks to be finding its feet at the movies again, starting with Wonder Woman and going through Aquaman and Shazam, which were both surprisingly watchable. I'm just hoping they can manage a good new Superman movie, for once.
And if not... well, maybe Brandon Routh can be persuaded to don the black shield once more and do Kingdom Come? Because that was another fun Easter egg to see.
Sunday 12 January 2020
What Does 2020 Hold?
Think this is going to be another dark one - both this post and this year.
Not at a personal level, necessarily: unless political realities impinge on my personal life, I'm planning on having more fun times with my honey, and on writing more stories (although I hope I'll do better than last year's output), and on generally enjoying myself.
But I've got a sick feeling that in 2020, America (and by extension the rest of the Western world) is going to pause at the brink... and then plunge straight on down.
I'm basing this in part on the UK election result from last month, which I expect to be a canary in the coal mine the way the Brexit referendum was in 2016. There are numerous differences between the Labour Party and the Democrats, not least the fact that the Democrats haven't opted for the "left-wing" candidate over the "establishment" one (I'm slightly troubled by both epithets) the way Labour did.
The other difference is that Labour still hasn't recovered from the Blair years, and so any internal fights are still between groups representing Blair's wing of the party against those repudiating his policies. The Democrats, on the other hand, got over their Clinton hangover in a short eight years, by electing Obama; moreover, his election didn't bring electoral success at the cost of the party's long-held ideals, so his shadow doesn't loom quite so large over the party as Blair's does over Labour.
But on the other hand, there is an area where Obama maybe does wield an undue influence, which is likely to hurt the party in November. He represented a new, "hopey-changey" type of candidate, in the words of that dum-dum Sarah Palin, and it's hard to point to any of the remaining Democrats in this race who fill that same role. He was a break from the Clinton family's influence, but in failing to establish his own wing of the party, there's no obvious success to him, just as there wasn't in 2016.
To be clear, I think any of these candidates would do a better job than the incumbent (even the ones who've already dropped out, up to and including Marianne Williamson, worrying comments on mental health aside). But I don't feel that any of them represents the kind of groundswell that could help overcome Donald Trump's inbuilt advantages.
Those advantages are various, and were there in the last election. I've spent these past 3+ years noting that there wasn't one thing that put him in the White House - rather, a perfect shit storm came together all at the same time, in the form of Russian interference, social media manipulation, voter suppression, voter apathy and white rage. Plus a number of other factors which are probably too arcane for us non-wonks to get a handle on.
My point is that a lot of these factors are still present - in 2018 we saw voter suppression efforts in the state of Georgia, and there are others going on with the express aim of denying the vote to college students (such as in New Hampshire) as well as people of color. Facebook has disclaimed any responsibility for its role in 2016, and so is proudly trumpeting the fact that it's still allowing lies in political ads. Voter apathy continues apace, and white rage has gotten, if anything, worse since 2016 - we've even started having hate crimes against black churches here in Palo Alto (not that I'm claiming my hometown has always been a perfect model of diversity, but that racists are so emboldened to attack black churches here speaks volumes).
And then there's the inbuilt advantage for the GOP in the Electoral College, where there are more small states with undue influence than large, populous and urban states.
The other question is what will a second Trump administration mean for America? I've heard legal scholars and experts suggest that all the institutions that have been holding him back so far will be further gutted, meaning even less consumer protection and rule of law. Institutional corruption will be allowed to gather even more pace, and the transfer of wealth from the middle and working classes to the ultra-rich will also likely accelerate.
Recourse to the courts to block his agenda will be further limited as age takes its toll on the remaining Supreme Court justices (Breyer and Ginsburg) who were put forward by Bill Clinton in the 1990s - and if any of the Republican justices predating Trump's term have to leave the court, he'll have even more opportunities to nominate justices, and the Democrats won't have any recourse unless they retake the Senate.
The future isn't set in stone, of course, so we'll all need to be working toward electing the candidates who are best-placed to counter his agenda - and not just candidates to replace him in the White House. Especially in battleground states, it'll be important for voters to pay attention to the state and local races, especially judgeships, as that's the group that'll form the pool for Trump and future presidents (if there will be any) to select federal judges from.
I'll be looking for ways to do my bit, and I hope you will too, starting with one of the more venerable get-out-the-vote groups, Rock the Vote. One of the GOP's in-built advantages is that its base tends to vote more often, so Democrat-aligned groups have to do more to get people registered and voting. As I find more groups I'll try and post them here, either in the blog or elsewhere on the site.
Not at a personal level, necessarily: unless political realities impinge on my personal life, I'm planning on having more fun times with my honey, and on writing more stories (although I hope I'll do better than last year's output), and on generally enjoying myself.
But I've got a sick feeling that in 2020, America (and by extension the rest of the Western world) is going to pause at the brink... and then plunge straight on down.
I'm basing this in part on the UK election result from last month, which I expect to be a canary in the coal mine the way the Brexit referendum was in 2016. There are numerous differences between the Labour Party and the Democrats, not least the fact that the Democrats haven't opted for the "left-wing" candidate over the "establishment" one (I'm slightly troubled by both epithets) the way Labour did.
The other difference is that Labour still hasn't recovered from the Blair years, and so any internal fights are still between groups representing Blair's wing of the party against those repudiating his policies. The Democrats, on the other hand, got over their Clinton hangover in a short eight years, by electing Obama; moreover, his election didn't bring electoral success at the cost of the party's long-held ideals, so his shadow doesn't loom quite so large over the party as Blair's does over Labour.
But on the other hand, there is an area where Obama maybe does wield an undue influence, which is likely to hurt the party in November. He represented a new, "hopey-changey" type of candidate, in the words of that dum-dum Sarah Palin, and it's hard to point to any of the remaining Democrats in this race who fill that same role. He was a break from the Clinton family's influence, but in failing to establish his own wing of the party, there's no obvious success to him, just as there wasn't in 2016.
To be clear, I think any of these candidates would do a better job than the incumbent (even the ones who've already dropped out, up to and including Marianne Williamson, worrying comments on mental health aside). But I don't feel that any of them represents the kind of groundswell that could help overcome Donald Trump's inbuilt advantages.
Those advantages are various, and were there in the last election. I've spent these past 3+ years noting that there wasn't one thing that put him in the White House - rather, a perfect shit storm came together all at the same time, in the form of Russian interference, social media manipulation, voter suppression, voter apathy and white rage. Plus a number of other factors which are probably too arcane for us non-wonks to get a handle on.
My point is that a lot of these factors are still present - in 2018 we saw voter suppression efforts in the state of Georgia, and there are others going on with the express aim of denying the vote to college students (such as in New Hampshire) as well as people of color. Facebook has disclaimed any responsibility for its role in 2016, and so is proudly trumpeting the fact that it's still allowing lies in political ads. Voter apathy continues apace, and white rage has gotten, if anything, worse since 2016 - we've even started having hate crimes against black churches here in Palo Alto (not that I'm claiming my hometown has always been a perfect model of diversity, but that racists are so emboldened to attack black churches here speaks volumes).
And then there's the inbuilt advantage for the GOP in the Electoral College, where there are more small states with undue influence than large, populous and urban states.
The other question is what will a second Trump administration mean for America? I've heard legal scholars and experts suggest that all the institutions that have been holding him back so far will be further gutted, meaning even less consumer protection and rule of law. Institutional corruption will be allowed to gather even more pace, and the transfer of wealth from the middle and working classes to the ultra-rich will also likely accelerate.
Recourse to the courts to block his agenda will be further limited as age takes its toll on the remaining Supreme Court justices (Breyer and Ginsburg) who were put forward by Bill Clinton in the 1990s - and if any of the Republican justices predating Trump's term have to leave the court, he'll have even more opportunities to nominate justices, and the Democrats won't have any recourse unless they retake the Senate.
The future isn't set in stone, of course, so we'll all need to be working toward electing the candidates who are best-placed to counter his agenda - and not just candidates to replace him in the White House. Especially in battleground states, it'll be important for voters to pay attention to the state and local races, especially judgeships, as that's the group that'll form the pool for Trump and future presidents (if there will be any) to select federal judges from.
I'll be looking for ways to do my bit, and I hope you will too, starting with one of the more venerable get-out-the-vote groups, Rock the Vote. One of the GOP's in-built advantages is that its base tends to vote more often, so Democrat-aligned groups have to do more to get people registered and voting. As I find more groups I'll try and post them here, either in the blog or elsewhere on the site.
Tuesday 7 January 2020
2019: The Decade Wrapped
I chose that title on the fly because I'm listening to the "decade playlist" that Spotify has auto-generated for me, but it also reflects what I wanted to chat about for this post, the first of this new year and decade (which should have been the last of the previous, but that's what happens when you're busy having fun).
I've seen a lot of people, both friends and media outlets, talking about the decade that began on 1 January 2010 and ended last week, but the more I thought about these past ten years, the more I had to expand my definition to include 2009, because in so many ways that's when a lot of the things I'm doing started.
The main one is dating - I'd asked women out before then, but until 2009 I hadn't been on a proper date, where both parties knew and accepted that it was intended to be such. I'd been on various dating websites before then, but what clicked was getting onto the Guardian's Soulmates service, and then taking great care to write a decent profile - the first woman I went out with started strong, leading to four dates and kisses (including a makeout session at Angel Tube Station a week before I turned 30), but I can't say I maintained that momentum for the next few years. There were a few more women I went on multiple dates with, but none so fun until I met my girlfriend in mid-2019 - and as she reads this blog sometimes, she'll be happy to hear that she was worth the wait.
[Awwwww]
2009 also marked the start of my travels, at least in their current form. I'd had some good trips in the years before then, when I had lived in Southend, but none of those had been very far afield, and as I grew more concerned about saving what little money I earned I found it harder to justify spending on train trips and hotel stays to increasingly marginal spots in Southeast England. So it took romantic rejection in 2009 to finally say, "Fuck it," and book a week away in Paris.
Reader, it was amazing. I know there are those who claim that Paris is overrated, but my experiences with the City of Light have been uniformly wonderful. I decamped there with my shoulder bag, a week's change of clothes, and four books - I spent that week traipsing around eating good food, reading obsessively and hitting as many sights as I could stand. I even managed a couple nights up in Normandy to see the D-Day Beaches and the Bayeux Tapestry.
That trip set the template for others that I took in the following years, notably Singapore, Portland, Buenos Aires and Tokyo: I would decamp alone (more or less), and spend my days exploring, eating and most of all, reading. By then I'd gotten a smartphone and encountered the delights of reading Kindle books on it, so I didn't have to repeat my feat from Paris of finishing my fourth book with a couple days to spare and needing to find a new one.
Now that I'm with someone, I'm looking forward to having a travel buddy, and eventually to taking any notional children on interesting adventures.
The other big thing that started in 2009 was my running, and generally my approach to fitness, though I think it only kicked into high gear a couple years later when I started working with my first trainer. But since then I've consistently been a member of a gym, and for a lot of the time I've also had a trainer to work with, usually preparing for a big run. I've eased off a little on the longer-distance runs, because I don't enjoy how they eat my life, but fitness remains something I crave (even if my diet doesn't quite show it).
There were a couple of big work transitions during the decade, starting in 2011 when I was made redundant from my job at the Regulatory Affairs Journals, where I'd been working (mostly unhappily) for five years, and landed instead at Informa Telecoms & Media. That marked a transition from healthcare, which had been the focus of my career from the start, and from journalism, which had been the focus almost as long. Instead I found myself working on tech, and as an analyst rather than a reporter, a transition that suited me down to the ground.
To put it another way, I hadn't understood how stimulating and rewarding a job could be, until I found one I was actually good at. Though it would have been nice if it had been more financially rewarding.
The other big work transition was in 2017, when I was abruptly made redundant from that telecoms and tech analysis job. I'd been unhappy in my team, and at the company, for about a year, so the change, while shocking at the time, was ultimately for the best. The aftermath let me go back to London for an extended period in early 2018, earning more than I had in my previous London jobs; it also let me experience the freelance life for a short period, and led to the current job that I have.
Speaking of money, despite being paid terribly at Informa, by 2011 I had managed to draw down my student loans and increase my savings enough to get back to a positive net worth, while still enjoying the odd international trip. By the time I was laid off from Ovum in 2017, I had more in the bank than I was earning per year, which felt quite clever.
And last, but not least, I think in the past decade I turned a corner with my writing. I started paying more attention to story structure, and craft in general, which I believe led to my first paying credit in 2013. I branched out from novels and short stories to screenwriting and novellas, and while I'm not quite there with getting stories accepted regularly (and frankly I could do with submitting them more), I'm proud of the stories I have written, especially in the last couple of years, so as long as I keep up that momentum, I think I'll find some success.
Coming into this new year, and decade, there are things to be optimistic about, even if the global geopolitical situation is getting more chaotic. That said, one doesn't need to wait for the start of a new decade, or new year, or even new week, to target their future - Chris Hardwick may have been tarnished for me by his own #MeToo moment, but he loomed quite large in the past decade because of his book, the Nerdist Way, and its key message was "Go out and do the thing you love."
So I'm going to plug away at all the things I love, whether or not I reach them, because life would be boring without them.
I've seen a lot of people, both friends and media outlets, talking about the decade that began on 1 January 2010 and ended last week, but the more I thought about these past ten years, the more I had to expand my definition to include 2009, because in so many ways that's when a lot of the things I'm doing started.
The main one is dating - I'd asked women out before then, but until 2009 I hadn't been on a proper date, where both parties knew and accepted that it was intended to be such. I'd been on various dating websites before then, but what clicked was getting onto the Guardian's Soulmates service, and then taking great care to write a decent profile - the first woman I went out with started strong, leading to four dates and kisses (including a makeout session at Angel Tube Station a week before I turned 30), but I can't say I maintained that momentum for the next few years. There were a few more women I went on multiple dates with, but none so fun until I met my girlfriend in mid-2019 - and as she reads this blog sometimes, she'll be happy to hear that she was worth the wait.
[Awwwww]
2009 also marked the start of my travels, at least in their current form. I'd had some good trips in the years before then, when I had lived in Southend, but none of those had been very far afield, and as I grew more concerned about saving what little money I earned I found it harder to justify spending on train trips and hotel stays to increasingly marginal spots in Southeast England. So it took romantic rejection in 2009 to finally say, "Fuck it," and book a week away in Paris.
Reader, it was amazing. I know there are those who claim that Paris is overrated, but my experiences with the City of Light have been uniformly wonderful. I decamped there with my shoulder bag, a week's change of clothes, and four books - I spent that week traipsing around eating good food, reading obsessively and hitting as many sights as I could stand. I even managed a couple nights up in Normandy to see the D-Day Beaches and the Bayeux Tapestry.
That trip set the template for others that I took in the following years, notably Singapore, Portland, Buenos Aires and Tokyo: I would decamp alone (more or less), and spend my days exploring, eating and most of all, reading. By then I'd gotten a smartphone and encountered the delights of reading Kindle books on it, so I didn't have to repeat my feat from Paris of finishing my fourth book with a couple days to spare and needing to find a new one.
Now that I'm with someone, I'm looking forward to having a travel buddy, and eventually to taking any notional children on interesting adventures.
The other big thing that started in 2009 was my running, and generally my approach to fitness, though I think it only kicked into high gear a couple years later when I started working with my first trainer. But since then I've consistently been a member of a gym, and for a lot of the time I've also had a trainer to work with, usually preparing for a big run. I've eased off a little on the longer-distance runs, because I don't enjoy how they eat my life, but fitness remains something I crave (even if my diet doesn't quite show it).
There were a couple of big work transitions during the decade, starting in 2011 when I was made redundant from my job at the Regulatory Affairs Journals, where I'd been working (mostly unhappily) for five years, and landed instead at Informa Telecoms & Media. That marked a transition from healthcare, which had been the focus of my career from the start, and from journalism, which had been the focus almost as long. Instead I found myself working on tech, and as an analyst rather than a reporter, a transition that suited me down to the ground.
To put it another way, I hadn't understood how stimulating and rewarding a job could be, until I found one I was actually good at. Though it would have been nice if it had been more financially rewarding.
The other big work transition was in 2017, when I was abruptly made redundant from that telecoms and tech analysis job. I'd been unhappy in my team, and at the company, for about a year, so the change, while shocking at the time, was ultimately for the best. The aftermath let me go back to London for an extended period in early 2018, earning more than I had in my previous London jobs; it also let me experience the freelance life for a short period, and led to the current job that I have.
Speaking of money, despite being paid terribly at Informa, by 2011 I had managed to draw down my student loans and increase my savings enough to get back to a positive net worth, while still enjoying the odd international trip. By the time I was laid off from Ovum in 2017, I had more in the bank than I was earning per year, which felt quite clever.
And last, but not least, I think in the past decade I turned a corner with my writing. I started paying more attention to story structure, and craft in general, which I believe led to my first paying credit in 2013. I branched out from novels and short stories to screenwriting and novellas, and while I'm not quite there with getting stories accepted regularly (and frankly I could do with submitting them more), I'm proud of the stories I have written, especially in the last couple of years, so as long as I keep up that momentum, I think I'll find some success.
Coming into this new year, and decade, there are things to be optimistic about, even if the global geopolitical situation is getting more chaotic. That said, one doesn't need to wait for the start of a new decade, or new year, or even new week, to target their future - Chris Hardwick may have been tarnished for me by his own #MeToo moment, but he loomed quite large in the past decade because of his book, the Nerdist Way, and its key message was "Go out and do the thing you love."
So I'm going to plug away at all the things I love, whether or not I reach them, because life would be boring without them.
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