Month: January 2013

2012 Resolutions In Review

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

Oh right, last year’s resolutions.

1. Running faster in at least two half marathons plus the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler.
Done. I PR’d in the Illinois half in April, taking 6:40 off my Detroit time. I missed a PR in the Monster Dash by 4 seconds. I also took 4:59 off my Cherry Blossom time.

2. Learn more about [my] DSLR.
Done. I took a DSLR workshop in May and feel like I have a somewhat better grasp on how my camera works – and then I broke my arm and couldn’t hold it properly for a few weeks, and then it started taking spirit photographs and spent 3 months in the shop. Whoops.

3. See [no] fewer than 12 movies in the theater.
Done. I saw: The Adventures of Tintin, My Week With Marilyn, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Artist, The Skin I Live In, Joy Division with Le voyage dans le lune, Shame, The Cabin in the Woods, Your Sister’s Sister, The Hunger Games, Shut Up and Play the Hits, Moonrise Kingdom, Skyfall (x3), and Django Unchained.

4. Write at least one [letter] per week.
Done. I wrote 169 letters and postcards in 2012.

5. Find a job in Chicago.
Done! I’ve been at my job nine months, and while it isn’t my dream job, that has less to do with the job and more to do with my dreams.

6. [Bake] one pie per month.
I baked zero pies in 2012.

7. Master at least one new cocktail at home per month.
I mastered two cocktails: the manhattan, and the French gimlet.

8. More travel.
I didn’t leave the country despite my best attempts to walk to Mexico. I did leave the state more than a few times, though.
January: Carlsbad/San Diego, CA plus lots of back and forth to Chicago
February: back and forth to Chicago
March: Champaign for LEEP weekend, DC for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler
April: southern Illinois with the GSLIS ladies, Champaign for the Illinois I-Challenge
May: Overnight to Indiana
June: weekend in A2, Anaheim/Imperial Beach, CA
July: nowhere because I had a goddamned broken arm
August: weekend in A2
September: nowhere
October: two weekends in Champaign, Charlottesville, VA for a conference
November: DC, Champaign
December: San Francisco, CA, weekend in A2

9. Read at least two books per month.
Nope. I read 17 books, quit one book club, and started another.

10. Learn to do alterations.
Nope. Maybe this year.

11. More feats of strength! More push-ups. More miles on Orange. And maybe, just maybe, a pull-up.
Done, sort of. Angie and Soy and I started the 100 pushups training program, and I was happy as long as I stayed ahead of the husbands. We had a push-up competition on our girls’ weekend (I won). And then I broke my arm. My strength is coming back, but a pull-up is still a long ways off.

I did, however, put a lot of dang miles on Orange, though I didn’t hit my arbitrary and late-established goal of 1,000 miles.

12. More time connecting with the important people in my life.
Done, though this looks dramatically different than it did last year.

2012 in music

~ brixton ~ Leave a comment

According to last.fm, this year doesn’t look all that different from last year in music. I finally jumped on the Spotify bandwagon sometime around February, and that has allowed me to binge on an assortment of New Wave playlists without having to identify, locate, and download whole albums in order to listen to that one track I really liked at Neo (or wherever) (but mostly Neo). I’ve also really liked using Shazam to identify tracks on the radio or at the grocery store or on the dance floor at Exit or in the middle of an Essential Mix.

Speaking of Essential Mixes, while he doesn’t appear anywhere on the below charts, honorable mention must be given to the Nicolas Jaar Essential Mix, which I listened to 29 times, or for a total of 58 hours, or 2.4 days. By comparison, I listened to my top track (New Order – Run) 89 times, or for a total of 6 hours and 40 minutes.

Top Artists of 2012
1. New Order
2. The Cars
3. Lana Del Ray
4. Talking Heads
5. LCD Soundsystem
6. Robyn
7. Pulp
8. The National
9. The Cure
10. Crooked Fingers

Top Albums of 2012
1. The Cars – Complete Greatest Hits
2. Robyn – Body Talk
3. Lana Del Ray – Born to Die – The Paradise Edition
4. Rihanna – Talk That Talk
5. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening
6. The Naked and Famous – Passive Me, Aggressive You
7. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach
8. The Cure – Greatest Hits
9. New Order – Power, Corruption & Lies
10. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver

Top Tracks of 2012
1. New Order – Run
2. The Cars – Magic
3. Erasure – Love To Hate You
4. Lana Del Ray – National Anthem
5. Pulp – Like a Friend
6. Roxy Music – Over You
7. Lana Del Ray – Blue Jeans (Penguin Prison Remix)
8. Pulp – Disco 2000
8. LCD Soundsystem – I Can Change
10. Robyn – None of Dem

See also: 2011 in music (honestly)

2012 in meme

~ brixton ~ 4 Comments

#newyears pantsuit #vintage
Kissing 2012 goodbye in style at Karen and Annette’s, 31 December 2012

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
Ran 750+ miles (just barely), moved to Chicago, ate at several Michelin starred restaurants, almost walked to Mexico.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
9 out of 12 ain’t bad. More on this later.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I have a new niece! She is a chublet and I adore her.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My uncle passed unexpectedly in January, but we weren’t close.

5. What countries (or new places) did you visit?
No new countries or cities as far as I recall. I spent far too much time on the 405.

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
A better budget, and the dedication to stick to it.

7. What date from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Shane and I decided to separate on February 25.
I left Ann Arbor on March 27.
I broke my arm on July 4.
Those are the defining features of this year.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Keeping my head above water and in doing so, finding a life for myself that is impossibly richer than I ever imagined possible.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Sobriety, weight loss, protecting my skin, protecting my heart, being financially responsible. My body also said FUCK NO to an IUD twice.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I spent half the summer in a cast.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I bought a lot of fantastic vintage clothes this year.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
I am constantly amazed by the people on the lakefront path. Every time I run or bike there, I spend part of my workout composing a post about how motivating and inspirational they all are.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
A close friend is going though something appalling and inexcusable.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food and drink and dresses.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Nicolas Jaar

16. What song will always remind you of 2012?

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder?
Happier

ii. thinner or fatter?
About the same, unfortunately.

iii. richer or poorer?
Financially poorer, but richer in nearly every way.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
More running. More time at the beach. More naps. More coffee dates. More reading. More sex. More live music. More miles on Orange. More travel.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Crying.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With my family in Rockford

21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
I fell balls deep in love with Chicago, and was pretty dang smitten as well.

22. How many one-night stands?
A lady never tells.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
I didn’t watch much TV this year, honestly. I’m rewatching Fringe.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Yes.

25. What was the best book you read?
The Wild Palms and Bluets

26. What was your greatest musical (re)discovery?
Nicolas Jaar

27. What did you want and get?
A whole new life.

28. What did you want and not get?
Love.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
I saw Skyfall in the theaters three times, but The Fall was the best new-to-me film of 2012.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
Drank way too much in Carlsbad the night before, slept it off in the car, waited an inordinate amount of time at Port Pizza with Pop, tried to walk to Mexico with Michael, fell in the Tijuana Estuary, watched The Fall, went to bed early.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Nothing. I can think of lots of things that would have made this year easier, but nothing that would make it more satisfying.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Vintage-inspired.

33. What kept you sane?
My girls.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
The entire cast of Skyfall, please and thank you.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
I’ll be honest and remorseful when I say that I didn’t have the energy for politics this year.

36. Who did you miss?
Shane.

37. Who was the best new person you met?
Karen, and all the great people I’ve met through her.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012:
As I wrote in July after breaking my arm, “love isn’t binary, that family isn’t defined by blood, that community isn’t bounded by physical space, and that what you put out into the world will be repaid tenfold if only you’re brave enough to let it.”

See also: 2011