Decades are quite funny things really, they represent quite a significant chunk of our lives and most will understand them - but rarely do we define our lives by them in any meaningful manner. From memory, age 10 means very little with the switch to secondary school, a year later, being a much more meaningful bookend. Age 20 doesn't mean anything either - 16 and 18 representing legal boundaries and 21 as a more social one. Even so, we do like to put things in little boxes and so it might be worth having a look back.
In the tail end of 1999, there were always a few people that told everyone that the millennium didn't start in 2000, but a year later. We don't start at year 0 after all. The only major thing about 2000 was all the zeroes and then the y2k bug[1]
rather than it being the start of a new decade/century/millennium - an argument rehashed every ten years. This is true, mathematically, but we don't speak mathematically and communication is all about a shared language - a shared understanding. We use "billion" in a non-mathematical way now and if you didn't, you'd be communicating poorly. I love communicating badly but in this instance let's stick with decades starting in 0s. It just feels weird to say the 80's include 1990.
It has been a fairly rubbish decade for me (oh, look at what we unleashed: https://walletsandswords.blogspot.com/2019/04/brexit-day-2932019.html) but what were positive standouts from the last decade?
Film: Helter Skelter
I started the year being really impressed with Black Swan and although I enjoyed it, I feel like Helter Skelter had a little bit more to hit me with. It was such a striking look that it really drilled into my mind. Watching deconstruction of humans is always kind of interesting and I think this had quite a lot to say about a society that loves to destroy.
I wrote about it here: https://walletsandswords.blogspot.com/2013/09/helter-skelter-2012.html
Game: Rez Infinite
How appropriate to have talked about the y2k bug earlier with this game about clearing viruses coming up later. This was a game that hit me so hard and is just unforgettable. It was hyperbolic to say that I was “not honestly sure that anything will be the same again” but it has turned out to be true.
I wrote about it here: https://walletsandswords.blogspot.com/2016/10/rez-infinite.html
Music: The Epic
I probably listened to less music than in the last few decades and much of it was also old. I'm not sure I can be much of a useful opinion here, in all honesty, but I'll cheat and go for the triple album The Epic by Kamasi Washington.
I probably listened to music by Squarepusher most of all in the decade but I cannot say that an album would work here although the individual Sad Robot Goes Funny was exceptional music-making. I also listened to quite a lot of game soundtracks too but harder to recommend that!
Listen to The Epic on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtvA_FQq5GM1okyeZ9lOS80BY16IY_osh
Watch Sad Robot Goes Funny on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkUq4sO4LQM
Moment: Madrid 2019
Over the years, some people have been very surprised at me liking football - most obvious of all as some explained to me that Manchester United was a football team. But I do quite like football and supporting Liverpool has been quite the journey this decade. 10 years ago, we were on our way to the darkest days (of my time, anyway) with an ownership problem, about to boot out an excellent (but outspoken) manager to be replaced by an actual idiot. We find ourselves, ten years later, as the Champions of the World - but more importantly and pertinently as the champions of Europe. There is quite a story to get there but I did not have a ticket for the match in Madrid. I did not even stay in Madrid - but a football trip with close friends and family was fun and the night watching in a casino in Madrid was special. The atmosphere was sensational and the last five minutes after Divock Origi scored a second was such a release for us all. We had dreams and songs to sing and sing we did into the night.
We didn’t even get to see the trophy lift - the casino chucked us all out by turning the screen off!
I would love to know what you all thought of the last decade...
1. This has recently, with Brexit, been reawakened slightly by morons saying that Brexit is a scare story like the y2k bug (which was planned for and fixed by armies of trained people). ↩
2. I wanted to write about this and have a number of drafts about how this was woven into the fabric of games, Japan and aesthetics but I could never quite get the thread to be woven neatly. It is a vast experience.↩
2. I wanted to write about this and have a number of drafts about how this was woven into the fabric of games, Japan and aesthetics but I could never quite get the thread to be woven neatly. It is a vast experience.↩
