2008, a self-indulgent look back

I’m not above one of those self-indulgent “Year in Review” posts that show up everywhere this time of year. Hell, I had a great year, and why have a blog if you can’t be self indulgent?

A long time ago, I watched Ally McBeal. Remember her? Besides Ally herself, I couldn’t tell you the name of one other character on the show (though I could go into a lengthy rant about how fabulous Robert Downey Jr. was as a guest star), however I do remember one quote that always sticks in my mind this time of year, paraphrased of course: If you can’t shed a tear at the end of a year, it was a year wasted. It was rather deep for a show about dancing babies. But I think it’s true.

2008 was ...

• The year I sat in the audience while Leonard Cohen read poetry and belted out Hallelujah, as though I was the only person in the room.
• The year I spend a lot of money on many other big-ticket concerts and theatre, which I usually avoid. However, it did mean standing a few feet away from Neil Young as he belted out “It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” and Eddie Vedder as he covered Dylan’s Masters of War. Oh, and Bon Jovi. I even managed to decipher a word or two during Bob Dylan’s set at Copp’s Coliseum. And alright, I even fit in a Canadian Idol taping.
• A year of theatre, including nose-bleed seats to Dirty Dancing, The Sound of Music, Hamlet, and sitting two rows back from Christopher Plummer as he played Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra. (It inspired me to give his book a read, but I gave up after his detailed sexual accounts gave me nightmares.)
• Three shows at Massey Hall: Blue Rodeo, City and Colour (only because Jordan was assistant on the album, and free shows are good shows, especially at Massey Hall), and Eddie Vedder.
• Not the year of travel I had hoped for, but I managed to squeeze in a few road trips, and one incredible trip with Jordan out East. My road trips meant seeing Wilco in a high school in the outskirts of Cleveland, and another trip to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a first sunburn of the year on a patio in Ottawa in April, an annual Canada Day celebration in Ottawa, and a family road trip to Pennsylvania to visit Arlo, our latest addition.

• An incredible few days out East, including probably my favourite night of the year — walking arm in arm around an eerily quiet Lunenburg, full of lobster and Caesars. This came after a day of climbing rocks near the tourist trap that is Peggy’s Cove, driving the coast and admiring the beautiful Fall colours, and checking into the very-highly recommended Spinnaker Inn. Our Lunenburg whale tour didn’t turn up as much wildlife as we had hoped, but we did spot a few dolphins and Minke whales, and it meant a day on the ocean with my main squeeze.

• Collecting shells at Martinique Provincial Park and watching very daring surfers brave the frigid ocean.






• Eating a Colville Bay Oyster in Halifax, after reading about them in Margaret Webb’s book From Apples to Oysters.
• Skipping Nuit Blanche in Toronto but stumbling upon Nocturne in downtown Halifax. Though I did manage to make it to Wintercity and a number of other Toronto festivals this year (including my favourite, Word on the Street), and many of Hamilton’s festivals, notably carrying on the Festival of Friends tradition (despite the rain), and a number of James Street Art Crawls, including one that had Jordan and Adam (as Allegories) playing at Christ’s Church Cathedral.
• A number of wonderful shows by both The Rest and Allegories, where they played with some amazing bands, including Plants and Animals and The Besnard Lakes.



• The Hillside Festival in Guelph, which is easily one of my favourite days of the year, despite the coldest rain I’ve ever felt. It’s amazing that in all my years of concert-going I have never attended. We were able to check out: Hayden, Belle Orchestre, Broken Social Scene, (members of …) Plants and Animals, and Stuart McLean’s Vinyl Café, to name only a few.
• Schmoozing (alright, having a five-second long conversation about Jem and the Holograms) with the very talented Jessica Valenti of Feministing.com and hearing her read from her two books, Full Frontal Feminism and She’s a Slut; He’s a Stud …
• A love for all things Hamilton, including my adorable little bachelorette pad that didn’t stay that way for long. Decorated with vintage finds from the Christie Antique shows, Jordan’s record player and our merged vinyl collection, it’s a place that is just ours, and I couldn’t be happier! There is even a great patio bar right across the street — so close in fact, we can look out our living room window to see if there’s a free spot! It’s in walking distance to some of the 19th century architecture that I love about living in an industrial town, the Maker’s Market and Farmer’s Market, the library, and some fabulous restaurants and pubs.
• Along with Hillside and Lunenburg, another favourite day was the Hamilton From Seed to Scrap bus tour, which took me to a number of local farms and gardens, looking at where our food comes from, supporting local food systems, and urban agriculture.

• A year of a number of side projects, including getting to know my neighbourhood by working for H Mag in Hamilton, as well as writing book reviews for rabble.ca, a rabbleTV event at My Dog Joe’s in Westdale, and helping to organize rabble’s October re-launch party at the Steamwhistle Roundhouse in Toronto.
• A year of reading for both the rabble book lounge and for pleasure, I read A LOT of books this year, many of which have been on my “to read” list for years. It might be having my own apartment to relax in or having a lengthy daily commute on the train, but I’ve managed to do a lot of pleasure reading, which was one of my very successful resolutions from last year. Among my favourite reads were: Branding Miss G__, by Michelle Miller, Harvest for Hope, by Jane Goodall, Full Frontal Feminism, by Jessica Valenti, Dreams from my Father, by Barack Obama, and Shakespeare’s Face, by Stephanie Nolen (though that may have been late 2007 when I read it).
• Time to watch a lot of movies, though most were not new. Jordan and I are revisiting the AFI (1997) list of the top 100 movies of all time, a list that I’ve been working to complete for years. Though a notable 2008 movie is Wall-E. I loved Wall-E and own it now, so I plan to love it many more times.
• Cross dressing for Halloween (and winning a prize because of it!)
• Barack Obama. It was a politically charged year, on both sides of the border, but I must admit that I was glued to the television, radio, and newspaper watching the American elections, and was teary-eyed with the rest of the world with Obama walked on stage to make his acceptance speech.
• The year of funerals — four in total, with a number of friends losing a parent, and watching Grandma Rose spend her final two weeks in a hospital bed. My Dad’s side of the family managed three deaths in the span of a few months (two of which were ten days apart). With bad comes good and I’ve managed to piece together a lot of information about my family’s history, especially after we found Grandma’s bible, published in 1883, stuffed full of old photographs, obituaries, and hand-written notes, likely written by her mother.
• Gracie. The death of a person can somehow celebratory. The death of an animal is different somehow, and was likely my lowest of low.
• Arlo. Hardly a replacement, Arlo has only been with my parents for less than a month, but he already seems to be part of the family.
• A New Year’s Eve to remember at Michelangelo’s in Hamilton, where there was so much food I was full halfway through the first course, though mostly from the contents of the open bar. 2008 began with at Pepperwood with Jordan and ended singing Auld Lang Syne with him and his family.