2007 is finally over, and I can’t say I’m sad to see it go. Not that I'm holding much of a grudge, but really, my relationship with 2007 didn’t work out the way I had hoped.
I had a nice little honeymoon with 2007. Work was calm. I even got a raise early in the year. I didn’t suffer too greatly from spring allergies for the first time in nearly half a decade. I even managed to complete my loss of 35 lbs and ran a pretty good time in the St. Patty’s race.
By mid-summer, though, things generally began to slide toward shitty status, and I found myself feeling a bit of estrangement from my beloved 2007. Work started to go to hell. My best friend in the office left (for much better things), people at work (the ones I wouldn’t normally expect it from) turned into real pricks. Nothing was really going right at work and nothing else really existed at all, which sucked.
Come the fall, I was trying to avoid 2007 altogether. I started trying to escape the soured relationship with booze. Money was far too tight. So was my schedule. People generally just pissed me off from every angle. I began to wonder whether 2007 had put them up to it.
Even worse, in October, my favorite author, Robert Jordan, succumbed to his battle with amyloidosis and passed away, half a book shy of completing his 12-volume epic tale, The Wheel of Time. Now 2007 was just getting mean.
I will admit that I was also able to medicate with some really decent Pop Dope. Some of this stuff made 2007 worth experiencing, for all the shit it doled out.
In film, there was:
- the hilarious Hot Fuzz
- the terrifying 28 Weeks Later
- the long awaited The Simpsons Movie
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- the imaginative Stardust
- the unbelievable Sweeney Todd
While, in music, there was:
- Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero
- Radiohead’s ingenious and ballsy release of In Rainbows
- The Budos Band’s epic Budos Band II
- Elvis Perkins’s heart-wrenching Ash Wednesday
- Grinderman
- The White Stripes’ best ablum yet, Icky Thump
- Bowman & Lisa’s stellar independent release, Fears & Accusations
- The Smashing Pumpkins’ fucking awesome comeback, Zeitgeist
- The Veils’ kickass Nux Vomica
Nonetheless, by the end of 2007, I was beaten, broken, and had run completely out of steam. Jaded and disillusioned, I am so glad to be leaving it behind. I have cautious hope for 2008.
Brandon Sanderson has been selected to spend the year completing the Wheel of Time, and has reported that the final book, A Memory of Light, was so heavily detailed in notes by Robert Jordan before his death that Sanderson will be able to write “this book to be very, very close to the way [Jordan] would have done.”
Also some exciting film events are in the works:
- M. Night Shyamalan will release The Happening
- the return of Indiana Jones (with Karen Allen!)
- a conceivably good Punisher movie
- the return of The X-Files
- Harry Potter’s next blockbuster
The same goes for music:
- the unexpected return of Sun Kil Moon!
- the unexpected return of Alice in Chains!
- Elbow’s fourth incredible album
- The Secret Machines’ latest (if I’m lucky)
- the highly anticipated return of Coldplay
The fact is, despite any good that came of it, I’ve had it with 2007, and I hope to hell 2008 is better. I am optimistic, even when it comes to all the personal shit that made me hate 2007 for, which I won't spew extensively here.
And so, I go into the coming year optimistically, with one last gesture back to 2007, which comes from the wonderful, wonderful, Hot Fuzz:
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