2012: Halfway Review

God, are we really halfway through 2012? Here are the highlights:

Films (2012 releases)

Moonrise Kingdom
Raid: Redemption
21 Jump Street
Cabin in the Woods
Killer Joe
Eden
The Hunter

Films from other years (I'm slow)

The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover
Waking Life
Naked
Breaking the Waves
Castle in the Sky
Repulsion
Undertow
y tu mama tambien
Kiss Me Deadly
25th Hour
Bronson
Days of Heaven
Chunking Express
The Awful Truth

In general, this has been a phenomenal year for both film watching and filmmaking for me so far. Besides the above, I made it to a full twenty films at SXSW, and many screenings of old classics throughout the year as well.

From a creative perspective, this year has been a bonanza. A short I worked on screened at Cannes Film Festival, and another is about ready for release: it's even better. I've also finished and submitted my Texas screenplay that has consumed the past two years of my anxiety, and cranked out a second script off a concept I've been kicking around for several years as well.

I've been damn lucky to work with people who are way more talented than I am in my attempted forays into the film industry. I hope those forays continue and continue to bear fruit. Every time I see my name up on that screen, I get that little tingle down my spine. You know the one. It's the one that tells you you're still kicking.

My life might be taking a giant leap in a new (old?) direction (more on that later), but don't think for a minute that I'm done here. I've only just begun to fight.

Music (all release dates; I'm not much of a 'this is what just came out' guy)

This has been the year of Bon Iver so far. But it's also been the year of branching into genres and styles that I normally sour towards. Bluegrass, electronica, dance pop, outlaw country, folk: these genres have little in common except that I normally don't particularly care for them, and I've been listening to each with much more frequency this year.

last.fm reports that my most played artists list starts with Bonobo and the Flaming Lips, but I'm well aware that Flaming Lips was left running one weekend on my computer, so I don't think we can count that. Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, M83, Big Gigantic, Radiohead, Cinematic Orchestra, Pretty LIghts, RJD2, Edward Sharpe, Blue Sky Black Death, Matisyahu, Black Joe Lewis, Manu Chao...these are all much more explainable and have definitely provided the soundtrack to 2012 so far.

Of course, these are drawn only from my home spotify account...if we want to expand to my work computer, car, and live music, we can add Aesop Rock, Ennio Morricone, Nicki Minaj, Chromeo, Friendly Fires, Brett Randell, Intersteller Transmissions, Skrillex, Atash, Childish Gambino, Drake, Gotye, Avicii, LMFAO, Kavinsky, Of Monsters and Men, Mayer Hawthorne, Kanye West, and of course the ineffable Ramon Dells to the mix.

I suppose that brings us to concerts, of which there have been many, but perhaps not as many as years past. The stand outs so far have been:

Edward Sharpe (twice!), Mumford and Sons, Big Gigantic, GOBI, Atash, Intersteller Transmissions, Dave Matthews Band, Brett Randell, Michael Franti, Skrillex, Gogol Bordello, King Khan and the Shrines, Randy Newman, Jack White, Lotus, and probably some other shows that I'm completely forgetting I even attended.

Really, as always, it's been a fantastic year for music.

Television

This was the year I finally caught up on both Breaking Bad and Mad Men, which has been a delight. I just wrapped up the first two season of Louie, and of course new seasons of Archer, Community, Parks and Recreation, Game of Thrones, and probably a bunch others that I'm forgetting. Not much can be said about any of these shows that hasn't been said already, so I'll move on.

Video Games

Against my better judgement, I've gotten back into gaming a bit this year, and it's going...ok. I can never deny my love for the artform; my love for the effect it has on my social life and physique is another thing altogether.

THAT BEING SAID, I've played some damn good games this year. Limbo and LA Noir were amazing, and I finally finished Braid. Bastion was a fun little playthrough. But the creme de le creme has been my current maniac blitz through the Mass Effect trilogy. GOD what a great series of games. They've reinvigorated my oldest writing lust: penning my own crazed RPG, and inspired me to outline the basics of the game I will make (someday).

So it hasn't been a total waste of time (I hope).

Literature

I'm trying to read more this year. This is harder, b/c even compared to video games, books are damn time consuming.

That being said, some good ones have gone down. Less Than Zero, American Psycho, Rant, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Abundance. I made game efforts towards The Road and that one thing that everyone raves about...(google says: One Hundred Years of Solitude), but ultimately found both lacking. We'll pick them up at a later time and see what happens.

The futile quest of the year has been my in progress read through of Infinite Jest (hey, that rhymed!) It's a hell of a dense book, but incredibly written. Fucking masterpiece, and probably the most difficult read I've ever attempted. I'm about halfway through; here's hoping I can knock it out by the end of the year. I'm confident. Overconfident? We'll find out.

Events


Lots of fun stuff this year. Some highlights:

1. SXSW
2. Hangout Music Fest
3. Wendelfest
4. Beach Camping
5. Lotus concert
6. Casa Grande Masquerade of Fools
7. Writing Club
8. Film Club
9. UT Film Class Interviews
10. I mean, fucking everything

Personal Progress (My Goals and otherwise)


This has been a *great* year so far for the '25 goals in 25 years' list I set up last fall. It's amazing how effective making that type of concrete list is in effecting change in your life. So far, I've:

*Gone from a pretty embarrassing dancer to a skillfully embarrassing dancer

*Learned to sing! (I mean, I suck, but the sounds coming out of my mouth are on tune and resemble what we've collectively learned to call a 'singing voice')

*Worked on a film that played at the Cannes Film Festival (ok, so this doesn't quite qualify for my 'attend the Cannes Film Festival' goal, but it's damn close!)

*Learned rudimentary Python and Javascript (not quite my goal of Spanish, Chinese, and Arabic, but hey! they're languages, right? And they're sort of related to my 'math major' ambition)

*Written a very filmable screenplay; in fact, I'm going to do what I can to put that thing together this fall. Stay tuned on that.

*Begun a novel! It's likely not going to turn into anything readable, since its sort of 'Infinite Jest' inspired, but good fucking start, right? 25 pages so far; not too shabby at all!

*As mentioned earlier, structured out the basic idea for my JRPG

*Discovered that my somewhat ambitious goal of becoming a 1Dan 'Go' player isn't as insane as I thought. The Internet assures me that progressing from Novice to 1Dan is absolutely possible in as little time as a year with 5 hours a week. Not something I'm thinking about for a long time, but something to think about.

*I didn't start a business, but I have begun contracting, and my current boss started a business, and I'm learning as much as I can via osmosis in the meantime. This is more of a 'legwork for down the road' progress, but that's still important progress!

* I'm kinda contributing to this blog? This needs to improve.

*I picked up the Piano again! Huzzah! This is going to be a point of focus for the second half of 2012.

*On the other hand, travel plans fell through, so South America remains unchecked from my travel list. My physical form has sort of evaporated, so I'm further from the six pack than I was at the start of the year. I definitely haven't climbed Mount Everest or gone into space (though other people in 2012 HAVE been hard at work to make that possible for me down the road; that goal seemed much more absurd when I wrote it down eight months ago), and it's hard to learn to surf in Central Texas. So lots of goals left to tackle.

*One major development that sort of counts as one of my goals but is also a bit of a sidetrack is getting my Ph.D. I'm taking a detour directly away from that by instead making the monumental (and somewhat surprising, still, even to me) decision to go to law school.

It wasn't a light decision, but it was the right decision (I hope). To be 100% honest, despite some of my deeper reservations towards the entire idea of becoming a lawyer, the degree will do nothing but bring me closer to my goals: starting a business, getting funding for filmmaking, connections for publishing the book I write eventually, continuing to develop my fundamental writing skills, and putting the money together to achieve my more financially ambitious goals: these are all things that law will help, not hurt.

So it's not a Ph.D, but it's an equivalent sort of degree. I'm willing to allow it. And it's my list, so I can do that. :)

The sad part of this is the most stunning development of 2012, and the one that I'm struggling to come to terms with the most. To facilitate all this '180 reversal of lifestyle' nonsense, I've realized a return to the homeland (*sigh* again) is...not necessary, exactly, but preferable. So back to Michigan I go for the last 5 months of 2012. These goals will now be tested: how well do unconstrained ambitions and unbridled dream withstand a relentless onslaught of snow and economic decay?

I suppose we'll find out, but I'm optimistic. I've learned that nothing less will do. It's not a matter of ideology, just practicality. It's impossible to achieve goals you don't believe you can achieve.

The sky's the limit in life, and I intend to prove that wrong (goal #25: go into outer space).

See you in the second half, and in 2013 as well! (if we don't all die in a fiery/watery/plague/zombie-infested apocalypse)

May the odds be ever in your favor! (hey, you didn't think we were getting out of here without a Hunger Games reference, did you?)